Podcasts about bible for god

What does it really mean to know Jesus? In this message from Pastor Jared Blauwkamp we dive into the life-changing power of a personal relationship with Christ. While John 3:16 may be the most well-known verse in the Bible—"For God so loved the world..."—we take a closer look to see if God has something new for us to learn from this timeless scripture. This message is for anyone who's ready to move beyond simply knowing about Jesus and truly experiencing Him in a deeper way. It's not just about religion, but about discovering the profound love and purpose that comes from knowing Jesus intimately. Be sure to like, share, and subscribe for more encouraging messages that will help you grow in your faith and understanding of God's Word. Let's explore together how knowing Jesus can change everything.

This is maybe the best-known verse of the Bible - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Friends, the Gospel on this Fourth Sunday of Lent includes one of the most famous verses in the Bible: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (John 3:16). In many ways, this verse is the Gospel in miniature. But we can isolate this line too much and miss the real import of it when we don't attend to what happens right before—namely, Jesus' reference to the serpent in the desert.

- The most famous verse in the Bible - For God so loved the world.  - Why the idea of God "loving the world" would have been so groundbreaking to Nicodemus.  - What it means to be "born again." - Jenn talks about the Light, and why the world hates Jesus so much.    Hey, don't go away yet! See more P40 stuff:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnh-aqfg8rw Website (Subscribe to get 2 free chapters of Out of the Mire)- https://www.p40ministries.com Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/p40ministries  Contact - jenn@p40ministries.com  Books - https://www.amazon.com/Jenn-Kokal/e/B095JCRNHY/ref=aufs_dp_fta_dsk  Merch Store - https://www.p40ministries.com/shop 

What is the most powerful force on Earth? If you google this question, you will find the answer to be “the strong nuclear force.” This is the correct scientific answer. However, after scrolling through the results for awhile, you will find a different answer—the answer that can save the whole world! It's found in the most popular verse in the Bible: “For God so loved the world…” Join us to explore what is truly *The Most Powerful Force*

We begin our conversation about Max Lucado's book 3:16 The Numbers of Hope and talk about the Bible verse John 3:16. BJ throws down some thought provoking ideas on sin that really sets the stage and contextualizes this verse. BJ said "When we accept Jesus, we die to sin." This verse, that has inspired signs at sporting events all over the world is arguably the most important message in the Bible: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." This led us into a meaningful discussion on sin, and what Jesus' death and resurrection has done for our lives. 

