The Gospel to the Gentiles
July 7, 2024 • Caleb Martinez • Acts 10:23–48
When Peter walks into the house of Cornelius, a Roman Gentile who follows the Jewish God Yahweh, everything about the gospel movement changes. Until this point, the gospel was good news for the Jews; their long-awaited Messiah had come to the world to rescue them from Sin, Satan, and Death. But now, this good news is opened up to include even the worst pagan Gentiles. Jesus isn’t just the Savor of the Jews, he’s the Savior of the whole world. Just like Peter must realize how big and inclusive this good news is, we too must learn what it means to preach and proclaim the gospel to everyone around us. By confronting our own biases and committing to the global movement of the gospel, we too can participate in the story of salvation that God has been telling since the beginning of time.
Power vs Influence [Acts 7]
April 28, 2024 • Caleb Martinez • Acts 7
In https://biblia.com/bible/csb/acts%207, a pivotal moment occurs in the story of the church. Stephen faces false accusations from the Jewish high priests and is forced to defend himself in court. But rather than responding with anxiety, he delivers a speech, tracing Jewish history from Abraham to Moses, and emphasizing God’s presence with His people. It’s a brilliant display of his wisdom and knowledge, but more importantly, it’s a lesson to the church today. By highlighting the rejection experienced by Joseph and Moses, Stephen shows us that we are God’s new temple, and we will face the same rejection for our commitment to Jesus. But just like the people mentioned in his speech, we must remain committed to stewarding our influence rather than seeking more power. When we commit to loving and serving our enemies, practicing the way of Jesus together in community, facing persecution with hope and endurance, and seeking influence rather than power, we serve as God’s new temple, representing his true character to the world around us.
Failure of Heart or Failure of Nerve
April 14, 2024 • Caleb Martinez • Acts 5
To follow the way of Jesus in today’s age will often put us at odds with those around us. Our convictions and beliefs are seen as archaic at best, and dangerous at worst. Like the early church, the world around us will pressure us to cave to its own ideals, and then blame us when things go wrong. And more often than not, when faced with this blame, we react poorly. Most of us will fall into two temptations; some of us will give into a failure of heart. We’ll lose our connectedness and love for those around us, especially those who resist us. Or we’ll give in to a failure of nerve. We’ll cave to the pressure and anxiety around us, and bypass the calling God has for us. To counter these temptations, we can learn from Peter and the apostles in https://biblia.com/bible/csb/acts%205. After being miraculously freed from prison for preaching and demonstrating the gospel, the apostles resist a failure of heart and nerve by moving in proximity to those they’re called to serve, staying true to their message, and relying on God to continue saving them.
Acts 1: Power, Spirit, and Bearing Witness
March 3, 2024 • Caleb Martinez • Acts 1:1–8
The book of Acts is the beginning of a story that we’re a part of. Luke, a Gentile physician and early follower of Jesus, writes about the origins of the church, the movement of the gospel, and the lifestyle of the first Christians. But his main goal is to do more than write a history book. Luke wants us to learn that the work that Jesus began in the gospels continues through his people, and by extension, through us today. Jesus commissions his disciples to continue the work of the Kingdom by receiving power, living open to the Spirit, and bearing witness to his life and resurrection. When we take our role seriously and reorient our lives to make space for the Spirit of God, we too can bear witness to the way of Jesus and change the world.
How to Make Friends - E4 - Mission
January 28, 2024 • Caleb Martinez • Jeremiah 29:4–7, Matthew 28:19–20
Throughout the Biblical story, the people of God usually find themselves in the minority. From slavery in Egypt to oppression and persecution by Rome, God’s people have always had to learn how to live in a culture that isn’t their own. In the prophet Jeremiah’s day, the Israelites found themselves exiled in Babylon surrounded by enemies and paganism. But rather than assimilate into the culture or separate themselves from it, God instructs his people to pursue the well-being of their city. We find ourselves in a similar situation today. As we form tight-knit communities of proximity, vulnerability, and practice, we will become increasingly at odds with the world around us. And yet, it’s through these very communities and friendships that God intends to renew the world. By committing to accomplishing the mission of God, our friendships can do what God instructed the exiled Israelites to do: renew our city.
Sins of Slander & Sufficiency
October 29, 2023 • Caleb Martinez • James 4:11–17
After warning about the dangers of the world, flesh, and devil, James confronts us with two subtle sins that can easily pull followers of Jesus away from God and others: the sin of slander and the sin of sufficiency. Slander makes us judge and criticize others as we puff ourselves up, and sufficiency makes us prioritize our will over God’s. When we live by the way of the world, tempted to give in to our every desire by our flesh and the devil, we can’t help but give in to these subtle sins. And both of these sins reveal a lack of holistic and complete trust in God. But the good news of the gospel permeates these areas of our lives. By surrendering our deepest sins of the flesh to God, we slowly free ourselves from the need to put others down to make ourselves feel better. And by surrendering our future to God, we slowly free ourselves from the need to have more and do more in order to experience joy.
