Word of Life Church Podcast

If you want to read the Bible right, you read from the perspective of the cross. If you want to get God right, you understand him as revealed in Christ. On Good Friday, where do we found Christ? He is stretched out upon a cross, dying, imploring his Father to forgive. God is not the one who demanded crucifixion. nor is he the one doing the crucifying. God is the one who was crucified! All of humanity, bound by sin and satan, killed Jesus. The crucifixion is not what God did, it is what God endured. He is The Crucified God.

Pastor Brian Zahnd has been teaching from the Gospel of Luke for nearly four months, as we examine the stories of Jesus. We have arrived at Palm Sunday, celebrating Jesus' triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem. Palm Sunday is confusing. It is a combination of both joy and sorrow, of celebration and of suffering. It contains Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, but shadows the impending doom of Calvary. Should we celebrate on Palm Sunday or do we lament on Palm Sunday? The crowd cheering and praising Jesus as he entered into Jerusalem was right to celebrate, but they did it with a wrong understanding. This is a warning for every Jesus follower about: Getting Jesus Right... Getting Jesus Wrong.

Throughout the Gospel of Luke, we see Jesus moves from table to table, meal to meal, announcing and enacting the Kingdom of God as radical hospitality. In the 19th chapter of Luke, Jesus is on his journey from Galilee to Jerusalem. Jesus and his disciples have arrived in Jericho, just a day before they will arrive in Jerusalem and ride through the gates in what will become known as the Triumphal Entry. As Jesus made his way through the city of Jericho, the chief tax collector Zacchaeus made his way to see Jesus. Zacchaeus was rich and corrupt, as consummate moral outcast, who had been excluded from worship at the temple. He would be the last person you'd expect to find the Messiah with. But we must not be so quick to dismiss those who appear to be far from the Kingdom of God just because they don't presently participate in the accepted forms of religious life. What Zacchaeus has going for him is that he is intensely interested in finding out who Jesus really is. Discover the radical hospitality of Jesus towards Zacchaeus in this message.

In our modern age, "Hell" has become a catch-all word. It includes everything from the grave to an afterlife-destination to Dante's Inferno to a minor swear word, and much inbetween. Many modern English translations of the Bible don't even use the word "hell." It is important to actually listen and hear what Jesus says about hell, rather than try to force him to fit your particular theological system. In the parable of "The Rich Man and Lazarus", Jesus reveals a little about Hell... and how to get there.

The greatest and most famous Jesus' parables is the Parable of the Prodigal Son. It is the gospel found inside the gospel. The parable of the Prodigal Son is a story of the Kingdom of God being announced and enacted. Jesus gave it to those who were angry about how he was ushering in the Kingdom of God. The actions of the father in the parable are the actions of Jesus in his ministry. In his table practice and in his parables Jesus is showing us what God is like. Jesus came to change the mind of humanity about God, not to change the mind of God about humanity. Jesus does not save us from the God; Jesus reveals to us what God is like. Jesus and God always act in unity. Jesus unconditionally receives the sinner who comes to him, because this is what God is like!

We have all heard the famous parable of "The Good Samaritan". It has become so famous in our culture that it has unfortunately lost its meaning. Despite popular belief, the point of the parable of the Good Samaritan is not to be "a good Samaritan." Jesus crafted this parable to answer a question about eternal life and love of neighbor. Jesus was speaking to Jews, and Jews and Samaritans hated one another like poison! In his parable, Jesus reveals that it is not one of 'us' (the Jews) loving 'them', but rather, 'them' loving one of 'us'. He has turned the tables and asked a very subversive question: What do you do when your enemy acts in love and treats you like a neighbor? Who proved to be a neighbor to the Jewish victim? It was the enemy, the Samaritan, who showed the Jewish victim mercy. And Jesus us commands us to do the same, for to show mercy is to enact eternal life.

The Samaritans were a separate ethnic group from the Jews, with different theological views. These differences often translated into violence between the two groups. Most Jews would thus travel around Samaria instead of traveling through it. But on his journey to Jerusalem, Jesus journeyed right through the middle of it. During their travel, a Samaritan town refused him and his disciples hospitality because they were Jews. In response to this insult, the disciples James and John wanted to burn them up with the fire of God, and found scriptural evidence to support their argument. In their desire to burn the Samaritan 'them' with the fire of God, James and John cite the Bible to support their desire. This is exactly what Elijah did when the Samaritans opposed him. James and John (and the rest of the disciples) obviously think violence is an option, and they believe Jesus will ultimately turn to violence in order to usher in the Kingdom of God. But they are wrong! Jesus is not Elijah! Jesus' way of changing the world is not on a battlefield but at a shared table. He blesses his enemies, and instead of resorting to violence, will allow his body to be broken and his own blood to be shed.

We would prefer to think there is never any conflict between our family and our faith. But this is not always the case. Sometimes we find the family we're born into is in conflict with the kingdom we have been reborn into. Jesus himself experience this conflict. His family didn't really get what he was doing. They did believe that he could be the Messiah, they simply didn't think he could be the Messiah the way he was going about it. They didn't believe he could be Messiah and preach "love your enemies" at the same time. And although Jesus' family didn't immediately understand the gospel of his kingdom, they eventually understood. They were all present at Pentecost. His brother James became the first pastor. Jesus' love for his family never waned, but he also knew he had to subordinate his natural family to his kingdom vocation.

To follow Jesus is revolutionary. That's not hyperbole; it's the absolute truth. To live the Jesus way is the most revolutionary thing a person can do. To follow Jesus' practice radical love, forgiveness, hospitality, and humility, and to join God's alternative society that is formed around Jesus Christ is life-changing. It's revolutionary! in the 1970′s, the Jesus Revolution was a genuine move of the Spirit of God. It was a real revolution. It's strength was that it was a return to radical focus on Jesus. It's weakness was that it was largely separated from the church. When the Jesus Revolution finally did connect with the church, it was swallowed up by conventional evangelicalism and lost its radical edge. We are at the brink of another cultural Jesus Revolution. We can't settle for a tame, domesticated, conventional Christianity. We need to be a little bit rebellious, a little bit dangerous. We should dare to be a Jesus revolutionary!

As followers of Jesus Christ, we are called to speak the truth lovingly, to speak words that build up, to put away anger, wrath, and slander, and to forgive one another. How do we live this out in our homes particularly in the context of marriage? In this message, Pastor Derek Vreeland offers a helpful tool to empower couples to communicate in such a way that brings resolution to conflicts and forgiveness to torn relationships. Following these guidelines, couples can express the peace of God at home.