Podcast appearances and mentions of dale bruner

The word for today is: Pruning. In today's episode, John Ortberg invites us into a deep and honest reflection on what it means to live with an untroubled heart—even in a troubled world. Joined by Susie Lipps, he explores Jesus' words from John 15: “I am the true vine… and my Father is the gardener.” Together, they unpack the spiritual practice and painful beauty of pruning—how God lovingly cuts away what is unnecessary so we can bear real, lasting fruit. With wisdom from C.S. Lewis, Dale Bruner, and ancient voices like Irenaeus, this teaching reframes hardship, loss, and frustration as invitations to deeper growth. Whether it's traffic delays or soul-level disappointment, this episode will help you see where God may be shaping you through it all.Join the conversation in our FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1CnqywVp9s/Become New is here to help you grow spiritually one day at a time.John's new book STEPS is out! Check it out here: https://becomenew.com/steps/Want to work the steps with a friend or small group? Visit: DoTheSteps.com

This Sunday we'll turn to the next beatitude, “Blessed are the meek…” 9/15/24 Sermon Sources: - "What does righteousness mean?" Become New Podcast, Jan 23, 2024 - Rowan Williams, Passions of the Soul - John Stott, The Sermon on the Mount, Bible Speaks Today commentary - Dale Bruner, Commentary on the Book of Matthew, volume 1

This Sunday we'll turn to the next beatitude, “Blessed are the meek…” 9/8/24 Sermon Sources: - Opening illustration from Greg Thompson, "A Community of Meekness," preached at Trinity Presbyterian Church. - Rowan Williams, Passions of the Soul - John Stott, The Sermon on the Mount, Bible Speaks Today commentary - Dale Bruner, Commentary on the Book of Matthew, volume 1

This week we'll continue to explore the upside-down Kingdom of Jesus through the lens of the beatitudes. This Sunday we'll look at the second beatitude, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” 9/1/24 Sermon Sources: - Sermon outline was used with permission from Robert Cunningham. See Robert Cunningham, "A Community of Lament." Sermon preached at Trinity Presbyterian Church, 6/14/2020 - Nicholas Wolterstorff, Lament for a Son - Francis Weller, The Wild Edge of Sorrow - Rowan Williams, Passions of the Soul - John Stott, The Sermon on the Mount, Bible Speaks Today commentary - Dale Bruner, Commentary on the Book of Matthew, volume 1 - "The Guest House," by Jallaludin Rumi.

·      Matthew 17:14-20 14 And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and, kneeling before him, 15 said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he has seizures and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. 16 And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” 17 And Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.” 18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly. 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” 20 He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” ·       “adynatos” [ad-oo'-nat-os] - ability/inablity or power/lack of power ·       Matthew 17:14-17 14 And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and, kneeling before him, 15 said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he has seizures and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. 16 And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” 17 And Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.” ·       Everyone in this story lacked faith. ·       The last time you faced a crisis… Were you faithful or faithless? ·       Do we sometimes place our faith in the church or in disciples rather than in their Lord and so show our real faith is in creatures rather than Creator, who alone is blessed? – Dale Bruner ·       Matthew 17:18-20 18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly. 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” 20 He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” ·       Where in your life are you asking God why am I not able to____? ·       How do we fight our lack of Faith? ·       “he is saying that whatever little faith they were trying to have to heal this boy, it was the wrong kind of faith.  It was not just the wrong size of faith, because size is not the issue anymore.  It's the wrong kind.” - John Piper ·       They had the wrong view of faith. ·       1 John 5:14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. ·       Where is my belief? ·       Prayer ·       “Prayerlessness is Powerlessness” ·       Mark 9:24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” LIFE GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS Starter Question: When is a moment where you may have had a wrong view of Faith?  1.      Read Matthew 17:14-20 2.      Put yourself in the shoes of the disciples – Why do you think they were perplexed? 3.      When is the last time something didn't workout because you were trusting in your ability to do something over God's? 4.      What is something impossible, that you need to lean into prayer with? 5.      What distracts you from wanting to fully trust God with these things? 6.      What prayer do you need to pray after today's message?

Reflecting on the passages that we read/listened together on Good Friday. Just some train of thought reflections on the passion narrative on Friday. Of course, with some quotes from F. Dale Bruner. Let me know what stood out to you from those passages, too :) --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/citychapelgr/support

Recorded on Sunday, March 17, 2024. Other scripture cited: Isaiah 53:3; Hebrews 2:14-18.Support the show

Listen along as Anthony continues our series through the hard sayings of Jesus. Notes//Quotes: Kim reading Matthew 23:25-27 1–3  “…The religion scholars and Pharisees are competent teachers in God's Law. You won't go wrong in following their teachings on Moses. But be careful about following them. They talk a good line, but they don't live it. They don't take it into their hearts and live it out in their behavior. It's all spit-and-polish veneer. 4–7  “Instead of giving you God's Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals. They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn't think of lifting a finger to help. Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting called ‘Doctor' and ‘Reverend.' 8–10  “Don't let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal like that. You all have a single Teacher, and you are all classmates. Don't set people up as experts over your life, letting them tell you what to do. Save that authority for God; let him tell you what to do. No one else should carry the title of ‘Father'; you have only one Father, and he's in heaven. And don't let people maneuver you into taking charge of them. There is only one Life-Leader for you and them—Christ. 11–12  “Do you want to stand out? Then step down. Be a servant. If you puff yourself up, you'll get the wind knocked out of you. But if you're content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.   (Matthew 23:1-12 MSG) “In what way does my own faith and life embody & give a credible alternative to the things I criticize & condemn in others? The gap between what I criticize in others & fail to embody myself is the root of hypocrisy. Criticism is cheap, discipleship is costly.”       — Jon Tyson “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not  consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.”  (Philippians 3:12–15 ESV) “The church that listens to this indictment with good faith will remove from her midst the showy and pretentious; disciples who listen with good faith will question culture's and their own carnal megalomania, successism, and title hunger.” —Dale Bruner  

Matthew 6:5-8. “Many words is not the mediator. Jesus is.” -Dale Bruner

Listen along as we look at Matthew 19 and look at Jesus' interaction with the rich young ruler. Notes//Quotes: Matthew 19:16-30 - Faith “It is wrong if eternal life is an additional “acquisition,” if one wants the spiritual as a complement to all the other good things one has—physical, financial, social, and the like. “I am a successful businessman, a good father, and respected in my community; now I want to be a success with God as well.” Service clubs sometimes seek such well-roundedness in their members, but the idea of eternal life as the acquisition of an upwardly mobile person is offensive to Jesus. Eternal life is not spiritual real estate for a person on the make.”  — Dale Bruner  “It is not difficult in such a world to get a person interested in the message of the gospel; it is terrifically difficult to sustain the interest. Millions of people in our culture make decisions for Christ, but there is a dreadful attrition rate. Many claim to have been born again, but the evidence for mature Christian discipleship is slim. In our kind of culture, anything, even news about God, can be sold if it is packaged freshly; but when it loses its novelty, it goes on the garbage heap. There is a great market for religious experience in our world; there is a little enthusiasm for the patient acquisition of virtue, little inclination to sign up for a long apprenticeship in what earlier generations of Christians called holiness…Everyone is in a hurry. The persons whom I lead in worship, among whom I counsel, visit, pray, preach, and teach, want short cuts. They want me to help them fill out the form that will get them instant credit (in eternity). They are impatient for results. They have adopted the lifestyle of a tourist and only want the high points. But a pastor is not a tour guide. I have no interest in telling apocryphal religious stories at and around dubiously identified sacred sites. The Christian life cannot mature under such conditions and in such ways.  —Eugene Peterson  “Americans profoundly underestimate how rich they are compared to the rest of the world. The average U.S. resident estimated that the global median individual income is about $20,000 a year. In fact, the real answer is about a tenth of that figure: roughly $2,100 per year….What explains these misperceptions? Human beings draw heavily on their own local, lived experience to make judgments about the wider world. As individuals' own incomes rise, and therefore the incomes of those around them, so too do their overestimates of the global median income.”   — Gautam Nair, PhD political science at Yale University Questions: 1. Do I think that God has a price? Am I transactional with Him? 2. Am I attempting to speed God up? 3. If God were to ask me for __________ could I and would I give it to Him? 4. Am I generous with my wealth and what percentage of it goes to Kingdom priorities  

An audio meditation in John's Gospel, chapter 1, verses 19-28. As an undergrad at Whitworth College, I took a class in John's Gospel with F. Dale Bruner. I vividly recall Dale opening each session by translating the text into … Continue reading "The Lamb and the Dove" The post The Lamb and the Dove appeared first on .

