Archive for the ‘Easter’ Tag
“God Pictures A Future Of Hope!”
Audio Part A:
Audio Part B:
Audio Full Message:
Watch On YouTube
Scripture: Ezekiel 37
Summary:
In this deeply pastoral and hope-filled message, Pastor Richard Andrews invites us to see that the future God holds out to humanity is not uncertain, distant, or fragile but grounded in the living reality of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit revealed in Jesus Christ.
Beginning at the cross in John 19, we are reminded that even in His final moments, Jesus was not turned inward, but outward, making provision. As He declared, “It is finished,” He was not only completing His work, but revealing the very heart of God: a God who provides, who draws near, and who will not abandon His people.
This is the Triune God we meet in Scripture. The same yesterday, today, and forever, whose desire for humanity has never changed: that we would share in His life through Jesus Christ.
From there, the message draws us into the vision of Ezekiel 37, where dry bones are raised to life. What appears dead, scattered, and beyond hope is precisely where God speaks. This vision is not merely historical, it is prophetic and personal. It finds its ultimate fulfillment in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, where death itself is undone and humanity is given new life.
We begin to see that:
- What looks like death is not beyond the reach of the Father’s will
- What feels fractured is not outside the reconciling work of the Son
- What seems empty is not untouched by the life-giving presence of the Holy Spirit
The God revealed in Jesus does not stand at a distance from our brokenness. He enters it. He speaks into it. And by His Spirit, He brings life where there was none.
This same God promises not only life, but unity. In a world marked by division, fragmentation, and hostility, the message reminds us that true reconciliation is not something we manufacture. It is the work of the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. As Ezekiel’s vision of two sticks becoming one points forward, we see its fulfillment in Jesus Christ, the One who gathers, heals, and unites a people from every nation, tribe, and language into one communion.
And at the center of it all is this unshakable truth: God does not wait for us to get our lives together before drawing near. He dwells with His people, even in their rebellion in order to cleanse, restore, and renew. This is the heart of Revelation 4, not fear, but worship. Not chaos, but the throne of God. Not uncertainty, but a future secured in Jesus Christ, where all things are being brought together in Him.
As Karl Barth reminds us: “What happened on that day (of Easter) became, was and remained the centre around which everything else moves. For everything lasts its time, but the love of God – which was at work and was expressed in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead – lasts forever. Because this event took place, there is no reason to despair, and even when we read the newspaper with all its confusing and frightening news, there is every reason to hope.”
Reflective Moment:
Where do you see “dry bones” in your life right now?
Where has hope grown thin… or even disappeared?
What if those very places are not evidence of God’s absence…
but the very places where He is speaking life?
The invitation of this message is not to strive harder, but to listen more deeply. To come before the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit, undistracted and undisturbed… and hear Him say:
“I am here. I am your God. And I am not finished.”
This message doesn’t just speak about hope, it proclaims the living hope we have in Jesus Christ, the One who has already acted, is present with us now, and is faithfully bringing all things to their fulfillment.
Take time to watch and listen to the full message. There is more here, not just for understanding, but for encounter.
“Keeping First Things First This Easter/Resurrection Season!”
Part A:
Part B:
Full Message:
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15
As we gather and prepare our hearts for this upcoming Resurrection Sunday, this message calls us to remember that the empty tomb means nothing without the cross — and that the risen Christ invites us not just to celebrate, but to participate in His life, death, and victory.
“The resurrection of Jesus was not just a coming back to life of a dead man, but the coming of eternal life into our world of sin and death, breaking its way through into the form of a new creation.”
— T.F. Torrance, “Space, Time and Resurrection”
Summary:
In this deeply reflective Easter sermon, titled “Keeping First Things First”, Pastor Timothy Brassell delivers a powerful Gospel message that proclaims the Triune God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — revealed in Jesus Christ. It’s a call to realign our Christian life and church practice around the full narrative of Jesus’ life, not just the Resurrection.
Pastor Tim walks the congregation through the context of 1 Corinthians, exposing the moral, theological, and communal dysfunctions within the Corinthian church — all of which trace back to losing focus on Christ’s full story: His life, crucifixion, death, and resurrection.
This message isn’t only about looking forward to our personal resurrection — it’s about being transformed now by the risen Christ and living into His life today. In a world and church distracted by individualism, factionalism, pride, and cultural confusion, the message calls for repentance, humility, and renewed dependence on Christ’s death and resurrection. It is both sobering and hope-filled — reminding us that the resurrection is not just a future hope but a present way of life.
