Sermons

Isaiah 11:1-3 – “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him; the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord –

– and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.”

Isaiah 11 is a prophecy about Jesus Christ, written about 700 years before he was born.  Jesus is the Shoot or the Branch who comes from the nation of Israel (the “stump of Jesse”).  Many other prophecies call Jesus “the Branch,” the “Shoot,” and the “Root” (see Psalm 80:15; Isaiah 4:2; Isaiah 53:2; Zechariah 3:8; Zechariah 6:12; Romans 11:16-18; Romans 15:12; Revelation 5:5; Revelation 22:6).  This prophecy also tells us something about the Holy Spirit, which inhabited Jesus and is inseparable from him.  God’s Spirit is sevenfold.  Of course, our mortal minds cannot fully understand or grasp this, as it transcends our mortal experience or comprehension.

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Deuteronomy 24:10-11 - “When you make a loan of any kind to your neighbor, do not go into his house to get what he is offering as a pledge.  Stay outside and let the man to whom you are making the loan bring the pledge out to you.”

Waiting for a Pledge - Just as this passage describes the lender waiting outside at the door of his debtor, so also the New Testament says that Jesus waits at the door of our lives, waiting for us.  “Here I am!  I stand at the door and knock.”  (Revelation 3:20).  This is a prophetic illustration of how we as sinners (spiritual debtors) interact with the Lord Jesus in receiving the benefits of His salvation.  Jesus is the one who has everything we need – forgiveness for sin, new birth, the revelation of the Holy Spirit, spiritual gifts, sanctification, etc.  We come to him in need of everything.  In ourselves, in our flesh, we have none of the things we really need for eternity.  When Jesus freely gives us his blessings, he charges nothing in return (just as the Israelites could not charge their neighbors interest on a loan).  No one can purchase salvation.

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Colossians 1:18 – “And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.”

What factors differentiate a genuine Work of God from everything else we see around us in the marketplace of religion? On the most basic level, pleading the blood of Jesus has led us to three fundamental discoveries: preaching the revealed Word, following the guidance or direction of the Holy Spirit instead of human opinions, and having our relationship with Christ express itself through a genuine participation in a local Body of the faithful church.

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Philippians 2:5-7 - “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.”

1 Corinthians 11:1 – “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.”

In many areas of his life, Paul set a pattern of behavior that he was not ashamed to urge other believers to imitate.  Depending on the power that the Holy Spirit gave him to overcome his fleshly nature, Paul worked hard to imitate the Lord Jesus.  Paul understood that during the years that Jesus walked as a man in His earthly ministry, He constantly refused to do or say anything except what pleased the Father.  In this way, as Jesus took on Himself “the very nature of a servant,” He gave us a perfect example of what it is like to focus completely on serving God.  Jesus spoke only the words that came from the Father.  He performed only the actions that pleased the Father, and He never allowed His human nature to direct what He said or did.

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1 Chronicles 17:1-4 – After David was settled in his palace, he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am, living in a palace of cedar, while the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under a tent.”

Nathan replied to David, “Whatever you have in mind, do it, for God is with you.”

That night the word of God came to Nathan, saying: “Go and tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord says: You are not the one to build me a house to dwell in…”

This chapter teaches us important lessons about God’s nature, about our relationship with the Lord, and about how we should pray.

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1 Peter 5:1-4 - “To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder, a witness of Christ’s sufferings and one who also will share in the glory to be revealed: Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.”

This passage provides guidelines for pastors and ministers.

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Acts 16:25-28 - About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”

Paul was on his second extended missionary journey.  Originally, he planned to revisit the churches in planted on his first tour and assess their progress (Acts 15:36-41).  The churches back then had no means of communicating with each other regularly, and there was no centralized management or control.  Each church had to learn to follow the Holy Spirit’s direction, receiving only occasional visits or letters from Apostles or other leaders.

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Philippians 4:12 – “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”

A heresy of modern Christianity is the notion that material wealth is a sign of God’s approval.  God indeed blesses his faithful servants, and the Bible promises provision (Matthew 6:33).  Even so, there are churches today that preach a gospel of greed, and teach that the pastor’s wealth signals the strength of his spiritual anointing.  The Bible teaches riches are spiritually neutral.  Both the evil and the righteous accumulate riches, and poor people can be either wicked or upright.  Wealth or poverty is never a reliable indication of God’s approval of the person.

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Galatians 2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

I HAVE BEEN... - The apostle Paul speaks here of a personal experience he had, and continued to have all throughout his ministry.  Paul speaks here of an experience that we all must have, in order to have salvation, to continue in it, and to see the Work of the Lord prosper in our midst.

…CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST – Physically speaking, Jesus was nailed to a wooden structure, on which His arms were stretched out.  Such a position made it very difficult to breathe, eventually bringing physical death.  It was a painful method of execution, which the Romans used to execute the most notorious criminals.

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Leviticus 5:5-6 - ”When anyone is guilty in any of these ways, he must confess in what way he has sinned and, as a penalty for the sin he has committed, he must bring to the Lord a female lamb or goat from the flock as a sin offering; and the priest shall make atonement for his sin”

Animal sacrifice was the only way to atone for sins in the Old Testament.  Without the shedding of blood, there was no forgiveness (see the description in Hebrews 9:22).  The book of Leviticus is entirely about priestly sacrifices, ceremonial cleanness, and other priestly duties – all of which foreshadow the work of Jesus, our Great High Priest.  The various sacrifices described in Leviticus all foreshadow different aspects of Jesus’ atoning work on the cross.  His atonement was multi-faceted, and we see all the facets in different Old Testament passages.  This passage describes the “sin offering,” the most basic sacrifice of atonement.

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