21 Days of Focus: Restoring Rhythm2. Work, Rest and Restoring Identity Dan Bidwell, Senior Pastor 15 January 2023 Intro: Whats in the box? A member of church gave me this book early last year. Half Time by Bob Buford. A book by a Christian business man about how to make the most of the second half of your life. Bob Buford was a TV station owner from the early days of television. He was wildly successful from a business perspective. But somewhere around the middle of his life, he got to a point in his career where he asked himself: Is this all there is? And so in the book, he describes this pivotal conversation with his business mentor. His mentor, Mike Kami, had been a strategic planner with IBM and Xerox in the early days, and went to consult at Coca Cola a heavy hitter. And an atheist. And Buford finds himself asking his mentor: (quote on handout) What should I do? How could I be most useful? Where should I invest my own talents, time and treasure? What are the values that give purpose to my life? What is the overarching vision that shapes me? Who am I? Where am I? Where am I going? How do I get there? In this blizzard of wonderment, Mike Kami asked me a simple and penetrating question: Whats in the box? If you had to decide THE one thing thats the most important part of your life, the one non-negotiable, the puzzle piece that everything else is built off, the thing that defines and motivates you, what would it be? Whats in the box? Thats what were going to be thinking about today as we open the Bible. So why dont we pray and ask God to give us wisdom. Our heavenly Father, we pray today that you would give us clarity and focus as we think about what the most important thing in our life is. Give us wisdom as we read your word, and keep transforming us into the image of Christ. In his life-giving name we pray, Amen. Well we are in the middle of our 21 Days of Focus something we do every January to help us refocus our faith at the beginning of the New Year. This year were calling the series Restoring Rhythm how to find balance in a busy world. We started last week with the premise that, as a society, we have a busyness problem. Two cardiologists Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman have labeled our busyness problem as "hurry sickness." They noticed their patients in this continuous struggle [] to accomplish or achieve more and more things or participate in more and more events in less and less time." Taken to the extreme, hurry sickness can cause real health issues. But most of us dont even notice it happening to us, because busyness is such a normal part of modern life. Its the air we breathe. But its not how life is meant to be. Jesus said: 28 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (Matthew 11:28-29) Commentator F. Dale Bruner said that the rest Jesus is offering us is not a vacation or a mattress to lie down on. Jesus offers us equipment, a new way to carry life so that our work and our rest are part of a life-giving rhythm. So today I want to share the first piece of equipment that Jesus gives to help us restore rhythm, and to find balance in a busy world. And that equipment is to restore our understanding of work, rest and identity (because theyre all tied up together). 1. Order and Disorder To restore a right understanding of work, rest and identity, we need to go back to Creation. At creation, God made humans in his image. And he gave us a role to play bringing order to creation. God gave Adam and Eve a job: to rule over creation; to subdue it; and to fill it. They were to bring shape and creativity to the world. This is the original pattern for work. Work was good and purposeful and life-affirming. That was day 6 of creation. Then on Day 7 God rested from his work of creation. And he commanded all of creation to do likewise. Gods deliberate act of stopping, and resting, shows us that in his world, there is balance between work and rest. Both work and rest are part of the goodness of creation. Work is good. And rest is good. Together work and rest are how Gods people are to experience the fullness of life and purpose in Gods good creation. But once we get to chapter 3 of Genesis, we see a big disruption when sin enters the world, a big upheaval. Sin takes the good order of creation and turns it into disorder. That leaves us experiencing a disordered pattern of work and rest. Work is often fraught, and rest is not so restful. This is the result of the curse in Genesis 3: God says because of sin, we will have thorns and thistles in our work. Work will not always be life-giving and purpose-affirming. It will not always be good. Our work life may be filled with trouble. Thats not the only trouble that comes as a result of the curse. - Sin creates trouble in good things such as parenting and childbirth. - Sin creates trouble in human relationships. The man and the woman now fight with one another, and that spreads into every human relationship. Sin brings upheaval to the good order of creation; and everything good is brought into disorder. Sins corruption makes its way into every corner of creation, every corner of society. And ultimately, into every corner of our own hearts and desires and dreams. This is an important theological idea to understand. Because sometimes we dont recognize the disorder. The messiness just seems normal to us. Weve grown up with it and its just what we expect from the world. Like the two fish who were swimming in the ocean. And one fish says to the other, The waters lovely today! And the other fish says, Whats water? Sometimes we get so used to the way things are, that we forget that things are not the way they are supposed to be. Disorder is not how our lives are meant to be. And thats where the Christian message is such good news. The gospel of Jesus is all about restoring order to a world disordered by sin. Its all about undoing the curse of sin, and helping us to recover the purpose we were created for. So thats the first big point: we need to recognize the disorder that sin brings to life, so that we can start to allow Jesus to re-order us 2. Disordered Identity Theres a new documentary on Netflix about the lives of tennis players. The first episode is all about Nick Kyrgios, an Australian player who has been hailed the greatest talent of his generation. Hes one of only a handful of players to have beaten the Big 3 Federer, Djokovic and Nadal and he beat each of them the first time they played together. Kyrgios is a major talent, but he has never really achieved at the highest levels. Hes just too volatile. So you watch Kyrgios play, and sometimes he plays with absolute confidence, hits trick shots, get the crowd behind him. Kyrgios is one of the best players in the world when hes on. But then other times its like somebody flicks a switch, and he gets inside his own head. He starts to yell and curse and he implodes. Its like his whole identity depends on whether he is winning or losing. I think we often share that same disordered thinking when it comes to our identity. Particularly because our identity is often tied to our work. Our society often equates a persons work with their value or status as a person. The higher paying the job, the higher the prestige and personal value we assign to that person. Or the more public a role, the more kudos and status they receive. It also means that we assign less value to those in lowlier paid positions. We assign them less value as humans because in our society, personal value is tied up with work. And so is our identity. When we meet someone for the first time, we ask them: What do you do for a living? And whether we mean to or not, we assign them value as a person based on how they respond. We equate their identity with what they do. And we do the same for ourselves. When our identity is tied up with our work, then its good when were winning. But what if were not? What happens when we retire? If our identity is tied up with our work, then its like we lose a part of our identity, or were somehow lesser of a person. I talked about this on Tuesday at our Hymns and Communion service, the idea that when we retire, the world often looks at us differently because they dont know who we used to be. They dont know what we used to do. They dont see the former football player, the former head of a department, the former mom to six children. Nobody sees that. They just see a person of advancing years, and sadly, we assign them less value as people because they no longer have a job. Do you see the disorder with that way of thinking? It has implications for the way we think about people with dementia, or diminished mental abilities. We bind personal value and identity to the ability to produce. No wonder we have hurry sickness. No wonder we cant rest. Because if we stop, then what happens to our identity? What happens to our value as a person? This is the water we swim in everyday, but were like the fish that has never heard of water. So often we dont even recognize the disordered way of thinking that is so normalized in our world... 3. Restoring Identity So how do we fix our disordered thinking? How do we restore the right understanding of our identity, so that we can restore healthy rhythms of work and rest? I think thats the yoke that Jesus offers tools to retrain our thinking so that we see the world through his eyes. The answer starts in creation. First we need to remind ourselves that our identity is not derived from our work, but from our status as a beloved child of God. The creation story reminds us that we are each created in the image of God. And that means our innate value and worth as a person is not derived from what we produce in this world, but who produced us. We are loved because of who God made us, not what we have made of ourselves. And when we look at how Jesus treated the people he met, we see that principle in practice. Jesus loved everybody who came to him: the rich and the poor, women and children, the sick, the disabled, the outcast. Jesus offered them all equal dignity, regardless of social status. Their worth in his eyes had nothing to do with their earthly achievements. And the same is true when it comes to salvation. We are not saved because of our work, or our righteous acts, or the roles we played in a church. Salvation is the gift of God! And it is due solely to his love for us, and his merciful grace to pardon our sins through faith in Christ. We can learn a lot by looking at the way Jesus went about in the world. Like I said last week, Jesus is not just the truth, but the way and the life. We need to learn from him. Because Christ comes to restore order to a world disordered by sin. He comes to restore right thinking, and to renew our whole approach to the world as he removes the distorting effects of sin from our lives. He comes to make us a new creation, as it says in 2 Corinthians 5:17. If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! (2 Corinthians 5:17) When our kids were little, we used to take them to a park that had funny mirrors. You know the sort of mirrors that make you look tall, or short, or fat, or skinny. Theyre great fun. But theyre all a distortion of reality. But when Christ recreates us, its like looking in a regular mirror for the first time. We start to see (understand/realize) that all the other mirrors were distorted, they all emphasized the wrong things, they all gave us the wrong perspective on the world. But now in Christ you can see clearly for the first time. And thats one of the ways that Jesus brings us rest. By giving us a renewed mind, and restored thinking (1 Corinthians 2:16). When we are weary of all the comparison, when were burdened from the pressure of the performance treadmill, when were exhausted from trying to create our own identity and legacy through our achievements, Jesus says: Come to me and Ill show you a better way. Come and Ill show you a new way to work and rest that is life-giving, and purposeful. I find it very freeing when the Apostle Paul says essentially that it doesnt matter what we do in life. What matters is how we do it: Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:17) Paul wants us to do whatever we do for the glory of Jesus. In Ephesians, he tells us that we have been created in Christ to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. God is part of your story, and whatever season of life you are in, you can work (and rest) to the glory of Jesus. You can do whatever your work is in a way that serves Jesus, and honors him. Whether youre in a corporate job, or in a hospital, whether youre retired or looking after a home, the way you work helps to bring Gods kingdom in whatever realm God has placed you in. ~ Come back to Bob Buford, the TV exec from the beginning of the sermon. He finds himself in this conversation with his atheist business mentor. Hes midway through a very successful career, but wondering how to make the most of the rest of his life. What should I do? How could I be most useful? Where should I invest my own talents, time and treasure? What are the values that give purpose to my life? What is the overarching vision that shapes me? Who am I? Where am I? Where am I going? How do I get there? In this blizzard of wonderment, Mike Kami asked me a simple and penetrating question: Whats in the box? What is the most important thing in your life? What is it that drives your identity, your hopes, your dreams? Where do you find meaning and purpose in life? And how do you know youve succeeded at life? Whats in the box? For Buford, he decided that he wanted to put Jesus in the box at the center of his life. He had a moment of clarity where he realized that all the business success, it meant nothing if it pushed Jesus into the background, if it pushed Jesus out of his life altogether. He had a moment of clarity that changed everything. What about you? What is in the box?

