bread church

By breadReligion & Spirituality Christianity

bread church episodes

March 05, 2023 Romans: The Way We Change
The situation in the church in Rome was a stalemate, involving Jewish and
Gentile Christians pointing fingers at each other over theological
differences. Paul responds pastorally to their underlying question: who’s
right and who needs to change? By Romans 8, Paul establishes that Jesus is
right. He then makes the case that both groups (us included) need to
change. Change comes by the Spirit. We are energized to live as the
righteous people we already are. Righteousness is about how we relate to
God and one another, it’s about how we share the table. The change that God
wants to bring is an internal one that produces outward results most
notable in our capacity to love and share. This kind of change is not just
up to the Spirit; we are not passive in it, nor is obedience automatic – we
participate. As we live by the Spirit, we’re reminded of our adoption into
God’s family where we’re made new, all history, all curses, all regrets are
done away with and we hear again God’s love for us. And nothing can
separate us from his love.
37 min
February 27, 2023 Romans: Solution of grace.
Having established that all of humanity - Greek, Jewish, Pagan or otherwise
- has at its heart the brokenness of sin. Paul then depicts the glorious
act of God righting what was wrong. Sin is a cosmic, societal, but also
particularly personal problem and it is far more than simply moral
performance. In Jesus God becomes the lightening rod of all human sin, and
in his body, he gives it what it deserves - annihilation. Jesus’ death is
not a just death at the hands of God, it is an unjust death at the hands of
sinful humanity. Jesus is what humanity was always supposed to be -
innocent and perfect. And in his sinlessness he takes on humanity’s sin in
his body to destroy it on the cross forever. God’s justice is then
gloriously displayed in raising the innocent Jesus from the dead. Death
cannot hold the guiltless God-Man. God makes a spectacle of all the powers
of evil - personal, religious, societal, national and supernatural -
exposing them for what they are and robbing them on the cross of their
power. What this means to us is that God is not angry - he never was. God
is love. And it means all our attempts to appease him through moral or
religious performance are futile. None of us will be good enough, but he
is. We can simply receive the gift of sin destroyed. And it means we can be
changed. Jesus’ death is the defining emancipation of the whole universe.
It sets us free from all the power of sin, death and the devil, and
restores to us his image-bearing vocation - to be his people and do his
work.
By Ed Flint
41 min
February 26, 2023 Romans: Solution of Grace
Having established that all of humanity - Greek, Jewish, Pagan or otherwise
- has at its heart the brokenness of sin. Paul then depicts the glorious
act of God righting what was wrong. Sin is a cosmic, societal, but also
particularly personal problem and it is far more than simply moral
performance. In Jesus God becomes the lightening rod of all human sin, and
in his body, he gives it what it deserves - annihilation. Jesus’ death is
not a just death at the hands of God, it is an unjust death at the hands of
sinful humanity. Jesus is what humanity was always supposed to be -
innocent and perfect. And in his sinlessness he takes on humanity’s sin in
his body to destroy it on the cross forever. God’s justice is then
gloriously displayed in raising the innocent Jesus from the dead. Death
cannot hold the guiltless God-Man. God makes a spectacle of all the powers
of evil - personal, religious, societal, national and supernatural -
exposing them for what they are and robbing them on the cross of their
power. What this means to us is that God is not angry - he never was. God
is love. And it means all our attempts to appease him through moral or
religious performance are futile. None of us will be good enough, but he
is. We can simply receive the gift of sin destroyed. And it means we can be
changed. Jesus’ death is the defining emancipation of the whole universe.
It sets us free from all the power of sin, death and the devil, and
restores to us his image-bearing vocation - to be his people and do his
work.
41 min
February 19, 2023 Romans: Freedom from Judgement
For many people the opening chapter of Romans has appeared to be Paul
having a judgmental screaming rant against the terrible disgusting
immorality of people. And people have often written themselves into it as
objects of his, and therefore God’s, disgust. But rather than Paul’s
primary purpose being to beat up on pagan idolaters, ultimately his goal is
to expose more pressing issues of judgmental attitudes amongst those he
is writing to. Paul’s point is not to shame anyone. Rather he is simply but
deftly exposing a universal truth: all of us have varying degrees of
brokenness at our heart, and none of us is immune. Jesus, gloriously,
wonderfully, kindly, lovingly, and powerfully has come to set us free from
