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Growth Requires Rest – Romans 15:14-20

One of the key things you learn as a baker is that you cannot rush the process. The time it takes for dough to rise, the “rest,” can be influenced by all kinds of things, from the type of bread to the weather. The movement of the Holy Spirit can be like this. Rest is needed for growth.

But waiting is hard. We like to stick to our own time lines, but the Spirit does not work like that. The Holy Spirit works in us even when we do not feel it.

But there is a point when you have to stop waiting on the bread – it will start to lose its flavor and even become hollowed out. Likewise, there is a time when we have to stop waiting – when we have to make decisions and act.

The goal for us should not necessarily be for us to guess at when that time is, but to be open to the leading of the Spirit, and aware that His time is not our time. The goal for us is to have that personal relationship with God that enables us to teach each other, as Paul writes in this passage – and to do so in a “somewhat daring way.”

But this also requires an open heart – teaching each other does not mean an argument. But it does mean different perspectives – it must mean differing perspectives, in fact, because how can we teach each other if we are all the same?

The yeast needs to rest for growth to happen. But that rest is only for a time. There comes a time to act and even to speak into others’ lives about the growth we may have experienced during that period of rest.

We see the difficulty of this waiting in the scripture. King Saul did not wait for Samuel to make sacrifices, and that was the final straw that led God to cut his time short. He acted rashly because he was afraid, and that should be a lesson to us not to act out of fear.

As Paul writes, we are filled with the knowledge and goodness that we need in order to teach each other. Let us not let fear hold us back from that.

– Sermon Notes, Uriel Tzec, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, June 26, 2022

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Curse of Babel or Blessing? – Genesis 11:1-9

Listening to the voice of God is a spiritual discipline. Without the guidance of God, all the effort we might put out is just pushing a rope.

The two traditional passages on Pentecost are Acts 2 and this passage about the Tower of Babel, as the coming of the Holy Spirit heals the divisions described in Genesis 11.

This chapter comes after the creation story, then the flood. These first few chapters of Genesis are a high level view of God’s love for creation and humanity, his image-bearers. We see the both freedom and boundaries that He creates. We read the Creation Mandate given to humanity, to explore, prosper, flourish and multiply. This is not only a mandate but a blessing for humanity. God says “Come, let us make man in our own image.” He wants the earth to be full of people who bear his image, perhaps because only through the wide diversity of humanity can God’s true image be displayed.

Then, several chapters later, the people on the plains of Shinar echo that – “Come, let us make bricks” – and to do so in order to build a center of power, a locus of control and a monument to their own greatness. Scripture and history tell us what happens when humanity begins to consolidate power.

But God’s command was not to consolidate and gather, but rather to disperse and explore. So it may be that the “curse of Babel” is not a curse at all, but rather a blessing, the creation of cultures and nations and languages.

If it was a curse that was reversed at Pentecost, then the unity would have been brought about by a return to a single language. But that is not what happens – instead, the wonders of God are declared in a vast diversity of languages, and unity is built out of that diversity originally created by God.

When under stress and pressed by the world, our inclinations are the same as those in the plain of Shinar, to consolidate and flock together with birds of our feather. But if we allow the Holy Spirit to move, He may well scatter us in order to further His ultimate goals, His glorious plan for us and the world around us.

– Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, June 12, 2022

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Rest Your Body – 1 Kings 19:3-8

We are in a hurry in our culture – the urgency to get where we are going immediately has been built into us from childhood. Getting to school, getting to work, getting to the next thing. Waiting for the oven to preheat or the document to download or the Amazon delivery to arrive  – things that have been getting faster and faster still take too long.

There’s a sickness in that hurry – it leads to burnout and dissatisfaction Ave cynicism. The church is not immune from this – there have never been so many pastors leaving the profession as there are today. Does God have something to say about all this?

In this story, He does, as he takes care of Elijah in very simple, physical ways, while also looking after His emotional state.

This story comes right after the epic showdown at Mount Carmel, when Elijah faced down 450 prophets of Baal and God sends fire from heaven. It’s a major victory, but immediately afterwards we find Elijah on the run, terrified and in deep depression. The same can be true for us – we can experience the very real presence of God in our lives, yet still experience fear, doubt and weariness.

