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Jesus answered, "Everyone on the side of truth listens to me" (John 18:37). And Pilate responds, "What is truth?" If only Pilate had stayed in the conversation, had kept listening! What is truth? Is the truth like an equation or statement we can chisel into granite? Does truth work more like a sword or more like light, like wind, like water? Is the truth something we ca...
Keep ReadingJesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world...But now my kingdom is from another place." John 18:36 There aren't many trees on the plains of the upper Midwest, but what varieties there are are sturdy. They are quite strong and able to withstand the constant winds that blow across the wide open spaces. Harsh prairie winds serve as strengthening exercises for these trees, ...
Keep Reading"My kingdom is not of this world." (John 18:36) The kingdoms of this world; what do they look like? Each has its unique set of operating principles whether Pilate's kingdom with its political and military priorities, America's kingdom with its emphasis on success and status, or my kingdom with its unrelenting busyness to provide the best for my family. Each kingdom natura...
Keep ReadingJesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place" (John 18:36). It started when I started to question the limited gospel I'd heard for the beginning twenty years of my Jesus-following life. I remember driving home from church back then, intent on digging into the Ne...
Keep ReadingPilate summoned Jesus and asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?""Is that your own idea," Jesus asked, "or did others talk to you about me?" (John 18:33-34). For a busy Roman procurator of a restless, troublesome province, this was one more annoyance. Early in the morning, way before "office hours," a band of religious leaders requests an audience. They have with them...
Keep ReadingI have been crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:19) Why is identity so important, and sometime so difficult? Identity is important because it is the way we live: I live according to my understanding of who I am. If I know myself as a zero, a nothing, a mistake that should not have happened, I live one way. If I see myself as A#1, the Center of the Universe, I live accord...
Keep Reading"Do not set aside the grace of God" (Galatians 2:21) Real ID is the TSA-compliant identification needed to board a flight beginning late 2021. It is proof, stamped with a gold star, to validate I am who the government ID says I am. Real ID is freeprovided I have offered proof of birth and residency, driven to the DMV, and waited in an interminable line. It is simply a gi...
Keep ReadingI do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could begained through the law, Christ died for nothing!" (Galatians 2:21) Amazing grace, how sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now I'm found, Was blind, but now I see! Amazing Grace was one of the first hymns I memorized as a child. Looking around the sanctuary of my childhood c...
Keep ReadingFor through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing! (Galatian...
Keep ReadingGalatians 2:19-21 What prompted Paul to write "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me"? It was not some abstract theologizing done on a sunny afternoon; it was prompted by Peter's screw-up, a screw-up that had everything to do with true identity. The risen Jesus graciously gave the "keys of the kingdom" to Peter, who use...
Keep ReadingBut whatever was to my profit I now consider loss ... But I press on ...But this one thing I do ... (Philippians 3:7, 13). If our true identity is in Christ, how do we actually live our way into that identity? How does "in Christ" move from an idea in our heads to a reality we are living into? Paul'sbuts in Philippians 3 point the way. First he writes, "But whatever was ...
Keep ReadingI consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ (Philippines 3:8). As soon as we're born, people start to clothe us. After a few years, we learn to clothe ourselves. I think this is how it is with identities. First others put them on ...
Keep ReadingBut whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ(Philippians 3:7-8). Ever held on to something you knew wasn't good for you? We likely all have at some po...
Keep Reading"If anyone thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the fleshconsider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christand be[ing] found in Him" (Philippians 3:4,8,9). Resums aim to secure our acceptance and security. They document our worth to ourselves we want to be seen as important and valuable and to others since they gain admission to a co...
Keep ReadingPhilippians 3:1-14 In this next week of our True ID series, we'll continue to explore how that glorious and spiritually dense phrase in Christ shapes how we think about identity (who am I, really?). This week, a dive into Philippians 3. Is your identity just something you're born with, something that was given to you? After all, you didn't choose your genes, gender, pare...
Keep ReadingYou are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of youwho were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek,slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:26-27). Who am I "in me" who am I when I measure and define myself using myself as the standard? Or when I allow myself...
Keep ReadingFor all of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:27-29). Pro-Biden signs, MAGA caps, anti-maskers, right wing this, left wing that, anti-vaxx protestors, Black Lives Matter signs. We expect such division in society as a whole, but wh...
Keep Readingthat we might receive adoption to sonship (Galatians 4:5b). Picture a city inhabited by scads of street kids. These poor miserable urchins run rampant through the streets, dig through garbage cans for food, pick pockets, bully and are bullied, cower in dark alleyways and whimper in the night. Why is this happening? Because they are orphans with no one to parent them. To...
Keep Reading...to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts,the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father" (Gal. 4:5-6). What does that really look like, to be His "sons?" What does it look like to actually live life as these "sons" (and daughters) who are free to know Him as Father?In th...
Keep ReadingNew series: True ID It is not a hostile question, this "Who do you think you are?" It's not asking to you to defend or justify your existence, or prove your worth. Honestly: who are you? We're beginning True ID, our new sermon series, which will help us explore what Scripture says about our identity, who we really are or better, whose we are. "Tell me about yourself." ...
Keep ReadingNehemiah 1:1-13:31 We're approaching the end of Let's Rebuild!, a sermon series that has immersed us in the Book of Nehemiah. As we prepare to wave farewell to Nehemiahbut not to the necessary and continuous hard work of building, rebuilding and maintaining healthy and robust communities of faithlet's give thanks together. Thank you, Nehemiah, for showing and reminding u...
Keep ReadingNehemiah 13:14, 22, 29, 31 Nehemiah's book begins and ends in prayer. The "action" begins with Nehemiah learning of the sad condition of the Jewish remnant in and around Jerusalem. His first act? To praysee 1:4-11. The very last act in the book? A prayer, the tenth time Nehemiah records his prayerssee 13:31. And the very heart of the book: a prayer (chapter 9). We don't...
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