Messages at Masonboro Baptist

We began our Lenten series on the Sermon on the Mount last week with a look at the beatitudes. Jesus lists 8 characteristics of his disciples. Last week we covered the first four. This week we’ll look at the other half. How does Jesus expect his disciples to interact with the rest of the world? What kind of influence are we supposed to have? These questions are just as important today as they were in the first century.

Wednesday began one of the most important seasons in the church year, the season of Lent. This year during the Lenten season, we will be studying the Sermon on the Mount in worship. We begin this week with a look at the first 4 beatitudes."Blessed are the ______." What does that mean for us today? What is the point Jesus is making with the beatitudes? We will look at what it means to be poor in spirit, to mourn, to be meek and to hunger and thirst for righteousness.Jesus' sermon seems as radical and counter cultural today as it did when he first preached it. We begin our look at the Sermon on the Mount this week.

This week, we close out the first series of the year with a look at the core practice that is the foundation of all the rest and a look at where we stand after an eventful year in 2019 and a great start to 2020. God is doing some great things at Masonboro. We'll celebrate some of those things and look ahead at even greater things to come. 

It’s pretty common in Paul’s epistles to witness Paul defending the church against false teachers. Heresies are almost as old as the church itself. We’re looking at 1 Timothy 6 this week and we’ll see Paul dealing with heretical teaching that is still very much alive and well today. There are some temptations that remain just as powerful in the 21st century as they were in the 1st.

The apostle Matthew writes the account of his own conversion and it's an interesting one. Matthew was a pretty bad guy when Jesus called him. His story teaches us a lesson about how we are to welcome others. 

If you are ever inclined to make a case that Jesus was a Baptist, you could make a pretty good argument for it based on how often he seemed to get together with people for big meals. Jesus was at home gathered around a table. He ate with his closest friends and he ate with his enemies. He performed miracles of abundance with fish and bread on a hillside in the synoptic gospels and with wine at a wedding in John’s gospel. Jesus did some of his best work at mealtime, and the church followed in his footsteps.

The Bible talks a lot about love. In any conversation we have about God, we won’t make it long in the conversation without bringing up love. Paul says if we don’t have love, it really doesn’t matter what else we do have because it isn’t worth anything without love. But love is such an obtuse word, it can mean a lot of different things. When we talk about the love of God, what exactly are we talking about? We’re going to look at a passage from 1 John that addresses this question and it’s going to point us toward another of our core practices at Masonboro.

We're continuing in our study of our core practices at Masonboro. If you missed last week and you want to catch up, be sure to check it out on the podcast. This week, we're looking at Mark 10 and talking about Jesus' command to cherish families. It's an important word for us!

There is an ancient Greek aphorism used by Socrates and many others that came after him, including St. Augustine of Hippo and “the Oracle” from The Matrix movies. Temet nosce is the Latin. In English, it’s “know thyself.” It’s easy to go through the day-to-day routine of life, get stuff done and never take the time to assess one’s self. You can do the same thing in an organization. It’s easy to go from week to week in church life without ever stopping to ask questions like: What makes us who we are? Why do we do the things we do? What are we shooting for? You can get from week to week without asking these questions, but that’s about all you can do. It’s tough to progress as an organization without having a clear picture of who we are and what we do. For the last several months, church council has been working on putting some answers together for these questions. These practices are “what we’re made of” so to speak; they form the basic building blocks of our community of faith. Church council created the list. For the next seven weeks I’ll be expounding on each practice in a sermon. Specifically, I’ll be looking at the biblical basis for carrying out these practices. This week we’re discussing worship and reading the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4. What can we learn from Jesus’ interaction with this woman?

While Wes was out of town, Eddie West shared a word about looking back on God's grace in our lives and looking ahead to the new year. This is the recording of Dr. West's powerful word for Masonboro. 

This week, we celebrate Epiphany. The magi from the east are the first Gentiles to worship Jesus. Their story is our story - God's revelation to humanity in Jesus is not just for one people but for all people. Their story is also a lesson for the church in our commission to share the good news of God's kingdom with all people.

