To behold is to look deeply, to hold something in view and to be attentive to the depth and detail of what you might not, on the surface, see. Advent is a season for followers of Jesus to spend in a posture of deep attention: our focus is on the coming of Christ, and the coming of Christ’s Kingdom.
Leadership is a team sport. Want to go fast – go alone; want to go far – go together...
Jesus is assuming we are serving, but when we serve, the posture of our heart matters. Instead of us changing our city, we want our city to change us. Doing the deeper work of caring is not about how we change others; it is about how we are being changed when we give or fast or serve.
How to give and keep your word? Jesus’ kingdom was upside down. Where there was more general acceptance of divorce in the surrounding culture, Jesus challenges his disciples to this impossible ideal of keeping your word – even if it causes you pain.
Covenant can be destroyed however, and in those situations, we do believe there is room for divorce in discernment with Christian community, counselors, and pastors.
Caring for someone when they are weak, vulnerable, sick, or dying is a way to demonstrate the sacrificial, humble love of Jesus. Christ gave up his rights and took on the nature of a servant. Caregiving relationships often require us to give up a sense of what we have a ‘right’ to (freedom, etc). They demand that we reconstitute our sense of self, our rights, and that we find communion with Christ, who became a servant and washed the feet of the disciples... as well as communion with the disciples, who washed the body of Jesus before His burial. Caregiving can be both a profound formational experience as well as a deeply exhausting and demanding one.
Paul moves to making this ‘new humanity’ practical in our real, day-to-day lives. To do this, he takes the big idea and applies it to contemporary Roman Household codes... redefining roles, and motivations, and relationships, ie Jesus is the Lord, not the husband, etc... Paul is reshaping the roman household codes around Jesus so they are transformed beyond recognition. What are current ‘codes’ that need to be reexamined in light of Jesus’s call to His followers?
This poem or early church hymn communicates the centrality and supremacy of Christ. The rest of the letter is an exploration of the meaning of this poem. Christianity isn’t simply about a particular way of being religious, or a system for how to be saved or how to be holy, it is about a person, Jesus Christ. The poem points to a few things regarding the person of Jesus: 1. Jesus is the image of God, so we know who God is by looking at him. 2. Jesus holds together the old creation and the new. 3 Jesus is the blueprint for genuine humanness. We can discover how to be human by looking at him and he is the head of the new reconciled humanity.
Clarity on what the Bible is and what the Bible is not... The Bible tells one incredible story that followers of Jesus claim changes everything. Followers of Jesus have been willing to risk their lives, love sacrificially, and give generously in light of the over-arching Message of the Bible.
Clarity on what the Bible is and what the Bible is not... The Bible tells one incredible story that followers of Jesus claim changes everything. Followers of Jesus have been willing to risk their lives, love sacrificially, and give generously in light of the over-arching Message of the Bible.
This is the big critique of faith: it's nice that you can believe those things to make you feel better, but it's not really true. But the truth is, there are many intellectually and emotionally satisfying reasons to believe in God. In the Psalms, we see the incredible beauty of creation that points to the reality of a creator.
Following the Prince of Peace in a world of conflict. Conflict in our world - all the divisions. Can't get anyone to agree over anything. Knowing how we make peace in a turbulent world.
Jesus loves us and sees us truly - His eyes are like burning fire and He sees straight to the heart of us and loves us dearly. I John 3:20 "If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything." God loves us more than we can believe about ourselves.
What do I need when I go through trials? What we most need is wisdom. The way God prepares us for the brutality of this world is by giving us wisdom.
Living winsome lives begins with a change of heart. We can only see people when we gain God’s heart for the world, and see with his eyes of compassion.
"What is covenant? How does scripture reveal covenant and how do the implications of the OT covenant transform through the NT covenant we have in Christ? What does covenant look like? In the OT, it involved flesh & blood & death. For Christ, it involved flesh & blood & death. For us, it involves another way: grace, through faith in Christ. What does covenant mean for followers of Jesus? What does covenant to us inform us about own places of relationship & commitment (marriage, church) as Christians?
What if there is a promise that can't be broken?"
Rich Nathan
February 13, 2022
Naturally Supernatural
Luke 5:17-26
I. The Critics
II. The Crowd
III. The Friends
IV. The Sick Man
V. Jesus
Asking For More of The Holy Spirit
Rich Nathan
January 16, 2021
Naturally Supernatural
Luke 4:14-21
I. The Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ
II. The Holy Spirit and you
This talk can be a really fun talk in which the congregation is walked through the gospel of Mark as we explore how people are progressively transformed (converted) as they discover who Jesus really is. Although the demons know Jesus' true Identity and God the Father knows who Jesus is, human beings in Mark's gospel get more and more light regarding his identity.
1. Jesus is known as teacher (1:16-4:34);
2. Jesus is known as prophet (Mark 4:35-6:30);
3. Jesus is known as Messiah (Mark 6:31-8:30);
4. Jesus is know as Son of Man (Mark 8:31-10:45);
5. Jesus is known as the Son of David (Mark 10:46-13:37).
Finally at the cross, Jesus is called by a human being, a Roman Centurion no less, the Son of God: "Surely this man was the Son of God!" (Mark 15:39). It's this progressive discovery of who Jesus is that brings fulfillment to us. It is when he was on the cross that we see most plainly, this is the Son of God. (Tom Holland in his book Dominion contrasts the way Christianity spread w Islam - the Early Christians choose to take this disgusting form of death and man that was put on the cross and worshipped him as Son of God. It completely flipped the worldview - a Roman recongized that this was the Son of God in the death on the cross - now we care about the weak and lowly and those things become valued)
Everyone has a need to for a guide in life to help us through the unknowns. That guide is Jesus. We get guidance from him through the Spirit and the Scriptures, but we hear God's voice and understand the scriptures best in community. We all need guidance as we walk through life and that begins with community.