Key Highlights from the Sermon
1. ✝️ The Whole Gospel: Life, Death, and Resurrection Are One
Jesus’ Resurrection cannot be rightly celebrated apart from His life, crucifixion, and death. The full Gospel is one seamless act of redemption.
💬 Discipleship Question: Have you embraced all parts of Jesus’ life—or only the ones that comfort you?
2. 🤝 Christian Unity Over Division
Paul calls out divisions in Corinth — factions over leaders and prideful preferences — and reminds them (and us) that unity in Christ demands humility and sacrifice.
💬 Discipleship Question: In what ways do my preferences get in the way of Christian unity?
3. 🚫 Immorality & Legal Disputes: Signs of Forgetting Jesus
The Corinthians’ sexual sin and lawsuits reveal what happens when Jesus’ sacrifice isn’t central to Christian life.
💬 Discipleship Question: Where do I seek justice or gratification outside the life of Christ?
4. 🏛️ Your Body: A Temple of the Risen Lord
Paul reclaims the body as sacred, affirming its value through the Resurrection. Holiness isn’t optional — it’s our new normal.
💬 Discipleship Question: Do I honor Christ in how I treat my body and others’?
5. 💍 Singleness and Marriage in Light of Christ
Whether single or married, Paul teaches that our status is secondary to our call to serve Christ in love, sacrifice, and purity.
💬 Discipleship Question: Am I using my current relationship status to fully serve Christ?
6. 🔄 Misusing Spiritual Gifts Without Gospel Centrality
Confusion and pride around spiritual gifts erupted in Corinth because they forgot the Cross. True gifts serve others, not self.
💬 Discipleship Question: Do my spiritual gifts point to Christ or to me?
7. 🌅 Resurrection Power Starts Now
Resurrection isn’t just for the future — Jesus brought the future into our present. His life changes our now.
💬 Discipleship Question: How is Jesus’ resurrection transforming your life this week?
8. 🍇 Communion: Remembering Christ Together
The Lord’s Supper isn’t just a ritual — it’s a communal encounter with Jesus’ broken body and poured-out blood. It demands reflection and unity.
💬 Discipleship Question: Am I truly seeing Christ — and His church — when I take Communion?
9. 📣 Include the Cross in Your Gospel
A true Gospel is not just inclusion into life but inclusion into Christ’s death and crucifixion. That’s the path to transformation.
💬 Discipleship Question: Does my Gospel include the cost of following Jesus?
10. 🕊️ Live the Risen Life in Community
Living into Christ’s resurrection means radically loving, serving, and forgiving within the church. Our witness starts with one another.
💬 Discipleship Question: How are you revealing the risen Jesus through your church relationships?
Reflection: The “He Is Risen Indeed” Tradition
The sermon beautifully affirmed the rich Christian tradition of proclaiming:
“He is risen!”
“He is risen indeed!”
It’s more than a greeting — it’s a declaration of shared life, rooted in Christ’s victory over death. But the full meaning only comes when we remember that Resurrection follows crucifixion. Jesus died to kill death — and rose to raise us now.
I Am the Resurrection And The Life!

Part 1A
Part 1B
Scripture: John 11:17-27
Introduction:
On this Easter Sunday, the Resurrection has something first of all, and primarily, to do with the Father-Son-Holy-Spirit God and His Activity as the Father-Son-Holy-Spirit-God, especially Revealed in Jesus Christ!
Theological Theme:
The most fundamental thing that Jesus has revealed about the resurrection is that HE, HIMSELF, is the Resurrection. We don’t want to keep mistaking resurrection primarily and only as rising up from physical death in the life of the age to come.
Christ Connection:
You don’t have to wait to until the life of the age to come to participate in rising from death. You can rise from death now, because this is meant not only physically but spiritually, and Christ shares himself with us NOW through the Holy Spirit conforming our humanity to his! Forget ONLY waiting to rise from the dead in the future. You can begin to rise and share in the life of the age to come right now, from the Father, through the Son, and in and by the Holy Spirit!
Missional Application:
Because Jesus is Himself the Resurrection, receiving and enjoying the Resurrection is primarily about receiving and enjoying Jesus Christ (along with him the Father and the Holy Spirit!) This is the Good News we seek to share with all that they too may participate actively in the relationship Jesus graciously gives!
Photos compliments: http://www.pinterest.com
Perspective On Your Present Sufferings and Future Resurrection!

Because of God – Father, Son and Spirit’s involvement in our real human lives as revealed in Jesus, and the fact that Jesus himself did not get out of sharing in our humanity without suffering, we will suffer with Him as we participate in and from Jesus.
