Category: Sermons

But Is It Real?

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This week we are kicking off a brand-new teaching series that is going to take us through the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead on Easter. For the next few weeks, we are going to be walking through Luke’s Passion Narrative beginning with Jesus’ triumphant ride into Jerusalem. These stories are perhaps families, but there is great worth in giving a fresh set of eyes to an old story. You just might be surprised what we’ll find along the way. Let’s get started with a look at Jesus’ message of judgment and how we need to adjust our lives in light of it.

But Is It Real?

Did your folks ever leave you home alone when you were a kid? Once I was old enough, mine did on occasion. And maybe your experience was like mine. Did they ever leave and by the absence of any departing instructions give you total free reign over the house and what you would do in it while they were gone? Yeah, mine didn’t do that very often either. There’s just too much trouble a kid can get into when left entirely to his own devices. What’s the solution to this problem? Why, it’s to keep them engaged with chores and projects, of course! As a result, when your parents left, you got a list. If you completed the list before they got home, that was good. If you didn’t…not so good. 

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Gospel Situations

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If we are going to understand something well, we have to start with theory. There are basic things that need to be understood in any kind of a new venture. But eventually, theory has to give way to practice, or we don’t ever really learn the material very well. For the last four weeks we have stayed pretty abstract as we have talked about how to share the Gospel in post-Christian environment. Last week we took a step toward practicality, but we didn’t go far enough. Today we’re going all the way. Sharing the Gospel in a post-Christian environment will eventually require us to…you know…actually share the Gospel in a post-Christian environment. Let’s talk about how to do that as we wrap up our series.

Gospel Situations

Have you ever worked really hard to set up a perfect situation only to have it go awry on you? Maybe it was a date. You planned everything down to the smallest detail you could think of. But you didn’t account for that one thing, and it turned out to be a landmine that blew up the whole affair. Maybe it was a conversation with another person you knew was going to be difficult. You were dreading it, but you also knew it had to happen. So, you prepared the ground as carefully as you could in hopes of getting through it without too many bruises. But as soon as you started off down the path of whatever the subject was, everything fell apart on you. 

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Turf Wars

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Roughly speaking, the job of a salesman is to convince you to buy something you don’t want or need. In truth, though, the best salesmen understand that their job is to help you discover what it is that you do need, and to then help you see that need met. In sharing the Gospel in a post-Christian context, we are surrounded by people who don’t really understand what they actually need. It is our job as followers of Jesus to help them with that. In order to do that, though, we first have to establish a relational connection with them. That means learning to operate on their turf. This all what we are talking about as we continue our teaching series, When Faith Isn’t Assumed. Let’s dive right in.

Turf Wars

There’s nothing quite like a home field advantage. Personally, with the exception of the Royals, I’m pretty accustomed to cheering for teams with incredible home field advantages.I know this season was somewhat of a disappointment, but the Chief’s Arrowhead Stadium is the loudest stadium in the NFL. Props on their dominant win last week aside, Seattle fans tried to make a counter-claim that, actually, theirs was the loudest NFL stadium a few years ago. Chiefs fans promptly demonstrated the error in Seattle’s thinking by responding with the cold, hard reality of 142.2 decibels, a Guinness World Record that, no, Arrowhead really is the loudest NFL stadium. 

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The Message that Saves

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If we are going to share the Gospel in a post-Christian culture, we have to be clear on what exactly the Gospel is ourselves. We’ve spent the previous two installments of our teaching series, When Faith Isn’t Assumed, talking about the reality of truth and the person of Jesus. Today we are rounding out this sequence by coming back to Jesus again. This time, instead of focusing so much on who He is, we are giving our attention entirely to what He does: Jesus saves. Let’s talk about it.

The Message that Saves

If you were to walk up to a random stranger on the street and tell them you think they are a sinner in need of salvation, you may get one of a variety of reactions, but none of those will likely be very positive. They may just roll their eyes and walk away from you. They may tell you where to take your opinion of them. They might even punch you in the nose for saying something so offensive to them. Simply put: They won’t like it. But just because they won’t like hearing it does not for that reason make it any less true. 

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A Class of One

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Last week we started a new teaching journey exploring how we can effectively share the Gospel in a culture that is post-Christian. It all starts with a foundation of truth, but that truth points us somewhere. It points us to someone: Jesus. Today we are talking about who Jesus is and what He has done through one of the most significant passages Paul wrote on the matter. Let’s marvel together at this incredible truth.

A Class of One

It all comes back to Jesus. For all the evangelistic tips and tricks that are out there—and there are many—for all the outreach programs and methods churches buy and put into use; for all the apologetic arguments both positive and negative we could use to promote and defend the Christian faith, there is one thing that everything ultimately comes back to: Jesus. If a person is going to make a rational judgment of the Christian worldview, no matter which worldview ground is his starting place—Christian, non-Christian, post-Christian, anti-Christian, and so on and so forth—he ultimately has to decide what he is going to do with Jesus. It all comes back to Jesus. If we are going to successfully share the Gospel in a culture such as ours, we have to be able to tell people who Jesus really is…which assumes we know that ourselves. Let’s see if we can’t tackle both pieces of this particular puzzle today. 

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