The waiting is almost over. We’re only days away from celebrating the incarnation of God in flesh and blood, what C.S. Lewis calls the greatest miracle. This “Grand Miracle,” said Lewis, “was the central event in the history of the Earth—the very thing that the whole story has been about.” But even this shocking intervention by God into human history could have been thwarted by humans. Herod tried to stop it but he ultimately couldn’t. Joseph could have stopped it, but he chose instead to embrace his part in the story.This week, we’re looking at Joseph in Matthew’s gospel to see what we can learn about discernment. God is still looking for ways to break into our lives, but we have to let him in. How do we discern what is God and what isn’t? How can we best prepare our hearts to be able to receive what God wants to do in us? As Christmas draws near, we’ll see what Joseph has to teach us. 

This is the time of the year when our “stuff” starts to really accumulate. Partially, it’s because we pull out a lot of Christmas stuff that usually stays inconspicuously stashed in a closet or attic. And partially it’s because we get lots of new stuff. I know in our house, we have to get rid of some of our old stuff and our broken stuff to make room for the new. The arrival of Jesus demands something similar of us. Last week we talked about how the coming of Jesus compels us to choose a new, better way of life. This week we’re looking at Isaiah and Matthew and considering how to make room for the new life God wants to grow in us. 

The word Advent means “arrival.” In the Advent season we prepare for the arrival of Jesus, the most important birthday ever. This Advent, amidst the busyness and the shopping and all of the other great stuff that happens at Christmas time, we will ask the question “what are we waiting for?” What does Christmas really mean and how does it impact our lives and our world?

We have come to the end of the series on Jesus in the Psalms. We’ll close it out this week with a look at a Psalm of Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for. In ancient Israel, people believed that all of their provision came directly from God. They survived because God provides. In many parts of the world people still believe that way, although we sometimes forget. We think we’re supposed to be self-sufficient, but God wants something very different for his people.

We will continue with our Psalms series Sunday and go through all of the cool things about Psalm 84. All of the music, all of the things that scholars say about the author, when was it written, why was it written. Psalm 84 is a glimpse of heaven on Earth. It is a Psalm of faith and we have to remember to guard that faith so that we are able to stay strong in tough times. Paul says in 1st Corinthians that “our bodies” are “Temples” of the Spirit, The Holy Spirit Who lives within us.  It is within us that we find that dwelling place.

Many of the Psalms are attributed to King David. David is one of the most admired people in Israel’s history, but he certainly had his own shortcomings. This week, we’re going to take a look at Psalm 51. This Psalm is David’s confession in the wake of one of his biggest mistakes.  Note: We had some technical difficulties in the sermon recording process this week, so this recording is a little strange sounding. It should still be easy to understand. 

You have to hand it to the school system. Taking a teacher workday on the day after Halloween is pretty brilliant. “The day after Halloween” sort of feels like the appropriate title for today, but it’s really Nov. 1 that is the more significant occasion because it’s All Saints Day.All Saints Day is a day when we celebrate those saints in the church upon whose shoulders we stand. We are blessed at Masonboro Baptist with a rich legacy of faithful saints in our 163 years. All Saints Day is a good day to remember those that came before us. It’s also a good day to consider what kind of legacy we will leave for those who come after us. What binds the church together in communion?We’re going to take a break from the Psalms this week and see what Peter has to say about the communion of saints. We will also remember those folks in our congregation who have passed away this year.

“How’s it going?” It’s pretty normal to greet someone with a question about how they’re doing. People have different standard responses to that question. Larry Knowles says “about 2 floors shy of wonderful.” Van Jackson says “not good, not bad.” Most of us just say we’re doing pretty well and move on.But that’s not always true. Sometimes we aren’t doing well. Sometimes we’re hurting and sad. Just because we have the joy joy joy joy down in our hearts doesn’t mean we’re always ok. But we sure don’t like to talk about it and what’s more, we don’t expect others to talk about it either.We don’t like to acknowledge our hurt, we don’t put words to it. But the Psalms do. Psalm 42 names the hurt and doubt and distance from God that we all sometimes feel.

I love old country music, and there are a bunch of great old country songs about the road. Road songs go back a long way - over 2,000 years!There is a whole section of Psalms written specifically for traveling called the Psalms of Ascent. Our scripture this week comes from that collection. Psalm 121 offers a powerful promise of help that we can count on to help us get through the “comings and goings” of life.

