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 11
Scripture: John 7:22-59.
Pastor opens by sharing details of the Feast of Tabernacles and the scriptures of the Living Water that were read during this 8 day festival. Festival readings included: Ezekiel 47:1-12, Zechariah 14:8 and Jeremiah 17:13b.
As our story opens, it is the Feast of Tabernacles and these scriptures would have been read. Pastor goes on to share that there has been much learned over the last 100 years and especially in the last 15 or so that helps to bring this text and the story alive. As we look at what we know about the time of Jesus and what we are discovering, they are changing our understanding of the Bible, bringing a new sense of significance and even urgency as what we are discovering is a testimony that says, “This is real!”
Some recent archeological work has found what is believed to be the City of David - but not at all where it was thought to be, and the discovery of the Hezekiah Tunnel, and more recently the Pool of Siloam show us a different location than originally thought for the Pool and also that it was a very large pool, not a small one. Also that it was filled with fresh water by the Han Spring flowing through the Hezekiah Tunnel into the Pool. The Pool of Siloam was the only fresh - or living water in the city of Jerusalem.
Pastor shares the events of Tabernacles and the pouring out of water into the Temple by the priests carrying it from the Pool of Siloam for the first 7 days of the festival. On the 7th Day they carried and poured water 7 times in the Temple.
So as our story continues, it’s either Day 7 (7 times the priests poured water in the Temple) or it’s Day 8 (the day of rejoicing, and celebration) when we read verse 37-38, “On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”
He is essentially telling them that what you’ve been doing for the last week with the pouring of water, point to Me and it’s what the prophets said would happen when Messiah comes, that living water would pour out of the Temple. And then it goes on in verse 39, “By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.and that the Living Water is the Holy Spirit.” Jesus is saying that He is the fulfillment of what the prophets have declared and that everyone who believes on Him will receive the Holy Spirit. Jesus is calling us to a new day - the fulfillment of what the prophets have said - Messiah- is here! And He, the Messiah, gives the Holy Spirit. Jesus is claiming to be God.
At this some called Him prophet, others called Him Messiah and others were in disbelief and angry. The crowd became divided with many wanting to seize Jesus. The temple guard go and report back to the chief priests.
The chief priests were Sadducees and they united with the Pharisees, a group that they did not get along with but they did unite together over their desire to do away with Jesus. The very ones who should have embraced Jesus as the Messiah, instead say, “Let’s kill Him.”
Pastor concludes by saying in 6 months from this event of Tabernacles, the Passover will be celebrated and we will see Jesus dead, and raised during another important festival and how this festival too, finds its fulfillment in Jesus.
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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!