Tag: New Testament

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The Gospel of Mark: the Way of Jesus – Mark 1:9-15

This gospel was written by John Mark who was a teenager during Jesus’ ministry, not a disciple or apostle. His two names are Hebrew and Latin, which implies that his family may have been important or wealthy – in Acts it’s noted that a church meets in his mother’s home.

This is the same Mark who runs away and loses his clothing in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was also a close friend and disciple of Peter, and it is likely that Peter is the source for most if not all of this gospel.

Mark is also the cause of the split between Barnabas and Paul in Acts. Mark was Barnabas’ cousin, and Barnabas wanted to take him along on their second missionary journey. Paul, though, considered Mark a flake because he had abandoned them in an earlier situation. The dispute became so heated that they ended up parting ways. But later on, Mark and Paul did reconcile – in his final list, Paul instructs Timothy to bring Mark along “because he is helpful to me in my ministry.”

This should be a comfort to us if we have ever messed up or failed someone, or if we have been rejected for ministry whether for good reasons or bad. Mark went through the same thing and ended up with his name on a Gospel.

Maybe for this reason, the gospel also focuses on the theme of the mistakes and ignorance of the disciples as a whole. There is a regular motif of the the disciples urging Jesus towards secular power and material success. This is utterly natural – their culture and ours, our entire species, is focused on upward mobility and the accumulation of power and possessions, especially when looking at those in authority. But Jesus came to turn that upside down – He is powerful and authoritative over both people and the elements of nature, but also humbles Himself among the most lowly in society, and ultimately becomes the Suffering Servant prophesied by Isaiah.

The book of Mark starts with a bang. Rather than starting at the very beginning – of Time in John, of Jesus’ lineage in Matthew or Jesus’ earthly life in Luke, Mark jumps right in at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry with another fulfillment of a prophecy of Isaiah – the “voice crying in the wilderness,” John the Baptist, “preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”

John was baptizing people in a long Jewish tradition of Baptism – this was not a Christian invention but a way for Jewish people to recommit themselves to the instructions of Yahweh and the looking forward to the promised Messiah. Our practice of Baptism descends directly from this tradition.

So the Gospel of Mark begins with this core notion of confession and repentance, as scores of people come out into the middle of nowhere to listen to a wild man urge them to stop doing what they are doing. This is the beginning of revival, revival that will find its culmination in the person of Christ and the Church as His body.

But it starts here, as John baptizes Jesus now as a sign of repentance but as a signal that things are about to change. The heavens are rent open and glimpses of eternity shine through, the Spirit descends like a dove, the Father speaks audibly, and the Son rises from the water to begin His work.

And, of course, that work starts with 40 days alone, enduring both physical and spiritual oppression, before returning to civilization in the wake of John’s imprisonmentsaying, “Now is the time! Here comes God’s kingdom! Change your hearts and lives, and trust this good news!”

As in those days, God is calling us back. Whether back after Covid, back after a time of wandering, back after outright rejecting the gospel.

But the church in America today is not providing the experience we see John leading in the wilderness. We cannot preach the good news until we have experienced it, we cannot lead others to the living water in the desert until we have drunk from it ourselves.

Are you ready to return? Are you ready to trust the gospel and live it out in love and service, following in the footsteps of your savior as told to us by Mark?

— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church Lynnwood, WA, September 10, 2023

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Get Up and Go – Acts 8:26-40

The story here is a story of two people in the the margins of empire, outsiders like immigrants and minorities today. One of these is Philip, one of the seven deacons set up to manage the food ministry for widows and orphans. When his fellow deacon and marginalized person, Stephen, moves from managing the ministry to teaching, he was killed, which scattered the church, including Philip.

Philip went up to Samaria, where he had incredible success in ministry. But God sent an angel who instructed him to get up, leave all the success that he had been having, and head out on a road into the wilderness.

That’s where we meet our second character, the Ethiopian eunuch. Like describes him in remarkable detail compared to most biblical characters, which must be for a reason. This person is about as different as it is possible to be from Philip. He’s from outside the empire, he’s dark-skinned, he’s a sexual/gender minority – but he is also a very powerful person in an important nation, wealthy enough to be driven in a chariot and read his own personal scroll of scripture. Despite all this, he is coming from worship in a place that he cannot even fully engage in because he is both a gentile and a eunuch.

