The Table Community Church (Belgrade): Recent Episodes
The Table Community Church
So, Jesus speaks in parables…a lot. These sayings are simple yet profound illustrations of what life looks like when we follow Jesus. This Sunday, we explore how Jesus uses seeds to teach us about life in his Kingdom. As followers of Jesus, we get frustrated at the time it takes for growth to occur, whether within a church or within our own spiritual life. Yet, Jesus’ teachings show us that the slow work is some of the best. We will look at what it means to have the patience and intentionality of a good farmer in this journey of discipleship.View or download slides here (PDF).
Our apologies. Due to technical issues, there is no recording this week. Here is the description of the message:
This Sunday, we will be in Mark 4:21-25. Yes! Only four verses! But do not let the brevity fool you, as it is packed with meaning and instruction for us as followers of Jesus. I want you to think about one question as we prepare for Sunday: How do I know if I take Jesus seriously? Now…taking Jesus seriously does not mean we live with stoic posture or without joy and adventure (quite the opposite!). Still, how do we know if Jesus has an authoritative voice in our lives? We will explore this together on Sunday!
Last Sunday, we looked at the nature of discipleship. This Sunday, we'll explore the Kingdom and the word. Hopefully, we'll get lost in a parable about parables together. Then, look to Jesus to help us make sense of it all. Specifically, we'll explore Mark 4:1-20. Questions to consider throughout the week is:
•How do you respond to God when you don't understand something?
•What gets in the way of welcoming Jesus into your everyday life?
This Sunday, we will look at the nature of discipleship. Our text is a bit longer but filled with insight into what it means to follow Jesus well. One question to consider as we move towards Sunday: How might you respond if someone asked you to define the church in one sentence? To get a grip on what we will read, look at Mark 3:13-35.
In the Gospel of Mark, we find Jesus in conflict with the religious elites quite often. Last Sunday, we looked at Jesus’ teachings on feasting and fasting, which challenged the old traditions. This Sunday, we find one of the most controversial teachings of Jesus for his time: the nature of the Sabbath. It is equally controversial in our time but for different reasons. I look forward to discussing with you all the beauty of the Sabbath in the light of Jesus.
This Sunday, we will look at Mark 2:18-22. Here, we have Jesus challenging customs around fasting by giving three strange images:
1.A wedding
2.A patch of clothing
3.Wine
This section raises essential questions that go beyond fasting. Jesus shows up with ‘something new,’ and those who had been organized around tradition were upset. What does this look like today? How do we properly discern what God is up to in our culture and time? For example, CS Lewis is now celebrated as an essential voice for the contemporary church. Yet, he was not as popular then, and many resisted his work (he wasn’t perfect, to be sure, but he remains a trusted voice). How do we navigate the work of the Spirit through his people in our world?
View or download slides here(PDF).
This week, I am excited to lead us through Mark 2:1-12 as we look at one of the most memorable moments in Jesus’ ministry: a group of people carrying their paralyzed friend to Jesus in a dramatic fashion, and it causes Jesus to stop his sermon and acknowledge the deep faith before him. As usual with Mark, there is more to the story than meets the eye. We will talk about the role of being intercessors, here and now, and in visible ways. Intercessory ministry is not less than prayer but much more.
View or download slides here (PDF).
In Mark 1:40-2:1, we continue our journey through the gospel of Mark. It is always interesting to think about what Jesus could have done with his power but what he chose to do with it, and in Mark's gospel we see Jesus continually going to those who had been excluded from community, sick and isolated, or those just simply in need of his healing touch.
This Sunday, we look at Mark 1:14-39. In this passage, we hear Jesus’s first words in Mark’s gospel and how he chooses to launch his public ministry. It is filled with action but focuses on the power of Jesus’s words and deeds. We will explore what this text teaches us about who Jesus is and what it means to follow him.
The Gospel of Mark - The Voice in the Wilderness
"JESUS COMES CLOSE"
Two weeks ago we started our journey through the gospel of Mark. Something to keep in mind as we move along is what Mark reveals to us about Jesus: Jesus is the sovereign, suffering, and victorious king. If we keep that in mind, much of Mark will come alive in a fresh way. This Sunday, we will pick up on the very next passage and look at Jesus's baptism and his time in the wilderness. Some questions we will explore together are 1) Why should I care about the baptism of Jesus? 2) What is the significance of Mark's version of the wilderness in comparison to Matthew and Luke's?
View or download slides here(PDF).
Please accept our apologies for the poor audio quality. We are looking into the cause.
