Access Church

ENCOUNTERS WITH JESUS  //  Week 3

Nick Wallsteadt

March 31, 2019

Purpose of John’s Gospel:

THAT YOU MIGHT BELIEVE.

John 20:31  //  “…these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

3 JESUS ENCOUNTERS:

1. Mary, the DISCOURAGED.

John 20:11-16  //  Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”  Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

To the discouraged, Jesus reminds us

HE CALLS US BY NAME.

2. Thomas, who is experiencing DOUBT.

John 20:24-29  //  Now Thomas (also known as Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came.  So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

Jesus addresses our DOUBTS with his SACRIFICE.

3. Peter, who has DENIED JESUS.

John 21:15-17  //  When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”Jesus  said, “Feed my lambs.”

Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”

The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep”

Jesus calls us to our GREATEST PURPOSE from the place of our GREATEST PAIN.

MESSAGE NOTES

ENCOUNTERS WITH JESUS  //  Week 2

Pastor Jason Burns  //  @iamjasonburns

March 24, 2019

John 11:1-6  //  Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” 4 When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.

What moves God most is His love for us.

John 3:16  //  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

1 John 4:10  //  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Phileo - Brotherly Love

Agapao (Agape) - God’s Love

John 5:1-9  //  Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades.  Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked…

An encounter with Jesus changes everything

1. An encounter with Jesus changes TODAY.

John 5:5-6  //  One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.  When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

2. An encounter with Jesus changes TRUST.

John 5:7  //  “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

Proverbs 3:5-6  //  Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

3. An encounter with Jesus changes TRUTH.

John 5:8-9 //  Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

I was BORN for this!

Ephesians 2:8-10 // For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Grace is God’s power in you to do what you can’t do on your own.

Grace is opposed to earning, but not to effort.

Poiema

You don’t think we have any needs.

You did it before and hated it.

You don’t see yourself the way God sees you.

We > Me

 

Every Christian is a minister.

1 Peter 2:9 // You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Every task is Important.

1 Corinthians 12:27 // Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

Every person is unique and needed.

1 Corinthians 12:4-8 (MSG) // God’s various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The variety is wonderful.

Psalm 139:14 // I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

2 Kings 4:1-7  //  The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the LORD. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.” 2 Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?” “Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a little oil.” 3 Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few. 4 Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.” 5 She left him and afterward shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. 6 When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one.” But he replied, “There is not a jar left.” Then the oil stopped flowing. 7 “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.”

When you don’t have what you really want you find that God is all you really need.

When you’re hurting, all you can see is what you don't have.

Stop waiting for what you want and start working with what you have.

Offer God what you have and trust him to give you what you need.

We are Access and we fully obey.

If the message of the church is for everyone, the church should be for everyone.

The church does not exist for the sake of the people who are inside, but for those who are not inside yet.

Acts 2:46-47 // Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Mark 2:1-13 // A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2 They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3 Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” 6 Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7 “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 8 Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? 9 Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? 10 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, 11 “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” 12 He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

We are Access and we are:

Chosen

Forgiven

Healed

Roof Crashers

We will do anything, short of sin, to reach people for Jesus.

For more insight from Pastor Robert Morris, read his book The Blessed Life.

What will you do with what God entrusts to you?

Stewardship = Managing someone else’s property.

1. I am not the owner.

1 Corinthians 10:26 // “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.”

2. I am a steward.

Stewards protect and expand the resources of the owner.

Psalm 92:12-13 // The righteous will flourish like a palm

tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; 13 planted in the

house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God.

Flourish:

To BREAK FORTH, to blossom

Proverbs 11:24 MSG // The world of the generous gets larger and larger;

the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.

Proverbs 11:24-25 NKJV // There is one who scatters, yet increases more;

And there is one who withholds more than is right, But it leads to poverty. 25 The generous soul will be made rich, And he who waters will also be watered himself.

1 Timothy 6:17-19 // Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

Gallup survey:

Rich = $150,000

Rich = $75,000

Money magazine

$5,000,000

Nobody is rich, but everybody knows somebody who is.

$45,000 is top 1% in the world

God doesn’t want us guilty, He wants us responsible.

The more a person makes, the less they give.

Luke 12:48 NLT // When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required.

2 Corinthians 9:11 // You will be made rich in every way. Then you can always give freely. We will take your many gifts to the people who need them. And they will give thanks to God.

God blesses us so we can bless others.

Genesis 12:2-3 // “I will make you into a great nation,

and I will bless you;

I will make your name great,

and you will be a blessing.

3 I will bless those who bless you,

and whoever curses you I will curse;

and all peoples on earth

will be blessed through you.”

Galatians 3:14 NLT // Through Christ Jesus, God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to Abraham…

WHO OWNS IT?

1. It ALL belongs to God.

Psalm 24:1 // The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.

2. The FIRST belongs to God.

Genesis 4:3-5 // In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. 4 And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.

3. The TITHE belongs to God.

Leviticus 27:30 // A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord.

The big question – who is the ME that I want to BE?

2 Kings 3:16-20 // “This is what the LORD says: Make this valley full of ditches. For this is what the LORD says: You will see neither wind nor rain, yet this valley will be filled with water, and you, your cattle and your other animals will drink. This is an easy thing in the eyes of the LORD; he will also hand Moab over to you. You will overthrow every fortified city and every major town. You will cut down every good tree, stop up all the springs, and ruin every good field with stones.” The next morning, about the time for offering the sacrifice, there it was—water flowing from the direction of Edom! And the land was filled with water.

I can dig a ditch.

Only God can make it rain.

Think for yourself – what is my ditch?