New Member Course: Leadership Structure and Member Responsibilities

This four-part course is presented to new member candidates for the purpose of demonstrating the importance and aspects of membership in a local church. This concluding session considers the role of elders and deacons and the responsibilities of members.

Ephesians 5:23,4:11-12,+2+Timothy+1:6-14
Acts 20:17,20:28
Philippians 1:1
1 Peter 5:2
1 Timothy 5:17
Hebrews 13:17
2 Timothy 1:6-14

Matt Courtney
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Acts: Here's Why!

In the book of Acts, the Church was being established. We here at Crossroads believe that the present day church should follow the pattern of the church originally established by Christ and His appointed apostles. We will watch these Apostles in action, and we will see answers to such questions as: Why does the church meet on Sunday? Why the Lord's Table? Who are to be the church's leaders? How is the church supposed to work? These are important questions, especially in a day when there seems to be a free-for-all approach to how we are to do church! God has not left us to flounder... He has given us lots of direction. And, if we follow that direction, we will be blessed!! Isn't it always that way!!

Acts 20

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Enthusiastic Angels Scaring Folk

Who would have thought the birth of the incarnate Son of God would include: a barn, a teenage Mom, questionable characters called shepherds peaking into barns and sheds at night, a hay trough... why all the nobodies.. and a special Somebody!

Luke 1:26-38,2:1-20
1 Corinthians 1:26-29
James 2:5
2 Corinthians 8:9

Sermon discussion topics for parents to use with their children:

• How many nobodies do you know?
• What is God's intentional strategy concerning nobodies?
• In what ways did Gabriel explain her future Son to Mary?
• Why did this event include shepherds?
• Why is this all so important for you personally?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

A Prayer of God's Peace, God's Work

This simple prayer reveals a lot about God and our relationship with Him.

Hebrews 13,2:3,3:12,4:7,6:1,12:24
Philippians 4:7,3:12
Acts 11:36,4:28
Romans 5:1
John 10:11
Titus 2:13
Jeremiah 13:31
Ephesians 2:10

Yes, blood is always a ghastly and a terrible thing. It is so, I suppose, because we recognize in it the destruction of life. Is it not so, also, - though we may not be able to define the emotion, - because we are compelled, in our consciences, to admit the effect of sin, and we are staggered as we see what our sin has done. All through the great school of the Jewish law, blood was constantly used to instruct the Israelite in the guilt of sin, and in the greatness of the atonement necessary for putting it away. Charles Spurgeon The Blood of the Testament

This is an "everlasting one"; it commenced from everlasting, as appears from the everlasting love of God, which is the rise and foundation of it; from the counsels of God of old, which issued in it; from Christ's being set up from everlasting, as the Mediator of it; from the promises of it which were made before the world began; and from the spiritual blessings of grace in it, which were given to God's elect in Christ before the foundation of it: moreover, it will endure for ever; nor will it be succeeded by any other covenant: and the blood of Christ may be called the blood of it, because the shedding of it is a principal article in it; by it the covenant is ratified and confirmed; and all the blessings of it come through it, as redemption, peace, pardon, justification, and even admission into heaven itself; and Christ, through it, was brought again from the dead, because by it he fulfilled his covenant engagements, satisfied divine justice, and abolished sin, yea, death itself. John Gill John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Sermon discussion topics for parents to use with their children:

• Why does the author offer this prayer?
• How do we obtain God's peace?
• How powerful is God?
• Why was it necessary for the shedding of blood?
• Why is God considered a covenantal God?
• What heart aches have you experienced that drew you closer to God?
• How may God be working in you through your difficulties to fit you perfectly together to do His will?

Matt Courtney
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Strange and Marvelous

Celebrating the birth of a displaced refugee peasant as God is both strange and marvelous.

Isaiah 9:6-7,11:1-5
Matthew 1:18-2:18
Luke 1:11-20,1:26-38,2:1-20
Hebrews 1:1-4

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Mark: Mission Impossible

To the exhausted disciples feeding the large, hungry crowd surely seemed like mission impossible, but Mark says to the exhausted Jesus it was still mission compassion, providing a glimpse into the Kingdom of God.

