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Temporada 4

Sermon: The Call to Discipleship (October 19, 2025)

Scripture Text: Luke 5:1-11 Bryan Buck *We apologize 10-15 seconds are missing from the beginning of this replay, but jump right in for the majority of the sermon! Quotes for Reflection Oaks Parish Vision Oaks Parish pursues gospel-centered renewal through parish ministry, walking alongside our city, region, and world. This renewal is embodied in the beauty of liturgical worship, mission rooted in people and place among the least and lost, and relational discipleship that forms us into the image of Christ. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship The call goes forth, and is at once followed by the response of obedience. The disciple simply burns his boats and goes ahead. He acts as he does because he has recognized the call as the call of Christ. N.T. Wright, Luke Peter clearly had a sense that life was never going to be the same again, that he was going to face new demands and challenges; but he couldn’t help being swept off his feet by what had happened. Darrell Bock, The NIV Application Commentary on Luke What Peter does not realize is that admitting one’s inability and sin is the best prerequisite for service, since then one can depend on God. Peter’s confession becomes his résumé for service. Humility is the elevator to spiritual greatness. J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Luke We need not doubt that a practical lesson for all Christians is contained under these simple circumstances. We are meant to learn the blessing of immediate, unhesitating obedience to every plain command of Christ. The path of duty may sometimes be hard and disagreeable. The wisdom of the course we propose to follow may not be apparent to the world. But none of these things must move us. We are not to confer with flesh and blood. We are to go straight ahead when Jesus says, “Go!” We are to do a thing boldly, unflinchingly, and decidedly when Jesus says, “Do it!” We are to walk by faith, and not by sight, and believe that what we don’t see now to be right and reasonable we shall see hereafter. Application Questions 1. Reflecting on your own spiritual journey, how did you sense Jesus calling you to follow him? 2. Darrell Bock writes that, “admitting one’s inability and sin is the best prerequisite for service.” How does this statement cause you to reimagine Christian faith? 3. Can you recall a time when saying yes to God cost you something, yet led to a deeper joy on the other side?

Sermon: The Way of Renewal (October 12, 2025)

Scripture Text: John 15:1-17 Bryan Buck Quotes for Reflection Oaks Parish Vision Oaks Parish pursues gospel-centered renewal through parish ministry, walking alongside our city, region, and world. This renewal is embodied in the beauty of liturgical worship, mission rooted in people and place among the least and lost, and relational discipleship that forms us into the image of Christ. Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation He abides in us by His love, and we in Him by our faith. The secret of the life of the soul is not activity but union: not achievement but grace, not a program but a Person. John Calvin, Commentary on the Gospel of John The vigor of the branches depends on the root, so that it is only by the communication of the root that the branches live. In the same way, the life of the soul depends on Christ alone, so that without him men are like withered and useless sticks D.A. Carson, The Gospel of John Jesus insists that his own obedience to the Father is the ground of his joy; and he promises that those who obey him will share the same joy–indeed, that his very purpose in laying down such demands is that their joy may be complete (cf. 1 Jn. 1:4). What is presupposed is that human joy in a fallen world will at best be ephemeral, shallow, incomplete, until human existence is overtaken by an experience of the love of God in Christ Jesus, the love for which we were created, a mutual love that issues in obedience without reserve. The Son does not give his disciples his joy as a discrete package; he shares his joy insofar as they share his obedience, the obedience that willingly faces death to self-interest. Application Questions 1. Looking back on your walk with Jesus, how have relationships—whether mentors, friends, or community—helped you abide in Christ and bear fruit? 2. Think of a season when your faith felt dry or withered. How did that experience reveal your need to remain connected to Jesus as the true vine? 3. Where do you sense resistance to Jesus in your life right now? How might remembering that he has chosen and loved you free you to trust and follow him more fully?

Sermon: For the Least and the Lost (October 5, 2025)

Scripture Text: Matthew 25:31-40; Ephesians 2:1-10 Pat Roach Quotes for Reflection Lucian of Samosata, late 2nd Century These deluded creatures [Christians], you see, have persuaded themselves that they are immortal and will live forever, which explains the contempt of death and willing self-sacrifice so common among them. It was impressed on them too by their lawgiver [Jesus] that from the moment they are converted, deny the gods of Greece, worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws, they are all brothers. They take his instructions completely on faith, with the result that they despise all worldly goods and hold them in common ownership. So any adroit, unscrupulous fellow, who knows the world, has only to get among these simple souls and his fortune is quickly made; he plays with them. Application Questions 1. When in your life were you either least or lost? How did God meet you there? Who did God send to help? 2. Who are the least and lost in your spheres of influence?

