Solid Rock Church Sermons

With this sermon, we began the first of four weeks looking at the devotion of the early Church to the Apostles' teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer found in Acts 2:42. This week, we focused on the Church's devotion to the Apostles' teaching. This heartfelt dedication was born out of belief in the message of the Church, found in Christ Jesus. As we devote ourselves, both personally...

For this second week of The Dawn of the Church series, we looked in Acts 2:22-41 at the first sermon of the Church. In this passage, Peter uses the Scriptures to boldly preach that Jesus is the Messiah who was proven by miracles and signs, predicted by the Prophets, delivered up according to the plan and foreknowledge of God, crucified, killed, and raised up by God. Upon hearing his word...

With this sermon, we launched The Dawn of the Church: Acts 1-2 series. We looked at Acts 2:1-21, when God uses fallible humans to establish His infallible Church by sending His Spirit to empower the Church and accomplish works that would otherwise be impossible for His people. This significant event marks the dawn of the Church and reveals that the true power of the Church is found in the Holy Spi...

In this sermon, we looked at the surprising and glorious angelic announcement of the birth of Jesus in Luke 2:8-21. The angels appear to shepherds watching their flocks at night and proclaim that the Savior, Messiah, and Lord has been born! The joy of heaven overflows into the appearance of an angelic multitude giving glory to God and praising Him for His favor toward mankind. After traveling to s...

In this sermon, we looked at Mary and Joseph's experience of the first Christmas. In Matthew and Luke's accounts of the nativity, we see that Mary and Joseph faced many difficult situations that caused them deep loneliness. We also learned how God gave us the feeling of loneliness to remind us that it’s not good to be alone; we were created to be deeply connected to God and to others. Loneli...

In this sermon, we looked in Luke 1:26-50 at Mary's response to Gabriel's announcement that she was about to become pregnant with the Messiah. When Mary first encounters the angel, she is stricken with fear. Like many of us, she tries to calm her own fears by attempting to control the situation. Instead of giving into Mary's demand for understanding, Gabriel responds to Mary's troubled heart by le...

In this sermon, we looked at the story of Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth. Both were considered righteous before God, yet they lived with deep sadness at never having the child they longed for. The sadness they felt wasn’t a result of personal sin, but the overarching brokenness of this world. It reminds us that even those who are in Christ still have hopes and desires that may never be re...

In this sermon, we looked at how John ended his Gospel with Jesus' invitation to Peter and John to follow Him and trust Him with the outcomes of their life stories. In this closing scene, Peter asks Jesus what the outcome of John’s life will be and Jesus responds by making it clear that He alone will be the author of John's story. Then Jesus says, “Follow me,” inviting Peter to s...

In this sermon, we looked at how Jesus forgave and restored Peter to his calling as one of Jesus' disciples. In John 21:15-19, Jesus makes Himself known, for the third time since His resurrection, to seven of the disciples on the shore the Sea of Galilee. After a miraculous catch of fish and a gracious meal with the disciples, Jesus addresses Peter in a way that brings to light how Peter denied Je...

In this sermon, we looked at how Jesus made Himself known to His disciples at the Sea of Galilee. The disciples were still recovering from the emotionally tumultuous series of events surrounding Jesus' life, death, and resurrection and were now exhausted and discouraged from fishing all night with nothing to show for their efforts. Jesus meets them in their discouragement and exhaustion by miracul...

In this sermon, we looked at John's statement about why he wrote down his account of Jesus' life, ministry, death, and resurrection. John tells us that he selected some of Jesus' miracles to reveal to his readers the identity of Jesus in the hope that we would know Jesus to be the promised Messiah and the Son of God. Earlier in his Gospel, John tells us about how he came to fully believe in Jesus...

In this sermon, we looked at Jesus' resurrection appearance in John 20:24-29. The week after the resurrection, rumors and threats were being perpetuated by the Pharisees, which made believing in the resurrection not only difficult but also dangerous. As the disciples hide in fear, the others tell Thomas that they have seen Jesus but Thomas says that he won’t believe unless he can touch Jesus...

In this sermon, we looked at how Jesus made Himself known to the disciples after the resurrection. In John 20:19-23, Jesus miraculously passes through the locked doors of the upper room in order to be with the disciples. Finding them in fear and turmoil, Jesus shows them His wounds and invites them into the peace of His presence. As Jesus turns the disciples’ fear into gladness and their cha...

