Resurrection City Church - St. Paul Minnesota

Sermon on the Mount: Countercultural Kingdom | Turning the Other Cheek

It’s normal to love those who love us, and require an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth for our enemies. Jesus says this will not work if we want to follow him, however. All that is is flirting with the same fire that caused our enemy to do evil to us in the first place. Instead, we are to turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, give them the shirt off our back. These are famous words, but do we take them as seriously as Jesus meant for us to?

In this sermon, Pastor Joel walks through one of the most famous passages of the Sermon on the Mount, and also one of the most radical. What does it look like to love our enemies like Jesus does? Why must we be careful so that we are not overcome by evil? And how does it all connect directly to the gospel? Listen and find out!

Sermon on the Mount: Countercultural Kingdom | The Radical Nature of Following Jesus

Those who follow Jesus are given an impossible standard to meet: “Be perfect, as your father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). When we read the Sermon on the Mount, we find how radical it is to follow him. Jesus’s expectation is not that we would meet this standard—this is why he offers grace and forgiveness to us free of charge—but he does want us to constantly have growth and humility as our targets. 

To that end, in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus gives some examples of how following him doesn’t mean just getting by but going to new, radical depths in our discipleship. The examples we study in this sermon are hatred, lust, divorce, and our integrity. People who have familiarity with this passage regularly gloss over it, but if we are serious about living in Jesus’s countercultural kingdom we have to let ourselves brush up against the radical words of Jesus. Pastor Joel breaks it all down here!

Sermon on the Mount: Countercultural Kingdom | Jesus and the Law

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says he did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. What does that mean for us today? Pastor Julie talks about how Jesus reveals the full meaning of the law, ultimately fulfills the law on our behalf, and how the wisdom of the law is still something we should follow today. 

Sermon on the Mount: Countercultural Kingdom | How We Flavor and Preserve the World

In the ancient world, without electricity, darkness was common and food would go bad easily. Two things, salt and natural light were both very important because they helped survive in a world without electricity. Light helped people see, and salt helped preserve food. 

 

Jesus says our role in the world is supposed to be like light and salt. We Christians who understand the gospel and seriously live out its implications in the world, are supposed to make it a better place. When we look at the impact of the church in the world, while we can certainly find much to lament and repent of, we also can’t miss the fact that the message of the gospel lived out in people’s lives have also completely changed the world in ways we can’t always fathom. 

In this sermon, Joel unpacks this famous passage and talks about how we can continue to live as salt and light. 

Plus, stay for the Q + R live after the sermon at the end!

Sermon on the Mount: Countercultural Kingdom | Who is Blessed in God’s Kingdom?

We live in a world that was changed forever by Jesus announcing that the kingdom of God had come. We can gloss over it, or we can take it serious. Many people, including a lot of Christians, don’t take it very serious. In this new sermon series, we’re talking about how we can take it seriously!

The Sermon on the Mount was Jesus’ message for how to live in the kingdom. To start off this revolutionary message (and our new sermon series), Jesus identifies who is blessed in the kingdom. We might think we know who is blessed by God by the life they get to live, or the material blessings they have, but Jesus wants us to flip our understanding upside down, which will prepare us to understand and receive the rest of this message.

Plus, stay for the Q + R live after the sermon at the end!

Build and Plant | God’s Not Done With Us

Even though the people of God in Jeremiah's time are hard hearted and stubborn, God promises to start a new relationship with them. This new partnership will hinge on God's forgiveness and will inspire his people to follow him in new ways. No matter how far we get from him and no matter how much we mess up, God's not done with us yet. Instead he offers grace and forgiveness and calls us back to a relationship with him.

Build and Plant | Seeking Shalom For Our City

In 1 Peter, the recipients of the letter are referred to as “exiles,” a word that describes Christians in all times and places. Our home is where God’s presence and glory are all around us, and we don’t live in that place yet, so we need to remember our identity and take seriously our state as exiles. 

But wisdom is required to know what it looks like for us to live in this world now. Jeremiah’s letter to the Jerusalem exiles has God’s wisdom for us. In this sermon, Pastor Joel breaks it all down: Buying instead of renting, seeking shalom, being not afraid, and staying distinct. This is an important sermon for all Christians as we navigate our own exile well. 

Build and Plant | The Birth Pains of God’s New Work

A new community of Israel has been created through exile in the book of Jeremiah. This lost and lonely people, ripped away from what is familiar, has an uncertain future. What will God do for them?

When we are the midst of similar seasons, often God brings renewal. He brings new life out of our exile. But like the birth of a child, there are birth pains and growing pains as we grow into the new reality. In this sermon,  Pastor Joel talks about how we can believe God has a hope and a future for us when this occurs. 

Build and Plant | Calling Good Figs Bad and Bad Figs Good

A major moment in Jeremiah’s ministry gives us something deep to ponder: that God works his future through those we often don’t expect according to our culture’s systems of worth or value or our own biases. We must remain humble and remember God is not trapped by how we label or categorize people. In this sermon, Pastor Joel explains how we can remember God’s ways are irregular in our minds, and that is something we should praise him about!

Build and Plant | God’s Holiness and Our Holy Identity

Major crises don’t spring up out of thin air; there’s always a story behind them. The crisis of Judah in Jeremiah’s time is no different, and when we go back to the beginning of the story we find Judah had forgotten God’s holiness and because of that had forgotten who they were. 

In this sermon, Pastor Joel explores the connection between God’s holiness and our identity, why it matters that we take holiness seriously, how we define holiness, and more!