The Gospel of Mark
The Voice in the Wilderness
The Gospel of Mark is often overlooked because Matthew, Luke, and John have more content and details. However, this is unfortunate, as Matthew and Luke likely patterned their gospels after Mark’s (Mark is the first gospel written and passed along). In Mark, we have the essentials of following Jesus in a wild world. It explores what discipleship looks like in the face of disruption and suffering and how Jesus leads the way. Mark teaches about who Jesus is while showing how he is with us every step of the way in the wilderness of a world in chaos. The basics of discipleship are found in Mark.
View or download slides here(PDF).
God's Grace
What does it look like to experience God’s grace? We sing about God’s grace and talk about “grace through faith in Christ,” but what kind of visibility does grace have in our daily lives? What do we see when grace appears, and how does it shape us? Christian ideas and beliefs about God’s grace are not stuffy doctrines but living words that guide us. This Sunday, we explore God’s grace as we begin a new year that will undoubtedly present obstacles to knowing, experiencing, and sharing God’s grace.
View or download slides here (PDF).
On Christmas Eve we look at Luke 2:21-28- the story of Jesus, Simeon the Priest, and Anna the Prophetess. It’s a story of Jesus coming to two elderly and weary but faithful individuals. All of us, in some way, long to meet Jesus. This is true whether you have been following Jesus for some time or are stepping into questions about him - our desire for God doesn’t go away when we are saved; it intensifies. One question to sit with: If you zoomed out and looked at your daily routines, is there a desire for and seeking after Jesus anywhere in your calendar?
Advent - A Joyful HopeThis week, we contemplate Jesus's birth and the incarnation, with Christmas Eve approaching. We'll center our time on Luke 2:1-21 and examine the richness of the God who became flesh.
Advent - A Joyful Hope: Waiting
Last Sunday, we talked about discipleship according to Mary. This week, we continue in Luke by sitting with Mary’s response to God at work. She celebrates that God defies human conventions of honor and importance. One question to think about: “How do you look for God working in the world?”
View or download slides here (PDF).
Advent - A Joyful Hope: Discipleship According to Mary
Last Sunday, we started our Advent series. This week, we continue in Luke by examining the announcement of Jesus’s birth to Mary. Her response differs from Zechariah’s; in Mary, we discover the God for whom ‘nothing is impossible.’ One question to ponder: “How do you know when God interrupts you?” View or download slides here (PDF).
Advent - A Joyful Hope
This Sunday we begin our journey through the Christmas story with Luke. This week, we talk a little about how Joy will come, even though it may feel or seem like it's delayed. As we enter into Advent season, theologian Fleming Rutledge reminds us that Advent always begins in the dark. So if you find yourself in a difficult place, this Christmas series will be an encouragement. View or download slides here (PDF).
Life Around the Table: Thankfulness
This Sunday we are in our new location. We celebrate by reflecting upon Psalm 107 and discuss the beauty of God's acts on our behalf! Perhaps read through the Psalm and reflect upon how it stirs your heart towards thankfulness!
View slides here.
Life Around the Table: Sharpen Your Spurs
The Bible tells us we have a responsibility to champion, to encourage, to embolden, to empower, and to loving prod one another on to love and good deeds. We are to call one another up to a high level of godliness and expression of who we are in Christ. Alone we will only go so far, but together, with others cheering us on, we can have the courage and strength to go much further. This Sunday we explore our responsibility to our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, and our fellow members of the human race.
Life Around the Table: Breaking Bread Together - The Table Fellowship
We continue our series called Life Around The Table by exploring the concept of table fellowship in the life and ministry of Jesus and in the early church. I think you will be surprised with how significant table fellowship is throughout Scripture. I also discuss a little bit about why we choose to do it the way we do it from a more cultural and missional perspective.
Life Around the Table: Prayer as a Way of Life
This week, we take a look at the core value of prayer. It is hard to turn the page of the Bible without running into someone praying. It is the default response for those following Jesus in this wild world. If you struggle to pray, get confused about how to pray, find yourself frustrated in praying, or want to know how to deepen prayer life with God, this message will be really relevant. More broadly, this is an area that we really hope to further develop in the life of our congregation.
Life Around the TableThis week, we will look at our second core value as a church: attentiveness to the Holy Spirit. We believe that the Holy Spirit is God's personal and empowering presence. What does it mean to practice attentiveness to what God is up to in our midst, and how he is present with us in the everyday stuff of life?
