Not Troubled

It's still the upper room. Jesus continues to share His heart with these men with whom He has already shared His life for the last three years. In the section that we are going to look at today Jesus tries to prepare them for what is about to happen. Our text is John 14.1.

Jesus said, 'Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.'

The Big Picture

'You can't see the forest for the trees.' I'm guessing that many of you have heard that bit of wisdom somewhere. There are times when we get so focused on the details that we are unable to see the big picture. And that happens in the Church as well as in the world. Sometimes we get so caught up in the details of what it means to be a disciple that we forget about what God is doing over the long haul. I'd like to try to fix that today, or at least to move toward fixing that. I'd like to talk to you about the big picture. And there is an important reason why I want to do this. I want you to be able to understand better what God is doing in your life. And that can happen as you can see your own life in the larger context of what God is doing through history. Let's see how well this works.

Be Who You Are

Today, we'll be working through another of Jesus' conversations. We've looked at other conversations that Jesus had. There was Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman, the people who enjoyed the miracle of the bread, as well as some others. This time it's a conversation with his brothers. So, another conversation and another opportunity to see a bit more clearly who Jesus is. Our text is John 7.1-10.

Getting to Know Jesus

At the heart of being a Christian is getting to know Jesus better and better, getting to know him as he really is. That much is obvious. What may not be so obvious is how that happens. As you know, there are Christians who know Jesus quite well and their lives show it. But then there are Christians who don't. So, what makes the difference? Something that Jesus taught applies to this question. And that's what we're going to look at this morning. Our text is John 7.10-18.

Food

Our text for today has been a difficult one for many scholars and teachers. As you will see soon enough, it just sounds so wrong. Jesus says some things here that are hard to understand or even to hear. But even though that is the case, there are some things here that are clear enough for us to understand and to benefit from. So, with that in mind let me read our text and then launch into the sermon. Today's text is John 6.47-59.

Confident and Careful

In the days of my youth I liked to argue about the Bible. After all, what's more fun than a debate on some abstract theological topic? Now that I am no longer that young and foolish kid I realize that arguing, especially over theology, is a really bad idea. Or at least most of the time I realize that. This morning I am going to re-visit an old theological argument. The two groups arguing have been at it for quite a while. My goal in this is not to tell you who is right and why. My goal is much more significant. I want you to be able to live well. In this context that means to live boldly and cautiously. A critical need of the day is for confident and careful disciples of Jesus, Christians who are neither timid nor reckless. Hopefully, what I have to say this morning will help you toward that goal. Our text is John 6.35-71.

Bread

We're still looking at this conversation that Jesus had with the crowd that enjoyed the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand. And once again, Jesus is trying to explain the Gospel. That is, he is trying to teach the people about himself. And once again, the teaching of the text depends on an image. Please listen as I read our text, John 6.22-35.

Believe

We're once again taking a look at one of Jesus' conversations. This one is with the crowd that enjoyed his miraculous feeding of the five thousand. As you'll see, Jesus has to deal with a problem that came up all too often during his ministry. The people did not understand him. He had spoken to them about working for the right kind of food, something that we looked at last week. They missed his point, and their question shows it. But Jesus doesn't give up in exasperation. He teaches them where they are and tries to move them forward. So, listen as I read our text, John 6.22-29.

Saving Faith

Last week I started a short, two-sermon series. It had occurred to me that it would be good to talk about a phrase that shows up in many of my sermons: repent and believe. That simple phrase summarizes what it means to be a Christian. The ongoing practice of repenting and believing is the key to how you are to live. Last week I spoke to you about repentance. This week, as promised, the sermon will be about faith. What are you to do when I call you to believe? What is faith supposed to look like? I won’t be dealing primarily with one passage of Scripture. Instead, I will point to several different places in Scripture that will help to explain what it means to believe.

