Keeping Faith and a Good Conscience.

1 and 2 Timothy have seventy-five commands for us to obey with intention and integrity. One of those commands is found in 1 Timothy 1:18-20. The word "faith" in verse 19 is synonymous with the word "command" in verse 18, so "keeping faith" could read "keeping the command."

The word "keeping" means to bear or wear the faith/command, allowing it to become part of our person. The faith is the body of doctrines written and preserved in the Word of God for us to obey.

Each of us is to keep this faith with a good conscience. A person’s conscience is well instructed and at peace when it knows and lives the commands of Scripture. Paul also mentions the conscience in 1 Timothy 1 and 3. Each mention is tied directly to the command of Scripture, the instruction of Scripture, and the mystery of faith pertaining to the Word of God and the gospel message of Jesus Christ.

Being In Christ Jesus.

Outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, there isn’t much for a Christian to boast about. Therefore, there is no greater expression of the Christian life than the words in verse 30: "it is due to Him that you are in Christ Jesus." The phrase "in Christ Jesus" is repeated in the beginning of many of Paul’s letters. The phrase can become commonplace and lose the depth behind these familiar words. However, they underpin the several doctrines of the Christian faith.

The Significance of Christmas for the Believer’s Joy

In the book of Philippians, Paul builds a pathway to joy for the believer. Joy is the product of a relationship with Jesus Christ. Jesus is the source of joy and the provision for the forgiveness of our sins. Other religions teach that you never really know if your sins are forgiven. However, the Bible tells us we can know full assurance of forgiveness. We can know that we are born again. That is the gateway for joy.

Becoming True Worshippers Like the Magi

The use of a Nativity scene as a Christmas reminder of Christ’s birth originated about 800 years ago from Frances of Assisi. As Christmas decoration, this scene sometimes depicts various people and animals. The actual scene revealed in the Bible shows that someone was conspicuously absent: the religious leaders of the Jews, the very ones who should have been seeking and joyous of Christ’s arrival.

Special Gathering of the Whole Church Family for a Christmas Devotional

Conventional and Unconventional Wisdom in Transitioning The Pastor-Teacher

Listening to conventional wisdom has not allowed us to hear all that the Bible has to say. Biblical wisdom says that we have a responsibility to train more pastors. In 2 Timothy 2:1-2, Paul instructs Timothy to entrust the things he’s been taught to faithful men. “The things which you have heard from me” -- these things Paul wanted Timothy to pass along to pastor-teachers.

Principles of Prayer:

Jesus is going to depart, and the disciples cannot go with Him. Jesus says, “Do not let your heart be troubled (John 14:1).” While the disciples had Jesus physically present, they did not need to pray to Him, making the instructions given by Him in John 14:12-15 to pray in Jesus’s name new information.

Prayer is a tool given to Christ’s disciples to encourage their belief in Him. We cannot grow in our faith without prayer. Believers must rightly understand and exercise prayer in agreement with the Word of God.

Believe in Jesus, Who Is Enough.

The conversation with the disciples continues in John 14:7-15. Jesus is going away, and the disciples cannot go with Him. Their hearts are troubled.

Philip, representing all the disciples, desires more. He wants to see the Father and that will be enough (John 14:8). The problem from Philip’s perspective is bigger than who he sees Jesus as being. Yet, Jesus is enough. Enough for the disciples then, and enough for each believer now.

Do Not Let Your Heart Be Troubled

John 14 opens in the midst of Jesus’s dialogue, a continuation from the previous chapter. The evening had begun with Jesus, their Rabbi and Messiah, humbly washing the disciples’ feet, followed by Jesus’s troubling statements that He was going away, and they could not come.

The disciples are troubled. Jesus leaving them is an unimaginable situation for the those who had left everything to follow Him. Though they claim they would lay down their lives for Him, Jesus predicts that the disciples will fail Him.

The Final Lesson to Love One Another Like Christ

Jesus is a rabbi, a teacher in the Jewish culture, teaching final, critical lessons to His disciples. The upper room discourse begins in John 13:31-38. Earlier in John 13, Jesus provided an object lesson for His disciples when He washed their feet. As He will soon be departing, Jesus desires for His disciples to thrive without His physical presence, as they will not yet be able to follow Him.

No matter their fear, uncertainty, failure, or doubt, Jesus has a final, powerful lesson for His disciples to learn: that loving one another like Christ is the way of perseverance.

What Love Looks Like in the Face of Evil.

In John 3:16-21, Jesus talks about the difference between light and dark. Those who would reject Jesus rejected that light due to their deeds being exposed.

Last week we talked about Jesus washing the disciples’ feet, but when Jesus came to Judas, He didn’t skip him. Jesus was instructing them on how to love in the face of evil.

You Should Love One Another as Jesus Loves You.

If you knew you had 24 hours to live, how would you spend it? A common answer is to spend it with the people you love the most. But if you knew those people would leave you during that time when you needed them most, would that change how you would spend it?

In John 13:1-17, Jesus knew that He was about to be betrayed and crucified. Yet Jesus called His friends to and modeled for them the defining characteristic of a Christ-follower.

The Results of Jesus’ Ministry.

Many commentators who study the book of John divide the book into two parts, the first part being Jesus’ public ministry and the second part as His private ministry to His disciples. The passage today makes that clear in verse 36 when Jesus says, “while you have the Light, believe in the Light.”

Although Jesus performed many signs before them, the hearers would not believe. This leaves a question lingering in the air: Is Jesus’ ministry successful? The people Jesus came to save refused Him. The religious leaders rejected Him. The people He spoke to would put Him to death. Even Jesus’ disciples had to go into hiding.

However, the God of Heaven said, “Yes, You have glorified Me and You will glorify Me” (verse 28). In reality, Jesus’ ministry is powerful and merciful.

Jesus Will Be Glorified through Suffering.

In John 12:27-36, we come to the end of Jesus’ public ministry. We’ve already talked about the curious Jew worshiping Jesus, the marvelous worshipper Mary, and covetous Judas. As we look at these groups and their responses to Jesus, hopefully we aren’t interested in just calculating what we can get from Jesus like Judas did. Instead, let’s elaborate on how the seed has to die in order to bear fruit.

The heart of a true disciple will trust in Jesus no matter the cost.

The Triumphal Entry of Christ.

The Scriptures describe past military parades and conquests of Israel’s kings (1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles) as well as one to come (Rev. 6). John 12:12-19 is an explanation of the Christian’s greatest parade of conquest to this point in spiritual history. Recorded in all four gospels, the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem at the beginning of the Passover is the commencement of Christ’s passion week. We see an irony of faith in this grand parade for the Son of God who has come to suffer and die for the sin of the world.

To Worship Like Mary.

We learn from the woman at the well that true worshippers of God must worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24), while those who are forgiven much, love much, as demonstrated by the woman who washed Jesus’s feet with her tears (Luke 7:36-50). In John 12:1-11, we learn from Mary how to worship.

Symptoms of Unbelief

John 11 marks the turn of Jesus’s public ministry to His private ministry. Jesus states that the purpose for the death and resurrection of Lazarus is the glory of God so that the Son of God may be glorified (John 11:4). The response to this miracle by the Jews and the religious leaders is the focus of the remainder of this chapter. Though some Jews believe in Jesus because of this miracle (John 11:45), many who were eyewitnesses to the death and resurrection of Lazarus do not believe in Him (John 11:46). We see unbelief acknowledge the miracle but resist submitting to the lordship of Christ.