Live the revolution: for the audience of one.
Having shown what a kingdom heart and the kingdom life looks like, Jesus concludes His Sermon on the Mount with a series of warnings about inhibiting the kingdom life.
The first concerns the desire for approval from anyone other than God our Father. When our motivation to give, pray and fast is clouded by what others think of us, we need to beware. Kingdom People are called to devote themselves to the audience of One - our loving Father in heaven. When we do this we receive the greatest of rewards - more of him - his presence, peace, love, and power.
By Ed Flint
Live the revolution: love they neighbor.
What does this revolution actually look like in real life? Torah Law was always about love — love of God, self and neighbor — but somewhere along the way it had became something to manage, manipulate, and weaponize. In six startling case studies, Jesus takes Israel’s Law, and traces the trajectory from the seed in the heart to the fruit in the world, and brings his focus to the image of God in every one of us.
Jesus goes after contempt, objectification, power abuse, image-management, retaliation and tribal loyalty. This is not moral tightening or any sort of new rules: it is relational restoration, the root of all kingdom justice! With bonkers (and so misunderstood!) contextual wisdom, turning cheeks and walking extra miles actually become ways of expressing agency, calling out injustice and inviting even our enemy into relationship. Challenging teaching, for our challenging times!
By Hannah Flint
Books referenced in talk
The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God by Dallas Willard
The Narrow Path: How the Subversive Way of Jesus Satisfies Our Souls by Rich Villodas
Live the revolution: beyond the goodness of Pharisees.
Matthew 5:17-20
Having announced his kingdom, invited all to enter it, and described that people of the kingdom as salt and light, Jesus elaborates on how kingdom people live.
Our goodness is to surpass that of the Pharisees. This is life beyond legalistic righteousness. So, Jesus hasn’t come to tell us to live righteously, he has come to make us into the sort of people who live righteous lives. His interest is in the heart, not outward appearance.
The challenge to us is this: does following the law come naturally? We become such a person only when we allow the power of God’s love to transform us daily into the kingdom people we have become.
By Ed Flint
Live the revolution: salt and light.
Jesus turns things upside down when it comes to who is invited into his kingdom - it’s everyone, really everyone. What’s more, the invitation to receive the blessing of his kingdom is not dependent on anything that we might deem a qualification or a disqualification. But Jesus doesn’t end his teaching there. And neither must we. Entrance into his kingdom is just the first step.
Jesus continues his Sermon on the Mount by painting a picture of what Kingdom people look like. Fundamentally, they are ontologically changed. Kingdom people are salt and light. They don’t try to be, or should be, or can be salt and light. They are. Such a radical change only happens when we allow God to resurrect us. And we can only be resurrected if we’re willing first to die to what we were.
Salt stops things decaying, makes things pleasurable, and helps things grow. Light is the presence of Jesus shining out of us and redeeming the world. The world needs us to be who we are - salt of the earth and light of the world.
By Ed Flint
Live the revolution: blessedness.
When it comes to "living the revolution" the question arises - for whom is the revolution good news? Who gets to join in - and who is excluded? So, from the outset of His revolutionary invitation, Jesus makes it clear - even those who have been discarded and set aside socio-culturally are able to join Him in turning the world right side up.
But, it will come at cost - they, once joined, can no longer define themselves by exclusion! Qualification is in Jesus' hands - not theirs. And so is the mission to which He sends us.
By Bill Dogterom
Live the revolution: introduction to the sermon on the mount.
Many of Jesus’ most familiar teachings come from the Sermon on the Mount, the aim here is not to treat it as a list of moral instructions, but to understand the new day Jesus was announcing. Set against a deeply divided and oppressed Israel, Jesus’ announcement that “the kingdom of heaven has come near” was not a threat of judgment, but a declaration that the long wait for God’s action was over. The Sermon re-centers the Law, not as a path to salvation, but as a vision of life under God’s reign—and Jesus’ rhetoric shows it was never meant to be achievable through human effort.
From the opening line of the Beatitudes onward, He makes clear that the kingdom is available to all who can admit they can’t do this on their own (spoiler - that’s all of us - that’s the whole point!) Rather than driving us to despair over our shortcomings, the Sermon on the Mount trains us to live within a reality Jesus opened up to every one of us, through God’s presence and the power of His Spirit.
