Tune in as Pastor Josh completes the expository teaching series from the Gospel of John, teaching from John 21, the Epilogue of John:

“Don’t waste your life labouring for things that do not last! It is fruitless and unsatisfying. Abide in Christ, abide in his love, and your life too will be characterized by fruitful ministry and the fulfillment that comes with doing what you were made for…We have a purpose church! And there are many who call themselves Christians who do not fulfill the purpose of Christians because they do not follow the direction of Christ and are not empowered by the Holy Spirit. We need these things. We don’t need all the wisdom and talent and intelligence in the world. We need to be led by Christ!”

(Originally preached on November 24, 2019)

Tune in to hear Pastor Josh preach from the remainder of John 20 this morning:

“As Christians, we are commanded to perfect obedience, modelled on Jesus’ perfect obedience to the Father.  Jesus is not just a Savior to those who love him, but a Master.  But our Master does not; cannot require any higher expectation than what his own behavior has modelled; he is our exemplar, the standard by which we are to judge ourselves. In addition, the Christian commission, to make disciples from every nation, also includes teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. Thank God’s grace that with this commission, Jesus not only provides the motivation behind our service but the power to do it as well!”

(Originally preached on November 10, 2019)

Tune in to hear Pastor Josh preach from John 20 this morning:

“John takes pains in this chapter to explain the details regarding who believed when and to what extent faith in the resurrection of Jesus was realized in the various eyewitnesses. Whatever they need to believe, Jesus provides it, whether it is to see logical evidence, hear the eyewitness account of another or to personally see the scars in his hands and feet, faith is a gift Jesus grants to his own…”

(Originally preached on November 3rd, 2019)

Tune in to hear Pastor Josh teach from John’s account of the Crucifixion of Christ in John 19:

“Jesus is more than just a good teacher and his death is so much more than a good example to those who would follow him.  He is the Passover Lamb (1 John 2:2) who died for the sins of the world…The Law forbid that any of a Passover Lamb’s bones be broken (Exod. 12:46; Num. 9:12)…Jesus dies along with the Passover Lambs, but they are merely intended to foreshadow his once-and-for-all sacrifice.  As the true Passover Lamb, his bones are not broken despite the circumstance that called for it…Jesus’ mission was to fulfill what the lamb that day could not: to offer himself as a sinless sacrifice for sinful men, so that (Hebrews 2:9) by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. Jesus grants greater freedom than Israel could ever imagine: freedom from slavery to sin and the oppression of death.”

(Originally preached on October 27th, 2019.)

Tune in as Pastor Josh teaches from John 18 this morning:

“D.A. Carson points out that, while Jesus taught his disciples to turn the other cheek, to do so ‘without bearing witness to the truth is not the fruit of moral resolution but the terrorized cowardice of the wimp.’ But Jesus is no wimp.  He will turn the other cheek, sure, but not as one cowering in silence because he fears them.  There is nothing they can do to him that he does not allow.  The molecules comprising the officers hand — even of the nails they will soon drive through his hands and feet — will be held together by the power of his will even as he suffers the result...”

(Originally preached on October 13, 2019)

Tune in to listen to Pastor Josh preach from John 18 this morning:

“Jesus offers up his life in obedience to his Father, not as a pathetic martyr suffering a cruel fate but in full knowledge of what was to befall him to achieve his purpose and will…There are those today who would strip the cross of its significance, unwilling to acknowledge God as Holy in his judgment they deny that he punished the sin of believers upon his Son. When your imagination of God is only love — only nice and never terrible — in order to continue in this charade, you must remove the centrality of the cross to Jesus’ mission and think of his execution as something evil men forced upon him…”

(Sermon originally preached on October 6, 2019)

Pastor Josh concludes the teaching from the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus in John 17 this morning:

“The basis for Christian unity and love is the perfect love exhibited in the unity of the Divine Trinity…So unified in purpose and plan are the Father and the Son that they can be said to be in one another, but they are still distinct in their unity…The unity Jesus is speaking of is more than close-knit community.  It is so much more than a group of like-minded individuals who enjoy some of the same music and preaching styles on Sundays…”

(Originally preached on September 29, 2019)

Tune in as Pastor Josh continues to teach from Jesus High Priestly Prayer recorded in John 17:

“Jesus’ joy, the joy that he prays his disciples will receive in full, results from abiding in the Father’s love by asking the Father for things in line with Jesus’ purposes and will…We will know we are abiding in the Father’s love when we grow in faithful obedience according to his promise, and knowing his love our joy will be full.”

