Sermon On the Net

A FREE LUNCH

 

John 15 1-17. Jesus is talking and instructing His disciples, telling them to be fruitful and spread the Word. Jesus reminds them of the benefits of doing things His way and in His name, because they can accomplish nothing without Him. And fruitful they must be, otherwise He will discipline them; verse 1-2, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful."  As He put it, He is the vine and the branches must bear fruit or else they will be pruned or possibly be cast aside. He reminds them that whatever they ask in His name will be granted. The more fruit they produce, that much more will God be glorified. Jesus speaks of the love He has for them in that there is no greater love demonstrated then when a man gives up His life for his friends, as He did for them and for all who profess His name; verse 12 says, "My command is this; love each other as I have loved you." We should be reminded that Jesus' love is Agape love, i.e. without conditions, without records; total and absolute forgiveness regardless of the sin, unless of course it is the one unforgiveable sin.

 

In verses 18-27 Jesus explains why the world is going to hate them; because they hated Him. Psalm 69:4 says, 'they hated Him without cause,' another prophecy fulfilled. In verse 18-19 it says, "If the world hates you, keep in mind it hated me first. If you belonged to the world it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world." The reason the Jews were against Him is because they do not know God the Father. His words are particularly strong, especially when He states that they hate God as well; verse 23 says, "He who hates me hates my Father as well." Because of all the signs He gave them, they are without excuse for their sin. Jesus tells them that when the Holy Spirit comes He will bear witness of Him, as well as the disciples will continue to bear witness of Him The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth and He will be a help to them.

 

John 15:13-14 is His cry for the world to come to Him for salvation. He willingly laid down His life on the cross for you and me and for the world: "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command." Would we be willing to die for a friend? Would we be willing to die for someone who hated: us, cursed us and wanted to kill us? I believe the answer to that is obvious. Well, Jesus loved us so much that He did exactly that; died for our sins and yet willing to forgive and forget our sins. Everything has a price and Jesus paid the price for us. Our cost, because of His profound love, is zero, no charge; this is one time there really is a' free lunch.' All one has to do is to say, 'Jesus I am a sinner and I accept your free gift because I believe you died for me on the cross and paid for my sins, past, current and future.' For those who have yet to make a decision, my prayers are that you will right now.

Sermon On the Net

THE WAY AND THE TRUTH

 

JOHN 14: Verses 1-14. Here we see Jesus encouraging His disciples telling them; "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you." He tells them that He will return for them to take them where He will be. Thomas asked Jesus where He was going and Jesus said: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Because the disciples still had doubts, He told them to believe in His works if they couldn't believe in what they were witnessing. Jesus told them that anyone who believed would be able to do the works that He was doing, and possibly even greater works. Jesus said, "You may ask for anything in my name, and I will do it."

 

Verses 15-26: These verses involve the Holy Spirit; Jesus told the disciples "If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever." He would send the Holy Spirit to them after His ascension to Heaven. The Holy Spirit would teach them and cause them to remember all the things that happened when Jesus was with them.

 

VERSES 27-31: Jesus is soon going to be leaving His disciples and He tells them that He is leaving them peace and they should not be troubled because of the events of the world that are going to come to confront them in their crusade to establish His Church.

 

Today we live in a world that is probably very different than the time of  Jesus' ministry on earth and yet it is probably the same in many respects. The reason we were created, the reason we are here is the same since the beginning of Adam and Eve. God wants to fellowship with His people and He wants all the people to be 'His people', but history tells us the way it is, the way it was and the way it's going to be. Some will choose to go the way of Jesus while others will choose to remain on the path to which they were destined at birth. But know this, John 14:6 is very clear and uncompromising; Jesus said that He and only He is the Way, there is no other. I pray daily for you all that you will examine your beliefs and take the simple faith step and accept Jesus as your personal Savior. It's very easy, just tell the Lord that you are a sinner and you are lost, and ask Him to come into your life. My friends, you can believe that He will and you will know when He does.

Sermon On the Net

HUMILITY & LOVE

 

 

I have decided to change the format of Bible study to a combination of Bible study and Salvation (the most important consideration of Christianity). I will write two parts to each message, the first will be an overview of the chapter and the second will be a salvation message lifted from the chapter being discussed.

 

John 13 has two major issues: First we see a demonstration of the humility of Jesus as He washes the feet of His disciples; verse 8 says, "Unless I wash you, you have no part with me." This is the kind of forgiveness and humility Jesus wants us to possess in our everyday lives. Jesus does mention that saved people should confess their sins to Him because sin will happen in our daily walk. We have been cleansed once and for all but we should always confess our sins.

