More than 6,000 languages are spoken among the world’s billions. The complete Bible has been translated into more than 600 languages, with the New Testament or some portions translated into more than 2500 other languages, as well. That’s a lot of languages, for sure. But at the same time, it is still less than half…
Setting People Free in Jesus
Sermons by Steve Ebsen
To read the Bible also means to interpret the Bible. But how do we do that? What principles do we use? How, for instance, do we deal with the different kinds of writing we find there? For example, is the passage we’re reading a parable, a prophetic-symbolic dream, or a historical narrative? The decision of…
We’ve been following the covenant promises of God from their inception in Genesis 3:15 through the Abrahamic covenant of Genesis 12:1-3. Many Christians today believe that the Abrahamic covenant was a covenant of grace while the Sinaitic covenant is a covenant of law. Is that understanding correct? Did God change His mind after Abraham, Isaac…
There is no Christian church that does not use Scripture to support its beliefs. Yet the role and authority of Scripture in theology is not the same in all churches. In fact, the role of Scripture can vary greatly from church to church. This is an important but complex subject that we will explore by…
Unfortunately, in this post-modern age, the Bible has been largely reinterpreted through the lens of a philosophy that questions both its inspiration and its authority. In fact, the Bible is seen as merely the ideas of human beings living in a relatively primitive culture who couldn’t possibly understand the world as we do today. At…
When we think about the book of Daniel, we usually think about prophecy and more specifically, apocalyptic prophecy. There is another aspect of Daniel’s book that is often overlooked, that being Daniel’s walk with God. Daniel’s book was written during a time of significant troubles for God’s people. Yet Daniel remained faithful and experienced an…
This is 3rd in the series on the Covenant. In this session, we will see how the covenant, the plan of salvation, moves forward through a man named Abraham. The covenant gets additional clarification as Abraham is promised a land, a seed, a blessing and to be a blessing to all nations. Abraham is put…
The notion of a covenant is unfamiliar to many today. But, the practice of a covenantal life was an integral part of the ancient cultures in the Near East. Tens of thousands of documents unearthed in the last decades show a wide range of legal agreements between individuals and between nations. Already in the eighteenth-century…
We’ve heard that Jesus loves us and has called us friend (Jn 15:15a). In this message I explore the idea further. Why did God originally create man? What is the end goal of man’s salvation? Is the plan to take us back to the original relationship that was in the Garden of Eden? The Apostle…
One of the most endearing stories during the Christmas season is the visit by the 3 kings who were bearing gifts. (Mt. 2). However, the more powerful story is the one about the gifts that Jesus brought to man. Those gifts included the forgiveness of our sins and setting man right with God (justification), God…