Grace Messages

In this morning's message, Pastor Carl Greene talks about the incredible value of humility, as found in the Bible, and the seemingly paradoxical nature of being humble.

Today, Pastor Carl Greene speaks on how God whispers to us through His word and through creation. Discover the beauty and meaning behind His whispers and how we can listen to and obey them more.

In John Chapter 9, we have been considering John’s sixth hand-selected SIGN chosen to convince His readers to put their faith in Jesus Christ. That sign was an UNDENIABLE divine miracle, as Jesus gave sight to a man who was born blind. However, Jesus had performed this healing on a Sabbath day, which caused a conundrum for the Jewish religious leaders. They now had a responsibility to address this situation for the people, and thus they began their investigation and interrogation of the parties involved last week. This morning, they will finish their investigation, which will conclude with the blind man being cast out of the synagogue!

Last week, we looked at John’s sixth hand-selected sign, which was an UNDENIABLE divine miracle - Jesus gave sight to a man who was born blind. This type of healing had never been accomplished in the history of the world, but Jesus had healed this man on a Sabbath day. This fact alone threw the Jewish religious leaders into a tailspin because of their interpretation of the Sabbath regulations. Because of the nature of the miracle itself, the Jewish religious leaders had a responsibility to investigate the situation and provide answers to the people. We will consider those interrogations the next two weeks.

As we pick up this morning, Jesus has just finished an intense and heated conversation with the Jewish religious leaders which ended with His miraculous deliverance from their attempt to stone Him. Now, you would think that following this interaction, Jesus would leave Jerusalem and get some distance between Him and His enemies, but He does not do that! Jesus sees a blind man, and NOT just any blind man – a man who was “born” blind and a man whose healing was on Jesus’ divine schedule. John’s sixth hand-selected sign in his book to convince and persuade his audience to believe in Jesus (John 20:30-31) is an undeniable divine miracle!

We continue with Jesus’ heated conversation with the Jewish religious leaders and Jesus has been dropping truth bombs consistently that His audience is not taking well. Last week they committed the unpardonable sin, and they do it again this week. But, when Jesus tells them that He is the I AM, they pick up stones to stone Him.

We continue with Jesus’ heated conversation with the Jewish religious leaders and in our study last week Jesus dropped an absolute bomb on His audience by telling them that the Devil was their father. His audience did not take this well, and they will commit the unpardonable sin (like Matthew 12:22-24), by accusing the Son of God, who is doing prophesied Messianic miracles, of being demonically empowered and possessed. This TOO is an attack on Jesus’ origins and patriarchy.

As Jesus continues His heated conversation with Jewish religious leaders in Jerusalem following the Feast of Tabernacles, they continue to push back! Last week, the conversation turned into a discussion of patriarchy and heritage and these topics were no joking matter to a first century Jew. Jesus’ comments in this section infuriates this already murderous group, and this morning He provides an absolutely scathing comment regarding their heritage and patriarchy.

Last week, Jesus turned to a subset of the crowd who had believed and provided a quick teaching on discipleship, but something He said did not sit right with the Jewish religious leaders, and this morning they continue to push back! Eventually, the conversation turned into a discussion of patriarchy and heritage and these topics were no joking matter to a first century Jew. Jesus’ comments in this section will infuriate this already murderous group.

As we pick up this morning, Jesus is still in Jerusalem, immediately following the Feast of Tabernacles – this is the same trip He made at the beginning of chapter 7, and this trip will continue into chapter 10. Jesus is in the middle of a conversation with the Jewish religious leaders, and others in the crowd are listening in. He is desperately trying to communicate with this audience, and the reason for this is because ideas have consequences! What a person believes affects what a person does! What a person believes (as it relates to salvation) affects a person’s eternal destiny.