WestGate Church Teaching

It’s Advent! But what does that word mean? We don’t use that word much. Does it have something to do with Advil? Advert(isements)? Jay Kim stops by to chat about the purpose of Advent and its meaning. We also discuss the first of four terms used by the prophet Isaiah to describe the Messiah - Mighty God. We talk about why it’s so tough for most of us to *actually* believe that God could do something miraculous and break into our world - but that truth is actually the key to hope.

Seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus, the prophet Isaiah wrote stirring and familiar words that someday, a Messiah would come, and that people would call Him “Wonderful Counselor” and “Prince of Peace” and “Mighty God.” All very nice, but it’s that last one - Mighty God - that trips a lot of people up. We live in a culture where the idea of God breaking into human history to do something big and powerful seems…well, that seems like something God used to do, or did for a group of people a long time ago. But not us. Not here. Not now. The Christmas story is a reminder that God is mighty, and still working, although - as we learn from the story of Jesus’ birth - it’s often in ways we wouldn’t expect. But if God can come as a baby in the corner of a dusty manger, then is there any place the power of God can’t break through into?

The ending of the Sermon on the Mount is wild. Jesus’ most famous set of teachings is not a religious to-do list, but it does have strong implications about how we live. Jesus outlines things that His followers must actually DO, with God’s help, to follow Him. Things like fighting anger and lust, keeping your promises, loving your enemies, quietly giving to those in need, and not judging. And then Jesus ends the whole thing by warning about what happens if you don’t “put into practice” the words He’s just said. Steve Clifford and Jay Kim stop by to talk about the “knowing-doing” gap that exists in all of our lives, and how we can move from a group of Christians that talk about Jesus to a group that lives and loves like Him. Also, we talk about the best Thanksgiving foods, and Steve and Jay offer up some controversial takes on pumpkin pie and cranberries.

In our digital age, there’s more information flowing around us than at any point in human history. And yet, hearing or knowing or being informed is not enough. It’s easy to be informed, especially today. Yet, there’s so little actual change in our lives and in our world. We know so much but we do so little. This is catastrophic. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus concludes by making the point that DOING is what matters. And He ends with words of strong warning. “There is a storm coming,” He says, “So build your life upon my teachings.” We build strong and durable foundations for a meaningful life by “going about our assigned tasks,” by learning and living and *doing* the way of Jesus.

Jesus ends the Sermon on the Mount with some stern and sharp warnings. David and Jay talk about the prophetic history Jesus is channeling in these, including the words of John the Baptist that Matthew includes in the beginning of his Gospel. Jesus also strongly warns against false prophets, so we ask the question, “What might be the false-teachings (pseudo-truths, deceptive ideas) that have made their way into life and faith here in the Bay Area, which threaten to divert us off the path that leads to Jesus and life?” Beyond of course, being a Dodgers fan.

Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus presents some beautiful and soaring images of not only God, but what life with God can be. So you might expect, as Jesus’ most famous sermon comes to a close, that Jesus would end with a big rhetorical flourish. A giant inspirational rah-rah go-get-em-Tiger kind of pump-up-the-crowd ending. But He does not. INstead, Jesus ends soberly, with a series of warnings. We examine what Jesus is saying and why He is saying it, seeing how Jesus is keeping in lock-step with many of the prophetic witnesses that came before Him. God is glorious, His plans are good and the road with Him leads to life. And the gift is that any and all who come to God can. But the tragedy is that we can choose to ignore Jesus and choose a different path that leads to…destruction.

Near the end of the sermon on the Mount, Jesus begins to wrap up this lengthy teaching by talking about prayer. And in that teaching, Jesus reinforces what He’s already taught earlier. Using the example of a father, Jesus says that God’s parenting is *at least* as competent and loving as human parents (who are not perfect all the time). Jesus then goes on to say that God’s provision is not merely mechanical, but familial and caring and loving - like a good father. In this teaching, we explore how this framing can change *everything* in the way we view God and interact with Him. Which is exactly what Jesus wants.

Jesus’ teaching on prayer in Matthew 7 can be a minefield of questions. Is Jesus saying that prayer is a blank check and we get whatever we want? That can’t be true. And if God knows what we need, what’s even the point of praying? Also, there’s an experiential problem: we all know people who have faithfully prayed for something very good, and that prayer has gone unanswered. What do we do about that? Steve Clifford stops by to share some thoughts about how our view of God and His goodness affect the way we pray. Also, bonus: Jay and Dave talk about what it means to be “good at prayer” and in a shock - learn how to properly pronounce superstar singer Adele’s name properly.

A while ago, the Barna Group did an extensive research project where they asked non-religious people why they rejected Christianity. What came back were three adjectives. Non-religious people perceived Christians overwhelmingly as 1. judgmental (87 percent of respondents), 2. hypocritical (85 percent) and 3. anti-homosexual (91 percent). Eeesh. Jay Kim stops by to talk about the fairly well-known command of Jesus “do not judge” in Matthew 7. We talk about this text, the (hilarious?) image Jesus uses to illustrate His point, and what Jesus means (and doesn’t mean). And we talk about why it’s critical that Christians arrest the all-too-human tendency to treat people with contempt and condemnation, because this does real damage, not just to them, but also to us - because it puts us in the place of God and distorts the message of Jesus - that the God who *could* condemn has chosen to forgive us and gave Himself up as a sin offering.

Even people who are not religious at all know at least one teaching of Jesus, taken from Matthew 7 - the one where Jesus tells His followers to “do not judge.” Sometimes, this is used as a convenient shield to protect people against criticism or accountability, but it’s also true that being judged feels…awful. It’s like being rejected. Only worse. We’ll examine what Jesus means, and what He doesn’t mean by this saying. And we’ll examine Jesus’ dramatic and arresting metaphor about a person having a giant beam of wood in their eye and pointing out a speck of sawdust in someone else’s. Jesus is saying that heaping contempt and condemnation on people actually is spiritually dangerous because it makes us blind: both to our own evil and to the actual heart of God Himself, which is to offer grace to people - as grace which other people are just as entitled to as we are.