Jesus is The Resurrection and The Life. Through Jesus we have access to life eternal and also a changed and renewed life here and now!
Jesus is the Good Shepherd, who knows and calls His sheep by name. He is the Good Shepherd to so loves His sheep that He lays down His life in our place in order to save us.
Jesus prepares his disciples for his departure by lovingly encouraging them, teaching them, and exhorting them. As part of this farewell discourse, Jesus tells his disciples that He is The Way, The Truth, and The Life. Jesus doesn’t just teach the truth, He is The Truth, the very message He brings. He alone is The…
After miraculously feeding the 5,000, Jesus says, “I Am The Bread of Life.” It is only in Jesus that we have eternal life. God the Father sends His Son, The True Bread from Heaven, to a starving and needy world.
Jesus is The True Vine, who gives life, love, and joy to His disciples. Jesus calls and empowers us to produce fruit in our lives that faithfully and accurately represent Him to others.
Jesus is the Light of the world. He shines His light into the darkness, inviting us to walk in His light.
God reveals himself to Moses in Exodus as the “I Am.” In John’s Gospel, Jesus repeatedly uses these same two words with reference to himself. He is more than a wise teacher, a moral philosopher, a philanthropist, a miracle-worker…. He is the Great I Am of old.
Often we look to Matthew and Luke’s gospels during the Christmas Season, as they beautifully and powerfully narrate the birth of Jesus and surrounding events. John’s gospel, on the contrary, may not seem very christmasy on the surface, as he does not narrate many of the events surrounding Jesus’ birth. Instead, John goes back to the beginning of time, to creation itself, for his readers to see and understand that Jesus is more than a man. He is Emmanuel, God with us.
We conclude our sermon series on hope, looking at Jesus’ response to his disciple, Thomas, as he struggled with doubt. God is not afraid of our questions or our doubts. He doesn’t want empty words, but a true and genuine relationship with us. This requires honesty and trust on our part as we struggle through…
Jesus is the one and only hope for the brokenness of sin. In John 8:1-11 we read of the woman who was caught in the act of adultery, and we see how Jesus responds to this woman in the midst of her brokenness, shame, and need. Jesus, the only perfect and holy one without sin, capable of throwing the first stone, instead offers forgiveness, love, grace, and a changed life. He offers us that same hope today.