Sermon Notes and Outlines
Characteristics Of Prayer 3-30-25 AM
I. Properly motivated.
A. Someone once wrote, It is strange that, while praying, we seldom ask for change of character, but always a change in circumstance.
B. When praying, we need to make sure motives are pure.
C. Every request needs to have God’s will in mind.
D. Notice in this model prayer that Jesus said, Thy will be done...
1. Jesus prayed this in the garden (Matt. 26:39, 42).
2. Paul asked the Roman brethren to pray for him to come to Rome if it was God’s will (Rom. 15:32).
E. Our every concern ought to be with doing the will of God.
1. This was Jesus’ main concern (John 4:34).
2. The psalmist, prophesying of coming Messiah, wrote, “I delight to do thy will” (Ps. 40:8).
3. Peter tells us that we are not to live to the flesh but to the will of God (1 Pe. 4:2).
F. The only ones who will make to heaven are those who do the will of God (1 Jo. 2:17).
G. Someone once wrote: “Prayer is surrender‑‑surrender to the will of God and cooperation with that will. If I throw out a boathook from the boat and catch hold of the shore and pull, do I pull the shore to me, or do I pull myself to the shore? Prayer is not pulling God to my will, but the aligning of my will to the will of God.”
H. As we pray we must make sure we are seeking God’s will and not our own.
II. Purposefully aimed.
A. Prayers don’t need to be generic.
B. I appreciated br. Huffman asking us to pray for him.
C. Paul asked for the prayers of others (1 Th. 5:25).
D. Paul was specific in prayer:
1. He prayed for the Colossians (Col. 1:3).
2. For the Philippians (Php. 1:4).
3. For the Thessalonians (2 Th. 1:11).
E. There are things for which we need to pray:
1. Pray for preachers to preach gospel (Luke 10:2).
2. Government (1 Tim. 2:1-2).
3. Pray for the sick.
4. For each other (Jam. 5:16).
5. Pray not to enter into temptation (Luke 22:40).
6. Pray for our enemies (Luke 6:28).
F. There are situations that arise about which we must pray.
1. Job opportunities, family situations, illness.
2. We should take all these before God’s throne.
G. Some may ask why we need to even ask God.
1. God wants us to rely on Him in prayer.
3. Paul would say ...(Php. 4:6).
H. There are other things that could be mentioned for which we need to pray but these show that there needs to be purpose in our prayers.
III. Patiently offered.
A. The New Testament is very clear that there is to be endurance in offering up requests to God.
B. Notice Luke 18:1-8.
1. The parable is to get us to not give up in prayer.
2. If an unrighteous person will eventually heed the continued request of an individual, what about the righteous God we serve.
C. Notice Luke 11:5-8 - the friend kept knocking.
D. Luke 11:9-10 - vs 10 spec means keep on doing these.
E. Notice Romans 12:12.
1. In the midst of a list of qualities a Christian needs, Paul says continuing instant n prayer.
2. Continuing instant is one word in the Greek.
3. One of the meanings of the Greek word is to persevere and not faint.
F. Paul told the Thessalonians to pray without ceasing.
G. We don’t need to give up on something after praying one time about it.
IV. Promptly enacted.
A. If we are going to pray for something, we need to work for it.
B. God is not going to miraculously save people for whom we pray or give money to missionaries miraculously.
C. If we want someone to be saved we need to pray for them and then go and teach them.
D. If we want someone to come back to the Lord, we need to pray for them and then let them know they are lost.
E. If we want the borders of the kingdom to be spread we must give the money for that to happen.
F. If we want the grieving to be comforted, lets do what we can to bring them comfort.
G. There is no point in praying for something and then not doing our part to make it happen.
You Can Miss Out On A Good Thing 3-23-25 PM
I. The availability of rest (Hebrews 4:1).
A. The New King James starts the verse this way: “Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest...”
B. What we should take away from this is that there is a place of rest that is available to us.
C. We need to be very cautious that we don’t miss out on it.
D. The Hebrews writer was inspired to use the word translated fear.
1. You might be thinking that the fearful are going to be cast into hell (Revelation 21:8), and that the love casts out fear (1 John 4:18).
a. Both of these are true of course.
b. Then why would we be told to fear?
2. Remember, these people were in danger of falling away from God and some may already have.
3. They had left their love behind and love can’t cast out fear if there is no love present.
4. Jesus told the Ephesians they had left their first love (Revelation 2:4).
5. Love will cast out fear but love leads to obedience (John 14:15).
6. The problem of the audience of our writer was that they were lacking in faith, leading them to leave God which is disobedience and a lack of love.
7. Our obedience to the Lord prevents a missing out on the rest of God (John 15:10).
E. We can come short of the rest of God; we can miss out on a good thing.
F. We see it all around us.
1. There are Christians we know who have left the Lord and others who are barely hanging on to the Lord.
2. These can and will miss out on the rest of God if they don’t have a fear of missing out, which will cause them to again be obedient to the Lord.
G. To be honest, there should always be a sense of dread of missing out on heaven.
H. It is available to all, but will be missed out on by those who fail to fear missing it, which leads to disobedience.
II. The basis of rest (Hebrews 4:2-7).
A. The writer again uses the example of the Israelites in the wilderness to warn us.
B. He first reminds us that faith is necessary to accept the rest.
1. The good news of Jesus was being preached and had been preached to those who received this letter, just has it has been preached to us.
2. The good news of rest had been preached to the Israelites as well.
a. He is not saying the same gospel was preached to those in the wilderness.
b. Gospel means good news and the good news of rest had been preached to them.
3. Sadly, those aged 20 and older, except for Caleb and Joshua, did not have faith in the message preached to them.
4. If we want to reach the land of rest promised to us, there must be faith in the message preached and faith, as love, leads to obedience to the message.
C. He then mentions the decree of God.
1. If God had not given a promise, then there would be nothing in which to place our faith.
a. The same for the Israelites.
b. If God had not told them about the Promised Land, there would be no reason for them to have faith.
c. However, He did, and many of them did not have faith in the message from God.
2. God had promised them and then took away the promise because of their unbelief.
3. God had spoken the promise to them but they could not enter, not because it wasn’t prepared for them, as he mentions at the end of verse 3, but because they did not have faith.
4. The rest promised was tied to the seventh day of creation.
a. God had created a wonderful place for man and wanted man to enjoy it with Him.
b. However, man sinned, and from that point forward, God’s aim has been to get His people into a place of rest with Him.
c. Those unfaithful Israelites could not enter into the land of rest because of their sin.
d. We can’t enjoy the presence of God and His blissful rest with sin in our lives.
e. They could not enjoy a physical land and we will not enjoy a spiritual land.
f. Verse 6 tells us the promise remains but they did not receive it because of disobedience.
g. We won’t either, by God’s decree.
D. If we want the rest of God, there must be immediate action on our part (Hebrews 4:7).
1. Five times in chapters 3-4, the word today is used.
2. The KJV says, “limiteth” and the NKJV says, “designates”.
3. There is a specific time we need to accept this rest and remain faithful and that is today, immediately.
E. We have way to many people who are acting haphazardly with this promise of rest.
1. We feel like we can pick and choose our times of faithfulness to God.
2. We feel like God is going to give us time and we have all of it we want.
3. We need a desperate sense of urgency in the Lord’s church and at West Walker.
4. Why are people falling away?
5. They don’t have a sense of urgency about them.
6. Tomorrow is not promised.
7. Do we think the people who died Thursday in that wreck on 20-59 thought that would be their last drive home?
8. Do we think the 29 yr old mother I mentioned a couple of weeks ago thought she would not return home from the hospital?
9. What makes us think we are any different than them?
10. We must get a sense of immediacy for the doing of God’s will or we will miss out on the rest of God as did those Israelites so long ago.
III. The nature of God’s rest (Hebrews 4:8-11).
A. We need to understand what this rest is.
1. We know it is not the rest of the Promised Land.
a. He has used this as an illustration for people that came after the giving of the Promised Land.
b. That promise has already been fulfilled (Joshua 21:43-45).
c. As verse 8 will show, this is God’s rest about which our writer is speaking.
2. It is not the sabbath day’s rest either.
a. This was given to the people under the Mosaic Law.
b. This law has been done away with in Christ (Ephesians 2:14-15).
3. This rest is heaven, God’s rest.
a. This is compared to the rest of God on the completion of creation (Hebrews 4:4).
b. It is described for us in Revelation 14:13.
B. It is not the rest into which Joshua took those second generation Israelites.
1. They still fought in that land.
2. They still battled sin in that land.
3. They still fell away from God in that land and eventually went into captivity.
C. He then tells us that there still remains a rest for God’s people.
1. Heaven is out there waiting for us.
2. We can’t give up because the danger is there of missing out on a good thing.
D. There is a spiritual place of rest awaiting us that is beyond our imaginations.
E. Because of that, we need to be diligent to enter it.
1. We need to be proactive.
2. We need to nip problems in the bud before they fully develop.
3. We need to see the problems areas in our lives and deal with them now.
4. We need to help others see the problems in their lives and help them deal with them now if they will.
F. The reason to do it now is that we can fall just like the first generation of Israelites coming out of Egypt fell.
Our Prayers 3-23-25 AM
I. Characteristics of our prayers.
a. How do we approach God in our prayers?
i. Do we do it with haughtiness or humbleness?
ii. Do we do it with confidence or arrogance?
iii. What should be the characteristics of a prayer to God?
b. There should be extreme humility when we come before God.
i. We need to remember that is an inferior approaching a superior - the lesser going to the greater.
ii. We should have the attitude of the publican (Luke 18:9-14).
iii. We are going before the Creator and Sustainer of life.
iv. If we were to go before the president or some king, would we not do so with humility?
v. How much more so to God?
c. We are to have confidence in God when we approach Him.
i. James says we are to ask God with nothing wavering (James 1:5-8).
ii. We are to approach Him with confidence (Hebrews 4:16).
iii. This does nor mean arrogantly with demands for God.
iv. Rather, we are to humbly approach Him with confidence that He will give us what we need (Matthew 7:11).
d. We are to pray in accordance with the will of God (1 John 5:14).
i. Prayer is not a period of selfish requests.
ii. It is a time to ask God for things that are in accordance with His will.
iii. If we have a request, which we all do, we need to make sure we understand that in order to receive it must be in line with the will of God.
iv. Barnes said of 1 John 5:14 - “No man could hope for good who should esteem his own wishes to be a better guide than the will of God.”
e. These should all be characteristics of our prayers.
II. The content of our prayers.
a. A few years ago there was a poll that asked Americans about what they believe and how they practice their faith.
i. One question was: What do you think is the most important purpose of prayer?
ii. 27% said to seek God’s guidance, 23% said to thank God, 19% to be close to God, 13% said to help others, 4% said other reasons and 5% did not know.
b. What should be the content of our prayers?
c. The letters of the word “acts” will give us an easy way to remember what our prayers should contain.
d. “A” stands for adoration.
i. Adoration is defined as “The act of paying homage, to a divine being.”
ii. God is worthy of adoration for His creative work, His redemptive work and all the blessings that He gives us.
iii. Paul prayed in adoration in Ephesians 3:14-21.
e. “C” stands for confession.
i. We are to confess our sins to God (1 John 1:7-10).
ii. The way we do that is through prayer.
iii. Psalm 32 is a prayer of confession.
iv. The publican confessed himself to be a sinner in Luke 18:13.
f. “T” stands for thanksgiving.
i. We are to be thankful to God for all the blessings of life (Philippians 4:6).
ii. We are to continue in prayer with thanksgiving (Colossians 4:2).
iii. Jesus set this example for us (John 6:11; 11:41).
g. “S” stands for supplication.
i. This is defined as “To ask for humbly or earnestly as by praying.”
ii. The things we ask God for are our supplications.
iii. In the prayer taught to the disciples of Jesus in Luke 11, there are requests made.
1. We all need things and we are to ask for them from God.
2. After asking we are to do our part.
3. For instance, we ask God for our daily bread and then we go to work to earn money for that bread.
4. Our job and the pay are blessings from God.
h. If we will remember the word “acts” when we pray the content of our prayers will be right with God.
III. The closing of our prayers.
a. How do we end our prayers?
i. I have heard people simply say amen.
ii. I have heard people end in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, amen.
iii. There are other endings that people use as well.
b. This is how Paul taught the Ephesians to pray (Eph. 5:20).
c. This shows that Jesus is the only avenue of approaching God (John 14:6).
d. He is our High Priest that intercedes for us (Heb. 7:24-25).
e. We should close our prayers in some way that acknowledges we are praying through Jesus to God.
IV. The consistency of our prayers.
a. Jesus gave a parable about a widow asking an unjust judge to avenge her, which is recorded in Luke 18.
i. The reason for the parable is in verse 1.
ii. We should pray and not give up, or faint.
iii. We need to continue in prayer.
b. We need to be people who pray at any time (1 Thessalonians 5:17).
c. There is no excuse for being haphazard in our prayer life.
d. Too many wait to pray until they are in the middle of a storm.
i. While it is never too late to pray, we need to be praying about dealing with storms before they appear.
ii. We must always be seeking, asking and knocking.
e. Our Lord taught persistence just as soon as He taught the disciples to pray (Luke 11:5-8).
f. Paul taught us to be persistent in prayer (Romans 12:12).
g. The early Christians were persistent in prayer (Acts 2:42).
h. We need to realize that this does not guarantee that we receive that for which we ask.
i. Jesus asked three times for the cup of suffering to pass.
ii. Paul asked multiple times for his thorn to be removed.
i. But without prayer, and that persistently, we won’t get that which we need: grace and strength to help in need.
