What does First B Jackson teach about faith and salvation?
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 faith and salvation often works from the edges inward, starting with people who had no standing and received everything. Both Pastor Ray and Pastor Preston have preached from Luke 17, the account of ten lepers healed by Jesus, and both of them pressed on the same detail: only one came back, and he was a Samaritan outsider. The other nine were cleansed. Only this one was told that his faith had made him well. That word, the Greek sozo, is the word for saved, and both pastors pointed out that Jesus used it only for the man who returned to give thanks and fell at his feet.
The distinction both teachers drew is between receiving a gift and receiving the giver. All ten were healed as they walked, trusting Jesus' word before they could see any result. But something different happened for the one who turned back. He came close, fell on his face at Jesus' feet, and gave glory to God. Pastor Preston noted that Luke adds the detail of his identity deliberately, because the disciples still needed to learn that the reach of mercy is wider than they were comfortable with. Pastor Ray connected this to a pattern running through Luke's gospel, from the good Samaritan to the Decapolis to Tyre and Sidon, where again and again it is the outsider who recognizes what God is doing.
Both messages also spent time on what the lepers actually asked for. They did not ask for healing specifically. They asked for mercy, and both pastors treated that as significant. Mercy, as Pastor Ray described it, is not getting something bad that you do deserve. To ask for it is already to acknowledge your own condition before God. In Luke, as Pastor Preston observed, no one who cries out for mercy goes without it.
Taught from Luke 17:11-19 · Leviticus 13 · Leviticus 14 · Lamentations 3:22-23 · Colossians 1:15
The passage taught · Colossians 1
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
2 to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 We give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,
4 having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which you have toward all the saints,
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- July 9, 2023 Have Mercy on Us Ten lepers cry out to Jesus for mercy and are healed, but only one returns to give thanks. Pastor Ray explores what it means to truly receive salvation.
- July 9, 2023 Ten Were Cleansed, One Received Jesus Ten lepers cry out for mercy and Jesus heals them all, but only one returns to give thanks. A look at Luke 17 and what it means to truly receive Jesus.
Mentioned along the way
- February 7, 2016 Not Ashamed of the Gospel Pastor Ray walks Romans 1:16-17 through a congregation-wide exercise: summing up the gospel in ten words or less, then living it out.