The Living One - Week 21: First Christians
Awake Us Now
As pastor takes a look at the word “Christian,” its definition, what it means for us and for the world today, we will see a blueprint God has laid out for believers not just in Antioch long ago but also for us today! The word “Christian” came about from non-believers in the city of Antioch. As persecution caused the Jewish believers in Jerusalem to seek other cities in which to live, many chose to move to Antioch. It was a welcoming city without persecution and the message of Jesus exploded. It was then that Barnabus was sent to encourage these new believers. Barnabus, led by the Holy...
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The Living One - Week 20: Set Free!
Awake Us Now
Scripture: Acts 12, John 14:27, 1 Peter 5:7, 1 Peter 5:10, 2 Peter 1:11 Even in darkness and apparent defeat, Scripture assures us of this truth: We win because God wins, and He will bring that victory to its final fulfillment on the day our Lord Jesus returns. This teaching is taken from Acts 12. It is a story of Peter being set free from prison chains by an angel, but also set free from the destructive thoughts and emotions and feelings that can rise up inside us during challenging times. Peter shows us how to hold on tight to what we know about God and let Him carry us through difficult...
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The Living One - Week 19: Renewed Minds
Awake Us Now
This teaching is taken from the Acts 10, the story of Peter and Cornelius the Centurion. Both Peter and Cornelius experienced divine encounters through visions. Cornelius sees an angel with a message, Cornelius obeys and has Peter brought to his home. Peter receives a vision in which God gives Peter eyes to see beyond his cultural rules of clean and unclean. Peter was a prisoner of his culture until God gave him a vision of truth and that breakthrough brings Peter to a Gentile’s home, Cornelius’ home, and Peter, going against the culture, obeys God and enters the house of a Gentile....
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Dig Deeper - Week 4: Is the Holy Spirit an "it"?
Awake Us Now
Pastor starts with a deeper exploration of John 16:13 “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears and he will tell you what is yet to come.” People have used this verse to argue that the word Spirit is not about a personal being but about an impersonal force because in the original Greek text “spirit” (pneuma) is a neuter noun. Yes, this is true, and so they determine that neuter means the Holy Spirit is an IT. Yet the verse goes on by saying, “…He will guide you…, He will speak…....
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The Living One - Week 18: Conversion
Awake Us Now
Today’s teaching show us the significance of the Conversion of Paul. Not only is it a remarkable event, it brings forward remarkable truths. New archeological discoveries of Paul’s tomb help emphasize these verses are not just a story. This is an actual account of an actual event, that happened to an actual person, and it changed the world! This account of Paul’s conversion calls us to a deep relationship with God and demonstrates how God desires to be at work in our lives not just back then, but today in the 21st century as well. God took Paul from being a bulldog for the enemy’s use...
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The Living One - Week 17: Divine Direction
Awake Us Now
Today’s teaching shows us what happens when we follow where God leads and when we share the Good News of our Savior Jesus. Philip used “Isaiah’s Prophecy” to teach the man in today’s story, all about Jesus. Scripture text: Acts 8:26-40, Isaiah 52:13-52:12 awakeusnow.com
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Questions - Week 15: What is the Holy Spirit?
Awake Us Now
This question is often asked this way: ⁃ Is the Holy Spirit an impersonal force? ⁃ What does the Bible say about this? ⁃ What does the Holy Spirit do? ⁃ Why are some afraid of the Holy Spirit? Let us consider: Is the Holy Spirit a “Force” or a “Person” Marks of Personality: ⁃ Intellect ⁃ Emotion ⁃ Will Are these evident in the Holy Spirit? Let’s look in the Bible and see what we...
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Kings & Prophets: From Solomon to Jeremiah - Week 8
Awake Us Now
Pastor opens today’s class with the words from Psalm 135:15-18 “The idols of the nations are silver and gold, made by human hands. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see. They have ears, but cannot hear, nor is there breath in their mouths. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.” We will see the truth of these words in today’s study. Elijah’ Days: Most of this prophet’s ministry was during the height of King Ahab in the north in Israel and King Jehoshaphat in the south in Judah. His name, Elijah, is even prophetic. In...
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The Living One - Week 16: Facing Opposition
Awake Us Now
A study on how God uses opposition, and how to handle it. Pastor teaches us to deal with opposition through the applied truths found in the Bible. These words of God will encourage, build up, and carry us through our times of opposition!
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The Living One - Week 15: Crown of Life
Awake Us Now
A study of the story of Stephen, a man who understood the truth of Jesus and experienced the consequences of speaking the wisdom the Holy Spirit gave him. God is calling us today to have the faith of Stephen, to follow the Lord Jesus, to be faithful, to love our enemies, to pray for those who persecute us, and to speak God’s truth in love.
info_outlineThe Gospel of John Week 7
Scripture: John 4:31-5:29.
Our study this week begins with a look at people beginning to realize that the Jewish Messiah has come, but He has come to be the Savior of all - not just the Jewish people, but ALL people!
Jesus has been in Samaria and now returns to Cana where a high official in the government seeks Jesus out to heal his son who is dying. Jesus heals the man’s son and the official and his whole family came to faith in Jesus.
Pastor talks about the feasts mentioned in the Gospel of John and how each finds its fulfillment in Jesus. The feast mentioned in John 5:1-3 doesn’t specifically mention which feast event is going on at this particular time, but Pastor speculates that it could be the Feast of Trumpets - Rosh Hashanah - the Jewish New Year - a time when the Jewish people are focused on this feast’s call to repentance.
As we continue we see Jesus is at the Pool of Bethesda that had 5 colonnades. Pastor talks about the discovery of this pool in 1890 and shares some photos of his from a visit there in recent years. He also shares additional discoveries and info that are quite interesting regarding deeper insights into the use of this pool and by whom.
As Jesus approached the pool, hundreds of people may well have been at the pool. Jesus says to an invalid of 38 years “Do you want to get well?” There were many there but Jesus chooses to speak to just one person. Jesus, on this Sabbath Day, tells the man to get up and walk and the man walks away carrying his mat.
The religious leaders had added many additional specific regulations to God’s Sabbath Day - rest day. They had added 39 additional man made rules and the 39th rule was that carrying a piece of property from 1 location to another location was not allowed and what this man just did in carrying his mat broke their Sabbath regulations.
Jesus had deliberately provoked the religious establishment’s petty laws saying in effect “How dare you substitute the goodness of God with your own petty regulations and rules.” And the religious leaders become incensed when they hear it was Jesus that healed him and so now they are after Jesus and they begin to persecute Him and desire to kill Him. Not only had Jesus broken their religious man-made rules by doing the work of healing this man on a Sabbath, but also because Jesus called God His own Father making Himself equal with God. Jesus claimed deity - Jesus is the Living God come to earth!! Yet they desired to reject this truth!
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⁃ The Gospel of John study is part five of five of our Two Year Study of the Gospels.
⁃ The Gospel of John may be one of the most powerful books ever written. Many people have come to faith after reading only this book of the Bible. Scholarly and archeological discoveries in recent decades give us new insight on details in the Gospel of John. We can now understand it as the most Jewish rather than the most “Gentile/Greek” of the Gospels, and when we do that we see many things that we missed before.
Our 2 year study of the gospels is great for large group, small group or home group study and can be started at any time!