Redeemer Bible Church Santa Barbara

In the Lord’s astonishing and often ironic Providence, our Independence Day text has Jesus calling us to surrender our rights! You won’t hear these truths on either CNN or FoxNews. But, coming from Jesus, they must be faced by those who follow Him.

Jesus’ challenges about how God’s Law had been manipulated to be more manageable continue, raising issues surrounding truth-telling. But more is in view – and His words still both warn and encourage.

Marriage is to last. But everything around us (and, apart from Christ, in us) is broken and falls short of God’s glory. How then are we to understand divorce?

An axiom of contemporary culture: polite conversation should avoid politics and religion. For pastors’ teaching ministries, one might add today’s topic -- Divorce. But Jesus’ words matter, eternally!

Jesus continues to teach in an authoritative way that exposes our hearts yet leads us to him. What he says about lust demands action because it is a matter of eternity!

Following Jesus looks strikingly different than following this world. But it also differs from common assumptions. Today we dive into warnings that call us to check our hearts.

While Jesus taught “as one having authority” (7.29), He also claimed to work in continuity with His Father’s plan, operative from before Creation. What did Jesus mean? And how do we know? All that still matters today!

Most commentators consider this morning’s text the thesis of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. And one interpreter ranks it among the most difficult in all the Bible. May the Spirit open the eyes of our hearts this morning, because here we find the crux of the matter.

Jesus’ powerful salt and light metaphors resonate throughout history and have become, literally, proverbial. As such we can perhaps forget their practical implications for our routine, daily lives.

The eighth beatitude is the only one that is circumstantial; it’s also the most incomprehensible. But having spiritual sensibilities (1 Corinthians 2) and having the eyes of our hearts enlightened (Ephesians 1) can open up to us astonishing and encouraging truths.