Life Around the TableLast Sunday we began a series called Life Around The Table. We are exploring who we are and what we sense God doing in our midst and we might be able to join him. We covered our mission and vision statements. Our mission is simple and straight from Scripture: reconciling people to God and each other in Christ. This means that everything we do is for the sake of bringing people together around the good news of Jesus. We believe that if we are joining God in this way, we can expect to see lives, families, and relationships flourish because of the good news of Jesus.
This Sunday, we look at our first fore value: Being devoted to Jesus and his teachings. We are not a religion organized around a set of principles but rather a person. We believe that devotion to Jesus connects to the life for which we were created. Jesus himself says that his words give life and that when we abide and obey, our joy will be complete. This Sunday, we explore what it means to devote ourselves to Jesus and his teachings as a learning community.
Life Around the Table
This week we begin a brand new series called Life around the Table. We are taking a close look at who we are as church family. For the last few years, Our church has gone through several changes: We have moved spaces, joined two churches together, went through COVID, and a host of other things. In and through all of this, we believe that God has revealed to us certain things about our church that really define who we are and where we are going. This Sunday we take a look at our mission statement and talk about what it looks like to embody it as a church family.
Last week in our series, "The Story of God" we talked about the portion of the story where redemption through Israel is revealed, redemption is completed in Jesus, and redemption is proclaimed by the Church. As we continue in our series, we explore the proclamation of this redemption by the Church. Specifically, we talk about the portion of the story that we live in right here and right now (ordinary time). To do this we explore redemptive images of Jesus and The Church found in Scripture.
Our Series on the Story of God continues. We will look at how redemption was launched in and through Israel in the Old Testament and what in the world that has to do with you. Knowing how Israel fits into our own faith story is essential if we are to make sense of what God has been up to. We will find much encouragement by discovering the relationship between Israel, Jesus, and the Church.
The Story of God
We are continuing our series called the Story of God where we are looking at the four major chapters in which scripture could be divided: Creation, the Fall, Redemption, and Restoration.
This week will be taking a look at the Fall and exploring why things are the way they are in the world and what God is doing and has done to deal with it. It is incredibly important that Christians know how to talk about the reality and implications of sin, precisely because it's been so misused and abused as a term. We will talk about how to talk about sin and make sense of it in light of the broad story we find in Scripture.
The Story of God
This week we are looking at Genesis 2 and the image of God in humans. We hear 'image of God' quite a bit, but what do we actually mean when we say it and what does Scripture teach us about the significance of being created in God's image? We will dive into questions like this and more.
Series: The Story of God
This week, we're going to talk a little bit about how to best tell the story of Jesus to those around us.
(Begins with update from Iris and Rich Ickles)
Experiencing the Holy Spirit
Seeking God's Presence in the Wilderness
This week closes out our series on the Holy Spirit this Sunday. We will look at Exodus 33 and talk about what it looks like to seek God's presence in the middle of the wilderness. This has been a meaningful series, and we would love to hear from you if you've had any sort of experience with God that you would like to share with us!
Experiencing the Holy Spirit
Martin Kahler, a German theologian, once said, “Mission is the mother of all theology.” Theology, in the Christian imagination, is not merely studying about God. Rather, it is about experiencing God and intentionally pursuing him with our whole being. Thus, to experience God’s Spirit, we step into situations where we share the good news about Jesus. Both mission and evangelism have negative connotations in our culture, and for good reason in some cases. Still, if we recover a true and meaningful idea of what it means and looks like to share the good news, we will find ourselves experiencing the Spirit in ways we never thought possible. Particularly, this week’s teaching will discuss how experiencing the Spirit leads to boldness and boldness leads us to more experiences with the Spirit. Read Acts 3-4 to prepare for this week's teaching!
Experiencing the Holy Spirit
While Cody was away ministering at a youth adult conference, Fred Neth spoke on 'Opening Up to Jesus' Ministry of the Holy Spirit" from John 7:37-39. Fred highlights three stages of Jesus' Messianic invitation:
- By honestly assessing our personal level of receptivity - "if anyone is thirsting..."
- By submitting to Jesus to minister the Holy Spirit to us - "Come to me and drink..."
- And, out of your deepest being floods of living water will be flowing."
This Sunday, Mark Archilla will be our guest speaker and he will be exploring some questions from our congregation regarding daily living with the Spirit. It will be a great time to come curious, eager, and with our own personal questions regarding how we relate day to day to the Holy Spirit.
