Audio of sermons from REUNION Christian Church in Boston, MA (REUNION Metro) & Somerville, MA (REUNION North). Visit REUNION’s website at reunionboston.com.
The Triumphal Entry was something that would have been very common in Jesus' time. The irony of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem is that it mirrored a common Roman practice also called a Triumphal Entry. We have a vision of freedom in our heads, that we can do whatever we want, but Jesus comes to offer a better kind of freedom. Jesus subverts this Roman tradition, which would have offered a kind of freedom to specific people, and shows us that he is offering a different kind of freedom. A spiritual freedom for all people.
Isaiah, in this passage, is speaking to a nation who has wandered from the path God had put them on. Not only had they wandered, but they found themselves wandering down a road that was leading to their brokenness, to pain, to frustration, and to a life that they had longed to leave behind in Egypt.Isaiah tells of someone who is going to come and suffer on behalf of his people, in order to bring them back onto the path they were originally called to. Although there is a present truth in this promise, that God is going to redeem them and free them from their exile in Babylon, this was also a promise of one to come, who would free all of us from the exile that sin puts us into. What Isaiah is promising the nation is what Jesus fulfilled on the cross. A suffering servant, who gave his life on our behalf, to stop us from continuing to travel down a road of destruction, and to offer us a chance to come back to the path of life.Humanity is hopeless in our pain and suffering, but Jesus became a suffering servant, which defeated sin, but also gives us hope in the midst of our pain and despair.
The Passover was a foreshadowing of what would happen on a spiritual scale through the death of Jesus. Punishment was coming on those who would not submit to God and trust in his way and offer of life. But there was hope to be rescued and redeemed from this punishment and destruction.A lamb could be killed, and its blood spread over the doorposts of a house. Blood could cover a family and forgiveness and grace would be offered to them, if they trusted in God's invitation and followed his commandments.This lamb was really just a foretaste of the ultimate lamb, whose blood would one day be shed to cover all of humanity. Jesus is the great passover lamb, and God's grace and mercy is offered to us when we cover the doorposts of our lives with his blood.Humanity is deserving of death and punishment… our sins should lead to our destruction as well, but Jesus shed his blood to offer us life instead.
Jude doesn't just warn his readers to avoid false teachings. His letter is not just about what to avoid, but rather, where to build your life, and why.Jude tells his readers to build their lives on the most holy faith. Contending for the faith is about continually revisiting our faith through prayer and making sure that it is built on the foundation of the gospel. We must keep ourselves in God's love by showing that love to others around us. We cannot do this on our own, however, and we need the grace of God and the aid of community to keep us faithful in Jesus.Holy SpiritCommunityWe often think that we can do faith in isolation. But we really need community to hold us together. To make sure we are not getting thrown off course and being influenced by false teachers preaching a false gospel. Pursuing the way of Jesus is not something we can do on our own. It's too dangerous and we far too easily succumb to false gospels.What does actual community look like?Praying for one anotherSaving one anotherHaving mercy for people who doubt
Jude sits down to write a letter to a group of Hebrew churches spread out among the Roman world. But before he writes his full letter, he hears about false teachers who have taken up leadership at these different churches. So he chose to instead write this short letter of warning to these churches.His letter begins with a warning about how these false teachers are corrupting the church. Not with their teaching, but actually through the way they are living. Jude links this present truth to ancient stories the Israelites would have been very familiar with to show that living in rebellion to the way of Jesus always leads to a life of ruin. But not only does this have the power to corrupt us, but living in this way can actually bring ruin to those around us.Although Jude is speaking about leaders in the church, this is actually a warning for all of us. The Old Testament is filled with stories of those who ignored God's teachings, thinking they knew how to find true life on their own, only to have their story end in ruin. We must be on our guard for false teachers in our world today, but we must also be on our guard against the way lies can infiltrate our own belief system and affect the way we live our lives. When we live out the lies we believe, and rebel against God, we can bring ruin to ourselves and others as well!