Mark Two: A Biblical Understanding of God by William Klock Last week we looked at the subject of expositional preaching as the first mark of a healthy church.  It's the central component of a word-centred ministry.  And, at least in theory, if we get biblical preaching right, everything else should follow naturally—although it will take some time.  But that doesn't mean we're done.  It's not just how we should approach and preach God's word, but we need to spend some time looking at what the content of biblical preaching is.  So today I want to begin with a look at how biblical preaching should be giving us a biblical understanding of God.  That's the second mark of a healthy church: a biblical understanding of God. Now that might seem like a no-brainer.  We're Christians, so of course we're going to be committed to a biblical understanding of God.  But if you start looking at what's going on around us, it doesn't take long to see that it ain't necessarily so.  The song of that title written by the Gershwin brothers for Porgy and Bess, highlights the problem.  If you're not familiar with it, it's a litany sung by a drug dealer, casting doubt on the stories of the Bible.  He ends, “They tell all your children/The Devil he's a villain/It ain't necessarily so”.  That drug dealer thought that maybe it's God who's the villain.  He's always spoiling everyone's fun, after all—or at least that's how it seems to a lot of people.  Maybe the devil's actually the good guy.  Some people think that way, although it's usually more subtle.  More often than not what it seems we've done is to swap their roles.  Ask someone on the street—or one of your non-Christians friends—who God is and they'll describe a non-judgemental man in the sky who just wants you to be happy.  Ironically, this has more to do with the lies the devil routinely tells than it does the God we meet in the Bible. It used to be “liberal” Protestants who rewrote the God of scripture.  Like the Jesus Seminar folks who wrote that all the warm and fuzzy stuff in the gospel is what Jesus really said, but all the stuff about sin and judgement—that was added later by men who had forgotten who Jesus really was.  But it's not just liberals.  Many parts of Evangelicalism, particularly amongst younger people, have come to be dominated by a belief system that's come to be called “Moralistic therapeutic deism”.  In short, it's the belief that God wants people to be good—although the bar is pretty low; that God wants us to be happy and to feel good about ourselves; that he's distant, but available when you've got a problem; and that if you're good, you'll go to heaven when you die.  Brothers and Sisters, this is not the God of the narrow way that leads to life; this is the devil of the wide gate that leads to destruction. This is what you get when you stop preaching the word and, instead, preach pop-psychology, current events, and feel-good fluff.  It's what you get when you preach human-centred sermons instead of God-centred sermons.  We've shifted the culture of the church.  John 3:16 used to be the best known and most oft quote verse of the Bible: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”.  These days that pride of place goes to Matthew 7:1, “Judge not, lest ye be judged,” quoted loudly by folks who have no idea about its context or what Jesus meant when he said it.  They just don't want anyone telling them what to do and have embraced a false god who indulges their every desire.  Our culture, like the pagan cultures of old, and not a few within the Church, have recreated God in our image.  The antidote is the faithful preaching of God's word. And the culture will not be happy with it.  Post-modern culture hates meta-narratives.  Meta-narratives are those big stories that give meaning to life, the universe, and everything.  And today such things are said to be oppressive.  And being “oppressive” is the absolute worst thing anything can be in post-modern culture, where everything is about the individual and the individual being whatever he or she or they or them or ze or zir wants to be.  But if we believe the Bible is God's word to us, then we can't escape the Bible's meta-narrative, its grand story running from Genesis to Revelation with Jesus at its centre, the story that does, in fact, give meaning to life, the universe, and everything.  And so it makes sense, then, that the God who has given this great narrative that runs from beginning to end describes himself as the Alpha and Omega.  Get the story right and you actually get to know the God behind it all from beginning to end. So we can't cover every aspect of a biblical understanding of God in a single sermon, but we can hit some high points—and especially the points that are often so challenged by our culture today.  So what does the biblical story tell us about the God behind it? Well, let's start at the beginning.  The story starts with Creation.  “In the beginning, God created…” is how Genesis begins.  St. John opens his gospel with those familiar words reminding us that it wasn't just “God” in some generic sense that was there in the beginning, but the Triune God: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  Right at the beginning, the first thing the story teaches us about this Triune God is that he is a creator.  He is the great initiator.  There was nothing and it pleased him to make something of it.  And not just something, but a world.  And not just a world, but as Genesis 1 shows us, a word that is good because it is suitable for human life.  And God finishes his great creative act by creating human beings—and he does so for a purpose.  He created us to be his image bearers—to act as his regents, his stewards, his priests in this world he created. But notice that God's creative acts don't end there.  As I said last week, his word gives life and so he continues to speak.  Humanity rebelled and sinned.  We gave up the vocation for which we were created and had to be removed from the garden-temple.  And things went from bad to worse.  It took only a single generation before the first murder happened and only a few generations later we have men boasting of slaughtering their enemies.  The Lord causes a flood to wipe sinful men from the earth and he speaks, calling forth Noah so that he can spare him, start over with him.  But again, human rebellion goes from bad to worse and so the Lord speaks again into the darkness and calls forth Abraham and from Abraham he makes a people for himself.  And as we read the story of that people, it's full of ups and downs, of faithfulness and rebellion—mostly rebellion.  But the Lord repeatedly speaks his word and sustains the life of that people and at its lowest points he promises new life in the future.  And then we meet Jesus, the word incarnate, who fulfils those promises himself and creates a new Israel.  The god of the great biblical narrative is a creator. That God is the creator also tells us that we can't pick and choose the parts we like from this great story.  The first major heresy in church history was that of Marcion, who cut the Old Testament out of the Bible so as to dump all the things about God he didn't like.  And this problem crops up repeatedly.  A couple years ago, popular pastor Andy Stanley preached that the Church must “unhitch” itself from the Old Testament.  Again, people want the warm-fuzzies, they want the welcoming message of forgiveness, but not the judgement or the wrath or the call to repentance.  But the grand biblical narrative shows us that it's all connected.  The story doesn't make any sense if you hack it up.  Forgiveness loses meaning when there's nothing to be forgiven.  It's all connected and biblical preaching reminds us of this truth. But, too, there's more to God's creating than just speaking and creating.  In the story of his people we begin to see something we first saw a glimpse of with Noah.  For the Lord to create is also for the Lord to call and to choose or to elect.  He chose Abraham out of all the people on earth.  And, again, he chose Isaac over Ishmael and Jacob over Esau.  When it came time for a King, he would choose young David over his older brothers.  And Jesus chose twelve out of all his followers from which to build God's new people.  And we look at that and we think, “Wait, that's not fair!”  Brothers and Sisters, that's when we need to go back to the story and remember that the Lord didn't have to create anything at all.  He created in the first place to manifest his glory and to show his love.  And when we rebelled against him he didn't have to begin this great act of new creation that would eventually cost his own Son.  But he did.  Because he is good.  Because he loves.  Because he is wise.  The big story reminds us repeatedly that he is all these things, and that reminds us that when things don't make sense or when they seem unfair to us—with our limited perspective and knowledge—we can trust him.  This also reminds us—against the popular view of things today—that God does not exist to serve us, but we to serve him—and knowing his goodness assures us that this, too, is good. Second point: The great narrative of the Bible reminds us again and again that God is holy.  Most people like to ignore this, because for something to be holy means that there really are things called “right” and “wrong”.  It means that if God is holy, then he also has expectations for us.  Post-modern culture is built around that idea that we're each the centre of our own universe.  We make our own truth and we each define our own happiness.  You can do whatever you want and be whatever you want.  If you want to do drugs or have promiscuous sex, that's your truth and your happiness.  If you're a man, but you want to be a woman—or a cat—woe to anyone who says you can't or that there are objective standards.  And this is why our culture has created a false god that just wants us to be happy and is never judgemental. But there at the beginning of the story we're reminded that Adam and Eve were forced to leave the Lord's presence because they rebelled against him, they sinned.  And then we see throughout the story this theme of holiness.  Humans do what they want and everything goes from bad to worse.  We like to say that it's okay to do what you want as long as you don't hurt other people, and that may be our only political option in a pluralistic, modern society, but the big story shows us that this doesn't work in the end.  And so when the Lord created a people for himself, he not only delivered them from a life of slavery, he also gave them a law—a way of life that not only included all the dos and don'ts, but a system of offerings and sacrifices, means of atonement for their sins, so that they could live in his presence and he in theirs.  The tabernacle in the midst of Israel was a reminder of the holiness of God and the need of sinners for redemption.  There it was, the Lord's dwelling place in the centre of the camp.  The Lord lived in the midst of his people.  It was a powerful reminder of how things are supposed to be—as they were when Adam and Eve lived in the Lord's presence in the garden-temple.  But it was also a powerful reminder that even in Israel, things were not as they should be.  The Lord dwelled in their midst, but he dwelled in a place they could not go.  The holy of holies, glorious and beautiful and filled with the cloud of his glory resting on the ark of the covenant, was off limits.  The relationship between God and human beings was still broken—and the brokenness was not on his part, but theirs.  Again, we see his love and his grace and his mercy.  Through the law and the sacrifices he gave the people a means of drawing near, of truly being his people, while at the same time reminding them of the seriousness of their problem, of the sinfulness of sin, and that something greater was needed to finally restore full fellowship with him.  The tabernacle (and later the temple) was an abattoir where continual animal sacrifices were offered to atone for sin.  Those weren't the only offerings.  The people came to offer their thanks to the Lord as well.  But the blood sacrifices overshadowed everything else—a reminder that the problem of this broken fellowship is on our end, not God's; that it is not his holiness that is the problem, but our sin.  They were a reminder for Israel of the mercy of the Lord—that he desires to be reconciled with sinners—but also that sinners must come to him on his terms and not our own, and that there is a great gulf between holiness and sinfulness.  And so the story of Israel and her covenant with the Lord prepared the people of God for Jesus.  Every Sunday you and I come to his Table and are reminded that the son of God gave his life as a once-for-all and perfect sacrifice for sin, his blood given in place of ours, to bring atonement, to restore us to the presence of the Lord—because of his great love for us.  And again, that reminder is there that we come to God on his terms and not our own, because he is holy and apart from him we are not. And here the God of Scripture clashes with the false god we so often create for ourselves.  We're like petulant children who get angry when our parents lay down rules.  “You don't love me if you won't let me do whatever I want,” we shout at them.  But they know better.  Our parents know things that we don't, and so they give us rules when we are children, not because they're mean, but because they love us.  As adults with hindsight we see our foolishness.  We knew other kids whose parents let them do whatever they wanted and we'd foolishly think that those kids' parents loved them more.  Now we're adults and know better.  Brothers and Sisters, we do the same thing with God.  He created us out of love in the beginning, he delivered Israel from her Egyptian bondage out of love, he lived in her midst out of love even when she was so often unfaithful.  He taught her how to be holy.  He gave her instructions for sacrifices as a means of atonement.  And like petulant and ungrateful teenagers Israel went after other gods instead.  But the petulant and rebellious teenager is a modern phenomenon, not the one used by the Lord when he spoke to his people.  When he spoke to them of their relationship with him, she was his beautiful and beloved bride who turned to adultery and unfaithfulness.  That's a much darker and troubling image then the rebellious teen.  But as we read Israel's story, we see that the Lord never abandons his bride.  The prophecy of Hosea may be one of the most profound witnesses of the Lord's love for his people, despite their unfaithfulness.  Hosea wrote: “In that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,' and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.'  For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more.  And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety.  And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy.  I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.”  (Hosea 2:16-20) The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, as Jeremiah wrote, and his mercies never end (Lamentation 3:22).  And we see this as the great story eventually leads us to Jesus, who, as St. Paul writes: …though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  (Philippians 2:6-8) And St. John reminds us so poignantly: In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.  In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins…We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:9-10) The great story reveals the faithlessness of human beings to the one who has loved us from the very beginning.  No matter how great our rebellion, our idolatry, our sin, our unfaithfulness to him, he has loved us from the beginning and he will love us to the end and has given his own life to restore us to his presence and fill our hearts with love for him.  Again, we love because he first loved us.  The God of the Bible is a God of love. Now, there are lots of things we can say of the God of who reveals himself in the Bible.  He is patient, for example.  Or he's sovereign.  The list is long and all of these things are interrelated.  He is patient, because he is loving.  The fact that he is a creating, calling, and electing God means that he is also a sovereign God.  We have confidence in prayer, because we know that he is sovereign and has the power to answer.  And we have confidence in his answers, because we know he is wise and good and loving and so on.  But I want to close on a different point and that is that the God of the Bible is a faithful God.  More than anything else, this is the aspect of God we need to grasp as we struggle to trust him. The great story reminds us of God's faithfulness from beginning to end.  We see his faithfulness in that he didn't give up, wipe everything out, and start over when we rebelled.  Instead, he has lovingly, patiently, graciously, and mercifully stuck with us.  If it weren't for his faithfulness he wouldn't have called Abraham, he wouldn't have rescued Israel from Egypt, he wouldn't have given his law or a king, he wouldn't have disciplined his people, he wouldn't have spoken through the prophets.  He wouldn't have made promises—or might have, but he wouldn't have kept them.  If he were not faithful, he'd be like the gods of the pagans—fickle, unreliable, unknowable.  And, of course, we see the faithfulness of God fully revealed in Jesus.  In Jesus he shows his faithfulness to us, even when we are unfaithful.  In Jesus he fulfils his promises.  As St. Paul wrote to Timothy: If we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.  (2 Timothy 2:13) It's who he is.  God cannot be anything other than faithful and we know it because of the Scriptures.  In the Bible we have the record of his character—of his goodness and wisdom and righteousness and holiness and everything else that comes together and culminates in his faithfulness.  One of the things I like best about the Psalms is their repeated acclamation of the faithfulness of the Lord to his people, to his covenant, to his promises.  They sing out his mighty deeds for Israel and remind the people not only that they have every reason to trust in him, but that they would be fools not to.  And if that was the case for Israel in the Old Testament, how much more is it the case for us, his new Israel.  We have known Jesus and the Spirit as the fulfilment of all that he promised.  We have been plunged into this life in our baptism and we come, week after week, to his Table.  We bear in our baptism his mark—the gift of his own indwelling Spirit—and here at the Table we participate again and again in those events—the death and resurrection of Jesus—through which God has delivered us from our bondage to sin and death and made us his own.  Brothers and Sisters, this is the God whom healthy churches proclaim, this is the God whose mighty and saving deeds we sing, this is the God whom we make known to the world.  This the God in whom our future hopes rest.  As St. John wrote: Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.  (1 John 3:2) As I say so often, in Jesus and the Spirit—at the cross and in the upper room at Pentecost—our God did the hard part.  His word tells us and our baptism and the Lord's Supper serve as perpetual reminders of his faithfulness.  He is the Alpha and Omega, the one whose faithfulness knows no bounds and is as long as eternity itself.  It is in him we trust and it is him we preach. Let's pray: Holy, loving, sovereign, patient, faithful Father, we give you thanks for revealing yourself to us in your word—for who you are, for what you have done, for showing us that you are worthy of our love and worthy of our trust.  By your word and through your Spirit you give us the gift of faith.  We ask that as we continue in your word and as we share in your sacraments, as our knowledge and experience of you grows, that our faith will deepen.  Purge our hearts of fickleness we pray, that we might set aside every idol and every false idea we might have of you.  Give us your great grace, that we might ever more each day trust in you and love you more as we steep ourselves in your word and each Sunday as we come to your Table to be reminded of the great love you have shown to us in the death and resurrection of Jesus and the gift of your Spirit.  Amen.

Good morning, I great you in Jesus' precious name. It is Monday morning the 11th of July 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.John 3:16 is probably the most famous Scripture verse in the whole Bible:“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” I want to tell you about a young man named Ed Harrison, a young horse trainer from the USA. He died last week in Namibia while on a horse-training tour. I had the privilege of spending valuable time with this dynamic young man when he came to South Africa on a previous trip. His greatest desire was to tell people about Jesus and he made no apologies about his faith. He would open his teaching clinics in prayer and speak unashamedly about his friend, Jesus. He is not here any longer. The question is, where is he today? We might be honest and say we don't really know. Thomas, one of the disciples asked Jesus the same question in John 14:5, when the Lord said, “I am going to prepare a place for you,” he said, “But Lord, we do not know where you are going so how can we know the way.” In verse 6 Jesus said, “Thomas, I am the way, the truth and the life and no-one goes to the Father but by me.” Its not about being a good person. We have a saying, “Good people do not go to Heaven. Believers go to Heaven.” You might ask how we can justify that statement. Remember the thief on the cross? Minutes before he died, and he deserved to die according to Roman law, he said, “Lord Jesus, remember me in Heaven.” He acknowledged Jesus as his Saviour and Jesus said, “Today, you will be with me in Paradise.”I sense somebody is maybe listening to this message who is afraid of death, and we are all afraid of death. I want to pray a simple prayer, because that is what Ed Harrison would want me to do.I am going to ask you to pray this prayer after me:Dear Lord Jesus, I acknowledge You as my Lord and Saviour. I believe You are the Son of God. Please forgive me for all my sins. I promise today that I will serve no other god but You. Thank You for showing me the way home.Amen.God bless you and have a wonderful day.Goodbye.

