Solid Rock Church Sermons

In this sermon, we looked in Luke 1:26-50 at Mary's response to Gabriel's announcement that she was about to become pregnant with the Messiah. When Mary first encounters the angel, she is stricken with fear. Like many of us, she tries to calm her own fears by attempting to control the situation. Instead of giving into Mary's demand for understanding, Gabriel responds to Mary's troubled heart by letting her know that God is bigger than her fear and that He is going to overshadow her with His presence and power. Mary surrenders to the Lord's will for her life and her fear is transformed into rejoicing. Fear is the God-given emotion that is meant to send to us running to God. We run to God because we trust in Him as a good Father who has good intentions for our lives. In His arms, we surrender our desire for control and acknowledge that our anxiety and rage are inadequate responses to our fear. Like a good father, God helps us discern what is true and replaces our fears with rejoicing.

In this sermon, we looked at the story of Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth. Both were considered righteous before God, yet they lived with deep sadness at never having the child they longed for. The sadness they felt wasn’t a result of personal sin, but the overarching brokenness of this world. It reminds us that even those who are in Christ still have hopes and desires that may never be realized in this life. We see Elizabeth take her sadness and burden to the Lord in prayer while faithfully serving. The Lord answers her prayer with a son, who would become John the Baptist. God didn’t owe her this response, yet chose to answer her prayer for her good and in order to provide a prophet pointing us to Jesus, who meets us in our sadness and disappointment. We are provided comfort through the Holy Spirit and the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, who shifts our sadness into gladness. Because of Jesus, we can experience hope and connectedness in the midst of our sadness and truly know what it means to be glad!

In this sermon, we looked at how John ended his Gospel with Jesus' invitation to Peter and John to follow Him and trust Him with the outcomes of their life stories. In this closing scene, Peter asks Jesus what the outcome of John’s life will be and Jesus responds by making it clear that He alone will be the author of John's story. Then Jesus says, “Follow me,” inviting Peter to surrender his life and trust in Him. At the end of his Gospel, John says that there aren't enough books in the world to contain all the stories of Jesus. That's because Jesus is still writing His story, which includes your story. Jesus is extending the same invitation to you: “Follow me.” This simple invitation means fully trusting Jesus and submitting your life to Him as the primary author of your story. Have you truly surrendered your life to His invitation?

In this sermon, we looked at how Jesus forgave and restored Peter to his calling as one of Jesus' disciples. In John 21:15-19, Jesus makes Himself known, for the third time since His resurrection, to seven of the disciples on the shore the Sea of Galilee. After a miraculous catch of fish and a gracious meal with the disciples, Jesus addresses Peter in a way that brings to light how Peter denied Jesus three times. Through a series of three questions, one for each of Peter's denials, Jesus draws Peter back to Himself. This moment is bigger than Jesus simply forgiving Peter for his sins; Jesus forgives Peter, calls him back into relationship, and restores his calling. In this story, we also see how God forgives and restores us. When we repent and ask for forgiveness, God does more than forgive our sins; He cleanses us of all unrighteousness, invites us into a loving relationship, and restores our calling and purpose in His Kingdom.

In this sermon, we looked at how Jesus made Himself known to His disciples at the Sea of Galilee. The disciples were still recovering from the emotionally tumultuous series of events surrounding Jesus' life, death, and resurrection and were now exhausted and discouraged from fishing all night with nothing to show for their efforts. Jesus meets them in their discouragement and exhaustion by miraculously providing for them what they couldn't provide for themselves. This resurrection appearance is more than an event to prove Jesus' power and identity; Jesus appears to the disciples and invites them to sit down and share in a meal that He provides for them. In this moment, we see the ultimate purpose of the resurrection. God meets us in our deepest need by graciously offering to us what we can’t provide for ourselves: forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and authentic relationship with Him.

In this sermon, we looked at John's statement about why he wrote down his account of Jesus' life, ministry, death, and resurrection. John tells us that he selected some of Jesus' miracles to reveal to his readers the identity of Jesus in the hope that we would know Jesus to be the promised Messiah and the Son of God. Earlier in his Gospel, John tells us about how he came to fully believe in Jesus when he saw the empty tomb. It’s John's desire that we, too, would come to believe in Jesus and have abundant life in His name.

In this sermon, we looked at Jesus' resurrection appearance in John 20:24-29. The week after the resurrection, rumors and threats were being perpetuated by the Pharisees, which made believing in the resurrection not only difficult but also dangerous. As the disciples hide in fear, the others tell Thomas that they have seen Jesus but Thomas says that he won’t believe unless he can touch Jesus’ physical body. Eight days after the resurrection, Jesus appears again to the disciples and, this time, Thomas is present. Knowing what Thomas wants, Jesus invites him to touch His wounds from the cross. Upon seeing Jesus and hearing His voice, Thomas immediately believes and declares, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus meets Thomas right where he is in his doubts and fears and gives Thomas what he needs without even being asked. This is how Jesus meets us as well! Despite what we ask for, or even demand, of Jesus, He knows what we actually need. The way that Jesus reveals His wounds to Thomas reminds us that Jesus still shows up in our lives in unexpected ways to give us what we really need: Himself.

In this sermon, we looked at how Jesus made Himself known to the disciples after the resurrection. In John 20:19-23, Jesus miraculously passes through the locked doors of the upper room in order to be with the disciples. Finding them in fear and turmoil, Jesus shows them His wounds and invites them into the peace of His presence. As Jesus turns the disciples’ fear into gladness and their chaos into peace, He empowers them with the Holy Spirit to go out into the broken world with His message of forgiveness that brings peace and gladness to the nations.

In this sermon, we looked at the eternal significance of the resurrection of Jesus. In John 20:1-18, we see Mary Magdalene go to Jesus' tomb on the third day following His death. She didn’t go to see if He had resurrected but to make sure He had been properly buried. Upon seeing the empty tomb, she thought that the tragedy of Jesus’ death was now followed by the additional tragedy of His body being stolen. She quickly went to get Peter and John, who ran into the tomb to see for themselves. John immediately believed in the resurrection but Mary wasn’t convinced; it took hearing Jesus say her name for Mary to believe. Believing in the resurrection is an essential truth of the Christian faith. Each of us must wrestle with the reality of the resurrection and decide whether or not we believe. John makes it abundantly clear that he wrote this Gospel believing that reading it would allow you to see Jesus as the Messiah who died on the cross and resurrected from the dead and that, by believing, you would have abundant and eternal life in Jesus.

In this sermon, we looked at how the details of Jesus' burial reveal the depth of His trust in the Father. With more than 90 references to Jesus' relationship with God the Father, John's Gospel account helps us to see how Jesus completely entrusted Himself into the hands of His Father in His darkest hour. In order for Jesus to qualify as our Messiah, He had to obey the law perfectly in life andin death. John19:38-42 reminds us that Jesus laid down His life, fully trusting that His Father would complete His plan to redeem the world as well as keep His word and bring Jesus back to life. This is the same trust that we are called to display toward the Father. Do you truly trust Him with your life as well as what happens after you die?