Grace Messages

As we reflect on this Christmas season, in the light of so much gift giving and receiving, we want to stop and reflect on all the good gifts that God has given us. We have so many good gifts from God!

Last week Jesus was once again providing strong, courtroom-like, testimony as to His identity, just as He had in John 5 with this same group of people. This morning, He is going to start getting even more direct. Even though the Jewish religious leaders hate Him, Jesus loves them and He does NOT want any of them to die in their sin (of unbelief)! Jesus is going to articulate the ONE and ONLY ONE c...

As we continue this morning, Jesus is still in Jerusalem, immediately following the Feast of Tabernacles. In fact, this is the day after the feast is over, and is the same day as Jesus' interaction with the woman caught in adultery. One interesting connection from 7:52 to 8:12 is what the Jewish leaders said in 7:52 about a prophet coming out of Galilee and what Jesus says in 8:12 (See Isaiah 9:1-...

The Feast of Tabernacles is over – the Jews who have traveled to Jerusalem from out of town are probably getting ready to head back home, and yet because of the BUZZ created by Jesus, many have probably stayed a little bit longer, hoping to get some more time with Him. This morning, we will look at an event that transpired the day after the feast. We will cover an amazing passage – it is a passage...

Jesus has been teaching in the Temple and interacting with multiple groups within the crowds. The setting again is the Feast of Tabernacles and one group in the crowd – the religious leaders – have had enough, and they set a plan into motion to take Him into custody. To make matters worse from a human perspective, Jesus just stole the show and made some pretty bold claims (See v37-v39)! This morni...

This time of year, we take time to express thanks for the things and people we are thankful for. For most of us, there are people in our lives that jump to the top of that list. These are people who have invested in us, sacrificed for us and the like. We can and should be thankful for them! However, what about those people who have only caused us grief, harm, or pain? In our passage today, Paul is...

Jesus has been teaching in the Temple and interacting with multiple groups within the crowds. The setting again is the Feast of Tabernacles and one group in the crowd – the religious leaders – have had enough, and they have now set in motion a plan to take Him into custody. This morning, we see Jesus finish His dialogue with His audience and then He seems to lay low for a few days. However, on the...

Remember, Jesus has been teaching in the Temple right in the middle of the Feast of Tabernacles. His teaching was amazing and the conversation with His audience has progressed. Last time, Jesus had called out the religious leaders' "Sabbath hypocrisy" and by doing so, He effectively silenced them! Now, this confuses the Jewish crowd because they know the religious leaders hate Jesus and want Him g...

Last week Jesus took a position at a pillar in the Temple during the middle of the Feast of Tabernacles to teach the people. His teaching was incredibly good and very impressive to friend and foe alike. During the dialogue that followed regarding the origin of His teaching, Jesus called the Jewish religious leaders out, by pointing out they stood on the Law of Moses and yet were actively trying to...

Last week we saw that Jesus was the talk of the town in Jerusalem at the Feast of Tabernacles, which was the most popular of all the Jewish feasts. Even though Jesus had come to the Feast in Jerusalem clandestinely, this morning He will make His public appearance midway through the feast. So, He does NOT stay quiet and, in the background. He begins to teach openly in the Temple and His claims once...

Last week we saw that Jesus’ brothers had a worldly campaign strategy for Him related to the upcoming Feast in Jerusalem. The Feast of Tabernacles was the most popular of all the feasts and had both a nationalistic and religious element to it. God had brought them through wilderness and would one day dwell with them permanently, AND God continued to meet their daily needs by providing their harves...

Last week we began to see the aftermath of Jesus’ teaching of the Bread of Life discourse. Many were NOT comfortable with what He just said – they were NOT comfortable with the claims He was making regarding His ID – and most of all they were NOT comfortable with how far He took the metaphor of BREAD. This is why MANY of His disciples left Jesus, never to follow Him again. We will look at two addi...

