Word Of Life Church Podcast

At your worst, most sinful, backslidden, far from God state, God’s heart towards you is still one which burst with longing for reconciliation. God is not full of vengeance or angry with you. His attitude toward you is one of unwavering love, like a mother or father has towards his children. God knows you and loves you, and knows you have a complicated story. Unlike most people, God does not put all of the blame on you. God as your Father is responsible for you.

The human condition suffers from a kind of emptiness. We are born with a pervasive mentality of scarcity and insufficiency. We don't perceive ourselves as blessed with abundance, but cursed with scarcity. We fear there won't be enough oil, land, water, food, money, labor to go around, so we use force to guarantee us what we believe is ours. This way of viewing the world is absolutely dominant, And into this sad world dominated by the paradigm of scarcity the Son of God appears. Jesus came to save us from the cycle of conquest, war, famine, death. Jesus constantly tell us not to worry about scarcity, but to trust in God. The miracle of the loaves and fishes is the sign pointing us to Jesus and a new way. Christ is the single point at which the Infinity of God is poured into the finite Creation. We don't have to fight down here. To connect with Christ is to connect with the Infinite! This connecting point is called Jesus Christ. To connect with this point is called faith. To believe in Jesus in the right way is

We read in Hebrews 11:1 that faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. We accept this statement about faith, but how exactly is faith substance and evidence? Some have tried to make faith too spiritual by imagining faith to be a spiritual substance, a force under our control. However this is not how we see faith at work in Scripture. Others have attempted to define faith as empirical evidence, trying to conjure up rational arguments to answer every question raised against the faith. Yet faith is not empirically verifiable because the God who is the object of our faith cannot be found using the rules of empiricism. When viewed in the context of Hebrews 11 and 12, we discover that faith is substance and evidence as it is confessed and lived out in the life of the Church. We become the substance and evidence of faith as we rightly confess and rightly live out the things we believe.

This is the third message in a series of the seven signs John recounts in order to form our faith in Jesus. It's the story of a man paralyzed for 38 years whom Jesus healed at the Pool of Bethesda. In this story we see that what the healing that the Pool of Bethesda promised is what Jesus does! And Jesus is not only the hope of the Jews; he is also the hope of pagan Gentiles. We are all in need of some kind of healing, and Jesus is the healer.

In order to experience natural, open conversation with Jesus, an openness is required. All conversion results from a moment of spiritual openness. But too often we restrict spiritual openness to a single moment of conversion. An over-emphasis on a single "salvation" event ruins us for future spiritual growth. Often, people have their one moment of spiritual openness, and then slam the door forever! But nothing is more essential to spiritual development than spiritual openness. Christianity is an ongoing conversation with Jesus, the Living Word with whom we must constantly engage.

If we treat the Bible as a complete catalog of "do's" and "don'ts", then we can almost always find a way to justify whatever we want to justify. From slavery to genocide, you can find a scripture to "prove" just about anything you want in the Bible. But if we recognize that Jesus is the Living Word with whom we must engage, then we are engaging with the Logos of Life - God's Wisdom of how to live. To believe in Jesus is to believe that he is what God has to say. If you'll believe in the Logos of Life (Christ), your soul will be healed and you will find life.

The kingdom of God is something that happens at a table. The church is not a kind of Temple, it is a kind of Table. The Temple, as understood 2000 years ago in Jewish society, was closed off, restricted to people of a particular ethnicity and nationality. Moving from Temple to Table is part of the reformation work of Jesus. It is the New Covenant. Instead of hierarchical, religion, and purity code religion that excludes outsiders, the center of God's activity is now the shared table.

At the wedding in Cana, Jesus performs his first miracle, and in doing so, reveals his glory and his beauty. Jesus' first miracle is not "crucial". He doesn't heal the sick, or cleanse the leper, or cast out a demon, or calm a storm, or even raise the dead. Jesus' first miracle is to keep a wedding party well-stocked in wine. And it is a sign. In a beautiful and artistic way Jesus is announcing the arrival of the reign of God. It is a sign that there is about to be a huge shift in how we understand our relationship with God. Instead of washing, washing, washing, but never really feeling clean, the Kingdom of God will be more like eating and drinking with close friends. Jesus is signaling a seismic shift in the center of God's redemptive activity. With the coming of Jesus the center of redemption moves from the Temple to the Table! Instead of a hierarchical, sacrificial, purity code religion that excludes outsiders, the center of God's activity will be the shared table.

To first think of the "Bible" when say "Word of God" is a theological mistake. The Bible is the word of God, but only in a secondary sense. That the Bible is the word of God is true in the sense that it faithfully bears witness to the true Word of God: Jesus Christ. We're not born again by reading a book, we're born again by encountering Jesus Christ. We're not followers of a book, we're followers of Jesus! We are not worshipers of a book, we are worshipers of Jesus! There is no word from God that comes after Christ or supersedes Christ. Jesus is the true Word of God, the full Word of God, and the final Word of God. Jesus is how God speaks into the world. Jesus is what God has to say.

The world after Easter is fundamentally different than the world of Good Friday. In the world before Easter Caesar is Lord, because Caesar holds the power of death. But in the world after Easter Jesus is Lord, because Jesus has conquered death. And not by by means of a temporary resuscitation that ultimately again succumbs to death, but by the complete triumph of resurrection unto eternal life! Which is why our ultimate Christian hope is not heaven, but resurrection! When Christ appears heaven and earth will be made one. The resurrection of the dead is the full realization of New Creation. Christ is coming, not to take us away, but to bring heaven to earth. The blessed hope is not that we are going somewhere. The blessed hope is Christ is coming!