The Psalms are the closest thing we have to the hymnbook of ancient Israel and the early church. They served a practical purpose, to guide the praise and worship of the God of Israel who made himself known in the person of Jesus. The Psalms teach us how to praise God! Psalm 146 is a great example of this instruction about praise.

If you have more than one passage of scripture committed to memory, chances are one of them is the 23rd Psalm. We encounter it often at funerals. It's appropriate in times of grief, but it's also a powerful daily reminder about what discipleship is. Jesus often used the same metaphor of a shepherd that the Psalm uses, so it's not hard to find Jesus in Psalm 23. This week we will look at this familiar, comforting word from King David and see what Jesus can teach us about it

The presence of Jesus is woven throughout the psalter. Some Psalms predict him, some speak with his voice, some beg for his forgiveness and some declare his victory. The Psalms are a powerful testament to the Gospel.  This week we're looking at Psalm 98, a Psalm that declares God's victory and responds to it with song. It's a great way to start something new.  

The Story of Mary and Martha helps us to remember what is important.  Mary made a choice to put Christ first.  When we choose Christ first in everything we do, everything else will fall into place.

In the wake of Hurricane Dorian, we're looking at a passage from Isaiah written to encourage a people suffering in exile. It speaks to how God relates to us through tragedy. It's an Old Testament passage with a lot of Jesus in it.

We’re wrapping up our Summer series on Ephesians. For five and half chapters, Paul has been outlining a plan for Christian discipleship, a vision of the way life is meant to be lived. God’s plan will come to fruition, that’s not in question. But it’s going to be a battle to get there. There are forces that oppose God’s will for the world and they are fighting back. The people of God still have some work to do. In closing his letter to the church in Ephesus, Paul reminds them - and us - that we aren’t on our own.

We’re looking at what the Apostle Paul says about family in Ephesians 5 and 6. He uses the family as an example of what Christlike relationships should look like. As we draw near to the end of our Summer-long study of Ephesians, we’ll look at some of the most practical instruction that Paul gives anywhere in his letters.

What does it mean to be holy? The Bible talks a lot about holiness, and it can be a confusing concept. Holy means “set apart.” That meant something distinct in ancient Israel. The temple was designed with increasing levels of holiness, or set apartness. God’s people are set apart from other people in the Old Testament and are supposed to remain separate. But Jesus changes that. Hebrews 10:10 tells us that we are made holy by Jesus - that’s how we are set apart. It’s a lot different than the Old Testament. It’s less precise, harder to measure. Still, God’s people are set apart. Before Jesus, the set apartness was marked by following the rules. But now we are set apart by something else. As we continue in Ephesians this week, Paul is going to talk about what he calls “true holiness” and give some concrete examples of what it looks like. It’s an important word for the church in the 21st century.

What does it mean to be a mature Christian? It’s not a simple question. Many people associate spiritual maturity with a lot of theological knowledge. A new believer might only understand the basics of the Gospel but as they spend more time in the church and in the Bible, they will know more, and thereby become more mature. In our passage from Ephesians this week, Paul talks about spiritual maturity in a different way. He gives us a couple of clear indicators of mature faith.

Life can be really tough sometimes. There is so much worry and grief that we encounter, it’s easy to get discouraged. But Paul tells us not to be discouraged, God has a plan. God has a plan for the world and for each of us. Sometimes it’s hard to see it, but God’s plan for us is working its way through our lives.

We’re continuing our study of Ephesians where Paul lays out the vision for a church that is united by the peace of Jesus Christ. It’s a hard word for our divided, angry culture today but a much needed one.

We’re back to Ephesians this week with a look at the first part of Ephesians chapter 2. Paul spends the first chapter talking about the amazing power of God that is at work in the church through Jesus. In chapter 2, he reminds the church what God has done in them with that power. The first ten verses of Ephesians 2 is one of the clearest presentations of the Gospel in the entire New Testament. Let's look at that and celebrate what God is doing in us!