But God sends an angel to minister to him, bringing food and water. He doesn’t send the angel to chew him out or rebuke him, but to provide for him tangibly and physically, preparing him for the 40 days of journey ahead of him. This is a mirror of the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, in which ministering angels come to him after that same 40 day period.

This notion of rest calls back to the Creation story in Genesis, where God rests on the seventh day. Now, God does not get tired such that He needs to rest. But His resting and settling apart the sabbath as Holy is a part of the boundary setting and differentiation throughout creation – sea from sky, water from land, work from rest.

We are particularly bad about those boundaries. But if God Himself can rest, surely we can do the same? Resting itself is an act of worship – a tithe of our time and our sense of work and urgency and control to God. This is part of what it means to be a living sacrifice.

Rest and exercise are both “of some value.” We see this in God ministering to Elijah, and we see it in Jesus’ patterns of ministry, regularly retreating to isolated places to reconnect with His Father and His followers.

As the angel told Elijah, the journey will be long. God will not remove the work from us, but He will give us what we need to accomplish. The lie of the race is that there will not be enough time to accomplish everything we need to. But God will provide all the time we need in order to accomplish all He has for us to do – and no more. We can rest in that.

And we can rest in the words of Christ – “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

– Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood, WA, May 22, 2022

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Living Face to Face – Genesis 33:1-11

This is a continuation of the “Embody” series, examining how we as a church are to embody the love of God for those around us. As the pandemic deconstructed church, we are putting it back together around the essentials, and that embodiment is indeed the deepest essential.

This passage is one of two in the scripture that demonstrates (or embodies) the forgiveness of God. The other is the Prodigal Son, a direct parable of God’s forgiveness. In both stories, a reconciliation occurs, and the offended party runs out to meet the offender and embraces him, weeping. As Jacob says, this forgiveness is “like the face of God.” In reconciling face to face, he sees the face of God and experiences His forgiveness as well.

Likewise, when we extend forgiveness and grace to those around us, we show the face of God to others.

The context of this story is the turmoil, infighting, trickery and other dysfunction that surround the family of Abraham – like something out of a reality show. Though they were God’s chosen people, they were not chosen by merit, but grace. The patriarchs are not the heroes of the Bible – God is the hero of the Bible, and His grace shines through even in the Old Testament. We run into trouble as a church when we see the characters in the Old Testament as heroes in the earthly sense, and then place ourselves (whether as a church, a nation, an ethnicity) at the center of the story as the inheritors of this worldly power and wealth.

The seeds of this story were planted even before Jacob and Esau were born, as the twins wrestled with each other in the womb. Jacob’s very name comes from holding his brother’s heel as he was born, a term that also means “supplanter” or “usurper” – and he lived up to that name, conspiring with his mother to steal Esau’s very birthright as the (barely) firstborn. Esau swears to kill him.

This leads to Jacob fleeing to extended family to find a wife, and a bit of turnabout as his Uncle Laban tricks him into marrying both his daughters and working for him 14 years. Jacob turns that back on him, gaining wealth at Laban’s expense and eventually leaving in the night and taking all his flocks and family. Fleeing from Laban brings Jacob back to Esau in this story.

That’s when he gets the news that Esau is advancing with 400 men, and so Jacob’s reaction is yet another scheme, stacking children and flocks ahead of him in order of importance to him, in order to be able to flee if things go south.

This preparation to flee calls back to the time he wrestled with God (or the angel of God, or something), when his hip is struck, likely to prevent Jacob, whose nature (like many of us) is to respond to problems by running. Again, Jacob is in a place when he cannot run, but has to reconcile.

Reconciliation, to one another and between us and God, is the role of us as the church today. But the next step of this story – when Jacob bails on his brother entirely and goes in a different direction – reminds us that reconciliation is not easy, and is not a quick fix.

But it is still what we are called to, both individually and as a church. We are called to put aside our worldly reactions she striving, and live face to face in the grace and forgiveness of God.

– Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, May 8, 2022

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Your Mission Profile – Matthew 28:16-20

Matthew’s account of the resurrection & Jesus’ ministry afterwards is very terse and brief, only a few verses. He zeroes directly into the question “what is our mission in the light of the resurrection?”

In the last few verses of his gospel, Matthew tells us a few things. The disciples meet Jesus and worship him – but some doubted. This was not a purely emotional reaction of a bunch of credulous rubes, but an interaction with a true thing that took time to process and understand – and God has patience with us as we do that.

