What does First B Jackson teach about believing in jesus?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on believing in Jesus starts with who Jesus actually is before anything else is said about what believing requires. In the Advent message walking through the prologue of John's Gospel, Pastor Ron traced the claim that runs through all eighteen verses: the Word who was with God and was God before creation entered the world as a specific human being, full of grace and truth, close enough to see and to know. The right response to that is belief, and Pastor Ron kept returning to that word as the thread running through John's entire Gospel, chapter by chapter.
What it means to believe is tied directly to receiving Jesus, not as a checklist but as a person. Drawing on John 1:12-13, Pastor Ron made clear that the right to become a child of God comes with believing in his name, and that right is given, not earned. John the Baptist's role in the prologue, a man sent to point to the Light so that all might believe, frames the whole Gospel: the purpose is that people would actually come to faith.
Ray's teaching in John 6 pressed on what genuine belief looks like once it takes hold. The crowd that followed Jesus after the feeding was seeking him, but Jesus questioned their motives from the start. They wanted bread; they were still thinking in terms of what they could do or receive. Ray drew on Dietrich Bonhoeffer's writing on costly grace to name what was at stake: cheap grace is forgiveness without repentance, grace without discipleship, while costly grace is the treasure a person sells everything to obtain. Believing in Jesus, in the way John's Gospel means it, is not agreeing to a fact. It is staking everything on who he is.
Taught from John 1:12-13 · John 1:1 · John 1:14 · John 20:31 · John 6:1-71
The passage taught · 2 Thessalonians 3:16
16 Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in all ways. The Lord be with you all.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- December 4, 2022 In the Beginning Was the Word The pastor walks through John's prologue to show how the eternal Word became flesh at Christmas, and why believing in Jesus transforms ordinary lives.
- January 6, 2013 The Bread That Came Down From Heaven Ray preaches John 6, showing why Jesus called himself the bread of life and what it costs to truly receive him, not just the miracles he performs.
Mentioned along the way
- February 22, 2021 It Is Finished John 19 and Isaiah 53 show how Jesus fulfilled centuries of prophecy on the cross, and why his finished work is the only foundation our faith needs.