Saints‘ Hill Church Podcast

The Scripture reading this week from Luke 22v39-46 kicks off what is known as “the passion,” or, the suffering of Christ. Jesus, being the true man, shows us how to suffer well. He is honest with the Father about his fear, but ultimately chooses to trust God that the Cross will not be the end.  The New Testament speaks at great length to suffering. We learn that suffering is about knowing Jesus. When life brings a test, let it disillusion you to every other lesser love so that your capacity for knowing and loving Jesus, may increase. 

In Luke 22v31-38 Jesus warns his disciples that a sifting is coming. Their trust in Him will be tested in the coming days.   Jesus points out that it is Satan, or, “The Accuser” whose aim it is to expose & inspire faithlessness in His followers. Satan’s accusation is that the disciples only love Jesus for what they think He can do for them.    The New Testament refers to Satan as the ruler of this age. So it’s safe to say that we too can expect to be sifted in this life. The beautiful thing about Jesus is that no matter how humiliated or hopeless you may have become in the sifting, His heart remains open to you. The sifting at its best creates an opportunity for mercy you didn’t know existed.    The path of the disciple, like Peter, is the path of having all your images of God fail you, so that you can truly know and love Him as He is.

On Sunday, one of our elders, Austin Smith, explored Jesus’ radical definition on greatness found in Luke 22v24-30.    While the disciples argue about status, Jesus teaches that true greatness in His kingdom is found in humble service—becoming useful rather than trying to get ahead.   Worldly self-centeredness will keep us from loving others well, but in Jesus’ life we see another way to live. He is so certain of His identity as a beloved son, that he is able to go low, to be grateful and generous in every situation.   As we grow in gratitude to God, may our lives become acts of worship and may we be found useful to his kingdom. 

On Sunday we got to hear from Bria on the Last Supper passage in Luke 22v1-23.   The Last Supper is not just a famous scene, but an intentional fulfillment of the Jewish Passover. Jesus transforms the Seder’s promises of sanctification, deliverance, redemption, and praise into a new covenant centered on Himself.   As the true Passover Lamb, He invites His disciples—and us—not just to remember the Exodus, but to remember Him: His body broken, His blood poured out, and the fullness found only in union with Him.

Luke 21v5-38 has been interpreted by many modern Protestants as an end times prediction. On Sunday, Alex gave us some helpful tools to aid in our interpretation of Jesus' words in this passage.   There is both prophetic and apocalyptic language in this passage, and it is important to distinguish which is happening when. Jesus does describe an actual event in the future of Israel where Rome takes Jerusalem by siege and destroys the temple (70 AD). He also uses apocalyptic imagery to describe patterns we can expect to see in the world until His return.    Amid the tumult of living in this world, Jesus calls our attention to what matters most - the Holy Spirit with us and the mission God has given us to advance the kingdom.   We pray that this message encourages you in your walk with Jesus!

The overarching idea of this series is that we live in this world, we don’t live in heaven fully yet. God designed it this way, and it means we have a role to play.  Your labor will likely be one of the largest roles you play in bringing heaven to earth. While toil is a result of the fall, labor is not. Humans were made to labor with God - made to build, to act upon created things in order to make them more than they would have been on their own. In God’s economy, labor leads to ownership and ownership leads to offering. This is a life of worship.  We pray that through this series, God will be speaking to you about your gifts, your limitations, and the opportunities He's given you. These will inform how you take ownership and serve wherever He has placed you.

In this series we have been talking about how we experience our faith in the world around us. This week, Alex aimed to answer the question, what sort of world should Christians seek to build with our politics? We cannot avoid politics because our faith is incarnational, shaping culture, institutions, and everyday decisions. However, history warns us against using power or theocracy to impose belief.  There is a tension between what we believe to be universal morals, and the particular realities of our day and age. We must be slow, humble and thoughtful in forming political views. We believe Christians should advocate for governments that protect God-given freedoms; however, the heart of our witness is not policy but a life shaped by the cross, where mercy and self-sacrifice speak louder than power.

Is Christianity mainly about the Spirit catching people up into the progression of heaven on earth? Or is Christianity mainly about building institutions, societies, and laws that benefit the individual conscience and familial aims? We see both in the Scriptures. Spirit and structure.  As Christians, we engage in politics because of the Incarnation. Because Jesus is both God and man, heaven and earth are coming together. The earthly king is not God, but humans have the ability in partnership with God to bring His rule into ours.  The messy part is how that happens and with what sort of methods. Many Christians disagree on these things, and we must guard our hearts against resentment. May God bring us to repentance, extend His grace towards us, and show us how to love one another so that we can receive His vision for heaven on earth in all its nuance and beauty. 

The entire Bible is about the mission of God. God wants to restore trust with humans, which will lead to the restoration of all creation.   In the Scriptures, we are given the creational mandate in Genesis and the Great Commission in Matthew. This means that discipleship is important in this life, but so is your work, your family, and your time.  If we can get a bigger picture of evangelism, one that includes the breadth of God’s mission, we can begin to announce the gospel with our lives.

