Sunday Sermon John 2:13

Hello everyone. Today I have an illustration I started last Sunday in church. We find ourselves in the second chapter of John this time. In this sermon Jesus is in the temple for the Passover. You can view the full sermon here.

The people come to make sacrifices to pay for their sins. In order to do this because they had to travel on foot (mostly) to get to the temple it was more convenient to purchase your sacrifice once you get there. Because they were traveling for some distance some needed to exchange their currency. The trouble is they had the money changers, animals, birds inside the courts. Animals (doing animal things like pooping and peeing where ever they please) people yelling and haggling. They were also charging exorbitant prices becuase they knew the people had to have these things in order to observe the Passover. All of these things defiled the house of the Lord because it was taking place inside the temple courtyards.

Jesus makes a whip out of cords which took time. He thought about what he was doing, it wasn't a split second reaction like you and I make when someone cuts us off in traffic. He was not out of control. Jesus thought this out. It was a reaction based on how they were treating His father's. They were desecrating the temple. A holy place.

Using the whip Jesus runs the animals and people out, flips over the tables, breaks up the cages, saying to them (in verse 16) "Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade." His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for your house will consume me."(verse 17) One of the lessons to take away from this message is not to make worship convenient to you, lift God up, worship Him, remember it's all about Him.

Another lesson to take away is that Jesus is telling them (verses 18-25) that He is replacing the old system of blood sacrifice to pay for the sins of the people. He will pay our debt. His blood pays for all our sins, making THE way for us to get to His father.

I hope that you have enjoyed my synopsis of the sermon, and my illustration. Please go and listen to the sermon by Pastor Ryan. I hope that you are challenged or encouraged by my post, and that you will open your Bible and learn more about God and how much He loves you. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me, if I don't have the answer I'll ask my pastor and get back to you. May God richly bless you my friends, until next time.--Ryan

Sunday Sermon Series John 1:35-51

Hello everyone. Today I have an illustration I created last Sunday in church. We have been working our way through the gospel of John. In this sermon Jesus calls his disciples to follow him. You can view the full sermon here.

The week before John introduced us to Jesus. He was the voice crying out in the wilderness, preparing the way of the Lord. Pointing everyone to Jesus, just as we should be doing. In the selected scripture this week Jesus extends an invitation to some of the disciples to follow him.

The disciples were not nuetral or undecided on Jesus, they dropped what they were doing and followed Him as He began His ministry. They left life long occupations, family and friends, comfort and established lives to follow the messiah. So begins the roughly three year journey to the cross. Imagine hiking along with Jesus for 3 years, seeing miracles, listening to His teaching, seeing Him crucified, and then raised again, and then His ascension!

Here we see Jesus, I've been pretty good lately about staying "on character" which means my drawings of Jesus look like the same character each time. I'm planning on my next book project being a Jesus picture book. I want to do some resesarch and see what kind of knapsacks they used in those days. I know they didn't have extensive wardrobes like we do, but it seems like they would want to carry previsions of some kind.

Here we have the disciples. One is dropping a fishing net, so I suppose that is Andrew, or James or John. I already have a character model for Peter. I was seriously channeling Chevy Chase when I drew the one on the far left. Remember in the movie Fletch, where Fletch is undercover on the beach, as a roller skating hippy dude. hahaha... yeah, I know, back to the point.

I hope that you have enjoyed my synopsis of the sermon, and my illustration. Please go and listen to the sermon by Pastor Ryan there is good truth revealed in this scripture about following Jesus. I hope that you are challenged or encouraged by my post. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me, if I don't have the answer I'll ask my pastor and get back to you. May God richly bless you my friends, until next time.--Ryan