Soma Waxahachie

What does it mean for us that Jesus is king and that he is reigning over his kingdom of heaven?  In this teaching, we attempt to answer that question. And the answer means a whole lot more for us than you might think. This is the final sermon from our pastor Josh Elsom.

This week Pastor Josh finishes up John 18.

In this week's teaching we take another look at John 18 but this time from a slightly different direction.  When Jesus announced to the cohort of Roman soldiers that came to arrest him that he was Jesus of Nazareth something very peculiar happened. The soldiers are immediately thrown back and to the ground and Peter responds by pulling out his sword and slicing off the right ear of the High Priest's servant, Malchus. Very peculiar, indeed! But was this the first time that something like that has happened in the story of Israel?  There is another story in 1 Samuel 14 that shares a lot of similarities to this story that we find in John 18. And when we compare the two we come away with a greater appreciation for who Jesus is, the revolution he began, and what Peter did not yet understand.

This week we looked at John 18:1-27 when the betrayal in Judas' heart against Jesus had finally reached its full climax in the Garden of Gethsemane. But who was actually in charge in that situation? Was it Judas, the Romans, the High Priest, or Jesus?

We continue our look at John 17, Jesus' prayer for his betrothed people whom he was about to leave, and we focused in on the oneness that he wanted for his people.  The unity that Jesus desires for his people is far more than simply wanting us to get along with one another so that unbelievers would see that Christians are a nice group of people and want to join our churches. That kind of unity is not uncommon and not compelling enough to prove that Jesus actually loves the world and was sent from the Father to save it. The kind of oneness that Jesus is praying for has to fit within the larger goal that John has for his Gospel. Namely, proving that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God. And to prove those things to enquiring Jews meant that Jesus had to fulfill prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures that looked forward to the time when God would reunite the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah and cause the nations to stream into them. It is this context that helps us understand how we should live as one tod

John 17, commonly called the High Priestly Prayer, wraps up Jesus' farewell discourse to his disciples. While John 17 is aptly named, High Priestly may not say enough about what is happening in the chapter. This prayer is the prayer of a husband for his betrothed as he prepares to leave her for his father's house to prepare a place for them to live. And it tells the story of a marriage arranged by a father for his son. This prayer of Jesus for his chosen people in John echos the story of the Lord and his chosen people in the Hebrew Scriptures. What the Lord does for Israel in the old creation Jesus does for Israel in the new creation. This is how John shows us that Jesus truly is the Christ and the Son of God.

In the last half of John 15, we find Jesus preparing his disciples for the inevitable persecution they will have to experience as his followers. They are not of this world just as Jesus is not of this world. But because they remain in the world they will face trouble on their kingdom mission. What does that mean for the church today? Who hates us? And what is an appropriate reason to be hated? Those are a few of the questions that we attempt to answer in this teaching.

This week we jump into John 15. When Jesus says he is the true vine and that you are the branches, what do you think that means? It might not mean what you think it means. When Jesus says that if you abide in him you will bear much fruit and branches that do not bear fruit will be cut off and thrown into the fire, what do you think that means? It might not mean what you think it means. This passage is easily misunderstood. And that misunderstanding has created a lot of dread and hopelessness in the hearts of God's people. Don't let this passage confuse you any longer. There is life, joy, and love for you in John 15.

This week we return to John 14. Jesus has been with his disciples for 3 years. He has been their friend, he has trained them, and now he is going somewhere that they cannot go. And now he begins to explain to them what they need to know about what is about to happen and how they should prepare themselves for the work ahead of them.

Jesus has been with his disciples for 3 years. He has been their friend, he has trained them, and now he is going somewhere that they cannot go. And now he begins to explain to them what they need to know about what is about to happen and how they should prepare themselves for the work ahead of them.

In this teaching, we talk about the darkness that swallowed up Judas and how that darkness may be looking for us.

Judas followed Jesus for three years when he sold him for 30 pieces of silver. Why would he do that? How could he do that? And how might we be in danger of becoming someone just like Judas?

Washing one another's feet? Why did Jesus do that? What does it mean? And why should we do it?

In this teaching from John 11, we discover that the resurrection is not merely an event somewhere off in the future but a person. Jesus is the resurrection and the life.

This week we looked at the last half of John 10.  To truly appreciate what happens in this passage we looked outside of Scripture to the apocryphal book of 1 Maccabees to understand the story of Hanukah that underlays this fascinating chapter in John.

Have you been bullied, abused, or hurt by a person in a position of authority over you? Jesus sees that and he will vindicate his abused lambs. This week we are in John 10 and looking at the Good Shepherd discourse. There is far more to this passage in John than meets the eye. It is a passage that you cannot fully appreciate unless you understand Israel's story. Listen along as we explore the backstory that allows us to see the real story of what Jesus is saying.

This week we jump back in the Gospel of John after a four-month break. John 9 gives us the very unusual episode of Jesus healing a blind man using mud and spit. As weird as that might at first appear not everything is at it seems in this story.  Listen to find out why and how Jesus used dirt and spit to prove that he was Lord God Almighty.

In this one-off teaching, we take a bird's eye view of Jesus' unorthodox discipleship strategy. While every other rabbi in Jesus' day chose their disciples from the Crème de la Crème of Jewish society —the smartest, the well connected, and the most likely to succeed— Jesus chose his disciples based not on their qualifications but their disqualifications. And the men he gathered were the kind of people who made his ministry most likely to fail. But Jesus did not fail. Jesus is still calling and leading disciples today and his strategy has not changed. Often that puts us in proximity to people within the Church with whom we share little in common and have major differences of opinion. That is not by accident. There is a purpose to it. It is to model a new creation society for the world, where unity in Christ overwhelms every disagreement and difference of opinion. Our goal is to find and fight for that unity. 

We take a moment to reconsider a passage in the Gospel of John that we have previously covered. Jesus' cleansing of the temple in John 2. In this teaching, we think about the deeper theological reason why Jesus cleansed his Father's house and how it may be connected with a very strange but important passage about leprosy that is found in Leviticus.

America is being stretched to the point of seeing the political bonds of the republic broken. What responsibility, if any, does the church in America bear for the state of the culture as it presently exists? If we do, what are our rules of engagement moving forward? We answer these questions and more as we consider a church in trouble in Revelation 3:13-22.