Edgefield Church Nashville: Recent Episodes
Edgefield Church Nashville
The apostle Paul reminds the first century Christians in Rome of their wonderful new life in the Spirit and how to deal with their stubborn sin.Â
Samuel feared the Lord. Saul feared the Philistines, and even his own people. Who will you fear?
In the rise of Saul, God gave Israel the king they asked for, not the king they needed. But in his great mercy, he turns his judgment into their deliverance.
The story of Hannah shows us what true faith looks like—the faith Israel would need in the mess they were in, and the faith we need to grab hold of what God has promised us.
1-2 Samuel show us why it’s such good news that Jesus has come as king. Judges shows us why we need a king in the first place.
Paul concludes his letter by reminding the Corinthians to love all brothers and sisters in Christ.
Paul concludes his letter by reminding the Corinthians to love all brothers and sisters in Christ.
Paul continues to explain to the first century church in Corinth that they will receive resurrection bodies. But with what bodies will they come? And when will they come? And what will that mean for how they are to live on earth now?Â
Having explained the truth of the resurrection of Christ, Paul reveals the consequences of Jesus rising for the Corinthians past, future, and present.Â
Paul reminds the Corinthians of the essentials of the gospel - that which they must proclaim and hold fast to.
What does a love the church body look like? For the sake of unbelievers and believers alike, the Corinthians are to desire the gift of prophecy over the gift of tongues.
Jesus spent some of his final moments praying for unity among his people. But what unity matters to Jesus? And why does unity matter so much to Jesus?
As the apostle Paul concludes his letter to the Thessalonians he calls them away from laziness and to work hard for one another because they are in the Lord.
For your life and growth and happiness as a Christian, it's crucial to know how Jesus feels about his friends and what he wants for them.
With his final words to his disciples before the cross, Jesus commands them to take heart, and tells them why they should.
Jesus promises his disciples that after his death and resurrection, their sorrow will turn to joy! And Jesus says that no one will ever be able to take the joy of knowing Christ away from those who follow Him. This un-takable joy is anchored in Christ’s resurrection: no one can take our joy because no one can take Jesus from us, not even death.
Paul tells the Thessalonians that they can expect lawlessness in this world because Christ has not come yet. He will come soon, but until then Christians must not be deceived like those who stubbornly refuse the Word - they must stand firm in it.
Through this metaphor of the vine and its branches, Jesus shows us how we grow as Christians. He shows us what is his role, and what is ours.
Paul thanks God that the Thessalonians are living lives worthy of the coming kingdom. For, unlike their persecutors who will be condemned, they trust in Christ, love other Christians, and are willing to suffer for the king.
Our calling as a church is to glorify God through a love for one another that looks like his love for us.
On the night he was betrayed, just hours before his terrible death, Jesus paused to serve his friends, and to show us how to follow after him.
In this overview sermon, we see how Paul reminds the hard-working Thessalonians of God’s grace which brings peace.
Everything that exists points to the greatness of God. But it takes a human to praise him for his goodness. That's what we were made for.
Daniel now in his eighties must live under new rule. Under Medo-Persian rule, his Israelite name is returned to him. But will he continue to live according to it?
As Persians attack Babylon, King Belshazzar, proudly drinks to himself and to his pagan gods. The son has not learned form his father. The writing is on the wall. God reveals, 'Your time is up!'
King Nebuchadnezzar makes great boasts of all that he has built in Babylon? How will God deal with this consistently arrogant and evil king? A second dream is dreamed...
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, are threatened with the fiery furnace unless they worship the kings image. Will they fall to the image or face the inferno?
King Nebuchadnezzar cannot sleep and the wise men of his day cannot interpret his dream. Only Daniel can reveal the truth. Will the king find rest? And what will he remember from God's word to him?
Daniel and his young teenage friends begin exile in Babylon, and are quickly called to a distinctive life. What must all students of God know as when facing a world which desires our assimilation?
To understand what it means to be human, we have to understand that death is certain, death is tragic, death is humbling, but death is useful.
The fallout from sin touches every relationship in our lives, from our relationship with the world to our relationships with one another to the most important relationship of all--our relationship with God. But the gospel has the power to restore those relationships as far as the curse is found.
The apostle John arises from his angelic vision of the New Creation. Was it all just a dream? And how do Christians live today in light of the New Creation that they will inherit soon?
Parting words of wisdom: Peter ends his letter with some simple commands that help us bring the hope of Christ into our everyday. Be humble. Stay alert. And keep your eyes on heaven.
Behind our specific acts of disobedience is our rejection of what it means to be human. We question God's authority, reject God's goodness, and decide we are better off on our own.
Marriage is designed to help us do what God made us to do: represent his rule, and reflect his love. And sex is designed for marriage.
God made men and women as equals, but to be distinct. And he made us male and female, on purpose, for our good.
God made us to need him. This simple point has huge implications for how we see ourselves, how we see God, and how we see one another.
Having explained who will be in the new creation, John now describes what the city of the new Jerusalem will be like - the home for all whose names are in the book of life.
To be made in the image of God is to be made for a purpose: to represent God's rule, to rest in God's goodness, and to reflect God's glory.
What does it mean to be made in the image of God? It means that human dignity is based on the love of God, and human dignity extends to every human life.
When God made everything, everything he made was good, exactly as he wanted it. What does that mean for our lives as humans in God’s good world?
Knowing ourselves begins with knowing that we are not God, that we owe our lives to God, and that therefore God defines who we are.
A vision of the New Heavens and the New Earth is given by Jesus to the apostle, John. It will be where God dwells. But who else will be there?
The young King Ahaz, of the house of David, is besieged by King Rezin of Syria and King Pekah of Israel. What will he do? Will he trust the sinful forces of his day, or the Lord’s saving promises?
A list of ancestors may seem to us like an underwhelming way to begin the story of Jesus' life. But Matthew's genealogy is the perfect introduction to where Jesus came from, what Jesus came to do, and who Jesus came to save.
Is anyone ruling the world? If so, does he care about what's happening? According to Psalm 147, yes and yes.
The end of this incredible story is also our invitation to take up our role in the work God is doing in the world.
As Paul's circumstances go from bad to worse, we see in Paul's character the unmistakable beauty of Jesus, and the trustworthiness of the God to whom Paul belongs.
Paul is caught between Jewish leaders who hate him and Roman officials who care nothing for him, falsely accused, unjustly imprisoned, completely vulnerable and, it seems, all alone. But God has prepared him for this moment and has put him exactly where he's supposed to be.
Paul enters Jerusalem against the advice of his friends, and endures suffering at the hands of the Jews, yet gets to share his testimony.
Paul's final words to the elders in Ephesus give us a clear picture of the pastoral leadership we need for our growth as Christians.
A savior who can raise the dead is a savior worth dying for. And a savior worth dying for is a savior worth living for.
If as Christians we live faithfully in the world, what sort of reaction should we expect from those around us?
These two stories show us how God's power works in us and how God's power works through us.
What will we need if we're to build our church on the power of the gospel? What sort of ministry strategy keeps the Word at the center?
In Athens Paul met with people who lived as if this world is everything, and it's up to us to make the most of it. He introduced them to the God who made the world and everything in it, the God on whom we depend for everything and to whom we owe everything.
Paul evangelizes in Thessalonica and Berea with mixed results. Many are unconvinced by his simple explanation of the gospel. But those in Berea examine the word eagerly and humbly believe.
A conversation about what to expect from our Sunday evening gathering and why we're so excited about it.
This collection of short stories, with wonderful variety and unique detail, makes the same point Acts has been making all along. God is at work, through all sorts of people, places and circumstances, spreading his word to the ends of the earth.
This story takes us into one of the defining moments in the history of Christianity, driven by a question at the heart of Christianity: what does it take for a person to be saved.
The conclusion of Paul's first journey as a missionary helps us see what we can expect as we take up our role in the same mission.
The story of Paul's first missionary journey gives us a look at the three characters involved in the mission that belongs to us too: there's the local church who sends it's best, the ambassador who is willing to go, and the Lord who is saving his people.
Understanding that God accepts all people without distinction affected the Jerusalem church's whole purpose and mission. As we consider this passage, we are challenged to find our role in Jesus' mission to get the gospel to the ends of the earth, a role for which he enables us.
God accepts anyone from anywhere because, through Jesus, God can forgive anyone from anywhere.
In this passage the good news of the gospel extends to the gentiles. It is a transformative moment for the people of God. There is no longer a distinction between Jew and Gentile: all of God's people are washed clean by the blood of Jesus. And if God doesn't make a distinction, neither should we.
How can we cultivate a fruitful community, where what we believe about God shapes how we live together
Faithful Christian living begins with remembering that when we were from from him, God was merciful to us.
What orients our lives as Christians? The grace of God that has appeared, and the glory of Christ that will appear.
Our lives can obscure or display the beauty of the gospel we profess. What do we need in order to make the beauty of the gospel clear?
Paul explains why elders are necessary. False teachers have infiltrated churches in Crete and are teaching religious rules. Such teaching must be stopped.Â
What is an elder? Who should be elders? And how should we respond to what Paul says about elders?
What do we want to be about as a church? What do we want to hand on to those who come after us? The same things Paul handed down to Titus, and through Titus down to us.
Boaz and Ruth marry. Ruth and Naomi enjoy all the undeserved blessings of redemption. Obed, grandfather of King David, is born.
Ruth observes that everlasting provision comes through a marriage to Boaz. As a result, she takes a risk; she hopes solely in him.
Boaz, a relative of Naomi, notices the impoverished Ruth gleaning in the fields. He ensures that she has an abundance of protection and provision.
After leaving Israel, the place of God’s blessing, Naomi returns to Bethlehem. She returns without husband or sons, but with a loyal daughter-in-law, Ruth.
There is no one the resurrected Jesus cannot restore. And there is nothing the resurrected Jesus cannot ask of us.
As Jesus dies on the cruel cross, he declares final two lines, which reveal who he is and what he came to do.
As we begin our life together as Edgefield Church, we're using this book to help us think through what a healthy church looks like. Please join Matt McCullough and Jonathan Worsley as they discuss the last chapter.
The secret to contentment isn't changing your situation, or even accepting your situation. The secret to contentment in any situation is to be in Christ, to enjoy the gift of his friendship and the promise of his provision.
As we begin our life together as Edgefield Church, we're using this book to help us think through what a healthy church looks like. Please join Matt McCullough and Jonathan Worsley as they discuss the eleventh chapter.
As we begin our life together as Edgefield Church, we're using this book to help us think through what a healthy church looks like. Please join Jonathan Worsley and Bill Heerman as they discuss the tenth chapter.
With the love of Christ around us and the hope of heaven before us, what should our lives look like now? Paul gives us three examples.
As we begin our life together as Edgefield Church, we're using this book to help us think through what a healthy church looks like. Please join Matt McCullough and Jonathan Worsley as they discuss the ninth chapter.
As Paul heads towards his finish in Christ, he encourages the Philippians to keep running to eternity.
As we begin our life together as Edgefield Church, we're using this book to help us think through what a healthy church looks like. Please join Matt McCullough and Jonathan Worsley as they discuss the eighth chapter.
As we begin our life together as Edgefield Church, we're using this book to help us think through what a healthy church looks like. Please join Matt McCullough and Jonathan Worsley as they discuss the seventh chapter.
Having stated the need to humbly serve others like Christ, and having applied it to their situation, Paul gives the Philippians two role models of Christian service.
Paul encourages the church at Philippi to live out their salvation in reverent obedience. Surprisingly this obedience is primarily evidenced in simple harmony and contentment. -Â NOTE - we experienced a power outage in the middle of the sermon. Hopefully that interruption will not impede your ability to listen to the message.Â
As we begin our life together as Edgefield Church, we're using this book to help us think through what a healthy church looks like. Please join Matt McCullough and Jonathan Worsley as they discuss the fifth chapter.
Unity in the church only comes through humility, and humility only comes through worship.
As we begin our life together as Edgefield Church, we're using this book to help us think through what a healthy church looks like. Please join Matt McCullough and Jonathan Worsley as they discuss the third chapter.
Paul boils down what he wants for his friends and for us to one central calling: show through your life together that the gospel is precious.Â
As we begin our life together as Edgefield Church, we're using this book to help us think through what a healthy church looks like. Please join Matt McCullough and Jonathan Worsley as they discuss the third chapter.
As the imprisoned apostle Paul contemplates his future, he delights at the thought of either imminently going to be with Christ or the Philippians.Â
As we begin our life together as Edgefield Church, we're using this book to help us think through what a healthy church looks like. Please join Matt McCullough and Jonathan Worsley as they discuss the second chapter.
Paul is in prison, he’s being attacked by fellow Christians, and yet he rejoices. How?
As we begin our life together as Edgefield Church, we're using this book to help us think through what a healthy church looks like. Please join Matt McCullough and Jonathan Worsley as they discuss the first chapter.
Paul's prayer for this church is that they would glorify God by the way they love one another. So what kind of love brings glory to God?
When Jesus is at the center of our relationships in the church, we'll share one identity, one purpose, and one hope.
As 2021 dawns what should Christians hope for? The prophetess, Anna, models how those who await the coming king live.
