Wayside Communities Church Sermons: Recent Episodes
Wayside Communities Church
Wayside Communities Church Sermons and stories from Austin, TX.
A Church Who's values are Biblical | Relational | Purposeful
Living out God's Word
Living as God's People
Living on God's Mission
Our words reveal and reshape our desires, so we must speak in ways that build up one another and reflect Christ.
God is the source of all wisdom and knowledge, so we must approach Him with reverence if we want to live wisely.
Jesus is our Provider, and we can trust that He will provide us with whatever we need along the way in which He is leading us.
God is calling us to trust and obey, which is the only way to fully experience His blessings.
Our God is personal and holy, so He invites us into a reverential relationships with Himself.
It is encouraging to know that God never stops working when it comes to accomplishing His plans for us and fulfilling His promises to us.
God invites everyone into His kingdom, and He graciously calls us to the privilege of handling the invitations.
God’s kingdom is about grace, not fairness, so we need to forget about fairness and embrace grace.
In this life, we each have an opportunity to trade earthly treasures we cannot keep for heavenly treasures we cannot lose.
The hope of resurrection is crucial for our Christian faith, so we must constantly consider our current life in light of our life to come.
God established goals for church gatherings, and we must establish guidelines to reach those goals.
In this passage, Paul explains how speaking truth clearly benefits others and builds up the Church.
As followers of Christ in the local church, we need to see ourselves as fully interdependent members of ONE body.
When we view spiritual gifts in a selfish, individualistic way, we compare and covet, and the church is divided. In today's passage Paul stresses that the gifts of the Spirit are distributed out to each person according to God's will for the purpose of building up the church rather than building up ourselves.
Participating in Communion proclaims the Gospel, so we must do so in unity and righteousness.
We cannot truly exalt God as men and women until we embrace God’s truth about men and women.
Contentment is found in Christ, so to be content we must embrace our Christian calling.
Sometimes church discipline is the most loving thing we can do. In this passage, Paul instructs the Church in Corinth on how to handle unrepentant sin within the body of Christ.
We are celebrating Easter this year by revisiting 1 Corinthians 1:18-25. Ultimately, every human must decide if the Resurrection is fact or a matter of foolishness.
We are pausing our series on 1 Corinthians to celebrate Palm Sunday. Today, we recognize that Jesus entered Jerusalem as a wise and humble King, not a weakling.
In today's passage, Paul confronts the Corinthians for foolishly measuring by the world’s standards. This mistake is leading to pride and divisions as they seek to impress human judges. Instead, Paul shows them that they should be obedient to Christ alone, and they are accountable to Christ alone.
In today's passage, Paul implores the Corinthians to reject worldly wisdom by humbly embracing God's wisdom. Chris reminds us that in order to embrace God's wisdom we must avoid two common pitfalls-- thinking too highly of ourselves, and thinking too highly of others.
We sometimes expect too much in the way of WOW-factor, and too little in the way of true wisdom, so today's big idea is simple: Church leaders are called to farming and framing, not fame and fortune. Paul divides up this section between two metaphors related to agriculture and architecture.
God gives us His Spirit and His wisdom so that we can walk wisely. However, the gift of the Spirit is primary because it enables us to unwrap the gift of God’s wisdom. We consider these two gifts as we continue our series on 1 Corinthians.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 1, Paul explains that the Gospel is “foolishness to those who are perishing”. As a result, followers of Christ must be willing to look like fools for Christ.
We are kicking off our time in 1 Corinthians by looking at Paul's greeting in verses 1-9. Paul's words to the Church in Corinth remind us that we are saints, even though we sin!
We are continuing our mini-series on Christian marriage by taking a look at the role of a Christian wife! According to God’s design, the role of a wife is to joyfully and respectfully submit to the Christ-like leadership of her husband. This week we take a look at what submission really means, and how it is a profound act of faith in God!
This week we continue our mini-series on Christian marriage by taking a look at the role of a Christian husband as defined in Ephesians 5! According to God’s design, the role of a husband is defined by Christlike sacrifice for the sake of his wife.
Marriage was God's idea, so we must look to God's Word to understand the true meaning of marriage.
If we rejoice in God’s nearness, we can experience His peace! This week we consider Jesus as our Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace.
God promised to pierce darkness with the announcement of His coming Messiah. Today’s passage introduces us to the coming King by revealing His extraordinary nature. Jesus, the Messiah, is more than a mere man, so our hope is secure in Him!
If Jesus is our living hope, then we can live our lives with a daily hope regardless of our circumstances!
Audio Block Double-click here to upload or link to a .mp3. Learn more If God’s Word is true, we should pray expectantly!
Our Heavenly Father hears us, so we should pray unceasingly! Unceasing prayer has two basic components: constancy and consistency.
God wants us to experience spiritual growth and fruitfulness, so we must pray specifically for God's enlightenment and empowerment.
We are weaker than we think, so we must pray humbly for God's direction and protection.
Forgiveness is front and center for Christ followers! Jesus teaches us to humbly pray for Christ’s forgiveness, and for the strength to forgive others.
God is the Most High, so we must learn to pray submissively. May our prayers be way more about God’s kingdom and His will than ours!
This week we took a break from our Prayers of the New Testament sermon series to celebrate the 7th anniversary of Wayside Communities Church! Ben reminds us of how kind and faithful God has been to us over the years.
As Christians, we are called to follow Christ in remembering and revealing the holiness of God’s name.
Jesus clearly warns against performative prayer in Matthew 6:5-8. Instead, He invites us to pray simply, sincerely, and with a heart of faith.
Chris is wrapping up our four part sermon series on the core values of Wayside Communities Church by unpacking our newest core value. He reminds us that we want everything we do to be PRAYERFULLY dependent on the power and grace of God!
We are continuing a four part sermon series on the core values of Wayside Communities Church. Kevin reminds us that we all live purposeful lives, and God can and will use us for our good, the good of others, and for His gory.
