Podcast
Christ Redeemer Church >> Sunday Sermons
Hosted by Christ Redeemer Church · EN
Christ Redeemer Church exists to honor God by fostering a movement of Christ's Kingdom through the proclamation and practice of the gospel that serves and transforms the Upper Valley, and through the Upper Valley, the world. Find out more about our church at our website: christredeemerchurch.org.
39episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Good Communication
Yesterday00:36:04Tap to summarizeQUOTES FOR REFLECTION“Speech has power. Words do not fade.”~Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972), Polish-born American rabbi and theologian “Words and ideas can change the world.”~John Keating, fictional teacher in Dead Poets Society “Words are loaded pistols.”~Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980), French philosopher, novelist and activist “Words are like eggs dropped from great heights; you can no more call them back than ignore the mess they leave when they fall.”~Jodi Picoult, best-selling author “There is one who speaks rashly like the thrusts of a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.” ~Proverbs 12:18 “Anxiety in the heart of a man weighs it down, but a good word makes it glad.”~Proverbs 12:25 “Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks…. But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”~Jesus in Matthew 12:34, 36-37 “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.”~James 3:9-10 SERMON PASSAGEEphesians 4:15-16, 25-32 (NIV)Ephesians 4 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work…. 25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. 26 “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold. 28 He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need. 29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.1 Corinthians 13 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. Romans 310 As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one….13 “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.”14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
Transcribe →
A Compelling Prayer
1w ago00:38:50Tap to summarizeQUOTES FOR REFLECTION “Prayer is the way we work our way out of the comfortable but cramped world of self, and into the spacious world of God.”~Eugene Peterson (1932-2018), American pastor, scholar, author “Our aim in studying the Godhead must be to know God himself better. Our concern must be to enlarge our acquaintance, not simply with the doctrine of God’s attributes, but with the living God whose attributes they are.” “Knowing God is more than knowing about him; it is a matter of dealing with him as he opens up to you, and being dealt with by him as he takes knowledge of you.”~J.I. Packer (1929-2020), a British-born Canadian writer, professor “God doesn’t want me to play with religion. He doesn’t want me to dabble in church. He wants me—body and soul.”~R.C. Sproul (1939-2017), American pastor, theologian and writer “It is certain that man never achieves a clear knowledge of himself unless he has first looked upon God’s face, and then descends from contemplating him to scrutinize himself.”~John Calvin (1509-1564), French theologian, pastor, writer “The prayer preceding all prayers is ‘May it be the real I who speaks. May it be the real Thou that I speak to.’” “The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become – because He made us. He invented us. He invented all the different people that you and I were intended to be… It is when I turn to Christ, when I give up myself to His personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own.”~C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), British scholar and writer “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”~John 17:3 (NIV)SERMON PASSAGE Psalm 139 (NIV)1 You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.4 Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.5 You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. 7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,”12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you. 19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!20 They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name.21 Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?22 I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.23 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Transcribe →
Seeing with the Spirit
2w ago00:39:25Tap to summarizeQUOTES FOR REFLECTION“You and all of your new perspective nowWish I could shut it in a closetAnd drag you back down.”~Noah Kahan, “New Perspective” “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”~C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), British scholar, writer, and Christian apologist, in “Is Theology Poetry?” “All those who are ‘in the Messiah’ are covered, shielded, protected, like the Israelites sheltering under the blood of the Passover lamb. That’s Romans 3. They are declared to be Abraham’s true family, Romans 4. They are therefore the true humanity, Romans 5. And they set off on their journey through the Red Sea as newly-freed slaves, as in Romans 6; they find themselves at Mount Sinai in Romans 7, only to discover in Romans 8 that what the law could not do God has done in his Son and by his Spirit, and they are on the way home through the wilderness to their promised inheritance. This is the new Exodus.”~N.T. Wright, New Testament scholar and Anglican bishop “Here again [in Romans 8:15], it seems that Paul is describing the situation of his Christian readers in Rome by using exodus metaphors. They should not be afraid and desire to return to ‘the house of slavery,’ as did the Israelites in the desert. … Instead, they should continue to recognize the leading of the Spirit of God, which confirms their status as ‘sons,’ causes them to cry to God as Father, and shows the way to freedom.”~Richard B. Hays, New Testament scholar, in “Pneumatology: The Spirit in Romans 8” “When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, ‘Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: “Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians”? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.’ And Moses said to the people, ‘Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord.’”~Exodus 14:10-13 (ESV)SERMON PASSAGE Romans 8:1-17 (ESV)Romans 8 (ESV) 1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.1 Corinthians 10 (NIV) 1 For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea…. 5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. 6 Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Exodus 16 (NIV) 2 In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” Numbers 13 (NIV) 30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” 31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” 32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. 33 We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” Exodus 14 (ESV)11 They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” 13 And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord”
Transcribe →Sin’s Power. Law’s Powerlessness. Christ’s Overwhelming Power.
