First Presbyterian Church of Santa Rosa

Jesus’ ascension shows that the kingdom is indeed being launched, but it’s nothing like the one people were expecting. Through the Spirit of God, that kingdom becomes a living and present reality in God’s people, so we can spread that rule everywhere we go.

Christ's self-emptying humility in Philippians 2 invites us to abandon our culture's songs of self-realization and achievement, and instead minister to others by lowering ourselves to meet them where they are.

We live in a society where the echoes of Athens still entice us to believe that we can shape the world according to our own sensibilities. Across the ages, Paul reminds us that God loves us far too much to leave us abandoned to a fractured world formed in our own fractured images.

Christ’s suffering makes a way out of the mess for us and sets us free to care for others.

Like Saul, each one of us needs to be confronted with a revelation from beyond ourselves and led by the hand into receiving the ministry of others and discovering new ways of seeing.

The great good news is not just that Jesus conquers the grave, it’s that he comes and speaks to us by name, seeking us out and inviting us to new life.

While the crowds in Jerusalem initially shouted "Hosanna" in hopes of a political conqueror, Jesus revealed a different kind of "upside-down" power: the power of humility, forgiveness, and sacrificial love.

During his trial, Jesus is revealed not just as the victim unjustly humiliated, but as the judge who judges humanity with kindness, mercy, and infinite love.

God’s perfect love meets us in our brokenness, freeing us from fear and forming us into a community that practices love imperfectly yet faithfully.

The kingdoms of this world are challenged and ultimately defeated by the truer kingdom of divine origin, which is represented by and ushered in by Jesus.