A Sure Promise

Today’s sermon is about a promise. It is sobering and, at the same time, exhilarating to think that Jesus has obligated Himself to us. He has made promises, and He will keep them. And knowing that makes such a difference. This week’s chapter in Isaiah is a promise from Jesus. The same Jesus who cursed the people of God back in chapter 6 now commits Himself to bless the remnant that He also spoke about back then. Those who do not follow Jesus are on their own as they try to make their way through this life. And that is so very sad. But we who follow Jesus have promises that guide us through this life and assure us of our future, a very bright future. We have hope. And what a tremendous blessing that is.

Please listen as I read Isaiah 62.

The Anointed One

This is one of the glowing chapters of Isaiah and, in fact, of the whole Bible. There is much here to encourage us as real people with real issues to face. We all have issues and we all need to be encouraged. It is my hope that you will be encouraged by something that I say this morning. I’m not going to preach through the chapter, section by section, as I have been doing. I will be focusing just on the first part of the chapter. So, please listen as I read Isaiah 61 to you.

Promises

Today’s chapter is different from the last several that we have worked through. Today’s chapter is bright and filled with encouraging images of good things to come for the people of God. As usual, I will spend some time explaining the text. And that makes sense when you remember that our text was written long ago in a culture that was very different from ours. But the explanation of the text alone will not result in any real benefit to you. For that to happen you need to do more. And part of that ‘more’ is to ask questions of the text. That’s how it is with the Bible. You work, first, to understand the meaning of the words. But you do that so that you can ask appropriate questions of the text. It is by asking and then answering those questions that the power of the text will be applied to your soul. So, the heart of the sermon will be in the questions I ask at the end.

Let me also say that the goal of today’s sermon, the benefit to you that I am aiming at, is not what you might expect. The goal is not that you understand the particular promises of this chapter. That’s a good goal, but it is not today’s goal. My goal is for you to develop your understanding how biblical promises work. There are some dynamics that you need to see. The chapter gives me an opportunity to help you work on that. And let me add here that today’s sermon will feel a bit different from the usual. It feels different to me. This isn’t what I had planned, but it seemed that this is how the Spirit led. When the Spirit says, ‘Turn right’, you turn right. So, first some explaining.

A Study in Sin

In today’s chapter Isaiah is, once again, going after Israel’s sin. And it’s good for us that he does. I say that because of something Paul wrote about the history of Israel. ‘Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.’ It can be a little depressing to study sin, even if it is someone else’s sin. It can, however, lead to good. Isaiah wrote about Israel’s failures for your sake. You would do well to ponder their example. And the goal of this is, of course, that you might follow Jesus well. Let me say now that while we will be spending most of our time considering this dark topic of sin, the chapter ends on a very happy note. The Spirit intends to encourage you. As I have been doing recently, I’ll go through the chapter one section at a time. Each section has something to teach us about sin.

Two Themes

Once again Isaiah is commanded to preach about the sins of Israel. And while he is to do this quite pointedly, the goal is still very constructive. Jesus wants to do good and not just to Isaiah’s audience. He also wants to do good to us. The focus of the sermon will be on two themes of Scripture that thread their way through our text. Like last week, I’m going to read our text, Isaiah 58, a section at a time.

Conversion

When we started this final part of Isaiah last week, I told you that it is a mixed bag. Some of the chapters were intended to be an encouragement to the faithful and other chapters a rebuke to those who weren’t. Well, today’s chapter is itself a mixture of both. We’re going to encounter both encouragement and rebuke. A couple of things before we get started. Our text breaks down into three sections. The first section is actually the last part of chapter 56. Bear in mind that Isaiah didn’t divide his book into chapters. Someone in the 1200’s did that. And, according to the smart people who write books, he goofed here. I’m going to structure things a little bit differently today. I’m going to read this first section and then talk about it. Then, I’ll read the second section and talk about it. And the same with the last section which is where we’ll spend most of our time.

