Grace Messages

Jesus had just gotten to Galilee at the end of chapter 4, and now He is heading back to Jerusalem, for a Jewish feast, here at the beginning of chapter 5. He has been doing signs and wonders in Galilee and His popularity is growing there. Now, He is going to continue His ministry in Jerusalem, but this third hand-selected sign will be different than the previous two - (1st): This sign will be public with a wider audience, and (2nd): This sign will be done on the Jewish Sabbath. This will become a BIG bone of contention between Jesus and the religious leaders, as we will explore in the coming weeks. This morning, we will consider John’s 3RD hand-selected sign from the miracles of Jesus designed to convince His readers to trust in Christ for eternal life.

John 5:1-9

We have just finished Jesus’ divine appointment with a Samaritan woman, His “discipling of His disciples,” and the recording of the positive response of many of the Samaritan people to the woman’s testimony and Jesus’ own words. Now, Jesus continues on the journey that started about 3-4 days before and He begins a successful ministry in the region of Galilee. He begins a "successful" ministry tour of the region of Galilee, which will become His home base for the next 18-24 months. Although He did many signs and wonders here, John records one (a healing of a nobleman's son) to support his stated goal: that his audience may read about this and believe that Jesus is the Christ (John 20:30-31).

This morning we will continue to attempt to provide clarity on two important items of truth: (1) The Gospel message, and (2) The Biblical Response to the Gospel Message. We will consider the "False Gospel Response Cliché" of "Repenting of sin or repenting FROM sin."

Today we are joined by Pastor Gus Layman as he preaches from Psalm 23. Specifically, Psalm 23:5 where we are encouraged to have a mindset of desiring the Lord to fill us with himself for our daily sanctification.

This morning we will continue to attempt to provide clarity on two important items of truth: (1) The Gospel message, and (2) The Biblical Response to the Gospel Message. We will consider the "False Gospel Response Cliche" of making a public profession of Christ from Romans 10:9-10.

This morning we will continue to attempt to provide clarity on two important items of truth: (1) The Gospel message, and (2) The Biblical Response to the Gospel Message. We will consider the following three "False Gospel Response Cliches": (1) Pray the Sinner's Prayer, (2) Asking for Forgiveness, and (3) Asking Jesus Into Your Heart.

This morning, and for the next few weeks, we are going to take a detour from the Book of John to focus on the Gospel and the biblical response to the Gospel. As we have studied through Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman, it has been incredible to notice that although these two people came from entirely different worlds, their overall understanding of how a person entered an eternity with God was EERILY SIMILAR! Their focus was on what you must DO and/or what you must CONTINUE TO DO. Their focus, overall, was on themselves. Over the next couple of weeks, we will see that this type of thinking is still prevalent in our day, even in some evangelical circles.

We live in an oversaturated world where we take in large amounts of information each and every day. Everyone seems to be telling us WHAT we should believe. WHAT we should consider important. WHAT we should place a high value on. Let's consider three arguments for WHY a person should care about the resurrection of Jesus Christ and WHY His resurrection has inestimable value.

This morning, and for the next few weeks, we are going to take a detour from the Book of John to focus on the Gospel and the biblical response to the Gospel. As we have studied through Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman, it has been incredible to notice that although these two people came from entirely different worlds, their overall understanding of how a person entered an eternity with God was EERILY SIMILAR! Their focus was on what you must DO and/or what you must CONTINUE TO DO. Their focus, overall, was on themselves. Over the next couple of weeks, we will see that this type of thinking is still prevalent in our day, even in some evangelical circles.

We have been looking at Jesus’ divine appointment with a Samaritan woman the past few weeks. Last week, we began to consider an instance of Jesus “discipling His disciples," where He was challenging their thinking, desiring to shift their “value” system, desiring to alter their priorities, and desiring them to see life through His eyes. In the passage this morning, the disciples were able to experience what a harvest looked like and WHY they should want to be a part of many more in the future!

Sermon on John 4:36-42