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Episodes
Welcome to the online audio hope of sermon messages from Pastor Chris Thompson.
Episodes
Tuesday Feb 12, 2019
Tuesday Feb 12, 2019
This morning, we are going to start a series of messages that will witness five miraculous moments where Jesus reviles His messiahship to mankind. Some of these moments are going to be revealed by the actions of Jesus, while others are going to be revealed by his words our of Lord.
Point number 1 in your notes this morning:
Jesus will answer our prayers on His time and at the will of the Father.
Point number 2 in your notes this morning:
Jesus might ask us to do something that we don’t understand while He is answering our prayers.
Point number 3 in your notes this morning:
When the Lord delivers a miracle, we should anticipate the astonishing.
Point number 4 in your notes this morning:
The miracles of Jesus are not to amaze us, but rather to reveal Christ to us.
Tuesday Feb 12, 2019
Tuesday Feb 12, 2019
Open your Bibles this morning to the New Testament Gospel of John. We are continuing a Sermon Series called It’s all about Jesus. A series that follows the life of our Lord and Savior chronologically from the manager through his ministry.
The last few weeks we have learned about
- who John the Baptist was,
- witnessed the baptism of Jesus,
- and we saw Jesus manage a period of temptation.
All of these things happened before Jesus actually started his ministry. We come to a point in our study of the life of Jesus when Christ himself starts the process of getting the message of the cross to you and I.
If we look back in the manner in which God of the Israelites made himself known, and then into the New Testament, the way that Jesus made himself known, and then made our method of salvation known to other people… it is evident to see that God uses people to reach people.
John chapter 1. We’re going to be reading verses 35-51 this morning in a message that I’ve titled “True Discipleship”
Point number 1 in your notes this morning:
If we are going to learn from Jesus, we need to follow Jesus.
Point number 2 in your notes this morning:
Finding Jesus should cause a desire to lead others to Jesus.
Point number 3 in your notes this morning:
Our testimony about Jesus is the best connection we have to show others to the Lord.
Point number 4 in your notes this morning:
We are all called to be disciple makers, and that means we need to be looking for disciples to make.
Friday Feb 01, 2019
Friday Feb 01, 2019
I’d like you to open your Bibles this morning to the New Testament Gospel of Matthew. We are continuing a Sermon Series called It’s all about Jesus, that follows the life of our Lord and Savior chronologically from the manager through his ministry.
We often think about Jesus and see him rightfully so as the Son of God. A member of the trinity. See him as Immanuel, God with us, but we often forget the very important point that Jesus was human.
- He was flesh and bone.
- He was emotion and learning.
- He was wonder and caring.
- He was skinned knees as a kid, and tears.
- He had hugs for his mom.
Point number 1 in your notes this morning:
Surrendering to physical temptation puts our love for our body above our love for God.
Point number 2 in your notes this morning:
Just because we have a God-given ability, doesn’t mean that we have God-Given permission.
Point number 3 in your notes this morning:
The glory of material possessions will always be inadequate, unholy, and costly.
Point number 4 in your notes this morning:
We will never outlive temptations, but we can overcome with the help of Jesus.
Monday Jan 28, 2019
Monday Jan 28, 2019
We celebrate baptism for a very specific reason. It's because the Bible tells us to do so. In a little while we are going to go outside and gather around as new brothers and sisters in Christ make a public proclamation of faith in Jesus. There is definitely a reason that we are celebrating baptism at our church today at the very same time that we come to the place in the Scripture where Jesus himself was baptized.
In our church statement of faith, which you can read on out website, we refer to Baptism in these words: Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior, the believer's death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead.
John says that the reason that he started baptizing was to reveal Jesus to Israel. It was to make Christ known. In our New Testament context, that is exactly what baptism is for.
Point number 1 in your notes this morning:
Baptism identifies believers with God’s Kingdom
Point number 2 in your notes this morning:
Baptism joins our worldly self to Christ in death.
Point number 3 in your notes this morning:
Baptism joins our spiritual self to Christ in life.
