Redeemer Bible Church Santa Barbara

Jesus begins at the beginning, describing the kind of people who inhabit His Kingdom. Is this the pathway in, or the continuing way to live as Jesus-followers? Yes!

Following Jesus looks nothing like common perceptions and conventional wisdom. Jesus’ stunning assertion at the beginning of His famous Sermon on the Mount is intending to stop us in our tracks and evaluate our deepest affections.

As we embark this morning on our journey through Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount, we begin at the ending. These final words and the initial response of the crowds reveal His unique, compelling, and inescapable claims of identity and authority.

Spring flowers, colorful clothes, plenty of candy, and eggs to hide and hunt. Springtime and Easter shout joy and hope. But we’re living in a pretty dark world. Is there hope to be found? Can we find assurance into the future? And can all that be a source for joy in our daily living?

Is guilt merely a construct of human power structures? Is guilt simply residue from over-active consciences? Or is guilt real? What can be done about it? Our friends from Jews for Jesus take us back into the Older Testament to demonstrate what our gracious God has done for us, guilty people all.

Today’s big question lurks, always, in the background. Sooner or later it demands our attention: If God is good and great, why does persistent, egregious evil exist?

Our hope this morning is to allow God’s Word to speak into the big questions about who we are and why we’re here.

Is finding one’s source of ultimate truth in an ancient book an intellectually valid position in the 21st century?

As unpleasant, indeed revolting, as these final chapters are, according to Romans 15:4, “whatever was written...was written [that]...we might have hope.” Israel desperately needed a True Hero; and no less so do we.

Judges’ two epilogues recount daily-life vignettes of Israel during those troubled days. The first reveals what compromised worship looked like in real life. Though in many ways we might feel far removed, our worship may be prone to similar compromises.