The coming of Jesus is the proof we need that, no matter what uncertainty we're facing, we can trust the Lord with our lives.
In this parable Jesus teaches that the kingdom of God will not appear immediately. While we wait for Jesus—our true king—to return, we are instructed to use the gifts that God has given us to engage in the business of the kingdom. This parable is both an encouragement to faithfully wait and a warning for those who would reject the authority of the king.Â
The drive for validation, for a life that counts for something, is a basic human drive. But this parable warns us against looking for validation in the wrong place, and points us to the only source we can depend on.
Jesus speaks of two men, two lives, and two destinations. Will we listen to God’s word or live for this life alone?
Jesus is seen eating with sinners and tax collectors in Jerusalem. The religious are outraged. The land of the Father is at stake. Jesus tells the story of two sons.
Through two stories of loss and recovery, Jesus shows us the surprising beauty of God's love for sinners.
What if the greatest meal in the world was open to everyone? Then the question wouldn't be whether you can get in, but whether you want to come.
God's kingdom begins in obscurity and ends in glory. This reality takes our focus off what seems impressive to us, and puts it on the God who's at work and what he's promised to us.
Using the parable of the fig tree, Jesus teaches that God patiently looks for the fruit of repentance in his people; those who do not produce it will finally be cut down!
How do we come to God? Jesus tells his disciples to pray with a shameless audacity so that they might receive what they most need – the Holy Spirit.
How do you tell who belongs to Jesus? Those who experience compassion from him show compassion to others.
Everything that matters to our church depends on the power of God at work among us. So let's celebrate what he has built, and trust him with what we love.
There are just two ways to receive the Word: 1. To see it’s truth and to produce fruit in keeping with it 2. To reject it. If such revelation is down to the grace of God we should sow the Gospel everywhere knowing that fruit will be produced in time.
Jesus uses parables to show us what his kingdom is like, and to deliver us from our mistaken assumptions about what it means to belong to it.
In the climax to the first part of Acts, Peter miraculously heals two servants of the church. Such deeds remind us what God’s church is all about.Â
The story of Saul's conversion and calling shows us that God's grace can reach anyone, and his power can use anyone.
The key to faithful and effective evangelism is knowing the difference between God’s role and ours.
The comfort of God's sovereignty is that you can trust him. The challenge of God's sovereignty is that you can't control him. But when you know you can trust him, you have no need to control him.
Opposition to the gospel and the church reaches a climax as the first Christian martyr dies, but God teaches us that no amount of rejection can stop His purposes from being accomplished... that His witnesses will go to the end of the earth.
A conflict in the church, and how the apostles handled it, help us to see what's essential about the church and how we can hold onto it.
Whether they're favored by the people or thrown into prison, the apostles obey, and they rejoice. That's because they know who rules the world, and so can we.
These two stories show us that our posture toward our money says a lot about our posture toward Jesus. We can give because of Jesus, or we can give in place of Jesus.
What does the church’s prayer in the face of persecution teach us about God? That He’s sovereign over all, actively carrying out His plan, and with His messengers as they tell about Jesus.
Acts is the story of what Jesus continued to do in the world after his death and resurrection. This sermon sums up what we've seen him doing through the first four chapters.
Thanksgiving psalms like this one show us how to relate to God as if we have history together, as if he's been good to us when we've needed him. What do we need to see about God so our gratitude about the past fuels hope for the future?
Psalm 62 (repost from Kew Baptist Church first Sunday of 2020 - 5th January). Â It's around 1000BC and King David is the midst of some stomach-churning political fray. His enemies speak well of him but they are ultimately untrustworthy. He looks to the future and recognises that power and wealth will not last. Where will David go? Where will David's soul find relief?Â
When laments begin with honesty about our experience and move through desperation that gives up on any other source of hope, laments don’t threaten trust in God’s love and care. They deepen that trust.
Israel is out of Egypt, but they are not yet in the Promised Land. In between lies a wilderness. But in this wilderness, and in ours, God continues the work he began in Egypt, showing us who he is and setting us free.
What is the wise way to respond to innocent suffering? This question is central to the book of Job. No one paying attention to the world can deny the reality of innocent suffering—that our experience of the world is far from what we wish it to be, and often our suffering doesn’t make sense. If Job’s friends show us how not to respond to this reality, Job’s own responses to his friends and to his God model authentic faith in our suffering.
Several times in this text Jesus gives the same simple command: don?t be anxious. To those of us who struggle with anxiety, that can sound a bit like blaming the victim. Who would really choose to be anxious, after all? But what Jesus offers isn?t a dismissive charge to get over it. Nor is it a comprehensive explanation of everything that goes into anxiety. What he offers are weapons for the battle with anxiety that are powerful no matter what your unique struggle looks like. Recorded 2016-06-19.
Jesus raises Lazarus, thus revealing his divinity, and thus giving us every confidence to trust in him.
Deep in every human is a longing for more than what we experience in this world. In this text Paul pinpoints our longing--a longing for life. It's a longing only the risen Jesus can fulfill. (Originally 2017-04-16.)
Peter says it's possible to rejoice and to grieve at the same time. But only if you have a living hope. Do you?
No one can live without hope. That's why Peter begins his letter with this profile of Christian hope--a secure hope because it begins and ends with God.
(Reposted from 2018-08-12)
In the sign Jesus performs through Peter, and in Peter's speech about what happened, we get a wonderful look at what sort of world Christians are hoping for and, even more, what sort of God we're hoping in.
In Peter's Sermon at Pentecost he gives a clear and compelling statement of the gospel. Peter shows us that the coming of the Holy Spirit is due to the life and work of Jesus. In answering the question, "who is Jesus?" we also come to understand the answer to the question, who is Jesus to us?
The story of Acts began with a promise, the promise that God's Spirit would come with power to his people. In this passage we see that promise fulfilled. But what does it mean?
This story gives us one of the central themes of Acts: from beginning to end, our confidence is based on knowing that God is at work, following his plan, giving his people everything they need.
In this psalm David sings of the goodness of God who found him in death and restored him to life. Because David's song is really Jesus's song, it can be our song too.
The blessings of the gospel flow to us through the often overshadowed event Luke describes in this story. What makes the Ascension of Jesus such good news for us?
The kingdom of God will come as his gift, not as our achievement. While we wait, our job is to bear witness to the King.
Acts tells the story of the earliest days of the church. It's a remarkable story, full of dramatic twists and turns. But through it all Acts tells a story about God, what he's doing in the world, and how we can join him.
Do you pray? We quickly answer yes, but how often do we consider why we don't pray? In this passage, we uncover four hindrances to prayer that the author assumes while he encourages us to confidently and hopefully approach God's throne.
The birth of Jesus displays the glory of God. But Jesus was born into humility, which means he is the savior for everyone, especially those who are broken and marginalized. By temporarily setting aside His glory, Jesus makes a way for us to know the glory of God forever.
Jesus is the savior that God promised to send, making peace with God for those who trust in him through the blood of the cross. But what exactly is this peace that Jesus purchases for us, how can we get it, and why does God give it to us?
Only God's merciful work through Jesus on the cross, not the work of our hands, brings salvation.
We can invest our resources where they have no chance to yield, or we can invest our resources where they have no chance of failure.
What kind of friend does the gospel create? These verses give us a profile of Christian friendship, showing us both the work to be done and the tools we'll need for the job.
The key to enjoying rather than abusing the freedom of the gospel is walking by the Spirit. How do we do that?
When you don't have to spend your life justifying yourself, you're free to spend your life for others, as Christ did for you.
In Christ we are set free from the suffocating pressure to justify our lives, and set free to wait for the righteousness he promised us while we spend our lives in love for others.
In this text Paul uses a surprising argument to make a familiar and life-giving point: the freedom of the gospel comes only as a gift, never an achievement.
When the gospel delivers us from fear and pride, it sets us free to pour out our lives for one another.
In this text John is caught up into worship by the beauty of the gospel, and calls us to join him. How can we? By looking to an astonishing love, and liberating relationship, and a transformative hope.
When God sent his Son, he gave us redemption from the curse of the law, he gave us adoption as sons and daughters of God, and he gave us his Spirit to convince us that it's all true.
When you're in Christ, he is more important for who you are than anything else about you. This has huge implications for our relationships with one another.
In this passage Paul explains how the law prepares us for a savior. Obeying the law cannot save us. Instead, the law is God?s holy standard that reveals to us our sinfulness. Apart from Christ, our situation is desperate. But in Christ we are saved by grace through faith, and faith alone.
In this passage Paul introduces Abraham as an ally for his argument about faith versus works of the law. The blessing God promised to Abraham comes to those who believe, as he did. So what is this blessing, and how is it possible for us to enjoy it?
The Christian life matures in the same way it begins--by God's grace through faith in the message of Christ crucified.
Justification is the center of this passage, it's the center of the letter, and it's the center of the gospel itself. So what is justification? And how do you get it?
This stunning story shows us that it's possible to affirm the gospel with our words and still miss the implications of the gospel for how we live. It also shows us what God has given to help us live in step with the gospel.
Here are three reasons we can trust the gospel Paul's letter was meant to preserve for us.
With unmistakable urgency, Paul shows us the danger of turning to a different gospel, and what makes us vulnerable.
This letter was written to address very specific challenges for a specific group of people at a specific point in time. But Paul's words about the gospel speak directly questions that are crucial for our lives, too. Galatians helps us understand what the gospel is (and isn't), what the gospel means for who we are, and what the gospel means for how we live.
This psalm shows us what appropriate praise looks like, in response to God's kindness. But how can we hope to praise the Lord as we should?
This psalm shows us that everything God does he does for love, and it shows us how to respond to him.
This psalm celebrates the presence of the Lord with his people as the purpose of the Exodus. But what do you have when you have God's presence?
In the story of the Exodus, God's people Israel were tested in the wilderness for 40 years. In the New Testament, Jesus was tempted in the wilderness for 40 days. Israel repeatedly turned away from their Father in Heaven, but Jesus faced his temptation without sin. In this Jesus shows that He is the Son of God. And as the Son of God who was perfect, Jesus' death and resurrection purchased for us the right to be called children of God.
This psalm offers us the chance to learn from Israel's mistakes, to fear the Lord who takes sin seriously, and to trust in the God who remembered what Israel had forgotten.
Psalm 81 is a celebration of God's faithfulness to his people and a warning not to repeat the mistakes of Israel's past. With the exodus as the backdrop, God's message is clear: seek satisfaction in God and God alone.
We've heard it said that those who fail to remember the past are doomed to repeat it. That's why the psalmist calls us to remember God's faithfulness and warns us about the cost of forgetfulness. Even so, we see God's ultimate faithfulness--that he has not forgotten us--through the work of Christ.
The Song of Moses reminds us that God is worthy to be praised, for what he has done and what he continues to do.
This command gets to the heart of why we often struggle to love our neighbors as ourselves. It gives us an opportunity to consider where covetousness attacks us, and how to fight back.
It's relatively easy to see that honesty is good for us. Why then is it so hard to be consistently honest? And where do we find the strength to live with open, transparent freedom?
A familiar command calls us to remember the generosity of God who has set us free in Christ to be a generous people.
Behind this straightforward command is a perspective on sex that is as unusual in our culture as it was when it first appeared. But it's a perspective full of joy, of hope and of healing.
Human life is precious because God says it is. That means none of us has the right to take the life of anyone else. But there's far more to the sixth commandment than avoiding murder. If we've experienced the life-affirming, life-saving grace of God in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we will want to follow his lead in protecting and promoting vulnerable lives wherever we can.
The first commandment aimed at how we treat one another is the command to honor your father and mother. What makes this such a foundational command? What would it look like for us to obey it?
In a list of commandments, it can seem peculiar for God to require his people to rest. What did it mean for the Israelites to remember the Sabbath, and what does it mean for us today?
The command not to make and worship any images can seem like an easy command to obey. Really, we aren't as safe as we might believe. But by God's grace we can be.
God redeems his people not to leave them to themselves but to bring them to himself, where they can know the joy of true freedom--a relationship of trust and obedience, with God as their Father.
Israel is out of Egypt, but they are not yet in the Promised Land. In between lies a wilderness. But in this wilderness, and in ours, God continues the work he began in Egypt, showing us who he is and setting us free.
God continues to provide a way for his people to move from certain death to eternal life. First with Moses and now with Jesus, we can stand firm knowing God will fight for us.
In a way this story resolves the tension that's been building throughout Exodus. But it's a resolution that is also full of tension. It's a story of judgment and of mercy. It's a story of death and of life. It's the story of Israel's redemption that pictures the redemption of everyone who trusts in Jesus.
These nine signs of power serve one central purpose. They reveal to us who the Lord really is. What do they tell us about him?
Pharaoh's challenge to God's demand--"Who is the Lord?"--was meant as a rhetorical question. But it's a question God takes seriously and intends to answer, for Pharaoh and for Israel and for us, through all the comes next.
Through watching God respond to Moses in his moments of doubt, we learn what grace we can expect from God in our own doubts.
With three crucial statements God introduces himself to Moses, and to us: I will be with you, I am, I promise.
These two chapters set the stage for the story that follows, and, at the center, they draw our attention to a contest of powers: the king who forgets, and the God who remembers.