Point number 4 in your notes this morning:
The new life of a believer shines holiness for all to see.
Monday Jan 28, 2019
Monday Jan 28, 2019
The bible gives us an introduction to John the Baptist on the day he was born, and then we don’t hear anything for about 30 years. It is when he is grown, living in the desert, and baptizing people who come to see him that we find him again.
There are many lessons that we can learn from and about John the Baptist, but this morning I want to focus on four areas. To characterize John the Baptist, we would say that he was
- God’s appointed messenger,
- a preacher who was laser focused with his message,
- someone who did not care about social status,
- a man deeply uncompromising in his message,
and a fifth and bonus trait, John the Baptist was,
- for his time, flat out weird.
You know what… John didn’t care. John had a one mission in life.
John’s job was to tell people the Messiah was coming.
I guess when you live in the desert, you look weird other people, you wear camel fur, and you eat bugs, it doesn’t really matter what people say about you. As long as you are doing all you can to bring the message to the masses within your power, the Lord will bless your words and work.
Monday Jan 28, 2019
Monday Jan 28, 2019
It’s by studying Jesus, that we can be more LIKE Jesus.
Today’s Topic: How can we be more like Mary and Joseph?
It was in the city of Antioch, as Luke records in Acts 11 verse 26, that the followers of Jesus were first referred to as Christians. The name isn’t a name that the followers of Christ gave themselves, but rather it was given to them by the society in Antioch, by the powers-that-be. It was derogatory; it was used to disrespect the followers of Jesus, to cast them as outcasts.
Luke preferred to refer to Christians as “believers,” or “disciples,” or “brothers.” However, the name given in Antioch stuck. The word “Christian” literally means “Christ followers” or “people of Christ’s party.” If we are Christians, isn’t necessary that we deeply know our leader? If we are Christ Followers, isn’t it important to know whom we are following?
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What does it mean to be a Christian? What should non-Christians expect from our behavior that is different from non-Christian behavior?
Luke 2:39-40 When Jesus’ parents had fulfilled all the requirements of the law of the Lord, they returned home to Nazareth in Galilee. 40 There the child grew up healthy and strong. He was filled with wisdom, and God’s favor was on him.
This word, “filled” is a very important word here. This same application works as well with the statement that Luke mentions when He says that Christ, “grew” up healthy and strong.
These words are showing us a transformation from something that wasn’t to now something that is. Jesus aged and grew up just like any other kid.
These words literally tell us that Christ was growing just like any other young man. He would have grown physically, mentally, spiritually, and He would’ve grown in the revelation of understanding his role as the Messiah. This story deeply reminds us of the humanity of Jesus.
If you remember when Jesus was born, he was born as a baby. As a baby, he did not have all of the abilities of a full grown adult… He had to grow. From this very specific wording, we know that there was a time in the life of Jesus where he went through everything we went through as a child. Specifically, He would know what boys go through. He would know what teenagers go through.
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How should we feel knowing the Jesus grew up as a child just like we did, and that He experienced growth just like us?
Luke 2:41-42
41 Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Passover festival. 42 When Jesus was twelve years old, they attended the festival as usual.
Devotion to Faith was part of Home Life for Jesus. There was a rule in the Jewish land that every male must go to Jerusalem and participate in three religious feasts. One of the three feasts was the feast of Passover.
This scripture tells us that Mary, Joseph, and Jesus we’re on their way to celebrate Passover. Passover was a time that Jews would come together and reflect in rituals that celebrated the time in Israel’s history when the Israelites we’re led out of 400 years of slavery in Egypt.
Luke 2:43-44
43 After the celebration was over, they started home to Nazareth, but Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents didn’t miss him at first, 44 because they assumed he was among the other travelers. But when he didn’t show up that evening, they started looking for him among their relatives and friends.
Other translations tell us that Mary and Joseph walked with the caravan about one day, which would’ve been roughly 25 to 30 miles. Mary and Joseph didn’t know that they would not find Jesus on the side of the road on their way. The worst thoughts that a parent would imagine had to have been going through their head.
