Cutlerville East Christian Reformed Church
Episodes
584 episodes
Corinthians: Unity in Christian Community
Have you ever heard of churches where there were great divisions? Some members were treated like royalty, others like 2nd-class citizens? Maybe some preferred a certain pastor and left when he did? Some people felt they were smarter, more spiri...
Lost and Found
When he was on earth, Jesus spent a lot of time browsing over the lost and found table of the world (it was why God sent him). But the Pharisees saw this and murmured: why do you spend so much time with all that junk?!? Hookers, crooked IRS age...
Colossians: Christ Supreme
Paul reminded the Corinthians that “knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (8:1). He could have used another adage, “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing,” and that was certainly true in Colosse, the next church we look at. There a heresy (...
Growing Disciples into Disciplemakers
How did Jesus get people to sign on for this kingdom task? How does that recruitment continue, long after Jesus walked the earth? That’s what we’ll be looking at over the course of this summer: discipleship. “Growing Disciples into Disciplemake...
Galatians: Freedom in Christ
Some Christian Jews were calling the Gentile converts to be circumcised, keep the Sabbath and other sacred feasts, possibly even change to having kosher diets, an effort to keep the church “Jewish.” But it was having the effect of telling the G...
Come and Follow Me
Last week we saw Jesus first phase of discipling: “come and see.” A few disciples spent some time with him and their eyes were opened. When these disciples left Jesus to return to fishing, they were faced with a contrast between two totally dif...
Christian Joy
Philippians Paul writes the Philippians as partners in the Gospel. It is easily the most most intimate and joyous of his letters to his dearest friends. Like most of Paul’s writings, it is a letter of encouragement and challenge. They are facin...
A Call to Be Revolutionary
Over the last two weeks, we saw how Jesus invited prospective disciples to “come and see”— to hang out with him and see how they liked it. Then he revisited them with the invitation to “come & follow me,” based on their experience having be...
Thessalonians: Christian Living
Paul had founded the church in Thessalonica not long before, but within a few months he was run out of town. Concerned over how this young church was faring, he sent Timothy, who returned with a good report. Paul is thankful to God for their fa...
Laborers for the Harvest
What does it means to be a disciple who is growing into a disciplemaker? We can see a progression in Jesus’ disciples, as they grow from Curious Converts (come & see) to Established Disciples (come & follow me), and now to Equipped Labo...
Timothy: Guard the Gospel
Paul is in prison and his main concern is about the future of his Gospel message in the face of the heresies and false teachers of the day. Compounding his concern is that many believers have deserted him. In the face of all this, Paul looks to...
Harvest Instructions
Last week we looked at the preceding passage (Matthew 9:35-38), a call for laborers to go out into the harvest fields. But what does that involve? Jesus is going to send out the 12 Apostles (“sent out ones”) with harvest instructions. He speaks...
Jesus Our High Priest
Hebrews Imagine being a Jewish Christian in the city of Rome in the time of Nero. You’ve been waiting on God’s promises of forgiveness and release from oppression, and have found your Messiah: Jesus. But as the years go by, rather than release ...
The Disciples’ Lord
We’ve been following Jesus as he called and is now equipping his disciples to become disciplemakers. Around this time the disciples must have been asking questions like: Why are we doing this? Who is this we’re following? What authority does he...
James: Faith in Action
This is a letter James writes to churches outside of Israel, dealing with the conditions and problems they all faced, the trials and temptations of life in the real world. Perhaps this why the book of James is such a favorite among so many Chri...
What Confessing Christ Means
Jesus refused to allow public opinion to change his ministry. But now his public popularity has been dwindling. Herod Antipas is concerned about Jesus’ political ambitions. The Jewish authorities are increasingly hostile. Some disciples are lea...
Peter: Be Holy
In a sense, we are moving closer to the apostolic age of the New Testament. Such was the world of those to whom Peter writes this letter, mostly Gentiles who converted to Christianity. To believers living in that kind of world, Peter writes wit...
Fruitful Disciplemakers
Jesus’ pattern of discipling his apostles was (and still is) somewhat similar to getting married: · Phase 1: Come & See = like a first date, as the disciples got to know him · Phase 2: Come & Follow = steady engagement...
John: Christian Love
The situation was that churches in Asia Minor, which John oversees, were dealing with false teachers who were splitting the churches. They believed Jesus was divine, but not fully human. Thus, the death & resurrection of Jesus was relativel...