Some would probably think resurrection is fictional and mere fantasy but what if it’s not? What if the resurrection that Christians have been celebrating for 2000 years is real history- that Jesus did indeed rise from the dead. What would that mean for us?
So, my big question today is: What difference does the resurrection make? We’ll see our answer in today’s Bible passage. Let’s read from Matthew 28:1-10, the story of two women who went to visit Jesus’ grave.
For some, family is a source of great joy, and for others, it’s a source of great grief. Some of us are no longer close to our biological family, but most of us have people close to us who act like family, and we need to make the most out of those relationships.
So, my big question today is: How do we achieve a great family life? Our passage today gives us guidance on how to achieve this.
I think one of the biggest reasons why I was so bad at chemistry was because I didn’t care enough. I didn’t see the point. To this day I don’t know why we had to balance chemical equations and study the periodic table. It had no bearing on my day-to-day life. I think that’s normal for students- maybe we just wanted to pass. We didn’t ask why we must learn so many details.
I mention this because we do this with the Bible too. The Bible is like the “text book” and it’s hard to understand. It has weird stories and weird sayings and some Christians just aren’t convinced enough that it’s worth the work and effort to understand it. Stats are showing an increase in biblical illiteracy in the West. Sure, most Christians believe the Bible is God’s word. But it’s becoming less and less normal to study it and know it in detail. And I think it’s affecting us more than we think.
So, my big question today is: Why must we know our Bible really well? Our passage today shows us it’s worth the effort to understand. I want to show you today that:
We are all different and we all come with our own baggage. But if we can overcome our differences and unite in a deep way, we can do amazing things for God and make great friends along the way.
But there are two kinds of sin that prevent us from experiencing that deep unity and friendship. The first kind of sin is religious sin. The kinds of sins demonstrated by the Pharisees in the Bible. The Pharisees were the religious snobs in the Bible- they were condescending and thought they were better than everyone. They represent the kind of religion that everyone loves to hate.
Then, there is unreligious sin, demonstrated by the pagans of that day. These were people that didn’t follow God and they rejected his ways. Some pagans would do awful things, like abusing other human beings and destroying families.
Most of us can identify at least a bit with both the Pharisees and the pagans. But the good news is that Jesus can transform us into something new and better.
So, my big question today is: How does God transform our relationships. I want to make the case today that:
We have a God that saves people- the Bible tells us that God wants to save everyone, not just from accidents, but he wants to save everyone from sin and death so that we can live with him forever.
And as Christians, we believe we’ve been saved, but some of us may not understand WHY he saved us. And it’s important to understand why, so we can appreciate what he’s done, and so we can work with his good plan for us.
So, my big question today is, why did God save us? Our passage teaches us that God saves us because of his grace. My main points today are:
1. We are saved BY grace.
2. We are saved FOR grace.
By that I mean, we are saved because he is good to us, and he wants us to share his goodness to others.
Sometimes people mess up- they can make mistakes that haunt them for the rest of their lives. Some people feel such shame that it weighs on them every day. And perhaps you can relate on some level because everyone has messed up in some way before- everyone has made some serious mistakes.
But the Bible gives us hope. No matter what we’ve done, we find a God that still loves us and wants to restore us. The Bible also gives the necessary tools that can help us find freedom in times of regret.
So, my big question today is: How can we recover when we have failed morally?
Our Bible passage tells us, we need remorse, and restoration.
Our passage is based on the famous story of David and Bathsheba.
Sooner or later we asked ourselves the questions “what am I doing? Why am I even here?”. It might happen in school, or in a relationship or in a career.
If you don’t find an answer, you’ll be tempted to give up or you may even become bitter at your own life. But our Bible passage today gives us an answer to why we’re here – it gives us a clear idea on why God put us on this earth. And if we can get this, we can have the right perspective on all kinds of things.
Things like why are we in school, or why are we at our job, or why are we in this romantic relationship.
So, my big idea today is that God made us for two things:
1. God made us to glorify him.
2. God made us to enjoy him.
We’ll see these themes in our main Bible passage which is Psalm 148.
If our sole focus is in acquiring luxuries and comfort (the “good life”) then we will find ourselves disappointed.
We will miss out on what’s best and I can say that because our Bible passage today talks about something that’s even better. Today we are starting a new series on the book of Psalms. It’s a book of prayers – model prayers that God’s people have prayed through history.
Our psalm today is prayed by people who were figuring out their priorities in life.
These people had a choice between two lifestyles: a lifestyle based on comfort, or a lifestyle based on faith. Their story reminds us that we all need to choose between comfort and faith.
First impressions are like that sometimes, we can think a certain way about a person only to find out later we were super wrong. And it’s like that with Jesus, people have a certain first impression of Him.
Some people have this impression that he’s just a good teacher or he’s just a nice guy. Some people think he’s more of a legend than historical. Our Bible story today is about a man who at first got the wrong impression of Jesus.
But when he found out the truth about Jesus, it not only changed his life, but it changed the course of history.
In our story Joseph learned two things about Jesus that changed his life for the better, and it should change ours too:
1. Jesus is the sinless God
2. Jesus saves us from our sins
So, I’ll spend my time today unpacking these ideas from our Bible story.
Here in the beginning, Matthew introduces us to the savior of the world. At first glance it just looks like a big list of names. But when you look deeper into the names, we’re going to see that Matthew is pointing us to something important.
He’s telling us that God is good, and that God is powerful. If you’re a new to this Christian stuff this can be intriguing to you. But if you’ve been a Christian for a long time, it can sometimes sound so repetitive and so basic but if we can grow deeper into this truth, it can become even more richer than we think.
So, my plan today is to unpack our passage and it will give us a chance to reflect on who God is and how he still changes our lives.
