Jesus Advance: Recent Episodes
Dr. Ron Larson
Jesus Advance is the home of Dr. Ron Larson's Bible teaching ministry. His passion is to make disciples and build churches that fully reflect Jesus Christ in the world! Ron has planted churches, taught in Seminary and Bible schools, and trained church leaders around the world. He has Master of Divinity (M.Div.) and Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) degrees from Fuller Theological Seminary and serves as the lead pastor at Calvary Chapel Northland in Kansas City, Missouri (USA).
Jesus experienced rejection throughout His entire ministry, but the rejection He received in His hometown of Nazareth was particularly painful. Their familiarity with "childhood" Jesus made Him familiar, common, and offensive to them in many respects. In short, they were offended by Jesus and filled of unbelief toward His ministry. As a result, Jesus to do the mighty works in Nazareth. But instead of being shut down by this rejection, Jesus turned His attention to the mission field ahead and released His men into the mission.
What we all need for an amazing new year ahead, is a refresher in the New Covenant! Jesus came to this world full of "grace and truth". Grace comes through Jesus and is a totally free gift to us because Jesus paid for the entire Christian life upfront on the Cross. Jesus gives us a Christian life that is by "grace alone" not by works of the Law. And this New Way of relating to God is only accessed by "faith alone"--we don't "work" for it or "earn" it, we simply believe and accept the promises of God by faith. Grace works through faith, but the final piece of the equation is that everything in the Christian life only works through the power of the Holy Spirit. So this New Covenant for the New Year ahead is only given by grace, accessed by simple faith, and activated in our lives by the Holy Spirit. Such good news! This study in Mark 5 illustrates grace, faith, and the Spirit's power as the way everything works now in the New Covenant. I pray that 2024 will be a new year for you that is focused on this New Covenant in Christ! I can think of no greater prayer to pray for you than this one!
The story and details surrounding the birth of Jesus in Matthew 1-2. Then how we can apply this to our lives at Christmas time!
We are in the middle of a gigantic cosmic battle between good and evil over the lives of every human being on earth! It's a messy battle that needs to be understood so that we aren't victims! This week we are going to touch on this spiritual battle directly from Jesus' ministry in Mark 5. In this study Jesus deals with a legion of demons--the messy side of God's Kingdom invading planet earth!
Jesus told parables to illustrate the Kingdom of God or what life is like under the rule and reign of God. But most people were happy to just hear Jesus' parables and go home afterward. So only those who stuck around and pressed into Jesus got the secrets of the Kingdom. Perhaps the greatest of all Kingdom "secrets" is the revelation that Jesus is the sovereign Lord of King of God's Kingdom!
God designed us to bear fruit in our lives--fruit that remains and lasts the tests of time. But what are the obstacles that stop or stunt that fruitfulness? Jesus' first parable is full of truth that clarifies where we are at spiritually, and shows us how to stay on track!
We'll be looking at how Jesus faced the unfair judgments of others in His life and how that applies to our lives.
Jesus was hounded by leaders who tried to trick Him to sin, political leaders who plotted His death, mobs of people that could have crushed Him to death, and bizarre demonic activity that brought confusion to people about His true identity. In all of these things, Jesus had wise solutions to the greatest of life's problems!
Jesus' battle with the religious leaders of His day gave ample opportunity to demonstrate the profound differences between Himself and the unhealthy religion of the day. This passage of Scripture is a real challenge to the look and feel of the church that Jesus is building in the world today.
There are major differences between religion and the life-giving Christianity that Jesus brings! This week we will see Jesus expose the deceitfulness of religion that can only offer people "words" without the raw, supernatural power to change lives!
A closer look at what we need to know about following Jesus, followed by some of the things that made Jesus so famous!
Mark's Gospel reveals Jesus as both the Son of God and the Servant prophesied in Scripture--the Servant-Son who came to powerfully advance God's Kingdom on earth. Throughout Mark we see Jesus as a man of action and authority and he calls us to be the same! Today's message shows how John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus' ministry and gives us many good examples to imitate! Welcome to this face-paced adventure of seeing how Jesus works and following His example!
The ancient Aramaic phrase, "Maranatha" was one of the earliest words that identified Christians to each other in early Christianity. The phrase means: "The Lord has come" in the sense that Jesus came to earth, died, and returned resurrected. It also is something we pray for right now in the present: "Lord, come!" We are hungry for the Lord to return and set all things right on our messed up planet. But it also means: "The Lord is coming!" It is our heart's desire that Jesus will indeed come back again soon! So "Maranatha" is a loaded idea...it celebrates the fact that Jesus has come, that we long for His soon return right now, and that He will most assuredly come again very soon. This final teaching from Paul calls us to live our lives in the light of the King's soon return! Maranatha...even so, "Come, Lord Jesus!"
The Resurrection is central to the practice of our faith in that it gives us what we need to live a powerful hope-filled, and productive Christian life right here and now. This teaching gives clarity and fresh understanding of the nature and mechanics of the Resurrection.
Resurrection is central to our Christian faith: the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, followed by our own future resurrections! Paul addresses some anti-resurrection teaching that was present in the church of Corinth, and he shows us why our faith in the resurrection is essential to a Biblical faith in today's world.
There are certain truths that we simply must hold onto for dear life! Paul proclaimed those truths and insisted that we must receive them and continue on in those truth in order to be authentic followers of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately some of the Corinthian Christians had a different stand on things--one that was a significant error that Paul simply had to correct!