John 3:16 is one of, if note the most, oft-quoted verses of the Bible: "For God so loved the that He gave his only begotten Son". One of the reasons that verse has become so popular is that it represents a simple summary of a profound truth: God loves the world, including people such as you and me. In this episode we study the powerful story of Ruth that illustrates His love for all of us. Show Notes: Connect with us on Instagram or Facebook Music: by Steve Oxen

By Richard Hunt “Throughout scripture we see that God sets nine boundaries around human innovation that cannot be violated.” Tony Reinke explains “I find among Christians there's this myth floating around that this world is sort of booby-trapped with things God didn't want us to discover – genetics, nuclear power, you name it. And I think that's a misreading of the material universe and God's governance of it…”

By Richard Hunt “Throughout scripture we see that God sets nine boundaries around human innovation that cannot be violated.” Tony Reinke explains “I find among Christians there's this myth floating around that this world is sort of booby-trapped with things God didn't want us to discover – genetics, nuclear power, you name it. And I think that's a misreading of the material universe and God's governance of it…”

2 Chronicles 6:18 and Solomon said:“But will God indeed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built!”That was the word of Solomon after he had completed building the most incredible, majestic, mighty and glorious structure that has been built on the face of the earth. And yet he said, “Can God dwell in a man-made place.” You know I looked up the Bible to see that Solomon used 80,000 stone-cutters, 70,000 bearers of burdens, 3,600 overseers and tons of gold and silver.He built the most expensive, most glorious structure that has ever been built on the face of the earth and when he completed it, he said, “There is nothing on earth, Lord, that can contain You!”What a God you and I serve! How often do we forget that? And then if we go to John 1:1, the Gospel of John - a beautiful scripture:“ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”This God that Solomon is speaking about said one word and everything that you can conceive and see was made in an instant. Oh yes! And by the way, that Word is Jesus - Majestic and glorious! Oh, folks, we need to respect Him so much more, don't we? He is indeed the Saviour of the world and if it weren't for God's only Son, we would be on our way to a lost eternity. John 3:16, the most famous scripture in the Bible:“For God (that same God that Solomon is talking about) so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”And that is why believers, me included, so often weep with joy and with reverence when we hear the name of our Beloved mentioned.My best temple ever are the outdoor meetings. I just love them. The stars in the sky, the clouds. He writes His name in the clouds... We have seen crosses in the clouds, we have seen all kinds of things happening in the clouds. That sweet scent of the early morning, the flash of lightning, the roll of thunder, the sweet smell of new rain on dry, dusty soil. No, He can never be housed in a building but He can be housed, and wants to live in our hearts!Jesus bless you as you have a glorious day.Goodbye.

“Our Father in heaven,Hallowed be Your name.Your kingdom come.Your will be doneOn earth as it is in heaven.Give us this day our daily bread.And forgive us our debts,As we forgive our debtors.And do not lead us into temptation,But deliver us from the evil one.For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”Matthew 6:9-13I just want to say right at the outset, a very Happy Father's Day to all the fathers who are listening to this message. And indeed, more so to all the families who are going to spoil dad today! We trust that you are going to be really spoilt, Why? Because you deserve it!“Oh, but Uncle Angus my dad is always so grumpy. Often when I talk to him, I know he is not even listening to me.” “My dad is always so strict with me. He doesn't let me go out with all the others.”That is because he loves you and he wants to protect you. He is grumpy sometimes and maybe he is concerned. He is the one who is putting the bread on the table and has got to pay the accounts at the end of the month... Mom is helping him but it is ultimately his responsibility. He is concerned because the company has told him that they have to let him go or maybe the farm or the business is in dire straits. Give him lots of love and grace today.You say, “My dad is always working, we hardly ever see him.” That's right... He is trying to pay the bills so that you will receive a good education and that you will be able to go to bed at night with a full tummy of food. That is why you have nice clothes to wear - because your dad is trying to hold down that job so that he can give you maybe something that he never had.I always remember very fondly, my late dad who was a blacksmith, he was a tradesman. We didn't have much money but we always had food to eat, we always had a nice warm bed to sleep in - but we didn't have any extras. One day I was complaining to my dad: “Dad, you know, I am the only boy in my class that doesn't have a watch, a wristwatch.”And I will never forget that old Scotsman, taking his watch off his wrist, and giving it to me, and saying, “You take that, son.” And you know, when you are a little boy, sometimes you don't understand and you don't appreciate what your dad does for you. I can hear someone saying, “But I don't have a dad, Uncle Angus.” Oh yes, you do - All of us do, every single one of us! We have a Heavenly Father and do you know how much He loves us? He loves us so much that He gave us His most precious gift. What was that - It was His only Begotten Son. The most famous scripture verse in the whole Bible:“For God so loved the world (He loved you) that He gave His only Begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16Enjoy spoiling your dad today. He is worth it!God bless you.

Jesus reveals one of the most quoted phrases in the Bible “ For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son...” He had clarity in his purpose on earth and named it. His light cast out the darkness. Where do you find your life has purpose?

Friends, our Gospel for today contains one of the most important lines in the entire Bible: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” To “believe” here means much more than to accept the truth of an idea; it is to enter into the space opened up by the death of the Son of God. When you do that, you are born again; when you do that, you have eternal life.

