Josh Smith 10/15/26 Josh Smith 10/15/26

Who Is Jesus Really, and Why Does He Matter to Me?

Who is Jesus, really? Pastor Josh Smith shows what the Bible says: a real man in history, fully God and fully man, the Savior who rose, and a friend of sinners.

I once went to Las Positas College here in Livermore to ask students one of life's biggest questions: Who would you say Jesus is?

The answers were all over the place. One student honestly said they were not sure. Another said Jesus could be different for everyone. One called Jesus a best friend, and another told me, "He's my Lord and Savior."

Maybe you are somewhere in that mix. You have heard the name Jesus your whole life, but you have never taken a close look at Him. Some people say He was a myth. Others say He was a good teacher and nothing more. So who is Jesus, really?

I think the best way to find out is to listen to the people who were closest to Him. I also preached a whole message on why Jesus came to earth, and you can watch it here.

Jesus was a real person in history

Jesus is not a made-up character. Most historians, even ones who do not believe in God, agree that Jesus really lived and that He was crucified. His life split history in two. Even our calendar counts the years from around the time He was born.

We also have four books about His life: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They are eyewitness accounts, written by people who knew Jesus or who were close to people who did. Luke says his account comes from what was "handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word" (Luke 1:2, NIV).

And there are so many ancient copies of these books that there is really nothing like it in the ancient world. That is why I believe we have really reliable accounts of Jesus' life.

Knowing that Jesus lived is only the start. The bigger question is who He really is, and why He was here.

Jesus is fully God and fully man

John's Gospel begins like this: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1, NIV). The Word is Jesus. A few verses later, John says, "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us" (John 1:14, NIV).

Notice those two phrases: "was God" and "became flesh." Jesus was not just a good man who was close to God. He is God in the flesh. Jesus is fully God, and He is also fully man.

Jesus Himself claimed to be God. When He forgave a paralyzed man's sins, some teachers of the law thought He was blaspheming, because only God can forgive sins (Mark 2:5-7). He even said, "before Abraham was born, I am!" (John 8:58, NIV). "I am" is the name God used for Himself when He spoke to Moses (Exodus 3:14).

But Jesus was also a real man. After forty days of fasting in the wilderness, "he was hungry" (Matthew 4:2, NIV), and that is when the devil came to tempt Him. Jesus knows what it is like to be weak and tempted. The difference is that He never sinned. He is the only perfect person who ever lived.

Why does that matter for you? John says Jesus came "full of grace and truth" (John 1:14, NIV). He loves you enough to tell you the truth about where you have fallen short, but He also loves you enough to die for your sins. And you can trust Him, because the One who loves you is also the Creator and King of everything.

Jesus came to be your Savior, not just a good teacher

Some people say, "Jesus was a good teacher, but not a Savior. I'll just live by the Sermon on the Mount." But have you ever read it? Jesus said that murder is not the only thing that makes you guilty, because "anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment" (Matthew 5:22, NIV).

Jesus took God's commands all the way down to the heart. The whole point is to show us that none of us fully measure up. That is why Jesus is not just a teacher. He is a Savior who came to save us from our sins.

Here is the good news. Jesus came from heaven to earth and lived the perfect life that none of us have lived. Then He died on the cross in our place, for our sins. Hundreds of years before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah wrote about Him:

"But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed." (Isaiah 53:5, NIV)

Jesus was pierced and punished so that you could have peace. Jesus was hurt so that you could be healed.

But the story does not end at the cross. Three days later, Jesus rose from the dead! Over the next forty days, He "gave many convincing proofs that he was alive" (Acts 1:3, NIV). Jesus did not just claim to be God. He backed it up by defeating death.

If people ask me, "Josh, do you believe Jesus rose from the dead?" here is my honest answer. I don't just believe it. I know it, because I know Him. And you can know Him too.

Jesus is a friend of sinners, and He is calling you

One day Jesus walked past a tax collector named Levi, who was sitting at his booth. "'Follow me,' Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him" (Mark 2:14, NIV). Levi is also called Matthew. Yes, the same Matthew who wrote one of those eyewitness accounts of Jesus' life.

In Jesus' day, tax collectors were seen as the worst of sinners. People saw them as traitors who helped the Romans, and many of them cheated people to get rich.

