Emily Bailey

Tommy Bailey, Associate Pastor

The Letters of John: That You May Know…

The Message of 1 John: 
God wants you to rejoice in the knowledge of His love for you, which has been displayed vividly in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

1 John 4:1-6

Three aspects of the Holy Spirit in 1 John:

• The person of the Holy Spirit
• The presence of the Holy Spirit
• The power of the Holy Spirit

Three categories of evidence for true Christian faith:

1. Theological evidence: belief that Jesus is the Christ
2. Moral evidence: obedience to His commandments
3. Social evidence: love for one another

“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.”
– Soren Kierkegaard

The battle between truth and falsehood is not between two equals. 

 “…Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.” 
– 1 John 4:4

“The Bible never offers a drink from shallow waters. There, you do not find a set of petty maxims, but the everlasting love of God; you do not find any shallow views of sin, but a lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And that is the secret of the Bible’s permanence — when our little systems have ceased to be… it gives us drink ‘as abundant as the seas.’”
– George Herbert Morrison 

“So, why church? The short answer is because the Holy Spirit formed it to be a colony of heaven in the country of death… Church is the core element in the strategy of the Holy Spirit for providing human witness and physical presence to the Jesus-inaugurated kingdom of God in this world.”
– Eugene Peterson, Practice Resurrection 

Contrasts in 1 John 1-4:

• Light / dark (1:5)
• Truth / lie (1:6)
• Righteousness / sin (1:8-9)
• New Commandment / Old Commandment (2:7)
• Love / hate (2:10-11)
• Christ / antichrist (2:18)
• Love of God / love of the world (2:15) 
• Life / death (2:25)
• From God / from the world (4:1, 5)
• The Holy Spirit / the spirit of the world (4:4)
• Spirit of truth / spirit of error (4:6)

“The chief actor in the historic mission of the Christian church is the Holy Spirit. He is the director of the whole enterprise. The mission consists of the things that He is doing in the world. In a special way it consists of the light that He is focusing upon Jesus Christ.”
– John V. Taylor

Jim Thomas, Senior Pastor

The Letters of John: That You May Know…

The Message of 1 John: 
God wants you to rejoice in the knowledge of His love for you, which has been displayed vividly in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Goals for our study of the letters of John

• More confident assurance of God’s love for you
• Deepening experience of abiding in Christ
• Increasing power over sin and temptation
• Fuller sense of the joy in your faith
• Greater love for the community of believers

1 John 3:11-24

Four ancient Greek words translated as ‘love’ in English:

1. Eros 
2. Storge 
3. Philia 
4. Agape

• v. 11 – the timelessness of love
• v. 12 – the opposite of love
• v. 13 – the antipathy of the world towards God’s love
• v. 14 – the evidence of life through love
• v. 15 – the impact of the absence of love
• v. 16 – the self-sacrifice of love
• v. 17 – the generosity of love
• v. 18 – the practicality of love
• v. 19 – the assurance of love
• v. 20 – the proper condemnation of a healthy conscience
• v. 21 – the proper confidence of Gospel-based faith
• v. 22 – the realignment of affections from loving God
• v. 23 – the commandments that please God
• v. 24 – the deep communion of abiding in love

Three categories of evidence for true Christian faith:

1. Theological evidence:  belief that Jesus is the Christ
2. Moral evidence:  obedience to His commandments
3. Social evidence:  love for one another

Love is not “luv.”

“It is easier to be enthusiastic about Humanity with a capital ‘H’ than it is to love individual men and women, especially those who are uninteresting, exasperating, depraved or otherwise unattractive. Loving everybody in general may be an excuse for loving nobody in particular.” 
– C.S. Lewis

Notice the parallels we find in the words of Jesus as recorded in the Gospel of John:

• “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” – John 13:34-35
• “This is my commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.” – John 15:12
• “This I command you, that you love one another.” – John 15:17

“Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor.” 
– Romans 12:10

“Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.”
– Romans 13:8

“Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another.” 
– 1 Thessalonians 4:9

“Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart.” 
– 1 Peter 1:22

“Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.” 
– 1 Peter 4:8

“‘One anothers’ I can’t find in the New Testament:  humble one another, scrutinize one another, pressure one another, embarrass one another, corner one another, interrupt one another, defeat one another, disapprove of one another, run one another’s lives, confess one another’s sins, intensify one another’s sufferings, point out one another’s failings . . . .” 
– Ray Ortlund, Jr.