21 Days of Focus: Restoring Rhythm2. Work, Rest and Restoring Identity Dan Bidwell, Senior Pastor 15 January 2023 Intro: Whats in the box? A member of church gave me this book early last year. Half Time by Bob Buford. A book by a Christian business man about how to make the most of the second half of your life. Bob Buford was a TV station owner from the early days of television. He was wildly successful from a business perspective. But somewhere around the middle of his life, he got to a point in his career where he asked himself: Is this all there is? And so in the book, he describes this pivotal conversation with his business mentor. His mentor, Mike Kami, had been a strategic planner with IBM and Xerox in the early days, and went to consult at Coca Cola a heavy hitter. And an atheist. And Buford finds himself asking his mentor: (quote on handout) What should I do? How could I be most useful? Where should I invest my own talents, time and treasure? What are the values that give purpose to my life? What is the overarching vision that shapes me? Who am I? Where am I? Where am I going? How do I get there? In this blizzard of wonderment, Mike Kami asked me a simple and penetrating question: Whats in the box? If you had to decide THE one thing thats the most important part of your life, the one non-negotiable, the puzzle piece that everything else is built off, the thing that defines and motivates you, what would it be? Whats in the box? Thats what were going to be thinking about today as we open the Bible. So why dont we pray and ask God to give us wisdom. Our heavenly Father, we pray today that you would give us clarity and focus as we think about what the most important thing in our life is. Give us wisdom as we read your word, and keep transforming us into the image of Christ. In his life-giving name we pray, Amen. Well we are in the middle of our 21 Days of Focus something we do every January to help us refocus our faith at the beginning of the New Year. This year were calling the series Restoring Rhythm how to find balance in a busy world. We started last week with the premise that, as a society, we have a busyness problem. Two cardiologists Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman have labeled our busyness problem as "hurry sickness." They noticed their patients in this continuous struggle [] to accomplish or achieve more and more things or participate in more and more events in less and less time." Taken to the extreme, hurry sickness can cause real health issues. But most of us dont even notice it happening to us, because busyness is such a normal part of modern life. Its the air we breathe. But its not how life is meant to be. Jesus said: 28 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (Matthew 11:28-29) Commentator F. Dale Bruner said that the rest Jesus is offering us is not a vacation or a mattress to lie down on. Jesus offers us equipment, a new way to carry life so that our work and our rest are part of a life-giving rhythm. So today I want to share the first piece of equipment that Jesus gives to help us restore rhythm, and to find balance in a busy world. And that equipment is to restore our understanding of work, rest and identity (because theyre all tied up together). 1. Order and Disorder To restore a right understanding of work, rest and identity, we need to go back to Creation. At creation, God made humans in his image. And he gave us a role to play bringing order to creation. God gave Adam and Eve a job: to rule over creation; to subdue it; and to fill it. They were to bring shape and creativity to the world. This is the original pattern for work. Work was good and purposeful and life-affirming. That was day 6 of creation. Then on Day 7 God rested from his work of creation. And he commanded all of creation to do likewise. Gods deliberate act of stopping, and resting, shows us that in his world, there is balance between work and rest. Both work and rest are part of the goodness of creation. Work is good. And rest is good. Together work and rest are how Gods people are to experience the fullness of life and purpose in Gods good creation. But once we get to chapter 3 of Genesis, we see a big disruption when sin enters the world, a big upheaval. Sin takes the good order of creation and turns it into disorder. That leaves us experiencing a disordered pattern of work and rest. Work is often fraught, and rest is not so restful. This is the result of the curse in Genesis 3: God says because of sin, we will have thorns and thistles in our work. Work will not always be life-giving and purpose-affirming. It will not always be good. Our work life may be filled with trouble. Thats not the only trouble that comes as a result of the curse. - Sin creates trouble in good things such as parenting and childbirth. - Sin creates trouble in human relationships. The man and the woman now fight with one another, and that spreads into every human relationship. Sin brings upheaval to the good order of creation; and everything good is brought into disorder. Sins corruption makes its way into every corner of creation, every corner of society. And ultimately, into every corner of our own hearts and desires and dreams. This is an important theological idea to understand. Because sometimes we dont recognize the disorder. The messiness just seems normal to us. Weve grown up with it and its just what we expect from the world. Like the two fish who were swimming in the ocean. And one fish says to the other, The waters lovely today! And the other fish says, Whats water? Sometimes we get so used to the way things are, that we forget that things are not the way they are supposed to be. Disorder is not how our lives are meant to be. And thats where the Christian message is such good news. The gospel of Jesus is all about restoring order to a world disordered by sin. Its all about undoing the curse of sin, and helping us to recover the purpose we were created for. So thats the first big point: we need to recognize the disorder that sin brings to life, so that we can start to allow Jesus to re-order us 2. Disordered Identity Theres a new documentary on Netflix about the lives of tennis players. The first episode is all about Nick Kyrgios, an Australian player who has been hailed the greatest talent of his generation. Hes one of only a handful of players to have beaten the Big 3 Federer, Djokovic and Nadal and he beat each of them the first time they played together. Kyrgios is a major talent, but he has never really achieved at the highest levels. Hes just too volatile. So you watch Kyrgios play, and sometimes he plays with absolute confidence, hits trick shots, get the crowd behind him. Kyrgios is one of the best players in the world when hes on. But then other times its like somebody flicks a switch, and he gets inside his own head. He starts to yell and curse and he implodes. Its like his whole identity depends on whether he is winning or losing. I think we often share that same disordered thinking when it comes to our identity. Particularly because our identity is often tied to our work. Our society often equates a persons work with their value or status as a person. The higher paying the job, the higher the prestige and personal value we assign to that person. Or the more public a role, the more kudos and status they receive. It also means that we assign less value to those in lowlier paid positions. We assign them less value as humans because in our society, personal value is tied up with work. And so is our identity. When we meet someone for the first time, we ask them: What do you do for a living? And whether we mean to or not, we assign them value as a person based on how they respond. We equate their identity with what they do. And we do the same for ourselves. When our identity is tied up with our work, then its good when were winning. But what if were not? What happens when we retire? If our identity is tied up with our work, then its like we lose a part of our identity, or were somehow lesser of a person. I talked about this on Tuesday at our Hymns and Communion service, the idea that when we retire, the world often looks at us differently because they dont know who we used to be. They dont know what we used to do. They dont see the former football player, the former head of a department, the former mom to six children. Nobody sees that. They just see a person of advancing years, and sadly, we assign them less value as people because they no longer have a job. Do you see the disorder with that way of thinking? It has implications for the way we think about people with dementia, or diminished mental abilities. We bind personal value and identity to the ability to produce. No wonder we have hurry sickness. No wonder we cant rest. Because if we stop, then what happens to our identity? What happens to our value as a person? This is the water we swim in everyday, but were like the fish that has never heard of water. So often we dont even recognize the disordered way of thinking that is so normalized in our world... 3. Restoring Identity So how do we fix our disordered thinking? How do we restore the right understanding of our identity, so that we can restore healthy rhythms of work and rest? I think thats the yoke that Jesus offers tools to retrain our thinking so that we see the world through his eyes. The answer starts in creation. First we need to remind ourselves that our identity is not derived from our work, but from our status as a beloved child of God. The creation story reminds us that we are each created in the image of God. And that means our innate value and worth as a person is not derived from what we produce in this world, but who produced us. We are loved because of who God made us, not what we have made of ourselves. And when we look at how Jesus treated the people he met, we see that principle in practice. Jesus loved everybody who came to him: the rich and the poor, women and children, the sick, the disabled, the outcast. Jesus offered them all equal dignity, regardless of social status. Their worth in his eyes had nothing to do with their earthly achievements. And the same is true when it comes to salvation. We are not saved because of our work, or our righteous acts, or the roles we played in a church. Salvation is the gift of God! And it is due solely to his love for us, and his merciful grace to pardon our sins through faith in Christ. We can learn a lot by looking at the way Jesus went about in the world. Like I said last week, Jesus is not just the truth, but the way and the life. We need to learn from him. Because Christ comes to restore order to a world disordered by sin. He comes to restore right thinking, and to renew our whole approach to the world as he removes the distorting effects of sin from our lives. He comes to make us a new creation, as it says in 2 Corinthians 5:17. If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! (2 Corinthians 5:17) When our kids were little, we used to take them to a park that had funny mirrors. You know the sort of mirrors that make you look tall, or short, or fat, or skinny. Theyre great fun. But theyre all a distortion of reality. But when Christ recreates us, its like looking in a regular mirror for the first time. We start to see (understand/realize) that all the other mirrors were distorted, they all emphasized the wrong things, they all gave us the wrong perspective on the world. But now in Christ you can see clearly for the first time. And thats one of the ways that Jesus brings us rest. By giving us a renewed mind, and restored thinking (1 Corinthians 2:16). When we are weary of all the comparison, when were burdened from the pressure of the performance treadmill, when were exhausted from trying to create our own identity and legacy through our achievements, Jesus says: Come to me and Ill show you a better way. Come and Ill show you a new way to work and rest that is life-giving, and purposeful. I find it very freeing when the Apostle Paul says essentially that it doesnt matter what we do in life. What matters is how we do it: Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:17) Paul wants us to do whatever we do for the glory of Jesus. In Ephesians, he tells us that we have been created in Christ to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. God is part of your story, and whatever season of life you are in, you can work (and rest) to the glory of Jesus. You can do whatever your work is in a way that serves Jesus, and honors him. Whether youre in a corporate job, or in a hospital, whether youre retired or looking after a home, the way you work helps to bring Gods kingdom in whatever realm God has placed you in. ~ Come back to Bob Buford, the TV exec from the beginning of the sermon. He finds himself in this conversation with his atheist business mentor. Hes midway through a very successful career, but wondering how to make the most of the rest of his life. What should I do? How could I be most useful? Where should I invest my own talents, time and treasure? What are the values that give purpose to my life? What is the overarching vision that shapes me? Who am I? Where am I? Where am I going? How do I get there? In this blizzard of wonderment, Mike Kami asked me a simple and penetrating question: Whats in the box? What is the most important thing in your life? What is it that drives your identity, your hopes, your dreams? Where do you find meaning and purpose in life? And how do you know youve succeeded at life? Whats in the box? For Buford, he decided that he wanted to put Jesus in the box at the center of his life. He had a moment of clarity where he realized that all the business success, it meant nothing if it pushed Jesus into the background, if it pushed Jesus out of his life altogether. He had a moment of clarity that changed everything. What about you? What is in the box?

