Pastor Jonathan White

Join Pastor Jonathan as he discusses the essentials of the Christian faith.

Introduction: One of the most difficult things in the lives of believers is seeing a church leader that they have respected and learned from not practicing what he preached. This has been most clearly seen with the rise and fall of many celebrity pastors which has led to disillusionment of many people…

Introduction: As we kick off our “Ask Pastor Jonathan Burning Questions” summer, I have been asked a really deep one to start the summer off. Is baptism necessary for salvation? This question comes from someone in our congregation who has encountered someone from the Church of Christ. The Church of Christ…

Introduction: What is it like living in the last days? Although the end of the last days will be marked by the Tribulation - a time period marked by the worst world events to ever occur - we are actually living in the last days now! As we look around our world, darkness is everywhere. Wars rage, false…

Introduction: The desire for man’s approval is seen from an early age and continues even into adulthood. Young children hunger for positive feedback from their parents signifying acceptance of them. School-aged children often long for a teacher to tell them how smart they are or a coach to speak of their…

Introduction: It is interesting that we come to this Scripture the week after Memorial Day because today we are going to learn about becoming a good soldier for Christ. Although I have never personally attended basic training, I have talked to many who have endured this difficult training in order to…

Introduction: On April 20, 1999, something incredibly terrible happened. For those of us who are old enough to remember, all eyes were glued to the news stations that were reporting on the worst school shooting in US history at the time. Two 12th grade students killed 13 other students along with a teacher.…

Introduction: There is something captivating about fire. I, personally have always been amazed by the power of fire. In fact, although I was a fairly obedient child growing up, one of the few times I got in trouble involved fire. Luckily, I didn’t cause any damage - and as a disclaimer - kids don’t play…

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…