Sunday Morning Podcast | The Moody Church

The book of John is a curated collection (events, interactions, and dialogue) written so that the you may believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that by believing you may have Life in His name.   In John 9, the author is again curating the story so that we would more clearly see the person of Jesus. We see four refractions of Jesus as the Light of the World. Each of these refractions shed light on who Jesus is and who we are as well.   The Parable of the Light: The story begins with a man born blind, and the disciples ask if his condition is a result of personal sin. Jesus responds by saying “I am the light of the world…” So, we have a man who can’t see any light in this world, and Jesus about to enact a kind of miraculous parable to illustrate what it means that He is the "Light of the World," and how some eyes will be opened while other eyes are closed. The Polarization of the Light: The people cannot believe their eyes that the man is healed, and the healing creates polarized views of who Jesus i

In this passage from the end of John 8, we catch a glimpse of Jesus' amazing glory. There are three glorious offers he gives us, but each has a tough reality that we must face. Because when the Son breaks through, we’re either drawn to his beauty or blinded by the light, there really no room in between.   Jesus offers Freedom to those who admit their bondage. There are two groups of people here; those who admit they’re slaves to sin, who look to Jesus to set them free; and those who insist they’re actually free, when they’re really not. Sin always looks like freedom until it’s too late. Sin always enslaves us in the end. Jesus offers freedom, but there’s a catch: freedom only comes when we admit our bondage. So we must ask ourselves: do we really want to be free? Jesus offer a Father to those who own their devilry. In all of this, Jesus is making an appeal. He's saying: "You’re living in enslavement to sin, and you’re under the power of the devil. But I’m here that you might have life! I’m here to set y

Fear is a regular emotion in our lives. When God often leads us into fearful situations, and we feel overwhelmed, how should we respond?   In this story from Genesis 32 about Jacob and Esau, we see three biblical ways we are to respond to fear.   Rely on God: In the midst of our fear, don’t forget that God is faithful. The test of our dependance on God is seen our practice of prayer. Realign Your Perspective: Our natural tendency towards self-preservation builds walls between ourselves and other. Instead of self-preservation, the gospel calls us to self-denial. Respond to His Voice: Are we listening to our own voice, the voice of the world, or are we listening to the voice of God and living out of the inner transformation that he has done in our lives?   Genesis 32

In this sermon, we explore Jesus' second "I Am" statement: "I am the light of the world." This important metaphor helps us unpack Jesus' true identity. Light is a theme that runs clear across the pages of Scripture, from very beginning to very end. It’s within this biblical narrative, this arc of light, that we begin to see the brilliance of what Jesus is doing here in John 8.   The passage is broken down in three parts:   1) A Dazzling Claim: In the ancient world, light was a much bigger deal than now. Without lights, the darkness wasn’t just inconvenient, it was deadly dangerous. Light equals warmth, protection, guidance, and hope. Light is life. So when Jesus says “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life, ” He is saying, essentially, “I am life itself.” If you want life – true, real, abundant LIFE – follow Him.   Jesus is the new glory cloud blazing the way of life. He presents himself as the light, the fiery glory cloud come to lead

Few stories of Jesus are more iconic, gripping, or tender than that of the woman caught in adultery. It’s a story that’s brutally honest, a story of undeniable humanity, a story brimming with redemptive hope, and a story that reveals the forgiveness and love of Jesus in an unforgettable way.   In this sermon, we explore three key points.   1) A Clever Trap: The scribes and Pharisees thought they had Jesus cornered in a trap, but Jesus knew that something was amiss. Would He choose to cruelly uphold the law or compassionately break the law?   2) A Brilliant Escape: Jesus didn't take the bait, but instead turned the spotlight of conviction upon the accusers' own sinfulness. Jesus didn't pretend that the woman was innocent, and He didn't deny the Law of Moses, yet He compassionately stood up for her against their corrupt and unjust motives.   3) A Transforming Love: In His response to the woman, Jesus demonstrated six liberating moves. Jesus separated the sin from the sinner. Jesus called out her si

