Daniel: When Kingdoms Collide (2) - Mixed, Not Melted
Awake Us Now
God calls His people not to blend in to society, but to stand out, to reflect the mercy and goodness of God, so that He may be exalted through all the nations!
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The Gospel According to Matthew - Week 9
Awake Us Now
Prayer is an amazing gift from God! We have His plea to talk with Him. Genuine prayer; not showy prayer, but rather simply experiencing the presence of our Living God, the Father. Other topics covered are Jesus’ teaching on fasting and possessions. Based on Matthew 6:5-24.
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The Gospel According to Matthew - Week 8
Awake Us Now
Pastor points out the Old Testament’s words, “Thus says the LORD,” and compares them to the words of Jesus in the New Testament that say, “But I tell you.” What does this tell us about who Jesus is? Pastor explores the “But I tell yous” as found in Matthew chapter 5 and we learn what Jesus calls us to. That call is to a changed heart, which can only happen when we come to faith in Jesus. God’s call is personal! He wants to change each one of us by the shed blood of Jesus, the Son of God.
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The Gospel According to Matthew - Week 7
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In Week 7, we hear more of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Jesus calls us salt and light. What does He mean when He uses these words to describe how we are to be? As historians have looked at world history, more and more of them are coming to the realization Christianity changed everything. Jesus has had a greater impact on the human condition than anyone in all of history. What Jesus produces in people, changes them!
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Dig Deeper - Week 11: Two Pictures of the Messiah
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We will look at the two pictures of the Messiah found in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament). 2 Pictures of Messiah Reigning King Humble Substitute This double picture is what led some of the great Hebrew rabbis to suggest there might be two Messiahs that would come at different times and in different manners. And that then became the dominant tradition: Messiah will raise the dead Messiah will be victorious Messiah will reign in Jerusalem Messiah will bring peace If we look at the New Testament the early followers of Jesus believed this same thing about the Messiah....
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The Gospel According to Matthew - Week 6
Awake Us Now
We finish Matthew 4 on following Jesus, and begin the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 that opens with the Beatitudes.
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The Gospel According to Matthew - Week 5
Awake Us Now
Week 5 of our Matthew study digs into chapter 4 on the Temptation of Jesus, His three temptations and the reality of an unseen spiritual world.
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Questions - Week 23: How Are Minds Opened Today?
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This message focuses on the question: “How are minds opened today?”, which is part of our ongoing series: “What’s the answer?” Pastor explores how people’s lives are changed and what changes their attitudes about God, about Jesus, the resurrection, and about the power of God’s Word. Pastor takes us through Luke 24:36-47, an encounter with Jesus that His disciples have with Him after His resurrection. Jesus tells them: “This is what I told you while I was still with you; Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets...
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Daniel: When Kingdoms Collide (1) - Daniel's God
Awake Us Now
The Book of Daniel is the story of the collision of two kingdoms, a spiritual war that is still being fought in the heavens and on the earth. In the end, the Kingdom of God wins!
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The Gospel According to Matthew - Week 4
Awake Us Now
Week 4 of our Matthew study is all about John the Baptist and his message of repentance, a message that can be difficult for the religious to accept.
info_outlineThis teaching is from Matthew 21:23-46 and continues our dive into Jesus’ final week of his ministry before his death and resurrection.
The religious leaders are doing all they can to get Jesus to say something so that they can bring Him up on charges and get rid of Him. And there is a debate between Jesus and those leaders in the first verses of our study today. As the leaders (priests and elders) ask Jesus by what authority He was doing things in and who gave him this authority. This question might seem like a simple question but in reality it is a set up and they want him to reveal who He is so they can charge Him with blasphemy.
These leaders should have understood who Jesus was; they had the opportunity to listen to His teachings, see His miracles, and hear testimonies of what Jesus had been doing. All these things predicted had been predicted by the prophets. Those with eyes to see could see who He was.
Jesus takes their question and turns it around on them and responds that He’ll answer them if they answer a question first. The question He gives them, they decide they can’t answer. So there is a stalemate. So Jesus moves on into sharing three Parables that are addressed to the religious leaders.
The Parables do the following:
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Indictment
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Sentence
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Execution
The Indictment - the parable of the two sons. A father asks a son to go work in the vineyard and the son says, “No,” but then changes his mind later and does go out and work in the vineyard. To the other son the father says to go work in the vineyard, but that son says, “Yes,” but never goes and does it.
Jesus poses the question, “Which of the two sons did what his father wanted?” The leaders reply, “the first son: and Jesus hands down this indictment to the religious leaders, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you … you did not repent and believe.” This was a public rebuke of the leaders in front of a crowd.
Jesus moves on to share another parable, the parable of the tenants. A landowner (God the Father) planted a vineyard, walled it in, installed a winepress and added a watch tower and leased it out to some tenants (religious leaders). When harvest time came he sent his servants (prophets) to the tenants to collect his fruit. The tenants beat and killed the servants that came to collect for the landowner. Then the land owner sent a second set of servants to collect and they too were killed. Lastly the land owner sent his son (Jesus) to collect, but they killed him too. (Prediction of what is to come and the revelation of the religious leader's plan).
Jesus ends this parable with the question, “When the owner of the vineyard comes - what will he do to these tenants?” The religious leaders - being obviously spiritually blind did not understand the parable at all and that it was about them. Jesus is getting ready to speak their sentencing…. They answer Jesus, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”
Jesus points out to them that He is the One, the Son, the Stone the builders rejected. He is the awaited Messiah, the cornerstone, the rock on which we build our lives. And He replies to them, “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. Anyone who falls on this Stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”
Jesus clearly states the sentencing against the religious leaders.
1. Points to the fact that only those who repent and believe in Jesus as Messiah and Savior have life ever after.
2. Jesus says it will be given to someone else. Alluding to the Gentile mission - the Kingdom of God coming to both Jews and Gentile; through the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus, through repentance and faith and through the infilling of the Holy Spirit.
God will carry out the world-wide mission!
Verse 45 shares that the Pharisees (religious leaders) now knew He was talking about them! And so they looked for a way to arrest Him - but they were concerned about the crowd because they held that Jesus was a prophet - they were listening to Him.
But what changes in the next few days that makes it possible for them to arrest and crucify Jesus? Join us next time to find out!
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