Controversial Faith: The Exclusivity of Jesus - Jon Tyson

This Sunday, Pastor Suzy Silk continued our sermon series, Making Sense of the Church, with a teaching on the Church as an Army. In the book of Ephesians, Paul describes a spiritual battle believers are engaged in and how God has prepared us to fight together for the expansion of His Kingdom. On the cross, Jesus defeated Satan, sin, death, and hell and has sent out His disciples in His authority to declare His victory. In light of this, we are able to stand firm in the faith, knowing that He has rescued us, brought us into His kingdom, and we await the day He will return in His full glory.

This Sunday, Pastor Suzy Silk continued our "Making Sense of Church" Series by calling us to take up our roles as priests in the Kingdom of God. Like the priesthood of ancient Israel, we are called to stand apart in the world as examples of God's holy love and goodness. As priests under the New Covenant, we should be living in such a way that compels people to ask questions, and actively join Jesus in expanding the priesthood by sharing about God's story and His Kingdom to people who do not yet know Him.

This Sunday, Pastor Jon Tyson continued our sermon series, Making Sense of the Church, with a teaching on the Church becoming the Temple of God. From cover to cover, the Bible is a story about God's desire to be with His people. God isn't out there somewhere far away, only found in the big and spectacular, or even only reserved for certain pockets of our lives. Instead, God has placed His very Spirit in us, and desires for us to live attuned to His presence so that we may extend the temple and bring Eden to earth. 

This Sunday, guest Pastor John Mark Comer brought a timely word about receiving true rest in the gentle and humble heart of Jesus Christ when He reveals the Father to those who believe. As folowers of Jesus, we too must be in pursuit of becoming both gentle and humble. When we actively meditate on the heart of Jesus, we can receive the true rest that comes through confidence in who Jesus is instead of our own striving to manage and manipulate the outcomes of the world, and be more deeply formed into His image.

This Sunday, Pastor Jon continued our Fall Sermon Series, Making Sense of the Church with a message on what it means to be God's people and citizens of Jesus' Kingdom. The role of the Church is to take people from hostile and divided backgrounds and form them into a new community of love. In Ephesians 2, the Apostle Paul unpacks how followers of Jesus can build a community like this because Jesus offers a better sense of identity, status, and belonging than anything that the world can give.

This Sunday, Pastor Suzy Silk continued our sermon series, Making Sense of the Church, by unpacking the metaphor of the Church as the Family of God. Throughout the Bible, we see God making a way for mankind to be restored to relationship with Him, and that His pursuit is driven by a desire for a unified family of believers that will live in perfect union with Him and each other. All people have been created in God's image and are able to enter into God's family. The Church is called and enabled to function as a family by God's choice, Jesus' sacrifice, and the Holy Spirit's power, and should be ready and willing to receive anyone and everyone who accepts God's invitation to become His child.

This Sunday, Pastor Jon continued our sermon series, Making Sense of the Church, by examining the Church as the Bride of Christ, reminding us that the Bible is, at its core, a great love story. Beneath all the striving and ambition of New York City lies a deep-rooted desire of wanting to be loved. While culture tells us we must earn love through achievement, Scripture tells a different story about how our truest identity is found in being loved by God. The invitation is to surrender to this love story, to build our lives on the truth that we are the beloved of Jesus, and to live as His radiant Bride, preparing for the joy that is to come.

This Sunday, Pastor Jon continued our Fall Sermon Series, Making Sense of Church, by addressing the crisis of trust in our culture when it comes to leadership with a teaching on Jesus as the Good Shepherd and the Church as the Flock. In critiquing the religious leaders of His day, Jesus clearly lays out His vision for leadership in the Church through the relationship between a shepherd and their flock, or those under their care. Pastor Jon called us to consider Jesus' standards for leaders and followers in the Church, and allow Him to inform how we both lead and follow in our church communities today.

This Sunday, Pastor Jon kicked off our Fall Sermon Series, Making Sense of Church, by asking the question: Why do we still bother with the Church? The reality is that the Church is a dysfunctional family, but it is still key to the mission of Jesus being carried out in the world, and it cannot be disregarded. We cannot make excuses for the failures of the Church, but also cannot deny the beauty and redemption it has brought; the only question that remains is which future of the Church will you tell with your life? The Church is God's idea, and it has endured through every time and place since its inception. You need the Church for your growth, and the Church needs you, faithfully living as Jesus' hands and feet in your context, believing this can be the Church's finest hour, not its greatest failure.

This week, Pastor Ralph Castillo closed out our Summer sermon series, The Fifth Act, with an in depth look on the Apostle Paul's final remarks to the Ephesian Elders in Acts and a call to finish well. Throughout his ministry, Paul endured great suffering for the sake of Christ, undergoing intense persecution and opposition nearly everywhere he went. However, at the end of his life, he was able to confidently say that he finished the work set out for him. Paul's life challenges us to focus on finishing well, not in our own strength, but by anchoring ourselves in Christ, committing to submit to the Holy Spirit, and by loving what Jesus loves, His Church.