“Sola Fide” Sermon Series: Solas Acts 16:24-34 Istrouma Baptist Church – Jeff Ginn, Lead Pastor AM Sermon January 12, 2020       Outline:   The context of life’s most important question   About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them (Acts 16:25)      Undeserved prison   Undeterred praise                 The conversation about life’s most important question   Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household” (Acts 16:30-31).   Question asked      Question answered           The change after life’s most important question   And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. 34 Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God (Acts 16:33-34).             Produced by faith   Proved by fruit           What would you say is life’s most important question?    Someone might say that life’s most important question is, “Does God exist?”  That’s certainly important.    Another might suggest, “How did the world come into being?”   Still another might get a tad more personal and ask, “How did mankind come to be?”    One immediately pressing question is, “Will LSU defeat Clemson on Monday night for the national championship?”  O.k., so maybe that one doesn’t make the cut.   The interesting thing is that the Bible (and the Bible alone—sola scriptura) answers all of these questions.    Does God exist?  Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God.”  Yes, he exists.    How did the world come into being? Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”   How did mankind—you and I—come to be?  Genesis 1:27, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”    From the Bible, we get the answer to all of life’s most important questions.   But I want to make the case this morning that there is another question that is, arguably, life’s most important question. It is this: “What must I do to be saved?”  It is imminently personal, and the stakes could not be higher. If there is a God (and we believe that there is), and, if there is an eternity awaiting all of us (and we believe that there is), how can I gain that eternal life?   Jesus taught that this is a supremely important issue.  He said, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” In other words, if you could gain the whole world—all its riches and all its pleasures, yet you lost your own soul, what have you gained? Nothing. All the world pales in comparison to your soul.  Therefore, you and I must know the answer to this question: “What must I do to be saved?”   Here’s the good news: God’s word gives us the answer to that question as well.  Our aim this Sunday is to answer that question for everyone so that we can have both eternal life and abundant life.   Turn in your Bibles to Acts 16:25-34 to discover this.  Would you stand in honor of God’s word as it is read: Acts 16:25-34 25 About midnight Paul and Silas [Now, I would interject, if you don’t know those names, Paul and Silas were early church leaders, and more particularly, they were missionaries taking the gospel where it had never been known. So, Paul and Silas] were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them [Again, I’ll interject, yes, they were in jail, and I'll tell you how they ended up there in just a moment, but Paul and Silas are in jail. They’re singing praises to God; the prisoners are listening to them. Now, verse 26], 26 and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bonds were unfastened. 27 When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” 29 And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. 30 Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” [Now, again, I am suggesting, that that is life's most important question, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Now here comes the answer, verse 31] 31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. 34 Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.   Let's pray.   [Prayer]   Please be seated.    As a church, we are celebrating 100 years of shared life. As an element of that celebration, we're revisiting some of the bedrock principles upon which this church is founded, and it's in a sermon series called “Solas.” Now that is a Latin word. Really, it's an anglicized version of it, and the word sola means “only.” There are some solas in the life of the Christian church that stand preeminently. We looked last week at the first of them, sola scriptura. Today, we're going to learn about sola fide. Sola scriptura, only scripture, is our guide to faith and practice. And now today, sola fide, only faith, brings salvation; faith in Christ. Sola scriptura teaches that sola fide is the only way to be saved. These two principles, Sola scriptura and sola fide, are intimately related to one another, and I want to demonstrate this by reminding you of the text we looked at last week, 2 Timothy 3:16 and 17. You'll remember this: All Scripture is breathed out by God [inspired by God] and [is] profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God [the people of God, if I could extend it in that way, that all of us] may be complete, equipped for every good work.”    This was our passage last week, and it establishes the principle of sola scriptura. Now, I want you to see the verse that immediately precedes these two. Look at verse 15. Notice that it teaches that sola scriptura leads to sola fide. It says, verse 15, Paul speaking to Timothy, his young protégé, he says:  [Timothy], from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings [sola scriptura, the sacred writings, and notice what they have done. He says, so, the sacred writings] are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.     Do you follow that? There it is in verse 15, sola scriptura; sola fide. You have known the sacred writings; that is, God's word, and they have led you to have faith, sola fide, in Jesus for salvation. So, there are the two principles related closely to one another. Salvation comes to us through faith in Christ Jesus. That's the answer to life's most important question. No passage makes this any clearer than Acts chapter 16 where we find ourselves this morning. I want us to consider life’s most important question in three steps. Number one, we're going to look at the context in which life's most important question was asked. Secondly, we're going to listen in on the conversation where life's most important question was asked and answered. And then, finally, I want to show you the change that knowing the right answer to life's most important question brings, the change in life that it brings.    All right, so let's go back to the first of these points, the first step. I want you to see the context in which this question was first posed. Here in Acts 16, Paul and a group of his coworkers are on a missionary journey. Things are going well. People are saving saved. They’re following the Lord in believer's baptism. A church is being planted there in Europe for the very first time. Paul and his team are experiencing the joy of seeing God at work. There's one particular life to which I want to allude that plays into our passage this morning. It's the story of a little girl. I call her little; she was probably a teenager. This girl had an unusual power. This girl could tell foretell the future, and the Bible explains how it is that she could foretell the future. She was actually possessed by a demon, and by virtue of this supernatural power, she could foretell the future.    Paul and his partners met up with this young girl. I won't tell the whole of the story, but I'll just say this. By the power of the gospel, this young girl was set free. I mean that in two senses. First of all, she was a slave to masters who were using her for their own profit. You see, people would pay to have their fortune told, and the slave masters had this girl in captivity, and were using her for their own profit. Again, I say that. This leads me to say a couple of things by way of lagniappe. First of all, fortune-telling is not just a thing of the ancient past. I could wish that it were so, but there still are fortune tellers in our day. I think most of these are just flat-out charlatans. They're just putting on a charade, a show. Perhaps some are demon-possessed, and they may have some capacity given them by spiritual forces.   I actually went on the web out of curiosity, and typed into a Google search engine “Fortune tellers, Baton Rouge.” I was curious to know, are there fortune tellers in our city today? What do you think the answer to that is? One of the responses was, “The 30 best fortune tellers in Baton Rouge.”  I clicked on it. There was a list of fortune tellers in our fair town. It included people who did things like fortune-telling, tarot card reading. There were mediums, self-identified. Some could cast spells including love spells, etc. No, this is not just something that's from ancient history. Even in our own day, there are people who dabble into these things. So it gives me a good opportunity to let you know what God thinks of these things. I want to read from the Bible, Deuteronomy 18 beginning in verse 10:  There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer 11 or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer [that is, one who calls up the dead to speak with them] or one who inquires of the dead, 12 for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. . . .   This is from the Bible. Folks, we ought to have nothing to do with these works of darkness. Even something as what seems to be innocuous as horoscopes. I think it's terrible that papers will often include horoscopes. Worse yet, they put them next to the comics in the newspaper. It doesn't belong there, and I would encourage you not to read that. Astrology; anything of the sort, God says that is all an abomination. The work of the gospel is to set people free from these things. God doesn't want us to consult with the dead or with spiritists or with mediums. No, He has given us his word, sola scriptura. He has given us his indwelling Holy Spirit to illumine our minds to understand the things that are in the word of God. I don't need a fortune teller. I don't need a necromancer. I have all that I need, sola scriptura, to be a guide by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit who illumines these truths to our lives. Now, I told you, that's just lagniappe. I just gave you that for extra.   I'm also reminded to say this: This poor young girl was a slave to her masters. It's very evident to me they didn't care one whit about that little girl. They only used her for their own purposes. You know, you hear a lot today about sex trafficking, pornography. Could I just remind us all, those who peddle that, who push that, they care nothing for the boys and girls whose lives they wreck. They domineer them and they own them, and anyone who participates in these things supports it. God sees it equally as an abomination. We as God's people ought have nothing to do with it. Instead of abusing people, we ought to love them and want them to be free. It's exactly what the Apostle Paul and his team were doing. They were setting people free by the good news of Jesus, and this little girl among them.   Now, you would think, would you not, that everyone is going to be ecstatic that this little girl has been set free. Oh, that it were so. It wasn't so. Her masters see that their means of ill gain is gone, and so they haul up Paul and Silas on false charges. Two things result, and I want to mention them to you. One, undeserved prison time. Undeserved prison. Paul and Silas, if you can imagine this, were cast into prison. It's worth noting, friend, that if we stand for the Lord, we're going to face opposition in this world. Not everyone is going to pat you on the back. Now you may get a fair amount of that; certainly here at church, I trust that you’re encouraged as you follow Christ. We want to do that. But it won't be so with everyone. There will be those who will oppose. I, myself, have faced occasions of great opposition. The Bible says; this is 2 Timothy 3:12, “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” Jesus was crucified. John was beheaded. Luther, of whom I spoke last week, was excommunicated. Jan Hus, the great Czech reformer, was burned at the stake. William Tyndale, who for the first time translated God's word into English so that all English speakers could hear the word of God in their heart language, he was burned as a heretic. Later he was exhumed and his ashes were sprinkled on the Thames River.   You come forward into our own day, I think about those believers in Libya not so long ago that were beheaded by ISIS because they believed in Christ. There will be opposition; there always has been, there always will be. Now it may not be as serious as these cases that I've named. Perhaps not even as serious as Paul and Silas, beaten now and imprisoned in stocks. But perhaps you'll be passed over for a promotion, or perhaps others will belittle you for your faith or some stance that you take on a moral issue, but I want to encourage us all as Paul and Silas did to remain faithful to the Lord despite the opposition that arises.    So, prison is really not a surprise. But do you know what is a surprise? It's that, though they are imprisoned, undeservedly so, there arises their undeterred praise to the Lord. How do they answer the stripes that were put upon their back and their stocks in which they were bound and the prison in which they were jailed? They answered their prison with praise. You know, it's one thing to praise the Lord when the prison doors swing open and the shackles fall from our wrists. But I want you to take note, Paul and Silas were not praising the Lord after they'd been liberated, after their shackles had fallen from them. No, they are praising the Lord in the midst of their suffering, unjust though it was. No wonder, then, the Bible says that the prisoners heard them. Don't you know the prisoners heard them? Don't you know the jailer himself heard them? They were listening to them. Of course they were, because there is power in our praise, particularly when it’s in the face of hardship and difficulty. I know I'm preaching to many of you who, even today, sang songs of praise to the Lord in the midst of your trial. I want to say God is honored by that. Your witness is never more powerful than when you gladly praise Him in the midst of your trial, and Paul and Silas did. So, that is the context in which life’s most important question arose.   Now, secondly, I want to take you to the actual conversation in which life's most important question is both asked and answered. First, let's look at the asking of this question. The jailer discovers that Paul and Silas have been set free. They are singing, and someone said that as they sang, God took such pleasure in their song that God was tapping his foot along with the beat of their song, and it caused the earthquake. That's a little bit fanciful, but I like it, still. God sent an earthquake to that jail. The jailhouse rocked, for all of you 1950s folks. As the jailhouse rocked, the prison doors swung open. The shackles fell from their hands and their feet, if, in fact, they were shackled at both of those extremities. The shackles fell, and the jailer, realizing that the prison doors have swung open and that the prisoners have been set free, presumes that they've all escaped. You have to know that in that day, if you were the jailer, and your prisoners escaped, you would be executed for having failed at your duty. He sees this, is terrorized by it, and he draws his sword and intends to kill himself.    Here's another point where I want to interject a thought. It's never right to take your own life; it's never right to take your own life. He's going to commit suicide. I may be speaking to someone this morning who is contemplating ending your own life. Maybe you're in a valley, a deep, deep valley, and it seems there's no escape from it. Could I just encourage you that suicide is never the answer? Paul and Silas, to their credit, step in and they tell the man, “Don't harm yourself. We’re all here.” Now, let's be frank. Here's the jailer who has put them into the deepest part of the prison. Perhaps he's even taken some joy in shackling them and in seeing their wounds from the beating that they took. You couldn't blame Paul and Silas if they just stood aside as the jailer killed himself, but motivated by Christ's love, they intervene and they say, “Don't harm yourself.” I'm reminded to challenge all of us, if you know of someone who is wrestling with deep depression, intervene. Speak to them. We have a counseling ministry here at Istrouma, and we can get help. There is help, and there is hope in Christ. Paul and Silas say, “Do yourself no harm.”   Upon their kindness, this jailer runs in before Paul and Silas and the Bible says that he falls down at their feet. You see, he's been impacted by what he's observed. He has seen Paul and Silas singing praises to God. He's heard that song. He's personally experienced their mercy when they defend him who once oppressed them. Paul and Silas could easily have escaped, but they haven't. They’re remaining there. So, impacted by what he has heard and seen, he asks life's most important question. It’s in verse 30: Sirs, what must I do to be saved?   Now, some might suggest that this question is related to the temporal crisis. He knows that the prisoners might escape, that the wrath of Rome is going to fall upon him; he's going to be executed, so he's asking, “Sirs, how can I escape my impending doom?” But I don't believe that's the real heart of his question, because the prisoners have not escaped. They’ve remained. His life has been spared. There is hope temporally. No, I believe he is asking an eternal question, “What must I do to be saved from my sins? What must I do to inherit eternal life?” I believe that's the heart of his question. And I love this question. I see in it his humility. He doesn't think he has all the answers, and I tell you, that's a healthy thing. Maybe you've come in today quite confident in yourself, presuming that you have all of the answers both to life and eternity. But have you ever come in humility to ask this simple question, “What must I do to be forgiven; what must I do to be saved? I want to be instructed. I want to be taught. I want God's answer to life's most important question.” I see his humility. I see his hunger. He rushes in. He falls at their feet. He is desperate. I don't know that anyone comes to salvation apart from desperation, hunger, and humility. This man has all of those traits, and for that reason, he asks life's most important question, “What must I do to be saved?”   Not only is the question asked, the question is answered. For all time, we know the answer to the question, “What must I do to be saved?” Point-blank question; point-blank answer. What must I do to be saved? What must you do to be saved? What must all humans do if they are to be saved? The apostle’s answer: “Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.”   I want us to think about that answer just for a moment. I want us to think of what the answer was not. What must I do to be saved? Notice that he did not say, “Join the church and you will be saved.” There are a lot of people that think that. They think, “Well if I'm going to go to heaven, I've got to be a member of some church or some faith. If I have my name on a church roll somewhere, then I'm good.” No. Joining a church of any stripe does not save you. It's not the answer to the question. He did not say, “Get baptized and you will be saved.” There's nothing wrong with getting baptized. In fact, he's about to get baptized. There's nothing wrong with joining a church. He's going to become a part, I believe, of the Philippian church that started with Lydia, was joined by the slave girl who was now set free. He's going to be, I'll just say, the third member of the church at Philippi. Nothing wrong with these good deeds, but it's not by good deeds that you are saved. Good deeds are the fruit of salvation in you, not the root of it, not the source of it. How do you get saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved.   This answer is in harmony with the rest of the Bible. Listen to John 1:12: But to all who did receive him [that is, speaking of the incarnate Christ], who believed [there it is, who believed] in his name [What is it to receive Christ? It’s to believe in him...to all who did receive him, who believed in his name], he gave the right to become [the] children of God.   How do you become a child of God? How do you get saved? How do you have your sins washed away? How do you go to heaven? You believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. You trust in him. You receive him.    John 3:16, the most famous verse in all of the Bible: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.    How do you get everlasting life? How do you get saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus.    Romans 1:16: For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God [unto] salvation to everyone who believes...   Eph. 2:8-9: For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.    The way to be saved is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. There are basically two systems that are put forward as answers to this question. One is faith alone, sola fide, our theme for today. The other is that you’re saved by faith and works. They often will cite, those who hold the latter position, they’ll cite James 2:24. There the Bible says: ...a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.    So now, we’re in a quandary. Are we saved by faith alone apart from works, or are we saved by faith and works? That's a pivotal question, and we must know the answer to it. I believe that the Bible is clear that salvation comes by faith alone. How then is it that James can say that you’re saved not by faith alone but also by the works that you do? How can we reconcile these two passages of scripture?   James, if you read the broader text there, is talking about the faith that saves. He says, “Show me your faith without works, and I'll show you my faith by my works.” James knew well that faith alone saves, but faith that saves is never alone. I'll say it again. Faith alone saves, but faith that saves is never alone, and that our works show the reality of our faith. If you have no works to demonstrate your faith, then what kind of faith do you have? James says that you have a dead faith, and he asks, “Can that faith save?” I'll answer the question, No, that faith can't save. Someone can say, “Oh, I believe in Jesus,” but they never go to church, they never follow the Lord in believer’s baptism, they have no heart for generosity, they curse, they swear, they sleep around, they rebel and break God's law. There's no fruit. There's no demonstration of a real faith. Can that type of faith, just verbal in nature, save? No it cannot. It has to be a genuine and real faith that is demonstrated in the life that ensues.   That brings me, then, to the last point, and that is the change that comes to the life that answers rightly life’s most important question, when the person knows the answer, and I'll put a capital “A” on it, the Answer to life's most important question. The Answer to life's most important question is a person, the Lord Jesus, and when you put your faith and trust in him and his atoning death on the cross, you are saved.    Now listen, it brings change. Would you look in your Bible again, now, to verse 33? And he [that is, the jailer] took them [Paul and Silas] the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. 34 Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God   What a tremendous paragraph that is! You see, the change in his life was produced by faith. He embraced the gospel proclaimed to him, and the change was produced by that faith. Now, that faith is proven by the fruit of good deeds. You see his baptism. Listen; if you’ve given your life to Christ, and you've come to saving faith, you ought to follow the Lord in believer's baptism. I'm probably talking to some folks in here that have not yet let your faith be made known through baptism subsequent to your salvation. I just want to challenge you to take that step of faith and demonstrate by it that you’ve put your trust in Christ. I may be speaking to some who’ve not yet committed to fellowship in a local church. We want to challenge you to not only believe but belong. Commit yourself to membership and service in a local church. I note this man's generosity. He set food before them. I note his joy; he is rejoicing now. He went from desperation and suicidal thoughts to great joy, and what made the difference? It was Christ in him that made the difference.    Have you been changed? Is your life radically different because Christ indwells you? If not, this very morning I'm going to challenge you to give your life to Christ.    I'm going to tell you one last story. I’m going to put on the screen a picture of a fellow whose name is John Harper. Some of you may know his name. John Harper was born into a Christian family May 29, 1872 in Scotland. He became a Christian 13 years later and had already started preaching by age 17. He received training at the Baptist Pioneer Mission in London, and in 1896 he founded a church, now known as Harper Memorial Church in Glasgow, which began with 25 worshipers but had grown to 500 members by the time he left 13 years later.    In 1912 Harper, the newly-called pastor of Moody Church in Chicago, was traveling on the Titanic with his 6-year-old daughter. After the ship struck an iceberg and began to sink, he got Nana into a lifeboat but apparently made no effort to follow her. Instead, he ran through the ship yelling, "Women, children, and unsaved into the lifeboats!" Survivors report that he then began witnessing to anyone who would listen. He continued preaching even after he had jumped into the water and was clinging to a piece of wreckage (he'd already given his lifejacket to another man).   Harper's final moments were recounted four years later at a meeting in Hamilton, Ontario, by a man who said “I am a survivor of the Titanic. When I was drifting alone on a spar that awful night, the tide brought Mr. Harper of Glasgow, also on a piece of wreck, near me. ‘Man,’ he said, ‘Are you saved?’ ‘No,’ I said, ‘I am not.’ He replied, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.’   “The waves bore him away, but, strange to say, brought him back a little later, and he said, ‘Are you saved now?’ ‘No,’ I said, ‘I cannot honestly say that I am.’ He said again, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,’ [quoting the very verse I preached to you today]. Shortly after, he went down; and there, alone in the night, and with two miles of water under me, I believed. I am John Harper's last convert.”   He was also one of only six people picked out the water by the lifeboats; the other 1,522, including Harper, were left to die.   You know, it's interesting. There were only two kinds of people after the Titanic sank – those who were saved, and those who were lost. There were no other kind of passengers aboard the Titanic; those who were saved, and those who were lost. Could I just say on the ship of earth on which we sail, there are only two kinds of people – those who are saved, and those who are lost. That's why I say life's most important question is this: “What must I do to be saved?” Friend, the gospel message is this, believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.   You say, “Man, is that all?” Yes, that’s all. That is all, because once you believe, it transforms life. I want to challenge you this morning to believe on the Lord Jesus.   Let’s stand.    [Invitation]   [Prayer]       