Then the story moves immediately to the Great Commission – but we should carefully consider the premise that Jesus begins with before we come to the instructions themselves. “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.” What is there in existence that Jesus does not rule? Nothing. As Americans, we have difficulty with the concept of authority, but Jesus is clear about the situation here. And this authority is the context of the Great Commission – it’s not merely an idea or a suggestion, it is a command. It is a job description for the job of “Christian.”

But there is context at the end of the command as well – “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” He is with us in this process.

Something to note, though, is the nature of this command. The instruction here is not to be a disciple, but to make disciples – the instructions here are being given to those who are disciples. We are disciples, and our task is to make more disciples. Too often, we see our purpose as Christians to be about our internal spiritual life or Bible reading our personal morality or our systematic belief structure. All of these things are good and important. But Jesus is clear here that the purpose of all of it is to make disciples.

Within that, there are three subordinate commands – go, baptize, teach. We are to “go.” We are not to live in a “holy huddle” but to live outward focused. We are to baptize – to preach the gospel and usher others into the saving relationship with Christ. And we are to teach the instruction of Christ to those who have been saved.

We can study the Bible all we want – we can even train others to study the Bible. But unless that study is turning us into people who represent Christ well, we are not doing what Christ instructs.

Studies show that all of us have 8-15 people in our lives we are uniquely qualified to minister to, some Christians and some not, but we all have someone.

We live in the era of the Resurrection, and in this era we have a mission to fulfill. How is your life designed to make disciples?

– Sermon Notes, Jeff Sickles, Snohomish Evangelical Free Church, Snohomish, WA, April 24, 2022

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Blessed are Those Who Have Not Seen & Yet Have Believed – John 20:26-31

Whatever the state of your life, whatever difficulties and hardships, whatever sins beset you, whatever challenges you face – if you believe in Jesus Christ, Jesus in this passage calls you blessed. Blessed even beyond those disciples who stood with him bodily.

This is the entire purpose of John’s gospel – “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” This is where we place our hope, not in earthly trends or capabilities or politicians.

We see here in this passage also one of the clearest statements of Christ’s divinity in the whole New Testament, as Thomas throws himself at the feet of Jesus. It seems clear that Thomas was kept from that first meeting with the risen Christ so that he could serve as a stand-in for all of us who doubt, for all of us who protect ourselves with cynicism, fear and hardness of heart.

In John 11, as Jesus stands at the tomb of Lazarus, he promises Martha that he is “the resurrection and the life.” Martha responds with the same words John writes here.

The first thing Jesus says when he appears to his disciples is “peace be with you.” The second thing he does is provide identification, by way of his hands and feet. Just as when he was walking on the water, his disciples initially thought he was a ghost, but he responded in both that case and his first appearance after his resurrection with “it is I.”

The wounds that serve as his identification also serve as a sign of his peace, and the peace with God that he made possible through his death on the cross, the propitiation provided as foretold through the Passover Lamb.

The third thing Jesus provided to his disciples and to us is liberation from fear. We see how this plays out in Acts 5, where the disciples have gone from locked away in their houses from fear to rejoicing in the opportunity to suffer for the name of the risen Christ. We are offered that same liberation.

As we go out from this Easter Sunday, back into our routines, let us keep in mind that we are blessed, for we believe without having seen, and we have a glorious future.

– Sermon Notes, Rick Mitchell, Island Baptist, Camano Island, WA, April 17, 2022

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Make it Count – Luke 6:12-19

Luke here identifies a period of time when the conflict and tension between Jesus and the religious elite of his day was growing. In verse 11 he notes that the religious leaders were grisly more angry, and “in those days,” describes that Jesus is doing these next things in that context. As the early signs of the end of Jesus’ earthly life are seen, Jesus begins laying the foundation to entrust his ultimate mission to twelve men.

His first response, seeing time is short, is not what most of us would instinctively do. He turns to the Father and prays. Many of us give too little priority to prayer, perhaps because we don’t really believe it impacts us or our world. But throughout Luke, we see Jesus in prayer, especially during times of hardship – here, ahead of his temptation in the wilderness, and before the crucifixion.

So, like Jesus, before we take on the pressures of the world, let’s talk to the Father. We should not be tackling the difficulties of our day before solidifying our relationship with God. Prayer keeps us anchored and tethered to the creator of the world. Prayer should be what we resort to when the pressure is on.