We are continuing a four part sermon series on the core values of Wayside Communities Church. This week Martín reminds us of our commitment to live relationally.
We are kicking off a four week sermon series on our core values by discussing our commitment to living out God’s word. We want everything we do at Wayside to be grounded in and founded in the Word of God. This certainly goes for our preaching and teaching, but also everything that happens both on Sunday mornings and throughout the week.
Biblical prophecy always proves true, so we can be confident about our biblical beliefs.
The Lord sovereignly permits temporary pain, but we can still trust in his unchanging promises and character!
Daniel 7 is crucial for understanding both the Book of Daniel and the rest of biblical prophecy, so we need to better understand what it means and why it matters.
Faithfulness to God makes us easy marks for opposition, and so we must trust in God for provision and protection. We’re going to divide up today’s passage into two parts which basically look at the predictability of a life of faithful service to God, and the predictable patterns of opposition to such a life.
Humility before God is the path of human progress, so we can expect to be humbled by God’s grace and for God’s glory. In today’s passage, we specifically see how the Lord cautions and ultimately cures a prideful person.
It’s all too easy to forget to praise God, especially when time and circumstance leads us to focus on other things in this life. Today’s big idea is simply that God is worthy of praise, so we should praise Him. In particular, He should be praised for His might and His majesty, for His ability and His authority.
Because Jesus lives, we can live hopefully. Biblically speaking, hope isn’t mere wishful thinking; it’s a firm conviction about the future. Today’s passage is 1 Peter 1:3-5. It’s part of Peter’s introduction to a letter sent to suffering saints. In it, the apostle encourages his fellow Christ-followers to stand firm in the hope of Christ, which is solid and secure.
God is gracious, and He knows that when we fail to see our suffering in the light of the Gospel, we will be susceptible to doubt and despair and the Devil’s deceptive influence. Today’s big idea is simple: The Gospel is the good news of God’s triumph over sin and suffering.
Christ is the ultimate non-conformist, so Christ-followers must resist being conformed to the world. Only then will we be able to understand our true value and uniqueness as human beings. But today’s passage reminds us that the world works against us by pushing worldly conformity and by punishing non-conformity.
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Uncertainty in our lives can lead us to lose sight of the goodness and faithfulness of God, and to become consumed by our own fears and doubts about the future. But Christians can take comfort in knowing that our sovereign God alone holds the future in his hands and HIS kingdom is secure and unshakeable.
Today’s big idea is that the Lord knows all, so we should all be turning to Him for wisdom and understanding. In our passage, the story of King Nebuchadnezzar reminds us that we all need divine wisdom, and it teaches us that such wisdom is available to us if we’ll just turn to God in faith.
Today’s passage reminds us that we must seek the Lord in order to serve the Lord. That’s today’s big idea and we’re going to look at both seeking and serving.
Our teens are being targeted and transformed by the world, so we must fight for them. Today’s passage is a great example of how worldly forces target and attempt to transform our young people. The teens of Daniel’s day weren’t so different than today’s teens. And the world certainly hasn’t changed much since then.
Our Good God is sovereign over all things, so we can trust Him at all times. In today’s passage, we are taught to trust the goodness of sovereignty of God in two difficult situations: 1. When we see God’s people suffering; and 2. When we see God’s enemies succeeding.
The Book of Daniel teaches us to trust God’s goodness when life is hard. He will meet us in our difficulties and despair to help us understand our past, present, and future in the light of His character and promises.
We must entrust our lives to the Lord. This truth is well illustrated in Proverbs 16. Here we see that we can entrust our words, our works, and our ways to the Lord.
Whether we’re reading about the Acts of the Apostles or participating in Christian ministry in the 21st century, we’re participants and we can identify with the ministry of Paul. As we close out Acts, today’s big idea is that we are witnesses, just like Paul, so we can be just as purposeful and passionate as he was.
Today’s passage uses references to the hands of Paul to remind us that, like Paul, Christ is working through all Christians to accomplish God’s will. As the saying goes, we are the hands and feet of Christ. Our big idea is that we are indeed the holy hands of Christ, so we should expect His protection and power.
Often failure is what turns us from such false hopes to faith in God. Today’s big idea is that God allows failure for the sake of faith. Our passage emphasizes three related aspects of God’s dealings with people: 1. He allows the failure of false hopes; 2. He gives true hope to the hopeless; and 3. He gives help to those who look to Him for hope.
Today’s big idea is that sharing Christ is about being intentional with the interest of others. Our passage begins with several people who are curious about a Christian man who is speaking of a risen Christ. However, the most important part of our passage reveals how that Christian man responds to their interest by intentionally speaking the truth about Jesus and telling of how He changed his life.
In today’s passage, we see multiple opponents of Paul attacking his character and trying to have him taken out. They are seeking to please man, not God. And we do this too. But pleasing man leads to doubt and fear, and pleasing God leads to peace and boldness.
Today’s passage reminds us that God works through even the worst political leaders. God is sovereign over government, so we can trust Him no matter who’s in office. He works through all political leaders, even the oppressive, oblivious, and opportunistic ones.
As Christians, we tell stories, and we each have two stories to tell. Every human has an origin story about where we’re from. But every Christian can also tell of the origination of our new life in Christ. Today’s passage demonstrates how Paul tells these two stories of his life and faith.
We live in an era characterized by political unrest and growing tensions between different segments of society. Therefore, Christ-followers will face accusations, and we need to be prepared for that. These will come from non-Christians who stand against the gospel, but also from professing Christians who struggle with the consequences of the gospel as it relates to their deeply-ingrained cultural and political identities. We will be tempted to respond with fear or anger, but that would only exacerbate the tension and turmoil. Instead, we must consider how we can strive for unity in the Church by making accommodations for other Christians without compromising the gospel. We also must come to terms with the fact that we will sometimes be treated unjustly for our beliefs by those who are opposed to the gospel. Today’s passage teaches us how to live like this.
