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Focus Text: Acts 2

Today’s message completes our study of How God Treats Sinners. Valuable principles have been discussed. Some of these are: 1) God’s love is unconditional, but His pardon is not, 2) How God treats sinners depends upon how sinners treat God, 3) How God treats a person in the physical realm is not an indication of how He sees him in the spiritual realm, 4) It is God’s sincere desire that all men be saved, and 5) God finds no pleasure in the death of the wicked.

Eternal Grace sprouted from the hard craggy hill of Golgotha; in just that manner…  ( Click for more )

Focus Text: Acts 2

This series on How God Treats Sinners has “covered a lot of ground” in the previous thirty-six lessons. It will close with two closely related messages also taken from Acts 2. However, these two messages will have a bit of a twist to them; they concern a fact that is all too frequently overlooked in a study of Acts 2. In the context of this study, one of the most amazing verses in all of Holy Scripture is Acts 2.14; it reads, “But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them…” Why is this one of the…  ( Click for more )

Focus Text: Acts 2

The prophecy of Joel 2.32 specified that anyone who would call upon the name of the Lord would be saved – no exceptions. Of course, calling on the name of the Lord obviously did not mean merely uttering the Lord’s name; rather calling on the name of the LORD is illustrated in Acts 2 by the instructions which inspired men gave to those who believed Joel's realized gospel message.

Peter was one of these inspired men; according to Luke, he was filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2.4) and therefore, his word ought to be the final word when it comes…  ( Click for more )

Focus Text: Acts 2

“But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, ‘Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on…  ( Click for more )

October 1,2007; Who Won?

Focus Text: 2 Corinthians 10.3-7a

College and High School football is a huge reality this time of year. Sometimes people argue for months and even years about which team would have won had this happened, or had the other thing not happened. If you are in the typical office workplace, chances are better than even that you will hear some “Monday morning quarterbacking” going on before the morning is out. However, the score will remain just as it was when the final whistle blew regardless of the “self-proclaimed experts”…  ( Click for more )

Focus Text: Acts 2

This message is the first of five in the miniseries that will complete our study of the general subject of How God Treats Sinners. Regardless of what else we may have discovered in this series, I think we can all conclude that God does not always treat sinners the way we would treat them, and for that, we ought all to be thankful! Jonah, an otherwise godly man, would have preferred to have the Ninevites lost rather than have to go and preach to them. On one occasion James and John wanted to call fire down from heaven to destroy a group of Samaritans (see Luke…  ( Click for more )

Focus Text: Acts 8.12-25

Luke continues His epilogue to the story of the Samaritan woman and we continue our study of how God treats sinners: “But when they [the Samaritans] believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized.” (Acts 8.12). Though it is implied on earlier occasions, this is the first biblical passage which explicitly states that women were baptized. Perhaps it is significant in that Jesus’ first encounter with a Samaritan believer was with the Samaritan woman…  ( Click for more )

Focus Text: Acts 8.4-8

One of my favorite TV shows used to end with a segment called an epilogue. I’m not sure I knew what the “official” definition of epilogue was, but I gathered it to be a comment which was added as a supplement to the main story line. Well, there’s an epilogue to the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman that certainly belongs in our study of How God Treats Sinners.

The inspired record does not focus on the Samaritans after Jesus’ brief stint there. In fact, almost nothing is said specifically in the Divine record of what…  ( Click for more )

Focus Text: John 4.39-42

When the disciples returned from the city where they had gone to buy food, they were shocked to find Jesus talking with the Samaritan woman, yet no one dared ask Him for what purpose He had engaged her (see John 4.27). Shortly after the disciples returned, the woman went back into her home town and publicly declared her conviction that she had encountered a man who just could be Messiah. Due to the strength of her testimony, a number of Samaritans came out to meet Him and yet others apparently believed on Him merely on the strength of her word.

However,…  ( Click for more )

September 24,2007; Which Came First…?

Focus Text: Genesis 1

Of course you have heard the age-old conundrum, “Which came first; the chicken or the egg?” It has been the subject of many a heated debate. Did you ever stop to question why this puzzle is so difficult to answer? Have you ever seriously considered the implications of the fact that this enigma has survived over the years and still captivates the minds of many? Well, if I may, I’d like to take a crack at this one (pun intended!).

First, please observe that as the question is posed,…  ( Click for more )

Focus Text: John 4.25-26

Who were these Samaritans? To the average Jew, they were but dogs! To the religious hierarchy, they were worse than Gentiles and not worthy of help even in the most difficult and dangerous straits. However, not all Samaritans were bad; as is true with all cultures and races, some were honest, loving, compassionate human beings. After all, who hasn’t heard of the “Good Samaritan” and his neighborly attitude toward a rank stranger? Jesus told this parable to demonstrate a moral fact and here it is: Any person who is in genuine need is…  ( Click for more )

Focus Text: John 4.19-24

By demonstrating His in-depth knowledge of the woman and her marital state, Jesus gave compelling evidence that He was more than mere man. This led the Samaritan woman to say, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.” (John 4.19-20).

