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Articles from Pastor Jon's Blog

1 John 1:7 2007-10-10 00:00:00 1 John 1 - Fellowship with God 3. (7) The blessing of walking in the light. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. a. If we will walk in the light - having fellowship with Him in our lives, and walk after His ways - then we will have fellowship with one another. b. The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin: As we walk in the light, we will also enjoy the continual cleansing of Jesus. i. We need a continual cleansing, because the Bible says we continually sin and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).  Even though we have been cleansed, our “feet” need cleaning (John 13:10).  c. This continual cleansing is ours by the blood of Jesus; not His literal blood, but His literal death in our place, and the literal wrath of the Father He endured on our behalf - His blood paid for all our sins - past, present, and future. i. The work ...

1 John 1:5-6 2007-10-09 06:00:00 1 John 1 - Fellowship with God B. John’s message from God: maintaining relationship in the midst of sin. 1. (5) Sin and the nature of God: God is sinless and perfect. This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. a. This is the message: John isn’t making this up; these are not his own personal opinions or ideas about God.  This is God’s message about Himself (which we have heard from Him), that John is now revealing to us (and declare to you). i. What John will tell us about God is what God has told us about Himself.  We can’t be confident in our own opinions or ideas about God unless they are genuinely founded on what God has said about Himself. b. We must begin our understanding of relationship with God at this place: if there is a problem with our fellowship with God, it is our problem, not His, because there is no sin or darkness in Him at all. c. John declares this on the simple u ...

1 John 1:4 2007-10-08 06:00:00 1 John 1 - Fellowship with God 3. (4) The result of relationship. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. a. That your joy may be full: The result of fellowship is fullness of joy; and this is joy, an abiding sense of optimism and cheerfulness based on God, as opposed to happiness, which is a sense of optimism and cheerfulness based on circumstances. i. John the Baptist’s joy was full when he was glorifying Jesus (John 3:29-30); Jesus told us that joy was ours as we abide in Him and His word (John 15:11); and that fullness of joy also comes from the kind of intimate relationship with God that sees prayer answered). (John 16:24).  b. God has put within every person the need for joy; and that need can only be fulfilled by relationship with Jesus. Until we come to a relationship with Jesus, there is a God-shaped piece missing from our lives. 4. Observations on this first portion of the book, which is one long sentence in the original Greek. a. Joh ...

Romans 15:25-33 2007-10-07 00:00:00 Romans 15 - Living to Bless Your Brother 2. (25-29) Paul’s present plans. But now I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints. For it pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem. It pleased them indeed, and they are their debtors. For if the Gentiles have been partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in material things. Therefore, when I have performed this and have sealed to them this fruit, I shall go by way of you to Spain. But I know that when I come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.    a. But now I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints: Paul would stop in Corinth on his way to Jerusalem, bringing with him a collection from Christians in Macedonia and Achaia (Acts 20:1-3).  b. For if the Gentiles have been partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them ...

Sunday Quotes 10.07.07 2007-10-07 00:00:00 "Lord, where we are wrong, make us willing to change; where we are right, make us easy to live with." -- Peter Marshall, Former US Senate chaplain He who prays as he ought will endeavor to live as he prays. -- John Owen To believe in spontaneous biogenesis is like believing you can have a tornado go through a junk yard and leave a 747 behind. As Vance Havner once said, "You cannot break the laws of God. You break yourself against them. You might as well try to attack  Gibraltar with a pop gun as to go up against the laws of God. You can jump off a skyscraper, but you do not break the law of  gravitation. You break your neck, but not the law of gravitation." "True servanthood is caught, not taught." -- Chuck Smith "It takes a whole Bible to make a whole Christian." A.W. Tozier<:))))><< ...

Romans 15:20-24 2007-10-06 00:00:00 Romans 15 - Living to Bless Your Brother 3. (20-21) Paul’s desire to preach the gospel in new places. And so I have made it my aim to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man’s foundation, but as it is written: “To whom He was not announced, they shall see; and those who have not heard shall understand.” a. Not where Christ was named: Paul did not want to build on another man’s foundation. Rather he wanted to do pioneer work for the Lord - not because it was wrong or bad to continue the work begun through another man, but because there was so much to do on the frontiers. b. But as it is written: Paul saw his pioneering heart as obedience to the Scriptures, fulfilling the passage he quotes from the Old Testament. C. Paul’s desire to come to Rome. 1. (22-24) Why Paul hasn’t visited the Christians in Rome yet. For this reason I also have been much hindered from coming to you. But now no longer having a place in these ...

Romans 15:17-19 2007-10-05 00:00:00 Romans 15 - Living to Bless Your Brother 2. (17-19) Paul glories in the work God has done through him. Therefore I have reason to glory in Christ Jesus in the things which pertain to God. For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me, in word and deed, to make the Gentiles obedient; in mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. a. Therefore I have reason to glory in Christ Jesus: As he considers his call to be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, Paul can glory in God that he received such a call - speaking only of the things God did through him to bring salvation to the Gentiles. i. “Paul will glory only in what Christ has done through him. He is sure that Christ has done great things through him, and he is glad that he can draw attention to those things. But he is not trying to attract adulation. It is what ...