What would you say is life’s most important question?    Someone might say that life’s most important question is, “Does God exist?”  That’s certainly important.  Another might suggest, “How did the world come into being?” Still another might get a tad more personal and ask, “How did mankind come to be?”  One immediately pressing question is, “Will LSU defeat Clemson on Monday night for the national championship?”  O.k., so maybe that one doesn’t make the cut.   The interesting thing is this: the Bible (and the Bible alone—sola scriptura) answers all of these questions.  Does God exist?  Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God.”  Yes he exists.  How did the world come into being? Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” How did mankind—you and I—come to be?  Genesis 1:2, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”  Isn’t that great?  God’s word alone answers the deepest questions of our existence.   But there is another question that is, arguably, life’s most important question. It is this: “What must I do to be saved?”  It is imminently personal and the stakes could not be higher. If there is a God (and we believe that there is), and, if there is an eternity awaiting (and we believe that there is), how can I gain that eternal life?   Jesus said that this is a supremely important issue.  He said, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” In other words, if you could gain the whole world—all its riches and all its pleasures, yet you lost your own soul, what have you gained?  Nothing. All the world pales in comparison to your soul.  You must know the answer to this question: “What must I do to be saved?”   Here’s the good news: God’s word gives us the answer to that question as well.  Our aim this Sunday is to answer that question for everyone so that we can have eternal life and abundant life.   Solas “Sola Fide” Acts 16:25-34   The context of life’s most important question   About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them (Acts 16:25)   Undeserved prison   Undeterred praise   The conversation about life’s most important question   Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household” (Acts 16:30-31).   Anxious question   Answered question   The change after life’s most important question   And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. 34 Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God (Acts 16:33-34).   Produced by faith   Proven by fruit   [BEGIN TRANSCRIPT] Turn in your Bibles to Acts 16:25-34 to discover this.  Would you stand in honor of God’s word as it is read: Acts 16:25-34 25 About midnight Paul and Silas [Now, I would interject, if you don’t know those names, Paul and Silas were early church leaders, and more particularly, they were missionaries taking the gospel where it had never been known. So, Paul and Silas] were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them [Again, I’ll interject, yes, they were in jail, and I'll tell you how they ended up there in just a moment, but Paul and Silas are in jail. They’re singing praises to God; the prisoners are listening to them. Now, verse 26], 26 and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bonds were unfastened. 27 When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” 29 And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. 30 Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” [Now, again, I am suggesting, that that is life's most important question, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Now here comes the answer, verse 31] 31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. 34 Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.   Let's pray.   [Prayer]   Please be seated.    As a church, we are celebrating 100 years of shared life. As an element of that celebration, we're revisiting some of the bedrock principles upon which this church is founded, and it's in a sermon series called “Solas.” Now that is a Latin word. Really, it's an anglicized version of it, and the word sola means “only.” There are some solas in the life of the Christian church that stand preeminently. We looked last week at the first of them, sola scriptura. Today, we're going to learn about sola fide. Sola scriptura, only scripture, is our guide to faith and practice. And now today, sola fide, only faith, brings salvation; faith in Christ. Sola scriptura teaches that sola fide is the only way to be saved. These two principles, Sola scriptura and sola fide, are intimately related to one another, and I want to demonstrate this by reminding you of the text we looked at last week, 2 Timothy 3:16 and 17. You'll remember this: All Scripture is breathed out by God [inspired by God] and [is] profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God [the people of God, if I could extend it in that way, that all of us] may be complete, equipped for every good work.”    This was our passage last week, and it establishes the principle of sola scriptura. Now, I want you to see the verse that immediately precedes these two. Look at verse 15. Notice that it teaches that sola scriptura leads to sola fide. It says, verse 15, Paul speaking to Timothy, his young protégé, he says:  [Timothy], from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings [sola scriptura, the sacred writings, and notice what they have done. He says, so, the sacred writings] are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.     Do you follow that? There it is in verse 15, sola scriptura; sola fide. You have known the sacred writings; that is, God's word, and they have led you to have faith, sola fide, in Jesus for salvation. So, there are the two principles related closely to one another. Salvation comes to us through faith in Christ Jesus. That's the answer to life's most important question. No passage makes this any clearer than Acts chapter 16 where we find ourselves this morning. I want us to consider life’s most important question in three steps. Number one, we're going to look at the context in which life's most important question was asked. Secondly, we're going to listen in on the conversation where life's most important question was asked and answered. And then, finally, I want to show you the change that knowing the right answer to life's most important question brings, the change in life that it brings.    All right, so let's go back to the first of these points, the first step. I want you to see the context in which this question was first posed. Here in Acts 16, Paul and a group of his coworkers are on a missionary journey. Things are going well. People are saving saved. They’re following the Lord in believer's baptism. A church is being planted there in Europe for the very first time. Paul and his team are experiencing the joy of seeing God at work. There's one particular life to which I want to allude that plays into our passage this morning. It's the story of a little girl. I call her little; she was probably a teenager. This girl had an unusual power. This girl could tell foretell the future, and the Bible explains how it is that she could foretell the future. She was actually possessed by a demon, and by virtue of this supernatural power, she could foretell the future.    Paul and his partners met up with this young girl. I won't tell the whole of the story, but I'll just say this. By the power of the gospel, this young girl was set free. I mean that in two senses. First of all, she was a slave to masters who were using her for their own profit. You see, people would pay to have their fortune told, and the slave masters had this girl in captivity, and were using her for their own profit. Again, I say that. This leads me to say a couple of things by way of lagniappe. First of all, fortune-telling is not just a thing of the ancient past. I could wish that it were so, but there still are fortune tellers in our day. I think most of these are just flat-out charlatans. They're just putting on a charade, a show. Perhaps some are demon-possessed, and they may have some capacity given them by spiritual forces.   I actually went on the web out of curiosity, and typed into a Google search engine “Fortune tellers, Baton Rouge.” I was curious to know, are there fortune tellers in our city today? What do you think the answer to that is? One of the responses was, “The 30 best fortune tellers in Baton Rouge.”  I clicked on it. There was a list of fortune tellers in our fair town. It included people who did things like fortune-telling, tarot card reading. There were mediums, self-identified. Some could cast spells including love spells, etc. No, this is not just something that's from ancient history. Even in our own day, there are people who dabble into these things. So it gives me a good opportunity to let you know what God thinks of these things. I want to read from the Bible, Deuteronomy 18 beginning in verse 10:  There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer 11 or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer [that is, one who calls up the dead to speak with them] or one who inquires of the dead, 12 for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. . . .   This is from the Bible. Folks, we ought to have nothing to do with these works of darkness. Even something as what seems to be innocuous as horoscopes. I think it's terrible that papers will often include horoscopes. Worse yet, they put them next to the comics in the newspaper. It doesn't belong there, and I would encourage you not to read that. Astrology; anything of the sort, God says that is all an abomination. The work of the gospel is to set people free from these things. God doesn't want us to consult with the dead or with spiritists or with mediums. No, He has given us his word, sola scriptura. He has given us his indwelling Holy Spirit to illumine our minds to understand the things that are in the word of God. I don't need a fortune teller. I don't need a necromancer. I have all that I need, sola scriptura, to be a guide by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit who illumines these truths to our lives. Now, I told you, that's just lagniappe. I just gave you that for extra.   I'm also reminded to say this: This poor young girl was a slave to her masters. It's very evident to me they didn't care one whit about that little girl. They only used her for their own purposes. You know, you hear a lot today about sex trafficking, pornography. Could I just remind us all, those who peddle that, who push that, they care nothing for the boys and girls whose lives they wreck. They domineer them and they own them, and anyone who participates in these things supports it. God sees it equally as an abomination. We as God's people ought have nothing to do with it. Instead of abusing people, we ought to love them and want them to be free. It's exactly what the Apostle Paul and his team were doing. They were setting people free by the good news of Jesus, and this little girl among them.   Now, you would think, would you not, that everyone is going to be ecstatic that this little girl has been set free. Oh, that it were so. It wasn't so. Her masters see that their means of ill gain is gone, and so they haul up Paul and Silas on false charges. Two things result, and I want to mention them to you. One, undeserved prison time. Undeserved prison. Paul and Silas, if you can imagine this, were cast into prison. It's worth noting, friend, that if we stand for the Lord, we're going to face opposition in this world. Not everyone is going to pat you on the back. Now you may get a fair amount of that; certainly here at church, I trust that you’re encouraged as you follow Christ. We want to do that. But it won't be so with everyone. There will be those who will oppose. I, myself, have faced occasions of great opposition. The Bible says; this is 2 Timothy 3:12, “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” Jesus was crucified. John was beheaded. Luther, of whom I spoke last week, was excommunicated. Jan Hus, the great Czech reformer, was burned at the stake. William Tyndale, who for the first time translated God's word into English so that all English speakers could hear the word of God in their heart language, he was burned as a heretic. Later he was exhumed and his ashes were sprinkled on the Thames River.   You come forward into our own day, I think about those believers in Libya not so long ago that were beheaded by ISIS because they believed in Christ. There will be opposition; there always has been, there always will be. Now it may not be as serious as these cases that I've named. Perhaps not even as serious as Paul and Silas, beaten now and imprisoned in stocks. But perhaps you'll be passed over for a promotion, or perhaps others will belittle you for your faith or some stance that you take on a moral issue, but I want to encourage us all as Paul and Silas did to remain faithful to the Lord despite the opposition that arises.    So, prison is really not a surprise. But do you know what is a surprise? It's that, though they are imprisoned, undeservedly so, there arises their undeterred praise to the Lord. How do they answer the stripes that were put upon their back and their stocks in which they were bound and the prison in which they were jailed? They answered their prison with praise. You know, it's one thing to praise the Lord when the prison doors swing open and the shackles fall from our wrists. But I want you to take note, Paul and Silas were not praising the Lord after they'd been liberated, after their shackles had fallen from them. No, they are praising the Lord in the midst of their suffering, unjust though it was. No wonder, then, the Bible says that the prisoners heard them. Don't you know the prisoners heard them? Don't you know the jailer himself heard them? They were listening to them. Of course they were, because there is power in our praise, particularly when it’s in the face of hardship and difficulty. I know I'm preaching to many of you who, even today, sang songs of praise to the Lord in the midst of your trial. I want to say God is honored by that. Your witness is never more powerful than when you gladly praise Him in the midst of your trial, and Paul and Silas did. So, that is the context in which life’s most important question arose.   Now, secondly, I want to take you to the actual conversation in which life's most important question is both asked and answered. First, let's look at the asking of this question. The jailer discovers that Paul and Silas have been set free. They are singing, and someone said that as they sang, God took such pleasure in their song that God was tapping his foot along with the beat of their song, and it caused the earthquake. That's a little bit fanciful, but I like it, still. God sent an earthquake to that jail. The jailhouse rocked, for all of you 1950s folks. As the jailhouse rocked, the prison doors swung open. The shackles fell from their hands and their feet, if, in fact, they were shackled at both of those extremities. The shackles fell, and the jailer, realizing that the prison doors have swung open and that the prisoners have been set free, presumes that they've all escaped. You have to know that in that day, if you were the jailer, and your prisoners escaped, you would be executed for having failed at your duty. He sees this, is terrorized by it, and he draws his sword and intends to kill himself.    Here's another point where I want to interject a thought. It's never right to take your own life; it's never right to take your own life. He's going to commit suicide. I may be speaking to someone this morning who is contemplating ending your own life. Maybe you're in a valley, a deep, deep valley, and it seems there's no escape from it. Could I just encourage you that suicide is never the answer? Paul and Silas, to their credit, step in and they tell the man, “Don't harm yourself. We’re all here.” Now, let's be frank. Here's the jailer who has put them into the deepest part of the prison. Perhaps he's even taken some joy in shackling them and in seeing their wounds from the beating that they took. You couldn't blame Paul and Silas if they just stood aside as the jailer killed himself, but motivated by Christ's love, they intervene and they say, “Don't harm yourself.” I'm reminded to challenge all of us, if you know of someone who is wrestling with deep depression, intervene. Speak to them. We have a counseling ministry here at Istrouma, and we can get help. There is help, and there is hope in Christ. Paul and Silas say, “Do yourself no harm.”   Upon their kindness, this jailer runs in before Paul and Silas and the Bible says that he falls down at their feet. You see, he's been impacted by what he's observed. He has seen Paul and Silas singing praises to God. He's heard that song. He's personally experienced their mercy when they defend him who once oppressed them. Paul and Silas could easily have escaped, but they haven't. They’re remaining there. So, impacted by what he has heard and seen, he asks life's most important question. It’s in verse 30: Sirs, what must I do to be saved?   Now, some might suggest that this question is related to the temporal crisis. He knows that the prisoners might escape, that the wrath of Rome is going to fall upon him; he's going to be executed, so he's asking, “Sirs, how can I escape my impending doom?” But I don't believe that's the real heart of his question, because the prisoners have not escaped. They’ve remained. His life has been spared. There is hope temporally. No, I believe he is asking an eternal question, “What must I do to be saved from my sins? What must I do to inherit eternal life?” I believe that's the heart of his question. And I love this question. I see in it his humility. He doesn't think he has all the answers, and I tell you, that's a healthy thing. Maybe you've come in today quite confident in yourself, presuming that you have all of the answers both to life and eternity. But have you ever come in humility to ask this simple question, “What must I do to be forgiven; what must I do to be saved? I want to be instructed. I want to be taught. I want God's answer to life's most important question.” I see his humility. I see his hunger. He rushes in. He falls at their feet. He is desperate. I don't know that anyone comes to salvation apart from desperation, hunger, and humility. This man has all of those traits, and for that reason, he asks life's most important question, “What must I do to be saved?”   Not only is the question asked, the question is answered. For all time, we know the answer to the question, “What must I do to be saved?” Point-blank question; point-blank answer. What must I do to be saved? What must you do to be saved? What must all humans do if they are to be saved? The apostle’s answer: “Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.”   I want us to think about that answer just for a moment. I want us to think of what the answer was not. What must I do to be saved? Notice that he did not say, “Join the church and you will be saved.” There are a lot of people that think that. They think, “Well if I'm going to go to heaven, I've got to be a member of some church or some faith. If I have my name on a church roll somewhere, then I'm good.” No. Joining a church of any stripe does not save you. It's not the answer to the question. He did not say, “Get baptized and you will be saved.” There's nothing wrong with getting baptized. In fact, he's about to get baptized. There's nothing wrong with joining a church. He's going to become a part, I believe, of the Philippian church that started with Lydia, was joined by the slave girl who was now set free. He's going to be, I'll just say, the third member of the church at Philippi. Nothing wrong with these good deeds, but it's not by good deeds that you are saved. Good deeds are the fruit of salvation in you, not the root of it, not the source of it. How do you get saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved.   This answer is in harmony with the rest of the Bible. Listen to John 1:12: But to all who did receive him [that is, speaking of the incarnate Christ], who believed [there it is, who believed] in his name [What is it to receive Christ? It’s to believe in him...to all who did receive him, who believed in his name], he gave the right to become [the] children of God.   How do you become a child of God? How do you get saved? How do you have your sins washed away? How do you go to heaven? You believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. You trust in him. You receive him.    John 3:16, the most famous verse in all of the Bible: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.    How do you get everlasting life? How do you get saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus.    Romans 1:16: For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God [unto] salvation to everyone who believes...   Eph. 2:8-9: For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.    The way to be saved is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. There are basically two systems that are put forward as answers to this question. One is faith alone, sola fide, our theme for today. The other is that you’re saved by faith and works. They often will cite, those who hold the latter position, they’ll cite James 2:24. There the Bible says: ...a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.    So now, we’re in a quandary. Are we saved by faith alone apart from works, or are we saved by faith and works? That's a pivotal question, and we must know the answer to it. I believe that the Bible is clear that salvation comes by faith alone. How then is it that James can say that you’re saved not by faith alone but also by the works that you do? How can we reconcile these two passages of scripture?   James, if you read the broader text there, is talking about the faith that saves. He says, “Show me your faith without works, and I'll show you my faith by my works.” James knew well that faith alone saves, but faith that saves is never alone. I'll say it again. Faith alone saves, but faith that saves is never alone, and that our works show the reality of our faith. If you have no works to demonstrate your faith, then what kind of faith do you have? James says that you have a dead faith, and he asks, “Can that faith save?” I'll answer the question, No, that faith can't save. Someone can say, “Oh, I believe in Jesus,” but they never go to church, they never follow the Lord in believer’s baptism, they have no heart for generosity, they curse, they swear, they sleep around, they rebel and break God's law. There's no fruit. There's no demonstration of a real faith. Can that type of faith, just verbal in nature, save? No it cannot. It has to be a genuine and real faith that is demonstrated in the life that ensues.   That brings me, then, to the last point, and that is the change that comes to the life that answers rightly life’s most important question, when the person knows the answer, and I'll put a capital “A” on it, the Answer to life's most important question. The Answer to life's most important question is a person, the Lord Jesus, and when you put your faith and trust in him and his atoning death on the cross, you are saved.    Now listen, it brings change. Would you look in your Bible again, now, to verse 33? And he [that is, the jailer] took them [Paul and Silas] the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. 34 Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God   What a tremendous paragraph that is! You see, the change in his life was produced by faith. He embraced the gospel proclaimed to him, and the change was produced by that faith. Now, that faith is proven by the fruit of good deeds. You see his baptism. Listen; if you’ve given your life to Christ, and you've come to saving faith, you ought to follow the Lord in believer's baptism. I'm probably talking to some folks in here that have not yet let your faith be made known through baptism subsequent to your salvation. I just want to challenge you to take that step of faith and demonstrate by it that you’ve put your trust in Christ. I may be speaking to some who’ve not yet committed to fellowship in a local church. We want to challenge you to not only believe but belong. Commit yourself to membership and service in a local church. I note this man's generosity. He set food before them. I note his joy; he is rejoicing now. He went from desperation and suicidal thoughts to great joy, and what made the difference? It was Christ in him that made the difference.    Have you been changed? Is your life radically different because Christ indwells you? If not, this very morning I'm going to challenge you to give your life to Christ.    I'm going to tell you one last story. I’m going to put on the screen a picture of a fellow whose name is John Harper. Some of you may know his name. John Harper was born into a Christian family May 29, 1872 in Scotland. He became a Christian 13 years later and had already started preaching by age 17. He received training at the Baptist Pioneer Mission in London, and in 1896 he founded a church, now known as Harper Memorial Church in Glasgow, which began with 25 worshipers but had grown to 500 members by the time he left 13 years later.    In 1912 Harper, the newly-called pastor of Moody Church in Chicago, was traveling on the Titanic with his 6-year-old daughter. After the ship struck an iceberg and began to sink, he got Nana into a lifeboat but apparently made no effort to follow her. Instead, he ran through the ship yelling, "Women, children, and unsaved into the lifeboats!" Survivors report that he then began witnessing to anyone who would listen. He continued preaching even after he had jumped into the water and was clinging to a piece of wreckage (he'd already given his lifejacket to another man).   Harper's final moments were recounted four years later at a meeting in Hamilton, Ontario, by a man who said “I am a survivor of the Titanic. When I was drifting alone on a spar that awful night, the tide brought Mr. Harper of Glasgow, also on a piece of wreck, near me. ‘Man,’ he said, ‘Are you saved?’ ‘No,’ I said, ‘I am not.’ He replied, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.’   “The waves bore him away, but, strange to say, brought him back a little later, and he said, ‘Are you saved now?’ ‘No,’ I said, ‘I cannot honestly say that I am.’ He said again, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,’ [quoting the very verse I preached to you today]. Shortly after, he went down; and there, alone in the night, and with two miles of water under me, I believed. I am John Harper's last convert.”   He was also one of only six people picked out the water by the lifeboats; the other 1,522, including Harper, were left to die.   You know, it's interesting. There were only two kinds of people after the Titanic sank – those who were saved, and those who were lost. There were no other kind of passengers aboard the Titanic; those who were saved, and those who were lost. Could I just say on the ship of earth on which we sail, there are only two kinds of people – those who are saved, and those who are lost. That's why I say life's most important question is this: “What must I do to be saved?” Friend, the gospel message is this, believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.   You say, “Man, is that all?” Yes, that’s all. That is all, because once you believe, it transforms life. I want to challenge you this morning to believe on the Lord Jesus.   Let’s stand.    [Invitation]   [Prayer]       

