Good News Weekly Message

We’re right to expect big things from God. Unfortunately, we often look for those big things in all the wrong places. Through history, God has demonstrated that he is Lord of the small, taking what seems very little and making it the seed of something big. This week we see how God provides big assurance with a small voice. God is certainly capable of impressive, loud displays of power. But when our hearts are already in turmoil, what calms them is the gentle whisper of his gospel. With his voice he directs our eyes away from whatever storms may surround us to his constant presence by our side. That abiding presence provides all the assurance we need.

We’re right to expect big things from God. Unfortunately, we often look for those big things in all the wrong places. Through history, God has demonstrated that he is Lord of the small, taking what seems very little and making it the seed of something big. This week we see how God provides a big treasure in a very small shell. Like a priceless pearl in an oyster or a hidden treasure buried underground, the riches of Christ’s kingdom often don’t look like much. And yet, they are valuable because of the price Jesus himself paid in order to secure them for us. As a result, they are offered to us free of charge and are worth giving up everything for in order to have.

We’re right to expect big things from God. Unfortunately, we often look for those big things in all the wrong places. Through history, God has demonstrated that he is Lord of the small, taking what seems very little and making it the seed of something big. This week we see how God uses small action to bring about big justice. When we see injustice in our world, we naturally want to see it dealt with swiftly and decisively. Even more, we prefer to have a hand in seeing to it that justice is carried out. God, however, takes justice out of our hands and our timetables and carries it out in his own unique way. While he appears to allow evil and injustice to spread unrestrained, he is allowing evil to bring about its own undoing and reserving his final judgment of all evil for the day of his return.

This past week we had the wonderful privilege of welcoming nearly 100 children from our congregation and community to our Good News Soccer Camp. It was an awesome week for learning about soccer, meeting new friends, having a lot of fun, and learning about our good and gracious God. This year’s camp theme was “Fuel for Life: God’s Grace Flows Abundantly.” The theme comes from 1 Timothy 1:14. There the apostle Paul describes himself as the worst of sinners. If God worked the way sports work and he published the statistics of our sins, Paul said that he would be ranked #1 in the world. But far from this causing Paul to be overwhelmed by guilt or despair, it simply led him to a greater appreciation of God’s gracious love and forgiveness in Jesus Christ. It caused Paul to write: “The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly."

When we’re thirsty, we need to know where to find water. In the same way, when our souls thirst for the things we need from God, we need to know where to turn. Thankfully, God tells us where we can find his greatest blessings on tap. He uses specific channels so his grace can flow freely, channels that ensure his blessings will never dry up. Today we see how the existence of opposing currents that pull us away from God’s grace (last week’s focus) require Christ’s ministers (and really all Christians) to be ready to fight against those currents. The Christian life is not one of “going with the flow” but of “fighting the good fight.” Though that life is not easy, it is a life of promise and leads to an eternal reward.

When we’re thirsty, we need to know where to find water. In the same way, when our souls thirst for the things we need from God, we need to know where to turn. Thankfully, God tells us where we can find his greatest blessings on tap. He uses specific channels so his grace can flow freely, channels that ensure his blessings will never dry up. Today we see how Jesus prepares the ministers entrusted with his gospel for opposition. That opposition may come from the people to whom those ministers are sent. That opposition may come from competing spiritual authorities who have a different message to proclaim. In either case, Jesus encourages them to trust in his protection and boldly deliver the message they’ve been given.

When we’re thirsty, we need to know where to find water. In the same way, when our souls thirst for the things we need from God, we need to know where to turn. Thankfully, God tells us where we can find his greatest blessings on tap. He uses specific channels so his grace can flow freely, channels that ensure his blessings will never dry up. Today we see how Jesus desires to ensure that we are never without a connection to his grace. When he sees people who are cut off from his goodness, he has compassion on them by sending out workers into his kingdom. These workers act in Jesus’ stead by doing for his flock the very things he does. They freely give to Jesus’ sheep what they have freely received from their shepherd.

When we’re thirsty, we need to know where to find water. In the same way, when our souls thirst for the things we need from God, we need to know where to turn. Thankfully, God tells us where we can find his greatest blessings on tap. He uses specific channels so his grace can flow freely, channels that ensure his blessings will never dry up. Today we focus on what flows through those channels. Those who are on the receiving end are unworthy of anything from God. Therefore what God must deliver to them is pure, distilled mercy. This is true of those God calls to speak his Word. As a result, it is necessarily true for those to whom they speak it. Those who have received pure mercy from God are best equipped to deliver nothing but God’s pure mercy to others.

When we’re thirsty, we need to know where to find water. In the same way, when our souls thirst for the things we need from God, we need to know where to turn. Thankfully, God tells us where we can find his greatest blessings on tap. He uses specific channels so his grace can flow freely, channels that ensure his blessings will never dry up. Today we find comfort in the strength of our connection with God. He compares that connection, his Word, to the solid ground on which we can build our entire lives. Though storms will surely come, a life built on the solid ground of God’s Word will pass any test of its strength.

When we’re thirsty, we need to know where to find water. In the same way, when our souls thirst for the things we need from God, we need to know where to turn. Thankfully, God tells us where we can find his greatest blessings on tap. He uses specific channels so his grace can flow freely, channels that ensure his blessings will never dry up. Today we celebrate the festival of the Holy Trinity. Far more than merely an abstract doctrine, God’s triune nature means that connection is part of who he is. His desire to express this essential trait of love prompted him to create us in the beginning, to redeem us through his Son, and still prompts him to invite people all over the world into communion with him as his Church shares his gospel.

