The Word of Christ given eternally as our Life.

The nature of reward is knowing God's life at the root of our being.

The refuge of Father.

Jesus elaborates on the true nature of relationship.

Jesus gives authority to His disciples to be representatives of the Kingdom of God.

Outline:

1. Authority: Representatives (0:00 - 8:34)

2. Seeking the Welcome (8:35 - 12:25)

3. Freely Given, Freely Flowing (12:26 - 19:40)

4. The Ungiven Word: Rejection (19:41 - 25:17)

5. An Unchanging Invitation: Summoned (25:18 - 29:04)

In the face of a world that is seemingly filled with hopelessness and darkness, Jesus says, "The Harvest is plentiful!"

Outline:

1. An Old Saying (0:00 - 7:25)

2. The Good News... Everywhere (7:26 - 13:12)

3. The Mirror of Hatred (13:13 - 19:35)

4. Seeing but not Perceiving (19:36 - 29:17)

5. Receiving Instruction (29:18 - 37:50)

6. Prayer (36:00 - 37:32)

Something compels people to come to Jesus in a way that breaks down all notions of separateness and accepted decorum. The movement of faith sees the Life of God close at hand, to be touched and known now. Through the faith of a woman subject to perpetual bleeding and a synagogue leader with a dead daughter we are invited to know the same Spirit that sees the world as God knows it.

Outline:

1. True Vision (0:00 - 7:38)

2. Uncleanliness as a Black Hole (7:39 - 14:37)

3. Vision of a Foundational Cleanliness (14:38 - 27:46)

4. Faith: Like Meets Like (27:47 - 34:45)

5. Stillness (34:46 - 37:08)

Empty ritual stands in contrast to a life overflowing with God's abundance. Where does fasting fit in? John's disciples come to Jesus with a question: “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?”

Outline:

1. Heaven and Earth Meet (0:00 - 9:00)

2. Receiving True Food (9:00 - 20:35)

3. Ascending to the Spirit of Abundance (20:35 - 28:48)

4. Something More: New Wine, New Wineskins (28:48 - 32:39)

5. Prayer (32:39 - 35:35)

Matthew the tax collector is called to follow Jesus. At his house Jesus meets with other tax collectors and sinners and the Pharisees take offence. Jesus sends them back into the Old Testament which they apparently know so well to discover what Mercy is. "I desire mercy not sacrifice" - Hosea 6:6

Outline:

1. A Pre-Existing Correspondence (0:00)

2. "Follow Me" - Matthew 9:9-13 (12:15)

3. Learning Mercy through Hosea (18:15)

A paralytic encounters Jesus and the Word of God is revealed to us. We are called to look beyond all appearances to know God Himself, to know Life by His authority and then to become that very Life in this world. Faith is the receipt of this Word.

Outline:

1. Faith in Him (0:00)

2. Cutting in Line or Room for More? (4:46)

3. Be at Peace! (8:37)

4. Talking in the Shadows (11:24)

5. The Authority of God (16:17)

6. The Word is Our Peace (20:15)

7. The Authority Given to Us (25:17)

Jesus encounters two demon-possessed men and begins an interaction that involves pigs, a cliff, water and torture. There's a sifting that's happening in the lives of these two men as the Light, the Spirit of Jesus, hovers over them. The same Spirit of Jesus comes to us today.

Outline:

1. Pentecost and the Unchanging Spirit (0:00)

2. Internal Storms: Shedding the False-Self (6:52)

3. The Rising Sun: The Power of God's Word (15:16)

4. "Go": Judgement as Separation and Revelation (21:36)

5. The Burning Coals: Rethinking God's Wrath (27:53)

6. Claiming His Own: The Journey to the Cross (31:17)

Jesus comes into Peter's house. Jesus touches Peter's mother-in-law. Jesus drives out evil spirits and heals the sick with a word. The Spirit of Jesus is defined by a movement to be planted as a Seed in the soil of our lives. His presence, His touch, His word meet us where we are, they unite with us and bear the Fruit of their Origin. As the Sower is, so too are those implanted by His Seed.