About our Guest: Lawrence E. Adjah is an entrepreneur and community builder dedicated to creating content, community and conversation that unites, heals and transforms lives. He’s the Founder and Chair of Family Dinner Foundation, an international, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to connect the world as a family at, and beyond, the dinner table.   Episode Summary Lawrence discusses building friendships and relationships as an adult, the challenges of running a global volunteer organization and the importance of a network vs. people who actually care about you.   Insight from this episode:   Lawrence’s background as a Nigerian American growing up in New Jersey and its influence, plus his Olympic dreams and change of focus for his personal goals The unintentional creation of Our Family Dinner in 2008 based on a responsibility to friend feeling depressed and lost in an unknown city Taking the idea of extended family and bringing it to the dinner table and creating a viral movement around it Overcoming the challenges he faced building a global non-profit through taking ownership, building a sustainable/scalable business model, & understanding that friendship and relationships are everything Next steps for Lawrence and his foundation: continuing to serve around the world and helping to build relationships & friendships   You’ll learn: Why Lawrence founded the Family Dinner Foundation How to  a worldwide team through understanding the mission and the fundamentals How to scale up a global volunteer organization The fundamentals of Networks vs. Relationships and the importance of genuine friendships in business How Lawrence has accomplished growing the brand globally and empowering a volunteer global staff to further the reach of his brand The keys to empowering people to partner with you financially The two different type of dinners that exist for the organization Tips to train volunteers remotely   Quotes from our guest:  “ If anything, I said just by osmosis how much can I grow and How much can I learn” - Lawrence Adjah episode #88 “Our mission is to connect the world as a family over the dinner table” - Lawrence Adjah episode #88 “Our tradition is everybody eats at the family dinner table”  - Lawrence Adjah episode #88 “Something magical happens over a meal” - Lawrence Adjah Episode #88 “Family means everybody” - Lawrence Adjah Episode #88     Resources Mentioned: https://www.ourfamilydinner.org/ Google Hangouts Zoom   Favorite Books:     The Last Lecture  by Randy Pausch & Jeffrey Zaslow   Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community by Martin Luther King, Jr Favorite Quotes:   “But from there you will search again for the Lord your God. And if you search for him with all your heart and soul, you will find him.” Moses from Deuteronomy 4:29 The Bible “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” Paul from 2 Timothy 1:7 The Bible   3 keys to Create Your Best Life: Have faith Be courageous Use your greatest asset to meet your greatest need   Stay Connected:   Create Your Life Series: https://www.facebook.com/cylseries/ https://www.instagram.com/cylseries/   Kevin: www.kevinybrown.com www.instagram.com/kevinybrown www.twitter.com/kevinybrown www.facebook.com/kevbrown001   Guest Name: http://lawrenceadjah.com/ Instagram: @adjah_l Twitter: @ajah_l Facebook: @lawrence.adjah Subscribe to our podcast + download each episode on  itunes, google play, stitcher and www.createyourlifeseries.com/podcast