The Corinthian church had an abundance of spiritual gifts; however their approach to the gifts was selfish and immature. In this teaching, Paul turns the church from a focus on self to a focus on doing things edify the entire church. Paul puts some practical protocols into place to turn a church meeting into a body-building event. This is very practical teaching that helps bring Biblical practice into a supernatural church.
This is a close look at Paul's crystal-clear teaching on the subject of prophecy/giving prophetic words, as well as his thorough explanation of the subject of speaking in tongues. This teaching takes the craziness out of using spiritual gifts, liberates people, and creates healthy zeal for spiritual gifts in the church.
This is Paul's teaching on love, sandwiched between two chapters on the gifts of the Spirit! The message is clear and powerful: the gifts of the Spirit are to be done/exercised in line with the fruit of the Spirit, and the greatest fruit of the Spirit is love. God''s love defines how we do the things of the Holy Spirit in the church. This is a life-changing passage of Scripture, often taken out of the context that Paul gave it in!
The Baptism in the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12:13 is about being immersed or plunged into Christ's body, the church. This immersion rescues us from our pre-Christ lifestyle of alienation, isolation, and independence. Understanding that Christ designed the church to look and work like a body simply changes everything for us. Nothing but true freedom follows!
The Christian life is a Jesus-focused, supernatural life in the Holy Spirit. He gives gifts, ministries, and power so that the Body (the church) can express the fullness of Christ in our world. This message brings Paul's core teaching on "Spiritual Things" into practical and healthy focus.
One of the dangers of Bible Study is that it is very easy to use a passage of Scripture out of context. We frequently take bits and pieces of Paul's teaching on the Lord's Supper completely out of context. The result is that we can make it easy to get "religious" about what we're doing. This study brings Paul's brilliant teaching on the Lord's Supper into the larger context of his letter to the Corinthian church and the result is liberating on so many levels!
If I could be honest with you, there are some passages of Scripture I would rather "not" have to teach because of how sensitive they are! But at Calvary Chapel we just simply teach the Word and take the next passage of Scripture that comes and deal with it honestly! This is a rather difficult passage in that it deals with the spiritual idea of headship, being under spiritual authority, head coverings, and other touchy stuff! I hope you enjoy listening, and most of all that you come away with a clear understanding of some subjects that may cause your spiritual hair to stand on end a bit! Enjoy!
Jesus simply sets people free--He is in the freedom business. But what do you do with the freedom that you've been given? What does it look like to use it wisely so that people are not turned off to Christ! This study from Paul's book of 1 Corinthians looks closely at using your radical freedom in Christ wisely!
Shortly after God powerfully delivered His people from a life of bondage in Egypt, Israel quickly fell deeply into sin. Paul says that these things were written so that we might learn from their example and avoid the pitfalls that tripped them up. This is a powerful teaching that ends with practical truth on how we can resist the temptation to sin in our lives. A word of hope and help tomorrow.
Even though Paul was a genuine Apostle, some saw him as an inferior version of the "real" Apostles in Jerusalem. While he should have been celebrated and supported as an Apostle, they shamelessly undervalued him and left him to fend for himself financially. Paul speaks to this issue of being partners in ministry, and the even greater issue of doing nothing that hinders the Gospel.
The knowledge of the truth of God's Word must always work in conjunction with the love of God, otherwise we risk misrepresenting God and causing damage to the precisous people Christ died for!
The world is hard at work to redefine marriage, sexuality, and morality from a perspective that is is simply hostile to Jesus Christ and the clear teachings of the Bible. We are in a spiritual and cultural battle that seeks to replace every Christian, Biblical worldview with a false belief system. God tells us to not be conformed to the thinking of this world, but to be transformed by the renewal of our minds. To be transformed, we must reject the world's perspectives of life and only embrace God's view of sex and sexuality, otherwise the world quickly squeezes us into its mold and neutralizes our Christian faith!
It's tough living in a world that has little or no capacity to define good and evil. Much of what we see in society is a redefining of what was formerly understood to be evil as now suddenly the "new" good! Thankfully God isn't confused about what confuses so many people. His truth (the Bible) and knowing His True One, Jesus, shines a billion watt flashlight on the darkness in our world.
Experiencing lasting change in your life!
New Beginnings Series, Part 1
A light-hearted and honest look at the six ways that people use to try and produce lasting change in their lives. Followed by the amazingly effective ways that God uses to actually produce lasting change our lives!
"Retooling Church For His Mission"
Making proactive changes for His mission!
.COMCHURCH-PT 4
Jesus' mission in Acts 1:8 came before the creation of His church in Acts 2. That means that Jesus' church exists to be a Community On Mission. That truth puts everything we do into an Acts 1:8 context and challenges us to change the way we view and do everything in the church.
Jesus faced many challenges in his ministry, any one of which might have ended his ministry prematurely. Perhaps the biggest challenge was the fact that he was one man, limited by time and space. So, what happens when there's not enough Jesus to go around? "The Jesus Solution" looks at how Jesus handled this and other ministry challenges.
All of us are restless and unfulfilled by nature. This message addresses the heart of the search for fulfillment and why we are destined to be disappointed until our search leads us to fulfillment in Jesus Christ!
"When A Disciple Is Abused"
Paul's pattern for handling abuse in life!
Disciple Series, Part 4
"How Disciples Are Made"
The Acts model of becoming a disciple!
Disciple Series, Part 1
Most Needed; Least Practiced
The most needed and least practiced truths of Christianity!
Free Range Relationships
Values that release relational freedom!
Free Range Faith, Part 5
Practical truth on what to do with the Bible, followed by some of the authentic supernatural experiences of God's Word that you should expect in in your life.