Sermons By Antioch Community Church in Waltham, MA (Boston Area)

We are starting off our summer Hebrew series! Mark gave us an overview of the book of Hebrews that thoroughly illustrated the superiority of Jesus (Heb 1 - 2: angels & Torah | Heb 3 - 4: Moses & the Promised Land | Heb 5 - 7: the priests & Melchizedek | Heb 8 - 10: the sacrifice & the Covenant). Do we attach ourselves purely to Jesus, or Jesus plus something else?

The Buckners are back from their Sabbatical! Listen to their brief teaching on Sabbatical and their report on their Sabbatical.

On our Youth Sunday, Naomi reminded us of the meaning and significance of Communion, and she charged us to hold unto the reverence for the sacrifice of the Lord.

Sean is the founder of Antioch New England. In his last message to the church he planted before his family moving away, he reminded us of God as a good good Father and encouraged us to carry on the mantle of spiritual parenthood.

The world we live in is warring against our patience. When God doesn't seem to answer the things we have been waiting for, how can we respond with integrity? This concludes our Minor Prophet Series.

Do you feel any pressure from expectations weighing on you? The action of faith is not to meet the expectation but to take the first step and trust that the Lord will complete it.

Our Minor Prophet Series resumes! Through the prophetic vision from Zechariah that has been fulfilled by the coming of our Savior, Katie reminded us of the joy that we have been fully liberated and our stain has been washed clean, and also that we are made new in Christ!

What is faith? What does "believing in Jesus" mean? How do we know if we have believed? Listen to Will's message that exhorts us to walk by faith.

If Christ has not risen, our faith will be futile. Why did Christ have to die? Why did Christ choose to die? We all need to hear this amazing news today.

On this Palm Sunday, Sean's message brought us back to the last hours of Jesus' earthly ministry, His prayer of unity over His followers and His agony in the garden. Through not merely what happened but why, God's character and His heart can be clearly seen.

Jesus, knowing that the Father had given him all authority, washed His disciples feet. He uses His absolute power for the purpose of human flourishing. How can we respond as people who have been blessed by His leadership?

We continue our Minor Prophet series to the next book Zephaniah. When we read text of God's divine judgment, we can have three reactions: being offended, being indifferent, or being despondent. Brian traced the root of all three reactions and suggested to us a response of integrity.

We continue our Minor Prophet series to the next book Habakkuk. How did Habakkuk go from pain to praise, despair to hope, even when God's answer didn't meet his expectations? Marla opened up her own life and offered us practical ways to bring our suffering to God.

We continue our Minor Prophet series to the next book Nahum. Through the historical context of Nineveh and Nahum, Danny helped us see God's justice and His comfort to His people in a more clear way. The already fulfilled prophecy of Nahum also points to God's ultimate promise and hope to come.

What is behind the commandment from God about sacrifice? How does God win our hearts? By answering these questions, Brian led us through the surface of the commandment of "act justly, love mercy, walk humbly" to the depth of God's heart of love. We restarted our Minor Prophet series from Spring 2024 and we will finish the remaining Minor Prophet books.

How can we be a good witness of Jesus in this age? Love is the litmus test of our walk with the Lord. Sean invites us to live a life that is so good and intriguing in this generation that people around have nothing bad to say but give glory to God.

A survey in recent years shows that 63% of Americans claims themselves to be Christian, and yet only 4% self-identifies as followers of Jesus. Can someone be a Christian and yet not follow Jesus? Listen to Mark's sobering message that challenges us to not simply embrace a system of belief and doctrine but follows Jesus and truly lets Him be our Lord.

Listen to a word from Nikki (our out of town guest speak at World Mandate) for us and Mark's unpacking of Antioch Word of the Lord (WOTL) this Sunday. If you would like to learn more about WOTL, a good resource is https://www.antiochwotl.com/. We encourage you to discern, digest, and engage with us.

We are entering into a brief two-week Word Of The Lord (WOTL) series around our annual conference World Mandate. Mark used this time to look back at the Dunamis series we just finished and look forward to our upcoming series related to Practicing The Way. We will dive deeper into WOTL next Sunday.

Forgiveness is a command, a choice, and a process, and it's more a relationship activity than a religious activity. Listen to Christopher's message that inspires forgiveness and provides very practical guidelines about how to forgive. This message concludes our Dunamis sermon series.

We will continue to talk about weakness and focus on a major barrier to embrace weaknesses: shame. Christopher's message distinguishes sin, needs, and weakness and gives us language to categorize different types of shame.

We continue on the topic of weakness and are focusing on trauma today. Brendon's message unpacks trauma from both a scientific and a spiritual perspective and reminds us of the hope that our King empathizes and suffers with us in the midst of pain that isolates us.

We are going to kick off 2025 with a four-week series called Dunamis, which means "power" from 2 Cor 12:9. We live in a world where weakness is not celebrated but is ashamed of. Listen to Christopher's message and Jo's powerful testimony on how we should view weakness from the lens of God.