When The Dead Was Raised 3-16-25 AM
I. The account.
a. The discussion (John 11:1-16).
i. Verse 2 in interesting because this event is recorded in the next chapter.
1. Remember that John wrote forty years after the other gospel writers.
2. Mary is mentioned here because the readers would have been familiar with that account.
ii. Notice in verse three how Lazarus is described.
1. They didn’t say who loves you.
2. They worded it in a way to tug on the emotion of Jesus: he whom you love is sick.
iii. The sickness did lead to death, but Jesus is referencing spiritual death.
1. God would be glorified in this moment.
2. God would glorify the Son in this moment.
iv. Verse 5 shows the love Jesus had for these siblings.
1. The word for love in verse 3 is from phileo.
2. The word for love here is from agape.
3. There is not a lot of difference in these two words.
v. After those two days Jesus was ready to go back to Judea, the area in which the Jewish leadership was the strongest.
vi. Verse 8 references the event that took place at the close of chapter 10 (John 10:25-31).
vii. Sleep is often used as a metaphor for the ones who die in a right relationship with God.
1. The apostles believed all would be well.
2. Jesus finally and plainly tells them that Lazarus had died.
viii. Verse 15 is powerful.
1. Jesus tells them that it was good that He had not been there.
2. Jesus would have healed Lazarus.
3. They had all seen Jesus heal people.
4. What Jesus was going to do was going to help cement in their minds that He truly was the Christ.
ix. Thomas doesn’t show much doubt in verse 16 does he?
b. The declarations (John 11:17-32).
i. I called this section declarations because there are three amazing statements that we will notice in these verses.
ii. We find out that Lazarus has been in the grave four days.
1. In that time, people were buried the day of their death.
2. They didn’t have means of keeping the body from decaying is the reason.
iii. The town of Bethany was about 2 miles from Jerusalem and many people from Jerusalem had come to console the sisters.
iv. Somehow Martha was informed that Jesus was on His way and she went to meet Jesus.
v. I’m sure her statement in verse 21 hurt Jesus some.
1. I don’t believe she meant to hurt Jesus with it.
2. She was just stating a fact.
vi. The first declaration is now made by Martha (vs. 22).
1. It can’t mean that she believed that Jesus would raise Lazarus from the dead because of what she says in verse 39.
2. It seems to have meant that she knew the closeness of Jesus with the Father.
3. She is letting Jesus know that her faith in Him had not waivered.
vii. Jesus says something that is a masterful statement.
1. DA Carson said that it is a masterpiece of planned ambiguity.
2. Martha took it to mean that at the last day Lazarus would be resurrected as is seen in verse 24.
3. Jesus meant it another way also: that Lazarus would rise that day.
viii. The second grand declaration is found in verses 25 and 26.
1. This is one of the I am statements made by Jesus recorded in John.
2. Jesus is the source of our resurrection and our spiritual life.
3. If we believe in Jesus, though we die physically, we shall be resurrected.
4. If we live and believe in Jesus we shall never die spiritually.
ix. Notice then how Martha answered Jesus (verse 27).
1. This is the third declaration of note in this section.
2. She made the great confession.
3. Jesus was the Messiah.
4. Jesus was the Son of God.
5. The last phrase is rendered “He who comes into the world” in the NAS, and the footnote mentions “the Coming One” was a messianic title to the Jews.
x. Mention verses 28-31.
xi. Mary says the same thing to Jesus that Martha did (vs. 32).
c. The demonstrations (John 11:33-46).
i. Jesus was deeply moved by the tears of Mary and those that came with her.
1. The word translated “groaned” is found five times in the NT and two of those times is in this chapter.
2. It literally means to express violent displeasure.
3. Jesus was not violent at all.
4. It says He was troubled which carries the idea of shaking.
ii. If you noticed, I entitled this section in the plural as well.
1. I don’t believe there is another account in the NT that demonstrates the humanity of Jesus as much as this one.
2. After Jesus asked where Lazarus is buried we read simply, Jesus wept.
3. Here we read that Jesus was so overcome with emotion that He trembled and wept.
4. The why of Jesus trembling and weeping is debated.
5. Some say it was because of the weeping of His beloved friends.
6. It seems more so that Jesus was emotional because of anger towards death and sin for the pain it caused His friends.
iii. Some believed that Jesus wept because of love but some were saying hurtful things about Jesus (vs. 36-37).
iv. Jesus was brought to the tomb and told them to roll away the stone.
v. Here we see the lack of belief in Martha that Jesus would raise up Lazarus.
1. She knew what happened to bodies after that time.
2. Something else interesting about the four days is that Jews had a superstition that the soul of the deceased lingered over the body for 2-3 days after death.
3. By Jesus waiting until the fourth day, there would not be any way to deny this miracle.
vi. Jesus reminds her that He told her she would see the glory of God.
1. They really echo what He earlier said to the apostles in verse 4.
2. But they were the sentiment of His words to her as well.
vii. When the stone was rolled away, Jesus began to pray to the Father (vs. 41-42).
1. Martha had stated she knew the Father heard Jesus.
2. The tense in the Greek of the end of vs 41 indicates that this request had already been made and that it was time for thanksgiving for granting it.
3. Jesus mentions that the Father always heard Him, which indicates their unique closeness and relationship.
4. Jesus wanted the people around Him to see the power of God.
5. He wanted them to see it so that it would create belief in them.
viii. Jesus then demonstrated His deity by crying out Lazarus come forth and Lazarus doing so.
1. This is the second demonstration of this text.
2. Earlier, Jesus demonstrated His humanity, now His deity.
3. John MacArthur said, “In no other account of His miraculous work do we see more magnificently the coming together of His humanity and deity. We see Him in His full majesty, in His full person.”
ix. This action truly proved that Jesus is the resurrection and the life.
x. Jesus shouted this out for all to know that this was nothing but the divine act of God.
xi. Lazarus came forth whole in the wrapping that had been placed around him in preparation for burial.
xii. This caused belief in many of those that were present (vs. 45).
1. This was the purpose of miracles.
2. This is why John wrote what he did (John 20:30-31).
xiii. Sadly, it caused others to run to the Pharisees (vs. 46).
1. This miracle seems to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
2. It caused the leadership of the Jews to commit to having Jesus killed as the rest of the chapter will bear out.
II. The application.
a. While this event took place 2,000 years ago, there is much for us to take from it today.
b. We have to wait on God’s timing.
i. The sisters wanted Jesus to do something immediately to help their brother.
ii. Jesus knew that immediately would not provide the proper glory to God being given.
iii. There are times we want things right now.
iv. We have to learn to wait (Ps. 27:14; Lam. 3:25; Jam. 5:7-8).
c. What we believe is more important than what we feel.
i. Mary and Martha felt grief.
ii. Jesus felt it as well.
iii. But, Jesus knew people needed to believe the right thing.
iv. Because of that, Jesus waited and showed the power of God.
v. Our faith has to be grounded in truth, not our own feelings.
d. Jesus hurts with us.
i. Mary and Martha were hurting terribly and that hurt Jesus.
ii. Jesus sees us and hurts with us.
iii. Hebrews 4:15-16.
iv. He is touched by our feelings of weakness and hurting.
e. Jesus is the resurrection and the life.
i. If you have any hope, it has to be in Christ.
ii. We aren’t hoping for some relief, but for eternal life.
iii. Only in Christ is that found.
Don’t Be Like Them 3-9-25 PM
I. A reminder of a reminder (Hebrews 3:7-11).
A. As is often the case in Hebrews, the word therefore is found.
B. The last section ended with an “if” statement.
1. We are the house of Christ “if” we hold fast to Christ.
2. We can’t let go of what we have professed to believe if we want to remain in the house of, or the church of Christ.
C. Interestingly, the writer points to the inspiration of the Psalms by saying that the Holy Spirit said these things.
1. We know they were written by a man, possibly David, but not necessarily.
2. However, the One who truly spoke these words was the Holy Spirit who gave the words to the human penman.
D. He now gives a reminder of those that refused to remain in the house of God in their time and he does so by going to Psalm 95:7-11.
1. This psalm is an interesting one that was to encourage the Israelites to praise God by giving three reasons to do so.
2. Verses 1-5 teach that God is worthy of praise because of His power.
3. Verses 6-7a teach that God is worthy of praise because of His mercy and grace.
4. Verses 7b-11, what our writer quoted, encourages the people to remember these traits of God because He is also a God of wrath.
E. Our writer was inspired to use this reminder to God’s people of the Old Testament to remind God’s people of the New Testament what will happen when there is rebellion against God and His authority.
1. The people of old rebelled against God in different ways.
2. All through the wilderness wandering they rebelled against God by questioning Him and even turning to other gods.
3. The word translated rebellion in Psalm 95:8 is the word Meribah in Hebrew and the word translated trial is the Hebrew word Massah.
a. These should remind us of the events recorded in Exodus 17:1-7.
b. There, the people cried out for water and were ready to stone Moses.
c. God told Moses to strike the rock and water would come out.
d. Moses called the place there Massah and Meribah, because the people tried the patience of God there.
4. These people, because of their rebellion recorded in Numbers 13, had to wander in the wilderness 40 years.
a. The older generation, those 20 and over, were a rebellious people and refused to know God’s ways.
b. Because of that, God was greatly angered and promised that they would not enter the promised land of rest (Numbers 14:22-23).
c. The only ones who were able were Caleb and Joshua because of their faithfulness.
5. Over 600,000 died in the wilderness because of their rebellion against God.
F. The Hebrews writer used a passage with which these Jewish converts would have been familiar.
1. He reminded them of the failures of their forefathers.
2. They needed to get this message today, right then, and that is why he started out quoting that verse of the psalm.
3. Lack of faith is something that needed to be addressed quickly.
II. A warning for now (Hebrews 3:12-14).
A. Christians constantly have to be on the lookout in their lives for weaknesses in our faith.
1. Unbelief here is a reference to a lack of faith.
2. Not necessarily an unbelief in God, but a lack of doing what God wants done.
3. All unbelief is a departing from God because it sin, which separates us from God.
B. This departure is because of being hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
1. We need to remember that these people had been in a right relationship with God at one time.
2. They were partakers of the heavenly calling and holy brethren (Hebrews 3:1).
3. They were being warned to not become hardened and leave God.
4. This shows the very real possibility of apostasy from God.
5. I talked with a friend the other day who is in denominationalism and said that those who believe that one cannot fall away have a very difficult time explaining away Hebrews 3.
a. We know those Jews in the wilderness were, at one time, in a right relationship with God.
b. They were descendants of Abraham and God’s chosen people.
c. However, they rebelled and were lost.
d. If one cannot fall away, the illustration here loses all its power.
C. Sin is deceitful as we all know.
1. It is packaged to look beautiful or helpful or advantageous in some way.
2. Because it looks so good and packaged so well, sin will harden us or cause us to be stubborn against the will of God.
D. We need to get hold of any feelings of unbelief today, right now.
1. We can’t let it linger in any way.
2. We don’t let harmful things linger around us.
3. Sadly, many allow sinful things to remain and take hold.
E. When this is the case, we begin to depart from the living God.
F. We must constantly encourage one another in the faith so that we don’t lose anyone.
1. Think of those who have left here.
2. Why did they leave?
a. They began to be hardened first of all.
(1) They allowed sin to enter their lives.
(2) They failed to separate themselves from it.
b. We failed to exhort them when we had the opportunity.
(1) No doubt some reached out.
(2) But, in general, we failed them.
3. They most definitely have the ultimate responsibility to be right with God.
4. But we also have a responsibility to go after them and exhort them and we don’t do a very good job of that here, me included.
5. We are to exhort one another.
G. We should want to do so because we are partakers of Christ.
1. We have experienced the benefits of being in Christ.
2. All the spiritual blessings that flow from Him are ours.
3. We know how great it is in Christ.
H. But there is another “if” statement here in verse 14.
1. We will be partakers of Christ only if we hold fast that confidence we had in the beginning.
2. We can’t allow ourselves to become hardened and we need to start today preventing that hardening.
3. It is completely up to us.
4. God has given us the details of the rewards of faithfulness.
5. God has given us the details of the results of unfaithfulness.
6. We have to make the choice.
III. A reminder again (Hebrews 3:15-19).
A. The Holy Spirit understands that we learn through repetition.
B. Because of that, our writer was inspired to go back to the initial reminder based on the sins of the Hebrews in the wilderness.
C. He does so by asking three obvious questions and giving the answers to each.
1. He reminds them in the first question that their forefathers had heard God’s word but rebelled against it, giving them no excuse.
2. The then reminds them of God’s wrath because of their unbelief which led to the death of so many over the course of those forty years.