Faith Without Works is Dead
September 24, 2023 • Caleb Martinez • James 2:14–26
Throughout the Bible we read that our salvation comes from our faith in God alone. The apostle Paul reminds us that we’re saved, declared righteous, brought near to God, and adopted into the family of God all by our faith, not by our works. It’s often people’s faith that Jesus commends, and at times, the disciples even ask God to increase their faith. All of this begs the question, what exactly is faith? In chapter 2 of his letter, James gives us an answer. Contrary to what most of us might think, faith isn’t the same as belief. According to James, just believing the right doctrines about God isn’t faith at all. Instead, faith is described throughout the Bible as whole-hearted loyalty and trust. Faith starts with our minds and beliefs but moves to our lifestyles and habits. And for James, the most important element of faith is our lives. We demonstrate the trust we have in the good news of Jesus and his Kingdom when our faith moves us to good works of love for God and for our neighbors.
Mockers to Martyrs
September 3, 2023 • Caleb Martinez • James 1:1–18
Jesus’ half-brother James is first known as a mocker to Jesus and a doubter of faith. When we first see him, he’s trying to stop Jesus’ ministry and prevent him from fulfilling his purpose. But after witnessing the resurrection of his older half-brother, James’ life is transformed. He’s called an apostle by Paul, considered a pillar of the early church, and eventually gives his life as a martyr for his faith in Jesus. The book of James is a book about transformation. It’s about how to put our faith into practice, starting with how we respond to trials. For James, the first thing we must understand as faithful followers of Jesus is how to face our trials, find wisdom, and fight temptation. James 1:1-18 CSB
New Creation
July 16, 2023 • Caleb Martinez • Revelation 21, Revelation 22
Everybody has a deep internal longing to know where we came from and where we’re going. The Christian faith should answer these questions, but our answer often falls short. Instead, Revelation offers us a better conclusion to the human story. Rather than being raptured up to a spiritual heaven, https://biblia.com/bible/csb/rev%2021-22 tells us that the world ends in renewal, not destruction. If God’s redemptive plan includes the redeeming of the created world, then we can take part in renewing creation today. We live in the new reality of renewed bodies, we work to renew relationships with each other, and we partner with God to bring about the Kingdom in the world today.
Team Lamb
July 2, 2023 • Caleb Martinez • Revelation 14
Throughout Revelation, there are key interludes that interrupt the narrative and provide insights into true reality. In https://biblia.com/bible/we/rev%2014 encounter one such interlude that unveils a series of messages given by three angels. These messages serve as an encouragement for us to align ourselves with Team Lamb in the cosmic battle against Team Dragon. However, to fight like a Lamb requires us to resist Satan’s apathy and embrace a lifestyle reflective of Jesus. To do this, we practice witnessing, enduring, and suffering.
Story (E2)
May 14, 2023 • Trey Van Camp, Caleb Martinez • Psalm 119:27–37, Luke 4:16–21, Isaiah 8:11–13
All of us are living by a story. We tell ourselves stories about our identity, our purpose, and about how to find meaning and success in life. We also tell ourselves stories about the world around us, how it got this way, and how to fix it. The stories we believe end up being the stories we live out. But these stories we tell ourselves often fall short of reality. The Bible presents us with true reality, and it does so by telling us a story. Each part of Scripture, each book, each genre, each poem, and each law, fit together to tell one unified story that leads us to Jesus. And by learning to read Scripture as a story.
I AM the Vine
April 23, 2023 • Caleb Martinez • John 15:1–5
Most of us know what a life of following Jesus should look and feel like, and yet most of also know we aren’t fully experiencing this life. While we want to be people defined by our fruit of love, joy, and peace, we’re often more acquainted with the bad fruit of anxiety, fear, and idolatry. The simple reason for this is that we haven’t learned how to abide in Jesus. When Jesus compares himself to a vine and calls us his branches in https://biblia.com/bible/csb/john%2015, he’s inviting us to live a constant life of redirecting our minds, hearts, and bodies to him. By being in close intimacy and proximity to Jesus, we slowly take on the characteristics of Jesus. And the more characteristics of Jesus we take on, the more fruit we produce. This is the process of abiding.
I AM the Gate
March 26, 2023 • Caleb Martinez • John 9:1–7, John 10:1–10
Of all the symbols or metaphors Jesus could use to reveal something to us about God, on the surface, “a gate” seems a bit anticlimactic. Despite what we may think, though, Jesus was actually correcting the false ideologies about God that were and are still prevalent today. He reminds us that even in our seasons of suffering God still loves and protects us. He also declares that true life and salvation are attainable, but only through him. And finally, he clarifies that his invitation to true life is on offer for all who are willing to admit that they’re lost.