Have you ever wondered why it is that Christian people feel they are never alone? It’s true, you know—we are never completely alone. In the night of the last supper, Jesus told his disciples: If …
The Gospel of John #9
One of the saddest things about the ministry of Jesus is the number of people who believed him, believed his message, believed what he said about who he was, believed on him, but could not …
Passover Service 1997
View PostCloser to Christ
If you could have lived during the time of Christ, would you have wanted to be close to him? Would you have wanted to be with him? I think it’s fair to say that, by …
A Relationship with God
Not long ago, Someone I respect very highly commented that she did not have a relationship with God. She believed in God, she practiced her faith assiduously, but did not believe she had a relationship …
The Gospel of John #8
Jesus defies explanation. You can’t just put him in a category and then say you have him figured out. Nearly every conventional idea of Jesus is contradicted by the basic source documents—the four gospels of …
The Gospel of John #7
I must confess, I was a little puzzled at the reaction of the Jewish community to the movie The Passion of the Christ. But when I reflected on some of the persecution of Jews by …
The Gospel of John #6
Jesus was a constant puzzle to the Pharisees. Sometimes he is a bit puzzling to us, too. And we have had a lot of time to digest what he was saying. And, let’s face it, …
The Gospel of John #5
Considering all that Jesus did, and considering his personal charisma, does it strike you as strange that there was a point when many of his disciples turned away and didn’t follow him any longer? What …
The Third Sabbath
View PostThe First of Weeks
We have long taken special interest in those eight scriptures that speak of the “first day of the week”. We have made the point that if authority for Sunday observance is to be found anywhere …
The Solitary Man
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. Everyone knows this verse by heart. But there may be something here that …
The Gospel of John #4
Of the four gospel writers, it is John who is the theologian. More than the others, he captures and reports for us those words and deeds of Jesus that tell us who he is and …
The Gospel of John #3
Jesus of Nazareth was full of surprises. His disciples often had trouble figuring him out, but Jesus had an agenda. Everything he did was for a reason. Take an incident early on in Samaria. Jesus …
The Gospel of John #2
From here, it’s hard to imagine what those first encounters with the mature Jesus were like—for those who saw him for the first time. I have no reason to imagine that Jesus was in any …
The Gospel of John #1
The apostle John presents us with the most astonishing theology. And he does it right off the bat, without preamble. To the early theologians of the Christian church, he also posed a dilemma. The church …
The Fourteenth Day
View PostThe Days of Elijah
If you happen to enjoy contemporary praise music, you more than likely have heard These Are The Days of Elijah. (It happens to be one of my favorites. It is very singable and I can …
The Gospel of Matthew #40
Did Jesus die of a broken heart, or was he brutally and violently killed? Now, you have to understand something about us preacher-types. Sometimes we get carried away with our own rhetoric, and so, in …
The Gospel of Matthew #39
I know that Jesus had to die for my sins. But why did he have to die the way he did? Why the pain, why the shame? Why the spitting, why the humiliation? Why couldn’t …