3. A final reminder is given that those forefathers failed to enter God’s rest because of their unbelief.
D. He then sums it up by saying they failed to receive God’s blessing because of their unbelief.
E. Think of all that this generation missed by their lack of faith.
1. They missed out on the close relationship with God.
2. They missed out on an earthly home that flowed with milk and honey.
3. Ultimately, they missed out on heaven.
F. And, again, this section is started with the word “today”.
G. We need to get on with it today.
1. We can’t let disbelief, or lack of faith, linger.
2. We must get in God’s word and let it work in our lives.
When The Blind Received Sight 3-9-25 AM
I. The question of the disciples (John 9:1-2).
a. Jesus and the apostles were walking near the temple and came across a man who had been born blind.
i. We don’t know how they knew he was born blind, although we know how Jesus would have known.
ii. It is believed that this man was well known in Jerusalem because he would have been at this place nearly every day.
b. The disciples asked Jesus an interesting question: who had sinned to cause this man to be born blind.
i. This was the thinking of the time.
ii. If there was some type of physical problem in a person, it was because of sin.
iii. This was the attitude of Job’s friends long ago.
iv. This was the teaching of those who professed to be Old Testament scholars of that day.
c. For his condition to be his own sin is ridiculous because he would have had to have sinned inside his mother’s womb for it to be his fault.
i. I have no idea why the disciples even offered that up as a possibility.
ii. The only way it would even make sense is if they thought God punished that man from the womb for something that God knew he would do at a future point.
d. We discussed the miracle of John 5 where the man was by the pool but couldn’t get in it.
i. Jesus healed that man.
ii. Later, Jesus told him Do not sin anymore lest something worse happen to you.
iii. It seems, by the way that Jesus spoke to the man at least, that sin had caused him to become lame.
e. Sometimes physical problems are the result of sin.
f. Sometimes physical problems from birth are the result of the sins of a parent.
g. They are never the result of the sin of an unborn baby.
h. However, the disciples limited this man’s condition to either him having sinned in the womb or his parents having sinned.
i. They never thought about a third option.
II. The observation of Jesus (John 9:3-5).
a. Jesus looked at the situation in a completely different way than the disciples.
b. Jesus saw a man who needed help while the disciples saw a question to be answered.
c. Jesus let them know that both options they had presented were wrong in this case.
d. Some believe that Jesus is saying the man was born blind in order for this exact moment to come to pass.
i. Think about what that would say about God.
ii. Causing a man to suffer for so many years would be terrible.
iii. I like what F.F. Bruce said: “This does not mean that God deliberately caused the child to be born blind in order that, after many years, his glory should be displayed in the removal of the blindness; to think so would again be aspersion on the character of God. It does mean that God overruled the disaster of the child’s blindness so that, when the child grew to manhood, he might, by the recovering of his sight, see the glory of God in the face of Christ, and others, seeing the work of God, might turn to the true Light of the World.”
e. This man’s condition in now going to bring glory to God through the effort of Jesus.
f. Jesus knew He was not going to be around long and had to work while He had the opportunity.
i. The word “must” indicates the urgency Jesus had in His life.
ii. He had a limited amount of time to work for God on earth and He was going to take advantage of His opportunities.
g. Jesus repeats one of His great I am statements that are found in the book of John.
i. It is not in the exact Greek form found in John 8:12.
ii. It seems to be limited to this moment here, enabling a blind man to see.
iii. The overall meaning is: If I can allow a blind man see physically, I can allow blind men to see spiritually.
h. When you read this chapter, you see a constant battle between darkness and light, sight and blindness.
i. Sometimes the phrases are used literally with the blind man, but often they are used to talk about the spiritual blindness or sight of those in this chapter.
III. The demonstration of power (John 9:6-7).
a. Jesus does something interesting in performing this miracle.
b. Jesus spit on the ground, used His saliva to make mud, and placed the mud on the eyes of the man.
c. This is not the only time that Jesus used saliva in some manner while performing a miracle.
i. Mark 7:32-33.
ii. Mark 8:22-23.
d. We don’t know why Jesus did this, though several ideas have been floated as to why Jesus did it this way on this occasion.
i. A Physical Demonstration of His Power – Jesus often healed with just a word or touch, but here, He uses a tangible, physical action. This could emphasize that healing comes from Him and is not merely symbolic or coincidental.
ii. A Test of Faith – The blind man had to obey Jesus’ command to go and wash in the Pool of Siloam. This act required faith and obedience, much like other biblical healings where action was required (e.g., Naaman washing in the Jordan in 2 Kings 5).
iii. A Connection to Creation – Some scholars see this as an allusion to Genesis 2:7, where God formed Adam from the dust of the ground. Jesus, as the Creator (John 1:3), is symbolically "re-creating" the man’s sight using the same elements.
iv. Challenging Legalistic Traditions – Making mud (kneading) was considered "work" under the Pharisaic Sabbath laws, and by doing this on the Sabbath, Jesus intentionally challenged their rigid interpretation of the law (John 9:14-16).
v. A Symbol of Humility and Simplicity – Using saliva and dirt, rather than elaborate rituals or objects, demonstrates that God's power does not require grand displays. The simplicity of the act contrasts with the religious leaders' expectations of how healing should occur.
e. When Jesus had anointed the man’s eyes, He then told the man to go and wash in the pool of Siloam.
i. As is usual with John, he provided the translation for the Aramaic word.
ii. Siloam means “sent.”
f. The man did exactly what Jesus told him to do.
g. We are left with some questions about this.
i. How did the man know the name of who healed him (John 9:11)?
ii. What all did Jesus say to the man besides to go and wash in the pool?
iii. What caused this man to do exactly what Jesus told him to do?
h. There has to be some things said that we are not told during this encounter.
i. What we do know is that this man did exactly what Jesus told him to do and his sight was restored.
i. This man had faith.
ii. He had to walk to the pool.
iii. He had to get the water from the pool to wash his eyes.
iv. I wonder the thoughts that went through his mind as he made his way to the pool.
j. Whatever those thoughts were, they led to his believing Jesus and his sight being restored.
IV. The reaction of various groups.
a. The neighbors were astonished and some couldn’t believe it was him.
i. John 9:8-12.
ii. Some said this is him, some said he is like him.
iii. Finally the man had to say it’s me.
iv. They wanted to know how it was done and who did it.
v. He told them but said all he knew was the name of the man who did it, Jesus.
vi. One sermon I read in preparation for this said this group was blinded by distraction.
vii. They were more concerned about the how of the miracle than the one who performed the miracle.
b. The Pharisees are the next group that we see.
i. The neighbors brought the man to the Pharisees.
ii. What we read in John 9:14 is important – Jesus did what they would consider work on the Sabbath.
iii. There was division among them though because of the fact the man had his sight given to him (John 9:15).
iv. Some, if not most of them, refused to believe he had been born blind, so they called in the parents.
v. We will notice the parents next so continue with the Pharisees.
vi. They tried to get the man to say Jesus was a sinner.
vii. To his credit, he told them that he did not know if Jesus was a sinner but he did know that Jesus had given him sight.
viii. They asked him again how his sight was given him and he had enough of them.
ix. The man stuck to his guns and did not back down until they cast him out of the synagogue.
x. The sermon I mentioned earlier said the Pharisees were blinded by religion.
c. The next group is one we mentioned and that is the parents.
i. The Pharisees called for the parents to prove the man was their son indeed and had indeed been blind from birth.
ii. Listen to their part of this (John 9:19-23).
iii. He is our son, he was born blind but you’ve got to ask him how he got his sight, he is of age.
iv. The sermon said the parents were blinded by fear.
d. The last group is the man himself.
i. When first asked, he just knew the name of Jesus.
ii. A little later he says that Jesus is a prophet (John 9:17).
iii. He stood up for Jesus and said He came from God (John 9:30-33).
iv. This is when they kicked him out of the synagogue.
v. When he meets Jesus the man acknowledges Jesus as Lord and worshiped Jesus (John 9:35-38).
e. This man gained both his physical and spiritual sight.
When The Disciples Needed Reassurance 3-2-25 AM
I. The rejection by Jesus (John 6:16; Mark 6:45-46)
a. The people that Jesus fed wanted to make Jesus their king (John 6:15).
b. This was not the purpose for which Jesus came to this earth.
i. John 18:36.
ii. If Jesus wanted to be an earthly king, the opportunity was there for the taking.
c. His purpose was to bring about salvation (Luke 19:10).
d. For this reason, Jesus rejected the people and their desire for Him.
e. He got the disciples out of the area.
i. Mark says He constrained them to get in the ship and leave.
ii. There is forcefulness in that word.
iii. He literally made them get into the boat.
f. The text does not say why Jesus did this.
g. This is conjecture, but it is likely that the disciples would have been swept up in this thought as well.
h. Remember what they asked Him right before He ascended into heaven (Acts 1:6)?
i. These men had been taught this same idea.
i. They had grown up hearing about the coming Messiah.
ii. How that Messiah would lead Israel back to relevance and prominence.
iii. How that Messiah would bring in a golden age for Israel and the Jews.
j. Jesus had to reject this thinking.
i. It was a temptation for His human side.
ii. Worse than that, it was a lie capable of pulling away His disciples.
k. Jesus made sure to reject this desire of the people and to get His disciples away from it as well.
l. Once Jesus got them on the boat and headed out, He went alone to pray.
m. I believe Jesus did this because of the temptation that had been laid on Him and for the hearts and minds of His disciples.
II. The reassurance of the disciples (John 6:17-20; Mark 6:47-50).
a. The disciples started rowing towards their destination.
b. Have you ever wondered what they were talking about while they were rowing?
i. Do you not think they were asking why Jesus rejected the people?
ii. Do you not think they were asking if Jesus really was the Messiah?
c. While they were rowing, a storm blew onto the lake.
d. The Sea of Galilee is surrounded by mountains and is over 600 feet below sea level.
i. Cold air comes rushing down the between two sets of mountains.
ii. The cold air will hit the warm air over the lake and cause large storms on it.
e. This is what happened on this occasion.
f. The disciples had rowed about 3-4 miles out on the lake.
i. At its widest point, it is a little over seven miles wide.
ii. So they were about halfway across the lake.
g. Mark tells us that it was during the fourth watch of the night, which is around 3 AM to us.
h. They could not move forward, even with their rowing because they were rowing into the wind.
i. While this storm was raging and they were rowing and battling, they saw a figure on the water.
i. Mark says they saw a spirit.
ii. Newer versions have the word ghost.
j. They freaked out.
k. Verse 49 says they cried out.
i. They screamed.
ii. Thayer’s says the word means “from the depth of the throat.”
l. Jesus simply says, “It is I, be not afraid.”
m. Jesus reassured them that they had nothing to fear.
n. Again, we might wonder why John tells of this miracle after Matthew and Mark had already told about it.
i. He does not even go into as much detail as them.
ii. Mark, usually known for his brevity, gives the most detail.
o. This miracle was not for us specifically.
p. Remember that miracles were performed for non-believers.
q. The only ones present were His disciples.
i. You see, they were the non-believers.
ii. They had just seen Jesus reject the attempt to enthrone Him.
iii. How could Jesus be the Messiah if He would not be a king?
r. Jesus used this opportunity to show them that He was exactly who He claimed to be.
s. There is no reason to be afraid because I am is what Jesus was saying.
t. The disciples needed this reassurance because they had been doubting Jesus because Jesus was not fulfilling their preconceived ideas about the Messiah.
III. The reward of faith (John 6:21; Mark 6:51).
a. We read that they willingly received Jesus into the boat.
b. They showed their faith.
c. Jesus had shown Himself to be what He claimed to be and they reacted by faith.
d. They were rewarded with a calm sea and a port – in other words, safety.
e. I do believe verse 21 teaches that the ship went from the middle of the lake to their destination immediately, just as it says.
f. Mark tells us that the storm immediately stilled.
g. When we take Jesus into our lives, and we get into Him, we have safety.
i. Not safety from the problems of life or things like that.
ii. We have spiritual safety, having access to His blood.
iii. We have peace with Christ (John 16:33).
h. These men were rewarded with safety, as are all that truly believe Jesus is the Messiah, which means they follow Him.
Consider Jesus 2-23-25 PM
I. Consider the position of Jesus (Hebrews 3:1).
A. The writer starts with the word “wherefore”.
1. This points back to what is discussed in the 2nd chapter.
2. We noticed several reasons why Jesus put on flesh.
3. Ultimately, it was to be our Savior and give us the aid we need to make it to heaven.
B. Because of that we need to fix our eyes on, consider, Jesus.
C. He begins by addressing the audience as holy brethren.
1. Being a Jew did not make them holy, Jesus did.
2. They were not brethren because they were Jews, at least in the spiritual sense, but because they were in Christ.
D. They were holy brethren because they were partakers of the heavenly calling.
1. The calling is that of the gospel about which we read in 2 Thessalonians 2:14.
2. They were fellow sharers in that great blessing of having answered the gospel call.
E. Both of these designations were important reminders of why the target audience had left Judaism.
1. Only in Christ can one be holy and only in Christ can there be true spiritual brotherhood.
2. Only when one is in Christ can one say he has properly partook of the heavenly calling.
3. Judaism could not do it and, for us, denominationalism or anything else can’t do it.
4. When we are tempted to fall away, we need to remember that only in Christ are these privileges and blessings found.
F. Our writer now points us to two titles that Jesus wears.
1. The first is Apostle.
a. This is the only passage in the Bible that calls Jesus an Apostle.
b. The meaning is the same as in other places, one who is sent.
c. Jesus was most definitely sent by the Father.
