Redeemer Church

Jesus has taught the disciples the principles of the Kingdom through parables. Now the principles will be put on display through powerful miracles to demonstrate Jesus’ Kingdom identity. For as much as the disciples had been taught, they still had deep seated fears that blinded them from truly seeing and trusting Jesus. Here we see Jesus as having power and authority over creation. The storms of l...

God has an Extraordinary Mission, that he wants to accomplish thru Ordinary People, who Tell Their Story.

Each human life tells a story that proclaims what we believe about the biggest questions. As Christ followers we believe profound “truth claims” about God, creation, and eternity. God is powerful. Jesus is God. We are redeemed. In God’s sovereign wisdom he uses stories, your story, to proclaim these truths to the world around us. God is actively redeeming our stories for His glory, our good, and t...

We often study a few verses of scripture or a section at a time.  But, what about the big picture of the Bible?  What we call around Redeemer, “God’s story.”  How does the whole of the Bible cohere as one divine narrative of God’s plan for history?  This morning we will consider that as we trace the theme of the kingdom of God throughout the Bible.  We will see that from Genesis to Revelation, God...

Be the few who humbly rest in God’s extravagant salvation.

This morning, we celebrate the 4th Sunday of Advent and the heavenly declaration of God announcing the birth of His Son. This event was so glorious and incomprehensible that it took several angelic messages to bring clarity to just what was happening. As we visit with those the angels met, we find various responses. Responses not so different than we might find today … ones that you may even be wr...

In case you’re not yet convinced of the unconventional way God has of doing things, let’s just move on to the next piece of the Christmas story – the shepherds. God sent angels (a multitude of the heavenly host to be exact) to announce the birth of the Son of God, the Savior of the world to a group of shepherds. Shepherds, mind you, were not the upper class of society, not the news media of the da...

One of my favorite things about the birth of Christ is that just about nothing is how you or I would have orchestrated it. We wouldn’t have picked a cave for the labor and delivery, a bunch of cows as the observers, or a cold hard stone to lay the newborn in. We wouldn’t have picked stinky shepherds, and we wouldn’t have picked the small village of Bethlehem. But that’s just how the Father did it....

This first Sunday of Advent we start the story of the coming King way back in the words of the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah’s words are a call and comfort to have a joyful anticipation of the light breaking through the darkness of the day. His was not a pie-in-the-sky kind of hope-it-happens anticipation in the way a child hopes he gets something good for Christmas. No, his was a have-no-doubt certainty...

Jesus delivers a crucial message to his disciples – Your life should bring the truth of the Kingdom to light. You now have the “secret to the Kingdom” (Mark 4:11) and you better not keep it a secret. You don’t have the power to grow the Kingdom, the Spirit of God does that. You don’t have to make excuses for the Kingdom, it will be great. You have only to proclaim the Kingdom, and you must do it d...

Jesus called out a committed core from the curious crowd. He called them disciples. His disciples, then and now, hear His voice and obey His heart. But those who are only following for what’s in it for them lack the ability to truly hear and obey His words. There are common obstacles that have kept people from trusting Jesus throughout all human history. Will you consider where these hold your hea...

The most important question someone can ask and answer is: who is Jesus Christ? Many in our day say about Jesus that he was a great moral teacher and then move on. C.S. Lewis ran into the same response in his day, but refused to let people off the hook. In his seminal work Mere Christianity, Lewis posed a trilemma concerning Jesus. He must be one of three things in light of his claim to be God: a...

Jesus was popular, make no mistake. At this point in His ministry people were coming from far and wide to see His traveling road show of miracles. But Jesus wanted something more from them. He wasn’t interested in massive crowds as much as He desired calling disciples. These are far different roles with clearly different tasks. Come and consider what it is to be a disciple of King Jesus.

Some people use their power and rules to control others, while Jesus puts the freedom and dignity of people first. Sadly, the Jewish leaders around Jesus were more concerned with what was lawful rather than what brings life. King Jesus not only brings good things to His children, but also the ability to enjoy those good things.

We are often in conflict about choices and perspectives. Over and over, Jesus encountered opposition that stressed religious piety and personal holiness but was shown to be shallow without the power to change lives. We see Jesus redeem Matthew and, with a parable, illustrate what truly following Jesus looks like. Jesus shows us the way to live as Christ followers and those who have been changed.

Men need forgiveness. Only God has the power and prerogative to provide it. The condition of a man’s heart to receive it is faith alone. Jesus saw in this paralytic, both a deep need and great faith. The comfort all Christ-followers need is that our sins have been forgiven, and that forgiveness is finished in total freedom from sin and total healing in the Kingdom yet to come!

The Son was seeking to always do the will of the Father. His mission was returning hearts to the Father, not merely healing bodies and casting out spirits. He resisted fame and mere miracle-chasers. What He wanted was repentant, believing, surrendered disciples … devoted followers not fair-weather fans. Jesus always sought the right things while the people sought the selfish things.

Like the prophets of old, Jesus possessed authority to speak on behalf of the Divine, but in this case, He was the Divine. He had a greater authority than the Jewish scribes, so they could not conclude that He was simply a good rabbi. He had power over the physical and demonic realm, and they could not conclude that He was simply an earthy king. He is the Sabbath rest foreshadowed from Genesis and...

The way has been prepared by John. Jesus has passed the test of the wilderness, and now he emerges proclaiming that the time has been fulfilled. A massive pivot point has been reached in the story of God which marks a new chapter in redemptive history: the king has arrived with his kingdom. Jesus proclaims the good news and calls people to follow him—to enter life in his kingdom. This comes with g...

There is no sanitized hospital delivery room nor even a mention of a dirty stable, just the wilderness. Mark has a point to make as he begins his gospel narrative – The Servant of God has come. He is on a mission to accomplish what those who had gone before Him could not … not Adam in the garden, not Moses on the mountain, nor even Israel in the wilderness. The beginning of the story is all about...

God works where we pursue our joy in Him. “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” This is far more than a bumper sticker John Piper made up, it is at the heart of pursuing Christ. We flee “working to achieve” (Pt 1), we “die to self” (Pt 2), and we run to Him with a heart stirred with delight, joy, and pleasure. There He works for our Joy and for His Glory!

God works to bring spiritual life and power where there is first a death. The death of Christ frees us from the natural self-preservation that loves this life and labors to protect ourselves and our comforts. Yet it is in a daily dying that spiritual power is discovered … and where God works!

Our God does not work in ways men can watch and duplicate. He is not merely a great craftsman who has honed His skills. His power is not of this world and His works are not explained by human reason. People need to see power, and they need to know there is more than what they can see. We alone can show then that. Do you believe?

Christ, who alone could have accomplished the mission of the Father, chose a team to walk with in life and ministry. How much more then, did the apostle Paul, and do we today need a community to accomplish the mission of making disciples. The joy outweighs the mess, so jump on in!

Christ is the center of the mystery of God’s plan for redemption. We must be prayerful for His name to be declared and ready to declare His name. It is in our persevering-prayer and wisdom-walking that Christ is honored in our everyday living. Ultimate truth is made clear through the gracious speaking of God’s people.