it all. He’s the only one who can do it. And he has done it. This is
the extraordinary good news of the gospel.
35 min
February 13, 2023 Courage is calling.
It takes courage to be a Canaanite woman who crosses the border of Tyre and
Sidon and approach a rabbi to ask for mercy. The story of the Canaanite
mother who demonstrates faith in Jesus is a compelling narrative of
courage. She believes in the identity and authority of Jesus over demons
and disease so she courageously asks him to heal her daughter. When Jesus
sees her persistent faith, he does as she wishes. It takes courage to call
out for mercy. it takes courage to have faith in God’s vision for
wholeness, flourishing, and justice. It take courage put faith into action
and approach God for what we need. When we do, we become conduits for
mercy.
By Inés Velásquez-McBryde
35 min
February 12, 2023 Courage is Calling
It takes courage to be a Canaanite woman who crosses the border of Tyre and
Sidon and approach a rabbi to ask for mercy. The story of the Canaanite
mother who demonstrates faith in Jesus is a compelling narrative of
courage. She believes in the identity and authority of Jesus over demons
and disease so she courageously asks him to heal her daughter. When Jesus
sees her persistent faith, he does as she wishes. It takes courage to call
out for mercy. it takes courage to have faith in God’s vision for
wholeness, flourishing, and justice. It take courage put faith into action
and approach God for what we need. When we do, we become conduits for
mercy.
35 min
February 06, 2023 Calling: Jesus the prophet.
Prophecy is what God wants to say to people. It is not so much about the
future as it is the here and now. It is more forth-telling, than it is
fire-telling. Jesus not only spoke but acted prophetically. His arrival in
Jerusalem, his cleansing of the temple and his cursing of a fig tree were
all dramatic prophetic actions packed with meaning. Jesus declared to the
people of Jerusalem that he had arrived as the king of his kingdom and so
offered a choice between siding with the failed religious rule of the time
or with his new world order- the kingdom of heaven. We’re all called to
eagerly desire the gifts of the spirit especially the gift of prophecy. And
when we prophesy we’re doing the same as Jesus did- speaking the words of
God which encourage people to orientate their lives around Jesus, who is
for them and loves them and wants them to thrive.
By Ed Flint
41 min
February 05, 2023 Calling: Jesus the Prophet
Prophecy is what God wants to say to people. It is not so much about the
future as it is the here and now. It is more forth-telling, than it is
fire-telling. Jesus not only spoke but acted prophetically. His arrival in
Jerusalem, his cleansing of the temple and his cursing of a fig tree were
all dramatic prophetic actions packed with meaning. Jesus declared to the
people of Jerusalem that he had arrived as the king of his kingdom and so
offered a choice between siding with the failed religious rule of the time
or with his new world order- the kingdom of heaven. We’re all called to
eagerly desire the gifts of the spirit especially the gift of prophecy. And
when we prophesy we’re doing the same as Jesus did- speaking the words of
God which encourage people to orientate their lives around Jesus, who is
for them and loves them and wants them to thrive.
41 min
January 30, 2023 Calling: Jesus the teacher.
Jesus spent his whole ministry teaching his disciples and the crowds what
it meant to follow him. In those day it was not uncommon to gather around a
rabbi’s teaching, but what Jesus taught WAS uncommon. His kingdom doesn’t
always sound like the solid ground we want to build our lives on, which is
what the Wise and Foolish builder parable at the end of Sermon on the
Mount was supposed to illustrate. Do we want to believe that meekness,
service, self-sacrificing and peacemaking are the key to following him?
Loving our enemies? Not always our favorite, most easily applied parts of
the gospel. And yet any path to unity that includes diversity must
understand the real kingdom work of learning how to overcome our fallen,
human, tribal conflict patterns, and find His path back to love.
By Hannah Flint
45 min
January 29, 2023 Calling: Jesus the Teacher
Jesus spent his whole ministry teaching his disciples and the crowds what
it meant to follow him. In those day it was not uncommon to gather around a
rabbi’s teaching, but what Jesus taught WAS uncommon. His kingdom doesn’t
always sound like the solid ground we want to build our lives on, which is
what the Wise and Foolish builder parable at the end of Sermon on the
Mount was supposed to illustrate. Do we want to believe that meekness,
service, self-sacrificing and peacemaking are the key to following him?
Loving our enemies? Not always our favorite, most easily applied parts of
the gospel. And yet any path to unity that includes diversity must
understand the real kingdom work of learning how to overcome our fallen,
human, tribal conflict patterns, and find His path back to love.
45 min