Cutting Room Floor - God's Sovereignty and Man's Responsibility are Not in Opposition to Each Other!

Cut for time, but this illustrates how God’s sovereign will does NOT negate man’s choices.

God's sovereignty and man's responsibility are not opposites! They somehow work in perfect harmony

The ultimate Biblical example: the cross. Who killed Jesus? Was it the Romans? The Jews? God, according to Isaiah 53?

The answer is: All of the above. It was God's plan from the beginning, but men, by their own choices, carried it out and were guilty of killing the Son of God – as God ordained they would. 

It can give you a headache trying to figure it out, or you can say, “That’s how God says it is, and we can’t fully explain it. So I’ll just believe Him. After all, He is God, and I am… not!”

Cutting Room Floor: What kind of wine did Jesus make out of the water?

This controversial question goes with the sermon “Knowing His Glory”.

There is so much controversy among scholars about what kind of wine Jesus created. Well, obviously, I wasn't there to taste it. All I know is it was the best wine, according to the master of the feast, the headwaiter.

Some scholars say it was just excellent wine, yes it had alcohol in it as all wine does, and

Yes some say it was unfermented, because God wouldn't create something spoiled, that is fermented. –

SO what’s the definitive answer? I really think the debate itself completely misses the point of the passage itself!  

Here’s the point of the text: It was JUST WATER ONE SECOND AGO – now IT'S WINE. And as I pointed out in the sermon, there were many profound reasons that Jesus chose this as His first miracle. Any debate over the alcohol content, pardon the pun, is fruitless.

Cutting Room Floor: Why did Jesus reference angels in His talk with Nathanael?

This goes with the sermon “Making Him Known”, but didn’t make the final cut.

Jesus told Nathanael: And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” (1:51). Like Jacob (Israel), Nathanael would eventually come to the same conclusion: “Surely the Lord was in this place, and I did not know it." But why THIS reference? How do angels play into Jesus’ ministry? The reality was that angels WERE there, in so many key moments!

Regarding Jesus’ birth, how was it announced? By angels!

After Jesus’ temptation, who ministered to Him? Angels!

At Jesus’ tomb, who was there? Angels again!

And when Jesus ascended back to the Father in Heaven, who was there to remind the disciples that He would come again? If you guessed an angel, you are a winner!

This helps make sense of why Jesus used that reference with Nathanael, the guileless Israelite!

Cutting room floor: In the beginning...

This was part of the first sermon (He Has Made Himself Known) that didn’t make it to the final cut that I thought was pretty interesting.

John’s gospel starts with “In the beginning” – does that sound familiar? That's how the Bible begins with Genesis 1:1. In the beginning, God created. The first thing He created was light. And the story begins with a man named Adam, the first human being.

John's Gospel starts in the beginning, also talks about creation, and talks about Jesus Christ, who the Bible calls the true light and the second Adam (Romans 5). The first Adam brought sin and death into the world, the second brought salvation and life. 

So John, in telling us how Jesus revealed Himself, draws many parallel truths from Genesis. One more reason that I personally believe that Genesis is literal history!