“The Christian community, when it is working properly, offers men and women a way of being related to one another that cuts across all the things that divide us… There is nothing else in human life that levels distinctions and creates new relationships like the knowledge that one has been saved by grace.” 
– Fleming Rutledge, Means of Grace

“We must strive to hold ourselves accountable to practice forgiveness and reconciliation. Our mutual love for one another is how the world will see who Jesus is.” 
– Tim Keller

“I wonder if anything is more urgent today, for the honour of Christ and for the spread of the gospel, than what the church should be, and should be seen to be, what by God’s purpose and Christ’s achievement it already is — a single new humanity, a model of human community, a family of reconciled brothers and sisters who love their Father and love each other, the evident dwelling place of God by His Spirit. Only then will the world believe in Christ as Peacemaker. Only then will God receive the glory due to His name.” 
– John Stott

Matt Pierson, Associate Pastor

The Letters of John: That You May Know…

The Message of 1 John: 
God wants you to rejoice in the knowledge of His love for you, which has been displayed vividly in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

1 John 3:1-10

1. We Behold
2. We Believe
3. We Belong

“The great message that we have to carry, as ministers of God’s Word and followers of Jesus, is that God loves us not because of what we do or accomplish, but because God has created and redeemed us in love and has chosen us to proclaim that love as the true source of all human life.”
– Henri J.M. Nouwen, In the Name of Jesus 

“I have been seized by the power of a great affection.”
– Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up and Burnt Out

“So the coming of Christ, culminating in His cross, spells God’s total triumph over all the hostile forces which have tied us in knots and bound us in chains of sin which we cannot loose. Christ not only sets the captives free, but destroys the captor. He shared our humanity ‘so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.’”
– David Jackman, The Bible Speaks Today

“I remind myself regularly of the three tenses of salvation that I learned when I was a young Christian. By grace I have been saved from the penalty of sin. By grace I am being saved from the power of sin. By grace I will one day be saved from the presence of sin.”
– Rico Tice, Faithful Leaders and the Things That Matter Most

“The eternal everlasting God has become our Father and the moment we realize that, it transforms everything.”
– Martin Lloyd-Jones

“The life we live reveals the source from which we draw our life.” 
– Leon Morris, The New Bible Commentary

• Our belief influences our behavior. 
• Our behavior reveals our core beliefs.

“Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.”
– 1 Corinthians 15:49

“In my lifelong study of the Bible, I have looked for an overarching theme, a summary statement of what the whole sprawling book is about. I have settled on this: ‘God gets his family back.’”
– Philip Yancey

Jim Thomas, Senior Pastor

The Letters of John: That You May Know…

The Message of 1 John: 
God wants you to rejoice in the knowledge of His love for you, which has been displayed vividly in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

1 John 2:18-29

Three tests of authentic, biblical faith:

1. The Theological Test:  do we believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God? 
2. The Moral Test:  are we walking in the light?
3. The Social Test:  do we really love others?

“But if the biblical story is true, the kind of certainty proper to a human being will be one which rests on the fidelity of God, not upon the competence of the human knower. It will be a kind of certainty which is inseparable from gratitude and trust.”  
– Lesslie Newbigin, Proper Confidence:  Faith, Doubt and Certainty in Christian Discipleship

How to remain steadfast with your faith in Jesus Christ:

1. Sharpen your awareness
2. Realign your allegiance 
3. Lean into His anointing
4. Abide in Christ

“The heart can hold a thousand loyalties but only one allegiance.” 
– Mark Buchanon

“Indwelling sin is a parasite, and it eats what you do. God’s word is poison to sin when embraced by a heart made new by the Holy Spirit. You starve indwelling sin by feeding yourself deeply on His word. Sin cannot abide in His word. So, fill your hearts and minds with Scripture.” 
– Rosaria Butterfield

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” 
– John 15:4-5

“In a nutshell, abiding in Christ means allowing His Word to fill our minds, direct our wills, and transform our affections. In other words, our relationship to Christ is intimately connected to what we do with our Bibles!” 
– Sinclair Ferguson

“By faith you became partakers of the initial grace; by that same faith you can enjoy the continuous grace of abiding in Him.”  
– Andrew Murray, Abide in Christ:  The Joy of Being in God’s Presence

“The branch of the vine does not worry, and toil, and rush here to seek for sunshine, and there to find rain. No; it rests in union and communion with the vine; and at the right time, and in the right way, is the right fruit found on it. Let us so abide in the Lord Jesus.” 
– James Hudson Taylor

Tommy Bailey, Associate Pastor

1 John 2:1-17

“…the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life…”
– 1 John 1:2a (ESV)

Questions to help diagnose my spiritual condition:

•  Where is my attention?
•  Where are my affections?
•  What is my direction?

