31 - Amazing Faith
September 8, 2024 • Pastor Ronald H. Gann • Luke 7:1–10
What is the difference between demon faith (Jas. 2:18-19) and saving faith, between intellectual belief that condemns and spiritual trust that saves? when the Bible says believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, it doesn’t just mean that one must give intellectual assent to the facts of the Bible, as a historian would do about the person of Abraham Lincoln. Rather, to the Bible’s way of thinking, to really believe in Christ is to invest your trust in him; it’s to complement the knowledge in your mind with the commitment of your heart. The Roman centurion in Luke 7:1-10 was the living embodiment of this type of saving faith who, as a result, amazed the Lord.
30 - The Sermon on the Mount (Part 5)
Pastor Ronald H. Gann • Luke 6:46–49
There are three words in the Christian lexicon that nobody likes to talk about. They are obedience, submission and repentance—the trifecta of controversy in the Christian life inasmuch as they are, or should, be staples of the Christian life. Is it enough to accept Jesus Christ as Savior to receive eternal life, or must you also submit to him as the Lord and walk in obedience to what he says?
29 - The Sermon on the Mount (Part 4)
August 25, 2024 • Pastor Ronald H. Gann • Luke 6:39–45
When it comes to the Sermon on the Mount, one might be surprised to learn that the very sermon that so many conclude, and understandably so, is the most beautiful sermon ever preached is also one of the most scathing. It’s a sermon that has multiple audiences in view, portions of which are directed at the false teachers who not only taught academic error but also damnable heresy. Aimed at the Pharisees in particular, and false teachers in general, Jesus reminds his listeners of the choice they face: They can either follow the saving the truth of God as taught by Lord and his apostles or they can follow the damning lies of Satan as taught by the false leaders.
28 - The Sermon on the Mount (Part 3)
August 18, 2024 • Pastor Ronald H. Gann • Luke 6:37–38
What did Jesus mean in Luke 6:37 when he cautioned his listeners not to judge others, lest they be judged? Did he mean that Christians have no right to make moral judgments about human behavior or hold others accountable for their sin? In what is arguably the most misquoted verse of all time, Jesus is not condemning mutual accountability and moral responsibility nor is he condemning the need to address the sins of others. Rather, he’s is referring to judging with hypocrisy.
27 - The Sermon on the Mount (Part 2)
August 11, 2024 • Pastor Ronald H. Gann • Luke 6:27–36
There are many things that mark a true Christian. According to Galatians 5:22-23, a Christian is someone who is marked by the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control). And the most foundational of these fruits is love. It’s the Christian’s calling card. Noting this, we learn from the Sermon on the Mount that along with loving God and loving others (the two greatest commandments), Christians are also called to love unbelievers, up to and including our enemies.
26 - The Sermon on the Mount (Part 1)
July 28, 2024 • Pastor Ronald H. Gann • Luke 6:17–26
Authority is a strong word; it denotes power and privilege. One of the most authoritative, if not the most authoritative, sermons that Jesus ever preached was the Sermon on the Mount. In it, he put on full display his authority given to him from his Father from on high by issuing blessings and cursings and woes and warnings. But even more shocking is that he made authoritative pronouncements, such as, “You have heard it said before … but I tell you this.” Such was the authority of Christ that even the Temple Guards conceded, “No one ever spoke like this man!” (John 7:45-49).
25 - Twelves Nobodies Who Became Somebodies
July 21, 2024 • Pastor Ronald H. Gann • Luke 6:12–16
The world measures greatness by its own fallen standards, and chief among them are intelligence and income, fame and fortune, and power, prestige, and position—all of which God has determined to be immaterial when it comes to spiritual greatness. According to the Bible, a person can be a lying cheat and an extortionist, a lowbrow blue-collar fisherman with no better than a 6th grade education, a terrorist bent on overthrowing the government, and a complete nobody who nobody’s ever heard of or cares anything about and still become a person of spiritual greatness. The twelve disciples, in and of themselves, were not great. And yet these twelve nobodies became somebodies who would go on to tell everybody about somebody named Jesus Christ and turn the world upside down.
