Redemption Hill Church

This week, we will be looking at the birth of Christ from the opening 2 chapters of Luke’s gospel. In what serves as the prologue of the book, Luke tells his motivation for writing this gospel, so that his recipient, a man named Theophilus, can have “certainty” (Luke 1:4) about the things concerning Jesus. It is this idea of having certainty amidst uncertainty that shapes Luke’s account of Christ’s birth. In his well-researched version of the incarnation, Luke does something that is distinct among the gospel writers: he intentionally interweaves the narratives of the birth of Jesus and John the Baptizer.

Throughout the remaining weeks of December, we’ll be pausing our study in John’s gospel to celebrate the Advent of Christ. Advent allows us to cultivate space in our lives for joyful remembrance and anticipation of Jesus Christ together. We remember His first coming in the incarnation, and we anticipate His second coming to establish His kingdom. 

This week, we will be in Matthew 1:18-23, taking a look at the well-known Christmas story but focusing our attention entirely on the descriptive name given to Christ, “Immanuel” which means, “God With Us”. In our study of this name we’ll explore four things: God meets our greatest needs in the person of Jesus. God is the initiator of this great action. The word “with” is crucial in conveying how God intends to relate to us. And lastly, there are excellent implications that Jesus’ “withness” carries for every one of our lives.

After Jesus healed the crippled man, he faced major backlash from religious leaders in Jerusalem for healing on the Sabbath. The response Jesus had was not to back down or cower to the pressure. Instead, He doubled down, telling them his real source of authority. This is a great text for us on this second Sunday of Advent, Love Sunday, the Sunday of preparation as we long for God’s presence. We will see the stark claims of Jesus to have God’s presence and authority as the Son of God.

We have seen Jesus in individual conversations with Nicodemus and the Samaritan Woman. Now John turns our attention to an interaction He had with a Gentile official. There are some incredible contrasts in this passage between those who were looking for signs from Jesus yet didn’t believe and this man, who believed in Jesus along with his whole household. As we spend time in this passage, we are going to explore the nature of true faith, saving faith.

This passage is beautiful, challenging, uplifting, and powerful. This week we head into John 4 and we will see Jesus with a Samaritan woman at a well. I had initially thought about breaking the passage into multiple sermons, but in the study time with the staff team we all became convinced that we would lose some of the power of the story by doing that. So, we are going to cover John 4:1-42. As we walk through this story we will pay attention to the major characters in the story and how each speaks to us today – the Samaritan woman, the crowd, the disciples, and Jesus.

This passage brings John the Baptist back into the storyline. We will see the jealousy of John’s disciples as they see Jesus’ ministry growing. This gets at some core issue of identity, purpose, and significance – issues that every one of us wrestles with. John’s perspective is unique, puzzling, and refreshing. It will help us find our own place in this world.

This is a chapter highlighting the reality of our sin nature, as well as the faithfulness of God to protect His promises and show mercy to sinners. The narrative follows Abraham after the events of Sodom and Gomorrah. He’s wandered from a place of fellowship with God and has found himself in a regrettably familiar situation. In a tragic lapse of faith his actions endanger his wife, compromise his witness as a man of God, and threaten to potentially thwart God’s promise of a Messiah. Yet in spite of Abe’s unfaithfulness, God’s unrivaled faithfulness holds firm. His promises remain un-thwarted. His mercy is shown to sinners. And the hope of the gospel is alive.

As we continue to get to know who Jesus is, John turns our attention from the wedding in Cana and the clearing of the Temple courts to a series of conversations – with a Jewish teacher, a Samaritan woman, and a Gentile official. The Jewish teacher was a man named Nicodemus and he came to Jesus at night to try to learn more about who Jesus was. This leads to perhaps the most well-known conversation in all of the Gospels, and certainly the most famous verse in John’s Gospel, John 3:16. We will see this week what it means to be “born again” and the hope we have in Jesus.

This Sunday we continue our series with John 2:13-25. Last week we saw Jesus turn water into wine and lead the wedding celebration. This week we see another side of Jesus as he clears the Temple. We will take something I’ve to try to understand why Jesus was so angry, as well as why John puts these two stories together.

After promising that his disciples that they would see far more than they expected, Jesus took them all to a wedding. At that wedding in Cana, the unthinkable happened – the hosts ran out of wine. John recounts the first miracle Jesus ever performed, calling it a sign and telling us that it manifested Jesus’ glory. This is a fun story that shows us glimpses of what Jesus’ Kingdom is like.