Redemption Hill Church

The narrative of John’s Gospel continues as we get introduced to some of the men who would become Jesus’ disciples – Andrew, Simon (called Peter), Philip, and Nathanael (called Bartholomew). From the John the Baptist’s identification that Jesus is “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” there began a string of people who followed Jesus, told others about Jesus, and brought others to see Jesus for themselves. This pattern has continued now for thousands of years. We will see what it means to follow Jesus and look into why anyone would do it.

This Sunday we continue our series with John 1:19-34. All four Gospels show that the start of Jesus’ public ministry was rooted in the ministry of His cousin, John. This is a different John than our author. John’s ministry was to baptize people in order to prepare a righteous remnant of faithful to usher in the coming of Messiah. John wasn’t the only one in his time with that goal, but he was the one that God had appointed for the job. We will see the importance and emphases of John’s ministry, and what they mean for us.

While the first five verses set the tone of the transcendence of the Word, the Creator and source of all light and life, the verses that follow bring the shocking truth of God’s immanence, His presence with us as that same Word took on flesh and became human. The Incarnation of Jesus is one of the most powerful and mysterious truths we are confronted with in the Gospel and it has profound implications for us.

This Sunday we begin at The Beginning. You get the feeling reading the start of John’s Gospel that he may have seen and read the other three and thought, let’s go back just a little farther on the timeline. What we have is one of the most packed, poetic, and beautiful sections of the entire New Testament. It is a powerful passage that begins to introduce us to Jesus.

This Sunday we are in between two sermon series. It’s not often that I get a one-off chance to preach on a topic, so I’m pretty excited for it. We will take some time this Sunday to talk about Deconstruction. It feels overwhelming to see and hear the stories of people deconstructing their faith and, so often, walking away from any belief in Jesus or connection to any church. There are lots of good reasons and good questions that are raised along the way. I hope to help us all see that we ought to lean into the hard questions, but also to give us a grid for how to deconstruct the ways people and institutions have fallen short, while still being able to cling to the hope we have in Jesus.

This Sunday we will jump back into our series in Titus with all of Titus 3. Remember that Titus is a great, concise look at what the church is. We have already seen that the church is Hope for Eternity, God’s Family, and commissioned as God’s people Declaring the Gospel. This third chapter pushes the reality of the gospel into our lives and shows us that the Church is God’s people, Empowered for Good Work. Too often our spirituality can become compartmentalized as something separate and different from the rest of real life. This couldn’t be further from the vision set out for us in Scripture. Following Jesus changes everything, our relationships with other Christians, with people who are not Christians, and our lives become the salt and light that shows others the beauty of Jesus.

On Sunday, we had the privilege of welcoming some guests as we celebrated and gathered for worship together. Dr. Bill Kynes, our sending pastor,  prayed for Redemption Hill, we heard from Dr. Ray Ortlund, Jr. as he preached from Romans 8, and Phil Maucieri joined us to help as our band leads us all in singing.

We have already seen that the church is Hope for Eternity, and God’s Family. The second chapter closes out with a power-packed explosion of the beauty of the gospel. The good news shapes how we see ourselves and how we fit into the world we live in, showing us our past, present, and future.

This passage shows us a beautiful portrait of the God’s Family. Everybody has a part to play in church life. The eternal hope we have in Jesus that we saw in last week’s passage is not just individual but joins us together and shapes a community that shows off God’s grace and goodness. This passage is particularly important for us at Redemption Hill because we have a Titus 2 Team. We will take time this week to talk about how the gospel shapes God’s family in the church, the vital importance we all play.

I’m back in the pulpit this week as we begin a new short series in the book of Titus. August marks TEN YEARS of ministry for Redemption Hill Church. It’s hard for me to believe that it has been that long, and it’s amazing to look back at all that God has done over the past decade. Through the month of August we will work together to be reminded of what a church is, who we are, and whose we are. In the same way that NFL Teams head into training camps to re-emphasize the fundamentals each year, this will give us the chance to be reminded of the fundamental aspects of who we are and what we are called to. This week starts with Titus 1:1-2:1.