Phillip’s last job was running a soup kitchen – again, these people are about as different as it is possible to be. But God tells him to go and “glue himself” to the chariot, where he finds a wide opening for the gospel. “What is this scripture about?”

And Philip takes that opportunity, and the eunuch in turn takes the opportunity to be baptized immediately – after which God transports Philip elsewhere, his job accomplished.

God is still calling us to participate in these sorts of activities, but there are reasons we resist. We like to be competent and do things in areas we understand. But Philip glued himself to the chariot of a foreign eunuch-treasurer just like Jesus glued himself to the flesh of humanity. Philip got up and went, heading into the wilderness, just as Jesus came to earth.

Where and to whom is God sending you?

— Sermon Notes, Tim Hseih, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, June 4, 2023

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Renewal – 2 Corinthians 5:17

The resurrection rocked the cosmos, offering new life to all of humanity.

Just as the beloved Lazarus has been resurrected into new life, when we accept Jesus as our Lord and savior we are no longer the same person we used to be. We are made new in Christ and our old self is gone. We are no longer slaves to sin but are free to live a new life for Christ.

Our passage is situated in Paul’s second letter to the church in Corinth, which was a wealthy, cosmopolitan city and ancient Greece known for commerce and trade. It was also a center for the worship of Aphrodite and sexual immorality was prevalent in the city that at this time was under the Roman Empire. Paul is addressing some issues in the church at the time. First there were false teachers challenging Paul’s authority as a legitimate apostle. They were introducing an “alt gospel” that emphasized intellectualism and rhetoric.

Paul fights this by pointing towards his own suffering and the immense power that is found at the cross for salvation even– and maybe especially–for the weak and the foolish. Secondly, there were divisions and conflicts within the church which reflected the cultural context of factionalism and social caste. Paul urges the church to set these aside and pursue reconciliation. Finally, Paul uses the idea of new creation along with the concept of citizenship to accentuate the new society in Christ as summa exemplar. In Roman society, citizenship was highly value and conveyed many rights and privileges. Paul uses the language of citizenship in Second Corinthians to describe the status of believers in Christ. He says that believers are citizens of the new kingdom with a new identity and new set of values.

If we zoom out, the Bible is the greatest love story ever told. It’s a story of God’s plan to renew and restore the whole creation, not simply individual, isolated souls.

As a church, we participate in this renewal of ourselves, reach other, our communities and our world.

— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, May 21, 2023

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Living in the Resurrection – Be Relevant – Acts 17:16-28

In this passage we see Paul actively waiting – exploring the city of Athens and engaging with the culture. He started, as was his custom, at the synagogue, beginning at the religious center that was closest to his starting point, where religion is a matter of ethnicity and nationality. From there, he goes to the marketplace, a center of both material commerce and intellectual commerce.

We see in this Paul’s versatility – he can move between these two worlds and go back and forth between these cultural contexts in order to meet people where they are at and speak in their language.

From there, he is taken to the Areopagus, aka the Hill of Ares, aka Mars Hill if you ever wondered where that came from. The name was both a place and a ruling council that met there.

Note that Paul starts his Sermon by finding common ground, rather than by highlighting their divisions abs differences. Some might react against his use of something pagan in order to talk about God, but Paul does not shy away from it.

We have a tendency to be anthropocentric in how we look at the world and the Greek gods were examples of that. Paul worked to get them to look beyond their own humanity, including that humanity reflected in these invented deities. Paul specifically uses their own poetry to point out that God does not come from us, but we come from God.

How does this impact us? We also are called to engage the marketplace. We are not supposed to build our own fortress to hide away in and create our own culture, but we are to be out in the mix of the society that we live in. And we don’t always need to do it in the same way Paul did, by standing up in a public place and talking. God goes before us in the person of the Holy Spirit and all we have to do is be open to that He is doing. We don’t have to have it all put together, we just have to engage.

— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, May 14, 2023

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Living in the Resurrection: Be Restored – Revelation 21:1-5

Imagine if God were a God who, like many of us, threw things away when they were imperfect. Instead, God is a God who restores. We see that in this passage clearly – He does not replace the Heavens and the Earth, but restores them – He makes them new.