In this sermon, we looked at the eternal significance of the resurrection of Jesus. In John 20:1-18, we see Mary Magdalene go to Jesus' tomb on the third day following His death. She didn’t go to see if He had resurrected but to make sure He had been properly buried. Upon seeing the empty tomb, she thought that the tragedy of Jesus’ death was now followed by the additional tragedy of H...

In this sermon, we looked at how the details of Jesus' burial reveal the depth of His trust in the Father. With more than 90 references to Jesus' relationship with God the Father, John's  Gospel account helps us to see how Jesus completely entrusted Himself into the hands of His Father in His darkest hour . In order for Jesus to qualify as our Messiah, He had to obey the law perfectly in life...

In this sermon, we looked at John’s account of the crucifixion of Jesus in John 19:16-37. While John wants us to see the intensity of this moment, he doesn’t want us to lose sight of the bigger picture of God’s unfolding plan to redeem His creation. When Pilate says, “What I have written, I have written,” we can see the finality of what God has written. John includes...

In this sermon, we looked at Jesus' claim to be the King of the Jews. In John 19:1 - 15, Pilate was struggling to know what to do with Jesus so he had Jesus severely beaten  and humiliated, hoping this would appease the Jewish leaders and Jesus could be released. However, when Pilate presented a beaten and bloody Jesus, the crowd of Jewish leaders replied, “Crucify Him!” Viewing t...

In this sermon, we looked at John 18:28-40 when Jesus claims to be the King of the Kingdom of Truth. The Jewish leaders wanted to have Jesus put to death, while still maintaining the appearance of adhering to their strict religious laws, so they passed the burden onto the Roman Governor, Pilate. They knew that if Pilate could get Jesus to admit to His claim of being a king, it would make Jesus loo...

In this sermon, we looked in John 18:12 - 27 at Jesus' faithfulness as He was being interrogated by the Jewish religious leaders. As Jesus continued to do His Father's will during the interrogation and false accusations, Peter was outside in the courtyard denying, three times, that he was one of Jesus' disciples. While John specifically captures Peter's unfaithfulness to Jesus, the reality is that...

In this sermon, we looked at how Jesus' arrest unfolded in John 18:1 - 11 and how this affects our lives today. After Jesus' prayer in the upper room, He and the disciples go out to the garden just outside of town. Judas comes to the garden, leading the rel igious leaders and Roman soldiers. When the leaders ask which one is Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus steps forward and identifies Himself, saying, &l...

In this sermon, we looked at John 17:20-26 when Jesus prays for the believers who will come to Him through the work and testimony of His disciples. Christ prays that we will be united in our faith with one another just as He is united with the Father. This unity is grounded in our relationship with Christ and will be a sign to the world that He was sent by the Father. Jesus even gives believers Hi...

In this sermon, we continued to unpack Jesus' prayer in John 17. As Jesus prays to the Father, we see a beautiful picture of His earthly ministry and fulfillment of God's  will and purpose. Jesus prays for His disciples to be protected by the Father as they face suffering in their ministry. However, the protection that Jesus prays for isn’t to remove the suffering the disciples would fa...

In this sermon, we looked at John 17:1-5 when Jesus begins to pray and ask the Father to glorify Him through His upcoming suffering and death. Through His prayer, Jesus helps us understand how the Father glorifies the Son and the Son glorifies the Father. In His prayer, we also see our part in glorifying God: We don’t add glory to God when we glorify Him; we glorify God by making Him known a...

In this sermon, we looked at how Jesus prepares His disciples to walk through a difficult season of fear, loneliness, sorrow, and failure. In John 16:25-33, Jesus tells them that a new era is coming when He will overcome the world and return to the Father to sit as the mediator and advocate between man and God, thus giving His disciples direct access to the presence of God. Jesus is teaching us th...

In this sermon, we looked at John 16:4-15 when Jesus once again encourages His disciples with the hope of the coming Holy Spirit. Jesus knows the disciples are full of sorrow at His departure and the reality of their future suffering at the hands of those who would persecute them. However, Jesus tells them it is actually better that He should ascend to the Father so the Holy Spirit will come. The...