“Who is Jesus?” “Who condemned Jesus to death?” “Why was Jesus condemned to death?” Today’s readings are: John 18:28-38; Luke 23:5-15; Matthew 27:19-20; John 18:39-19:15; Matthew 27:24-25 Who is Jesus? Jesus is a king: ‘Jesus answered, “My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world.”’ (John 18:36, NLT) Jesus is the Way, the Truth, the Light: ‘Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.’ (John 14:6, NLT) Jesus is the Saviour of the world: ‘The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’ (John 1:29, NLT) Who condemned Jesus to death? While it is tempting to accuse the Romans, and not the Jewish leaders, for fear of being seen to be anti-Semitic, the inescapable truth from the passages of Scripture listed above is that Pilate and Herod didn’t want to condemn Jesus. Instead, the Jewish leaders, and later the crowd also, forced Pilate’s hand into condemning Jesus to death. Pilate ceremoniously washed his hands, trying to absolve himself of guilt. While it was a gesture, he remained guilty of Jesus’ death, to some extent. However, it was the Jewish leaders and the crowd who unmistakeably took the responsibility onto themselves: ‘Pilate saw that he wasn’t getting anywhere and that a riot was developing. So he sent for a bowl of water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. The responsibility is yours!” And all the people yelled back, “We will take responsibility for his death—we and our children!”’ (Matthew 27:24–25, NLT) However, it was not only Pilate or the Jews who put Jesus to death – it was humanity. The Jewish or Israelite people, as those who were the most privileged by God above all nations, rejected God (see Luke 20:9–19). Yet, no other people or nation, or religion then, or since then, would have done any different. While it is clear that the Jewish people condemned their Messiah to death, there is absolutely no excuse for self-righteous superiority by anyone, such as some Christians in later centuries, for blaming the Jews alone for Jesus’ death. This is because each nation or people, or us as individuals would have done exactly the same thing – because we are all sinners, and turn from God (Isaiah 53:6). Moreover, Jesus knew what he was doing, and he came to earth to die on the cross, because of our sins. As sinners, we are all responsible for Jesus’ death on the cross (Acts 3:18, Matthew 16:21). We are all responsible for Jesus being condemned to death, and so no-one has any justification in hold an anti-Semitic view on this matter. They would have done the same thing, had they been there themselves, and their sin drove Jesus to the cross. Why was Jesus condemned to death? This can be easily answered by quoting some of the most popular verses in the Bible: ‘“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.’ (John 3:16–17, NLT) If we trust in Jesus alone for our righteousness and forgiveness of sins, we will receive God’s grace and mercy, and know first-hand why Jesus died on the cross: ‘For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.’ (Romans 3:23–24, NLT)

