FBCC - Second Serving

A Teaching Too Powerful to Ignore Mark 10:32–34 Introduction Have you ever heard something so shocking that you couldn’t stop thinking about it? Maybe it was a truth that changed the way you saw the world. The disciples found themselves in this exact situation. Jesus had just spoken words that turned their understanding upside down. He told them that salvation was impossible by human effort, that even the richest and most righteous people could not enter God’s kingdom on their own. They had left the conversation behind physically, but in their hearts and minds, they were still wrestling with what Jesus had said. As they traveled, Jesus revealed to them the key to understanding everything: He was the sacrifice that would take away the sins of the world. This truth was not just important—it was the foundation of the Christian faith. On the Road to Jerusalem “And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who ...

1 John 3:11-15 We Should Not Be Like Cain Introduction We cannot separate faith in Christ from love for His people. The local church is a proving ground for genuine salvation. In this section of 1 John, John is not only urging general kindness toward all people, though that matters because all people are made in the image of God. He is making a more direct connection. He is arguing that a person’s confession of Christ is meant to show up in a changed disposition toward other believers. In the flow of this letter, righteousness is not defined as random good deeds we choose to do. It is tied to believing the truth about Jesus, that He is the Son of God who came in the flesh, and walking in the command God gave from the beginning, that we love one another (1 John 3:11, 1 John 3:14, 1 John 4:19-21). That is why John repeats himself. He knows we drift. We complicate what is simple. We excuse what should be confessed. We justify what should be mortified. John wants his readers to have ...