“And this is eternal life, that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
– John 17:3 (ESV, emphasis added)

“If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million of enemies. Yet the distance makes no difference; He is praying for me.”
– Robert Murray M’Cheyne

“Sometimes ‘struggling’ is a nice word for ‘postponed obedience.’”
– Elisabeth Elliot

Evidence of knowing God: 

• When I say, “I know Christ” (2:4)
  Evidence:  Obedience to the word of Christ (2:5)
• When I say, “I abide in Christ” (2:6)
  Evidence:  Bears the likeness of Christ (2:6)
• When I say, “I am in the light” (2:9)
  Evidence:  Reflects the love of Christ (2:10)

“The greatest single secret of spiritual development lies in the personal, humble, believing, obedient response to the Word of God. We live and grow by His Word.”
– John Stott

“You can’t crowbar your way into change. You can only be melted.”
– Dane Ortlund, Deeper

“All my knowledge of Him depends on His sustained initiative in knowing me.”
– J.I. Packer, Knowing God

Jim Thomas, Senior Pastor

1 John 1

The Letters of John
That You May Know…

• Literary Genre
• Author
• Recipient(s)
• Date
• Connection with Gospel of John 
• Purpose

The Message of 1 John: 

God wants you to rejoice in the knowledge of His love for you, expressed in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Some of the reasons John wrote this letter:

1. That you may have fellowship with us  (1:3)
2. That you may have fellowship with the Father and Son  (1:3)
3. That our joy may be full  (1:4)
4. That you may not sin  (2:1)
5. That you may know with certainty the truth about Christ and your life with God  (2:12-14, 21, 25, 28; 3:5; 5:11, 13, 20)

Three tests of authentic faith:

1. The Moral Test:  are we walking in the light?  (1:6-8)
2. The Theological Test:  do we believe Jesus is the Son of God?  (2:23)
3. The Social Test:  do we really love others?  (4:7-8)

The Joyful Fellowship of Jesus: 1 John 1

1. Incarnation:  what we have heard, seen, beheld and now proclaim  (v. 1-4)
2. Illumination:  humanity’s need for God’s light  (v. 5-6)
3. Reconciliation:  God’s provision through Christ  (v. 7-10)

“You can read every fairy tale that was ever written, every mystery thriller, every ghost story, and you will never find anything so shocking, so strange, so weird and spellbinding as the story of the incarnation of the Son of God.” 
– John Piper

“Perhaps the notion of heavenly mercy seems abstract, but what if that mercy became something we could see, hear and touch? That is what happened in the incarnation.”
– Dane Ortlund, Gentle and Lowly

“Walking in truth requires admitting our sin. It means coming out of the darkness and into the light – the light that both exposes and heals.” 
– Mark Buchanan, Your God is Too Safe

“A man who looks toward the light sees no shadow; a man who walks toward the light leaves darkness behind him.” 
– C.H. Spurgeon

“The incarnation took all that properly belongs to our humanity and delivered it back to us, redeemed. All of our inclinations and appetites and capacities and yearnings are purified and gathered up and glorified by Christ. He did not come to thin out human life; He came to set it free. All the dancing and feasting and processing and singing and building and sculpting and baking and merrymaking that belong to us – and that were stolen away into the service of false gods – are returned to us in the gospel.” 
– Thomas Howard

“It is grace to know God’s commands. They release us from self-made plans and conflicts. They make our steps certain and our way joyful. God gives His commands in order that we may fulfill them, and ‘His commandments are not burdensome’ (1 John 5:3) for him who has found all salvation in Jesus Christ.” 
– Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Jim Thomas, Senior Pastor

Matthew 28:16-20

Matthew: The King and His Kingdom

• The person of Christ  (Matthew 1-4)
• The principles of Christ  (Matthew 5-7)
• The power of Christ  (Matthew 8-28)
• The parables of Christ  (Matthew 13-25)
• The passion of Christ  (Matthew 21-28)

“The whole Bible is implied in the Great Commission! It is a truly comprehensive statement and a colossal vista with which Matthew ends his Gospel.” 
– Christopher J.H. Wright, The Great Story and the Great Commission:  Participating in the Biblical Drama of Mission

The biblical concept of “mission” involves several things:

1. the authority of the one who sends 
2. the obedience of the one(s) being sent
3. the mission task to be engaged in
4. the enabling power to accomplish the task
5. the divine plan and purpose within the framework of God’s covenantal working of judgment and/or redemption

“We are sent into the world, like Jesus, to serve. For this is the natural expression of our love for our neighbours. We love. We go. We serve.” 
– John Stott, Christian Mission in the Modern World

“If we have been entrusted with the good news that God is restoring all of human life, how do we live in a culture with a very different story to tell?” 
– Michael Goheen, The Church and its Vocation

What traits characterize those churches that respond to the Great Commission of King Jesus?

