Christ Street Fellowship

In this episode, we continue our Jesus Glorified series from the Gospel of Mark in chapter 12 following Jesus through a series of powerful encounters in the temple. From the parable of the vineyard, where Jesus warned the religious leaders about rejecting God’s messengers and ultimately His Son, to His response about taxes, resurrection, and the greatest commandment, each moment revealed both His authority and His glory.

The chapter closes with the striking contrast between proud religious leaders who loved money and took advantage of the vulnerable in society, particularly the widows, and a poor widow who quietly gave all she had out of love and devotion to God in spite of the systemic injustice she was experiencing by the very ones commanded to care for her. Together, these passages challenge us to examine whether our faith is merely outward appearance or wholehearted devotion, calling us again to give to God what already belongs to Him, our very lives.

In this episode, Pastor Nate continues the Jesus Glorified series with Mark 10:46-11:33 following Jesus on the road to Jerusalem as His glory is revealed and hearts are exposed. The central theme we see in this teaching is the contrast between religious appearance and genuine faith.

Mark 10:46 begins with a  blind man named Bartimaeus in Jericho, who recognized Jesus as the Messiah and cried out for mercy. Though others tried to silence him, Jesus stopped, healed him, and declared that his faith had saved him. Bartimaeus then followed Jesus on the road, being an example of true, responsive faith.

As Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey, He intentionally fulfilled Zechariah’s prophecy from 9:9, declaring publicly his identity.  Crowds shouted “Hosanna,” welcoming Him as King, quoting from Psalm 118, yet many would soon reject Him when He did not meet their expectations, thus fulfilling the prophecy found in that same Psalm verse :22.

Through the cursing of the fig tree and the cleansing of the temple, Jesus revealed God’s judgment on empty religion: outward religious activity without fruit. This theme is further addressed by Jesus when His authority was questioned by the religious leaders. Their refusal to answer a questions posed by Jesus honestly exposed their heart which was more concerned with religious appearance than true faith and repentance.

In this week’s message from our Jesus Glorified: Transfiguration to Resurrection series, we continued through Mark 10, where Jesus reshapes how we understand salvation, greatness, and the culture of God’s kingdom.

In this chapter, starting at verse 13, Jesus welcomes and blesses little children. In a culture that measured spiritual worth by knowledge and obedience of God’s Law, Jesus declared that the kingdom of God belongs to those who can do nothing to earn it. Like infants, we are saved by grace alone—eternal life is received as a gift from God, not achieved by our hard work.

That truth is then contrasted with a rich young ruler, who asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Though outwardly obedient, he was unable to surrender what he valued most: his wealth. Jesus’ loving challenge exposed the deeper question for each of us: Is Jesus enough?

Then, as they journeyed toward Jerusalem, Jesus again predicted His suffering, death, and resurrection. Immediately afterward, just as we saw last week, the disciples argued over positions of greatness, prompting Jesus to address once again the truth about God's kingdom leadership. In God’s upside-down kingdom, greatness is found not in power, but in humility.

We finish up the message with Mark 10:45: “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” By using the word “ransom” Jesus’ purpose for dying was clear: His substitutionary sacrifice would free us from our slavery to sin and death. His life for our freedom.

This episodes marks the beginning of our series in the Gospel of Mark by exploring the difference between believing facts about Jesus and truly understanding who he is. In chapter 8, Peter correctly confessed that Jesus is the Messiah, yet he could not grasp what that meant: that the Son of God would suffer and die. That gap between belief and understanding leads chapter 9 and the Transfiguration, where the disciples experience the unveiled glory of Christ and begin to see him more clearly.

The message reminds us that information alone does not transform us. Real change happens when we encounter the glory of God in Jesus personally. Like the father who cried, “I believe; help my unbelief,” we are invited into an honest, dependent faith that moves from knowledge to experience. The central question remains: not just what we say we believe about Jesus, but whether we truly know him in a way that reshapes our lives.

In this episode, Pastor Nate teaches the final message of The Church Imagined series. He explores Paul’s picture of the church in 1 Corinthians 3 as God’s field. Speaking to a divided and spiritually immature church, Paul reminds believers that real growth doesn’t come from elevating leaders or choosing sides, but from learning to live in Christlike love. We also see that spiritual maturity is not measured by knowledge alone, but by how deeply we love one another.

Using the image of a field, the sermon highlights that the church is God’s primary place for spiritual growth. Just as crops thrive in good soil, believers grow best in committed community. Every member has a role: planting seeds by sharing God’s Word, watering through encouragement and practicing the “one another” commands, and trusting God for the miracle of growth. We are coworkers in God’s work, but only He gives life. 

We are reminded that we don’t own the field, and we don’t produce the harvest, only God does. Our responsibility is to serve diligently, refuse division, and give Him all the glory as He grows His people.