(1) John 17:3;
(2) John 12:44;
(3) 1 John 4:10.
d. Jesus is the only One sent from heaven by God for the saving of man.
e. No one else has ever been sent to save us or them, so how foolish would it be to turn from the only One sent to save us!
2. The second is High Priest.
a. This is another topic that the writer will develop later in the book.
b. This would have stood out to the Hebrew Christians.
c. They were being called back into Judaism to high priest that was no longer able to reach God.
d. Not only that, Moses, their beloved leader, was never a high priest.
(1) His brother Aaron was and the line descended from him.
(2) As great as Moses was, he could not do the things Aaron had done as priest and now Jesus was reigning as High Priest.
G. Moses had been an apostle for God since he was sent by Him to Egypt, however he did not come down from heaven as Jesus had.
H. Moses never was a high priest as Jesus is
I. We should consider Jesus because of His position.
II. Consider the passion of Jesus (Hebrews 3:2).
A. Jesus had a passion for doing the will of the Father.
1. He was faithful to God in all that was asked of Him.
2. God gave Jesus certain things to do and Jesus was faithful in all of them.
B. Notice that the writer is careful to not down Moses in any way.
1. He lets them know that Moses was faithful as well.
2. The truth is, though, even Moses sinned.
C. Jesus lived to do the will of the Father.
1. John 8:29 - notice the word always.
2. John 6:38 - Jesus did not come down to do what He wanted to do, but to do God’s will.
D. As these people were being tempted to fall, what a great reminder of the passion they should have for Jesus.
1. Jesus was faithful in all things, even dying on the cross.
2. He set an example for them to follow in being passionate about God even in the face of adversity.
E. He set an example for us as well.
1. The society in which we live is getting increasingly hostile towards people of faith.
2. Are we going to cave in and give up, or, like Jesus, stand firm in doing the will of the Father even in the face of persecution?
F. We need to consider the passion of Jesus for doing the God’s will in all things and allow that to motivate us!
III. Consider the prominence of Jesus (Hebrews 3:3-6).
A. The writer now gets to the main point he was inspired to make in this section: Jesus is greater or better than Moses!
B. Jesus is worthy of more honor, or more prominence, than Moses because Jesus built the house in which Moses served!.
1. The writer has already pointed out that angels had a hand in the delivering of the Old Law (Hebrews 2:2).
2. He now points out that Jesus built the house of the Old Testament.
C. The writer has already pointed out that all things owe their origin to Jesus (Hebrews 1:2, 8, 10).
1. Jesus was most definitely involved in the Old Testament (1 Corinthians 10:1-4).
2. Jesus is the Creator, or Builder, of all things (John 1:1-3).
D. Since Jesus built the house, He is worthy of more honor than the one who served in the house.
E. Verse 4 is an amazing verse.
1. It seems that it doesn’t even really belong here, because if you read verse 3 and go right into verse 5, skipping verse 4, it flows perfectly.
2. However, verse 4 gives us some tremendous material.
3. This is a shout to the divinity of Jesus, first of all.
a. He had just called Jesus the builder of the house of the Old Covenant in which Moses served.
b. Now the writer says that that the Builder of all things is God, thus making Jesus God.
c. This could never be said of Moses, another fact of the prominence of Jesus over Moses.
4. Second of all, this gives us the power to use the teleological argument for the existence of God.
a. This is the argument that since the world and universe show design, there must be a Grand Designer.
b. There is no way an atheist can truly deal with this argument for the existence of God!
c. This is one of those “ungetoverable” arguments.
F. The writer turns his attention to Moses in verse 5, again showing great care to not down Moses in any way.
1. Moses was a servant of God and this is a reference to Numbers 12:7.
2. He brought the Old Law to the people that spoke of great things to come.
G. However, Jesus is more prominent because He is a Son in God’s house and not a servant!
H. Again, as great as Moses was, there was no way this could be said of him.
When The Multitudes Were Fed 2-23-25 AM
I. The setting (John 6:1-4).
a. John says that Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which would have been the western side.
b. There is a note that says “which is the Sea of Tiberias.”
i. Remember that John was written 35-40 years after the other gospel accounts.
ii. Tiberias was a city built by Herod Antipas to honor Tiberius Caesar.
iii. The Sea of Galilee came to be known as the Sea of Tiberias after the other accounts had been written but before John was inspired to write.
c. Jesus was seeking an escape from the crowds it seems, which is why we read He went up into a mountain.
i. This doesn’t mean a mountain like we think.
ii. It means an elevated place, probably in what we know of as the Golan Heights.
d. David Lipe, based on a look at all four accounts, gives some reasons why Jesus was doing this:
i. He needed time to mourn John the Immerser’s death (Matt. 14:12-13).
ii. He wanted rest for Himself and the disciples (Mk. 6:31).
iii. He wanted to avoid Herod (Lu. 9:9).
e. The people followed Jesus to this place because of the miracles Jesus had been performing.
i. Remember that John only tells us of seven miracles.
ii. There are multitudes more of them and these people had been seeing Jesus perform them, so they kept following Jesus to see more.
f. We read in verse 4 why there were so many at the time.
i. The time of the Passover feast was near.
ii. There would have been Jews from all over the world coming to Jerusalem for the feast.
iii. Some had seen Jesus and began to follow Him, while others heard of it and came to see for themselves.
II. The test (John 6:5-9).
a. Thousands of people have followed Jesus.
b. They are on their way to Jerusalem, but took a detour to follow Jesus.
i. They had planned for this to go straight to Jerusalem.
ii. They didn’t have Yeti coolers to keep food fresh back then.
iii. Their food supply would have been dwindling.
c. The other accounts tell us that Jesus was concerned with their lack of food.
d. The other accounts don’t tell us about the interaction with Philip.
i. Jesus asked Philip where could bread be bought so the multitude could eat.
ii. Philip was from that area and it made sense to ask him.
e. John tells us that Jesus already knew what He was going to do, but asked Philip to test him.
f. Philip goes into math mode.
i. Much like the guy I mentioned in the introduction did trying to figure out how much manna God provided Israel.
ii. It got to be too big a number for Philip so he said that half a year’s wages wouldn’t buy enough for each to have just a little taste.
g. Philip failed the test.
h. Andrew is now on the spot and brings to Jesus five loaves and two fishes that a young man was willing to share.
i. The word for lad can mean a little child.
ii. In the Septuagint, it was used to describe Joseph when he was seventeen.
iii. So we don’t know exactly how old this young man was.
iv. We do know that he was willing to share what He had.
i. If Andrew had stopped right there with the presenting of the food to Jesus, it would have been a great show of faith.
j. Instead, he went on to say, “…but what are they among so many?”
i. It’s as if he was saying that this boy has something but there’s not much we can do with it.
ii. One writer stated, “Andrew’s point in drawing attention to the loaves and fish was that such a small amount was incredibly inadequate for the needs of so many people.”
iii. So, we wonder why Andrew bothered to bring it to Jesus in the first place.
k. In a way, both men failed the test.
i. One said it would be impossible to feed them.
ii. The other at least brought something to Jesus but still felt it couldn’t be done.
III. The miracle (John 6:10-13).
a. Jesus tells the disciples to get the men to sit down.
i. Newer translations have the people to sit down.
ii. Mark tells us they sat in groups of hundreds and fifties (Mk. 6:39-40).
b. Jesus then prayed over each item of food, the bread and then the fish.
i. The bread would have been made of barley, which was the poor person’s food.
ii. The fish would have been small fish, like the size of a sardine.
c. F.F. Bruce gives a common prayer said by the Jews of that time: Blessed art thou, o Lord our God, King of the universe, who bringest forth bread from the earth.
d. The prayer of Jesus may have been something similar to that.
e. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all state that the disciples distributed the food to the multitudes.
f. I’ve always wondered how this miracle was done.
i. Did Jesus pray and then put the food in baskets and the baskets got passed around and never emptied?
ii. Did the disciples keep coming back to Jesus to make trip after trip?
g. However it was done, all the people had plenty to eat – the NAS has “as much as they wanted.”
h. Jesus told the disciples to gather all the leftovers up so there would be no waste.
i. We read that they gathered twelve baskets full.
i. We don’t really know how big these baskets were.
ii. But if you guesstimate that they would hold two gallons, you have 24 gallons of food gathered.
j. We aren’t told, but it would be a safe guess that Jesus made sure the poorest of the people got this food.
k. Also, it is not hard to imagine that Jesus made sure the boy who provided the food benefitted from the leftovers.
l. Think about what Jesus did here.
i. 5,000 men were there.
ii. Matthew’s account mentions there were also women and children.
iii. (CLICK) We don’t know a total but we do know there were well more than the 5,000 men.
iv. Jesus provided all of these people more food than they could eat.
v. Jesus again shows His power over His creation.
IV. The result (John 6:14).
a. The people realized that a great miracle had been performed.
b. Remember the purpose for John writing down these miracles (John 20:30-31).
c. These people saw this miracle and believed.
d. They said that Jesus was the prophet that was to come into the world.
i. Which prophet is that?
ii. The Jews knew the words of Moses long ago (De. 18:15).
e. They had been looking for this prophet and realized that He had now come in the form of Jesus.
f. They believed that Jesus was the Messiah.
i. Sadly, the next verse tells us what they wanted to do.
ii. They wanted to make their Messiah an earthly king.
iii. Because of that, Jesus had to leave.
g. This miracle of Jesus created faith in those that saw it.
V. Application for us.
a. As I mentioned in the beginning, there are a number of lessons for us today.
b. God can take what little we have to offer and make something great.
i. It does not matter what we have, if we give it to God, it can be made great.
ii. It may be our time, our money, or our physical effort; God can do big things with it.
iii. We probably don’t think we have much to offer, but like God did with Gideon’s 300, He can win victories with very little.
c. Faith requires action.
i. The disciples thought it was impossible to feed that many.
ii. Jesus showed them that God would provide if some action was made.
iii. The little meal of a young man was all that God needed.
iv. If we believe God, we need to step out in faith, in whatever area it is.
d. Compassion leads to great things.
i. Mark’s account says that Jesus was moved with compassion for the people.
ii. Jesus was a need and His compassion moved Him to meet that need.
iii. We need to have compassion on those around us and then doors may open up for us to share the gospel.
e. God provides more than enough.
i. Those five loaves and two fish led to twelve baskets of leftovers.
ii. We need to trust in the generosity of God.
iii. As givers, we need to believe that God will take care of us when we give as we should.
f. Jesus is the true provider.
i. We mentioned earlier that this event led to Jesus calling Himself the Bread of Life.
ii. Jesus provides all we spiritually need in this life.
iii. He truly is the way, the truth, and the life.
It Became Him To Suffer 1-26-25 PM
I. Suffering completed Jesus (Hebrews 2:10).
a. The word “became” carries the idea of being right or fitting.
i. It was fitting that God, for whom and by whom are all things, to allow Jesus to suffer in order to complete Him.
ii. It was proper for God to do this.
b. The sole reason for allowing it was for me and you to be brought to glory.
i. We are the sons there.
ii. In order for us to have the hope of heaven, Jesus had to suffer.
iii. Our hearts ought to rejoice and cause us to shout thanks to the Lord for His willingness to do what He did.
iv. Without that, there would be no way for you and I to come to glory.
c. Jesus is here called the Captain of our salvation.
i. In the book of Acts, this word is translated Prince.
ii. Later, in Hebrews 12, this word is translated Author.
iii. He is the Leader of the saved.
d. He was able to become the Leader of the saved through suffering.
e. Suffering perfected, or completed Jesus.
i. Not in the sense that Jesus was incomplete or in any way unfit to be our Leader.
ii. Thayer gives the meaning of the word, to bring to an end proposed.
iii. This simply means that the suffering qualified Jesus to be the Captain of our salvation.
iv. The suffering He endured allowed Him to complete the goal, or work, that God had intended for Him to complete.
f. All the pain and agony through which Jesus went on the day of His physical death, all the nights with no home in which to lay His head, and all the verbal attacks and threats He endured, allowed Him to be our Savior.
II. Suffering allowed Him to call us brethren (Hebrews 2:11-13).
a. The coming of Jesus to this earth allowed us to be together.
i. We are of one in the sense that He put on flesh and became like us.
ii. He sancitifies us through His offering of Himself and we are sanctified, set apart, by Him from the world.
b. Isn’t it amazing that Jesus is not ashamed to call you and I His brethren?
i. As weak and sinful as we are, Jesus is not ashamed of us.
ii. He loves us so much He was willing to come and suffer.
c. The Hebrews writer then points out three different passages in the Psalms and Isaiah that show God always intended for the Messiah to be like us in the flesh.
i. Psalm 22:22.
