Saint John Community Church

Pastor Tom Grieb continues our series "Emerging."

Hope is one of the necessary ingredients of life.  It helps us to reach beyond where we are to see a brighter day.  As we emerge from all we have faced over the past year, it is hope that will move us forward.  In fact, if we are honest with ourselves, hope has been sustaining us all along.  Our hope in Christ has particularly done that.  Christ is our “living hope” who informs our lives whether we find ourselves in good times or bad.  The hope we have in Christ is sealed through his resurrection from dead.  Because Christ emerged victoriously from the grave, you and I have hope for this life and the next.

Pastor Ashlee Adkins begins our new series, "Emerging."

With springtime, comes new blooms and new growth. Not only for nature, but for us. We grow and become who God has called us to be because we have hope in who Jesus Christ is and the great things he has done.

This week, we are kicking off a new series about emerging. We are doing just that, friends. Not only because things are beginning to look a bit more normal, but because each day is a new opportunity to seize challenge and time so we can not only live in the hope of Jesus, but offer that hope with others. Today, and every day.

Pastor Tom Grieb and Pastor Ashlee Adkins conclude our Lenten/Easter series "In His Steps."

All of Christ’s post-resurrection appearances are special, each in their own way.  One that has always heartened me is when Jesus directed a group of his disciples who were fishing to cast their nets on the right side of the boat.  Upon doing that, they took in a tremendous haul.  In reading that account in John 21:1-14,  we become immediately aware that the risen Christ has a way of appearing in the everyday discourse of life and making his way into our lives as he seeks to guide and direct us.

None of us should be surprised at the tremendous haul the disciples took in.  The upshot is that Jesus always tends to our needs.  We see that not only in the number of fish that was caught, but in the invitation he extended to the disciples to come and have breakfast with him.  Jesus received his disciples, just as he does us.

Pastor Tom Grieb continues our Lenten/Easter series "In His Steps."

Easter is fast upon us and with it a day of great rejoicing.  At Easter we find ourselves heartened to no end.  Emerging from the despair of a horrible death, Jesus offers new life now and eternal life later on.  He conquers the grave offering a hope that never ends. 

We will be talking about those five great words shared by Mary Magdalene, “I have seen the Lord.”  Those words ring through the ages and offer the promise that Christ lives to this day.  It comes to us then to look for the resurrected Lord in our own lives.  As we see him with eyes of faith may we find ourselves growing closer to him. 

Pastor Ashlee Adkins continues our Lenten/Easter series "In His Steps" with a message about Judas Iscariot's betrayal of Jesus Christ.

Pastor Tom Grieb continues our Lenten/Easter series "In His Steps."

Every year pilgrims from all around the known world flooded into Jerusalem for the Passover.  It was thought that every righteous Jew needed to celebrate the Passover at least once in the Holy City.  The year of Christ’s Triumphant Entry was no different.  There was always a lot going on in Jerusalem during Passover.  People not only took in the sights and sounds but looked to engage however they could in whatever was going on.

As Christ entered Jerusalem at the beginning of Passover Week people were all astir to catch a glimpse.  Many had heard about him.  Some had even seen him work his great signs and wonders.  Others had heard him teach and their hearts were warmed.  Still others were simply caught up in the crowd.

As Jesus entered the Holy City he rode on the back of a young donkey, fulfilling a prophecy found in Zechariah 9:9.  People waved palm branches as an expression of praise.  Others went so far as to proclaim him “King of Israel.”  Along the periphery were the Pharisees who were witnessing their power base eroding away.  In their minds, something had to be done, which set in motion the events that took place later that week.  Very quickly, things moved from celebration to the cross, which is the very rhythm of the Holy Week.

Pastor Ashlee Adkins continues our Lenten/Easter series "In His Steps."

“To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.” Wise and cautionary words from Martin Luther. Prayer and believing in Jesus Christ cannot be separated. 

When we look to the person of Jesus and his time on earth, we know he prayed. And he did so because he knew that to fulfill his purpose and stay in the will of God, prayer was the key. Prayer that kept him aligned, in relationship, and in tune with the Father.

Pastor Tom Grieb continues our Lenten/Easter series "In His Steps."

Spring is just about upon us for which all of us are excited, particularly given the long winter made even longer because of the rigors of the Covid-19 Pandemic.  In just a few weeks life will be emerging all around us.  We remember in this that life has been there all along.  Presently, we find ourselves emerging as well.  There is hope in the air that we are emerging from the Pandemic, though we realize we have a way to go.  So, as we emerge, you and I would do well to stay connected to God and to one another. 

Jesus teaches about such things when he references the vine and the branches in John 15.  When the branch is well-connected to the vine, fruitfulness abounds.  For us, that has everything to do with our relationship with God and certainly our relationships with other people.  God’s every desire for us is that we stay well-connected to him.  It is the very thing that makes for a fruitful life. 

During the Pandemic we have all had to do things differently.  In a lot of ways, we have had to cut back on what we would have normally done.  There has been a lot of pruning going on and I would assert that God has done a lot of that, all with an interest in helping us emerge stronger, more faithful, and more fruitful than we have ever been. 

Pastor Tom Grieb continues our Lenten/Easter series "In His Steps."

“Let not your hearts be troubled.  Believe in God; believe also in me.”  These words of Jesus from John 14:1 encourage us no end—for this life and for the next.  They are words Jesus offered his disciples as he faced the cross.  Jesus wanted to hearten his disciples just as he does us.  In a world filled with all sorts of trouble (and let’s face it there is enough trouble to go around these days), it is good to hear a heartening word. 

Jesus offers these words not only for the present but the future as well.  Jesus also talks about going and preparing a place for us.  Indeed, our faith is squarely built on the truth that for those who so believe there is a place set aside in eternity.  Through Christ we have hope for today and even brighter hope for tomorrow.  All of this is stamped as true as Jesus leads the way by dying on the cross and rising from the dead. 

Pastor Tom Grieb continues our Lenten/Easter series "In His Steps."

What Jesus did on the cross is the greatest show of love that has ever been.  In the cross, God was glorified and so was his Son.  You are I are the beneficiaries of that love as we share in the salvation Christ makes possible.

In John 13, Jesus spoke a good deal about love as he wrapped up the meal he had with his disciples in the Upper Room.  He offered a “new” commandment for those who would follow him.  He wanted them to “love one another.”   The “new” commandment Jesus offered has its foundation in Leviticus 19:18 where it says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  The “new” twist Jesus put on that commandment had everything to do with the identity of those who would follow him.  Love for one another is the very thing that sets us apart.

“As I have loved, so you must love one another,” says Jesus.  We are to love as Christ loved.  His was a sacrificial love that led him not only to wash his disciple’s feet, but to give his life on the cross so that we might be saved.  The sacrificial love Christ exhibited on the cross is the model for all who would follow him, you and I included.