Refuge Audio Podcast

Pontius Pilate would have been intrigued to hear that Jesus was calling Himself the King of the Jews—or at least that was what the Jewish religious rulers were counting on. They hoped the claim would cause Pilate to do what they wanted. Of course, they would have handled the matter by stoning Jesus, but only the Romans could carry out capital punishment. They perfected it through crucifixion—a brutal, agonizing, and excruciating slow death.  God knew what His people would do when they rejected His Son. And He knew exactly how the Romans would execute Him. In fact, this was all recorded hundreds of years before in Psalm 22, Zechariah 12, and Isaiah 53. Watch our Good Friday service as we reflect on Jesus—the Son of God.

Palm Sunday commemorates the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into the city of Jerusalem. It wasn’t necessarily how Jesus entered the city (riding on a donkey) that made it a triumph, but how He allowed Himself to be publicly hailed as the Messiah. When Jesus saw the city, He wept over it (Luke 19:41-44) because the people didn’t realize that God was coming to them, making their salvation possible. Just before the Triumphal Entry, Jesus interacted with a man everybody would have counted out. In their conversation, we hear directly from Jesus why He came: to seek and to save the lost.

When Jesus considered sending out ministry workers into the harvest, He chose and sent a rag-tag bunch of young men from Galilee to radically change the world. Young men like James and John—two brothers with a reputation for retribution. They were sectarian, zealous, and ambitious, known informally as the “Sons of Thunder,”… yet they were changed eternally by the love of Jesus.

Over 10 days in March of 2025, a small group of faithful servants traveled over 650 miles to 7 cities in 3 different countries to bring the hope of the Gospel to multitudes of refugees from Ukraine who have been displaced from the war. They had countless conversations, gave lots of hugs, shed many tears, and laughed many laughs. In the places they visited, they had dozens of opportunities to pray over people, serve others, and share Jesus as the Spirit led, provided for, protected, and spoke through them.

We are confronted daily with headlines about wars, famines, earthquakes, tsunamis, terrorists, disease, and death. If God existed, surely He would not allow these things to exist or to continue…or would He? And if so, why? Couldn’t He prevent some of these things? Couldn’t He have made a better world? 

Guest speaker Charlie Campbell answers these and several other tough theological questions related to evil and suffering. For those who have wrestled with these questions, this message is comforting and instructive; but it also equips Christians to be better prepared to answer atheists who think evil and suffering disprove the existence of a loving God.

This past Sunday, we continued our study of the twelve ordinary men Jesus called to be His apostles and focused our attention on Andrew. Although we read more about his older brother (Simon Peter) God knew that this quiet, bold, faithful, and humble man would be willing to do what God had called him to—the good work of The Good Shepherd. There are three passages in the Gospel of John where Andrew is mentioned individually. In each instance, we see Andrew bringing people to Jesus. Watch our study of Andrew as we meditate on his willingness to come to Jesus and concern that others would come to Christ, too.

Jesus, fully God and fully man, is still only one man. He knows that the opportunities for pastoral ministry are endless, but those willing to partner in the work with Him are few. He instructed His disciples to pray that more workers would be sent into His harvest. When these ordinary people prayed, they probably thought that God would send experts from religious institutions in Jerusalem or super-spiritual people like John the Baptist to do this work. Jesus certainly wouldn’t choose them to be the fulfillment of their prayer…would He? Yes, and first on this list was Simon, who is called Peter.

All of us are called to glorify God in all that we do—no matter the specific call God has for our life. Whether you’re an artist, teacher, banker, plumber, or pastor, God’s call on your life is no less holy and no more sacred than anybody else’s call. The key to bringing God glory is seeing our calling as from Him and for Him. It’s for Him that we work and labor. No matter where or to what He has called you, the opportunity for pastoral ministry is plentiful. But those willing to actually do the work and labor are few. We know this because Jesus said it was so. And after He encouraged His disciples to pray for more workers, He sent them to do this work. Those that He sent weren’t the religious elites. They were ordinary people who had been with Him—the unlikely ones.

At the sight of the multitude, Jesus was moved with compassion because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd (Matthew 9:36). This was specific language God used in the Old Testament to describe His people. Jesus is the Good Shepherd that God promised to do the good word of feeding, tending, and seeking and saving the lost.

Have you ever had a situation where you’ve tried every option and exhausted every resource? And yet, there seems to be a two-year-old in all of us that still says, “I can do it myself!” Eventually, our self-sufficiency and pride disappear when circumstances deplete our strength and resources so that nothing is left but to cry out to Jesus. Though He would rather be our first choice, Jesus is willing to be our last resort. When our desperation overrules our hesitation, we finally come face to face with Jesus and might expect anger and frustration, but instead, Jesus shows us compassion, mercy, and grace.