Sermon: Mission in People & Place (September 28, 2025)

Scripture Text: Luke 10:1-12 Andy Tobin Quotes for Reflection Paul Miller Here’s my point: When the Spirit of Jesus becomes the captain, the ship itself begins to change. Instead of a professional and program-driven ministry, the saints are energized and equipped for mission. This takes enormous pressure off pastors. The entire dynamics of the congregation are reshaped around mission—which many are already doing! Saints are natural dreamers, enticed by the Spirit to work and live in daring ways; but without an encourager calling them to greatness and pulling them out of the doldrums, that all withers, and passion never takes flight. But when it does, then prayer becomes critical, because the saints need help. When the power train is connected to kingdom vision and passion, all heaven breaks loose. J.C. Ryle But we ought not to confine our Lord's instructions to ministers alone. They ought to speak loudly to the consciences of all believers, of all who are called by the Holy Ghost and made priests to God. They ought to remind us of the necessity of simplicity and unworldliness in our daily life. We must beware of thinking too much about our meals, and our furniture, and our houses, and all those many things which concern the life of the body. We must strive to live like men whose first thoughts are about the immortal soul. We must endeavour to pass through the world like men who are not yet at home, and are not overmuch troubled about the fare they meet with on the road and at the inn. Blessed are they who feel like pilgrims and strangers in this life, and whose best things are all to come! Dorothy Sayers Let the Church remember this: that every maker and worker is called to serve God in his profession or trade – not outside it. The Apostles complained rightly when they said it was not meet they should leave the word of God and serve tables; their vocation was to preach the word. Bu the person whose vocation it is to prepare the meals beautifully might with equal justice protest: It is not meet for us to leave the service of our tables to preach the word. Application Questions 1. To what people and place has God called you? 2. How might prayer become more central to your engagement in mission? 3. What does mission in word and deed look like in your life?

Sermon: Liturgical Beauty (September 21, 2025)

Scripture Text: Revelation 4 Bryan Buck Quotes for Reflection James K.A. Smith, You Are What You Love We are oriented by our longings, directed by our desires. We adopt ways of life that are indexed to such visions for life, not usually because we “think through” our options but rather because some picture captures our imagination. C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendours we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so. David A. Desilva, Unholy Allegiances The focal point of the cosmos, the center from which all things are to be measured, is not in Ephesus or Pergamum, where our congregations live and move and go about their daily business. Nor is the center of the cosmos in Rome, where the great power brokers and shapers of the political scene wield their influence, but in the realm beyond ours. John’s visions begin at the center of John’s universe, at the very throne of God (4:2). George Elden Ladd, Revelation Here is a great mystery, which the New Testament affirms but does not explain because it involves ineffable realities at the point where God's spiritual world intersects man's historical world. Christ's worthiness and ability to break the seals of the scroll of human history and destiny are dependent on the victory he won in his incarnate life. If he had not come in humility as suffering Savior, he could not come as conquering Messiah. Application Questions 1. Can you think of a time when you were blown away by something beautiful? How did it affect you? Why do you think it can sometimes feel hard to experience God in that same way? 2. Many younger people today are coming back to the church because they’re longing for something transcendent. Why do you think that longing runs so deep? What might that mean for us at Oaks? 3. God wants worship to be something set apart from everything else in our lives. Why do you think that matters to Him? What parts of our worship service or sanctuary help you step into His holy presence?

