Title: First Things First Text: Matthew 6:33; 13:44-46 Theme: Pursue the righteous reign of Christ before all else. Teaching Notes: Everyone is a seeker. We’re all pursuing something we believe will make us happy – will satisfy us. Many of our pursuits provide temporary pleasure followed by shame, emptiness, and more craving. Jesus invites us to a better pursuit. He calls us to seek God first as our sovereign King, our standard of goodness, and the Savior of our every aspect of our lives. Click on link below: Notes and Questions for Life Application

Title: The New Covenant Text: Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 36:22-32 Theme: In Christ, God gives us a new heart and a new power to trust and obey. Teaching Notes: With generation after generation of God’s people failing to keep the terms of their covenants with God, God promised a New Covenant. It would be enacted on better promises – and it would be unconditional. God would write his law on hearts, wipe away sin, give personal and direct knowledge of himself, and send the gift of the Spirit. Jesus ratified this New Covenant with his blood, so eternal salvation is found […]

Title: The Davidic Covenant Text: 1 Samuel 7:1-17; 1 Chronicles 17:1-15 Theme: Jesus not only fulfills the promises of God, he expands them to include you. Teaching Notes: Hundreds of years after the Exodus, the Israelites decided they wanted a human king just like all the other nations and kingdoms. After a disastrous few decades under their first king, Saul, the Lord chose the shepherd boy David to lead them. And God made a covenant with David that his throne would be established forever. By the end of the Old Testament, however, centuries passed without a king on David’s throne. Then Jesus […]

Title: The Abrahamic Covenant Text:  Genesis 12:1-7; Galatians 3;6-14 Theme: Jesus fulfilled God’s covenant with Abraham, bringing salvation and blessing to every nation. Teaching Notes: After the Tower of Babel, humanity had again lost the plot of living as God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule, receiving God’s blessing. So God essentially rebooted the storyline with one childless seventy five year old pagan man named Abram. If he trusted and obeyed God, God would make him into a great nation, give him a promised land, and bless all the peoples of the earth through him. Where Abram and his […]

Title: The Seed of True Hope Text:  Romans 5:12-21; Genesis 3:15 Theme: Our true and lasting hope is rooted in the promised Seed of the woman, Jesus Christ, the last Adam who restores all that the first Adam lose. Teaching Notes: The first covenant in the Bible is a solemn agreement between God and Adam – as the representative of the whole human race. Adam was not to eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. If he obeyed, he and his offspring would live; if he rebelled, he and his offspring would die. Of […]

Title: What Kind of Church Is This? Text:  1 Corinthians 15:1-4; Acts 2:42-47 Theme: Join and support a church that believes in Christ and follows his Word. Teaching Notes: When you move to a new area, what should you be looking for in a church? Given that a church is called and commissioned to help form you in the image of Christ, you must care about what a church believes and practices. Click on link below: Notes and Questions for Life Application

Title: That You Might Believe Text:  John 20:30-31; 21:24-25 Theme: You are saved by faith alone in the Person and work of Christ alone, but it’s not a blind leap of faith. Teaching Notes: John concludes his Gospel with an unabashed purpose statement: he wrote these eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ life so that others would believe in him and receive his gift of eternal and abundant life. Click on link below: Notes and Questions for Life Application

Title: Failure and Restoration Text:  John 21:1-22 Theme: The Gospel is this: that Jesus redeems and enlists failures in his ongoing rescue operation. Teaching Notes: Peter had failed and everyone knew it. He had denied Jesus three times during his darkest hour. Even if he wanted to follow and serve Jesus, how could he? He was disqualified, right? Wrong! Jesus tracked him down, forgave him, and reminded him of his calling and commission. Click on link below: Notes and Questions for Life Application

Title: Seeing Is Believing Text:  John 20:19-29 Theme: The presence of the living God is the key to eternal and abundant life. Teaching Notes: The disciples knew the ethical teachings of Jesus, they’d seen his exemplary life, and they even knew (from Mary) that he’d been raised from the dead. But none of these things changed them . . . until Jesus came. His presence brought the peace, the pardon, the purpose, and the power they were missing. Click on link below: Notes and Questions for Life Application

Title: He Is Risen! Text:  John 20:1-18 Theme: The only reasonable response to the resurrection of Jesus is to go and tell others. Teaching Notes: It’s Sunday morning after Good Friday. None of the disciples are at the tomb, watching for Jesus to rise from the dead as he promised. But Mary goes to anoint his dead body with burial spices. The tomb is empty! Jesus is gone, but his graveclothes remain! What does Jesus do to prove to the original skeptics that he is indeed alive – and that everything has changed? Click on link below: Notes and Questions […]