One of the most misunderstood and misapplied books in the Bible, Revelation has tended to either scared people off or unhealthily preoccupied them. In this introduction to the series we explore what this curious book actually is, and importantly what it isn’t. Ultimately this is a book a much about our present as it is our future - and it’s one which expands our vision to the extremes of how big and awe-inspiring Jesus is. His first words spoken in the book are ‘do not be afraid’ - he is good, he loves us, and he has been and will continue to be victorious over all evil.
2022 – Leave Behind Your Box - talk + Q&A
We are happy to have had Mark Chase with us (virtually that is, as you’ll notice by the not so great audio quality). We observed how each of us clings to a box, that thing we take comfort in, where we feel safe, where it’s predictable and it’s often what we can put God in. But God isn’t meant to be put in a box, he comes to shatter our boxes and offer us something much more valuable: life with him. When we let him get a hold of us, we can partner with God to create a better world that looks after the marginalized, seeks justice, and is meaningful. God comes to release life and flourishing for all and you can join him. This is what his kingdom is about and he does this by his Spirit. All of this is followed by a Q&A where Ed and Mark chat about what this looks like in our church. Take a listen.
Christmas Service – We’re in Uncertain Times
And as a species we don’t tend to do very well with uncertainty - it makes us anxious. When world-views are shaken and things we thought were solid no longer appear to be, our brains will do everything they can to stop us from experiencing uncertainty. We can be tempted either to double down on certainty (despite all evidence to the contrary) or demolish the whole edifice of our beliefs entirely. Many people feel caught between these two extremes when it comes to their Christian faith. But the story of Christmas invites us on a different path. Jesus did not take flesh in order simply to be believed in - but to be met. He became one of us to be with us. Putting our faith in Jesus (as opposed to a belief system) is a lifelong journey of him forming and challenging all our beliefs and actions. And it means that we neither need to hold onto certainty dogmatically, nor throw everything away as soon as doubt creeps in. Rather we allow God’s spirit to change us from glory to glory. And we can meet an uncertain world in confidence, not our own, but his. Because Christmas means that once and for all: God is with us - so we never need to be afraid again.
Advent – Hope in the Messy
The timing of Jesus' arrival is worth noting, he comes at a height of imperial power, social unrest, and religious clashes all under a false peace. In the messiness of it all, Jesus is born in manger and of him it is declared 'Prince of Peace' and 'King'. This is something the writers of Matthew and Luke want to highlight because it shows that in our own lives, Jesus doesn't mind clashing with the things we've made kings, he isn't intimated by the mess in our personal lives, in our relationships, or in the world around us. He arrives in the midst of it all and we can know him to be the bringer of peace, and the King. This is the hope of Christmas.
End of Year Giving Campaign (2) - Give To Something Of Lasting Value
The currency of the kingdom of God will always be people. Jesus began his ministry by finding 12 disciples in whom he could invest - not projects, or buildings, or courses, or initiatives, but people. Bread church exists to carry on this mission and to invest in people - both those who are near and far off. When we give our financial resources to the church we are investing in this currency. We're looking to see people from all backgrounds, experiences, and understanding of faith grow to become more and more Jesus-like. In so doing we’re acting in faith and helping build God’s kingdom of peace and justice and mercy and freedom here and now.
Where Help Comes From – Peace in the Wait
Waiting doesn't come naturally to humans. It's inconvenient, it's annoying, but most of all it's painful. We're are all familiar with waiting and so was the community behind Psalm 85. Like us, they're waiting to bounce back from a less than ideal situation. In it all, they hear from the One who promises peace or 'shalom'. God is the one who offers shalom. Its completeness and wholeness to our fractured situations, relationships, and souls. And in him is where we find our enoughness. So in the wait, we can know and experience the living God who brings shalom.
