New Testament Archives - Page 29 of 48

Jesus Was Raised from the Dead for You

Scripture: 2 Timothy 2: 8-13

Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not chained. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.

Here is a trustworthy saying:

If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.

Scripture Commentary: Beloved, remain faithful! Jesus was raised from the dead for you!

In Timothy’s day, many asserted that Christ was divine but not human; God, but not man. After all, He was raised from the dead.

The truth that Jesus is one person with two united natures has never been easy to understand. But people believe.

God promises that someday we will live eternally with Him.

What does this mean? It means believers will live in Christ’s kingdom, and will share in the administration of that kingdom.

Are you facing hardships? Don’t turn away from God. He promises you a wonderful future with Him. Jesus is faithful. He will stay by your side even when you have endured so much that you seem to have no faith left.

Jesus Christ loves us all!

Read the Entire Chapter:

2 Timothy Chapter 2

God’s People Are the Salt of the Earth

Scripture: Matthew 5: 13-14

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.

Scripture Commentary: Salt brings out the flavor.

When you cook a roast, you season it with salt to bring out the flavor of the meat. Either that or you put it in the oven with no seasoning at all.

Now you pick which roast you’d rather eat. I’m sure you’ll choose the one that has a flavorful taste.

In reading The Word we learn how to live, how to help others, and how much God loves us. If we, as Jesus’ followers, don’t know the way, how can we lead? When Christians make no effort to affect the world around them, we are of little value to God.

We are worthless if we are too much like the world.

Don’t blend in with everyone else. We are to be Christ-like in our living. Be a light that shows the way to Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

We hide our light when we are quiet when we should speak, when we go along with the crowd, letting sin dim our light, and by ignoring the needs of others.

Study God’s Word so you can be seasoned and bring light into the world for Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Read the Entire Chapter:

Matthew Chapter 5

Live By and Keep Step with the Spirit

Scripture: Galatians 5: 16-18, 25

So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.(16-18) Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.(25)

Scripture Commentary:

How dare we think we can live as judge over another human being! How can we be Christians and love one another, then talk about people?

When we are not motivated by love, we become critical of others. We stop looking for good in them and see only their faults.

Remove the beam from your own eye …

When you begin to feel critical of someone, look at yourself and make a list of the things you need to work on … then make a list of that other person’s positive qualities. Then let the Holy Spirit that is in you lead you. Jesus’ words will then be in your mind and the love of Christ will be behind your actions, and His power will help you control your selfish desires.

Do not rely on your own wisdom. You will make wrong choices. Being led by the Holy Spirit involves the desire to hear, the readiness to obey God’s Word and the sensitivity to discern between your feelings and His promptings.

Read the Entire Chapter:

Galatians Chapter 5

What Was Going to Happen to Jesus?

Scripture: Mark 10: 32-33

They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. Again he took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him. “We are going up to Jerusalem,” he said, “and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles

Scripture Commentary:

Jesus had told the disciples what was going to happen to him. Jesus’ death and resurrection should have come as no surprise to the disciples. He clearly explained to them what would happen to Him. Unfortunately, they didn’t really hear what he was saying.

Jesus said He was the Messiah, but they thought the Messiah would be a conquering king. He spoke to them of resurrection, but they heard only His words about death. As Jesus often spoke in parables, the disciples may have thought His words on death and resurrection were another parable that they were not astute enough to understand.

There are no accidents in God’s plan.

The gospels include Jesus’ predictions of His death and resurrection to show that these events were God’s plan from the beginning.

The disciples may have been confused about what Jesus was telling them. Are you confused about what Jesus is telling you?

Read the Entire Chapter:

Mark Chapter 10

Will You Go On Sinning?

Scripture: Romans 6: 1-2, 23

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? (1-2) For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (23)

Scripture Commentary:

The question put to you in Romans 6 is are you a sinner who will stop sinning or will you go on sinning? We are born into Adam’s physical family and as such, we reaped the results of Adam’s sin. We have inherited his guilt, a sinful nature, and God’s punishment.

Baptism symbolizes our rebirth in Jesus Christ.

We can trade this punishment for forgiveness by being born again in Jesus Christ. Through baptism you bury your old self. When you come out of the water, you are new. If we think of our old sinful life as dead and buried, we have a powerful motive to resist sin.

We can enjoy our new life in Christ because we are united with Him in His death and resurrection. Our evil desires, our bondage to sin, and our love of sin died with Him. Now, united by faith with Him in His resurrection life, we have unbroken fellowship with God and freedom from sin’s hold on us.

The power and penalty of sin died with Christ on the cross.

Jesus saved you because of his mercy. Accept His gift with thanksgiving.

Read the Entire Chapter:

Romans Chapter 6

You Have No Excuse!

Scripture: Romans 2: 1, 12-13

You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things.(1) When the Gentiles sin, they will be destroyed, even though they never had God’s written law. And the Jews, who do have God’s law, will be judged by that law when they fail to obey it. For merely listening to the law doesn’t make us right with God. It is obeying the law that makes us right in his sight.(12,13)

Scripture Commentary:

How can you judge when you are just as bad? You belong to a stubborn race. You know what’s right but you insist on doing what’s wrong.

Often the sins we notice most clearly in others are the ones that have taken root in us. If we look closely at ourselves, we may find that we are committing the same sins in more socially acceptable forms by our earthly standards.

The Bible lays the groundwork for the Christian life.

If you follow Jesus, earthly standards do not apply to you. The Bible is your book of standards; it tells you how to conduct yourself.

We are all weak.

Everyone makes mistakes and falls but if Jesus is truly in our lives, we need to ask Him to help us. He will!