When we seek behavioral modification instead of true heart change, it is like stapling healthy apples to a struggling tree. Our temporary solutions and quick fixes will end up rotting because they are disconnected from a true source of life. Our world is obsessed with the visible fruit of productivity, however, without a secure identity we end up making fragile, cosmetic changes that only last as long as our will power. As followers of Christ, our identity is sealed in Him and His love for us. This truth should enable us to live freely and wholeheartedly for him, but division can still make its way into our hearts. There will always be a temptation to withhold part of our heart from God, but we were created to remain in His love. In His mercy, God desires to unite our hearts towards Him. When we humble ourselves to learn how to fear His name and rely on His faithfulness, God promises to change our hearts to bear enduring fruit connected to Christ.
While the modern world is riddled with deceptive mindsets and mechanisms created to steal and waste our time, God calls us to be conscious stewards of our time, and aim to live in our current seasons with the knowledge and hope of our future in eternity with Him. As creations intentionally made in His image, eternity is set into our hearts, providing us with a purpose that should drive our lives on Earth. Many of us need a new perspective on time, what it actually is, and how we should actually use it. Time is the most important commodity in our lives, and by moving from carelessness to carefulness we can honor God with the time He has given us on Earth. Treating our time foolishly can look like wasting it through exchanging worship of God for unsatisfying idols, hoarding possessions that will not last, and building our lives on weak foundations. However, pursuing a wise perspective ensures that we devote our lives to what truly matters rather than things that ultimately pull us away from God. When we live in light of the future, we can shift from squandering to leveraging our time to fulfill the purposes God has given each of us.
We are all given one life to live. The problem for many of us, is that we aren't entirely sure what we should do with it. We don't know how to focus it or what we should be giving the majority of our life to. We don't know how to live in ways that are honoring to God. We might end up wasting, or wrongly using our lives, but as followers of Jesus, we can actually live a life fully pleasing to the Lord. Spiritual gifts are sovereignly given spiritual abilities meant to serve the Christian community. Spiritual gifts are one way in which we can love and serve the church, as well as the city around us. We often fall into traps of believing our gifts are insignificant, that they don't matter when it comes to the church or the world. But our spiritual gifts should lead us to a life of love. They should be an avenue for us to love others well, and find meaning and purpose of the life God has given us. It's a way to use our life to love others well, and build something bigger than ourselves… the kingdom of God.
As we kick off a brand new year, the last thing that many of us want to think about is a life that is full of regret. Yet the truth is, as we come into this year, many of us want to begin again, or start over, from the year before because we are burdened by the regrets over the decisions we have made and the life we have pursued. We want to leverage our life for something meaningful and beautiful. Not think back and be faced with the reality of regret. In order for us to do this, we have to think about the lasting impact of our decisions before we make them. There's almost no greater example of this than the life of Esau. Esau, because he was so overwhelmed by the cravings of the immediate, sold his birthright, and the right to become a father of the people of Israel. All of something as small as a bowl of soup. It's easy for us to look at him with a judgmental mind and spirit, yet we trade things that should matter to us for the cravings of the imminent. Esau serves as a reminder to us that if we want to leverage our life to create something meaningful, to love others well, and to, ultimately, find a life that can satisfy, it starts with us thinking ahead, and fighting regret before we have to face it.
Jesus approaches a topic that is a universal struggle for all of humanity. What does it look like for us to love people that we regard as enemies, or at least, that we don't get along with and don't like? Although the Old Testament doesn't instruct the people of God to literally hate their enemy, that sentiment was prevalent and widely accepted. Jesus confronts the cultural atmosphere that made it permissible to treat supposed enemies with abject disregard. Jesus' invitation is not just to get along with those we do not like. It's much deeper. It is an invitation to reflect the love that Jesus has shown us. To turn enemies to friends, and friends to brothers and sisters, through freeing them from the brokenness they are entrapped in.
