Simple thoughts on faith, church and discipleship
This sermon was preached at the Downtown PM service at The Austin Stone. Audio and video from the sermon are available here. Matthew 5:38-42 – “Cheek Turning, Tunic Giving, Two Mile Going Grace” Intro: Evening, if you have your bibles, Matthew 5:38 is where we will be. Continuing in our study of The Gospel According to... Continue Reading →
What does it mean to live a life of radical truth telling? What does it mean for our yes to mean yes and our no to mean no?
It has been a terribly confusing week on the internet, well for me personally anyway, and I suspect for a few others judging by the plethora of “what have we learned articles” that I am unnecessarily adding to, and I am once again really wrestling with how and when to engage issues and how and when to leave them well alone.
We are very quick to point out how we don’t want to be jerks for Jesus, but then we just default to being cowards vaguely associated with Christ. Those aren’t our only two options.
God meets with people right at the end of their ropes. He stands to meet us right at the end of the runway of our own capabilities and self-assuredness.
This week we reach a beatitude that at first seems to make no sense. It seems to make no sense because it again flies in the face of the common wisdom of that day and the common wisdom of today. But, it also seems self-defeating and borderline contradictory as a statement. In essence, Jesus is going to say that the dissatisfied will be the most satisfied.
“There’s nobody who doesn’t have problems with the church, because there’s sin in the church. But there’s no other place to be a Christian…” – E Peterson.
The Baptism of Jesus shows us what total submission and surrender looks like. The Baptism of Jesus shows us what Jesus will do to secure our righteousness. The Baptism of Jesus shows us what the perfect, loving community of the Trinity is like.
In essence, the text contains a warning from Peter to the church that they shouldn't be surprised when they are rejected and persecuted for the sake of Christ, and in fact they should rejoice in that form of suffering.
