The Answer - Week 23: How Are Minds Opened Today?
Awake Us Now
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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The Answer - Week 22: What Did Jesus Tell Them?
Awake Us Now
Pastor gives us a look at the story, “On the Road to Emmaus,” found in Luke 24:13-27. We don’t know the actual location of Emmaus, nor do we know the names of those walking with Jesus in this story. The story takes place later in the day on the day of Jesus’ resurrection. Those Jesus walks with do not recognize Him. They are trying to figure out everything that had happened with Jesus and thinking about what the women had said about Jesus being alive and about the disciples having gone to the tomb and found it empty. Then Jesus begins to explain the scriptures to them concerning...
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Dig Deeper - Acts Chapter 8: Simon the Sorcerer
Awake Us Now
We delve into Acts 8:9-12 about a man named Simon who boasted that he was someone great and so people paid attention to him thinking he had the power of God because he amazed people with his sorcery. However.... When people believed what Philip was saying as he proclaimed the good news of the Kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ, people were baptized. THEN… Acts 8:13 tells us that Simon himself believed and was baptized. He followed Philip everywhere astonished by the miracles he saw. But then the arrival of Peter and John… Acts 8:14-17...
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The Answer - Week 21: Why Do You Believe He Is Risen?
Awake Us Now
Happy Resurrection Sunday - Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Today’s question is “Why do you believe He is risen?” Pastor starts today’s class with a personal testimony in which the Bible changed the direction of his life at the age of 15. Christianity stands or falls on the resurrection of Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:14 “And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” Pastor shares the Evidence Trail of Jesus’ Resurrection on the bases of writings from believers, unbelievers, recorded data, and old and new studies. The Evidence Trail...
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The Answer - Week 19: Are the Gospels Believable?
Awake Us Now
Today’s question is one that Pastor has heard most often from young people. The questioning of the Gospels seems to center around miracles, especially the resurrection. Atheistic Materialism Worldview ⁃ No God - universe is by chance ⁃ Matter only - Life came from non-life ⁃ No Miracles - Life is meaningless Bible’s Worldview ⁃ There is a Creator ⁃ He created life ⁃ Life has a purpose These two worldviews...
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GOD ACTS! (Chapter 8) - A Great Persecution Broke Out
Awake Us Now
Acts 8 begins with the day of Stephen’s death: Then + Now - What we learn All things - work together for good (God used the persecution for His purpose in spreading the Gospel) We read in Acts 8:1 that starting that day (of Stephen’s death) a massive persecution broke out against the believers in Jerusalem and especially against those like Stephen, Greek speakers, who were not native to Jerusalem. And the believers (except the apostles) fled throughout Judea and Samaria and still they talked about Jesus everywhere they went. Gospel Peace - that the message of...
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Daniel: When Kingdoms Collide (14) - Supernatural!
Awake Us Now
In our world today, as in Daniel's day, there is a cultural divide between two world views: the Natural and the Supernatural. One says that what we can see is all there is, and that life is ultimately meaningless. The other says there is a reality far beyond what is visible, and that there is a Creator who moves in mighty and purposeful ways!
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The Answer - Week 18: What is the Unforgiveable Sin?
Awake Us Now
Today’s question is one that Pastor says has been the question asked with the most fear. Other ways this question is asked: ⁃ What is the unforgivable sin? ⁃ What is the sin against the Holy Spirit? ⁃ How can I be sure I haven’t done this? ⁃ If I have done this is there any hope? ⁃ How do I avoid the unforgivable sin? Matthew 12:31-32 Jesus says, “And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the...
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The Answer - Week 17: When is the Rapture?
Awake Us Now
Pastor opens with a prayer for God to build unity among believers especially in the areas where we have differing opinions, that we would show grace to one another and humility before God. Pastor begins with the “rapture” passage in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, “After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we will be with the Lord forever.” "Will be caught up.” This caught up is the rapture. “Will be caught up” is one word in Greek: harpazō (Latin was used to translate the Greek work and in Latin...