As I like to say by analogy, sin was us missing the mark in relationship with God and rejecting him was like forcing our heads through a knothole. In undoing the mess we made, Jesus took on our humanity and pulled it back through the dark knothole, literally!, undoing the mess we made. As you can imagine, or maybe even know by experience, being pulled back out of a situation in which you’ve been stuck HURTS TOO!
This is what we see, hear and feel in Jesus as he is facing the supreme point and pain of getting us out of our stuckness, when he says in Luke 22:42, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” You might remember that the context of these words shows that an angel was sent to strengthen Jesus and he was in “great anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.”
This expectation of having to suffer with Jesus and share in his pain is important and is actually one way of relieving the suffering that is to be experienced by us in our participation with him. How is it relieving? Well, when you are told about something in advance, it is not as shocking to you when it occurs and, in some way, though not fully, you are more prepared for it, at least mentally. As a former human resources director, I remember that nothing was more fearful for people in the workplace than “fear of the unknown!”
One consideration for your suffering as a Christian is definitely the same reason Lazarus, Jesus’ friend, suffered:
John 11: “Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.)3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” 4 When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”
Ultimately, your participation is with Christ and in his sufferings as one who trusts him and is being saved! Consider this awesome union with Jesus Christ we have, from the Father and by the Spirit, and receive encouragement from these words penned by George MacDonald in this light:
“But oh, my friends, what shall I say about this wonderful message? Think of being sick for the glory of God! of being shipwrecked for the glory of God! of being drowned for the glory of God! How can the sickness, the fear, the brokenheartedness of his creatures be for the glory of God? What kind of God can that be? Why just a God so perfectly, absolutely good that the things that look least like it are only the means of clearing our eyes to let us see how good he is. For he is so good that he is not satisfied with being good. He loves his children so, that except he can make them good like himself, make them blessed by seeing how good he is, and desiring the same goodness in themselves, he is not satisfied. He is not like a fine, proud benefactor, who is content with doing that which will satisfy his sense of his own glory, but like a mother who puts her arm round her child, and whose heart is sore till she can make her child see the love which is her glory. The glorification of the Son of God is the glorification of the human race, for the glory of God is the glory of man, and that glory is love! Welcome sickness, welcome sorrow, welcome death, revealing that glory!”
2 Timothy 2: 8 Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, 9 for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not chained. 10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. 11 Here is a trustworthy saying:
If we died with him,
we will also live with him;
12 if we endure,
we will also reign with him.
Have a glorious Easter weekend (especially if you’re suffering!), Participating in Your Share of the Sufferings of Jesus Christ, and in Hope of Your Future Resurrection and Glorification in Him!
– tjbrassell
*picture courtesy of michaelkrahn.com
You Are Looking For Jesus Of Nazareth!

This message proclaims that you have solidarity with God in even your darkest hour because of God in Christ! In Christ Jesus has joined us in our dying – Indeed in Christ, God died! – uniting us to Himself in His Resurrection. Therefore, you can live NOW IN HOPE for your human life because:
When Jesus Christ lived, he lived your life, our life. When Jesus died, he died your death, our death. When Jesus rose and ascended to his Father, you rose, we rose, and all humanity mysteriously and truly ascended to his Father in Him!
Indeed, you are looking for Jesus, Who promised to draw all men to Himself! You, we, truly do live in Jesus The Resurrection and The Life! So, do you live in Him???? 🙂
*photo courtesy of pinterest.com
Why Jesus’ Church Fellowships More And More! pt.5(c)
On this 6th Sunday after Pentecost, Pastor Timothy Brassell of New Life Fellowship of Baltimore, Proclaims the GOOD NEWS of The God Revealed in Jesus Christ through Hebrews 10: 1-26, in the continuation of pt. 5 of this Gospel Series, entitled, “Why Jesus’ Church Fellowships More And More!” This is a series designed to help us re-think WHO and WHAT we are in light of Jesus Christ, and who and what we are called to be and do AS THE BODY OF CHRIST!
We understand more clearly in this message:
- The FIRST thing we Christians MUST do when we are faced with any “WHY?” question!
- How challenging and exciting it can be to work through our civic and Church responsibilities in this time between the present evil age and the age to come!
- What a Christians PRIMARY Job is as a citizen of both heaven and earth!
- 9 “down-to-earth, on-the-ground-and in-the-flesh” 21st Century practical Job and Civic reminders that will help you as you think through participating more creatively and properly with Christ in your various roles in this world!
Check it out!
