Text: Luke 20:45-21:4 | Listen to Message The Lie of Religion After being questioned by the religious leaders of the time, Jesus publicly rebukes the scribes. The Scribes were religious scholars who interpreted the Bible, and their interpretations impacted not only the religious teachings of the time, but also the legal system. They were in charge of arbitrating wills, legal contracts, and estate planning. Instead of studying God’s Word and applying it to their own lives, they built their own false religion, which was focused and based on themselves. This religion and all man-made religions are a collection of self-propelled outward...
Text: Matthew 28:16-20 | Listen to Message What Your Life Is Really About Suppose we had no record of Jesus’ last words to his disciples. Matthew 28:18-20 didn’t exist. There was no such thing as “The Great Commission.” The explicit command to “go and make disciples” had never been uttered. Would it make any difference in how we actually live? In how we ought to live? If you discovered that Jesus never told his followers that our life’s mission was to make and mature more followers, how would your life change tomorrow? What would you stop saying and doing? Where would...
Text: 1 Corinthians 12:4-27; Ephesians 4:4-16 | Listen to Message It’s YOUR Church What draws you to a particular local church? What keeps you there? What would have to happen to cause you to leave? While there are plenty of solid, biblical principles that address these questions, the answers of many modern Christians are surprisingly superficial: The location is close and convenient to me. I like the worship (and by that, I mean the style and instrumentation of the music and the songs themselves). The preaching is practical and relevant without being too up in my business. There are plenty of...
Text: 1 John 3:11-18; 4:7-11, 19-21 | Listen to Message We Love Because We’re Loved The human heart is inherently selfish. As we go through life, “What do I want?” is often our greatest concern. What’s my opinion? What’s my preference? What’s my priority? How do I feel about this? What can this person do for me? What can this situation do for me? What can this church do for me? Me, me, me. It’s all about me. Much of what we call “love” is actually self-love. We claim to love our spouses, our friends, and our faith communities, but how...
Text: Matthew 1, Luke 1-2 | Listen to Message Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room Woven into the glad tidings and great joy of The Christmas Story are the mini-narratives of three individuals who were not ready to receive Jesus as King. 1. King Herod missed Jesus because he didn’t want to lose power or control (Matthew 2:1-18). Herod had spent his entire life strategically consolidating power through a series of marriages, murders, building projects, and wars. A practicing Jew, he’d convinced the Roman Senate to recognize him as the undisputed “king of the Jews” – and a client-king of Caesar....
Text: Luke 20:27-44 | Listen to Message Christian Heretics More and more nationwide research confirms the disturbing data behind the shocking (infuriating?) headline: “Survey Finds Most American Christians Are Actually Heretics” (The Federalist, October 10, 2016). For example, of self-described Evangelical Protestants, . . . Over 1/3 don’t read the Bible even once a week. Only 55% believe the Bible is the Word of God and should generally be interpreted literally. 8% don’t believe the Bible is the Word of God. 38% believe humans evolved rather than being created by a direct act of God as Genesis describes. 28% strongly agree...
Text: Luke 20:9-26 | Listen to Message Checking Our Addiction to Power One of the most stunning claims in the Bible is that the Jewish religious leaders knew Jesus was the Messiah . . . and they killed him anyway. Let that sink in: God’s people had waited more than forty generations for their Savior-King, and when he came their spiritual guides concluded that he was not the kind of Messiah they wanted, and they had him murdered. Why? Because they loved power and control more than they loved God. This is what Jesus shows us in “The Parable of The...
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,...