WestGate Church Teaching

An Advent devotional on Isaiah 11

An introduction to Advent

The prophet Isaiah, writing 600 years before Jesus was born, penned poetically that someday, God would send a great Light to the people who walked in Darkness. This is an uncomfortable reminder of two truths 1. that we are people who live in darkness, and 2. we need the Light. Jesus is the light of the world - but if we miss the reality that He’s come to drive away darkness, both out in the world and inside us - then we can miss Jesus. And part of really worshipping Jesus this Christmas is letting the Light do what the Light does best: make darkness flee.

We just kicked off our brand new sermon series ADVENT CONSPIRACY and worship pastor Mark Averill launched us into it with a message titled WORSHIP FULLY. In this episode, we’ll talk about what it means to “worship fully,” why every sermon could be titled that, and his thoughts on why taking Advent seriously is tangibly helpful in light of the rough year that 2020 has been for so many. We also spend probably too much time talking about Clark Griswold’s tangled mess of Christmas lights.

This past weekend during our messages, we took time to celebrate Beautiful Day 2020, showing highlight videos and talking about the city-wide impact. But there were a LOT of cool stories that we wanted to tell but didn’t have time for. Local Compassion Pastor and director of Beautiful Day Finny Abraham stops by to share some of the more inspiring things he heard and saw - and explains why there’s MORE work for the Church to do during the COVID-19 pandemic, not less.

Every year, for a whole weekend, WestGate Church takes church out into the local community and spends a weekend serving in service projects across the city. We call it Beautiful Day. This week, Local compassion pastor Finny Abraham stops by to share stories from that day, and talk about the long-lasting impact of what happens when people decide to serve.

In the final week of The Questions of Jesus, Jay Kim stops by to talk about John 21, and the poignant moment where Jesus asks Peter the question, “Do you love me?” We talk about modern conceptions of love (and how shallow they are), why both the English language and the 90s sitcom Saved By The Bell are to blame, and what Jesus means when He uses the word “love.” We also chat about John’s staggering literary genius, and how deeply emotional and personal the end of his Gospel is - and how it calls forth real dynamic, life-changing hope for anyone who reads it.

A lot of people are familiar with Peter’s famous failure on the night before Jesus’ crucifixion where he denied even knowing Jesus three times before morning, but in an astonishing moment, Jesus comes to Peter post-resurrection. But he doesn’t come to punish Peter, or chastise him, but to restore him. And in doing so, Jesus destroys not only Peter’s shame, but gives him a serious and important job to do. And of course, we find that the same invitation is offered to us.

It’s Election Week (gulp!) and in a nation as divided as we are, not only in votes, but in tone and trust, Steve talks about how the story of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan Woman at the well in John 4 actually provides deep insight and instruction for Christians today.

In one of the more incredible encounters in the Gospels, Jesus asks a woman for a drink at a well while traveling through Samaria. This is not only a prime example of Jesus crossing racial, ethnic, gender and socio-economic lines, but to the disciples, it’s a shocking reframing how and where the Kingdom of God can come. And a reminder that the Spirit of God is moving in unexpected places and in unexpected ways.