Sermon June 9, 2010 "I Am the Gate"

We looked at John 10:1-10 at Jesus' next "I Am..." "I am the gate for the sheep," Jesus said. He said this right on the heals of this episode with the man born blind. In the fabric of this lesson is still the tension with the religious leaders and issue of those outside of the religious system.

There is a dualism throughout John's gospel: light and dark, grace and truth, flesh and spirit, in and out. People follow or reject Jesus- there is no third, luke-warm category for the curious.

There were two categories of people in John’s gospel:

The religious who didn’t experience the abundant life of freedom in their relationship with God;

And the non-religious who didn’t experience the protection and security of being in right relationship with God.

It is into this world of twos that Jesus speaks these words, "I am the gate..."

A gate was something that offered a pathway to protection from wolves and theives at night. But that same gate offered a pathway to freedom and feasting in the day. Think about that. Some are lost- they need the protection and security of the pen through which their is only one entrance. Some are enslaved to works righteousness- they need the freedom and feast of the fields through which the gate is their only access point.

In a world of two ways Jesus offers a third. He is the way for the lost to be found. He is the way for the enslaved to be set free. The life of discipleship is good news to the sinner and Pharisee alike.

Jesus is the gate. To those of you trapped in trying to please God through religious practice Jesus is the gate to your freedom and delight to be loved as you are. To those of you going through life your own way with your own agenda not allowing room for God’s plan for your life- know that broad is the path that leads to destruction narrow the way that leads to eternal life. Any old thing won’t do. Jesus is the only gate through who you will have hope in this life and salvation in the next.

Pastor Scott

Sermon June 2, 2010 "I Am the Light of the World"

This "I am..." of Jesus is part of a much bigger story. We read two texts (John 9:1-12 and 9:35-41) but looked at more than these two to gain an understanding of this saying.

Miracles are physical means that point to spiritual truths. This story isn't about a blind man. It's about spiritual blindness. "Who sinned..." is the question that the miracle responds to. Throughout chapter 8 there is mounting tension between Jesus and the Pharisees. Jesus' ultimate point in this episode is to show what spiritual blindness and spiritual sight look like.

It's the blindman, excommunicated from the church who sees clearly and the professionally religious who are blind. Religion can do that to a person. All ritual, no relationship. We would do well to recognize that our tendency is spiritual blindness- not spiritual sight. Christ is our light. Only he can heal this broken condition.

I closed this sermon with an invitation. The worst thing we can do as blind people is to pretend sight. I invited a time of confession and admission of blindness. One by one, at both services, folks stood up, claiming their blindness, calling to Christ, the light of the world.

Pastor Scott

Sermon April 18 "I Am the Bread of Life"

The first "I Am" statement of Jesus is "I am the bread of life", which can be found in John chapter 6 (6:25- 35; 41-51 were my focus verses). Using a portion of this chapter a number of months ago in my sermon series on our church mission statement I wanted to take a different angle. With such a rich text in the context of such a full narrative it was not difficult to find a different facet of to focus on.

In my study of this passage this time I saw an interesting pattern that this "I am" statement was a part of. The back drop of this passage is once again "the crowd" that is an ever present character in the gospels. The thing I noticed is that Jesus isn't who the crowd wants him to be when they want him to be it.

When this passage begins we read, "a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick." They show up to see miracles of healing. So what does he do? He feeds this healthy multitude with five loaves and two fish. They expected one kind of sign, he blows their mind with another.

The next thing this crowd wants from Jesus is for him to be their king. They want a ruler. What does Jesus do? He withdraws from them in order to escape. He crosses the sea on foot, at night. They want a king, he turns into a secrative hermit.

The crowd follows him across the sea the next day. They want him to be the bread maker again- just like Moses. He could obviously do it. They just want him to do it again. He refuses. Instead he takes on the role of teacher saying that he himself is the bread they ought to seek.

Next, this crowd that wanted to make him king, grumbles at this teaching and says, "Who does this guy think he is? We know his mama and his daddy. He isn't special." They want clarity on who he is. So instead of clarity he tells them to eat his flesh and drink his blood. What?

