Listen in as Pastor Philip Jackson brings us a word from the Gospel of Matthew.  

The centerpiece of the gospel, John 3:16 is the high-water mark of God’s love for sinners shown at the cross. How poignantly it states that eternal life is not earned by begging, crying, praying, working, or joining! Salvation comes as a free gift when we believe what God has done in Christ Jesus.

The Church in twenty-first century America consists of a smorgasbord of entertainment options, self-help programming, and motivational speakers. Desiring to be like the “cool kids,” the Church has jettisoned Truth and replaced it with moral relativism and pop psychology. Today, as always, Jesus wants His Church back!

A non-negotiable part of God’s redemptive purpose is His determination to transform people into obvious representations of Jesus. But what does it mean to “be like Jesus?” We could make a long list of character qualities; but the longer the list, the less we grasp the goal. God offers us a simpler definition of Christlikeness.

Hope requires optimism, and Jesus was a radically optimistic leader. His passion for His followers and for their intended future made Him a wonderful person to be around. Never discouraged by their shortcomings, He lived each day in the promise of God’s plan for His people. This indefatigable attitude extends to the people of Evergreen even today.

John the Baptist is suddenly interjected into the gospel narrative as an example of one who follows God without reservation. He lives out his assigned mission. He points to Jesus in every aspect of life. The author, John, presents the baptizer, John, as the first example of one who believes in Jesus and lives daily by truth.

The entire Bible follows a single storyline: God is actively redeeming His chosen people and His precious creation in order to accomplish His original intention for humanity. The crux of this story is seen in one remarkable plot twist—God became man and lived among us!

As we begin our journey through John’s Gospel, we first need to examine the man, John, the disciple Jesus loved. His unique contribution, throughout a longer life than any of the original twelve, was to urge the church toward practical love as an expression of Christ life.

The ungoverned life is one wasted on small purposes—blundering through our days without direction, busy yet getting nowhere. Individual government is a biblical call to noble living, adopting the high standard of godliness in order to glorify Jesus Christ.

Just as the marriage union in the New Testament is intended to picture the marvelous relationship between Christ and His Church, so in the Old Testament God uses the ideal marriage bond to illustrate His desired fellowship with His people Israel. The way God describes a solid marriage is instructive, especially in today’s culture of “no fault” divorce.