John 20:30-21:25 Grace at the Breakfast Table
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on September 30th, 2007
Today, we see an ethereal vignette reminding us that God is motivated by His love, and the grace He bestows on all men. He is a gracious, good God! Our story centers on Jesus making breakfast for His disciples. God’s grace is found in the mundane, ordinary events in our human existence. In spite of all of our failures and sins, God still wants to commune with us.
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John 20:1-29 A Resurrection of Hope
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on September 23rd, 2007
We have seen that Christ’s death and burial was purposed by God to kill our sins, and bring forth justice in His cross, and because of that we are free to live for God, and live with Him eternally! Today we will take a look at the importance of the resurrection, without which there would be no power in the promises that God makes to us in His Son, and we’d be dead in our sins, still working our way to a god that is impotent.
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John 19:38-42 Secret Disciples!
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on September 16th, 2007
Are you a “Secret Disciple?” Nicodemus and Joseph were both wealthy, religious, good men, searching for the kingdom, which is the right thing to do. They were righteous dudes, but they were overcome by the life of Christ, and ultimately changed by His death. What causes us to be transformed? First it is the power of the Holy Spirit transforming our lives, but secondly, it is our belief that in Christ we are “Dead to sin!”
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John 19: 17-37 The Death of God, or the Glory of a King?
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on September 9th, 2007
The cross is an enigma. It is an event that people can’t seem to come to terms with. It is a barbaric event that God used for His own glory, and our salvation! It speaks of sin, justice, love and the wrath of God. It is a symbol of balance, hatred, grace and shame. The cross is the defining point in human history. It is the event that unites heaven and earth, and clears the way for us to relate to God in a personal way.
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John 18:12-19:16 The Ironic Coronation
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on September 2nd, 2007
It is so easy to blame the Jews or Pilate for the death of Jesus, and not come to a heartfelt understanding that it was in reality our own sins that sentenced Christ to that tree, and that shame. In spite of this, Jesus’ death happened because our sins indicted Him.
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John 18:1-14 A Journey Into Glory
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on August 26th, 2007
The fact is that those in power often persecute those that disagree with them. We have seen this all through history, and almost no one is exempt from this temptation. This is what Christianity did to Jews when they got in to places of power. The biblical reality is that both the Jews and the gentiles were culpable we are culpable and God was completely in control of His death.
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John 17 Jesus’ Missional Prayer
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on August 19th, 2007
As pastor John Piper writes, “His demand for supreme praise is His demand for our supreme happiness.” Atheist Ayn Rand once said that, “Admiration is the rarest and best of pleasures.” If this is true then what we admire is important, Jesus secures this glory as an act of love on the cross for our own sake. Therefore Jesus’ prayer for glory is ultimately a missional prayer for our joy and pleasure.
Jesus makes it known that those that are in Him are secure in Him. If God chose us, we do not choose out. We are secure in His grace.
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John 15:18-16:33 Ministering from the Margins of Persecution
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on August 12th, 2007
No matter how you choose to live, and how you choose to love, you will be hated in some degree. The fact of the matter all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted by those in opposition to Jesus. Jesus is both passionate and explicit in this passage in reminding us of the reality of living in Him to truly forsake the world (System of thought) and love God is an act of God in our lives by His Spirit.
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John 15:1-17 Fruitful Living
Preached by Caleb Mayberry August 5th, 2007
Abide in Christ! This command is the foundation for what is ultimately expected by God for those that believe. We as Christians are not called to sit on our hands but God has appointed us to bear fruit for the kingdom that we would live radically different lives in the here and now as we participate in God’s plan of redemption and the restoration of his kingdom.
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John 14:1-31 Is Jesus The Way?
Preached by Aaron Youngren on July 29th, 2007
By Christ’s blood, we become everlasting participants in the Divine community of perfect Love. The problem for the unbeliever isn't that he can not find the true God, it is that He can not love the God who he finds sitting next to him at the dinner table. Not only has Jesus made it possible for us to love Him, He has also made it easy for us to love Him by sending the Spirit of God to us.
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John 13:1-38 Becoming Good to Great
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on July 22nd, 2007
Until we are “Washed” by God, we are useless for any good works. This is indicative from Christ’s statement in verse 8 to Peter. This act of Christ leads to the Second meaning and duty that is Our Standard of Service/Humility in Christ. We are called to love like Christ loved, unconditionally! His love sacrifices for the other so that His father can be glorified, so that others can enjoy the glory of God! We are definitely in need of a foot washing in order to be experientially cleansed from our sin, but we must see that the gospel of Jesus Christ has cleansed us, and we are free to serve Him, and love Him, and then to love one another!
