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Articles from Pastor Jon's Blog

John 5:31-32 2007-08-04 00:00:00 John 5 - A Healing and a Discourse D. The three-fold witness to who Jesus is. 1. (31-32) Self-testimony was not reliable in a court of law; but Jesus has far more than His own testimony regarding who He is. "If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true. There is another who bears witness of Me, and I know that the witness which He witnesses of Me is true." a. If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true: This principle is established by Deuteronomy 19:15, which says by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established. Jesus has just told the Jews that He is God, but His testimony alone is not enough. b. There is another who bears witness of Me: In the following passage, Jesus calls forth three absolutely credible witnesses who will testify that He is equal to the Father. But these enemies of Jesus will reject these witnesses and their testimony. Unless otherwise noted all Scripture is taken from the New King James translation of the Bib ...

John 5:24-30 2007-08-03 00:00:00 John 5 - A Healing and a Discourse 3. (24-30) Jesus: power in submission. "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth; those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me."  a. He who hears My ...

John 5:19-23 2007-08-02 00:00:00 John 5 - A Healing and a Discourse C. Jesus explains His relationship to the Father. 1. (19-23) The works of the Son. Then Jesus answered and said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will. For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him." a. The Son can do nothing of Himself: Jesus, God the Son, does nothing independently. He is fully submitted to the Father’s will. But this submission comes by choice, not by coercion or by an inferior nature. b. The Fath ...

John 5:16-18 2007-08-01 00:00:00 John 5 - A Healing and a Discourse 3. (16-18) Jesus defends His Sabbath actions. For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, "My Father has been working until now, and I have been working." Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God. a. And sought to kill Him: The anger and hatred of the Jews is hard to explain, apart from seeing that it has a real spiritual root. They don’t like Jesus, and therefore they don’t like God the Father (but also said that God was His Father). i. The absolute devotion to the traditions of man surrounding the Sabbath can’t be understated. For example, Deuteronomy 23:12-14 tells Israel to practice good sanitation when their armies are camped. Ancient rabbis applied the same principle to the city of Jerusalem, which they regarded a ...

John 5:14-15 2007-07-31 00:00:00 John 5 - A Healing and a Discourse 2. (14-15) Jesus warns the healed man of a greater danger. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, "See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you." The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. a. Afterward Jesus found him: Jesus found him because He was concerned for his spiritual health (sin no more lest a worse thing come upon you), not just his physical health. Living a life of sin is worse, and will bring a worse result, than being crippled for thirty-eight years. b. The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus: We might deride this man as a notorious tattletale, but his violation of the Sabbath tradition could be punished by excommunication or death. Unless otherwise noted all Scripture is taken from the New King James translation of the Bible.<:))))><< ...

2 Peter 2 - False Teachers 2007-07-30 09:29:19 Pastor Jon Lewis of Calvary Fellowship Greenwich is teaching from 2 Peter 2. The subject is false teachers.<:))))><< ...

John 5:10-13 2007-07-30 00:00:00 John 5 - A Healing and a Discourse B. The Sabbath controversy. 1. (10-13) The Jews ignore the miracle and take offense. The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, "It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed." He answered them, "He who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your bed and walk.’" Then they asked him, "Who is the Man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?" But the one who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a multitude being in that place. a. The Jews therefore said: Throughout his gospel, John uses the term "the Jews" in the sense of the Jewish leaders, not every Jew in Jerusalem. b. It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed: Carrying a bed (actually a sleeping-mat or a bedroll) was in fact a violation of the rabbis’ interpretation of the commandment against doing work or business on the Sabbath. It was not a breaking of God’s law of the Sabbath, ...

Sunday Quotes 07.29.07 2007-07-29 05:00:00 Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.-- Paul Boese The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending; and to have the two as close together as possible. -- George Burns The church should be a living organism instead of a dead organization. – Unknown The evolutionist puts it thus: "Once upon a time under a deadly sun, in an ammoniated ocean topped by a poisonous atmosphere in the midst of a soup of organic molecules, a nucleic acid molecule came accidentally into being that could somehow bring about the existence of another like itself." -- From The Wells-Springs of Life, by Isaac Asimov Cited in The "Pastor's Story File." "The young people of this day would not sell out so cheaply and so quickly if they could see a few preachers in their town who would not sell out at all." - Shelton Smith "The essence of all sin is pride." – Unknown<:))))><< ...

