Life after Easter #3 - Rethinking Life

We live in the days after Easter. That’s true for us historically. Jesus died and rose again on the third day over 2000 years ago. Hundreds of people saw him alive. All of them have fallen asleep. We live on the basis of their eyewitness testimony. We live in the days after Easter.

We also live in the days after Easter in another way. By our baptism, we, too, have been raised with Christ and have been seated with him in the heavenly places. We live after our own spiritual resurrection. We live after Easter and before eternity. And that presents us with tension, an after Easter and before a final Easter resurrection. It’s the already and not yet tension. We are already raised with Christ and we will later be raised again to eternal life. We are already perfect in Christ and not yet fully glorified. We are already redeemed, and yet we wait for the redemption of our bodies. We live between Easters.

Romans 8 means to help us maintain this tension. And this weekend, as we get into the second half of this great chapter, Paul is going to help us live in this tension by teaching us to rethink life. He’s going to help engage our minds and to think about what Easter means for our lives. He’s going to help us rethink life. We’re in Romans 8:18-30.

Life after Easter #2 - Easter Security

This is what Easter is all about: it is a detailing of the otherwise unbelievable love of God in the sacrifice of his own Son for the likes of us sinners. It is an unveiling of the incredible victory gained by Jesus over all our sins, even over death itself. God gave us his Son. His Son conquered the grave. His Spirit resurrected faith in our hearts. And we respond with overwhelming confidence! Come death, come angels or demons! Let the past haunt me and the present scare me, and the future terrifies me! It is all nothing; the love of God in Christ leaves me at peace and secure. In Romans 8, Paul shows us what life after Easter is like. More than that, he gives that post-Easter life to us.

This Sunday, we’ll be tackling Romans 8:12-17. And if there is one thing that Paul wants to give us there, it is Easter certainty. A life without doubts. A life without worries. A certain life. Life without the “if” in the middle (try spelling life without “if” sometime.).

Life after Easter #1 - Easter Consequences

We live after Easter. That is a fact. Jesus died and rose again, and we live after that fact. We also live after Easter in another way. We have had our own spiritual resurrection from death to life. We live after Easter in more ways than one. But we also live before the final resurrection. We live before Jesus returns to raise all the dead. We are in between resurrections. So, how do we live between resurrections? What is this after Easter life? Paul answers it for us. We begin a look at Romans chapter 8 today. We'll be looking at Romans 8:1-11.

In the Garden #7 - Kingdom Politics

Israel had bad kings. These kings abused their people and oppressed them. They fed their fat bellies and failed to care for the people. Instead of shepherding the people, they were wolves. Instead of ruling for the people, they ruled over the people for their own benefit. In Jeremiah 23, God has something to say to these kings. He has a word of “woe” for these fat kings. And his oppressed people were in the background, hearing what God said to the kings and what he promised to do for them, the scattered and oppressed sheep. Yes, there is a word for the oppressed people here too. Hear his Word from Jeremiah 23:1-8.

In the Garden #6 - This is the Way.

God set before his people a way of life and death. Babylon had laid siege to their city, and the walls were about to fall. How would they survive? To these threatened people, God laid out the way of life and death: Surrender. Surrender, and you will live. This week, we consider this way for our own lives and see how “surrender” is God’s way to life. Jeremiah 21:1-10.

In the Garden #4 - Stupid Scarecrows

There is no one like our God. He made the heavens and the earth and everything else in it. There is none who compares with him. So why did Israel take a stick of wood that God made and then worship it? Why do we turn to things or people whom he created and lean on them? It’s foolish! This week, Jeremiah uproots idolatry from our hearts, teaches us to mock the idols, and to lean on our incomparable God. A sermon on Jeremiah 10:1-16.

In the Garden #2 - The Great Divorce

Imagine this. A husband or a wife walks into a courtroom, a divorce courtroom. They have charges to bring and multiple exhibits of their right to sue for a divorce. Their spouse has turned away from them to others. They are broken, saddened, spurned and even upset. Should they take their spouse back, even if they’re sorry?

Though the story above is all too common, we’re not going to be talking about marriage and divorce, not this week. This week, as we get back into Jeremiah, it is God who is bringing the suit and we who are being charged with unfaithfulness. It is God who is broken, saddened, spurned and even upset. Should he - will he - take us back, even if we’re sorry? Would he do that for Israel? We’ll be looking at selections from Jeremiah 2 and 3.

NEW SERIES In the Garden: God's Lenten Work

In the Garden: God’s Lenten Work

We’re back at Jeremiah again. Last time, we learned from Jeremiah, the model survivor. This time, we’re listening to him. Get out your hardhats and your life-preservers. Jeremiah has some demolition work to do on us. Listen up but be ready; his message is not for the faint of heart. But he only means to re-make and resurrect us through it.

In the Garden #1 - God's Lenten Work

We're back to Jeremiah again. This time we get to see God at work. He works on us like a Gardener, uprooting and planting. He works on us like a Demolition Man, tearing down walls and rebuilding. He works on us even like an enemy. His only goal is to see that his Word is carried out and accomplished in our lives. A sermon on Jeremiah 1:9-12. (We apologies that there is not video of the speaker. We pray that the audio will be a blessing to you).