Many of us try to escape suffering at all costs. We wrongly assume that this life on earth is all about minimizing suffering. But sometimes we must embrace it, just as Jesus did. Today’s big idea is that the road through suffering requires a Christ-like mindset; one that is spiritual, sacrificial, and submissive.
Today’s passage lays out eight marks of effective church leadership. An effective church leader is purposeful, humble, bold, vigilant, faithful, selfless, prayerful, and personal. But even if you don’t have an official leadership role, any church member marked by growth in these eight areas will bless his or her church and will glorify God.
Today’s big idea is that Christian ministry is a team sport with a time limit, so, like Paul, let’s group up and get going. In our passage, we see the importance of both forming a team and finding time to spend with others, which is what Christian ministry is really all about.
Too often, churches and Christians become known for our failures. But today’s passage reminds us that Christians can also become infamous for transforming lives and changing culture through the power of the gospel. Jesus promised that His followers would experience pushback from worldly people who reject Him. But He also commanded us to make disciples around the world, regardless of the opposition. The strategic operation of the Church will face strategic opposition, so we need to be prepared for that.
If we fail to think of ourselves as witnesses, then our witness will be ineffective. All too often, we don’t live by the word of the Lord, we don’t live in His triumph over sin and death through the power of the Holy Spirit, and we don’t treasure Him as our highest prize and priority. So people might look at our lives and wonder whether the gospel is actually true. Our big idea today is that Christ is revealed by Christians, so let’s give the world a witness. Every local church should be a display case for the words, the works, and the worth of Jesus Christ. This will require all of us to consider how the reality of the Lord is being revealed by our sacrifices, successes, and speech.
Our very human tendency is to sort of give people a pass as long as they’re inclined to believe in God, especially if they worship God in some sense. But Jesus didn’t say “I am A way,” He said “I am THE Way…to God.” So, like Paul, we need to understand that people need to know THE Way to God through faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore, we aren’t looking for people who are merely religious, but rather those who are repentant and ready to accept the Savior. Today’s big idea is that salvation comes through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, so we should be sharing our faith with repentant people. Today, we’re going to look at two basic Christian beliefs that help us understand what it means to become a Christian: 1. Our belief that repentant sinners need the Savior; and 2. That all redeemed saints have the Spirit.
As we face new circumstances, we will be tempted to feel anxious. We might feel anxious about what wasn’t accomplished last year. Or maybe we don’t feel ready for whatever is around the corner. Whether we’re heading toward a new frontier, or hanging back a bit longer, we’re going to be tempted toward anxiety. But today’s big idea is that God works with AND without us, so we can trust His will whether we’re coming or going.
Today’s passage reminds us of the importance of having strong, encouraging relationships that will help us stand firm in our Christian walk. Gospel ministry is challenging, so we need support. Specifically, we need other Christians for companionship, capacity, context, and comfort to continue in ministry.
This is Paul’s longest recorded speech to an audience of unbelieving Gentiles, and Luke includes it in order to emphasize our big idea for today: God is knowable, and our mission is to make Him known. The first part of the passage emphasizes our Christian mission, which is to make God known. The second part emphasizes our Christian message, which is the fact that God is knowable through Jesus Christ.
Biblical truth is challenging, so we need to pray for open minds. An open mind will receive that challenge, but a closed mind will reject it. And that’s exactly what we see happening in today’s passage.
Christians have already escaped sin and death, so now we can focus on God’s holy purpose.
Today’s big idea is that the Lord is always leading us, so we must be prepared to follow. As we see Paul following the Lord, it’s going to raise two important points of application: 1. How might the Lord be leading us? and 2. Where might the Lord be leading us? If we can better understand how and where the Lord leads Paul and his companions, then we will be better prepared to follow the Lord in our own lives, with spiritual sensitivity and a sense of security no matter where we end up.
Sadly, sin makes us insensitive to others. Our sinful nature can have us seeing the world through a selfish, self-absorbed lens. But as Christians, Christ calls us to walk with sensitivity toward each other and our neighbors, so that we can love others well. Today’s big idea is that cultural sensitivity strengthens the Church. It does this by strengthening Christian witness and Christian community. In today’s passage, we can see the effects of a Christ-honoring cultural sensitivity both directly and indirectly at the beginning of Paul’s second missionary journey.
For us to grow as disciples of Jesus Christ, we need Christian encouragement and accountability. We need people like Paul and Barnabas in our lives.
We will see in Acts 15 that the key to unity in a church made up of diverse believers is maintaining a focus on the essentials of the gospel. This plays out in today’s passage as we see that elevating non-essential practices creates division, focusing on gospel essentials creates unity, and living in community with diverse Christians requires charity.
As believers, new or longstanding, we need to be strengthened in our faith and we need to continue to grow in spiritual maturity. As we will see in our passage today, believers need to be strengthened through discipleship, under the guidance of a church body and pastoral leadership, and through celebration in Christ. We need to be disciples and we need to make disciples that are growing in faith.
Part of our fallen condition is that we tend to assign worth to worthless things. This is what the Bible means by idolatry, which is the worship of worthless idols which can never provide what we want from them. Today’s big idea is that God alone is worthy, so He alone should be worshiped. False worship is what happens when we worship anything in place of the one, true, living God. Today’s passage gives us a glimpse into the nature of false worship, and also the character of false worshipers.
Sometimes we are hesitant to speak the truth plainly and boldly, especially when we think it might stir up division or opposition. Scripture certainly doesn’t call us to be obnoxious, self-righteous jerks. But, our Lord does call us to lovingly speak His truth clearly and confidently, for the good of the people He’s placed in our lives, and for His glory. Today’s big idea is simply that speaking truth requires moral courage.
Today’s big idea is simply that ministers of the gospel must understand gospel ministry. Our passage reveals a lot about effective gospel ministry. Specifically, it helps us better understand its context, content, and contest.
Gospel ministry will face spiritual opposition, but through Christ we can overcome it. Today’s passage models an approach to spiritual opposition that holds to both the reality of our spiritual opponents, but also the unlimited power and ultimate authority of Christ. We’re going to look at three aspects of gospel ministry: intentional outreach, inevitable opposition, and how Christ overcomes.
