New sermon series: Encountering Jesus: A Study Through the Book of John
This Sunday, August 31st, we begin a new sermon series at Redeemer for the fall - “Encountering Jesus: Studies in the Gospel of John.”
As summer fades and fall arrives, and we step into all the new beginnings that this space in the calendar can bring, your pastors want to bring you back to first things, to knowing Jesus and being known by him. I grew up in a church tradition that emphasized a personal relationship with Jesus Christ above all else in the Christian life. In our tradition, as Presbyterian and Reformed Christians, the primacy of knowing and following Jesus can sometimes get lost amid other important concerns: getting our doctrine right, our worship practices right, our church governance right, our organization and structure for church life right. These are important questions in church life, but none of them are of much value unless they are processed in the context and living reality of our meeting Jesus continually as his people. We are redeemed by his death, renewed by his resurrection, and indwelt by his Spirit so that we might live with him.
John opens things up, under the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, with a very Greek idea: that the TELOS of life, our purpose and goal in life, is to discover the LOGOS of life (John 1:1), the organizing power and principle of life, that which brings order and meaning to life. John amazingly tells us, in a way that would have blown first century Greek minds as well as blowing our twenty-first century Western minds today, that the LOGOS is a Person – the Word of God in human flesh, dwelling among us, God the Son tenting among us as man (John 1:14). As John develops his narrative, we meet many people who are meeting Jesus, the Word made flesh: a prophet out in the wilderness; fishermen and other simple people from Galilee; a wedding coordinator; a confused religious leader who comes by night; a woman who is an outsider in every way; an anxious father with a very sick son; the blind and lame waiting for miracles of healing; crowds who are hungry with nothing to eat, sisters who have lost their brother. People meet Jesus the LOGOS, and everything changes for them.
Tim Keller once reflected: “Many of my own formative encounters with Jesus came from studying his encounters with individuals in the Gospels.” That beautifully expresses our hope for this series. May we have formative, life-changing encounters with Jesus as we listen in on Jesus’ encounters with others. May the Lord make it so in our lives!
A final note here: this series connects with the launching of our first Spanish-speaking worship services, which will run once a month this fall, beginning this Sunday, August 31st, at 11:00 a.m. in our Fellowship Hall. Pablo Chavarria, our pastor leading Redeemer’s Spanish-speaking ministry, will also preach through the Gospel of John series at these services. Please join us in praying for this wonderful next step in the life of our church. May the Lord meet and bless us in this next season of our life together!
Rev. Paul Hahn
RPC Lead Pastor