Dr. John Oakes gave a series of sermons from 2 Peter March and April, 2026 for the Merced Christian Church.  The notes, PPTs and audio are here! 2 Peter I The Knowledge of Christ Notes    2 Peter I PPT    2 Peter I Audio    2 Peter II Confidence In God’s Word Notes    […]

Dr. John Oakes is now leading a church planting in Merced, California.  His lessons and sermons will be posted here.  There is another, earlier article, with many sermons and lessons from 2022 to 2025.  Here is the link:  Earlier Merced Sermons       More  recent sermons are below! 6/14  Judges IV Gideon God’s Warrior Notes  […]

Dr. John Oakes is giving a series of lectures for campus and other interns June 12-13 in Irvine, California.  The notes, power point and audio will be available here.    Daniel Notes    Daniel Class PPT      Daniel Audio I    Daniel Audio II You May Also Like: Class on Daniel by Dr. John […]

Question: I had a question about Psalm 110. Are we reading it wrong as Christians? I am not able to figure out who the writer was. Whether it was David himself, a scribe, or someone else. I’ve been reading a lot of commentaries and no one is able to decide the answer so I was […]

Question: How do you judge the evidence for the proposed Q source? Did think the proposed Q source actually existed or is it a figment of someone’s imagination? Answer: This “source” is entirely speculative.  There is no direct evidence for such a document.  Were there other written documents?  Maybe.  I would go so far as […]

Question: According to the Community Rule (1QS) 9:11 (DSS), [Editor’s note: This is a reference to a publication by the Essene group at Qumran in the first century AD, and was found among the Dead Sea Scrolls] there was an expectation of the coming of a “Prophet” and “two Messiahs”. Does this suggest that the […]

Dr. John Oakes gave a series of classes Winter, 2026 at the University of California, Merced.  Dr. Oakes covered topics in which Christianity interacts with modern culture.  Topics include Bioethics, Gender Issues, War and Peace, Christianity and Race, Christianity and Politics, Abortion and more.  Some, but not all, of these topics are not directly addressed […]

Dr. John Oakes gave a series of eight sermons from 1 Peter in Fall, 2025 for the Merced Christian Church.  Two sermons from 1 Peter 2 were delivered by others during the series, so this series of sermons covers only about 80% of the book.   Notes, PPT and audio are included. 1 Peter I Elect […]

Dr. John Oakes did a six-part class on the history of Christianity for the campus ministry at UC Merced in Merced, CA Fall, 2025.   The class was intended to help students understand what Christianity ought to look like today–how to navigate the various strains of how church is done in the modern context.  Notes, PPT […]