Do we earn God’s love by obeying his commands? The perfectionist mindset makes it very difficult to understand the concept of unconditional love. In this talk we unpack what Jesus really means when he says “if you obey my commands you will abide in my love”, what his commands are, and how his purposes in everything are to lead us toward joy and life to the fullest.
by Tavia Grubbs
On Jesus’ final night before his arrest and betrayal, his disciples become troubled. Will they be abandoned? Were they right to put their faith in him? Jesus’s response is to reassure them of his identity - He is the fullness of God. But not just this - he is also the way to heaven. Heaven is both a glorious future reality in which all suffering ceases, but also, because of what Jesus achieves on the cross - a present experience. Jesus will never leave us, so we need not be troubled by the thought of being abandoned. And all our troubles recede in the light of heaven - now in part, and in the future forever.
By Ed Flint
We’re taking a break from our current series to focus on a goal of ours here at Bread. We aim to be a church that exists for the good of the city. Jesus loves it and he’s already at work in bringing his goodness and kingdom to it. So we want to partner with him in that. Serve the City Sunday is about making our service initiatives known in accessible ways. In this talk you'll hear various speakers share about what this looks like. We believe that his kingdom is a place where everyone can play. Our hope is that you’d find your place as people who carry out God’s good work in this beloved city of his.
Jesus condemns the religious leaders of his time. They were tasked with looking after God’s people, his sheep - but they’ve failed in their task. Jesus announces himself, in contrast, as the one true and Good Shepherd. And he leads his people into safe and bountiful pasture. It’s important for us to separate Jesus, the Good Shepherd, from those who have caused harm to us his sheep. Jesus is always part of the solution, so it’s important not to see him as part of the problem. His desire is to heal and restore those of us who have been hurt, and to renew our intimacy with him.
Gates are entryways. They are entrances into realms. For the man born blind who was healed by Jesus, this was a transformative reality. He was rejected by the religious leaders so Jesus became the way in for him. The way into a new beginning, a new story, and a God-infused life. This goes for us as well. When life has a way of pushing us to the fringes, Jesus assures us that he is the way into the good life, a life that overflows with beauty and harmony. What does that look like? Jesus uses shepherd imagery to describe it. Take a listen and invite Jesus to meet with you.
I am the bread of life. Jesus was making a very bold statement about a lot more than a specific food source, having just turned 5 loaves and 2 fishes into a meal for thousands, which had HUGE messianic symbolism and implications to that crowd, that we might easily miss. John wrote his gospel carefully and masterfully because he believed that meeting Jesus had the power to change absolutely everything for everyone of us, so give this 'I am’ statement another listen (and as a bonus, find out how we got our name!)
I am the light of the world. Light is wonderful. It brings life, it brings joy, it grows good things. It is also awesome. It has extraordinary power to reveal, to consume and to refine. Jesus says I am not just a light, but the light of the whole universe. Every other light- every person, philosophy or belief is a mere reflection. And he comes so that he can shine his light on us to bring joy, life, refinement, and growth. He has come so that we can meet with him, for the first time, or the hundredth, and be changed forever by his wonderful awesome light.
We’ve reached the end of 2 Samuel and in it’s epilogue we find David’s song. It captures the essence of his life. It is David’s memoir-ic poem and he say’s “God is my deliverer”; David gets into trouble and God delivers him. From lions, Sauls, and personal failures God demonstrates to us through David that he can deliver us. We all face things - spiritual and natural - that work against us and in those moments it can feel like we’re up to our necks in trouble. David models a practice of calling on God when we’re in trouble. But more than that, David and the prophets point us to Jesus, the ultimate deliver. Jesus is the Son of David but he doesn’t rule as David did. Jesus rejected the nationalistic and militaristic ideas placed on the expected son of David – Jesus instead leads a kingdom not by violence, one that isn’t characterized by oppressive rule but one that is self denying, one that is marked by love. As we call on Jesus, he delivers us into his loving presence.
New series alert! We always want to understand Jesus better, so what better way than a series on how he interacted with people in Luke’s gospel? Right from the start, Jesus spoke about how he came to bring a new day for jews and gentiles alike. We might not always relate to how offensive this message was. But we are all wired for groups!
We think this is one of the most important pastoral words we can share in our divided era (but be warned - it’s never been an easy one to hear.)
The week after Easter: Thomas doesn’t meet the risen Jesus until a week after the resurrection. He’s an intriguing character- alone, doubting, troubled- but he goes on to doing extraordinary things. As such he is the perfect example of how Jesus changes people. Following Thomas we’ve got to be honest, we’ve got to believe, but more than that- we’ve also got to acknowledge Jesus as Lord. This is simple, but not easy. But the consequences are huge- this is the way into life in all its fullness.
The most important moment in all of human history is the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. In the resurrection Jesus provides all humankind with answers to our most fundamental questions - is there a God? What happens when we die? Is there more to life than just the material? - as well as our most longed for needs - do we matter? Can we change? will we be ok?
