Tag: John

Confidently Trust the Lord, Your Savior

Sermon: Do You Know the Gift of God: Confidently Trust the Savior

Part Four: John 4: 50-53

 Jesus said to him, “Go; your son lives!” The man believed what Jesus said to him and started home.  As he was already going down [the road], his servants met him and reported that his son was living [and was healthy].  So he asked them at what time he began to get better. They said, “Yesterday during the seventh hour the fever left him.”  Then the father realized that it was at that very hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son lives”; and he and his entire household believed and confidently trusted [in Him as Savior].

Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?

Do you believe Jesus died and rose from the dead on the third day?  If not, who are you praying to?

The nobleman in John Chapter 4 believed that Jesus could heal his son.  Therefore, he walked 20 miles to ask Jesus to come to his home to heal him.  Jesus looked at the nobleman – a Gentile, a Roman – and said, “Go; your son lives!”  And the man believed the words that Jesus spoke to him, and he went home.  He didn’t tell Jesus that He had to come to his house in order to heal his son.

When he met Jesus, he addressed Him as Sir, putting himself under Jesus although as a Roman, he had legal authority over Jesus.

The nobleman not only believed that Jesus could heal his son; he also obeyed what Jesus told him to do by going home.  He demonstrated faith.

James 1: 6

But he must ask [for wisdom] in faith, without doubting [God’s willingness to help], for the one who doubts is like a billowing surge of the sea that is blown about and tossed by the wind. 

Do you have the faith of the nobleman?  Will you listen and do what God says?

When you pray to God, thank Him for everything He has done in your life.  Be obedient to Him.  And when you ask for God’s guidance, leave your problem in His hands.

God loves us all.  Be obedient to God.  Have faith.  Believe.

Read the Full Chapters of the Scriptures Referenced:
John Chapter 4
James Chapter 1

Read the other parts of the Sermon, Do You Know the Gift of God?
Do You Know the Gift of God? (Part One)
Jesus Offers You Living Water to Slack Your Thirst (Part Two)
Believe the Word that Jesus Speaks to You (Part Three)

Believe the Word that Jesus Speaks to You

Sermon: Do You Know the Gift of God (Believe the word that Jesus speaks to you)

Part Three: John 4: 46-53

So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill.  When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.  As he was going down, his servants  met him and told him that his son was recovering. So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.”  The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household.

Do you have faith in Jesus?

In this scripture Jesus is preaching and teaching the Gospel on his way to Cana in Galilee.  He had already turned water into wine at the wedding on His first visit to Cana.  Now Jesus has done many miracles, talked to Nicodemus, cleared the temple of people using it as a marketplace and bank, and healed the paralyzed man at the pool.

I could go on but let’s look at this nobleman from Capernaum whose son is sick and dying.  He heard that Jesus was coming out of Judea into Galilee and he goes looking for him.

This person is not a Jew.  He is probably a Roman officer in Herod’s service.  He walked about 20 miles.  Was he going to ask a Jew to heal his son?  Or did he walk to ask the person he knew to be the Messiah to heal his son?

We don’t know how he knew about Jesus and why he had so much faith in Him.

Do you pray and the leave your cares in God’s hands?

Or do you try to fix everything  by yourself?  If so, you are saying that you don’t believe God – that you have no faith.  If that’s the case, then why ask God for help?

We often go to God and expect an immediate answer.  We took our time in going to Him.  Why can He not take His time?

If we received instant answers, would we learn anything?

When God answers you, you will know that it is Him.

Hebrews 4: 16

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Hebrews 13: 5

Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Pray.  And have faith.

Read the Full Chapters of the Scriptures Referenced:
John Chapter 4
Hebrews Chapter 4
Hebrews Chapter 13

Return Thursday for the next installment in the sermon, Do you Know the Gift of God?

Read the other parts of the sermon, Do You Know the Gift of God?
Do You Know the Gift of God (Part One)
Jesus Offers You Living Water to Slack Your Thirst (Part Two)
Confidently Trust the Lord, Your Savior (Part Four)

Jesus Offers You Living Water to Slack Your Thirst

Sermon: Do You Know the Gift of God:  Drink From the Living Water

Part Two: John 4: 6-10

Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.  A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 

The Samaritan Woman: How can you ask me …?

Jesus asked the Samaritan woman at the well for water to drink.  She was startled that a Jew would ask her, a Samaritan, for anything!

She knew the Jews hated her people.  They felt that Jews who had married Assyrians betrayed both their people and nation.  Add to this that this Samaritan woman knew how her own people felt about her.

When Jesus asked her for water, she asks, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?”  Jews did not deal with Samaritans.