 

The second point of this chapter is the demonstration of a love that only God has. Jesus chose Judas and gave him plenty of opportunity to believe, but Judas chose to fall prey to the deception that Satan had placed in his heart. When Jesus told the disciples to love one another (and we are to follow the same example), as He loved us (verse 34). We do not possess that kind of love, (His love is unconditional), but we can sure try and always pray to God He will help us to achieve that goal.

 

John 13:38: When Jesus told Peter he would deny Him three times in this verse  He was well aware of the inherent weakness in mankind, ("…before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.") In spite of man's weakness Jesus still offers salvation to anyone who will take a faith step and believe in Him. This is truly a God of love and forgiveness. To know that we were separated from Him at birth because of the fall of Adam and Eve, and the sin that we commit in our lives, and to have salvation offered to us is simply an astounding fact of life. John 13:8: Jesus said, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with me." We need to consider the washing of our sins with His blood on the cross, because that is exactly what He did, if only you will believe it.

Sermon On the Net

THE BETRAYER

 

 

John 12: We find Jesus in Bethany six days before the Passover, sitting at the dinner table with His disciples. Mary anointed Jesus' feet with a very expensive perfume and it caused Judas (the betrayer) to become angry. Judas thought this was a waste of money and could have been used for the poor: actually he was probably more concerned because he stole money from the money box from time to time. Here we have a man who was not only a betrayer, but a thief as well and who knows what else. Jesus told Judas to let Mary do what she wants, as the poor would always be around, but not so with Jesus ( He was predicting His crucifixion). Verse 7: "Leave her alone, it was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial."

 

The multitude of Jews learned that Jesus and Lazarus were in the area and began to devise a plan to put Lazarus to death as well as Jesus, because many were beginning to believe in Jesus because of the He miracle performed on Lazarus. The next day the crowd gathered palm branches to place on the road where Jesus would appear riding on a donkey to go into town. This is a prophecy found in Zechariah 9: 9, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, daughter of Jerusalem! See your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt," The disciples were at a loss as to what all this meant, but realized its meaning later. The Pharisees were becoming more agitated with Jesus because more and more people were beginning to believe.

 

There were some Greeks who came to see Jesus and when He was told they wanted to see Him, He told them that the time of His glorification was at hand. He used a parable to explain that He must die and would rise again and many would come to believe in Him because of it, verse 23-26. He also told them that people who love their life on this earth would lose it and those who hate it would find eternal life. He continued, saying that the Father would honor people who serve Him; "…My Father will honor the one who serves me."

 

At this time Jesus began to feel the stress of the coming events. Verse 27 says, "Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father glorify your name." And as He said that, a voice came with a thunderous sound, saying that He had glorified it and would glorify it again. Jesus explained to those near Him that the voice was not for Him, but rather for the benefit of the people, He then told them that judgment was upon the world and that satan would be cast away at the appropriate time. He told them of His being 'lifted up'   (crucifixion), which would provide the way of salvation. The crowd questioned His meaning of being lifted up. As was His way at times, He simply stated that people should believe and follow Him while He is still here, and they will become members of the family of God. However we continue to see so many, many people refusing to believe.

 

John 12:37-40 need clarification as it can be somewhat confusing and misleading. Isaiah 6:10 is a prophecy of this section: the nation of Israel is now in judgment because they have refused to believe and their hearts have been hardened because of their continued stubbornness through out the ages, and now He turns His attention to the Gentiles. We are in the time of the Gentiles and our opportunity for salvation. There were many Jews who did believe in Jesus but were afraid to admit it because they did not want to be put out of the synagogue. Jesus told them that anyone who believed in Him actually believes in God the Father: "When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me," verse 44. He told them that He came to open their eyes, but for those that don't believe, He says His Word will judge them on the last day. As Jesus is God's representative, He is stating all of God's wishes, the most important one being, believing in Him and having eternal life.

 

The meaning to me in this chapter is as follows: Verses 1-9 presents the opportunity for Judas to believe and be a true disciple and follow Him faithfully. However Judas allowed satan to influence and control Him to the point of betraying God. We must be careful of satan and the ways in which He can deceive us. He is a master at deception.

Verses 9-11: Here we witness how some will go to any extreme to prevent people from believing in anything other than what they desire.

Verses 12-19: The fulfillment of this prophecy supports the validity and accuracy of the Bible as a whole entity, nothing to be exclusive in and by itself. We see prophecy being fulfilled in this section.

Verses 20-26: again we see prophecy made and fulfilled within the lives of the disciples to encourage them as they see these things unfold in their life times. We, also, should be encouraged.

Verse 27: In spite of what was coming, Jesus did not back down for our sake. Truly this is an inspiration to me.

Verse 43: Such a gracious and forgiving God we have, as He overlooks our weaknesses as He did for those who were afraid to state their convictions.

Verse 48: the world is going to be judged by the words contained in the Bible. Jesus said it and I believe it.

 

My application of the words in this chapter is to believe it, trust in it and follow His Word, Amen and amen.