Then Jesus had dinner at Levi's house with a crowd of tax collectors and sinners. Some religious leaders saw it and asked His disciples, "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?" (Mark 2:16, NIV). Jesus answered:

"It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." (Mark 2:17, NIV)

There was something about Jesus' kindness and compassion that drew sinners to Him. People even called Him "a friend of tax collectors and sinners" (Matthew 11:19, NIV), and they were right!

Jesus loves you just the way you are and right where you are. But He also loves you too much to let you stay that way. You do not have to clean up your mess before you come to Him, because He loves you in the middle of it. If you are afraid you have gone too far, read Can God Forgive Me After Everything I've Done?

The same Jesus who called Levi is calling you today, and no one will ever offer you a greater invitation.

What Jesus means for your life today

The world tells you to look within yourself to find your purpose. But you cannot find inside yourself what only God can give you. Once you know why Jesus was here, you will also know why you are here.

I really do believe that the purpose of life is knowing God, having a relationship with Him, and then letting other people know about Him. Through faith in Jesus, you are given free access to a relationship with God. Free access to forgiveness. Free access to a friend who will never fail you. Free access to a God who knows everything about you but still loves you.

The Bible says that through faith, "we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1, NIV). And peace with God brings the peace of God, even with chaos all around you.

You do not have to earn any of this or deserve it. It is offered freely to everybody, including you. If you are ready to put your trust in Jesus, our post on how to become a Christian walks you through that first step.

Today, you can stop guessing about who Jesus is and start getting to know Him for yourself. When you know more about who Jesus is, you will naturally begin to treasure Him more.

Daily Practice: Read the Gospel of John, one chapter a day, and let Jesus speak for Himself. As you read, ask yourself one question: Who does Jesus say He is? John tells you why he wrote it: "that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name" (John 20:31, NIV).

Josh Smith 10/10/26 Josh Smith 10/10/26

Does Prayer Really Work When God Doesn’t Seem to Answer?

Does prayer really work? Pastor Josh Smith shares why God answers prayer with yes, no, or wait, and how to pray when life doesn't go according to plan.

Maybe you have been praying for the same thing for a long time. It might be a job, a relationship, a healing, or someone you love coming back to God. You have prayed about it for hours, maybe for years, and nothing seems to change.

So you start to wonder, "Does prayer really work? Is God even listening?" And a thought creeps in: "God, if You were good, You would have given me what I prayed for. If You were real, You would have heard me."

Here is the honest answer. Yes, prayer works, and God answers, but not like a vending machine. He answers like a Father: sometimes yes, sometimes no, and sometimes wait.

I preached a message on how to pray when life is pressing in on you, from the prayer Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane.

God is a Father, not a vending machine.

All of us have used vending machines before. You put in your money, press the right buttons, grab your snack, and walk away.

Sometimes we treat God the same way. We ask Him for what we want, and when we get it, we walk away. When all your prayers are about what you want from God, you have started treating Him like a vending machine. Our prayers often reveal our priorities.

God does not want to deal with you transactionally, but relationally. You were created for a personal relationship with God, and prayer is how you talk to Him and listen to Him.

If you feel like you don't pray enough, you are not alone. I have never heard anyone say, "I pray way too much!" I don't pray as much as I would like to either. But prayer is not a professional act. It is a personal act. You don't need to know everything about the Bible or have your life all together. Prayer is simply a conversation with your Father.

And yes, you can ask Him for things, because He cares about every detail of your life. Jesus put it this way:

"If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!" (Matthew 7:11, NIV)

God answers prayer with yes, no, or wait.

Now, a good parent does not give their kids everything they ask for. A little kid asks, "Dad, can I eat a Lego?" No. "Can I run and dance in the middle of the street?" No. Some of the things kids ask for would hurt them.

It is the same with our Heavenly Father. We say, "Lord, I need this." But God knows your heart better than you do. He knows your future and everyone involved. So He answers with a wisdom only He has. Sometimes He answers yes. Sometimes He answers no. And sometimes He answers wait.

We love it when God says yes. When He says wait, it is frustrating, because we want it now. When He says no, it can be really hard. But when God says yes, He says yes because He loves you. And when He says no, He says no because He loves you.

Sometimes God even says no to good things. Paul planned to visit the church in Rome on his way to Spain, and he asked them to pray for his trip (Romans 15:23-32). But the Bible never records Paul making it to Spain. Was there anything wrong with wanting to share Jesus in Spain? Not at all. It was a good plan. It just was not God's plan.