Last week Jesus finished up the Bread of Life discourse in the synagogue in Capernaum. This morning we will see the aftermath of His teaching. Many were not comfortable with what He just said. The lack of comfort involved the claims He was making regarding His identity, and with how far He took the metaphor of "bread." Over the next two weeks, we will look at three responses to Jesus' message: (1s...

This morning, we are going to see Jesus continue to ratchet up His dialogue with the crowd in Capernaum. Most bible teachers, pastors, and evangelists are interested in growing their audience, but this morning we are going to see Jesus shrink His audience! By continuing to build on His metaphor of the Bread of Life, Jesus says some things that do not sit well with those in His audience. As a resul...

We left off last time with a cliffhanger, of sorts, in verse 44 about the Father drawing people and what that meant. As a reminder, Jesus was in the middle of a discourse with a large crowd in Capernaum. Again, this was the same crowd He fed miraculously just the day before. Because He just fed them, and because it is Passover time, He uses Bread as a Metaphor for Himself. This morning, Jesus will...

"Keep on Moving" is an exhortation to each one of us, individually, and to our local church, corporately. It is a reminder to keep pursuing and growing in our relational intimacy with Jesus Christ. Even though we are celebrating our 41st anniversary as a local church, we should never rest on our laurels, we should never become complacent, and we should never become satisfied with where we are at t...

We continue this week in the Bread of Life discourse. Remember, ultimately the purpose for this message is for Jesus to clarify His identity for this crowd. Jesus had just said some pretty amazing and dogmatic things in verses 35 and 37. He used three emphatic negations in verses 35 and 37 - “Never, no not ever hunger (v35)…thirst (v35)…be cast out (v37)." So, now the questions are: HOW can Jesus...

We left off last week with Jesus at the very beginning of a discourse with a large crowd in Capernaum. This is the same crowd He fed miraculously just the day before. This discourse has come to be known as the Bread of Life discourse, and we will see Jesus and the crowd will go back and forth with their questions and comments and His corrections and clarifications. If we were to summarize and give...

In John six so far, we have seen two of John’s hand-selected miracles back-to-back. He provides two out of his seven hand-selected miracles in the first twenty-one verses of John chapter six - the feeding of the 5,000 and Jesus’ walking on water. Now, with the SAME crowd He just fed, He will attempt to clarify His identity through a teaching discourse. There is definitely some "back and forth" dur...

Last time we met, we attempted to set the stage for the ONE miracle in the life of Jesus that was recorded in each of the 4 gospel accounts – the feeding of the 5000. This miracle was really a preliminary attention grabber for the main discussion – the Bread of Life Discourse! As we move forward in this account Jesus will take His disciples from the classroom of discipleship into a discipleship pr...

Last time we met, we attempted to set the stage for the ONE miracle in the life of Jesus that was recorded in each of the 4 gospel accounts – the feeding of the 5000. This miracle was really a preliminary attention grabber for the main discussion – the Bread of Life Discourse! As we move forward in this account Jesus will take His disciples from the classroom of discipleship into a discipleship pr...

Today we celebrate communion, and remember what Christ did for us!

Contentment in life is something we all strive for, but something that always seems just out of reach. Today, Joshua Miller joins us to talk about how to be content. What is contentment, what does the Bible say about being content, and how can we truly be content in this life? Sermon on Philippians 4:13

Chapter 6 begins with the ONE miracle that was recorded in each of the four gospel accounts – the feeding of the 5,000. The purpose of John in recording this miracle is very unique. This is one of the signs he has hand selected to convince his audience to believe in Jesus Christ, but it is also this miracle that provides the occasion for a remarkable discourse the next day. This discourse has come...

As we close out John chapter 5 this morning, remember last week that Jesus has moved us into an impromptu court scene. Jesus has given us His opening argument, and last week He began presenting His expert witnesses to His identity. Remember, under Jewish law, valid testimony in a court case was 2-3 witnesses – Jesus will provide four witnesses – five, if you count Himself. The four witnesses we lo...