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John 12:37-50 The Pain of Unbelief
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on July 15th, 2007
Does God harden your heart, or does your unbelief harden your heart? This appears to be the question of the ages, and one that is a bit of a paradox, since they both appear true in scripture. Our choices bear responsibility and have grim consequences, but God in His sovereignty uses our choices to accomplish His will. Our will/choices are proximate, while God’s remains ultimate. God does not violate our will, but He is in complete control of the results. This may be the grand mystery of how this all works, but it is the heart of a loving God to save, which He has done to His glory through His Son Jesus Christ.
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John 12:27-36 A New Kind of Power in Power 3
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on July 8th, 2007
Death is not natural and rightly causes distress since we know it to be unnatural. Therefore fear and agony are normal responses. Jesus appears to have more fear and anguish than many men. How come? There are at least two good reasons for His response. First, death is not natural. Secondly, the agony that Christ is about to experience goes far beyond what any death could bring. He who was sinless was about to become sin, and separate from His Father.
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John 12:20-26 A New Kind of Power in Power 2
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on July 1st, 2007
We spend our time and money to make ourselves happy, but we never seem content. Jesus comes and gives Himself up for the sake of the world, and calls His people to do the same. The best way to fulfillment is in emptying ourselves at His cross, and drinking in His glory on our behalf.
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John 12:12-19 A New Kind of Power in Power
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on June 24th, 2007
While the world awaits a savior from oppressive regimes, Christ came to bring an end to death. Political upheaval may help to assuage human pain, but it doesn’t change hearts or give eternal life. Political change most often ends in its own form of corruption. It is for this reason that Jesus doesn’t pursue political power, even though He challenges the oppressive political figures of His day.
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John 12:1-11 An Attitude Adjustment
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on June 17th, 2007
We can easily get our priorities out of whack, and begin to serve God or the poor based on duty, guilt, fear and pride, and fail to recognize that when we properly place our affections on Christ, and the gospel transforms our life doing things like helping the poor become second nature. Christ has forgiven us but we must live our lives in constant reminder that we are sinners in need to repent for our sin.
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John 11:45-47 The Tyranny of the Convenient and the Gift of Grace by Mike Gunn
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on June 10th, 2007
It is God who is sovereignly working behind the scenes to use evil for His own glory. He is working to re-center self-centered people on the only center worth living for, God Himself. How often do we reject God for our own convenient reasons, and then justify them with solid reasoning? The religious establishment saw a man raised from the dead, and still had hearts that looked to their own convenience, and places of power. “The Romans will come and take away our place (Their religion) and our nation” (Their Ethnic Identity).
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John 11:1-45 Sickness Not Unto Death! by Mike Gunn
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on June 3rd, 2007
Who have you lost? What have you lost? How is living in this fallen world painful? Is your Christianity mental only? Is yours based in bitterness towards God for the pain in your life? Our natural reactions are found in Lazarus’ sisters Mary and Martha, and the people who also loved Lazarus. Jesus wants to show us in a grand way that “This sickness will not end in death.” Our world is sick and messed up, and death is that grand reminder that this world is a messed up place. Jesus is going to use Lazarus’ death to set up the reality of His own death...
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John 10:19-42 The Far-Sightedness of a Hard Heart by Mike Gunn
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on April 1st, 2007
G.K Chesterton once quipped, “What we need is a religion that is not only right when we are right, but right when we are wrong!” Hearts that are hard to the truth of God’s word cause division. The problem with a hard heart is that unless God acts on its behalf, it will remain hard. So when men reject Christ it is not because God makes them do it, but that He doesn’t do anything to change it.
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John 10:1-18 The Good Shepherd by Mike Gunn
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on March 25th, 2007
Welcome back Mike! Give us some wisdom from the scriptures:
God is known in the OT as the shepherd of His people (Psalm 23, 80, 100; Isaiah 40:10, 11), and the gospels go into details in the two parables of the shepherd to explain how God, as the loving shepherd, goes out of His way for even one lost sheep. Imagery of the “Shepherd” is huge in both OT literature and extra-biblical literature. Jesus is both the gate (way in) as well as the shepherd (the protector once in).
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John 9 Can You See Your Blindness? by Caleb Mayberry
Preached by Caleb Mayberry on March 18th, 2007
Have you ever felt like you’ve been dealt a bad hand? Have you ever asked the question, why me, why this, or why now? Have you ever felt that you’ve been given an unfair deal in life and God is nowhere to be found? We come to a story here in John Chapter 9, where we find man who was dealt a bad hand in life. We’re going to take a look at this man. This story will help us understand what God’s purpose is in our struggles. We’re going to see a couple of ways that people in general react to the purposes of God. One of them brings life and the other brings death.