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Can you remember the first time that you thought your child was lost and you didn’t know where they were? What did you feel?
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How should we feel knowing that Mary and Joseph went through the same emotions as parents as we do today?
Luke 2:45-47
45 When they couldn’t find him, they went back to Jerusalem to search for him there. 46 Three days later they finally discovered him in the Temple, sitting among the religious teachers, listening to them and asking questions. 47 All who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.
How many of us would have made church the first place on our search list?
Church is exactly where Mary and Joseph find Jesus. In he’s not simply hanging out at the church He is in deep conversation with religious leaders. He is listening intently to what they are teaching and is actually asking follow-up questions. It is as if he is somewhere where He is deeply interested in being. You know why? It’s because Jesus was learning.
Remember how we talked earlier about Jesus growing in wisdom, growing physically, drawing mentally, and growing spiritually? This is showing Jesus growing. Moreover, Luke tells us that his understanding and his answers amazed all who heard him.
The Greek verb in this verse that indicates amazement is literally describing how people would react to supernatural events. The verb structure in this verse is the same as we see later in the Gospels of people’s reaction to how Christ performed miracles.
See, at 12 years old, with this conversation with the religious leaders, the reaction to Jesus was the beginning of the reactions the people would show towards Jesus during his ministry.
Jesus, at 12 years old, was showing signs of His divinity.
The word divinity refers to being divine, the divinity of Jesus, and the divine nature of Jesus as being God. It is the aspect of the life of Christ that is heavenly. At 12 years old, Jewish leaders are amazed by the answers of this child as if he were bringing Lazarus up out of the grave.
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What is Luke trying to tell us by including a lesson on the humanity of Jesus and the Divinity of Jesus in this text?
This may have been the first time in Jesus’s young life but he is ever been able to sit down and have a conversation with the spiritual leaders. And this was definitely the first time that the spiritual leaders had an opportunity to sit down with a 12-year-old boy named Jesus who seemed to know whole lot about the Scriptures.
No doubt that the priests would’ve been the scratching their head at this amazing child and not knowing exactly what to think. I’ll tell you who else didn’t know what to think about the situation… Jesus is mother. She had been looking for him for three days and finally just found him at church.
Luke 2:48
48 His parents didn’t know what to think. “Son,” his mother said to him, “why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been frantic, searching for you everywhere.”
Joseph may have said:
You had your mother and I worried sick?
We’ve been searching for you for three days, and we were afraid you’d been taken by bandits.
You’re going to give your father a … Heart Attack
And then Jesus responds to his parents who probably have hugged him for moments look them over make sure you still has five fingers and five toes. I can see Mary grabbing the hand of Jesus so tight that she was not going to let the hand of that child leave hers until they got back home to Nazareth.
Look what Jesus says in verse number 49
49 “But why did you need to search?” he asked. “Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?” 50 But they didn’t understand what he meant.
So Jesus asks them two questions in his response and in both of these questions Jesus is he assuming that Mary and Joseph know the answer. First, he asks them, “Why did you need the search?” Jesus is leaning towards the answer, this unspoken assumption that Mary and Joseph should have known where he was and if they knew where he was, they wouldn’t have to look for him. Second, Jesus just said, “Didn’t you know that I must be in my fathers house?”
Now, although the Bible doesn’t give us the words that Mary used to answer the questions form her son, She may have answered these questions like this: When Jesus asked “But why do you need to search?” Mary and Joseph would have wanted to answer, “Because I am your parent and I don’t know where you are and I need to find you. I need to protect you.”
Jesus says, “And didn’t you know I must be in my fathers house?”
And then Mary says: “No. I didn’t know that you would be in the temple.
Let’s pick up our action in Luke chapter 2 verse number 51
51 Then he returned to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. And his mother stored all these things in her heart.
Nowhere in this story do we hear that Jesus was disobedient to his parents. The book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus never sinned, and so we know that this episode was not an example of Christ humanly disobeying his parents, but rather Christ showing his messiah ship to his parents.
What emotions and qualities did Mary and Joseph show in their home, and what can we learn from their example?