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The Answer - Week 16: Who Needs the Holy Spirit?
Awake Us Now
The answer? EVERYONE! The Holy Spirit is found in the Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament the Spirit came mainly to specific people for specific purposes, but there was the foretelling of the Spirit being poured out in abundance - an age of the Holy Spirit ushered in by Jesus. Jesus the Messiah ushers in the Age of the Holy Spirit. Mark 1:7-8 John the Baptist tells us, “And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the...
info_outlineQuestions about the Trinity are often asked this way:
• Is the word “Trinity” in the Bible?
• Do Christians worship three Gods?
• Was “Trinity” invented by the Church?
• Isn’t the notion of “Trinity” irrational?
• Don’t you think this is a minor issue?
Pastor digs into the question of the Trinity by starting at the beginning, in Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” In Hebrew the word for God that is used in this verse is Elohim. Elohim is a plural noun. God is being described in plural terms!
Genesis 1:2 “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” In Hebrew the Spirit of God is “Ruah Elohim”. This is describing God as the Holy Spirit.
Genesis 1:3 “And God said, “Let there be light, and there was light.” The word that stands out here is “said”.
Observation: Genesis 1
1. Plural noun for God the Creator
2. Spirit of God involved in Creation
3. God’s Word brings forth the Creation
This three-fold pattern continues throughout the Hebrew Scriptures:
1. Father - Deuteronomy 32:6 “Is He not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you?”
2. Spirit - Job 33:4 “The Spirit of God has made me, the breath of the Almighty gives me life.”
3. Word - Psalm 33:6 “By the Word of the Lord the heavens were made and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.”
But the Old Testament also says there is but ONE God. Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel; The LORD our God, the LORD is one.”
And yet one God is describe in a multiplicity of terms. One God and three very distinct Persons. This pattern continues in the New Testament:
1. Father - 1 Peter 1:2 “…chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.”
2. Spirit - Acts 5:3-4 “…you have lied to the Holy Spirit…you have not lied just to human beings but to God.”
3. Word - John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
In John 1:14 we read more about the Word, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
THE WORD is none other than Jesus, Himself.
The Bible sets forth clearly that the One God has revealed Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus says in Matthew 28:19 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…”
The word that stands out in this verse is the word NAME - singular - yet THREE are named.
2 Corinthians 13:14 “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
This is clear Biblical teaching that the One true God has revealed Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is complex!!! His ways are higher than ours!
God who created us….
• Planned to Save us (God knew we would wander away from Him, but His plan from the beginning was save us)
• Came to Save us (we cannot save ourselves, we need a divine rescue. Our Divine Rescuer is Jesus who came to earth taking on human flesh and enduring the cross)
• Dwells in us to Save us (the God who created us dwells in us, brings us to faith, changes hearts, gives power and testifies to Jesus the Savior)
God works as a unity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - each unique and distinct but also uniquely ONE.
Is the word “Trinity” in the Bible? The word is not but “the Trinity” is found: Father, Son and Holy Spirit in both Old and New Testaments.
Do Christians worship three Gods? No, there is but ONE God, but has revealed Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We do not need to comprehend this to know God’s power and presence and truth.
Was “Trinity” invented by the Church? The term is invented but The TRUTH of THE TRINITY has been there since the beginning.
Isn’t the notion of “Trinity” irrational? This is a profound mystery, but not irrational. Pastor shares a lesson from Dr. Walter Martin and the Triple Point of Water where water is solid, gas and liquid all at one time. Three yet one. Is it irrational that the God of the universe can “three yet one.”
Don’t you think this is a minor issue? No because when we start ignoring what God says about Himself and what the Bible teaches we go into false teaching and false testimony. This is where false religions come in. We’re living in a culture that has walked from God and it is disastrous. This is NOT a minor issue - God is above ALL things and He is worthy of our worship and praise.
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