bread church

Psalm 110 More than any other, Psalm 110 reveals the identity of the Messiah. Jesus is the fulfillment of David’s prophecy in this psalm: Jesus has completed the work God assigned him setting us right with God, Jesus is Lord over all that we ever face, Jesus is our eternal priest caring and interceding for us, and Jesus is extending His kingdom over evil with us as His willing army in the fight. B...

Psalm 19 (NIV); Psalm 19 (Message) The Psalms don't just tell us about God—they teach us how to speak to him. Psalm 19 invites us into an ancient prayer of orientation, that begins with the skies, delights in instruction, and ends with a simple prayer of surrender. But to hear it well, we have to step outside our modern assumptions about science, faith, and religious rules—and learn to see the wor...

Psalm 8 God of Humanity The Bible answers the fundamental question of what it means to be human, by saying: it means to be in relationship with God. It's less about who we are and more about whose we are. When we start with God, we experience life as it’s supposed to be lived: we see that God is enormous and powerful; we are small; our worship shuts the mouth of all that comes against us; God care...

Psalm 96 At bread, we value the manifest presence of God above all else. Worship is essential for that. Since the beginning God's people have sung songs of worship. We are commanded to do so; it's who we were created to be; and He alone is worthy of it. Worship will always be the ultimate goal for humanity.  So we're learning that as we bring our full selves- body, mind and spirit- to worship, tru...

Matthew 25:14-30; Genesis 2:15 Returning to Jesus' parable of the talents, we consider how this story relates to all areas of our lives other than money. We have all been variously gifted by God - not just in respect of our abilities or talents, but also with regards to our history, our personality, our relationships, our experiences, all of what makes us, us. As co-collaborators with God in build...

Luke 14:15-24; Isaiah 25:6-8 The Parable of the Great Banquet is Jesus opening the doors to everyone. After being invited to dinner by a group of Pharisees, Jesus answers their question on who’s in and who’s out in his new kingdom. Drawing from Isaiah’s messianic banquet prophecy 700 years earlier, Jesus redeclares God’s desire for everyone to be included. That means you too! By Tom Powell

Mark 4:30-34 The Kingdom of God being parabolically described as a mustard seed by Jesus in Mark 4 was surprising to his listeners by the shore of the sea, to say the least. And his reference to nesting birds might seem benign enough to us, but to them, the splendid cedar of imperial messianic power (from Ezekiel and Daniel) was supposed to provide birds shelter. So the image of the mustard plant...

Matthew 13:1-23 The Kingdom of God is what life looks like when Jesus is in charge. It has already begun through Jesus, but it’s not yet fully visible; it is present, but hidden, and we as His people are called not just to be in it, but to participate in God’s kingdom work in the world. The Parable of the Sower demonstrates Kingdom people as a quiet resistance force—joining God in pushing back aga...

John 3:1-8, Ezekiel 36:25-27 Following on from last week's talk about who the real Jesus of the gospels is, today we consider the sort of life he promises to bring. In his interaction with Nicodemus, Jesus promises something more radical than any religious, political or social leader has ever offered. He says that what humanity’s needs goes beyond sociological, economic, or political revolutions,...

Sign up for alpha With our upcoming Alpha course beginning April 28th, we consider what it is we’re doing when we invite our friends to the course. Ultimately we’re inviting them to meet Jesus. And He always meets people just as they are. From his interaction with the Samaritan woman (John 4:1-30) we see that Jesus, fully human, is not afraid to admit his needs. He meets us on equal and humble foo...

How do we seek out the lost sheep? What does loving the most vulnerable look like? How do we see and love people with the heart of Jesus? Our guest speaker Bob Ekblad shares his story and experiences of working with people on the margins: folks struggling with addiction, inmates, immigrants, and so many other people who have been overlooked by society. He unpacks what it looks like to be a discipl...

The resurrection means everything good will be restored. Because of Jesus’ bodily, historical rising from the dead, a new day has dawned. Just as the power of sin touched every single part of creation at the fall, the power of the resurrection is redeeming every single part of creation since Easter. Sin and death has been swallowed up in the victory of God. God is restoring everything- paintings a...

Matthew 7:13-29 Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount concludes with a choice: which road will we walk? The “narrow way” is not about securing a distant afterlife, but about embracing a transformed life here and now—one shaped by the Spirit’s ongoing work within us. Set against the backdrop of Israel’s coming destruction, Jesus warns of the broad road that ultimately leads to a wasted life, disconnected from...

