Good News Weekly Message

It’s easy to get distracted by things that don’t matter. It’s easy to lose focus on the things that do. Thankfully, Jesus helps us take a step back, tune out the noise, and make sure we are on the same frequency as God. This week we see Jesus help us get “dialed in” on inclusiveness. Being inclusive is emphasized a great deal in our world. What is often missing, however, is a solid basis for this inclusiveness. When differences so easily breed resentment, fear, and distrust, why should include rather than exclude those who are not like us? While many different answers could be given, none greater than the gospel exists. Because God’s love and Jesus’ work are for all people, we have every reason to love and embrace all people.

If we want to understand who God is and how he works, we don’t need to climb up to him. Jesus brings heaven’s best secrets down to earth. He reveals God to us using ordinary, everyday things. This week we see how Jesus offers protection through all of life’s storms through his Word. He answers the strong winds that can shake up our lives and our hearts with a still, small voice. This voice, however, possesses his power. And because he reveals himself using nothing more than a gentle whisper, we can feel safe and confident as we take shelter in it. His voice is not only strong enough to still the winds and the waves. It also instills calm confidence in even the most troubled human heart.

If we want to understand who God is and how he works, we don’t need to climb up to him. Jesus brings heaven’s best secrets down to earth. He reveals God to us using ordinary, everyday things. This week we see how Jesus reveals the worth of the heavenly gifts he came to bring. We might think the gifts he offers us don’t look like much. We might think we can find comparable things in other places. However, Jesus states that his kingdom is worth giving up everything else in life in order that we might have it. Thankfully, Jesus doesn’t just tell us that this is the case. He also shows us why this is the case. Though his heavenly gifts are a priceless treasure, he throws them far and wide to each and all as if they were of no worth at all. He spares no expense in order to make his heavenly riches our possession.

If we want to understand who God is and how he works, we don’t need to climb up to him. Jesus brings heaven’s best secrets down to earth. He reveals God to us using ordinary, everyday things. This week we see how God executes justice in a world full of evil. While we might expect God to instantly eliminate evil from our world, he instead permits evil to exist. This surprising and unexpected strategy is not a concession to the work of our enemy, the devil. Rather, by allowing evil to advance seemingly unchecked, God uses evil’s own efforts against it and conquers our enemy once and for all.

If we want to understand who God is and how he works, we don’t need to climb up to him. Jesus brings heaven’s best secrets down to earth. He reveals God to us using ordinary, everyday things. This week we see how God executes justice in a world full of evil. While we might expect God to instantly eliminate evil from our world, he instead permits evil to exist. This surprising and unexpected strategy is not a concession to the work of our enemy, the devil. Rather, by allowing evil to advance seemingly unchecked, God uses evil’s own efforts against it and conquers our enemy once and for all.

If we want to understand who God is and how he works, we don’t need to climb up to him. Jesus brings heaven’s best secrets down to earth. He reveals God to us using ordinary, everyday things. This week we see how God exercises his power in our world in a way that resembles the power of a seed. Though a seed is small and seems to be dead, it is full of both life and power. In the same way, God grows his kingdom in our world not through traditional means of force, wealth, or military might. Instead, his Word is the seed that he scatters abroad into the hearts of people. Though all are able to and many will rejected it, God’s Word has the life and power to change our hearts and spread God’s rule.

If we want to understand who God is and how he works, we don’t need to climb up to him. Jesus brings heaven’s best secrets down to earth. He reveals God to us using ordinary, everyday things. This week we see how God’s revelation to mankind flows through one person: Jesus. No one knows God except through him. Far from this meaning that knowledge of God will only be available to a select, elite few, Jesus makes it available to all. He does so by bringing it down to the lowest and simplest of levels so that even the smallest and the simplest can comprehend it. As a result, the manner in which Jesus reveals heavenly mysteries is itself a mystery: it is missed by the wise and learned and grasped by the meek and humble.

Our recent, temporary isolation is a wonderful reminder that isolation was never Jesus’ intention for his people. Rather than being stranded as individual Christians, Christ has woven his people into the beautiful, ornamented fabric that is his Church. As members of that Church, we are far better together than we are alone. This week we see how being joined to Jesus may mean being separated from things that are near and dear to our hearts. When Jesus is our source of righteousness, we naturally cast aside any competing source. Far from this meaning that following Jesus is a net loss, however, Jesus points us to all that we gain. Only he can deliver the righteousness we seek and the reward that comes with it.

Our recent, temporary isolation is a wonderful reminder that isolation was never Jesus’ intention for his people. Rather than being stranded as individual Christians, Christ has woven his people into the beautiful, ornamented fabric that is his Church. As members of that Church, we are far better together than we are alone. This week we see how Jesus calls us to confess the message he has given us rather than catering to what they want to hear. Because the gospel Jesus puts in our moths will not always be music to people’s ears, it’s tempting to alter the message to make it more palatable. Doing so, would only be serving ourselves, however. In contrast, when we confess what we have been given, we are doing what Jesus wants and what is best for all those who hear us.

Our recent, temporary isolation is a wonderful reminder that isolation was never Jesus’ intention for his people. Rather than being stranded as individual Christians, Christ has woven his people into the beautiful, ornamented fabric that is his Church. As members of that Church, we are far better together than we are alone. This week we see how Jesus does not leave his people to wander and grow weary like sheep without shepherds. Instead, he works through his people to appoint leaders who serve them as Jesus would. These leaders tend Jesus’ flock as shepherds by guiding and feeding them with the good news of Christ’s kingdom.

