Mark 6:1-6

Mark 6:1-6

“Don’t you want to lack in nothing? I know I do. But the path, according to scripture, to a life lacking in nothing is paved with struggle…Jesus was a prophet without honour in his hometown. We are to be prophets in our hometowns…We are to live and share the good news, in season and out of season, when its convenient and when it’s totally awkward. Know that the world will reject you - but some won’t. So we tell all. And we win just by being faithful, just by saying “Jesus saves”, just by living that out, day-to-day.”

Mark 5:21-43

Mark 5:21-43

Pastor Leighton takes us through the connected stories of the death of Jairus’ 12 year old daughter, and the nameless woman who was afflicted with 12 years of bleeding and sought to steal a miracle, in Mark 5:21-43. One had life begin 12 years ago and had it tragically cut short, and the other began the process of dying 12 years ago and stands as a social outcast due to her affliction. He shows us how the Gospel of Mark repeatedly emphasizes that when Jesus touched unclean persons rather than making him unclean, like the Jewish Law dictated, he makes them clean. How this duet of stories demonstrates that both persons of means (the synagogue ruler) and persons without means (the impoverished nameless woman) are all in the same boat: death awaits us all - and we are all in need of a rescuer.

Romans 3:1-18

Romans 3:1-18

“There is no good news without this bad news…Only this kind of ultimate bad news will lead you to despair of yourself and turn in utter dependence to Jesus, for outside of union with Him, no human being can rightfully be called righteous…You can say I’m a Christian and I believe in Jesus, I love Jesus, Jesus has done so many great things for me — what is really hard about sharing the gospel is to share the whole truth. To actually say: And you need this. Here’s why…”

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Divine Power for Growing Obedience (2 Peter 1:1-11)

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Divine Power for Growing Obedience (2 Peter 1:1-11)

“Obedience is the commanded and necessary consummation of our faith…But How? How do we obey? How has God availed his great power to us to give us all things we need for a life of godliness? Look at the passage this morning (v.3): It is through a knowledge of Him! Colossians 3 would supplement this passage and say that we are being renewed in knowledge after the image of our Creator. We must realize that partaking in life and godliness is not some mystical, secret, complicated, higher knowledge sort of process, but rather it is simply a growing and experiential knowledge of our Great God.”

Romans 2:17-29

Romans 2:17-29

“There developed in the history of Israel a belief that circumcision, the sacred rite which was the sign of the Old Testament covenant, was all it took to be saved.  We have a similar confusion in the Christian church today where some people believe that they are automatically guaranteed salvation by some rite or response. This passage in Romans refutes any thought that one gains membership into the people of God by baptism (infant or otherwise), or that any other rite of passage can grant us assurance of salvation. The New covenant counterpart to circumcision is not baptism, or any other thing which can be accomplished by human choice and human hands— but circumcision of the heart, and that is accomplished only by God.”

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Good Friday (2 Corinthians 5:17-21)

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Good Friday (2 Corinthians 5:17-21)

“2 Corinthians 5:14-15 reads:  

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;  and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

So the pertinent question, this morning, is not whether Christ was crucified, but whether I am crucified with Christ.”

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Philippians 2:3-11 (One Another)

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Philippians 2:3-11 (One Another)

“The stand-alone message of: “do better” has no place in the gospel presentation apart from being a necessary consequence of understanding that Christ has done better on our behalf. Our ability to do better, our desires to do better - and our desires to follow these ‘one another’ passages of scripture - must be understood as flowing from this Grace Alone through Faith Alone reality”

Mark 5:1-20

Mark 5:1-20

“From one test to another, Jesus purposely leads his disciples to greater and greater levels of trust. Jesus does this for us too. Because he is the author of life, and is sovereign over all events, he as the good shepherd leads us to and through trials and struggles, in order to strengthen our faith and grow our trust in him. Faith is not downloaded, it’s not presto. In general, our depth of confidence in God is hard fought, slow, a long-suffered growth. But, God creates a faith filled people by again and again being a faithful God...”

Romans 2:12-16

Romans 2:12-16

“…Paul uses the term justification in two senses with two different tenses: a here-and-now justification by faith — an alien righteousness applied to wicked sinners through the obedience of Christ — and…the final verdict of ‘justified’ which was declared by God over them already through faith…

With Paul, we can say with integrity, ‘I am not ashamed of the gospel,’ because this is a gospel that acknowledges the gravity of sin and the sober reality of coming judgment, while at the same time being the power of God to both justify and sanctify all who place their faith in Jesus Christ.  It is a gospel in which faith and obedience are two sides of the same coin, a gospel to celebrate and revel in, and not one to be ashamed of.”

Romans 2:1-11

Romans 2:1-11

“…Our passage this morning is a diatribe against (a) those who believe that God will be lenient to them despite their continued disobedience, AND, (b) those who believe that their obedience is sufficient to be counted righteous before God…Both are called to repentance here…

It is so easy for us to see sin in others and overlook it in our own lives. It’s easy to look at the world and call out “shame, shame,” and not recognize that the sanitized sins of our own hearts have the same idolatrous roots. To have the highest standards for others, but cut ourselves a lot of slack…Many of the Jews at this time felt free to condemn ‘sinful Gentiles’ because ‘they are not God’s people;' And then when they would sin themselves whenever the temptation arose they believed that they would not be held accountable for their own sins. Does this sound familiar yet?…”

ROSE CITY BAPTIST CHURCH   •   6406 44B AVENUE   •   CAMROSE, AB   •   T4V 0B6   •   780.672.4832