John 6:1-15
Mark 6:30-42
Philippians 4:19
1 Corinthians 3:9,3:6
Isaiah 25:6-9

Finally, let us mark the feelings of our Lord Jesus Christ towards the people who came together to Him. We read that He "was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep without a shepherd." They were destitute of teachers. They had no guides but the blind Scribes and Pharisees. They had no spiritual food but man-made traditions. Thousands of immortal souls stood before our Lord, ignorant, helpless, and on the highroad to ruin. It touched the gracious heart of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was "moved with compassion toward them. He began to teach them many things."

Let us never forget that our Lord is the same yesterday, today and forever. He never changes. High in heaven, at God's right hand, He still looks with compassion on the children of men. He still pities the ignorant, and them that are out of the way. His is still willing to "teach them many things." Special as His love is towards His own sheep who hear His voice, He still has a mighty general love toward all mankind-a love of real pity, a love of compassion. We must not overlook this. It is a poor theology which teaches that Christ cares for none except believers. There is warrant in Scripture for telling the chief of sinners, that Jesus pities them, and cares for their souls, that Jesus is willing to save them, and invites them to believe and be saved.

Let us ask ourselves, as we leave the passage, whether we know anything of the mind of Christ? Are we, like Him, tenderly concerned about the souls of the unconverted? Do we, like Him, feel deep compassion for all who are yet as sheep without a shepherd? Do we care about the impenitent and ungodly near our own doors? Do we use very means to spread the Gospel in the world? These are serious questions, and demand a serious reply. The man who cares nothing for the souls of other people is not like Jesus Christ. It may well be doubted whether he is converted himself, and knows the value of his own soul. J.C. Ryle

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

1 Peter: Elder, Shepherd, Overseer

Who is supposed to lead the local church? In our generation Christians are revisiting this question and returning to a Biblical Eldership. Peter has much to say to elders as a fellow-elder... and much to say to all of us about how Christ's church is to be governed.

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Acts 20:17-38,14:21-23
1 Peter 5:1-5
1 Timothy 3:1-7,5:17
Titus 1:5-9
Hebrews 13:17
Matthew 20:24-28

Sermon discussion questions for parents to use with their children:

• Why did God appoint elders for the church?
• What did Peter tell the elders they were and were not supposed to do?
• How are we supposed to relate to the elders?
• Why are they important on our pilgrimage to heaven?
• How are we supposed to treat each other according to this text?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Luke: Approachable Greatness

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Luke 2:1-20
Matthew 11:28-30

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Biblical Exhortations to Elders and the Congregation

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1 Peter 5:1-4
1 Timothy 4:6-7,12,16,5:1-2,17-22
Hebrews 13:17
2 Timothy 2:2-3,15,3:12-13,16-17
Titus 1:9,2:7-8
James 3:1
1 Corinthians 16:13
1 Thessalonians 5:12-13

“How shall we feel when we see in glory those who were entrusted to our care on earth? How shall we feel when we meet those who were brought to faith through our words, guided safely by our counsel, matured and strengthened by our care? Will we not experience an exultant, humble gladness when we realize that, in spite of much failure and felt weakness, we have been enabled to play a part in their everlasting happiness? When they speak freely of what God did for them through us, will our hearts not be filled to overflowing? Samuel Rutherford, the Covenanting preacher, was imprisoned in Aberdeen for loyalty to King Jesus. From that prison, on 13 July, 1637, he appealed affectionately to his congregation to trust the Savior: ’My witness is above; your heaven would be two heavens to me, and the salvation of you all as two salvations to me’. The elder, meeting even one soul from his flock at God’s right hand, will have ‘two heavens, two salvations’. We may hope to meet many more of our people than that.” Edward Donnelly, Peter Eyewitness of His Majesty

“Unless elders keep this end in view, it can never come about that they will proceed in the course of their calling in earnest…because there are innumerable hindrances which can discourage the most prudent. They have often to do with ungrateful men, from whom they receive an unworthy reward; long and great labors are often in vain; Satan sometimes prevails with his wicked devices. So then, to prevent the faithful servant of Christ from being cast down, there is this one and only remedy, to turn his eyes to the coming of Christ.” John Calvin

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Biblical Doctrine of the Church: The Shepherd and His Flock

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John 10:1-30,21:15-17
Acts 20:28-30
1 Peter 5:1-4

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA