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You Can’t Overestimate Jesus

Often in our lives we want to “speak to the manager” or whoever is in charge. This passage in Revelation is an opportunity to hear directly from the man (or Son of Man) in charge.

John is writing, as described in this passage, to seven churches in Asia Minor – but he’s it writing to eight churches. The reason each of these “job reviews” are made public is so that that we can learn and apply the lessons in our own church, the eighth church.

John wrote from Patmos, an island off the coast of Asia Minor, and these seven churches are along a major route on the mainland, in order the way they are listed here. John was in some sort of exile here, possibly working in the mines there as a punishment. Tradition holds that he e in a cave when this vision occurred.

He writes that he was “in the spirit on the Lord’s day,” which is a challenge for us. Do we prepare ourselves for worship and fellowship? In Judaism, the sabbath begins on Friday night, so the people are well prepared for the synagogue the next day. Are we prepared, or do we stay up to all hours and only try to get into the right mindset once we arrive on Sunday morning?

John’s exile itself raises another question and challenge. Church today can be very focused on comfort and entertainment. How would we handle it if we were threatened with imprisonment or death for showing up on Sundays?

John introduces himself not as a leader, authority or even Apostle. Instead, he calls himself “brother” and “partner”. This itself is another challenge, to avoid the word “they” in favor of “us” when discussing the church. We need each other and are all in this together. Salvation is a group project – we are saved individually, but called to corporate sanctification.

We move on to this vision of churches as lampstands, with Christ going amongst them. This is a vision we can see and imagine of the churches in our area – Jesus is in the midst of them and that’s the opinion that matters.

The description of Jesus is intense and symbolic, calling back to a similar description in Daniel. It’s difficult to picture (and looks weird when someone tries to illustrate it), but it indicates both the deity and humanity of Christ. He is dressed in a way that calls to mind the High Priest, with eyes of flame indicating his penetrating gaze (which we will see more of in the letters to the churches), legs of bronze indicating stability, hair of white indicating wisdom, and a mouth like a sword – words that cleave, which again we will see more of shortly.

Taken as a whole, we are reminded of the lordship of Christ. In the moment, it would be a reminder that Jesus was greater tag Caesar or any of his soldiers. Today it is a reminder that Jesus is greater and has a greater call on our allegiance than any political party or movement. From the lordship of Christ flow all our other roles and allegiances. We seek to be good citizens, employees, parents because we seek to follow Christ in all these these roles.

The true impact of this lordship comes into clearer focus when we see John’s response. Remember, this is the “disciple Jesus loved” who leaned back on him at meals, but his response is not “hey, friend, how have you been?” Instead, he falls at Jesus’ feet in worship.

Jesus, though, lays his hand upon John and tells him not to be afraid. Then he tells him why he needs not fear: Jesus is the first and last, the one who defeated death and hell and holds the keys to it all. Christ-centered Christians recognize his Lordship and submit to it even in the face of persecution.

The overall summary of this chapter is “you can’t overestimate Jesus.” The rest of the book, while confusing and controversial in the specifics, overall points to Jesus. The broad theme of Revelation is simply “Jesus wins”. The details are up for debate, but not the ultimate outcome.

It is easy to make our faith a “Jesus overlay” we put on top of the important things in life. But Jesus wants to be at the center of our world. He is the first and the last.

– Sermon Notes, Mahlon Friesen, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, May 12, 2019

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Remember, Ask, Persevere – Psalm 126

This Psalm was part of a series of “songs of ascent” which may have been sung by the priests as they ascended to the temple in procession.

It begins with a memory of what God did for the people of Israel. It probably refers to the return from Babylonian Captivity, but could mean the Exodus or even what has happened in our own lives – or what has happened in the life of our church. It is good to think back on the good things that God has done for us.

But there is a danger that this remembrance does not degrade into nostalgia. In this case, the excitement and exuberance of the people had faded. There was struggle and sin and defeats.

They sought for a return of their fortunes from the Lord, likening it to an out-of-season flood through the dry streambeds and wadis of the Negeb Valley in the south of Israel.

The psalm then shifts again, painting an agricultural picture. Sowing and reaping was a core concept among the people of that age, and the idea that we reap what we sow is a metaphorical sense is a theme that is repeated throughout scripture. We generally get out what we put in.

This reminds us that we cannot just sit around waiting for God’s blessing. We have to go out and do the hard work of sowing and reaping. God can bring miraculous blessings, but God also has processes. The seasons will change, the rains will come and, if it is planted, the harvest will be there.

All this reminds us in our own lives, and the life of this church, of ways that God gives joy. First, we should remember the great works of God that he has done in the past. We do this weekly here through the sacrament of communion, as we remember the greatest thing God has done for us.

Second, we should ask. We should pray for the good things we need and desire. We should pray for ourselves, for church leadership and volunteers and each other. We should pray for God’s blessing to be poured out onto this body.

And finally, we should persevere. This agricultural metaphor brings to mind Christ’s teaching on evangelism. Much of what we share lands on rocky ground or thorny ground, but we are called to persevere. We are called as a church to persevere through the seasons that we are in, whether winter or summer or somewhere in between. You can’t just skip from one to the other – the only way out is through.

What is God calling you to do in reaction to all this, both as a member of this church and as an individual? James 5:7-8 and Galatians 6:7-10 be remind us that we must do the hard work in order to see the glory that God has for us in the future. That glory will be more than what we have, because we always reap more than we sow – otherwise our economy would collapse and we would all starve to death.

Revelation 18:21 reminds us of the ultimate glory ahead of us – God will dwell with man and we will be his people. The goal isn’t that we go off to heaven, but rather that heaven comes to us.

1 Corinthians 15:15, finally, reminds us that when we labor for the Lord, our labor is not in vain.

– Sermon Notes, Mahlon Friesen, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, April 28, 2019

 
Psalm 126

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Perspectives on the Resurrection

Humanity’s greatest foe was conquered by a carpenter from Nazareth.

In Kendrick Lamar’s song “How Much Does a Dollar Cost” he tells the story is meeting a transient asking him for a dollar while he was getting gas. He dismisses the man as a druggie and a bum, but then it turns out to be Jesus Christ. It is so easy to miss Jesus when he appears in our mundane circumstances, in an unexpected place.

Different people have different perspectives on Easter. Even the gospels have different perspectives.

In Matthew, we hear about Mary Magdelene and Mary the mother of James and John visiting the tomb, but not before an earthquake strikes and the stone rolls away. The women are met by an angel sitting on the stone who tells them not to be afraid (despite the guards lying on the ground like dead men) and that Jesus had risen. He sends them off to tell the disciples, and they run off with a comingling of both “fear and great joy.” They meet Jesus himself on the way and worship him as God. They grab his feet – he is not a spirit or a ghost, but a man bodily resurrected.

In Mark, chapter 16, the perspective is similar, but with an additional woman mentioned, Salome. Like in Matthew, they came to bring spices and oils to anoint the body. This wasn’t about mummifucation, but rather to offset the odor, and as an act of respect and piety. As in Matthew, they are met by an angel who tells them what has happened and what to do. Here, the angel is within the tomb rather than on the rock.

In Luke 24, we get a similar story, but in this case with two angels. It may be that there was one on the stone and one in the tomb itself. They ask “why do you seek the living among the dead?” In this recounting, we also hear that a woman named Joanna who had been healed by Jesus was within the group, and possibly other women as well. Here we get the story of what happens when they tell the disciples – they dismiss the story of the angel and Jesus, and, like Kendrick Lamar, almost miss Jesus.

John is written latest, and gives us more of the story. When Mary Magdelene tells the disciples, Peter and John run to the tomb (and John makes it clear that he got there first). They see the empty tomb and the folded linens (!) and believed.

What do we do about these differences? Consider a football game, and different people sitting in different places around the field. They will each tell slightly different stories about the game, and those stories will also be different based on who they are told to. The big picture – the big picture, the teams and the score will be the same, but the perspectives will be very different.

We all have different perspectives on the Resurrection, and those can shift. Does our perspective put us at risk of missing Jesus, like the disciples nearly did?

Christianity is not just fire insurance. We become representatives of Christ and his kingdom today, in the here and now.

