LBC Sermons & Messages

John 5:1-18

This is the third of seven signs that the apostle John uses to prove who Jesus is, the Son of God. The first sin revealed Jesus as the creator of life and the second revealed him as the restorer of life. In this sign Jesus is presented as the only true hope of life.

Jesus performs this miracle on the Jewish Sabbath day. A day in which God had made to be a time of physical rest, spiritual renewal and a chance for the people to enjoy each other. The Jewish authorities in their misguided zeal had by imposing impossible rules of behavior on the nation made it a day of burden. Jesus deliberately is going to challenge their traditions, superstitions and belief system by doing something good on this day and in so doing force them to trust in him or their man-made traditions as the way obeying God the Father.

After healing this man, the Jewish authorities began to harass this man to find out who it was that healed him and upon finding out Jesus is accused of breaking the Sabbath day restrictions and charges him with blasphemy for making himself equal with God.

Jesus refutes the charges (v17) by stating that the work he had done was the same kind as the Father’s work. He (Jesus) provided physical deliverance (by grace) and a new life for the paralyzed man, just as the Father provides spiritual salvation (by grace) for those whom sin has bound. The work of the Father is to reveal His grace thru His Son (Isa 35), so that we will know that Jesus is the Son of God (John 10:37-38), so that we will then do the will of the Father which is to believe in Jesus as Savior (John 6:40).

It is very easy to get so accustomed to our own tradition, superstitions, religious activities, belief system (no matter how pious) and end up missing the work of the Father in Jesus
The paralyzed man seems to have just walked away, while the Jewish authorities refused to acknowledge Jesus.

What conclusion have you come to? Have you set your sure hope on Jesus as your Savior? (I Tim 4:10)

I Kings 19:1-3

At the end of Chapter 18, a mighty victory has occurred, the people make a commitment to God, slay the false prophets. God sends rain after three and a half years and the drought has ended. Elijah holds the direction of the nation in his hands, never has the Northern kingdom turned to God, now there is a chance. Elijah is at the peak of his power and influence, all eyes are on him.

King Ahab relates to Jezebel all the events of the day, but concentrates on the slaying of the prophets of Baal not on the power of Jehovah. Queen Jezebel is furious and is not about to give up her position and will do anything to prevent a national revival. She threatens Elijah with death and he fearing for his life flees.

What happened? How did it happen?

One day we are experiencing God’s mighty working in our lives and the next we are running scared, all our expectation exploding in our face and we end up in despair and defeat. Ever been there?

Know this, the enemies of God will not give up and even miracles will not change their heart. Elijah made a bad decision and it ended up costing a national revival. Sin does affect those around us.

Elijah most likely was physically exhausted, not thinking clearly when he did this. It is important for us not to make major decisions when physically or emotional exhausted. Also he got his focus off of God and on to himself. He looked at the circumstances around him and does not pray about it.

If it could happen to Elijah, it could certainly happen to us. Remember God still normally works thru “still small voice” and we must strive to live by faith not by sight, and purpose to stay focus on the Lord. I Peter 5:8 “be sober minded, be watchful, your adversary the devil prowls around like a lion seeking someone to devour”.

John 4:46-54

This is the second of seven signs that John records to reveal that Jesus is the Messiah, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. In this sign Jesus reveals that he is the restorer of life and the key is faith in him. A faith that exhibits our belief that Jesus is who has said he is, the Son of God, and that he will then restore us to new life.

This Jewish official travels 20 miles, out of desperation for his son’s health, to seek Jesus and appeal for help. Jesus response seems harsh, but this father is not deterred and continue to plea for Jesus to come back with him to heal his son. Jesus replies to this official “go, your son lives”. This places the father in a dilemma, will he believe Jesus word and head back home or will he continue to plea for Jesus to return with him. The father responds by heading back home, trusting what Jesus has said without any tangible proof.

