Introduction: As we kick off our “Ask Pastor Jonathan Burning Questions” summer, I have been asked a really deep one to start the summer off. Is baptism necessary for salvation? This question comes from someone in our congregation who has encountered someone from the Church of Christ. The Church of Christ…

Introduction: What is it like living in the last days? Although the end of the last days will be marked by the Tribulation - a time period marked by the worst world events to ever occur - we are actually living in the last days now! As we look around our world, darkness is everywhere. Wars rage, false…

Introduction: The desire for man’s approval is seen from an early age and continues even into adulthood. Young children hunger for positive feedback from their parents signifying acceptance of them. School-aged children often long for a teacher to tell them how smart they are or a coach to speak of their…

Introduction: It is interesting that we come to this Scripture the week after Memorial Day because today we are going to learn about becoming a good soldier for Christ. Although I have never personally attended basic training, I have talked to many who have endured this difficult training in order to…

Introduction: On April 20, 1999, something incredibly terrible happened. For those of us who are old enough to remember, all eyes were glued to the news stations that were reporting on the worst school shooting in US history at the time. Two 12th grade students killed 13 other students along with a teacher.…

Introduction: There is something captivating about fire. I, personally have always been amazed by the power of fire. In fact, although I was a fairly obedient child growing up, one of the few times I got in trouble involved fire. Luckily, I didn’t cause any damage - and as a disclaimer - kids don’t play…

Introduction: I must admit that I have mixed emotions today. This is the last of our 88-week sermon series through Luke. We have covered much ground. We have actually covered 24,645 words in the ESV New Testament which makes up around 14% of the entire New Testament. That is quite a lot of ground we…

Introduction: The Bible refers to living the Christian life in many ways. We see it referred to as a race - which is seen in various Scriptures given in your handout ( Hebrews 12:1 , 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 , 2 Timothy 4:7 , Philippians 3:13-14 , Galatians 5:7 ). We see battle-like language throughout…

Introduction: The title of this sermon is a bit lengthy. But I love the question that is asked in today’s passage. Why do you seek the living among the dead? This question shows the slowness of the followers of Christ to grasp the resurrection. We see that they were slow to believe. The women go to the…

Introduction: Jesus walked the hardest road of suffering that anyone has ever had to walk. We have been going through this road the last few weeks. He has suffered in deep prayer in Gethsemane as He sweat great drops of blood. He has suffered the betrayal of one disciple and been denied by the disciple…