Tune in to hear Cody Dodd take us through Jesus’ teaching from the Sermon on the Mount about laying up for ourselves earthly treasures.
1 Thessalonians 5:12-13
“The peace that the apostle has in mind is not merely the absence of conflict… but the presence of positive, healthy relationships. These do not come as a result of superficial harmony, where we are nice to each other and coexist without open conflict, but genuine peace is the result of following the guidelines of Matthew 18:15 and going to those who sin or offend us in loving confrontation. We Canadians so highly value the kinds “niceness” and “politeness” that take us far afield from genuine kindness and peace which are fruits of the Spirit …People who do not “care enough to confront” are no more loving than leaders who will not admonish.”
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
“Believers are adopted into the family of God by grace alone, through the finished work and sacrifice of Christ, but their existence as children of the light, children of the day, has moral implications, The Thessalonian Christians did not need to be reminded of the facts, but they are being reminded here of the implications these facts held for their actions. They are already day people, but they are being reminded to live as such!”
Mark 14:12-25
“Adam and Eve ate the first recorded meal in rebellion, which is to say, they rebelled against God by eating what was forbidden. And because of their actions, their sin; rebellion and sin have pervaded every relationship, event, thought, and part of creation since. So when we go from looking at humanity’s first meal to what has been called Jesus’ last supper, we again see our rebellion full strength. Adam and Judas share this in common; they betrayed their relationship with God, believing in their hearts that their way, their interpretation, their will was better than Almighty God’s…”
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
“The goal of this whole passage is quite simple and clear, although it has unfortunately also been the source of a great deal of end times speculation that is quite unrelated to Paul’s own interests. Paul’s expressed goal is ‘that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope,’ or to state it positively, that our hope would be so grounded in the resurrection of Jesus, that our whole understanding of death, the future and the fate of all believers would be profoundly different from the world that does not have Christ.”
Mark 14:1-11
“Today we enter into the Passion of Jesus Christ. In our common English use, the word passion means intense desire, or an uncontrolled or barely controlled emotion, but in its original Latin, the root ‘passio’ means to suffer or to endure, therefore Christ’s Passion refers to his suffering rather than any impassioned desire…”
Mark 13:24-37
“Much has been said about the seeming contradiction put forward here: that only the father knows when he will send the son. Is Jesus not fully God? How then could he not know what he, in fact, does know? The false teaching of kenosis asserts that Jesus gave up his divine powers when he came to earth as helpless babe. That he emptied himself of his glory and omniscience and might. Taking Philippians 2:6-7 to a grotesque extreme. (Philippians 2:6-7 [Jesus] who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.)…The truth is, these verses show how Jesus was willing to be emptied of his very life, in total obedience to the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit. But they never deny his full humanity nor his full deity. Some translations say he laid aside his might and glory through the incarnation. But remember the might of his miracles and how he did reveal his glory in specific moments such as the transfiguration or when he raised Lazarus from the dead…”
1 Thessalonians 4:9-12
“It should be clear, both from the commands and example of Christ and his apostles, that living quietly and minding our own business does not mean that the church is to tone down its proclamation of the gospel. On the contrary, Paul consistently encouraged boldness in this regard. The church was not to live so quietly that they failed to function as witnesses of Christ both in word and deed. It is, rather, (as we often say here) that the only offense should be the gospel. Christians were not to become social revolutionaries. In fact, the apostles denied such charges several times when they were leveled against them. It was not Paul’s intent that the church disrupt society or overthrow governments. Rather, he encouraged Christians to be good citizens and exemplary members of their families and of their society but to do so in a manner consistent with the teachings of Christ. Only in this sense was the Gospel intended to change society. It set out to change the individuals who made up society while awaiting that climactic event when the power of God would truly change the world forever…”
Matthew 6:5-14
“What comes to mind when we think of the word hypocrisy? I go to the dentist once or twice a year, and there is one part of that visit that I really dislike.: that’s when my dentist starts asking me pointed questions about my flossing habits. I can see him typing on his keyboard, so he remembers what I said last time. I try to tell him that I’m doing my best, and he’s like ‘I don’t think you’re doing your best. I think you can do better’…and so we have this exchange every time. No imagine, after all these visits, if I found out that my dentist never flosses. I’d be like ‘You, hypocrite!’. Right? This is what we think about hypocrisy. Someone who is teaching but then isn’t doing it…Believe it or not that’s not what Jesus is talking about. He is using this word a little bit different this morning. When Jesus is talking about a hypocrite in Matthew 6, he’s talking about someone who is doing ‘the stuff’, he’s doing all the right things, but they’re doing those things for the wrong reasons. They have bad motives…”
1 Thessalonians 4:1-8
“I’ll try to summarize points at the end, but so that you don’t miss it, there is no appeal here to cultural norms, no argument on the basis of what is ‘healthy’ or ‘will make you happy,’ the call to sexual morality is on the basis of God’s own character and his will for us. For the believer, it doesn’t matter what our Lord commands of us, he is our Master and we his slaves. Whatever it costs, I must take up that cross daily if I am to follow Jesus…”