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John 8:12-59 by Mark Steeds
Preached by Mark Steeds on March 11, 2007
Mark disects John Ch. 8 with a surgeon like steadiness and precision. His exegesis of this scripture is to the point and thorough: The setting is still the Feast of Tabernacles, also known as the Feast of Booths. (Leviticus 23:42-43) This festival was to remind them of the time their ancestors were in the wilderness. The presence of God in their midst during the wilderness wanderings is shown in Exodus 13:21-22. A significant event during this festival was a remembrance of the light of God that led the Israelites during the dark nights in the wilderness.
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John 7:53-8:11 Being Transformed By Grace by Mike Gunn
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on March 4th, 2007
Grace doesn’t take sin lightly, but it does act in forgiveness for the sake of restoration of the relationships involved. Grace seeks life, where law seeks death. This is Jesus in His finest. He is the protector of the weak amongst the strong. It is interesting that this story involves sexual sin, and more specifically the sexual sin of a woman. Jesus not only stands against the power base that oppressively accuses this woman without accusing her lover, but He also presents us with the truth that our hearts are far worse than most of our actions.
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John7:10-52 How Truth Brings Forth Life by Mike Gunn
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on February 25, 2007
Who’s your Jesus? Is He the prize or the prize giver? Is your life flowing with the river of life, or are still in the business of building cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water? In the midst of unbelief and the desire to kill Him, Jesus offers His enemies grace and a promise, which should remind us of our need to do the same. Jesus gained His sustenance from His Father’s word, and so should we.
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John 6:59-71 The Hard Sayings of Jesus Pt. 2 by Mike Gunn
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on February 11, 2007
When Jesus looses the majority of his followers his disciples were grumbling and complaining that the words were too “hard” (“sklaros” hard, offensive, harsh). Christ asks them, “Does this offend you?” The word He used for offend is “skandalizo” (we get our word “scandalous” from this Greek root) and means stumbling block. Jesus isn’t afraid to offend humanity to prove a point. Would our Mega Church Preachers do the same?
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John 6:26-58 The Hard Saying of Jesus Pt. 1 by Mike Gunn
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on February 4, 2007
Jesus begins to take on the crowd, and the religious leaders, and exhorts them to turn to Him in faith, and not spend their lives chasing a vaporous identity and a finite happiness. He (Jesus) is our sustenance, when we feed off of Him, and abide in Him and His words (Prayer, fasting, bible intake). This isn’t a formula, it’s an act of God on our lives, without which, we would continue to wallow in our self-focused agenda, and a practical Christ-less life. Jesus’ solution is Himself, not any self-help formulas.
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John 6:14-24 Human Wisdom and Divine Sovereignty by Mike Gunn
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on January 28, 2007
Do we “know” Christ? Has our witness been hampered by presenting a god that reflects more of our white middle class values than it does the gospel? What box are we trying to ‘force’ Christ to live in? Are you upset that God is not going along with your agenda? All of these things are easy to fall in to. Our darkened minds want so badly to see justice accomplished, but in our fallen state we inevitably create more chaos than we do solution.
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John 5:19-47 Christ Revealed: Lord, Liar or Lunatic by Mike Gunn
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on January 14, 2007
Jesus speaks of the work that He was sent to do, which He was in the process of doing; such as the revealing of His father’s kingdom, which would be secured by His work on the cross. This is a clear calling to life in God’s kingdom, where His will is done and we, like Christ, obediently honor Him. This is the gospel and the reason we exist.
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John 5:1-18 Our Need for Healing by Mike Gunn
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on January 7, 2007
John is taking us on a journey that slowly reveals the person of Jesus Christ, inundating us with penetrating encounters and vignettes of different human situations and responses. Our passage today is no different. We have another healing incident in the book, and each healing incident gives us more of an understanding of both our own propensity as humans, and deeper insight into the person and work of Jesus Christ.
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John 4:43-54 Faith Enlarged by Mike Gunn
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on December 31, 2006
There is no temporal joy (spouse, children, sex, food, money, etc.) that will ever fill the void left because of our separation from God. God is good to allow calamity so that we will turn to Him. Let’s not wait, let’s turn this new year into a year that we spend daily time with God in His word and begin a relationship that may have dried up years ago.
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John 4:4-42 Let the Nations Be Glad? by Mike Gunn
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on December 17, 2006
Jesus intentionally crosses four major barriers. First He crosses a racial barrier. Secondly, Jesus crossed a religious barrier. Thirdly, Jesus crossed a gender barrier. Fourthly, Jesus crossed moral barriers. The reaching of the kingdom of God through God’s people is an intentional act. It’s an act that isn’t comfortable. Diversity and cross-cultural ministry is hard because we are more apt to care about custom than we are mission. In our attempt to worship God we center our worship on our desires and preferences, instead of God and His desires.