We even see this in the story of The Fall – the punishment for disobedience was death, but Good rewrote the narrative to create space for redemption and restoration.

And we are not just passively waiting for this restoration and for these new heavens and new earth. The kingdom of God is like a river, always moving towards the ultimate destination, but in the way the river brings life and restoration to the land it passes through. So hop into a kayak and get out on the river!

When the Holy Spirit moves, restoration happens in unexpected ways. Where are the broken places and relationships in your life that need restoration? Some will be restored along the way, but some will be restored in eternity.

This means – don’t give up. Not on yourself, not on others, not on relationships and especially not on the good you do in the world around us.

— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, May 7, 2023

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Be Reconciled – Ephesians 2:11-22

Reconciliation is not simply the speaking of magic words “I’m sorry” and “you’re forgiven”, but is a process that takes time, that takes into account the context of the relationship and the damage done to it. Today we’re going to look at what the resurrection of Christ means to this process of reconciliation.

Renew Church is built on Reconciliation, Restoration and Relevance. The resurrection of Christ sits at the center of these. Though there is mourning, pain, chaos and suffering, the resurrection is the promise that joy comes in the morning and that the banquet of God is belt prepared for us.

Looking at this passage, it comes right after a section (Ephesians 2:1-10) focused on the vertical relationship between us and God. We are dead in our sins – BUT because of His great love for us, He made us alive in Christ.

In this section, Paul addresses the horizontal relationship between people, specifically addressing the relationship between Jewish and gentile Christians. Many of the former were seeking to impose their cultural and ritualistic requirements onto these new converts who had no history or heritage of following God.

To think about this, let’s go back to the gospels, and the story of Jesus clearing the temple after the Triumphal Entry. The temple’s outer courts were called the Court of the Gentiles, and there are stones archeologists have found warning gentiles not to go past certain points on pain of death. It was filled with people selling animals for sacrifice at high prices as well as money changers changing Greek and Roman coins into the temple currency, again at exploitative rates. The practices were explicitly taking advantage of the poor and the foreigners. This is what drove Jesus to the extremes He went to in that situation, stating “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”

The term used here for “nations” is ethonos which is the same team Paul uses to for gentiles, while the term “house” was oikos, which means “household” and which Paul uses in verse 19 of our passage to describe how God has folded gentile Christians into the people of God, into His household, “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.”

We ourselves need to look at how we also put barriers up for those who are unlike us to come near to God, as Jewish Christians did in Paul’s time. Our own cultural practices and expectations can cordon us off from each other. But in the power of the resurrection, our role is to be agents of reconciliation. We keep short accounts, we understand the systemic barriers of hostility that divide is, we champion and empower those in our own “court of the gentiles” and overturn the tables that keep people from God. We are to seek to reconcile and worship with “all the nations,” building relationships across cultural boundaries, taking risks and opening yourself up to other experiences and perspectives. Let’s be people of reconciliation and be part of bringing people together under one family banner.

— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, April 30, 2023

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Touched by the Resurrection – John 20:19-31

Children generally want to know they have a base of security and safety. They want to hide behind their parents’ legs until they have gained the confidence to go play – and they want that base to run back to.

As adults, we are often this way with God. When we hear from God and feel the touch of God it gives us the confidence to take the steps of faith He has called us to.

That’s where the disciples are in this story, and Thomas in particular. Thomas gets something of a bad rap as “doubting Thomas” but in fact Thomas is no different than the rest of us who doubt and yet are loved deeply by Jesus. He gives Thomas the gift he needs in that moment – he provides the leg for Thomas to wrap his arms around.

But of course we don’t see Jesus like Thomas did. We don’t see thousands fed by a few loaves and fishes, miraculous healing, storms calmed and dead raised. And yet, they doubted. That must mean it is ok if we do as well. We are real people like they were, with normal reactions, and like them the Holy Spirit can take us and redeem even that doubt and use us to do His work.