We fast forward to Palm Sunday for our lead-in to Easter and find Jesus entering Jerusalem as a King on a donkey. Lowly and meek and yet proclaiming a Judgement. The Spirit of Life is enthroned to reveal Life and cast out all else.

A Roman centurion, the picture of power in the ancient world, comes to Jesus seeking help. Pastor Matt highlights the Spirit of Jesus in this interaction that revolves around authority. Authority is order and meaning, without it there is nothing. The one who has their request answered is the one who humbles themselves before the Ultimate Authority who gives Life and Meaning to all things.

Jesus comes down from the mountain where He has just spoken some of His most famous words. More than beautiful words, His Spirit is a reality to be known, to be lived through. Brad reflects on God's faithfulness and His willingness to be for us Life itself. The Spirit of Christ says, "I am willing. Be clean!"

The Sermon on the Mount ends with people in awe. More than just at the beauty of Jesus' words, but at the gravity surrounding Him—the Authority He carries, the Life He is. His final Word rings out as a definitive Statement of Truth: Life is in Me.

If Life is in you, if you are built on The Rock, then you will know a Life that is unhindered and unassailable. Everything else is burning up to reveal the always remaining Truth.

The Truth excludes by Nature, but it is not exclusive. Pastor Matt draws on the Spirit of Jesus as He speaks of the Narrow Gate that leads to Life. For every statement of Truth, there can be an infinity of lies that are unrealities. 

What does that mean for us? If the Truth is so restrictive, how can we find ourselves included in It? Hear the wonderful invitation of Christ in Jesus' words.

Jesus has another simple statement to us: "Ask, and it will be given to you." We continue allowing God's Word to speak to us as we explore a Nature given for us. A Nature that has confidence and full certainty that when it asks, it has already received (Mark 11:24).

In other words, anything that can be taken from you, will be taken from you because by definition, if something can be taken from you it is temporary. What is temporary does not last and will be taken away. What is Eternal can never be added to or taken away. Find your treasure, store up your treasure on what is Eternal and you will find that you have a Life that can never be taken away or diminished.

Matt unpacks Jesus' words which are leading us to so much more than restraint of desire or surrender to it. He is opening up the only way to the total freedom of Being.

Jesus continues to cast aside any possibility of 'seeming' to be anything, or 'trying' to be anything. He casts his eyes upward to the Life of our Father to begin to understand what it means to be a Child of Heaven.

Jesus’ words emphasise a reality where we are to ‘be’ rather than seem. This strikes right at the heart of Gospel… it’s more than a command or something we're to try to do, but an invitation to rest in the very ‘be-ing’ of God — a Being that is fullness, freedom, Life itself.

Jesus lived 2000 years ago in Bethlehem, but the Christ has come to live in our hearts at this very moment.

The frustration of not being able to take, shouldn't lead us to stop hungering  - but rather to believe in Christ (John 6:29). 

The reaction of the disciples of Christ, and the way it transformed them, makes it seem like there must be something in it for us...if it was this important to them, surely it must mean something to us?

For them it was everything, because the man who had called them, who all their hope was in, was not dead, but alive!   

In John 17:3, Jesus Himself, gives a strict definition, that harmonises with the remainder of the New Testament. He gives the definition as He contemplates the cross in prayer; and it is a definition which has no time sense. Praise be to our Lord Jesus Christ, who manifested to us the eternal life! (1 John 1:2-3)   

AND NOW, He says that in a little while He is going away (John 13:33). This would have sounded like death to them now: being with Him was their life.

Thankfully, for them, and for us (who are certainly not in His bodily presence), He said to them: "I will not leave you as orphan's. I will come to you." 

