In this week’s message, guest speaker Mike Cohen of Chosen People Ministries explores the biblical feasts of Israel and how they tell a story of God’s redemption—from Passover and Pentecost to the fall feasts of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles. As we look at their biblical and prophetic significance, we’re reminded of what God has already accomplished through Jesus, the hope of His promised return, and our calling to keep sharing the Gospel as we await the fullness of His kingdom.  

Bible Verses Referenced

The principal passage is Leviticus 23, which establishes Israel’s calendar of appointed feasts. The sermon then connects those feasts with several other passages:

• Leviticus 23:1–2 — God instructs Moses concerning the moedim, the Lord’s appointed feasts and sacred assemblies. 
• Genesis 2 — Referenced as the origin of the Sabbath, later incorporated into the calendar described in Leviticus 23. 
• Leviticus 23:23–25 — Feast of Trumpets/Yom Teruah, now associated with Rosh Hashanah. Israel is commanded to observe a day of rest and sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts. 
• 1 Thessalonians 4:16 — Paul describes the Lord’s return with the voice of the archangel and the blast of the trumpet, which Mike connects with the imagery of Yom Teruah. 
• Leviticus 23:26–32 — Yom Kippur/Day of Atonement, the annual sacred observance of atonement for Israel. 
• Leviticus 16 — Although not identified by chapter number in the sermon, its Day of Atonement ritual is described in detail: the high priest entering the Holy of Holies, the blood of the sacrifice, the two goats, and the scapegoat carrying Israel’s sins into the wilderness. 
• Romans 11:25–27 — Paul’s teaching concerning the “fullness of the nations/Gentiles” and the promise that “all Israel will be saved.” This is used to connect the Day of Atonement with the speaker’s understanding of Israel’s future turning to the Messiah. 
• Acts 2:38 — Peter’s call to “Repent and be baptized” is discussed in connection with Jewish mikvah purification practices. 
• Exodus 19 — Israel is described as God’s treasured nation (am segulah), connected with the giving of the Torah and Israel’s covenant relationship with God. 
• Leviticus 23:33–36 — Sukkot/Feast of Tabernacles, the final feast, commemorating Israel dwelling with God in the wilderness and presented in the sermon as pointing toward the future restoration of creation and dwelling with God. 
• 1 Corinthians 13:12 — Alluded to with the phrase “through the glass darkly” while contrasting Israel’s wilderness experience with the future hope of being with Jesus “face to face.” 
• Matthew 28:19–20 — Alluded to in the closing encouragement to “go into all the world and make disciples.” 
• Romans 9 — Mentioned as giving reasons for Israel’s importance and role in God’s redemptive plan. 

The sermon also broadly connects Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, and Pentecost/Shavuot with Jesus’ death, burial, resurrection, and the coming of the Holy Spirit. 

Chosen People Ministries — Guest speaker Mike Cohen identifies himself as its West Regional Director and discusses its work of praying for, evangelizing, discipling, and serving Jewish communities.

https://chosenpeople.com/

In this week’s message, we explore why Jesus so often taught through parables—earthly stories with heavenly meaning that invite us not simply to hear, but to wrestle with God’s truth. Through the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son, we discover that these stories challenge our assumptions, reveal the surprising reach of God’s grace, and transform us as we struggle together to see, hear, and understand what Jesus is teaching. 

Bible Verses Referenced

The sermon centers primarily on Matthew 13 and Luke 15, with several other passages referenced:

• Matthew 13:10–17 — The disciples ask Jesus, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” Jesus explains that the secrets of the Kingdom have been given to them, while others are “ever hearing, but never understanding” and “ever seeing, but never perceiving.” This passage provides the theological foundation for the sermon. 
• Isaiah 6:9–10 — Quoted by Jesus within Matthew 13: the prophecy about people who hear without understanding and see without perceiving because their hearts have become calloused. 
• Luke 15:1–7 — The Parable of the Lost Sheep. Jesus describes the shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine to pursue the one lost sheep. Pastor Scott emphasizes how deliberately surprising this behavior would have seemed to Jesus’ original audience. 
• Luke 15:8–10 — The Parable of the Lost Coin. A woman searches her house for one lost coin, another picture of God’s determination to seek what has been lost. 
• Luke 15:11–32 — The Parable of the Lost/Prodigal Son. Pastor Scott spends significant time on both sons. The father runs to welcome the younger son home, but he also goes outside to plead with the older son, who refuses to join the celebration. The unresolved ending challenges the Pharisees—and us—to decide whether we will enter the celebration of God’s grace. 
• Luke 16:1–13 — The Parable of the Shrewd Manager. Mentioned as an example of a difficult parable that requires repeated study and wrestling to understand. 
• Matthew 13:1–23 / Mark 4:1–20 / Luke 8:4–15 — The Parable of the Sower. Pastor Scott uses the seemingly careless scattering of seed to illustrate how Christians are called to spread the Gospel even when we cannot know what kind of “soil” will receive it. 
• Genesis 32:22–32 — Jacob wrestles with God before meeting Esau and is renamed Israel. This becomes an important image for the sermon: transformation comes through wrestling with God rather than merely accumulating facts. 
• Matthew 5–7 — The Sermon on the Mount is referenced as an example of Jesus teaching more directly about the coming Kingdom of God. 

