Pastor Jonathan White

Introduction: I must admit that I have mixed emotions today. This is the last of our 88-week sermon series through Luke. We have covered much ground. We have actually covered 24,645 words in the ESV New Testament which makes up around 14% of the entire New Testament. That is quite a lot of ground we…

Introduction: The Bible refers to living the Christian life in many ways. We see it referred to as a race - which is seen in various Scriptures given in your handout ( Hebrews 12:1 , 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 , 2 Timothy 4:7 , Philippians 3:13-14 , Galatians 5:7 ). We see battle-like language throughout…

Introduction: The title of this sermon is a bit lengthy. But I love the question that is asked in today’s passage. Why do you seek the living among the dead? This question shows the slowness of the followers of Christ to grasp the resurrection. We see that they were slow to believe. The women go to the…

Introduction: Jesus walked the hardest road of suffering that anyone has ever had to walk. We have been going through this road the last few weeks. He has suffered in deep prayer in Gethsemane as He sweat great drops of blood. He has suffered the betrayal of one disciple and been denied by the disciple…

Introduction: Justice is ingrained into the heart of man. When we hear of injustice, we struggle to cope with it. That is because we are made in the image of God. God is a God of justice. He has promised that He will make all things right in the end. However, on this side of eternity, we continue to…

Introduction: Failing is hard to endure. Being March Madness, I figured I would start us off with a NCAA Basketball sports analogy of failure. During the 2016 NCAA Tournament, the 11th seeded Northern Iowa Panthers were coming off of a big win against Texas. They seemed to be cruising to the Sweet 16…

Introduction: Today we are going to see two different examples of how to respond to temptation. We will see the wrong way which is overconfidence and a dependence on self and the right way which is humility and a dependence on the Father. Our first example will be the disciple Peter. In his typical overconfidence,…

Introduction: Whenever I hear the word greatest, I cannot help but think about Muhammad Ali. He was quick to tell everyone he met that he was the greatest to ever box. He spent most of his boxing life exalting himself - for example, he claimed that Madison Square Garden (which holds around 20,000 people…

Introduction: A shadow is an interesting thing. It takes a similar shape to the object itself but is a fuzzy picture of the object. There is no true definition to a shadow. Sometimes, it can even be hard to even figure out what the object actually looks like if the light is causing the shadow to elongate…

Introduction: Harry R. Truman (not to be confused with Harry S. Truman the former president) was born in Clay County, West Virginia in October of 1896. In 1907, his family moved out west to the state of Washington where he would live for most of his life. This man led a life marked by various antics…

Introduction: Many prophesies in the Bible have a near fulfillment and a future fulfillment. We see this often in the prophesies regarding the Messiah. We see mixed into these Old Testament prophetic passages facts about His first coming as well as His second coming. There are near fulfillments and future…

In today’s message, Jesus sees wickedness at the Temple and teaches on the coming judgement.

Introduction: We live a world with heartache and pain. Things don’t always seem to go well on this side of eternity. People die, sicknesses come, barrenness happens, oppression occurs. And we see that some form of tragedy strikes just about everyone at some point in their life. Where do we find hope…

In today’s message, Jesus calls us to be obedient citizens of our earthly kingdom as well as the kingdom of God.

Introduction: Although there is some debate on the Greek word translated cornerstone in the New Testament, most theologians agree that it refers to a stone that aligns two walls of a structure. Here is a picture to allow you to see it more clearly. This stone was foundational for the structure that it…

Introduction: It seems that many people struggle to see God as relational. They see Him as this far off Being that is impersonal. Yet, Jesus Christ provided us a tangible view of God up close and personal. Paul, in writing Colossians, tells us in Colossians 1:15 that: He is the image of the invisible…

Introduction: Americans today face a seemingly overwhelming wave of hopelessness. In 2022 the CDC stated that around 44% of teens in the United States reported feeling persistently sad and hopeless which was up from 37% in 2019 (1). Statistics continue to show increases in hopelessness amongst all ages…

Introduction: On May 6, 2023, a large assembly was gathered to view the coronation of Charles III and Camilla as king and queen of the United Kingdom. This was the first coronation in the UK in nearly 70 years! This event reached global proportions with an estimated audience of around 2 billion people…

Introduction: We live in a faithless generation. I think most people would agree with that assertion. Jesus spoke of His own generation as a faithless generation as well as we saw back in Luke 9:41 . We can probably safely assume that our generation is not any more faithful than Christ’s. With that in…

Introduction: A couple of weeks ago, we talked about the rich young ruler. This young man had power, prestige, and plenty of provision. I couldn’t help but alliterate that. It must be a Baptist thing. He had acquired an amazing amount of wealth and was seen as blessed by many of those around him. He…

Introduction: Helen Keller is known for being both blind and deaf after an illness at the age of 19 months. With the help of her life-long teacher and friend, Anne Sullivan, she became the first deaf and blind person in the United States to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. Someone once asked Helen Keller…

Introduction: Writer Ralph B. Smith once made an observation that children ask roughly 125 questions per day. For some of you parents with young children, you can amen that! And some of you parents might be feeling pretty good about your child right now because you see that your child is probably hitting…

Today’s message asserts that salvation belongs to those who humble themselves and rely on the mercy and grace of God through Christ.

Introduction: Persistence is the ability to stick with something. It involves continuing on even when it is hard. It means continuing even though you might not see any benefit at the time. When we think of the need to persist in something, prayer is not often at the top of our list. We consider persisting…

Introduction: Good morning, Church. Some of you just looked at your handout for today and got a little overwhelmed! I somewhat apologize for catching you off-guard with the wealth of information that you have been given. We are going to be covering some deep doctrines of the faith in today’s message.…