Gospel Dynamite with J. Allen Mashburn

Pastor Mashburn continues his study in Ephesians, now with chapter 1: 7-10.  

Pastor Mashburn concludes his study in Ephesians 1:3-6.

Pastor Mashburn continues his study of Ephesians 1:3-6 with Part 2 of this study.

Pastor Mashburn continues his study in Ephesians with this three-part series on verse 3-6 of Ephesians chapter 1.

In this episode, Pastor Mashburn begins his study in the Book of Ephesians.  Share and post on your social media of what being in Christ has afforded us!

Join Pastor Mashburn as he examines the text of Matthew 24 and seeks to better understand the times in which we live.

In this message, Pastor Mashburn examines the Scripture that demands us to make up our own mind whom we will serve.  

Join Pastor Mashburn as he teaches about the Body of Christ.

This passage records what may have been the last intimate, personal conversation that Jesus had with another individual before He was crucified.  In this exchange between the Lord Jesus Christ and the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, we see two men with opposing agendas. Pilate comes across as one who is agitated at having been placed in the middle of what he sees as a religious dispute between Jews.  His sarcasm and short answers reveal his irritation.  Jesus, on the other hand, uses this conversation to reveal His true identity to Pilate.  When asked if He is really the King of the Jews, Jesus pulls no punches, but responds in the affirmative, v. 37. Then Jesus tells Pilate that His mission in coming to this world was that of going to the cross and dying to bear witness to the truth.  At this point, Pilate asks a question born out of pure cynicism.  He asks Jesus, “What is truth?”  This was a rhetorical question.  Pilate did not really want an answer, and he did not wait around to receive one.  In essence, he was telling Jesus, “What is true for you may not be true for me!  You say ‘to-may-to’, I say, ‘to-mah-toe’. Don’t talk to me about truth for truth cannot really be known!”    So, Pilate threw away a glorious opportunity to come to know the truth for himself.  He looked truth in the face, refused to see it and walked away, forever lost in his sins! I would like to take Pilate’s question this evening and ponder it for a few minutes.  I believe the Bible gives us enough information about truth so that we can answer this question for ourselves.  In fact, I want to take the texts I will use to examine truth from just the book of John.  Of the 222 verses in the Bible that contain the word “truth”, 22 or 10% are found in the Gospel according to John.  What is truth? 

Join Pastor Mashburn as he speaks about building a fortress around our minds.

We are told that Judas went to the religious leaders because he wanted to “betray” Jesus. Why would Judas want to betray Jesus after he had spent such intimate time with the Lord? Like everyone else who followed Jesus, Judas thought that Jesus had come to do the work of the Messiah. They saw His miracles, His power over demons, Satan and nature. They heard the way He taught and saw the way He lived, and they believed that he was the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah. Like the rest, Judas was expecting Jesus Christ to overthrow Rome and break the yoke of Roman oppression. He thought Jesus would deliver Israel, establish a restored kingdom in Israel, and richly reward His followers. When it became apparent that Jesus was not going to do those things, Judas became disillusioned with the Lord. The other disciples slowly began to understand that Jesus was the Messiah, but they also understood that He would accomplish His mission in a way that they could not as yet grasp. Judas never came to that understanding. Judas followed Jesus because he wanted power and money. He never embraced the spiritual kingdom of Christ. Why did he stay with Jesus? I think he was looking for a way to use Jesus to make himself rich. We must also remember that Judas kept the money that the little band collected as they traveled from place to place, and he was stealing from it. So, part of the problem with Judas began with confusion as to the identity and ministry to Jesus. As time went on, he became disillusioned and what fondness he may have had for Jesus turned to pure hatred.

Our text today deals with a man named Judas Iscariot. He is, without a doubt, the most notorious and most vilified of all the disciples. His name appears last in every list of the disciples, except in Acts 1, where his name does not appear at all. Every time he is mentioned in the Bible, the Word of God reminds us that he is a traitor who betrayed Jesus to His death. Judas was a failure as a disciple. He was exposed to the same teaching the others heard. He saw the same miracles and was involved in the same ministries.  Yet, Judas never came to saving faith in Jesus Christ. Judas spent three years with the Lord Jesus Christ and he died lost. The others were converted during their time with the Lord; Judas only became spiritually hard, calloused and hateful. The other eleven disciples were used of God in amazing ways. Their lives demonstrate the truth that common, ordinary people can be used of the Lord in extraordinary ways. Judas, on the other hand, stands as a stark warning about the dangers of wasted opportunities, hardness of heart, wicked lusts, and spiritual carelessness. While Judas was a failure as a disciple, he was the most successful hypocrite of all time.    He played his part so well that no one but Jesus Himself knew that Judas was a fraud and a pretender. He was as common and as ordinary as the rest of the disciples. He was so ordinary that he never stood out from the rest. He hid behind the camouflage of hypocrisy and no one but Jesus ever realized it.

