Resurrection City Church - St. Paul Minnesota

Come and See | Jesus vs. the Temple

In John 2, Jesus shakes things up (literally) by going to the Temple in Jerusalem, with all of its prestige and impact on the average Jewish person's life, and declaring it would be destroyed.

But it wouldn't just be destroyed--it had been replaced by Jesus himself. 

There are some explosive applications to this, and in ways you might not expect. This includes direct application to what is happening right now in the midst of the COVID19 pandemic. Join us for this sermon and find out how!

Come and See | Wine & Signs

This week, Pastor Joel brings up the subject of miracles, or, using the word John does, signs. Signs show God's glory--and the first sign Jesus chooses to use is to keep a wedding dance going strong.

The symbolism of this first sign, turning water into wine, points to the great celebration that comes from God's fulfillment of his covenant, and it is the fulfillment of whatever celebrations Christians have now. 

Grab a bottle of wine and listen to this word on miracles and celebration!

 

Come and See | Jesus and Skepticism

In our first Res City Church at Home during the COVID19 outbreak, we get back into our sermon series on the book of John. 

We meet Nathanael, a small but important story that John keys us into because it introduces someone who is skeptical of Jesus's Messiahship. Jesus responds tenderly, and we learn that skepticism isn't a threat to the gospel, but in fact it's a part of a healthy faith when understood rightly. This is why John tells us this story - so we can understand how skepticism can help us to experience God in a deeper way, where instead of knowing God we are known by God through Jesus.

Join Pastor Joel as he walks through this really cool story. 

If you want to be a part of the Res City at Home community on Sunday mornings as long as we are worshipping together online instead of together, you can head on over to our YouTube page Sundays at 9:30 for worship and a message each week.

Come and See | The Voice in the Wilderness

In John 1, we meet an important figure in early Christianity: John the Baptist. John the Baptist is the first witness in the book who testifies to God’s glory which has come in Jesus. We find as we study his testimony that he did not completely understand what God was up to, yet he did it anyway. We can respond with similar passion when we feel uncertain too, trusting God is moving.

John comes as a voice in the wilderness, declaring the way of the Lord, and we are called to also be voices, maybe not in the literal wilderness, but in the wilderness that other people experience. This is a calling that we cannot take lightly!

Join us as Pastor Joel walks us through the testimony of the first witness of the book of John.

Come and See | We Have Seen His Glory

We are starting a new series at Res City in the book of John. John’s concern is to point us toward something of great weight —the greatest weight—the coming of God in flesh in Jesus. John is someone who has seen this firsthand and desires for you to “come and see” for yourself.

There is a danger to have this glory be right under our noses and miss it, however. We have to be careful not to miss the coming of Jesus, and to not know a lot about Jesus but not know who he is.

Join us as we introduce the book of John and prepare to come and see the glory of Jesus.

The Lord's Prayer | Lead Us Not Into Temptation, But Deliver Us From the Evil One

The coming of God's kingdom that we pray for in the Lord's Prayer is contested by two things: Our own hearts, full of sin, and the evil one, Satan. 

The prayer here alerts us to our own hearts need to be tested, to see what they truly are. This is what we mean when we pray to not be led into temptation or to be tested. We find a strong example of what Jesus means here in the story of Abraham and Sarah. We, like them, desire to attain the blessing of God apart from Him, and try to manufacture the blessing on our own power. When we do, sometimes we will find ourselves tested to see if desire the blessing God gives more than God himself.

When we are tempted, however, we will meet the evil one, who seeks to tear our hearts to worship ourselves and our own ability. When we do, we must pray for deliverance as Jesus teaches.

Thankfully, we do not need to rely on our own ability because we rely in the faithfulness of the One who has remained faithful in the test, Jesus. Pastor Joel explains how Jesus's own faithfulness in the test gives us power and hope for when we face our own.

The Lord's Prayer | Forgive Us Our Debts, As We Forgive Our Debtors

The Lord’s Prayer makes us perform the uncomfortable task of confessing our sin. In the sermon on what it means for us to ask for forgiveness, Pastor Julie explains why this matters and why we need to confess even if we don’t like it.

Additionally, being forgiven means we can now also be people who turn around and can forgive others. But this is more challenging than it may appear. Julie explains how we can forgive well, like Christ.

The Lord's Prayer | Give Us Today Our Daily Bread

The Lord's Prayer includes in its middle portion one line about asking for our needs. When we pray, we devote a little bit more time to our needs than that, however.

When we dig into the prayer, we see Jesus tells us to pray for what we need today, instead of an excess. We learn that Jesus desires for us to be radically dependent on him day by day. Pastor Julie breaks down what it looks like to pray and live this out.

The Lord's Prayer | Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done, On Earth As It Is In Heaven

The second and third part of the Lord's prayer finds the person praying asking for something. But if it's God's will they are asking for, whose will is being prayed? And what does it look like to desire God's kingdom?

In this sermon, Pastor Joel describes the mingling of wills we find when humans pray for God's kingdom to come, what the kingdom is, and learn to see where God's kingdom is not in order to pray this petition.

We talk about the two types of God's will, how following God's will is like playing music, and tangled cords.

The Lord's Prayer | Our Father in Heaven. Hallowed Be Your Name

The Lord's Prayer is not just something that we pray in church some Sunday mornings. It's a gift from Jesus to give us a model on how we can pray. For this reason, we ought to be praying this prayer on a regular basis.

But before we can pray it, we have to understand what it says. This sermon series will go through the Lord's Prayer, line by line, and break down what is happening so that we we pray, we understand what is happening to us as we pray it.

The first part of the prayer contains a tension: God as Father, and God as hallowed one. The tension may seem stark, but in reality, if you can grasp the tension well, you can move on and pray the rest of the prayer with abandon. Pastor Joel walks us through the tension.