What do a list of strange names in an ancient document mean to us today? As it turns out, a lot... Watch as Pastor Clint explores the genealogy of Jesus and how this seemingly random collection of people actually communicates central themes about the whole of the Gospel message. Sermon Resources: 1. “One gets the impression that Matthew pored over his OT until he could locate the most questionable liaisons possible in order to insert them into his record.” -F. Dale Bruner, Commentary on Matthew Join us below: Facebook: www.facebook.com/midtownpreschurch Instagram: www.instagram.com/midtown.pres Website: www.midtownpres.org Community Groups: www.midtownpres.org/community-groups Sunday Services: www.midtownpres.org

New Testament scholar Dale Bruner calls Romans 7 the single most difficult chapter to interpret in the book of Romans. The claims Paul makes seem puzzling. Why does he suggest that he is still held captive by sin and unable to resist its influence? In this session, we explore what Paul truly means.

Morgan preached from Matthew 2 today.  Morgan started with the story of John Graham Burge, an American police detective for the Chicago police department who was found guilty of having "directly participated in or implicitly approved the torture" of at least 118 people in police custody in order to force false confessions.  He was later convicted, but this is a very real event from our time where a man took advantage of his authority.  Our history has many examples of where this has happened.  Abuse of power is a very real thing.  Power can become the weapon of the insecure.  With great power comes great responsibility.  In today's world, many don't handle power well.  We are always looking for control.  Power infused with insecurity creates a real threat.  From Matthew 2, we see all of this with King Herod.     Morgan titled his talk today "A Tale of Two Kings"; Herod, who inherited his power, and Jesus, the only King.   We looked at Herod, Jesus and the Magi from the East.   I know in the past, I have read this as "The Christmas Story" and never really dug into it like we did today.   Let's start with King Herod.  When the Magi came looking for the new king, Herod was deeply disturbed.  He was a paranoid, unstable man who had 3 of his sons killed and his wife killed.  He was terrified of this new baby that was born who some were saying was a king.  When your power is threatened, you can do unthinkable things.   Does a little of King Herod live in all of us?  Do we sometimes hate, feel jealous and try to take control of our lives and call all the shots?  Do we have 2 kings at war within us?  When we act like King Herod, are we jockeying for power in our own lives?  What is it in your own life, that you can't let go of?  Jesus can rescue us from our own insecurity.   Dale Bruner said it best.  "Herod is not dead; Herod lives on in us, the people of God.  The exaggerated ambitions, pretensions, self-centeredness, greed for position, grudge against God, guile (craftiness), and finally human cruelty and insensitivity-the fruit of our war with God-must be contented with even by Christians until the Last Judgement.  There are two kings at war in the world and in all of us- Herod and Christ.  We know who will win, but meanwhile the battle rages .  Herod is here in the scripture partly as a warning to the Christian reader of who he or she, in no little measure, still is."   Herod knows he has been tricked.  He is fearful so he puts fear into everyone by ordering all boys under age 2 in the area killed.  Can you hear the mama's cries?  This is systemic injustice at it's finest.  Do you think the people wondered where God was and how this could happen?  We live in a fallen world just like they did back in this time.  Pain and suffering are all around us and yet God is still working.  It's so hard to live life in the present and be attentive to what God is doing even in the midst of pain and suffering.   We do know of 1 little boy who survived the massacre and he saved the world.  All this takes place to fulfill the scriptures.   Then we looked at the Magi from the East.  They came with excitement looking for the new King.  They were from Babylon which is Iraq today.  This is the first encounter Jesus has with ethnic outsiders.  Magi's where despised.  They were pagan astrologers with great wealth.  This is a perfect example of God's grace and kindness drawing ethnic outsiders to him.  They are on a long journey that is not convenient, and not safe.  And still, the Magi were full of joy searching for the truth.  When they found him, they bowed down and worshipped him.  Matthew 28:17.  This is our purpose.  WE are to be worshippers of Jesus.  We are to lay our best at his feet.  Matthew 2:12 talks about how the Magi were warned to go home a different way and not back to Herod.  They also went "another way" because they were transformed.  This is discipleship.  Another interesting point from today.....after this point in Matthew, Herod is only referred to as Herod and not King Herod.   We wrapped up by looking at Jesus our refugee King.  When you think about it, the first Christmas is terrifying.  There was a teen pregnancy that could have been punishable by death, Joseph had to flee to Egypt with his family, they had to protect Jesus from being killed by Herod's order, and they became refugees in a foreign land.  JESUS IS the immigrant story!  How we treat immigrants matters to God.   In verses 19-20 we look at after Herod died.  Joseph, Mary and Jesus were headed back to Israel when they detoured to Galilee and ended up in Nazareth.  Nazareth isn't even mentioned in the old testament.  It was an insignificant, small town.  This is also a part of the story of Jesus.  As Morgan said, "Jesus came from the hood."  Jesus was a refugee, on the run who ended up in a Podunk town.  This also fulfilled the scriptures.  The humble way Jesus came to be matters.   We should us this to shape our discipleship and behavior.   Matthew is also telling us that we cannot have a neutral response to Jesus.  Jesus cannot sit in the passenger seat of our lives.  Who will you model your life after?  What do you need to let go of and let God take over.  

We live in a world that is more sexually liberated than ever, where our personal sexual desires and encouraged and a multitude of structures exist to help us pursue what we feel when we feel it. Yet, according to multiple studies from Pew Research, Americans are less relationally satisfied than they've ever been, and are actually opting to have less sex than they have in decades. As it turns out, the liberated hookup culture of our world has not provided us the freedom we've longed for. So what can we do in a world such as this? Listen as Pastor Clint explores Jesus' words on sexual intimacy, and how He charts a path towards life, healing, and wholeness in a world full of relational brokenness. Sermon Resources: 1. Washington Post and New York Times articles calling for a new sexual ethic: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/17/sex-ethics-rethinking-consent-culture/ https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/07/opinion/sex-consent-dating-boundaries.html 2. Pew Research and CNN studies citing an unprecedented lack of relational satisfaction: https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/08/20/nearly-half-of-u-s-adults-say-dating-has-gotten-harder-for-most-people-in-the-last-10-years/ https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/14/health/valentines-day-love-marriage-relationships-wellness/index.html?utm_source=pocket_mylist 3. “The culture flows from the assumption that the accumulation of commodities will make us safe and happy.” -Walter Brueggemann, "An Other Kingdom" 4. “Desperate cuts require desperate cures.” -F. Dale Bruner, "Commentary on Matthew" Join or follow us below: Facebook: www.facebook.com/midtownpreschurch Instagram: www.instagram.com/midtown.pres/ Website: www.midtownpres.org/ Community Groups: www.midtownpres.org/community-groups Sunday Services: www.midtownpres.org/

Frederick Dale Bruner is a theologian and author of several works, including "A Theology of the Holy Spirit," his multi-volumed commentaries on the Gospels of Matthew and John and most recently a shorter commentary on the Letter to the Romans (all published by Eerdmans) . Dr Bruner has received degrees from Princeton and the University of Hamburg and brings his deep learning into every page that he writes and each Sunday School that he teaches. He discusses the difference between the giving and taking of classroom instruction and the pastoral proclamation of preaching, as well as his ongoing efforts towards fluency in Hebrew as he works on his upcoming book on Isaiah 53. His writing is well-researched, historically informed, and displays a genuine love for the church, and a heart-felt devotion to our Lord Jesus Christ. This conversation includes additional contributions from his wife Kathy! Recommended Resources: LA Times biography on Dale and his son Michael: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-apr-13-me-bruners13-story.html Matthew: https://www.eerdmans.com/Products/4507/matthew.aspx John: https://www.eerdmans.com/Mobile/Products/6635/The-Gospel-of-John.aspxRomans: https://www.eerdmans.com/Mobile/Products/7943/The-Letter-to-the-Romans.aspxJoin our private Facebook group to continue the conversation: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ExpositorsCollectiveThe Expositors Collective podcast is part of the GoodLion podcast network, for more thought provoking Christian podcasts visit https://goodlion.io

To Fear or Fear Not Matthew 28:1-10 · Does your fear ever keep you from the miracle of the resurrection? · Matthew 28:1-4 - After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.2 There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4 The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. · How devoted are you to Jesus? · Our first reaction to losing control is to be afraid. · The message of the resurrection cannot be heard where there is fear. – Dale Bruner. · God will not force faith on you · 5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you.” · 1 John 4:18 - There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. · When the resurrection power of Jesus touches your life, a mission comes with it: Go tell · 8 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. · 9 Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet, and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” · Let the joy of resurrection trample your fear. · The resurrection means fear doesn't have to rule your life · Their failures had not changed the relationship; his death and resurrection has. · The disciples need to know they are still followers after their failures. · Heavenly Father, I give my fear to you. Let me experience the miracle of the resurrection.