The Old Testament story of Job is one of tragedy. In three thunderclaps of horror Job loses his wealth, his health, and his children. Very quickly following this episode, Job's friends show up to comfort him, but in reality, they end up tormenting Job's already shattered soul. These three friends likely intended well, but in their obsession to explain the tragedy they became satanic agents of accusation and cruelty. In the sermon Windbag Speeches by Pastor Brian Zahnd, we discover the cruelty of talking too much.

The Messiah of the Jews was Jesus Christ. That Christ would be worshiped as King among pagan the Gentiles is the great hope of God! God always intended to unite the whole world as one people, without any division. God had to begin with one person, with one people; the Jewish people. But all along the plan was to unite the whole world into one body: the body of Christ! But this unity of worship doesn't come by triumphalism. It doesn't come by the ways of conquest and domination. If you have an attitude that we Christians need to conquer and convert others, you've missed the whole point! Triumphalism is the opposite of the humility of Christ! It comes by suffering! When we absorb enough of the sin and suffering of the world in an imitation of Christ, people are irresistibly drawn to the body of Christ.

Calling things by their names is the way of the God and the first vocation of man. In Genesis, Adam is instructed by God to gives names to all the animals. Humans are the ones who make Creation a community of the named and known and not just an impersonal collection of unknown and disassociated things. Without humanity, the universe is a cold and impersonal collection of objects. But humanity gives names to things and the universe becomes known and personal. Be wary of an overemphasis on numbers. Turning names into numbers, persons into statistics, and people into things is what the Beast does. It is the root of the beastly actions of totalitarian regimes.

If you want to sum up the Gospel in its most succinct form, this is it: Jesus is Lord! The Apostles actually believed that with the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, the world was now being governed by a new emperor, a new administration. The politics of Caesar and empire had been replaced by the politics of Christ. Through faith and baptism we become citizens of the kingdom of God, and we bring the culture of the Kingdom of God to earth through how we pray and how we live. This is what we mean when we say, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." For the baptized, our government is not from earth, but rather from heaven. Through the luck of our birth we may be American, or Chinese, or French, or Iranian. But if we are baptized, our allegiance is pledged to Christ and our citizenship is in heaven. Jesus is Lord, and Caesar is not!

Pastor Brian Zahnd interviews P.G. Vargis, missionary and founder of the Indian Evangelical Team (IET), a Christian missions organization spread across India, Nepal, and Bhutan, and is the fastest growing missons organization in South East Asia. Today, IET trains hundreds of indigenous men and women to be effective, godly church planters and Christian leaders through its regional Bible schools and its leadership training centers.

In the world after Easter the Apostle Paul is possessed by a radical new vision for the world. This is what compels him to travel unceasingly throughout the Roman Empire. Paul daringly proclaims that the true gospel of peace is not the Pax Romana (Peace of Rome), but the Pax Christi (Peace of Christ). In his deeply theological letter to the Gentile church in Ephesus, Paul describes his radical vision for the world-he calls it "one new humanity." For Paul, what is saved in the death and resurrection of Jesus is not merely individual souls, but human civilization itself- "the world." In the cross of Christ the evil phenomenon of achieving unity through groupthink hostility is killed. This accomplishment of the cross gives humanity the possibility of peace. Through the gospel of peace Jews and Gentiles (and every other division of humanity) can now overcome their hostility and be formed in Christ as One New Humanity.

The kingdom of God is salvation in its full expression, and it's all a gift. In the midst of the human catastrophe and civilization gone wrong from the very foundation, God has acted and given to us the Kingdom of God. We cannot build it or fight for it. We can only perceive the kingdom by faith and receive it as a gift. But because human history is mostly about building and fighting and constructing empires, that is cam only be done by faith is very hard for us to comprehend. We think all the great things are built and fought for. But that is a lie. The kingdom of God is the Father's gift to humanity, given in Christ. It's all a gift.

Fighting, arguments, and disagreements are a part of the human condition. Many times our disagreements are over small, insignificant things. We often need to step back and ask, "Does what we are arguing about really matter?" In his letter to the Galatians, Paul put all of our fighting in context by stating emphatically: what really matters is new creation! In Christ we have been rescued from old broken down creation and have been given access into God's new creation, where there is no more division based on race, gender, or social status. When we divide over these issues we fail to see how the world has changed since the resurrection of Jesus. In this new post-resurrection world, we respect everyone, recognizing everyone is loved by God.

The Bible contains some shockingly brutal stories. Some of them involve gang rape, murder, and dismemberment. These are not the stories that we tell our children at bedtime. Many of these stories involve a merciless mob of people. Sodom is primarily about group violence from a merciless mob inflicted on foreigners. They are many stories of public stonings. Even the crucifixion of Jesus was at its roots a mob lynching. Lynch mobs never think of themselves as evil. But in fact, the merciless mob is the manifestation of the satan in its fullest form! An angry crowd is cruel, merciless, and stupid, but most of all, it is dangerous. If you follow an angry crowd you will almost certainly be wrong. Even if you're not wrong in the issue you will be wrong in spirit. The crowd is antichrist. Jesus loves you, but he does not love your angry crowd. Jesus never calls his people to join a crowd, only a little flock. Jesus never leads anything other than a gentle, peaceable, merciful minority.

With the resurrection of Jesus Christ, death was defeated and new creation began. New creation can be perceived and participated in by the body of Christ right now! The world after Easter is not the same world as the world of Good Friday. On Good Friday, the world was under the old order of the old creation dominated by sin and death. The world after Easter is a world where new creation is already dawning in the land of death. This is why Paul says, if anyone is in Christ, Hello, New Creation!