We all have access to the power that raised Jesus from the dead. It doesn’t matter what we have done in the past – all we have to do is believe. Without Christ we are dead in our sins, but his power of forgiveness gives us new life, just as Jesus himself rose from the grave.

As Philip Yancey wrote,

There are two ways to look at human history… One way is to focus on the wars and violence… and tragedy and death. From such a point of view, Easter seems a fairy-tale exception… There is another way to look at the world. If I take Easter as the starting point, the one incontrovertible fact about how God treats those whom he loves, then human history becomes the contradiction and Easter a preview of ultimate reality. Hope then flows like lava beneath the crust of daily life.

– Sermon Notes, Dave Lester, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, April 21, 2019

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The Triumphal Entry

As Jesus made his way back to Jerusalem, he returned to Bethany where the combination of Lazarus and Jesus stirred up the people even more. This disturbed the Pharisees who were already on edge about Jesus’ popularity. This was a key decision point where the Pharisees determined to kill Jesus, which Jesus knew. Nevertheless, he pressed on to Jerusalem for the Passover, even though this would be a clear death sentence. As he came into the city, he goes through a little rigamarole to make sure he had a donkey and its colt to ride on. This was notable, because donkeys are notoriously gentle and skittish, which combines to be stubbornness. That he could ride a donkey through a crowd of shouting people tells us something about him. But why did Jesus pick a donkey colt? There are a couple reasons. One is to indicate what kind of king he was. “Jesus didn’t come in a humvee or a Ferrari – Jesus came in a sensible sedan.” Second, the colt itself is like the transportation version of the spotless lamb that would feature so heavily in the upcoming passover feast. Regardless of the method of locomotion, the people responded to him as king, laying their garments down on the path ahead of him just as they would have when Israel had its own independent king. This terrified the Pharisees, who worried they would lose their place and power, not to mention that the people themselves would suffer and die if an uprising in Jerusalem occurred. The people welcoming Jesus were not without guilt either, as they turned on Jesus when it became clear that he was not the temporal, material, political Savior that they wanted. Peter specifically called them out for this at Pentecost. What can we take away from this? We can learn from the reactions of the Pharisees, the crowd and the disciples. Looking at the Pharisees, do we view everything from the lens of how we can benefit? Is following Jesus too hard or too dangerous? Looking at the crowds, who had the outward appearance of praising Jesus, there was no heart change. When it turned out that Jesus wasn’t who they wanted him to be, they turned on him hard and fast. But we can also look at the disciples, who did not abandon Jesus even when many did because he said weird things about eating his flesh and drinking his blood, nor did they run away when Jesus told them that he was going to Jerusalem to die. They showed an imperfect but still wonderful example of following Jesus. Like the disciples, we keep Jesus’ commandments because we love him. In turn, our love for him enables us to better serve him. If we try to keep Jesus’ commandments without loving him, we will burn out or turn away. But if we seek to love and follow Jesus, we have his help and love in turn as we go along the journey. -Aaron James, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, April 14, 2019 John 12:9-19 Something went wrong with the bible. Please make sure that you are requesting a valid passage! If this problem presits please contact joshuawiecorek@outlook.com
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Glory in the Church

There is a saying: “two men looked out of prison bars; one saw the mud, the other the stars.” The scriptures are very honest about the mud and muck of life, but it also calls us to look beyond that. This passage in Ephesians is a clear call to raise our gaze and look to the hope of God.

The church in Ephesus was a small group surrounded by a wealthy civilization with well-articulated philosophies and religions. And yet this shall group went on to conquer the Roman empire – much as was promised in this passage. 

The book of Ephesians was a circular letter to Asia Minor that may not have even been meant for that church in particular, though it was certainly sent there. In the book he addresses the division between Jew and Gentile, and how that division was bridged by Christ, and how corporately we all together are the Temple of God, with Christ as the cornerstone.

The Ephesians certainly understood the concept of a temple, being the home of one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World, the Temple of Artemis, where Paul got himself into some trouble with some silversmiths.

In contrast, though, the Christian temple is not a breathtaking stone building, but rather a unity of Jew and gentile, man and woman, rich and poor, slave and free, weak and strong.

Because of this, Paul calls on us not to lose heart. We have the very power of God within acs behind us, according to the riches of the glory of the Father, strengthened by the power by the Spirit so that Christ may live in our hearts. The entire Trinity is at work here.