When we’re thirsty, we need to know where to find water. In the same way, when our souls thirst for the things we need from God, we need to know where to turn. Thankfully, God tells us where we can find his greatest blessings on tap. He uses specific channels so his grace can flow freely, channels that ensure his blessings will never dry up. Today we celebrate the Day of Pentecost. On this day Jesus kept his promise to pour out his Holy Spirit on his fledgling Church. This was more than a one-time-only event. This is God’s arrangement for the entirety of the last days. While we wait for Jesus’ visible return on the last day, his blessings flow to us freely through the Spirit’s work in the gospel.

Easter Sunday wasn’t simply another start to another week. It was the first day of something brand new. A new day had dawned, a day that has no dusk. The sun still has not set on Jesus’ victory, and it never will. This week we celebrate that, when God’s Son rose with power, the sun set on insignificance. Fort days after Jesus’ resurrection, his visible time on earth reach its conclusion when he ascended into heaven. At his ascension, he was seated at the right hand of the Father and given power and authority to rule all things. He carries out that rule as the head governs the activities of a body with many parts. He rules for the church and also through the church. Each of our lives is part of the grand narrative uniting all of history: Christ reigns victorious!

Easter Sunday wasn’t simply another start to another week. It was the first day of something brand new. A new day had dawned, a day that has no dusk. The sun still has not set on Jesus’ victory, and it never will. This week we celebrate that, when God’s Son rose as with truth, the sun set on ignorance. Left to ourselves, we would always be in the dark about God – grasping for the truth about him but never laying hold of it. In Jesus’ resurrection, however, God demonstrated that his Son is his full and final revelation to the world. Though the world passed its verdict of Jesus by putting him to death, God made reality plain by raising him to life. As a result, we can eagerly and joyfully follow his commands as we wait for his return.

Easter Sunday wasn’t simply another start to another week. It was the first day of something brand new. A new day had dawned, a day that has no dusk. The sun still has not set on Jesus’ victory, and it never will. This week we celebrate that, when God’s Son rose as a cornerstone, the sun set on instability. Though the world’s so-called experts did – and still do – think very little of Jesus, God proved his value by raising him from the dead. As a result, Jesus has become the cornerstone of what God is building here on earth: a temple in which each of us occupies an essential role and a temple that will never crumble or fall.

Easter Sunday wasn’t simply another start to another week. It was the first day of something brand new. A new day had dawned, a day that has no dusk. The sun still has not set on Jesus’ victory, and it never will. This week we celebrate that, when God’s Son rose to shepherd, the sun set on danger. It can easily feel as though the members of Jesus’ flock are still vulnerable to the dangers and enemies they face in this life. By his resurrection, however, Christ proved that he is our invincible Good Shepherd. In the protection of his flock, no danger can cause us ultimate or eternal harm. Jesus protects his sheep until he brings them safely to the pastures of heaven.

Easter Sunday wasn’t simply another start to another week. It was the first day of something brand new. A new day had dawned, a day that has no dusk. The sun still has not set on Jesus’ victory, and it never will. This week we celebrate that, when God’s Son rose with redemption, the sun set on despair. Easter demonstrates that Jesus’ suffering and death were not some sad, unfortunate detour that had to be overcome on his way to glory. Rather, it was a necessary and indispensable part of his path as the world’s Savior. In the same way, Easter demonstrates God’s ability to use the circumstances in our lives that would most cause us despair to serve his saving purposes for us. Jesus’ resurrection turns the very things that would otherwise give us despair into sources of hope.

Easter Sunday wasn’t simply another start to another week. It was the first day of something brand new. A new day had dawned, and it has no dusk. The sun still has not set on the victory Jesus won for us by rising from the grave – and it never will.

What Adam – the first man – lost for us is surpassed by what Christ – the last and ultimate man – won for us. The work Christ did for the whole human race culminated during what we call Holy Week. In a certain sense, it was the last week ever. It was the last week in which it had to be the way it had always been. On Good Friday, we solemnly remember, but also celebrate, Jesus’ death on the cross. His death was not a sad tragedy or a perverse miscarriage of justice. Instead, it was a willing sacrifice by the Son of God for all the daughters and sons of Adam. Once that sacrifice was complete, full payment for sin had been paid. No more sacrifices for sin would ever be needed again.

What Adam – the first man – lost for us is surpassed by what Christ – the last and ultimate man – won for us. The work Christ did for the whole human race culminated during what we call Holy Week. In a certain sense, it was the last week ever. It was the last week in which it had to be the way it had always been. On Holy Thursday, we remember Christ’s institution of the last meal. Prior to Jesus, Jews had celebrated the Passover meal as an annual reminder of their deliverance from slavery and as a foreshadow of the coming Savior. As Jesus prepared to finish his work as the Lamb of God who takes away all sin, he instituted a new meal, a meal he wanted his church to celebrate regularly until his return. Holy Thursday is a natural opportunity to review the essence and the significance of this meal.

What Adam – the first man – lost for us is surpassed by what Christ – the last and ultimate man – won for us. The work Christ did for the whole human race culminated during what we call Holy Week. In a certain sense, it was the last week ever. It was the last week in which it had to be the way it had always been. On Palm Sunday we see the stage set for the last battle. Jesus enters Jerusalem to face his enemies and, more importantly, to face ours. He comes as a gentle King – one who surrenders to his enemies. But in the process he wins the victory and brings peace that has no limit.