Let’s take a look at the first section. Note that in this section Isaiah is writing about ‘watchmen’ whom he also calls ‘shepherds’. If he were writing today he would refer to them as pastors. Listen as I read Isaiah 56.9-12.

Hold Fast My Covenant

We’re back to Isaiah. And this week we start a new section in his prophecy. The first section of this book dealt with life in Israel during Isaiah’s days, and it was not pretty. Most of these first 39 chapters was on some aspect of Jesus’ anger at His people for their refusal to repent of their sins. Then, there was the second section, from chapters 40 to 55. Isaiah wrote this with the future exiles in mind. Appropriately, this section was filled with words of encouragement. That leaves this last section, chapters 56 to 66. This is a mixed bad. There are, again, some hard words about Israel’s unbelief. But there are also some very encouraging words as well. Today’s text is intended to encourage.

Listen as I read Isaiah 56.1-8.

Incarnation

Christmas is over. And for most of your friends and neighbors that means it’s back to work and life as it was. But that’s not true for us. The Church in the Old Testament celebrated Passover with joy and happiness on the anniversary of their deliverance from Egypt. But that doesn’t mean that they forgot about what God had done in that event once the celebrating was over. The reality of the exodus from Egypt was the foundation of their life together. And the same is true of us. God’s great work, Jesus’ Incarnation, is not some event to remember once a year. It is the foundation to our life together. And that’s why Paul wrote our text to the Philippians. In this text Paul is describing and applying the Incarnation. There are two aspects that he points to. One has to do with what happened before the Incarnation that led up to it. The other has to do with what Jesus did once He took on flesh. We’ll look at both and then see what they have to say to us.

Listen as I read Philippians 2.1-11.

He Came to Save

We’re going to look at another church word this morning. If you looked at the bulletin you already know what it is. We’ve looked at this word before. I’ve told you that ‘to save’ means ‘to rescue’. We won’t go over that this morning. Today, we’re going consider some grammar. We’re going to look at this verb in terms of its tenses. As you read through your Bible, you’ll notice that the verb ‘save’ shows up in three tenses. The first points us to the past to make the point that Jesus saved us from our sins. A second points us to the present: Jesus is saving us from our sins. And the last points us to the future, Jesus will save us from our sins. We’re going to look at each of these this morning. In this way you will have a better understanding of what the angel was telling not only Joseph but all of us.

Listen as I read Matthew 1.18-21.

Peace on Earth

I’ve talked to you before about what I call ‘church words’. I’m going to talk about another one today. Before I do I want to be clear about something. I have nothing against those words. There’s nothing wrong with them. Actually, the problem is with us. These words have become so familiar to us that we no longer see them. As a result, we no longer think about them, and that’s a problem. This relates to a bias I have. I agree with the Psalmist. ‘Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!’ Or to translate those church words, ‘Everyone should be passionate about Jesus.’ Everyone. And that includes you. But if you are going to be passionate about Jesus, and see that passion grow, then you need to think. You need to think about the Gospel. You need to think about all those church words so you can understand what they are pointing to. You need to think about all of that. And that’s why I translate church words. I want to make it a little easier for you to think about them. So, today, we’re going to look at another church word. My goal is to help you think about this church word so that your passion for Jesus would grow.

Listen as I read Luke 2.8-14.

What Is God Like?

Before we begin to take a look at this week’s chapter I want to point out something about the last couple of chapters that we have looked at. This will put today’s chapter in a helpful context. There has been a progression. Isaiah 53 is about Jesus’ death on the Cross for sinners. Chapter 54 is a call to enlarge the tent because, now that the way to the Father is open, Jesus and the Church will be producing many children. And that leads to today’s chapter. This chapter is the call for sinners to come and enjoy what it means to be those children whom Jesus will produce through His Church. This week’s chapter is the climax of that progression. It’s the last that Isaiah directed to the exiles. The following chapters have a different focus. We’ll return to take a look at them in January after some sermons on Jesus’ First Coming.

Listen as I read Isaiah 55.