The sermon also broadly references Jesus’ conflicts with the Pharisees and Sadducees, His identification as the Messiah, His rejection by those who heard Him, and ultimately His crucifixion during Passover. 

Plain English with Derek Thompson — Pastor Scott says it is one of his favorite podcasts. He describes listening to an episode featuring David Deming, identified in the sermon as Harvard’s Dean of Students, discussing AI and education. A statement from that conversation becomes an important part of the sermon: “Learning is communal, in part because there is a little bit of suffering required in order for learning to be successful.” Pastor Scott connects this idea of struggling to learn with the way Jesus’ parables require listeners to wrestle with their meaning.

In this week’s message, we explore why the story of Jesus comes to us through four distinct Gospels and what it means for each of us to become an evangelist—a bearer of good news. Through Jesus sending out His followers in Luke 9 and 10, we’re reminded that we are called to carry the message of His forgiveness, love, and victory wherever we go, faithfully pointing others toward Christ and trusting the Holy Spirit with what happens next. 

Bible Verses Referenced

The sermon focuses primarily on the four Gospels and especially Luke 9–10.

• Luke 9:1–6 — Jesus calls the Twelve together, gives them power and authority over demons and diseases, and sends them out to proclaim the Kingdom of God and heal. Pastor Scott contrasts this mission with the sending of the seventy in the following chapter. 
• Luke 10:1–12 — The sermon’s principal passage. Jesus appoints seventy others and sends them ahead of Him two by two into the towns He intends to visit. Pastor Scott uses this as a model for Christians carrying the Gospel into the world together. 
• Luke 10:2 — “Ask the Lord of the harvest…to send out laborers into his harvest.” Pastor Scott emphasizes that the work of evangelism begins with prayer. 
• Luke 1:1–4 — Alluded to when discussing Luke’s purpose in writing an “orderly account” for Theophilus. 
• Mark 14:51–52 — The mysterious young man who flees naked after Jesus’ arrest. Pastor Scott mentions the tradition that this may have been Mark inserting himself into his Gospel narrative. 
• John 13:1–17 — Jesus washing the disciples’ feet. Pastor Scott discusses how John does not narrate the institution of the Lord’s Supper in the same way as the Synoptic Gospels, instead prominently presenting Jesus washing His disciples’ feet during the meal. 

In this week’s message, we explore why Jesus cannot simply be placed alongside history’s other great moral teachers. His teachings are simple yet radically challenging—calling us to love, forgive, serve, and see every person through the eyes of grace—and His resurrection confirms the authority behind those words, inviting us not merely to admire Jesus but to become His disciples and point others toward Him.  

Bible Verses Referenced

• Matthew 7:28–29 — Alluded to when Pastor Scott says that people were amazed at Jesus’ teaching because He taught “as one who had authority.” 
• Mark 6:1–6 — Jesus returns to His hometown of Nazareth and teaches in the synagogue. The people are amazed at His wisdom and miracles but ask, “Isn’t this the carpenter?” and ultimately take offense at Him. 
• Luke 4:16–30 — Closely connected to the preceding discussion: the people of Nazareth become enraged with Jesus, take Him to the brow of a hill intending to throw Him down, but He passes through the crowd and leaves. 
• John 4:1–42 — Jesus and the woman at the well, used as an example of Jesus recognizing the worth of people whom society marginalized. 
• Matthew 11:28 — Alluded to with Jesus’ invitation to those who are weary and burdened to come to Him for rest. 
• Galatians 3:28 — “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female,” used to illustrate the radical equality of people in Christ. 
• Matthew 5:44 — Jesus’ command to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. 
• Matthew 6:14–15 / Luke 6:27–37 — Jesus’ teaching about forgiving others and our enemies, a major example of how difficult His teachings can be to put into practice. 
• John 1:29 — Alluded to through the image of John the Baptist pointing toward Jesus, which becomes Pastor Scott’s model for Christian discipleship: our job is not to save the world but to point people toward the One who has. 
• The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus are repeatedly referenced. The resurrection is especially important to the sermon because Pastor Scott argues that Christ’s victory over death confirms the truth and authority of His radical teachings.