Where Help Comes From – Honestly Confronting & Waiting on the Lord
In Psalm 130 we’re shown one way to approach our Righteous God: crying out honestly, demanding God’s attention, but also remembering his compassion and mercy. Even more, as a “Psalm of Ascent,” the poet of Psalm 130 insists that waiting is a legitimate and embodied prayer. Waiting is an under-rated theme in the whole of the scriptures, and the second half of this Psalm gives us some encouragement in how to embrace waiting as a spiritual practice in our own lives. Ultimately, we wait for Jesus’ return to set all things right, and as he is even now “making all things new,” we wait in the now-and-not-yet of his Kingdom, in hope.
Where Help Comes From – Find Your Soul Again
What does it mean to lose our souls? How do we get it back when it’s gone? The soul is the core of a person. It’s the soul which yearns for more of God. When we’ve been disconnected from God it’s our soul that misses him. It can ache if it goes too long without him.
This tends to happen when our desires have been left unchecked. Desires, as opposed to needs - like food, shelter, warmth etc - will always have the potential to consume us because they can never be satisfied. And the more we desire, the more our desires are unmet. The more unmet desires we have the more we grow agitated, competitive and aggressive.
The Psalmist encourages us back from the chaos of unmet desires, to putting our hope in God once more. He is not something to be desired, but he is who we need. He alone satisfies all our longing. This is a call to come back to him once more.
Where Help Comes From – Freedom from Shame
We kicked off this new series by remembering first what the psalms were for. They were the ‘hymnbook’ of the Jewish people, sung and recited at every gathering and worship service, which shows us that to them, worship was more then praise and gratitude, it was the full gamut of all human emotion. Many of them were written by King David, who embodied what Israel knew itself to be: called and broken.
Psalm 32 is the perfect confession prayer for this condition - a condition that we share too: called and broken. And it builds to a declaration of what God called David, because of Jesus, we get to be called too: righteous. But as a starting place, we have to truly believe that being disconnected from self, other, and God himself (or the condition of ’shame’ as it’s more widely known) was never ever ever what God wants for us to feel. This can be the hardest part for many of us (especially if the church has historically been the place where we’ve experienced shame the most) but it’s true: God never ever wants you to feel shame.
People In Search Of A Kingdom – Mercy & Justice
As people of God's Kingdom, how should we interact with the world around us? the Bible says two almost paradoxical things; 1. This world will pass away, 2. This world is being redeemed. Living with this tension allows us to be both hopeful about and engaged in the world (God’s kingdom is here to redeem it), as well as not controlled by or conformed to it (God’s kingdom will eventually supersede this world). The presence of the kingdom now means not only can we experience God's justice and mercy for ourselves, but we can bring them to a world in need. The kingdom is for everyone, but it is always particularly powerfully present for those most in need - where Jesus is king there is justice for the downtrodden, mercy for those who have not experience mercy, healing for the hurting, abundance for those in poverty, deliverance for the oppressed, and loved for the unloved and unloveable. Lastly, hear from Raul (bread’s community engagement pastor) about the ways you can get involved in bringing mercy and justice in the community.
People In Search Of A Kingdom – Everyone Gets To Play
The kingdom Jesus establishes is one of transformative power - power from God that is given to each and everyone of us. Embracing who we are as inhertors of the kingdom means embracing that we have dynamic culture-transforming roles to play. The kingdom is also one of diversity. No two kingdom people are the same - we are individually gifted - and part of maturing as Christians is identifying and expressing our individual gifts for the good of God’s kingdom.
People In Search Of A Kingdom – Lifestyle Of The Future
What does it mean to live the kingdom lifestyle? The Sermon on the mount is the closest thing we have to the manifesto, but if we were to make that the moral standard, no one could ever hope to enter the kingdom of God. The good news is that’s not how it works. Jesus is not describing a new set of rules, he’s describing what happens to us when we pass out of the present age, enter his kingdom, and start to live as people of the age to come. This is what heaven looks like. And heavenly people, sons and daughters of the kingdom, which is already here in part, have undergone a revolution of their whole way of being.
People In Search Of A Kingdom – The Methods Of The Messengers
The good news of the kingdom was always, in every instruction Jesus gave, supposed to be accompanied by the signs of the kingdom. This is the way we were always called to announce it. Which means, for us, exactly the same thing it meant for his disciples and the early church... healing the sick, casting out demons, and showing in all the ways that Jesus did, what it looks like in his kingdom: creation restored, division destroyed, racism refused, broken bodies put back together, and all the powers of death destroyed. There are valid reasons to explain why we may not have seen it, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have every reason to get our beliefs about them in check, and start, together to have faith for more.