1. There is something we really need to note here.
2. We know the word translated church in the original language is “ekklesia”.
3. The Septuagint Version, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, translated the word ekklesia as congregation or assembly.
4. The word brethren is used to describe those in the church.
5. Notice what F.F. Bruce wrote, “The employment of this word is a synonymous parallelism with "brethren" in a Christian context indicates that those whom the Son of God is pleased to call his brethren are the members of his church.”
6. If one is a brother to Christ, that one has to be a member of His church.
ii. Psalm 18:2.
iii. Isaiah 8:18
d. Without Jesus suffering for us, there is no way we could call Him our brother and we could not be brethren in the church.
III. Suffering allowed Jesus to destroy Satan (Hebrews 2:14).
a. Humanity is clothed in with flesh and blood and Jesus was well.
b. Jesus had to share in that in order to die.
c. The purpose of the death of Jesus was to defeat Satan.
i. Satan used death as a weapon to cause man to fear as is pointed out in the next verse.
ii. Jesus took Satan’s weapon and used it to conquer Satan.
iii. Jesus subdued Satan by His death and resurrection.
d. This verse tells us something about the goal of Satan.
i. His goal is to destroy mankind.
ii. He wants us to be eternally separated from God.
iii. Until Jesus died on that cross, Satan was winning.
iv. There was nothing mankind could do to overcome Satan.
v. Now, through the death of Christ and His resurrection, you and I can overcome Satan because Jesus overcame Satan.
e. An angel could not have done this for us and the Hebrews writer is pointing out that fact that Jesus became a man to die for men because only He could do that.
IV. Suffering allowed Jesus to remove our greatest fear (Hebrews 2:15-16).
a. Death has long been one of man’s greatest fears.
b. We fear the unknown, we fear punishment, we fear the separation of death.
e. Jesus took all of those things away for His brethren.
i. His death allowed us to look with joy at death because it brings us to God.
ii. We can say “come Lord Jesus” because we don’t have anything to fear in Christ.
f. Jesus took on our nature to aid us.
i. This is the meaning of verse 16.
ii. He did not become like an angel because they didn’t need Him.
iii. We needed Him and He became like us because we needed His aid to avoid the pain and fear of death.
V. Suffering allowed Jesus to reconcile us to God (Hebrews 2:17).
a. The word “behooved” carries the idea of owing something, a moral obligation.
i. Since Jesus bowed to the will of the Father to help mankind, He became obligated to all that needed to be done for man.
ii. This, of course, included all the suffering He faced.
b. It allowed Jesus to be merciful, or compassionate, towards us as the Hebrews writer will point out in chapter 4.
c. He is faithful to God in carrying out the duties of the High Priest.
i. He made the sacrifice for us.
ii. He did the will of the Father.
d. By doing all this, Jesus reconciled us back to God.
i. Sin separated us from God as we have mentioned many times.
ii. The suffering Jesus endured allowed for us to be brought back to God.
iii. If He hadn’t become our sacrifice, we couldn’t be right with God.
e. The writer will go into much greater detail later in the book about just how Jesus did this for us.
VI. Suffering allowed Jesus to aid us (Hebrews 2:18).
a. Jesus was tempted and knows that through which we are going.
b. Because of His being tempted, He can aid us, the meaning of succor, us who are tempted.
i. He suffered more than we will ever suffer.
ii. He was also tempted by Satan to sin.
c. We can look to Him to aid us in time of need as is also mentioned in chapter 4.
When The Lame Was Challenged 1-26-25 AM
I. The place (John 5:1-4).
a. There were several sources of water in Jerusalem.
b. One was near a gate in Jerusalem known as the sheep gate.
i. The KJV has sheep market in it, with market in italics.
ii. Sheep gate is what is found in newer translations.
iii. There is a sheep gate mentioned three times in the book of Nehemiah.
iv. The first time it is mentioned there is when it was built (Neh. 3:1).
c. Near this gate, which was probably for the entrance of sheep into the temple area to be used for sacrifices, was a pool.
d. This was pool was called Bethesda, which can mean house of mercy or house of outpouring.
e. This pool has five porches near it.
i. Some believe this means the porches around each side of the pool and one running down the middle of it.
ii. Others believe it to be the four porches around each side and a porch above one side that looked down on the pool.
f. Verse three tells us the types of people that surrounded the pool.
i. Impotent folk described as either blind, halt, withered.
ii. ESV has blind, lame, and paralyzed as do other newer translations.
g. What is interesting is what comes next, depending on which translation you use.
i. The KJV has “waiting on the moving of the water” and then verse 4.
ii. Some translations have the last phrase of three and all of verse four in brackets, while some only have that in a footnote.
h. The best manuscript evidence that is now possessed indicates those were added at some point by early scribes.
i. This would have been done to show why so many people with physical problems were gathered around the pool.
ii. Based on verse 7, for which there is overwhelming evidence of accuracy, this was the belief at the time.
i. The idea is that these people with various serious ailments gathered at this pool in order to be healed of those ailments.
i. They believed they could be healed when the water was stirring.
ii. The water being stirred was more than likely a result of the bubbling of a natural spring.
iii. It is highly unlikely that an angel stirred up the waters as in stated in the KJV.
iv. We know of the healing powers of hot springs and things like this.
v. It is probably something similar that was believed about this pool.
j. This is the place that Jesus comes on a visit to Jerusalem for a feast.
II. The person (John 5:5-7).
a. We are then told of a man who had been ill for 38 years.
b. We are not told how he became ill.
c. We are not told how he got to the pool.
d. We are told he was there and that his illness kept him from any quick movement.
e. Someone always beat him into the water.
f. Notice some things about this man:
i. There is no help for him.
ii. There is no knowledge of Jesus (John 5:13).
iii. There is no faith in Jesus.
g. Here is a man with very limited mobility and has been in that condition for many years.
h. We don’t know why Jesus chose this man.
i. There were a bunch of people in need of healing.
ii. This man had no idea who Jesus was.
iii. We don’t know what was special about this man that Jesus chose him to be healed.
i. Those are all things that are very secondary in nature, though our human minds would like to know all of the answers.
j. I want us to focus on the question Jesus asked: Will you be made whole?
k. This seems like a very dumb question doesn’t it?
i. What person who is paralyzed or unable to walk for some reason would not want to be restored to health?
ii. Why would Jesus ask this?
l. Jesus knew all things about the man right?
i. He knows all things about all men as stated in John 2:24-25.
ii. He knew the man had been ill for 38 years.
iii. He also knew the way the man thought.
m. His inability to walk probably allowed him to be provided for by others.
n. The thought of now walking may have scared the man because of the unknown of it.
o. It would take away his victim status.
i. We know people play on this a lot even today.
ii. He said I don’t have anyone – it isn’t my fault I can’t get in the water and someone else always beats me into it.
p. This was a truly tremendous question by Jesus.
III. The miracle (John 5:8-13).
a. Jesus did nothing but speak to the man.
b. Rise, take up your bed and walk.
c. Notice the words of verse 9:
i. Immediately – not after months of therapy.
ii. Whole – means completely well.
d. Think of the atrophy of the muscles because of 38 years of no use.
e. The tendons and ligaments had not been stretched or used in 38 years.
f. It didn’t matter.
i. By His words, Jesus showed His power over disease and time.
ii. This man was completely healed and strengthened.
g. This is similar to the miracle recorded in Acts 3 involving Peter and the lame man.
i. The man healed there was lame from birth.
ii. He ends up walking and jumping.
h. The bed, or pallet as newer translations have, was probably a bed of straw stuffed inside a sewn together blanket.
i. It could have been easily rolled up to carry.
ii. This man rolled it up and carried it off as he was walking.
i. We are told this was the sabbath and him carrying his bed on the sabbath caused him some problems.
j. This is not the point of our sermon so we will leave it alone.
k. But we do read that when he was asked who healed him that he had no idea who Jesus was.
l. There was no faith on the part of this man in any way.
m. This was an amazing miracle that should increase our faith in Jesus as God’s Son.
IV. The command (John 5:14-15).
a. The man had no idea who Jesus was.
b. Jesus went and found the man.
c. There is discussion why Jesus did and then about why the man went and told the leaders that it was Jesus, but I want us to focus on the command Jesus gave.
d. “Behold, you are made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto you.”
e. The phrase “sin no more” literally means “no longer continue in sin.”
i. It seems that the man’s physical condition was a result of something sinful.
ii. We are not told the cause of his condition, but it seems as if some sin he had committed was the cause of it.
f. What could be worse than being paralyzed in some fashion?
i. I can’t think of something worse than being unable to move myself or take care of myself.
ii. Always having to depend on others for things has to be extremely difficult.
g. What would be worse than his illness would be to be lost for eternity.
h. The man did not need to go back to doing what caused him to be paralyzed because it would also cause him to be eternally lost.
V. The application.
a. While we are in our sins, you and I are paralyzed by sin.
b. We need to decide if we want to be healed or whole spiritually.
i. There are a lot of reasons to reject the offer of Jesus to make us whole spiritually.
ii. We have to give up a lot.
iii. We have to rely on God and not ourselves.
iv. There is such a change of life that is required it could make us scared of the unknown – can we be faithful, can we give up sin?
c. Once we are made whole, we have to “sin no more.”
i. This doesn’t mean sinless perfection.
ii. 1 John 2:1.
d. Before becoming a child of God, we are paralyzed by sin.
e. Once we obey the gospel, we are to live for the Lord and not for ourselves in some sinful lifestyle.
When Faith Became Real 1-19-25 AM
I. The framework of the passage.
a. There is a timestamp on this passage just as there was in last week’s study.
i. The two days in verse 43 refers to the two days Jesus spent in Samaria.
ii. Jesus had been in Jerusalem after leaving Galilee.
iii. He then was preaching and teaching in Judea, the area outside of Jerusalem.
iv. When the Pharisees found out about what He was doing, Jesus decided to go back to Galilee to avoid confrontation.
v. On His way back, Jesus had the conversation at the well with the Samaritan women.
vi. Jesus stayed there for two days (John 4:40).
b. Jesus left there on the second day and went back into the area of Galilee where He had been earlier.
c. John 4:44 provides some difficulty.
i. Why would Jesus say that a prophet has no honor in his own country, or town as that word can be translated, but be going back to His area, Galilee?
ii. There are a few ways to look at this, but the one that is the simplest is usually the best.
iii. This statement is found in the other three accounts as well (Matt. 13:57; Mark 6:4; Luke 4:24).
iv. In each of these accounts, Jesus is referring to His city, which was Nazareth, which was in Galilee.
v. If you read John 4:1-3 and then go straight to verse 43, this is what makes the most sense.
d. People in the area are now ready for Jesus to come because some saw what Jesus had done in Jerusalem, according to verse 45.
i. Jesus had cast out the moneychangers and apparently done miracles at the feast.
ii. Some had been there and brought back word about what He had done.
iii. Now they wanted to see what Jesus could do.
iv. Something similar happened in the country of the Gadarenes, also known as the land of Gennesaret.
v. Jesus healed a possessed man, we know him as legion, and then the demons went into the swine and then they ran off a cliff.
vi. All the people wanted Him to leave (Lu. 8:37).
vii. Later, Jesus comes back to that area and they all begin to bring their sick and lame to Jesus to be healed (Mk. 6:53ff).
e. Jesus is now popular and comes back to Cana of Galilee.
i. We are told this is where the first miracle took place.
ii. This is a minor city remember.
f. We are then introduced to a certain nobleman.
i. The word for nobleman could be rightly translated as “little king.”
ii. It carries the idea of someone who walks in kings courts.
iii. Some newer translations have “royal official.”
iv. Br. Lipe, and others, suggest he was some type of advisor to Herod.
g. This official had a son who was very sick.
h. When he heard that Jesus was in Galilee, he came to Jesus and asked him to come heal his son.
i. Just a side note to show the accuracy of the Bible:
ii. He asked Jesus to come down to Capernaum, which was actually north of where Cana is believed to have been located.
iii. Cana was higher in elevation, because Capernaum was on the seashore.
i. Jesus first rebukes the man and we will see why in the next point.
j. The man pleads saying his son will die if Jesus does not come.
k. Jesus tells him to go back home because His son is going to live.
l. The man goes his way and, the next day, is met by some of his servants who tell him that his son is well.
m. He asks when and they tell him he the fever lifted the day before at the 7th hour.
n. The father knew that was the time he had been told by Jesus that his son would live.
o. We read that this was the second miracle that Jesus did in Galilee.
