Billings Vineyard Church Sunday Sermons Billings Vineyard Church

As we wrap up our study of Jesus' defiance in Mark, we turn as a community to what's next. Paul's letter to the churches in Galatia show the body of Christ how to move forward together.

The threats of outside culture can't threaten us when we know who we are in Jesus. Our defiance of the prevailing culture and religion must reflect Jesus' compassionate rescue of the lost. Building the church happens when we break out of our own comfort and follow the template of defiance that Jesus left for us.

He is risen! The resurrection of Jesus is not proof of life after death but the beginning of life itself. We can't disqualify ourselves from the love of God, but we can fill the tomb again with our own chaos. Don't fill the tomb again!

This Palm Sunday, we look at Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem and how he defied the paradigm of the religious owning the rights to relationship with God.

Jesus interacts with a privileged young man who is doing all the right things. When the man asks Jesus what he must do to gain heaven, Jesus reads his mail and explains he has to be willing to follow in all areas of his life, which is too great an ask for the man. Jesus teaches on how losing your life and will actually means you will gain your life, and that it can't be earned but is given through relationship.

The Pharisees used argument not as a tool for reconciliation but for restoration of their own expectations. Are we like the Pharisees, wanting the destruction of our enemies? Or are we like Jesus, defying in service and sacrifice in order to beckon people closer to God?