“Who is Jesus?” “Who condemned Jesus to death?” “Why was Jesus condemned to death?” Today’s readings are: John 18:28-38; Luke 23:5-15; Matthew 27:19-20; John 18:39-19:15; Matthew 27:24-25 Who is Jesus? Jesus is a king: ‘Jesus answered, “My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world.”’ (John 18:36, NLT) Jesus is the Way, the Truth, the Light: ‘Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.’ (John 14:6, NLT) Jesus is the Saviour of the world: ‘The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’ (John 1:29, NLT) Who condemned Jesus to death? While it is tempting to accuse the Romans, and not the Jewish leaders, for fear of being seen to be anti-Semitic, the inescapable truth from the passages of Scripture listed above is that Pilate and Herod didn’t want to condemn Jesus. Instead, the Jewish leaders, and later the crowd also, forced Pilate’s hand into condemning Jesus to death. Pilate ceremoniously washed his hands, trying to absolve himself of guilt. While it was a gesture, he remained guilty of Jesus’ death, to some extent. However, it was the Jewish leaders and the crowd who unmistakeably took the responsibility onto themselves: ‘Pilate saw that he wasn’t getting anywhere and that a riot was developing. So he sent for a bowl of water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. The responsibility is yours!” And all the people yelled back, “We will take responsibility for his death—we and our children!”’ (Matthew 27:24–25, NLT) However, it was not only Pilate or the Jews who put Jesus to death – it was humanity. The Jewish or Israelite people, as those who were the most privileged by God above all nations, rejected God (see Luke 20:9–19). Yet, no other people or nation, or religion then, or since then, would have done any different. While it is clear that the Jewish people condemned their Messiah to death, there is absolutely no excuse for self-righteous superiority by anyone, such as some Christians in later centuries, for blaming the Jews alone for Jesus’ death. This is because each nation or people, or us as individuals would have done exactly the same thing – because we are all sinners, and turn from God (Isaiah 53:6). Moreover, Jesus knew what he was doing, and he came to earth to die on the cross, because of our sins. As sinners, we are all responsible for Jesus’ death on the cross (Acts 3:18, Matthew 16:21). We are all responsible for Jesus being condemned to death, and so no-one has any justification in hold an anti-Semitic view on this matter. They would have done the same thing, had they been there themselves, and their sin drove Jesus to the cross. Why was Jesus condemned to death? This can be easily answered by quoting some of the most popular verses in the Bible: ‘“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.’ (John 3:16–17, NLT) If we trust in Jesus alone for our righteousness and forgiveness of sins, we will receive God’s grace and mercy, and know first-hand why Jesus died on the cross: ‘For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.’ (Romans 3:23–24, NLT)

“Who is Jesus?” “Who condemned Jesus to death?” “Why was Jesus condemned to death?” Today’s readings are: John 18:28-38; Luke 23:5-15; Matthew 27:19-20; John 18:39-19:15; Matthew 27:24-25 Who is Jesus? Jesus is a king: ‘Jesus answered, “My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world.”’ (John 18:36, NLT) Jesus is the Way, the Truth, the Light: ‘Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.’ (John 14:6, NLT) Jesus is the Saviour of the world: ‘The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’ (John 1:29, NLT) Who condemned Jesus to death? While it is tempting to accuse the Romans, and not the Jewish leaders, for fear of being seen to be anti-Semitic, the inescapable truth from the passages of Scripture listed above is that Pilate and Herod didn’t want to condemn Jesus. Instead, the Jewish leaders, and later the crowd also, forced Pilate’s hand into condemning Jesus to death. Pilate ceremoniously washed his hands, trying to absolve himself of guilt. While it was a gesture, he remained guilty of Jesus’ death, to some extent. However, it was the Jewish leaders and the crowd who unmistakeably took the responsibility onto themselves: ‘Pilate saw that he wasn’t getting anywhere and that a riot was developing. So he sent for a bowl of water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. The responsibility is yours!” And all the people yelled back, “We will take responsibility for his death—we and our children!”’ (Matthew 27:24–25, NLT) However, it was not only Pilate or the Jews who put Jesus to death – it was humanity. The Jewish or Israelite people, as those who were the most privileged by God above all nations, rejected God (see Luke 20:9–19). Yet, no other people or nation, or religion then, or since then, would have done any different. While it is clear that the Jewish people condemned their Messiah to death, there is absolutely no excuse for self-righteous superiority by anyone, such as some Christians in later centuries, for blaming the Jews alone for Jesus’ death. This is because each nation or people, or us as individuals would have done exactly the same thing – because we are all sinners, and turn from God (Isaiah 53:6). Moreover, Jesus knew what he was doing, and he came to earth to die on the cross, because of our sins. As sinners, we are all responsible for Jesus’ death on the cross (Acts 3:18, Matthew 16:21). We are all responsible for Jesus being condemned to death, and so no-one has any justification in hold an anti-Semitic view on this matter. They would have done the same thing, had they been there themselves, and their sin drove Jesus to the cross. Why was Jesus condemned to death? This can be easily answered by quoting some of the most popular verses in the Bible: ‘“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.’ (John 3:16–17, NLT) If we trust in Jesus alone for our righteousness and forgiveness of sins, we will receive God’s grace and mercy, and know first-hand why Jesus died on the cross: ‘For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.’ (Romans 3:23–24, NLT)

Our text this week contains perhaps the most familiar verse in the Bible: "For God so loved the world…" The verse comes at the end of a conversation between Jesus and a Pharisee by the name of Nicodemus. John's Gospel contains many personal conversations or interviews with Jesus. Just as John refers to himself as "the Disciple Whom Jesus Loved" so his portrayal of Jesus tends to be more intimate than that of the synoptics. His teaching takes the more personal approach of one on one conversations with various people and his interactions with the disciples tends also to be one on one. Each of the conversations in John's Gospel have a common theme. They are about the nature and consequences of belief. John points out that unbelief is the essence of sin. It is the line of demarcation between those who are Kingdom people and those outside the fold. John records Jesus using the expression "believe in" some 13 times while the other Gospels combined only mention this once. In our text Jesus focusses on the outcome of belief. Those who believe in him will have eternal life. This is an often misunderstood idea especially since the old King James translations rendered the phrase "everlasting life" which tended to put the emphasis on the duration of the life and leads us to think of heaven. Actually, the phrase has more to do with the quality or kind of life belief brings rather than its duration. Eternal life is a new kind of life inaugurated by Jesus. In First Century Jewish thinking, it is the life of the age to come. They divided time into this present age and the age to come. The Age to Come was one that would be characterized by peace, justice and healing. A return to Eden so to speak. The expression Eternal Life means that this age to come has arrived. While not yet fully realized, today, people can experience the age to come while living in this present world. It is not a make-believe world or a timeless heavenly bliss. It is a real, substantial life, to be lived out in the real world with Jesus as Lord. Living the Eternal Life existence is a growing and developing kind of life. Belief in fact is also not a static kind of thing because it has to do with a relationship with Jesus and no relationship is static. They ebb and flow. At times belief feels strong and vibrant, at other times it struggles to hold on. The opposite of belief is not doubt, it is indifference. At times doubt and belief stand side by side as we struggle to understand the Lord’s will and his work in our lives. But we continue to face him in dialogue about the issues that cause our doubts. The worst thing is to become indifferent and opt out of the conversation. It is good that we have an advocate with Jesus the righteous, who knows, cares, and intercedes for us (1 John 2:1).

Our text this week contains perhaps the most familiar verse in the Bible: "For God so loved the world…" The verse comes at the end of a conversation between Jesus and a Pharisee by the name of Nicodemus. John's Gospel contains many personal conversations or interviews with Jesus. Just as John refers to himself as "the Disciple Whom Jesus Loved" so his portrayal of Jesus tends to be more intimate than that of the synoptics. His teaching takes the more personal approach of one on one conversations with various people and his interactions with the disciples tends also to be one on one. Each of the conversations in John's Gospel have a common theme. They are about the nature and consequences of belief. John points out that unbelief is the essence of sin. It is the line of demarcation between those who are Kingdom people and those outside the fold. John records Jesus using the expression "believe in" some 13 times while the other Gospels combined only mention this once. In our text Jesus focusses on the outcome of belief. Those who believe in him will have eternal life. This is an often misunderstood idea especially since the old King James translations rendered the phrase "everlasting life" which tended to put the emphasis on the duration of the life and leads us to think of heaven. Actually, the phrase has more to do with the quality or kind of life belief brings rather than its duration. Eternal life is a new kind of life inaugurated by Jesus. In First Century Jewish thinking, it is the life of the age to come. They divided time into this present age and the age to come. The Age to Come was one that would be characterized by peace, justice and healing. A return to Eden so to speak. The expression Eternal Life means that this age to come has arrived. While not yet fully realized, today, people can experience the age to come while living in this present world. It is not a make-believe world or a timeless heavenly bliss. It is a real, substantial life, to be lived out in the real world with Jesus as Lord. Living the Eternal Life existence is a growing and developing kind of life. Belief in fact is also not a static kind of thing because it has to do with a relationship with Jesus and no relationship is static. They ebb and flow. At times belief feels strong and vibrant, at other times it struggles to hold on. The opposite of belief is not doubt, it is indifference. At times doubt and belief stand side by side as we struggle to understand the Lord’s will and his work in our lives. But we continue to face him in dialogue about the issues that cause our doubts. The worst thing is to become indifferent and opt out of the conversation. It is good that we have an advocate with Jesus the righteous, who knows, cares, and intercedes for us (1 John 2:1).