Salvation in slow motion, John 9:8-41   

Today’s message is the continuation of a story that we began looking at last week.  I realize some of you weren’t here, but you should be able to catch up quickly – it’s the story of a man born blind, that Jesus healed.  We looked at the first seven verses last week.  Today we are going to try to finish this chapter which is basically a narrative of the people who are affected by this miracle. And so I have titled today’s message, “Salvation in slow motion.” The idea behind that title is that this passage illustrates salvation in an

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Sight for the blind, John 9:1-7   

As I have said before many times, every miracle Jesus performed in the gospels is presented to teach us a spiritual parable.  It is important to understand that.  Not every miracle that Jesus did is recorded in scripture.  John will say later that if everything that Jesus did while He was on earth was written down, that all the books of the world could not contain them.  But John said in chapter 20 verse 31 that the signs that he did record, are written so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that

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Worship in spirit and in truth, John 8:48-59    

Well today’s message is going to be a little bit different than usual.  I’m not going to expound the text, line by line, word by word as I would typically do. But today I want to focus on just a few points that Jesus makes at the end of this dialogue that we have been looking at for several weeks and try to make an application for us here this morning. Almost every week that we have been studying John, I have quoted the same verse of scripture at some point during my message.  Any guesses which verse that would

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Characteristics of a child of God, John 8:37-47     

I have noticed that some people really value their ancestry.  Their heritage means a lot to them. They usually have done all sorts of research into their family tree.  And perhaps your family history should be remembered and valued.  But then again I think some people put way too much emphasis on some great thing they can claim their great great grand daddy did, and they feel that somehow validates them in some unique way.  It’s kind of like those people that believe in reincarnation.  Whenever you hear someone claim to have been reincarnated, it’s interesting that they always claim

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The Source of Freedom is the Truth, John 8:31-36

The idea of freedom, or the principle of being free, is one that is particularly indigenous to Americans.  It’s not limited to Americans, of course, but much of our history is based on the premise that man is designed to be free.  Our country was founded on that principle.  As the Constitution declares, “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  Liberty means the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on

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The litmus test of heaven, John 8:21-30   

Today is the Lord’s Day.  It is the day when Christians worship the Lord.  It is the day set aside each week to honor Jesus Christ, who laid down His life for us so that we might be truly free. Jesus Himself said, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lays down his life for his friends.” The remarkable thing about Christ’s sacrifice is that He did not just lay down His life for His friends, but He laid down His life for His enemies.  Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that

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Two witnesses to the truth, John 8:13-20

There are many voices calling out for attention in the church today.  And there are perhaps as many messages as there are voices.  How are we to know which are true, and which are trustworthy?  Many of them sound convincing.  Many of them claim to be based on scripture. And yet many messages are at odds with one another.  So they cannot all be true.  If some are true, then others have to be false.  The great difficulty comes in discerning which are true and which are false. I believe that the Bible teaches us that the way to know

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I AM the Light of the world, John 8:12 

As I get older, it seems that my eyesight has gotten a lot weaker. But I have read somewhere that it is not that your eyesight necessarily gets weaker, which makes it difficult to read, or see clearly.  But as you age, your eyes do not receive light as well.  And I know that by experience.  I can hardly read with my glasses on when I am inside and don’t have a good light to read by.  But on a bright sunny day, I can read outside without my glasses on.   Light then, is a great metaphor for the

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Convicted, but not condemned, John 8:1-11    

For many churches today, the issues of sexuality and immorality are the defining issues of our times. And without a doubt, there are some very serious debates going on in the public arena which are having a great impact on our society, which I would say have already influenced our culture for the worse and will have tremendous negative consequences.  So I want to be clear at the outset that what we are going to say today about this particular response of Christ to  immorality does not diminish the tragic effect of these issues on our society.  God can forgive

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All who are thirsty, Come. John 7:25-53  

In this section of scripture, John records for us the highlights of what transpired on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, and in that context, a few various remarks from those in attendance.  And though it’s possible to give a running commentary on those various statements and try to tie them together into a sermon of sorts, I wanted instead to focus on primarily one statement of Jesus found in vs.37-39, which I believe is the main point of Christ’s message. In this declaration, Jesus stood up in the middle of the Feast of Tabernacles, also known as

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