Pastor's Corner: WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA?

  The Case for Christ John 7:25-36 Introduction : As the gospels were written, in the decades after Jesus’ death, the writers had an apologetic challenge: if Jesus really was the Messiah of the Jews, how could it be that He was not recognized by His own people, how is it possible that not even the religious leaders saw who He was? The same questions sometimes come up today. The Gospel writers are showing us that everything that happened was in accordance with the plan of the Father. The rejection of Jesus was not a failure, but had in fact been predicted in the Scriptures, and the precise fulfillment of prophecies vindicated His claim to be the Messiah. John emphasizes that as the plan of God unfolded, Jesus, the Son of God, was in control, no one would take His life, He would lay it down of his own accord.      This is one of those paragraphs in the Bible where we see the mystery of the Triune God: Father, Son, and Spirit (God willing, we’ll cover 7:37-3...

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE John 7:14-24 Introduction : Healthy Christianity is marked by a hunger for the truth and a growing discernment of right doctrine, but we are a work in progress. John 7 reminds us that our fallen nature will often skew our discernment. We’ll see in John 7 and 8 controversy as Jesus presents truth to religious leaders that they are not prepared to receive.   It is a myth to think that humans are neutral, ready to honestly listen to the truth of Scripture and to give it unbiased consideration. Once we are born again, we are in the process of “ putting off the old man, and putting on Christ .” It is not instant maturity and discernment, it is a path, growing to think more like Jesus, learning to think His thoughts after Him.      The title for this message, “ Pride and Prejudice ,” has nothing to do with the Jane Austen novel (I’ve never read it, though I have read all of Tom Clancy’s books!).   I used this title to highlight two ele...

  The Hope of the Faithful John 7:1-13 Introduction :   One of the jobs I had after High School occasionally put me in the office at the Landfill, collecting cash payments from truck drivers. When the boss came in at the end of the day, he would quickly count through the bills in the cash box, and take the deposit to the bank. I recall on one occasion he was counting the money and as soon as his fingers touched a particular $20 bill he stopped, felt it between his fingers, looked at it closely and said, “This bill is counterfeit!”   Whether intentionally or not, someone had paid with “funny money!” My boss used to be a bank manager, so he had extensive experience handling cash – I was a 20 something part time college student – I didn’t have very much experience with cash at all! He tried to show me the bill and how it was clearly false, but it looked the same as the real money to me. If you know the real thing well, you’ll more easily recognize a counterfeit.   I...