Atlanta Westside Presbyterian Church

Peter’s encounter with the resurrected Jesus shows us how his grace works. Rather than punishing Peter for denying him three times, Jesus cooks him breakfast, gently leads him to face his sin, and challenges him to love – also three times! In the same way, Jesus continues to show merciful compassion toward all who believe in his death and resurrection, entrusting us with his supreme calling to lov...

Everyone wants a king: someone or something we willingly allow to tell us what to do, because we believe they will make our lives better. Jesus’ triumphal entry confirmed that we do indeed need a king, just not the kind we think. We want a king who gathers all the most impressive people, but Jesus seeks helpless people who need their hands held even to believe. We want a king who promises to fix o...

Although we usually think of Judas as the evil villain in the Jesus story, this scene provides a different picture. If the disciples were uncertain—more like shocked—about which one of the twelve would betray Jesus, that tells us that Judas looked just like the rest of the disciples. It turns out, Judas was a good person. But being a good person doesn’t save you, no matter how impressive your spir...

Jesus gives a blind man both physical and spiritual sight, while a group of Pharisees grows increasingly spiritually blind. At the same time, the man’s neighbors and even his own parents struggle to grasp the reality of what’s happening. John frames the account this way to helps us see, believe in, and worship Jesus. Like he did with the blind man, Jesus is writing our stories long before we were...

Jesus makes an exclusive claim of being “the light of the world.” To argue with Him, as the Pharisees tried to do, would be to question His authority and the truthfulness of His claim. As the Pharisees argued and wrestled with Jesus in His imposing truth, we also must wrestle with Jesus’s imposing truth in our lives; the hard truths and the good.

This scene, which contrasts two sisters in relationship to Jesus, is easily misinterpreted. Jesus is not saying that active physical service is bad and passive spiritual contemplation is good; both of them are. He’s not saying that Mary is a special exception to the general rule that women belong in the kitchen; both men and women do. And he’s not saying that the only thing women should do is list...

Jesus says in v. 35 that “wisdom is justified by all her children” – in other words, that truth is validated by its outworking in human lives. He taught a related principle in Luke 6:43-45: a tree is known by its fruit. The life of John the Baptist raises three challenging questions for applying this principle: 1) What if following Jesus causes us to suffer? 2) What defines a truly great person? a...

Jesus loves us just as we are, but he loves us too much to let us stay that way. Here he hand-picks one invalid man out of a crowd of sick people, apart from any evidence of faith – a beautiful picture of the Gospel! Later on he pursues the man again, challenging him to “sin no more” – yet another picture of the Gospel! Sadly, both the healed man and the Jewish leaders suffer from the same basic p...

Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus reveals an essential teaching of the Christian faith: No one can see the Kingdom of God unless he or she is born again – or more accurately, born from above. Theologians call this regeneration: the gracious and mysterious act of God’s Spirit that makes us alive to God and able to trust him by faith. But why would Jesus emphasize this truth to Nicodemus, a scrupulous...

Jesus’ healing of the paralytic demonstrates that our greatest need is for forgiveness from our sins. By forgiving a paralytic – someone whose was clearly a sufferer with no obvious sin in his life – reminds us that every human being sins, rebelling against God’s loving rule in big and small ways. The Pharisees and teachers of the law also illustrate the pernicious nature of self- righteousness th...

In the face of impossible demands, Jesus needed to withdraw regularly to find strength and guidance from his Father. This practice was all the more essential in light of the power he possessed and the mission he was committed to fulfill: to preach the good news of the kingdom of God and then inaugurate it through is death and resurrection. Because Jesus was faithful to that mission, we can now fol...

John’s sparse account of Jesus’ first miraculous sign raises all sorts of fascinating questions: How did he really feel about marriage? What was his relationship with his mother? Why did she care about the wine supply? Why did he create enough wine that could make people drunk – and why put it in ceremonial purification jars? All answers revolve around v. 11. Consistent with the purpose of John’s...

There is so much to Jonah’s story following the great fish incident. The Bible shows us this incredible picture of the Gospel in Jonah 3 where God chooses to bless and save sinners who, though their sin was great, called out to Him in humility. However, Jonah resents God’s grace to his enemies. But God remains patient and reveals to Jonah his own hypocrisy and God’s massive and glorious plan of re...

Jesus comes and sees us so that we will come and see him. “Come and see” are not so much two different actions as a whole-person, hands-on engagement with another person. Jesus models this come-and-see practice by drawing them out with questions (Andrew & John), renaming them (Peter), calling them (Philip), praising their honesty, revealing his supernatural watchfulness and intriguing them with pr...

Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness helps us fight temptation in our own lives. Behind each of them is a question tempting him to doubt his relationship to God: 1. Turn Stones to bread: Will God take care of me? 2. Get authority & glory in exchange for worship: Does God know what he’s doing? 3. Throw himself down & be rescued: Does God care when I’m hurting? The same kinds of questions lie behind...

Our church’s purpose is to embody and preview the Kingdom of God from Buckhead to Bankhead, which includes the work of racial reconciliation. Actually doing it depends on how well we believe and practice the metaphor of the body of Christ. The unity that we already have in the body motivates us to work hard to love each other and our neighbor. Diversity in the body puts us in uncomfortable positio...

Mary is an extraordinary model of dynamic faith in God. While her distinct role as the physical mother of Jesus was utterly unique, the way she responded to God’s providence helps us understand how we can exercise faith today. The angel Gabriel declares her “favored” by God, and she responds by welcoming God’s undeserved grace. He informs her that she will bear the Son of God, and she responds by...

Leah is known for the bitter competition with her sister Rachel for the affections of their husband Jacob. Though the New Testament does not highlight her place in the genealogy of Jesus, her story echoes many of his other “mothers.” Most distinctively, she illustrates a universal human experience: We all want to be loved, faithfully and securely – and yet human love inevitably disappoints us. In...

Tamar is one of the “mothers” of Jesus listed in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1. She was the twice-widowed daughter-in-law of Judah, the leader of the twelve sons of Jacob. When Judah refused to provide for her future by giving his third son to marry her, Tamar took matters into her own hands. She disguised herself as a prostitute, and Judah took the bait. When she was found to be pregnant, J...

Displaced and disheartened by suffering and loss, Naomi found life no longer sweet but bitter. Yet her condition did not have the final say. God was at work through many agents in Naomi’s life, even her own heart, and brought her back from death to life, from bitterness to joy, from emptiness to fullness. Naomi found sweet redemption from God through Ruth, Boaz and a son through whom would come ut...

The tenth commandment is the most explicitly heart-oriented of the ten commandments, and therefore almost impossible to keep. Powerful forces all around us institutionalize and reinforce coveting as the American Way of life. The alternative to coveting, however, is not to kill our desires, nor even simply to moderate them, but to direct them toward God himself. God never promises to fulfill all of...

The ninth commandment applies most directly to giving formal testimony in a legal context. In the ancient near east, most legal disputes were settled by appeal to two or three human witnesses, rather than documents, recordings or forensic evidence. Bearing false witness was an easy way to harm your enemies or advance your own interests. Today, the commandment extends naturally to any verbal misrep...

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