We make hundreds of decisions everyday. Most don't require deep reflection, or prayer, or council. But what happens when we come to a major fork in the road? What happens when we are making a life-altering decision and need to discern what path keeps us on the narrow road? Jesus is coming to the end of his teaching. He just finished a teaching section on true and false disciples. His teaching seems to indicate that surface level appearances don't tell the whole story. Here, he seems to make the same conclusion when it comes to true and false disciples. For Jesus, a true disciple is one who does the will of God (following his teachings and living in intimate communion with him). Jesus underscores an important truth that ministry success and even supernatural miracles are not enough to be a true disciple. (verse 22-23 – “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?' 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!') To become a person who discerns and does the will of God requires us to desire it first.
To be human is to make judgments. But sadly, our judgments do damage to our witness to Jesus. In 2015, Barna reported that a significant number of young adults have deeper complaints about church. More than one-third say their negative perceptions area result of moral failures in church leadership (35%). And substantial majorities of Millennials who don't go to church say they see Christians as judgmental (87%), hypocritical (85%), anti- homosexual (91%) and insensitive to others (70%). Jesus warns against both existential judgment, and eschatological judgment. We don't know someone's heart and we don't know someone's final destination. Our offering in judgment is to help others grow. And we do this after we have done our own self-reflection and self-critique. Jesus invites his followers to remove the plank from their own eye so they are able to help remove the speck from their neighbors. We far too often fall into the trap of making our neighbor's speck a plank so our plank can feel like a speck. Jesus tells us to flip this on it's head. That our judgment should come out of deep self-reflection, and should only be done for the benefit of the person we are caring for. We don't judge the heart, we offer space for others to reflect. We help clean their eyes after we have cleaned our own.
We are often told in our lives that more is better. That the goal of our lives should be to climb a career ladder, or at least, to get to a point where we can “live comfortably”. The problem many of us often face is the reality that “living comfortably” is a moving target. Once we reach our financial target, it's easy to see the people living in a financial bracket above us and believe that comfort actually resides there. That's why Jesus' teaching here is so essential for us. Jesus is pointing out something that we need to pause and really consider. To Jesus, it seems that money is not a passive tool, but rather, a rival God. Money, or the love of money, has a way of warping us and demanding more from us. It's why we see people compromise morally when money is involved. It's why we people arrange their entire lives around trying to find more money. Money seems to have a way of forcing us, not just to use it, but rather, to obey it. To arrange our lives around it. To worship it. Jesus' point is, if we spend the best of our energy and passion to gain wealth, it ends up owning us. When our lives are absorbed with money and what it can get us, we end up serving it to our own demise.
Anxiety and worry is everywhere in our culture and our society. It's important to note that Jesus doesn't tell us that worry and anxiety are sinful in themselves. Jesus seems to understand the human condition enough to know that these are not feelings and emotions we can ignore. Rather, Jesus' warning seems to center around what we do with our anxiety. What Jesus reveals is that much of the anxiety we feel is connected to what we believe about God. Jesus tries to reassure the disciples, as they prepare to face worry and anxiety, by giving them essential truths about God. Scripture teaches that God's generosity extends to everyone: “He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good” (Matthew 5:45). God is a merciful, forgiving parent who pours out love on prodigal and self-righteous sons alike. God delights in providing for his children. Jesus uses a lesser to greater line of reason to help his disciples trust in the care of the Father. If God clothes the grass in the field and the birds in the air, God will most certainly provide for his children. In light of this, Jesus calls his disciples into simple trust. Not trust in our ability to believe, but trust in the character of God.
There might be no other area in our lives where we tend to lean towards behavior modification, rather than deep heart transformation, than when it comes to the area of our bodies and our sexuality. Jesus brings up the idea of lust and adultery in his sermon on the mount. While I think many of us understand what he means when he says adultery, we might have to unpack what he's expressing when using the language of “lust”. New Testament scholar Craig Keener defines lust as, “the deliberate harboring of desire for an illicit relationship.” Rich Villodas defines lust as, “having power over another person, for the purpose of using them.” Jesus invites his listeners to take responsibility for their lust, as well as learning what it means to have our hearts transformed away from lust. This is the command of Jesus for all of us in these verses, to see the humanity in people and, even more so, to see the image of God in people, as someone who has value and worth. When our hearts begin to see people how God intended them to be, we are forming our heart to be ready to fight against lust.