Paul and the early church existed in a world where there was one truly power,ful person the Roman emperor. It didn’t really matter who it was - if he held the title Caesar, then that meant the world revolved around him, or so he thought. But not everybody agreed. The followers of this upstart branch of Judaism called “The Way” didn’t think the world revolved around Caesar or any other political figure. They didn’t challenge Caesar for political authority, but they also refused to declare their ultimate allegiance to him, reserving it instead for Jesus. That power struggle forms the backdrop against which all of Paul’s letters are set. This week, we’re looking at what Paul has to say about power, what the church believed about power in the first century and what we can learn from them.

When the Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost, the church adds 3,000 people to their number in a single day, and they’re just getting started. The church spreads like wildfire across the Roman Empire. A big reason for that is the Apostle Paul. Paul is uniquely qualified to take the Gospel to the Gentiles. He has amazing success as a missionary, starting churches in cities all across the Ancient Near East, preaching the Gospel, and writing letters that become an important part of our New Testament.    For our next series, we’re going to dig into one of these epistles, Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. It’s not long - only six chapters - but it covers a lot of ground. We’re going to go through the whole thing this Summer. In so doing, we’ll touch on a bunch of different aspects of discipleship, we’ll get to know Paul a little better and we’ll discuss how the issues that the church encountered in the first century relate to the issues we encounter today. 

This week is Pentecost Sunday, an important week to remember in the life of the church. Jesus promised his disciples that he would send his spirit to help them. He tells them to wait for it in Jerusalem, and they do. Then finally, on the day of Pentecost, the promise is fulfilled and the world is never the same again. The church baptizes 3000 people that day and keeps spreading throughout the world through the power of the Spirit and the infectious message of the Gospel.

This week, we wrap up our 40 day look at the Kingdom of God, the central focus of Jesus’ preaching and ministry. In Mark 4, Jesus shares a parable about a farmer who sows seeds all over but gets mixed results from different places that he sows. Then he explains the parable to his disciples, telling them that the secret of the kingdom has been given to them.

It is God's desire for every person to become a disciple of Jesus and participate in the Kingdom. But even so, some people won't. Some people choose another way, and Jesus is clear that there will be repercussions for the choices we make. Thankfully, we don't have to guess what sort of lives Jesus wants us to live. He tells us. We're going to look at a passage this week in Matthew's gospel where Jesus flat out tells us some of the things that are expected of his disciples in crystal clear language - no parables, no mysteries, no interpretation needed!

The Kingdom is like…” There are quite a few parables in the Gospels that Jesus starts like this. Jesus often uses parables to illustrate qualities of the Kingdom of God that require a little more context than just simple instruction to get the point across. One such passage from Matthew’s gospel is the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. Jesus makes a pretty definitive statement about what forgiveness requires of us as his disciples. It’s an important lesson.

After Jesus is resurrected, he spends forty days with his apostles. Luke tells us that he spends those days talking with them about the Kingdom of God. That is not much different than what he had spent the last three years doing with them, but they must have sensed how important it was. According to Jesus, the reason he came was to proclaim the good news about the Kingdom. It’s at the heart of everything he teaches and everything he does. For the next 40ish days leading up to Pentecost, we are going to spend the time after Easter doing what the apostles did, talking about the Kingdom of God. This week, we’ll talk about the “when” of the Kingdom - one of the most confusing questions about it - and we’ll look to The Revelation of John for some insight into that question.

We’ve been studying Luke’s gospel since Advent and still it feels like we’ve flown through it. But the story doesn’t end at the end of Luke, it moves on to something new. We’ll look at that this week. The end of the Gospel of Luke and the beginning of Acts tells the story of the ascension. Jesus comes back from the dead on Easter, but after a few weeks, he leaves again, this time ascending into heaven. God’s work on Earth is not over when he ascends, it’s only just beginning. This week we’ll look at the end of Jesus’ time on Earth and the beginning of the church carrying out it’s mission, a mission we’re still working on today.

n his first letter to the church in Corinth, Paul writes these well known words:   If Christ hasn’t been raised, then your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins,and what’s more, those who have died in Christ are gone forever. If we have a hope in Christ only in this life, then we deserve to be pitied more than anyone else. (1 Cor 15:17-19 CEB)   Jesus was a great teacher. We can and should base our lives on his teaching. Jesus Christ gives us hope in this life, but it doesn’t end there. Because, as Paul continues:   But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead. (1 Cor 15:20)   This Sunday we celebrate the greatest truth that binds the church together. Jesus Christ defeated death. We are not still in our sins, our brothers in sisters in Christ who have gone before us are not gone forever. This Sunday we celebrate the impossible hope of eternal, abundant life that Jesus Christ inaugurates with the resurrection and offers to each of us. 