This is an illustration of what it means to surrender to Christ. And the key is “faith”. Not faith in miracles, not faith in anything other than the word of Christ. Rom 10:17 states “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”

Saving faith in Christ is not a leap into a dark unknowing abyss or giving it your best shot, but it is believing that Jesus is God in the flesh and that we need to come to a decision about him and respond by faith. The whole of Hebrews 11 gives example after examples of individual who did just that.

We have discovered in these first four chapters that Jesus is God, that he is the sin bearer and the giver of life. We have been given testimony of these facts, by John the Baptist, Nicidemus, the Samaritan woman and the people of her village, attesting to these truths.

The key to appropriating this truth into your own personal life is “faith” as exhibited by this nobleman in our text. John is recording these events that “you might believe in Jesus and have eternal life (John 20:31).

I Kings 19:1-21

This chapter demonstrates the truth of James 5:17 “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours”.

Sometimes we get the erroneous thinking that these OT heroes were a special breed of person, totally unlike us.

In chapter 17 and 18, Elijah was operating in the power of God. He was relying on the word of God, he was in prayer and as a result he exhibited boldness, was used to heal a widow’s son and had a great victory over the prophets of Baal on Mt Carmel. In chapter 19, we see Elijah operating by his own tactics. He is running away, afraid, wanting to die and his focus is entirely upon himself. What a complete turn around.

After reading chapter 19, we may think, “how could he do that?” or we may think “I would never have run away”. If you are thinking along these lines, remember how times we may have failed God, how many times we stayed hidden and did not put ourselves at risk like Elijah had done.

We all struggle with our weaknesses and failures, every one of us have the same sin nature as Elijah (Phil3:11-17; Gal 5:17; Rom 7:15-25). Can we experience victory in our life, YES, but not without difficulty and discipline, and none of us will ever reach perfection this side of heaven.

From this chapter we can apply the truth of II Cor 4:7 “but we have this treasure in jars of clay (that’s us), to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.”

We can learn from this chapter two things. 1) do not expect perfection from any person or any church. 2) our strongest point (our focus on God) will also be our weakest.

If we fail, confess it to God (I John 1:9), get back up on your feet and continue to serve God.

John 4:31-45

The gospel has been presented in Ch3 to Nicodemus, a Jewish leader and in Ch4 it was presented to Samaritan women, a gentile. These two individuals were pressed to make a decision concerning their relationship to this man, Jesus Christ, and so it is with those of us reading this gospel.

Acts 1:8 reads “you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Samaria, and unto the ends of the earth”. Peter, who had the keys of heaven, followed this pattern (Acts 2, Acts 10) and so did Paul in his ministry.

In our text we have a discourse concerning the need of evangelism. The disciples were shocked that Jesus had been talking with these women, wondering, “what was he seeking”. What he was seeking is found in verse 23, “people to worship him … in truth and in spirit”. This was Jesus’ goal, and it superseded all other needs, and he stresses the urgency to present the gospel message to individuals that they may have eternal life. He also stresses that evangelism is often a team effort, a process, one sows another may reap. Jesus stays two days with these people sowing seed and a few years later Philip reaps the harvest (Acts 8 ).

We need to be sowing seed and letting the Holy Spirit take that message and work in the heart of the individual and bring him to a point of accepting Christ as Savior.

I see two guidelines emerging, we are to witness when we have the opportunity. Col 4:5-6 “conduct yourself with wisdom … making the most of the opportunity”. In the course of a conversation make every effort to speak of spiritual things and be sensitive to their interest or hostility. Christ did this with the Samaritan woman; he asked for a drink of water, she showed some interest and it ended with Jesus telling her that he was the Messiah.

We are entrusted with the gospel message, be alert to opportunities God’s send our way and “preach the word, be ready in season and out of season” (II Tim 4:2).

I Kings 18:39-46

In verses 30-38, we saw a prayer for revival, Elijah was calling upon the people to repent and be restored unto fellowship once more with Jehovah. The nation has been experiencing a drought, a symbol of God’s judgment for their turning away from Him. Ezek 14:6 reads “thus says the Lord God, repent and turn away from you idols and turn away from all your abominations”. They built an altar; God heard their plea and answered with fire from heaven.

