SERIES: HIS STORY - HIS PEOPLE (2 OF 3)

NOTE: This sermon is part 3 and 4 of a 7 part sermon series. Two sermons outlines are included in this download.

PREVIEWS:

Part 3: Ezra, Nehemiah: The Return
Series: His Story - His People
Stuart Briscoe

I. Introduction to Ezra, Nehemiah

A. The significance of the Covenant, the Promised Land, Jerusalem and the Temple.

B. God's judgment on His people-70 years in Exile. Jeremiah 25:8 1

C. The decree of Cyrus, rebuild the Temple (538 B.C.). Ezra 1:1f, Isaiah 45:13

D. The exiles return led by Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel, Temple rebuilt. Ezra 6:13 18

E. Ezra returns to Jerusalem for a teaching ministry (458 B.C.). Ezra 7:1f

F. Nehemiah returns to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls of the city (445 B.C.). Nehemiah 1:8f

II. Rebuilding the Temple. Ezra 1:1 6:22

A. "The Lord moved the heart of Cyrus, king of Persia." Ezra 1:1; Jeremiah 29:10 14

B. "Everyone whose heart God had moved prepared to go…" Ezra 1:5

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Part 4: The Samaritan Woman
Series: His Story - His People
Stuart Briscoe
John 4:1-42

The mission of the Incarnate Christ was to make the invisible God known and "to seek and to save the lost." The meeting of Jesus and the Samaritan woman illustrates this ministry.

I. Jesus Goes Out of His Way to Meet a Woman with a Past.

A. She was a product of her culture.
1. The status of a first-century Middle Eastern woman.

2. The ethnic minority.
a. Samaritan history. 2 Kings 17:24f

b. Jewish antipathy. v. 9

B. She is a product of her circumstances.
1. Five times married. v. 18
a. Victimized by divorce? Deuteronomy 24:1f; Malachi 2:13f

c. Devastated by death?

2. Desperate for love.

3. Ostracized by neighbors. v. 6

C. She was a product of her choices. v. 18
1. The relationship she had chosen.

2. The responsibility she bore.