Door of Hope Northeast Door of Hope Northeast

Matthew 5-7 - The sermon on the mount is the most influential sermon ever preached. It is the longest recorded unbroken teaching we have from Jesus's ministry. But what is it? We argue that it is an exposition of Jesus's basic message: "repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." It is a picture of what happens when God's kingdom comes and God's will is done in a human heart. It is a picture of what it looks like to love God with everything and love others as oneself. It's a manifesto for God's kingdom people, the ethics of the Kingdom, our marching orders from our king. It is Jesus's vision of the good, flourishing, abundant life. Empowered by the Spirit and covered by the grace of God, the sermon on the mount is a glimpse of who we are becoming as we follow after King Jesus. A sermon by Cameron Heger and Mindy Haidle. [Part 5 of our series "One King and One Kingdom"]

Questions for discussion: 1) How familiar are you with the sermon on the mount? Where have you encountered it before? 2) There are many different ways the sermon has been understood. Cameron mentioned 3. Have you heard any others? 3) Dr. Jonathan Pennington makes the case that Jesus's purpose in the sermon is to provide a teaching for disciples to meditate on over time in order to be formed into the kind of virtuous, flourishing people that He envisions for us. How might we take Jesus up on this invitation? 4) The sermon on the mount sets an incredibly high standard for discipleship. Why are the Spirit's empowerment and the grace of God both essential doctrines to keep in mind when we consider the sermon? 5) What parts of the sermon most resonate with you? What parts are most challenging for you? 6) What implications does this teaching have for your engagement in your church community? For your engagement in politics?

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2 Corinthians 5:17-21 - Theologians talk about the Kingdom of God as an already/not yet reality. Jesus has inaugurated His Kingdom and reigns among His people today while we still await his second coming when the Kingdom will come in full. But how are we to live in this time between the times? In this passage, Paul gives us a key to understanding our identity as Kingdom people now: ambassadors living in exile. As ambassadors, we must learn to embrace non-conformity, non-violence, and loving witness toward those we find ourselves among. A sermon by Cameron Heger. [Part 4 of our series "One King and One Kingdom"]

Questions for discussion: 1) Christians will often say things like "this world is not our home?" What is a sense in which this is true? What is a sense in which this is false? 2) What is an ambassador? How does this term inform our relationship to the world around us? 3) What does it mean to say God's people are living in exile? 4) What is the message of reconciliation God has entrusted us with? 5) What would it look like for our community to live as a picture of the reign of king Jesus in Portland today?

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Mark 8:27-9:1 - After teaching and ministering among his disciples, Jesus put the question of questions to them: “Who do you say that I am?” Peter gave the right answer (The messiah! The king!) but didn’t understand what it meant for Jesus to receive his crown through the cross. We, too, must wrestle with what it means to follow King Jesus not into capitulation or violence, but into His way of sacrificial, suffering love. A sermon by Cameron Heger. [Part 3 of our series “One King and One Kingdom”]

Questions for discussion: 1) Can you think of a time when you’ve taken on the habits, aesthetics, or values of a leader or subculture? What was that like? 2) Peter correctly identifies Jesus as the Messiah but reveals he has a shortsighted view of what that meant. Why did Peter see the king but miss the spirit of the kingdom? 3) How was Peter acting like Satan in Jesus’s view? Why was Jesus so firm with Peter? 4) Why was the cross an essential part of Jesus’s enthronement? 5) What relationship does our suffering have to Jesus’s suffering?

#doorofhope #doorofhopepdx #doorofhopene #doorofhopenortheast #portland #pdx #gospel #jesus

Matthew 27:27-31 - This sermon was not technically part of the "One King and One Kingdom" series as it was given on Good Friday 2024, but it is exploring the same themes and is a kind of counterpart to the sermon preached on 4/21. In this message, we consider how Jesus models the way greatness and power works in the Kingdom of God. A sermon by Cameron Heger. [Part 2 of our series "One King and One Kingdom"]

Matthew 4:23-25 - An election year is a great time to reconsider Jesus’s teaching about the kingdom of God and the radical call to bend the knee to Him as king. We begin with a look at Jesus’s gospel message: the gospel of the kingdom. It is not only good news about the forgiveness of sins, but also about the victory and reign over Jesus over all competitors. A sermon by Cameron Heger. [Part 1 of our series “One King and One Kingdom”]

Questions for discussion: 1) How have you defined the gospel? Has it been informed by a kingdom lens? 2) How would you argue for “the kingdom” as the main idea of Jesus’s teaching ministry? 3) How was calling his message “the gospel” a challenge to Caesar? 4) What do we learn about the gospel message in verses 23-25? 5) This passage gives us hints about who the kingdom includes—who does it suggest?

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Romans 8:31-39 - We conclude our time in Romans chapter 8 with Paul's incredible exclamation point on the beautiful gospel truths he has been unpacking throughout. We couldn't say it better than Paul himself: "For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Finally, in Jesus, the love that conquers death has come. A sermon by Cameron Heger. [Part 6 of our series "The Cross, The Spirit & The End of Death"]

Questions for discussion: 1) What do you make of the fact that disciples of Jesus have outlasted Caesar and the Roman Empire? 2) What makes the public death and resurrection of Jesus as the center of Christianity unique among world religions? 3) In this passage Paul states that Jesus was not only "given up" and that he "died," but also that he "was raised" and "is interceding." In what sense is Jesus alive today? What is he doing? 4) Paul lists a number of potential threats we might assume could separate us from God's love in Christ. How has Jesus overcome these? 5) What does it mean to say Jesus defeated death? For Himself? For us?

#doorofhope #doorofhopepdx #doorofhopene #doorofhopenortheast #portland #pdx #gospel #jesus