3w ago00:38:38Tap to summarizeQUOTES FOR REFLECTION“The belly is an ungrateful wretch, it never remembers past favors, it always wants more tomorrow.”~Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008) in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich “…sin is treason against a Holy God… Sin lurks in our hearts and grabs us by the throat to do its bidding.”~Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, English professor and author “As if we could think of anything more difficult than to love God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our strength! Compared with this law, everything could be considered easy…[For] the law cannot do anything else than to accuse and blame all…, to convict, and, as it were, apprehend them; in fine, to condemn them in God’s judgment: that God alone may justify, that all flesh may keep silence before him.”~John Calvin (1509-1564), French-born theologian and reformer “…reason is not king in human beings, the heart is. Therefore, to change your actions, you must change your desires. But your desires will change, only if the Holy Spirit who wrote the Bible also writes his laws on your heart…. Now, in effect, justification gives us a heart transplant. For at the same time that we receive the gift of justifying faith by which we are credited with Christ’s extrinsic righteousness, God also sheds abroad in our hearts a new love for him and one another. This new heart love for him, from him, naturally redirects our wills away from sinful selfishness towards a life lived in thankful obedience to God’s commands. Even though we continue to have to struggle with the pull of concupiscence in our mortal bodies, the supernatural power of God’s abiding love has fundamentally changed us….”~John Ashley Null, theologian at Humboldt University Berlin and North African Bishop “…the unique message of the New Testament is this: For those who are in Christ, and therefore in the Spirit, the battle against sin is to be fought in an atmosphere of victory, not defeat.… Our way of viewing ourselves should reflect this kind of victorious faith.”~Anthony Hoekema (1913-1988), Dutch-born theologian “The pharisee within usurps my true self whenever I prefer appearances to reality, whenever I am afraid of God, whenever I surrender the control of my soul to rules rather than risk living in union with Jesus, when I choose to look good and not be good….”~Brennan Manning (1934-2013), author and former priestSERMON PASSAGERomans 7:7-25 (NASB)Romans 6 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in relation to righteousness. 21 Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. 22 But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 7 1 Or do you not know, brothers and sisters (for I am speaking to those who know the Law), that the Law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? 2 For the married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he is alive; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. 3 So then, if while her husband is alive she gives herself to another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress if she gives herself to another man. 4 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you also were put to death in regard to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were brought to light by the Law, were at work in the parts of our body to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.7 What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? Far from it! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin came to life, and I died; 10 and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; 11 for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it, killed me. 12 So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. 13 Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? Far from it! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by bringing about my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful. 14 For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold into bondage to sin. 15 For I do not understand what I am doing; for I am not practicing what I want to do, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 However, if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, that the Law is good. 17 But now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 20 But if I do the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin that dwells in me. 21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. 22 For I joyfully agree with the law of God in the inner person, 23 but I see a different law in the parts of my body waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin, the law which is in my body’s parts. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. 1 Corinthians 1556 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the Law; 57 but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Transcribe →The War in You
4w ago00:35:28Tap to summarizeQUOTES FOR REFLECTION “One’s own self is well hidden from one’s own self.”~Friedrich Nietzsche “Man is not truly one, but truly two.” “I knew myself, at the first breath of this new life, to be more wicked, tenfold more wicked, sold a space to my original evil; and the thought in that moment, braced and delighted me like wine.”~Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Kekyl and Mr. Hyde “All of life is a battle between two selves. But there is a different war before you become a Christian and from the war that happens after you become a Christian. There’s a war between the selves before you meet Christ and there’s a different war between the selves after you meet Christ. The war before is without hope, but the war after, you cannot lose!” ~Tim Keller “One must be joined to Christ for salvation, not simply follow the law. The law shows how sinful people are, but only Christ can save by His perfect life and His perfect righteousness.” ~Martin Lloyd-Jones “It is when I turn to Christ, when I give myself up to His Personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own.”~C.S. LewisSERMON PASSAGERomans 7:1-13 (ESV) 1 Since I am speaking to those who know the law, brothers and sisters, don’t you know that the law rules over someone as long as he lives? 2 For example, a married woman is legally bound to her husband while he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law regarding the husband. 3 So then, if she is married to another man while her husband is living, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law. Then, if she is married to another man, she is not an adulteress. 4 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you also were put to death in relation to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another. You belong to him who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions aroused through the law were working in us to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we have been released from the law, since we have died to what held us, so that we may serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the old letter of the law. 7 What should we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! But I would not have known sin if it were not for the law. For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” 8 And sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the law sin is dead. 9 Once I was alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life again 10 and I died. The commandment that was meant for life resulted in death for me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me. 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. 13 Therefore, did what is good become death to me? Absolutely not! But sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure.