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Monday Dec 31, 2018
Monday Dec 31, 2018
Open your Bibles this morning to the New Testament book of Luke. We are finishing a sermon series this morning called Simply Christmas where we are looking at the Christmas story chronologically.
Point number 1 in your notes this morning:
Jesus was raised according to very specific Jewish ritual given to the Jews by God.
Point number 2 in your notes this morning:
Mary knew she needed the salvation of her newborn Son.
Point number 3 in your notes this morning:
Every person in all the earth is looking for the Savior. However, many don’t know where to find him.
Point number 4 in your notes this morning:
The Child was born in the manger for one reason: To Die on the Cross.
Sunday Dec 23, 2018
Sunday Dec 23, 2018
Open your Bibles with me this morning to the New Testament book of Luke as we continue our sermon series called Simply Christmas. We are taking a day-by-day look at the events that make up the Christmas story and this morning we come to the pinnacle of this historic event.
Point number 1 in your notes this morning:
From before time began God hand of providence guided the actions leading to the Birth of Jesus.
Point number 2 in your notes this morning:
The Angels did not announce Jesus by name but instead announced him by title.
Point number 3 in your notes this morning:
The Story of Christmas demands to be told by us to others.
We have seen this point in our note throughout this entire sermon series. There is a reason but we have repeated this point every single week . . . because it is that important.
Point number 4 our notes this morning:
The Child was born in the manger for one reason: To Die on the Cross.
The manager of Bethlehem leads directly to the Cross of Calvary.
Without the Christmas story of a cute baby boy, we don’t get to the Easter story full of pain, and suffering, and Humiliation, and our Lord and Savior being nailed to a Roman cross.
Without the Christmas story, we don’t have a Messiah.
Without the Christmas story we don’t have a sacrifice for our sins.
Without the Christmas story, we don’t have the cross, and without the cross, we don’t have salvation.
The manger is not the point. The nails are the point.
Monday Dec 17, 2018
Monday Dec 17, 2018
This morning, as the Gospel writers continue telling us the story that leans to Christmas, We first have the birth of John the Baptist.
We are starting to see that these stories of John the Baptist and Jesus the Messiah are intertwined. There is a family connection, and family was so important in biblical time, even as much as the family of Jesus is so important today.
But the Family of God doesn’t start with the people who came after Christ and put their lives in His hands, but rather is started much earlier before his birth. When John the Baptist was born a few months before Jesus was born, the last member of the “Before Christ” family had finally come, and now it was time for the Messiah.
Let’s open our Bibles this morning to Luke chapter 1, verse 57 before we turn to Matthew in a message I’ve titled: The Not So Royal Family of Jesus.
Point number 1 in your notes this morning:
The purpose of the birth of John the Baptist was to point people Jesus.
Point number 2 in your notes this morning:
The promise of a Messiah through the family of Abraham is an important part of the Christmas story.
Point number 3 in your notes this morning:
Jesus, who is born a King, is part of a not so royal family.
Point number 4 in your notes this morning:
And this is a big point
Every single person in the family of Jesus needs a Savior.
Monday Dec 17, 2018
Monday Dec 17, 2018
Open your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke. We are continuing our sermon series called “Simply Christmas.” We are in a chronological verse-by-verse study of the incarnation of our Lord and Savior. And we’re not adding anything to the story, we are simply learning and hearing the Christmas story as we read.
Any mom and dad will tell you that the day their child was born what is the climax of the pregnancy. It was the moment that everyone had been waiting for. But there was so much to the story BEFORE of the day that your child was born that happened that is an amazing part of the story. If you look at our modern culture and the way that pregnancies are developed, there is an exciting moment somewhere in the first six weeks of pregnancy that a new mom and dad get to experience. But Before mom and dad get to go and tell friends and family about their pregnancies they actually find out the news themselves.
I’d like you open your Bibles this morning to Luke chapter 1 is we are going to be reading a vast amount of content today from verse 5 through verse 56 and a message that I have titled: The Birth Announcements.