Redeemer West Side

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Isaiah 55:7:Psalm 32:1-7
Isaiah calls for repentance and turning to the Lord, emphasizing God's abundant mercy and willingness to pardon those who forsake their wicked ways. Psalm 32 reflects the joy and freedom of those whose sins are forgiven. Together, these passages convey a message of divine mercy, forgiveness, and the transformative power of turning to God in repentance. Transparency before God brings freedom.

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | 1 John 1:7-10; 2:1
John emphasizes the transformative power of walking in the light of God's truth. He underscores the cleansing nature of Christ's blood, highlighting the importance of acknowledging our sins and seeking forgiveness for a restored relationship with God. The passage also encourages Christians to live authentically, acknowledging their need for continual repentance and dependence on the advocacy of Jesus Christ as the righteous mediator before God. For Christians, the work of Jesus confirms their forgiveness.

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Romans 8:31-39
The high watermark of Romans 8 (and New Testament theology) is found in these verses, reminding the followers of Jesus that what protects and assures them is God’s love.  Here the trinitarian love of Father, Son and Spirit explodes in waves of assurance, joy and power.  The trials of life cannot overcome the victory of the Christian, for death has been defeated and, coming full circle, these bones can live.  The resurrection of Jesus is ours, both now and forever more as we await the full experience of Heaven, God’s world of love.

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Romans 8:18-30
Suffering and glory are linked in the Christian life, as they are linked in Christ’s life. Martyn Lloyd-Jones argues that glorification (v30) is God’s ultimate goal for his children. That is, that they would experience “full and complete deliverance from sin and evil…in body, soul and spirit.” So God is working “all things” to bring that about, including suffering and weakness. The Spirit assures and empowers us as Christians wait, praying with and for us as we experience His firstfruits (v23) of the new creation.

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Romans 8:12-17
One of the main challenges of faithfully following Jesus is experiencing subjectively what is true of Christians objectively. Perhaps no greater experience is the Holy Spirit helping us experience that we are sons and daughters of God, adopted into his family with unlimited access to his care, wisdom, compassion and protection. The passage speaks to the fear faced when our identity is fragile. JI Packer writes that a Christian’s apprehension of this identity is the “highest privilege the gospel offers.” 

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Romans 8:1-13
Romans 8 is a rich reservoir of the implications and assurances of following Jesus, and the Holy Spirit central to the chapter's richness.  We will spend four weeks working through the chapter finding assurance and hope to live out our vision in 2024.  This first sermon will explore how the Spirit sets us from sin and death, assuring Christians that “there is no condemnation”, a fact that is experienced as followers of Jesus set their minds on what the Spirit desires.

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | 1 Corinthians 2:6-16
The Holy Spirit reveals God’s wisdom to followers of Jesus and stands in opposition to what Scripture calls the wisdom of the world.   One seeks to find answers to life through God and his word, the other seeks those answers as if God doesn’t exist.  Our current cultural moment that conceives of truth as socially constructed asks the questions Paul puts forth earlier in this letter: “Where is the wise person?  Where is the teacher of the law?  Where is the philosopher of this age?”  The Spirit has revealed the answer allowing Jesus followers to ‘have the mind of Christ’.

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Ezekiel 37:1-3, 9-14
Ezekiel was a man whose theology was born in the pain and passion of his own and his people’s suffering.  It is out of that pain we find words of hope rooted in the Spirit’s power to bring life, a power that goes back to Genesis 1 where the Spirit of God was ‘hovering over the waters’.  The question facing Ezekiel’s generation is the one facing ours.  In the midst of pessimism and cynicism, can the bones of the church live in a way that brings hope to the world?

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Matthew 2:1-12
The birth of Jesus was the arrival of a King whose presence in the world ‘disturbs’ us the way it did Herod; a word that means “acute emotional distress”. As Wright put it, this news is political dynamite. Jesus is the true king of the Jews, and Herod is the false one.” And the arrival of the Magi underscores that Jesus’ reign is not limited to one nation, but that his rule would bring God’s justice and peace to the whole world (Psalm 72; Isaiah 11:1–10). Fittingly, Matthew concludes his gospel with Jesus’ admonition to his followers to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28), pointing back to the scene we have here.

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | John 1:1-14
Unlike Matthew and Luke, John’s reflection on the birth of Jesus is more of a philosophical meditation than a historical retelling. He sets the birth of Jesus in the context of Genesis (In the beginning) and in a way that challenges the Greek view of reality. Jesus’ birth will bring light into darkness, just as we find in Genesis 1 and 2. But more remarkably we find that the invisible will become visible, the divine will become human, all in service to the opportunity for God to dwell with us as his children.