Snells Beach Baptist Church Podcast

The Resurrection is essential to Christian faith, hope, and love. So why is it that it so very often fades into the background? Without a resurrection, there is no hope. But in Christ even death is gain. The resurrection is the foundation for our faith and the future victory of Christ over death. This week, as we finish looking at 1 Corinthians chapter 15, remind yourself of the hope of the gospel glimpsed in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The book off Malachi confronts the Israelites returned from exile. Malachi searches the hearts of Israel's hope, worship, and relationships with the question, "where is the fer of the LORD among His people?" In this two part series we hear the same question directed at us in the 21st century. Have we decentered God? Have we dethroned Him? Do we hold out hope for Him to work for justice beyond what we can see? Listen to the message of Malachi as God speaks through His word to call us again to "genuine worship and expectant faith."* * The title for this series is drawn from E. Ray Clendenen's introduction to Malachi in Haggai, Malachi New American Commentary Series (Nashville: B&H, 2004) pg. 204.

The book off Malachi confronts the Israelites returned from exile. Malachi searches the hearts of Israel's hope, worship, and relationships with the question, "where is the fer of the LORD among His people?" In this two part series we hear the same question directed at us in the 21st century. Have we decentered God? Have we dethroned Him? Listen to the message of Malachi as God speaks through His word to call us again to "genuine worship and expectant faith."* * The title for this series is drawn from E. Ray Clendenen's introduction to Malachi in Haggai, Malachi New American Commentary Series (Nashville: B&H, 2004) pg. 204.

In the book of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul writes from prison to remind the church of the massive scope of God's blessing. Paul aims to encourage and refresh the Christians in the church of Ephesus. Join us in looking at the opening of His letter to the church at Ephesus, and see how richly God has poured out every spiritual blessing in Christ to the praise of His glory.

The Sermon on the Mount is the greatest collection of Jesus' teaching that we have recorded for us in God's Word. In many ways, this Sermon is an expansion of how the Gospel writers summarize Jesus' teaching: “Repent! For the Kingdom of God is at hand.” One of the great themes running through the Sermon on the Mount is the “God-Centered Life.” Jesus doesn't use these exact words, but the picture He paints of the righteousness, the sincerity, and the focus of a follower of God clearly presents a life that is careful to remain centered around God and His Word. Listen this week as we explore just a bit of what Jesus teaches about living a life centered on God.

There are countless things in our lives that can hurt us if we do not handle them carefully. We need instruction from a trusted source of wisdom to navigate the pitfalls that life presents us. God has given us instruction in His word to help us live a full and blessed life. Join us this week as we look at Proverbs 3:1-12 at some of the instruction which God has given and how it can produce a positive effect in our lives.

Jesus ministry centered around the Kingdom of God, particularly His teaching. So far in Mark's gospel we have heard little actual teaching on the Kingdom of God. But in our passage this week Mark records Jesus teaching on the Kingdom with 4 parables. Listen this week as we hear from the Lord Jesus about the Blessed Burden of Kingdom Work and the confidence that God's people can have in working alongside God in His Kingdom.

What Mark has shown until this point in the ministry of Jesus is a wide response to Israel's Messiah. Some follow Him closely, some come out to be healed but don't follow Him, some decide that He has to be killed. How does one man, one message, get so many different responses? Why does this same good news today sound to some people like a death sentence, and to others like the cure from death they have been searching for? Jesus teaches a parable that connects these two ideas. God's good news that never changes, and the very wide human response to it. If we listen to Jesus carefully as He teaches, we will hear Him give a warning to the human heart. The gospel is good news, to those who trust in God. But Jesus' teaching about the nature of the gospel is that it is as dangerous as it is beautiful. Listening carefully to Jesus, each one of us should consider His warning to the human heart, which as Jeremiah says, is desperately wicked.

What do we do, as Christians, when we come up against opposition? If we are faithful witnesses to the work of God in our life—we will come up against opposition. How can we as Christians be prepared, how should we respond, when we face opposition? In Mark 3:20-35 we are confronted with two rounds of opposition to Jesus ministry. Join us as we will look at this opposition and see how Jesus responds. As we look at how the Lord Jesus responds to opposition to His ministry we will learn how to glorify God when opposition and slander comes to us as we minister the gospel of the kingdom in our own lives.

As we come back to our series through the book of Mark, we are looking at one the seams in the book. Our passage today is a bridge between the first section of Mark's gospel and the second. In this bridge passage we are reminded of what has come before in Mark's book, and we are given hints about what is coming in the second section. The second section will force us again ad again to ask the question "Who are the followers of Jesus?" Listen in this week as we see from God's word what it means to follow Jesus, as well as what it means to reject Him.