II. The father.
a. This man came looking for Jesus.
i. I can’t imagine being in this man’s shoes.
ii. He knows his son is dying.
iii. Maybe some of you have experienced the death of a child.
iv. You can relate somewhat to this man’s feelings.
b. That he came looking for Jesus sounds great doesn’t it?
c. Remember the response of Jesus to the first request: “Except you see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”
i. It is important to realize that when Jesus answers this way, He was not just talking to the official.
ii. Jesus was speaking to all those listening.
iii. They all wanted to see Jesus do the things He had done in Jerusalem.
d. The way this is written is that the man had done all he could do before he came to Jesus.
e. He had heard of Jesus and the things Jesus did while in Jerusalem so the official came to Jesus as a last resort.
f. Jesus does rebuke the man but the man does not go away.
i. It seems he believed that Jesus was His only hope for saving his son.
ii. He again asks Jesus to come to his home.
g. Jesus tells him to go on home and that his son lives.
i. Live is in the tense that shows continuous action.
ii. Jesus restored a whole life to the boy, healing him of the sickness is the idea.
h. This was good enough for the man.
i. Jesus showed His power over sickness and distance.
i. Jesus did not have to go the 15-20 miles to the man’s house.
ii. He did not have to physically touch the boy to heal him.
j. To the man’s credit, he believed what Jesus said and left Jesus.
k. Something important to note is that the father did not find out till the next day that his son was healed.
i. His servants that met him told him that the boy’s fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour.
ii. The seventh hour is 1 PM in our way of keeping time.
l. The father shows that he grew in faith from the time he came to Jesus to the time he left him.
III. The faith of the father.
a. I just mentioned that the father grew in faith from the time he came to Jesus to when he left Jesus.
b. His faith, to begin with, was very shallow.
i. He had heard about Jesus.
ii. He believed Jesus could perform miracles, but He did not believe Jesus was God’s only begotten Son.
c. After meeting Jesus, his faith grew to the point that he believed when Jesus told him his son would live.
i. Verse 50 says the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken.
ii. His faith deepened.
d. But notice verses 52-53.
i. The official asks his servants when the boy began to amend, or get better.
ii. They told him that the fever left at the 7th hour.
iii. He didn’t begin to get better, his health was completely restored all at once.
iv. At that point, when he realized the time matched the time when he was told by Jesus that boy lived, it says he believed again.
e. Notice what this level of belief led him to do.
i. His whole house believed.
ii. How could the whole house believe?
iii. The official had to tell them about Jesus.
f. His faith grew throughout this ordeal.
i. It started shallow – believing Jesus could do miracles.
ii. It deepened – he became trusting enough to believe Jesus that his son was going live.
iii. It solidified – he told those of his house exactly what Jesus did and now believed who Jesus was.
g. This is our faith journey.
i. We come to hear about Jesus at some point.
ii. We learn a difference between Jesus and all others.
iii. We grow to the point that we believe Jesus is who He says He is.
h. When we get to that point, we start to tell others about Jesus.
i. Br. Guy N. Woods wrote, “Before, he believed about Jesus; now, he believed on Jesus.”
j. We need to understand that Jesus was and is more than a miracle worker.
i. Jesus is able to restore life.
ii. Jesus is able to make whole that which was marred by sin.
k. Jesus is not performing miracles today.
i. He doesn’t need to.
ii. The record of His miracles are enough to cause belief (John 20:30-31).
Why Jesus Took On Flesh 1-12-25 PM
I. Jesus has dominion over the earth now (Hebrews 2:5).
A. The writer gets back to the subject discussed in chapter 1.
1. In that chapter, we saw that Jesus was better or greater than the angels because He had a better name.
2. He is also to be worshiped by the angels.
3. Jesus has an everlasting throne and He is eternal where they are created beings.
B. The writer, after having warned his readers about the dangers of drifting away from the safehaven of Jesus and the gospel, points out that Jesus is greater than the angels because the earth was never made subject to them.
C. The world to come mentioned is the earth during the Christian dispensation.
D. There is no doubt that angels served and continue to serve an important role in the providential working of God.
1. They are God’s messengers.
2. They are extremely powerful.
a. One angel destroyed 185,000 soldiers of the Assyrian army.
b. One angel destroyed over 70,000 Israelites when David sinned by having the people numbered.
3. They played a great role in revealing parts of God’s plan to save mankind.
a. They delivered messages to God’s chosen people.
b. They helped deliver the Mosaic Law.
c. An angel spoke to Zacharias about John the Immerser and to Mary about Jesus.
E. As powerful and as important as they are, none of them were ever given dominion or power over the earth.
F. Jesus was.
1. Matthew 28:18.
2. Ephesians 1:21-23.
3. Colossians 1:16-17.
G. No angel was ever given dominion over the earth as Jesus was.
II. Mankind was given dominion over the earth (Hebrews 2:6-8).
A. The writer was then inspired to do something very interesting.
B. He was inspired to quote Psalm 8:4-6.
1. This is an interesting Psalm.
2. It is a Psalm that describes the dominion over the earth that God has given man and wonder at the thought that God is One who cares about man.
C. The Hebrews writer applies this Psalm to Jesus and makes it a Messianic Psalm.
1. God gave man dominion over the earth in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 1:26-28).
2. We know this is the meaning because of how the Psalm finishes (Psalm 8:7-8).
D. Man is “a little lower than angels” in creation.
1. Angels have powers of which man will never be capable.
2. Despite that fact, God crowned man or bestowed upon man great glory and honor.
3. We are made in the image of God.
4. We have been given dominion over the physical world.
E. God has placed all things under us in the Garden, but, sadly, sin took some of that dominion away from us.
1. The Edenic world was perfect and all things were in subjection to man.
2. However, sin took away much of our dominion.
a. We don’t have control over the length of our lives as we would have with access to the tree of life.
b. Animals are fought with now instead of all under our subjection.
c. We can’t even control ourselves some of the time.
III. The reason Jesus took on flesh (Hebrews 2:9).
A. Jesus took on flesh in order to suffer for us and gain dominion over all things, which allow Him to be the fulfillment of Psalm 8.
B. Jesus became lower than the angels, at least for a time.
1. This is when He took on flesh.
2. By taking on humanity, Jesus took on the state of them in being lower than the angels.
C. The Jews would probably have argued in two ways:
1. Jesus was lower than the angels.
2. Jesus suffered and died.
D. The writer takes away their arguments by showing why Jesus was lower than the angels and had to die.
E. He was crowned with glory and honor because He suffered (Philippians 2:8-9).
F. The reason for His suffering was because of God’s grace.
1. We did nothing to deserve this.
2. It was all because of divine favor shown to mankind.
G. The scope of Jesus’ death was for all mankind.
1. The idea of Jesus only dying for a few is foreign to this verse and all the Bible.
2. Jesus died for every person.
3. There is no one on the face of the earth for whom Jesus didn’t die.
4. God wants everyone to be saved so Jesus died for everyone.
5. Listen to what Barnes, a denominationalist wrote about this passage: “for each and all ‑ whether Jew or Gentile, bond or free, high or low, elect or non‑elect. How could words affirm more clearly that the atonement made by the Lord Jesus was unlimited in its nature and design? How can we express that idea in more clear or intelligible language? That this refers to the atonement is evident ‑ for it says that he “tasted death” for them. The friends of the doctrine of general atonement do not desire any other than Scripture language in which to express their belief. It expresses it exactly ‑ without any need of modification or explanation. The advocates of the doctrine of limited atonement cannot thus use Scripture language to express their belief. They cannot incorporate it with their creeds that the Lord Jesus “tasted death for every man.” They are compelled to modify it, to limit it, to explain it, in order to prevent error and misconception. But that system cannot be true which requires people to shape and modify the plain language of the Bible in order to keep people from error!”
H. Jesus came to this earth and did many things.
1. He taught people how to live.
2. He exemplified a higher lifestyle.
3. He changed the way people lived and acted towards one another.
4. However, the central reason He came was to suffer for us and taste of death for everyone.
When The Wine Ran Out 1-12-25 AM
I. The party (John 2:1-2).
a. We are told there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee.
i. We don’t know the exact location of this town now.
ii. It is believed to have been 8-10 miles from Nazareth.
b. Marriages in that day were far different than those of today.
i. They lasted a week.
ii. The final night, the seventh night of the wedding, is when the bride and groom would move into their home together.
iii. The groom was expected to have food and wine for all that would be there.
c. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was there.
i. We don’t know why.
ii. There are a lot of ideas about it but the Bible does not say why.
d. Jesus was also invited to this wedding as were His disciples.
i. These disciples were probably the ones mentioned in chapter one.
ii. Andrew and Peter, Philip, Nathaniel, and the unnamed disciple, whom most believe is John, the writer of this account.
e. This would have been a very festive occasion and most of the people from the town would be there as well as some from out of town.
II. The predicament (John 2:3-5).
a. The KJV says they “wanted wine.”
i. The NAS says “When the wine ran out.”
ii. This is the idea.
b. This would have been a terrible predicament for the groom.
i. He was tasked with making sure that all the people would be fed and have wine to drink.
ii. To not have enough was going to be terribly embarrassing for him.
iii. I have read that it was even possible for him to be taken to court over it.
iv. Whether that is true or not is not fully known, but for that even to be considered shows what a faux pas this really was.
c. What do you do when you run out of wine?
d. Mary thought the thing to do was to ask Jesus to handle it.
i. She came to Jesus and said “They have no wine.”
ii. Like, here, handle this problem.
e. We don’t know that she was expecting a miracle.
i. Nothing Jesus had been doing should have given her this expectation.
ii. It may be that she was asking her son for help.
iii. Some believe that she was like the wedding coordinator or even the caterer.
iv. Others believe this was some family member’s wedding and that is why Mary was concerned.
f. Whatever the case, she has now made this a problem for Jesus to handle.
g. Jesus says, “Woman, what have I to do with you?”
i. Some have taken this as a rude statement by Jesus.
ii. Remember though, Jesus used this same term when speaking to her on the cross.
iii. It literally says, “What to Me and to you?”
1. Br. Lipe, in his commentary on John, says this was a Semitic idiom.
2. He then quoted D.A. Carson, who stated that this expression always denoted “distance between the two parties.”
3. What Jesus is doing is marking a change in relationship between Himself and His mother.
4. If Jesus has to handle this matter, it is going to show a distinction between Him and her that hasn’t been there as yet.
h. This is seen by what Jesus says next: “Mine hour is not yet come.”
i. When this phrase is found in John’s account, it has to do with the time of the death of Jesus.
ii. Here, and in John 7:30 and John 8:20 we read hour not yet come: It is not time for Jesus to die.
iii. John 12:23 and John 13:1 we read hour is or was come.
iv. Same thing when Jesus is speaking to the Father in John 17:1: it was time for Jesus to die.
i. Jesus knew that if He performed a miracle here, the clock to Calvary started ticking.
j. We don’t know if Mary fully understood what Jesus meant but she simply told the servants to do whatever Jesus said do.
III. The provision (John 2:6-10).
a. At this feast, there were six stone waterpots used for the various purification acts of the Jews.
i. These would hold water to be used for the washing of hands, head, and feet at various times for various reasons.
ii. They would also be used to wash the vessels used in food preparation and eating.
iii. They would hold 20-30 gallons.
b. Jesus told the servants to fill the waterpots up and they filled them to the brim.
i. So Jesus uses these waterpots that would have had unclean water in them.
ii. He didn’t tell them to pour out what water was in them and fill it with new.
iii. He just told them to fill them up, which they did, to the brim of the pots.
c. People read a lot into this section.
i. They say six is the number of man, seven being the divine number.
ii. They say to the brim because without Jesus, there is something missing in our lives and only He can completely fill them up.
iii. Other things like this have been drawn out of the text.
iv. I think there happened to be six pots there.
v. I think Jesus wanted them filled to make sure there would be enough.
d. One thing I do want to take from this is: Jesus did use something common that the people would throw out, this wash water, and make it glorious.
i. That water was good for nothing.
ii. That is, until Jesus focused His attention on it.
iii. This is the way we are.
e. Once they have filled the pots, Jesus tells them to draw some out and take it to the governor, or headwaiter.
i. He was like the master of ceremonies.
ii. They did exactly as Jesus told them.
f. Jesus did absolutely nothing but tell the servants what to do.
g. As we see from verse nine, the water had changed to wine.
h. Jesus shows us His power over nature.
i. This is a twelve month process according to what I have read.
ii. To go from the grape to drinkable wine takes a while.
iii. This changed immediately.
i. We should not be surprised by this because of how John begins this letter (John 1:1-3).
j. Jesus is powerful enough to make all things, surely He can make water into wine.
k. When the governor gets the wine he calls over the groom.
i. He says people generally bring the good stuff first then when people are used to it, the lesser quality stuff is used.
ii. The wine Jesus made, unsurprisingly, was excellent.
l. We discussed a few weeks ago about the use of alcohol and whether or not this was alcoholic wine.
i. I won’t do deep dive back into that.
ii. However, the drinking water of the day was not good.
iii. Jews knew drunkenness was sinful.
iv. To deal with this, they would dilute the water with wine to both purify the water and dampen the effects of the wine.
v. They would do so from 3 to 10 parts water to 1 part wine.
m. There was no doubting what Jesus had done.
i. Not everyone there knew what Jesus did.
ii. But it had an effect on those that did.
IV. The purpose (John 2:11).
a. Remember the purpose of the book of John (John 20:30-31).
b. This is exactly what took place.
c. Jesus showed His glory, at least to those who knew what was going on.
i. This idea is also seen in John 1 (John 1:14).
ii. His ability to do this proved to all that Jesus was different from all others.
d. It caused His disciples to believe in Him.
e. This is the purpose of all miracles or signs.
i. The NAS has signs.
ii. The miracles, this one included, were acts done to signify exactly who Jesus was.
f. This miracle accomplished its intended purpose: to create belief in unbelievers.