Ate very turn he resists being who they want him to be when they want him to be it. They want a doctor. He gives them a grocier. They want a king. He gives them a hermit. They want to see so they can beleive. He tells them to beleive without seeing. They want clarity on who he is. He only confuses them with a difficult teaching.

One of the things that we will learn thoughout this series is that Jesus may not be who we want him to be. But he is always everything we need him to be. He was never not what this crowd needed. But they rejected him because he was food when they asked for healing, alone when they asked for a king, required faith when they wanted to see, and was cloudy when they begged for clarity.

Jesus may not be who you want him to be. But he is everything you need him to be. I closed this sermon with a simple story about how two people discovered this truth of Christ's sufficiency at the table of our Lord. One had been asking for deliverance. He discovered a broken Christ. One wanted more blessing. He discovered a Christ that demanded more of him. Jesus, in those moments was not who they wanted him to be. But he was everything they needed him to be. Thanks be to God!

Pastor Scott
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Sunday April 11, 2010 "Who Is This Jesus?"

This begins a new sermon series in John's gospel.

John's gospel is built around seven signs or miracles, seven discourses, and seven sayings. This series will take a look at these seven sayings: the I Am statements.

I am the Light of the world.
I am the bread of Life.
I am the door.
I am the good shepherd.
I am the resurrection and the life.
I am the way, the truth, and the life.
I am the true vine.

To get into this series I felt it necessary to understand how John's gospel "works." He lays this out in his prologue (1:1-18).

Verse 1 and verse 18 are essentially saying the same thing. The Word was with God (pros ton theon- literally "toward God") and was God. And in verse 18 we read that the One and Only Word is at the Father's side. He is now where he was before time began. What John's gospel seeks to tell us is the story about the blip on the screen of eternity when this Word became flesh and took up residence with us.

This Word, while he was here, was named Jesus Christ. He was full of light and life. Light and life are the two things that frame God's activity in creation. First in Genesis 1 the word demands light and darkness is put in its place. Lastly in Genesis 2 the Word breathes into humanity the breath of life. This creator Word of God was not diminished when he became incarnate. He was stilled filled with that which made him God- Light and Life.

This Word, while he was here, was filled with grace and truth. He was filled with the strange paradox of complete holiness and complete love. This paradox that demands righteousness and yet loves sinners, that judges the nations, yet forgives the repentant, lives in perfect harmony in the person of Jesus Christ- even as his deity lives in perfect harmony with his humanity. They are both at once all the time.

This story of Jesus is a story about God. It is a story about God's holiness and love in our midst all at once. This is a story about God's glory on display! God's glory upon which no one can gaze but which we can behold in Jesus. The beauty and irony of John's story is also filled with tragedy.

He says that the Light shined but the darkness did not comprehend. The Word came to that which he created but the created did not recognize him. The Son of God came to those who were his own but his own did not receive him. This is a story that has tragedy beyond compare.

But it is also a story of hope. "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God."

I am preaching this sermon series so that we might understand who Jesus is, recognize who Jesus is, and receive who Jesus is. And in so doing experience the irony of calling the glory of God our savior and friend.

Pastor Scott
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Easter Sunday 2010 "The Empty Tomb"

We read Mark's account of the resurrection in Mark 16:1-8.

This account is filled with trembling, bewilderment, fear, and fleeing.

The point of the sermon was very simple. Jesus of Nazareth lived in Palestine 2000 years ago. Jesus of Nazareth was crucified on a Roman cross. History, and not just biblical history, bears witness to this.

No good historian can deny the existence of Jesus. No good historian can discount his crucifixion on a Roman cross. What history can not account for is what happened with the tomb!

The lynchpin of the Christian faith hinges on the real and bodily resurrection of Jesus. If by faith we believe what we cannot know, that he was indeed raised from the dead it changes everything. If he was not raised then we who believe he was are to be pitied more than all people.

One thing is for sure: when it comes to the resurrection it makes all the difference inthe world and the next. One way or another, Easter changes everything.

We concluded this sermon at the communion table set before us. We looked at Luke's account of the road to Emmaus. In the mystery, sadness, and fear of the day Jesus shows up. The Resurrected One goes unrecognized. But it is in that table that he is revealed. May it be with us! May the sacrament be the vehicle through which the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to see and experience the risen Lord in a way that changes everything!