There are two significant books/authors referenced:

• C. S. Lewis — Mere Christianity — Pastor Scott quotes Lewis’s famous argument that Jesus cannot logically be accepted merely as a “great moral teacher.” Lewis argues that given Jesus’ claims about Himself, we must ultimately decide who He really is. This quotation provides an important framework for the entire sermon. 
• Tom Holland — Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World — Pastor Scott quotes from the book’s preface to illustrate Holland’s argument that Christianity so thoroughly transformed Western culture that even many people who reject Christian religious claims continue to think in categories profoundly shaped by Christianity

In this week’s message, we explore why Jesus entered the world at precisely the right moment—the “fullness of time”—and how His coming transformed our relationship with God. Through Paul’s words in Galatians and Jesus’ call to repentance, we discover that we are no longer held under the law as a guardian, but have been welcomed as sons and daughters of God, filled with the Holy Spirit and invited to see and live in the world differently because the kingdom of heaven has come near. 

Bible Verses Referenced

The sermon focuses primarily on two passages:

• Galatians 3: 19–4: 7 — This is the major Scripture passage of the sermon. Paul explains that the Law served as a guardian until Christ came. Through faith and baptism, believers are now children of God, “clothed” with Christ, and distinctions such as Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female no longer determine our standing before God. Paul then describes the “fullness of time,” when God sent His Son so that we might receive adoption as His children and the Spirit who cries, “Abba, Father.”  
• Matthew 4: 17 — Jesus begins His public ministry proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Pastor Scott emphasizes that repentance means more than feeling sorry for sin; it involves changing direction and learning to see the world differently because God’s kingdom has arrived. 

There is one outside teaching source mentioned: Stephen Mackey, whose parenting framework Pastor Scott encountered at a parenting class in Birmingham. Mackey describes the changing role of a parent as caregiver → cop → coach → consultant. Pastor Scott adapts this framework to help explain Paul’s description of the Law as Israel’s temporary guardian until Christ came.

In this week’s message, we explore the difference between ordinary chronos time and the extraordinary kairos moments that change everything. As we prepare to enter the New Testament, we’re reminded that Jesus is the great kairos moment of creation—the fulfillment of the Old Testament story whose birth, cross, empty tomb, and gift of the Holy Spirit forever changed our relationship with God and filled our lives with forgiveness, hope, and new life.

Bible Verses Referenced

• John 8:12 — Jesus’ declaration, “I am the light of the world.” 
• John 1:1–14, especially John 1:5 — Jesus as the Word and light entering the darkness, which the darkness cannot overcome. 
• Exodus 12 — The Passover lamb, presented as an Old Testament image that points forward to Christ. 
• Exodus 20 — The Ten Commandments, pictured as part of the Old Testament “root system” leading toward Christ. 
• Acts 2:1–21 — Pentecost and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, described as the point when access to the Spirit was opened to all God’s people. 
• The crucifixion and resurrection accounts in the Gospels — The cross and empty tomb are central to the sermon’s argument that Jesus fundamentally changed humanity’s relationship with God.

In this week’s message, we take a whirlwind journey through the Old Testament—from creation and the patriarchs to the Exodus, kings, prophets, and exile—to see one remarkable truth: God never gives up on His people. As we prepare to enter the New Testament, we discover how this entire story of promise, failure, faithfulness, and redemption ultimately leads us to Jesus Christ. 

This sermon was essentially a rapid overview of the Old Testament, so Pastor Scott referenced many biblical stories rather than focusing on one primary passage. 

In this week’s message, we explore the Psalms and discover how God welcomes both our praise and our lament, inviting us to bring every joy and every sorrow before Him. Through the beautiful Passover refrain Dayenu—“It would have been enough”—we’re reminded to rest in God’s faithfulness, trusting that while His grace is already more than enough, His redeeming work in our lives is not yet finished. 

Primary Texts

• Psalms — The sermon centers on the Book of Psalms as Israel's book of prayer and worship, emphasizing the two major categories of psalms of praise and psalms of lament. 

Specific Scripture Passages

• Psalms 119 — Highlighted as the longest chapter in the Bible and an acrostic poem built around the Hebrew alphabet. Pastor Scott used it to illustrate the beauty of worship and God's delight in hearing His people's voices. 
• Psalms 145–150 — Referred to collectively as the closing psalms of praise, with the refrain:
• "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord."
• These passages illustrate the Psalter's emphasis on worship and adoration. 
• Psalms 13: 1 
• "How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?"
• Used as the primary example of a psalm of lament, demonstrating that God welcomes honest cries of pain. 