In this message by Pastor Gary from our The Church Imagined series, we explore Paul’s powerful picture of the church as the Body of Christ from 1 Corinthians 12. Jesus never designed believers to follow Him alone. We find spiritual strength and purpose in loving unity. Like parts of a human body working together, every member of the church is connected, necessary, and valuable.

This sermon highlights five key truths: we belong to one another, every member matters, no one is greater than another, we share each other’s suffering and joy, and the health of the church depends on staying responsive to Jesus, the Head of the body. In a culture that celebrates independence, this message calls us back to interdependence: serving, forgiving, praying for, and caring for one another.

When the church lives in this kind of unity under Christ’s leadership, it becomes a healthy and visible reflection of Jesus to the world.

This episode is the fourth teaching in our series “The Church Imagined” and it challenges us to further understand our identity as the church through one of Scripture’s most enduring images: The Flock of God. Psalm 23 and John 10 (along with many other passages of scripture) make it clear that we are the sheep, and Jesus is our Good Shepherd. Like real sheep, we are created to live in dependence, relationship, and community, not self-sufficiency.

The message centers on three relationships shaped by this identity:

Our relationship with God.
Jesus, our Great Shepherd, calls, leads, feeds, and protects His sheep to the point of laying down His life for us. Our role in the relationship is to listen to and follow His voice, learning to hear Him through Scripture, submission, and steadfastness.

Our relationship with one another.
Sheep are not meant to live alone. Scripture reminds us that isolation brings vulnerability, while life in the flock brings strength and growth (Hebrews 10:25; Acts 2:42). God also appoints leaders as undershepherds to care for His people under the authority of Christ, the Great Shepherd.

Our relationship with the world.
Jesus warns that as sheep, we live among predators. Spiritual and human threats are real, but we are not called to respond like wolves. Instead, we stay true to our identity as sheep and in doing so remain alert, united, and prayerful, faithfully trusting in our Shepherd’s care.

As the Church, we are the flock of God, the sheep of His pasture. When we embrace this identity, we learn how to walk closely with God, care deeply for one another, and live wisely in the world.

In week three of The Church Imagined series, we explored another identity-shaping image of the church in the New Testament: the Royal Priesthood. 1 Peter 2:9 reminds us that the church is not a building or an organization, but a holy people chosen by God, called out of darkness, and set apart to proclaim His praises.

By looking back the role of the Jewish priesthood in the Old Testament, we saw how Jesus fulfilled the priestly system once and for all as our Great High Priest. Because of His death, resurrection, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, God has now made the church itself His royal and holy priesthood.

The sermon focused on three key aspects of this calling: priestly clothing, priestly duties, and priestly portion. From Colossians 3, we were challenged to “put on” spiritual clothing such as compassion, humility, forgiveness, and love. We were also reminded  that just as the priests of old had duties, we too as a royal priesthood have responsibilities today: praying and interceding for others, caring for God’s temple by loving one another and using our spiritual gifts, and teaching the Word of Christ through both instruction and example. Finally, we reflected on our greatest inheritance as God’s priests: the Lord Himself, our portion now and for eternity.

As Christ’s church, we are a royal priesthood so that we may proclaim the praises of the One who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. May this truth shape how we live and serve together!

In this episode, Pastor Nate gives the second teaching from The Church Imagined series. This series explores the various facets of church as it is described through various illustrations in the New Testament. This week, we explore one of those powerful images of the Church: the Temple of the Living God. Drawing from 1 Corinthians 3, Ephesians 2, and 1 Peter 2, the sermon reminds us that the holy temple of God is not a building or a place, but a people in whom God’s very presence now dwells through the Holy Spirit.

By tracing the purpose of the Old Testament temple (God’s desire to dwell with His people) we see how Jesus fulfills everything the temple pointed toward. Through the work of Jesus Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit, God now makes His home in and among His people. Together, we are being built by God himself into a holy dwelling place for His glory.

The teaching then calls the church to live out this identity with purpose: holiness, as a people set apart for God; worship, not just through songs but through lives offered as living sacrifices; and hospitality, as a house of prayer for all peoples, welcoming the world without compromising the truth of the gospel.

This teaching invites us to see ourselves and one another with fresh eyes as the Holy Temple of the Living God, called to reflect His presence, His purity, and His love to the world.

What is the church and how does Jesus and the New Testament writers define it? In this opening message of the new teaching series, The Church Imagined, we are reminded that the Church is neither a business nor a social institution, rather the  ekklesia or the people of God who have been called out by Christ and set apart for His purposes.

This sermon series will explore the New Testament’s rich images and illustrations of the church, which help us imagine what Jesus intended when He said, “I will build MY church” (Matthew 16:18). Beginning with the foundational picture of the church as the “called-out ones,” we see that the church belongs to Christ and is both built and empowered by Him through the Holy Spirit.

As the called out ones, followers of Christ are called to live distinct from the world without compromise, grounded in truth, unity, and holiness, as we learn to be the church Jesus is forming for His glory and the world’s good.