There is no worse slavery than slavery to sin. Admit to yourself and to God that you fit the human pattern and frequently fail to live up to His standards. Ask for help and watch Him work on you.

Read the Entire Chapter:

Romans Chapter 2

The Wrath of God Against Sinful Humanity

Scripture: Romans 1: 18-23

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

Scripture Commentary:

Why is the wrath of God against sinful people? It’s because they have substituted the truth about Him with a fantasy of their own imagination. They’ve stifled the truth God naturally reveals to all people to believe anything that supports their own self-centered lifestyle.

God cannot tolerate sin because His nature is morally perfect. He isn’t able to ignore or condone such willful rebellion. God wants to remove the sin and restore the sinner, and He is able to as long as the sinner doesn’t stubbornly distort or reject the truth.

Every person accepts or rejects God

However, God’s anger erupts against those who persist in sinning. Make sure you’re not pursuing a fantasy rather than the true God. Don’t suppress the truth about Him merely to protect your own lifestyle.

Every person either accepts or rejects God. If you reject Him, you reject the truth. Don’t be fooled. When the day comes for God to judge your response to Him, no excuses will be accepted. Now you know!

Read the Entire Chapter:

Romans Chapter 1

Levi Immediately Witnessed for Christ

Scripture: Mark 2: 15-17

Later, Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. (There were many people of this kind among Jesus’ followers.) But when the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with such scum?^]”

When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

Scripture Commentary:

The day Levi met Jesus, he held a meeting at his house to introduce others to Jesus. Levi didn’t waste any time starting to witness!

Some people feel that new believers should wait for training or maturity before they begin to tell others about Jesus. But like Levi, new believers can share their faith right away with whatever knowledge, skill, or experience they already have.

Jesus spent time with everyone who wanted to hear the Word.

The self-righteous Pharisees were indignant that Jesus would eat a meal with such sinners. Jesus spent time with whoever (poor, rich, bad or good) needed or wanted to hear His message.

Are there people you have been neglecting because of their reputation? They may be the ones who most need to see and hear the message of Jesus Christ’s love in and from you.

Read the Entire Chapter:

Mark Chapter 2

Would You Curse God When the Devil Is Your Enemy?

Would You Curse God When It’s the Devil Who is Your Enemy?

Part Three: 1 Peter 5: 8

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

Satan greatly misunderstands the breadth and depth of God’s mercy and forgiveness toward those who believe in Him. Satan believed that Job was willing to accept the loss of family and property as long as his own skin was safe.

We can be like that in a way. It’s like that when we see someone who is hurt or suffering, or who is losing everything and we say to ourselves that we’re glad it isn’t us.

Satan comes at you in many ways just as he did with Job.

First, he attacked Job’s family by removing his sons and daughters. Second, he went after Job’s property, and last, Satan attacked Job’s health.

In Job, chapter 6, verse 2, we see that Satan needed God’s permission to hurt Job but God didn’t allow for Job to be killed.

Job 2:9

His wife said to him, “Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!”

Job remained faithful to God.

With all that Job went through, he never lost his love for God, and he never cursed God. Would you be able to say the same if you were in Job’s shoes?

People curse God everyday when they use language that is ungodly. Some people profane God’s name with no thought to what they’re saying. But when you live a godly life, you put away the things that are not of God.

For anyone who doesn’t know how the story ends, Job was given back more than he lost.

Job 42: 12-17

The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters. The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers. After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. And so Job died, an old man and full of years.

In God’s house you do not need money, cars, and boats. You need only God; He will provide your needs.

Would the message of Job change if God hadn’t restored Job to his former blessings? No, God is still sovereign.

Don’t let anything come between you and God. If there’s anything in your life that you value more than God, get it out of your life! And don’t dwell on what you give up. God gave his Son for your sins.

You can never out give God!

Read the Entire Chapters of the Scriptures Referenced:

Read the other parts of the sermon, Would You Curse God?

Part One: Would You Curse God?

Part Two: Would You Curse God When the Pressure Is On?

Would You Curse God When the Pressure Is On?

Sermon: Would You Curse God When the Pressure Is On?

Part Two: Job 1: 11

But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”

Satan challenges God by saying Job is only faithful because God had placed a hedge of protection around him. Satan is telling God that if He took away that protection, Job would give up under Satan’s pressure.

What about you? Would you give God up?

Consider what you would be giving up. Eternity with God over something temporal and fleeting.

Revelation 12: 9

The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.

Things will always happen – some good, some bad – and sometimes it is not for you to know why. You must put your faith and trust in God. Experience life as Job did, one day at a time. Thank God for giving you another day to praise Him.

God’s love doesn’t exempt you from life’s challenges.

God loves you but that does not exempt you from life’s calamities. Setbacks, tragedies, and sorrows strike both Christians and non-Christians alike. The difference is in how we deal with them.

Psalms 34: 7

The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.

Satan says that we are fair weather people, only honoring God as long as we get what we want. God gives Satan permission to test Job. However, Satan has no authority other than what God gives him.

God is compassionate toward you.

While God may allow you to suffer for reasons beyond your understanding, He is never caught by surprise by your troubles. There are limits on what Satan is allowed to do; God is compassionate. So do not worry about Satan. Stay faithful to the One and Only God who loves you.

Read the Entire Chapters of the Scriptures Referenced:

Job Chapter 1

Revelation Chapter 12

Psalms Chapter 34

Read Part One and Part Three of the Sermon, Would You Curse God?

Part One: Would You Curse God?

Part Three: Would You Curse God When the Devil Is Your Enemy?