All of us have a vision statement--a guiding principle around which we orient our lives. Dale Bruner says, “The lamp of one's life is one's goal; if your goal is sound, your whole life will be luminous. But if your goal is wrong, your whole life will be darkness.” Today, we look at the goals that control us and ask the question: "What would it look like to have them oriented around the Kingdom?"Support the show (https://www.hopechurchnashville.com/give)

Final Hours: Betrayal Matthew 26:36-46 • Matthew 26: 36 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” • The Emotions of Jesus. • 1 Peter 2:24 - 24 “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed • Matthew 27:46 “…My God, my God, Why have you forsaken me.” • My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. • Matthew 26: 39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” • 40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn't you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. 41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 42 He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” 43 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. 44 So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing. • “…if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me…” • Matthew 26:27-28 – They he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, ”Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant , which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” • The Struggle of Jesus. • “Yet not as I will, but as you will • “My father…” • You will not learn to trust God until you trust God. • “Heavenly Father, show me where you are work • “In this prayer, Jesus is fighting for obedience.” – Dale Bruner. • “If it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done” • Watch and pray so you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak • I can't; you can. I will let you. • Matthew 26: 45 Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!” • The courage of Jesus. • John Calvin: “He has found new reserves …” • “…the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners.” Starter Question: When you hear the word “Surrender,” what comes to mind? 1. Read Matthew 26: 36-38 2. Have you ever felt overwhelmed with sorrow? What does it mean to you that Jesus felt the same way? 3. Jesus wanted his disciples to keep watch with him, to pray with him. What do you think it means to be with Jesus in prayer? 4. Read Matthew 26:39-44 5. In your opinion, why was it not possible to for the cup to pass from Jesus? What do other scriptures tell us? 6. How does it make you feel to know that Jesus also struggled to obey? 7. Read Matthew 26:45-46 8. Why do you think Jesus' feeling shift from struggle to courage? Have you had a similar experience? 9. How would you describe the courage needed to completely surrender to God's will?

Listen along as we look at the first half of Matthew 25 and what it looks like to fear, trust, and follow Jesus till the end. Notes/Quotes: “the Kingdom Parables in chapter 13 which began in the present tense with the words “the kingdom of heaven is like”—for they taught mainly how the kingdom enters our lives now by the power of the Word; the Judgment Parables in this chapter have a sharper future orientation.” - Dale Bruner “21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'”  - Matthew 5:21-23 “The Christian life in Matthew is a life of tough discipleship (chaps. 5–7), of persecuted mission (chap. 10), of practicing joyous demands (chap. 13), and of exercising self-denial for the sake of others' salvation (chap. 18). The Christian life in Matthew is not the second-soil faith that believes a conversion experience is all one really needs; when the devil, pressures, and temptations come to “conversions-only” people (conversio sola!), they are deeply embarrassed by the gospel and its requirements and make as quick an exit as they did an entrance (13:20–21). Discipleship is a life of patient listening to the Word and of constant repenting under the conviction of the Word. “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said ‘repent,' he intended for the whole life of believers to be a life of repentance” (Luther, thesis one of The Ninety-Five Theses). “The just shall live by faith” (Rom 1:17). One-shot Christianity is misleading and finally fatal. The lamp oil of experiential Christianity, without the reserve oil of discipled Christianity—that is to say, an experience of Jesus without obedience to his teachings—betrays unbelief and will not find entrance into the end-time kingdom.”  - Dale Bruner “But “safe” as this conduct may be, there is a lack of adventure in it, an unwillingness to take risks, a preoccupation with one's own security, which Jesus clearly dislikes. This piety is too unworldly, too withdrawn, too removed from the secular to please the earthly Jesus who sends disciples into the world to disciple it (28:19), puts salt into the meat to season it (5:13), and brings light into the room to give light to all who are in it (5:14–16; cf. Mark 4:21). Talents mean mission.  - Dale Bruner “The remarkable thing about God is that when you fear God, you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God, you fear everything else.”  - Oswald Chambers “sees this servant's laziness as the lawlessness of lukewarmness toward the demands of discipleship—as antinomianism.” - Kingsbury “Jesus does not end this parable grimly from a macabre pleasure in telling horror stories—Jesus loves human beings and wants to save them from messed-up lives and eternities, and that's why he tells his scary stories.” - Dale Bruner “The gospel says you are more sinful and flawed than you ever dared believe, but more accepted and loved than you ever dared hope.” - Timothy Keller  

Sermon Sources: - John Eldridge, Get Your Life Back - Rankin Wilbourne, Union with Christ - Dallas Willard, Life Without Lack - David Brooks, “The Great Unmasking,” https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/27/opinioninstan/coronavirus-masks-vaccine.html - Dale Bruner, The Book of John

Listen in as we look at Matthew 15 as see how Jesus addresses our hearts. Notes/Quotes: Matthew 15:1-20 “In short, the Pharisees wanted to sanctify the entirety of life, to make common life as holy as the temple, filled with the presence of God. To this end they agreed to handle, sell, and eat food in virtually the same state of purity as that which the Bible prescribes for the priests who serve in the temple. The washing was simply one of many ways by which serious believers could say by their actions, “We love Scripture,” and “We don’t even want accidentally to break the holy commands of God.” Apparently the Serious, to be completely safe, even took full-immersion baptismal baths every morning and on every return from public life. These people longed to be clean before God.” - Dale Bruner “actor”—hypocrite—is simply a person who pretends to be someone else. When perfectly honorable “acting” is transferred from stage to life we have “hypocrisy” or “phoniness.” - Dale Bruner “We must begin by admitting that people and situations do not cause us to speak as we do. Our hearts control our words. People and situations simply provide the occasion for the heart to express itself.”  Paul Tripp Instead of trusting God’s word as a sign and a mirror,  we see it as a microscope, a mask, or mothballs. Unfortunately, many of us fail to grasp how dangerous pride is. We know that we shouldn’t look down on others, but we tend to see it as a small sin. It’s not the kind of thing you go to prison for; it falls somewhere between failing to floss and driving too fast. It’s something to work on. But no big deal. Even if we admit to periodic bouts with pride, what most of us mean is, “It’s tough staying humble when I’m so much better than everyone else.” There’s something strange about this sin that God hates most. It’s usually found among people who think they love God most.”- Larry Osborne “Part of the reason that self-righteousness, pride, and sins like envy and a lack of gratitude are so deadly is because they are prevalent within us but often not readily evident to us or to others. They lurk and strike when we are unaware and cause real-world harm and destruction to our own souls, to others, and in the world. Satan, the beautiful angel, was hurled out of heaven because of such sins. No wonder C.S. Lewis is right in saying that “a cold self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church may be far nearer to hell than a prostitute.” Marlena Graves  1 Timothy 1:12-16 There is no such thing as a noncommunal sin, and there is no such thing as a noncommunal obedience. Personal sin always results in collateral damage. Personal obedience always results in collateral benefit. - Jen Wilkin Where have you added? Where have you ignored? Where is there superiority? What is flowing from your heart to your life? How does Christ lead you out of pride? Brave question: Where do you see pride in me?

Listen in as we look at the gospel according to Matthew, chapter 13, verses 44-58. Sermon Notes/Quotes: Matthew 13:44-58 “The parables in this chapter are a challenge to us at two levels: understanding and action. Understanding without action is sterile; action without understanding is exhausting and useless.” N.T. Wright Our present culture, specializes in inflaming endless lust for possessions with advertisements that constantly convince us that we need more, particularly to create the ease we have never found. The marketers don't tell us much about their products, but they spend a great deal of energy and enormous amounts of money appealing to our fears and dreams. Thus, the idolatry of possessions plays to the deeper idolatry of our selves-and in an endlessly consuming society, persons are always remaking themselves with new belongings. - Marva Dawn Galatians 3:3 Proverbs 3:5-6 “Your Word come” (the Sower, with understanding faith), “your Way come” (the Wheat in the Weeds, with nonviolent love), “your Work come” (the Seeds, with confident hope that Jesus’ “little” work will one day prove immense), “your Wonder come” (the Gems, with the joy of grace and the abandon of obedience), and “your Warning come” (the Net, with the seriousness of true repentance). To pray “Thy kingdom come,” then, is to pray that the gospel may be under-stood, lived out, hoped for, “bought up,” and taken seriously” - Dale Bruner

Join us for Week 4 of "Christian Atheism," exploring how Jesus's words in the Sermon on the Mount actually create real, tangible change in how we live, and reveal the upside-down Kingdom of Christ. Listen as Clint Leavitt takes us into the challenging waters of sexual desire, and how understanding the purpose of human sexual desire in "shalom" helps us to navigate and challenge elements of unhealthy sexuality that abounds in our world today. Sermon Resources: "An Other Kingdom" by Walter Bruggemann "Commentary on Matthew" by F. Dale Bruner (includes citation from Martin Luther) "Down The Rabbit Hole" by Holly Madison "Fight The New Drug" website includes research and statistics on the devastating effects of pornography on our brains, relationships, and the world. Facebook: www.facebook.com/thespringmid...​ Instagram: www.instagram.com/spring.midtown​ Website: www.thespringmidtown.org/​ Community Groups: www.thespringmidtown.org/comm...​ Sunday Services: www.thespringmidtown.org/

Listen along as we continue to allow some of the tough words of Jesus tackle our hearts. Notes/Quotes:Matthew 10:26-42 Fear Archetypes - Ruth SukoupThe ProcrastinatorThe People Pleaser The Rule Follower The Outcast The Self Doubter The Excuse Maker The Pessimist 1 John 4:18, 2nd Timothy 1:7“It is Christ-following that enables cross-bearing. Who would be willing to have family and world against them if they did not have Jesus (over and) with them?” - Dale Bruner "The fastest place the church is growing is in Iran. The myth we have taken into is that you have to have a Christian nation for Christianity to survive and thrive. False." - JonTyson“Because almost anything in life that truly matters will require you to do small, mostly overlooked things, over a long period of time with Him” - Zach Eswine1 Corinthians 15:19“Jesus often contrasts eternal life and this life. Our time needs the corrective of an otherworldliness in order to be braver in this world.” Dale Bruner

Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you.  For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,' and will deceive many.  You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed.  Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.”  (Matthew 24:4-6)   This month, I have been struck, through the assault on the US Capitol, the protests against lockdowns, masks, and vaccines, and the prevalence of numerous conspiracy theories from QAnon and other sources swirling through the internet feeds of people we know—I have been struck through all this that we perhaps haven't been talking enough about the ‘end times' in church. The words of Jesus from Matthew 24 have sprung to my mind numerous times this past month as I've begun more and more to witness the distinctly religious character of some of the disinformation, conspiracy theories, and protests out there, to say nothing of the quite religious way that some hold to these beliefs.  A number of these threads of disinformation lay a nearly ultimate claim on truth or knowledge that really is the realm of faith more than civics.    Some threads are even more overt.  Some evangelical leaders in the States have claimed for the past five years that Donald Trump is/was the “Lord's anointed,” which in Hebrew is “messiah.”  Hence my reflections on our true Messiah's words from Matthew 24 where Jesus explicitly warns us, a few times across the chapter, against the deception of false messiah figures. Now, it can be easy to get caught up in some of these threads of disinformation, especially when we feel distrustful of authorities, feel unheard, have been hurt by those in authority, or receive this stuff as a recommendation from a friend we trust.  Being an insider to some secret or sensational reality can return to us a feeling of a sense of control over an otherwise chaotic world or can add fuel to our already simmering dislike of those in power.  But the truth is rarely so sensational—it's often much more commonplace, sad, or even boring.  So when we hear of troubling evils in this world or sensational rumors as many of us are right now, Jesus cautions us to hold our ground.  “Don't be deceived and don't be alarmed,” he says.  All this comes in Jesus' comments on the end times, something that has tended in Christian circles to generate quite a bit of sensational speculation itself.  But, I don't believe that was Jesus' intent.  I appreciate how commentator Dale Bruner puts it.  He says:  "The signs of the end are not so much decipherable political events (with the single exception of the destruction of Jerusalem, which happened in AD 70) as they are warnings to be level-headed, clear-thinking, and warmly loving Christians in difficult times. Jesus does not so much charge the air with signs as he charges disciples with sobriety. Jesus' sermon does not intend to create apocalyptic seers but to create spiritual long-distance runners; it does not so much give disciples supernatural knowledge of coming events as it supplies disciples with supernatural endurance for any coming events." So, hold the line, friends, come what may.  These are challenging times.  Tiring times.  Times when, as Jesus will say just a few verses later, the love of many will grow cold.  But the truth remains: Jesus is the Lord's anointed, and no other.  He is the one who saves us.  And he is the one who will ultimately set things right and heal our every disease.  He is our hope in the end.  So hold firm and place your trust, not in any sensational internet phenomena, but in Jesus.  And let's continue to talk with and support each other through this time too as we all seek to hold faithful to the truth, together, in faith.  

Listen in as we wrap up Matthew 7 and the Sermon on the Mount. Notes/Quotes:Matthew 7:13-29 “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to” - C.S. LewisThe Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.” - G.K. Chesterton“You can judge the quality of their faith from the way they behave. Discipline is an index to doctrine.” - Tertullian - 2nd Century Ad“It is possible to work for Jesus and yet not live under him. We can be intoxicated by the power of Jesus and yet be hostile to his hard commands. “Inever ever really knew you; get out of my face, you doers of the very opposite of my teachings.” They believe that they know Jesus, but apparently they never gave him a chance to know them (“I never really knew you”), that is, they never gave him a chance to come into personal contact with their innermost life (the force of the biblical word “know”). It is strangely possible to serve and even to glorify Christ and yet in one’s own personal life not to obey him.” - Dale Bruner “For many, the first great surprise of the Christian life is in the form of the troubles we meet.” - Eugene Peterson “Obedience to Jesus’ words is not so much protection from troubles as protection in them, just as rock under a house does not shield from storms but supports during them” - Dale Bruner “Almighty God, give us grace to be not only hearers, but doers of thy holy word, not only to admire, but to obey thy doctrine, not only to profess, but to practice thy religion, not only to love, but to live thy gospel. So grant that what we learn of thy glory we may receive into our hearts, and show forth in our lives: through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Frederick Dale Bruner is a Reformed biblical theologian and author of multiple books, particularly his commentaries on the Gospels of Matthew and John. Dr. Bruner earned his Bachelor's Degree from Occidental College in 1954. He earned his Master's of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary, and his Doctor of Theology (Th.D) at the University of Hamburg in Germany in 1963. He taught theology at Union Theological Seminary in Manila, Philippines for 11 years, at Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington for 22 years, and since 1997 Dr. Bruner has been on the adjunct faculty at the Fuller Theological Seminary, in Pasadena, California, where he continues to write and research. While at Fuller, Dr. Bruner also taught a weekly bible study class from September 1998 through June 2016 at the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood.   Bruner has two sons and four grandchildren and he and his wife live in Pasadena.       

We believe that God has entrusted each of us, his children, with gifts— be it time, talent, abilities, opportunities, or treasures— and asks us to be faithful in using them to build his Kingdom as we await his final return. This week, Corey Widmer will explore the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, and what it says to us about stewarding well what the master has entrusted to us. Sermon Sources: - Matthew: A Commentary by Dale Bruner, Stewards in the Kingdom, by Scott Rodin, The Parables, by Simon Kistemaker, Logos Bible Software

Clube do Livro Esse é o nosso primeiro episódio de Clube do Livro! Faremos um episódio desses a cada prática do "Caminho do Discipulado". Esse currículo encoraja a inclusão de boa literatura para enriquecer o conteúdo, então a nossa idéia é providenciar a resenha de 1 livro em cada prática para acrescentar ao conteúdo. Claro que o ideal é ler um livro em conjunto com o seu discipulador/discipulando, mas entendemos que ler 1 livro a cada prática talvez não esteja de acordo com a sua realidade no momento, então aqui está a resenha para você! O livro escolhido para a prática de Entrega e Confiança é "Venha Andar Sobre as Águas" do John Ortberg. Escute o episódio e "converse" com a gente sobre esse livro! Trechos citados Capítulo 1 "Em cada caso, Deus precisava chamar a atenção do povo - por intermédio de uma sarça em chamas, do vento, do fogo ou caminhando sobre as águas. Deus iria chamar a cada uma dessas pessoas para fazer algo extraordinário. Em cada situação, a pessoa que Deus chamou sentiu medo. Mas toda vez que essa pessoa disse sim a seu chamado, experimentou o poder de Deus em sua vida." "Dale Bruner observa que 'de acordo com as Sagradas Escrituras, o limite humano é o lugar mais frequente de encontro com Deus." "Seu barco é qualquer coisa que represente segurança e proteção para você, exceto o próprio Deus. Seu barco é tudo em que você se sente tentado a confiar, ainda mais quando a vida fica turbulenta. Seu barco o mantém tão confortável que você não quer abrir mão dele, mesmo que o impeça de juntar-se a Jesus sobre as ondas. Seu barco é tudo que o afasta da grande aventura do discipulado a toda prova. Quer saber qual é seu barco? Seu medo lhe dirá." "Aqui está uma verdade profunta a respeito de andar sobre as águas: O medo nunca irá embora. Por quê? Porque toda vez que eu quiser crescer, terei de avançar por um território novo, aceitar desafios novos. E sempre que fizer isso, experimetarei medo de novo. Como escreve Susan Jeffers: 'O medo nunca irá embora enquanto eu estiver crescendo.'" "O fracasso não é um acontecimento, mas o julgamento que se faz de determinado acontecimento. O fracasso não é algo que nos acontece nem um rótulo que prendemos às coisas, É um modo de pensar o resultado final de nossos atos." "Na verdade, sou da seguinte opinião: havia onze fracassos bem maiores sentados naquele barco. Fracassaram em silêncio. Em segredo. Ninguém percebeu, ninguém comentou, ninguém criticou. Só Pedro conheceu a vergonha de fracassar em público. Todavia somente Pedro conheceu outras duas coisas: a glória de andar sobre as águas e o que significava tentar o que lhe seria impossível sozinho - para então experimentar a euforia de receber o poder de Deus para fazê-lo. (...) Também só Pedro conheceu a glória de ser erguido por Jesus em um momento desesperador. (...) O pior fracasso não é afundar nas águas. O pior fracasso é nunca sair do barco." "Somos propensos a buscar um mundo de conforto. Tentamos construir vidas administráveis com um mínimo de segurança e previsibilidade, de forma a manter a ilusão de termos tudo sob controle. Então Deus 'passa por nós' e transtorna tudo. O chamado para sair do barco implica crise, oportunidade, fracasso muitas vezes, medo outras tantas, sofrimento de vez em quando e sempre uma tarefa grande demais para nós. Mas não existe outro modo de desenvolver a fé e nos tornarmos parceiros de Deus." Capítulo 2 "São padões de comprtamento pecaminosos nunca confrontados e mudados, habilidades e dons nunca cultivados e aperfeiçõados - até que semanas se transformam em meses e meses em anos, e um dia você olha para trás, para uma vida de conversas absolutamente sinceras, profundas e íntimas que nunca teve; orações audazes que nunca fez, riscos revigorantes que nunca correu, ofertas sacrificiais que nunca apresentou, vidas que nunca tocou, e está sentado em uma espreguiçadeira com a alma encolhida, e sonhos esquecidos, e percebe que há um mundo de necessidades desesperadas,

We apologize, but the audio recording is a little rough due to some technical difficulties.Listen as Aaron Mattox teaches from John 15v26-16v15 on the Trinity and being led by the Holy Spirit in our post-Christian world.“It is often said that the Holy Spirit is the Cinderella of the trinity ...the great neglected person of the godhead. But the holy spirit’s desire and work is that we would be thrilled again, excited again, and gripped again by the words and majesty and relevance of Jesus. The holy spirit does not mind being the Cinderella outside the ballroom if the prince is being honored in his kingdom.”Dale Bruner, The Shy Member of the TrinityFor more information about Wellspring Church go to www.wellpspringchurchpg.org.We gather every Sunday morning at 10:15 a.m.