A study of Paul's prayer for an abounding hope. We look deeper at Paul's petition to God to fill the church with joy and peace so that hope overflows.
The story of Simeon helps us see how, for now, hope often looks like waiting. But Simeon's story also shows us how to find joy in what he saw while we wait.
Our hope defines who we are. Our hope distinguishes us from what we were. And our hope depends completely on the coming of Jesus.
Peter ends his letter with some simple commands that help us bring the hope of Christ into our everyday. Be humble. Stay alert. And keep your eyes on heaven.
Christian communities should be marked off by an unusual humility towards one another. Peter shows this sort of humble community has a lot to do with how elders and members relate to one another in the local church.
Peter says we should expect to suffer because we're Christians, and that we should rejoice when we do. But why? What makes suffering good news?
Peter says the end of all things is at hand. But what he tells us to do about it may surprise you.
How can you live with hope even when you're suffering and don't know what will happen next? Only when you know the Lamb who was slain rules all for his glory and your good.
Suffering has been behind a lot of what Peter has said to encourage his readers. Here that theme comes to the surface. Peter shows that for followers of Jesus suffering is intentional, it's inevitable, and it's hopeful.
This passage has been called the most obscure passage in the New Testament. It's notoriously difficult to understand. But it was given to encourage new believers who were suffering for their faith. So what does it mean, and how is it helpful?
Peter's final example of alien living is aimed at the life of the church community. We show our hope in Christ, that our hearts our fixed on an inheritance he's promised us, by our otherworldly love for one another.
Peter's words to wives and husbands could be easily misunderstood, even rejected out of hand as a relic from another time. But if we listen carefully to what he says, we'll find a life-giving message that's rooted in the hope of the gospel.
Peter's words to slaves have a tragic history of misinterpretation and abuse. But what is he actually saying about slavery? And what can we learn from what Peter says?
As Believers, we are bound to a heavenly kingdom and by submitting to the Lord we find true freedom. At the same time our orientation to earthly authorities is one of obedience.
In this passage on Christian identity Peter addresses three crucial questions all of us must face. How do you know who you are? Where do you get your validation? Where do you find your purpose?
Christian holiness flows out of Christian hope, not the other way around. How should we respond to the hope God has given us? Peter gives us three examples.
Peter says it's possible to rejoice and to grieve at the same time. But only if you have a living hope. Do you?
No one can live without hope. That's why Peter begins his letter with this profile of Christian hope--a secure hope because it begins and ends with God.
Peter wrote this letter to help new Christians understand what it means to follow Jesus when identifying with him sets you apart from the culture where you live.
This book of sorrow ends with a prayer. It's a prayer that wonderfully models the steps of lament we've been following all summer. And it's a prayer perfectly answered in Jesus.
This poem answers the call of chapter one for a witness to the human tragedy of Jerusalem's fall. It offers a crucial model for us. Where and how should we bear witness to social problems in our time and place?
This third poem, a small but brilliant shaft of light in the darkness of this book, helps us learn how to fight for hope in the midst of sorrow.
Lamentations 2 is a poem of desperation, as the author gives voice to the anguish the people of Israel felt when Jerusalem was destroyed by Babylon in 587 BC. It serves as a sobering memorial to God's wrath, God's justice, and God's faithfulness to do what He said He would do. Where can we find hope in this suffocating judgment?
This collection of poems is a memorial to unimaginable suffering, meant to help us understand the pain of loss, the importance of a witness, and the only possible hope.
When laments begin with honesty about our experience and move through desperation that gives up on any other source of hope, laments don?t threaten trust in God?s love and care. They deepen that trust.
Psalm 22 gives us a template for moving from desperation to prayer to praise knowing we have final victory in Jesus.
The Bible doesn't give us a method for getting rid of pain or suffering. But it does tell us what to remember in the midst of it.
How are we supposed to respond to injustice when it seems like God is nowhere to be found? The Bible teaches us that our authentic suffering leads to authentic lament, which leads to authentic hope in God.
This introduction to our summer series explains where lament comes from, what lament looks like, and why lament is so essential for our life together.
John wrote this letter to help a friend understand what sort of leader he should support and whom he should avoid. The primary test: whose name matters most?
The truth about who God is, what he's done, and what he commands defines the sort of love we should have for one another.
At the end of his letter, John leaves us with a list of assurances he's been writing about all along. What does he want us to know?
John insists that having Jesus, and only Jesus, is the difference between life and death. But why? What do you have when you have Jesus?
When we see God through the gift of Jesus, what difference shows up in our lives? We will love what God loves, and we will trust what God commands.
Where do you stand with God? There is nothing more important to know about yourself. And when you see that God sees you through Jesus, when you come to know God loves you, it changes how you relate to God and to others.
John makes stark claims about love. And, in this passage, he points to the Christian's motivation for love and why that motivation matters.
Because Jesus rose from the dead, we are God's children now. And, one day, we will be like him.
Though most of us want to experience spiritual reality, John says not all spirituality comes from God. How can we tell what comes from God?s Spirit?
One of John's favorite themes is love for one another, but he's not naive. He knows that love sometimes feels like death. This text helps us when love isn't easy.
The primary mark of a genuine Christian is love. That's what John claims here. Why does love matter so much? What is this love he's talking about? And where should it show up in our lives?
In this passage John says that no one who knows God can keep on sinning. So what does that mean? Why is it impossible? And where does that leave me?
John claims that there is only one thing that matters in all of life. What is it and why does it matter so much?
John says we shouldn't love the world or the things in the world, but what does that mean? And why is it such a problem?
When God showed his love for us in the life and death of Jesus, an old command became new. And that command is at the heart of what it looks like to follow Jesus.
When we know God through Jesus, we will come to want what he wants and trust what he commands.
God is light. In him there is no darkness. So how can sinners, who have reason to hide in the darkness, know friendship with God in the light? Only through honest confession of sin.
John wrote his letters to help his friends tell the difference between genuine and counterfeit Christianity. But why did John feel the need to do that? And how can you recognize true Christianity?
Psalm 23 has one central theme: The LORD is my shepherd. It is a statement that comforts the people of God, recognizing that God promises to provide for us, to protect us, and to give us what we need most--Himself.
A righteous king--an authority over us who always does what is right--is to our lives what rain or rich soil is to the grass. We were made to depend on such a king for our lives to flourish. This psalm shows us what a righteous king looks like, and how we can serve him.
When the powerful use their power to do whatever they want no matter who gets hurt, it makes sense to ask the question underlying this psalm: Who rules the world? And when you've felt the weight of that question, you're prepared to celebrate the good news in this psalm's answer.
God gives grace to his people to show his saving power to all peoples. This psalm shows us that those who know God's grace and presence are responsible to share those blessings with those who haven't experienced them.
We are called to a lifetime of praise that is built on trust in the Lord, the only one faithful to His word.
Thanksgiving psalms like this one show us how to relate to God as if we have history together, as if he's been good to us when we've needed him. What do we need to see about God so our gratitude about the past fuels hope for the future?
Everyone struggles with anxiety for one reason or another. This psalm identifies a couple common reasons we worry, and the only sure path to rest.
To commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, we decided to work through Psalm 118, the favorite psalm of Martin Luther. And it isn't difficult to see why he loved this psalm so much. It captures the heart of the gospel Luther helped to clarify: everything depends on God's steadfast love, which is freely available to all who believe.
This psalm uses four different examples to make one powerful point: when the hopeless cry out to God, he hears them and delivers.
When you recognize the truth about human life, that all of us flourish then wither like grass, the psalmist's response is the only one that makes sense. "Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days."
Psalm 88 has been called the saddest prayer in the book. It begins with unanswered cries to God. It ends in deep darkness. And in between it offers a profound look at what despair feels like.
Everyone experiences envy. No one enjoys what that feels like. But how do we overcome our tendency to envy the good things other people enjoy? This psalm helps us see that envy always comes from overvaluing what other people have, and from undervaluing what it is to have God's presence in your life.
This praise psalm celebrates the irreplaceable goodness of knowing God from personal experience. But how can we experience God as the psalmist did?
This psalm is one of many that pray for the destruction of Israel's enemies. If you don't live with enemies close at hand, psalms like these can be hard to connect with. And given the brutal language, psalms like these can seem totally out of step with Jesus's call to love your enemies and pray for your persecutors. How should we respond to prayers like these? Should we rejoice in vengeance?
How can we learn to worship God with our wealth rather than worshipping wealth as our god? We need to see what death does to wealth, so that we can see what Jesus does to death. Then we can see more clearly what Jesus means for our wealth.
What does it look like to be honest with God about our sin? David offers a powerful model. He shows us what it looks like to genuinely recognize our sin, to repent of our sin, and to experience renewal after our sin.
All relationships depend on communication. If God exists, our only hope for knowing anything about him, much less knowing and loving him, depends on his willingness to speak to us. So where can we hear from God?
This psalm belongs with a group known as thanksgiving psalms. It celebrates God as the one who hears and answers, the God who saves. But whom does God save?
This first psalm serves as an introduction and an invitation to the whole collection of psalms. It lays out the path to true and lasting happiness. What it says about happiness, and where to find it, may surprise you.
With his final encouragement for his friends, Paul ties together the main themes of his letter, and points to where authentic Christianity shows up: in community.
Throughout this letter Paul has been under examination, but now at the end he tells the Corinthians that they should examine themselves. What sort of test does Paul have in mind? And how will this test be graded?
Paul?s goal in writing to his friends is to deepen their faith. As he defends himself and his ministry against specific accusations, he puts forward an example of relating to Corinthian church, where we find an encouragement to live a self-denying, unified life with brothers and sisters in Christ. The power to live like that comes from our identity in Christ?all of us sinners who need a savior. Our purpose to bring all glory of God.
The Christian life inevitably involves hardship. We want God?s victory to look like our success over those hardships, but Paul tells us a different story. God?s strength is made perfect in our weakness, whether we win in this life or not.
In this text Paul unleashes a withering attack on teachers he calls false apostles and servants of Satan. He accuses them of peddling a counterfeit version of Jesus and his gospel. What exactly is Paul worried about? And how can we avoid it ourselves?
One of the main reasons Paul wrote this letter was to urge the Corinthians to send money to impoverished Christians in Jerusalem. But his approach wasn't what you might expect. He doesn't scold them. He doesn't shame them. He just reminds them of God's grace to them.
Paul says the difference between godly grief and worldly grief is the difference between life and death. So what is godly grief? Why do we need it so badly? And how do we get it?
Deep in every human is a longing for more than what we experience in this world. In this text Paul pinpoints our longing--a longing for life. It's a longing only the risen Jesus can fulfill.
Paul confronts Christians with a direct challenge to be holy--set apart from anything that stands against God. But that challenge is rooted in a precious, mind-bending promise. God has promised to live among his people.
Are Christians supposed to be happy? It depends on what you mean by happy. If Paul's description of his life is our guide, we should expect our lives to be sorrowful. And we should expect to be always rejoicing.
The Bible teaches that we were all made for a relationship we have broken. Our deepest need is reconciliation. This text shows us how to get peace with God, and how to spread it.
"In Christ" is a phrase that comes up all throughout Paul's letters. It's easy to pass right over it without paying much notice. But what does it mean to be "in Christ"? And why is it so important?
Waiting is a basic Christian posture. We walk by faith, not by sight, until God?s promises come to pass. In this passage Paul clarifies what it is that we?re waiting for, and what we do while we wait.
Paul says the problems we face now can't compare to the eternal glory we're promised in Christ. He says we get this truth when we focus not on what we can see but on what we can't see. But how do we compare what we can see to what we can't see?
Because of Jesus, the world's greatest treasure comes hidden in jars of clay--common, unexceptional, even fragile and weak. That means, for the Christian, suffering is never what it seems.
True freedom, the freedom that comes by God's Spirit, is not primarily freedom from something holding you back. It's freedom for--freedom to see, to enjoy, and to be transformed by the glory of Jesus.
What is true Christianity? And how can you see if Christianity is true? Paul?s answer may surprise you. It should definitely encourage you.
How does the knowledge of God spread throughout the world? It?s not a question we would normally ask, but it?s crucial for understanding our calling. Paul shows us we?ve got to recognize the difference between God?s responsibility and ours.
Here are four things we can learn from Paul about how to correct one another in a healthy way.
One of the main reasons Paul wrote this letter was to defend his own sincerity against people who thought he was speaking from both sides of his mouth. And sincerity is certainly worth defending. You want to know that someone means what he says, that he?s not holding anything back, and that you can trust him to follow through. But sincerity is easier to require from someone else than to produce consistently in ourselves. Paul explains how the grace of God is the only sure path to the sincere lives we want.
Paul describes a community where, though everyone experiences suffering, everyone is comforted and everyone is responsible for comforting others. He helps us learn to see our suffering for what God is doing in us and what he will do through us.
Judges has shown us what sort of king we need. John?s gospel shows us God has given us exactly what we need in Jesus.
The book of Judges is like a negative space portrait?the colorful characters catch our eye, but we?re really supposed to see what?s missing. Israel?s awful experience shows us that if we want peace what we need is a very specific kind of leader to take us there.
