Sermon Series (Page 8)
New Series: Time to Be Human
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11.28) How are we to imagine accepting the rest Jesus offers in a fast-paced world filled with distractions and stress? “Time to Be Human” is a new teaching series on Sabbath, the ancient rhythm of life practiced by Jewish people and followers of Jesus. Sabbath is not just a day off, but reconnection, centering, surrender to the care of God, and resistance to…
“Kingdom Hybridity” (Ephesians 2.11-22)
In the second half of chapter 2, Paul teaches that the cross of Jesus does more than just reconcile people to God, it also reconciles people groups to one another. Namely, Jesus’s life of self-sacrificial love shows us the way to peace and tears down the divisions between people of different cultures. The Way of Jesus creates an entirely new kind of human community. But, multiethnic churches might fall into the trap of thinking “multiculturalism” is what this text prescribes.…
“Salvation by Allegiance Alone” (Ephesians 2.1-10)
We bring all of our selves to everything we interpret, including assumptions we have based on the influence of the cultures around us. When we come to this week’s text, Ephesians 2.1-10, many of us have been influenced by Modern, Western culture, which has conditioned us to understand the concept of “faith” as opposed to “works”. This is because of the view developed since the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth-century. But, we want to understand faith in Christ as it…
“Finding Identity in Jesus” (Ephesians 1.3-14)
Today in the United States, many people are experiencing an identity crisis. The labels and categories that used to provide a sense of security and purpose no longer do. To make matters worse, identity has become highly divisive. Race, culture, ethnicity, gender, orientation, partisan politics, and faith are just a few of the areas where battle lines have been drawn. Still, many are looking for something solid, true, and real—an identity in which they can be rooted. In the first…
“The Disturbing Way of Jesus” (Acts 19.23-41)
In Week 1, “A Place of Power,” we learned about some of the historical and cultural context of Ephesus, the setting for the letter called Ephesians and Acts chapter 19. We learned, for example, that Ephesus was home to the Temple of Artemis, one the “seven wonders” of the ancient world. This is a very important piece of context as we continue to discuss Paul’s time in Ephesus, establishing an outpost of God’s Kingdom, a community of misfits following the…