Not the God You Expect (Wedding at Cana)

Ryan Lowery

1 John 4:8-11

In studying Jesus' first miracle--providing wine at a wedding--we can see the Jesus is not the God that people may expect. People tend to expect that God hates fun, He wants to stop people from having fun, He uses shame to control, and He loves weird rituals. Through this miracle we see the opposite of this dark view of God. Even Christians are in danger of viewing God in a distrusting way, expecting bad things from Him rather than accepting the good gifts He freely gives us and we need to understand how good He is to represent Him accurately to the world.

A Strange Encounter

Conrad Hilario

Genesis 14:5

Abraham encounters Melchizedek who blesses him and Abraham gives him 1/10th of everything. Melchizedek is a king of Salem and a priest of God most high. Melchizedek precedes the Levitical priesthood, thus establishing a precedent for Jesus as the one and only priest who is not of the Levitical line.

The Word Becomes Flesh

Ryan Lowery

John 12:46

A ?Gospel? is a declaration of victory! The book of John is a historical and biographical account of the creator of the universe who came down to earth. As we learn about Jesus we can understand who God is. God is infinite, self-existent, and personal. The Word is with God, was God, created all things, and is the sustaining power of all life. Then this Word takes on a human body and lives among humanity, John confirms that he was an eye-witness to this event. Jesus came in a way that was unexpected and the world was polarized by it. All of humanity is invited to receive forgiveness from Jesus and be adopted as God's children.

The Last Supper

Dennis McCallum

Exodus 12:3-9

Jesus spends the final hours before he is betrayed eating the traditional Passover meal with his disciples. Jesus explains that the Old Testament ritual of Passover was intended to be a picture of what He would ultimately do by dying on the cross as a substitute for sin. He instructs his disciples and us to take communion together in remembrance of his sacrifice on our behalf.

The Time of Your Visitation

Dennis McCallum

Daniel 9:24-25

Jesus makes His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The crowd is overjoyed, but Jesus weeps over the city because they don't recognize that He's fulfilling prophecy in their midst. Though it's written 500 years earlier, Daniel 9 predicts the exact year that the Messiah would enter Jerusalem. Today we are able to verify Jesus' claims through evaluating predictive prophecy. Debbie Rudy shares her experience with weighing the evidence for Jesus.

Jesus Before His Public Ministry

Gary DeLashmutt

John 3:16

Summarizes Jesus' birth and childhood. Draws a parallel between Mary's free will in deciding whether to let God put his Son in her - and our free will in deciding whether to let God supernaturally conceive his Son's life in our hearts.

Who is the Real Jesus?

Gary DeLashmutt

1 Timothy 1:14

Who is the real Jesus? Introduction to series on "The Essential Jesus". Shows differences between the canonical portrait of Jesus and portraits of him from other religions, current fiction writers, and gnostic gospels.

Knowing Christ

Mike Sullivan

John 12:23-24

As people who have been made right with God through faith in Jesus Christ, Christians are now capable of growing in their personal relationship with Him. This growth is a privilege, and even though it should be a passion for all believers, it is easy to devalue the importance and joy that comes from knowing Jesus personally. To grow in our relationship with God involves admitting that: we have not arrived at a perfect knowledge of Christ yet, sharing in Christ's sufferings, and realizing we have not yet arrived at perfect knowledge and will not do so in this life.

The Resurrection

Jim Leffel

Luke 24:1-12

Is it reasonable to believe in the resurrection of Christ? The account of the empty tomb is presented and the historicity of the event is examined. Prophecy and historical evidence from the Old Testament book of Psalms and the letters of Paul are explained in connection to the resurrection.