Edgefield Church Nashville – Sermons

Jesus offers freedom to everyone who hears his word and embraces him. But in what sense do we need freedom? How do we know Jesus can deliver? And how is it that he can set us free?

The cross of Jesus is the ultimate light through which we understand the world, find hope in sorrow, and experience freedom from sin.

Though most agree this famous story doesn?t belong in John?s Gospel, it stands as a vivid and beautiful illustration of the Bible?s consistent and clear message: sin is a universal problem (and not just someone else?s problem), but it is no match for the liberating power of Jesus?s grace.

In this chapter John develops the mounting tension over who Jesus is and how to respond to him. Along the way, he illustrates three ways to reject Jesus and the one way for anyone to embrace him. Ultimately, it?s all about the heart.

God is not like us, but he wants to make us like Him.

Jesus came to save people from their biggest problem: death.

Jesus uses vivid imagery as a metaphor for belief. He is the bread of life and the living water, and whoever feeds on his flesh and drinks his blood has eternal life.

The difference between life and death hinges on the difference between the work God wants from us and the work God does for us. According to Jesus, the work God requires of us is to believe on him. But it is God?s work to make us satisfied and to make us secure.

Like Matthew, Mark and Luke, John gives us the story of the feeding of the 5,000, where Jesus turns a glorified snack into a full meal for a massive crowd of hungry people. It?s a story meant to demonstrate that Jesus has power that isn?t limited by rigid laws of nature, that in him we catch a glimpse of a new world breaking into the somber limitations of this old one. But John also means this sto...

In this dialogue with those who opposed him, having just claimed to be equal with God, Jesus points to the evidence that supports his claim. But his main focus is explaining why those who?ve seen the evidence still don?t believe in him. If we believe based on what we want, and if we want the respect and praise of other people, we?ll never believe in Jesus. But if we want the approval of God more t...

The words of Jesus in this passage are the words that got him killed. When we hear his words as they sounded to his first audience, it?s not difficult to understand why. He is making claims that are ridiculous at best and dangerous at worst?if they?re not true, that is. If they?re true?if he does have the power of God over life and death and judgment?then we must honor the Son.

In his healing of the lame man, Jesus shows he is the one who will make all things new. But in the responses of the Jewish leaders and the healed man, we?re warned against two ways to miss out on the new world Jesus came to bring.

In place of a life defined by sin, suffering and death, Jesus offers us a life that is abundant and eternal. This passage is meant to show us why we can trust him to deliver on his promise. Jesus cares for his people with a love that drove him to death and a power that death could not conquer.

We have a hope that does not disappoint, one in which we should invest everything.

We must avoid faith based merely on what we see and aimed merely at the lives we want. Instead, we must seek faith based primarily on what we hear?on Jesus?s Word?and aimed at the life Jesus promises us.

Jesus?s conversation with the Samaritan woman clarifies the central calling of our lives. We?re called to be worshipers, and we?re called to seek worshipers.

This passage tells the story of Jesus?s meeting with a lonely Samaritan woman, an outcast even among an outcast people, whose life seems to have been a series of failed relationships with men. John tells the story to illustrate what Jesus came to offer those who trust in him. He offers acceptance even for those rejected by everyone else. And he offers satisfaction that is unmatched and unending.

This story centers on John the Baptist near the end of his life, just as his ministry was fading way and eclipsed by the rising popularity of Jesus. In his response to the situation we get one of this Gospel?s clearest examples of what it looks like to have genuine faith in Jesus. There?s transforming, liberating power in John?s statement of faith: ?He must increase; I must decrease.?

To fully appreciate the beauty in this iconic description of God?s love, we?ve got to understand who it is God loves and what his love costs him. And then we?ve got to face the choice this text poses for each of us: what will you do with Jesus?

Jesus insists that only those who are born again can enter the kingdom he came to establish. But what does it mean to be born again? And where can you get this experience? The answers come out in Jesus?s conversation with a religious leader named Nicodemus. They?re unexpected, but they?re life-giving.

This passage tells the story of Jesus cleansing the Jerusalem temple of all those selling animals and changing money. The fury of Jesus can be shocking given what we normally expect from him. But the anger he showed in driving shopkeepers from the temple flowed from the same love that drove him to earth. His all-consuming passion was for knowing God, and he came to make knowing God possible for us...

This story captures the first of Jesus?s ?signs,? actions that symbolize what he came to do for us. It isn?t as eye-catching as some of his later miracles. There?s no healing of the sick, no calming of a storm, no resurrection of the dead. But when Jesus turned water into wine, he offered a perfect taste of what his coming means for his people: he will turn guilt and shame to unimaginable joy.

The best way to evaluate whether Jesus is the Messiah is to experience him as a person or, in Jesus? words, to come and see. But when you experience Jesus you see, as did his first disciples, that he knows you already and has the power to make you new.

This story of Jesus?s life begins not with Jesus himself but with a figure called John the Baptist, one sent to prepare the way for the Christ. Following John?s lead, we get a clear picture of what we must know about ourselves and about Jesus if we?re to truly enjoy what Jesus offers us.

At the heart of Christianity is the claim that God became human for us. But how can we get our minds and hearts around this claim? It?s at once abstract and too familiar, but John would have us taste the beauty of incarnation.