(The four main point titles came from a sermon by John MacArthur but the sermon material is mine)
New Year, New Me 12-15-24 AM
I. A new me in relationship to sin.
a. 1 Thessalonians 5:22.
i. Flee fornication (1 Corinthians 6:18).
ii. Flee idolatry (1 Corinthians 10:14).
iii. Flee youthful lusts (2 Timothy 2:22).
b. It is easy to see from these and other verses that we are to stay as far from sin as possible.
c. Yet how many of us walk as close to sin as we can?
d. How many of us allow some type of sin to stay in our lives?
e. It may be this new year that you want to be new in getting rid of some sin that you have been allowing to stay in your life.
f. It may be a sin of the tongue.
i. Gossiping is the past time of many people but it is a sin (Romans 1:30 - backbiters carries this idea).
ii. Lying is an easy habit to get into and a hard one to get out of (Revelation 21:8).
g. It may be the sin of a bad attitude.
i. Some are quick to think evil of brethren (1 Corinthians 13:5).
ii. It may be that we are unloving towards others (1 John 2:10-11).
h. It may be the use of tobacco that harms the body or the use of language that is vulgar (Colossians 3:8).
i. Whatever sin that it may be, now is the best time to make a new me when it comes to removing sin from your life.
II. A new me in relationship to study.
a. There is only one way that the word of Christ can dwell in us richly and that is through study.
b. A lot of people are like one lady who had a family heirloom Bible on her coffee table. It was a beautiful old book and the man painting her house commented on its beauty and then said it doesn’t really matter how it looks on the outside because what is on the inside is much more important. She replied, “Oh yes. We have family records and births and marriages and deaths that go so far back, all recorded in that Bible; we could never replace them.”
c. Children of God must be students of God’s word.
d. As inspired as Paul was, he still wanted the Old Testament parchments brought to him by Timothy (2 Timothy 4:13).
i. We have all heard of the study habits of men like Gus Nichols and Guy N. Woods.
ii. The reason that they studied was that they knew they had room to grow and mature as Christians.
e. We need Christians that are daily Bible readers and students of what they read.
f. Br. Woods said that if Christians would spend 15 minutes a day in real study that they would see real growth in their spiritual lives.
g. 2 Timothy 2:15 tells us to give diligence, the meaning of the word “study”, to show ourselves approved to God, one who handles God’s word correctly.
i. This passage indicates that we must use God’s word for the purpose that it was intended.
ii. The only way that we can do that is if we study it.
h. We are commanded to know God and the only way to get to know God is through a study of His word.
i. Someone once said, “ A thumbprint on the Bible is more important than a footprint on the moon.”
j. Right now is the best time to make a new me when it comes to being a better Bible student
III. A new me in relationship to service.
a. What are you doing to serve God and others?
b. Our Lord was a servant to others.
i. He brought the truth to mankind (John 1:17).
ii. He healed others.
iii. He washed feet to illustrate the necessity of service in His kingdom (John 13:14-15).
c. There are many areas in which we can serve.
i. We can do things on our own that others don’t have to know about.
ii. We can get involved in the works of this congregation.
iii. There are always sick who need visiting.
iv. There are always those who are absent who need a call.
d. We need to ask ourselves, “What have done to help Blackwater to grow in 2024?”
i. If it was a lot, then keep doing what you are doing.
ii. If you can do more then 2025 is the time to do it.
e. Right now is the best time to make a new me when it comes to serving in the Lord’s church.
IV. A new me in relationship to salvation.
a. With a gathering of this size, there is no doubt that there are some who ended 2007 in sin.
b. It may be you are a child of God who has some sin that you know you need to get rid of as we have mentioned already.
i. The reason you are need to get rid of it is because you are lost.
ii. Not just because it would be a good thing to do.
c. It may be that you are a child of God but have not been studying or serving as you know you can.
i. Simply coming to worship and Bible class and doing nothing else to grow is not God’s plan for you.
ii. God expects study and service in the life of His children.
d. It also could be the case, and I know it is with some here in this audience, that you have never rendered obedience to Christ.
i. This morning, you are lost because you have not obeyed the commandments of God (Matthew 7:21).
ii. By obeying the Lord’s commands in regard to salvation, you can become a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17).
iii. There is nothing else that produces results with God than being a new creature (Galatians 6:15).
iv. The result with God is that He adds us to the Lord’s church when we are obedient (Acts 2:47).
e. If you really want to be a new me in the new year, you need to obey the gospel, God’s only power to save.
f. Right now is the best time to make a new me when it comes to salvation.
Excel In The Grace Of Giving 12-8-24 PM
I. They gave because of their connection to God.
a. Notice verse 1 (2 Cor. 8:1).
b. Some people have the idea that giving is it to the church, or even to the elders.
i. Nothing could be further from the case.
ii. When the plates are passed around, that is not going to the church or the elders.
c. Our giving is to God – God is involved and there is a connection made to God.
d. The Macedonians understood this.
i. This is shown in verse 5 (2 Cor. 8:5).
ii. Before they gave the first coin, they had made a strong connection to God by giving themselves to God.
e. When we have a real connection with God, there will be a great joy in giving.
f. Luke 6:38.
i. Our Lord taught us to give.
ii. When we give, we will get in return.
iii. But we won’t give until we have a true connection with God.
g. How many of you remember dial-up internet?
i. What can be obtained through a good connection, a high-speed one, to the internet is infinite nearly.
ii. Old dial-up connections took forever and it was almost faster to go to the library and look it up.
h. Some want a high-speed connection to God and His resources but are making a dial-up effort to access it.
i. Malachi 3:10 is God’s promise.
i. This was spoken to challenge the Israelites to be the givers they were supposed to be.
ii. God still challenges us today with the same promise.
j. Notice how their giving was tied to God’s grace (2 Cor. 8:1).
i. When we begin to understand the greatness of grace, giving is not hard.
ii. What God has in store for us is far more valuable than what is in our bank accounts.
k. There was a tremendous connection to God for these brethren, allowing them to excel in giving.
II. They gave their best.
a. 2 Cor. 8:3.
b. The question of who was controlling their lives did not come up with the Macedonians.
d. After Paul used the Macedonians as an example of excelling in giving to encourage the Corinthians to do so, notice what he wrote (2 Cor. 9:7).
e. The Macedonians gave from their heart, just as Paul encouraged the Corinthians to do.
f. All of this ties in to verse 5 as well – it is because they gave themselves to God first.
g. When we give ourselves to God, our best will naturally follow.
III. They provided for others.
a. 2 Cor. 8:4.
b. They didn’t see giving as a burden but as a joy.
i. Their giving was a way to meet the needs of their brethren.
ii. Heb. 13:16.
iii. Gal. 6:9.
c. Their giving bonded them together more closely.
i. Think of the times that a collection has been made for something specific.
ii. I believe most of us realized that we were working together for the good of someone else.
iii. When we add a cause to the mix, giving is no longer viewed as a dreaded word.
iv. The early church really understood this and rose to the occasion (Ac. 2:44-47).
d. I believe the Macedonians understood the concept about which Paul wrote in Romans 2:6-7 – giving is a way to focus on eternity, not just the present.
e. They didn’t give because they wanted to go to heaven, but because they were going to heaven.
i. We can be good givers but miss out on eternal life.
ii. We can be good givers but be far from the kingdom of God.
iii. Giving is simply an indicator of faithfulness.
f. The Macedonians excelled in giving because they were providing for others and there are plenty of opportunities for us to do that as well.
From an article by Stan Toler
Don’t Get Off Course 12-8-24 AM
I. The danger (Hebrews 2:1).
A. You have heard that if you see the word “therefore”, you need to stop and see what it is therefore.
1. This directs us back to what the inspired writer mentioned about the Lord being better than angels in the first chapter.
2. Since Jesus is better He deserves more attention paid to what He has to say than anything angels may have said.
B. There are two sailing terms in this verse.
1. The first is the word translated “give the more earnest heed”.
a. It carries the meaning of pay attention.
b. A ship’s captain had to pay attention to where he was in order to hold course.
2. The second is the word translated “let them slip”.
a. It literally means “to flow by”.
b. A ship’s captain could drift past where he needed to be without careful attention being paid.
3. One writer said the verse carries the idea of “the picture of a ship "slipping" past its haven because the pilot has not paid "attention" to the course”.
C. Our haven is the Lord and His will.
1. John tells us numerous times to abide, or take up residence, in Christ.
2. If we aren’t careful, we can slip right past the Lord and out of our safe haven.
D. The writer lets us know it can happen at any time.
1. Leaving the Lord rarely takes place over night.
2. It generally takes a little time to go from faithfulness to forsaking the Lord.
3. It happens in little increments.
4. Just a little here and a little there and then, the next thing you know you are out in the stormy seas of life away from the safe haven of Jesus.
E. What Jesus has said to us is, by far, too important to treat lightly.
1. Attention and earnestness should be given to the gospel message.
2. This is not some message from man, but from the Lord as the writer will later describe.
II. The declaration (Hebrews 2:2-3a).
A. The writer, by inspiration, begins the process of making a declaration.
1. He will do it in the form of a rhetorical question.
2. His point is to get his readers to see how dangerous it is to let one’s faith slip.
B. He uses an “if” statement to compare the Old Testament to the New Testament.
1. He refers to the Old Testament as the “word spoken by angels”.
2. We are nowhere told directly that angels had a hand in bringing the message to Moses, but there are passages that refer to it as fact.
a. Deuteronomy 33:2.
b. Galatians 3:19.
c. Acts 7:53.
C. The Old Testament, though delivered in some part by angels, who are lesser than our Lord, was reliable and trustworthy.
1. Those that put their faith and practice in it did so because of its source, God.
2. When they did so, it was completely capable of doing that which it said it would do.
D. When it was disobeyed or gone beyond, punishment was meted out under it.
1. Numerous are the instances in the Old Testament where a person or group of people disobeyed some aspect of Mosaic Law and were punished for it.
2. Nadab and Abihu, Achan, the Israelites in the wilderness, and later the Israelites in the promised land all are examples.
E. The writer is saying that even this law that was given by lesser beings than our Lord had punishments given out when it was disobeyed.
F. If such is the case, how would one escape punishment if they disobeyed or left one given by the Lord?
1. Notice that the writer calls it a “great salvation”.
a. The greatness is because of the price paid for it as well as the completeness of the salvation.
b. One writer pointed out the greatness of it this way: “ the true greatness of it is apparent because of: (1) the greatness of the Saviour who achieved it; (2) the greatness of the disaster from which it rescues the sinner; (3) the greatness of the eternal reward in heaven provided by it; (4) the greatness of the Saviour's love that underlies it; (5) the greatness of the adversary who opposes it; (6) the greatness of that multitude who shall receive it; and (7) the greatness of those certainties upon which it is grounded”.
2. This salvation can simply be neglected.
a. It is hard to imagine that one would simply fail to regard something so wonderful and great.
b. Yet, we know people who neglect it all the time.
G. We need to understand that if we allow ourselves to drift from the gospel message for any reason, neglect or outright rebellion, we are going to receive a great punishment.
1. If a lesser law dispensed punishment, would not a greater law also do that?
2. This law was extremely expensive to bring into effect, so there must be consequences for breaking it.
III. The deliverance of the message (Hebrews 2:3-4).
A. This new message is far greater because it was spoken of first, by the Lord.
1. Our Lord, on numerous occasions, spoke of His dying for the sins of the world.
2. He often spoke about how people must come to Him in order to be saved.
B. It was not brought in by mere angels, but by the Son of God Himself.
C. This also lets us know that only what the Lord spoke and had others speak is what is to be followed.
1. We can’t find salvation in that which man teaches.
2. It has to come from the Lord in order to be followed and to lead to salvation.
D. It was then confirmed by the apostles.
1. They did so by backing up that which they spoke with miracles, signs, and wonders.
2. They were able to do this by the power of God.
3. Their ability to perform these miraculous deeds was given them by God.
4. God bore witness to the truthfulness of what was being taught by allowing them to perform those deeds to confirm what was being taught.
A Thankful Man 12-1-24 AM
I. For the gift of Christ (2 Cor. 9:15).
a. The ninth chapter of 2 Corinthians deals with giving properly.
b. Paul was trying to encourage the Corinthians to come through with the giving they had promised to do.
c. Paul closes this section with a reminder of the greatest gift of all – the Son of God.
i. One writer stated: The unutterable gift is the mystery of the cross. No tongue can tell of its majesty.
ii. Coffman wrote of how there is debate about what this gift is but the word translated “unspeakable” sealed in his mind the fact that it has to be Jesus.
d. I probably don’t need to tell us that we should be thankful for Jesus.
e. However, it is easy to be the least thankful for the most important things.
f. The gift of Jesus on our behalf should provoke us to be thankful at all times for Him.
g. We should be thankful for Him because of what He gave up to come (Php. 2:4-9).
h. We should be thankful for the teaching He did (over 20 times in the gospels it is said about Jesus that He taught).
i. We should be thankful for His willingness to suffer for us (Lu. 17:25 – speaking about the end of the temple and Judaism, Jesus said He first had to suffer).
j. For this reason, Paul was thankful for God’s unspeakable gift and we should be as well.