24 - The Sabbath Controversy (Part 2)
July 14, 2024 • Pastor Ronald H. Gann • Luke 6:6–11
There’s an old Arabic proverb that says, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” The Sadducees, the Pharisees—which comprised the Jewish leadership in Israel—were stood at odds with each other theologically, socially, and politically. And yet only one thing could bring these three diverse camps together as band of brothers. They joined forces reluctantly, to be sure, but linked together by their mutual contempt for Jesus. Whereas ideology had separated them, their common hatred for Jesus brought them together, illustrating that the proverb rings true: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
23 - The Sabbath Controversy (Part 1)
Pastor Ronald H. Gann • Luke 6:1–5
From the very beginning, the church has always had to contend with those who would shackle it with Jewish ideas about Levitical diets and lawful days of celebration and all the other rules and regulations, feasts and fasts, and ceremonies and sacrifices that made up the Jewish religion. And if there was one area in Judaism that the Jews violated most with their legalistic traditions, it was Sabbath observance. What originally was instituted by God as a day of rest had, by the time Jesus walked the earth, become a day of great burden for the common Jew. That Christians should give no mind to such things, much less be shackled by man-made traditions imposed upon Sabbath observance, was a constant concern for Jesus and the New Testament writers.
22 - The New Garment & New Wine
June 30, 2024 • Pastor Ronald H. Gann
Are New Testament Christians still bound to the old covenant Law as inscripturated in the Old Testament? The short answer is no. None of the Old Testament is binding on a New Testament Christian, except for that which is sustained, upheld, or reiterated in the New Testament. This would include primarily the moral law inherent to the Old Testament. However, the New Testament doesn’t call it the moral law. Rather, it goes by another name. In place of the Law of Moses, Christians now live under the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2; 1 Corinthians 9:21), which his to love God and love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-40).
21 - The Lord of the Black Sheep
June 23, 2024 • Pastor Ronald H. Gann • Luke 5:27–32
The conversion of Levi the son of Alphaeus (cf. Mark 2:14), also know as Matthew the tax collector, was not a conversion celebrated among Jewish believers in the first century. As a tax collector, he was vilified as the scum of the earth whose conversion to Christ was thought to be impossible; he was more of an embarrassment to the Church than a praise report. If anything, the story of Levi's conversion tells us that nobody, no matter how despicable or despised, is outside the reach and grace of Jesus Christ and those whom He sovereignly calls to follow him.
20 - The Lord of the Lame
June 16, 2024 • Pastor Ronald H. Gann • Luke 5:17–26
Far more scandalous than the fact that God’s forgiveness comes only through Jesus Christ is the fact that forgiveness comes only from Jesus Christ. And that Jesus has the authority to forgive sins, and repeatedly did so while he walked the earth, may not seem controversial today. But for the Jews in the first century, it was the height of blasphemy. For the paralytic in Luke 5 who was brought to Jesus for healing, the Lord could see the deeper, more significant problem this man faced—his need for forgiveness. Obviously, the man wanted to be physically healed, which the Lord graciously obliged, but Jesus addressed his more serious ailment first.
19 - The Lord of Lepers
June 9, 2024 • Pastor Ronald H. Gann • Luke 5:12–16
Leprosy! The very word filled the first-century Jew with horror. They regarded it as “the stroke of God.” In Luke 5:12-16, Jesus shows compassion to a leper and cleanses him. In doing so, Jesus' fame reached new heights, forcing him to become more reclusive. The Lord was willing to trade places with the leper, so to speak; the Savior was willing to become the outsider; relocating to isolated places so that this untouchable leper, the ultimate outsider, could be rescued and restored and brought back into the city. Therein is pictured the reality of the Gospel—Jesus traded places with sinners in order to make them clean and deliver them from sin.
18 - The Holy Fisherman
June 2, 2024 • Pastor Ronald H. Gann • Luke 5:1–11
The Gospel of Luke is the lengthiest of the four Gospels. Yet despite that fact, the reader doesn't have to wait long or look far and wide in Luke’s writing to see the true nature of the Lord revealed for who he truly is. The real Jesus is unmistakably clear in every section of Luke’s gospel and no more so than in Luke 5:1-11. This passage portrays Jesus as fully human--who acted like a man, talked like a man, and walked like a man. Yet, these verses also reveal that he was no ordinary man. This profound incident where Jesus catches a multitude of fish, much to the amazement of Peter, reveals the true identity and nature of Jesus and how holy he is.
17 - The Miracle Worker
May 26, 2024 • Pastor Ronald H. Gann • Luke 4:38–44
Nowhere is the compassion of Jesus more evident than in his healing ministry recorded in Luke 4:38-44. No sooner had Jesus exorcised a demoniac in the Capernaum synagogue did he and his disciples travel to Peter’s house in downtown Capernaum, where he once again demonstrated his authority over the physical effects of sin. Starting with Peter's mother-in-law, Jesus pulled an all nigher, healing everyone and anyone of their affliction. It’s believed that enough miracles were performed that night to fill an entire book. Nothing like it has ever occurred in all the centuries before Jesus’ earthly ministry or since.