The most interesting people tend to have both consistency and creativity wedded together. This dynamic pairing is embodied by Jesus.   In this sermon, we explore six unexpected glimpses of Jesus' personality: Unexpected Timing (vs. 1–13) Jesus is operating on His Father’s timetable. Jesus arrives precisely when He means to, not a moment too late or too soon. Unexpected Intentions (vs. 14–24) Jesus’ teaching is from His Father. Jesus’ motive is His Father’s glory. Jesus’ work is accomplishing His Father’s will. 3) Unexpected Origins (vs. 25–29) Jesus comes from the Father. Unexpected Destiny (vs. 30–36) Jesus will return to the Father. Unexpected Offering (vs. 37–39) Jesus offers fulfillment of the Spirit in himself. Unexpected Division (vs. 40–52) Jesus is pushing them to the brink of a decision.   Takeaway: What will you do with this Jesus?   John 7:1-52   To watch the sermon Q&A, click here. 

This week we come to the first of the seven "I Am" statements of Jesus in the Book of John. In each of these analogies, Jesus is revealing to us something profound about himself.   In this sermon, we look at Jesus' statement that "I am the bread of life." This logic of this statement is broken down this way: Bread=Life, Jesus=Bread, and so Jesus =Life. He is essentially saying, without me there is no life at all.   As we work our way through this passage, we'll see eight (8) insights into this "Life" that Jesus offers us in himself. Life in Jesus is spiritual and eternal (vs. 22–27) Life in Jesus comes by grace through faith in Christ (vs. 28–35a) Life in Jesus offers lasting satisfaction (v. 35b) Life in Jesus is as durable as he is faithful (vs. 36–40) Life in Jesus requires a divinely transformed heart (vs. 41–46) Life in Jesus is death-defying and eternal (vs. 47–51) Life in Jesus is offered in his all-consuming sacrifice (vs. 52–59) Life in Jesus is humbling (vs. 60–71)   These eig

Like all interesting people, Jesus has layers. If we are truly to see Jesus, we need to know all of him. How do we really know Jesus? In this sermon, we'll look at three different layers to Jesus. When we know Jesus, that is ultimately how we know ourselves.   Level 1: The Miracle Worker Jesus displays his power in many ways. Not only is Jesus turning water into wine: he is breaking fevers at a distance and reversing decades of infirmity. Jesus commands authority over all creation; He multiplies bread and fish; He walks upon the seas; and even time and space shift under His influence. Jesus is a miracle worker… but he is so much more than that.   Level 2: The Coming Prophet The people who met Jesus realize that He is more than just of miracle worker. Here is a Prophet like Moses, supernaturally empowered by God, speaking the words of God from the Mountain, and providing bread for the children of Israel in the wilderness. And the disciples see these comparisons even more clearly, because Jesus also cro

Over the five weeks of Advent, we studied God’s Word and looked at the ways that Moses was Holding Out Hope for the coming of Jesus. At Christmas we celebrated the fact that Jesus became flesh to reveal the Father, to become a faithful High Priest, to put away sin and destroy the works of the devil, to give us an example of a holy life, and to confirm and fulfill the promises of God. We've seen Jesus as the Curse Breaker, the Covenant Keeper,  the Law Meditator, and the Sin Atoner. This past Sunday, Pastor Larry McCarthy looked at Jesus as the Promise Fulfiller -- a title that should instill hope.   Pastor McCarthy led us through Joshua 1:1-5 and noted four points in this passage that are ultimately fulfilled in the coming of the Messiah:   There is a promised inheritance There is a divinely appointed Leader There are gifts of grace received by faith There will be great conflict along the way   Joshua 1:1-5

John the Baptist announced Jesus to the world by saying, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." In many ways, this is THE story of the Bible, the one that makes sense of all the other stories, and connects, undergirds, and unifies them.   In this sermon spanning seven passages from Genesis to Revelation, we explore how this story resonates across all of Scripture. Seven themes: The Missing Lamb (Genesis 22) The Passover Lamb (Exodus 12) The Sacrificial Lambs (Exodus 29) The Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16) The Suffering Servant (Isaiah 53) The Lamb of God – Jesus (John 1) The Lamb on the Throne (Revelation 5)   Scripture is clear: Jesus is "The Sin Atoner." He has secured an eternal redemption. He has put away sin by the sacrifice of himself by means of his own blood.   The Takeaway: "It is Finished!" Jesus has done everything to make us right with God through his death and resurrection on our behalf. There is nothing we can add to or subtract from his final, full,

