Life of Jesus: Four Stories, Four Reactions

The thing that people noticed about Jesus right away in His ministry was how He demonstrated authority: authority in teaching, in casting out demons, in healing, and even forgiving sins.  Many people were simply amazed.  Others reacted negatively to this new authority revealed in Jesus.

There is a natural instinct in us to reject authority, and in these four stories, we see that instinct manifested in four different reactions we still see and experience today as we encounter Jesus.  How can we reject these negative reactions and embrace Jesus and His Kingdom?

Life of Jesus: Undercover Boss

There was nothing physically about Jesus that made Him look different from any other man.  He didn't have a supernatural glow, "no beauty or majesty that we might be attracted to him" (Isaiah 53:2).  But when He began to teach, people immediately realized that this was no ordinary man.  He was different from their teachers of the law, and He is different from every other religious figure who ever walked the earth.  Why?  His authority.  For the next few weeks, we'll be examining how Jesus revealed His authority during His ministry on earth.

Life of Jesus: Stepping Into the Calling

All of the story we've told so far--from creation to the promises given to Abraham and the Israelites, every heroic victory and every humbling disaster--culminates in the life of Jesus.  "In the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son..." 

We will be going through the life of Christ by studying the Gospel of Mark.  This week, we looked at how, even though Jesus did not need to repent from sin, He still lived as our perfect example for repentance and stepping into the invitation to take hold of the Kingdom of God.

Re-Focusing for 2016

This past Sunday, we had our annual vision message.  This year, it was simple: let's re-focus on the covenant we affirmed at the beginning of last year.

The World That Jesus Entered, part 3: Darkness

One of the great themes of Christmas is light shining in the darkness.  "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light," the prophet Isaiah writes as he looks forward to the birth of the Savior.

But just last week, we talked about how the Jews celebrated the "Festival of Lights."  How did this time of great victory become so dark?  What hope does Jesus bring to the darkness of our own time?

The World That Jesus Entered, part 2: The Maccabees

Sunday was the 8th day of Hanukkah.  This Jewish holiday commemorates an event that was pivotal in both shaping the Jewish world in which Jesus lived and forms a background for many New Testament prophecies about the end times.

So who has heard a Baptist preacher give a Hanukkah sermon?  Well, here it is...

The World That Jesus Entered, part 1: World in Transition

When you open up the pages of the New Testament, what you find is drastically different from the world of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Malachi.  This month, we are going to tackle two key questions:

What happened in the history "between the Testaments" to shape the world that Jesus entered?

What can we learn from this era about how to live as God's people in a world in transition?