As Christians, we sometimes struggle to understand our purpose: What are our standing orders? What are we supposed to be doing as members of the Church? And do we have any special orders: something that the Lord has specifically called us to as individuals or as individual families? Today’s passage helps us make sense of all that: how to understand our standing orders as well as how to receive and respond to any special orders from the Holy Spirit. Every Christian receives orders from Christ, which means we must understand those orders in order to obey them.
At the end of the day, we don’t know why God allows some people to live longer than others, or why He allows some people to go on living at all. Our very human tendency is to see such things in light of our desire for immediate justice (at least, in the case of others). Long life seems a fitting reward for the seemingly righteous, and sudden death for the really wicked. But our ways are not God’s ways, and our thoughts are not God’s thoughts. The big idea for today is that God has an eternal, purposeful perspective, and so we must trust Him with issues of life and death. In Acts 12, we have three stories of life and death that are presented in the context of God’s eternal, purposeful perspective: 1. The death of James; 2. The near-death experience of Peter; and 3. The death of Herod Agrippa.
The crucifixion constituted a once-and-for-all payment for sin. But the resurrection is and always will be our proof of payment. Without Easter Sunday, Good Friday would be no good at all. But the resurrected Christ did indeed conquer sin and death, so we can live with peace and hope by trusting in Him. Otherwise, we would have no basis for peace with God and the hope of eternal life.
The Great Commission is a great collaboration between Christ and Christians, so we all have a part to play. Today’s passage is a turning point where the Gospel begins to go out to the nations. And it shows us how the Lord works through many different people to build up His Church and to bring more and more people into His kingdom. This morning, we are going to look at four different roles played by different Christians, who work together to build up the Church. In Acts 11:19-30, we see people evangelizing non-Christians, and also encouraging, equipping and exhorting new Christians.
We can’t always anticipate what God is going to do, so we must always hold loosely to our expectations and traditions. Today’s passage begins with a very human response to doing something “new” in light of tradition, but thankfully it ends with a worshipful acknowledgement of the bigger picture of what God was doing in terms of salvation and the expansion of the Church.
God’s ordinary means of leading people to faith in Christ is to send a person to share the good news of Jesus with someone whose heart has been prepared to hear it and to respond. And this is exactly what we see in the conversion of Cornelius. The really extraordinary thing about this story is that the person who responded to the good news of the Jewish Messiah wasn’t Jewish. Today’s big idea is that the Gospel is good news for everyone, so anyone can be saved through faith in Jesus.
When we fail to trust that God is at work in our lives and in the lives of others, we tend to put too much pressure on ourselves to present the Gospel perfectly and we put too much pressure on others to immediately understand and accept it. We can’t afford to forget that God is at work on both sides of evangelism. God prepares people’s hearts for the Gospel, both to share it and to believe it. Today’s passage shows how God was simultaneously working with both Peter and Cornelius to bring about the fruit of salvation.
As Christians, we will lack usefulness if we lack prayerfulness. Turning to God in prayer prepares us to be useful instruments in the hands of our Redeemer. And God delights in choosing humans, like us, to accomplish His redemptive plans. As we see in today’s passage, God connects humble seekers with human speakers, so let’s pray for humble hearts and bold tongues.
Today’s big idea is that we have new life in Christ, so let’s show that newness as we share the good news. In our passage, we see the “accelerant” of apostolic signs and wonders pointing to the power of Christ to save. Peter’s two miracles point to two important realities for every Christian man or woman: restoration for our spiritual disabilities and being raised to new life in Christ.
In philosophical circles, the “irresistible (or unstoppable) force paradox” asks the question: “What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?” The Bible resolves this issue by revealing that there is no such thing as an irresistible or unstoppable force, outside of God Himself. Today’s passage reiterates this point by showing us that Jesus alone is both immovable and unstoppable.
If we have a personal relationship with Jesus, then we have a knowledge and experience of Him that is worthy of being shared. To be a Christian is to be a witness for Christ, so let’s be effective witnesses. Ultimately, this requires the empowerment of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 1:8), but as we see in today’s passage, we definitely have a role to play. However, we must be sensitive and obedient to God’s Spirit. If we are, then we will know where to go, who to reach, and how to share Christ with them.
In today’s passage, most of the Samaritans receive the gospel with joy, but Simon witnesses the signs of the power of the Holy Spirit and is so distracted by them that he misses the true glory of the Gospel. Just like the Samaritans, we can respond to signs of the gospel’s power by allowing them to direct us to Christ, leading to saving faith and glorifying God; or we can allow them to distract us from Christ, leading to an empty faith and glorifying ourselves.
As we cling to what is fast, easy and comfortable in our daily life, this can seep into how we live out our faith in both our expectations and our actions. Like the early church, we must learn that living on mission for Christ requires us to trust God even when our life doesn’t go as we planned. Even when it’s not fast, easy and comfortable. In our passage, we’ll see how the lives of early Christians were disrupted in virtually every way and how this helped them grow in trusting in God’s provision and God’s plan.
When we focus on ourselves, we tend to be timid about our faith. Or, we try to look brazen and daring to compensate for our unsettled, insecure beliefs about God. But if we would only look to God Himself, we would become bold in the biblical sense. Boldness comes from better understanding God: His power, His purposes, and His promises. In our passage, Stephen understood God in these ways, and that’s why we see him speaking boldly about God in the face of persecution.
All people, even Christians, are attracted to similarity and familiarity. In a diverse body of believers, this tendency can create fissures and fault lines in the congregation. And that’s exactly what we see in today’s passage. Diversity can lead to division, which means we must be constantly solving for unity, even as we resist uniformity. In our passage, we see how this whole process plays out in the early church in just seven verses: 1. Diversity leads to division (v. 1); 2. Division leads to addition (vv. 2-6); and 3. Addition leads to multiplication (v. 7).