In revealing what humanity should be, we can tend to feel judged if we are not as He is; but His heart is not judgement but salvation. His light, is THE opportunity to walk in light. If we will not walk in the light, we will walk in the confusion of darkness. 

When we are in relation to those who have a problem, our usual reaction is to recoil in order to protect ourselves. We believe that we can have life apart from our obligation of love to them. Jesus death demonstrates that He has no life of His own; no life aside from His common life in relation to His brother's and sister's - He was numbered amongst transgressors. 

When we are turned inward, even under the cloak of religiosity, division will reign: unity can only be found in being turned outward in love! 

This is an astounding, lofty vision! - higher than any vision that has been cast by another human being. There is nothing between the Father and the Son: only a unity of perfect love. The Master is praying and working towards that coming about amongst us. Will we believe in Him?

Although the place where we draw it has changed, we too can create these dividing lines of segregation in order to self-justify.

Jesus, the one who had more right than anybody to justify, "claimed the only righteousness which it would not have been a sin and a fall for Him to claim, the righteousness of His Father." (F.D Maurice). We now, have access to Christ's righteousness through obedience. 

He has been doing this for all people, for all time. Acts 14:17: "He did not leave himself without a witness."

If God is continually giving Himself to us, the question is, will we receive His Spirit? This is His love and heart towards us.

To not receive, is to reject; as some did Acts 13:46. 

Jesus is on full display in the lives of the apostles as they face opposition: they leave their flogging 'rejoicing'.

And yet, this joy and life is the inheritance stored up in Christ for the Sadducees TOO, if they would simply leave themselves and turn to believe in Christ. In fact, it is EVERY persons' inheritance. 

The resurrection means something ground-breaking. We have a sense of that intuitively. 

A transformation has happened, and that means that there is more to the resurrection than meets the eye. Something has changed, something’s different to what it was before, but what exactly is it? What is the resurrection?

It can’t be just the fact that a man comes alive after he’s died – it has to be something more than that; that’s already happened before… to prove that John gives us the account of Lazarus being raised by Jesus from the dead after 4 days in the tomb…

It can’t be that it gives us hope for a resurrection – it has to be something more than that; the Jews already had that… Martha says to Jesus, I know we will rise again on the last day.

Jesus wants us to redefine what resurrection hope is.

2.   How does Jesus define Resurrection Hope?  "I AM the Resurrection and the Life"

John 11

Martha then said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.” Jesus *said to her, “Your brother will rise from the dead.” Martha *said to Him, “I know that he will rise in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; the one who believes in Me will live, even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

There’s a very important transition Jesus makes here; and it can be easy to gloss over. He says: “I am the resurrection and the life; the one who believes in Me will live, even if he dies…”. Nothing out of the ordinary with that; that’s in line with what we would think about resurrection: If you die, then you will be brought back to life.

But that’s not what Jesus is talking about here, because He goes on to say: “Everyone who lives and believes in Me WILL NEVER DIE.” 

Do you see what He’s doing here? He’s redefining our idea of life and death. He is the resurrection and the life: “The ones who live and believe in Him have life, even while they are dying… in fact, even if they die, they still have life.” 

Here’s what Jesus is saying when He says, “I am the Resurrection and the Life”: He’s saying the Resurrection isn’t about coming back from the dead… it’s about who He is. He is Life and Life never dies… Life might appear to die, but it cannot be snuffed out, it will prove to be ongoing, to be still alive, to be eternal… it will resurrect. Not that it will die and then come back to life… Jesus says: it will NEVER DIE… it will never lose its life. Life… Jesus… is a higher authority than death.

Here’s the subtle but revolutionary distinction that Jesus is wanting to make; it’s at the heart of the Gospel: Jesus is Life, and death cannot not take away Life. In other words, the process that we call dying cannot actually take Him away. If Jesus is Life, then even when He dies, He still is Life. Life can never be taken away from Him, He can never be separated from Himself. Death is not an authority over Him.

