Eye-Opening Light: Seeing through Shame

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: John 9:1-9, 35-41
April 27, 2025

John 9:1-9: As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.

The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.”

John 9: 35-41: Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.

Sermon Outline

1. Intro: “What’s your story?”

2. Main point

3. The reasons for shame

• Our own sin

• The sins of others

• God’s work

4. The redemption displayed

• Jesus cleanses him

• Jesus exhibits him

• Jesus shepherds him

5. The reversal of sight

When Weeping Gives Way to Witness

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: John 20:1-18
April 20, 2025

Sermon Outline

1. Main Idea

2. Wondering about truth

• The tomb provokes questions

• The Scripture speaks

3. Weeping that turns

• Jesus is The Resurrection

• Jesus is The Good Shepherd

• Jesus is The Way to The Father

4. Witnessing to Triumph

Eye-Opening Light: Seeing at Night

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: John 3:1-21
April 13, 2025

Sermon Outline

1. Main point

2. A religious man (with a hidden problem)

• A man with wealth and influence

• A man with spiritual curiosity, but cultural hindrance

3. The Triune God (with an unbelievable plan)

• The Spirit gives life

• The Son is lifted

• The Father loved

4. All people (with ultimate beliefs)

• Whoever

• Response to the Light

• Empty living vs. eternal living

Eye-Opening Light: Seeing His Signs

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: John 2:1-11
March 16, 2025

Sermon Outline

1. Introduction

• A crisis at a wedding

• Why did John include this in his gospel?

• The main point

2. The revealing crisis

• Why a wedding?

• What the crisis mirrors

3. The foretaste sign

• Why Jesus said what He said

• Jesus brings purification to its pinnacle

• Jesus shields us from our shame

• Jesus sets enjoyment in eternity

4. The hour approaching

• The shadow cast over the gospel of John

5. The response of faith

• The response to the miracle

• Do you perceive Jesus for who he is?

• Train yourself, Christian, to let go of lesser joys

“How soon do earthly lovers come to an end of their discoveries of each other’s beauty; how soon do they see all that is to be seen?... [But] how happy is that love, in which there is an eternal progress in all these things; wherein new beauties are continually discovered, and more and more loveliness, and in which we shall forever increase in beauty ourselves; where we shall be made capable of finding out and giving, and shall receive, more and more endearing expressions of love forever: our union will become more close, and communication more intimate.” — Jonathan Edwards, Heaven, a World of Love (2020)

Eye-Opening Light: Seeing His Glory

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: John 1:1-18
March 9, 2025

2 Chronicles 26: 15-16: The Lord, the God of their ancestors, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord was aroused against his people and there was no remedy.

Sermon Outline

1. His climatic coming

• God called out to his own

2. His sober diagnosis

• We naturally hide

• We easily misunderstand

• We quickly reject

3. His unbelievable message

• God adopts all who receive him

4. Applications

”When we approach Him in the intensity of worship, we gather up all the sweetness involved in Fatherhood and all the tenderness wrapped up in sonship; when calamities overcome us and troubles come in like a flood, we lift up our cry and stretch out our arms to God as a compassionate Father; when the angel of death climbs in at the window of our homes and bears away the object of our love, we find our dearest solace in reflecting upon the fatherly heart of God; when we look across the swelling flood, it is our Father’s House on the light-covered hills beyond the stars which cheers us amid the crumbling of the earthly tabernacle.” — Robert Webb, Adoption: The Sweetest Doctrine, TableTalk (2024)

Our Unity is His Priority

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Speaker: Matt Carter
Scripture: John 17:20-23
January 28, 2024

John 17:20-23: “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

Sermon Outline

1. Who is Jesus praying for?

• Jesus is praying for those who will believe

• What did Jesus want for us?

2. In what sense is Jesus in the Father, and vice versa?

• The Word was with God and the Word was God

• The Father was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Christ

3. Why does Jesus pray so fervently about our unity in him?

• Unity in such a diverse group of people testifies that Jesus is in our midst

• Unity in the midst of diversity is messy and costly

Benediction

May you be found hidden in Christ and in God the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit living in you. And may the unity that comes from having been hidden there well up in expressions of love for God and for the diverse body of believers around you. In Jesus’ Name, Amen. — paraphrased from Colossians 3:3 & John 17:20-23

The Full Extent of His Love (and Brick Lane’s Vision for 2024)

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: John 13:1-2
December 10, 2023

John 13:1-2, NIV: It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love. The evening meal was being served , and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus.

