Divine Savior Church-Sienna

Jesus purified us and made us new! So it doesn’t make sense to keep living the way we used to. Let’s live new lives, imitating Him. Loving the hard-to-love. Let’s grow in our faith by continuing to be fed with his Word. Devour it! He is building us into a building – the greatest building – a spiritual building – His Church! The greatest building with the greatest story! He is the cornerstone and foundation. Our purpose it to glorify God in the world around us with our lives, our words, and our witness!

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I Peter is a letter written to encourage Christians who were under severe pressure to renounce their faith. They were arrested or imprisoned, held without bail or rights, physically abused by their captors, subjected to seizure of property, exiled, and even killed. Peter’s letter offered living hope in a world that seemed to have none. For
that reason, I Peter is relevant to our lives today. Though our freedoms are not challenged or abused in the same way as the early Christians, the world around us offers little in the way of hope. It promises that one more distraction, one more relationship, or more achievement will fulfill us. And every time those promises fail.
Peter’s letter was a refreshing contrast to what the first Christians were experiencing. The words in his letter gave living hope for Christians in a hopeless world. If it offered that for them in those circumstances, it certainly can offer the same living hope to us!

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It’s not easy being a Christian in our world. It never has been. Jesus said that would be the case. We need a deeper joy, a deeper hope to live for to make it through. Easter gives that to us. So does the fact that God was thinking about us since before creation! The God who chose us before time began isn’t going to let go of us now. The future we have to look forward to will make everything worth it. That gives us reason for joy. Our suffering isn’t meaningless – it focuses us ever more sharply on the inheritance waiting for us.

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Jesus finished his race as he gave his final breath on the cross. We have run together with him as Mark announced each step of this race. Now Mark is elated to give us this final account. The account of victory - Christ is risen up from the grave. He was victorious. Because Jesus was victorious, so are you. His race is over, but yours continues. He tells you to run out into this world and declare his victory, and you won’t be alone - Jesus will always run with you!

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The finish line. The pain. The exhaustion. The final breath. The tired muscles that finally fail. This is what we witness at Jesus’ cross. There is tremendous agony and pain there, but he crosses that finish line for one, incredible, remarkable purpose - our salvation. The curtain stretched out and torn as he died on the cross, reminds us that the separation from God we would have suffered is no longer there. The pain, the exhaustion, the body laid to rest in a tomb means that Jesus' race is finished and there is the hope of glory ahead.

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Jesus wanted his disciples to never forget his race to the cross. He wanted them to remember his race because of what he would do - for many, and for you. Jesus gave up his body and his blood to the cross for each one of us. As he institutes Holy Communion, he does so so that we remember and receive that assuring truth again and again in a special way - bread and wine, body and blood, for the forgiveness of our sins.

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They come around the final turn and now it is a sprint to the finish, but just because it is near the end of the race doesn’t mean the steps become less important - they become more important. Every stride takes the runner closer to the finish, closer to victory, but every step becomes more challenging, more difficult. The crowds may roar around the turn, but the celebration can’t fully begin yet. There is more to take in. As Jesus enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the crowds roar with praise, but the chants will turn by the end of the week. Every step, every movement, and every word of Jesus’ teaching is important in this final stretch before the cross.

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How many of us easily buy into the thinking, “If you’re not first, you’re last.” The Kingdom of God flips this thinking around. Jesus turns the ways of the world upside down. Which is so good for us. We need Jesus’ revelation and teaching to help us with this. Worldly wisdom takes us the opposite direction and we’ll never finish the race. Jesus guides us in understanding what is truly valuable and important to pursue with eagerness and urgency.

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Family support is often a massive part in the story of an athlete’s success. In addition to physical talent, determination, and practice, a support system is necessary for success in competition and life. Jesus knows this better than anyone - he was part of the creative acts that instituted marriage and the family. So on his own race, Jesus speaks clearly and directly about the support system God has built - not for himself, but for our benefit. To live as God’s children is to raise up the next generation and disciple one another starting at home. This is why it is so important for us to become more like Jesus and support one another like family. 

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No one likes to lose. No matter how much our competitive nature drives us, we still prefer to win. But sometimes you win by losing. If you want to follow Jesus you have to lose to win. You have to give up your life for Jesus in order that he can save that life. You have to deny yourself and follow him, just as Jesus denied himself to take up his own cross.

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