Experiencing the Holy Spirit
Last Sunday, we talked about experiencing the Holy Spirit by looking at the inner life of the church. We experience the Holy Spirit as we open ourselves up and surrender to God those areas like bitterness, unforgiveness, the temptations to tear others down with words, anger, and greed. As we turn to Jesus, we find ourselves experiencing his presence in ways that lead to humility, patience, forgiveness, and honesty.
This Sunday, we will look at how we experience the Holy Spirit as we get to work in the church, building up our life together and witnessing in our community. The Holy Spirit is the breath of life into the body of Christ – which is the Church. We all have a part to play and people who experience the Holy Spirit are those who participate in the movement of the body! To prepare, you can read over 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12:1-8. Ask yourself, “In what ways do I see the Holy Spirit use me in the life of the church?”
Experiencing the Holy Spirit
This Sunday, we will talk about how to cultivate and keep that unity in the midst of conflicting personalities, experiences, beliefs, etc. Scripture gives us a few important principles and practices that help us experience the Holy Spirit in community, and disunity keeps us from experiencing what God has for our church family.
Read through Ephesians 4 to get a grip on what we will cover.
1.We narrow our view by assuming
2.We narrow our view by judging
3.We narrow our view by consuming
4.We narrow our view by pride
5.We narrow our view by stagnating
In this teaching we explore what the Scriptures have to say about hell and judgment, and what it has to say might surprise you. Often times we get more interested in the various details about the afterlife rather than making sense of what Jesus says in his own words. So, this is a brief teaching on the nature of hell and judgment according to Jesus.
One of the most neglected beliefs in the protestant and evangelical tradition is the ascension of Jesus. Yet, it is one of the most important because it marks beginning of the church's witness to the world about the story of Jesus. Further, if Jesus does not to send, the Spirit does not come. In exploring the ascension, we look at the priestly, royal, and prophetic work of Jesus and how those things continue in and through the life of the church.
Preface: The sounds is not of the best quality.
Helpful Links:
Matt Emerson - https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/christs-descent-dead/
Charles Hill - https://journal.rts.edu/article/he-descended-into-hell/
We are talking about what it looks like to confess and experience the power of the Resurrection.
Only the Suffering God can Help. - Bonhoeffer
As N.T. Wright says, “You don’t have to be able to answer the question “Why?” before the cross can have this effect. Think about it. You don’t have to understand music theory or acoustics to be moved by a wonderful violin solo. You don’t have to understand cooking before you can enjoy a good meal. In the same way, you don’t have to have a theory about why the cross is so powerful before you can be moved and changed, before you can know yourself loved and forgiven, because if Jesus’s death.”
How does the suffering Jesus impact our own suffering in real and tangible ways?
What is the reigning and guiding authority in our lives? Here, we explore a life arranged under Jesus the Christ.
We are in a series on the Apostles’ Creed in a Post-Everything World. Our heat and hope is that the series can serve as a starting point for belief and practice as a church family. The last few weeks are online if you have missed out, and I encourage you to catch up if you can. Today, we are looking at the last few words of the first article, “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.” Our focus is on “Creator of Heaven and Earth.”
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Who is the Creator?
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What is the Story about Heaven and Earth?
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What does this have to do with you?
Last week, we looked at “I believe in God,” yet that statement alone tells us nothing about who this God is or what this God is like. We looked at Acts 17 as a starting point for making sense of the Creed within our own cultural climate: a very spiritual one. We clarified what we meant by “I believe in God.” The Creed’s first description of God is that he is the “Father Almighty.” The language describing God as Father is found throughout the Scripture and most emphatically in the ministry and words of Jesus himself. Yet, the word father evokes various sorts of emotions in our culture, from broken relationships to conversations on masculinity, fatherhood, and gender. The word power evokes emotion because of how often we abuse it in our world, how much we crave it, and how we have come to distrust those with power. In fact, one common belief in a post-everything world is a profound skepticism of power within institutions.
So, as we did last week, let’s explore the cultural tone and move into how believing in God the Father Almighty affects our perception of life with God. Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as in fact there are many gods and many lords— 6yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” (1 Cor. 8:5-6 NRSVue).
What is the Apostles Creed?
- Historic summary of the Christian faith as preserved in the Scriptures. The Apostles’ Creed does not replace Scripture but points us back to them.
- An early resource for discipleship (used in catechism and confessed at baptism).
- An elevator speech of the story of God: Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Total Renewal.
Why is the Apostles’ Creed important for us today?
- The lack of theological and biblical literacy in our context, and the need to know how to articulate the Christian faith in a trinitarian way.
- The need to challenge fundamentalism and revisionism. The Apostles’ Creed gives more flexibility than fundamentalists care to admit, while also challenging the revisionists with important theological boundaries.