Jesus’ Response: If you knew the gift of God …

When Jesus refers to the living water of God, He is saying to us to drink of the everlasting God.  He is not referring to a physical thirst as she thought, but of a living desire to be closer to God.

When we read His Word, The Bible, we are reading His Living Water. And when we study The Bible, our spirit – the Holy Spirit in us – is being fed.

A Talk with God is a conversation like no other.

No respectable person would have said a word to this woman.  But Jesus is having a conversation with her!

In John 4: 16, Jesus asks her to get her husband.  She answers truthfully that she has no husband.  Jesus responds, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband.”

When she discovered that Jesus knew her private life, she quickly changed the subject.  Will you try to change the subject?

The woman reveals that she knows the Messiah is coming.  Jesus then reveals himself to her, and she returns to the city to tell others.  Despite her reputation, many took her invitation and went to meet Jesus.

Jesus used her to introduce the people of this city to God.  If you think about it, she is the first female evangelist.

Don’t think that God cannot use you because He can use us all.

Read the Full Chapter of the Scripture Referenced:
John Chapter 4

Read the other parts of the sermon, Do You Know the Gift of God?
Do You Know the Gift of God? (Part One)
Believe the Word that Jesus Speaks to You (Part Three)
Confidently Trust the Lord, Your Savior (Part Four)

 

Do You Know the Gift of God?

Sermon: If You Knew the Gift of God

Part One: John 4: 6-10

Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.  A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”  (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)  Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you,  ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 

The Woman from Samaria

Today we’re going to talk about two people who had heard of Jesus but who had never met him.  The first is a Samaritan woman who frequented Jacob’s well each day for water.  She is referred to as a person of mixed race.  Also, she is described as a person who was known to be living in sin.

Before I go further, here is some background on Samaria.  It’s in the Northern Kingdom, a part of Israel between Jerusalem and Galilee.  After the Assyrians had conquered the Jews, many Jews were deported to Assyria and foreigners were brought in.  They helped to settle the land and keep the peace.  With the intermingling, intermarriages between the Jews and these foreigners resulted.   Jews living in the Southern Kingdom looked upon these people in the Northern Kingdom as ‘a mixed race’ of impure people.

Today some groups of people consider people of color as inferior.  There are no inferior people.  We are all God’s children, and God does not make mistakes!

Jesus’ journey to the well

Jesus and his disciples had walked about 40 miles from Jerusalem to Samaria in the hot sun.  The roads were dirt.  They weren’t walking in Air Jordans but in sandals or bare feet.

Jesus was tired and he sent his disciples into the city to purchase food.  Jesus then sat by the well, resting and waiting.  Because it’s Jesus, we know that he knows what the future holds, so he knows the woman is coming!

There are no chance encounters with God

The woman came to the well around noon.  This was her habit because she knew no one would be at the well at that time.  She did this to avoid meeting anyone because everyone knew of her and her reputation.

But on this particular day Jesus was there waiting for her!

Like the woman at the well, you are here today not by mistake but by design.  You could have been somewhere else but you are here.

You can’t go anywhere that God does not know.  There is nothing you can say or do that he doesn’t know.

What will you do when you find God sitting, waiting for you?  When that quiet voice speaks to you, what will be your response?

Read the Full Chapter of the Scripture Referenced:
John Chapter 4

Return later this week for the second installment of the sermon, If You Knew the Gift of God

You Can Depend on Jesus to Make You Whole

Scripture: John 5: 4-6

For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.  And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.  When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?

Scripture Commentary: Will you let Jesus make you whole?

Jesus is asking you the question.  We all go through life with sickness in our spirit, and are so caught up in our everyday life that we forget about Jesus.  Like this man, we had no hope of being made whole.  And then we see Jesus!

Don’t let a problem or hardship cause you to lose hope.

Remember that no matter how trapped you feel in your infirmities, God can minister to your deepest needs.  God has a special job for you in spite of your condition, or maybe even because of it.

The man in the story is made whole both physically and spiritually.  God’s forgiveness is the greatest gift you will ever receive.

Don’t neglect His gracious offer.  “Wilt thou be made whole … take up thy bed, and walk.”

Read the Entire Chapter:
John Chapter 5

 

God Has Prepared a Place for You

Sermon: The Lord Is the Great Shepherd (God Has Prepared a Place for You)

Part Three: John 14: 2

 In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

God tells us that He is our shepherd. Jesus tells us that He is going to prepare a place for us and that He will return for us.  We can look forward to eternal life because Jesus has promised it to all who believe in Him.

Psalm 23:6

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Jesus has a place for you in His Father’s house, the banquet table is prepared, and your seat is waiting for you. He paid the ultimate price for your seat at the table when He went to the cross, died, and rose again.

