Discovering Jesus

Hey everyone, it's been a minute! 

Just letting you all know what will be happening with the podcast and what I'll be doing in the future.

For reference, here is the website mentioned in the recording: www.christandmind.com

Also, should you want to access the backlog of sermons, you can download a zip file here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GhFdSlYSugK5TEGD2v71HVFoLuSuPvPs/view?usp=share_link

This is the final sermon in our Minor Prophets series, and the final sermon that will be preached by Pastor Tyler at Tricity Chinese Christian Church before he pursues further education at seminary.

Today we will be looking at the context and background of Malachi, how the author of Malachi points toward Jesus, how the whole Book of the Twelve points toward Jesus, and how the whole Old Testament points toward Jesus. 

Join us as we discover Jesus in the final book of the Christian Old Testament, and explore the issues Malachi covers, like intermarriage, racism, unpunished evil, God hating Edom, and more.

We are approaching the end of the Minor prophets! Today we look at two of the more unique books, Haggai and Zechariah, two prophets active during the return from exile. Haggai and Zechariah both believed that reestablishing the monarchy through Zerubbabel was the best and only way to realize the utopian vision of Jerusalem becoming the centre of the world and the Kingdom of God coming to earth. However, as we'll see, this was not to be.

When we dig into the background and context of Zechariah, and do some reading in  between the lines, it becomes clear that things did not pan out like the two prophets had hoped or predicted. 

So what happened? And what relevance do some failed prophecies in the Hebrew Bible have for us today?

This week we are jumping into the shortest of all the Minor Prophets: Obadiah. Obadiah has some very, very strong things to say about the kingdom of Edom, even though, as we'll see, Edom has not done anything particularly egregious when compared with the other nations. And yet, Obadiah, along with a couple other prophets and psalmists, have a special place in their heart for lobbing angry epithets at Edom.

Why is that?

Today we find out what was going on behind the scenes to cause such an attitude toward Edom, and why Obadiah is actually supposed to be a book of great encouragement to those who might feel as though God has abandoned them.

This week we take a look at one of the last prophets to speak before the Babylonian exile, and whose name has garnered much controversy: Habakkuk.

We will learn how to say his name properly, and more importantly, how history and biblical criticism work together to shed light on the beautiful gospel message that lies in the prophetic book.

This week we are turning our Bibles to the prophet Zephaniah, and we are turning our gaze toward one of the most difficult themes in all the prophetic books: the violence of God.

Despite many denials to the contrary, the violence of the Old Testament God really is at odds with the self-sacrificing, enemy-loving Christ of the New Testament. Today we explore why that is, and why Yahweh sometimes looks more like a Canaanite warrior god (or Kratos from God of War) than he does Jesus.

We'll learn just why it is so important to read the Bible as a unified story, not as disconnected books, and how books like Zephaniah, once we learn to read them well, communicate a beautiful message that ultimately looks to the cross of Christ.

This week we cover two books of the Bible! We are going to get into what exactly progressive revelation is, and how that helps us understand some of the anger in the prophetic books. Along the way we will see what Nahum and Jonah do and do not have in common, and how comparing the two books with the cross of Christ can help us learn how to pray for our enemies.

This Easter we explore exactly why Jesus had to be crucified, and why the resurrection matters. After all, if all we needed was a perfect sacrifice, isn't crucifixion a little over the top, and a little cruel? Wouldn't a nice, simple sacrificial ritual like in Leviticus have sufficed? Further, if all we needed was a perfect sacrifice, why the resurrection?

There is much more going on in the Easter story than just Jesus offering his body as a perfect sacrifice, and it all starts in Deuteronomy.

This week we move south to the Kingdom of Judah, with the first Minor Prophet to preach from there: Micah. Micah is supremely concerned with the social injustices that occurred under the reigns of Kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, and indicts primarily the elites, politicians, and pastors/priests of Judah. But, within the fair and exciting calls for social justice, there is also a message of hope: hope for forgiveness for any and all, that we might be restored to God.

So if you have ever felt you didn't deserve God's forgiveness, or that you somehow need to earn it, or that God will not accept you back until you have proven how sorry you are and done proper penance, our hope is that Micah can bring you some comfort today.

Additionally, Micah will also challenge us on where our cares lie, on whether or not we are taking advantage of God's forgiveness and failing to walk obediently in humility with God.

Did you know that some parts of God's personality are stronger than others? This may come as a surprise (particularly for our Reformed friends), but the Bible is pretty clear that, when it comes to  God's wrath, anger, and punishment, these are his weaker attributes. Join us to learn exactly why that is and what it means for Hosea's audience, and us today.