SO when Jesus says, “I am the resurrection”, He’s saying that He is the proof that death cannot take away Life. That He has authority over death; that is resurrection. Jesus is Resurrection and Life.

3.   WHAT DOES THE REDEFINITION OF RESURRECTION LIFE MEAN FOR US? Dispelling of The Lie (rejection of worldly lens towards radical trust in The Father)

Jesus spends all of His ministry trying to get His disciples to see that Life and Resurrection are defined by who He is… but it doesn’t land for them… He is the Revealer of Truth, but there’s “someone” else that is working very hard to hide the Truth from them.

Luke 8:11-12

“Now this is the parable: the seed is the word of God. And those beside the road are the ones who have heard, then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart, so that they will not believe and be saved.

Luke 24:15-17

While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing Him.And He said to them, “What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking?” And they came to a stop, looking sad.

And then they proceed to tell Jesus about Himself and His own story. The very same story that He told them on numerous occasions must happen. So, Jesus hears them out and then comes back with these words:

Luke 24:25-26

“You foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to come into His glory?”

There’s clearly a blindness over the disciples that is preventing them from understanding what Jesus is saying. Someone is concealing the Truth from them.

What can’t they see? Why is it necessary for these things to happen?

Why must Jesus suffer? Why must He be handed over, be betrayed by someone close, abandoned by His closest friends, humiliated, put to death by suffering as a criminal naked on a cross… and then rise from the dead?

Why must all these things happen?

Jesus is saying that unless these things happen we will not see that He Himself is the Resurrection and the Life. We’re so caught up in Satan’s lie that unless He suffers, the lie will never be completely unmasked. 

And we will never be able to see Jesus as He truly is, Resurrection and Life, in order to receive Him… to receive Life Himself.

This is the lie of Satan: God cannot be trusted. God is not in control. God is not good.

This is how he maintains the lie: by convincing us that suffering and death are proof that we can’t trust God. If we encounter suffering and death in this world and in our lives, then it must mean God is not in control and He is not good. 

So we need to do everything in our power to avoid suffering and death ourselves. If God cannot be trusted, we need to take matters into our own hands.

To unmask the lie over humanity: Jesus must suffer as a human… must allow Satan to throw the kitchen sink at Him, and then emerge with just as much life as He had beforehand, fully confident and trusting in the Goodness of His Father. Knowing that His Father has always been in control and that Satan never had any power over Him. 

This is Truth: Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life for us. He has unmasked the lie for our sake, so that we might know Life in Him… this is why He came. It’s His Eternal Life that He came to give us, not a temporary life of our own choosing.

Jesus - the Resurrection and the Way, the Truth, the Life – is the very definition of Life. It’s only as His Life exposes all our false ways of “living” that we can turn to Him and walk in His Way, the Way that is Truth and Life.

This is the reason the Apostle John talks about Jesus as the Light of the world, coming to us to expose and dispel the darkness so that we can walk in the Light of Life.

And since Jesus cannot die, He is forever working to reveal Himself to us to make us alive in Him.

While there are still people believing in Satan’s lie he will continue manufacturing it, he’ll keep propping it up… but he can’t keep it up forever, and the Good News is that Jesus is Perseverance Incarnate… He will not die… the lie will continue to be dispelled; and Jesus will not stop until it has been completely unmasked.

And that’s exactly what we see here in Luke 24. Picking up on the dialogue Jesus is having with the 2 disciples on the road to Emmaus… we see that Jesus will keep chipping away at the lie until it crumbles.

Luke 24:27-31

Then beginning with Moses and with all the Prophets, He explained to them the things written about Himself in all the Scriptures.

And they approached the village where they were going, and He gave the impression that He was going farther. And so they strongly urged Him, saying, “Stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day is now nearly over.”

So He went in to stay with them. And it came about, when He had reclined at the table with them, that He took the bread and blessed it, and He broke it and began giving it to them. And then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight.

