2 Timothy 3:1-15
Entrusted With the Gospel Religious Sinners in the Last Days SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: What is the greatest threat to the church of Jesus Christ in the last days? Is it secular humanism? Is it the new atheism? Is it the ACLU? Is it government efforts to limit religious freedom? Is it the movement that seeks to redefine marriage and the sexual mores that have been accepted in principle for 2000 years? All of these are, in my humble opinion, a threat to biblical Christianity, but not…
2 Timothy 3:16-17
SERIES: Entrusted With the Gospel Can the Bible Be Trusted? SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: I want to be very up-front with you this morning. I am one of those old-fashioned preachers who believes the Bible is free from error–not just in its lofty spiritual affirmations, but in everything it intends to teach. I have been studying the Bible almost full-time now for 50 years (I started Bible college in 1962), and I haven’t found an error in it yet. There are some issues I…
2 Timothy 4:6-18
SERIES: 2 Timothy Final Instructions for Paul’s Progeny SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Note: This sermon is both a conclusion to a series on the Book of Acts and an exposition of 2 Timothy 4:6-18. Introduction: I’ve enjoyed our study of Acts so much that this week I had withdrawal pains. So, I decided to preach a postscript to the Book today. We noted last Lord’s Day that Acts is an unfinished book and intentionally so, because every generation of the church has a chapter to…
John 1:1-5
SERIES: The Gospel of John The Gospel Par Excellence SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: Today we begin a new series on the Gospel of John. After a lifetime of study of this book, one scholar calls it “the most amazing book ever written. It is a pool in which a child can wade and an elephant can swim.” [i] It is both simple and profound. It meets the spiritual need of the unbeliever, the brand-new Christian, and the one with many years of maturity. It has been…
John 1:6-9, 19-34
SERIES: The Gospel of John A Voice in the Desert, or John the Baptist Was No TV Preacher SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: On this day of the first Presidential debate of 1992, I am reminded of one of the most electric moments in the 1988 presidential campaign. It came during the debate between Senators Dan Quayle and Lloyd Benson, the Republican and Democrat nominees for Vice-President. When Quayle quoted Jack Kennedy approvingly, Benson retorted with the line that has become a classic…
John 1:10-18
SERIES: The Gospel of John The Visit SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: Our earth is of tremendous size to us. Few of us have circled it even once. Yet if our sun were hollow it could hold over one million earths, and there are stars in our galaxy that, if hollow, could hold over 100,000,000 of our suns! And there are at least 100,000,000 other galaxies, each with at least 100 billion stars! The sheer magnitude of this universe is mind boggling. Yet the Bible…
John 1:35-51
SERIES: The Gospel of John Building from Scratch SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: Suppose for a moment that Dr. Paul Cedar, the President of the Evangelical Free Church of America, were to come to us and say, “The largest city in the United States without an Evangelical Free Church is Atlanta, Georgia, and we would like you to go there and establish a church. We don’t want to waste any time, so, to help you we will provide unlimited financial resources so…
John 2:1-11
SERIES: The Gospel of John Joy in Cana SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: If you were asked to name three characteristics of Jesus that stand out above all others, what would they be? Holiness, love, compassion, humility, wisdom, justice, goodness, truth? I wonder if any of us would list joy or exuberance or happiness. Frankly, I think we should. In fact, Jesus had such a penchant for celebrating life that His enemies were given to calling Him a gluttonous man and a winebibber, as the…
John 2:12-25
SERIES: The Gospel of John Reformation Day in God’s House SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Acknowledgment of Reformation Day: Yesterday was a holiday for many Americans, but it was a Holy Day for Christians. Were you aware of that? Yesterday was Reformation Day, the 475th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. On October 31, 1517, a 34-year-old monk named Martin Luther nailed a treatise containing 95 spiritual concerns on the door of the University Cathedral in Wittenberg, Germany, to protest corruption in the church of…
John 3:1-15
SERIES: The Gospel of John The Nicodemus Syndrome SPEAKER: Brad Harper Introduction: Last year during all the news coverage of the race riots in South Central Los Angeles I saw one story which particularly impressed me. A reporter was on location in one of the most devastated areas and was interviewing a player on the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team who happened to live in the area. The reporter asked the player why, as a multimillionaire, he lived in such a…
John 3:16-21
SERIES: The Gospel of John The Love of God SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: There is hardly a place in the world to which the Gospel of Jesus Christ has gone that John 3:16 has not become almost instantly known. It is the first verse that translators put into another language. It is the first verse children memorize. It is the first verse adult converts are taught. A multitude of songs have lyrics based on it; we heard three of them this morning. An incomparable number…
John 4:1-30
SERIES: The Gospel of John Living Water for a Dying Woman, or Broken Wells, Thirsty People SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: Already in our study of the Gospel of John, we have noted the skillful use of contrast by the author. In chapter two the Apostle John followed the story of the joyful celebration at Cana, where Jesus turned water into wine, with the story of the cleansing of the Temple, where Jesus demonstrated righteous indignation. Joy and anger are major contrasts, but both…