- The reality of deconstruction and the Apostles Creed provide some basic building blocks for those reconstructing a theologically healthy sense of faith in Christ. Many who come through deconstruction come out the otherside without having reconstructed a well formulated theology of discipleship to Jesus; oftentimes, cynicism, lingering doubt and a different form of fundamentalism emerges when we do not reconstruct. As we will find, doubt is neither an intellectual (i.e. Cartesian project) virtue nor a villain (fundamentalism). It should be engaged, not ignored.
Today, the goal is not to unpack the whole creed, but to focus on “I believe in God.” What I hope to do with you is provide a brief snapshot of the spiritual tone of our culture and press us towards the question, “What do you mean (and what does it mean) to say, “I believe in God.” We can no longer assume we all mean the same thing, and this is essential for faith and mission.
Our theme this year is "Come and see." We will filter our teachings and life together through this lens.
In every Advent text, pay attention to the unexpectedness of God’s coming, it is unexpected in manner, in time, and in culture. Every Advent text includes people struggling with uncertainty and trying to piece it all together. What we have learned thus far is that there are often no easy answers and sometimes we are not given answers at all. We were told by Jesus that we will not know a lot of things. We were told by Jesus that although he is God who has come to overturn evil, injustice, sin, and death, that sometimes we will find ourselves in situations like John the Baptist, where we are called to endure without the answers we want. Today, we are asking, “How do I trust God while navigating uncertainty?” Our story and text today involve a collision between the Advent themes of unexpectedness, uncertainty, and responding to God with devotion when it makes no earthly sense.
As human beings, and especially Americans shaped by our societal values, we like certainty. We like our plans to be made and we have contingency plans in place if things do not go our way. We have our plans and we have plans for our plants should they not go through. Certainty and control are values by which we live and arrange our lives. We invest in retirement, we purchase health insurance for illness, and life insurance in case we die. These are not bad things, but they show the degree to which we will go to ensure stability. The Western european an dAmerican way of life is built upon being secure, significant, and satisfied.
Further, we have an aversion to commitment because we don't like to be bogged down or let down. You can make a purchase, wear or break the item, and get a full refund or exchange with no questions asked most times. We can drive a car for three days before buying, and we have commodified sex and relationships in teh same ways. We don’t want to be duped or let down or disrupted.
This is bad news for entering Advent because Advent is God’s way of being profoundly honest with us about how things work in the world, what he is up to, and what our role within it might look like if we join him. In this world, you will have trouble, according to Jesus. Even if you live your best life, you will face trouble. No matter what your social media shows, the life behind the screen isn't always what it seems. Walking with God requires trusting him and entrusting our lives into real ways from our relationships, resources, and way of living. The word trust sounds nice until we realize that the very word implies uncertainty and unexpectedness. So, what can we know that will help us entrust ourselves to God?
Advent is about looking forward, looking back, and looking now. During our first week, we looked forward to see that Jesus promises to return to evict evil, we looked back before the days of Jesus to see how God instructed his people to act while waiting for jesus, which was to be peacemakers; and we looked to what means now, which was to love God and our neighbors well. This week, we are given another angle for the past, present, and future.
Have you ever felt like you were doing everything right but for some reason felt invisible to God? You look at other people’s lives and it seems like God is mending, working, healing, and helping many others, but you feel overlooked or even deserted. You are out in the wilderness and feel a bit lost, which feels strange because you have been following Jesus or believing in God for some time. If you resonate with this feeling, you’re in good company. John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus, faced such a moment.
John leaps for joy for Jesus, lives in the wilderness to draw people out of the normative daily routines to point them to Jesus, and he even found Jesus to be so important that he set aside his own ministry and sent his disciples to follow Jesus. A whole life and ministry devoted to Jesus. The texts are silent about his joy after the womb. In fact he goes from leaping for joy to landing in jail, awaiting his death sentence, wondering if Jesus is the One who will save and if Jesus is coming.
The book of Psalms is considered the songbook of the Scriptures. Like songs and poems, they are intended to connect to our emotions and experiences. Sometimes the Psalms are filled with joy and celebration, other times they are filled with anger and grief. Still, other times they are filled with doubts and fear. Psalms are invitations to deal honestly with ourselves, our situations, and our hopes and fears with God in total openness.