Now before we start wondering where Jesus went, there’s something incredible that is happening here. It speaks to what happens when the Truth is revealed and accepted: When people see and accept the Truth that Jesus reveals, that Truth prepares the way (spoiler alert) for the very Spirit of Jesus to come into them. 

Just because Jesus disappears and can’t be seen anymore, doesn’t mean that God’s not there, or that He can’t be trusted; or that He’s not always working for their good; this is the Truth that the disciples are coming to know. Satan’s lie is crumbling.

Luke 17:20-21

“The kingdom of God is not coming with signs that can be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”

And Paul, in Romans says,

Romans 10:6-8

“Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will go up into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down), 7 or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).” 8 But what does it say? “The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”…”

Jesus and Paul are both saying the same thing here: 

As soon as the Truth (that is, Jesus) is revealed to a person, He (Jesus, Life Himself) begins to to dwell in them by His Spirit.

4.   Jesus has revealed Himself to be Resurrection and Life for us.

The resurrection tells us in bold letters that until we can say that we see and realise a 1-to-1 likeness with Jesus in our own lives, then we’re missing out on something. He is Life, and if there are elements of Him that we don’t seem to have, then there are still areas of our lives that we are believing a lie. There’s still more that He has for us.

What is Jesus wanting us to see and receive more of? His Father… to know that He rules over all in Jesus… that the Kingdom is HERE… that we are His CHILDREN... that He is holding no good thing back from us… that we can live with reckless abandon in following Him and loving others… that we can know more of His Life if we will believe in Him and turn from The Lie in every shape and form. 

You’ll know areas of your life that you’re believing The Lie because you’ll be sad and downcast in them even while the very Spirit of Jesus is within you wanting to commune with you; wanting you to align your life with Him and experience the Truth of His Life. It’s not a guilt trip, if there are areas in our lives where we truly feel lack hope or joy, it’s an invitation to know Life within you as you expose the Lie in the light of who Jesus is.

We’re going to spend the next 6 months exploring what that journey looked like for the early church as we go through Acts. But let’s not just read and hear about it, let’s enter into the Kingdom of Light that is here right now… 

Abundance… divine providence… the complete self-giving love of God. This is the divine nature He wants us to partake in… Jesus says in effect, “Unless you eat and drink MY reality, the only True reality, you do not have Life in you. You are allowing Satan to rob you of your joy in God… it’s foolishness” (His words, not mine).

It’s very different to wishful thinking… it’s very different to optimism…

IF you believe a lie, it will become your cage. BUT if you move against a lie towards Truth… it will fail (it has to, it has no substance), and you will come into Truth.

5.   Breaking Bread

And as we take communion we’re going to remember two things:

First, that just as Jesus broke bread at the feeding of the thousands, we are called to trust in the abundant provision and goodness of God even if there is a lie of scarcity pervading our society. We are called to reject the lie that we have to keep for ourselves rather than giving of ourselves.

Second, we’re casting our minds to Jesus on the cross… we’re rejecting Satan’s lie that the Father has forsaken His Son. The fullness of Satan’s lie is reached on the cross; he’s screaming from the rooftops, “Look, how can God be good? See what happens to those who trust in Him?”. We’re here to reject that lie, to align ourselves with Jesus, the Resurrection and the Life. To acknowledge that Jesus has disarmed Satan and his Lie, that He’s made a public display of him, having triumphed over him on the cross.

As we take the elements we are committing our lives to the Truth of Jesus, to conforming ourselves to His image, to living and believing in Him as we walk in the light of who He is.

As George MacDonald writes: “There can be no good news for us men, except of uplifting love, and no one can be lifted up who will not rise. If God himself sought to raise his little ones without their consenting effort, they would drop from his foiled endeavour. He will carry us in his arms till we are able to walk; he will carry us in his arms when we are weary with walking; he will not carry us if we will not walk.”

Obedient faith is the condition to receiving life from Christ.