Pastor Scott

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Palm Sunday 2010 "Figless"

Bad blogging does not become me!



I need to update my sermons for the last 3 (busy) weeks.



Palm Sunday was a wonderful celebration of Christ, our prophet, priest, and king.



However, the sermon was a stern warning us about not being ready for Jesus' second triumphal entry.



The texts we looked at were Jesus' ride into Jerusalem in Mark 11:1-20 and the description of Jesus' second triumphal entry when his kingdom is consumated at the last in Revelation 19:11-16.



The message was one of warning; a theme to often overlooked on Palm Sunday. The story of the triumphal entry is one about no one being ready for who Jesus is or what he had come to do.



1. The foal wasn't ready to be ridden. It had never been ridden before. Jesus needed not only this colt as a display of his kingship, but an unbroken one as prophetic message that ready or not, he is here as king.



2. The crowd wasn't ready for a messiah that would suffer. They wanted the crown but not the cross through which it must come.



3. The fig tree wasn't ready to bear fruit. It may have not been the season for figs, but the Lord of the universe was hungry and the fig tree was held accountable to for its lack of fruit.



4. Those overseers of the temple were not ready for God to show up. Here they were at the place designated for God's presence with his people. But when God shows up they have turned the house of prayer in to a den of thieves. They were cast out.

In Revelation 19 we get a glimpse of Jesus' second coming. It is quite different than his first. The foal is a war horse and the only robe mentioned is the one the King is wearing and it is dipped in blood and the armies of heaven are in tow.

Are we ready?

Submit to his Lordship.
Take up your cross daily.
Invest your life in bearing fruit for God's kingdom.
Become a person of prayer.

We closed with reading from Matthew's gospel.

At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

At midnight the cry rang out: 'Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!' Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.' 'No,' they replied, 'there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.' But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.

"Later the others also came. 'Sir! Sir!' they said. 'Open the door for us!' But he replied, 'I tell you the truth, I don't know you.’

Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”

Pastor Scott

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Sermon March 21 "The Devil Is Going Down"

This final sermon in this short series on the reality of Satan came from two texts: Ephesians 6:10-18, in which Paul admonishes the believers in Ephesus to put on the full armor of God so that they could stand against the devil’s schemes; and Revelation 22:1-6, in which John’s vision of the new Jerusalem includes the tree of life which humanity was barred from access to because of the curse.

Paul reminds us that there is a war going on! But it’s not against flesh and blood. It’s against the spiritual forces at work in the world that oppose the things of God. “Stand firm then…” is Paul’s big appeal. And he makes this appeal by telling them how to dress for the battle- like a Roman soldier.

Put on the belt of truth. Christ is the truth. The truth is that Jesus was who he said he was- the tomb was empty. This truth defines the whole of history and eternity.

Stand firm with the breastplate of righteousness- a tall order for sinful people. However, Paul explains to the Philippians that it is Christ’s righteousness not our own that defines us.

Our feet should be fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. The sandals of a roman soldier were designed not for protection but swiftness. We ought to be swift in our willingness to advance the good news of Jesus Christ.

Take up the shield of faith so that the fiery arrows of the devil might not find purchase in our flesh. Faith, the gift of the gospel, is able to protect us when Satan would have us doubt the character of God and his affection for us as his children.

Wear the helmet of salvation. This is our hope that comes with the gospel- that God’s grip on us is eternal. We have been saved. We are being saved. We will be saved.

Wield the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. This is what Adam and Eve forgot in the garden and what Christ clung to in the wilderness. The Word of God is the weapon of those who would share in this victory over Satan.

And finally Paul gives one last admonition for those in the battle. Pray. Pray all the time. Pray for everything. Pray on alert. And keep on praying, not just for yourself but for all the saints in this battle with you. We must always be in communication with our command if we would stand firm.

We closed with this picture of the New Jerusalem in Revelation that shows us the outcome of this battle. God wins. The garden we were expelled from is where the New Jerusalem is built. The tree we were barred from is the one that gives nourishment to the nations. The curse is no more.

Good news! God wins and we are his. Greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world. Stand firm.

Pastor Scott

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