This is the only passage in the Bible that directly describes Jesus living in our hearts, but the concept is driven throughout – in Galatians, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ in me.”

The Greek word for “dwell” here means to stay in the place that is your home – Christ is not a guest at your heart’s hotel, but rather it is to be His home. All the rooms and locked closets are his, all the TVs and computers and all. Christ’s lordship touches all aspects of life, which is all to be rooted and founded in love. 

That love is what brought their church together. It was not the personality of the pastor or the technology or the quality of the band. Rather, we come together as a church because salvation is a group project. We are saved individually, but we only learn to love when we are in relationship with one another. We need each other, and we need each other most acutely where we want it the least.

Many years later, Jesus himself wrote a letter to the Ephesians. Much of it was encouraging, but Christ called them out for having abandoned the love that first brought them together.

The purpose of all of this, per verse 19, is that we are filled with the fullness of God. The question then becomes, how big is your God? Many of us struggle with an image of God that is too small, and many then reject His because He didn’t behave like the small version of God we have in our minds.

Paul’s vision of God here, is able to do far more than we can ask, more than we can think or even imagine – again, according to the power within us. And to Him belongs the glory in the church.

The glory in the church looks like perseverance, especially for us as we work through transition.

What can we take from this prayer? It can guide our own prayers. We should pray for a Christ-centered life for ourselves dvd others. We should pray for a love-filled church, and pray for a God-sized faith. And as Paul has just reminded us, that size is pretty big.

– Sermon Notes, Mahlon Friesen, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, February 17, 2019

Ephesians 2:14-21

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Do Not Grow Weary of Doing Good – Galatians 6:7-10

This passage brings to mind Jonathan Edwards, considered the greatest theological mind America had ever produced. He famously set down 70 resolutions for himself that

Paul’s letter to the Galatians is an emotional defense of justification by faith alone and the work of the Holy Spirit. In this section, his primary concern is that we do not give up. He gives two guarantees to strengthen our resolve. First, that we will reap what sow, and second, we will reap in due season. If we plant wheat, we get barley. If we eat unhealthily, we reap unhealthy results. In parenting, if we sow a lack of discipline, we will reap undisciplined children. In relationships, if we sow kindness and time, we will reap friendship. Paul is applying this principle to our moral behavior overall.

In chapter 5, he outlines more directly what we will reap if we sow to the flesh & self: dissention, rivalries, etc. On the other hand, reaping to the spirit means we reap the fruit of the spirit: love, kindness, patience, etc.

The second promise is that we will reap in due season. This is a promise for those who are sowing to the spirit – promising us that the spirit of God will produce fruit in our lives. This fruit of the spirit then itself produces good works. 

Then Paul goes on to call on us not to grow weary of doing good. But how can we tell if we are growing weary? Six possible signs: first, if you are high in criticism but low in participation. Criticism is not itself bad, but without participation in the life of the Body, it is a sign that you have grown weary of doing good. 

If you are embittered by others’ failures, and letting other people’s behavior make you bitter or turn you away from service in the body, that is another time. It is a given that we are going to hurt each other – this is why the New Testament is full of calls to forgive each other.

If you resent those who serve less than you, that is another sign. If you evaluate church in terms of “Me”, behaving like a consumer seeking the “most for your money” then you certainly have grown weary.

If you neglect giving, whether time or money, that can be another sign.

Last, if you have abandoned your neighbors and the world around you because Jesus and truth are unpopular, then that is definite sign that you are growing weary of doing good.

So what can we do about it? In verse 10, we are given guidance: as we are given opportunities, we are to do good – and it starts here within the church.

There is a real danger that we grow weary but do not honestly grapple with it or get help.

Our righteousness and sanctification all come from our union with Christ and the grace of God, but we are still called to persevere and not to grow weary.

– Sermon Notes, Sean Harrelson, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, February 3, 2019

Galatians 6:7-10

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Jesus Wants You to Have Joy – John 2:1-12

Jesus here in his first miracle, the first of seven signs recorded by John, is making a first impression. He is beginning his ministry in a way that tells us something about how his ministry is going to go.

