Solid Rock Church Sermons

In this sermon, we looked at John 12:1-8 when Mary anointed Jesus' feet with expensive burial oil. Just one week before the cross, this was another prophetic moment indicating that Jesus' death was drawing near. Through the unfolding details of the story, we find Judas upset because the perfume wasn’t sold and money given to help the poor. Jesus says that Mary did the right thing because the poor would always be with us. Jesus wasn’t telling His followers to turn a blind eye toward the poor; He was validating Mary's decision to express her devotion to Jesus through a sacrificial act of worship. When we turn our hearts toward Jesus with full devotion, He recalibrates our love for everything and everyone else. When we love Jesus first, we are better able to love not just the poor, but all those around us.

In this sermon, we looked at a prophetic moment that took place among the religious leaders after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. While occupied by the Romans, the Jews were allowed to continue living in their homeland and practicing their religion as long as they didn’t violate the rules the Romans set for them. As more people began to believe in Jesus, the Jewish leaders became fearful that His following would catch the eyes of the Romans and put the Jewish nation in jeopardy. Caiaphas, the high priest who would eventually send Jesus to the cross, convinced the Jewish leaders that they needed to kill Jesus in order the save their nation. According to John, God was speaking prophetically through Caiaphas to remind us that He would bring together the Jews and Gentiles into one family as “the children of God.” While this moment solidified the Jewish leaders’ plot to kill Jesus, it’s also a beautiful reminder that it’s only through Jesus’ triumph over death that we are adopted into His family as children of God.

In this sermon from the Gospel of John, we looked at how Jesus unveiled His glory as the Son of God through raising Lazarus from the dead. Because death is the result of sin, Jesus’ sorrow for the suffering of His friends was intermixed with anger at the evil of sin and death. This miracle reminds us that what we need most, power over sin and death, in found only in the person of Jesus. He isn’t one of many options; Jesus is our only option and our only hope. Without trust in the resurrection of Jesus, our lives are shackled and bound to sin and death and we are powerless to overcome. However, when we place our faith and trust in Jesus, He unbinds our shackles, freeing us from our shame. When we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us from every sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

In this sermon, we see the two-fold response from Jesus following the death of Lazarus. John 11 says that Jesus was "greatly troubled" and "deeply moved." He was greatly troubled by the sin that causes death yet deeply moved by the sorrow felt around Him. Jesus wept because He saw the grief and sadness that mankind was going through as a result of sin and death. As Christ followers, we can take comfort that Jesus knows our humanity and grieves with us in our sorrows. He is a loving and compassionate Savior that meets us in our suffering and shares the heavy burdens of this world.

In this sermon, we looked at how Jesus glorified Himself through Lazarus’ resurrection. In John 11, Jesus allows Lazarus, one of His close friends, to die in order to raise him from the dead four days later. During a conversation with Lazarus’ sister, Martha, Jesus says that her brother will rise again. Martha is fully aware of the resurrection in the last day but she doesn’t realize that Jesus is speaking of the power to resurrect Lazarus right then. Jesus wants Martha to see that He is the author and sustainer of life and the only one who holds power over life and death. This means that when we follow Jesus, we entrust our life and death into His hands. As His followers, we live in constant pursuit of dying to selfish motives, trusting that Christ is bringing new life out of death every day.

In this sermon, we looked at how the love and glory of God is displayed in the suffering of His people. In John 11, Jesus intentionally allowed Lazarus to die from a serious illness in order to raise him from the dead in front of the disciples. When Jesus’ disciples heard they were going to travel to where Lazarus was located, they were concerned it would lead to their own deaths. Though the disciples were afraid of dying at the hands of the Pharisees, Jesus told them that He was glad for this experience that they may believe. The death of Lazarus served the greater purpose of helping the disciples to see Jesus’ deity more fully when he showed His authority over life and death. Through the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, we learn that God’s love for His people is an intimate, brotherly love that allows suffering in order for us to see Jesus more clearly, ultimate leading to deeper belief and trust in Him.

In this sermon, we looked at the confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees in John 10:30-42. This portion of John's Gospel demonstrates that Jesus intended for it to be clearly seen that He was the Son of God. Despite their best efforts, the Pharisees were unable to trap Jesus in blasphemy or convict Him of breaking any of God’s Laws. To the contrary, Jesus referred to Psalms 82 to deconstruct their case against Him and pointed out that His works actually bore witness that He had been consecrated and sent into the world by the Father. Jesus did the works of God because He and the Father are one. All of this continues to build John’s case that Jesus is more than a man; He is the Christ, the Son of God.

In this sermon, we looked at the eternal security that Jesus give to those who are truly saved. In John 10:22-31, the Pharisees asked Jesus to tell them if He was the long-awaited Messiah who would reign over Israel, defeating their enemies and establishing God’s eternal Kingdom of peace and righteousness. Jesus responded by telling the Pharisees that He came to give the security of eternal life to the people who believe in Him. This made the Pharisees angry because, according to Jesus, they weren’t included in this eternal security because they weren’t willing to follow Jesus. The good news of the Gospel is that true believers, whose lives are rooted by faith in Christ, are eternally secure in the Father’s hand. 

In this sermon, we looked in John 10:1-18 at the contrast between Jesus and the Pharisees. The Pharisees were trying to lead people to heaven through their own system of religion that required paying the substantial price of self-sacrifice and carrying the heavy burdens of guilt and shame. Jesus tells the Pharisees that He is the only one who can lead the people to abundant life and points out the primary difference between Himself and the Pharisees: The Pharisees will abandon the sheep when the wolf comes but Jesus, the Good Shepherd, will lay down His life and take it up again in order to defeat the enemy of death. Like the Pharisees, we often lean on our own understanding and trust in what makes sense to us instead of trusting in the Good Shepherd. As Christians, we are called to know and follow the voice of our Good Shepherd, trusting that He is the only one who can lead us to abundant life.

In this sermon, we looked at the parable of the talents in Matthew 25. Just as that master graciously entrusted what was his to his servants to use, Jesus entrusts His possessions to us to use. When we recognize that Jesus does this as a gift of grace, we can be confident in making much of His gift instead of holding it and operating out of fear. When we have stewarded well the gift He has given, we will be able to “enter into the joy of our Master.”