Paul did get to Rome, but he arrived as a prisoner (Acts 28:16). Even in chains, he could write, "Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel" (Philippians 1:12, NIV).

So a no is not proof that God has stopped listening. If your unanswered prayer is tied to a deep loss, you may also want to read why God allows suffering if He is good and loving.

Some prayers God always answers with yes.

When God says no to one prayer, it is tempting to forget all the times He has said yes. Don't let one no erase them.

And some prayers God will always answer with a yes. Whenever you ask God to save you and forgive you, He will say yes. Whenever you ask Him to strengthen you through His Holy Spirit to do His will, He will say yes.

A desperate father once asked Jesus to heal his son. He told Jesus he believed, and in the same breath he asked Jesus to help him overcome his unbelief (Mark 9:24). Do you think asking God to increase your faith is a prayer He would like to answer with a yes? I think so!

When it doesn't go according to plan, pray like Jesus did.

The night before the cross, Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane. His soul was "overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death" (Mark 14:34, NIV). He knew what was coming: the betrayal, the nails, and the weight of all our sin. But He did not run from His Father. He prayed.

Under pressure, we often do the opposite. We distract ourselves, or we dwell on the problem until bitterness pulls us away from God. But when you are hurting is when you need God the most.

When David was in distress, he cried out to God for help. Later he wrote, "From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears" (Psalm 18:6, NIV). God hears you because He loves you. That doesn't mean He will always change your situation, though He can. But even when your situation stays the same, being heard by God changes you. It reminds you that you are not alone. For help praying honestly, read how Psalm 13 teaches us to lament, ask, and trust God's love.

Notice what Jesus actually prayed:

"Abba, Father," he said, "everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will." (Mark 14:36, NIV)

In the same sentence, Jesus is both asking and surrendering. He tells His Father exactly what He wants, and then He puts it back in His Father's hands. That cup stood for God's judgment on sin. Jesus asked for it to pass from Him. Hours later, He drank it on the cross, so that you and I don't have to.

So ask God for what is on your heart, and then say, "Not what I will, but what you will." The secret to that kind of surrender is knowing that God loves you and has a much better plan for you than you could ever come up with yourself. You won't always understand His purposes. Your job is to trust Him.

Trust God and stay faithful where your feet are.

It is easy to think you are trusting God when everything is going your way. But sometimes you are just trusting your circumstances. The true test of faith comes when life does not go the way you wanted.

The Bible says, "In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps" (Proverbs 16:9, NIV). Sometimes your plan lines up with God's plan. Other times, God takes your steps in a different direction. His plan does not always mean you will be healthier, wealthier, or more comfortable. But it will always lead you closer to Him.

So stop wishing things were different, and start being faithful where your feet are. Paul could have thrown a pity party in prison. Instead, he stayed faithful, and God used him there.

Think about it like this. When you build a house, you submit your plans to the city. The city can approve them, deny them, or ask for changes. In the same way, submit your plans to God. Your plans will sometimes fail, but His plans for you never fail. "But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations" (Psalm 33:11, NIV).

Today, you can bring God your honest request and trust Him with His answer, whether it is yes, no, or wait.

Daily Practice: Pray about the one thing that weighs on you most. Ask God for exactly what you want, then pray the words of Jesus, "Not what I will, but what you will." Before you finish, write down a few times God has already said yes to you, and thank Him for each one.

If there is a prayer that feels unanswered right now, send us your prayer request. We would be honored to pray with you.

Josh Smith 9/29/26 Josh Smith 9/29/26

Why Does God Allow Suffering If He Is Good and Loving?

Why does God allow suffering if He is good? Pastor Josh Smith gives an honest answer from the Bible about where pain came from and why it won't last forever.

Maybe you are asking this question because you lost your health or someone you love. Or maybe you turned on the news, saw one more story of pain, and wondered, "If God is good and loving, why is there so much suffering?"

That question is both honest and understandable, because life can be hard. Oftentimes, I have been dragged down by the hardships I face in life too.

I will be honest with you because I love you. We cannot fully understand why God allows every suffering in this life, and that may not be the answer you wanted. But God is not silent about suffering. When you open God's word, you find a story about suffering, and like any story, it has a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Suffering was never part of God's original creation.

The story begins in a perfect world. After God made everything, "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good" (Genesis 1:31, NIV). The planet was perfect, and people had perfect relationships with each other and with God.