To close our series called Recovering the Church, we look at what it means to be a community where hope is found. Yet, this makes us ask, "What is hope?" Henri Nouwen once wrote, "Hope does not mean that we will avoid or be able to ignore suffering, of course. Instead, hope born of faith becomes matured and purified through difficulty. The surprise we experience in hope, then, is not that, unexpectedly, things turn out better than expected. For even when they do not, we can still live with a keen hope. The basis of our hope has to do with the One who is stronger than life and suffering. Faith opens us up to God's sustaining and healing presence." We will explore this concept of living hope.
Forgiveness is one of the most controversial and difficult teachings of Jesus. Relational wounds run deep; forgiveness can be a slow an painful process, but it is a central practice for Jesus's followers. What if the church became known for its radical forgiving nature?
What does it mean to Recover the Church in a time when the church is grappling for cultural influence??
Recovering the Church means not being unnecessarily offensive in a culture that loves offense.
In this teaching, we explore the basic posture of the church: listening to Jesus. The big question we all ask, "Okay, how?"
"Recovering the Church" is a series that looks at foundation and the essentials of what it means to be the church in our world today. There are many competing voices attempting to shape the church, whether the voices of politics or consumerism, and our aim to recover Jesus's words and the rest of the New Testament witness about the church's identity and mission.
"Recovering the Church" is a series that looks at foundation and the essentials of what it means to be the church in our world today. There are many competing voices attempting to shape the church, whether the voices of politics or consumerism, and our aim to recover Jesus's words and the rest of the New Testament witness about the church's identity and mission.
Pastor Mark Archilla walks us through the context and relevance of the letter to the church in Smyrna.
Last week we started a series through the book of Revelation. We explored how chapter 1 tells us that the primary aim of Revelation is to reveal Christ to us in dramatic ways that we might find encouragement, clarity, correction, and closeness with God and each other in the strange days in which we find ourselves. We dispelled some of the misuses and abuses of Revelation and tried to set a solid foundation on which we will build. Today we look at Revelation 2:1-7. Chapters 2-3 focus on seven churches throughout Asia Minor to which Jesus writes. They are real churches in a real time facing real situations that demand real answers. The image of seven in Revelation is symbolic of completion; thus, it is a letter to them and also for us today since we are a part of the complete and global church. Jesus addresses each church with his knowledge about their life together. He is telling the church what he sees, knows, and what they need to adjust. So, for six more weeks we will camp out with these churches.
The church in Ephesus was founded by Paul about twenty years after the Resurrection. The accounts are recorded in Acts 18-20. The church was founded by Paul, left in the hands of Priscilla and Aquila and Timothy, and later we believe that John (the author) took over after Timothy was murdered. Tradition tells us that this was Mary’s (the mother of Jesus) home church as she would have stayed with John. What a heritage and what a church. Yet no matter how solid the leaders or passionate the people, problems do and will occur.
John is on an island called Patmos, and while he is worshiping and praying, God shows up in a unique way, announcing himself, scaring John nearly to death, but then giving him a vision filled with symbols that teach us about who Jesus is and what he is up to and how we need to think about the book of Revelation.
Today is Palm Sunday (2022). We contrast Jonah fleeing the city of Nineveh with Jesus entering Jerusalem. The question we have before us is this: Can we really stomach God’s grace? Being a person full of grace and mercy is one of the most scandalous and challenging dimensions of discipleship to Jesus.
In Jonah 3, we finally arrive in Nineveh with Jonah. Jonah physically obeys God, but there might be hints that his obedience is superficial or partial. God does in fact overthrow the city, but in the best way imaginable.
We are in a series on the book of Jonah called Into the Depths. In this series, we are hoping to better understand the Jonah that we might better understand ourselves. I have made it a point each week to remind us that Jonah is not about a guy getting swallowed by a fish and surviving. It is also not a book about disobedience and obedience. Both elements exist in the story and are important features, but they are not the centerpieces. Jonah is a story that reveals the depths of our heart and the worst of human tendencies. The goal, however, is not to simply tell us about the worst news about ourselves; rather, it is show us the depths of God’s compassion and mercy for all. So, in the depths we see both ourselves and God. We are warned to examine our lives and our highest loves. If my highest love is God, more and more my life will look like his compassion and mercy. We are warned to examine our lives and we are invited to turn around and experience God’s love and mission.