When we forget Jesus’ promises to His followers, we tend to think that we won’t ever see the power of God, or be persecuted for our beliefs in God. But actually the opposite is true in both cases. Jesus promised us that true Christian ministry would evidence the power of God and elicit persecution from worldly people. Consider the words of Jesus from the night of His own arrest:
"Truly, truly I say to you, the one who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater [works] than these he will do; because I am going to the Father.” - John 14:12 (NASB20)
"If you were of the world, the world would love [you as] its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, 'A slave is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you as well; if they followed My word, they will follow yours also.” - John 15:19-20 (NASB20)
Jesus promised us power and persecution, so we should expect both. Today’s passage reveals these realities in the early church.
For many Americans, the biblical concept of sin as a grave offense against an infinitely holy and just God is passe. This is exactly why today’s passage is, for many modern readers, one of the most difficult passages in the Book of Acts. Here we see God judging what some of us might consider a small sin, and He does so directly and immediately with grave consequences. The main point of today’s passage is that sin is always serious, and so we must take it seriously. The way we do this in the church is by confronting sin and correcting sinners. And that’s exactly what we see in the first and second halves of our passage.
The Christian life leads to adversity, but it also leads through adversity. God gives us Christian unity to face adversity together, so we must remain unified in our hearts and minds. Today’s passage shows us how the early church faced adversity with unity, through single-minded prayer amidst threatening opposition and whole-hearted provision to meet the needs of fellow Christians facing adversity.
Some would give anything to stop the influence of Christ, but others would lose everything to have Him. That’s how it is all around the world, and that’s how it’s been for 2,000 years. So how should that frame our understanding of our mission to bring the good news to the ends of the earth? The gospel demands a response, and we should anticipate both acceptance and resistance. First we’ll see the different responses, and then we’ll double click on rejection and how that can lead to active resistance to the Gospel.
Christ empowers His people so that we can experience and explain His power. In other words, Christians are meant to showcase His power for an unbelieving world. And today’s passage helps us to explain our Christian experience in a way that draws others to Christ.
A thriving Christian community is essential for a thriving Christian life. Today, we are going to look at what makes a community thrive for God’s glory. We are going to look at our passage in light of our core values here at Wayside: biblical, relational, and purposeful.
Salvation comes through hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, so let’s be clear about it. In today’s passage, Peter’s Spirit-inspired speech is a wonderful example of Gospel clarity. He clarifies both the message and means of salvation.
Our world is full of politics and double talk and the mincing of words. So it’s refreshing to read Acts 2 where we see Peter boldly proclaiming God’s truth. But Acts 2 also reminds us that the power behind Peter’s bold speech is nothing short of the Holy Spirit Himself. Without the Spirit, we will succumb to pressures and politics. But by God’s grace, we have the power to boldly witness to the truth of Christ. The time is now for trusting Christ. And we must trust in Christ’s supernatural provision so that He can use us to help others trust in His salvation.
Today’s passage describes a unique moment in history. It was the 10-day period of waiting on God to send His Spirit. It was a waiting room scene which would culminate in the birth of the Church. Even though we will never have to wait for the Spirit like those early disciples did, we can still learn a lot from their example. They show us what faith looks like as we “wait” for God to show up at different times and in different ways throughout our lives. And this is the big idea for today’s sermon: Living a life of faith means learning how to wait for God. Today’s passage shows us three things that we must do as we wait for God: stay, pray, and obey.
If we lose sight of the promise of Christ’s return, then we won’t be able to fulfill our mission to bring the good news of the Gospel even across the street, much less to the ends of the earth. We will get choked out by fears and anxieties, like the fruitless plants in the Parable of the Sower. Instead of hopefully working hard for Christ, we’ll succumb to discouragement and despair. But today’s passage makes it clear that Christ has been exalted, so Christ should be expected. As we better understand the exaltation of our Lord, we will be able to live for Him expectantly.
The big idea for today is that the Church is a divine work accomplished through Spirit-empowered people, so we must lean on the finished work of Christ in order to lean into His unfinished work of building the Church. In the first eight verses, we see all three Members of the Trinity playing a role in the birth of the Church. We also see divinely-appointed people being prepared to play their own parts. Today’s passage sets the stage by looking backward to the finished work of Christ and looking forward to the unfinished work of Church-building. Jesus laid the Cornerstone, and now He’s calling His people to the ongoing work of construction.
Unless we exchange our culturally-informed understanding of church for a biblical one, then we will never experience the real perks of committed membership in a local church. So what does the Bible say about church membership? And what are those perks of which we speak? That’s what we’re going to look at today, and it should leave a lasting impression on all of us. Christ wants us to experience the perks of membership in His Body, and we do that by becoming committed members of a local church. Only then can we experience the perks of shepherding, sanctification, and service.
As Christians, we have been called to glorify God through certain works, so let’s get to work, trusting that God will empower us to pursue that purpose. There are different ways to articulate the works of the church which bring glory to God. Today, we’re using the three-fold approach developed by Dr. Michael Svigel. These three works of the church are evangelism, edification, and exaltation.
We cannot afford to be confused about what constitutes a local church. Participation in anything less than an authentic New Testament church can only lead to problems for ourselves and others. It’s impossible to better be the church that Christ desires if we’re not even members of a legitimate local church. So then, what should we look for in a local church? An authentic New Testament church is marked by at least three core components: orthodoxy, order, and the ordinances.
If we think of church as a steepled building, or a business, or a service or program, or a marketplace of spiritual goods and services, then we have lost our ecclesiological map, and we’re in trouble, whether or not we realize it. But, we can always turn back to the simplicity of God’s Word for a refresher course in Church 101. And by God’s grace that’s exactly what we’re going to do over these next four weeks. Our challenge is to better BE the church that Christ desires. In order to meet this challenge, we must begin with a basic question: What is the Church? Today, we’re going to look at the nature of the Church through three lenses: definitions, descriptions, and depictions of the Church in Scripture.
