This is the clearest teaching on homosexuality in the Bible… So what IS the teaching and how are we to apply it in the modern world? Those are two difficulties in this passage (so early in the book!). Today, we attempt to interpret this daunting section. I hope to do it in FOUR POINTS:

1. As Plain as the Nose on Your Face
2. Be Careful What You Wish For
3. Give Me Liberty AND Give Me Death
4. "L'chaim" (That's the Jewish toast meaning, To Life!)

In today's introduction, Paul offers this elaborate greeting, and shares with these Roman Christians his desire to visit them. He hadn't started the church in the capital city; he's apparently never been to the church, but he evidently KNOWS a lot of their members (See CH 16!) and wants to see them. I want to look at this desire. Why? What does this desire in Paul say about Christianity and its impact on people who believe it… not only in the ancient world … but in the lives of the modern people here today?

Let's look at Gospel Desire:

1. Big Ideas
2. Big Desires
3. Big Picture

I want to try to put us into the scene to help us see what's happening and come away with what God has for us. IF you are already believing in Jesus and have thrown in with His organization, the church, I hope this will strengthen your belief. IF, on the other hand, you are NOT YET believing and have NOT joined with some local church that teaches the Good News, I hope you'll be at least intrigued and maybe even COME to believe or begin an earnest life-inquiry into this Man who was executed and then rose from the dead as He had promised to do. It's the shortest account, but I hope you find it direct and compelling.

Let's look at:

1. A Whole Mess of Trouble
2. Trouble As a Portal
3. The Other Side of Trouble: Faith or Fear?

Physical thirst is a big deal. If we don't drink, we die. If we drink the wrong liquids, it's harmful or even toxic. Today, the Son of God who made the waters thirsts FOR water. Let's look at:

1. Universal Thirst
2. Cosmic Thirst
3. Satisfying YOUR Thirst

How IS it, for instance, that this One, whom Christians call "God incarnate" now complains TO God in this moment? Is God complaining against Himself? AND the Victim uses foreign language… WHY? AND There are apparently miraculous happenings… in nature… in the Temple and even in the tombs around Jerusalem. AND, at the end, the soldiers carrying out this execution regret what they'd done – "He was innocent…"

That's what I want to look at today – NOT a cold analysis of tragedy that should make us weep – but a way to move beyond being appalled and saddened and instead to get the true meaning of the scene as what it is: the watershed or dividing-line or breakthrough in God's plan, THĒ Crisis Moment in all of history. Let's look at:

1. The Method of Scripture
2. The Meaning of the Symbols
3. Metabolizing the Significance

Leading to this Word of Relationship we find this sort of behind the scenes bargaining between the religious leaders and the Roman Governor, the notorious Pontius Pilate. These frenzied negotiations (if we could call them that) stand in stark contrast with the apparent tenderness and composure of The Third Word. There's an unholy alliance between the Church and the State at the start and… at the finish, a sweet and caring HOLY alliance, that's familial and generous.

I want to look at this juxtaposition of blindness and kindness, of tenderness and treachery and some deeper things we might easily miss but that show the profound significance of this moment and this Third Word: 1)The Way of the World 2)The Way of the King 3)The New and Living Way of Relationship (Heb 10.19-22)

The two transgressors (Mark 15.28) are called simply "bad workers" in Luke's version while Mathew and Mark call them "thieves" (λῃστής) not likely petty thieves but likely repeat offenders, armed robbers or even revolutionaries against Rome who had stolen to support their cause. This morning, I want to look especially at ONE of these thieves and even though we only have very few words describing him we actually get quite a bit of information.

So, let's look at:

1. What the thief knew
2. What he wanted
3. How he got it and
4. What ever happened to those thieves?

Today I want to look at this oft-quoted prayer of Jesus Christ, "Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing" IN its wider context. I hope this look will get us into the series AND help us to think WITH God about the meaning, the reception and the practice of forgiveness.

Let's look at:

1. The Wider View
2. The Word of Forgiveness and
3. The Worry of Your Heart