Of all the prophets in all the Old Testament, Moses held the particular distinction of being the Mediator of the Law. God chose Moses to lead the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt, and he did so with many miraculous signs that God displayed through him. But Moses was held in highest esteem for his role in bringing down from Mt. Sinai the stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments.   Moses held the role of Law Mediator until the coming of the one who could truly and perfectly uphold the law—Jesus. In this sermon, we were able to see that Moses was in fact pointing forward to Jesus, the coming Messiah.   In the Old Testament, Moses stood as mediator of the law, the go-between from God to man. Moses brought the Israelites God's law, and they were to follow it because they were His people.   God's law brought five unique contributions: The law disclosed God's character The law clarifies the standard The law reveals our sinfulness The law provides for atonement The law guides in righteousn

At the end of John 5, Jesus told the religious leaders that they would be held accountable by Moses for “he wrote of me...But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” So for Advent this year, we’re looking at five ways Moses was Holding Out Hope for Jesus’s arrival.   This week we saw Jesus as “The Covenant Keeper,” and we went back 4,000 years to the Ancient Near East where God appeared to a man named Abram and entered into a covenant with him that changed the course of human history.   This sermon answered three questions: Who makes the covenant? God is the guarantor of the covenant. These are His pledges, His promises, His guarantees. God takes full responsibility for the fulfillment of these covenant promises. Who keeps the covenant? Jesus alone is truly worthy of the covenant. It was a covenant guaranteed by God, that must be upheld by a worthy man. Jesus -- fully God and fully man -- is the only one worthy of keeping the covenant. Jesus upholds God’s guarantee, and He

Our spiritual condition is one of being born under the curse of sin. How did that happen, and is there a way out?   In this sermon, we explore our spiritual curse and our hope for a cure: The origin of the curse The effect of the curse The end of the curse   Galatians 3:1-14

Jesus was a force for disruption during his ministry. At Passover he cleared the temple, sent livestock and moneychangers running, and acted like he owned the place. He started baptizing in the Judean countryside, becoming even more popular than John the Baptist. Jesus healed an invalid at pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath, and the religious leaders said you can’t heal on the Sabbath. It drove the religious leaders crazy.   They asked, "Who does he think he is!?"   In response, Jesus gives his first extended discourse in John 5:18-47. Jesus tells us just who he thinks he is…and holds nothing back. This sermon explores the resume of Jesus—experiences, qualifications, and references—that forms that basis for the extravagant claims of deity that he made during His ministry. Is Jesus really the Messiah, the Son of God?   After exploring these claims and Jesus' response, the resounding answer is YES! Our take-aways are two-fold: Jesus is the only one really able to help us. He can, with a word, make us aliv

If you hang around Jesus long enough, you'll realize that He isn't interested in a popularity contest. He's not a politician, and He doesn't play by their games. It’s one of the things that enraged the religious leaders. No matter how much pressure they put on Him, He wouldn’t back down.   In fact, this passage has a shocking ending: “This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him…” What pushed them over the edge? These four shocking elements: The intractability of the disease The controversy of the Sabbath The superficiality of the healing The audacity of the Son   The intractability of the disease: Jesus comes upon a man with a disease by the pool of Bethesda. The man asks not for healing, but to be brought to the healing pool. And instead of bringing him to the healing, Jesus brings the healing to him. Jesus commands him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” Not only does the man stand, he hoists his bed and walks. Jesus is once more wielding the power of the Messianic Age, becau