This Sunday we are wrapping up our Questions of Jesus series with one last question of Jesus: “Do you love me?” This powerful question is from John 21:15-19, which tells the story of Jesus’ restoration of Peter. I leaned heavily on the work of David Benner’s book Surrender To Love and Dale Bruner’s Commentary on John for this week’s sermon. Sermon by Derek Mondeau.

We give our take on the readings for Christmas day, year A. We're talking Isaiah 52:7-10, Hebrews 1:1-6, and John 1:1-14. Despite the New Testament’s assertion that the coming of Jesus was the fulfillment of ancient Israel’s religious hopes for the future, religious Jews find the Christian celebration of Christmas based on a belief that stands in direct opposition to the most fundamental of Jewish tenets: the oneness of God (see Deut. 6:4). Still, the church continues to find in the Old Testament words of spirit and life. Today’s lesson from Isaiah reaffirms the church’s belief that judgment is not God’s final word. The good news is that God’s movement into our lives is to accomplish salvation (v. 7). The experience of ancient Israel exemplifies that “good news.” The judgment that Israel experienced as a consequence of its infidelity was not God’s final word, for God comes to comfort Judah and redeem Jerusalem (v. 9). The coming of Jesus, then, needs to be understood against the backdrop of ancient Israel’s religious experience. It is the decisive movement of God in the world, insuring that the world will become what God always intended it to be. God will not allow our selfishness and sin to frustrate the divine will for creation. In Jesus, God has become part of creation to transform it from within. God’s self-communication, begun in creation and continued through the experience of ancient Israel, comes to perfection in the incarnation. In Jesus, God has become a human being. That is the “good news” that the church proclaims today. -Leslie J. Hoppe Let’s think first about the song. During a discussion in his excellent book on preaching Tim Keller uses “Let It Go” as a prime example of the the way contemporary culture “enthrones our passions”: The song is sung by a character determined no longer to “be the good girl” that her family and society had wanted her to be. Instead she would “let go” and express what she had been holding back inside. There is “no right or wrong, no rules” for her. This is a good example of the expressive individualism [sociologist Robert] Bellah described. Identity is not realized, as in traditional societies, by sublimating our individual desires for the good of our family and people. Instead we become ourselves only by asserting our individual desires against society, by expressing our feelings and fulfilling our dreams regardless of what anyone says. (134) But we must also think about the movie as a whole, and not merely the song in isolation. As Trevin Wax of The Gospel Coalition has pointed out, the heroine of the movie, Anna, rescues her sister from the selfish, solo life she gives into by Letting It Go. (Greg Forster has made a similar argument.) The movie’s story ends up undermining and then jettisoning the “expressive individualism of the sovereign self” Elsa tries on for size while striding up the North Mountain. I agree. Anna’s love for her elder sister, despite years of apparent coldness from her, is one of the more beautiful redemptive loves I’ve ever seen in film. And in the end, Elsa submits again to “right and wrong,” even “rules,” by taking up her queenly responsibilities in the land of Arendelle. This the movie portrays as good, not as a constriction of her individual rights. I love the love of Anna for Elsa. Romantic love isn’t the only true love, and it isn’t even always true. I want my little girl to know this. It’s the major reason I let my kids watch Frozen. So what does the song mean? Does it undermine or does it support the expressive individualism of the sovereign self? Was Tim Keller interpreting and applying “Let it Go” according to the authorial intentions of the now-famous duo who wrote it? -Mark Ward, full article at https://blog.logos.com/2016/12/pop-music-can-teach-us-interpreting-scripture/ The Gospel according to John was written out of the thrill of actual contact with its leading figure, and one senses the tremors of this contact on every subsequent page. John's phrase "full of grace and truth" is exactly synonymous with ancient Israel's frequent celebration of the Lord God's "steadfast love and faithfulness" (hesed we'emet). With the word "grace" one thinks of the wide horizontal beam of the cross and of the wide-outstretched world-embracing arms of the all-merciful, all-compassionate God, the major longing of the human heart. With the word "truth" one thinks of the vertical beam of the Cross going down deep and up high to suggest the power of straight, real, honest truth, the major longing of the human mind. This truth is powerful enough to support the wide horizontal be a of God's Grace that stretches round the world. -Dale Bruner, The Gospel of John, A Commentary

Dale Bruner walks us through the Lord's Prayer and helps us understand how Jesus intended us to pray.

Dr. Dale Bruner examines what Jesus' teachings from His Sermon on the Mount mean for us.

