Following Together (Central Baptist Edmonton)

Imagine if we had everything we needed right now. I know that's hard to believe because we're wired to look for and even expect something better - a better version of you, of what you have and for what God could do. We're wonder-seeking people but that could lead us to making wonder-filled mistakes and miss God who is here right now. In this passage, we read that Jesus meets us there and teaches us a better way.

In today’s passage, we find Jesus returning to the place he performed his first miracle and facing the reality that the people were looking for to place their faith in a king that would continue to exert such miraculous power. Jesus speaks into this false understanding of faith, using another miracle to challenge people to believe in who he is, rather than in what he can do.

In the Gospel accounts, Jesus is generous in displaying the power of God over the natural world through signs and wonders. Often we can become obsessed with seeing the miraculous or we long for miracles for our own benefit. In our passage today, we will see that Jesus uses signs and wonders to encourage us toward a proper response and that is faith.

Our lives are formed by the choices we make. So, do you know how to make great decisions? If you want to have an awesome life, you've got to get wisdom. But it doesn't happen automatically.

Jesus’ resurrection is unremarkable to believers and unreasonable to skeptics. Yet it is at the heart of Christianity, impacting more people than any other movement in history. On this Easter Sunday we’ll try to see it with fresh vision and answer some very basic questions. Does belief in the resurrection matter? Is it reasonable? Is it helpful?

Teaching from the 2024 Good Friday service.

There are so many things that we strive after in life, thinking that they will quench our thirst and satisfy our hunger, but they don’t work. In the story of the conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman, we see the truth that only Jesus can satisfy, and that our souls will keep longing and our bodies keep striving until we have the courage to listen to him and invite him to be our King.

Internal competition severely limits the potential of any group or team and it’s no different in the Kingdom. In today’s passage, John the Baptist’s response to his eager followers provides the key to avoiding competition within the family of Christ.

In this account, the rabbi Nicodemus approaches a "new teacher", seeking a deeper understanding of the signs of God. To his surprise, he is presented with a completely new way of knowing God, found through a relationship with God's son, Jesus. To accept this invitation to a relationship with Jesus, Nicodemus must wrestle through his view of God's love and grace for himself and the world.

The teacher of Israel, Nicodemus, comes to Jesus under the cover of night to start a dialogue. Nicodemus has been moved by the signs that Jesus has already done and his curiosity brings him into a conversation that will forever change his beliefs and the course of his life. Nicodemus now has to grapple with the choice to believe or not. As we enter into this conversation, we too are invited to repent from walking in the darkness and step into the light of the Truth that is Jesus.

Are you stressed about money? How do we move towards thriving in the areas of finances? In the middle of a long talk about money, Jesus tells us to stop worrying, and invites us into practices that we can choose and God can use to transform our lives for the better.

In the well-known story of Jesus flipping tables in the temple lobby, we are challenged to rethink our softened view of Jesus and to consider where he may want to flip some tables in our churches or our personal lives. As we dig into this significant moment in the Gospel of John, we’ll get a glimpse of the truth that Jesus will do more than clean the temple; he will completely replace it.

In the first few verses of John 2 we get the first of seven signs in the Gospel of John. It happens while Jesus was at a wedding in Cana and it's not by chance it happens in this setting. It's here we get a glimpse of who Jesus is and, in light of Him and what happens here, a glimpse of who God is. What do we learn about God? We learn that He takes great joy in being with us, He is always revealing Himself, and He is generous.

Where are you at in life? And how did you get to that point? For better or worse, there are three things that are so powerful in forming our lives: (1) the influence of other people, (2) the experiences we go through, and (3) the decisions we make. In today’s text we’ll see that these three things are right at the core of how following Jesus works.

God desires relationship with every person. Yet sin has entered our relationships - first with God, then with others - leaving them unraveled and broken. God's response to these unraveling relationships was to offer the life of His Son, so that our relationship with God could be restored. How will we choose to respond to this amazing offer? How should it impact the way we walk in relationship with others?

Like road rules that guide drivers, Scripture tells us three, undeniable truths about how we are meant to understand and see each other that can guide and help us thrive in the varying relationships we find ourselves in.

Relationships are the best and hardest parts of our lives. How do we pursue thriving in this area? The Bible teaches that every person is made in the image of God, every person has been broken by sin, and every person is a potential recipient of Jesus’ forgiveness, redemption and transformation. If this is true, then how should we see and relate to others? How might this change how we see ourselves, our family, our friends, our coworkers, our classmates, our neighbors, or even our enemies?

The reason you’re not thriving is because you’re still trying to. While this sounds counterintuitive, it is one way of summarizing the Biblical gospel. As we continue in our study through John, we’ll open up the story of John the Baptist. He's the first “witness” that the author invites up to the witness box, and his testimony will challenge us to take the leap and surrender to Jesus.

The first few verses in John are packed with theological beauty and depth that will echo and expand through the remainder of his Gospel. Before beginning the historic account of Jesus’ life, John clarifies the biggest truths—that Jesus is truly God, that he is the “true light” our world desperately needs, and that he became a human to bridge the relational gap between God and people. But John also foreshadows the rejection and suffering of Jesus which (plot twist) will become the very path through which God will offer salvation to his enemies and show his glory to the world.

John’s Gospel has been dearly loved by the church for thousands of years, and responsible for millions of believers turning to Jesus and growing in him. While its purpose is stated clearly in chapter 20, the book cannot be understood fully by reading it quickly one time. Instead, it has been structured intentionally to slowly reveal its secrets as a person hears it, reads it, ponders it, and discusses it with others over the course of a lifetime.