A universal solution to a universal predicament, John 3:16       

In His conversation with Nicodemus, which we began to look at last week, Jesus has presented a universal predicament.  A universal problem.  And that is, that no man can ascend to God.  That no man can be right with God through his own merits.  The very best of mankind, the most religious, the most zealous person is still light years away from God.  There is nothing we can do to leap across this great chasm that exists between God and man.  So last week we were introduced to Nicodemus, the teacher of the Jews, a leader of the ruling religious

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You must be born again, John 3:1-15  

The phrase “born again” is one that is not unfamiliar to most people today.  However, I’m afraid it is not understood by the majority of people.  Unfortunately, in a lot of circles it has taken on a denigrating characterization  which is attached to someone that is considered to be sort of a religious right wing fanatic.  However, in this passage, we find it’s origin in the words of Jesus Christ Himself, which He uses to describe those that will enter the kingdom of God.  In fact, He said it is a requirement of the kingdom of God that you must

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Lord of the temple, John 2:12-25  

In chapter 2 John begins to show certain signs that Jesus did which illustrate or prove that He was the Messiah, the Son of God.  The first sign that Jesus performed was at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, which was primarily only known to his immediate family and disciples who were there and the servants of the house.  Today, we are going to examine the second sign that Jesus does, and this one is not miraculous necessarily, at least not in the way we would think of a miracle, but it nevertheless illustrates the divinity of Jesus in a

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The first sign, John 2:1-11   

 In our study of the first chapter of John, we saw the apostle John under the inspiration of God in his opening statement present the theology of Jesus Christ; that Jesus is God in the flesh, He was with God from the beginning, He is Light and the light of the world, and that He is the Life of men, the Creator, the giver and sustainer of life.  That was John’s opening argument in his gospel, which is given as an apologetic as well as an evangelistic message. That opening passage fulfilled the purpose of his gospel which is stated

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The testimony of John the Baptist, John 1:19-34   

The world is a very different place in the 21st century than it was in the days of our parents.  But I am not talking about the obvious advancements in technology and science and so forth.  The difference in our day from our father’s day is that at least in western civilization,  man has become more egocentric rather than theocentric. A good illustration of that is that in our father’s day, young men cheerfully signed up  to fight the Nazis, risking and even losing their lives for the sake of God and country.  Not that everyone was a Christian in

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The Word became flesh, John 1:14-18    

I for one am happy that the Apostle John does not dwell on sentimentalism, as he writes of the coming of Christ, but he focuses on theology.  Although most people may think theology and doctrine are dull and uninteresting, I believe that a proper understanding and belief of the truth is the path to true salvation. I passed a Universalist Church in Rehoboth the other day, and they had a sign out front on which was written, “We believe that there is not just one way.” While I knew that they believed that, I was amazed that they would come

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The Light of the world,  John 1: 5-13 

As we are still in the prologue of the book of John, I think it would help us to realize that John is not interested in merely presenting a biography of Jesus.  We are all, I’m sure, more or less familiar with the history of Jesus Christ.  So to simply retell the story of Christ’s life on earth would have limited benefit, especially in light of the fact that the synoptic gospels had already been written quite some time before.  But what John is presenting in his gospel is doctrine:  the facts about Jesus which according to John’s stated purpose

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In the beginning was the Word, John 1:1-5 

There is no doubt that John is the author of the Gospel of John. John was younger than his brother James, who were both known as the Sons of Thunder. And of the 12 disciples, John was the youngest as well. His mother was Salome, who during Christ’s ministry enquired of the Lord if her sons could sit on either side of His throne when He came into His kingdom. His father was Zebedee, who was a fisherman, and who had passed on his trade to his sons. John would seem to have been a disciple first of all of

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Repentance, the path to Reconciliation, Genesis 43-45:15

We have been looking at the life of Joseph and his brothers in our study of Genesis. And I would like to try to conclude this story in this message today. But to do that I would have to cover so much scripture that it would not be possible to adequately deal with it all in one sitting. So today we will look at the next two and a half chapters and see if we can’t come to a reasonable conclusion. There will be some other details of the lives of Jacob and Joseph and the eleven brothers that we

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Conviction, Repentance, Reconciliation,  Gen. 42.    

Turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 42.  You will remember that in our study of Genesis, we reached the point where Joseph had been delivered from prison in Egypt, where he had been a slave, and promoted to the second highest position under Pharaoh. You might say that he was the prime minister of Egypt.  We all know that to be true, but I wonder if we truly appreciate how incredible it was for an incarcerated slave to be made the prime minister of the largest empire in the world in a single day.   And of course, God

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