Systematic Theology — Pastor Scott quoted theologian Robert Jenson's famous definition of God:

He used this to emphasize that God is known by His saving acts throughout Scripture.

Pastor Scott showed a scene from The Chosen Season 5, Episode 4, titled "The Same Coin." It features the women followers of Jesus offering a personalized Dayenu ("It would have been enough") to Him on the eve of His crucifixion, and later the traditional Dayenu is woven into the Last Supper narrative.

https://youtu.be/rZp9k_ZFgwg?si=GYsVh72TE_-9LVT5

In this week’s message, we discover through Nehemiah’s call to confession that the Christian life begins and continues with repentance—not simply admitting individual sins, but surrendering our desire to be in control and acknowledging that God alone is Lord. As we wrestle honestly with the parts of Scripture that challenge us most, we’re reminded that Christ faithfully transforms us by His grace, one step at a time. 

Primary Texts

• Nehemiah — The sermon centers on Nehemiah and the return from exile, emphasizing the people's confession, repentance, and recommitment to God after rebuilding Jerusalem's walls. 
• Ezra — Referenced alongside Nehemiah as the account of Israel's return from Babylon, the rebuilding of the Temple, and the spiritual renewal of God's people. 

Specific Scripture Passages

• The Gospel According to Luke 18:9–14 — The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.
  •  The Pharisee's self-righteous prayer. 
  •  The tax collector's humble confession. 
• Pastor Scott uses this as the model of true repentance: acknowledging that God is God and we are not. 
• Deuteronomy 6:4–9 — The Shema:
• "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength."
• This passage illustrates that confession begins with placing God—not ourselves—at the center of life. 
• The Gospel According to Matthew 4:17 (alluded to) — Jesus' call to "Repent," which Martin Luther cites in the opening of the Ninety-five Theses to argue that the entire Christian life is one of repentance. 
• Genesis 32:22–32 — Jacob wrestling with God.
• Used as an image for how believers wrestle with difficult passages of Scripture and are transformed through that struggle. 

In this week’s message, we explore the books of Ezra and Nehemiah to discover that God’s kingdom is built not through individual heroes, but through generations of faithful people serving together. As Jesus calls us away from the world’s pursuit of power and toward a life of humility, service, and mutual submission, we’re reminded that we each have a unique role in God’s greater story. 

Specific Scripture Passages

• Ezra 3:10–13 — Quoted at length:
  •  The laying of the Temple foundation. 
  •  Priests and Levites praising God. 
  •  Older generations weeping while younger generations rejoice. 
  •  The sound of weeping and celebration mingling together. 
  • This passage serves as the sermon's central illustration of generations serving God together. 
• Numbers 8:23–26 — Levites begin serving at age 25 and retire from regular service at age 50 while continuing to assist younger workers. Used to illustrate passing leadership from one generation to the next. 
• Deuteronomy 4:9–10 — "Teach them to your children and to their children after them." This passage emphasizes passing the faith from generation to generation. 
• The Gospel According to Mark 10:42–45 — Jesus teaches:
  •  "Not so with you." 
  •  Whoever wants to be great must become a servant. 
  •  "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve." 
  • This is the sermon's primary New Testament text, contrasting worldly power with Christlike service. 
• The Letter of Paul to the Philippians 2:5–11 — The Christ hymn:
  •  Christ emptied Himself. 
  •  Took the form of a servant. 
  •  Was obedient unto death. 
  •  Therefore God highly exalted Him. 
  • Used as the supreme example of humble service. 
• The Letter of Paul to the Ephesians 5:21 — "Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ." Pastor Scott argues this verse establishes mutual submission as the Christian posture before discussing marriage. 
• The Letter of Paul to the Ephesians 5:22–25 — Mentioned in discussing husbands and wives, emphasizing that husbands are called to love sacrificially as Christ loved the Church. 
• The Letter of Paul to the Ephesians 6:5–9 — Referenced in discussing slaves and masters, highlighting Paul's call for those in authority to exercise love rather than domination.

This sermon referenced several non-biblical books and literary works, along with one film adaptation:

• The Odyssey — This was the primary non-biblical work discussed. Pastor Scott compared Odysseus' individual "hero's journey" home with the communal, generational return of God's people in Ezra and Nehemiah. He used the contrast to show that Christianity rejects the world's model of the lone hero in favor of a community of humble servants.
• The Odyssey — The newly released film adaptation directed by Christopher Nolan was mentioned as the starting point for the sermon, though the discussion focused primarily on Homer's original story.