Word of Life Church Podcast

The world did indeed change after that first Easter Sunday when Jesus rose from the dead. In his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul identifies baptism as the doorway into this new world, a world without condemnation, a world of peace, adoption, beauty, and love. In this new world we find our old selves being replaced by our new selves, new identities formed in the image of Christ. Baptism does not wash away our sins as much as it breaks the power of sin from us, enabling us to walk in newness of life free from the old world dominated by sin and death.

We are called to fight the good fight of faith and the enemies of our faith include secularism, individualism, and nationalism. In this message, Pastor Derek Vreeland spends time defining and illustrating what these enemies are like. Secularism is any attempt to do life without God. Individualism is the preoccupation with putting ourselves first. Nationalism is the love, devotion, and allegiance to your nation above you love, devotion, and allegiance to God. Being able to recognize these enemies is the first step in the fight against them.

Jesus told a Samaritan woman, "Salvation is from the Jews, but it is for the whole world." Although the Gospel began in Jerusalem, it must journey to Rome because in the world after Easter the nations are now called to surrender their sovereignty and confess their allegiance to Jesus Christ. Rome was the Capital of the Empire, and the Roman Empire stretched across the whole world. When the Gospel was delivered in Rome, it was a revolution! It changed the whole world! Taking the Gospel to Rome was not a private announcement to private individuals about how to go to heaven when you die. The Gospel was and is a public announcement to the whole world proclaiming that the kingdom of heaven has come and that God is now reigning over the nations through his Son Jesus Christ!

If you want to read the Bible right, you read from the perspective of the cross. If you want to get God right, you understand him as revealed in Christ. On Good Friday, where do we found Christ? He is stretched out upon a cross, dying, imploring his Father to forgive. God is not the one who demanded crucifixion. nor is he the one doing the crucifying. God is the one who was crucified! All of humanity, bound by sin and satan, killed Jesus. The crucifixion is not what God did, it is what God endured. He is The Crucified God.

Pastor Brian Zahnd has been teaching from the Gospel of Luke for nearly four months, as we examine the stories of Jesus. We have arrived at Palm Sunday, celebrating Jesus' triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem. Palm Sunday is confusing. It is a combination of both joy and sorrow, of celebration and of suffering. It contains Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, but shadows the impending doom of Calvary. Should we celebrate on Palm Sunday or do we lament on Palm Sunday? The crowd cheering and praising Jesus as he entered into Jerusalem was right to celebrate, but they did it with a wrong understanding. This is a warning for every Jesus follower about: Getting Jesus Right... Getting Jesus Wrong.

Throughout the Gospel of Luke, we see Jesus moves from table to table, meal to meal, announcing and enacting the Kingdom of God as radical hospitality. In the 19th chapter of Luke, Jesus is on his journey from Galilee to Jerusalem. Jesus and his disciples have arrived in Jericho, just a day before they will arrive in Jerusalem and ride through the gates in what will become known as the Triumphal Entry. As Jesus made his way through the city of Jericho, the chief tax collector Zacchaeus made his way to see Jesus. Zacchaeus was rich and corrupt, as consummate moral outcast, who had been excluded from worship at the temple. He would be the last person you'd expect to find the Messiah with. But we must not be so quick to dismiss those who appear to be far from the Kingdom of God just because they don't presently participate in the accepted forms of religious life. What Zacchaeus has going for him is that he is intensely interested in finding out who Jesus really is. Discover the radical hospitality of Jesus towards Zacchaeus in this message.

In our modern age, "Hell" has become a catch-all word. It includes everything from the grave to an afterlife-destination to Dante's Inferno to a minor swear word, and much inbetween. Many modern English translations of the Bible don't even use the word "hell." It is important to actually listen and hear what Jesus says about hell, rather than try to force him to fit your particular theological system. In the parable of "The Rich Man and Lazarus", Jesus reveals a little about Hell... and how to get there.

The greatest and most famous Jesus' parables is the Parable of the Prodigal Son. It is the gospel found inside the gospel. The parable of the Prodigal Son is a story of the Kingdom of God being announced and enacted. Jesus gave it to those who were angry about how he was ushering in the Kingdom of God. The actions of the father in the parable are the actions of Jesus in his ministry. In his table practice and in his parables Jesus is showing us what God is like. Jesus came to change the mind of humanity about God, not to change the mind of God about humanity. Jesus does not save us from the God; Jesus reveals to us what God is like. Jesus and God always act in unity. Jesus unconditionally receives the sinner who comes to him, because this is what God is like!

We have all heard the famous parable of "The Good Samaritan". It has become so famous in our culture that it has unfortunately lost its meaning. Despite popular belief, the point of the parable of the Good Samaritan is not to be "a good Samaritan." Jesus crafted this parable to answer a question about eternal life and love of neighbor. Jesus was speaking to Jews, and Jews and Samaritans hated one another like poison! In his parable, Jesus reveals that it is not one of 'us' (the Jews) loving 'them', but rather, 'them' loving one of 'us'. He has turned the tables and asked a very subversive question: What do you do when your enemy acts in love and treats you like a neighbor? Who proved to be a neighbor to the Jewish victim? It was the enemy, the Samaritan, who showed the Jewish victim mercy. And Jesus us commands us to do the same, for to show mercy is to enact eternal life.

The Samaritans were a separate ethnic group from the Jews, with different theological views. These differences often translated into violence between the two groups. Most Jews would thus travel around Samaria instead of traveling through it. But on his journey to Jerusalem, Jesus journeyed right through the middle of it. During their travel, a Samaritan town refused him and his disciples hospitality because they were Jews. In response to this insult, the disciples James and John wanted to burn them up with the fire of God, and found scriptural evidence to support their argument. In their desire to burn the Samaritan 'them' with the fire of God, James and John cite the Bible to support their desire. This is exactly what Elijah did when the Samaritans opposed him. James and John (and the rest of the disciples) obviously think violence is an option, and they believe Jesus will ultimately turn to violence in order to usher in the Kingdom of God. But they are wrong! Jesus is not Elijah! Jesus' way of changing the world is not on a battlefield but at a shared table. He blesses his enemies, and instead of resorting to violence, will allow his body to be broken and his own blood to be shed.