Redeemer Downtown Sermons

Why was Jesus drawn to people everyone else avoided?

In this sermon from Encountering Jesus, Pete Nicholas explores Jesus’ surprising encounter with Levi in Luke 5:27–32. While the religious leaders kept their distance from “sinners,” Jesus moved toward them with grace, calling Levi not only to leave behind his old life, but to follow Him into something entirely new.

This is an invitation to the table for people who know they need mercy. In Jesus, even the most unlikely people are welcomed with grace.

This morning’s passage beautifully reveals the heart of Jesus. He doesn’t only invite us to call Him Lord; He invites us into friendship. Jesus calls ordinary, everyday people to follow Him, to leave their own way behind, and in that calling, we find relationship, welcome, and fellowship.

On the very same day Levi responds, the story unfolds into a celebration where everyone is invited to the table — not just the religious elite of the time. What an incredible and joyful invitation that still speaks to us today. As we sit with this passage, let’s take a moment to reflect and listen for how the Spirit may be inviting us to respond.

Why would Jesus tell a paralyzed man, “Your sins are forgiven”?

In this sermon from Encountering Jesus, Pete Nicholas explores the surprising encounter in Luke 5:17–26 where Jesus heals a paralyzed man and declares, “Your sins are forgiven.” Beneath the physical miracle is a deeper claim: that our greatest need is not only healing on the surface, but forgiveness at the very core of who we are.

This passage confronts us with both the seriousness of sin and the startling grace of Jesus. The One who sees every wound, failure, and burden also has the authority to forgive completely. In Jesus, we encounter not only compassion for our suffering, but the freedom and restoration that come from having our sins carried for us.

Today’s passage invites us to an awareness of our human need at deeper levels not just to what we perceive on the surface but what will both satisfy and nourish us in mind, body, and soul. The Lord sees far beyond what we comprehend and is intentional in his care for our whole being beginning with fulfilling the need for a relationship with him and beyond. Let’s lean in together and discover more of His loving heart and faithful care for us.

What keeps us from feeling truly accepted?

In this sermon from Encountering Jesus, Pete Nicholas explores Jesus’ encounter with a man suffering from leprosy in Luke 5:12–16. More than a physical healing, this moment reveals how sin leaves us fractured and isolated.

But Jesus does not move away from brokenness, He moves toward it. With compassion, He reaches out, touches the man, and restores him completely. In Jesus, we see the God who is willing to draw near to the outcast, heal what is broken, and bring people back into relationship with Himself.

As we continue our sermon series, Encountering Jesus, we dive deeper into the heart of Jesus and His forgiveness as it relates to the Mosaic Law. Today, we’ll explore how sin separates us from God and from one another and the beautiful truth that Jesus meets us in our brokenness. As the true temple and the perfect sacrifice, He opens the way for us to be welcomed back, restored in our relationship with God and reconciled to each other.

What happens when Jesus interrupts ordinary life?

In Luke 5:1–11, Jesus steps into Peter’s boat after a long night of failure and exhaustion. What follows is more than a miraculous catch of fish. As Peter encounters the authority, holiness, and grace of Jesus, his entire understanding of himself begins to unravel. Faced with the reality of Christ, Peter becomes deeply aware of both his own sin and his need for mercy.

In this sermon from Encountering Jesus, Pete Nicholas explores how Jesus disrupts our assumptions about spirituality, obedience, and what it means to truly know God. Christianity is not ultimately about moral performance or keeping rules at a distance, it is about being encountered by the living Jesus. When that happens, ordinary life can never remain the same.

As we dive deeper into our series Encountering Jesus, we step into a powerful moment where Jesus meets Simon (and James and John!) right in the middle of their work in Luke 5.

Though they were experienced fishermen, Jesus reshapes their understanding of him and invites them into something far greater than they imagined. In that moment, Simon in particular, begins to see both who Jesus truly is and who he is in light of him. Through this story, Jesus reveals the new values of his kingdom—reshaping what it truly means.

What kind of kingdom are we really living for?

In Luke 4, Jesus astonishes people not only through His authority and power, but through the kind of kingdom He came to bring. While the world chases success, recognition, comfort, and control, Jesus reveals a kingdom shaped by sacrifice, humility, and the way of the cross.

In this sermon from Encountering Jesus, Pete Nicholas explores how the gospel overturns our assumptions about power, freedom, and fulfillment. The kingdom of God doesn’t simply improve our existing priorities–it transforms them, inviting us into a radically different way of seeing life, success, suffering, and eternity.

As we continue in our series of Encountering Jesus, we’ll reflect this week on what mattered to Him. We’ll look at how Jesus spoke with authority, acted with compassion when healing the sick, and delivered people from unclean spirits all while choosing humility over fame. Though He could have sought recognition and power, Jesus chose a different path—the way of the cross.