If a church leader fails to understand and appreciate the leadership principles set forth in Hebrews 13, then it will result in failure. And if a church family fails to uphold and apply these biblical principles, then it will implode, just like too many other Christian churches. Today’s big idea is simply this: Church leaders must be Christ-like leaders. Our passage includes three key ingredients to Christ-like leadership that honors Christ and blesses Christians: God-given authority, Christ-like humility, and Biblical community.
As New Covenant believers, we sometimes struggle with what it means to be a Christian. And the author of Hebrews knew that, which is why he concludes his letter with one last reminder of our Christian commitments. The New Covenant calls us to a life of commitment, so we need to know what’s expected of us. Today’s passage lays out three basic Christian commitments: 1. Our commitment to the Gospel; 2. Our commitment to discipleship; and 3. Our commitment to worship.
Christians are called to offer an acceptable service to God, so we must look to God’s Word to determine what’s acceptable. Today’s passage teaches us that our Christian worship involves loving other Christians, honoring Christ, and pursuing Christlikeness.
A sense of familiarity can dull our appreciation of the awesomeness of God. In particular, we fail to appreciate His holiness: His majesty, power and purity. Today’s passage teaches us that, by appreciating God’s holiness, we can better understand His grace. The gospel of Jesus Christ reveals God’s holiness and God’s grace, and we must embrace both in order to live as we ought to. In the two parts of today’s passage, we see that God’s holiness requires grace; and that God’s grace should result in our holiness.
We could think of Hebrews 12 as “spiritual orienteering.” We’ve already seen how the Christian life is likened to an endurance race. We know that Jesus has already run the race ahead of us, and that our ultimate destination is to be with Him. But Ch. 12 also teaches us that as we are running this race, we will inevitably face suffering and hardship, which can be disorienting. We can end up straying from God’s path and losing our way in life. But if we stay spiritually oriented to Jesus, we can stay on the right path, and will eventually arrive at our destination. In today’s passage, we see three indicators that we’re on the right spiritual path, oriented to Jesus, and three indicators that we’re on the wrong path, and in need of a course correction.
Today’s passage is all about suffering. We tend to think that nothing good can come out of our suffering. But that’s not the case. Scripture teaches us that suffering can always produce spiritual fruit. Like other passages in the New Testament, Hebrews 12:3-11 lays out a process of spiritual growth that begins with suffering and ends with spiritual fruit.
The Christian life is an endurance race. And it’s easy for us to lose heart and lose focus on our ultimate goal, Jesus Christ. We get hit with tough news. We lose a job. A relationship goes south. We can’t shake a sin struggle. Maybe we’re tempted to go back to our old ways, or to choose comfort or complacency. The good news is that, no matter what our life circumstances are, when we fix our eyes on Jesus, we can run and finish our race well. Focusing on Jesus allows us to run with encouragement, without encumbrances, and with a perfect example.
Faith allows us to see and experience life in the full light of God’s truth. Today’s passage reveals how we can first perceive the truth of God’s Word by faith, and then how our perception of God will help us persevere.
Like the kitten on the cheesy 80s motivational poster, we’re going to need some help in order to hang in there! And that’s exactly what today’s passage is all about. We can hang in there, as long as we have faith and hope in Christ.
Christians are freed from sin by the sacrifice of Christ, so let’s live like free people. Today’s passage helps us do that by removing two major obstacles: 1. Not understanding the insufficiency of our own sacrifices to free us from sin (which we see in the animal sacrifices under the Old Covenant); and 2. Not understanding and appreciating the sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice to make us free.
We often struggle to hate sin enough because we fail to consider the price paid for it: the sacrificial death of Jesus. Like the original audience of Hebrews, we must better understand the sacrifice of our Savior and what it accomplished if we are going to live sacrificially for Him. This means embracing His sacrifice for us in a way that creates daily awe and inspiration. Today’s passage helps us live this way by revealing both the requirement for and the results of Jesus' sacrificial death.
As Modern readers, we can have a very hard time understanding and appreciating the significance of certain Old Testament realities, like the Tabernacle. But if we miss the point of these things, then we won’t be able to fully appreciate the beauty of God’s redemptive plan throughout the ages. The Tabernacle was only a preliminary sketch of God’s future masterpiece, which was the finished work of Christ for our redemption. For the purposes of today’s sermon, we’re going to look at our passage in two parts. First, we’re going to look at the preliminary sketch in vv. 1-10, and then we’ll turn to the finished masterpiece in vv. 11-14.
In Christ, we have the better, unconditional promises of God, and these should fill us with love, joy, peace, and hope. The Old Mosaic Covenant was conditional in that it required obedience to the Law of Moses, which involved priests offering animal sacrifices, which pointed forward to the sacrificial death of Christ. But the New Covenant in Christ is unconditional because of the finished work of Christ, as we will see in today’s passage. If we miss this unconditional aspect, then we won’t experience the full blessing of living in communion with God: having the treasure of His grace and the hope of a heavenly inheritance in Christ.
Just as a correct understanding of invisible forces like gravity and germs can help us properly interact with the world around us, a correct understanding of the invisible, heavenly realities of Christ will allow us to truly understand the world around us. And this understanding can only be achieved through faith, which reveals the invisible realities of heaven and renews our understanding of the visible realities of this world.
Even though most of life’s circumstances don’t come with a guarantee, the most important things do. The author of Hebrews makes it abundantly clear that the benefits of believing in Christ are absolutely, 100% guaranteed. If we can hold on to the guarantees of God in Christ, then we can persevere without knowing what’s around every corner. In Christ, we can rest assured. Today’s passage targets two things that give us absolute assurance in Christ: His permanence and perfection.
The opposite of the Gospel is self-righteousness or works-righteousness, the illusion that we can somehow attain perfection on our own, through our own efforts. We must let go of that illusion of self-perfection, since perfection is only possible through Christ. Today’s passage is a stark reminder of that simple fact. It reveals the inadequacy of the Levitical priesthood to make anyone perfect, and it reveals the supremacy of Christ and the perfection of His priestly service on our behalf.