As a 'place of worship' churches would do well to investigate what the Bible requires from us as worshippers. While there is much freedom in being 'those who worship in Spirit and in Truth', we still need to be refocused and redirected by God's word in our worship. Listen this week as we look at what it means to worship God rightly by seeing Him, savoring Him, and serving Him.

This week we take a step back from the Signs of Life series. Before considering membership in the Local Church, we are taking time to reflect on the organic membership of Christians in the Universal Church. Listen this week as we examine just a sliver of what the Bible teaches about our union with one another through Christ as Members of His body, and a few practical ways we can meaningfully participate in the Universal Church of God, the Body of Christ.

In this series, Signs of Life, we are looking at different practices of healthy local churches according to the Bible. One challenge for Christians today is knowing what teaching or teachers to trust. With so many options out there, how should Christians measure what they listen to? In the first message in the series, we are taking a look at what Paul urges His disciples Timothy and Titus about the kind of teaching they should give.

Death is one thing every human has to come to grips with. The pain, the reality, and the effects of death are ever present. On this Easter morning we see Jesus address grief in equally compassionate and miraculous ways. Jesus identifies with the pain and grief of Martha and Mary after the loss of their brother. He weeps with them. But then He calls Lazarus from the grave. Jesus has come to identify with humanity in its brokenness, paying with His death the punishment for our sin. But He has come also to raise us to new life by identifying all who trust in Him with His resurrection. The empty grave seals His payment and paves the way for new life in Him.

Why is Jesus rejected? Why in His own day was the carpenter from Nazareth sentenced to death? Why in our day is the teaching of this man not only rejected, but His historical existence questioned in part or in whole? As Mark unfolds the ministry of Jesus and the authority of the kingdom, He puts three stories together that highlight for us, the reader, the offense of the Kingdom of God. Listen to the surprising reasons that endure for the rejection of Jesus, from the Pharisees of His day to the agnostics of ours as we study the gospel of Mark together

Jesus came to Call us from death to life. But the people He chooses to call are often not the people we would expect. The Scribes were offended that Jesus would spend time with tax collectors and sinners. But in the call of Levi Jesus shows that His call is all of grace, and His company an expression of His mercy as he patiently shows us how to live. Listen this week as we explore God's gracious call in salvation and His merciful company with those He has called to Himself.

Mark begins with the announcement that something new is coming. The work of God in human history changes with the arrival of Jesus of Nazareth. In Mark's introduction the messenger that Isaiah prophesied promotes the expectation of the Kingdom of God, Jesus is prepared for the ministry of the Kingdom, and then He comes from this preparation with the invitation for all to enter the kingdom through repentance and faith. Listen this week to hear how God's kingdom is introduced by Mark and how God's Word calls us to respond.

Isaiah 52

Peter calls Christians to lives of holiness "in everything" they do. As we continue our study in this letter, listen as we ask why holiness matters and what it looks like.

Join in as we continue our study in 1 Peter. In this passage Peter reminds his readers, and us, that the salvation won by Jesus was foretold by the prophets in the Old Testament. Jesus is the Jewish Messiah who came to fulfill the Jewish Scriptures. What the prophets predicted, the apostles proclaimed--Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead. Take heart, our message is a message of victory.

Join us this week as we begin a new study in the letter of 1 Peter. As Christians, Peter calls us to two primary attitudes, two characteristics that should define everyone who believe in Jesus Christ: holy hope and steadfast suffering. Watch this first message in a series that will inspire hope and encourage you no matter what kind of obstacles you face as together we turn our eyes toward Jesus and the living hope He gives.

In our last look at Jonah we finally see the 'why' behind all of Jonah's actions. Why run? Why hide? Now, in his own words, Jonah tells God exactly why he left in the first place and why he now would rather die than live. In answer, God has a lesson for Jonah which is important for us all. Listen this week as we finish our series in Jonah.

This week as we continue our study in the book of Jonah, we see what happens when the word of God comes to Nineveh. Jonah is called again to go, and as he obeys the word of the Lord, the city of Nineveh has a chance to respond. And when Nineveh responds to the word of God, how will God respond to Nineveh? Join us this week in Jonah 3.

Have you ever been out of your depth? Have you been brought to a place where a cry for help was the only option? This week as we continue to study Jonah we see Jonah's prayer of thanks after God has saved him. As we look at Jonah's prayer, we not only see how we might pray better, but how God's character and his works help us to pray in any situation. Listen this week to a sermon on Jonah's prayer from Jonah 2:2-9.

As we at SBBC wrap up a time of focus on missions, listen as we take a look at what Jonah has to say on the subject. The book of Jonah tells us that God has always had a mind for all nations to know Him. The message of Jonah to Israel was a reminder to remain faithful in reflecting God's character and reporting His goodness. To us it is a reminder of the greater redemption we have in Jesus Christ and the mission we have to glorify God in the preaching of the gospel.