TVC’s Four W’s of the Church:

1. Worship
2. Witness
3. Word
4. With-ness

“The essence of worship is the inner experience of treasuring the true beauty and worth of God. And the outward forms of worship are the acts that show how much we treasure the beauty and worth of God. Therefore God created all of life as worship because He has told us, ‘whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God’ (1 Corinthians 10:31).  Do everything you do in a way that expresses your treasuring of God.” 
– John Piper

“If you give a man the gospel, wrap it in a sandwich. And if you give a man a sandwich, wrap it in the gospel.” 
– C.H. Spurgeon

“What God has done in the incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus is no private affair for a few. It is God’s decisive action for His whole family and for His whole creation. It is for all the nations. We cannot be silent when such a tremendous secret has been entrusted to us. We have to tell the world.”  
– Lesslie Newbigin

“The greatest single secret of spiritual development lies in personal, humble, believing, obedient response to the Word of God.  It is as God speaks to us through His Word that His warnings can bring us to conviction of sin, His promises to assurance of forgiveness, and His commands to amendment of life.  We live and grow by His Word. 
– John Stott, Confess Your Sins: The Way of Reconciliation 

“In a life with God, His guidance, provision and protection are important, as Jacob and the psalmist knew, but in all such experiences the center and source is God‘s presence ‘with’ us. To discover that God is ‘with’ us is probably the most important discovery anyone can make, for, once made, it colors all of life’s experiences.” 
– Richard Bauckham, Who is God? 

What are some of the primary reasons Christians don’t share their faith? Why are some of us so timid about sharing our faith? Here is Pastor Jim’s top ten observations:

1. Lack of conviction re: what’s at stake, eternal destiny
2. Lack of actual love for others
3. Don’t want to seem “pushy”
4. Fear of personal rejection
5. Don’t know how to start the conversation. How about we listen to understand them and learn where they are at before we speak?
6. Mistaken notion that it will be offensive if I share
7. We underestimate the power of the Gospel of grace
8. We overestimate how well our “life” might testify. Raise your hand if your life is holy enough that it would be simply impossible for others to miss Jesus in you.
9. You believe the results and outcome of sharing your faith is up to you vs the Holy Spirit
10. You are actively living in sin, contrary to what you say you believe, and you know others won’t be able to miss the contrast.

Behind every person’s thoughts about your faith as you witness will be this basic question: Does the God you want me to believe in really LOVE me, broken sinner tho I am? This is where the Christian faith is really good news because Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners!

Jim Thomas, Senior Pastor

Matthew 28:1-15

• v. 1-10:  The trembling joy of the first eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ
• v. 11-15:  The fearful coverup of the resurrection of Jesus by the unbelieving religious leaders

A contrast of fears:

• “And the guards shook for fear of him [the angel], and became like dead men.” (Matthew 28:4)
• “And they [the women] departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to report it to His disciples.” (Matthew 28:8)

Notice the three commands of the angel (v. 5-7) sitting on the stone at the site of the resurrection of Jesus:

• “Do not fear.”
• “Come and see.”
• “Go and tell.”

As we learn to tremble at the right things, we may also learn to rejoice in the right things.

We need to believe the Lord when He says, “Do not be afraid.”

We need to “come and see” by reminding ourselves over and over again of God’s faithfulness.

We need to “go and tell” others about the power of Christ at work in our midst.

Why is the resurrection important? 

Memorial acclamation:

Christ has died.
Christ is risen.
Christ will come again.

“The New Testament without the miracles would be far easier to believe. But the trouble is, it would not be worth believing.” 
– J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism

“Never was there a fact which the friends of God were so slow to believe as the resurrection of Christ; never was there a fact which the enemies of God were so anxious to disprove. Yet, in spite of the unbelief of friends and the enmity of foes, the fact was thoroughly established. Its evidences will always appear to a fair and impartial mind unanswerable.” 
– J.C. Ryle

Evidence for the resurrection:

1. The medical evidence 
2. The empty tomb 
3. The hundreds of eyewitnesses 
4. The transformation of the disciples
5. The wildfire-like spread of Christianity

The Post-Resurrection Appearances:

1. Mary Magdalene  (John 20:11)
2. The other women  (Matthew 28:9-10)
3. Peter  (Luke 24:34)
4. Disciples on the road to Emmaus  (Luke 24:13-32)
5. Ten apostles  (Luke 24:33-49)
6. Thomas and the other apostles  (John 20:26-30)
7. Seven apostles  (John 21)
8. All the apostles  (Matthew 28:16-20)
9. All the apostles  (Acts 1:4-9)
10. 500 people  (1 Corinthians 15:6)
11. James   (1 Corinthians 15:7)
12. Paul   (1 Corinthians 15:7)

What difference does the resurrection of Jesus make for us?