II. For the triumph in Christ (2 Cor. 2:14).
a. Have you ever heard the message of the book of Revelation?
b. The message is “Christians win!”
c. This is what Paul is saying in this verse.
i. Paul had been separated from Timothy and Titus.
ii. He had gone to look for Titus in Troas but did not find him there.
iii. Despite that fact, Paul still felt triumphant because he was in Christ.
d. The word was used to describe the triumphant Roman generals entering Rome upon return from victories in battle.
e. Paul viewed himself as being led by Christ, the one who gained the triumph.
f. It doesn’t matter the circumstances, we are triumphant in Christ.
g. Paul was in a bad situation.
i. He was concerned about the news he had gotten from Corinth.
ii. He was concerned about Timothy and Titus.
iii. He was in Athens all alone and his life was in danger.
h. Despite these bad things happening, Paul stopped writing about what was going on in Corinth to declare that he was triumphant in Christ.
i. It doesn’t matter what is going in life, as long as we are in Christ, we are triumphant.
j. This is why Paul could say he was in a difficult place with his thoughts about dying or staying here on earth (Php. 1:23-24).
k. No matter what bad news we get or bad situations in which we may find ourselves, we are triumphant in Christ.
l. Christians win and for this we ought to be extremely thankful!
III. For the victory over death (1 Cor. 15:57).
a. 1 Corinthians 15 is all about the resurrection of the dead.
b. Paul makes the point that if there is no resurrection of the dead, then the Christian life is not worth living (1 Cor. 15:16-19).
c. But, because of Jesus, there is victory over death – there will be a resurrection of the dead (1 Cor. 15:51-56).
d. How many people have you met that are afraid of death?
i. I’ve met some that stated it.
ii. I’ve met some that haven’t stated it with words but by their actions.
e. As Christians, we don’t have to have a fear of death.
i. We know what comes next.
ii. We may not know everything about it, but we know of the rest that awaits us.
iii. We know that this life is not all there is.
iv. We know something grand and wonderful awaits us.
f. It is because of the victory that Jesus obtained over death that we are triumphant in Christ.
g. God allows us to share in the victory of Jesus over death, and, with Paul, we should be extremely thankful for this.
IV. For his fellow Christians (Col. 1:3-4; 1 Th. 1:2; 2 Th. 2:13).
a. Paul often told those to whom he was writing how thankful he was for them.
b. The Colossians were personally unknown to Paul because he had never been there.
c. The Thessalonians had been taught and converted by Paul on his first missionary journey.
d. Paul was thankful for all of them.
e. Do we ever thank God for our brethren in our private prayers?
f. There is so much to be thankful for in this room.
i. There are older members who have been faithful in trying circumstances.
ii. There are families that worship together.
iii. There are young people battling the world.
iv. There are a many new converts.
g. There is so much to be thankful for in regards to being a part of our great brotherhood.
i. We hear of relief work being done in North Carolina by brethren.
ii. We hear of various mission efforts.
iii. We hear of individual Christians doing wonderful things to help others and spread the gospel.
iv. We all have Christians friends who live in other places who are faithful to God.
h. Paul was thankful for his brethren, wherever they were and whether or no he personally knew them.
We should be as well because we are blessed to be a part of the greatest group of people on the face of the earth!
Jesus Is Superior To Angels 11-24-24 PM
I. He has a greater name (Hebrews 1:4-5).
a. I really like the ESV rendering of this verse: “having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs”.
i. The name Jesus inherited is told us in the next verse, which is a quote from Psalm 2:7.
ii. Jesus is the Son of God.
iii. The second quotation is from 2 Samuel 7:14.
iv. This is the chapter we looked at a few weeks ago in which the promise of God to David to bring the Messiah through his lineage is recorded.
v. This was a prophecy that the Father would send His Son to be King.
b. God attested to this fact at the baptism of Jesus and on the mount of transfiguration (Matthew 3:17; 17:5).
c. John 3:16 plainly tells us that Jesus is the “only begotten Son of God “.
d. In societies where titles are inherited, someone with a higher title is superior to someone with a lower title.
e. In this case, Jesus being the Son of God, is far superior to angels.
f. In fact, angels serve the Son (1 Peter 3:22).
g. Being Son is far superior to being a servant.
II. He is to be worshiped by the angels (Hebrews 1:6).
a. We noticed in the sermon on the first three verses of this chapter that Jesus created all things.
i. Angels are included in all things.
ii. Thus, as their Creator, they are to worship Him.
b. It is interesting that every time a person attempted to worship an angel, the angel would refuse their worship and point them to God (Revelation 19:10; 22:9).
c. The Lord never refused worship because He is deity and is worthy of worship.
d. About this Robert Milligan wrote, “...the fact remains indisputable, that by the decree of Jehovah all the angels of glory are required to bow down and worship him who is the First-begotten from the dead, the Firstborn of the whole creation”
i. Angels are tremendous beings.
ii. One angel is said to have destroyed 70,000 men in Israel (2 Samuel 24:15).
iii. Angels are swift and carry out the commands of God, but they still must offer worship to the Son.
III. He has an everlasting throne (Hebrews 1:7-9).
a. Verse 7, which is a quote from Psalm 104:4, attests to the amazing power of angels.
b. But they have not been given a throne like Jesus has.
i. The writer then quoted from Psalm 45:6-7.
ii. This looks back to the promise God gave David that one would sit on his throne.
c. Because of the great work of Jesus, He has been placed far above all others.
d. Jesus is the King over His kingdom.
e. This should remind us of what the angel told Mary (Luke 1:30-33).
f. Notice also, that this passage refers to Jesus as God: “Your throne, o God, is forever and ever.
i. Jesus was and is deity.
ii. John 1:1.
g. Daniel saw the Lord receiving this throne and kingdom (Daniel 7:13-14).
h. Christ has the right to the throne because of His love and dedication to righteousness and His hatred of evil.
IV. He is eternal (Hebrews 1:10-12).
a. Angels are created beings because they were created by Jesus.
b. Jesus was able to create them, as He did all things, because He is eternal.
c. The writer then quoted Psalm 102:25-27.
i. His creative powers are mentioned in verse 10.
ii. All those things created will perish, but He who is eternal will remain.
iii. His years will have no end.
d. As created beings, angels had a beginning point.
e. We, as created beings, had a beginning point and our eternal souls will then go on to spend eternity in one of two places, which is the same for the angels.
f. Incidentally, this is a passage that proves the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which states that the quantity of matter remains the same but that the quality of it is winding down.
i. If evolution were true, the quality of matter would be getting better.
ii. However, everything deteriorates and this is a law of science.
iii. Evolution has to break its own laws in order to be true.
g. The material creation is one day going away, folded up like a blanket.
h. Jesus is not, nor ever will be, for He is eternal.
V. His enemies will all bow before Him (Hebrews 1:13-14).
a. As great as angels are, and they are at work through the divine will of God for us today in some fashion, their enemies will never bow down to them.
b. Only the Son will have this reaction to Him.
c. The writer quoted Psalm 110:1.
i. At some point, every enemy of the Lord will bow down before Him.
ii. Philippians 2:9-11; Romans 14:11.
d. The last enemy is death (1 Corinthians 15:25-28).
e. As powerful and amazing as angels are, they will never be bowed down to by their enemies.
For Preaching Against The Use Of Alcohol 11-24-24 AM
I. What did Jesus do?
A. There are many that believe with this first miracle performed by Jesus, that He turned water into alcoholic wine.
1. In a book entitled “Pastoral Psychology,” the author stated, “At the very least the story of Cana’s wedding feast indirectly approves the use of alcoholic beverages.”
2. People, apparently even those counseling preachers, make the assumption that the wine was intoxicating.
B. What Jesus did was miraculously turn water into the juice of the grape.
1. The word translated “wine” in this passage is the Greek word “oinos” and it can mean either intoxicating wine or grape juice.
2. The context of the word always determines its meaning.
C. Those that say that this was intoxicating wine will condemn drunkenness and use verses like:
1. 1 Peter 4:3.
2. Ephesians 5:18.
D. They will then say that Jesus approved of social drinking but not drunkenness and this wedding, being a social occasion, proves that.
E. The thing is, this thinking is contradicts itself.
1. They would agree with you that excess is wrong and that drunkenness is excess.
2. They will hold the view that “well drunk” in 2:10 means to get drunk or become intoxicated.
3. If that is true, then Jesus supplied a large quantity of intoxicating wine to people who were already drunk.
4. The dilemma is, either Jesus was not guilty of sin or that He was guilty of sin.
5. If you believe that contributing to someone’s sin is not sin then you can keep this view, but you would have to be pretty stupid to think that.
6. Or, you have to believe that Jesus sinned, which contradicts clear scripture:
a. Hebrews 4:15.
b. 1 Peter 2:22.
F. Let’s focus on the phrase “well drunk” for a moment.”
1. The head of the marriage feast said that the best wine is served first and when the people have “well drunk” the cheap stuff is brought out.
2. The phrase under consideration can mean one is drunk or inebriated.
3. Often, it is used to mean simply to drink enough or drunk largely.
a. The same phrase is found in the Septuagint Version in Psalm 23:5 - my cup runneth over.
b. It is used in Isaiah 58:11 to mean a garden watered sufficiently.
c. Other Old Testament passages show the same idea.
4. If it does mean the people were inebriated, then you would have Jesus being like a bartender who keeps pouring drinks for those who’ve already had too much to drink.
G. Not only that, but the phrase “good wine” is evidence that the wine Jesus miraculously made was not alcoholic.
1. The head of the feast knew immediately by the flavor of the wine that it was better.
2. If he had been intoxicated, he would not have known if it was better or not
H. For Jesus to have done what they say He did, He would have violated the Mosaic Law:
1. Habakkuk 2:15 - He would have at least violated the spirit of this woe, if not the letter of it.
2. Proverbs 31:4-5.
I. Drunkenness implies the amount of ethyl alcohol which is consumed in drinking.
1. The word “drunk” in the Greek means to begin to be softened, to grow drunk (marking the beginning of the process).
2. There are degrees of drunkenness and a person begins to be drunk when they begin to drink.
3. The AMA has told us that there is no minimum blood alcohol level which can be set at which there will be absolutely no effect.
4. Whenever an alcoholic beverage is ingested, the person begins to be softened and is drunk to that degree.
5. The effects of alcohol begin with the first drink and progresses further as more alcohol is consumed.
J. The object of the miracle that Jesus performed was to make known His glory (John 2:11).
K. The nature of Jesus shows that He went about doing good (Acts 10:38), and that He was holy and harmless (Hebrews 7:26).
L. Jesus, as God is the giver of every good and perfect gift, and we know the destructive nature of alcohol is neither good nor perfect.
M. To have turned the water into alcoholic wine would have not glorified Him and would have been totally against His nature.
II. “Wine” doesn’t always mean alcoholic wine.
A. There are thirteen words in the Greek and Hebrew that are translated “wine.”
1. There are three that are the most commonly used.
2. In the Hebrew, yayin and tirosch and in the Greek, oinos.
B. There are times when they are used in a condemning way.
1. Proverbs 20:1.
2. Proverbs 23:31.
C. There are times when they are used in an approved way.
1. Psalm 104:15.
2. Isaiah 65:8.
3. Isaiah 55:1.
D. When you see these verses, and others could be mentioned, you should be able to tell that the context determines whether it is approved or condemned.
III. Why drinking alcohol is unacceptable.
A. First of all, many are going to point to Paul telling Timothy to take a little wine for medicinal purposes.
1. If it is the case that was alcoholic wine, which is debatable, it was for medicinal purposes, not social ones.
2. I know that doctors have prescribed wine for heart patients.
3. If such is the case, God knows if you are using it for medicinal purposes or recreational.
B. We are talking right now about the use of it recreationally, not medicinally.
C. Drunkards cannot enter heaven (Galatians 5:19-21; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11).
D. Why does God condemn it?
1. It causes hurt, heartache and many problems.
a. Alcohol, according to the World Health Organization, is responsible for nearly 4% of all deaths, which is more than AIDS, tuberculosis or violence.
b. In the US, its abuse is the 3rd leading cause of preventable death.
c. We all know of someone who has been destroyed or destroyed others because of the use of alcohol.
2. Think of the physical toll it takes on the bodies of its users.
3. Suicide rates for alcoholics are much higher than for non-drinkers.
E. Notice the general teaching of the Bible:
1. The Bible not only condemns drunkenness but contains strong warnings about alcohol’s inherent dangers (Proverbs 20:1 ; Isaiah 28:7).
2. The Bible teaches us to care for our bodies (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
3. It commands us to abstain from being a hindrance to others (Romans 14:13).
4. It teaches us to be in control of our minds and thoughts (1 Peter 1:13).
F. When you look at its teachings about all things, they all point to the condemnation of the use of alcohol, not its moderate intake.
G. The only difference between a social drinker and a drunk is the difference of degree, not kind.