People In Search Of A Kingdom – Confronted With Grace
The parables of Jesus are more than just nice stories, they’re announcements of God’s kingdom being inaugurated on earth. If we’re to understand these parables, we’ve gotta ask ‘what is Jesus announcing about the kingdom?’ This is the guiding question in reading the parable of the Lost Sons from Luke 15. What we find in the story is grace confronts the lost sons, it’s how they can enter the father’s house. Like them, we enter the kingdom by grace – it breaks through to people who do not deserve it. In the kingdom, identities are returned, pain is taken away, joy is restored and we have communion with the King. The lost are found and the dead are made alive again – it all results in joy and celebration. The question we’re left is, what will we do with this kind of scandelous grace?
People In Search Of A Kingdom – The End Has Begun
Jesus is the king that we’ve all been waiting for and his kingdom has come. It’s implications can be felt in every nook and cranny of our lives: when he is king he liberates those who have been held back from all religious, societal, political and familial oppression. His inauguration of the kingdom is an end of world event. It causes us to rejoice for the future is definitively settled. This means we don’t need to be anxious. But instead we can be filled with joy.
People In Search Of A Kingdom - Living In The Interim
Jesus began his ministry and immediately demonstrated - with miraculous signs (over nature and sickness and death and evil) and very clear statements - that he was the one they were waiting for. It didn’t happen like anyone was expecting, however. This is one of the most mind-bending aspects of our faith; that we live in the in-between time, where Jesus life, death and resurrection ushered in a new era, before another has fully ended, and it might not seem like the most theologically relevant point you’ve ever heard a talk on, but actually an accurate understanding of the age we live in impacts everything - from what god is like, to what’s the point in prayer, to what he really thinks about purpose.
People In Search Of A Kingdom – Old Testament Picture of the Kingdom
The kingdom of God is at the heart of the biblical story and the Christian life. Without a full immersion in the theology and experience of the kingdom, our Christian lives will always feel deficient. This is a series challenging us to embrace the kingdom, so we might live life to its fullness. As we begin, we consider the picture of kingdom life from Old Testament. Solomon’s early reign saw a golden age of kingdom living: there is peace and prosperity; worship, celebration, art, science and abundance. It provides a taste of the kingdom to come. The challenge for us is to allow Jesus to be the King in all aspects of our lives. When he is, the kingdom necessarily breaks forth.
1 John - This is the Message - Of God's Deep Compassion
As we wrap up 1 John, we take a fresh look at John the Beloved. Why does it matter that he saw himself as “the one Jesus loved”? Perhaps it’s connected with the reality of the depth of God’s womb-like compassion for his children…and that, says 1 John, is what we are! When we reflect on 1 John in light of the gospel account of John, there’s a richness to the character of Jesus that we see more clearly. We are invited to look closer at the power of the Spirit, of testimony, and one final “p.s.” of 1 John 5.
1 John - This is the Message - To Overcome
In a pluralistic society, there are many ideas and narratives competing with the gospel for our trust and devotion. So how are we to respond? Rather than fighting back, withdrawing or giving in to these, we overcome by relying on Jesus and surrendering to his Kingdom. When we seek Jesus and his Kingdom, all the details of our lives are taken care of. We'll find that he is worthy of our trust because he knows us and his Kingdom is one that cannot be shaken. When we seek his Kingdom all the other competing stories and ideas lose power because King Jesus outshines the rest.
1 John - This is the Message - Of Love
We’re given the imperative to love one another but we must first ask ‘what is love?’ Most of human history has shown that we’re often still scrambling in the dark for an answer. While there may be many opinions and definitions of love, Jesus is the source, embodiment, and culmination of love. When we receive his love ongoingly, we can really love as we’re supposed to – not just in talk but in action. This kind of love is risky but in it we become fully alive, fully ourselves, and undeniably connected to the One who loves us.