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John 11:35, the road to Bethany carries another kind of pressure, when Jesus tells the disciples they are going back to Judea, they remember the danger, John 11:8. Bethany is not far from Jerusalem, John 11:18 says it was about 15 stadia away, a little under 2 miles, the place where Lazarus is...

John 11:35, then in John 11:15, that sentence sounds almost impossible until the whole scene is finished, Jesus is not glad that his friends are grieving, he is glad that his absence will become the place where his disciples see something about him they have not yet understood. Jesus knows...

John 11:35, Jesus wept, John does not place those two words in a small moment, by the time Jesus weeps, he already knows Lazarus is going to live, he has already said the sickness will not end in death, he has already told his disciples Lazarus has fallen asleep and that he is going to wake him...

Matthew 7:13-14, so the claim, difficult road of Jesus is narrow, not because Christians are superior, because Christ alone does what sinners need done, he alone bears sin at the cross, he alone rises as Lord over death, he alone brings you to the Father. The exclusivity of Christ should never...

Matthew 7:13-14, God tells where the road goes, that is not how temptation works, temptation advertises the entrance and hides the destination. Temptation shows the pleasure, not the slavery, the approval, not the compromise, the crowd, not the cliff, the shortcut, not the ruin. Jesus does the...

Matthew 7:13-14, both builders heard, the difference was not exposure, the difference was obedience, that is where the narrow gate belongs, not in a sermon about earning salvation by moral achievement and not in a sermon about empty admiration, it belongs in a sermon where Jesus confronts the...

Matthew 7:13-14, Jesus told people before the pressure came, difficult is the way which leads to life, not because God enjoys making life hard, not because every hard circumstance proves someone is faithful, not because Christians should go looking for suffering to validate themselves, because...

Matthew 7:13-14, Jesus is not teaching that sinners save themselves by dropping enough baggage at the door, the gospel is not moral fitness squeezed through a small entrance. Salvation is God’s grace received by faith, because of what Christ has done, not wages earned by religious effort. But...

Matthew 7:13-14, a crowd is not proof of safety and loneliness is not proof of error, the destination is what tells the truth about the road and that is why the language matters. A modern Bible reader sits at a kitchen table with a notebook, a highlighter and maybe a sermon clip open on a phone...

Matthew 7:13-14, narrow, Matthew gives you this saying in Greek, not as a secret Hebrew word study, the Greek word for narrow is “stenes,” it means tight, restricted, not spacious and the road is described with language tied to pressure, constriction and affliction. But there is also a story...

Matthew 18:15-20, is not only about what to do when someone else sins, it reveals what kind of people you must become before you confront sin, that may be the most uncomfortable application of all. This passage is easy to use when you are imagining someone else being corrected, it becomes much...

Matthew 18:15-20, verse 20, there is a kind of church meeting where nobody feels victorious, someone has sinned, someone has been wounded, the private conversation happened and failed, witnesses came and listened, the church prayed. A decision had to be made, maybe the person still refused...

Matthew 18:15-20, verse 19, this sentence has often been treated like a blank check, if two Christians agree about anything, then God is required to do it, the promotion, the relationship, the breakthrough, the outcome, the plan, scripture absolutely teaches the beauty and power of corporate...

Matthew 18:15-20, verse 17, those words are severe, but the words come from Jesus, the one who called a tax collector named Matthew, ate with tax collectors and sinners and pursued outsiders with mercy, so the church’s posture is not hatred, it is sober recognition with the door of repentance...

Matthew 18:15-20, verse 16, two or three is not a minimum for presence, it is a safeguard for justice and in a world where a reputation can be destroyed in minutes, where a private conflict can become a public pole post before anyone has obeyed the first step, verse 16 feels like Jesus putting...

Matthew 18:15-20, in Jesus’ process, early repentance is protected, not punished, but Jesus also knows that sin does not always listen the first time. In verse 16, but if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, the circle widens, but slowly. The first conversation failed, maybe the...

Matthew 18:15-20, the church that confronts sin in Matthew 18:20 is supposed to be the kind of church that trembles at the thought of harming the weak, losing the straying, or confusing its own importance with the Kingdom of God. So, when Jesus begins to describe what to do when a brother sins...

Matthew 18:15-20, verse 20 is not mainly about the minimum number required for God to show up, Jesus is not saying the lone believer is abandoned until a second or third Christian walks in, scripture does not teach that. God is present with his people in the secret place, in the prison cell, in...

Luke 10:30-37, the parable answers the lawyer’s question, but it also quietly reveals the character of the one standing in front of Jesus, Jesus was not only teaching about love, he was describing what he came to do. A paramedic does not arrive at a crash site and check the victim’s political...

Luke 10:30-37, in versus 36-37, neighbor is not a label you are born with, it is something you become through what you do, Jesus moved the word neighbor from object to subject, he shifted it from, who do I have to love to what kind of person am I? The question is no longer about drawing circles...