“Science is the description of how God chooses to work most of the time. But He is sovereign, and He can choose to work in any way He likes. And there are special times and places where He will behave differently — the most important one being the resurrection of Jesus. We know that dead bodies don’t come back to life according to science. And yet Christianity is built on the observation that Jesus came back to life. And I’m very happy to say that at that special moment, God was acting differently.”
– Russell Cowburn, Professor of Experimental Physics, Cambridge

“The message of the resurrection is that this world matters! That the injustices and pains of this present world must now be addressed with the news that healing, justice and love have won… If Jesus Christ is truly risen from the dead, Christianity becomes good news for the whole world – news which warms our hearts precisely because it isn’t just about warming hearts. Easter means that in a world where injustice, violence and degradation are endemic, God is not prepared to tolerate such things.” 
– N.T. Wright

“Resurrection means that the worst thing is never the last thing.”
– Frederick Buechner

“The resurrection, the Great Reversal, brings us both the power and the pattern for living life now connected to God’s future new creation.” 
– Timothy Keller, Hope in Times of Fear

“The Cross, His cross and ours, is not the end of the story! The kingdom is coming and one day His Easter, His glorious resurrection will also be ours!” 
– Malcolm Guite, Parable and Paradox

The transforming power of the resurrection and of the Gospel is all wrapped up in the person and work of Jesus Christ. 

Who will roll away your stone?

Who will you trust in life and in death?

Who will you trust with your eternal destiny?

How do you respond to Jesus Christ?

Jim Thomas, Senior Pastor

The Power of the Cross of Christ

• The person of Christ  (Matthew 1-4)
• The principles of Christ  (Matthew 5-7)
• The power of Christ  (Matthew 8-28)
• The parables of Christ  (Matthew 13-25)
• The passion of Christ  (Matthew 21-28)

Parallel accounts:

• Mark 15:22-47 
• Luke 23:33-56
• John 19:16-42

The impact of the cross of Christ was/is both momentary and momentous.

“He [Jesus] is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” 
– 1 John 2:2

“Before we can begin to see the cross as something done ‘for’ us (leading us to faith and worship), we have to see it as something done ‘by’ us (leading us to repentance).” 
– John Stott, The Cross of Christ

“The death of Christ in utter weakness would turn out to be the demonstration of the saving power of God that will ultimately destroy all powers of evil and violence. What a paradox! But it lies at the heart of the Gospel.” 
– Christopher J.H. Wright, To the Cross

1. The power of the Cross is historic
2. The power of the Cross is supernatural 
3. The power of the Cross is global
4. The power of the Cross is personal 

“Jesus Christ came not to be served but to die, to give His life. That sets Him apart from the founder of every other major religion. Their purpose was to live and be an example; Jesus’ purpose was to die and be a sacrifice.” 
– Tim Keller, King’s Cross 

“Man’s reconciliation with God takes place through God putting Himself in man’s place, and man’s being put in God’s place, as a sheer act of grace. It is this inconceivable miracle which is our reconciliation.” 
– Karl Barth

“Grace is the most perplexing, powerful force in the universe, and, I believe, the only hope for our twisted, violent planet.” 
– Philip Yancey

“There’s a way back to God
from the dark paths of sin;
there’s a door that is open
and you may go in;
at Calvary’s cross is where you begin,
when you come as a sinner to Jesus.”
– E.H. Swinstead

Tommy Bailey, Associate Pastor

“From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”
– Matthew 16:21 (ESV)

“We love until we are betrayed. Jesus continued to the cross despite betrayal. We love until we are forsaken. Jesus loved through forsakenness. We love up to a limit. Jesus loves to the end.”
– Dane Ortlund, Gentle and Lowly

“Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.”
– 2 Corinthians 7:10 (NIV)

The weak character of Pilate:

1. Sends Jesus to Herod Antipas (Luke 23:5-12)
2. Attempts to punish and then release Jesus (Luke 23:16, 23:22)
3. Attempts to evade responsibility by offering to release Barabbas (Matthew 27:16-23)
4. Attempts to relocate responsibility to the religious leaders and the crowds by symbolically washing his hands (Matthew 27:24)

“Total injustice, met by total, silent suffering. Jesus is in control of the proceedings. It is Pilate, it is Caiaphas, it is the reader who is on trial. Jesus is the one with moral authority at His own trial, majestic in silence.”
– Michael Green, The Message of Matthew

The Approach to the Cross:

• The betrayal of Judas 
• The wickedness of the religious leaders 
• The fickleness of the crowds  
• The weakness of Pilate
• The cruelty of the soldiers 
• The release of Barabbas

“For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting Himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices Himself for man and puts Himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives that belong to God alone; God accepts penalties that belong to man alone.”
– John Stott, The Cross of Christ

Matt Pierson, Associate Pastor

1. Jesus prays with a posture of obedience
2. Jesus trusts in God’s Sovereignty

3. Jesus forgives fully and completely

“The Heidelberg Catechism, question 44, asks (and then answers) this pointed question… in the Apostles’ Creed: ‘Why is there added: “He descended into hell?” Answer: That in my severest tribulations I may be assured that Christ my Lord has redeemed me from hellish anxieties and torment by the unspeakable anguish, pains and terrors which He suffered in His soul both on the cross and before.’ In no other place do we see the ‘before’ of Jesus’ suffering as clearly as we do at Gethsemane.”
– Frederick Dale Bruner, The Churchbook, Matthew 13-28