To provide a little summary of last week: Jonah is a unique prophetic book. Prophetic books always involve a word from God to a prophet, a prophet sharing that word as a warning, and then the prophet invites them into a new direction of seeing things as God does, which is a vision of goodness and restoration. What’s unique about Jonah is that the character of Jonah's character is the warning and invitation. The book is not merely about obeying or disobeying God, as important as that is to the story, but rather seeing the destructive tendencies of humanity and choosing to join God in what he is up to. Jonah receives a word from God, he runs away from God’s plan, boards the ship to Tarshish –the land of self-fulfillment and prosperity. Tarshish won’t deliver. Keep in mind that Jonah’s name in the Hebrew means Dove son of Faithfulness. This frames the story with irony, that every time the dove who is to carry peace in faithfulness to God does the exact opposite. Today, we explore the depths of sin and the depths of grace as we dive in with Jonah.
Today we are starting a new series on the Book of Jonah called “Into the Depths.” We are in a church season called Lent, and this is when we slow down to think through the themes of forgiveness, surrender, and lamenting the world’s brokenness. It’s a season of repentance and refreshment. These are themes central to Jonah and relevant for us, as we will see.
Some introductory comments are necessary before we dive too deep with Jonah. When opening up the book of Jonah, we face a couple of obstacles. First, familiarity with the story. Even the spiritually distant person will know about Jonah, and often we become overly familiar and we become indifferent, as if we found all the treasure in this sea. Secondly, misreading the story. If I say Jonah, you think, “Whale” or “guy swallowed by a fish.” This is true but that’s not the point. Or, we have heard the story of Jonah as a tale about obedience: “Obey God, or else!” Though obedience is important, Jonah is about more than morality. We know this because in Jonah 1, Jonah is disobedient and clearly in the wrong. In Jonah 3-4, he is obedient and still clearly in the wrong. It runs deeper than actions and goes straight for the heart.
When Jonah flees, he not only flees from God but to Tarshish. The promises of Tarshish, however, are lies.
Envy is an invitation to insecurity and instability. Psalm 73 helps us uproot envy before it uproots us.
Why is it important? For all of differences and disagreements that have been highlighted during COVID-19 and the presidential election, we all stand in unity on one thing: Death and loss are realities and none of us like it. Years of research and tangible experience have shown us that for all of technological advances, wealth, and innovation, Americans do not handle death nearly as well as other underdeveloped areas of the world or places where conflict is unceasing. We hide from death and grief. We distract ourselves. When we do face it, research indicates that we dont posses the psychological, emotional, spiritual, or relational resources to process it well. So we bury death rather than dealing with it. The problem is that we all will face moments in life where grief is unavoidable. Suffering is an equal opportunity offender, yet what we learn from Jesus is that suffering is the chaotic and raw material from which even death and loss can be fashioned for goodness - death is not good, its tragic. Yet, Jesus says that it doesn't have the final word.
There are many voices competing for our attention and allegiance in this world. Jesus says that he is the Good Shepherd and that his sheep know his voice. The question we can ask is, "Do I recognize the voice of Jesus in my life?"
Today were looking at the first of seven “I Am” statements. If you are a part of a home church or online gathering, you should have already read the John 6:1-67. Because it is such a large passage, I will not be reading the text in its entire passage; rather I will be focusing on the crux of the entire story, which is Jesus’s words in John 6:32-41. so, if you have not done so already, go ahead and read the first 67 verses in John chapter 6 and then resume this teaching. If you have, keep your bibles open, and let's look back at John 6:32-41.
“I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again.
Looking back over 2020, it’s been a tough year. We have woken up every morning with COVID-19, racial tensions, and volatile election year. This is not to mention our own personal struggles. Some of has lost loved ones this year. Some of us have lost our jobs or taken a significant pay decrease. Some of us are struggling psychologically or emotionally in dealing with all of the challenges and changes we are going through in light of a lingering global pandemic. This year has exhausted our souls. To kick off this series, we are looking at a song that speaks to the longing for God to intervene when the world around is falling apart: O Come O Come, Emmanuel. This song has been remade over and over by many artists over the years. It’s actually seven verses but people alter it or shorten for time’s sake. The song sings the names and titles of Christ by relating him primarily to prophecies in Isaiah, which was written about seven hundred years before Jesus arrived in Bethlehem. The form in which we have this song comes from the late nineteenth century Anglican scholar, missionary, and hymnist John Mason Neal. But the origins of this song go all the way back to eight century Benedictine monks. They would take the last week of December and sing a verse each day of the week. So this song has a great history in the church.
Here we look at Psalm 136, the Great Hallel, in order to recover a vision of thankfulness that leads us to a closer relationship with God and each other.
