Church of The Redeemer - Sermons

Having overturned the tables of the temple, the religious leaders seek to question Jesus' authority in Mark 11:27-33. But little do they know that Jesus' authority isn't up for debate. He has all authority and all power, and he wields it for our good. The only question that matters is: how will we respond to it?

The gospels can offer us some hard (often weird) sayings of Jesus. This text, which immediately follows Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem, offers us some hard (often weird) things like cursing fig trees, turning over tables, and moving mountains. But Mark wants us to see how they are all connected. In these stories, we see Jesus condemning fruitless faith, but how he is the center of fruitful...

What are the things we magnify in our lives? What do we revolve our lives around? What are we most known for? The triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, recorded in Mark 11, gives us three reasons why we should magnify Jesus in our hearts and lives.

Greatness comes in many different forms for many different people. But for Jesus, greatness in his kingdom involves giving up our lives for the sake of others. In this climactic passage, Jesus calls us to live a life of humble service and authentic faith.

Many people throughout the ages have tried to answer the questions around eternal life. Is there eternal life? How do we get there? What does it look like? In this well-known story from Mark 10:17-31, a rich young ruler approaches Jesus and is seeking this very thing: eternal life. However, his interactions with Jesus show us that entry into the Kingdom of God isn't achieved through good works or...

There are many moments in our lives when we face rejection. It could be being turned away at a roller coaster because you're not tall enough, or it could be a college rejection letter. All of us at some point face rejection. But in this short story from Mark 10, Jesus shows us the importance of welcoming even little children into the kingdom of God.

No word has caused more strife than the word "divorce." It is a word that has been misunderstood, proliferated in our culture through things like "no-fault divorce," and soured many people's outlook on an institution created by God. Amid all the questions people have about divorce, one needs to be central: What does Jesus say about divorce? In this short but powerful text, Mark reveals Jesus' hear...

What story has shaped your life the most? All of us have those stories, whether they make us smile or reveal scars. But for Christians, the story that should shape us the most is the death and resurrection of Jesus. As Mark 9 closes, Jesus has to teach his disciples not only that he will die and rise again, but also how his dying and rising again will shape their daily lives.

Dependence is often looked down on in our culture, but the Bible has a different approach. In it we clearly see that we are dependent creatures, relying on God for everything. But our unbelieving hearts keep us from depending fully on Jesus. This is a battle we face every day. We see in Mark 9:14-29, our daily battles of unbelief will require daily dependence upon the Savior in prayer. 

We've all seen beautiful things that sometimes take our breath away. A glorious sunset, a freshly mown lawn, and many more small and big wonders of the world. But Jesus tells his disciples in Mark 9:1 that his kingdom will come in power. This power would arrive in his resurrection, but the rest of Mark 9 shows us just a brief foretaste of the fullness of the kingdom power to come in the transfigur...

In Mark 8, Jesus asks his disciples who they say he is. This is one of the most important questions anyone will ever answer. Our world has many responses to this question, but Peter makes a true profession of Jesus' anointed kingship. But, he's later rebuked for not fully believing in Jesus' identity. Jesus intends to teach his disciples, and subsequently us, that he is the suffering savior we nee...

Oftentimes, we go through life with blurry vision. We think if we can find the right thing to satisfy our restless hearts, our lives will come into focus. But it's only when we take up a gospel perspective that things come into focus. We are sadly mistaken if we think we can go through life with Jesus plus something else. When we see Jesus clearly though, we can know that he is more than enough.

The final chapter of Ruth is where everything comes together. The widow who went away empty has had fullness returned to her, the nation without a king will have one raised up, and the foreigner will be welcomed as a wife and daughter. In all of this, Ruth is all about how God's redeeming love in Jesus transforms our darkest moments into a hope-filled future.

Oftentimes, our hearts are burdened with lies, half-truths, and the general weariness of life. Because of this, we are prone to seek comfort and security in things other than God, who can give us ultimate rest and redemption for our hearts. Ruth and Naomi are distinctly aware of their condition and thus their need for a redeemer. This drives them to Boaz, who models for us our redemption in Jesus....

Ruth 2 picks up immediately after Ruth and Naomi arrive in Bethlehem. Destitute, they seek the favor of a landowner so they may gather food from the edges of the field. But what happens is a description of God's divine, providential hand, giving these two widows protection and provision not just in the short term, but in the long term. The call of Ruth 2 is to come and find refuge in God and disco...

The book of Ruth is a beautiful story that shows the wonderful and varied ways God's grace reaches into our lives to transform us. It's a book that contains overwhelming joy and celebration alongside deep despair and sadness. Ultimately, Ruth is a story about how God’s redeeming love through Jesus transforms our darkest moments into a hope-filled future. What we find in chapter one is that amid de...

Having just rebuked the Pharisees and their hypocrisy over declaring things clean vs unclean, Jesus travels to the "unclean" Gentile regions where he encounters a woman with a demon-possessed daughter and a deaf man who couldn't speak. These stories in MArk 7:24-37 have odd and strange elements in them but help form a picture of what it looks like to draw near to Jesus. In these accounts, we see t...

What keeps us from following Jesus? For the religious leaders in Mark 7, it was their self-righteousness based on their own traditions. But Jesus came to expose, reveal, define, and cleanse our hypocrisy so that we can look to him, not ourselves, for salvation.

The disciples find themselves yet again in another storm on the sea. But this time, they don't have Jesus with them. Even when they see Jesus miraculously walk on water, they still don't recognize him. Their circumstances kept them from seeing Jesus clearly. Their example is instructive for us: we cannot allow our hard circumstances to keep us from seeing Jesus. Why? Because the power and presence...

In Jesus's time, many believed he was a revolutionary, one who would rule by force. This is exactly what we see at the end of Mark's retelling of the feeding of the five thousand in Mark 6:30-44. But Jesus is not who the people desire him to be. Because Jesus is our Good Shepherd, not our radical revolutionist, we can live sacrificially, compassionately, and restfully.

Fascination is not enough to be right with God. The story of Herod in Mark 6:14-29 shows us the story of a man who is overwhelmingly fascinated with the things of God, but his story ends in tragedy. On the other hand, the story of John the Baptist shows us what it looks like to triumph through our confidence in Christ and our conviction about our mission.

Having been rejected by those closest to him (Mark 6:1-6), Jesus sends out the disciples to proclaim the good news of the kingdom (6:7-13). Even in the face of rejection, we are called to faithfully proclaim Jesus.

In the entire New Testament, Jesus was amazed only twice. The first time was with the centurion and his remarkable faith. The second time was in Mark 6 when Jesus returned to his hometown only to find their unbelief so powerful he couldn't perform a miracle there. Unbelief is a powerful force that, if we're not careful, will shipwreck our lives. This is why we must be on guard against the danger o...

In a Fallen world, sickness and death surround us. Jesus wasn't immune to seeing this as he walked the earth. Yet in this conclusion to the four miraculous stories that began when Jesus calmed the storm, Mark 5:21-43 helps us see a powerful truth: When we face a crisis, it's the direction of our faith, not the depth of our faith, that determines the outcome.

Scary stories have a unique way of drawing people in. They tell of things beyond our understanding and the best stories have evil being overcome. This is the kind of story we find in Mark 5, which is a continuation of Mark 4:35-41. Mark 5:1-20 shows us that Jesus delivers us from the power of evil so we can tell others about what he has done.