Aletheia Church, Providence RI

Easter Sunday is a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, but the possibility of resurrection is often met with skepticism. In this sermon, Pastor Justin looks at 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul explains why resurrection is central to the Christian faith, and why it's really, really good news for those who believe it.

Just before he entered Jerusalem and people celebrated him as King with palm branches, Jesus told a parable intended to correct people's wrong thinking about what it meant. In this sermon, Pastor Justin unpacks that parable to show us the meaning and significance of Palm Sunday.

Jesus announced his ministry by saying he'd come to preach the good news to the poor. In this sermon, Pastor Justin looks at the words of Jesus to help us understand what it means to love our neighbors who are poor. It might be different than what we expect.

Loneliness isn't just a matter of the quantity of friendships you have — it's a matter of the quality of relationships. In this sermon, Tyler Parker looks at Jesus's words in John 15 to show us how we can form the kind of friendships that are deep, and how we can extend that friendship to others experiencing loneliness.

Jesus said the most important thing in life is to love God and love your neighbor. In this sermon, Pastor Justin kicks off this series by looking at how to love your neighbor well in the complex landscape of race.

In the opening of his letter, Jude said this Christian community needed to “contend for the faith." In the close of his letter, he tells them how. By looking at Jude's words, Pastor Justice explains the advice Jude gives for how to defend yourself against unbiblical living, and how to treat others who are influenced by it.

Blasphemy sounds like an old-fashioned word, but the danger it presents to a church community is as dangerous today as it was in Jude's time. In this sermon, Pastor Justin explains why Jude warns his readers against the influence of blasphemy.

In the opening of Jude, he says to his readers that he wanted to write a feel-good letter about how great it is following Jesus. But Jude was aware of something dangerous that was threatening to take root in their church. In this sermon, Pastor Justin explains what heresy Jude warned against and how we recognize it today.

Jesus told his disciples to go make other disciples, but he also told them to wait. They wouldn't be able to successfully help others find and follow Jesus without the promised Holy Spirit. In this sermon, Pastor Justin gives three reasons that the Holy Spirit is essential for the mission of making disciples.

Ministry sounds like something that ministers do, but we can wrongly assume that ministers are only paid professionals, like pastors or church staff. In this sermon, Pastor Justin looks at Ephesians 4, where Paul describes how church leaders are meant to equip disciples for ministry. Leaders do the equipping and all followers of Jesus do the ministry.

How do you help someone find and follow Jesus in a time when challenging personal views is culturally taboo? In this sermon, pastor Justin looks at one verse from Judges 21 that shows us why disciples of Jesus must let the gospel be their foundation, rather than personal opinions.

When Jesus gave his followers the mission to make disciples of all nations, it was assumed that this meant engaging other people. They couldn't carry out the mission by withdrawing. In this sermon, Pastor Justin unpacks six reasons from Isaiah 45 why we must engage our world with the gospel.

Every disciple experiences pressure to do things Jesus wouldn't do, say things Jesus wouldn't say, and agree with things Jesus would never agree with. In this sermon, Pastor Justin looks at the great faith of Moses in Hebrews 11. Even though Moses had all the pressure of Egypt bearing down on him, he withstood it by faith. We learn from his story how to withstand the great pressures we face.

Abraham is celebrated in the Bible as one of the greatest examples of faith. In Hebrews 11, we see how his faith moved him from the comfort of the city he grew up in to the wilderness of Canaan. In this sermon, Pastor Justin explains why faith is the very thing we need when obedience to God gets uncomfortable.

Hebrews 11 is often called "the hall of faith," where famous Old Testament characters are celebrated for their great faith. Enoch is included in this list and yet little is known about what he did. And that's the point. In this sermon, Pastor Justin explains how Enoch's inclusion in the hall of faith means that even our most mundane moments in life matter.

Following Jesus requires endurance. How do disciples find this endurance when they face great challenges? In this sermon, Pastor Justin looks at Hebrews 10:32–39, where the author is encouraging the Hebrew believers to hold onto their boldness and not to give up.

Nobody is immune to battles with anxiety. Yet Jesus promised that, even though this life won't be trouble free, he's given us the necessary tools to battle anxiety. In this sermon, Pastor Justin explains how Psalm 42 equips us to battle anxiety effectively.

At the beginning John's Gospel, he doesn't give us an account of shepherds, or inns, or Mary and Joseph. Instead, he introduces us to Jesus as God the Word. In this Christmas sermon, Pastor Justin explains what this title means and why it's really, really good news.

In this sermon, Pastor Justin teaches from a familiar Christmastime passage—the three wise men. We don't know much about these wise men, but we know they were one of the few people to recognize that God had done something special in giving Jesus Christ. Their response? To give generously back to him.

In his account of Jesus's death, Mark stays away from the gory details of crucifixion and focuses instead on the isolation that Jesus experienced. In this sermon, Pastor Justin answers the question, Why was King Jesus forsaken by everyone in his death, including God the Father?

The temple in Jerusalem had been the center of religious and political life for the Jewish people. But Jesus predicted that it would be destroyed, and that its destruction would mean an unprecedented time of upheaval. In a time when the world can feel like it's coming apart at the seams, Jesus's words to his disciples are as timely for us as they were for them.

When Jesus arrives in Jerusalem, he confronts the Jewish rulers. His accusation is that they're pretending to be all about God but their hearts are really invested elsewhere. They're pretending. In this sermon, Pastor Justin shows how the same places pretense used to hide for them are the same places pretense hides for us today.

The Gospel of Mark has been building in momentum and tension as Jesus and his disciples make their way to Jerusalem. When they finally arrive, Jesus uses the image of a fruitless fig tree to illustrate the kind of fruitless faith he see in the temple. In this sermon, Pastor Justin describes the signs and dangers of fruitless faith, as well as the power for fruitful faith.

Sometimes everything seems like a ploy for power. Politicians volley for our votes, celebrities demand our attention, and we even seek acclaim for ourselves. In this sermon, however, Pastor Justin uses Mark 10 to unpack how Jesus's view on power upends the expectations of the rich and poor alike.

Have someone ever been too busy to meet with you? Oftentimes, big, important people are inaccessible to average humans. If Jesus is infinitely important person, we would expect the distance between our Lord and ourselves to span an eternal distance. However, using Mark 9, Jonathan Cothron shows that Jesus is the kind of leader who wants passionately to commune with His disciples.