Some sociologists have defined our culture climate as "A Culture of Outrage." This means that the air in which we breath is filled with aggressiveness and anger - expressed through rhetoric and violence. How should the church respond? Here we look at two simple yet significant verses on what it means to become a redemptive listener in culture and in our own personal lives. (James 1:19-20)
It is no secret that patience in our culture is something rare to encounter, yet we all are aware of our need for it in life. Even in the small and insignificant things in life we struggle to exercise patience. One research firm collected data from about 2000 people from various demographics and found that across the board, patience is a lost ideal that is longed for in life. They found the people become frustrated after having to wait for a web-page to load after 16 seconds; verbally frustrated if they have to spend more than 22 seconds at a red light; they are visibly irritated if they have to wait in a grocery store line for more than 2 minutes; they get frustrated if, at a sit down restaurant, they have to wait more the 14 minutes for their food to arrive. About 50% of the people said that they lose their temper either privately or publicly regularly. Yet, 95% of people want more patience and see the value of patience in life. This means we crave it, yet don’t know how to aquire it.
As we approach the 2020 election, loving our neighbor on the other side of the political aisle will feel optional at best or impossible at worst. Yet, it has no bearing on who we are and who we are called to be in the world. Here we explore how we can become good neighbors to those around us. Luke 10:25-27.
A deep prayer life is one that endures.
We walk through Jesus's prayer in the Garden just before his arrest by using an acronym from Pete Greig:
P - Pause
R - Rejoice (and Be Real)
A - Ask
Y - Yield
Last week to kick of our Life Around the Table series, we talked about the nature and essence of the church as people of the Spirit, the Story of Scripture, and people who share their lives with one-another around the good news of Jesus. Today, we will think through the necessity of humility in the body of Christ as we live in our culture today that breathes hostility and hatred, especially during an election season as tense as this one.
Life Around The Table is about reorienting our vision of what it means to be the church during uncertain days, such as the ones in which we live.
To launch this series we are going back to the basics: Acts 2. Before listening, be sure to read the text in its entirety. We will discuss the foundations of the Spirit, Story & Scripture, and Shared-Life together around the good news of Jesus.
To conclude the parables, we look at how we receive the teachings about the Kingdom. "Be like the children." This sounds simple, but there is much more to it.
Bible scholar C.H Dodd said of parables, “At its simplest, the parable is a metaphor or simile drawn from nature or common life, arresting the hearer by its vividness or strangeness, and leaving the mind in sufficient doubt to its precise application to tease the mind into active thought.” Parables are meant to instill a healthy doubt about the direction we are naturally inclined to move in life and then reorient us towards life in the Kingdom. Parables frustrate our flesh, yet they free us to live as God intended, towards joy, wholeness, and vitality.
In Luke 18:1-8, we discuss what it looks like to have a deep commitment and persistence in our faithfulness to Jesus in the midst of difficulty and desperate moments.
Bible scholar C.H Dodd said of parables, “At its simplest, the parable is a metaphor or simile drawn from nature or common life, arresting the hearer by its vividness or strangeness, and leaving the mind in sufficient doubt to its precise application to tease the mind into active thought.” Parables are meant to instill a healthy doubt about the direction we are naturally inclined to move in life and then reorient us towards life in the Kingdom. Parables frustrate our flesh, yet they free us to live as God intended, towards joy, wholeness, and vitality.
In Luke 18:9-14, we discuss the way of self-righteousness and the way of surrender.
Bible scholar C.H Dodd said of parables, “At its simplest, the parable is a metaphor or simile drawn from nature or common life, arresting the hearer by its vividness or strangeness, and leaving the mind in sufficient doubt to its precise application to tease the mind into active thought.” Parables are meant to instill a healthy doubt about the direction we are naturally inclined to move in life and then reorient us towards life in the Kingdom. Parables frustrate our flesh, yet they free us to live as God intended, towards joy, wholeness, and vitality.
In Matthew 13:44-46, we discuss the importance of digging beyond the surface of parables to the treasure of the Kingdom. The Kingdom could be right underneath our feet, or right around the corner.
Bible scholar C.H Dodd said of parables, “At its simplest, the parable is a metaphor or simile drawn from nature or common life, arresting the hearer by its vividness or strangeness, and leaving the mind in sufficient doubt to its precise application to tease the mind into active thought.” Parables are meant to instill a healthy doubt about the direction we are naturally inclined to move in life and then reorient us towards life in the Kingdom. Parables frustrate our flesh, yet they free us to live as God intended, towards joy, wholeness, and vitality.
In Matthew 13:31-33, we find that the expansion of the Kingdom in our world and within ourselves is powerful, yet requires patience and a commitment to the process of transformation.