On Sunday we began a new series by reading Colossians 1v15-23 and asking the question, “What is our message to the world?” Our conviction is that the gospel is not just personal, it’s also cosmic. This is a far cry from the personal, private, gnostic American gospel that we were born into.  Because of the incarnation, salvation is neither an escape from this world or a perfection of it. It seems that the authors of the Scriptures want us to see ourselves as a part of the cosmos that is being reconciled through Christ - to love this world enough to want to participate in its restoration.  The hope of resurrection changes the way we live. We can live without fear and build with God things that will last forever.

Advent has brought us to the birth of Christ, the celebration of Christ with us, but even after his arrival the Scriptures tell us that all is still not as it should be.   Christ has come, and He will come again, but we still live with the reality of suffering. The Scriptures call us to usher in the kingdom of God with our beautiful, suffering Savior. We don’t live for an ideal experience, we live for a person - in joy and in suffering. We know that faith pleases God so we do not shrink back when suffering comes. Our true joy comes from communion with him.  There is always beauty to be found, because Christ has made himself available to us.

During our Christmas Eve gathering this year we looked at the story of Jesus in John 1.  Because Jesus came we have hope in the midst of a troubled world and we get to carry that hope to the world.  We reflect on the fact that Christmas is a time to have hope even if the world seems dark.   We pray that as your family gathers you would remember all that Jesus did for us on the Cross, and the miracle that we serve a God who came to us.   Merry Christmas Saints' Hill

On Sunday, Pete read the Angels’ Song from Luke 2. The Angels’ Song is one of hope realized.  The angels come to the lowly shepherds to announce the good news of Christ’s birth. The Messiah is finally here, peace is available to all people. The angel chorus glorifies God for this great gift, and gives an important key for how this peace is actually obtained.  It is by our faith that God is pleased. When we entrust all of ourselves to Christ, we receive all that he is. This life of peace with God pours over into all of life, making the same gift that we received, available to all those we encounter.

On Sunday we continued in our Advent series looking at the songs of Advent. This week we turned our attention to Mary. Luke 1v46-55 is Mary’s song. She sings because God has included her in His promise to bless the nations. She gives her yes, her surrender, so that she may participate in the fulfillment of this hope. The promise given to Mary is a part of a very old promise to Israel. God will send a Messiah to redeem his people from the curse.   The promise is unique in that it does not offer to heal the world with a political system, but with the incarnation - God inside of you, making you new. This reordering of humanity itself is what will lead to heaven on earth.

The prophecy of Zechariah in Luke 1v67-79 reframes our reality by showing us what the coming of Jesus really means, so that we can orient our lives appropriately.  The gospel is not our escape from this life nor our license to live for this world. The gospel of Jesus Christ means that eternal life begins right now.   We get to serve God without fear in righteousness and holiness through the union you have with God by the Spirit. This was God’s plan when He called Abraham and this is the hope we carry as we reflect on what the Advent season means.   We pray that you would continue to know and experience the wonderful union you have with God in Christ.

On Sunday, Andoni reminded us of why it’s so important to keep the gospel as our North Star.   In an age of endless information, knowledge and influence we must remain aware of our need for Jesus.   In the battle for the mind, we must be conscious of what we are consuming. The only thing that will truly feed and sustain us is the Word.   We are designed to live with integrity and a single mind so that anywhere we go, our presence may suggest His.

On Sunday, we reflected on the journey Saints’ Hill has been on over the past seven years, and where we feel like God is taking us. The current shift we are feeling has led us to update our mission language, and to prepare to add a second gathering.   Our updated mission statement - friendship with God for the renewal of all things - reflects the core of our philosophy of ministry as well as what we are actually doing.  The decision to add a second gathering comes from a sense that we should be prepared to accommodate the growth that God is bringing to our town and to our family.   We are deeply grateful to God for what He has built in us over the last several years, and we are believing that He desires to give Newberg the same friendship He has so graciously given us.

Thanks for joining us as Senior Leader Alex Rettmann sits down with leaders from our church family to reflect on last Sunday’s sermon and talk about life, community, and ministry. We are praying you’re blessed!

On Sunday we wrapped up our vision series, Join the Family, with a message on the identity of a child.  God’s answer to a world filled with lack, is the establishment of a family. Abraham and his family were to trust God unto blessing the nations. This was ultimately fulfilled in Christ’s life, death and resurrection, where we now are invited to join the family of God through the blood of Jesus.  Our new identity as God’s child changes everything. We now have the security, access, and abundance of our Father. Being a part of God’s family means that you are so secure in His love that you don’t need to manipulate or control other family members to address lack. This frees you up to truly love and serve your brothers and sisters, and is the foundation of Christian community.

Thanks for joining us as Senior Leader Alex Rettmann sits down with leaders from our church family to reflect on last Sunday’s sermon and talk about life, community, and ministry. We are praying you’re blessed!