Back in the passage, in verse 19 it is still the same day that Mary discovered the empty tomb. The disciples are still hiding in fear behind closed doors, even though Peter and John saw the tomb empty as well. Why is this? This is a moment we can reflect ourselves. What are the closed doors we hide behind? What is it we fear? The disciples hid in fear of the authorities, both religious and secular, the very real fear of torture and execution. What are our fears? Where do we need Jesus to touch us?

In the passage, He appears among among them and says “peace be with you.” In fact, He says that three times in this passage. What did He mean by peace? The opposite is war, violence, anxiety, rage. Where do we need peace? On the road, at work, in our family?

Imagine Peter in that room, having denied Jesus three times, hearing “peace be with you” three times. We also can hear from Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, the word and believers around us.

On that note, Jesus here breathes on the disciples, breathing the Holy Spirit into them. It’s recalling the story of creation, when Adam is formed but does not live without the breath of love breathed into them; or in Ezekiel, when the army of bones is raised but does not truly live until the four winds breathe the breath of God into them.

Then Jesus empowers then further, passing along the same authority to forgive sins that He claimed for Himself. We as the church have that same authority.

Back to Thomas – he may have been an analytical person, naturally skeptical, or a visual or tactile person. And Jesus meets him where he is at, just as He meets us – “Do you believe because you see me? Happy are those who don’t see and yet believe.”

It’s not like there are tiers of faith. In fact, we have a huge advantage – we have the Holy Spirit. However, we also find that the Holy Spirit is marginalized in today’s church, treated as a second-rate member of the Trinity. It may be because the work of the Spirit is by its nature egalitarian, empowering the young, women, the marginalized in ways that can be deeply threatening to entrenched power structures.

But the deeper power of the Spirit is available to us, even in our fear, even in our doubt. Thomas himself is the first person to declare the deity of Christ and ultimately becomes the Apostle who goes farthest, bringing the truth he encountered on that day as far as India. We never know what God will do or who He will do it with.

— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, April 23, 2023

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He Is Risen – John 20:11-18

Why is the symbol of Christianity the cross? In reality, it should be the empty tomb. Our hope is not founded on the death of Christ, but on His resurrection.

John’s account of the resurrection focuses on Mary Magdalene, one of the few who was at both the foot of the cross and at the empty tomb. She gets up early to take care of Christ’s body, but finds the tomb empty. She rushes back to the disciples and Peter and John have a footrace, which John makes sure you know he won.

When they arrive, they see the empty tomb and believe – but they do not fully understand. They take what they see at face value and go back to where they are staying.

But Mary does not. She already saw the empty tomb, but her questions remain. Her grief remains. Even when she sees angels and speaks to them her only thought is to finding Jesus body and taking care of it. She asks who she thinks is perhaps the gardener who took the body away what has happened.

Both the figures in white and the “gardener” ask the same question – “why are you crying?” Jesus cares for our tears and seeks to wipe them away.

The way he does this is relationally, engaging directly with her personally by the simple act of saying her name. This is the most important moment in human history as Christ begins raising everything from the dead. “I am making all things new.”

And our response to this is to be simple – “go and tell.” It’s the same pattern we see when Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well – Christ engages with her relationally, and then she goes and tells others about the good news of this Man.

Faith is about being open-hearted. Are you able to be vulnerable before Christ? Are you able to hear Him speak your name?

Whatever your circumstance, Jesus is calling your name and asking why you are crying. He seeks to be known by you, for you to know His love and be transformed by it, to be resurrected in spirit as He was in body.

— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, April 9, 2023

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Unfinished: Journey of Faith – Romans 5:1-11

Sometimes people will go through a graduation ceremony even though they still have classes. Other times, people have sold their houses but haven’t yet jumped through all the hoops to make it final and are still living there. Or even as simple as food in the oven but not yet being eaten. We see this in scripture as well, with Abraham & Sarah promised a son but still barren, or the Israelites freed from Egypt but not yet in the Promised Land.

And that’s the situation we find ourselves in. Forgiven, justified, redeemed – but not yet perfected. That’s what Paul addresses here in the letter to the church in Rome. He has spent the first part of the letter describing the need for and nature of this justification and the grace extended to us. Here, he describes this state as something we enter into, not merely a moment, but a new state of being. But even within that state of being, it is not yet complete. We stand in grace, but not like we will one day. We are saved from slavery but are not yet in the Promised Land.

