New Life Downtown

From the earliest human civilizations, there has been a sense that the gods are angry and that humans are guilty. Yet the radical claim of the Gospel is that Jesus is the culmination and completion of the priestly system of temples, sacrifices, and priests. Jesus is how we know that God is not an angry God, and that we can be saved from the guilt that binds us.

As we begin to prepare our hearts for the birth of Christ, we will explore what it means to see Jesus as the fulfillment of each of the three main offices in Israel's life as it was in the Old Testament - the prophet, the priest, and the king. Pastor Glenn Packiam reshapes our popular notions of what a prophet is by helping us understand why the Bible calls Moses the greatest prophet in Israel, and why Jesus is the True Prophet.

As we close the Romans series, we look at how the truth of the Gospel that is presented in accord with the character of Christ. We, in turn, are called to represent the truth while reflecting the character of Christ.

As Christians, we have different convictions about how to be faithful to Jesus. Some believe certain practices are good (or at least ok), and others believe those same practices are wrong. So, what do we do when our convictions differ? This week Pastor Jason Jackson explores Paul's instructions in Romans 14 to two groups who face the same dilemma.

We want church to be a politics-free zone, but the Gospel has always had political implications. What does Paul's letter to a church in the power center of his part of the world have to say about governments? Pastor Glenn Packiam unpacks Romans 13 and sets it along side Revelation 13 to help us see what governments can be at the best and at their worst, and how the church can live under both kinds of governments.

It is evident that cultural attitudes toward religion in general and Christianity in particular have changed for the worse. While we may be tempted to fight for how things used to be or to flee to the margins of society, Paul offered the church in Rome a different approach. Preaching from the final section of Romans 12, Pastor Glenn Packiam calls us to examine how we might look for opportunities to show solidarity, live from a place of humility, and love radically in a hostile world.

It's a common phrase: I like Jesus, but I don't want to have anything to do with the Church. Yet the Gospel forms us into a community; it sets us within a family. Pastor Glenn Packiam teaches from Romans 12 on what it means to see the Church as a community formed by grace, and yet one which invites our participation to cultivate it to become a place of diversity, unity, and mutuality.

Worship is at the very heart of Christian life and practice. Yet it is all too often conflated with singing or music or even a genre of music. How are we to understand what our call to worship actually means? Pastor Glenn Packiam teaches from Romans 12:1-2 and outlines four key features of worship as a response to the glorious Good News.

If God's love won't let go, what does that mean for Israel? Pastor Jason Jackson looks at how Paul answers this question in Romans 9-11. These complicated, confusing, and controversial chapters are bound together by God's mercy. Everything God does demonstrates his mercy, and everyone - Jew and Gentile alike - depend on God's mercy. This realization should lead all God's people to humility and worship.

What do Christians have to say about evil in the world? In Romans 8, Paul zooms out to show what the Good News means for the whole creation. God will redeem in a way that is so strong it will be the very completion and perfection of creation. Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us see the vision of a redeeming Creator and a creative Redeemer, a God who enters into our pain and groans and weeps with us. And as we wait in the groaning, we are held by a Love that is stronger than death, a Love that will overcome, a Love that won't let us go.