Hope Alliance Bethlehem

The resurrection of Jesus was a world-altering event. It gave rise to a new gathering of the people of God called the church and unleashed the kingdom of God into the world. As followers of Jesus, the church then and now is called to experience the kingdom (already and not yet), embody the kingdom in the way they live and extend the kingdom by making disciples.

Jesus shows up to an Israel still very much defined by exile. And in Jesus we see God make good on his covenant by rescuing humanity. As a new Adam, Jesus demonstrates his trust in God. As a new Moses, he announces a new exodus in his baptism. As a new David, he unleashes his kingdom ministry against the greater enemy of sin. And as a new Abraham, Jesus calls a people around himself through his de...

How will God deal with the ever growing pervasiveness of evil outside the garden? He moves to bring the world back to himself through a man and ultimately a nation. He promises to bless them and calls them to be a blessing to the world and draw them to God. Humanity's continued pull toward autonomy disables their ability to live into this covenant relationship. And yet, we continue to see the...

How could an apple bring about the interruption of a perfection creation? The truth is that the problem lies much deeper. Humanity's prideful pursuit of autonomy has traumatized all of our relationships within creation. And yet, in response to our rebellion, we again see a God who is defined by love.

The story of God starts off in a compelling way by sharing the story of creation. While people tend to be consumed with the "how" question of creation. The storyteller is far more concerned with the "who" and the "why" questions. In this first part of the story we see a big God who comes close to his creation because of his love for it.

In Hebrews 12, the author is reaching the conclusion and purpose of the letter: to encourage the readers to endure the suffering they are going through. Today, nearly 2000 years later the call to endure still stands, as does the reality of suffering in all of our lives. Though God is a mystery and His ways are not our ways, we find hope to endure suffering by looking to what God has done in the pa...

Jesus, and all he has accomplished on our behalf, calls us to be a family on mission. We are not alone, neither in isolation nor in our responsibility to one another. We are, instead, called to encourage one another, to spend time together, and to worship God as part of a long line of faithful followers of God.

The Old Testament system of worship called for sacrifices to cover the sin of the people. But now through Jesus work on the cross, God himself has provided a perfect and final sacrifice. When we place our faith in this perfect sacrifice we find the security we long for in this life.

Genuine peace doesn't come from conjuring up an emotion. Genuine peace is found only in the person of Jesus who has not only paid a debt that we could not, but has also given us access to the full blessing of God through a new and better covenant.

In Jesus, we have a high priest who has finished our atonement, but continues his advocacy for us. He can sympathize with our earthly struggles and is ready to offer grace and mercy to those who seek it. Therefore, we can have confidence and persistence in the midst of life's struggles.

Often times are thoughts are consumed with our current circumstances. This usually leads to a life of grumbling. Jesus offers us a better way. If we exercise our faith by moving our thoughts from our circumstances to who he is and what he has done, grumbling is replaced with genuine rest.

God’s story in Jesus is the story that frames all other stories. When we make our story more important than Jesus’ story, or we make ourselves the hero of the story instead of Jesus, we will not experience the love that Jesus has for us as our brother and we will not experience the grace and mercy God wants to give us from His throne of grace.

In this first talk in the book of Hebrews we look at the author's warnings against drifting away from our belief in "Jesus Only". In comparing our journey of faith to the journey of the Israelites, we find a common trend: that drifting from belief is a human tendency. So we must take action to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and his Gospel lest we drift away.

In the final message in our Shapshots of Hope series we look at why we love Community at Hope Alliance. In summary, we love community because community shows God's kingdom to the world, it shows God's care for us, and it grows us. But Jesus shows us in John 13 that community is truly a blessing to us when we learn to serve like he did.

At Hope Alliance we are sent people; sent to do what Jesus did. Based on passages in John 7, John 20, and Luke 4, we look at what Jesus did and how we are to join him in being living waters to the world around us.

Children have a critical role to play in the church now. And just like Jesus, we should never keep the disconnected from the church, but rather see them as a crucial part of God's kingdom. It is our communal responsibility to impart the gospel to them and to be inspired by their speech, conduct, love, faith and purity.

Too much in our world is artificial! And this reality starts with ourselves. The gospel calls us to be genuine people who love God and others genuinely. As genuine people, we are honest about who we are, failures and all! And we aim to love God an others in a real and honest way, without masks.

At Hope, we have defined our identity by the statement "Simply Jesus." For us Jesus if first and everything else is second. Its that simple! The story of the transfiguration is a compelling glimpse into why this identity is so important to us and to what it means to be a Christian. (**Our apologies for the poor audio quality**)

The resurrection of Jesus gives us the freedom to rest. Not just from our external work, but more importantly from our internal desire to find approval in our work and life. Finding space for sabbath in life is a chance to be redefined as new creation and a means to escape the constant urgency, stress and pressure the world places on our shoulders.

Because of the resurrection, Christ-followers are free to be happy. We look at how we find that happiness in confession, in being conformed to Christ's image, and in our commission as agents of new creation with Jesus. Text: Romans 8, Philippians, 1 John 1

In the parable of the Lost Son(s) we see a picture of our own rebellion and self-righteousness, revealing our guilt and how far from the Father we truly are. We also see the Father offer freedom from guilt to his sons by compassionately moving towards both of them and offering relationship. In our own lives today we are able to be free from guilt (and learn how to forgive) because of the cross and...

Because of the resurrection, we are new creations. One of the most powerful realities of this truth is that we are now free from performance. We are no longer confined to the system of this world which says we are only valuable based upon our production and performance. Instead, Jesus calls us to come to him like little children who are valued and loved by our Creator because of who we are.

The resurrection of Jesus is not just a miracle. It is God's announcement that he is making all things new. Therefore, if anyone is connected to Jesus, he is a new creation. This means that we are free from our past and it no longer defines us. Easter draws us into a whole new way of life.

As the book of Joshua concludes, the Israelites are called to be courageously obedient. More specifically they are called to be very careful what they cling to. Clinging to things of this world leads to traps and snares, but clinging to Jesus leads us into the abundant life he promises. Here are the questions provided on the response card at the end of the teaching:(1) I am prone to cling to these...