The people fell on their faces and said “the Lord, He is God, the Lord, He is God” (v39), but its not enough just to recognize this truth but also to act, to make a commitment, which they did by slaying all the prophets of Baal.

Today we as God’s people may experience a spiritual drought, it’s evidenced by a loss of our joy of salvation, a lack of growing, a feeling of just existing, we are all tied up in the affairs of living that we have forgotten God. If so, then we too need to get along with God and repent and seek restoration.

Mark 3:8 states we need to “bear fruit in keeping with repentance”. Eph 4:22-32, exhorts us to “put off and put on”, each of us as individual and we as member of this local church need to examine ourselves, our relationship with God and with each other.

Elijah goes to the top of Mt Carmel to humbly ask for rain, a symbol of refreshment and fruitfulness. In applying this to us, we need fruitfulness in the area of our contrast to the world around us, “be ye holy”. Elijah went to pray, while King Ahab went to eat. Also we need refreshed in our prayer life and to persevere in it. Elijah had to pray seven times, but the rains did come, so it can be with us also.

Elijah a man, just like us (James 5:16-18), was willing to stand up against the evil of his day, may we do the same in the power and strength of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Levitcus 2:1-16

This offering was offered in conjunction with the burnt offering, therefore these two offering had a close connection between them. Both were to be of the finest quality, both were offered by fire and both were a pleasing aroma to God, but in the grain offering the worshipper was involved in preparing it while in the burnt offering he simply participated in it.

The burnt offering symbolically looked forward to the “lamb of God” providing atonement for his sin and therefore the worshipper only identified with the animal being sacrificed and added nothing to it, else it would defile the intent. In the grain offering the worshipper was greatly involed in the preparation of the offfering. He had to plant the seed, harvest the grain, grind the grain to fine flour and cook it.

The ingredients in this offering were dependant upon a bountiful harvest, thus dependant upon God to supply the rains at the right times and for protection from preditors (grasshoppers) from eating it.

Thus in the grain offering the worshipper was acknowledging God’s divine provision for his well being and his ability to work and serve and was praising God for his bountiful supply of “daily bread”.

The application to us today, is seen in the fact that while we contribute nothing to our redemption (Christ was our burnt offering), we do participate in “good works” unto God after our salvation. (Eph 2:10 “saved unto good works”, Titus 2:7 “ show yourself to be a model of good works”, II Tim 3:17 “ equippped unto good works”)

Therefore the works of our hands are our grain offering unto the Lord and we give Him the praise and glory for providing us with the means and ability to serve Him.

Col 3:17 “whatever you do in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God the Father through him”.

I Kings 18:30-38

In these verses we see Elijah’s effectual prayer for revival among the people and God’s miraculous answer.

Verses 30-35, we have a call for repentance, in calling the people to “come near to me … and he repaired the altar”. The altar is God’s prescribed means of access and fellowship with Him. Due to sin this altar was broken down and needed to be repaired The nation has experienced a drought for the last 31/2 years and the only way out is to get right with God.

At times we as individual believers or a church body fined ourselves in periods of drought. No fruitfulness, no one being saved, no spiritual growth, no joy of salvation in our lives, just existing and nothing else. We need to examine ourselves before the Lord to make sure there is no sin in our lives that is hindering us and if there is, then we need to deal with it by confessing it and repenting of it (I John 1:9). David is a good example, after his sin he experienced a drought in his life (Psa 32, 51) and the only way back to a fruitful life was thru repentance (Psa 51:16-17).

Verses 36-37, is a call for restoration and in this very short prayer, Elijah desires that Israel know three truths. 1) That Israel will know that Jehovah is the only God, 2) that Israel would in actuality know that it was God seeking them and 3) that Israel be restored to fellowship.

In verse 38, we see that God immediately answers Elijah’s prayer, proving that He alone is God and that he has heard their plea.

Psa 34:18 “the Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”

Psa 145:18 “the Lord is nears to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth.”

In a drought, examine your heart and call upon the Lord.