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Sermon Outline:
The Gospel For All of Life (pt 3) (John 12:37-50)
Sermon Text:
John 12:37-50
37 Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, 38 so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
“Lord, who has believed what he heard from us,
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
39 Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said,
40 “He has blinded their eyes
and hardened their heart,
lest they see with their eyes,
and understand with their heart, and turn,
and I would heal them.”
41 Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him. 42 Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.
Jesus Came to Save the World
44 And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. 45 And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. 46 I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. 47 If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. 48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. 49 For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. 50 And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”
Sermon Notes:
Thinking Biblically to Live Holy
Thinking Biblically to Live Holy
What causes one person to be saved and another to not? What is the reason one child in a family will receive the Lord and yet another child in that same home will turn away from Him? How is it some can sit in church week after week, year after year and not come to love the Lord and yet another attending for only a short time enthusiastically becomes a follower of Jesus?
This is the theme of our text before us found in John 12:37-50. We will see four key reasons why people do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you don’t know Him as your Lord and Savior I would lovingly plead with you this morning to confess Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead; to repent of your sin and by grace through faith in Christ alone believe solely on Him as to be saved.
The Lord’s Supper – A Table of Grace
The supper of the Lord Jesus was instituted by Him the same night He was betrayed, to be observed in His churches, unto the end of the world, for the perpetual remembrance, and showing forth the sacrifice of Himself in His death, resulting in confirmation of the faith of believers, their spiritual nourishment and growth in Him, and to be a bond and pledge of their communion with Him and with each other.
A Word of Admonition
Worthy receivers, outwardly partaking of the visible elements in this ordinance, do so inwardly by faith, feed upon Christ crucified, and all the benefits of His death and resurrection; the body and blood of Christ being spiritually present to believers, as the elements themselves are to their outward senses.
All who do not enjoy communion with Christ by relationship through regeneration, are unworthy of the Lord’s table and cannot without great sin against Him, partake of these holy mysteries; for whosoever shall receive unworthily, are guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, eating and drinking judgment to themselves. (LBC: chapter 30:1, 7-8)
The Bread
“But he was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:5-6)
The Wine
”For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” (Heb. 9:13-14)