1 John 1:3 2007-10-04 00:00:00 1 John 1 - Fellowship with God 2. (3) An invitation to relationship. That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. a. That you may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ: The purpose of John’s declaration about this eternally existent, physically present, Word of life who is God, yet is a person distinct from the Father, is to bring his readers into fellowship with both God’s people and God Himself. b. The idea of fellowship is one of the most important ideas in this letter of John’s.  It is the ancient Greek word koinonia, which speaks of a sharing, a communion, a common bond and life.  It speaks of a living, breathing, sharing, loving relationship with another person. c. John simply, and boldly, says that we can have fellowship . . . with the Father and with His Son Jesus  ...

The Wisdom Of God Versus The Knowledge Of This Age 2007-10-03 11:10:11 There is a new post available on Laboring In The Fields entitled The Wisdom Of God Versus The Wisdom Of This Age. It speaks to much of the frustration I have faced as a church planter.<:))))><< ...

1 John 1:1-2 2007-10-03 00:00:00 1 John 1 - Fellowship with God Most people understand that the important things in life are not things at all - they are the relationships we have. God has put a desire for relationship in every one of us, a desire He intended to be met with relationships with other people, but most of all, to be met by a relationship with Him.  In this remarkable letter, John tells us the truth about relationships - and shows us how to have relationships that are real, for both now and eternity. A. The purpose of the letter: to bring you into relationship with God. 1. (1-2) John begins with the center of relationship: Jesus Christ. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life; the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us. a. The beginning John speaks of is not t ...

1 John 1:1-3 2007-10-02 13:35:50 The audio of Sunday's teaching is on the Springfield Calvary web site. We are starting a new series "Keepin It Real" -- a study of 1 John. This week we cover 1 John 1:1-3.<:))))><< ...

1 John -- Introduction -- Part 2 2007-10-02 00:00:00 1 John -- Introduction The Writings of John He wrote five books of the New Testament: the Gospel, Revelation, and three epistles. Most scholars assume that the epistles were written last, just before the close of the first century. Distinctives of his Gospel:His purpose declared: John 20:30,31; (As does his epistle, 7 times: 1 John 5:13, et al.); Of the Book of Revelation:Heptadic structure is dominant.Consistency of Designations: "Friend," "Beloved."Abraham = "Friend of God" (James 2:23; 2 Chronicles 20:7; Isaiah 41:8) thus, "Shall I hide from him the thing which I am to do?" (Genesis 18:17).Daniel = "Beloved"; thus, the apocalyptic visions.Disciples = "Now my friends" (John 15:14, 15); thus, the Upper Room disclosures.John "Beloved" = The Apocalypse. John always includes a "key" to his writings, which will "unlock" their meaning: Revelation 1:19 is its outline; John 20:31 is the specific p ...

1 John -- Introduction -- Part 1 2007-10-01 00:00:00 1 John -- Introduction -- Part 1 The early Church in the first century was under attack from both the inside and the outside. So what has changed? It should not surprise us that the Holy Spirit has anticipated every conceivable form of attack and diversion, and these three epistles are full of insights that are timely for each of us at the personal level as well as at the corporate. Background Who was John? Brother of James "the Greater" (Matthew 4:21, 10:2; Mark 1:19, 3:17, 10:35). He was probably the younger of the sons of Zebedee (Matthew 4:21) and Salome (Matthew 27:56; Mark 15:40) and was born at Bethsaida. His father was apparently a man of some wealth (Mark 1:20; Luke 5:3; John 19:27). He was doubtless trained in all that constituted the normal education of Jewish youth. When he grew up he followed the occupation of a fisherman with his family on the Sea of Galilee. When John the Baptist began his ministry in the wilderness of Judea, John, with many others, gathe ...

Romans 15:14-16 2007-09-30 00:00:00 Romans 15 - Living to Bless Your Brother B. Paul’s burden in ministry. 1. (14-16) Paul’s reason for writing. Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another. Nevertheless, brethren, I have written more boldly to you on some points, as reminding you, because of the grace given to me by God, that I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. a. Able also to admonish one another: Paul didn’t write because he felt the Roman Christians couldn’t discern what was right before God or admonish each other to do right. Rather, he wrote to remind them, encouraging them to do what they knew was right. b. That I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles: This is consistent with Paul’s calling to be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. In ful ...

Sunday Quotes 09.30.07 2007-09-30 00:00:00 Ah, tolerant generation, who pays the prophets and fondles them who are sent unto you...woe. Cursed be your Judas embrace. Damned be your friendliness...it lays shattering condemnation on your prophets....Damned be this cool tepidity....Father, make of me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to decision. Make me a fork [in the road], that men must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me. - Jim Elliot As long as I know I'm a child of the king, there's hope for me. -- Tim Hall A Christian man is most free lord of all, and subject to none; a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to everyone. -- Martin Luther "Faith is acting before feeling." - Unknown When the Bible says that God sticks with us, the emphasis is on this dependable personal relationship, that He is always there for us,that He sticks with us‚ is the reason Christians can look back over a long life crisscrossed with cruelties, unannounced tragedies, unexpected setbacks, sufferi ...