The story of Ruth reminds us that the story of every life of every one of God?s children is a story of redemption. Our paths won?t be the same, or straight or easy?but with every step God is bringing us to Jesus.
In the darkest of times, can God pull us through, and make us better for having faced the challenge?
Judges ends in almost total darkness with some of the ugliest stories anywhere in the Bible. But even these darkest of scenes point the way to light. They?re here to show us what we need if we really want lasting justice. We need a true and worthy king.
In Samson?the last of the judges?we see a leader of unprecedented power leading a life of unbridled selfishness. We have a judge, in other words, who?s no better than his people with no interest in saving them. But still God uses him. And in his story we get a glimpse of the future?of how God saves, and whom.
This picture of what God has promised to do shows that risks for the kingdom aren?t really risks.
Jesus?s final words to his followers make every Christian responsible for getting the gospel to everyone who hasn?t heard it. How can we take up this responsibility?
The story of Jephthah is a dark one. It is a story of deliverance like the others, but the focus is not on his courage or even God?s power. The focus is Jephthah?s tragic misunderstanding of God?s love? and it shows us our only hope for a peaceful, life-giving relationship with God is God?s free, undeserved, gracious love for us in Jesus.
Gideon?s decline and Abimelech?s fall show what happens when you treat your power as a blank check for your agenda, not a stewardship from God. This story warns us against abusing the privileges and opportunities we?ve been given, and it points us to the leader we desperately need.
The story of Gideon focuses on Gideon?s slow-rising faith, God?s remarkable patience, and the promise that the Lord delivers those willing to give up their desire for control and trust him.
It may be that the stories in Judges follow a familiar cycle, but there?s nothing predictable about the way God delivers his people. When he acts to save them, he makes it obvious that he?s the one who does the saving.
The story of Ehud and Eglon is not one you?d expect to find in the Bible. It?s not just that the story is violent. It?s also crude and darkly comedic. But through the unexpected details we get a picture of the God who inserts himself into the messy lives of his people to turn their mourning into laughter.
This chapter introduces what?s typically called the Judges cycle. It?s a pattern that most of the individual stories follow and it?s the key to the meaning of the whole book.
Judges begins where Joshua left off. Israel has entered the land God promised them. They?ve been charged with removing the Canaanites still living there. But why was this so important? Why was it even ok? And then there is the driving question of the story: will Israel be faithful?
This overview sermon sets up our fall preaching series. What is Judges about? It?s about Israel?s disobedience?and ours. It?s about God?s holiness?his perfect justice and his relentless love. And it?s about Jesus, who is the only answer to the questions raised by this book.
When we recognize the scale of our debt to God?the debt he has canceled through Jesus?there?s no way we can withhold forgiveness from others.
Christian hope is the confident expectation and desire for the promises of God to be true. In the context of 1 Peter, this hope is the confident expectation of Christ?s victory over death. Peter gives us three reasons for why we can be so confident in this hope. 1) Our hope is anchored in the past: Jesus has been raised from the dead. 2) Our hope is secure in the future: we have an eternal inheritance being kept for us in Heaven. 3) We are now being guarded by God through faith as we wait.
Jesus brings his sermon to a close with a vivid appeal to respond well to what he has said. The choice is clear. The stakes are high. Now what will you do with Jesus?
With this warning Jesus raises a question that hovers over the entire Sermon on the Mount: who will enter the kingdom of heaven? His answer: it?s not just what you say that matters, but what you do. And it?s not just what you do that matters, it?s whom you know.
Jesus?s warning is straightforward: ?Beware of false prophets.? But who are these false prophets? And how can we recognize them?
With this radical rule of love Jesus sums up the ethics of the kingdom he?s been describing all along. It?s an incredibly simple rule: do for others what you wish they would do for you. But where do we get the strength to obey it?
Jesus says when we ask God for something we?ll receive it. But what does that mean, and why should we believe it?s true?
Jesus warns us against standing in judgment over others because we?re not worthy ourselves, and because we don?t see everything clearly.
Several times in this text Jesus gives the same simple command: don?t be anxious. To those of us who struggle with anxiety, that can sound a bit like blaming the victim. Who would really choose to be anxious, after all? But what Jesus offers isn?t a dismissive charge to get over it. Nor is it a comprehensive explanation of everything that goes into anxiety. What he offers are weapons for the battle with anxiety that are powerful no matter what your unique struggle looks like.
Jesus warns us that we can only serve one Master. His words challenge us to make God our beloved treasure, not earthly wealth that will only decay.
In the discipline of fasting?as in anything we sacrifice for God and his kingdom?either we will be celebrated for the costliness of our commitment or God will be celebrated for the value of his friendship.
Jesus has warned us not to pray like hypocrites or pagans, but what does healthy Christian prayer look like? Christian prayer is based on who God is, it?s focused on what God wants, and it?s honest about what we need.
Before teaching us how to pray, Jesus first clarifies why we should pray to God in the first place. We should come to God because we love him, not from a hypocritical desire to impress other people. And we should come to God because we trust him, not from some attempt to control him by saying just the right thing.
The righteousness of Jesus?s followers will always stand out, but his followers are never righteous in order to stand out.
Jesus finishes his examples of kingdom behavior with the primary mark of all those who are with him?love. But not just any love. The distinctive love of Jesus?s followers?a love that reflects the love of their Father?is love for those who don?t love them well in return.
Jesus says his followers don?t resist when they?re mistreated. But what does it look like to obey? And wouldn?t it be dangerous for us and for others if we did obey? Jesus offer four examples that show us both how his words challenge us and how his words help us.
trivial. In fact, our words reveal what?s inside our hearts and for those of us that follow Jesus, the truthfulness of our words show the world who He is.
As Jesus continues to show us what whole-hearted love for and obedience to God looks like, we consider three ways that Jesus tells us we might be committing adultery: lust, divorce, and remarriage after divorce. Plumbing the depth of our sin, we also plumb the depth of Christ?s love and mercy. And we come to the glorious conclusion that Christ is enough.
In this section of the sermon on the mount, Jesus calls us to hearts that are empty of anger and full of reconciliation. We feel our need of a savior because we can never meet this standard perfectly. We also consider practical ways to avoid anger and pursue reconciliation that flow from transformed hearts that rest in the finished work of Christ.
What does the Old Testament have to do with the kingdom Jesus came to establish? He came to fulfill its purpose and demands, and now his followers should be careful to follow his commandments out of delight instead of duty.
We must see ourselves in Adam?s death if we want to fully see ourselves in Jesus?s resurrection.
In the Beatitudes Jesus described the character of those who follow him. Now he tells us why our character matters. When we?re with Jesus, we?re called to be different, called to be useful, and ultimately called to glorify God.
As a follower of Jesus, you should expect persecution. It is as basic as being poor in spirit, mourning over sin, or hungering after righteousness. But Jesus also says you should welcome persecution, because it shows you belong to another world.
To be children of God is to take on the family resemblance. And that means seeking peace where God seeks peace.
For one reason or another, we want to see God. We want to understand the forces in the world that are bigger than us and outside our control. We want to know that there?s meaning beyond our own preferences and something that last longer than our own lives. We want to know the claims of the Bible are true, that we aren?t alone in our suffering, that our connection to God can be more than abstract and impersonal. We want to see God, and Jesus promises that it?s possible?for the pure in heart. So why is it necessary to be pure in heart? And how can I become pure in heart?
With this Beatitude Jesus shifts focus to how the citizens of his kingdom treat others. Blessed are the merciful. So what does Jesus mean by mercy, and what does it take to be merciful?
Some of us need to be told that it?s possible to be satisfied. Some of us need a reminder that we?re more hungry than we may realize. All of us need the challenge and the comfort in Jesus?s promise that satisfaction comes to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. So what is righteousness? And what are you hungry for?
We tend to think of meekness as a weakness, but Jesus calls the meek blessed. So what does he mean by meekness, and how can we cultivate it?
All of us spend tremendous amounts of time and energy and money seeking what we believe will make us happy. But Jesus says that it?s those who mourn who will be blessed. What sort of mourning does he have in mind? And how will the mourners be blessed?
Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven belongs to the poor in spirit, but what did he mean by ?poor in spirit?? And what does that mean for us if we want to enjoy his kingdom?
To begin his public ministry, according to the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus traveled around proclaiming the ?gospel of the kingdom.? The Sermon on the Mount is the longest, most detailed account of the sorts of things Jesus was saying. What does he say the kingdom is like? In what sense is this gospel?good news? And how can we make the most of this sermon?
How can a local church stay faithful over the long haul? By pursuing what God is doing through his gospel.
In Psalm 72 we see God?s promise of a coming King who will once and for all fulfill the hopes of God?s people. By studying the promises made so long ago, we find hope and rest in Jesus, who is the King God promised to send.
How can we bring the light of Christmas into the darkness of our lives? Psalm 43, read on this side of the coming of Christ, shows us two simple steps. Talk with God about the darkness. And talk to your soul about Jesus.
David?s song of praise for God?s deliverance points us to the great reversal we all need. We need someone who can rewrite our stories of darkness, mourning, and death into stories of morning, gladness, and life.
James finishes his letter by calling us to do for each other what he had done for his friends through his letter. He calls on every one of us to pursue everyone with the truth, because everything is on the line. We?re all responsible for helping each other bridge the gap between what is true about God and what is going on in our lives.
Throughout his letter James has been showing us what it looks like to live as if we truly believe that God is and that he is for us in Jesus. It makes sense, then, that he would close his letter with a call to prayer. Prayer demonstrates the fear of the Lord that is the source of all wisdom.
How does the return of Jesus help us endure the hard things of life with patience? James offers us three examples.
With powerful, unmistakeable images James warns us that wealth can lead to our destruction. But how can we recognize when wealth becomes deadly? James gives us two examples. We're in danger when our wealth depends upon hoarding, and when our self-indulgence depends on exploitation.
What is the wise way to think about the future? James warns us against any planning that assumes the future belongs to us. Instead, wisdom means trusting the one who gave his own Son for us.
Given our tendency to measure success by results we can see and control, how can we embrace our calling as Christians with freedom and joy?
James says you?re either God?s friend or God?s enemy. So what is friendship with God? Who are God?s friends? And how can I pursue friendship with God?
James is a down-to-earth letter, so it?s no surprise that he takes up a problem that?s common to all of us: conflict with other people. But what James has to say about our people problems is surprising all the way through.
James claims that the wisdom of the wise shows up in meekness or humility. Why? Because the wise know wisdom comes as a gift, not an accomplishment. The wise know wisdom is for serving others, not proving themselves. And the wise know wisdom is for making peace, not winning battles.
James says your tongue or your speech is to your life what a bit is to a horse or a rudder to a ship. Given this incredible power, what can we do to use our words wisely?
Throughout his letter, and especially in this text, James makes one main point: faith apart from works is dead. But what does James mean? And how should we respond?
The purpose of our local church?and every local church?is to glorify God by our life together. In other words, God gets glory when our way of life together doesn?t make sense and wouldn?t be possible apart from his power.
Genuine faith in Jesus leaves no place for partiality in Christian community. Bottom line: if you want to be with Jesus, you lose the right to be picky about who you?re willing to love.
James wants to show us that genuine faith always makes a difference in how we live our lives. In other words, faith always works. In this passage he shows us why faith works, how faith works, and where faith works.
James opens his letter full of commands with perhaps the most surprising command of all. He insists we?re to see the trials we face in life as cause for joy. It is through trial that we grow in maturity, through trial that we?re protected from a faith that?s not genuine. So sort of trial should we expect? And where can we get what we need to persevere?
To make the most of the letter of James, like any other biblical text, we need to know what it?s meant for and how we should use it.
Ecclesiastes is a book about meaninglessness and death, but it?s also a book about joy. Many times through the book, the author follows up sections on the depressing emptiness of life under the sun by telling us to enjoy ourselves as long as we live. How can we live with joy in a world so full of vanity?
In two places Ecclesiastes laments the power of injustice, and in both places the author ties injustice to the problem of death. If death is our end, why do human lives deserve to be protected equally? And if the just and the unjust both end up dying, why worry with justice at all? Our only hope for the justice we crave is a God who sees all things and will judge us?all of us?after death.
When we look to wealth to make us happy or to make us secure, we?re only striving after wind. But when we trust the providence of God we can fully enjoy his gifts, and when we trust the promises of God we can hold his gifts loosely.
Can lots of pleasure make a short life meaningful? That?s the question the author of Ecclesiastes set out to answer with the lavish lifestyle he describes in this passage, a lifestyle where did anything and everything he wanted to do. His experiment reached an awful conclusion, but his wisdom paves the way for a joyful alternative.
Ecclesiastes catalogs the meaningless of life ?under the sun? ?the world as it is if there is nothing and no one that lasts forever. The author takes up his first example with a question: what good is all of our work? The answer? It all depends on our perspective. Under the sun, our work is a dead end. But in the Lord, our work is an opportunity.
Ecclesiastes is probably the darkest book in the Bible. It?s author imagines the meaning of life if all there is to it is what we experience ?under the sun??as if God doesn?t exist. His conclusions sound remarkably modern: everything is meaningless because everything dies. Unless?