During this period of focus on Missions (first three weeks of May), hear from the head of our missions board Rob Jensen. From Ephesians 2 we read that in Christ the dividing walls between men and women are broken down. This world is divided, and only in Christ can we truly be one new people, united by bonds stronger than any this world attempts to fabricate.

As we dive back into the story of Jonah, we see that there is a complicated between sin, suffering and the sovereignty of God. This week as we look at the story in the first chapter of Jonah we are asking "whose storm is it?" Suffering in this life bears the mark of sin, and as Christians we need to remember that our path, like many in the Bible goes through suffering and into glory. Jonah doesn't seem to get the message, will you?

This Easter join us as we look at the resurrection of Jesus. Thomas, one of Jesus' disciples, didn't believe when the others told him that Jesus had been raised from the dead. But when Thomas came face to face with Jesus he recognised not only that Jesus had been raised from the dead, but what this meant. When he saw Jesus alive, he said, "My Lord and my God!"

Why did the people who welcomed him as a king condemn Him as a criminal? A look at this text from Luke 19 shows why it is so important to know just who Jesus is and why He came.

Jonah's call begins as many other prophets, “the word of the LORD came to Jonah.” Jonah's response, however, is one of a kind. As Jonah runs away from God's call, he also runs from God Himself. Jonah is a reminder to us not only to listen and obey when God calls, but reminds us who have believed in Jesus Christ that we have been given a message—A message about a greater prophet than Jonah, who brought a greater word than Jonah, a word of eternal deliverance, of invitation into a real and lasting relationship with the God and Creator of all things.

The story of Jonah is often overshadowed by the great fish that swallows the prophet. But is this short piece of the story all that Jonah is about? In fact, the story of Jonah is about so much more than this, and it still speaks to us today as the Word of God. This week we introduce our new series in the book of Jonah by paying special attention to who Jonah is and by asking why this short story was written and put alongside prophets like Amos and Hosea in the Old Testament. Join us as we dive into the story of Jonah and hear what the Lord is saying this week through this book.

Our day and age is full of powerful empires, and it can be easy for us even as Christians to focus on these empires that seem so strong. Sometimes the kingdoms of this world seem as though they can never fall. But there is a kingdom that will actually last forever. Listen this week as Maurice Milmine opens the word to us from Daniel chapter 2, encouraging us to consider the strength of the kingdom of God.

Have you ever stopped to consider who God is? On His own terms? In His own words? Christians can often be a poor reflection of God, but there are times in the Bible that God breaks in and describes Himself to us in particularly clear and compelling ways. God has shown us who He is, how will we respond?

We live in a fragmented age. In a culture so obsessed with identity, we have endless choices of how to define ourselves. As Christians, we are a people who are most importantly defined by God, yet we also have convictions and beliefs that arise out of our faith as we seek to live like Christ. How can we welcome one another as Christ has welcomed us when we disagree? If we have Christ in common, how could we let anything else divide us? Romans 14, verses 1 through 4 help us to know how to act in love towards our brothers and sisters in Christ when we disagree.

Listen to this week as Maurice reflects on the people of strong influence in the Bible. How might you be used as a person of influence this week?

Prayer is a universal human desire. Every culture has their form of prayer, and the Christian Church is no exception. The early church insists that there is one God, and only one way to restore relationship with this God. What this means is that there is only one God that we can rightfully pray to. This week we finish a short series on the Early church and what their model means for us. Listen this week as we look at how the early church prayed and what this means for us today.

So far in our series on the DNA of the Early Church we have looked at the role of preaching in the Church. We have discovered that the root of pure fellowship with one another is a true fellowship with God. Now we come to the Breaking of Bread. In the early church, this breaking of bread refers to the celebration of the Lord's Supper or Communion. It might seem out of place in a list along with prayer, preaching, and fellowship with other believers—but this is perhaps the most important mark of the Church.

This week as we try to unravel the DNA of the early church we look at what fellowship with one another is all about. Why did the early church devote themselves to fellowship? What did this look like? Joins us in Acts 4:32-37 as we seek to challenge ourselves as a church to grow by committing ourselves to the fundamentals of fellowship with one another.

At the birth of the church, the Holy Spirit falls powerfully on a small group of disciples and emboldens them to preach the Gospel which spreads throughout the Mediterranean. God uses preaching to spread the Gospel, and even at the very beginning of the church the people of God devoted themselves to the preaching of His word. Why? Because when a preacher faithfully handles God's word, His people are strengthened and nourished.

Many look at the state of the Church today and wonder whether Jesus meant for the Church to turn out this way--if He meant for there to be a "Church" at all. Graciously, God has given us in Scripture not only the clear command to gather, but many examples and in some places even commands for how to conduct our worship. In this series at Snells Beach Baptist Church we will be looking in acts 1-4 to identify and commit ourselves to a few of the core elements of Church gathering. Join us as we look at the DNA of the Early Church and pray and prepare our own hearts for the Spirit's work of revival.