Matthew 7:1-12 The Sermon on the Mount is not merely about behavior, but about a deep transformation of the heart that enables Kingdom living from the inside out. As we conclude our series, we consider Jesus' closing statement: “do to others what you would have them do to you.” His “Golden Rule” is the simple yet demanding summary of his teaching to this point. He calls believers not just to avoid...

Matthew 6:19-24 The Revolution Jesus is leading us into has to work its way into our systems of valuing - exposing what we treasure. Jesus presses this issue because He is fully aware of the duality resulting from trying to live in both Kingdoms - of Mammon and of God - at the same time. The result will be crippling anxiety and paralyzing worry. So… His solution is to choose relentless focus on th...

Matthew 6:5-15⁠ Today we focus in on The Lord’s Prayer, Jesus’s teaching on what is called prayer in Matthew 6:5-15, and how prayer is for everyone at all times. We also learn about the radical state of practicing the presence of God through prayer without ceasing as exemplified by the life of Brother Lawrence. By Paul Maertens

In a break from our 'Live the Revolution' series, and at the conclusion our most recent Alpha Course, we dedicate our Sunday Service to the subject of the Holy Spirit: Who is the Holy Spirit? What does the Holy Spirit do? How can we be filled with the Holy Spirit? The Christian life is not just about faith in Jesus - who He is and what He has done. Putting our faith in Jesus is the vital first ste...

Matthew 6:1-8, 16-18 Having shown what a kingdom heart and the kingdom life looks like, Jesus concludes His Sermon on the Mount with a series of warnings about inhibiting the kingdom life. The first concerns the desire for approval from anyone other than God our Father. When our motivation to give, pray and fast is clouded by what others think of us, we need to beware. Kingdom People are called to...

Matthew 5:21-48 What does this revolution actually look like in real life? Torah Law was always about love — love of God, self and neighbor — but somewhere along the way it had became something to manage, manipulate, and weaponize. In six startling case studies, Jesus takes Israel’s Law, and traces the trajectory from the seed in the heart to the fruit in the world, and brings his focus to the ima...

Matthew 5:17-20 Having announced his kingdom, invited all to enter it, and described that people of the kingdom as salt and light, Jesus elaborates on how kingdom people live. Our goodness is to surpass that of the Pharisees. This is life beyond legalistic righteousness. So, Jesus hasn’t come to tell us to live righteously, he has come to make us into the sort of people who live righteous lives. H...

Matthew 5:13-16 Jesus turns things upside down when it comes to who is invited into his kingdom - it’s everyone, really everyone. What’s more, the invitation to receive the blessing of his kingdom is not dependent on anything that we might deem a qualification or a disqualification. But Jesus doesn’t end his teaching there. And neither must we. Entrance into his kingdom is just the first step. Jes...

Matthew 5:3-12 When it comes to "living the revolution" the question arises - for whom is the revolution good news? Who gets to join in - and who is excluded? So, from the outset of His revolutionary invitation, Jesus makes it clear - even those who have been discarded and set aside socio-culturally are able to join Him in turning the world right side up. But, it will come at cost - they, once joi...

Matthew 5-7 Many of Jesus’ most familiar teachings come from the Sermon on the Mount, the aim here is not to treat it as a list of moral instructions, but to understand the new day Jesus was announcing. Set against a deeply divided and oppressed Israel, Jesus’ announcement that “the kingdom of heaven has come near” was not a threat of judgment, but a declaration that the long wait for God’s action...

In Paul’s letter to the Colossians (⁠Colossians 1:15-23)⁠ he presents Jesus as so attractive as to be utterly compelling. We’re called to do something similar, in our similarly pluralistic context of Los Angeles: to present Jesus as he is--unapologetically the center of the universe. Jesus is the one everyone is looking for: he’s the only one who fully satisfies us, the only one who is supreme ove...

As we head into 2026, let us consider a simple invitation from Psalm 34: Taste and see that the Lord is good. From Genesis to Revelation, the scriptures demonstrate God inviting us to receive his wonderful love in tangible, authentic, and embodied ways. Through Jesus, the hard work has been completed, and our job is to receive from him. What gets in the way of us “tasting and seeing” the goodness...