Why Jesus’ Church Fellowships More And More! pt.5(b)
On this 4th Sunday after Pentecost, Pastor Timothy Brassell of New Life Fellowship of Baltimore, Proclaims the GOOD NEWS of The God Revealed in Jesus Christ in the continuation of pt. 5 of this Gospel Series, entitled, “Why Jesus’ Church Fellowships More And More!” and continues to show through Hebrews 10: 1-25 and 1 Thessalonians 2 that the historical context of Hebrews demonstrates that living in God’s image (in relationship together!) is SO CRUCIAL to our well-being that we ARE CALLED to FELLOWSHIP WITH EACH OTHER, all the more, even in the middle of persecution!
We hear in this message:
- Through a quote by Deitrich Bonhoeffer that “the Christian needs another Christian who speaks God’s Word to him. He needs him again and again when he becomes uncertain and discouraged, for by himself he cannot help himself without belying the truth. He needs his brother man as a bearer and proclaimer of the divine word of salvation. He needs his brother solely because of Jesus Christ. The Christ in his own heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of his brother; his own heart is uncertain, his brother’s is sure.” – Life Together, p.22-23. This is why we meet. We were meant to hear the Gospel proclaimed to us!
- There are many pressures placed on us, especially on fathers, because of society’s myth which is that the primary goal of life is the American work ethic and how it will give you power and save you, especially since our jobs are where we get our paychecks, or livelihoods.
- A more detailed answer to the question: “How do we sort out our calling to the Body of Christ and our calling to our Civic Responsibilities including our jobs?” Specifically we understand the responses to that question to be that:
- (1) In this world we have dual responsibilities and they relate around one true center – JESUS CHRIST, so we should NOT rank our responsibilities but prioritize CHRIST IN ALL OUR RESPONSIBILITIES!
- (2) We should NOT conceive of our job or the Body of Christ as independent of one another because in Christ, the Kingdom of God has broken into THIS AGE so that Jesus has the SAME END RESULT for BOTH YOUR SPIRITUAL LIFE AND YOUR WORK LIFE!
- Jesus IS our Work and our Ethic even if that appears confusing or troubling to us! Our Identity IS in Him! The right thing to do is whatever God is doing through us, in participation with Jesus and in the Holy Spirit. We not only live FOR Jesus, but we also live FROM Jesus!
Listen and understand more clearly that we can and need to think of our participation in life as DUAL CITIZENS who relate in our dual roles around the One Center of reality: Jesus!
Why Jesus’ Church Fellowships More And More! pt.5a
On this 3rd Sunday after Pentecost, Pastor Timothy Brassell of New Life Fellowship of Baltimore, Proclaims the GOOD NEWS of The God Revealed in Jesus Christ in pt. 5 (a) of this Gospel Series, entitled, “Why Jesus’ Church Fellowships More And More!” and shows through Hebrews 10: 1-25 that the historical context of Hebrews demonstrates that living in God’s image (in relationship together!) is SO CRUCIAL to our well being that we ARE CALLED to FELLOWSHIP WITH EACH OTHER, all the more, even in the middle of persecution!
We hear in this message:
- Simply, and positively, that, the reason we meet together more and more is simply because we have Trinitarian “DNA”! God through Jesus Christ, by the Spirit, shares HIS RELATIONAL LIFE with us and Relating together in the Spirit is what HIS LIFE looks like! Christianity IS Union with Christ!
- We can only be who we are in Jesus, the New Humanity, as we relate WITH Jesus AND other people – The Great Commandment: Loving God, and Loving our neighbors as yourself! This is especially true of the Body of Christ of which Dietrich Bonhoeffer has said: “The Christian needs another Christian who speaks God’s word to him. He needs him again and again when he becomes discouraged, for by himself he cannot help himself …. He needs his brother man [or sister girl!] as a bearer and proclaimer of the divine word of salvation.”
- A 4TH MYTH EXPOSED! THAT MYTH?: The Primary Goal of Christianity is the American Work Ethic! Get a bit of the context about why the American Work life puts such a negative pressure on you the way it does and a little handle on what you are up against and why!
- A good first response to the question: How do you sort out your calling to the Body of Christ and your calling to your civic responsibilities, including your job, in a world that runs at the pace of 24/7?!
- A more REALISTIC picture as to the conflict and cost involved in being a Christian in this world, living between “The present evil age” and “The Age to Come.”
- An invitation to respond to Jesus calling you to His Body and you having the greatest kind of hope because, in the Spirit, the Father and Jesus bring the future into the present through those in union with Jesus!
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