The Way To Jesus

Ryan Lowery

Luke 3:1-18

John the baptist was a prophesied precursor to Jesus who preached a baptism of repentance, directed attention to Jesus, and pointed the way to salvation. While repentance from sinful habits is good, the most it can do is point towards the need for forgiveness. Present-day followers of Christ should help people to see their wrong thinking about God so that they can accept his grace.

Evangelical & Revival Missions

Alice Ott

Luke 3:1-18

The modern mission movement in the United States was influenced by four factors: 1) prayer; 2) missionary literature; 3) revision to missions; 4) specific plan of action. John Edwards and many other were huge contributors who influenced this movement. Calvanism and Arminianism collided leading to questions of theology which impacted the way Christians were involved in the movement. The spread of the Gospel continued where many came to faith and many were impacted by the biographies of missionaries even today.\r\n

Leading People Toward Repentance

Conrad Hilario

Matthew 26:14-27:3

Repentance is an important aspect of the growing Christian life and having intimacy with God. All throughout the Old and New Testaments, biblical characters demonstrate what it truly looks like to have godly repentance and what it looks like to have worldly sorrow. While both of these may be preceded by feelings of sorrow or guilt, godly repentance brings us closer to God and includes us agreeing with God without minimizing our sin. As we examine other key differences, we can discern true godly repentance in ourselves and other believers.

Lessons from the Last Night of Jesus' Life

Dennis McCallum

Matthew 26:14-75

On the last night of Jesus' life, we get insight into two people very close to him: Judas Iscariot and Peter. Both men experienced immense failure, but the outcomes were entirely different. The difference in outcome was based on the response to failure. Judas encountered worldly remorse, also known as metamelomai. This type of regret is depicted by self-pity, shame that leads to moving away from God and ultimately led to Judas' death. Peter's response was known as metanoia, or godly repentance. This type of response is a change of perspective, where you accept God's forgiveness which leaves no regret. Godly repentance leads us ultimately into closer relationship with God and allowed Peter to be used in incredible ways by God in the early church. These two kinds of sorrow are important to consider for Christians when they encounter failure.

Responding to God's Moral Correction

Gary DeLashmutt

Psalms 32:1-9

Our natural way to address our sin is to deny its sinfulness in many different ways and to hide from it. But God is calling us to come to Him and address the sin in confession, repentance, and ask for His great compassion to blot out our transgressions. The church is for people who know they are sinners not for those who think they have no sin to confess.

The Praying Cupbearer

Jeff Gordon

Jeremiah 2:13

There are discrepancies in this world, i.e., noticeable differences between the way things are and the way they should be. How should Christians respond? Should we ignore the issues and go on with our lives or try to help implement change? These are the questions Nehemiah had to answer when he found out how things were going in Jerusalem. Nehemiah decided to turn to God for help because he realized God is always waiting for us to turn to Him. That is the decision God wants us to make too.\r\n

Jesus and the Law

Dennis McCallum

Matthew 5:17-48

Jesus continues to oppose the self-righteous standard set from the Pharisees. Jesus discusses that his purpose was to fulfill the Law and discusses the weighty expectations of the law, including topics like murder, adultery and more. The sermon ends with a call to be perfect as God is perfect, exposing the problem of humans trying to meet God's righteous requirements. Jesus gave his audience two options: obey the law of God and enter into his eternal award or give up the self-sufficient attitude and receive the forgiveness of Jesus for eternal life. Jesus became the law giver and the fulfillment of the law so that we wouldn't have to.

John the Baptist

Scott Risley

John 1:26-34

John the Baptist, confirmed by Jewish historian Josephus, fulfilled prophecy from Isaiah and was similar to Elijah. John called out many religious leaders of his day for not showing real change indicative of a relationship with God. His baptism of Jesus was an announcement to everyone of who Jesus was as the final prophet anointed the final king.

John the Baptist and Jesus

Dennis McCallum

John 1:29-34

John the Baptist paved the way for Jesus' earthly ministry and challenged the religious mentality of the Pharisees and Sadducees. John the Baptist was paving the way for Jesus to bring about true repentance before God through his work at the cross. Jesus and John the Baptist meet and John baptizes Jesus in order to anoint the King Messiah and his ministry was confirmed by God who parted the heavens to have the Spirit of God ascend onto Jesus. Ultimately, baptism is an outward sign of an inward transformation for people that can only happen when people choose to put their faith in Jesus and ask for forgiveness.