God's final response to Job's anguished questions about innocent suffering is a portrait of two bizarre monsters, called Behemoth and Leviathan. Who are these creatures, and how is this speech meant to encourage Job and us in our sorrow?
Job?s lost everything even though he?d done nothing wrong. His main desire was to know why. Near the end of the book, in a passage of remarkable power and beauty, God finally speaks to him. But what God says is not what Job expected. He doesn?t mention Job?s experience at all. He responds instead with a poem celebrating the vastness, complexity, and wildness of the natural world. How is this response helpful?
What is the wise way to respond to innocent suffering? This question is central to the book of Job. No one paying attention to the world can deny the reality of innocent suffering?that our experience of the world is far from what we wish it to be, and often our suffering doesn?t make sense. If Job?s friends show us how not to respond to this reality, Job?s own responses to his friends and to his God model authentic faith in our suffering.
Job is about the wise way to respond to suffering, but it?s not just about your own suffering. It?s about how to respond wisely to the suffering of others. The largest portion of Job is a back-and-forth conversation between Job and three of his close friends, friends who came to comfort him but made a horrible job of it. We can learn how to comfort one another with wisdom by recognizing what Job?s friends got wrong.
Job tells the story of a man who was wise and good, enjoying all the benefits of wisdom that Proverbs predicts. Job had everything, then he lost everything, and it wasn?t his fault. Job?s suffering raises questions none of us can avoid if we?re paying attention. At one level, there?s the mystery around all innocent suffering: what is God doing? At a deeper level, suffering raises a question of worship: can we love God for himself, even if we lose the things we want to get from him?
Proverbs walks through the lifecycle of the human experience ? as a child, an adult, a spouse, and a parent ? and applies the fear of the Lord at each phase.
Proverbs reminds us that the same wise God who designed the Earth and everything within it is also the sovereign God over our individual lives. Therefore, we are wise to trust him to guide our steps.
Everyone struggles with contentment, and no one likes the way discontent feels. The wisdom of Proverbs helps us recognize where our discontent comes from and points the way toward true contentment through fear of the Lord.
One of Proverbs? favorite subjects is the sluggard?a comedic, somewhat endearing, ultimately tragic figure that looks a little too familiar. The portrait of the sluggard warns us against the destructive power of sloth, and points us towards the invigorating rest promised in Jesus.
Proverbs is about the stuff of life, so it makes sense that Proverbs talks about sex. A lot, in fact. What does it look like to fear the Lord in our sex lives? According to Proverbs, wise sex is bounded sex, and wise sex is better sex.
Proverbs describes the beauty of good friendships, the sort of friendships without which we can?t really grow wiser. And Jesus shows us what makes true friendship possible. He is the friend we need so we can be friends to others.
Proverbs 18:21 claims that ?death and life are in the power of the tongue.? That?s a strong claim, for sure, but it?s proven over and over again in our experience. Our words have incredible power to hurt others or to help them. And few things offer so clear a window into our hearts. So how do we use our words wisely?
The message of Ecclesiastes is as straightforward as it is depressing: everything in meaningless because everyone dies. But this message is the essential backdrop for the hope of Easter: everything is meaningful because Jesus is alive!
Wisdom is about choices. And behind every choice?even the ones that seem mundane?is an act of worship. The wise are those who seek to express love and loyalty to God in every area of life, trusting that this is the path to true and lasting joy.
Everybody wants to live a life that?s long, peaceful, and loved well by others. Proverbs tells us wisdom?a skill or instinct for living life well?is the key. And Proverbs 3 shows us where all true wisdom begins. It begins with a trust in the Lord that leans on him with everything you have and looks for him in everything you face.
This text leads us to questions we?ve got to consider carefully before launching into wisdom of Proverbs: What does it look like to seek wisdom well? How do we even get started? And how can we know it?s worth the effort?
This opening passage in Proverbs is a poetic introduction to the whole book. It points us to what the proverbs are for and to the truth that is the key to understanding them.
What is wisdom, exactly? What does a wise life look like? And where does Jesus fit in? This overview of biblical wisdom kicks off our study of Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, and James.
This conclusion to John?s Gospel does more than tie up a few loose ends. It illustrates the faithful, patient love of Jesus toward those who have failed him. And it shows us the only power that can transform our lives and sustain our faith to the end. Do you love Jesus?
Belief in the resurrection of Jesus is a self-involving belief. It?s more than intellectual. It?s personal. To meet the risen Christ is to be transformed?to move from fear to gladness, from doubt to worship, from aimlessness to mission.
All the good news in Christianity hinges on what John tells us about Jesus in this text: Jesus?s physical body really did die, it really was buried, and it really did rise to new physical life. Why should you believe what John reports?
This text tells the story of Jesus?s death by crucifixion, one of history?s cruelest forms of torture. Yet John spares us all the brutal details. He focuses instead on all the signs that Jesus died on his terms for his purposes. So why did Jesus have to die? What did his death accomplish?
John gives us more detail about Roman governor Pontius Pilate than all the other Gospel writers combined. And John tells us that everything he?s included is meant to persuade us to believe that Jesus is the Christ. So how does looking at Pilate help us see the beauty of Jesus?
The opening scenes in the story of Jesus?s death tell a story of great courage, as Jesus faces his captors with unflinching resolve and in absolute control. They tell a story of great cowardice, as Peter faces his own examination and denies Jesus repeatedly. And they tell a story of great compassion: Jesus dies on purpose because he knew Peter would deny him, and he knew we?d deny him too.
Paul?s prayers for his friends offer us a wonderful model for how we should pray for each other.
Paul?s prayers for his friends offer us a wonderful model for how we should pray for each other.
Part of our calling as Christians is to reflect the light of Christmas until Jesus comes again. John tells us that the old command, the command to love one another, has been made new because the light is already shining and the darkness is passing away. So how must we love one another if we are to walk in the light of Jesus?
The Advent season is an opportunity to reflect on why we need Jesus, on why the news of his coming is such wonderful news. John frames our need and what Jesus offers us in the images of light and darkness. We need Jesus because we are the people walking in darkness?the darkness of sin and the darkness of sorrow. And Jesus has come to us as the light no darkness can overpower.
The Christian life is a team sport. We will either accomplish the goal together, or not at all.
Jesus ends his time with his disciples in prayer. What requests does he make to His Father and what relevance do they have to us?
In his last conversation with his closest friends before his execution, Jesus promises real sorrow overcome by lasting joy. But why should we believe this joy is possible? And how can we connect with it?
The Spirit helps us see ourselves for who we really are?our sin, our self-righteousness, our misjudgments about what is good?and the Spirit helps us see Jesus for the all-satisfying glory that he is.
Paul?s prayer for his friends shows us the model response to the gospel, the model messenger of the gospel, and the model community created by the gospel.
If you?re a follower of Jesus, you have been chosen by God to live your life on his mission with the promise of his power.
In this text Jesus implies that understanding and anticipating the hatred of the world for Jesus and his followers is crucial for faith that lasts. But what does Jesus mean by the hatred of the world? And how should we deal with the hatred of the world?
When it comes to growth as a Christian, Jesus leaves no middle ground. Those who abide in him bear fruit, and those who don?t abide in him wither and die. It?s either/or. So what does it mean to abide in him? And what sort of fruit comes from those who do?
Jesus teaches that if we love him we will obey him, and if we don?t love him we won?t obey him. The key to our behavior?what we do?is in the affections?what we love. That?s why Jesus?s promise of a Helper, the Holy Spirit, is such good news. The promised Spirit is also a promise of a new heart moved by love for Jesus.
Jesus promises his followers a place of rest and belonging that only he can provide. Connecting with that promise is the key to lasting peace now.
The primary mark of a genuine follower of Jesus is a love for others that reflects Jesus?s love for us. So what does this love look like?
Why was Jesus so widely rejected by his own people? That?s the question John takes up as Jesus?s public ministry draws to a close. And his answer is crucial for us as we face unbelief in ourselves and in those around us.
Jesus came to win glory?the glory of his death, the glory of his Father, and the glory of all those who trust in him.
These three stories point us to the irony we have to recognize if we want to understand Jesus and what it means to follow him: he is the death-defeating king who conquers by dying, the champion who wins by losing, the one who gains his glorious throne by embracing the shameful cross.
To see the glory of Jesus?to fully believe in him and rest in his power?we must see him in light of the problem he came to solve, the problem of death. And when we?ve seen the glory of Jesus?when we?ve tasted the sweetness of what he offers by his life, death, and resurrection?we come to see the problem of death in a whole new light.
If we want to understand the full significance of Jesus and what he came to do for us, we have to look squarely at the awful reality of death. It?s in the context of this most basic human problem that the glory of Jesus shines most brightly.
Following Jesus as shepherd means he?s more than an accessory; his call demands your whole life. But the same shepherd who demands our lives also gives life to all who rest in him.
Jesus claims that he is the door into the good life?a life of safety and satisfaction. He claims that everyone else offering the good life will ultimately bleed you dry, not fill you up. And he claims that he will deliver where all others fall short because he is the Good Shepherd who loves his sheep enough to die for them and who?s powerful enough to conquer death for them.
Jesus offers freedom to everyone who hears his word and embraces him. But in what sense do we need freedom? How do we know Jesus can deliver? And how is it that he can set us free?
The cross of Jesus is the ultimate light through which we understand the world, find hope in sorrow, and experience freedom from sin.
Though most agree this famous story doesn?t belong in John?s Gospel, it stands as a vivid and beautiful illustration of the Bible?s consistent and clear message: sin is a universal problem (and not just someone else?s problem), but it is no match for the liberating power of Jesus?s grace.
In this chapter John develops the mounting tension over who Jesus is and how to respond to him. Along the way, he illustrates three ways to reject Jesus and the one way for anyone to embrace him. Ultimately, it?s all about the heart.
Jesus uses vivid imagery as a metaphor for belief. He is the bread of life and the living water, and whoever feeds on his flesh and drinks his blood has eternal life.
The difference between life and death hinges on the difference between the work God wants from us and the work God does for us. According to Jesus, the work God requires of us is to believe on him. But it is God?s work to make us satisfied and to make us secure.
Like Matthew, Mark and Luke, John gives us the story of the feeding of the 5,000, where Jesus turns a glorified snack into a full meal for a massive crowd of hungry people. It?s a story meant to demonstrate that Jesus has power that isn?t limited by rigid laws of nature, that in him we catch a glimpse of a new world breaking into the somber limitations of this old one. But John also means this story to provide a sign of Jesus? purpose. He will use his power not necessarily to give us what we want but to give us what we need above all else.
In this dialogue with those who opposed him, having just claimed to be equal with God, Jesus points to the evidence that supports his claim. But his main focus is explaining why those who?ve seen the evidence still don?t believe in him. If we believe based on what we want, and if we want the respect and praise of other people, we?ll never believe in Jesus. But if we want the approval of God more than the approval of other people, Jesus becomes beautiful to us.
The words of Jesus in this passage are the words that got him killed. When we hear his words as they sounded to his first audience, it?s not difficult to understand why. He is making claims that are ridiculous at best and dangerous at worst?if they?re not true, that is. If they?re true?if he does have the power of God over life and death and judgment?then we must honor the Son.
In his healing of the lame man, Jesus shows he is the one who will make all things new. But in the responses of the Jewish leaders and the healed man, we?re warned against two ways to miss out on the new world Jesus came to bring.
In place of a life defined by sin, suffering and death, Jesus offers us a life that is abundant and eternal. This passage is meant to show us why we can trust him to deliver on his promise. Jesus cares for his people with a love that drove him to death and a power that death could not conquer.
We must avoid faith based merely on what we see and aimed merely at the lives we want. Instead, we must seek faith based primarily on what we hear?on Jesus?s Word?and aimed at the life Jesus promises us.
Jesus?s conversation with the Samaritan woman clarifies the central calling of our lives. We?re called to be worshipers, and we?re called to seek worshipers.
This passage tells the story of Jesus?s meeting with a lonely Samaritan woman, an outcast even among an outcast people, whose life seems to have been a series of failed relationships with men. John tells the story to illustrate what Jesus came to offer those who trust in him. He offers acceptance even for those rejected by everyone else. And he offers satisfaction that is unmatched and unending.
This story centers on John the Baptist near the end of his life, just as his ministry was fading way and eclipsed by the rising popularity of Jesus. In his response to the situation we get one of this Gospel?s clearest examples of what it looks like to have genuine faith in Jesus. There?s transforming, liberating power in John?s statement of faith: ?He must increase; I must decrease.?
To fully appreciate the beauty in this iconic description of God?s love, we?ve got to understand who it is God loves and what his love costs him. And then we?ve got to face the choice this text poses for each of us: what will you do with Jesus?
Jesus insists that only those who are born again can enter the kingdom he came to establish. But what does it mean to be born again? And where can you get this experience? The answers come out in Jesus?s conversation with a religious leader named Nicodemus. They?re unexpected, but they?re life-giving.
This passage tells the story of Jesus cleansing the Jerusalem temple of all those selling animals and changing money. The fury of Jesus can be shocking given what we normally expect from him. But the anger he showed in driving shopkeepers from the temple flowed from the same love that drove him to earth. His all-consuming passion was for knowing God, and he came to make knowing God possible for us.
