Posts from April 2022

Section 5: The Holy Spirit Week 1: The Holy Spirit’s Nature Day 5: What Should We Expect from the Holy Spirit? Acts 2:1-47 When Jesus ascended back to heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit to be with us until he returned. But do we really expect the Holy Spirit to do anything? That’s an important question because our expectations play a vital role in our faith. When we expect God to act, we look for specific ways he’s working in…

Section 5: The Holy Spirit Week 1: The Holy Spirit’s Nature Day 3: The Holy Spirit Is God Matt. 28:16-20; Acts 5:1-10 As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a fan of the Big Bang Theory. In the very first episode, Sheldon and Leonard meet Penny who is moving in across the hall. After some initial pleasantries, Penny sends them to her ex-boyfriend’s place to get her T.V. back from him. Sheldon and Leonard dutifully go, but fail miserably. Not only do…

Section 5: The Holy Spirit Week 1: The Holy Spirit’s Nature Day 2: The Holy Spirit Is a Person Luke 12:11-12; John 14:25-26; Rom. 8:15-17 Iron Man is my favorite superhero, but that hasn’t always been the case. As a kid, I didn’t pay much attention to him. As an adult, however, I’ve become hooked on the Iron Man movies. One of the things I like about Iron Man is that he is basically a normal guy with a really…

Section 5: The Holy Spirit Week 1: The Holy Spirit’s Nature Day 1: The Holy Spirit Is Mysterious John 3:5-8 This month we’re going to be taking a closer look at the Holy Spirit. Why? Well, for one, he’s next on the list of topics. But, more importantly, we need it. The Holy Spirit plays a vital role in our lives as believers, yet very few of us really know much about him. At best, we have a vague picture…

Section 4: Jesus Week 4: Jesus Rose from the Dead, Returned to Heaven, and Will Come Again Day 5: Until He Returns, Jesus Gave Us a Job to Do Matt. 28 Before Jesus returned to heaven, he issued a command: “Go and make disciples of nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded” (Matt. 28:19-20). Why did he leave us with…

Section 4: Jesus Week 4: Jesus Rose from the Dead, Returned to Heaven, and Will Come Again Day 4: Jesus Will Come Again to Establish His Kingdom Matt. 24:42-44, John 4:1-3, 1 Thess. 4:13-18, Heb. 9:23-28 Jesus returned to heaven after his resurrection, but the Bible reminds us that Jesus will return to earth one day to establish his kingdom (Rev. 19:11-21). Jesus himself said that we ought to keep watch so that we’re ready for his return (Matt 24:42-44).…

Section 4: Jesus Week 4: Jesus Rose from the Dead, Returned to Heaven, and Will Come Again Day 3: Jesus Returned to Heaven Acts 1:1-11 After the resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples a number of times before returning to heaven (Matt. 28, Luke 24, John 20-21). Why did he go back? Why didn’t he just continue to hang out here with us? Is it because heaven has fancier accommodations? Heaven is no doubt a much nicer place. But that’s…

Section 4: Jesus Week 4: Jesus Rose from the Dead, Returned to Heaven, and Will Come Again Day 2: Jesus’ Resurrection Guarantees Our Resurrection 1 Cor. 15:12-20, 50-56 Jesus’ resurrection certainly makes for a great ending to the Gospel stories. But it’s much more than that. We don’t always think of the resurrection this way, but Jesus’ resurrection plays an essential role in our salvation. Imagine you’re a kid at the fair. You walk past the ring toss game and…

Section 4: Jesus Week 3: Jesus Came to Live and Die to Save Us from Sin Day 5: In Order to Save Us, Jesus Had to Be God Matt. 27:32-55 We saw last time that Jesus needed to be fully human in order to save us. But he also needed to be fully God as well. This becomes apparent when we think about the penalty we owe for our sin. The Bible speaks often of God’s wrath being poured out…