Scripture often provides “solid food” in some unexpected places. In today’s passage, we see how to make a “meal” out of the mysterious Melchizedek. And some basic Bible study steps make this a 3-course meal: 1. Observation (What does our passage say?); 2. Interpretation (What does it mean?); and 3. Application (Why does it matter?).
If our hope is just a wishy-washy feeling, then we won’t get very far in life. But Christian hope is an objective reality, so we can take hold of it. In today’s passage, we see that our hope is in God Himself: in His age-old promises, and their permanence throughout the ages.
As Christians, we are claiming to be the recipients of God’s grace in Christ: of His forgiveness, of eternal life, of God’s indwelling Spirit. But sadly, it’s all too easy to live our Christian lives unconvincingly. But we are called to follow Christ convincingly. And today’s passage helps us understand what that looks like. Here we see three familiar aspects of a convincingly Christian life: faith, hope, and love.
God willing, we will grow. And this will happen, not in spite of our difficulties, but as a direct result of them. But in order to grow in this way, we need to take to heart three key principles found in today’s passage: 1. We must forge ahead; 2. We must not fall away; and 3. We must all face judgment.
When we stop becoming more spiritually mature, we become less mature. There is no spiritual “neutral” -- only spiritual progress and spiritual regress. Progress means to move forward and regress means to move backward. In today’s passage, the author is concerned that his Hebrew readers have lost spiritual momentum- they’ve stopped moving forward, and started moving backward.
Suffering can lead us away from God. But the suffering of Christ was meant to reconnect our hearts to God. And the hope that we have in Christ helps us to persevere through the suffering in this life as we await the life to come, in which there will be no suffering. The big idea today is simply this: Jesus suffered to save us. In our passage, we see two basic realities: 1. Jesus suffered with us, and 2. Jesus suffered for us.
Jesus is the perfect priest for imperfect people. When we understand His priestly service, and trust in Him as our Great High Priest, we can flourish in this life. But in order to do so, we must recognize two things: 1. that imperfect people need a high priest, and 2. that we have a perfect high priest in Christ.
Today’s passage explains a few things about the reality of Jesus and how we should respond as His followers. We learn that He is our great High Priest, our representative before God. So then, we should respond by holding firmly to our Christian confession, and approaching God’s throne of grace with humble confidence.
What is true rest? That’s the million dollar question! But most of us struggle to understand the biblical meaning of and purpose behind rest. Thankfully, that’s exactly what we find out in today’s passage. The big idea is simply this: God promises rest, but we must pursue it.
Why is exhortation so important? As we saw last week, we need to “take care, lest there be an evil, unbelieving heart in us leading us to fall away from the living God.” The sobering reality is that unbelief leads to a hard heart that is deceived by sin. But exhortation helps us fight well and finish well, so let’s exhort one another in love.
The main point of today’s sermon is very simple: there is no rest in resisting God, but there is always rest in humble submission. Today’s passage warns us to remain faithful, rather than become unfaithful, so that we can enter God’s rest through faith in Christ, rather than live lives of spiritual restlessness.
When we fail to fix our eyes on Jesus, we stop paying attention to all that God has revealed through Him. We turn away from the truth of the Gospel, the good news about who Jesus is and what He has done, and is doing, and will do. And the result will always be a lack of hope and confidence in Christ. But, if we keep our eyes on Christ, we will become more and more Christlike. By considering who He is, we will better understand who we already are in Christ, and how we ought to be as Christians. And as we grow up in the knowledge and grace of our Lord, our confidence and hope in Him will develop and deepen over the course of our lives.
Our hearts are inclined to hero-worship. And our culture increasingly wants to attribute saving power to people, which pulls our attention and worship away from Jesus. Today, we will see that Jesus is our Ultimate Hero. We’ll see how He alone saves us from slavery and sin through self-sacrifice. Therefore, He alone deserves our worship.
Sin causes us to forget our purpose, what God created and redeemed us for. So we seek our own goals instead of pressing on toward God’s destination. We drift away from God. We neglect our great salvation. But today’s passage reminds us that men and women were meant to rule over Creation in fellowship with our Creator. Through Christ, we will one day be restored to that honor, to rule with Him for eternity.
What does it mean to “drift away” from the good news of Jesus? It is perhaps best pictured as a ship missing it’s harbor. We glide right by our destination, the goal, the prize, merely because we are distracted, careless, negligent. It wasn’t our main focus, so we weren’t paying close attention. We can all carelessly drift and miss the best Jesus offers, so we must pay close attention in order to live the life to which He is calling us.
With so many competing messages flying in our direction, it can be hard to determine what is trustworthy. The trustworthiness of a message is rooted in the authority of the messenger. Today, we will see from this first chapter of Hebrews that Jesus is the ultimate Messenger from God, carrying the full authority of God, so His gospel message must be the ultimate guide for our lives.
We can’t let familiarity rob us of our wonder. When we don’t have a daily awe and wonder of Jesus Christ, we won’t be able to fully worship Him with our lives. Daily wonder produces a worship-filled life, a daily walk with Jesus that helps us persevere and stirs us to talk about Him with others.
The Letter to the Hebrews exalts Christ in order to exhort Christians. By lifting our eyes to Christ our High Priest--exalted in the heavens, superior to everything and everyone--we are able to see our earthly circumstances in light of the reality of who Christ is and what He has accomplished.
If we turn away from Jesus and focus on the overwhelming circumstances of life, we will be overwhelmed. But if we keep our eyes on Christ, we can remain hopeful in this life. He is the Creator of all things, and is more powerful than all of creation combined. And He uses His divine wisdom and power to provide us with everlasting protection and peace.
Jesus the Messiah is more than a mere man, so our hope is secure in Him. Isaiah’s poem in 9:1-7 reveals that Messiah would be unique and unequaled in every way. There has never been and never will be another person like Him. This is especially clear in Isaiah 9:6 where we see that Messiah would certainly be a man, but not merely a man.