Sermon Outline

1. Jesus washes his disciples’ feet

• Jesus had already loved them 1,000 ways

• Now He shows them the full extent of his love

2. Jesus enables us to love him and other people without exhaustion

3. Brick Lane goals for 2024

• Ministries

  • Public worship

  • Internal ministries

  • Expand local outreach

  • International outreach

• What these ministries need

  • A building

  • Staff

  • Finances

  • Prayer

Real Grace for Real Failures

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Speaker: Mark Estes
Scripture: John 21:1-17
February 26, 2023

Grace Upon Grace

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: John 1:14, 16-18
January 22, 2023

John 1:14: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:16-18: For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.

Sermon Outline

1. We can love Jesus because we've all received "grace upon grace" (Jn 1:16)

• Literally "grace instead of grace"

• Two ideas of grace

• Think of your life

2. We can love Jesus because we've received grace from his fullness

• Illustration: Engine trouble on the road

• Jesus has infinite fullness

3. We can love Jesus because what he brought us far exceeds what former believers experienced

• Nothing wrong with the Law given through Moses

• What Jesus taught and did is vastly superior

• "Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ"

4. We should love Jesus because he alone can make the Father known to us

• Jesus is "at the Father's side" (Jn 1:18)

• Jesus is called "the only GOD who is at the Father's side"

• Jesus is called "the only God

Benediction

Now to him who loved us and washed us with his blood be eternal praise, and to you who believe be eternal grace and joy. Amen. — paraphrased from Revelation 1:5-6

Children Born of God

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: John 1:12-13
January 15, 2023

John 1:12-13: But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Sermon Outline

1. People became children of God by believing in his Son

2. Believing is more than a feeling

• To describe becoming a child of God, John uses an action word

• (With fellow apostles) John coins a new expression to describe the activeness of faith in Christ

• J.C. Ryle on the need to believe

3. Believing means trusting in a person, not just acknowledging a set of doctrines

• John shows the personal nature of believing by the phrase "believed in his name"

• John shows the personal nature of believing by adding a parallel word

• Illustration: Steve the summer youth director

4. How people do not become children of God

• Natural descent

• Human decision

• Husband's will

5. How people do become children of God

Benediction

Matthew 11:28: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

2 Corinthians 13:14: May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

The World Did Not Know Him

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: John 1:10-11
January 8, 2023

John 1:10-11: He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

Sermon Outline

1. The fact that the world did not know him

• Before public ministry

• During public ministry

2. Why the world should have known him

• World should have known him because it was made through him

• World should have known him because he was in the world

• World should have known him because he came to those in the best position to know him

3. Why did the world not know him?

• World was spiritually blind

• World was resistant

4. Applications

• For the believer

• For the resistant

And the Word Became Flesh

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: John 1:1-3, 14
December 25, 2022

John 1:1-3: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

John 1:14: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Sermon Outline

1. Background

• In the beginning was the Word (logos)

  • Pagan understanding of the Word

  • Jewish understanding of the Word

• John personalizes the Word

2. Surprisingly, the Word came to earth in a lowly, humble fashion

• The Word became "flesh"

• How John describes the Word living among us

3. The Word came to earth with splendor and magnificence

• We see this from the idea of "tent”

• "We have seen his glory"

• How was glory seen in the Word?

John the Baptist Introduces the Word

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: John 1:6-8, 15
December 18, 2022

John 1:6-8, 15: There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light

(John bore witness about him, and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.'")

Sermon Outline:

1. The idea of a "witness"

2. John the Baptist's witness

• Manner

• Role

• Message

3. Lesson #1: Don't over-value God's witnesses

• John the Apostle disabuses the notion that John the Baptist was the pinnacle

• Application

4. Lesson #2: Don't under-value God's witnesses

• Don't under-value God's witnesses in general

• In particular, don't under-value witness of the two Johns

5. Lesson #3: It's not enough to merely hear the gospel; you must do something with it

The Word as Light and Life

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: John 1:4-5
December 4, 2022

John 1:4-5: In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Sermon Outline

1. In him was life

• The Word is the reason any life existed

• The Word is the reason any joy in life existed

• The Word is the reason any spiritual life existed

2. That life was the light of men

• Makes things possible

• Brings joy

• Shows things as they really are

  • Better than we think

  • Worse than we think

3. The light shines in the darkness

4. The darkness has not overcome it

• Definition of "overcome"

• The point

The Word in the Beginning

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: John 1:1-3
November 20, 2022

John 1:1-3: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Sermon Outline

1. In the beginning...

• The Word existed
  B. The Word was with God
  C. The Word was God

2. The "Logos" (Word)

• Pagan understanding of "The Logos"

  • John: "Let me tell you about this Word"

• Jewish understanding of "The Logos"

  • John: "Through the Word all things were made"

3. Summary

4. Applications

• God smiles on creativity in presenting the gospel to non-Christians

• You cannot reach God except through Jesus

• Your savior is mysterious

• To stand before him...