John begins this story with the words “on the third day”, calling back to the creation story and ahead to the resurrection. The third day was the traditional day for a wedding, and the wine involved has many roles and connotations, and it was very important to the wedding celebration.

In a shame/honor culture, running out of wine would not just have been an awkward event, but potentially a shameful event that could have stained their reputation for the rest of their lives.

So Mary asks her son to fix it, but he replies enigmatically “it is not my time.” He means that a public miracle would begin the countdown to his death and resurrection, but Mary is unmoved and tells the servants to do what he says. So Jesus does a miracle quietly, creating the best wine the emcee had ever drunk.

This is the beginning of the symphony of seven signs John writes about, which will crescendo with the raising of Lazarus. It is a miracle almost entirely devoted to joy. 

Jesus wants us to have joy. Salvation is not just about getting a ticket punched at the end of your life, but rather about the Kingdom of God, age all the joy that comes with it, coming into our lives here on earth.

We don’t one why the wine was gone. Maybe the groom was poor, or they were irresponsible, or maybe it was because the disciples crashed the wedding and drank it all. But it clearly doesn’t matter to the purposes of God, or to the joy that He wants to bring to us. 

Our religious selves might have responded differently. We might have had Jesus preach about how he is the water that satisfies, or that the wine of his blood brought salvation, or that he is the bridegroom and we are his bride.

But Jesus didn’t preach a sermon. Instead, he specifically took the jars set aside for the religious ritual of purification and turned it into wine for celebration. He could have done it any way he wanted, but instead he took something set aside for dry religiosity and turned it upside-down – setting the tone for the rest of his ministry through the end of his earthly life and even up through today. 

– Sermon Notes, Tim Schaaf, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, January 27, 2019

John 2:1-12

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Don’t Limit God – Psalm 78 1:1-22

Psalm 78 is the longest of the history psalms. It is the story of the Israelites in the wilderness and a reminder that when we go through times of wilderness in our own lives, God is all we need.

This is a psalm of Asaph, reminding Israel – and therefore us, because we have been grafted in – of what God has done. It begins with instruction to listen carefully even though (or especially because) we have heard these stories before, because there are lessons to be learned. We are to trust and pass on these stories to the next generation.

Specifically, we are too teach them three things: the glorious deeds of God, his strength and his mighty wonders. Knowing the ways of God and how he cares for us is more important than knowing facts about God. 

It goes on to say the God has established a testimony through the Law, which we are to review and repeat so that the next generation will set their hearts anew on God. 

This is in contrast to earlier generations who abandoned God and did not set their hearts aright. They did not deal with the “idol factory of the heart” as Tim Keller calls it, even when God does many miracles and even makes water pour from a rock. 

Instead, they were ungrateful, complaining and murmuring, ungrateful for what they had been given. They did not trust God to care for them or even believe that God could. 

Does this stir anything in your heart where you are limiting God? Our hearts are “prone to wander” which means we have a need for self examination. We are called up prepare our hearts so that we can maintain confidence in God even in the wilderness. 

– Sermon Notes, Brad Weir, City Church International, Dallas, TX, January 20, 2019

Psalm 78:1-22

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Who is John the Baptist, and who are you? – John 1:19-34

John here shifts from the 50,000 foot view steeped in cosmic philosophy, into “story mode.” We zoom into a story that takes place over three days, the story of Jesus’ baptism and the beginning of his ministry. This is a story also told in the synoptic gospels, but with notable differences.

John jumps right into the story, but we can learn more about John the Baptist in Matthew. He lived in the wilderness and ate locusts, which were considered clean under Mosaic law, but was still weird. He wrote camel-hair cloak, which sounds fancy but is in fact a poor person’s garb, in the style of Elijah and the other prophets. He was born miraculously, to an elderly priest and his wife. He is like a character out of the Old Testament.

Why is this person, John the Baptist, in the bible? Why is he covered across the gospels? In Matthew 11, Jesus makes it clear: John is the exclamation point at the end of the age of prophecy, coming after a long time of silence. He himself was prophesied about 700 years prior, as a “voice crying in the wilderness.” He himself was apparently a captivating speaker, making a significant impact with his message of repentance.

John was an important prophet whose words carried weight. He also made it clear to his own disciples that Jesus was the one who he was prophesying about.

