To live a Christian life is much more transformative than just trying to live better. If you’re a Christian, you are a living stone in the temple of the Holy Spirit, and you are a holy priesthood called to do sacrifices to the Lord, because you’re related to the cornerstone, Jesus Christ. Now that’s quite...

The Christian understanding of freedom is at complete loggerheads with what our culture tells us. And I’d say most of us as Christians have trouble understanding it ourselves.  An extremely important concept for understanding the Christian life is the freedom of a Christian. It’s a theme that runs all the way through the New Testament:...

The book of 1 Peter is probably more about suffering than anything else.  It might be the only book in the New Testament completely devoted to the subject of suffering. And it shows us that going through trials, troubles, and sufferings is one of the main ways in which we grow into Christlikeness.  So let’s...

When we become Christians we don’t just turn over a new leaf, we’re spiritually raised with Christ and his resurrection power comes into our lives. And so, what does such an empowered life look like? We’re called to be holy, but this is a difficult term to get ahold of. In our modern culture, both...

Jesus’ resurrected power is in our lives now. Even though we are not yet bodily resurrected, Christians are, according to Ephesians 2, raised with Christ and knowing the power of his resurrection. What does that mean? What does it mean to live that kind of life? What kind of life should we live now in...

When we unite with Jesus Christ, his resurrection power comes into our lives.  Even though we believe we’ll be resurrected in our bodies at the end of time, there is already a spiritual resurrection that happens to us now. What does that look like?  Looking at this text, we can see 1) what happened, 2)...

Jesus’ resurrection isn’t supposed to just change history—it’s supposed to change you and me. The New Testament everywhere says we should expect to encounter the risen Christ. And that’s how our lives are changed.  Peter is a case study for us, because we have here the story of how the resurrected Christ sat down with...

Easter is too marvelous for words, but we’re going to try.  Luke 24 is an account of the resurrection: from the morning when the empty tomb was discovered, to the middle of the day when Jesus appeared on the road to Emmaus, to the evening when Jesus appeared to his disciples. And in that evening...

For centuries now, on the Sunday before Easter, the church has observed the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem just days before he was crucified. It’s called Palm Sunday.  What does Palm Sunday mean? It means Jesus is king, and it’s important to see that’s not just an abstract proposition. Palm Sunday is about...

Christianity gives us resources to help us live in a world that’s hard to live in. And in Luke 5, we see a resource we wouldn’t immediately think of as one — that is, that when Jesus calls us, he sends us out into the world to serve. Serving other people is draining, but it’s...