Union Church

Listen along as we wrap up our series on the kingdom of God and celebrate Easter. Notes//Quotes: Revelation 21:1-5 - Karen Reading Revelation 21:1-5 (pic) “The resurrection completes the inauguration of God’s kingdom…It is the decisive event demonstrating that God’s kingdom really has been launched on earth as it is in heaven…The message of Easter is that God’s new world has been unveiled in Jesus...

Listen along as we look at the Palm Sunday story. Notes//Quotes: Mark 11:1-10 Luke 17:20-21 Matthew 11:4-6 Zech 9:9  “One the one hand this looks like all other triumphal entries. Two hundred years earlier Simon Maccabeus had defeated foreign armies and kept Israel independent and he rode in to Jerusalem with people shouting cheers and waiving Palm branches because he delivered them… This triumpha...

Listen along as we begin a 3 week series on the kingdom of God. Notes//Quotes: Text: Isaiah 35:1-10 Title: Kingdom Promised “The God in whom we believe is the creator of the world, will one day put this world to rights. That solid belief is the bedrock of all Christian faith. God is not going to abolish the universe of space, time and matter; he is going to renew it, to restore it, to fill it with...

Listen along as we wrap up our series through Acts. Notes//Quotes: Acts 28:17-31 2 Timothy 4:6-8 -  “Readers always experience “gaps” in narration, but the gap at the end of Acts threatens to widen into a canyon.” Beverly Gaventa 43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip fo...

Listen along as we near the finish of our journey through Acts. Notes//Quotes: Mike reading - Acts 28:1-16 “No crowd gathers for Paul’s preaching, and no description illumines the situation of those believers who journey out to meet him. That minimalistic assessment should not obscure the importance of Paul’s thanksgiving in v. 15. The journey all along has less to do with what will happen in Rome...

Listen along as we continue our series through Acts. Notes//Quotes: Acts 27:1-44 - Jack Title: Small Ship, Big Sea “Chiding is indeed cruel, and brings no comfort; but if it be tempered with some remedy, it is now a part of the medicine.” - John Calvin “Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisors they succeed” (Prov. 15:22) “We do not worship a deistic God, an absentee landlord who ignores...

Listen along as we continue our series through the book of Acts. Notes//Quotes: Acts 26:1-32 First-century Pharisees excelled in everything we admire spiritually. They were zealous for God, completely committed to their faith. They were theologically astute, masters of the biblical texts. They fastidiously obeyed even the most obscure commands. They even made up extra rules just in case they were...

Listen along as we continue through the book of Acts. Notes//Quotes: Acts 25:1-27 - Faith  Title: Political Purgatory “…He is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.” (Acts 9:15) “The soul that is not united solely to the will of God will find neither rest nor sanctification in any self-chosen means — not even in the most excellent exe...

Listen along as we continue through the book of Acts. Notes//Quotes: Acts 24:1-27 The resurrection completes the inauguration of God's kingdom. It is the decisive event demonstrating that God's kingdom really has been launched on earth as it is in heaven. The message of Easter is that God's new world has been unveiled in Jesus Christ and that you're now invited to belong to it. - NT Wright 1 Thess...

Listen along as we continue through the book of Acts. Notes//Quotes: Acts 22:30-23:35 - Jack Title: The Second Speech “[God] upholds heaven and earth with all creatures and so governs them that herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, indeed, all things come not by chance, but by his fatherly hand.” - Heidelberg Catechis...

Listen along as we continue through Acts. Notes//Quotes: Acts 21:37-22:29  Matthew 5:9-11, 5:43-46 ”Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in...

Listen along as we continue our series through Acts. Notes//Quotes: Acts 21:1-36  The same forebodings marked Jesus’ journey—the same strong resolve on Jesus’ part, the same misgivings on the part of his disciples. In the Gospels Jesus’ predictions of his coming passion provide the ominous tone. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus’ journey is particularly marked by sayings regarding Jerusalem as the place of...

Listen along as we continue our series through Acts. Notes//Quotes: Text: Acts 20:17-38 - Jack reading Title: Apostolic Goodbyes Slide 1: “The ancient world considered humility a weakness. Whether you were rich or poor, what you prized instead was honour—having your merits recognized and your name praised. Boasting about your achievements was expected in the Greco-Roman world, and one never humble...

