Element Christian Church

The focus of Good Friday is when we focus on the day our sins get paid for by Jesus dying our death for us on a cross, Easter Sunday is our joyous hope and celebration that comes together into loud celebration…but there is no holiday day for Saturday…Would it be called “quiet day” “patience day” Often you don't hear a message about a Saturday…there is only one church father who ever really wrote one, but we don't even know who it was…what he says about Saturday is recorded in the book "The Liturgy of the Hours" 1600 years ago: "Something strange is happening - there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear."

John Ortberg asks in his book, Who Is This Man, “How did Friday end as Friday? Why did Jesus die? How did this man (meek and mild, blesser of little children, friend of sinners) end up being executed as an enemy of the state?” Friday ends with 3 crosses erected outside of Jerusalem. Two of these crosses have thieves nailed to them, while one is already empty, yet it has a sign over it that reads: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. It’s in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek. In the ancient world of Jesus’ day there were twelve major players that led to Jesus’ death on cross: Rome, The Crowds in Jerusalem, the thieves who were crucified with Jesus, Pilate, Chief Priests, Pharisees, Zealots, Essenes, Herod, Crowds at the Temple, Caesar. Twelfth Player in the story: Jesus. King of Kings, Lord of lords, crucified for our sins: Jesus.

Laodicea sat between two cities; one with hot water, and the other with cold. Both of these cities produced good water, but the water source in Laodicea was terrible. It wasn’t hot or cold, it was lukewarm, reddish in color, and induced vomiting. Like the city’s water, the church was lukewarm and Jesus was on the verge of vomiting them out of his mouth

The church in Philadelphia was commended for their endurance in following Jesus even in the midst of trials. When Jesus encourages this church He calls the Jews who are making their lives hard a “synagogue of Satan.” The word for Satan means “adversary” or “accuser,” Jesus’ words were not an a attack against Jews in general, but a reference to Jews in Philadelphia who denounced Jewish Christians before Roman officials for not being “true Jews.” In Philadelphia, as in other places, Jewish Christians were being excommunicated from their synagogues for following Christ. Jews were exempt from participation in the emperor worship cult, but Jewish Christians, because of their exclusion from the Jewish community, did not enjoy the same legal protection.

This week we looked at the church in Sardis. We learned that Sardis was wildly successful; they were innovative and had great wealth. However, the people in Sardis were over-confident in their city and held the belief that they could never be conquered. History tells us the city was conquered twice by surprise because the city had “fallen asleep.”

This week, we looked at the church of Thyatira. Jesus starts off his message to Thyatira with a remembrance of who He is (the Son of God) and that He sees all (eyes of fire) and that He is immovable (feet of burnished bronze). He then gives one sentence of praise before moving into the area of sin that both Thyatira and the current church (Element included) fall into -- the sin of tolerance.

This week, we looked at the Church in Pergamum. The first thing we learned about this city is that its residents were incredibly religious. They worshiped SO MANY gods it was almost suffocating. If you entered the city of Pergamum you would see temple after temple and people offering gifts, money, and time to these gods in order to please them. Much of their service to these gods was based out of superstition and fear, as these gods were seen as capricious (capricious means: given to sudden and unaccountable changes of mood or behavior. We would call this “fickle” or “unpredictable”). People in Pergamum would sacrifice out of fear because they never knew what mood the gods were in at any moment.

Smyrna was a harbor city (a beach town) that was well known for its temple to the “Mother Goddess” and its provincial imperial cult temples. Smyrna had paved streets, a library, and a gymnasium which led many to want to visit this city of wealth and prestige. Smyrna could have been a lot like the American Church today, in a position of relative comfort, but could see persecution looming on the not so distant horizon. The church in Smyrna was faced with the same question we are faced with today, will we mirror the culture or will we mirror the Gospel?

Revelation 2:1-7 This passage tells the history of a church that was filled with the passion of the gospel, but a generation later, the church has become self-focused. Many scholars will point out that THIS CHURCH started because they understood that the world needed to hear the good news of Jesus, THEY WERE BOLD fresh and creative, but somewhere they lost that passion and impulse.