Transcribe →Slaves to Righteousness
May 1700:38:26Tap to summarizeQUOTES FOR REFLECTION“Christ is the Christ and has acquired redemption from sin and death for this very purpose that the Holy Spirit should change our Old Adam into a new man, that we are to be dead unto sin and live unto righteousness, as Paul teaches Romans 6, and that we are to begin this change and increase in this new life here and consummate it hereafter.”~Martin Luther (1483-1546), German reformer “Sanctification grows out of faith in Jesus Christ. Remember holiness is a flower, not a root; it is not sanctification that saves, but salvation that sanctifies.”~Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892), British preacher “He breaks the power of cancelled sin, He sets the prisoner free; His blood can make the foulest clean, His blood availed for me.”~“O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing,” Charles Wesley (1707-1788), British hymn writer “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.”~Matthew 6:24 (ESV) “You must always be at it while you live; do not take a day off from this work; always be killing sin or it will be killing you.”~John Owen (1616-1683), British theologianSERMON PASSAGERomans 6:12-23 (ESV) 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Transcribe →The Grateful Dead
May 1000:38:08Tap to summarizeQUOTES FOR REFLECTION“Someday, when my children are old enough to understand the logic that motivates a mother, I’ll tell them: I loved you enough to bug you about where you were going, with whom and what time you would get home. ... I loved you enough to be silent and let you discover your friend was a creep. I loved you enough to make you return a Milky Way with a bite out of it to a drugstore and confess, ‘I stole this.’ ... But most of all I loved you enough to say no when you hated me for it. That was the hardest part of all.”~Erma Bombeck (1927-1996), humorist and mother “‘You come of the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve,’ said Aslan. ‘And that is both honor enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth. Be content.’”~C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) in his book Prince Caspian “…shame…is the emotional weapon that evil uses to (1) corrupt our relationships with God and each other, and (2) disintegrate any and all gifts of vocational vision and creativity.”~Curt Thompson in The Soul of Shame: Retelling the Stories We Believe About Ourselves “Christ releases you to be truly human, and you must now learn to express your true self according to the divine pattern, not in self-assertion but in self-giving.”~N.T. Wright, New Testament scholar “Your real, new self (which is Christ’s and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him…. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.”~C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) in his book Mere Christianity “Let us be buried with Christ by Baptism to rise with Him; let us go down with Him to be raised with Him, and let us rise with Him to be glorified with Him.”~Gregory of Nazianzus (329-390), Roman Christian theologian and church leader “Holy baptism…is tantamount to [Christ] saying, My righteousness shall be your righteousness; my innocence, your innocence. Your sins indeed are great, but by baptism I bestow on you my righteousness; I strip death from you and clothe you with my life.”~Martin Luther (1483-1546), German reformerSERMON PASSAGE Romans 6:1-11 (NASB)1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Transcribe →A Tale of Two Representatives
May 300:36:32Tap to summarizeQUOTES FOR REFLECTION “Dying is not a technical glitch of the human operating system; it’s a feature.”~Belinda Luscombe, Australian journalist and author “It means,” said Aslan, “that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.”~The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis “The central basis of Christian assurance is not how much our hearts are set on God, but how unshakably his heart is set on us.”~Tim Keller (1950-2023), American pastor and author “So the final declaration of the supremacy and glory of God’s grace in this text is that it takes sinners like us who receive his grace and makes us kings and queens in the age to come. It is almost too good to be true. And if you believe it, if you humbly rest in it, this glorious truth will change your life.”~John Piper, American pastor and author, on Romans 5 SERMON PASSAGERomans 5:12-21 (ESV) 12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but many trespasses brought justification. 17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. 18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.the free gift following
Transcribe →Enjoying What Is Ours in Christ
