New Day Church Sermons

This is the prelude to the Sermon on the Mount, and is the first in the series. We will be answering two questions: 1) Who is Jesus that I should listen to him? 2) What is his message (in the Sermon on the Mount). We’ll spend the first half of the message establishing the fact that of all the people in the world who deserve our attention and devotion, it is Jesus. As Son of God he shows us the way of the life of heaven. And the Sermon on the Mount does this. It is instruction about the kingdom of heaven here on earth for those who repent and follow Jesus. I’ll do an overview of three categories that the Sermon addresses: 1) The person you will become, 2) the challenges you will face, and 3) the reward that awaits you. All of these things find their ultimate expression in Jesus, who lived a perfect life, suffered the greatest challenges, and received the greatest reward so that we could walk that road after him all the way to glory. The closing application is to heed his call in Matt. 4:17 “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”, and follow the rest of the sermon series to find out what that kingdom holds for each of us.

We’ll be looking at the parables of the mustard seed and the leaven, which are embedded in between the parable of the weeds and its explanation. Given its location in the center of that parable, it points us to the central theme that gives us reason for optimism though we grow in the midst of ‘weeds’. The reason is that the gospel will succeed in bringing the kingdom of heaven on earth; the transformed life will be ours forever. Three points from the parables: The extent of the kingdom of heaven, the nature of the kingdom of heaven, and the power of the gospel of the kingdom. The extent is every tribe and tongue. The nature is life and rest. The power is that God will bring in his people through the gospel, which is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Rom. 1:16). I will end on the optimistic note that our task isn’t to grow the tree or make the leaven spread through the whole loaf; that is the Lord’s job. Ours is to be faithful to Christ and walk as witnesses.

The sermon is part of our series cultivating an outreach readiness as we get closer to our launch date. This week and next are to instill a realistic optimism about what happens as we seek to bring the gospel to our city. Our passages will be the ‘kingdom of heaven’ parables, beginning with the parable of the weeds (wheat and tares). The parable is about the reality of ongoing evil and evildoers in the world, who grow up along side the mercifully saved followers of Christ. But the optimism comes from knowing this is God’s wise plan for the church, and that it ends in “the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (vs. 43). The second half of the message will be about three takeaways. 1) Heavenly insight (we know the spiritual realities behind the evil of the world, and of our salvation). 2) Heavenly patience (we labor to do good but we patiently endure evil and don’t put our hope in eradicating it). 3) Heavenly hope (the presence of the weeds doesn’t threaten the security of the wheat; we will be gathered to Jesus). The main takeaway: Keep calm and trust the Lord as we bring the gospel to our city.

This week’s message explored Acts 6:8–8:3, the story of Stephen—the first Christian martyr—and what his life teaches every believer. While most Christians will never face the persecution Stephen endured, every follower of Jesus is called to faithfully bear witness to Him.

Stephen was an ordinary church member who simply began by serving where there was a need. Empowered by God’s grace and the Holy Spirit, he boldly proclaimed that salvation comes through Jesus Christ alone—not through religious performance or human effort. When falsely accused and brought before the Jewish council, Stephen showed from Israel’s history that God has always been at work beyond buildings and rituals, and that God’s people have too often rejected the very messengers He sent. Tragically, they also rejected Jesus, the promised Messiah.

Rather than defending himself, Stephen remained faithful to Christ. Even as he was being stoned, he saw Jesus standing at God’s right hand to welcome and advocate for him. Following Jesus’ example, Stephen prayed for God to forgive those who were killing him. His death did not stop the gospel—instead, it became the catalyst for the church’s spread beyond Jerusalem.

The central message of the sermon is simple: “We are all Stephen.” Every Christian is an ordinary person called to faithfully represent Jesus wherever God has placed them—at home, at work, in suffering, and in everyday acts of service. Our hope is not found in our courage or faithfulness, but in Jesus Christ, who died for our sins, rose again, and now stands as our Advocate before the Father. Because of His grace, we can confidently live as faithful witnesses until the day He welcomes us home.

Last week we recognized our need to ask God to draw people to himself. This week we look at what kind of people God draws to himself. Zacchaeus was a despised traitor to the people of Israel, yet he wanted to know who Jesus was. Jesus invited himself into his life and rescued him from his sins, pronouncing that “salvation has come to this house.” This is instructive for us. Are we ready to receive the people God draws to himself and to our church? They will be sinners, they will be a mess, they will not all be the people we might have hoped would come, and yet we are to develop the Lord’s heart for them and engage with them the same way he did. This we can do with gospel humility, recognizing that we are Zacchaeus ourselves, and yet Jesus came to us.

This is the first message of five that will help us establish a foundation for an outreach culture. The main point is that God is the only one who can give people life, so we must pray that he will. This comes especially from verse 44, No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. Three points:

1. Life is found in a relationship with Jesus.

The implications of point 3: that if someone is feeling an interest in Jesus, lean into it. The Lord wants you to have life. Talk to someone about it. Second implication: we need to pray for the Lord to draw people to Jesus. That’s why we have a prayer meeting.

The guiding question is this: What habits of the heart lend themselves to experiencing the newness of life that the Lord intends for us? Answer: Philippians 3:13-14. Paul does one thing that has two components. The one thing is that he presses on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. And he does this through two intentional habits: forgetting what lies behind, and straining forward to what lies ahead. The prize is Jesus: knowing all the fullness of what God has called us to in Jesus Christ. And what gets us ever closer to that experience is putting off “fruitless remembering” and putting on fruitful pursuit of Christ through intentional life-giving rhythms. Closing with the observation from verse 15 that thinking this way is a sign of maturity. This is what we want to characterize New Day Church. It’s how every day will feel like a new day with Jesus.

1. Behold the splendor of his sovereignty.

We find ourselves in a similar situation to Israel about to enter the promised land. Deuteronomy is the last charge to the people to prepare them for taking possession of the land. Chapter 8 is part of that preparation, and the main theme is remembering how the Lord has led us. Deuteronomy 8:2 - And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. We’ll talk about his purpose in leading us as he has (to humble us, vs. 2-3), his method of humbling us (the tests of adversity and prosperity, vs. 3-4), and his promise of our final destination (a good land, vs. 7-10). Moving to the rec center isn’t the promised land, but it is a big step for us nevertheless. We "cross the Jordan” so to speak after 27 years as a church (our opening day was June 20, 1999). And like Israel, we need to remember the way the Lord has led us, because trusting God in the future requires remembering what God has done in the past. This isn't a trip down memory lane but rather a faith-building reminder of what we need to remember as we move on to our next place of ministry.

This is the passage where Jesus teaches the disciples about what it looks like to follow him. He turns our preoccupation away from ourselves toward other people as servants. We become life-giving people instead of life-draining people as we minister God’s grace to them. Pastor Mark talks about the self-servant (natural man), the humble servant (renewed man), and the supreme servant (Jesus).