Text: Luke 19:45-20:7 | Listen to Message Jesus’ Ultimate Authority Jesus approaches Jerusalem and makes his way directly toward the Temple. The Temple was the center of Jewish worship at the time. It was where the presence of God dwelt, where they had access to God, it was where they made sacrifices to God, and it was where a high priest mediated between God and the people. Instead of finding the Temple a place for reflection, prayer, teaching, and worship, Jesus found the outer courts filled with merchants selling animals for sacrifices and exchanging foreign money for the temple tax. The...
Text: Luke 19:28-44 | Listen to Message When Jesus Isn’t What You Wanted When Jesus went up to Jerusalem for what would prove to be his final Passover, the crowds were overcome with ecstasy and exuberant expectation. Their Messiah was coming at long last to deliver them! “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!” and “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” they shouted. They were right. The King was coming in the name of the Lord. And there would be peace and glory in heaven because of what Jesus was about to do. But...
Text: Luke 19:11-27 | Listen to Message Work for An Eternal ROI In Matthew 25, Jesus tells the familiar “Parable of The Talents.” When we hear the word “talent” we think of a special ability or a natural endowment, but in those days a “talent” was a monetary unit. Jesus’ parable actually connects the two ideas: different servants received different allotments of money from their master, illustrating the fact that we all receive different gifts/abilities from the Lord. In that parable, Jesus’ point seems to be that each person ought to focus on making the most of his/her unique gifts, abilities,...
For the second time in just 35 days, our hearts are filled with a mix of grief, anger, and fear, because of an unprecedented mass shooting in our nation. On October 1st, a gunman smashed out the windows of his 32nd floor hotel room at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas and opened fire on a country music festival below. 58 people were killed and an additional 546 were injured, making this the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. On November 5th, another gunman walked into the First Baptist Church of rural Sutherland Springs, Texas and shot up the...
Text: Luke 19:1-10 | Listen to Message Who Sought Whom? The story of Zacchaeus is so familiar it even has its own children’s song! Most of us have heard about the wee little man who climbed up in a sycamore tree to see Jesus. But do we really know the point of the story? In this story about Zacchaeus, Luke wants us to see two things: what happens when we really meet Jesus and how it is that anyone meets him in the first place. On the surface – and initially – it looks like Zacchaeus sought out Jesus. Though he...