Peace Seymour Weekly Messages

Trinity Sunday - [Pastor Nick Fuller] Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31 Acts 2:14, 22-36 John 8:48-59

Trinity Sunday is the day in the calendar of the church that we celebrate, remember, and engage with the truth that God is one God in three distinct persons. We especially remember that Jesus is God from eternity, and that he as God the Son, became man, that we may have eternal life with him, the Father, and the Holy Spirit in the new creation that Jesus will return to gather us and the whole church into. We do not fully comprehend this mystery, yet we rejoice in the truth, that Jesus is God the Son, with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Fractured : Love - 1 Cor. 13:1-13

Broken relationships are constantly a part of life. There's no escaping them. There are conflicts, fractures, divisions, in all aspects of life. They're unavoidable on this side of eternity, because of our sinful condition. Jesus shows us what true love looks like, by loving us even though we are unlovable. We then, with the love we have been given, are called to love others. It's through this love that relationships are able to happen and function. Without love, we would never get along. Even now, we wait for Jesus' perfect love in his return, to restore, mend, and fix all relationships.

Fractured : Stay Close - Acts 15:36-41

When we disagree with someone or are in conflict with them, we tend to distance ourselves from them. We tend to try to get away from the situation, ignore it, and move on to something else. We don't want to engage in the situation because it's difficult, hard, and we may get hurt. We keep more distance than necessary between those we are in conflict with. While in some relationships we do need to keep some distance, we ought to try to be as close as we appropriately can without putting ourselves in danger or harms way. We should look for more connection rather than less. Just as Jesus did not give up on us, we ought not give up on our relationships with others.

Fractured : Forgive - Luke 17:1-4

Forgiveness is a dying art. We don't often want to forgive others. We make up excuses why we shouldn't have to forgive, or why we are justified in our withholding forgiveness. We wait for our emotions to be in the right place. We withhold forgiveness so that we can have leverage over another person. We are still too angry with them and cannot forgive them. Forgiveness is a choice. It's actually a command from Jesus. We are called to forgive, as hard as that may be. Yet, we make that choice, even if our emotions do not quite follow, because Jesus forgave us. Forgiveness in our relationships does not come from our own experiences, readiness to forgive, or our emotions. It comes from the forgiveness that Jesus has given to us!

Fractured: Confess - 1 John 1:5-2:2

As broken, fractured people, accountability is something we often try to shirk. We don't want to be held accountable for our sin and for our actions. We want to simply move on, remember that we have forgiveness in Jesus, and go on to the next thing. We need to confess our sin, but often we do not do it, because we don't like to admit our faults, face our mistakes, and bear the consequences. When we confess our sins, we do not make ourselves liars, but we see the truth for what it is: we are broken people who make mistakes, and God forgives us because of Jesus. We can't receive the forgiveness that Jesus has won for us, unless we confess that we have sinned, and that we need forgiveness. Yet when we do that, we see God's faithfulness, justice, and love for us in Jesus' words of forgiveness.

The Gospel Truth - Fairy Tale - Luke 24:13-35

Fairy tales are just that, they are make believe stories. We may say that they aren't real, they typically have a lesson to be learned, and they are supposed to change or inform us about how we live in the real world. The magic only goes as far as the last page of the story. Wistful child-like wishes for dragons, knights, evil villains being defeated, and happily ever afters don't really exist. That's often how we think about fairy tales. They are escapist fantasies that distract us from real life. The truth is, the Gospel is a fairy tale that has come true! It is the too good to be true, yet very true news that Jesus has risen from the dead! He has broke into our world, slayed the evil dragon that is death and has made the fantastical come to life! We know that even though we may die, we will live! This world and our lives have been infused with whimsical magic, not from a wizard or an enchanted sword, but from the too good to be true news, that Jesus is alive, death is defeated, and you and I will have our happy ending.

The Gospel Truth - Comedy - Genesis 21:1-7

We all carry difficulties of many kinds. All of us have pains that we simply have to learn to deal with. We have misfortunes, sufferings, and all kinds of problems in this world. Even when we have roses in our lives, we always remember our thorns. As good as life is, there are bad things that happen to us. When all we see is our problems in front of us, we can't ever foresee the end of those problems, and that is when God removes those problems from our lives! In unforeseeable ways, God acts to reverse our misfortune, to lift up the lowly, and to bless those that you and I least expect to be blessed! In the face of this unexpected reversal that God gives us in Jesus, we can only laugh with the joy of the good gifts God has given us!

The Gospel Truth - Tragedy - Isaiah 52:13-53:6

The Gospel can't be preached, unless we acknowledge what the Gospel is an answer to. The problem we have in this world, is that we suffer. We live tragic lives. We have problems that we can't fix. In order to truly understand the Gospel, we have to truly suffer. We have to see our troubles, our mistakes, our sins for what they really are. To hear the Gospel, we must be brought to the end of ourselves. Before the good news of the Gospel, we must hear the news that we are in need of the Gospel. We are in need of a savior. Jesus suffers with us. Jesus suffers for us. In his suffering, Jesus reveals who he truly is. He is the suffering servant of the Lord and the one who does not leave us in the bad news of our sin, but joins us in it. He takes on the fullness of humanity, that humanity may be restored. In the ugly silence of the cross, we see that we truly need a savior. That's just who Jesus is.

We Will Live (Easter Sunday) - Luke 24:1-12 Job 19:23-27 We live, because Jesus lives for and in us

Jesus died. His death signifies the rejection of God. The turning away from God's good intentions and desires for us to be our own gods. As a result our flesh and our lives are temporary. We have pain, we experience death. We see the pain in the lives of those before us, like Job, and in our own life. Jesus lives! God has raised Jesus from the dead, that even as we die, we would rise with him! More than that, our pain will be taken away! Even in the knowledge of the resurrection our pain is numbed and feel insignificant compared to the joy of Easter Sunday and the resurrection! We trust, that just as Job said, we will see our redeemer alive! When the pain and sin of this world has it's way with us and we die, we will be with Jesus, and as the world comes to an end, we will rise with Jesus on the last day!

We Will Die (Good Friday) - Luke 23:44-54 Pain / Promise: We die / Jesus dies with us

Death is a part of life and a part of this world; though this is not how it should be. God never wanted us or anyone to die. He wanted us to live and be with him for all time. But our sin ruined that reality God made for us. We rejected and rebelled against God in our sin. Jesus himself was rejected, and we as humanity killed him. God uses Jesus' death, in order to save us. Jesus joins us in death. This is a tragedy, and the ultimate rebellion against God, to reject him in flesh and blood, to reject Jesus the Son, and to kill him, as if he was the criminal and the rebel. Yet, God uses Jesus' death, to kill death forever. Jesus dies and because he died, we do not fear death either.