“This is the centre of the gospel – this is what the Garden of Gethsemane and Good Friday are all about – that God has done astonishing and costly things to draw us near.”
– John Piper

“The prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane shows that we can be close to God, live a holy life and pray with faith, earnestness and expectancy, and yet not get what we ask for. It is a profound mystery before which we must bow… Jesus prayed with a clear objective, which all His humanity longed for; but above even that, He wanted God the Father’s will to be done. For prayer is not seeking to manipulate God. It is opening up to God. It is welcoming the ‘good, pleasing and perfect will’ of God… prayer seeks to surrender to the will of God.”
– Michael Green, The Bible Speaks Today

“Nothing in all the vast universe can come to pass other than God has eternally purposed. Here is a foundation of faith. Here is a resting place for the intellect. Here is an anchor for the soul, both sure and steadfast. It is not blind fate, unbridled evil, man or devil, but the Lord Almighty who is ruling the world, ruling it according to His own good pleasure and for His own eternal glory.”
– A.W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished upon us.
– Ephesians 1:7

“Because the Lord Jesus died on the cross, I have received forgiveness of sins; because the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, I have received new life; because the Lord Jesus has been exalted to the right hand of the Father, I have received the outpoured Spirit. All is because of Him; nothing is because of me.”
– Watchman Nee

“When we ourselves find the ground giving way beneath our feet, as sooner or later we shall, Gethsemane is where to go. That is where we find that the Lord of the world, the one to whom is now committed all authority, has been there before us.
– N.T. Wright, Matthew for Everyone

“The whole of the punishment of His people was distilled into one cup; no mortal lip might give it so much as a solitary sip. When He put it to His own lips, it was so bitter, He well nigh spurned it: ‘Let this cup pass from me.’ But His love for His own people was so strong, that He took the cup in both hands, and at one tremendous draught of love, He drank damnation dry.”
– C.H. Spurgeon

Jim Thomas, Senior Pastor

The disciples asked about 3 things

1. When will these things be?
2. What will be the sign of Your coming?
3. What will be the signs of the end of the age?

Matthew 25:31-46

1. One day Christ will return as the sovereign judge.
2. Every person, without exception, will be gathered before the throne of Christ. 
3. Christ will separate the sheep from the goats.
4. “Sheep” will be surprised by the reach of sovereign grace but “goats” will be shocked by the failure of their attempts at self-salvation.
5. Be a sheep, not a goat. 

“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us.” 
– C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

“It is a great comfort to know that our judge will be none other than our savior.” 
– John Stott 

“Faith must reveal itself in works, and such works are the fruit, the evidence, of a true faith. So the judgment about works is actually a judgment about faith, because the reality of faith is seen in the evidence of the works. The works are the mark, externally, of the inner reality of faith.” 
– David Jackman & William Philip, Teaching Matthew  

“God’s forgiving love to me in Christ is a sheer marvel that passes all comprehension. Only where we understand His wrath do we understand the might of His love. It is as we understand His love that we know that His wrath is just.”  
– Lesslie Newbigin, Signs Amid the Rubble   

“The sentimental secularism of modern Western culture, with its exalted optimism about human nature, its shrunken idea of God, and its decay of conscience, makes it hard for Christians to take the reality of hell seriously.”
– J.I. Packer

“Next to the ministry of the Word, the most fruitful pastoral duty is to help all sorts of odd sheep to live together, and show them how to live in the world amongst goats without becoming goats.” 
– William Still, The Work of the Pastor

“For God to judge the world meant that He would, in the end, put it all to rights, straighten it out, producing not just a sigh of relief all around but shouting for joy from the trees and the fields, the seas and the floods.” 
– N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope

Jesus will return:

• Unexpectedly (Matthew 24:42, 44)
• Personally (Matthew 24:30-31)
• Visibly (Matthew 24:27)
• Gloriously (Matthew 24:30)

“We don’t get to pick the age we will live in, and we don’t get to choose all the struggles we will face. Faithfulness is ours to choose; the shape of that faithfulness is God’s to determine.”
– Kevin DeYoung

A few of the ways parables help us:

• Parables invite us to pause and reflect. 
• Parables reveal truth to those who have ears to hear. 
• Parables require a response.