John 5:7-9 2007-07-29 00:00:00 John 5 - A Healing and a Discourse 3. (7-9) The man replies and Jesus heals him. The sick man answered Him, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me." Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your bed and walk." And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath. a. Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool: The man’s answer is basically, "Yes, I want to be made well, but I don’t see how this can happen." i. Calvin speaks well of his response: "The sick man does what we nearly all do. He limits God’s help to his own ideas and does not dare promise himself more that he conceives in his mind." ii. J.B. Phillips wrote a famous book about this problem, titled Your God is too Small. For many of us, we create a small God in our heads, a God who is limited by whatever "box" we try to put God into. b. Rise, t ...

John 5:5-6 2007-07-28 00:00:00 John 5 - A Healing and a Discourse 2. (5-6) Jesus questions a lame man. Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, "Do you want to be made well?" a. Do you want to be made well? His question may seem rhetorical, but Jesus knew that not every sick person wants to be healed, and that some are so discouraged that they put away all hope. Jesus is dealing with a man who may have his heart withered as well as his legs. Jesus builds the faith of this man. i. Do you want to be made well: Jesus asked this same kind question on three other occasions. He asked it when John and James asked, through their mother, to be "top guys" in Jesus’ administration (Matthew 20:21, Mark 10:36); when two blind men cried out to be healed (Matthew 20:32, Mark 10:51, Luke 18:41); and when Jesus invited His disciples to come follow Him (John 1:38). ii ...

John 5:1-4 2007-07-27 00:00:00 John 5 - A Healing and a Discourse A. Jesus heals a man at the pool of Bethesda. 1. (1-4) The pool of Bethesda. After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. a. A feast of the Jews: We don’t know what feast this was, but it was probably one of the major three feasts in which attendance was required. i. The debate centers on if this was Passover, Pentecost, or Purim. If it was a Passover, then we can date four Passovers in Jesus’ ministry and we know it lasted about 3½ years. b. A pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda: This pool has been excavated ...

John 4:49-54 2007-07-26 00:00:00 John 4 - A Samaritan Woman and a Nobleman Meet Jesus 2. (49-54) Jesus heals the nobleman’s son. The nobleman said to Him, "Sir, come down before my child dies!" Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your son lives." So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way. And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, "Your son lives!" Then he inquired of them the hour when he got better. And they said to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him." So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said to him, "Your son lives." And he himself believed, and his whole household. This again is the second sign Jesus did when He had come out of Judea into Galilee. a. Sir, come down before my child dies! The nobleman’s plea comes from deep need, but did he ask in light of what Jesus said in John 4:48? It is as if He perfectly understood what Jesus just said was not meant ...

John 4:43-48 2007-07-25 00:00:00 John 4 - A Samaritan Woman and a Nobleman Meet Jesus B. Healing of the nobleman’s son: the second sign. 1. (43-48) Jesus comes to Galilee and is greeted by a request. Now after the two days He departed from there and went to Galilee. For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they also had gone to the feast. So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and implored Him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Then Jesus said to him, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe." a. A prophet has no honor in his own country: Galilee was Jesus’ country - where He grew up. Because these people felt so f ...

The Spiritual Gifts - 1 2007-07-24 15:04:11 Jon is teaching on the spiritual gifts of Romans 12:3-8. What is your spiritual gift? How are you using it in the body? We are each given a gift. It is our responsibility to know what our gift is and to use it wisely for God's glory. To not use the gift God has given you is, in essence, to steal from the body of Christ....... ...

Greenhorns! 2007-07-24 12:55:27 Chad at Simple Minded Preacher has a great post entitled Greenhorns! It is a good read.<:))))><< ...