GOD'S GIFT OF SALVATION (5 OF 34)
by Zach Terry
Scripture: John 2:18-25, John 3:1-21
This content is part of a series.
God's Gift of Salvation (5 of 34)
Series: Jesus, the One and Only
Zach Terry
John 2:18-3:21
OPENING ILLUSTRATION: I sent my heart to heaven
A Wycliffe Bible Translator told the story of a man named Gamburambi. Gamburambi was a street vendor on the streets of Zimbabwe who sold cigarettes. The Missionary wanted to give one of the recently translated New Testaments to Gamburambi, but he realized that the pages of the Bible could be used for purposes other than reading. So he made a deal with Gamburambi. He told him that he would give him the Bible if Gamburambi promised to read each page before he smoked it. That was about 19 years ago and the translator didn't know the result of the gift until a short time ago when he was at a banquet in Zimbabwe where he was hearing various Church leaders talk about the progress of the Gospel in Zimbabwe. One of the leaders who took the stage to talk about what was happening was Gamburambi. He talked about that exchange without knowing that the one who gave him the bible was in the audience. He said, "I smoked through Matthew, then Luke, then John - Until I got to chapter 3…. Then I sent my heart to heaven instead of the smoke.
CONTEXT -
We are in a series of messages called, "Transformed" which is a part of our larger study through the Gospel of John. We began the Transformed series with Jesus first public miracle of transforming water in to wine at Cana of Galilee. We said that Jesus was communicating that He would be doing something New, Better, Different.
Worship - From there we saw last week that Jesus transformed worship as it was known in Jerusalem. He entered his Fathers house expecting to smell the aroma of heaven, but he found the stench of hijacked religion. His response was an all out assault on the wicked worshippers.
Jesus the Maverick - Now, we are in the middle of an election year, it seems to be en vogue to be a maverick. It seems cool to shake things up a bit. This is a year where abnormality ...
Series: Jesus, the One and Only
Zach Terry
John 2:18-3:21
OPENING ILLUSTRATION: I sent my heart to heaven
A Wycliffe Bible Translator told the story of a man named Gamburambi. Gamburambi was a street vendor on the streets of Zimbabwe who sold cigarettes. The Missionary wanted to give one of the recently translated New Testaments to Gamburambi, but he realized that the pages of the Bible could be used for purposes other than reading. So he made a deal with Gamburambi. He told him that he would give him the Bible if Gamburambi promised to read each page before he smoked it. That was about 19 years ago and the translator didn't know the result of the gift until a short time ago when he was at a banquet in Zimbabwe where he was hearing various Church leaders talk about the progress of the Gospel in Zimbabwe. One of the leaders who took the stage to talk about what was happening was Gamburambi. He talked about that exchange without knowing that the one who gave him the bible was in the audience. He said, "I smoked through Matthew, then Luke, then John - Until I got to chapter 3…. Then I sent my heart to heaven instead of the smoke.
CONTEXT -
We are in a series of messages called, "Transformed" which is a part of our larger study through the Gospel of John. We began the Transformed series with Jesus first public miracle of transforming water in to wine at Cana of Galilee. We said that Jesus was communicating that He would be doing something New, Better, Different.
Worship - From there we saw last week that Jesus transformed worship as it was known in Jerusalem. He entered his Fathers house expecting to smell the aroma of heaven, but he found the stench of hijacked religion. His response was an all out assault on the wicked worshippers.
Jesus the Maverick - Now, we are in the middle of an election year, it seems to be en vogue to be a maverick. It seems cool to shake things up a bit. This is a year where abnormality ...
There are 15861 characters in the full content. This excerpt only shows a 2000 character sample of the full content.
Price: $5.99 or 1 credit
