Jesus prepares His disciples for His departure by giving them a new command to love one another, promising to return for His people, and declaring that He is the way, the truth, and the life. Our love for one another should set us apart and show the world that we belong to Jesus. We can live with hope and confidence, knowing that Jesus will return for His Church. Because Jesus is the only way to the Father, we can trust Him completely for our salvation and eternal future.
Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life—the One who meets us in the middle of life’s hardest moments and gives us hope that death does not have the final word. When God’s timing doesn’t make sense, do you trust His plan and purpose, or do you find yourself becoming rattled? When life is hard, do you cling to Jesus, knowing that He understands what you are going through and is with you in the middle of your trouble? Because Jesus has defeated death, do you face the future with the confidence that death is not the end?
Jesus asks each of us, “Who do you say that I am?” We can’t answer that question based on what our family, friends, culture, or church says—we each have to decide for ourselves who Jesus is. So this week, ask yourself: Who do I say Jesus is, and does the way I live reflect my answer?
In this 4th week of Advent we will be looking at the different aspects of peace that our King brings.
Isaiah is quoted quite a bit in the Gospel of Matthew. So, it makes sense to go to this Old Testament prophet first if we are going to spend the bulk of the Advent Season in Matthew. Here in Isaiah 7:13-14 is an old, very, very old pregnancy announcement. Specifically, a pregnancy annoucement of a baby boy who will be King. But Isaiah’s words do more than simply announce the birth of King Jesus.
God continues to do NEW things by revealing Jesus to the World
On this Easter Sunday we look at the 7 last words spoken during His last hours on the cross, specifically unpacking one little word “TETELESTAI” (Greek for It is Finished).
We are powerless to free ourselves from sin and death, but God graciously frees us from impossible situations. In watching Moses get drawn out of the water by the daughter of Pharaoh, we are beautifully reminded that God desires to draw us out of sin. In this message, we will look at the extent and power of sin in our lives and how it leads to death. With this we will find the passionate grace of God through his son, Jesus, in which he seeks to draw us out of the impossible situation of sin and into a new life and relationship with God.
We often try to find peace through our circumstances, but peace only comes as a gift from the Lord of peace and then we carry his peace into our circumstances. Whether it is relational peace or emotional peace that we need, they both flow from first having peace with God and then trusting him to be who he is and to do what he needs to do to experience his peace at all times and in all ways.
Jesus has fulfilled God’s promise to send a Savior and King for the world. We can build our lives on all the promises of God that come through Jesus.