Tag: New Testament

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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

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A Dark World – John 17:14-18

Should we ever intentionally enter dark spaces? There are many places in this world that do not glorify God and that are built in fact to do the very opposite. The scriptures regularly warn against friendship with and coming under the influence of evil people, across both the Old and New Testament.

But we need to be careful not to turn these warnings into excuses to ignore the call of the Holy Spirit or the example of Jesus Christ. In this passage, Jesus explicitly tells the Father that He is sending the disciples into the world. He asks that they go deep into the darkness of the world, but remain protected.

We are called into unfamiliar territory and places where we face rejection and even temptation. We need to be careful with that last one in particular because we still need to seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit and not put ourselves in places that are setting us up to fail.

At the same time, we are not called to live inside a holy huddle – we are not called to stay in our own homes and interact only with our own families and possibly a few people we know we agree with. We are called to be ambassadors of reconciliation, and we cannot do that from within our own room.

We have the message that those around us can be given forgiveness and favor. What do we do with that privilege? Jesus models intimate conversations and soft words that span ideological and political perspectives.

Where is the Spirit leading you? Take some time to be in two-way conversation with God and see where He leads you. You may experience rejection and temptation so put on your armor of God. The darkest rooms are the ones most in need of light.

Let us pray for one another as Christ did, and encourage each other as we bring the message of Christ’s forgiveness and favor into a dark world.

— Sermon Notes, Alison Robison, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, January 29, 2023

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Nontraditional Family – Matthew 1:18-25

Today we look at the story of Joseph, and his response to God’s plan. Those of us who have had children that have gotten older often miss the times when our children would jump into our arms, triggering our parental instincts and desires to protect and provide. We promise to keep our children safe, but ultimately we know that we don’t have full control, we can’t be with them every second. For that matter, we ourselves are sinful people, and at times we ourselves will hurt the ones we love.

Consider these feelings and instincts in the person of Joseph, within his patriarchal cultural contact. All his plans and hopes and expectations, gone in a moment.

We hear this story all the time, and may associate the Holy Family with the cozy Western peppermint mocha-style of Christmas. But the reality is not particularly cozy.

Joseph’s world would have been completely upended, and he likely felt hurt and upset. A natural response would be a desire for revenge, but even though he has lost face and felt hurt, he did not want to cause more pain or expose Mary to public disgrace. He would let her go away quietly and live the rest of her life as best she could.

While we may not have gone through that, we have certainly gone through our own dark night of the soul. Loss, disruption, betrayal, our world upended and our future thrown into doubt.

But it is into this darkness and storm, that God speaks the words of the angel to Joseph – God is with us.

And so when he woke up, he did as instructed. Most of us would rather avoid these situations, and the pain and emotions that go along with stuck disruption. But Joseph engages with it, living with the fact that he is no longer in control, and that his life was not going to be what he expected. Joseph is faithful, listens to the voice of the Lord and obeys. We have the same opportunity in our lives.

And when we do this, we have new possibilities. Even amid the challenges that come in that difficult situations, God acts. He did things in the middle of a chaotic, oppressive tax accounting scheme. He did things with a family seeking refuge from political violence. When we ourselves are fearful, anxious, greedy, jealous, vindictive, hurt – God is with us.

The bonds within the Holy Family were not the traditional bonds – the child was not conceived in the traditional way, and the parents did not even come together physically. This is something adoptive families, blended families, broken families can all look to.

And all of us can find hope in the promise that God is with us.

–Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church Lynnwood, WA, December 18, 2022

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Are You the One? – Matthew 11:2-11

Waiting and longing are difficult parts of life. We all have longings and desires, and when those desires are put off, it is hard. “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.” The best example for many of us is our longing to be married when we were single. We have a hole that needs to be filled, but have to wait for that to happen, and the waiting is painful.

This was the state of the people of Israel, which we can see in the persons of Simeon and of Anna, waiting and longing for the redemption of Israel for decades.

John the Baptist is in a similar situation in this passage. His whole life, from before he was even born, was bent towards preparing the way for the messiah. He preaches about his coming, calls the people to repentance to prepare, even baptizes Jesus Himself. But now he finds himself in prison, hearing about Jesus’ ministry – and it doesn’t sound like what he expected.

John had been preaching a strict message of repentance, a firm and strong word. It jived with the expectations of the people for a strong military leader who would lead them against the Romans. But John hears about Jesus’ ministry – eating and drinking, sermons of love and joy, healings. John may have expected something very different, and so he sends disciples to demand of Jesus whether He really is who John has been hoping and longing for.

And Jesus answers by pointing to the prophecies of Isaiah:

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.

Isaiah 61:1

Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.

Isaiah 35:5-6

Jesus makes the point here that His ministry must look very different than John’s – John is a prophet, the greatest of prophets, but Jesus is the fulfillment of all that prophecy. He is here to turn everything upside down – when He came, everything changed.

Today, we live in that change, we live in that kingdom where the least are greatest abs the greatest are least.

But we can still feel like John at times, both in specific circumstances and in our broader faith journey. Like John, we wonder if this really is the place we are to be, we may even wonder if Jesus is who we think He is.

