Redeemer West Side

Given by Rev. Bijan Mirtolooi.  TODAY'S SCRIPTURE | Ephesians 2:11-18 In these verses, Paul provides a theological foundation for the kind of reconciliation that we see depicted in Acts 10: The same gospel that reconciles people to God also reconciles people to each other. The gospel can tear down any ways erected between peoples today. 

Given by Rev. Bijan Mirtolooi.  TODAY'S SCRIPTURE | Acts 10 Acts 10 records a kind of conversion story, but not in the way you expect. Peter, who was an apostle and the leader of the church, experiences a kind of conversion when he experiences that the good news of Jesus really is for all peoples. Peter understands the gospel in a new and deeper way as he begins to grasp that the same gospel...

Given by Rev. Andrew Field. TODAY'S SCRIPTURE | Acts 6:1-7 As we saw last week, the first Christians were committed to serving their city in word and deed ministry. In Acts 6, God invites his people to serve one another practically inside the church. The revolutionary idea of spiritual gifts releases every Christian to serve in God-designed and God-empowered ways.

Given by Rev. Bijan Mirtolooi.  TODAY'S SCRIPTURE | Acts 3:1-16  While Peter and John were making their way to the temple to pray, they encountered a man with tremendous physical need. Instead of offering a smile and walking by, Peter and John stop, engage the man, and pronounce healing in the name of Jesus. Here, we see a sign of the church alive: Christians being used by God to relieve suff...

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE | Jeremiah 29:4-14   For the people of God, “exile” is their current but not their ultimate status. While they are to seek the shalom of their cities (be it Babylon or NYC), they must not forget that their “citizenship is in heaven” (Phil 3v20). God promises his people in exile that he won’t forget about them, and that he will bring them home. Only when we live with hope in...

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE | Jeremiah 29:1-9  God tells his people in Babylon to seek the shalom of their city (29v7). One of our values at RWS is pursuing and promoting a flourishing city. This sermon explores not only what shalom is, but some of the ways that God calls us, his people, to pursue shalom.

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE | Jeremiah 29:1-9  An “exile” is someone who’s been displaced from their homeland, having undergone an experience of disruption/disorientation. The theme of “exile” runs throughout the Bible. The apostle Peter describes the church as “foreigners and exiles” (1 Pet 2v18). Here in Jeremiah 29, we see God’s people in exile, and God reminds them that he is the one who sent them...

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE | John 1:19-28  What does it mean to live in light of Christmas? Christians, like John the Baptist, are called to use their “voice” to proclaim the “Word”. Jesus must increase, we must decrease.

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE | John 1:14-18   In our polarized and polarizing society, people who live with both grace and truth are rare and beautiful. As FD Bruner points out, at Christmas, we celebrate the incarnation of deep grace and deep truth — the very glory of the eternal God, now clothed in flesh. The more we’re shaped by the reality of Christmas, the more we’ll be able to embody grace and tru...

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE | John 1:14   In Eugene Peterson’s The Message, he paraphrased this verse by saying, “The word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood.” The more the message of Christmas grabs our hearts and changes our life, the more we’ll move into our neighborhood as representatives of Jesus’ kingdom.

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE | John 1:6-13   The Advent season is a remarkable promise: Jesus was born of Mary so that all who receive him can be born of God—can become part of God’s family. This sermon can explore the reality of what the new birth is, as well as how those who experience the new birth invite others into it, too.

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE | John 1:1-5  Christ’s incarnation reminds us that what Jesus did for us what he now calls us — in his power — to do for others: move towards brokenness with good news of grace and healing. Jesus, the Word, didn’t remain distant and aloof, but came into our darkness and brought light, at great cost to himself. 

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE | Acts 16:11-15; Romans 12:9-13   One of the signs that your heart has been opened to the gospel is that you open your life to others: your home, your possessions, your time, and so on. Being a hospitable church—truly open and welcoming to others—is a sign of a church alive, filled with the Spirit, and a powerful witness in a lonely city. 

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE | Acts 4:32-37  God’s grace at work in the earliest church brought about a remarkable kind of generosity, in which the members of the church cared for each other in practical ways. When members of the church care for each with sacrificial love and generosity, it’s a sign to the world that they are Christ’s disciples. 

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Acts 4:23-31  One sign of life in a church is that they pray together. This sermon will explore what we can learn from the first Christians about how and why we must pray together as a church.

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Acts 4:1-22   The revival that broke forth in the early church disrupted and angered the religious establishment. When the church was persecuted, they responded with humble, Christ-focused courage. This sermon will explore how a church community can embody humble courage, even amid opposition and persecution.  

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Acts 1:1-11  The book of Acts records the history of the first Christian church. Acts presents the people of God as a church alive for the glory of God and the good of their cities. The church in Acts wasn’t perfect, but as the living Jesus worked in and through them, the power of the gospel brought transformation in individuals, in cities, and eventually the whole world. In Ac...

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | John 15:9-17   God gives his people commands because he longs for their joy. Every “law” from God is a manifestation of his love for his people and the world he made. Growing in maturity as a follower of Jesus means obedience: loving what he loves, living as he commands. 

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | John 15:1-8   The heart of the Christian life is abiding in Jesus, living in union with him. This sermon explores what it means to abide in Jesus as well as what are some of the challenges to abiding in him. “A skilled gardener never cuts off anything, never prunes off anything, that wouldn’t have been a loss to keep and a gain to lose” (Tim Keller). “A pruned vine is not very...

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | John 1:35-42 When Jesus met his first disciples, he asked them: “What do you want?” By asking this simple yet revealing question, Jesus was surfacing the desires and longings of these would-be disciples. As we look at John 1:35-42, we discover where discipleship to Jesus starts, and what it really means to be his disciple

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Isaiah 12:1-6   Anyone who meets with God through the gospel inevitably finds a life-shaping, life-altering joy bubbling in their soul. Many scholars rightly see this passage as the conclusion of Isaiah’s call before the glorious Lord, which began in 6:1-8. In this hymn of joyful praise, Isaiah sings of the salvation he has experienced. The theme is joy: joy in who God is (v2)...

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Isaiah 6:1-10   How can you know if you’ve really met with the living God? One sign is that you surrender your life to God. Like Isaiah, you say to him, “Here am I. Send me”. Notice that Isaiah commits to serving God before he knows exactly what God will ask of him. There’s no bargaining; only surrender to the holy one. This sermon will invite RWS into the liberating (if not fr...

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Isaiah 6:1-8   It’s no coincidence that Isaiah meets God in the temple, the place where heaven touches earth. This sermon will offer a brief biblical theology of “temple”, noting things like the pervasiveness of “temples” throughout our city, how Christ is the true temple, and how in the gospel the church has become the temple (Eph 2v19-22). The pastoral point, then, is that we...

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Isaiah 6:1-8   A vision of God as holy, confession of sin, and cleansing through sacrifice: Isaiah’s call serves as a kind of case study for what a real encounter with the living God consists of. Isaiah encounters God the only way a person can: in and through the gospel.  

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | John 2:1-11   John calls Jesus’ miracle at Cana the archetype sign (v11): as we look at this story, we have a picture of who Jesus is and what he came into the world to do.