There is the possibility that the woman posed this popular religious-political question merely to deflect attention away from her own condition. Or, there is the possibility that she really…  ( Click for more )

Focus Text: John 4.19

Truth is a beautiful thing even when it hurts. It was doubtless somewhat painful for the Samaritan woman to admit that Jesus was right in His assessment of her when He said, “…you have had five husbands, but the one whom you now have is not your husband.” But, that revelation was just what the woman needed to cause her to finally realize that there was more behind the stranger’s claims than mere idle words. It was this intimate knowledge of her life that led her to conclude, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.” (John…  ( Click for more )

Focus Text: John 4.13-18

“Jesus answered and said to her [the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well], ‘Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.’ The woman said to Him, ‘Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come here.’ The woman answered and said, ‘I have no husband.’…  ( Click for more )

September 17,2007; If Heaven Ain’t a lot like Dixie

Focus Text: Isaiah 55.8-9

I like some country music; I like some bluegrass music; I detest any music that demonstrates contempt for God and/or contempt for general moral and ethical values. Almost any popular genre of music has its share of such debasing, degrading, and disgusting lyrics. A well know artist had a hit a few years ago entitled, If Heaven Ain’t a lot like Dixie, I Don’t Wanna’ Go. It will prove worthwhile to seriously think about the sentiment expressed by that song title.

First…  ( Click for more )

Focus Text: John 4.10-14

Continuing Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman, “Jesus answered and said to her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, “Give Me a drink,” you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.’ The woman said to Him, ‘Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?’ Jesus answered and said…  ( Click for more )

Focus Text: John 4.4-9

“But He [Jesus] needed to go through Samaria. So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, ‘Give Me a drink.’ For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, ‘How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan…  ( Click for more )

Focus Text: John 8.8-11

“And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, ‘Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, Lord.’ And Jesus said to her, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.’” (John 8.8-11).

The…  ( Click for more )

Focus Text: John 8.3-11

A study of this subject matter, How God Treats Sinners, could not be complete without introducing the story of the woman taken in adultery. We quote the passage in its entirety:

“Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?’ This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse…  ( Click for more )

September 10,2007; We Been Praying for a Miracle

Focus Text: 1 John 4.1; Hebrews 2.1-4

The place was a large southern metropolitan city; the place was a rented auditorium in a not-so-well-to-do downtown area. The occasion was a “miracle crusade” featuring a visiting evangelist who had promised via the radio ads to do great and marvelous deeds in the name of the Lord. The rest of the story is related below.

There were prayers for the sick, but there was no instantaneous manifestation of any power beyond that which might be expected in any such gathering…  ( Click for more )

Focus Text: Luke 15.30

How can two people have such an opposite view of things? The prodigal’s father and the prodigal’s brother were at opposite extremes when it came to the treatment of the penitent prodigal. Perhaps the older son would have granted the prodigal’s first desire and accepted him back as one of the hired servants, but to receive him with so much ado, to the jealous sibling, this was just out of the question!

Hear the hatred in the older son’s response to his father: “‘But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured…  ( Click for more )

Focus Text: Luke 15.29-30

The older brother was irate! His father had gone all out to demonstrate his joy over the return of the prodigal. To this point in time, the only information that the older brother had about these events was second-handed. Yet, he had formed an opinion about the events and in so doing, challenged the authority and wisdom of his father; this fact will be key as we proceed.

“So he answered and said to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a…  ( Click for more )

Focus Text: Luke 15.28

Why even think about how God treats sinners? What practical application is to be made even if we know how He treats them? Doesn’t everyone already understand how God treats sinners anyway? How could a misunderstanding of this subject matter affect my life and the way I present myself to others and to God?

First, it needs to be explicitly and emphatically stated that everyone does not know how God treats sinners. That was part of the problem that Jesus addressed in the fifteenth chapter of Luke with His three-fold parable approach. Likewise, it…  ( Click for more )

Focus Text: Luke 15.24b-28a

At the very outset of this miniseries centered on the parable of the prodigal son, it was pointed out that this is not a typical parable in many ways. One of the unique things about this parable is that it has more than one main message; it has at least two, and perhaps three main lessons with several “side lessons.”

Thus far in this series we have talked about the younger son (the prodigal) and the father. Specifically, we have addressed the interaction between the two of them when the penitent son decided to return to his father’s…  ( Click for more )