Things are heating up in Jerusalem. Jesus has offended the religious powers and they are out to get Him, Mark 11:18. They want Him dead, so they come to Him in an effort to lay a trap for Him. They want Jesus to make a verbal misstep that they can use to their advantage. The text before us today is the first in a series of attacks launched by the enemies of the Lord Jesus. Their goal in all of these attacks is to either discredit Him with the people or to have a reason to accuse Him before the state. They are out to get Jesus and they do not care how they accomplish their goal. In this text, they come to Jesus with A Question Of Ownership. This challenge from these evil men has something to say to our hearts today. I just want to share two thoughts with you today. I want you to see The Jews And Their Attack and I want you to see The Lord And His Answer. Who owns you?

In the Bible, we are confronted with many poor examples of fathers. Such as, Ahab – 1 Kings 22:52; the men of Israel, Psa. 78:8, 78:57, Jer. 9:14. These Scriptures, along with many others, give glaring proof that there are bad fathers all about. In our day, the bad father is not hard to find. They are everywhere. However, finding that man who stands out as an example of what a good father ought to be is a hard animal to track down. About 3,500 years ago, God looked down on Abraham and declared him to be a good father. If a person will take the time to look at the life of Abraham, the reasons for this glowing assessment become abundantly clear.  Today, we are going to look at Abraham’s life and see God’s idea of what makes a good father.

Since the day Jesus began His earthly ministry and called His disciples to follow Him, He had tried to help them see exactly Who He was. They believed that He was a great teacher. They believed that He was a great prophet. They believed that He was a man of God. They may have even believed, on some level, that He was the promised Messiah. They believed that their leader, their rabbi, Jesus, was going to deliver their nation from the domination of Rome. They believed that Jesus was going to restore Israel to its former greatness. They believed that He would be the King of Israel.  And, they were right. They were just mistaken about the timing. The disciples believed that these things were about to happen in their lifetimes. They believed that Jesus was on the verge of establishing His kingdom in the world. They failed to understand the truth that God was up to something much greater than that. On two previous occasions Jesus had tried to tell His men that He was sent to this world to die. The first Jesus told them about His approaching death was in Mark 8:31. On that occasion Peter rebuked the Lord and could not grasp what Jesus was trying to tell them. On the second occasion, Mark 9:31, they were all confounded by what Jesus said and could not get their minds around it.

Whenever the saints say, 'Let us arise and build,' the enemy says, 'Let us arise and oppose.' There is no triumph without trouble. There is no victory without vigilance. There is a cross in the way to every crown that is worth wearing.  The real test of a leader is how he or she faces crises and reacts to opposition. This chapter recounts several forms of opposition and how Nehemiah confronted them. 

A man named Naboth, whose name means “fruit”, lived in Jezreel. Naboth owned a vineyard that was situated beside the summer palace of the Ahab, the king of Israel, v. 1. Verse 2 tells us that Ahab wanted Naboth’s vineyard and offered to trade him a better vineyard, or to pay him cash for his land. It seems like a reasonable offer on the surface. The king apparently was a gardener and wanted this patch of ground close to his palace to raise himself a vegetable garden.  But, Naboth refuses the king’s offer. I want to look at Naboth’s refusal today. I want to talk about the reasons why Naboth said “No!” to Ahab. I want to talk about what this passage has to say to us today. There are some folks in our world that would try to take away what we have been given by the Lord. When they come to us with their plans and ideas we need to be able to say “It’s Not For Sale!”

Join Pastor Mashburn as he preaches from the Scripture the need for godly manhood.

Join Pastor Mashburn as he expounds the Scriptures concerning Christ and how He died for the ungodly. 

The day before us in our text today has the distinction of being both a day of intense evil and a day which witnessed the triumph of good over evil. There is no other day in history that rises to the level of the day The King Was Crucified! It was an infamous day because it shows man at the height of his sinfulness. It was infamous because He came unto His Own and His Own received Him not. It was infamous because the Creator is put to death by His creatures!    However, it was a famous day in the annals of history because sin was defeated; the power of Satan was forever broken; and because the black halls of death were invaded by the Prince of Life! I would like for us to travel back to that day 2000 years ago and watch as the King of glory is crucified at Calvary. I pray the significance of that day will be made clear to our hearts and minds. Let's witness together The Crucifixion Of The King.