Sermons from 2024 (Page 7)
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…
John 4:27-38
SERIES: The Gospel of John Fields Ripe for Harvest SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: Have you ever stopped to think how much of life revolves around food? When you add up the time and money spent on shopping for it, storing it, preparing it, eating and drinking it, cleaning up afterward, or even going out to a restaurant for it, food obviously consumes more of our time than anything other than work and sleep, and more of our money than anything other…
John 4:46-54; 5:1-9; 9:1-7
SERIES: The Gospel of John The Great Physician SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: The healing miracles of Jesus fascinate us, but at the same time they frequently frustrate us. The reason can best be stated this way: Jesus healed all manner of disease and sickness; Jesus is alive in the Church today; Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever; Therefore, we ought to see the same kinds of healing miracles today! But we don’t! Why? Is it because the church has drifted…
John 5:1-18
SERIES: The Gospel of John Do You Want to Get Well? SPEAKER: Brad Harper Introduction: With the opening of chapter five of John’s Gospel, we enter a new phase in the ministry of Jesus. For the next few chapters John will focus on the growing opposition to Jesus and his work by a group of people he simply calls “the Jews.” Now this is not meant to be an ethnic slur, for John himself is a Jew. It is John’s term…
John 5:9-18
SERIES: The Gospel of John Sabotaging the Sabbath SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Note: This sermon was preached in Wichita in 1979 in a previous series on John. Introduction: While we have given considerable attention to the healing miracles of Jesus in this series, there is one fact about Jesus’ healings which we have not focused on, and that is the day of the week in which He did most of them. And that’s the subject of our message today. Perhaps you feel that…