Apr 2600:39:26Tap to summarizeQUOTES FOR REFLECTION“We are halfhearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.”~C.S. Lewis, British scholar, writer, and Christian apologist, in The Weight of Glory “The only person who dares wake up a king at 3:00 am for a glass of water is [the king’s] child. We have that kind of access.”~Timothy Keller (1950-2023), Presbyterian pastor, author, and Christian apologist “Without endurance, hope turns superficial and evaporates when it meets first resistances. In hope we start something new, but only endurance helps us persevere. Only tenacious endurance makes hope sustainable. We learn endurance only with the help of hope.”~Jürgen Moltmann (1926-2024), German theologian “We must ask, what are we necessarily affirming about Jesus when we say that he, unexpectedly, lives? What is the basic difference between a living person and a dead one? And surely we must say: the decisive difference between a living person and a dead one is that the former can surprise us as the latter cannot. Socrates, although he remains dead, is still powerful. But if I am surprised by him, this is because of previously inadequate knowledge. Whereas if Jesus lives, he is an agent in my life, and one whom I must expect to act freely, whom I could know perfectly and yet not always anticipate.… That Jesus lives means that his love, perfected at the cross, is now active to surprise us. That Jesus lives means that there is a subject who has us as his objects, and who wills our good in a freedom beyond our predicting.”~Robert Jenson (1930-2017), American theologian, in Systematic Theology “As we have taken the circle as a symbol of reason and madness, we may very well take the cross as a symbol at once of mystery and health. Buddhism is centripetal, but Christianity is centrifugal: it breaks out. For the circle is perfect and infinite in its nature; but it is fixed for ever in its size; it can never be larger or smaller. But the cross, though it has at its head a collision and a contradiction, can extend its four arms for ever without altering its shape. Because it has a paradox in its center it can grow without changing. The circle returns upon itself and is bound. The cross opens its arms to the four winds; it is a signpost for free travelers.”~G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), British Christian apologist, in Orthodoxy SERMON PASSAGERomans 5:1-11 (NIV)1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Transcribe →The Misunderstood ‘Righteousness of God’: A Rapid Romans Overview
Apr 1900:42:36Tap to summarizeQUOTES FOR REFLECTION“Reality is too heavy for most people to carry. So they borrow illusions, soft dreams, sweet lies, and call it happiness.”~Franz Kafka (1883-1924), Jewish Czech writer of German literature, known for his works marked by surreal and bizarre storylines “The Holy Scriptures were not given to us that we should enclose them in books, but that we should engrave them upon our hearts.”~John Chrysostom (died 407 AD), church leader in ancient Constantinople The Letter to the Romans “is the principal and most excellent part of the New Testament. It is the light and way into the whole Scripture. No man can read it too often or study too well.”~William Tyndale (c.1494-1536), scholar and linguist, considered the father of the English Bible “This epistle is really the chief part of the New Testament and the very purest gospel and is worthy not only that every Christian should know it word for word by heart, but occupy himself with it every day as the daily bread of the soul. It can never be read or pondered too much.”~Martin Luther (1483-1546), German reformer, in his commentary on Romans “Because faith alone justifies… publicans and prostitutes will be first in the kingdom of heaven”~Hilary of Poitiers (c.310-c.367), Gallic-Roman church leader “God justifies the believer—not because of the worthiness of his belief, but because of his [Christ’s] worthiness who is believed.”~Richard Hooker (1554-1600) in his Ecclesiastical Polity (1593) “Of whatever virtue you may declare that the ancient righteous people were possessed, nothing saved them but the belief in the Mediator who shed his blood for the remission of their sins.”~Augustine (354-430), North African theologian in Against Two Letters of the Pelagians “God’s righteousness compels him...to have to judge the guilty. But then he offers forgiveness and says ‘I will not judge you according to your works.’ So...he sends his Son...so that now when he calls you his own...he has not compromised his righteousness.”~Jackie Hill Perry, poet, writer, and hip-hop artistSERMON PASSAGE Romans 1:16-17 & 3:21-26 (Dr. Robert Gagnon’s translation of the original Greek)Romans 1:16-17 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for effecting salvation to everyone who is believing it, both to the Jew first and to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is being revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written, “And the righteous one from faith will live.” Romans 3:21-26 But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, though it is attested by the law and the prophets; that is, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, for all sinned and are lacking in the glory of God, with the result that they are being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption that is available in Christ Jesus, whom God set before himself as an amends-making offering by means of his blood, through that faith, for an indicator of his righteousness, because of the letting go of the sins that occurred previously in the time of God’s holding back his wrath, with a view toward that indicator of his righteousness in the ‘now’ time, in order that he himself might be righteous and justifier of the person whose identity is derived from faith in Jesus.
Transcribe →