Posts by Justin Hopkins

The opening verses of John 6 provide an account of Jesus feeding 5,000 with two fish and five loaves. Jesus prepares to work this miracle by asking one of his disciples, “Where shall we buy bread…?” (v. 5). Philip’s response is rather reasonable. He points out that buying a catered meal for 5,000 people at…

Throughout history, many religious teachers have appeared claiming to carry a message from God or a god. The reliability of their source and of their record has usually been difficult to verify at best. They emerge from a secret meeting with an angel in a cave or in the forest with no witnesses, and declare…

Some time after healing the lame man at the pool of Bethesda Jesus seeks him out again. Our Lord’s words to him are few, but quite pointed. (John 5:14) First, Jesus reminds the man of the great blessing he has just received: he has been made whole! He wasn’t just better, he was complete and…

Over first couple of months in 2019 I ran a social media campaign and asked members of our community, “If you could ask God one question, what would you ask?” I took the questions that came in and ranked them by popularity. The six most popular questions became sermon topics for our Gospel Meeting. It…

As John 5 opens, an interesting scene is set before us. The pool of Bethesda is occasionally imbued with healing powers, but only for the first person to get into the water after the angel stirs the pool. There sits a man who has been lame for thirty-eight years. He explains that he has been…