Jesus is always surprising us. He doesn’t fit neatly into our preconceived human categories – He's always challenging our assumptions, realigning our expectations, and defying our limitations. Just when we think we have Him all figured out, He comes along and blows the doors off our limited understanding. That’s one of the ways we know we’re encountering the living and divine Jesus. If Jesus is God in the flesh, He should surprise us.   We know we’ve created god in our own image when he begins to look suspiciously like us and when he no longer surprises our souls. But with Jesus, we never have that problem. In this passage from John 4:43-54, Jesus gives us four surprises.   1) Surprising Rebuke: When Jesus enters Galilee, the crowd welcomes Him in an odd way. Then an official asks Jesus to heal his son. Jesus’ response: unless you [plural] see signs and wonders, you will not believe. Jesus is not a circus performer, and the crowd exhibits no real faith or belief. There’s a huge difference between pursuing

In this passage, Jesus has a conversation with the woman at the well. She’s a Samaritan woman from nowhere - overlooked, shamed, insignificant, on the margins of society. Most would assume in her time that she’s on the margins of God’s blessings. But as He so often does, Jesus is about to turn those assumptions on their heads. And in a tender and personalized way, He brings the Gospel to this irreligious woman.   Through this story, we find three glimpses fo Jesus as the one who ultimately satisfies:   1) Jesus is the seeker of the lost, and we're never beyond His reach. No matter what we’ve done. No matter who we’ve become. No matter what’s been done to us. Jesus loves us and is pursuing us. There’s no barrier he won’t break through, no chasm he won’t cross over, no distance he won’t reach; there’s no place we can wander where Jesus will not pursue us in His love.   2) Jesus is the satisfier of the soul, and we're never beyond his redemption. There’s a connection between satisfaction and worship. Satis

Do you know how it feels to be upstaged by someone? John the Baptist knew the feeling. For at time, he was the big shot, the prophetic voice calling out in the wilderness. But then one day Jesus showed up, and people began flocking to Jesus and not to John.   And for John that was just fine, because he recognized that Jesus deserved center stage. In this message, we see four reasons why Jesus deserves center stage and why we're better off with Him at the center of our lives.   Jesus sees more than we ever could. We get lost in the maze of life; the longer we insist on going our own way, the longer we stay stuck and lost. The sooner we yield to Jesus, the sooner we’ll find our way. And that’s what it means to put Jesus at the center, to let His perspective outrank our own instincts. Jesus deserves center stage by virtue of His position from above.   Jesus knows more than we ever could. He is an expert witness, a master of ultimate cosmic reality. His knowledge is comprehensive; His wisdom is supreme;

What does it mean to be born again? Let’s set aside all the cultural clutter of what we think it means and try to hear Jesus afresh. Because as we’ll see, to be born again into this new birth, to be regenerated by God, is at the very heart of why Jesus came.   In this passage, we see an existential conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus about the pathway to eternal life. As we explore this concept of New Birth, we’re going to answer six questions:   Who needs it? From the most religious and moral to the very least, we all must be born again. If Nicodemus needs to be born again, we all do. What is it? To be born again is to have a brand-new recreated spiritual life. Jesus is telling Nicodemus that to see the Kingdom, to enter into it, you need this new life. Your resumé won’t get you in. You need to be born again. Who does it? New birth is the work of the Spirit alone and it is totally beyond our control. Jesus is telling Nicodemus that the one thing you need is the one thing you have no control ov

What is God like? It’s interesting that when God chose to reveal himself most fully, finally – unmistakably – with crystal clarity, He didn’t drop a systematic theology from Heaven, or a lot of core doctrines to memorize. No, that approach is too abstract, too impersonal. Nor did He launch a political campaign, with fundraisers and marketing to get the word out. No, that would be too self-promoting, too pushy.   When God wanted to reveal Himself to mankind, He sent his Son Jesus, in a manner of revelation that was inconspicuous and incognito. The refrain was "come and see" who Jesus is, what He is doing, and all that He has to offer. We have to get close, and we will discover who He is over time.   In this passage from John 2, we see three glimpses of who Jesus is and how we relate to Him.   In the story about Jesus' first miracle, John portrays Jesus as the true and greater Bridegroom whose faithfulness is everlasting and whose wine never runs out.   When Jesus cleanses the market in the temple, John