Real Peace. Real People.

Jesus didn’t need to prove himself to his doubting disciples. He isn’t under some obligation to offer us proof. And yet, because of his great love for us, he does just that. He offers us proof through the testimony of contemporaries through his Word.

The disciples on the road to Emmaus had a truck load of questions and very few answers. They had watched the events of the weekend unfold and somehow, understood less than they did at the beginning of the prior week. It’s that confusion that brought them anxiety and hopelessness. And in our reading, we take on that hopelessness the only way we know how.

If Jesus’ body lay in the tomb on Sunday morning, the disciples’ hearts would have never found rest, the women who followed Jesus would have been eternally disappointed, and there would be no reason for us to gather. If Jesus had not been raised, we could never be quite sure that he defeated sin and death on our behalf. But because he’s risen and the grave couldn’t hold him, everything is changed.

“If the Spirit lives within you, then…” The end of that sentence matters. People will tell you that Christians should live with a different type of perspective on the world. In Romans, we’re going to explore how the Holy Spirit causes us to naturally live with a different perspective. Because he lives in you, you have peace at every turn in your life.

Few of us struggle with full blown physical blindness. Many more of us struggle with spiritual blindness. Christ puts simple truths in front of us and we avert our eyes, slam them shut, or gouge them out so that we don’t have to witness them. That’s the sinful nature talking. But in our reading for this Sunday, Jesus proves that he doesn’t just place truths in front of us. He goes the extra mile of opening our eyes and causing us to understand through his Word.

The interaction between Jesus and the Samaritan woman teaches us something about ourselves. Jesus sees in her all sorts of needs; physical, emotional and, yes, spiritual. Which does he address first? In our reading for today, we explore how Jesus meets our need for living water FIRST and see how that overflows into every part of our lives.

How should we talk about our salvation? When someone asks you, “why are you confident in your salvation,” what do you say? In our sermon, we come up with an answer to that question that highlights the absolutely free, no strings attached nature of salvation.

Loss after loss after loss. That seems to be the pattern of the Old Testament. Beginning with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the world has been filled with men and women who are duped and conquered by the Liar. In our reading for this Sunday, we see the script flip as Christ makes good on his Father’s promise to crush the serpent’s head. In the wilderness, we get to see victory in the making.

This service stands as the beginning of Lent. Lent is a time of reflection, when mankind takes a step back and really considers what caused Jesus to go to the cross. And the answer is simple: our sin. Just as there is a time for rejoicing, there is also a time for mourning. We mourn over the evil things we have done to others as well as all of the good that we leave undone. However, we don’t mourn without hope. We mourn in a way that makes us desperate to lean in and see the empty tomb 6 weeks later on Easter Sunday.

The glory of Jesus is shown in its fullness on Transformation Sunday. This image presented to us at the top of the mountain is fascinating and marvelous… but what does it mean to us? In this sermon, we learn just how important this moment was not just for God’s Son whom he loves, but for us as well.