Jesus at 2AM - A Humorous, Intelligent Look at the Bible, Church History & the Life of Faith

Having established the content of Christian hope - the present assurance of God's ultimate salvation (see ep. 292) - we turn now to the Christian obligation to be instruments of hope to others. Amidst suffering, even suffering inflicted upon us, as followers of Jesus we are called to embody hope, to reveal the way to love and peace and rest.

Our means for accomplishing this? In a word: holiness - being distinctly Christian, distinctly loving.

The biblical passage referenced in this sermon is:

• 1 Peter 1:1-16 (NRSV)

It was preached on April 19, 2020 (Easter) at Canvas Presbyterian Church (Irvine, CA). If you'd like to see the whole worship service, you can find it here. Or subscribe to the Canvas Vimeo page for our video archive or to see future worship services!

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The divine rescue - of which the ministry of Jesus is the decisive act - is not merely to be understood as the securing of a heavenly afterlife for the faithful, but the restoration of a fallen creation. To be "saved" is to be set free, to be healed and to be counted a citizen of the "kingdom of God."

But such freedom recognizes there we are presently captives, subjects of a hostile regime. There is an enemy that must be defeated. But identifying that enemy - the actual enemy - can be quite difficult.

In this episode we turn to the story of Jesus's "temptation" in the wilderness as Matthew helps us see that this is Evil's attempt at a negotiated victory. Why not accept some comfort here, some glory there and a whole lot of earthly power? All that is required is to let Evil continue it's work behind the scenes... It's an offer Jesus managed to refuse..., but one we are quite often willing to accept in an instant. And the thing about deals with the devil is...there is never a deal.

It can help to follow along visually, so the text for this sermon can be found here --> Matthew 4:1-11 (NRSV)

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