Why did God make us? Love. God created you so He could love you and have a relationship with you, but love is a choice. When I proposed to my wife, Jamie, she had a chance to say yes or no. Thankfully, she said yes! If she had said no and I dragged her to the altar anyway, nobody would call that love.

God gave people a real choice because He wanted a real relationship. And wherever there is freedom of choice, there is a chance of consequences that come from bad choices. Adam and Eve chose to trust themselves more than they trusted God, so sin entered the world, and suffering came in with it.

You see, sin separates us from God, the source of everything good, and that leaves us open to suffering. God does not enjoy watching you suffer. It breaks His heart.

Your pain is not always a punishment for something you did.

When something terrible happens, many people wonder, "Is God punishing me for what I did last week?"

Not all suffering is directly because of your sin, but all suffering is indirectly because of sin. Some pain comes from our own bad choices, and some comes from what other people choose to do to us. But if you get sick, that does not mean you sinned last week. Sin broke the whole world, so a lot of suffering is not tied to any one choice you made.

In John 9, the disciples asked Jesus about a man who had been blind since birth. Who sinned, the man or his parents? "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him" (John 9:3, NIV).

Your suffering is not proof that God has turned against you, and He can still do His work right in the middle of it.

We will not understand every why in the middle of the story.

We know where suffering came from, but the middle of the story is where it gets messy. Why does one family do all the right things and still face heartbreak, while another family seems to have it easy?

The Bible is honest about this. It calls Job blameless, yet he lost nearly everything, including his children and his health. When Job asked God why, God did not hand him a list of reasons. Instead, He asked Job where he was when God laid the foundations of the earth (Job 38). Job finally admitted, "Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know" (Job 42:3, NIV).

Job did not understand everything, but he still trusted that God was great and good. Trying to understand everything about God is like an ant trying to understand the internet. It just won't work.

Think about it like this. Imagine a dad holding his newborn daughter and explaining gravity to her. She won't understand a word, and that is not because he is a bad teacher. She simply isn't ready yet. Compared to God, we are like that baby. He is not asking you to understand it all. He is asking you to trust Him while He holds you.

I have found that God does not cast us away when we ask, "Why would God allow this?" Rather, He gives us Himself as both the answer and the comfort we need. The Bible even gives us words for prayers like that, and Psalm 13 shows us how to pray honestly when we are hurting.

Suffering puts a choice in front of every one of us. Will it push you farther from God, or will it draw you closer to Him? Jesus never promised that life on this planet would be easy, but He did promise to be with you in it.

God is still good, even when what you are going through is not.

Not every storm in your life is one God sent you into. Sometimes it is simply the reality of the broken world we live in, and God allows it for His own reasons. Either way, He is still in control. God could heal you or stop the storm at any moment, but there are also times when He does not.

When He does not stop it, you can still hold on to this: what you are going through may not be good, but God is good, and He can bring good out of it. That is why Paul could write, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28, NIV). Notice, it does not say all things are good. It says God is working in all things.

God cares more about your character than He does about your comfort. He can use your hardest seasons to make you more like Jesus and to draw you closer to Him.

And God is not just powerful. He is present. Think about a bank: it has the power to cancel your debt, but it has no personal relationship with you, so it won't. A family member who loves you might want to help but may not have the money. In Jesus, you have the One who has both the power and the presence to carry you through.

Life can sideswipe you with suffering, but Jesus knows what that feels like. On the cross, He went through the worst kind of pain anyone could ever go through. The spiritual pain was even worse than the physical pain, because He was carrying the weight of our sins.

Jeremiah likely wrote Lamentations while his nation was being attacked and conquered, yet he could still say, "Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness" (Lamentations 3:22-23, NIV). God's faithfulness has more to do with the consistency of His character than the consistency of your circumstances.

Suffering does not get the last word.

The good news is that we will not stay in the middle of the story forever. Some suffering ends in this life, and some will not end until the life to come. But if you have placed your faith in Jesus, a day is coming when you will never suffer again.

Here is how the story ends:

"Look! God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 'He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death' or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." (Revelation 21:3-4, NIV)

Notice what comes first. Yes, there will be no more crying or pain, but what makes heaven so heavenly is that you get to be with God.

Whatever you are going through right now is not the end of your story, so don't lose hope. Just turn the page.

I do not know what trial you are facing, but God does, and His love for you still remains the same. Today, you can bring your honest questions to God and still choose to trust that He is good.