This story captures the first of Jesus?s ?signs,? actions that symbolize what he came to do for us. It isn?t as eye-catching as some of his later miracles. There?s no healing of the sick, no calming of a storm, no resurrection of the dead. But when Jesus turned water into wine, he offered a perfect taste of what his coming means for his people: he will turn guilt and shame to unimaginable joy.
The best way to evaluate whether Jesus is the Messiah is to experience him as a person or, in Jesus? words, to come and see. But when you experience Jesus you see, as did his first disciples, that he knows you already and has the power to make you new.
This story of Jesus?s life begins not with Jesus himself but with a figure called John the Baptist, one sent to prepare the way for the Christ. Following John?s lead, we get a clear picture of what we must know about ourselves and about Jesus if we?re to truly enjoy what Jesus offers us.
At the heart of Christianity is the claim that God became human for us. But how can we get our minds and hearts around this claim? It?s at once abstract and too familiar, but John would have us taste the beauty of incarnation.
The opening of John?s Gospel gets at questions all of us must address at one point or another. Where did we come from? Why are we here? What?s wrong with us and our environment? Who can we trust to solve problems that are too big for us? John places Jesus at the center of these questions, and confronts us with questions of his own, the questions his book will address all the way through: Who is Jesus? And who is Jesus to you?
John wrote this book to persuade readers that Jesus is the only one who can give us the life we?re made for. And though he originally aimed at first-century Jewish readers, John?s Gospel is for all of us because all of us need to trust Jesus more than we do.
One of the most challenging problems in the heart of a Christian is forgetfulness. David gives us hope by encouraging us to remember all that God has done for us in Christ: He has saved us from sin, saved us from death, saved us by love, and saved us for joy in Him.
Paul?s first letter to the church in Corinth covers a full range of issues basic to human life across the centuries. It?s a letter about politics and competition, about fashion and style, about sex and money and food. And straight through every issue it?s about selfishness and the power of cross-centered love to overcome the root of evil. It?s a letter well-summarized by Paul?s final instruction: ?Let all that you do be done in love.?
Jesus does more than remove the threat of death. He promises to give us bodies that won?t die through which we?ll know joy that is endless and complete. With this promise before us, there is nothing in this life we can?t do without for the sake of his kingdom.
For Paul, Christianity stands or falls on whether Jesus is alive. But why? Only a living Jesus can truly free us from guilt in life and fear in death. And only a living Jesus makes the Christian life anything less than pitiful.
The church comes together not for private communion with God but to encourage each other with the gospel. We encourage each other by using our minds to engage our hearts.
Christians are defined by love, not by what they possess or how they perform. Christians are bound by love, because only love like God?s can keep sinful, selfish people together. And Christians are destined for love, for the endless world of love that we taste in part when we love each other well.
For the good of the church, God?s Spirit gives each believer gifts that are unique and indispensable. We?re all gifted. But we?re not self-sufficient. As members of one body, we each need others and others need each of us.
Confronting self-centered divisiveness at Corinth, Paul helps us understand what we do in the Lord?s Supper and what the Lord?s Supper does in us.
What do we do when the message and cultural context of the Bible seem far removed from our values and assumptions?
What does it look like to live our lives ?to the glory of God?? We were made to glorify God by loving his gifts for God?s sake, and by loving each other in God?s strength.
Paul points to the example of Israel to show that receiving great blessing from God doesn?t mean you won?t crave something more and fall into idolatry. Because comfort in Christian trappings isn?t the same as faith in Christ, be careful what you crave.
Christian freedom is not finally about what?s permissible for us but what?s beneficial for others. Jesus frees us from bondage to our own interests, and he frees us for binding ourselves to each other.
As Christians, we?re defined not by what we know but by who knows us?our loving God?and what we?re known for?our love for each other.
All of us have a idea of what we hope to get out of our lives before we die. And all of us have a future beyond the grave promised to us by God if we trust in Jesus. The question is this: To which unrealized future does your heart belong?
How can we be free from restlessness and discontent? Paul helps us connect with God?s acceptance of us, his sovereignty over us, and his future for us.
Why do Christians think sex outside of marriage is such a bad thing? Given what Paul says here, the answer to that question has much to do with the sacredness of the body, the power of sex, and the purpose of sex within marriage.
How we handle conflict shows what we love and where we belong. When our hearts are locked on the things of this world, we?re driven to protect what we have and compete for even more. When we realize God has not given us what we deserve, we?re free to lay aside our rights and love with forgiveness.
Could it ever be a good thing to remove someone from the church because of their sin? Paul?s stern warning explains why we must confront sin if we truly love each other, if we truly love the church body, and if we truly love God and his glory.
Paul uses his own life to call his friends to a humility rooted in the promises of the gospel. When we embrace God?s approval of us through Jesus, our security isn?t tied to what others think of us or what we think of ourselves. And when we taste the sweetness of what?s ours in Jesus, we?re set free from the restless pursuit of what we think we need or deserve.
The church in Corinth was falling apart because its members were insecure and self-obsessed; or, in Paul?s words, they were behaving like infants, in a merely human way. The unflinching challenge of this text confronts all of us with two crucial questions: Who are you? And what are you doing with your life?
Still pushing back against self-centered divisiveness in the church, Paul insists there?s only one distinction that really matters: those who love the cross of Jesus and those who reject it. And it?s only by God?s Spirit that any of us come to understand and to love that cross, to see the wisdom of God.
The aim of Paul?s ministry was to see deeper faith in the power of God apart from any substitute. If we share his goal, that means our message must focus always and only on Jesus and his cross. And it means our methods must clarify the power of the cross, not distract from it.
Paul calls the message of the cross foolishness, and there?s no question that?s how it?s always seemed to the powers that be. But what did Paul mean by this description? And why would God choose this foolishness?
In this passage Paul confronts one of the major problems in the church at Corinth and in so many churches since then: the people were divided against each other. Paul points us to where division comes from, why it?s so dangerous, and how the cross helps us overcome it.
Paul writes this letter to a dysfunctional church plant to clarify what defines a healthy church community: Holiness, grace, and love.
Psalm 23 is a dramatic portrayal of trusting God completely. When we read its 6 verses, we are drawn to ask ourselves if we trust God enough to proclaim, ?The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.?
When we place God at the center of our lives, we will experience a deep happiness that is not dependent on our circumstances. By understanding the psalmist?s metaphor?a tree planted by streams of water?we hope to gain a deeper knowledge of who God is and what it looks like to love him most.
This final chapter in Isaiah captures the only suitable response to the message of the book: Worship. And worship that pleases God hinges on the heart posture of the worshiper. God wants worshipers who come desperate and empty handed, who tremble at his word.
Isaiah is full of sweeping promises from God about his plans to redeem his people and remake the world. Many of these promises haven?t been fulfilled yet, so we wait. This text shows us how to wait in faith: we testify to what?s coming and we pray until it gets here.
Genuine trust in God and his promises produces a different way of life. But God isn?t interested in any good works we might offer as a kind of bargaining chip to get what we want from him. God is pleased by good works done for others as an overflow of our joyful security in him.
Isaiah?s beautiful descriptions of God?s plan to redeem sinners are only good news for us if we know that they?re promises to us, and if we know how we?re supposed to respond to his word. This story of King Hezekiah in crisis?one of Isaiah?s only stories?is meant to show us what it looks like to claim God?s promises. It looks like a trust that?s rooted in despair, centered on God and his character, and motivated by God?s glory.
God?s plan to redeem extends as far as the brokenness of the world. In the new heavens and the new earth, there will be gladness and no sorrow; life and no death; fruitfulness and no futility; peace and no hostility.
Because of the Servant?s work, God offers the only thing that can truly satisfy us?himself. And he offers himself to all who see their need for him?everyone from everywhere.
This chapter unpacks the beautiful reality that?s possible because the Servant has suffered for our sins. God?s grace can reframe your past, and God?s grace can perfectly secure your future.
The resurrection proves Jesus?s death fully accounted for sin and opened up a new world of hope.
God?s promised redeemer, both king and servant, triumphs through suffering. That?s the unexpected message of this famous passage, which explains for us both why he had to suffer and why his suffering is such good news for us. His suffering is substitutionary, voluntary, and obedient.
To his emphasis on the coming King, Isaiah adds an unexpected description of the one who will come to save God?s people and bring justice to the nations. The conquering King is also the Servant; he is humble, gentle, and longsuffering.
Isaiah offers some of the Bible?s most beautiful descriptions of God?s plan to save sinners and heal the brokenness of the world. According to Isaiah 9, those plans center on the coming of a perfect and permanent King.
This passage is a clear and merciless indictment of what happens to the cultures we create when we refuse to trust God to make us secure. Like Israel in Isaiah?s day, we turn each other into threats to be attacked, competitors to be deceived, and resources to be exploited. But this passage also points the way to healing. Honest confession of our own brokenness helps us empathize with the weakness of others, and confidence in God?s saving power frees us to give ourselves to others.
Using an image of unmistakeable power, Isaiah shows that idols may draw you in with the promise of control, but in the end you?re left to carry their crushing weight. By contrast, the Holy One of Israel demands submissive trust in a God you can?t control, but he is powerful, wise, and loving enough to carry you.
Isaiah presents idolatry?worshipping and trusting what isn?t God?as one of Israel?s most consistent and most significant problems. And though the symptoms have changed from culture to culture, idolatry is a heart disease we all carry. This chapter helps us understand what idolatry is, why it?s useless, how we?re guilty of it, and how we can be saved from it.
The story of Ahaz illustrates Isaiah?s perspective on what?s wrong with Israel and with us. Then and now, everything rides on a single question: whom will you trust?
The Bible claims that God is love, but in trying to understand what that means we?ve got to be careful to avoid imposing our confused views of what love is onto God. The fact is that God?s love isn?t like any love in our experience, which is to say it?s holy love. In light of Isaiah 40, God?s holy love is preemptive, pardoning, and permanent.
One of the ways in which God is holy, in which he is not like us, is his perfect moral righteousness. We redefine what?s right and justify doing wrong; God is perfectly committed to what?s right and unfailingly judges what?s wrong. This makes God?s holy perfection a severe threat. But his holy perfection also comes to us as a promise: God offers us Jesus?s record of perfect righteousness, and by his Spirit we come to love what?s right and hate what?s wrong as God does.
At the heart of Isaiah?s portrait of God is God?s holy transcendence?the fact that God is beyond us and anything we experience in this world, that he?s not limited by the powers of this world or our ability to understand him. This aspect of what God is like is unavoidably abstract and difficult to connect with, much less enjoy. And that?s why Isaiah 40 is in the Bible?to help us see and enjoy God?s holy transcendence more fully.
?Holy? is Isaiah?s favorite description of God, the one that stands behind everything else he says about him. But what does that mean, and how can we understand and love that God is holy?
Using Isaiah 1 as an introduction to our new series, this sermon aims to clarify the four questions Isaiah helps us answer: Who is God? Who are we? What has God promised us? And how should we respond to his Word?
The gospel, God?s good news that defines who we are, helps us understand why prayer is so important to our lives and to our church. The gospel clarifies why we must pray and what we must pray.
We can?t help but long for justice against evil, but we?re guilty of the things we despise. How can we be saved? That?s the question raised by Isaiah 64. We need more than deliverance from what threatens us; we need deliverance from the evil that?s in us.
In this prophetic vision Isaiah describes what the new world will be like when God comes to make all things new. Engaging this vision in light of the brokenness of the world we life in helps us sharpen our hope. It helps us long for the promise that God will deliver us from the things we fear and cannot control.
The letter to the Hebrews ends with a benediction, a reminder of what God has done and a prayer for what God will do for his children. By sacrificing the blood of his Son, God has made a covenant that promises peace and life that will last forever. By his covenant God gives to us what he requires of us, promising to transform us so we can live the lives of worship we were made to live.
Wrapping up this letter to his friends, the author of Hebrews urges them to view their leaders as God gift to their community. This passage explains how we?re to follow faithful leaders, and where those leaders should be leading us.
Because of Jesus, worship looks different. There are no more temples, sacrifices, or ceremonial cleansings; now worship is a way of life, a life defined by gratitude for what God has done and will do for us through Jesus. This passage gives examples of what should mark a grateful life.
This passage, the rhetorical climax of the letter, summarizes the major themes of Hebrews. It reminds us where we?ve come through Jesus, where we?re going, and how we get there.
Samuel said to Saul, ?To obey is better than sacrifice.? Obedience is lovingly conforming our lives to the ways of God in thought, word, deed, and attitude. The apostle John, in his last writings, put it even more simply: walk as Jesus did. We do not impress God with our obedience; we delight him. It gives us the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
If the Christian life amounts to a long, difficult, and painful race, we?ve got to work as a team to strengthen each other and bind what is broken?to create a community of healing. We must work hard at what God is working out in us; this looks like peace with each other and a fuller dependence on God. And we must take responsibility for each other?s faith, pushing each other beyond apathy, hard-heartedness, and fleeting pleasure.
The witness of Israel?s heroes and especially of Jesus is this: God?s promises are more precious than the comforts of this world. But this text reveals another dimension to how we should view our pain as people of faith. Our pain is used by our Father to discipline us; it shows God loves us, it aims at our holiness, and it always bears fruit.