  • In judgment: indescribably awful

  • Accepted: thrilling beyond words

Help with Being Holy: The Means of Grace — The Bible

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: John 17:17
September 4, 2022

John 17:17, NIV: "Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth."

John 17:17, NLT: "Make them pure and holy by teaching them your words of truth."

Sermon Outline

1. The "means of grace"

• The meaning of grace

• The paradox of grace

• An illustration of the paradox

• The means of grace

2. Who, exactly, needs to be sanctified by the Bible?

• The twelve apostles

• Jesus (while he was on earth)

• Your holiness is linked with your familiarity with the Bible

3. What did Jesus mean by "your word"?

4. How the Bible helps you with holiness

• Most basic: information about what really counts

• God breathes life into that information

5. Challenges to reading the Bible

• "I already know what's in the Bible."

• "I don't understand it."

• "I'm a poor reader."

• "The Bible doesn't seem to help."

6. Closing Appeal

Benediction

Acts 20:32: “Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”

Let Us Die With Him

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: John 11:1-16
May 29, 2022

John 11:1-16: Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. So the sisters sent word to Jesus. "Lord, the one you love is sick."

When he heard this, Jesus said, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it." Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days. Then he said to his disciples, "Let us go back to Judea."

"But Rabbi," they said, "a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?"

Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world's light. It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light."

After he had said this, he went on to tell them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up."

His disciples replied, "Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better." Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.

So then he told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him"

Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him."

Sermon Outline

1. At some point, Christian disciples -- especially leaders -- will be asked to "die" as they follow Christ.

• Dying can be literal

• Dying can be figurative

• What dying looked like for Paul

• What dying might look like for you

• Dying is unpleasant

2. When small group leaders die, they are dying "with Jesus."

• As you face frustrations, weariness, tensions... Christ is facing these things in you

• Christ feels your pain especially as you die in ministry

3. Small group leaders encourage each other to die.

• It's one reason we're in church today

4. When followers of Christ are willing to die with him, God uses them despite their weaknesses.

• Was Thomas strong?

• How did it end for Thomas?

Washing Each Other's Feet

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: John 13:12-17, 34-35
May 15, 2022

John 13:12-17: When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. "Do you understand what I have done for you?" he asked them. "You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

John 13:34-35: A new commandment I give to you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

Sermon Outline

1. Does Jesus want us to literally wash feet?

• I can't prove he doesn't, but I suspect not

  • Reason #1: Jesus often uses figurative language

  • Reason #2: The Bible is sensitive to people's culture

  • Reason #3: The literal meaning is easier than the figurative meaning

2. Christ teaches me to wash other's feet by becoming a slave

• John 13:34 = "Be a slave of other as I have been your slave."

  • "Slave" in this case is a Greco-Roman slave, who was treated almost like a member of the family, not like chattel, as in the Antebellum South

• I'm to be a slave even if I hold a high position

3. Jesus calls this a "new command."

• Not totally new (Leviticus 19:18), but a new importance was given to it

• A new reason was given for it

• A new degree of self-sacrifice is given in it.

4. As a slave, whose feet am I to wash?

• I'm to wash the feet of Christians I'm familiar with

• I'm to wash the feet of Christians who are different from me

5. 4 questions to ask myself:

• Where do I sit in church?

• Who do I talk with?

• Where, and for whom, do I pray?

• How do I use my home?

Caution: We don't serve in order to be washed. We are washed in order to serve.

The Vine of Life

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Speaker: Joshua Olson
Scripture: John 15:1-14
May 8, 2022

John 15:1-14: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.

Sermon Outline

1. Why is abiding in Christ important?

• It's a matter of life or death

• Apart from Christ, we can do nothing of eternal significance

• Abiding in Christ will result in full, sustaining, life-giving joy

2. What does it mean to abide in Christ?

• Abide in his love.

Christians as Washed

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: John 13:1-11
May 1, 2022

John 13:1-11, NIV: It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

“No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

“Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.

Sermon Outline

1. Jesus and his disciples prepare for the Passover.
a. Jesus and "his own"
b. Jesus will leave "his own"

2. The threatening world the disciples will stay in versus the love of Jesus
a. The threat of Judas Iscariot
b. The threat of Satan
c. The calmness and love of Jesus

3. Jesus washes their feet.
a. The physical setting
b. 1st Century Jewish culture

4. The meaning of the washing
a. Humility and cleansing
b. The salvation that Christ has worked in Christians