Our words matter. What we say we are going to do and what we commit to staying away from should carry with them real and meaningful weight in the world. The challenge we often face when it comes to being clear and having integrity with our words often stems from the pace of life we live. Because of the fast-paced world we live in, we don't make the space to ponder the words and commitments we make. Another challenge is our fear of disappointing people. ·Jesus mentions that our lack of integrity with our words leads to us being influenced by the evil one. This might be because if we can't speak truthfully, we are playing into the hands of the evil one's character of lies and deception.
Many of us tend to think that it is external factors that make us angry. At this time, the political tension and online discourse will be at an all time high. Many of us feel this tension and have an internalized anger because of it. Jesus quoted the 10 commandments during this portion of teaching. By doing so, he was showing that many at this time, even religious leaders and cultural elites, seemed to be content to uphold the literal meaning of the law while ignoring how they were violating it in their hearts. Anger, in scripture, is not viewed as a sinful emotion. In fact, in Ephesians Paul tells us to “be angry and do not sin”. The anger that Jesus talks about is not just a momentary feeling, but the ongoing nurture of it. Jesus is warning about the kind of anger that lives in us that leads to viewing and treating others with contempt.
Jesus invites his followers to consider the ways that we might benefit the world around us. Jesus sees in us as a group of people that can respond to the brokenness of the world in the same ways that he did. That is what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, to learn to do what he would do if he were in our life settings, and then go and live that way. Jesus calls his followers to be salt and light. Salt preserves and adds flavor. To follow Jesus's teachings is for the purpose of preserving a decaying world marked by sin, but also a way to bring out the best in the people who live in this broken world. Light illuminates a dark world. It's how we help people to find their way to God. We have more to offer the world than we often think. Fear and uncertainty often hold us back, but Jesus tells us that we have the possibility in us to preserve, to call out, and shine light on a world that is desperate for it.
Jesus teaches us what righteousness looks like in his kingdom. In a culture that centers so much of what we do on being seen, these words should be striking to us. Our cultural currency is likes and shares. It is easy for these concepts to spill into our pursuit of the way of Jesus, trading a deep intimacy with God and a desire to serve others for a cheap religiosity that is done for the sake of getting others to celebrate us. Jesus looks at a few different practices, generosity, prayer, and fasting, to highlight a truth for us. All of these practices can be misused and falsely directed. All three of these practices can easily create an environment to draw attention to oneself in such a way that compels us to want the praise of people.
For many of us, we have a vision of the good life that is a vast contrast to the picture Jesus paints in his sermon on the mount. As Jesus begins his teachings, he goes up on the mountain, recalling a vision for people of the stories of Moses, showing that Jesus is the new Moses. Jesus begins his teaching, however, not exactly how we would expect. Jesus doesn't just tell people what to do, rather, he helps them understand what blessing, or a blessed life, actually is. It's clear that the characteristics that are going to mark the blessed life are the words Jesus uses; poor, mourn, meek, hunger, mercy, purity, peace, persecuted. These words don't paint a picture of blessedness as defined by success-ism, rather, they help us see our own brokenness, which allows us to live from a place of compassion rather than selfishness. Jesus starts by addressing our hearts before our actions.
In his sermon, Jesus offers listeners a stark choice. Two paths are before all of us, and we have to decide which one we are going to choose. In an age fraught with anxiety, depression, polarizing politics, and online vitriol, we are always looking for a quick fix and a path to happiness. We assume the good life will be found on the wide and easy path. But in his counterintuitive wonder, Jesus offers a narrow path instead, one that is filled with heart transformation and actually leads to a life of love, peace, and fulfillment.
Location: Online | Teacher: Nathan Caddell
Location: Online | Teacher: Jean Marrapodi
Location: Online | Teacher: Nathan Caddell
Location: Online | Teacher: Nathan Caddell
Location: Online | Teacher: Matt Chin
Location: Online | Teacher: Matt Chin
Location: Online | Teacher: Nathan Caddell
Location: Online | Teacher: Jeff Oakes
Location: Online | Teacher: Jeff Oakes
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