Easter Sermon: In a culture of an increasing hopelessness, the Christian hope, grounded in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ offers a real hope–Jesus did rise bodily from the dead; and a living hope with ongoing implications for lives. The Christian living hope is upside-down, forward-back, and inside-out.

During our Palm Sunday service, Dean walks us through the story of the last supper and the following events, talks about the significance of bearing our burdens, and reminds us of who we would have been in the Passion narrative.

In Luke 20: 19-26, we hear Jesus say “Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” Johnny explains the history behind those testing Jesus, the meaning of Jesus’ statement, and what this means about how we live our lives.

This week, Johnny takes us through two stories, one as Jesus enters Jericho, and the other as Jesus leaves. Johnny discusses the faith of the blind beggar, the only one who sees Jesus as the Messiah, and Zacchaeus the chief tax collector who, like everyone there, has a deep need for salvation in Jesus.

In this famous parable, Jesus tells a story of a son who is lost from his father, a father who longs for his son, and a brother who doesn’t understand either of them. Dean shows us how each brother is lost in his own way, how we can all be both brothers at times, and how God is willing to throw each and every one of us a party for returning to him.

In Luke 12, Jesus addresses our fears, calling us to not fear man, but instead to fear God, and not to worry, because God will provide for us. Johnny addresses our modern fears and anxieties, and shows what it means to fear God.

In Luke 10, we read a story of Mary and Martha, who are friends of Jesus. We see how Mary decides to sit at Jesus’ feet and learn from him, how Jesus commends her for this decision, and learn from Johnny how to apply this to our decisions today.

In the climactic mid-point of the Gospel of Luke, Jesus goes to a mountaintop with three of his disciples. While he is praying, he is transfigured, appearing bright and white, and with him Moses and Elijah. What do we make of this strange story? It is a mystery? And yet in the Bible, mysteries beckon us to see the transcendence of God and come closer to experience him. And in the Transfiguration, Jesus is revealed as the fulfillment not only of the promises of the Law and Prophets in the Old Testament, but of the hoped re-Templing of creation–when heaven and earth meet, and God’s presence with his people is restored.

In this passage, we hear about two healings Jesus performed, with the bleeding woman and the death of Jairus’s daughter. Dean takes us step-by-step through the passage and highlights five important things we learn about our relationship with Jesus from this story.

Simon, the Pharisee, invites Jesus to a dinner party. He fails to offer Jesus the customary greetings and honors. But a woman of the city, a known “sinner,” who joins the poor in the room has come to honor Jesus–she begins weeping, then wiping his feet with her hair, kissing them and anointing them with expensive oils. Everyone is scandalized. Except Jesus, who accepts her acts of worship, honors her publicly, and affirms that forgiveness and salvation are hers.

(Unfortunately the normal audio recording process was not available this week)

This week, we read about two of Jesus’s healings, one the servant of a centurion and the other a widow’s son. In covering these two stories, Johnny shows us how the stories are not so much about the healings as they are about the people Jesus does them for.

This week, we read Luke’s representation of the Sermon on the Mount, and hear about Luke’s four Beatitudes and four Woes. Dean takes us through the passage and describes what it means to be on Jesus team, explains what it means to be in the Upside-down Kingdom, and teaches us a new word: Parenetic.

This week, we read in Luke 6 about Jesus’ confrontations with the Pharisees on the Sabbath. Johnny talks about the significance of the Sabbath in First Century Judaism, what it meant for Jesus to claim Lordship over the Sabbath, and what the Sabbath means for our own rest today.

This week, we hear the story of Jesus revealing himself to Peter through the miraculous nets overflowing with fish. Johnny talks about what it meant for Peter and the other disciples to abandon that catch, as well as their whole lives as fishermen, to follow Jesus and become fishers of men.

As Jesus begins his ministry here in Luke 4, He reads a brief passage from Isaiah 61 about the coming Messiah, before telling the crowd that “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21). Matt discusses the importance of Isaiah 61 as a whole chapter, and the messages of salvation, forgiveness, and redemption that are contained in the chapter.