The “Jewish leaders” broadly speaking are the key villains of the gospel of John, and this is our first glimpse of them. In true “know your enemy” fashion, they wanted to know what and who he was.

Even then, they saw parallels between John and Elijah, and even though John specifically denied being Elijah, Jesus later called him Elijah. While John was not the reincarnation or return of Elijah, he filled the role of Elijah in prophecy (in Malachi).

But he wouldn’t tell the Jewish leaders this, or answer their questions at all, instead pointing ahead to Christ. John does this both because this is his role and because it is his entire identity and purpose.

Here we also get a call back to the opening of the gospel, calling out Christ’s eternal nature, noting that he was “greater because he was before.” Additionally, we get foreshadowing of what is to come, calling Jesus the “lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” The connection between a lamb and the removal of sin would have been very clear to the Jewish people there – John correctly identified Jesus immediately, not just as the son of God, but as the one who would die in order to mediate the sin of all humanity.

This would have been rather confusing, though, because the notion of Jesus being a great leader and being a sacrifice would not have lined up in the minds of the people.

Despite being Jesus’ relative, it appears that John did not actually know Jesus by sight. Instead, God gave him specific criteria by which to identify him – seeing the spirit descending on him like a dove.

This also gives us some application: we also must correctly identify Jesus. John was not viewing Jesus through the filter of what he needed in his life,but rather through the truth of who he actually was. Others saw him as a threat to their power or a chance for political liberation, looking at him through their own filters. We have the same temptations.

The answer may be to follow in the footsteps of John the Baptist who humbled himself and emptied himself of his own identity to the extent that the question “who are you?” returned the answer “someone greater is coming!”

  • Sermon Notes, Aaron James, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, January 13, 2019

John 1:19-34

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John’s Perspective on Christ – John 1:1-18

When you look up at a night sky away from cities and light pollution, and see all the billions of stars, it can give you perspective on our small size in the midst of the massive universe. It is an indication that there is much more in the universe than we run into in our day to day lives.

John’s gospel is very much about perspective. It provides a very different perspective than Matthew, Mark and Luke, the synoptic gospels. John is all about Jesus’ nature: who He is and how he relates to other people. John’s gospel is the most clear that Jesus is 100% God. It has a developed Christology that may be the result of being written later than others, once Christians had an opportunity to reflect on the implications of everything.

The gospel opens with the startling assertion that this man Jesus, son of a carpenter from a small town in Palestine, was present at the creation of the universe. He is the one who hung those stars in the sky, speaking of perspective. This is a key belief of Christianity, and also one opposed from early days, by Arians in the fourth century and by Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses. But the gospel of John makes it very clear that Jesus was fully divine and fully man. We sometimes take for granted the wildness of this claim. Imagine working as a construction worker next to someone who claimed to be God.

The opening of John echos the opening of Genesis. “In the beginning…” In Genesis, God speaks a word and brings the world into existence. In John, Jesus himself is the Word. In Genesis, light is the first thing created. In John, Jesus himself is the light. In Genesis, Elohim is clearly set apart as the only God, the creator of the universe and far greater than the gods and goddesses of the surrounding cultures. In John, Jesus is the exclusive path to Elohim.

John also opens with a clearly universal message – that path, though exclusive, is open to all. Unlike the Law, which came through the same Torah where we find Genesis, Jesus is full of the grace and truth we need in order to follow that path. This is the perspective John provides.

How does looking at the world from this perspective impact us when times are good or when they are bad? We live in a time-oriented culture, which can mean that we run from activity to activity and lose this bigger perspective even when times are good, and certainly when times are bad. As we as a church go through a difficult season, we need to acknowledge and talk about the pain and grief we are going through. But we also should have perspective that the same Jesus who created the stars created Seed Church, and He is full of grace and truth.

As we open 2019, consider what you have always wanted a church to do and be? Do you have a dream or vision of a ministry at the church? Things will change in the world and in our church, and change is hard. But one thing that will not change is the perspective outlined here in the opening of John. Jesus is the creator of the universe, and He offers us the opportunity to become Children of God.

– Sermon Notes, Dave Lester, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, January 6, 2019

John 1:1-18

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