This chapter is Paul pivoting to describing the implications of this situation in our current state. Naturally, he addresses suffering. The word Paul uses here is not just about persecution, but all forms of suffering, all distress brought about by outward circumstances. There is plenty of suffering to go around, and it can make that grace and redemption seem fleeting.

But Paul urges us to rejoice in our suffering, to exalt and even boast. This is the same word used when he warns us not to boast in our own strength & works, and the same word used to describe how to respond to the “hope of the glory of God.”

And in fact it is that hope Paul points us to through our suffering, by way of the character built by endurance, itself built by the suffering that we endure.

But we still find ways to block ourselves off from this suffering. We can deny it, ignore it, rationalize it away. But to rejoice in suffering we have to acknowledge it, to sit in it and experience it. This is not something we are excited to do, but this is the offer of transformation we can only attain by going through this sequence Paul describes.

Elsewhere, Paul tells us we are predestined to be conformed to the likeness of Christ, and this transformation begins as we endure and rejoice in suffering, acknowledging and engaging in our experiences, even when they are unpleasant. The hope produced in this process is ah extravagant effusion, an inexhaustible supply, like a cloud burst on parched countryside.

This all means that our already-not-yet period is of supreme value, a purposeful part of God’s plan to bring us to fullness and oneness in Him.

–Sermon Notes, Karen Howe, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, March 12, 2023

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The Wilderness – Matthew 4:1-11

This story comes right after Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist, a moment of recognition and glory. But rather than capitalizing on that momentum, the Holy Spirit immediately sends Him to the desert to fast.

Fasting is not the easiest is spiritual disciplines, and extending it to 40 days is beyond intense. The reason we fast is that we are taking something we both need and want and giving it up in order to make room to focus on the love, words she presence of God. You can also fast from other things that may distract us from completely focusing on Jesus.

Moses and Elijah also fasted for 40 days, while the Israelites spent 40 years wandering in the desert. Jesus himself ties these concepts together in the scriptures that He cites, all of which were from Deuteronomy.

The question of food and fasting is addressed directly in the first of Satan’s attacks. We see the direct connection here to the Israelites who grumbled and got “hangry” when food stores ran low, much like we do when things don’t go our way. But Jesus replied with the message that God’s provision goes far beyond our conception our abilities. The specific reference Jesus uses explicitly refers to manna, the tangible reminder and evidence of God’s provision – free food every morning! – and also His desire for us to trust in Him daily – if you try to store our hoard or, it spoils.

So Satan tries again, taking Jesus to the top of the temple and encouraging him to demonstrate His authority. But Jesus replies again with a reference to the Exodus: “Do not put the LORD your God to the test”- they next few words are “as you did at Massah.” This goes from food to water, because Massah is where the Israelites grumbled and quarreled when they couldn’t get water. Water is even more vital than food, and again in that story God provided what was needed. There are two stories where God uses Moses to do this. In the first, in Exodus 17, God tells Moses to strike the rock and water comes out of it. Then in Numbers 33 we see the same thing again, but this time God tells Moses to command the Rock verbally – and instead, Moses strikes the Rock again – twice! Among other things, this is a reminder that we are tempted to go back to old traditions, and even doubling down on them, rather than seeking what God is speaking to our community right now. Once again, it comes back to the Word of God and trusting Him for our provision rather than taking matters into our own hands.

Next, Satan goes all in, taking Jesus to a mountain – maybe not a real mountain – and showing off the kingdoms of the world and offering all the worldly glory and power that there is. Satan offers him empire and control of the sort the world understands. But Jesus remains on mission, which is based on the process, just as much as the outcome – emptying Himself of power and glory in order to take them up again. Losing in order to win, dying in order to live and bring life.

We ourselves are tempted to put other things ahead of our mission, to seek to achieve our ends by kissing the wrong rings, which always ends up warping what we may have wanted. When we substitute our own image for the image of God, when we are discontent with the place we are put and the gifts we are given – all these are ways we bow down to Not-God, seeking the power and glory of the world.

But Christ’s instruction to us is the same as His answer to the Devil – “Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.”

— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, February 26, 2023