This conclusion to Hebrews?s list of faith?s exemplars offers a striking contrast. Sometimes faith brings back the dead, and sometimes faith costs everything. But the key point is this: if Jesus is alive, the difference between gaining or losing everything in this life doesn?t ultimately matter.
Moses?s life shows how faith is a matter of identity. Faith says that Jesus is more satisfying than the fleeting pleasure of sin. He?s more rewarding than the greatest treasures of this world. He?s more secure than the powers we admire and crave. And that?s because Jesus alone overcomes our inadequacy and makes us children of God.
The life of Abraham offers one of the Bible?s best examples of what it looks like to claim the promises of God by faith. Here our author uses Abraham?s life to call us to live as exiles in this world because we live with a homesick longing for the world to come.
If Jesus represents what God has done to redeem our broken relationship with him, faith is what that healed relationship looks like in us. Hebrews 11 is one of the Bible?s most beautiful descriptions of faith, and these first verses show us what it is and why it pleases God.
We often overlook work as a means to an end, but God created it and is glorified by us doing it in faith.
Whether or not we endure in faith makes a statement about God, a statement that means life or death. We endure by fixing our hope on our true possession in Christ.
Christian community is the key to holding on to faith and to living for the return of Jesus. This passage helps clarify what Christian community is and how it works.
This verse and the context it draws from help us to trust the faithfulness of God when faced with doubts of mind and soul.
The truth about Jesus explained so carefully earlier in the letter is brought home here with one simple command: draw near to God. But because drawing near to God is easier spoken of than acted on, this passage helps us identify why we struggle to approach God and what we can do about it.
Here, at the climax of the entire letter, we get two images that help us see that Jesus?s work for us is finished and how his work begins to change us.
We know from human relationships how disruptive it is to have displeased the other person and to know we?ve been displeasing. Israel?s relationship with God suffered from this sense that God wasn?t fully pleased with his people, and a major point of their sacrificial system was to remind them of this problem. But Jesus came to perfectly please God, to do his will once and for all, and because of Jesus we can please God too.
Everyone faces a future defined by one of two realities: death and judgment, or Jesus?s death and coming redemption. What will your future be? Are you eagerly waiting for him?
All of us possess a moral conscience, and all of us have experienced what it is to have a defiled conscience?a conscience that tells us we have failed to meet our own standards, much less God?s. This passage explains how Jesus came to purify our consciences, to redeem us from living under the dark cloud of our failure.
The next two chapters of Hebrews are all about blood. They are especially about Jesus?s blood and why his blood is more precious than any other. So why is blood so important, and what does Jesus?s blood actually accomplish?
We all want to change, Christian or not. We try to change by swapping out behaviors, but the radical message of Christianity is that change comes through a set of promises.
God responds to our abandonment of him by binding himself to us with a covenant we can?t break. In his new covenant, God makes us secure by changing what we want, by satisfying us with himself, and by forgetting our sins against him.
Hebrews is a letter full of comparisons, especially comparisons between what Jesus has accomplished and what the system of Moses was meant to provide. This passage introduces two new comparisons that are central in the chapters to come: the new tabernacle, or where Jesus intercedes for us; and the new covenant, or how Jesus intercedes for us.
Hebrews 7, the most challenging section of this letter, has offered a host of minute and obscure details to show that Jesus?s priesthood will last forever. Now, at the end of the chapter, we?re told why this is such good news.
Why do we need a priest? And why does it matter that Jesus is a priest like Melchizedek? Hebrews 7, the meat of this letter, introduces the mysterious beauty of Jesus?s priesthood.
Few of us would likely claim what makes us confident in the gospel?s promises is the fact that God swore an oath. But this passage suggests that?s precisely how God intended to give us stronger hope and unshakeable confidence. So how does God?s oath make us secure?
Because the power of the gospel transforms, genuine followers of Jesus bear certain marks. This passage presents three of these marks?love, faith, and patience?and why they?re so important.
In one of the most difficult and controversial passages in the entire New Testament, the author of Hebrews warns of the irreversible consequences of falling away from Jesus. What is the nature, purpose, and proper effect of this harsh warning?
Spiritual growth came no easier for the earliest Christians than it comes for us. This passage helps us understand what holds us back from spiritual maturity and how we can press on towards it.
There is an ironic truth at the heart of the story Christians commemorate as Holy Week. The same man hailed as king one day is shamefully executed a few days later, and that death was inextricably linked to his becoming king. Hebrews helps us understand why Jesus had to die to become king, and its explanation has a great deal to do with a mysterious figure called Melchizedek.
This section of Hebrews introduces one of the letter?s most important subjects: the perfect priesthood of Jesus. But why do we need a priest in the first place? What did biblical priests actually do? And what makes Jesus a perfect priest?
This crucial section of Hebrews offers a summary of what?s already been said and a taste of what?s still to come. Jesus is the Son of God who became our sympathetic high priest. These titles?admitedly abstract to our modern ears?are introduced for a profoundly practical purpose. They?re meant to convince us to hold fast to Jesus because only Jesus offers what we really need.
God?s Word has the power to cut through our layers of pretension and expose who we really are. Thankfully, this same Word offers us a new identity.
This passage offers both an invitation to share in God?s rest and a warning not to miss out. On one hand, we?re invited to enjoy perfect satisfaction in God and the security that comes from knowing he provides everything we need. On the other hand we?re told to fear and strive against unbelief and disobedience. How do these commands square with our promise of rest?
Using a vivid example from Israel?s history, this passage helps us understand the nature of a disease we all share and how we can fight it. Sin is a heart condition: it deceives, it hardens, and it feeds on unbelief. The only true remedy for our disease is a deeper affection for Jesus, which grows as we encourage and challenge one another.
When the author of Hebrews wished to encourage his readers to remain faithful, he pointed them to the faithfulness of Jesus. But so much rests on the answer to this question: What is the connection between Jesus?s faithfulness and ours?
At the heart of Christianity is the claim that God took on our humanity?became one of us?so that he could suffer. Hebrews 2 helps us understand why this had to be. Jesus became like us so he could act for us, defeating death as our champion by removing sin as our high priest. And because Jesus suffered everything we could before we do, he empathizes with us and promises us our Father is trustworthy.
Death is the fundamental human problem. It shows us the limits of our power perhaps more clearly than anything else. It calls into question everything we were meant to be and all we try to accomplish. And, from the perspective of the Bible and Hebrews in particular, death is unnatural?an impostor, a weapon in the hands of a ruthless enemy whose days are numbered. For the death and resurrection of Jesus hold out a promise, a promise that his sacrifice means the death of death itself.
In this first of several warning passages in Hebrews, the message is as simple as it is serious: don?t drift away from Jesus. What makes this drifting so dangerous? What would it look like for us to drift from Jesus? And how can we avoid it?
What makes Jesus more trustworthy than any alternative? According to Hebrews 1, the answer to this question has a lot to do with his status as Son of God, and with the fact that he reigns forever.
Hebrews opens with a dramatic claim that gives focus and meaning to everything that comes later. God had spoken in many ways before; but in his Son, the ultimate medium, he speaks in such a way that everything becomes clearer and comes together once and for all. But what does the fact that God has spoken in his Son tell us about his message and how we should receive it?
For all the mystery surrounding its origin, context, and style, Hebrews makes a case that is perfectly clear: Jesus is greater than any alternative hope for salvation, so we must hold fast to him.
In Luke?s narrative, the angels? celebration of Jesus?s birth hinges on the promise that his coming means peace on earth. But what did they mean by ?peace?? And where is it?
Micah promised that a ruler to come, Israel?s Messiah, would emerge from Bethlehem, and a basic piece of the Christmas story is Jesus?s fulfillment of Micah?s prophecy. But why is Bethlehem so important? Bethlehem?s significance has everything to do with the kingdom of God, and with the goal of that kingdom, the glory of God.
Luke begins his story of Jesus?s life not with Jesus but with the announcement and birth of another character, John the Baptist. Why was he so important? The answer has everything to do with an ancient story, a story left off by the Minor Prophets and picked up here by Luke.
?I have loved you??so begins God?s communication with his people in this final book of the Old Testament. It?s a fitting summary of the story of God?s dealings with Israel to that point. But Malachi is essentially a disputation between God and unbelieving Israel over whether and how he had loved them. If the prophets dramatize the character of God for us, this prophet illustrates what God?s love is like, and it isn?t what Israel or we would expect. God?s love is free, it?s steadfast, it?s inviting, and it?s self-centered?all of which makes for wonderfully good news.
Though cloaked in often mysterious prophetic imagery, Zechariah?s message offers a beautiful elaboration on the coming kingdom, of God?s promise to deliver his people from threats on the outside?their enemies?and on the inside?their sin. And in a couple key passages, Zechariah suggests this deliverance will be accomplished by an unprecedented divine ruler, a priest-king.
When the people of Israel first returned to Jerusalem after the exile, what they found was a far cry from what they had hoped for. Haggai confronted their disillusionment, recasting their expectations and calling for trust in the faithfulness of God. His message gives us insight into how Jesus fulfills the hope of the prophets, and what it looks like for us to live as if God?s promises are true.
this point, illustrates how God?s roles as Judge and Redeemer are both guided by a single goal: to vindicate his name as the one true Lord. He will reveal his true identity once and for all by exposing those who proudly believe they can do better elsewhere, and by perfectly meeting the needs of those humble enough to rest everything on him.
Habakkuk wonderfully frames a question that runs through the Bible and human experience: if God is good and powerful, why do evil and injustice flourish? God?s unexpected answer and Habakkuk?s prayerful response show us what realistic faith looks like.
Nahum is a book of shocking images. They are images that challenge our common notions of what God is like, that challenge our tendency to flatten the character of God. They are images that show us clearly that God is against all evil, that make us ask whether God is against us. And they are images meant to send us running to Jesus.
Like so many of the Minor Prophets, Micah focuses on coming judgment and promises a kingdom of peace and security on the other side of judgment. But Micah is unique in his focus on leadership. Israel?s unfaithful leaders led to the nation?s downfall. So who would lead them?and us?to peace?
Jonah is a powerful story celebrating the extent of God?s mercy that reaches even to the enemies of his people. But even more, it is an ironic and witty satire exposing the foolishness and hypocrisy of Jonah. The story contrasts, on one hand, Jonah?s experience of God?s mercy when he deserved to die for his disobedience; and, on the other hand, Jonah?s burning resentment when Ninevah receives the same mercy he enjoyed. The key question for us: how can we avoid Jonah?s hypocrisy?
In the wake of their exile, and especially given their treatment at the hands of their enemy Edom, Israel had to wonder whether the promises of God would come to nothing. Obadiah prophesied against Edom, but his was a message Israel was meant to overhear. It?s a message meant to encourage them and all who have ever had cause to doubt whether God could deliver on his promises.
A contemporary of Hosea, Amos prophesied to dispel Israel?s mistaken assumption that sin and judgment were someone else?s problem. Amos is unique among the prophets for his emphasis on Israel?s exploitation of the weak and vulnerable. His words, full of beauty and laced with satire, help us understand why God takes injustice personally. And they help us understand why Jesus is the only hope for the unjust.
Like so many of the Minor Prophets, Joel is a book of warning. He speaks especially of a coming ?Day of the Lord,? a decisive and terrible day when everyone opposed to God?s rule will be destroyed. That has never been a fashionable message, perhaps never less so than now. But what if Joel is right? How could we avoid our share in that judgment?
Hosea offers one of the Bible?s most vivid illustrations of the nature of sin: sin boils down to spiritual adultery, rejecting God?s love in favor of other options. But Hosea offers just as vivid an illustration of redemption in the face of judgment, what one author has called ?an anticipation in pageant form of Christ?s story.?
This series introduction answers three basic questions: What are the Minor Prophets? What can we learn from the Minor Prophets? And how can we make the most of this study?
The nature of the gospel ? Paul?s ?mystery of Christ? ? controls how we communicate this message to those who don?t follow Jesus. In other words, the message should control the medium.
In this text Paul drives the implications of the gospel even deeper into real life, into those relationships where our selfishness and idolatry are most likely to flourish. He calls us to gospel-centered relationships in marriage, in the family, and in the workplace.
If salvation comes only through trusting what Jesus has done for us, as Paul?s been arguing, why does it matter how we live? The answer shapes everything. Union with Jesus changes who we are in God?s eyes, offering all the security we need; so we live in response to God?s favor, not to earn it.
By nature, we?re all prone to moralism?to measure ourselves before God and others by our moral performance. This tendency is the enemy of the gospel. In this section of Colossians, Paul makes his case against moralism; he argues that it?s without substance, arbitrary and powerless. The implications for us are both convicting and encouraging: we don?t get to judge others, but we don?t have to fear being judged.
Everyone has something at the center of life that explains how to be fulfilled in life and what values are worth pursuing. According to Paul, the choice is simple. You can build your life on Christ as the only sure source of purpose and hope. Or you can fall for something that seems plausible at first but ultimately won?t satisfy, what he labels ?empty deceit.? The reason Jesus satisfies where nothing else will has everything to do with the fact that he offers something nothing else can: transformation and satisfaction.