Elder Jonathan Leaver presents 5 biblical ways for us to step into the New Year!

This Sunday we look at the central image in the portrayal of Jesus as our Messiah, his kingship. The title "anointed one" is used most often to refer to kings in the Old Testament. While Prophets and Priests, as we have seen, are also anointed for service, the King is the one who bears the title "the LORD's anointed." Even while being pursued by Saul who wishes to kill him, David spares his life multiple times because he is "the LORD's anointed." The expectation for a future deliverer and ruler in Israel became so closely linked with the covenant that God made with David that this royal title became the most prominent when speaking of the "hope of Israel." Listen this week as we connect the dots from Genesis through Revelation, unveiling a picture of the King who has come and will come again: Jesus the Christ.

Most of us are not part of a bloody religion. We do not understand sacrifice as we might if it was a part of our normal lives. In Hebrews chapter 10, Jesus is shown to be the fulfillment of the Old Testament expectation for a perfect priest. Jesus came as the better priest, to give a better once-for-all sacrifice, so that we might have a better and more enduring hope.

Have you ever thought of Jesus as a prophetic figure? The identity of Jesus as the Christ, or Messiah, can be summarized, though not exhausted, in the recognition of his threefold office. He is, at the same time, our prophet, priest, and king. This week we look briefly at how Jesus fulfills that expectation that a prophet would come after the pattern of Moses and what this means for us as believers. A prophet was to speak the word of God, Jesus was this word made flesh. We too, as Christians have been given a word to proclaim, will we follow in Christ's footsteps?

Advent marks the time of year that the church enacts the expectation of her Messiah. The identity of Jesus as the Messiah however includes his rightful reign as King. How will we respond to Jesus? Matthew's Gospel shows us not only that Jesus is the Messiah, but he shows three responses to the news that the King has arrived.

This week brings the close to our series in 1 John. John works hard throughout the letter to verify both the reality and identity of Jesus Christ. In the face of false teaching he gives his readers tests so that they might know that they have eternal life. The New Testament is the climax of the Word of God because in the New Testament we see the fulfillment of God's plan for redemption. Yet the plan of God for salvation begins far before Jesus came to earth. John's concern is that the church would know and exalt Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah who has come into the world and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel.

1 John 5.1-4 teaches us about what it means to be born again. To be born again requires us to believe rightly, to believe that “Jesus is the Christ.” To be born again requires us to behave rightly, to obey the commandments of God. To be born of God is to be born anew. When we are born of God we are given a family resemblance to His Son, Jesus. Jesus Christ said that he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. This means that to be born of God is to walk in His way, to believe what He reveals is true, and to cling to His life. Any attempt to make our own way, live our own truth, and hold on to our own life will leave us empty. This week we look at what it means to be born again and how it is that we can live according to the standards of a holy God and yet say, “his commandments are not burdensome.”

Elder Jonathan Leaver shares this week about the benefit and necessity of trials in the Christian life.

God is love. In 1 John 4.7-21 it becomes clear that to have fellowship with God means that we must love one another. God showed His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. The cross is where we find the fullest expression of the love of God. Yet if we truly grasp the love of God seen at Calvary, we have to ask why? Why was this sacrifice necessary to show the love of God to us. The answer is that God is also light. He is pure, holy, and just. Injustice and unholiness cannot stand in his presence, yet as sinners we were apart from Him. His holiness demands that we be cast out of His presence, but His love demands that we be brought in. So He took the initiative and sent His Son into the world so that we might live. “Beloved, if God has loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another."

What does the Bible really say about Jesus? In Colossians 1.15-23, Paul magnifies Christ by placing Him at the center of all things. Much more than just a miracle worker, Jesus is the one who created all things. More than just a human who points us to our redeemer, Jesus himself is God who redeems us. More than a moral teacher, God makes peace with us--his enemies--because of and by the death of Jesus Christ.

This week we read as John warns the church about the false teachers who might rise up to deceive them. Many in John's day and in our modern world preach in the name of Jesus—but how are we to know who to believe and who to trust? How do we know if a teacher, messenger, or pastor is from God? John gives his people two tests, centered on Jesus. The “Jesus Tests” help us to know whether someone teaching us is in line with God's truth. Many of us have our own tests that we have created over a lifetime of listening to Christian teaching, radio, music, and church services. John centers his test on the truth of Christ. We know that we are of God—and that those we listen to are from God—when the truth of Jesus Christ is made clear in our lives in both word and deed. All other tests might fail to truly show what is behind the scenes, but as John says, “every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.” Live by the Spirit, and you will confess Jesus Christ in word and deed.