Like John, we should look around us for what work Christ is doing in the world – because he is always at work, healing and loving and bringing the good news of His Kingdom.

–Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, December 11, 2022

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Fire and Fruit – Matthew 3:1-12

We are introduced to John the Baptist in this passage, and he comes onto the scene with one very clear message – repent! This message is not quite the one we think of at the time of Christmas, but it’s hard to miss this clear, hard message from a hard man. John serves as a bridge from the prophets of the Old Testament to the gospel of the New Testament. Elsewhere, Matthew describes John as a second Elijah.

John lived apart from the culture and away from the population centers – he set the pattern later picked up by the Desert Fathers of the early church as well as the broader monastic orders. John serves as the model, establishing himself away from the rest of the world but serving as a magnet for people seeking the truth being shared – truth about sin and repentance.

How do we talk about sin and repentance? Some talk about it in the context of judgement, others in terms of broken relationship with God, others in a more postmodern way, addressing our behavior in relation to our own personal beliefs.

John’s role was to call for paths to be made straight, to point Jesus out to people in a way that was clear, insisting that his listeners reorient themselves around the coming Messiah. John’s whole identity was as a witness to the person of Christ. He spent a lot of time insisting he was not the Christ, but pointed the way to Him.

Carl Ellis describes a matrix of righteousness, addressing the personal and social working out of both piety and justice. As evangelicals, we tend to live in the personal piety quadrant nearly all the time, while other traditions may live more in the social quadrants. The challenge is to seek righteousness in a holistic way.

This was the challenge laid out by John the Baptist, looking ahead to Jesus who will make all things new. Some of that new-making, though, will be destructive, an axe at the root of the tree. These processes can be painful, but “joy comes in the morning.”

As a church we have felt like we have been in a time of wilderness. As a society, as well. And so our responsibility is to, as John instructs, produce fruit in keeping with repentance – to emulate John, speaking the truth that clears the way for the truth of Christ’s love to enter all situations.

— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, December 4, 2022

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To God be the Glory – Luke 5:17-26

Wonder is a key to transformation, faith and worship. Understanding ourselves in proper context to God will lead us to a childlike faith and out of the day-to-day grind of earthly life.

False humility is the flip side of arrogance. Both mean that we are failing to give God the glory for what He has done and the gifts that He has given. God may need to work in us to properly orient our outlook and behavior in one direction or the other.

But what do those two truths have in common, and how do they connect to this story of the man lowered through the roof?

The story starts with the earthly enemies of Christ watching him for anything they can use against Him. But Jesus was doing what he so often did, healing the sick.

We would prefer to see ourselves in Jesus in this passage, but so often we are the Pharisees, knowingly or unknowingly putting barriers between Jesus and the people seeking Him.

In reality, we should be seeking to be the friends in this story, loving others with a creative intensity that drives us to seek their good by any means. But the best good did not come from them, but from the infinite power of God through Jesus Christ. God doesn’t need us – and yet we matter to Him and he invites us into what He is doing.

There is a tension and even a paradox here. God’s work is not about us – and yet at the same time, God’s work is about us, transforming us into the person He has already proclaimed us.

Within the church community, we play both the role of the friends and the man on the cot at different times. We cannot be too proud or protective of ourselves to be the one who needs others to lower us down to Jesus. We cannot be too afraid to step into the unknown and the difficult – the possibilities of failure open up broader opportunities as well. God wants us in this vulnerable position so He can do “unimaginable things” that will give Him the glory.

God has put people in all of our lives who will lower us in a cot. Anything we accomplish is bolstered by the people and opportunities God has placed around us to glorify himself through the work He and they do through us.

— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, November 6, 2022

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Be Patient with One Another – Ephesians 4:2-6

In this passage we see how the community of believers can demonstrate the power of God through our unity. Unity enables the Body to care for the vulnerable and spread the gospel.

But unity is hard. Living with humility, gentleness and patience is hard. Why is it so hard, given that the same Spirit lives in each one of us?

Looking at the story of Adam and Eve, they’re enjoying the garden, everything was provided. God created everything around for them to enjoy, so what happened? They were living in humility, they were gentle with one another – but sin entered in. Just as it does for us.

Human nature is self-protection. Our natural reaction to being hurt is to react with outrage and to still retribution. Humility, gentleness and patience are not our natural state, but rather our supernatural state, the the fruit of the spirit within us. Holy and early love yourself kindness humility eness very with each other if any of you as a greater than second forget it at the door to my whole life

We can try on our own to be these things all we want, but ultimately it is out of our reach without the work of God within us.

When we love someone, we naturally expect they will love us back. But Jesus teaches and enables a love that transcends that very natural expectation and desire. This is not something we can accomplish with our brain and through our own cleverness and willpower. It’s one thing to know the truth and what Jesus wants for you, and another to follow Him even when you don’t know where He is leading you.

There are so many difficulties we are going to face together. You have to remember who is with you – you need to know who’s in your life. Obviously that means God, but also the community the people who love you and who care about you as you move ahead in God’s calling.

— Sermon Notes, Magdiel Tzec, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, October 23, 2022

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