Our recent, temporary isolation is a wonderful reminder that isolation was never Jesus’ intention for his people. Rather than being stranded as individual Christians, Christ has woven his people into the beautiful, ornamented fabric that is his Church. As members of that Church, we are far better together than we are alone. This week we focus on the work Jesus has given his Church to do. Though Jesus possesses all authority in heaven and on earth, he lovingly chooses to cooperate with us in his saving work on earth. This shouldn’t surprise us when we consider the nature of our God. He is Triune—three persons in one God. Love, cooperation, and fellowship are part of his very nature. Thus, when he cooperates with us in this mission, he shares with us part of what makes him who he is.

Our recent, temporary isolation is a wonderful reminder that isolation was never Jesus’ intention for his people. Rather than being stranded as individual Christians, Christ has woven his people into the beautiful, ornamented fabric that is his Church. As members of that Church, we are far better together than we are alone. This week we focus on the common thread that binds us together as one. Yes, each Christian is unique. Each Christian has individual gifts, interests, and perspectives. Far from that uniqueness being a source of pride, however, what forms our identity is what we have in common. Through the work of his Holy Spirit, Jesus has worked in our hearts the only faith that saves: the one that calls on his name and drinks the life giving water he freely provides.

Hope is a precious commodity in life. If someone has hope they get through just about anything. It’s easy for us to tie our hope to the things that we can see and measure in our lives. When the evidence is positive, hope grows. When the evidence is negative hope shrinks. That might seem to present a challenge for the hope we have in Jesus since all evidence of his presence in our lives disappeared the day he ascended into heaven. However, Jesus’ ascension doesn’t diminish our hope or cause it to die. In fact, it does just the opposite. Because he rules over all things for our good, our hope remains alive long after Jesus disappeared.

Hope is a precious commodity in life. If someone has hope they get through just about anything. In fact, hope is so important that it’s part of the very foundation on which our life is built. Without hope, the rest of the building crumbles. This week we see how a foundation that consists of hope in Jesus is often and easily dismissed by many in our world. It is often and easily rejected as foolish and worthless. However, not only does God say that the hope we find in Jesus is a suitable foundation for life. It is the only foundation for this life and for eternal life. Though many might dismiss it, Jesus’ resurrection has demonstrated the value of a life built on him.

Hope is a precious commodity in life. If someone has hope they get through just about anything. The hope we have in Jesus is so different from – and at odds with – other versions of hope that exist, that it will inevitably raise questions. Sometimes it will even incite criticism and ridicule. However, today we are going to see that the unique nature of our hope in Jesus is also the very thing that prepares us to share that hope when it is put on trial. Because our hope is based on Jesus’ resurrection, we are able to offer a defense of our hope without needing to be defensive. Both the words we say and the manner in which we say them convey the certainty of the hope we have in Jesus.

Hope is a precious commodity in life. If someone has hope they get through just about anything. In order to have that hope, one of the things we need is the ability to believe in justice. We need the assurance that good will conquer over evil and that wrongs will eventually be righted. That belief in justice can be challenged when we see all the injustice in our world that seems to go on unchecked. Thankfully, today we hear Jesus, our Good Shepherd, assure us that he is always with with us. Just as he is alive in spite of the injustice he endured, so also our hope can remain alive even in the midst of the injustice we endure.

Hope is a precious commodity in life. If someone has hope they get through just about anything. However, there are times when life’s circumstances would cause us to think as though hope is dead. When our lives are characterized by apparent weakness, failure, and defeat, our belief that things are going to get better can easily diminish. Thankfully, Easter demonstrates that when hope seems dead it is never more alive. Jesus’ resurrection is proof that what seems like weakness, failure, and defeat is in reality power, success, and victory. Through the Scriptures, God opens our eyes to see and causes our hearts to burn with a living hope.

Hope is a precious commodity in life. If someone has hope they get through just about anything. But hope requires specifics. We are willing to put up with just about anything as long as we know when and how it will end. This might seem to be a drawback of the hope Easter delivers. The light at the end of the dark tunnel that it promises is completely out of view. Far from this being a drawback, however, this means that Easter offers us a hope that never dies. No matter what we might go through in life – positive or negative – we can always be confident that our best days are in front of us. Jesus’ resurrection guarantees it.

Hope is a precious commodity in life. If someone has hope they get through just about anything. But there needs to be a basis for hope. There needs to be a reason for hope. Thankfully, Easter offers us more than blind or naïve optimism. It offers more than a hope that is ignorant of reality. In fact, the hope Easter offers is only enhanced by the harsh reality and difficult circumstances life often presents us with. The message of Easter is not simply that Jesus is still alive. It’s that he has risen from the dead. It’s that Jesus is indestructible even against the forces of death and, as a result, so is the hope he offers. Because he is alive, hope is alive!

Jesus doesn’t help us out of life’s messes by offering advice or even lending a helping hand. His footprints prove he’s walked through the worst of life’s messes for us. Those same footprints have paved our path out. Tonight we see Jesus’ footsteps reach their final destination: his cross. In fact, all humanity’s footprints end at Jesus’ cross in a sense. Our endless journey to restore our broken relationship with God and find approval in him comes to an end on Calvary’s hill. There that work is completed. Just as Jesus rested at the successful completion of that work, so he has brought rest to all who trust in him.