What is Christmas about? Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us, so that He can reveal who He is through us. Practically, we need to 1) pray up 2) plan to serve 3) expect to be uncomfortable and be ready to get over it 4) prepare to forgive and ask for forgiveness.

As we continue on our Advent series, listen to Sean's message that looks at the call of Mary and Joseph from the angle of Joseph's struggle of surrendering to the Lord. What is one thing we feel the nudge from the Spirit but are afraid?

"Don't be afraid" was mentioned in the Bible 365 times. We are all highly favored by God like Mary. Is this significant enough to outweigh all the fears and concerns of dedicating our lives to God? Can our response be like Mary "I am the Lord's servant"?

Listen to Mark's report on his recent trip to the Leadership Gathering. We are in a bigger church family than our regular Sunday gatherings. Mark also invites us to exercise our muscle to be grateful for. This concludes our Generosity series.

Money gives us three false promises: security, value, and comfort. As believers, what truly fulfills those promises for us? Listen to Brian's convicting message as we continue our mini sermon series on Generosity.

How could Stephen be full of boldness and compassion when he was facing death? What does it teach us who live so far away from martyrdom? Listen to Sean's message that inspires us to live out the Gospel and love our enemies. This also concludes our Acts sermon series.

What is the purpose and healthy practice of church government? What is the relationship between the structure and life of the church? Listen to Mark's message on Acts 6!

We live in a spiritual realm where things are happening beyond our five senses. Mark's message gives us a clear view of the reality of the spiritual realm as well as the alternation between persecution and Kingdom's advance in the early church.

Listen to Mark's message on Ananias and Sapphira to have a fresh understanding of sin and fear of the Lord, to whom we are all accountable to on that Day!

How do we respond when the circumstances we are in is shaky? Do we let ourselves be consumed with the circumstance and coming up strategies, or do we focus on the character of God and His promises? Listen to Marla's message as she challenges us through her own experience. 

Preaching about Jesus is the most risky and offensive thing that we are commanded to do. If we live the Gospel but do not proclaim, then our lives are compartmentalized and we suppress what the Holy Spirit wants to do. Listen to Brian's message that inspires us to preach about Jesus today!

This Sunday, we are taking a break from our Acts series  and responding to the corporate call of consecration through focusing on confession. Confession is a counter-intuitive and vulnerable way to overcome evil with good. Listen to Christopher's message on the purpose and practicality of confession.

Are signs and wonders still relevant to contemporary church? What does healing the sick look like today? David's message reminds us of who we are, what we are called to do, and practically how we walk it out today.

Listen to Mark's message on the Pentecost, the significant event in God's plan and the fulfillment of prophecies. This is what we believe and what shapes our church. Let this message reminds us of why we gather on Sundays and what following Christ is all about.

Our fall sermon series kicks off today. We will be going through the first seven chapters of Acts in the next two months. Listen to the context and overview of the sermon series from Mark and ponder on how the contemporary church can learn and imitate from the early church!

Listen to Sean's pastoral message as a follow-up to the recent news which Mark shared and we as a congregation processed the Sunday before. Let's get a glimpse of God's heart and respond to sin, either our own or other's, as our Lord would. 

We finished our third summer in the Romans sermon series! Listen to Mark's concluding message as Paul wraps up his letter to the church in Rome.

What does disunity sound like to the Lord? How can unity be achieved, what does unity bring, and how should we respond? Listen to Marla's message on the purpose and practicality of pursuing unity in the body.

Who is the strong and who is the weak? How do those who think they are strong respond to those whom they think are weak? As we follow the steps of Christ, we let the insults fall on Jesus and we give acceptance and unconditional love to the weak. 

What is a disputable matter? How can we cultivate conscience and love our neighbor in a very opinionated world? Listen to Christopher's message on how Paul addressed this issue in early church and how we can apply today.

What is the difference between envy and jealousy? What is the slippery slope of dissension and jealousy? And how does cognitive distortion have to do with this?

Being a disciple and making disciples are inherently tied to each other! Discipleship is intentional, missional, supernatural, and relational. Listen to Alex's encouraging message and reflect on what it means for us to be a disciple and to make disciples in this season.

God calls us to overcome evil with good. Listen to Brian's message on why God called us to do it and how to activate it in our lives!

Listen to Mark's teaching that extensively lists spiritual gifts from three categories (Romans 12, Ephesians 4, 1 Corinthians 12) with a main focus on Romans 12. Which gift(s) do you identify? What is it like for you to share that gift with others?

We are kicking off our third summer of Romans series. Sean's message gave us a recap of Romans 9 - 11 from the end of last summer and the historical context of Romans, and it also showed us God's heart to reconcile the disunity within church between Jews and Gentiles. How should we respond to the division and live out the Gospel today?

We often feel impatient through a storm in life, yet God could use it to pursue us and invite us back to His love. Andrew's message exhorts us to respond to storms from a bird's eye view. This concludes our minor prophet series.

Jonah is the last book of our minor prophets series. Through this counter example of a prophet, God reveals His missional heart. Do you want to be like Jesus? He loves the people we hate and our enemies. Do you still want to be like Jesus?