After he prays through the night, Jesus has clarity, and establishes the Twelve Apostles, mirroring the Twelve Tribes. He is establishing a New Israel, what would become the Church. (Paul would eventually be added to this number.)

Notably, none of these men were rabbis, scribes, Pharisees or priests. Instead, they were common men – the most wealthy or “white collar” of them all seems to be Matthew, who was a tax collector and outcast. Possibly they had even been rejected by traditional rabbis as disciples and so had fallen back to the family trades, like fishing. But these are the men Jesus chooses, after prayer, to lead his church.

After making this selection and appointing, Jesus demonstrates for them what His mission is all about. He goes down to a level place, amidst a great crowd, and preaches and heals. But Jesus strategy was to focus on a few people around him, investing in them so that they could invest in others. Within those twelve, the trio of Peter, James & John were even the inner circle, closer to Jesus and brought in deeper.

Jesus would supply these men with everything they needed for this mission – teaching, power, wisdom and much more.

The presence of Judas Iscariot on this list is an interesting conundrum. Did Jesus make a mistake here? No – he trusted the Father’s plan, of which Judas and even his betrayal was a part.

The last thing we can learn from both Jesus and that apostles is that we should turn ourselves toward the father even at death – as Jesus said, “into your hands I commit my spirit.” And of these 12, ten of them would go to a martyr’s death like Jesus would. Andrew was crucified, Peter was a well, upside down. Matthew was assassinated in Ethiopia. James was betrayed by a fellow Christian. Bartholomew was beheaded in India, where Thomas was killed by a spear.

The only disciple to die naturally was John, who lived to as much as 100, but also scarred by persecution and trial.

They all, barring Judas, made their lives count, and in the end turned to the Father. We ourselves won’t likely face martyrdom, but we will all face death, and on that day let’s do as Jesus and His apostles did.

Before you face the world, go to the Father. As you face the world, trust the Father. When you leave the world, turn to the Father.

– Sermon Notes, Andrew Arthur, Hallows Church, Edmonds, WA, March 27, 2022

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Friend of Sinners – Luke 5:27-32

It’s hard to overstate the stigma attached to Levi here as a tax collector of the occupying government. Not only were they seen as traitors for working for the Romans, but they also functioned like loan sharks or moon enforcers. Rabbis writing at the time categorized them along with thieves and murderers. Being with them could leave you ceremonially unclean – an outcast like a leper, but made an outcast by their own sin rather than disease.

But Jesus saw past that social status and even past the sin that drove that status, into the imago Dei that made Levi worthy of love.

It is possible that Levi had heard of Jesus before this, but when presented with the direct call of Christ, he responded by leaving behind his wealth and stability. Following Jesus does cost. Anything that hinders us from following Jesus, that must be left behind.

We see this new way of life play out in verse 29, as Matthew holds a feast for Jesus, but one that pulled in his fellow tax collectors and friends from the outskirts of society. He literally changed his table from the self-focused tax collector’s booth to the table of grace and hospitality.

Importantly, Levi did not cut ties with his previous community – instead, he imitates the work of Christ and brings these other sinners into the presence of Christ. Consider also that fishermen would have been among those abused by these tax collectors, and so the table here also serves as a table of community and reconciliation, as well as a table of mission and grace.

This kind of act is not without consequence – we see here the grumbling and complaining of the Pharisees here. But ultimately, we must be willing for the world, even the religious world, to misunderstand us and judge us. Self-righteousness keeps people out of God’s kingdom in a way that “gross sins” do not. True Christianity is explicitly for the weak, just like Nietzsche accused it of – what he missed was just how weak all of us are.

These themes of feasting and fellowship are found all throughout the Bible, beginning in the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve feasted and fellowshipped with God before choosing the wrong table. We see it in the story of the Exodus as the Passover meal becomes a central illustration of God’s mercy. We see this throughout Christ’s ministry in earth, and then beyond as the early church begins built around feasts and fellowship. And we see this coming to pass in the future as well, at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, a picture of the eternal joy and fellowship we are promised in the world to come.

Let us today consider how our tables can be used in the service of this feast and fellowship that Christ calls us to.

