Andy Talks

Jesus tells the crowd today that they are not following Him because of the power of God they have seen; they are following Him for what they can get. He fed them, and they got their bellies filled. Why do we follow Jesus? Are we following because of what we can get out of Him, or are we following because we can see the power of God? Jesus tells us that He is the bread of heaven. Only He can satisf...

Today, we see Jesus walking on water. As with much of the Bible, there is a top-level understanding of what is happening, but there is also something deeper.  Jesus walks on the water.  He is Lord of the created order. But for the Jewish people, the water was more than that. They were not a seafaring people. There were dangers that lurked in the unknown. Jesus walking on the water shows this truth...

Today, as we continue our series The Practice of the Church, we look at the first of the Works of Piety, Devotion. This is loving God in a personal way. Why do we do this?  Why does it matter? How does this help restore the new creation within us? 

We see the feeding of the Five Thousand today. A lot of really interesting things are in this text. Jesus turns to Andrew and Phillip again after turning to them early in ministry to find other disciples. Just because Jesus has used you once does not mean  He is done with you. We see that with the feeding of the five thousand, they ate and were satisfied, but twelve baskets were left over. That is...

We see Jesus telling the religious leaders that so many things testified to who He was—John the Baptist, His works, even His word. But for the religious leaders, the greatest condemnation of their lack of belief was that Moses, the very one they pointed to for truth, testified to Jesus. Moses was pointing to Jesus the entire time.  Jesus was God’s plan the entire time; all of the Old Testament poi...

We see Jesus tell us that all of us will be resurrected.  Some of us will be resurrected to life, others among us to judgment.  That sounds scary. But He reminds us of this: if we believe (and follow) His words and believe His Father sent Him, we will pass from death to life. God is not out to get us. God wants us to be saved more than we want to be saved. If God is for us, who can be against us?...

Jesus heals today and breaks one of the Pharisees’ rules.  Their rules are often petty and deal with the minutiae of their understanding of the Law of God. They want people to obey God, so they create to-do (and to don’t do) lists. If I’m going to be honest with you, that’s what I want. I want to know exactly what to do and not to do. But Jesus calls us to something more than that. He calls us to...

In our Combined service on September 1, 2024, Andy shared 2 Corinthians 5: 16-21. The goal of our salvation is to restore the new creation within us. How do we do that? This month, we will discuss how the means of grace help restore that which sin has taken.

Today, Jesus performed a miracle, but there was no touch, nothing like that at all. He simply says that a child will be healed, and the child is healed. The father believes he has faith, and healing happens. In the Bible, healing is sometimes physical, but it’s sometimes spiritual. We are healed through faith. Not always in a physical sense, but always in a spiritual sense. We are healed, or saved...

Today, we see the effects of the Samaritan women’s testimony. First, the word of Jesus is given to the disciples. The fields are ready for harvest. They will reap what they did not work for. The “success” we have in life and in faith is often because of the work of those who have gone before us.  This should give us perspective.  Likewise, the work we do may not show its fruit until years in the f...

We see the conversation today between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. We don’t know her exact story, but we know this. The Samaritans are considered outcasts by the Jews. The Samaritans considered her an outcast (thus, she’s getting water at noon). Jesus knows all this. He sees all this. He sees her.  He sees all that she is, all that has happened in her life. He still loves her. He see...

The text tells us today that Jesus has to go through Samaria today. But that is not quite right. He doesn’t have to go through it.  There are other ways to get to Galilee. But this is not a “chronos” scheduled event or earthly time. This is a “kairos” event, or God’s time.  Jesus deviates from the human schedule and instead listens to His Father. Through that, He shows God’s love to people who do...

We see Jesus say today that the Father loves the Son and has placed all things in His hands. It’s like the old song we used to sing as kids: He’s got the whole world in His hands!  That’s a real encouragement to us; sometimes, we put such pressure on ourselves to get it just right and to be perfect.  But we can remind ourselves that God knows all things, that there is not a single thing that has h...