(Originally preached on September 22, 2019)

Tune in as Pastor Josh continues to teach from Jesus’ prayer in John 17:

“We are working our way through chapter 17 of John’s gospel, what has traditionally been called ‘The High-Priestly Prayer,’ and just in introduction to the prayer, we saw that like the High Priests of ancient Israel, Jesus is here praying this prayer of consecration over the sacrifice to be offered to God. Which, in this case, is the sacrifice of his own life on the cross for his friends; those he loves…“

(Originally preached on September 15, 2019)

Tune in as Pastor Josh preaches from John 17, Jesus High Priestly prayer. In response to Jesus’ request to the Father to glorify the Son, Josh says:

“‘To glorify can mean ‘to praise’ or ‘to honor’, and those are certainly ways in which we can join in glorifying our God and that is God’s purpose…but when Jesus asks the Father to glorify him, he is not asking the Father to praise or worship him, but to let the reality that the world has been blinded to be made known…God is glorious. We cannot add to that majesty through worship. His ego cannot be boosted by our devotion. It is for our ultimate good, as creatures fashioned for worship, to know the glory of the one who is most worthy of that worship. The only satisfying object of our regard.“

(Originally preached on September 8, 2019)

Tune in as Pastor Josh continues to teach from the words of Jesus farewell discourse in John 16. Unfortunately the audio for the first few minutes of the sermon were lost in the archives. The transcript of the introduction is as follows:

“One of the things I love about preaching verse by verse through the Scriptures, is that this is now our fourth week learning about the work of the Holy Spirit, and we have not had to concoct a sermon series or gather a creative team to plan out what we should be learning. Rather we are tracing the words of Jesus, and he is teaching us all truth through the Word and Spirit of God. Our passage this week signals the end of the teaching sections in John.  The final words are not only the conclusion to this passage, but to the entire section: ‘I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace.’

We see in this text Jesus’ love for his disciples in the way he patiently instructs them and comforts them for the sorrow about to overtake them. A temporary sorrow that will shortly break and make way for their full joy. It is my prayer this morning that you will experience this full joy as you come to understand and believe the words of Jesus as his disciples… “

(Originally preached on September 1, 2019)

Tune in as Pastor Josh continues to teach from Christ’s farewell discourse in John 16, discussing the ‘Helper’ that Jesus will send:

“The Holy Spirit’s whole mission is not to point to himself, not to take center stage, but to point to Jesus. How do we know if we are a church that is led by the Holy Spirit? If we are glorifying Jesus, honour his name, giving him praise, proclaiming his gospel faithfully…”

(Originally preached on August 25, 2019)

Tune in as Pastor Josh continues to teach us from Jesus farewell discourse in John 15 and into chapter 16:

“We are at the place in John’s Gospel, where Jesus, leading up to the hour of his own choosing for his death burial and glorification, has transitioned from public teaching to privately instructing his own chosen disciples. He has given them some very strong assurances; that he has chosen them, that they were given to him by the Father and that he will not lose any of them.“

(Originally preached on August 18, 2019)

Tune in as Pastor Josh teaches from Jesus’ farewell discourse in John 15 this morning:

“If we look at these verses completely out of their context, ignoring everything Jesus has said up to this point, there is a possibility of reading this passage in such a way that completely fails to recognize the good news of what Jesus is teaching…Just like branches with their vine, it is when we abide in Christ’s love that we receive a life-giving flow, when we will begin to produce the fruit of obedience.. This is so central to what it means when our church endeavors to be gospel-centered'.  It is to abide in Christ’s love — revelling, celebrating in the good news of the gospel daily, together and alone.”

(Originally preached on August 11, 2019)

Tune in as Pastor Josh teaches from Christ’s farewell discourse in John 14:

“Jesus isn’t being a whiney passive-aggressive, saying; ‘If you really loved me, you would do what I say.’  The obedience in question is a direct result of truly loving Christ.  If you love Christ, the implication is, the result is, you will begin to keep his commandments.  You will grow in fervour and frequency in obedience; ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments.’”

(Originally preached on July 14, 2019)

Tune in as Pastor Josh teaches from Jesus’ farewell discourse in John 14 this morning:

“The most calming thing the people of God can remember is that they can trust the words of God, the things he has promised. Jesus adds to this, ‘Trust God, also trust me.’  As we have seen in evidence many times so far in John, Jesus not only speaks only the words of his Father and performs the actions of his Father, but he himself speaks and acts as very God himself.  Any messenger might point people to trust God’s words; Jesus calls us to trust in him as God.”

(Originally preached on July 7, 2019)

Tune in as Pastor Josh preaches from John 13:31-38 this morning, Jesus foretelling of Peter’s denial:

“Jesus knew what was in the heart of Peter, just as he knew what was in the heart of Judas, but where Judas hated the light, Peter has not yet been empowered by the knowledge of the resurrection and its implications, and by the power of the Holy Spirit. Peter will follow later, both in his death as a martyr for Christ and joining him in glory some three decades later…”

(Originally preached on June 30, 2019)