– Sermon Notes, Andrew Arthur, Hallows Church, Edmonds, WA, March 13, 2022

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Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit – Matthew 5:1-12

The expectation of the Jewish people was that the Messiah would come to overthrow the Roman government and establish A Jewish kingdom. Jesus came to establish a different kind of kingdom, and during the Beatitudes, he walked through the values of that new kingdom.

Jesus first action in this passage is a differentiator, as he sits down to teach, in contrast with the religious teachers in the synagogue who would stand to teach.

Then he goes on to teach, walking through multiple ways in which people are “blessed” or “happy” – the Greek is makarios, implying a deeper, broader story than material blessings or surface-level happiness. These statements show the potential of what is available to us through Christ.

The first is these may well be the most important, but in some ways the most confusing. What does it mean to be “poor in spirit?” Fundamentally, it means to recognize our own inadequacy – that we are entirely helpless without Christ, and at our core have an absolute need for God.

But we will never depend on something we don’t think we need. Do we understand the depth of our need here? In Revelation, Jesus speaks to the church in Laodicea, a church that considered itself rich, but in reality was, in the words of Christ, “wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.”

What is this poverty and blindness? What are the riches offered by Christ to the poor in spirit? First, without Jesus, we stand condemned by our sin. “The wages of sin are death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” Through him, we have the assurance of salvation, forgiveness and eternal life.

Without Jesus, we can only cope with the tools of the world. Jeremiah wrote of false prophets who assured Jerusalem they would not be destroyed, “they offer superficial treatments for my people’s mortal wounds, they give assurances of peace when there is no peace.” But Jesus is the prince of peace, and offers more to sooth our pain and hurt than anything the world offers.

Because of Jesus, we have purpose, and a promise of life abundantly, life to the full.

– Sermon Notes, Jeff Fullmer, New Life Church, Lynnwood, WA, March 6, 2022

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The Spiritual Practice of Abiding

Spiritual formation is the process of forming the inner world of our lives such that it becomes like the inner life of Christ Himself. Christ’s intention for the church is for it to serve as a remnant and lineage of people formed in this way, for us to be people whose inner lives shine outward with the love of Christ in a way that others see.

This formation, this discipleship is the reason we come together. We see Paul address this in Colossians 1, where he promises that “God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

In Galatians 4, Paul compares this to the formation of the child in the womb. Ruth Haley Barton writes, “I cannot transform myself, or anyone else for that matter. What I can do is create the conditions in which spiritual transformation can take place, by developing and maintaining a rhythm of spiritual practices that keep me open and available to God.”

We often want to see this as multi-step linear process within a set timetable, but that is not really how it works. The starting point for our spiritual formation process is to become a disciple of Jesus. We can get a glimpse of this through the beginning of the discipleship of Simon, Andrew and other disciples in John 1, Matthew 4 and Matthew 9.

These are very different cases but very similar beginnings. Whether disciples of another rabbi, fishermen or tax collectors, Jesus simple instruction was clear: “follow me.” Leave what you are doing, and go where I go.

The Greek word for disciple is an apprentice, one that generally lived in the proximity of their master or rabbi, to follow them. They would learn from them and eventually imitate them. Jesus original disciples were directly in this mode.

But they had the incarnate Christ right there. How do we, today, in this place follow Jesus in this way? First, we do have the Word of God, the teachings of Christ, instructions to His church, and the Law and the Prophets that came before. We are to live in community, committing our lives to Christ by way of committing our lives to one another. We have the witness and learning of previous generations.

And most importantly we are given the gift of the Holy Spirit. The most important step we can take is intentionally moving towards an every increasing awareness and connection to the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised the Holy Spirit as a helper that would be with us forever. In John 14, he says, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”

In the next Chapter he speaks in a metaphor of what this looks like – to “abide,” to remain, to live, and specifically in the person of Christ. Jesus gives us access to the safest place we could possibly live in, a place we are created for. We are invited to live in the presence of the Holy Spirit at all times and for all time.

Brother Laurence writes that “the time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer; and in the noise and clutter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess GOD in as great tranquillity as if I were upon my knees at the Blessed Sacrament. “

Within our lives, what commonplace activity can at prepare for this week that we can prepare for beforehand when we can practice the act of abiding? When can we acknowledge and be aware of the presence of the Holy Spirit? And is there a new rhythm that would develop a helpful habit of practicing the presence of God during your day?

-Sermon Notes, Brian Eastland, Mosaic Church North, Edmonds, WA, February 13, 2021