Daily Practice: Play the hymn "Great Is Thy Faithfulness." As it plays, tell God honestly what you do not understand about what you are facing. Then thank Him for one thing you know is true about Him.

If you are hurting and don't want to carry this alone, please share a prayer request. We would love to pray for you.

Guest User 6/4/26 Guest User 6/4/26

Is the Resurrection of Jesus Real and Relevant? An Easter Message for Livermore and the Bay Area

Every day we answer small questions: which shirt, which restaurant. We also answer bigger ones: where to live, who to marry. But underneath all of those sit the deepest questions of all — the ones that reach the root of why we exist. This Easter, our new series "Hard Questions, Real Answers" begins with the biggest question of them all: did Jesus really rise from the dead, and if He did, does it actually matter for your life?

Here is why this question is not just interesting but urgent: if Jesus really walked out of the grave, then your whole life belongs at His feet, with Him as Savior and Lord at the center. But if He did not, we are all wasting a beautiful Sunday morning. There is no comfortable middle ground. So let's look honestly at the evidence and the implications, walking through the Apostle Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 15.

Believing the Resurrection Is Reasonable

Faith in the resurrection is not blind belief. Paul roots his claim in eyewitnesses:

"For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living... Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born." (1 Corinthians 15:3–8)

Notice what Paul is doing. He is not simply asserting a private belief; he is pointing to people you could go and interview. Most of those five hundred witnesses were still alive. In effect he says, "Don't take my word for it — go ask them." That is the language of evidence, not legend.

Most historians, including skeptical ones, agree on a few things: Jesus lived, Jesus was crucified, and His tomb was found empty. If you reject the resurrection, you still owe an explanation for that empty tomb. Consider the common alternatives:

The swoon theory — that Jesus merely fainted. Yet the Romans knew how to kill, and Jesus was brutally whipped and beaten before He was crucified. Even if He had somehow survived, a badly injured man could not have rolled away a heavy stone, and anyone who saw Him would have seen a dying man, not a risen Lord.
The legend theory — that the resurrection developed over centuries. But the creed Paul passes on in 1 Corinthians 15 goes back to the church's earliest days, and the Gospels were written within 20 to 40 years of Jesus' life. Legends do not form that quickly while eyewitnesses can still object.
The hallucination theory — that grieving followers imagined it. But five hundred people do not share the same hallucination.
The conspiracy theory — that the disciples stole the body. Yet these ordinary men went on to suffer and die rather than recant. People may die for something false they believe is true; they do not knowingly die for what they know is a lie.

Even a detail like the first witnesses being women — whose testimony carried little legal weight in that culture — argues for authenticity. No one inventing a story would include it. It's there because it happened.

The Resurrection Can Reach Anyone

Paul does not just argue for the resurrection; he is living proof of its power.

"For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect." (1 Corinthians 15:9–10)

Before he was a church planter, Paul was a church persecutor — approving executions, hunting believers. Any of us would have written him off. Yet God chose him and transformed him. That's the point: the resurrection can reach anyone. It does not matter how long or how far you have been running from God. Grace is not based on what you deserve; it is based on who God is. And grace, when truly received, is always transformational. Jesus made the same point when He said of a forgiven woman, "her many sins have been forgiven — as her great love has shown" (Luke 7:47). The more we grasp how much we've been loved, the more naturally we live for Him.

The Resurrection Gives Living Hope

Finally, Paul explains why all of this matters for the future:

"And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins... If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep." (1 Corinthians 15:17–20)

Because Jesus rose, those who trust Him will rise too. Peter calls it "a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade" (1 Peter 1:3–4). Biblical hope is not wishful thinking about the weather; it is confident expectation of a secure future. And because that hope is a gift you never earned, it can never be taken from you — which means no fear in life and no fear in death. Death becomes not a dead end but a doorway.

A Takeaway to Sit With

Jesus told doubting Thomas, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (John 20:29). You may not have it all figured out, and that's okay — it is not the strength of your faith that saves you but the depth of His love. So the honest question this Easter is simple: is the resurrection real and relevant to you? Not, have you attended church or memorized verses — but have you actually entrusted your life to the risen Jesus?

If that question is stirring something in you, we would love to walk with you. Whether you are a longtime believer or exploring faith for the first time here in Livermore and the Tri-Valley, there is a place for you at Arroyo Church.

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