By Hannah Flint
Books referenced:
The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God by Dallas Willard
The Narrow Path: How the Subversive Way of Jesus Satisfies Our Souls by Rich Villodas
Jesus fantastic.
In Paul’s letter to the Colossians (Colossians 1:15-23) he presents Jesus as so attractive as to be utterly compelling. We’re called to do something similar, in our similarly pluralistic context of Los Angeles: to present Jesus as he is--unapologetically the center of the universe.
Jesus is the one everyone is looking for: he’s the only one who fully satisfies us, the only one who is supreme over us, and the only one who continues to sustain us. In a world that is so obviously broken and in pain, let us invite everyone we know to meet him; the one who makes us whole. He’s fantastic.
By Ed Flint
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
As we head into 2026, let us consider a simple invitation from Psalm 34: Taste and see that the Lord is good.
From Genesis to Revelation, the scriptures demonstrate God inviting us to receive his wonderful love in tangible, authentic, and embodied ways. Through Jesus, the hard work has been completed, and our job is to receive from him. What gets in the way of us “tasting and seeing” the goodness of God? Let us run (with abandon) into the perfect Arms of love as a community this year.
By Nelly D’Alessandro
Advent: a weary world rejoices.
As Advent draws to a close, we reflect on the phrase, the thrill of hope, a weary world rejoices. We're reminded daily of the weariness of our world, but what was going on when Jesus was born? Why was the ancient world so weary?
In this talk, we dive into what was happening politically and culturally for the people of Jesus' time, explore what we get wrong about the Nativity, and how by reframing our understanding of Luke 2, we can better understand the Hope that Jesus brings. Because hope does not belong to a select few: it's for everyone.
By Rebekah Covington
Advent 2025: Prince of Peace.
Christmas declares ‘Glory to God and on earth, peace’. Peace, which is more than just an absence of conflict, but rather everything being right and good with the world, is what God intends for his world. But we know all too well how peace-less the world can be: there’s a lack of peace globally, in our communities, and in our own hearts and minds.
This is because the lasting peace Jesus promises is always dependent on him. And without him, we can never experience the peace He brings. But when we embrace Him as the center of our universe, our community, our personal lives, he does what no-one else can do. He destroys the peacelessness that afflicts us, and re-creates us so that we have peace with God, other people and ourselves. This is the message of Christmas!
By Ed Flint
Bread end of year giving.
Every December, we launch our End of Year Giving Campaign. In this talk, we consider how, as followers of Jesus, we are called to treat money. Paul writes to Timothy with instruction to three groups of people: those who have lost sight of Jesus and who are solely interested in financial gain; those who are materially poor; and those who are wealthy. And, in this context, he exhorts Timothy, and all three groups, to refrain from being distracted.
Our focus is not the love of money, but to take hold of the kingdom of God. It is only here where we are freed from the power money can exert over us to become the generous givers we have been made to be. There is no better use of the resources we have been given than to give them away for the sake of the Kingdom of God.
By Ed Flint
Jesus wins by losing.
Isaiah 52:13-15; Isaiah 53:1-12
As we wrap up this short series on Isaiah (a fitting moment to enter Advent), we come to Isaiah 53—the Suffering Servant—arguably the text that shaped the early church’s understanding of Jesus’ death and resurrection more than any other. It gives us the clearest Old Testament picture of what Jesus came to do and why it matters for real life.
But it’s not a pretty picture: this is a God who heals by taking the brutality of all human sin and pain on Himself. We ask how this song might shape the way we understand our own suffering, and how it calls us toward compassion and mission in our city.
By Hannah Flint
Jesus comforts those in distress.
The Bible never promises us a stress-free life. Indeed, we’re regularly told that, as Christians, we can expect suffering. However we can also always expect God to be our great comforter whatever we face. His comfort is so extraordinarily powerful that even when circumstances are at their most dire, we are lifted up, drawn closer and enlivened in our faith.
God comforts us by his nature, his word, and through the comfort of his people. Isaiah prophesies about God’s comfort coming to his people in distress. In Jesus, and by his Spirit, that same comfort is available to us now and always.
By Ed Flint
Jesus gives you a home.
Isaiah 35 offers a vision of hope and home to God’s people in exile, hundreds of years prior to Jesus. It poetically speaks of the wildness of God’s compassionate mercy and his surprising power.