Today we are wrapping up our first sermon series of the year, The Prodigal God. This series has examined the Parable of the Prodigal Son, found in Luke 15, as well as the parable of the lost coin and the lost sheep (also found in Luke 15). We have looked at the parable of the prodigal son from three different perspectives; the father, the older brother, and the younger brother.

In today’s message we went through the story again, but we tried to do it with an eye on the father. The story of Luke 15 is a story about the father and his character. Luke 15:11 And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. Luke 15:20 his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. Luke 15:22 But the father said to his servants, Luke 15:28 His father came out and entreated him, Luke 15:31-32 And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad…

The older brother in the prodigal son parable told himself that he was superior to his younger brother who had squandered his inheritance. The older brother was, most likely also convinced that he was superior to his father who welcomed home a reckless youth. When we are able to convince ourselves that we are better than someone else, it becomes impossible to love him or her. We eventually will start to look down on them and be filled with bitterness and hostility. We will move to the place where we find ourselves resenting them, and maybe even enjoying our resentment. There are three traits of an older brother: resentment, frequent complaining, and being judgmental.

This week, Eric discussed the younger son in the prodigal son parable. The parable of the Prodigal Son has been called The Evangelium in Evangelio which means the Gospel within the Gospel. It is as if in Jesus’ parable we have a microcosm of the cosmic gospel. All the elements are there – a lavish Father, rebellion, repentance, and a homecoming. Along with the Good Samaritan, this is, no doubt, one of the most well-known parables of Jesus in the world. Ralph Waldo Emerson called the Prodigal Son the greatest Biblical story.

In the parable of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin (Luke 15:1-10), we see God’s plan of salvation, as well as His involvement in seeking out, finding, restoring, and rejoicing in His lost people. Rather than hiring somebody to go out and search for us, God sought us out Himself, because He is personally interested in each one of us. God took it upon Himself to rescue us despite (in spite of our sin) and carry us on his shoulders as a shepherd would with a lamb--taking our sins to the cross. What we could never do for ourselves, He did, and that is amazing grace.

Listen to our Christmas Eve 2014 Message here.

After approximately one year, Element is concluding the Sermon on the Mount, and what a journey it has been! Simply because the sermon series is ending, it does not provide an excuse not to take Jesus’ words to heart. Remember, Jesus ends the sermon with a call to action.

Jesus is hands down the greatest teacher who has ever walked the Earth (granted it is somewhat cheating since He is God). Every time Jesus spoke, he literally blew everyone’s minds! When Jesus speaks, He speaks with power and authority. We learn in the scriptures that Jesus’ authority was not just found in words, but how His words effected reality.

There are few certainties in our lives others than the fact that we will all experience hardship and trials (I know that is not the most uplifting certainty). When referring to suffering, Jesus calls it the certainty of certainties, we will all go through times of struggle. In Matthew 7:25 Jesus uses the analogy of the rains, wind and floods to depict the conditions of suffering; when we do suffer we have two ways to respond, trust in Jesus as our rock or follow the rest of the worlds advice and build on sand.

This week, we learned about the power of names, specifically, God’s name. In Exodus, the third commandment God gives us is “You shall not take the name of your Lord God in vain…”

What we believe has fundamental effects on how we live our lives, what we allow to influence us as truth has the same effect. The early church became, rightfully, protective over what was being taught as sacred scripture. Marcion was guilty of attempting to reduce the Gospel to simply the love of Christ. He removed all parts of the Bible that were Jewish in nature and attempted to conform the Bible to his own worldview (sounds like the culture we live in today, right?) When he neglected the wrath of God he also eliminated the need for grace. Our sin is real, and it is ugly. It is true that God loves us, but if you recall, the wages of sin are death. Montanus believed that what he felt, thought, and became emotional over was more important, and held greater truth, than what God had revealed to humanity through Jesus’ own words and the apostles words. Our culture today is a “me” based culture that takes this approach to everything. We say things like “follow your heart” and “do what you feel is right” in reg