Today, John shows us what true discipleship looks like.  Jesus has come, and now He is getting all the attention. Some folks go to John and say, “Look, everyone is going to Jesus.”  Many, if not most of us, would get defensive. Our pride and ego may be hurt.  I mean, what happened to us?  Everyone liked us.  But what does John do?  He knows the truth. It’s all about Jesus. He says, He must increas...

In our Traditional message, Andy shares with us from 2 Samuel 9.  We see the story of David and Mephibosheth, Saul's grandson.  David should have killed him (according to the world), not welcomed him. Yet David brought him to the table. Our world needs community and welcome. Who can we bring to the table? 

For God so loved the world. This verse is the lens through which I look at the Bible. I interpret the verses I don’t understand through John 3:16, Which is how I understand God. God so loved the world. That means everyone. The folks I agree with, the folks I disagree with. The folks who share my theology and politics and the folks who do not share my theology and politics. God loves me. And God lo...

We see in John 3 the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus. As with all of John, there is a lot of symbolism going on here.  Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night. What does that mean?  It is speaking of a time, yes, but for John, there is more than that. In this Gospel, light and dark have deep and special meanings.  We also take some time to talk about who the Pharisees were. While they were misg...

We see something a little unusual in John 2.  Jesus is just starting His public ministry, and here, He cleanses the Temple. Now, in the other three Gospels, one of the last things He does is cleanse the Temple. Yet, here, He does it early. Does He cleanse it twice?  That is possible. Remember, John does not answer “who, what, when, and where,” and John answers “why?”  Why does Jesus cleanse the Te...

Today, we see Jesus’ first miracle. There are a lot of interesting things here. We see how important a wedding is to the culture. Weddings were huge deals; they were parties. They were celebrations. It would have been very shameful for the wedding to have run out of wine.  That is why Mary notices this. Although this may seem trivial, it is an act of kindness by her. But all the things that are in...

In our Traditional message from August 11, 2024, Andy shares with us from Revelation 12: 10-11.  The Devil is defeated by the blood of the lamb and the power of our testimony. When we tell folks about what Jesus has done in our lives, it drives out the darkness.

Jesus calls Phillip today, and much like Andrew, Phillip goes and tells a friend about Jesus.  Phillip tells Nathaniel about Jesus, but unlike Peter, Nataniel, at first, does not believe that Jesus can be who Phillip says. He replies, what good can come from Nazareth?  He prejudged Jesus, and because of that, he almost missed what God would do in His life through Jesus. It is easy in our lives to...

We see the first two disciples that Jesus calls today, Andrew and then Peter.  There’s a lot that we can consider in this passage. First, we can remind ourselves of who our Andrews are, who told us about Jesus. Second, we can ask ourselves, who do we need to tell about Jesus? We see in all of this that they were seeking to know who Jesus was. Friends, if we seek after Jesus, we will find Him. He i...

We see two approaches to life today. First, we see the religious leaders asking John questions. Who are you? What are you doing? Why are you doing it?  What is all this about?  Then, we see John and his approach to Jesus.  We see him lift up Jesus, point to Jesus, and exactly Him. The first path is a path of cynicism, and the second path is a path of humility.  I, along with many of you, may be cy...

One of the greatest books of Christian theology ever written is On the Incarnation by St. Athanasius. This beautiful book dives deeper into what we see in our text today. The Word becomes flesh and lives among us. This is a powerful truth. We do not serve a distant and foreign God but a God who knows us and has faced what we face. Jesus became one of us to save all of us.  As God, He could perfect...

Today, we’ll begin our time together in John’s Gospel.  John’s Gospel has a very specific purpose for us. While Matthew, Mark, and Luke answer the “who, what, when, and where” questions, John answers the “why.”  He is showing us “why” Jesus came, and his entire Gospel is written, as we see at the end of chapter 20, so that we may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah.  We’ll begin our time tog...