“The real scandal of this universe is not that there is a hell, deserved by all, but that there is a heaven, offered to all.”
– Dane Ortlund

“The composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein was once asked which musical instrument is most difficult to play. He reputedly answered, ‘Second fiddle. I can get plenty of first violinists, but to find someone who can play the second fiddle with enthusiasm — that’s a problem. And if we have no second fiddle, we have no harmony.’ How powerfully insightful for life!”
– Gavin Ortlund, Humility

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
– Ephesians 2:8-9

Does the way I order my life provide evidence that what is most important to me is delighting in and bringing glory to Christ?

“Failure is being successful at the things that don’t matter.”
– Rico Tice, Faithful Leaders

The Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids

• Wise / Foolish 
• Ready / Unprepared

The Parable of the Three Servants

• Faithful / Wicked
• Good / Slothful 

“We were designed, then, not just for belief in God in some general way, nor for a vague kind of inspiration or spirituality. We were made to center our lives upon Him, to make the purpose and passion of our lives knowing, serving, delighting, and resembling Him.”
– Tim Keller, The Reason for God

“Grace becomes not only the means by which God once justified us, it is also the means by which we are continually encouraged and enabled to serve Him with undiminished delight.”
– Bryan Chapell, Holiness by Grace

“I don’t care if you’re pre-millennial, amillennial, post-millennial, a yard perennial, a bicentennial, a fan-of-Benny-Hill, a left behind or a right behind, you can’t recite these words without your pulse pumping.” 
– Beth Moore

The disciples ask about 3 things: 

1. When will these things be?
2. What will be the sign of Your coming?
3. What will be the signs of the end of the age?

Matthew 24: The Beginning of the End

1. Destruction of the Jewish Temple
2. Spiritual deception
3. Political unrest
4. Natural disasters
5. Persecution of Christians
6. Lawlessness
7. Apostasy
8. Gospel preached to all nations

Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bhutan, China, Cuba, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Laos, Maldives, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen

Eschatology 101:

4 views on the interpretation of biblical prophecy

1. Preterist view
2. Futurist view
3. Historical view
4. Idealist view

“When it comes to the exact timing of Christ’s second coming, I’m on the welcoming committee, not the planning committee.” 
– Adrian Rogers

Eschatology 101:

4 major elements of most End Times sequences

1. The return of Christ
2. The nature and duration of the millennium
3. The nature, timing and extent of the tribulation
4. The role of national Israel

Eschatology 101:

Four major views of the overall sequence of the End Times

1. Historic Premillennialism 
2. Postmillennialism 
3. Amillennialism
4. Dispensationalism

If you want to study these things further, prayerfully read

• Ezekiel
• Daniel
• Joel
• Amos
• Zechariah
• Matthew 24
• Mark 13
• Luke 21
• Acts 1
• 2 Thessalonians 2
• Revelation

Other books

• Contemporary Options in Eschatology by Millard Erickson 
• The Bible and the Future by Anthony Hoekema

What timeless truths are we reminded of here?

1. God is sovereign over His creation including human history.
2. God’s judgment is certain, imminent, righteous and ultimate.
3. Whatever the precise sequence of the End Times events, Christ will return personally, visibly, gloriously and we should all stand fast, keep watchful, get busy and remain hopeful!
4. Jesus is going to set all things right again, restoring truth, justice, order, and God’s shalom/peace to all of His creation.

“The Christian view of judgment means that history moves to a goal… Judgment means that evil will be disposed of authoritatively, decisively, finally. Judgment means that in the end God’s will will be perfectly done.” 
– Leon Morris, The Biblical Doctrine of Judgment

“History is not a random series of meaningless events.  It is rather a succession of periods and happenings which are under the sovereign rule of God, who is the God of history.” 
– John Stott

1. There are 3 kinds of people: those who can count and those who can’t.
2. Consciousness: that annoying time between naps.
3. Give me ambiguity or give me something else.
4. Very funny, Scotty. Now beam down my clothes.
5. Be nice to your kids. They’re likely going to choose your nursing home.
6. Sometimes I wake up grumpy; other times I just let her sleep.
7. We are Meta. Resistance is futile. You WILL be assimilated.
8. Be fishers of men…. You catch ’em, He’ll clean ’em.
9. A family altar can alter a family.
10. Lord, protect me from your followers!

• Hypocrites (7x!) 
• Sons of Hell
• Blind Guides 
• Fools
• Blind Men
• Whitewashed Tombs
• Lawless
• Sons of those who murdered the prophets
• Serpents
• Brood of Vipers

8 “Woes” of Jesus

1. Obstruction  (v. 13)
2. Extortion  (v. 14)
3. Pollution  (v. 15)
4. Misprioritization  (v. 16-22)
5. Misapplication  (v. 23-24)
6. Externalism  (v. 25-26)
7. Pretension  (v. 27-28)
8. Persecution (v. 29-35)

Matthew 23 reminds us:

1. The God of the Bible abhors hypocrisy even more than we do.
2. Hypocrisy in others doesn’t invalidate Jesus’ call to holiness for me. 
3. Jesus desires to save hypocrites. I’m good with that.