From this passage we can see a theme that extends far forward as well, that Jesus has come to give us a forever home that is secure. And because of his love and power—even in the driest, most hopeless places—songs of joy and gladness can spring up in our lives.
As he made a desert road for the exiles from Judah, so he has made a road home for us in the midst of our pain and wilderness-seasons.
By Nelly D’Alessandro
Jesus restores what you’ve lost.
Isaiah prophesies the kingdom of Judah’s downfall at the hands of the Assyrians. The people of God are like a tree felled to a stump. But all is not lost. From that stump, the remnant of Israel, God’s Messiah will come, and he will restore all that has been lost.
On a personal level, we all suffer loss to various degrees. Sometimes we’re responsible, other times we’re not. Jesus, our Messiah, full of God’s spirit, comes to restore all that has been lost: our place in creation, our relationship with God, and our mission to the world.
By Ed Flint
Jesus dispels darkness.
Jesus is the prince of peace, the prince of shalom. Shalom is more than just an absence of conflict. It is everything being made complete and right. In our world, we can be very aware of the darkness. The news is often filled with it. And we have darkness closer to home; in our family relationships as well as in our own personal lives, too.
Jesus has come to dispel all darkness and bring an end to all conflict. But He can only do as much as we let Him have access to in our lives. The more we’re able to let our old selves die, and resurrect with Him, the more peace rules our lives and enables us to bring Jesus’ shalom to a world in need.
By Ed Flint
Devoted to growth.
The early church grew at a phenomenal rate. Churches are supposed to grow. This is because God’s will is that every single person know him and be part of his community of love. So, a church that refuses to grow is outside the will of God.
Growth is always the work of God. We’re simply called to participate in what he’s already doing. He builds the waves, our job is to ride them for as long as we’re able. The way we do that is the way the first Christians did it: they were witnessed what Jesus had done in their lives, and they were empowered by the Holy Spirit to do so.
We’re called to witness and be empowered, to be empowered and to witness. When we all do this, the potential for the growth of Jesus’ church is exponential!
By Ed Flint
Devoted to praise.
Worship is an integral part of what it is to be human. All of us are worshippers. But the only thing worthy of our worship is the God who is infinite. Every other object of our worship will eat us alive. By contrast, worship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, means we enter into the life the Trinity has been, is, and will always be enjoying - glorifying one another, and being glorified by one another.
This worship, rather than robbing us of life, brings us to life. When we worship in Spirit (our spirits connecting with his Spirit, by means of the Holy Spirit’s direction) and in Truth (directing our worship solely to Jesus, the crucified and resurrected Lord of Truth) we engage in true worship. The worship that life was meant for.
By Ed Flint
Devoted to sincerity.
In Luke's characterization of the early church, he describes them as having "sincere hearts"...but what does that mean? In the context of our modern culture, the definition of sincerity seems to shift depending on who you ask: is it just saying what's on your mind? Is it being "real" (whatever that means)? Does integrity have any role?
Examining the story of Ruth, we see that in God's design for how to live, you cannot separate integrity and sincerity. Our sincerity costs us something in our interpersonal relationships, in that we risk being vulnerable with our true, authentic selves. It is our true authentic selves, however, that God has made us to be and He will use who we are, wherever we are.
Looking at Naomi in the story, we also see the importance of sincerity of our worship. Naomi points us to the reality that sometimes the most honest worship we can offer God is "I'm really mad at you right now". From Ruth and Naomi's story, we know that when we bring our authentic selves before God, He will use it. So we don't need to be ashamed or embarrassed of our doubts, fears, or laments -- we just need to be honest about them and let God lead wherever He's taking us.
By Rebekah Covington
Devoted to that which brings gladness.
‘A gloomy Christian is a contradiction in terms’ said William Barclay.
So where does the deep joy that the New Testament writers so regularly describe come from? It is found not in our circumstances, but in our roots. We are like trees planted by streams of water, drawing on the life of the spirit. When trouble comes, our roots go deeper - so that even when we suffer, we rejoice. This happens only when we give up pursuing happiness first, and pursue instead Jesus’ righteousness.
When we delight in the law of the Lord (his gospel, his lordship, his care for us, his rule of life), then we are blessed, then we are intrinsically, fundamentally happy!
By Ed Flint