Writing to a church he?d never visited in person, Paul uses this section of his letter to explain his philosophy of ministry. Not surprisingly, it begins and ends with the gospel, with what he calls ?God?s mystery.? If modeled on Paul?s, our philosophy of ministry as a church and as individuals will be gospel-centered in content, in methods, and in goals.
Why trust in Christ for redemption rather than some other source of hope? The burden of this question is the one Paul?s hymn to Christ is meant to carry. Knowing his readers were tempted to look elsewhere for security, or at the very least supplement what the cross offers, Paul explains why Christ?s identity as both God and man makes him the perfect mediator and only fit solution to our problem.
In letters like Colossians, Paul gives us a model for how to pray for ourselves and others. His prayer for the Colossians reflects a basic tension of the Christian life: through Christ we are redeemed already, transferred from darkness into light, but in our experience we are not yet what we will be. So Paul prays a prayer of gospel-centered thanksgiving, for what God has done already, and gospel-centered supplication, that the gospel would continue its good work in us.
If God is loving and powerful, why is there evil and suffering in the world? It?s a timeless question that has kept many from faith and unsettled the confidence of many an ardent believer. It?s a question the story of Joseph addresses with remarkable complexity and nuance. On one hand, the story illustrates what we know from experience: suffering comes even to those who don?t deserve it. There?s an element of mystery that neither this story nor the rest of the Bible attempts to penetrate. But on the other hand, seen from beginning to end, the story of Joseph illustrates that God governs all things?even evil and suffering?towards the fulfillment of his promises. The point for us is that, though the details of our suffering remain mostly mysterious, the gospel offers us hope that all things serve God?s purpose to redeem us.
Typically stories about national founders?stories designed to give a nation identity and purpose?talk up moral virtues worthy of emulation and play down embarrasing flaws. Israel?s origin stories?perhaps especially stories about Jacob, Israel himself?provide a noticeable contrast to this pattern. That?s because Israel?s national identity?and now the identity of the church?rests upon a different sort of foundation, a foundation that has everything to do with the answer to two crucial questions: What can we expect from God? And what does God expect from us? These are questions the story of Jacob is meant to answer.
One of Christianity?s great challenges is the call to walk by faith and not by sight. It?s the call to believe God?s loving and gracious promises are true even when the circumstances of your life cast serious doubt on those promises. There is perhaps no more vivid?certainly no more mysterious?illustration of this sort of odds-defying faith than the story of Abraham?s call to sacrifice his son. When joined to the account of Isaac?s birth and to God?s provision of a substitute sacrifice, this phase of the Abraham cycle offers poignant and timeless insight into what it looks like to believe God provides?and to stake your life to that truth.
God is faithful to the promises He makes in the Bible. Since we are grafted in as Abraham?s descendants through faith in Christ, we have confidence that he is working for our good despite our circumstances.
sin, is inseparable from these ancient promises. They speak of the content of salvation, the vehicle of salvation, and the scope of salvation.
The strange little story of the Tower of Babel explains the origins of Israel?s neighbors as the result of a clash between the unfettered pride of humankind and the unmatched sovereignty of God. Rich in irony, it juxtaposes the united human drive for security and significance with God?s effortless sway over the best of human ingenuity. But more than that, like all of Genesis 1-11, the story of Babel has timeless relevance as an explanation of our sinful condition and a precursor to God?s specific goals in salvation.
The story of Noah and the flood is far from a nursery rhyme. It?s a story of cataclysmic judgment mixed with mysterious divine grace. Like everything else in the opening chapters of Genesis, this story is meant to introduce key themes that continue to play out in the storyline of the Bible, and it raises crucial questions. How should this story of terrible and intentional judgment affect our view of God? Why did God choose to preserve Noah and his family? Why should we expect he?ll preserve us?
The message of the cross will always be foolishness to the world, but true foolishness would be loving the respect of our peers more than we love the gospel.
When the apostles preached about Jesus they preached him as crucified and as risen from the dead. In his letter to the Romans, Paul explains why the gospel is incomplete apart from Jesus?s resurrection. In theory, the resurrection is the foundation of our faith that God accepts us because he accepts Jesus. In practice, it means ours is a peace and a hope that should hold fast no matter our circumstances.
Genesis, as a story of beginnings, explains the roots of a reality we can?t reasonbly deny: this world is not what it ought to be. Genesis 3 explains something of the nature of sin, that it replaces God?s authority with ours; the results of sin, that it destroys relationships, separates us from God, and ultimately brings death; and the solution for sin, that one we now know to be Jesus would come to perfectly solve the problem of sin.
The conclusion to Genesis 1 claims that humans are unique among God?s creatures because they?re made in the image of God. That was a counter-cultural claim when first written and, in some ways, remains so today. But unique how? This text suggests the image of God gives us unique dignity, unique responsibility, and unique accountability.
The story of Genesis?a book of beginnings?opens with a poem that answers questions as old as time: Where did we come from? Why is there something rather than nothing? And who is in charge?
Mark concludes his story with an earth-shattering claim that launches the life of the church: Jesus was really dead, but now he?s alive. He leaves us to ask two questions. Is it true? And if it is true, if Jesus really is alive, what are the implications?
must Jesus die? Mark?s telling of Jesus?s trial and crucifixion removes a couple possible explanations. Jesus didn?t die because he was guilty: the trial of Jesus shows no one found any legitimate legal reason to kill him. And Jesus didn?t die because he was powerless: Mark?s readers know Jesus is innocent and has power to overcome his captors, but he doesn?t defend himself. So why then? Jesus died to establish a kingdom you could live in. Mark?s chief irony and his central message is that Jesus comes to power and invites us into his kingdom through his death.
Describing the events leading to Jesus?s arrest and crucifixion, Mark tells us a great deal about what Jesus came here to do: He came to be abandoned so we won?t have to be. Jesus was abandoned by everyone?Judas, Peter, his disciples, even his Father?and, remarkably, he chose to have it that way. Why did he choose this path of excruciating isolation? Because through his death?the ultimate abandonment?he established a covenant relationship that will never break.
In the longest section of teaching recorded in Mark?s Gospel, Jesus turns to questions asked by the religious and the philosophical since the beginning of time. What does the future hold, and how should we live now in light of that future? The details of Jesus?s predictions?about the destruction of the Temple in the near future and about his final return in power and glory?have always baffled interpreters. But the bottom line couldn?t be more clear: because Jesus is coming back in victory and judgment, and because we don?t know when, our responsibility is to trust Jesus and stay ready.
After a parable of judgment that sets the stage for his confrontation with Israel?s religious leaders, Jesus fields challenges from each primary group of leaders: the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the scribes. In each case, Jesus?s answers turn the tables on his challengers to expose their hypocrisy. In the end, Jesus proposes the only solution to religious hypocrisy: a love of God for God?s sake and with everything you have.
Chapter 11 marks Jesus?s arrival at Jersalem, an event laced through with prophecy fulfillment. Here, by an ?enacted parable? and by a dramatic confrontation in the Temple, Jesus shows more of what he?s come to do. As King, he?s come to purge and to restore.
To this point Mark?s narrative has promised that Jesus would, paradoxically, establish the kingdom of God through his death. So what does this mean for who belongs to the kingdom and how? Mark answers this question by contrasting stories on faith with stories on self-reliance. In short, the kingdom belongs to the desperate, not the self-reliant, because it belongs to those who rest only on Jesus.
Still on the road towards Jerusalem, Jesus shifts the focus of his teaching on discipleship to the subject of marriage and divorce. As so often before, he explodes standard religious convention. Jesus answers a question from the Pharisees about divorce with an explanation of God?s original design for marriage. Marriage viewed from the perspective of creation, in the eyes of God, is an unbreakable bond. But how do we square Jesus?s marriage ideal with our experience in a world deeply marred by sin?
As Jesus makes his way towards Jerusalem and the death that?s waiting there for him, he narrows his focus to teaching his disciples what it means to follow a Messiah who suffers. The cross sets the pattern for Christian discipleship, and this text offers concrete examples. A life modeled on the cross is a life that puts the interests of others above its own, and it?s a life that fights a radical battle with sin.
In this story of demon possession and exorcism, Mark returns to one of his favorite questions: what must we do to claim the saving power of Jesus? It?s a story that illustrates what we know from our own experience: unbelief comes from many sources and in many forms. But in the desperate plea of a helpless father Mark illustrates another, even more powerful truth. It?s a decision to rest on Jesus?not mathematical certainty?which constitutes the faith that leads to deliverance.
Just after Jesus has told his disciples that he must suffer and die, and that following him means they will suffer too, Jesus reinforces their confidence in him with a glimpse of his glory, a mysterious event called the transfiguration. In this story and in Jesus?s discussion with his disciples about this event, Mark helps us understand a central Christian paradox: as Son of God Jesus is undeniably glorious, but his glory as Messiah comes through a death of unimaginable shame.
The stories of Jesus?s life and teaching in Mark?s Gospel are designed to answer three main questions: who is Jesus, what did Jesus come here to do, and what does that require of us? Already, in chapters 1-8, we?ve seen the shape of Mark?s answer to those crucial questions emerge. First, Jesus is the divine Son of God, as shown in his unmatched words and actions of authority and power. Second, he came to fix what was broken, to establish the kingdom of God by his life, death, and resurrection. And, finally, Jesus demands absolute submission from us: a repentance from all competing allegiances, a rest in the sufficiency of his power and love, and a willigness to follow him with a life of self-denial.
To fully appreciate why Jesus?s birth matters so much, we have to understand where it falls in the overarching story the Bible tells about God?s work of salvation. Isaiah 9 offers one of the most important clues, hundreds of years before Jesus was actually born. The prophet claims that the people who walked in darkness have seen a light because a child was born. In other words, we?ve got to understand the meaning of this darkness and we?ve got to understand the meaning of this light if we?re to understand the meaning of the child.
This exchange between Jesus and his disciples represents a turning point in Mark?s Gospel. Just after Peter?s climactic confession of Jesus as the Christ, Jesus explains what kind of Christ he would be and what that implied for all who would follow him. Jesus explains to his followers?and to us?that there is no Christ without the cross and resurrection, and there is no Christian discipleship without suffering.
In this cluster of stories Mark helps explain why people respond to Jesus in very different ways, some in faith and others with persistent unbelief. Contrasting the disciples? struggle to believe even after all they?d seen with Peter?s dramatic confession of Jesus as the Christ, Mark shows us that spiritual sight is never the same thing as physical sight. Faith?seeing with new eyes?is a gift of God.
In chapter 7, by relating Jesus?s confrontation with the Pharisees along with his ministry among the Gentiles, Mark exposes the two sides of Jesus?s radical message: the problem of sin is universal, but the promise of salvation is universal too.
In this psalm, a memoir of life lived through God?s word, we are challenged to cultivate both depth and breadth in our understanding of scripture and to apply God?s Word to the raw circumstances of real life.
In chapter 6 Mark illustrates how we should respond to Jesus by contrast to two more examples of unbelief. People in Jesus?s hometown were offended by his claims to authority because they?d been inoculated through overexposure. They were familiar with Jesus as brother and son and carpenter, but he seemed too familiar for them to accept his radical words or actions. Jesus?s disciples struggle with another sort of unbelief, which Mark illustrates with the stories of Jesus feeding 5000 people and Jesus walking on water. Confronted with vivid danger, the disciples respond in fear because, as Mark explains, they failed to appreciate the significance of Jesus?s miraculous provision in the past.
Mark demonstrates in these stories that Jesus is more powerful than nature, evil, sickness, and even death. In each case, the person or group afflicted with their malady is paralized by fear. Jesus?s response to them is his message to us, ?Do not fear, only believe.?
In this batch of parables Jesus explains what the kingdom is like by analogy to familiar images, all of which aim to show why the kingdom doesn?t look like most expected. The kingdom is like a lamp which, though hidden initially, is ultimately brought in to be revealed. It?s like a seed that grows even though the farmer merely goes to sleep and wakes up again; in other words, kingdom growth is inevitable because God alone makes it grow. And the kingdom is like a mustard seed, small in its beginning but unmatched in its end. If this is what the kingdom is like, how do we respond?
There is more than one way to respond to the claims and work of Jesus. Mark gives us three options. We can respond by calling him a crazy eccentric, an evil demon, or Lord.
Mark begins to document the opposition that builds against Jesus, ultimately leading to his execution. Why did the religious leaders, who were experts of the law, fail to understand the signficance of Jesus and his kingdom? How do we avoid similar error?
At the beginning of chapter 2, Mark reveals new dimensions of Jesus?s identity and mission. Mark?s stories show that Jesus has the unique ability to forgive sins, and that this is precisely what he came here to do. The only question, then, is whether you will come to Jesus for forgiveness.
In this passage Mark tells a group of stories designed to show that Jesus came preaching the kingdom with a remarkably distinctive authority. But these stories also reveal a paradoxical truth: submission to Jesus?s loving authority sets you free.
If we are to understand why Mark labels his story about Jesus as ?good news,? we must first see how he answers the three questions at the heart of his story: Who is Jesus? What did Jesus come here to do? And what does that require of us?