Jesus’ words show that the way to eternal life, although unseen, is as secure as your trust in Jesus.  All of the benefits of being God’s child will be yours.

Read the Full Chapters of the Scriptures Referenced:
John Chapter 14
Psalm Chapter 23

Read the first and second parts of the Sermon, The Lord Is the Great Shepherd
The Lord Is the Great Shepherd (Part One)
The Lord Is My Shepherd; He Restores My Soul (Part Two)

There’s A Mansion for You in Heaven

Sermon: Take My Yoke Upon You (God Prepares A Place for You in His House)

Part Three (Final): John 14: 2

In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

Many of us have seen our parents, friends, and family members pass away.  Those who had accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior are now in God’s mansion.  Those who had not accepted Christ are not in his kingdom.

John 3: 16

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Jesus is telling us to put ourselves in his hands and he will lighten our burden.  Accept him and he will prepare a place for us in his Father’s mansion.

We are here only for a brief moment.

The next minute isn’t promised; tomorrow is not promised.  Accept Christ while you have time.  Time is passing by.

Ask God to forgive you of your sins.

Tell him you accept him as your Lord and Savior, and the load/burden you carry will lighten.  Only God can lift this from you.  The problem may still be with you but now you’ll have Christ to help you with it.

When you give your burdens to him, he will show you that it’s not as bad as you thought.

He will help carry your burdens.  But to do that you must accept him and believe he died for you and rose on the third day.

Accept him and watch your life change as Christ becomes part of it.

Read the Full Chapters of the Scriptures Referenced:
John Chapter 14
John Chapter 3

Read the first and second parts of the Sermon, Take My Yoke Upon You

Take My Yoke Upon You
God’s Grace Is Sufficient For Your Needs

 

Nicodemus Came to Jesus by Night

Scripture: John 3: 1-2

There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. 

Scripture Commentary: Nicodemus, a Pharisee, came to Jesus seeking knowledge.

Nicodemus was a learned man humbling himself before the master. Why?  Have you gone to Jesus seeking his wisdom, his direction? Do you go to Jesus directly with your questions?  Nicodemus could have sent one of his assistants, but he did not.

Prayer is the way to talk to God and it is a way for him to answer you.

Even though we can pray for each other, direct prayer is crucial to our individual relationship with God. Think about it. Do you form friendships by sending your friend to interact with the other person, or do you interact with that person directly before you can confidently call him or her your friend?

Nicodemus went after dark because he feared what other Pharisees would say about him. Do you talk about your prayers with your peers?

Have you told anyone about what Jesus does for your life, or do you stay quiet?

When Nicodemus entered into that conversation with Jesus he thought that the kingdom of God was only for the Jews. Jesus corrected him, teaching that the kingdom is for those who repent and turn to the Lord.  Jesus came for everyone, not just for the Jews alone. The kingdom of God is for anyone who is spiritually reformed and accepts God’s only begotten son as Lord and Savior.

Have you asked for forgiveness? Have you been reborn in your acceptance of Jesus?

Read the Entire Chapter:
John Chapter 3
 

Wilt Thou Be Made Whole?

Scripture: John 5: 4-6

For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever desire he had. And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?

Scripture Commentary: “Wilt thou be made whole?”

When Jesus asks, “Wilt thou be made whole,” he is asking you. We live with sickness in our spirits because everyday life makes us forget about Jesus. We get so caught up that we don’t see the cure in front of us.

No matter how trapped you feel in your infirmities, God can minister to your deepest needs. Don’t let a problem or hardship diminish your hope. Have faith.

God has a special job for you in spite of your condition; maybe even because of it. Jesus healed this man both physically and spiritually.

God’s forgiveness is the greatest gift you will ever receive. Don’t neglect his gracious offer.

Read the Entire Chapter:
John Chapter 5

Believe on the Name of Jesus

Scripture: John 20: 24-25

But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Did’-y-mus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. 

Scripture Commentary: Through faith we believe.

There are many like Thomas in this world today; people who have to see before they believe. If you are a believer, then you do not need proof. Faith is believing in the things you cannot see, and as Christians we have faith in God. Through faith, we feel God’s presence.

Jesus told us he would go to his father, and He would send the Holy Spirit to us.

The Holy Spirit is already residing in you. If you have not accepted Christ, the Holy Spirit is still in you, but it is asleep.

Jesus tells Thomas in verse 29: “Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”

If you are skeptical, but not stubborn, then read the Bible. Study the Word of God.

Questions are good; they will guide you to answers and answers will give you the truth.

Read the Entire Chapter:
John Chapter 20