After Jesus is arrested, his friends all scatter. All of them, that is, except Simon Peter. Peter goes with him to the high priest’s house. Then the wheels come off for Peter. Jesus had predicted that Peter would deny knowing him and sure enough, that’s exactly what Peter does. But this story is not the end of Peter, not by a long shot. Peter becomes a great man. Peter becomes “the rock” as Jesus says, upon which he will build the church. Peter’s mistake is not the end of him and neither are ours the end of us. What can we learn from Peter’s mistake that can make us into better disciples of Jesus?

The church was around for decades before there was a New Testament to read and share. There is saying of Baptists that we are “people of the book.” The early church was not. They didn’t have a book. They had a story and they had a meal. From the beginning of the church, the Lord’s Supper has been the way followers of Jesus remind ourselves of what Jesus did on our behalf and the covenant to which we are bound. This tradition began only hours before Jesus was arrested. It’s easy to treat our shared meal as just another thing we do in church, but to Jesus, it was anything but rote. This week, as we draw closer to the cross, we’ll look to the Passover meal Jesus shares with his apostles on the night he was betrayed and we’ll share the meal together to remind ourselves of our place in the covenant.

A lot happens in the week between Palm Sunday and Good Friday. It’s an important week in Jesus’ life, so we’re going to slow it down this year. To close out the series on Luke, we’re going to spend the last few weeks looking at the events in the last few days of Jesus’ pre-ressurection ministry. And that begins with his entry into Jerusalem. The way Jesus came into Jerusalem was not an accident, it was a statement. And it is a statement that demands a response, both from his contemporaries and from us.

Our scripture for Sunday is a very popular story of the Prodigal Son, also known as the Parable of the Lost Son. It is one of three parables in a row where Jesus demonstrates what it means to be lost, how heaven celebrates with joy when the lost are found, and how the loving Father longs to save people. He is a loving forgiving Father who says, "Rejoice, my son is home. He once was lost but now is found." You can always come Home to the forgiving Father.

Jesus dealt with sinners in a very different way than the religious leaders of his time. Sinners were drawn to him. Why?  *Sorry for the technical glitches on this one. We were having some wireless mic interference. It's not too bad, just a little weird sounding. 

The way our society handles money is broken. Jesus offers a better way. 

We begin our focus on some of the parables Jesus uses in Luke with a look at the Good Samaritan. Jesus answers a couple of questions for a legal expert and helps define what it means to be a neighbor. 

The Jews were serious about the Sabbath. Sabbath observance was one of the principal ways they were different than their Gentile neighbors. It was a big part of their identity as the chosen people of God. In our passage from Luke 13, a synagogue leader accuses Jesus of violating the Sabbath, but Jesus sees a bigger issue at stake. He has a different idea of what it means to set aside a day to honor God. Jesus interprets the Sabbath and the rest of the Law with a different hermeneutic than the Jewish religious leaders of his day. It gets him in a lot of trouble and teaches us an important lesson about the Kingdom of God.

Jesus' earthly ministry recorded in the gospels primarily included teaching and miracles. The gospel of Luke, like the other synoptic gospels (Matthew and Mark), slowly reveals through its stories who Jesus is and what he is trying to accomplish. There's a lot of mystery surrounding Jesus. Even his followers ask, "Who is this man?" and don't really understand what his goals are. This week we'll take a look at how some well-known miracle stories from Luke 8 help us answer those questions.

This week begins our February focus on some of the miracles Jesus does in Luke’s gospel. When Jesus performs miracles, he helps people that need it, and he also teaches us something about the Kingdom of God. For the rest of the series, we will keep coming back to this idea that Jesus keeps coming back to: the Kingdom of God. In our passage this week, Jesus performs a miracle for an unlikely person whose faith amazes Jesus. Where does that faith come from and what does the centurion in Luke 7 teach us about the Kingdom of God?