Time and again, Jesus stirs things up and then withdraws from ultimate public confrontation that might lead to His arrest. Why? Over and over, the explanation is because “His hour had not yet come” (John 2:4; 7:30; 8:20). That is, until we get to John 12:23, where Jesus totally reverses course and says: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (v. 23). [You can listen to the rest of the message at the Apple Podcasts and Spotify links below.]
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Are We Celebrating the 250th Anniversary of a Sin? – Romans 13:1-7
Some of you may have heard that Mark Dever almost died about two months ago. Even after his life was spared, it wasn’t clear whether he would ever speak or preach again. I haven’t talked about it much and won’t even now because he and the church haven’t been talking about it much–at least not that I have seen publicly (it was mentioned here). Today, however, is his first Sunday back in the pulpit at Capitol Hill Baptist Church, and it was glorious. He launched right into the sermon without even acknowledging his absence. In other words, Mark preached like he wasn’t the point. Not until the last three minutes…
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The Bleating of the Sheep and the Tearing of the Robe
I believe Willy Rice’s message at the SBC Pastor’s Conference last week is the most prophetic word I’ve heard from that conference in decades. Profoundly biblical and powerfully applied to the headwinds Southern Baptists are facing. Take heed, SBC. “The Bleating of the Sheep and the Tearing of the Robe” — 1 Samuel 15:22–27
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The Resurrection of Lazarus – John 11:28-57
Death is the great enemy that we all have to face: Young, old, middle-aged, man, woman, red, yellow, black, or white. All of us have this dark thing down the road in front of us. None of us can tell for sure how far away or how close it is. But we all know it’s there. It is the most fearful reality of our existence, and that is why many people spend most of their life trying not to think about it. They don’t want to deal with the implications of that darkness, so they sort of live their lives as if it’s not going to happen. It’s easier to…
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The Death of Lazarus – John 11:1-27
The most foolish people in the world are the ones who never stop to think about the fact that they are going to die. They don’t draw lessons from funerals. They avoid them. They never learn from the suffering and grief of others. They keep aloof from that messiness. And they really never come to grips with the fact that no one is really ready to live unless they are ready to die. [You can listen to the rest of the message at the Apple Podcasts and Spotify links below.]
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I and the Father Are One – John 10:22-42
This text contains one of the most profound statements of Jesus’ divinity in all of Scripture: “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). That declaration is the basis for the security of the believer (vv. 22-30), the fury of the unbeliever (vv. 31-39), and the heart of the believer (vv. 40-42). You can listen to the entire message at the Apple Podcast or Spotify links below.
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Avoiding the Smooth Tongue of the Adulteress
This episode of The CBMW Podcast is a sermon that I preached in the chapel of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Special thanks to Southern Seminary for permission to share it on the podcast.
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The Good Shepherd – John 10:7–21
In the good shepherd “parable,” it’s crystal clear that the thieves and the robbers are the Pharisees while the shepherd is Jesus. Just as the sheep listen to the voice of the Shepherd alone and run from the voice of the thieves and robbers, so also this blind man (and those like him) recognize implicitly the voice of their Savior Jesus while resisting the error of the Pharisees. The verses before us are not so much an explanation of that “parable” but an elaboration and expansion of some of its themes. The elaboration explains three things: I. Jesus Is the Door (7-10) II. Jesus Is the Shepherd (11-16) III. Jesus…
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Do You Believe in the Son of Man? – John 9:35–10:6
The verses before us come right after Jesus performed this incredible miracle at the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem—the healing of the man born blind. But while this action has astonished many, it has triggered the Pharisees. They are livid with Jesus because he had the temerity to perform this miracle on the Sabbath, which they believed to be a violation of Moses’ Law. So they are interrogating the man born blind trying to find out where Jesus is. And in the process they end up in a conflict with the healed man and throw him out of the synagogue. Whereas the blind man has had his eyes opened, the…
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A Confrontation with Jesus – John 4:16-26 – SBTS Chapel
Earlier today I delivered a message in Southern Seminary’s chapel titled “A Confrontation with Jesus” on John 4:16-26. The video is below.
