River’s Edge Church

After mourning with the family and praying, Jesus prays and then calls Lazarus out of the tomb. But this was more than just a miracle, it was a sign, pointing forward to His resurrection... and our own. 

As Lazarus falls ill and dies, we see Jesus in action, revealing the truth of who He is and the way that He relates to us in our suffering. 

We all want to belong somewhere, but our sense of belonging actually guides a lot of what we choose to believe and not believe. We'd like to believe that we "rational autonomous selves" guided by truth, but often our desire to belong guides our sense of "truth."

We all struggle in the day to day to conceptualize what God is like. But when God comes on the scene in the person of Jesus, He invites us to picture Him in the form of a Good Shepherd, someone who is close, loving, and intimate in the midst of a dark and difficult world. But even more than that, Jesus claims that in a world full of competing voices, His sheep will recognize His voice among them.....

Secular culture sees prayer as noting but wishful thinking, but we believe it is the foundation for any meaningful change. Join us as we pray for global gospel advance, and specifically for Zanzibar and Nepal. This podcast includes an update from Bryan Olson who left Rivers Edge for Nepal at the start of 2022.

After Jesus heals a man born blind, he is dragged before the religious elite, who refuse to believe what has happened. Unfortunately the verdict was decided before the trail, and the evidence of the healed beggar doesn't count. But the reason this story is so striking is that it captures the cultural moment that we're living in. In what ways are we the healed beggars of the 21st century, dragged b...

In a world full of people claiming to be Savior or Lord, Jesus stands apart as unique. But why do we believe Him over the other voices? And what does it look like to acknowledge the truth of who He is in all areas of life? 

Our discipleship to Jesus can be framed as a journey into greater and greater truth, but along the way we face an enemy described as the "father of lies." These lies distract and enslave, from individual lives to entire world-views, ideologies, and nation states. How do we recognize these lies? And what does true freedom look like? 

As the crowds listen to Jesus' words and watch Him do impossible things, many continue to doubt that He is the Messiah. We are quick to judge them for their lack of faith, but we live in an age of doubt and skepticism, where all of us will have moments where we doubt Jesus.

As great fires are being lit on the temple grounds, and the Israelites celebrate the Exodus and God's light, Jesus stands up and claims to be the light of the world. Whoever follows Him will never walk in darkness, but because He is the light, whoever rejects Him has no choice but to walk in darkness. 

In a later inserted story, we see Jesus confronted by a mob who has caught a woman in the very act of adultery. They are ready to stone her according to the law of Moses, and they intend to trap Jesus in the process, but He comes at the situation from a very different angle. How did the religious leaders get things so wrong when they thought they were so right? 

As Jesus stands up at the Festival of Tabernacles, on the last and greatest day of the festival, and as the priests are pouring out water on the Temple grounds, He proclaims to His followers that He offers living water, and that those who come and follow Him will have rivers of living water (God's Spirit and blessing and salvation) that flow out of them. Whether we are in a "desert season" or a pl...

As the women went to the tomb that first Easter Sunday, one thing was clear: they believed Jesus was dead and they didn't expect that to change. But then a violent earthquake shook the ground, shaking them out of their sorrow and bringing them face to face with something they believed to be impossible. 

As Jesus goes to the Festival of Tabernacles, his ministry seems to be in crisis. The religious leaders are plotting to kill him, the crowds can't decide if he is good or bad, most of his disciples have deserted him, and even his own brothers mock and tease. But it's important that we understand what Jesus is experiencing in this season, because it mirrors the cultural moment that we are living in...

After multiplying bread and walking on water, the crowds come to Jesus eager to engage again, but Jesus tells them they don't understand the deeper sign, they don't recognize who He is or the fact that He alone will satisfy their true hunger and thirst. 

During the Passover celebration, the Jewish nation remembers the Exodus: its release from slavery, the conquering of the Red Sea, and miraculous provision in the wilderness. As the nation celebrates, Jesus feeds thousands of people in the wilderness, shows Himself enthroned over the Sea of Galilee, and invokes the divine name "I AM" (from the Exodus). But the crowds who were present misunderstood,...

After provoking the Jewish leaders by healing on the Sabbath, a confrontation erupts between Jesus and the Jewish leadership. Similar to the "temple clearing," Jesus responds by further provoking the national leaders. By rather than giving them a one a liner, He gives thirty verses worth of divine self-disclosure, unveiling who He is and what is relationship is like with the Father. 

Some time after healing the official's son, Jesus is back in Jerusalem as the scene for another healing story. But this one isn't primarily about physical healing at all, it's actually about the Sabbath. 

Jesus continues his journey from Jerusalem out to the fringes of Galilee, but the remarkable thing is, the further out he goes, the better response he receives. Those deemed "spiritually blind" on the fringes are actually the ones exercising the most faith, and therefore the ones who experience the most physical healing. But what is the relationship between faith and physical healing? Does Jesus s...

In chapter 4 we find Jesus at an unusual place, talking to an unusual person. But the most remarkable part of the conversation is the way Jesus talks to this Samaritan woman, activating her in the way that the church was always intended to activate people. 

As Jesus sits with an unlikely person in an unlikely place, he tells her "if you knew who I was, you would ask, and I would give you living water." But what is this living water? And what are the lesser waters we run to that leave us thirsty again? 

John the Baptist shows up a second time as a witness in John's Gospel, making himself less so that Jesus can become more. But how does this inform the way we handle the pain of ministry, church competition, and the Christian tendency to divide? 

As Jesus wraps up his conversation with Nicodemus, John the author bursts out from behind the narrative, eager to interpret these events. And he starts with the words "For God so loved the world." To us, this verse is familiar enough to become cliche, but for the original audience it was provocative, if not shocking, and in some sense, it still provocative for us today. 

Join us as we interview Bryan Olson, just days before his scheduled departure for Nepal. What does it look like to live by faith instead of fear, and to trust God radically with our lives? 

The last century has been the bloodiest in all of human history. Yet the Enlightenment (and the secular culture its produced) has refused to change its tone, insisting that human beings are essentially good and that we just need the right external changes in order to flourish. Jesus has an entirely different take on the human condition, and what it truly needs to flourish.