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John 3:22-4:3 Joy or Bitterness; life or Death? by Mike Gunn
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on December 10, 2006
It amazes me how cleverly John put this book together to tell his story clearly and with the vision for us to believe and worship his God, Jesus Christ. Our passage comes off the heals of a passage defining what being born from above is, and then turns to how bitter jealousy can rob our joy, right before he goes into an incredible story of worship in chapter 4. Let’s enjoy the feast!
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John 3:1-21 New Beginnings or Transformed Lives? by Mike Gunn
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on December 3, 2006
The most famous of all verses may be the most screwed up. It’s sort of the crown to a conversation that Jesus has had with Nicodemus, teaching him that salvation comes from above. We so often use this verse to talk about us choosing God, whereas this context is clear that it is a lot more about God choosing us, and cleansing us.
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John 2:12-25 Righteous Indignation, Judgment and the Coming Kingdom of God By Mike Gunn
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on November 26, 2006
The temple was created as a symbol of the place where God lived. It had become central to the Jewish worship instead of God. And it was the Jewish leaders who had lost their pure heart for worship, which resulted in an ungodly idolatry. When we don’t properly worship God, we don’t properly treat others as beings created in God’s image. It is easy to exploit the poor because we aren’t aware of the holiness of our Lord.
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John 2:1-11 Wine, Weddings, and the Divine Party By Mike Gunn
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on November 19, 2006
Listen as Mike Gunn preaches about John 2 1-11 Jesus' first miracle at the wedding banquet. Mike was still recovering from major knee replacement surgery earlier in the week. Suffering in pain as the Spirit led him to preach with clarity and passion. You don't want to miss this message.
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John 1:35-51 The Glory of Christ and Our Mission pt. 2 By Mike Gunn
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on November 12, 2006
In an age of multiplying and conflicting informational images, we will become people that have been denuded of coherent stories, and in search of larger ones that can make sense of our existence and provide us with the hope and purpose we crave. The “New Atheist” consistently eschews the idea that there is a revelation outside of the natural order because it doesn’t fit their materialistic presuppositions, but our passage over these past few weeks have screamed out to us that God, who exists outside of time/space as the necessary cause of it, has revealed Himself in the word.
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John 1-19-34 The Glory of Christ and Our Mission pt. 1 by Michael Gunn
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on November 5, 2006
John 1:1-18 was a missional song or poem describing the rest of the book’s content, introducing Jesus Christ as the Word, the one that reveals the Father. John departs from the poetic musings of the prologue (John 1:1-18), and moves into a narrative stretch telling the author’s version of the story of Jesus and His public ministry. Starting with the first two days, he reminds us what he was sent to do, and who is it that he was sent to be a witness of.
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God is With Us by Michael Gunn
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on October 29, 2006
No one in all of history has impacted this world to the degree that this man, Jesus Christ, did and does. Even our calendar reflects His influence: B.C. is before Christ and A.D. (Anno Domini) means “the year of our Lord.” More songs have been sung to Him, more paintings have been painted of Him, and more books have been written about Him than anyone who has ever lived in the history of the world. So the question remains to be answered: who is this Jesus? This is a question asked by Jesus Himself 2000 years ago, and is still being asked today
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What’s So “True” About the Light? by Michael Gunn
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on October 22, 2006
John is not contrasting true light with false light, but Christ’s light versus any other light. All other light (human wisdom, religion, etc.) is derivative, whereas Christ’s light is from the outside and eternal. This contrasts the Greeks’ understanding of light as an inner illumination of reason or conscience, and the Hebrew idea that the light is primarily written in the scriptures. It is the source of that light, and it comes “Into the world,” revealing something from outside our ability to know.
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John: The Incarnation and the Mission of God Part 2 by Michael Gunn
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on October 15, 2006
John takes us first backwards to remind us of our created purpose (have life by feasting on the glory of God), and then forward to the restoration of this life and light in Christ. We are created to glorify God (Isaiah 43:7). When we view God as a means to an end--instead of the end--we remain in the darkness (rejection of Him) and seek after other means for temporal pleasure.
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John: The Incarnation and the Mission of God by Michael Gunn
Preached by Pastor Michael Gunn on October 6, 2006
John may be the clearest gospel and simplest to understand, yet it remains the most enigmatic and controversial of the four gospels amongst many scholars and skeptics. It is in John where we find clear evidence for the deity of Jesus Christ and that salvation is through Christ by the power of God alone, two concepts that are hard for any westerner to swallow in the 21st century.
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