Too often God’s patience and forbearance with sin are misinterpreted to be signs of his acceptance. God’s compassion for us is not shown in accepting sin but in mercifully accepting all sinners who will come to Jesus in repentance and faith for salvation. The infinite wisdom of Jesus is demonstrated as he addresses the hypocrisy of the religious elite and shows compassion to a guilty sinner.

Outline:

• The Wickedness of Hypocrisy

• The Compassionate Christ

Outline:

• Grace: A Conditional Offer

• Outward Focus of the Spirit-Filled Life

• True Grace Divides

How people answer the question determines their eternal destination. The only way to truly know God is to know Jesus. Jesus warns that time is short in this life. There is urgency to the gospel call to repent and believe in Jesus for salvation and eternal life.

Outline:

• Knowing God IS Believing in Christ Jesus

• Comfort in the Sovereignty of God

• The Eternal Consequences of Unbelief

Jesus commands his followers to judge not by appearances but to judge righteously. The standard is always fidelity to God’s Word. In a world obsessed with celebrity status, Jesus provides a simple guide and starting point for all Christians to consider as we navigate an age where there are no shortage of voices to listen to.

Outline:

• The Bold Authority of Jesus

• The Will to Know

• Applying the Truth: Righteous Judgment

Since the advent of Christ, the question is not so much whether one believes in Jesus but what a person believes about Him. This passage displays God’s perfect timing, while Jesus encounters more crowds. They all have a view about Jesus, but do they savingly believe?

Outline:

• God’s Timing

• Believing Unbelief

• Proper Time to Feast

• Nobody Ignores Jesus

A crowd followed Jesus eagerly, but when the true Word of God was proclaimed, they faced the same choice everyone faces today: humbly submit to the truth—believe for forgiveness and eternal life, or reject Jesus and his call for repentance and faith. Jesus’s response brings glory to God while building the humble assurance of his true followers.

Outline:

• The Offense of the Cross

• Spirit and Word

• God’s Glory in the Great Confession

Like a child misbehaving because of hunger, the spiritually starving people in Capernaum reacted to Jesus’s promise of salvation to all who will believe with grumbling. After diagnosing their spiritual condition, Jesus taught what saving faith should be using a metaphor that conveys timeless truths.

Outline:

• Grumbling in Disbelief

• Saved by Sovereign Grace

• Believing is Eating (A Perfect Metaphor)

Can salvation and eternal life, once given by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, ever be lost? The unfolding biblical truths of divine sovereignty in salvation and human responsibility continue in this passage, which addresses the keeping power of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Outline:

• The Will of God

• Resting in God’s Preservation

• Running with Perseverance

• Blessed Assurance