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Things Jesus Said #3 - About Sabbath

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What would it be like to run, to really run? To just run without a care in the world. To fly like a bird set free from its cage. To leap and frolic like a calf set free from its pen. To roar like a muscle car in the salt flats. Yes, what would be like to run, to really run, in this life that God has given us? The disciples knew that life, and now we do too. It is life under Him in his kingdom, serving him in righteousness, purity, and innocence. An Ascension sermon on Mark 2:18-28.

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Things Jesus Said #2 - About Family

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Not only is Jesus our Savior, but he is also an insightful and perfect Teacher from God. He has important things to teach us about our life with him, for him, and our life with one another. Over the next month, we’ll look at five bite-sized sayings of Jesus that shape our lives. Today, as we unpack another of these short little sayings of Jesus, we’re going to unpack Jesus’ teaching about family. On Mother’s Day, we want to focus on Jesus’ interaction with his family and what Jesus teaches about the true nature of family. This week we’ll hear his word About Family (Mark 3:20-35).

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Things Jesus Said #1 - About Welcoming Children

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People say a lot of things about children. One of the mantra’s I remember hearing about children is this: “Children should be seen and not heard.” My parents and grandparents were probably trying to get me to be quiet so that the adults could talk. I haven’t heard that saying in quite a while, but the idea still lurks around. Children can be seen as a nuisance, in the way of getting and doing what I really want to do, insignificant and even a hindrance. “These shouldn’t be here.”

But Jesus teaches a different way. As we begin a new series on the short little sayings of Jesus, Jesus teaches us to value children and to welcome them. And when we do that, when we care for children, when we welcome them in Jesus’ name, Jesus says something astounding to us: “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me!” Yes, when you welcome a child into your arms in the name of Jesus, you are welcoming Jesus into your lap.

Wow! That’s gives a whole new image to family devotions, to classroom devotions, to the work that parents do, to the work that Christian teachers do. We’re kicking off a new series on these short little sayings of Jesus. We’ll be looking at Mark 9:30-37.

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Life after Easter #4 - Evidence of Election

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Almost anytime it comes up in the Bible, there are lots of questions. I’m talking about the doctrine of election, the teaching about predestination. There are lots of questions about it, but the most important question is: How can I know if God picked me? Today, we’ll answer that question and look for evidence of our election. We’ll be looking at Romans 8:28-39.

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Life after Easter #3 - Rethinking Life

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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.

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Life after Easter #2 - Easter Security

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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.).

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Life after Easter #1 - Easter Consequences

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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.

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In the Garden #7 - Kingdom Politics

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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.

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In the Garden #6 - This is the Way.

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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.

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In the Garden #4 - Stupid Scarecrows

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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.