Union Church

Union Church AZ

Sermons and content from Union Church in Prescott, Arizona.

  1. 2d ago

    1 Peter 3:13-22 - The Pilgrim's Path

    Listen along as we continue through 1 Peter. Notes//Quotes: 1 Peter 3:13-22 Title: The Pilgrim's Path “8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh…16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”  (2 Corinthians 4:8-11, 16-18) 28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.  (Matthew 10:28-30) “A wonderful text is this, and a more obscure passage perhaps than any other in the New Testament, so that I do not know for a certainty just what Peter means.… I cannot understand and I cannot explain it. And there has been no one who has explained it.” - Martin Luther “The exegetical questions basically come down to these: Where did Christ go? When did he go? To whom did he speak? What did he say? Different answers to each of these questions can be found, resulting in a labyrinth of exegetical options, each of which has no clearly overwhelming claim to certainty, [with one] calculating 180 different exegetical combinations, in theory.” - Karen Jobes

    36 min
  2. May 17

    1 Peter 2:13-25 - Providence and Politics

    Listen along as we continue through 1 Peter. Notes//Quotes: 1 Peter 2:13-25 - Jack 1 Peter 2:13-25 There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine! - Abraham Kuyper  Romans 13:1-2 “The cross is not a sign of the church's quiet, suffering submission to the powers-that-be, but rather the church's revolutionary participation in the victory of Christ over those powers. The cross is not a symbol for general human suffering and oppression. Rather, the cross is a sign of what happens when one takes God's account of reality more seriously than Caesar's. The cross stands as God's (and our) eternal “no” to the powers of death, as well as God's eternal “yes” to humanity, God's remarkable determination not to leave us to our own devices.” - Stanley Hauerwas, Resident Aliens “Peter writes “Honor all people.” It is hard to imagine a more devastating critique of the Roman way, for with the pairing of these two directives Peter has flattened the status pyramid of the Roman world. He has just made one’s response to the slave next door no less than one’s response to the emperor. Without saying so explicitly, Peter has thus cast his Christian audience as imitators of the Father who exercises impartiality in judgment.” Joel Green  “The Bread itself was hungry, Fullness itself was thirsty, Power itself was made weak, Health itself was wounded, and Life itself was mortal. So that our hunger would be satisfied, so that our dryness would be watered, our weakness supported, our love ignited. What greater mercy than that which presents to us the Creator created; the Master made a slave; the Redeemer sold; the One who exalts, humbled; the One who raises the dead, killed?” - Augustine

    1h 16m
  3. May 10

    1 Peter 2:9-12 - Earworm

    Listen along as we continue our time in 1 Peter. Notes//Quotes: 1 Peter 2:9-12 - Faith Title: Earworm [Verse 1] Guilty running down the side of the egg I'm in love with the past, and the things that they said Guilty running down the side of my head I get by on the promise of future excess Guilty running, guilty running I put my back in waiting for something [Chorus] I keep waiting for the shoe to drop Microplastics in my lemonade I keep waiting for my friend to call And forgive me of my bad faith Guilty running, guilty, I'm running out of time - Hudson Freeman 5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”   (Exodus 19:6&7) “They all make one family, a sort and species of people distinct from the common world, of another spirit, principle, and practice, which they could never be if they were not chosen in Christ to be such, and sanctified by His Spirit.” - Matthew Henry “26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:26-31) “The community that is created by the cross, is not just a warm family or aggregation of people giving one another emotional support. It is an alternate society with different habits, different customs, different loves. It is a foretaste of the heavenly city to come.” - Timothy Keller

    37 min
  4. Apr 26

    1 Peter 1:13-26 - Exilic Exercise

    Listen along as we continue our time through 1 Peter. Notes//Quotes: 1 Peter 1:13-26 - Chris F Reading Title: Exilic Exercise “The tidings were mostly sad and ominous: of gathering darkness, the wars of Men, and the flight of the Elves…And I warn you that peril is now both before you and behind you, and upon either side…. ‘But where shall I find courage?’ asked Frodo. ‘That is what I chiefly need.’ ‘Courage is found in unlikely places,’ said Gildor. ‘Be of good hope!”  — J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship Of The Rings “So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that’s coming when Jesus arrives. Don’t lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn’t know any better then; you do now. As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness.” (1 Peter 13-16, MSG) “If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all. For everything that Christ taught, everything that is distinctively Christian… is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God. “Father” is the Christian name for God.”  — J. I. Packer, Knowing God “Christianity is completely and entirely and utterly hope — a looking forward and a forward direction; hope is not just an appendix. So Christianity inevitably means a new setting forth and transformation of the present…[The hoping person] can never come to terms with the inescapability of death or with the evil that continually breeds evil. For him the resurrection of Christ is not merely consolation in suffering; it is also the sign of God’s protest against suffering. That is why whenever faith develops into hope it does not make people serene and placid; it makes them restless. It does not make them patient; it makes them impatient. Instead of being reconciled to existing reality they begin to suffer from it and to resist it.”  — Jürgen Moltmann, Experiences of God

    29 min
  5. Apr 19

    1 Peter 1:10-12 - Trust and Temptations

    Listen along as we continue our series through 1 Peter. Notes//Quotes: 1 Peter 1:3-12 “Jesus matters because of what he brought and what he still brings to ordinary human beings, living their ordinary lives and coping daily with their surroundings. He promises wholeness for their lives. In sharing our weaknesses he gives us strength and and imparts through his companionship a life that has the quality of eternity.” - Dallas Willard Peter opens the body of the letter by providing a theological and hermeneutical basis for the Christian life that introduces the major motifs and themes of the letter. In the Greek, these verses constitute one very long sentence that is composed of a series of subordinate clauses modifying the main clause “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Doxology provides the context for Christians’ new life in Christ (1:3–5) because both their experience of suffering grief in trials (1:6–7) and their present and ultimate salvation is the goal not only of their faith but also of the plan of God as revealed to the prophets - Karen Jobes We would like a church that again asserts that God, not nations, rules the world, that the boundaries of God's kingdom transcend those of Caesar, and that the main political task of the church is the formation of people who see clearly the cost of discipleship and are willing to pay the price. As a society of unbelief, Western culture is devoid of a sense of journey, of adventure, because it lacks belief in much more than the cultivation of an ever-shrinking horizon of self-preservation and and self-expression. - Stanley Hauerwas Luke 24:25 Image “Ask the questions that have no answers.     Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.     Say that your main crop is the forest     that you did not plant,     that you will not live to harvest.”  - Wendell Berry

    38 min

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Sermons and content from Union Church in Prescott, Arizona.