“The church is the place where we come to find out what we are doing that is right; it is a place of affirmation. The church is the place where we come to find out what we are doing that is wrong; it is a place for correction. The church is the place where we come to hear the promises; it is a place of motivation. No Christian community can do without any part of this message. We need affirmation, we need correction, we need motivation.” 
– Eugene Peterson, Reversed Thunder

Jesus can be your welcomed king now, or your consuming judge later.

“In the end, that Face which is the delight or the terror of the universe must be turned upon each of us either with one expression or the other, either conferring glory inexpressible or inflicting shame that can never be cured or disguised.” 
– C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

“Let us leave the subject with the comforting reflection that with Christ nothing is impossible. The hardest heart can be made willing in the day of his power. Grace beyond doubt is irresistible; but never let us forget that the Bible speaks of people as responsible beings, and that it says of some, ‘You always resist the Holy Spirit!’ (Acts 7:51) Let us understand that the ruin of those who are lost is not because Christ was not willing to save them, nor because they wanted to be saved but could not, but because they would not come to Christ.” 
– J.C. Ryle, Matthew 

Are you among those who will say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord?”

The Questions of Matthew 22

1. What’s in your wallet?
2. What’s in your future?
3. What’s in your heart?
4. Who is Jesus to you?

“Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.”
– William Shakespeare, The Tempest (c. 1610)

“Politics makes strange bedfellows…”
– Charles Dudley Warner, c. 1850

“Perhaps Bach and Beethoven are strange bedfellows for Mickey Mouse, but it’s all been a lot of fun.”
– Walt Disney, c. 1960

The Strange Bedfellows of Matthew 22

• Pharisees – “The Serious”
  • Obsessive about the law
  • Ardent nationalists – hated the Roman government, taxation, culture, all things Rome.
  • Subset of the Pharisees were the Zealots, who desperately wanted revolution
• Sadducees – “The Sophisticated”
  • Disliked the Pharisees
  • Part of the cultural elite, the wealthy
  • Only accepted the first five books of the OT – the Pentateuch, the “Books of Moses” – as Scripture
  • Did not believe in the supernatural, the afterlife or the resurrection.
• Herodians – not much is known about them, but they supported Herod the Great, supported Rome, in favor of taxation and all things Rome.

Four Pericopes

1. Pharisees and paying taxes to Caesar (v. 15-22)
2. Sadducees and the Resurrection  (v. 23-33)
3. The Great Commandment  (v. 34-40)
4. Whose son is the Christ?  (v. 41-46)

“For it is not so much of our time and so much of our attention that God demands; it is not even all our time and all our attention: it is our selves.”
– C.S. Lewis, “A Slip of the Tongue” from The Weight of Glory

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
– 1 Colossians 2:9

“Since the Torah teaches that God is a covenantal God, it is therefore inconceivable that God’s promises and blessings cease when His people die…if death has the final word, then God’s covenant has been breached or broken…the grievous error of the Sadducees was their failure to recognize and appreciate the necessary link between God’s covenantal faithfulness and the resurrection.”
– Douglas Sean O’Donnell, Matthew: All Authority in Heaven and on Earth

“Optimism hopes for the best without any guarantee of its arriving and is often no more than whistling in the dark. Christian hope, by contrast, is faith looking ahead to the fulfillment of the promises of God…Optimism is a wish without warrant; Christian hope is a certainty, guaranteed by God Himself. Optimism reflects ignorance as to whether good things will ever actually come. Christian hope expresses knowledge that every day of his life, and every moment beyond it, the believer can say with truth, on the basis of God’s own commitment, that the best is yet to come.”
– J.I. Packer

“Love is the epicenter of the distinctively Christian way of being in the world – not power, respect, or tolerance, and not equality, justice, freedom, enlightenment, or submission. Love is ‘the overall shape of Christian ethics, the form of the human participation in created order.’”
– Christopher Watkin, Biblical Critical Theory

“God doesn’t just give us grace; He gives us Jesus, the Lord of grace.”
– Joni Eareckson Tada

“You will never find Jesus so precious as when the world is one vast howling wilderness. Then He is like a rose blooming in the midst of the desolation, a rock rising above the storm.”
– Robert Murray McCheyne

“We have to recognize that virtually all of us begin our journey toward God because we want something from Him. However, we must come to grips with the fact that we owe Him our entire lives just because of what He has done for us already. He is our Creator, and for that fact alone we owe Him everything. However, He is also our redeemer, who rescued us at infinite cost to Himself. Any heart that has come to its senses wants to surrender to someone who not only is all-powerful, but has proved that He will sacrifice anything for our good.”
– Timothy Keller, The Reason for God