Word of Life Church Podcast

When we dare to read the book of Revelation we find all manner of strangeness — angels and demons, dragons and beasts, bowls of blood and a bejeweled city, angels with four faces and locusts with human faces, cryptic numbers like 144,000 and 666, a beast with seven heads and ten horns and a lamb with seven eyes and seven horns, a great whore drunk on blood and a pregnant woman clothed with the sun, three frogs that deceive kings and an angel that tells John to eat a scroll, wars in heaven and wars on earth, blood as high as a horses’ bridal and angles falling like stars, lakes of fire and rivers of life, a fallen Babylon and a New Jerusalem!

Explore surprising encounters with the risen Jesus, from Mary Magdalene to Cleopas, and how these moments challenge our rigid beliefs. Discover the importance of keeping faith open and relevant in today's world. Delve into the misconceptions of exclusivity and the dangers of politicizing faith. Finally, rethink political ideologies through the lens of spirituality, encouraging personal transformation and a deeper communion with Jesus. Embrace the unexpected and let faith surprise you!

Thomas, the disciple of Jesus. Thomas the twin. Thomas the one who doubted. But Thomas was no more inclined to doubt than any of the other disciples, it’s just that Thomas had not had their experience; so Thomas had a roadblock to belief. We’re told that Thomas had a twin. Who is the twin of Thomas? We are. In a secular age we’ve all encountered the same roadblock to belief as Thomas. As sons of the Enlightenment and daughters of Modernity we’re all Thomas now.

Throughout Lent we’ve been seeking to encounter the Unvarnished Jesus. In 46 daily meditations and seven sermons we’ve been looking at and listening to Jesus Christ. We’ve seen him announce and enact the kingdom of God by feeding the hungry, healing the sick, casting out demons, and forgiving sinners. We’ve seen Jesus on his long journey toward the royal city of Jerusalem; a journey toward coronation by crucifixion; a journey into danger and death; a journey that ends with Jesus buried in a garden, laid to rest inside a rock-hewn tomb. Now, on Easter Sunday, we see Jesus on the Other Side.

That Jesus was crucified with victims on either side of him presents us with a powerful image: Jesus among the victims in solidarity with them, but simultaneously becoming the dividing point. How we respond to Jesus determines everything. One thief sees in Jesus the possibility of a new kingdom and believes. The other thief, though himself a victim, can’t resist participating in the old way of victimizing others. Only one response leads to the paradise of union with Christ.

Jesus arrived in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday in order to be crowned King and inaugurate the Kingdom of God. During his coronation and passion Jesus stood before all three representatives of the principalities and powers — Joseph Caiaphas the High Priest, Herod the King of Judea, and Pontius Pilate the Roman Governor.

The parable of the prodigal son is one of the most important stories of our faith. As with any truly great story, this parable invites everyone everywhere throughout all time to find themselves somewhere in this tale of a father and two sons. Jesus' brilliance is on full display as he invites us to see the father's love afresh and anew in our own lives. He challenges the notion that we can earn God's love for ourselves or withhold his love from others. Jesus reminds us that the love of the father is readily available in abundance for everyone.

Some Galilean Passover pilgrims had been executed when they rioted against Roman occupation and eighteen people had perished in a Jerusalem building collapse. Jesus commented on these tragedies by saying, unless your rethink everything, you will all perish in the same way. Jesus is not talking about afterlife issues, but warning Jerusalem against embracing the way of war. Jesus is saying to them, if you don’t rethink war and peace according to what I’m teaching, you’re all going to die by Roman swords and collapsing buildings. And this is exactly what happened forty years later when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in AD 70 and according to Josephus 600,000 people perished. War is hell. And there is no way to peace — peace is the way.

Salvation is this: to live in the kingdom of God—the kingdom that comes from heaven bringing peace, justice, and human flourishing to the earth, and where King Jesus bestows forgiveness upon all, and finally, at the end of the age, raises the dead.

In the wilderness the devil tempted Jesus with three good ideas:1. Feed everyone.2. Liberate everyone.3. Persuade everyone.And who would disagree that these are good ideas? But Jesus discerned the devil lurking in those good ideas. The devil's good ideas were really these not so good ideas...1. Feed everyone and forget God.2. Liberate everyone and kill the bad guys.3. Persuade everyone and eliminate faith.