Word of Life Church Podcast

John the Baptist called on Israel to repent in preparation for the Messiah. When people began asking what it was they should do, everything John said had to do with money. When you are willing to rethink what you do with your money... you've repented! John doesn't mention any other sins, but he continually stresses economic repentance. Why? Because he is trying to prepare a people who will follow Messiah into a new kingdom. The greatest obstacle to entering the kingdom of God is the tyranny of economic self-interest.

God did not suddenly appear on the earth in human form one day. He came just as every other human did: He was born to a mother as an infant, and grew through childhood and into an adult. But the Bible tells us very little about Jesus' childhood life. The only account of his life between infancy and age thirty is found in the book of Luke, in which a 12-year-old Jesus is "lost" at the Temple in Jerusalem. And when Mary and Joseph finally find Jesus safe in the Temple, it is there that we hear the first recorded words of Jesus, when he says "Why are you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" Although Jesus was speaking to his parents, he could very well be speaking to each one of us, "Why are you looking for me?" We seek after God in church buildings on Sundays, not because Jesus is lost, but because WE are lost. And we believe that Jesus knows the way!

When God became Man and came to the earth, he experienced the fullness of humanity. He didn't merely just appear as a man. He was born as a helpless baby, lived a life as a man in the Roman occupied territory of Israel, and died. Jesus became Immanual, God with us, so that he might give us a new way of being human. He came that he might lead us beyond the ways of death into life and resurrection. As humans, we are indeed a violent species. From Cain killing Abel, to Auschwitz, to Hiroshima, to Sandy Hook Elementary School, we have been born into violence. Born on the first Christmas, the Prince of Peace offers us a better way.

What kind of news would make you literally leap for joy, jump up and down, and throw your hat in the air? The end of a long war? The fall of the Berlin Wall? Winning the lottery jackpot? Being cured of cancer? When war ends and tyranny topples, when prosperity comes and sickness goes, that is good news! And this is the kind of good news that Mary and Elizabeth celebrate together. These two poor and oppressed Jewish women, living in an occupied land, are both pregnant with children that angels have prophesied great things over. They are overflowing with joy because they believe something is about to happen. They believe God is about to act and launch a revolution through their two sons. The coming revolution is the kingdom of God: God's way of running the world.

What a mystery the mother of Jesus is. Mary is the human, the woman, through whom God enters and takes on humanity. Mary is a mystery because she's intimately connected with the greatest mystery of all: The Incarnation. In Christ God became fully human and Jesus is fully human as you! The story of Jesus begins in earnest with the Annunciation, the angelic announcement to a young virgin that she would bare a son named Jesus, called the Son of God. Mary is poor and obscure. She is an utterly insignificant peasant in the nowhere of Nazareth. But now an angel is telling a peasant girl that the true Son of God is going to enter the world in poverty; it's not the economy that matters most, but the reign of God. When the angel Gabriel begins the Annunciation to Mary, he begins with the message "Rejoice!" We might say this is the proper beginning of the New Testament. The long, dark night is at last coming to an end and it's time to Rejoice! God is keeping his promise to bless the world though the seed of Abraham, Rejoice! God is keeping his promise to make the Son of David the ruler of the nations, Rejoice! The child who will bless the world and rule the nations is about to be born, Rejoice!

We shouldn't ever think that Jesus just popped into history 2,000 years ago out of nowhere. Jesus is the continuation of a story that began a very long time ago with Abraham & Israel. With the birth of Jesus God is not starting over. God is keeping his promise to bless the world with the seed of Abraham and to rule the world with the Son of David. And in Luke's Gospel, he is telling the story of how Israel's Messiah became the king of the world. In Jesus Christ we are offered the forgiveness of sins, the promise of everlasting life, and the way of peace. This is the salvation of the Lord.

Pastor Brian Zahnd concludes his two-month series on climbing the Mountains of God with the "Mount Everest of the Gospels", the Mount of Beatitudes. The Beatitudes are not commands, but portals to a new way of thinking. They are not platitudes, but paradoxes. The Beatitudes are the Preamble to the Constitution of the Government of God. The government of God is nothing like the governments of this age. If we can become a people formed by the Beatitudes, what would happen? We will receive comfort and mercy. We will see God and be called the children of God. We will be persecuted. But we will receive the kingdom and we will inherit the earth.

One of the most fascinating stories in the Gospels is the account of Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. Along with his birth and his crucifixion and resurrection, the Transfiguration is one of the most important events in the life of Jesus. It is packed with mystery and meaning. In the Transfiguration, we are able to see Jesus' divinity shining through his humanity. The flesh of Jesus is human flesh, but it is also divine flesh. Jesus is not "absorbing" or reflecting glory, like the story of Moses on Mount Sinai. The glory shining from Jesus comes from within. If you will climb the mountain and gaze at the glory of God in the face of Christ, you will experience your own transfiguration, a spiritual metamorphosis. And this is what this Christian thing is all about! To become like Jesus! The goal of the Christian life is not to go to heaven when you die, but rather to become like Jesus now!

The Bible never hides the humanity of its heroes. Noah, Abraham, David all have incredible failures recorded in the Bible. Even the prophet Elijah, known best for praying fire down from heaven, is shown curled up and a tree praying to die. Elijah believed it was up to him to save all of Israel, and he believed he was on his own. But God showed him he wasn;t the only one left. In fact, there were over 7,000 other faithful worshipers. You can't do walk the Christian journey alone, you can't make it on your own. Sometimes you need to be on the mountain of God deep in prayer, but sometimes you need to get off the mountain and go find a friend. In the long run there's probably nothing more important than friendship. However important you think friendship is, God would probably tell you it's even more important. And whatever it is that you are sacrificing your friendships for in order to achieve, is probably not worth it in the long run. Elijah thought his zealous work for God was the most important thing, but without friendship he ended up emotionally crippled and useless for ministry.

On the 31st anniversary of Word of Life Church, Pastor Brian Zahnd tells the story of back-to-back days standing atop Mount Sinai in Egypt and Mars Hill in Greece. To do so is not easy, and would not have even been possible in the days before jet travel. But it was an experience filled with prophetic symbolism and was an indication what the next five years would hold for Word of Life Church.

Moses also climbed Mount Sinai, and it is the place where he received the 10 Commandments from the Lord. This was the Law, written by the finger of God on two stone tablets. The purpose of the law is to produce justice and a worshiping society; to learn how to worship God in order to treat people right. Jesus tells us on the Mount of Beatitudes that he did not come to abolish the Law, he came, rather, in order to fulfill it. The entire Sermon on the Mount is about the whole Law summed up in two commandments: To love God with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself. This is the Jesus Way. This is what God's design for humanity is.