I don’t know what it is about religious holidays, but I just can’t get too enthusiastic about them. I guess I’m less concerned about formalities, and more concerned about realities perhaps. Somehow, the more ceremonial and religious it gets, the less it does for me. So that’s my excuse why I’m not too concerned that my message this morning is not a typical Easter message. I guess I’m not your typical preacher, and this isn’t a typical church for that matter. The fact is though, we celebrate Easter every Sunday. If it were not for the reality of the resurrection,

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This miracle of the feeding of the five thousand is probably one of the best known miracles in the Bible. Perhaps that’s because it is the only miracle that is presented in all four gospels. And as such it is perhaps difficult to provide new insight that hasn’t already been presented elsewhere at some point in the past. But that’s not really my job anyway. A pastor’s job is not to try to find out new information, or a new perspective and show everyone how smart he is because he has something different. But the pastor’s job is just to

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As we continue in this study of the fifth chapter of John, I would remind you of the claims that Jesus made concerning Himself in the second half of this chapter. They really are amazing. He claims to be the Son of God, equal with God, the One sent by the Father, the source of eternal life, the one in perfect unity with the Father, the judge of all the world, and that He would raise all the dead in the earth either to stand in judgment before Him, or that He would give them eternal life. Now those are

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This is difficult material. It would be more gratifying perhaps to give a sermon that is more energizing, uplifting, or empowering rather than deep theology. But if our faith is going to really and truly be those things, if our faith is going to have any power, or any energy, or any ability to lift us up out of darkness, then it has to be grounded in truth. Jesus said in the previous chapter (4:23) that they that worship God must worship Him in spirit and in truth. He would later declare that He was the way, the truth and

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I have said before that every miracle presented in the gospels is given to illustrate a spiritual parable. And so it is with the miraculous account of the healing at the pool of Bethesda. In fact, this text perhaps more than many others offers several spiritual lessons which I would like to bring out today. Not the least of which is the nature of healing. That is the most obvious application in the context and so we should look at it first. I suspect that everyone sooner or later will come to a point of desiring to receive a healing

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There are many degrees of faith. Often, Jesus rebuked people for not having enough faith, or too small of faith. So as believers, it is important for us to consider our faith and examine it in light of what the word of God says. There are a lot of ideas out there which seek to say what constitutes faith, but the best definition of faith is found in the scriptures themselves. Several places in the scriptures speak of faith, but Hebrews 11:1 says it very succinctly; “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not

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Today in 21st century Christianity, one of the most misunderstood words or principles in the church is the word worship. If I were to ask you this morning to write down a succinct sentence describing worship, I would not be surprised if there were as many definitions as there are attendees. Today when we think of worship, we think of a church service, or worship music, or even a worship pastor. The connotation is that worship is a part of a church service, or a separate experience in the church or life of the believer. But as I indicated, worship

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The other night as I was driving to pick up my daughter from a swim practice, I was able to witness a particularly beautiful sunset. There were these clouds that had reflections of all these colors in them and the sun’s rays shining through. It was really amazing. It’s almost sad though because it changes right before your eyes and soon it’s gone. I can’t help but think that sunsets are kind of like life. They are so beautiful, and yet so fleeting. By the time you think it’s really going great it’s basically starting to dim. But as tragic

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In this chapter, the author John the apostle 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. Last week John introduced to us Nicodemus, the teacher of the Jews, a leader of the ruling religious body of the Jews. He was a

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