The audio and the full text of the sermon are below. There are also questions for reflection at the bottom. Feel free to discuss on our sermon discussion group on Facebook.This is part two in a five part series on The Servant Songs. Isaiah 42:1-61Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights;I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. 2 He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; 3 a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. 4 He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching. 5 Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it,who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it: 6 I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you;I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, 7 to open the eyes that are blind,to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. 8 I am the Lord, that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to idols. 9 See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare;before they spring forth, I tell you of them. In 1922, Bernhard Duhm identified the Servant Songs in Isaiah in a particular way. His theory was that someone other than the prophet, and indeed other than the author of second Isaiah, if there are multiple authors of the book, wrote the Servant Songs, and an editor inserted them into the book.This was really at the heart of Duhm’s identification of the Servant Songs. He contended that the character of the songs was different from much of what is found in second Isaiah. Declaring that they have a different author allows us to pull the songs out of Isaiah and interpret them without reference to the rest of the text.I don’t think we should do this, though. Even if Duhm is correct about the authorship of the Servant Songs, which is seriously disputed, someone did weave them into a particular text, and communities have accepted these as the prophets words, and in fact, God’s word, for centuries. All of this is to say that the context of the Servant Songs is important.Isaiah 42 is not the first use of the imagery of “servant” in Isaiah. In First Isaiah (ch. 1-39), the word is always used to refer to either someone specific (e.g. Isaiah 20:3 “…Just as my servant Isaiah has walked…”), or to servants in general (e.g. Isaiah 37 “When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah…”).In Second Isaiah we get the first instance of Israel being identified as the servant. This happens in Isaiah 41:8-9, one chapter before the first “Servant Song”:“But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend;you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners,saying to you, ‘You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off ’;”The motif of Israel/Jacob being the servant continues strongly throughout much of Second Isaiah. Servant is used exclusively to refer to Israel/Jacob from Isaiah 44 to 48.It would seem that at least when it comes to the first Servant Song, we need to ask whether it may in fact be about Israel. This is our first question, because the context of second Isaiah demands it.Second Isaiah is addressed to those Israelites who are in exile from their homeland in Babylon. It begins at chapter 40 with a powerful image of a highway being made by God through the wilderness: the promise of a straight road to lead the exiles home. Chapter 41 assures the people that they are cared for by God. They are collectively his chosen servant, and God will strengthen them.Isaiah 42, uses the same language to talk about the servant as is found in Isaiah 41. The servant is a chosen one. This was about Israel in chapter 41. Can it still be about Israel?V. 1 “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit on him he will bring forth justice to the nations.” This can only be about Israel if we see the servant as a personification of the nation, and if we believe that God’s intention was to bring justice to the earth through his chosen people. There is in fact strong evidence in the Old Testament to support that the very reason God had a chosen people was a bless and to bring about justice or righteousness to the world, through them.As you read through the other verses in the servant song, you will find that the words can be applied to Israel. V. 2 “He will not cry or lift up his voice…” This is in reference to the way God’s people would bring about justice: not through mighty declarations or speeches, but quietly, presumably through faithful actions.V. 3 “A bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice.” A bruised reed and a dimly burning wick refer to those who are weak. This is saying that God’s chosen people will not bring forth justice by trampling on the weak. God’s justice will come not through the oppression of people. We could continue and draw out how this may refer to Israel, but we should know that this text is not to be seen as referring to what Israel did, but rather the hope of who Israel could be.You may not quite be with me in thinking that the first servant song refers to Israel. Perhaps you’ve been taught that all four of the songs must be about Jesus. We’re coming to that, I promise.But first, we need to know something about the Greek translation of the Old Testament. One of the earliest translations of the Old Testament took place over the 3rd to 1st centuries BCE. This version of the Old Testament, along with some other books that are not part of Scripture, is called the Septuagint.The Septuagint is what most of the New Testament writers used when they were quoting from the Old Testament, because it was in Greek. Most of the New Testament writers would have also known Hebrew and would have been familiar with the Hebrew text. Translations are problematic because meaning can be lost or slightly changed. The Septuagint is problematic in an even greater way because it was likely translated from a variant, or several variants of the Hebrew Bible. This means that the Septuagint may not have been translated from exactly the same version which became the authoritative Hebrew version of the Scriptures passed down by the Scribes.So, there are sometimes fairly large discrepancies between the Greek version of the Old Testament and the Hebrew version of the Old Testament. Some worry about these discrepancies, but they can give us insight into how the ancients were interpreting texts. We can get insight into how they understood a text based on the choices they made in translation.Isaiah 42 has a discrepancy. The Septuagint opens like this: “Jacob is my servant; I will uphold him. Israel is my chosen, my soul has accepted him. I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth judgment to the nations.”Clearly, someone at some point, very early in the interpretation of Isaiah, wished to identify the servant of Isaiah 42, as Israel - just like in the surrounding chapters. An argument can be made that the basic understanding before Christ was that this text was talking about Israel.Enter the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew quotes from the Old Testament more than any of the other gospels. There are quotes all over the place - and no single book is quoted more than the book of Isaiah. The longest quote in Matthew is found at Matthew 12:15-21, just as Matthew is reaching the mid-way point of his story.What does he quote? The first four verses of the first Servant Song: Isaiah 42:1-4.Matthew usually quotes from the Septuagint. But this time he doesn’t seem to. Matthew goes back to the original text, removing any hint of this being about Israel. Why? Because Matthew applies the text to Jesus.Did Matthew not know that the basic interpretation of this Servant Song was that it was talking about Israel? He knew, but Matthew was doing something magnificent. Matthew was saying that Israel being the chosen servant, establishing justice for all peoples, and doing it faithfully without trampling on the already downtrodden - Matthew was saying that all of that - is fulfilled in Jesus. The servant is Israel personified, yes - and that is Jesus. Jesus fulfils God’s hope for his chosen people.Frederick Dale Bruner has an excellent commentary on the Gospel of Matthew. Im going to share some of what Bruner writes about Matthew’s use of Isaiah 42:1-4.But first, you need the context of the quote in Matthew 12. It is can be easily supplied by looking at Matthew 12:14-17. Just before this, Jesus had done a healing on the Sabbath day. Then we get this: “The Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus. Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. A large crowd followed him, and he healed all who were ill. He warned them not to tell others about him. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:”Bruner explains that there are two purposes in Matthew supplying the quote from Isaiah.1) To give an explanation for why Jesus withdrew and why he gave a command to keep silent about his identity.2) To give what Bruner calls a “mid-Gospel review of Jesus’ whole mission.” Bruner points out that withdrawal is “an unusual description of a Messiah.” “Messiahs do not ordinarily retreat, but advance. Messiahs do not seek to be hidden, but to be known.”Christian interpreters have made a big deal about the way in which Jesus went about his mission. This is commented on widely. It isn’t just that he is Savior and Lord, Messiah and King, it is vastly important how he exercises these roles. Matthew Henry commented “He could have secured himself by miracle but chose to do it in the ordinary way of flight and retirement.”What is interesting to me is that Jesus was already attracting great crowds. If he had wanted to lead a political revolution, he could have. But this is not his way. The way of Jesus is not to shout about his Messiahship. He simply heals people and teaches people. When the challenge about his identity comes, he flees and commands silence. This is mysterious, because shouldn’t we shout from the rooftops that He is Lord?The answer to this question, it seems, is no - or at least, not until we understand what it really means for Jesus to be Lord and Messiah. Jesus is Lord, Jesus is king and ruler in the sense of Isaiah’s text. He is a servant King. Jesus’ hesitation to claim his rightful title guards against our misunderstanding of who he really is. The piece about the bruised reeds and flickering wicks is important. Jesus is always one who pays attention to the least of these. We tend to follow powerful people who extend their power at the expense of the weak, even, sadly quite often, when they claim to be working for the weak. The Church has even done this for years and years holding so solidly to the truth that we stop caring for real people in the name of that truth. Jesus challenged the powerful, held to the truth, and never trampled on the least of these. It was as if he knew we needed to see him as servant before we proclaimed him Lord. Bruner puts it this way, quite beautifully, I think:“To be sure, his failure ‘to shout and scream’ as revolutionaries and the Spirit-filled of all times are wont to do, his failure to work at the great social intersections (as contemporary revolutionary and revivalist strategies both advise), and his strange penchant for working with bruised rather than with polished reeds, with flickering rather than with glowing flames, will still turn people away from Jesus.”Then, Bruner quotes Matthew 11:6 where Jesus says, “But blessed is the person who is not offended by me.”Jesus is supremely interested in righteousness, in justice. He works and ultimately gives his life to put us right with God. But while he gives his own life, notice that he sacrifices no one else’s. Jesus is the suffering servant of God. Only when we see him as such can we readily call him Lord, can we understand that his way of ruling over us is in fact to give himself up for us. When we see this, when we place him as the head of our movement, or of our body, we are saying that our gain ought never be at the expense of someone else’s loss, except his. Our King died for the least of these, not just for us. We must see him as servant King.So far, we have addressed the idea of the Isaiah text illuminating the fact that Jesus fled from a fight with his opponents and commanded his followers to keep quiet about his identity. Incidentally, Jesus stays quiet about his identity when on trial for his life as well.We have not addressed the idea of these few verses from Isaiah providing a mid-gospel summary of Jesus’ mission. I’d like us to look at two central aspects of Jesus’ life to this point in the gospel as key for understanding his overall mission. The first is to be found by looking at the opening of the Servant Song: “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights.”The word servant in Greek can also mean “child,” or possibly “son.” Knowing this, we discover that this phrase seems echoed in Jesus’ baptism. As Jesus comes up out of the water, God’s voice declares in Matthew 3:17, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”We spoke last week about Lent being a time to reflect on the vows we make in baptism, to think about renewing our life in Christ. Here we have another connection. God chooses his servant, as God has chosen you. The servant, Christ Jesus, is declared as God’s beloved in His baptism. You too are God’s beloved child and servant. The second aspect of Jesus’ ministry that is pointed to here is his teaching, and specifically how his teaching is intended to go throughout the world.In Isaiah 42:4 it is phrased like this: “and the coastlands wait for his teaching.”This gets changed by Matthew to “And in his name the Gentiles will hope.” That’s quite different. Where does Matthew get that from? He copied it word for word from the Septuagint. Earlier he followed the original Hebrew text. Here he follows the Greek text. Why? To point us to Jesus. When we reflect on this, we find that taking the Hebrew and Greek together, we find an even greater meaning.First, the easy one: the word “coastlands,” which can also be translated “islands.” This gets changed to “Gentiles.” The first description is geographical. The second is political or ethnic. The geographic description is meant to conjure the idea of those who are far off. The Septuagint interpreter can insert “Gentiles” here, because they are those who are politically and ethnically far off - they are those who are not part of Israel. This makes things more clear for Matthew’s purposes. He is not wanting to say that there are certain coastlands or islands that are awaiting Jesus. He wants to say that all people, even people traditionally outside of God’s covenant with Israel, are in need of Jesus.Saying Gentiles or Nations is perhaps more accurate. Saying coastlands or islands is maybe more poetic. It is like saying - until every last nook and cranny on earth has heard the message.The substitution of “name” for “teaching” is more difficult, however. We can’t know why the Septuagint inserted the word “name” there, but in some ways it is a blessing that it did. Looking at the Hebrew that is translated teaching, we find that it is actually the word Torah. That can be “teaching,” but it can also be “law.” We must also understand what is meant by the Gentiles hoping in Jesus’ name. It isn’t literally the name Jesus. It is who the name refers to. It is the person of the servant - of Jesus. What has happened here, even through translation and interpretation, is that the person of Jesus has taken the place of the law. It’s quite remarkable.As we look on Jesus’ actual teaching, we find that while he provides excellent commands that we ought to follow, the main thrust of what we learn, is in fact about Jesus himself. He is ultimately the content of the teaching, and he is the fulfillment of the ultimate teaching, God’s teaching, the law.This bit of Isaiah points to Jesus’ whole mission because his mission is one of connecting others to God. This was formally done through adherence to the law. Now it can be done in Christ. The new covenant is found in Christ, and is open to more than just Israel. The servant King’s mission is to the least of these, to those who are far off, to the Gentiles of the coastlands and islands.The mission involved obeying his commands, keeping our vows, but it’s more than that. His mission is for us to be connected to him, or as Jesus puts it, to be disciples. This all comes together at the very end of Matthew’s Gospel, where he sends out his closest followers. Listen to what he tells them to do, and where he commissions them to go.Matthew 28:19-20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”With Jesus firmly in mind, the second half of our Servant Song comes alive for us.6bI have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, 7 to open the eyes that are blind,to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. 9 See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare;before they spring forth, I tell you of them. We should see right away that these verses can apply to both Israel and Christ. The themes of covenant and God’s chosen ones being a light to the nations are all over the Old Testament, but we believe those themes reach their climax in Jesus. Martin Luther said that Isaiah’s prophecy “paints the entire Christ.”Here we have the great themes that weave together in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus: covenant, light to the nations, healing, salvation and freedom, the old life being gone and new things being declared.The early believers saw these connections between their scriptures and this one who had come. He did not rule as anyone else. He did not lord over people, he was a suffering servant and is our king.Questions for Reflection1) Martin Luther said that Isaiah’s prophecy “paints the entire Christ.” What did Luther mean by this?2) In what ways does Jesus fulfill or complete the law? In what ways does Jesus fulfill the entire Hebrew Scriptures?3) How do you feel about the discrepancies between the different manuscripts of the Bible? Does this challenge your faith? Does it add to it in any way?4) How is saying “the Servant Songs are prophecies about Jesus” different from saying “the Servant Songs are to be applied to Jesus” (or “inform our understanding of Jesus”)?5) The argument was made that Jesus commanded his followers to remain silent about him to guard against a potential misunderstanding of his true identity as servant Messiah. Does this effect how we talk about Jesus with others today? 6) When discussing “dimly burning wicks” and “bruised reeds” the following statement was made: “The Church sometimes holds so solidly to the truth that we stop caring for real people in the name of that truth.” What do you think this means? How do you respond?7) If we apply the servant song to Jesus, what does it mean to say he is “a covenant to the people, a light to the nations?” Source Note:F. Dale Bruner, Matthew: A Commentary (2 volumes; revised and expanded edition, Eerdmans, 2004)

Dale Bruner lectures on Jesus' conversation with the Samaritan Woman from John 4. This lecture was delivered at Beeson Divinity School in 2011.

Dale Bruner lectures on Jesus' conversation with the Samaritan Woman from John 4. This lecture was delivered at Beeson Divinity School in 2011.

Timothy George talks with Dale Bruner about Bruner's relationship with Bible-teacher Henrietta Mears, his dissertation on the Holy Spirit, teaching systematic theology through the gospels, and why we need Martin Luther.

Timothy George talks with Dale Bruner about Bruner's relationship with Bible-teacher Henrietta Mears, his dissertation on the Holy Spirit, teaching systematic theology through the gospels, and why we need Martin Luther.