The Darrell Johnson Podcast

Following Jesus Into His Sermon On The Mount | Week 15 | At the end of this fifteen part series Darrell asks us, “how are we to respond to the way the greatest preacher who ever lived ends the greatest sermon ever preached?” In this final section of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus lays before us the crisis of decision that has been building throughout His message. What are we going to do with Him?...

Following Jesus Into His Sermon On The Mount | Week 14 | In Matthew 7:1-12, Jesus sums up the whole of the Sermon on the Mount in one sentence. This one sentence has become widely known as the golden rule: “in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.” In this sermon, Darrell suggests that in this clear, succinct, and brilliant little sentence, Jesus is identifying 3 ways that a...

Following Jesus Into His Sermon On The Mount | Week 13 | Continuing from last week, in this sermon Darrel calls us to follow Jesus’ command to stop worrying and being anxious. This is not simply a suggestion, but a command. He explains that freedom from anxiety will only come from making wise decisions out of the three major movements of the heart that Jesus highlights within the text. The message...

Following Jesus Into His Sermon On The Mount | Week 12 | Join Darrell as he preaches one of his favorite texts—a favorite, he says, because it is a text he most needs to hear. And so do we. Anxiety is an epidemic in our time. Jesus tells us in Matthew 6 that worry is the dominant symptom of making unwise choices relative to three movements of the human heart: what we treasure, how we see life, and...

Following Jesus Into His Sermon On The Mount | Week 11 | As shown time and time again in the Gospels, Jesus’ whole life and ministry on earth was driven by His relationship with His Father. Jesus lived for, in, and with the Father, and this Preacher on the Mount wants all His followers to live with this same understanding. In these 18 verses, Jesus highlights three common Christian disciplines (gi...

Following Jesus Into His Sermon On The Mount | Week 10 | Continuing our time in the Sermon on the Mount with Darrell, we have arrived at Jesus’ challenging line in Matthew 5:48 - “Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” To many, these words from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount are among the most burdensome. But what if this one line, though seemingly a command, is in fact a promise? A promise t...

Following Jesus Into His Sermon On The Mount | Week 9 | In this sermon, Darrell visits the challenging and seemingly backwards teaching from Jesus on enemy love in Matthew 5:43-48. Darrell shows how “loving your enemies” is the only way to prevent the hatred you feel towards another from destroying you and destroying them. That it’s one of the ways God’s people safeguard their souls, and participa...

Following Jesus Into His Sermon On The Mount | Week 8 | In this message, Darrell unpacks the often-misunderstood teaching of Jesus regarding retaliation and revenge. What does He mean when He says to “not resist the evil person”? Is Jesus calling us as His followers to passively stand by when we encounter those who wish to harm or take advantage of us? Through the text, Darrell shows us there is n...

Following Jesus Into His Sermon On The Mount | Week 7 | In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus addresses obviously critical issues like murder, anger, adultery, lust, marriage and remarriage. But what about when Jesus addresses his people about making oaths? How is this as big of an issue as murder or adultery? In this sermon, Darrell unpacks the problem of making oaths and why words matter to Jesus, e...

Following Jesus Into His Sermon On The Mount | Week 6 | This sermon is a continuation of the Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew 5. Focusing on verses 27 to 30, Darrell gives insight into the call for us to follow Jesus’ radical approach in crucifying the flesh which results in a better relationship with Him and with those around us.  Darrell reveals how lust relates to our deeper, more holy lon...

Following Jesus Into His Sermon On The Mount | Week 5 | In this message, Darrell unpacks Matthew 5:21-26 and Jesus’ teaching on anger. In it, he follows the thread from the Old Testament command of “you shall not murder,” all the way to the deep reservoir of anger within the human heart. Showing that just as murder is displeasing to God, damaging to relationships, and deserving of judgment, so too...

Following Jesus Into His Sermon On The Mount | Week 4 | At the heart of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is His bold Messianic claim that He has come to fulfill the Law and the Prophets. In this message, Darrell walks us through the ways in which Jesus fulfills this ancient Law with all its rules and requirements for righteousness, and illuminates how Jesus–as the perfect embodiment of this Law–reveals...