Listen along as we continue our series through Acts. Notes//Quotes: Acts 20:1-16 2 Cor 1:3-11 Galatians 3:26-29 I see no cause why some interpreters should so sharply condemn the drowsiness of the young man, that they should say that he was punished for his sluggishness by death. - John Calvin Romans 15:25-29 

Listen along as Anthony shares some reflections from the Proverbs. Notes//Quotes: Title: Where's Wisdom Slide 1 “That excuse is implicitly rejected here. Wisdom is not some hidden treasure that has to be dug from the depths of the earth (compare Job 28) or the sole possession of the lonely sage sitting atop a mountain. To the contrary, Wisdom roams the streets looking for someone to instruct. The...

Listen along as we continue our Advent series. Notes//Quotes: Luke 2:8-20 - Josh Reading “I put on my hard hat, I grab a chisel and I imagine going into the very back corners of that cave and just digging into the work, each time I go in the cave, it’s getting bigger for the next visit.” - Courtney Dauwalter “God never hurries. There are no deadlines against which He must work. Only to know this i...

Listen along as Anthony Garcia continues our Advent series. Jack Reading Luke 1:26-38 & Matthew 1:18-25 Slide: 1 https://pin.it/5m6BRIZrS Slide : 2 “Embrace or reject, believe or doubt. Either we abandon ourselves to God’s path, the steps of which are only revealed as each foot is lifted in obedience, or we cling to our own path with its illusion of certainty.”     — Miriam Dixon Slide:3 “I se...

Listen along as Mike Gaston continues our Advent series. Notes//Quotes: Matthew 2:1-12 - Faith Reading   Slide 1 The Big Idea The Magi prove that God keeps His promise to bless all the nations of the earth   Slide 2 Who was Herod the King?   Slide 3 “There are lots of Herods in the New Testament—this one is the first Herod, Herod the Great, the King of the Jews. But the thing about Herod the Great...

Listen along as we begin our series through Advent. Notes//Quotes: Luke 1:5-25 - Larry/Jorgen Luke 1:5-25 Advent is the season that, when properly understood, does not flinch from the darkness that stalks us all in this world. Advent begins in the dark and moves toward the light—but the season should not move too quickly or too glibly, lest we fail to acknowledge the depth of the darkness. Advent...

Listen along as Dr. Michael Goheen continues our series through Acts. Notes//Quotes: Acts 19:21-41 - Jack 21 Once all this had been finished, Paul decided in his spirit to go back through Macedonia and Achaea and, from there, on to Jerusalem. “After I’ve been there,” he said, “I really must go and see Rome.” 22 He sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, on ahead to Macedonia, while he himsel...

Listen along as we continue our series through Acts. Notes//Quotes: Acts 19:1-20 Jer 31:31-34 2 Cor 5:17 “As throughout Acts, there is no set pattern. The Spirit came at various times and in various ways. What is consistent is that the Spirit is always a vital part of one’s initial commitment to Christ and a mark of every believer.” J.B. Polhill The norm of Christian experience, then, is a cluster...

Notes//Quotes: Acts 18:24-28 Faith   You can kiss your family and friends good-bye and put miles between you, but at the same time you carry them with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach, because you do not just live in a world but a world lives in you. Frederick Beuchener  Jesus may be in your heart, but grandpa is in your bones - Pete Scazerro Gal 3:28-29 “Jesus may be in your heart, but...

Listen along as we continue our journey through acts. Notes//Quotes: Acts 18:1-23 Our work can be a calling only if it is reimagined as a mission of service to something beyond merely our own interests. Thinking of work mainly as a means of self-fulfillment and self-realization slowly crushes a person. - Tim Keller 1 Cor 6:9-11 There is much to be cynical about—and it is a good answer if there has...

Listen along as we continue our series through Acts. Notes//Quotes: Acts 17:16-34 - Nathan Acts 17:16-34 “Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God, your functional savior.” Martin Luther Isaiah 44:12-20   The gospel does not come as a disembodied message, but as the message of a community which claims to live by it and which invites others to adhere to it. Therefore,...

Listen along as we continue through the book of Acts. Acts 17:1-15 - Faith Acts 17:1-15 “The resurrection was indeed a miraculous display of God’s power, but we should not see it as a suspension of the natural order of the world. Rather it was the beginning of the restoration of the natural order of the world, the world as God intended it to be…The resurrection means not merely that Christians hav...