When Jesus rises from the death all pain and sickness, evil and death are defeated - and he welcomes us into a new world order of love and peace and joy with him.
It’s not quite the most attractive of the disciplines but it is just as powerful. Confession is naming where we are and what we’ve done. It is unguarded truth-telling. Its unguarded because we know who we’re confessing to. When we know God to be eager and ready to forgive, we can approach him with anything we may be carrying. In confession, we’re released from the pressure to pose, to hide in shame, and we receive the forgiveness of Jesus. His forgiveness is immediate; he takes our sins, hides it, and forgets about it. The goal of all confession, whether it’s confession to God or to one another, is healing. This kind of healing-nourishment results in what Psalm 32 calls, true happiness. The more regular this practice becomes in our journey, the more confident we are in Jesus’ loving and transformative power.
Considered alongside other disciplines like prayer, worship or confession for example, celebration may seem incongruous. However celebration is integral to the christian life. After all the gospel begins with celebration, ends with celebration and has celebration at its heart: Jesus’ kingdom is one built on the foundations of the Old Testament concept of Jubilee. The gospel literally means good news, and good news must be celebrated. So how do we become more joyful people? Paul gives us three steps on the path to celebration - doing away with anxiety, presenting our requests to god, and fixing our hearts and minds on the beauty of our world. Despite all the trouble we may have in this world, joy is the hallmark of those who have placed their lives in the hands of good God who comes to bring good gifts to his children.
It’s hard to overestimate quite how foundational prayer is to our spiritual health and connection to god, yet in reality many find prayer very difficult. But when we see prayer as Jesus did - a means of partnering with, hearing from and experiencing the intimacy of our Father - prayer is transformed into a life-giving, exciting, joyful, essential pursuit. Prayer’s goal becomes not what Jesus can do for us, but Jesus himself.
Many have grown up with the Christian faith being represented as one long slog of discipline - Do this, Don’t do that, Try harder, Be better. This is not what the Spiritual Disciplines are about at all. Rather they are tools in the spiritual tool kit God gives us. Their job is to place us in a position to receive more of God’s grace directly from him. It is only ever grace that changes us. The two most common method for trying to overcome our old sinful nature are both equally flawed: either we rely solely on their will power, or we remain passive and hope for the best. By contrast the Spiritual Disciplines involve our wills - we have to choose to engage with them, but they rely entirely on God’s grace to change us. They are the keys to how we mature in our faith, becoming better people, and come closer to Jesus.
The final chapters of Revelation depict a glorious vision of heaven. In our final talk on the series we look specifically at what the people of heaven are like. There’s a lot of them; they are you and me and everyone else who responds to Jesus; they are not just future, they are present; and most importantly they take a like God’s emissaries, his vice-regents, his high-priests. This means we, as heavenly people, have purpose and calling - to witness to and extend God’s heaven here on earth. It is what makes sense of life and brings us fulfillment. The vision we have at bread is that all of us play our unique part, with our unique gifts, and so get to enjoy all the glory of heaven, and bring it to a world in need.
What is likely to come to mind when we think of Revelation is the question, “what will the end of the world look like”. It is what most of cultural interest tends to be around the book. But it’s not quite what the book aims to answer. Instead, Revelation is about Jesus and what He is doing. The book unveils Jesus’ restoration of the earth by bringing heaven and thus transforming everything about our world. It also shows how God will be permanently present with his people - no temples, no sacred locations - God face-to-face with us all the time. It isn’t just for the future, it also is for today, in-part that is. So we can experience intimacy with Jesus and glimpses of his kingdom restoring relationships, bodies, and more. Looking ahead at what God is doing means we can have joy today.
Alright so we know it’s not a roadmap of end times by now, but what on earth WAS John of Patmos saying when he wrote this epic and crazy story? We’ve got to the scene with the dragon and beasts now (yep - coming at you with 666 chat this morning) and as a side-note it still blows our MIND how many people were raised with terrifying, entirely wrong teaching on this stuff. This story is about same thing the rest of the bible is about: God is good, evil is real and coming for you, but Jesus is on the throne. The beast was the Roman Empire - no serious scholars disagree on that. Empire, and all it’s lying, deceiving, masquerading about who we should worship and how we should live. Conquer, dominate, and tell ourselves God is on OUR side. Those of us whose politics demand we’re already 100% anti-empire should make no mistake: the imperial cult is still whispering to us all.
Part of what Jesus says to the church throughout the book of Revelation is this: "Evil is real. It is both inside and outside of God’s church. But let us overcome it together.” In fact Jesus has already defeated all the forces of evil once and for all. And he calls his people to join in his victory. This talk is both about us taking seriously the ways in which we collude with evil in our own lives, and how we are able to overcome it - specifically through joining in the worship of heaven and putting out faith in the victory of the lamb.