Following Jesus Into His Sermon On The Mount | Week 3 | In this sermon, Darrell invites us to consider Jesus’ teaching on his beatitude people being the salt and light of the Earth. By using the two metaphors of salt and light, Jesus is revealing three things: his understanding of the world’s condition when left to itself, the role that His people are to play in the world, and the way His people a...

Following Jesus Into His Sermon On The Mount | Week 2 | We want to be the kind of humans who Jesus calls “blessed.” In the introduction to this series, Darrell explained that we cannot separate The Sermon on the Mount from the Preacher on the Mount. As we look to and know the Preacher on the Mount, we better understand how to live out the Sermon on the Mount. We are called to be a part of the new...

Following Jesus Into His Sermon On The Mount | Week 1 | This message is the start of a new series on the Sermon on the Mount, with the message Darrell fittingly named “The Greatest Sermon Ever Preached.” The Greatest Preacher who ever lived amazed the first hearers. He spoke with an authority never before demonstrated by even the most educated or articulate religious elite of that time. Before div...

This week, through looking at Jesus’ responses to those who wished to follow Him in Luke 9:57-62, Darrell shows us the true cost of making Jesus our Lord. He becomes the utmost authority over our lives, and His will precedes both our own desires and the demands our society and even our families place on us. We will be called to live by the standards of a heavenly kingdom and hold loose what we hav...

It was on a mountain, a high mountain, Jesus helps three disciples Peter, James and John discover the reason for living way down in the valley. In this sermon on the Transfiguration event in Matthew 17, Darrell works through three aspects of this mountain-top event, so that we too can discover the reasons for living down in the valley. As Jesus, the Son of Man, chooses the cross, takes the path of...

Darrell’s opening question underlies this entire exposition of John 6:22-42 - why did Jesus come? Layer by layer the message reveals the transformative answer - Jesus came to invite us into eternal life. Eternal life that is more than a dimension beyond the grave, it is creative life, inexhaustible life, abundant life, radiant life, pure and purifying, love and joy that we enter into in Jesus righ...

Making Maturing Disciples of Christ | Week 9 | Darrell finishes this series in John 10, using the imagery of the shepherd and his intimate relationship with his sheep. He then invites us to see that although Jesus is not physically present, He is still with us and continues to speak to us and encourages his audience that it is possible to hear Jesus’ voice. Darrell concludes his message by identif...

Making Maturing Disciples of Christ | Week 8 | This week, Darrell dives deep into Apostle Paul’s exhortation in Galatians 5:16-18 to walk by the Spirit and how doing so means you won’t carry out the desires of the flesh. Walking by the Spirit means putting Jesus at the center of our lives and living our lives for Him and with Him. It is only through walking by the Spirit that we develop the fruits...

Making Maturing Disciples of Christ | Week 7 | This week, Darrell dives deep into Apostle Paul’s exhortation in Galatians 5:16-18 to walk by the Spirit and how doing so means you won’t carry out the desires of the flesh. Walking by the Spirit means putting Jesus at the center of our lives and living our lives for Him and with Him. It is only through walking by the Spirit that we develop the fruits...

Making Maturing Disciples of Christ | Week 6 | “Walk by the Spirit,” writes the apostle Paul in his letter to the Galatians, urging followers of Jesus to surrender to the new way of Christ so that the old way– the way of the flesh– is put to death. In this message, Darrell explores this text that gets at the heart of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Our flesh, with all its warped de...

This message is from the Christmas Eve of 2016, and here Darrell preaches from Luke 2:10-12. The big idea Darrell drives home is the Christmas story is about more than a baby being born, but a new leader being born. Jesus Christ, the one who would form a new government that will truly administer justice, make peace and heal the hearts of people. And the big question we all have to answer in respon...

Making Maturing Disciples of Christ | Week 5 | This week, Darrell speaks on Paul's letter to the Romans and how we are meant to be a living sacrifice to God. Jesus’ disciples didn't choose him, he was the one who chose the disciples, it was him who initiated and anointed them. Because Jesus chooses us, we must be a living sacrifice to the living God since the only thing we have to offer is our lif...

Making Maturing Disciples of Christ | Week 4 | It is a privilege to be a follower of Jesus, but the real question is, what does it take to grow up as a follower of Jesus? In Acts 2:37-47 Luke shows us the fellowship that developed amongst the crowd after the day of Pentecost and what they devoted themselves to. In this message, Darrell takes it a step further by breaking down the importance of the...