We tend to feel hopeful only IF our ever-changing circumstances seem hopeful at a particular moment in time. But this can only lead to unmet expectations and ultimate despair. We need something infinitely more secure in which to place our hope; we need someONE infinitely more secure… and that is exactly who we have in Jesus the Messiah. If Jesus is our living hope, then we can live our lives hopefully.
Focusing on God’s excellence is what produces godly excellence in our lives. In today’s passage, we see a wise woman who exudes godly excellence because she is living for God and others.
Biblical wisdom teaches us that how we engage our young people will have lasting, even lifelong effects. Today’s proverb teaches us that parenting is powerful, so it must also be purposeful. We must be purposeful about our roles and goals in raising up our kids to love and serve the Lord.
Wealth can be deceptive, so we need to depend on God. The prayer of Agur encourages us to depend on God for two things, in particular: protection and provision.
When people in power fail to use that power to promote justice, injustice is inevitable. To borrow from the wisdom of Spiderman… With great power comes great responsibility, and so we must learn how to govern wisely. In today’s passage, we see two principles for wise government: 1. Recognizing the pitfalls of power, and 2. Remembering the purpose of power.
Much like love, we typically think of friendship in terms of how we feel. But friendship isn’t really about how we feel. Scripture defines it in terms of actions. Friendship requires faithfulness, so we must learn to be faithful friends. Today, we are going to look at several proverbs that identify two of the essential aspects of faithful friendship: 1. Always loving a person, wherever they are in life; and, 2. Never leaving a person where they are in life.
Part of our fallen human condition is that we want to seek honor for ourselves. The wisdom of Proverbs warns us that such pride is a path to dishonor, and even destruction. Humility is the only path to true honor, so we must humble ourselves. In today’s proverb, we see a sharp contrast between the consequences of honoring ourselves and humbling ourselves before God and others.
The hard truth is that laziness is incredibly wasteful, so we need to learn how to recognize and avoid it at all costs. Today’s proverb teaches us about the consequences and characteristics of laziness so we can recognize it, overcome it by the power of the Holy Spirit, and live wisely to be fruitful for God’s glory and the good of others.
We tend to define “success” in worldly terms, and when we see “bad” people experiencing such success, we easily become annoyed, angry, or envious. But we need to redefine success according to God’s Word, which teaches us that true success in life requires submission to the Lord. Our passages in Proverbs make this quite clear. True success isn’t about how we look to others; it’s really about where we look in life and how we look at life.
Proverbs 16 illuminates the relationship between our plans and God’s plans. They remind us that it’s impossible to frustrate God’s plans, but it’s easy to become frustrated when we fail to align our plans with His. We must entrust our lives to the Lord. This truth is well illustrated in Proverbs 16. Here we see that we can entrust our words, our works, and our ways to the Lord.
Wise words must be well-spoken, so we all need some speech lessons. Proverbs 15 gives us at least three lessons in just four short verses. We learn that wise words must be spoken in the right manner at the right moment with the right motives.
All too often, we treat wisdom like an optional upgrade to an already pretty-good life. The truth is, wisdom is a limited-time offer, so we really do need to act now! Think about today’s passage as a five-point marketing strategy to convert us to a life of wisdom. Here we see Lady Wisdom choosing an audience, giving a call to action, clarifying advantages, considering alternatives, and comforting with assurances.
When we doubt God, we seek knowledge and wisdom elsewhere, and we become “wise in our own eyes.” But the wisdom of man is really just foolishness. What we need is God’s wisdom, and there’s only one place to get it. God is offering each one of us a new beginning on the pathway of wisdom, so let’s step out in faith together.
If we begin to search for what we “need” out in the world, we will quickly sink into the tension-filled uncertainty of our surrounding culture. As Christians, we can stop searching because we already have everything we need in Christ. Specifically, we have the promise of peace and grace from God. There is nothing we truly need that hasn’t already been given to us by God on account of our faith in the death and resurrection of His Son.
We tend to operate with a “mind your own business” mentality, even in the Church. But as fellow members of the Body of Christ, we can’t afford to mind our own business. We’re called to something much greater and more loving than that. And that’s where Paul is taking us today. Church discipline is necessary for a truly Christian community, so we need to learn how to do it biblically. Today’s short passage lays out three aspects of biblical church discipline. It must be consistent, clear, and compassionate.
When we fail to pray and ask for prayer, we leave God out of life’s equations. As Christians, we must acknowledge our dependence on God through prayer. In today’s passage, we see Paul prayerfully acknowledging this dependence in two ways. He requests prayer for the multiplication of his ministry, and he prays for the maturity of believers.
We find ourselves on shifting sand when we forget the truth about God. The truth is... God’s love and grace are solid ground, so we can stand firm in this Christian life. In today’s passage Paul lays out these two realities for believers, so that we can know that we have solid footing: 1. We are LOVED by God; and 2. He gives grace for today, tomorrow, and the rest of eternity.
Too many of us minimize biblical teachings on the end times. We see that there are many different interpretations and so that becomes our reason for setting it aside. But understanding future events affects how we live in the present, so we need to better understand what God has promised about the future. Like Paul, we must do two things in the church: confront false teaching and confirm biblical teaching concerning the end times.
What we see in these two verses will help us have a better perspective on how to pray for one another, especially in the current situation we are living through. Praying with purpose for one another will help us persevere. It will also help us point each other to the hope in Christ’s return and how we can live lives that point to His glory in the meantime. In our passage, Paul gives us a great template for how, what, and why to pray with purpose.
Christians have what it takes to persevere, but we must learn to see our circumstances in light of our relationship with Christ.
This Christian walk isn’t easy, so let’s lean in and learn together. In today’s passage, we see two aspects of our Christian walk that go hand-in-hand: our walk with Christ and our walk with other Christians. We can’t learn how to walk with Christ unless we are walking with other Christians, and we can’t walk with other Christians as we should unless we are all walking with Christ.