WestGate Church Teaching

Speakers: Jay (SA) + Corinna (SH)

Passage: Matthew 15:21-28

Blurb: In one of the strangest and disturbing texts in the Gospels, a Gentile woman asks Jesus to heal her daughter and Jesus responds by essentially calling her a "dog." So, is Jesus a cold-hearted, mean-spirited bigot? Or is there something profoundly and surprisingly beautiful happening here? Could it be that what seems on the surface like an act of bigotry is actually a revolutionary expansion of God's kingdom boundaries? In this teaching, we'll dive into one of the challenging stories of Jesus and encounter a bold new vision for what it means to belong.

"Looks can be deceiving." We know it's true but rarely believe it about ourselves. In Jesus' day, there were many who looked religious, pious, and devoted on the outside but in actuality were far from the people God wanted them to be. "Playing religion" is tempting—to look the part of a good and faithful Christian. But experiencing real change in our lives necessitates getting real, with God and others. In this teaching, we'll be confronted and comforted by Jesus' sobering words about being changed from the inside out and explore practical steps in that all important direction.

Matthew 14 takes a pretty dark turn, as we see the Kingdom of God and the Kingdoms of this World come into violent conflict. The government kills Jesus’ close friend and cousin, John the Baptist in a particularly gruesome way. This sends shockwaves through the disciples, and Jesus. But Jesus’ response - and the ensuing story - teach us so much not only about God’s good rescue mission for this world, but also about Jesus Himself. Also, Matthew 14 is so chock full of content, this weekend we couldn’t even get to the part at the end of the chapter where Jesus (and then Peter) walks on water. Steve and I discuss that, and how Matthew is setting up Jesus as a type of “new Moses.” Also, David discovers a unique Greek word that Matthew deploys strategically when describing Jesus – and he shares it with Steve. It actually turns out it’s pretty important.

Hey kids! It’s Story Time with Jesus! In Matthew 13, Jesus tells a number of parables to illustrate to His followers what God and what the Kingdom of God is really like. But Jesus isn’t just providing insight or lecturing or sharing knowledge: He is telling these stories to provoke a response in people. These are stories told with intention. Steve and David talk about parables as a teaching form and then dive into the parables, including the longest one (the parables of the soils) that we didn’t even have time to get into this weekend. In the end, we see that even in the parables, Jesus is challenging, comforting and calling people to change the way they see things and live in light of that.

Speakers: David Tieche + Steve Clifford

Jesus’ parables are among the best-known and most influential stories in the world. Even if people know nothing of Jesus, they have probably heard terms like “prodigal” or “good Samaritan.” We examine the use of this unique form of teaching, and take some time to dive into some of Jesus’ parables and in the process, we see that Jesus is inviting us to not only see things in a different way, but to LIVE in a different way as well.

SPEAKERS:

Steve Clifford (Saratoga), David Tieche (South Hills)

Bible Passages):

Matthew 13

The conflict continues between the Pharisee leaders and Jesus, culminating here with the leaders asking for a “miraculous sign” to prove to them that Jesus was really from God. Other places in the Bible, people ask for signs to help their tremulous faith, and God (gladly) obliges. Abraham, Gideon, and Joshua come to mind. But Jesus knows this is not a request done in good faith, and He’s not a circus performer doing tricks. He tells them no sign will be given, then backs up and says, “Well, one sign will be given: the sign of Jonah.” Here, Jesus not only foreshadows His own death and resurrection (which would be dramatic signs of His Divine nature) but He also locates Himself among a group of people in the Old Testament called the prophets. These are people who called God’s people back to the love of God, but whose message was either received with gratitude and humility - or provoked murderous hatred.

SPEAKERS:

David Tieche (Saratoga), Finny Abraham (South Hills)

Bible Passages):

Matthew 11:39-50

In a fight with the Pharisees in Matthew 12, Jesus refers to Himself as being like Jonah. He’s clearly talking about Jonah’s miraculous rescue from certain death (which authenticated his message as being from God Himself), and foreshadows His own rescue from certain death as well (authenticating Him as Divine, too). Finny Abraham stops by to talk about the Resurrection and shares a true story from his childhood in India where the “sign” of Jesus’ resurrection deeply affected him. We talk about what it means to be people who are marked by the “sign” of the Resurrection - bearing witness to its truth and power. We also nerd out, and spend some time diving into the whole story of Jonah. This book is four short chapters (it’s only about 1000 words long) and is one of the strangest and most unique books in the Bible, but also one of the most beautiful in showing us the patient, pursuing heart of God to not give up on people, offer forgiveness and transform hearts and lives.

Speakers: David Tieche + Finny Abraham

Description:

Let’s pretend for a second that you’re wrong about something. There’s something you are doing or a way you’re thinking that’s (and again, we’re just pretending!) wrong. And let’s say that God wants to get your attention. Could He? If so, how? Steve Clifford stops by to talk about how we can avoid spiritual “group think” or “echo chambers” that can serve to ratify bad thinking

Speakers: David Tieche + Steve Clifford

Sermon Description:

Jesus continues His head-on confrontation with the religious leaders of Israel. In this episode, the Pharisee leaders, faced with miracle after miracle showing definitive proof of Jesus’ power and authority move to a smear campaign. They claim that Jesus is only able to do these things because He is aligned with the dark, evil spiritual forces of Satan. Jesus not only refutes the logic of this, but then counter-attacks, saying that the religious leaders are completely missing God’s work right in front of their eyes. He calls them a “brood of snakes” - a reference back to the serpent in Genesis 3 who is the enemy of God. To close, Jesus puts forth a simple test to know who is doing God’s work, and who is not, saying “good trees produce good fruit, and evil trees produce evil fruit.” In this, Jesus is inviting us to think long and hard about the kind of people we are becoming (and the kind of people we listen to and follow).

SPEAKERS:

Steve Clifford (Saratoga), David Tieche (South Hills)

Bible Passages):

Matthew 11:22-37

How are you at handling conflict? Do you avoid it? Tiptoe around it? Try to defuse it? Throw some gasoline on it and watch as it all burns? Hopefully not the last one. But more importantly, how does Jesus handle conflict? What can we learn from Him? In Matthew 12, Jesus walks headfirst into some gnarly conflict with the religious leaders, and it gets so intense, that when the episode is over, the Pharisees plot to kill Jesus. Kill Jesus. Steve Clifford and Corinna Girard step in to help process how this dramatic confrontation shows that Jesus has no patience for good people who are not good to people AND that loving people well and having “the fruit of the Spirit” in our interactions is a non-negioable part of following Him. This has dramatic check-yourself-before-you-wreck-yourself implications for all of us, especially in our polarized world of outrage. Also, added bonus, Dave shares a story from college about a conflict he had with an angry, imperialistic vegan he lived with in the dorms in New York City.

Speakers: David Tieche + Steve Clifford + Corinna Girard