Sermon: Parish Ministry: Sojourning with the City (September 14, 2025)

Scripture Text: Jeremiah 29:4-7; 1 Peter 2:11-12 Bryan Buck Quotes for Reflection Oaks Parish Vision Oaks Parish pursues gospel-centered renewal through parish ministry, walking alongside our city, region, and world. This renewal is embodied in the beauty of liturgical worship, mission rooted in people and place among the least and lost, and relational discipleship that forms us into the image of Christ. Andrew Rumsey, Parish The Church is primarily concerned not with ‘the world’ becoming ‘the Church’ but with the world finding its true place by virture of the Church’s action and presence. The Church has no need to extend its own territory into the world: rather, as yeast workign through a batch of dough, it seeks to effect the transformation of the whole-not, plainly, that the batch should all become yeast. In this parochial ecclesiology, where the local congregation is a transforming agent-a means not an end-the nature and condition of society is of the greatest interest. Rodney Stark, The Cities of God The power of Christianity lay not in its promise of otherworldly compensations for suffering in this life, as has so often been proposed. No, the crucial change that took place in the third century was the rapidly spreading awareness of a faith that delivered potent antidotes to life’s miseries here and now! The truly revolutionary aspect of Christianity lay in moral imperatives such as “Love one’s neighbor as oneself,” “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” “It is more blessed to give than to receive,” and “When you did it to the least of my brethren, you did it unto me.” These were not just slogans. Members did nurse the sick, even during epidemics; they did support orphans, widows, the elderly, and the poor; they did concern themselves with the lot of slaves. In short, Christians created “a miniature welfare state in an empire which for the most part lacked social services.”14 It was these responses to the long-standing misery of life in antiquity, not the onset of worse conditions, that were the ‘material’ changes that inspired Christian growth. But these material benefits were entirely spiritual in origin. Support for this view comes from the continuing inability of pagan groups to meet this challenge. Application Questions 1. How does God’s commitment to humanity and His world reshape the way you respond to the challenges of our city? 2. In what ways do you feel most at home in Portland, and in what ways do you need to remember that you are a sojourner and exile here? How might that shape the way you live in your parish? 3. How can our Parish Communities become places where people truly experience the glory of life in Christ?

Sermon: Gospel-Centered Renewal (September 7, 2025)

Scripture Text: Romans 12:1-2 Bryan Buck Quotes for Reflection Oaks Parish Vision Oaks Parish pursues gospel-centered renewal through parish ministry, walking alongside our city, region, and world. This renewal is embodied in the beauty of liturgical worship, mission rooted in people and place among the least and lost, and relational discipleship that forms us into the image of Christ. Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society The Christian story provides us with such a set of lenses, not something for us to look at, but for us to look through. Tim Keller, Center Church Community shapes our ethics and the spoken and unspoken rules that guide our behavior. Far more of the biblical ethical prescriptions are addressed to us as a community than as individuals. The Ten Commandments were given to Israel at Mount Sinai to form them into an alternate society that would be a light to the nations. The call of Romans 12:1 – 2 to “offer your bodies as living sacrifices” is usually interpreted as a call to individual consecration, but it is actually a demand that we commit ourselves to a corporate body and not live as autonomous individuals any longer. All of Romans 12, in fact, should be read as a description of this new society. N.T. Wright, Paul for Everyone At the centre of genuine Christianity is a mind awake, alert, not content to take a few guidelines off the peg but determined to understand why human life is meant to be lived in one way rather than another. In fact, it is the way of life of ‘the present age’ which often involves the real human immaturity, as people simply look at the surrounding culture, with all its shallow and silly patterns of behaviour, and copy it unthinkingly. Application Questions 1. In your mind, why is it helpful for the local church to have a clear vision? 2. How can you see the difference between worldly sacrifice and gospel-empowered sacrifice? 3. As you look at the challenges of our city, what is one way that the gospel can lead you to a different mindset?

Temporada 3

Sermon: Memory and the Christian Life (August 31, 2025)

Scripture Text: Luke 24 Bryan Buck Quotes for Reflection N.T. Wright, Luke for Everyone The real slave-master, keeping the human race in bondage, is death itself. Earthly tyrants borrow power from death to boost their rule; that’s why crucifixion was such a symbol of Roman authority. Victory over death robs the powers of their main threat. Sin, which means humans rebelling against God and so conspiring with death to deface God’s good creation, is likewise defeated. Jesus has led God’s new people out of slavery, and now invites them to accompany him on the new journey to the promised land. The road to Emmaus is just the beginning. Hearing Jesus’ voice in scripture, knowing him in the breaking of bread, is the way. Welcome to God’s new world. Timothy Keller, Center Church Most of our problems in life come from a lack of proper orientation to the gospel. Pathologies in the church and sinful patterns in our individual lives ultimately stem from a failure to think through the deep implications of the gospel and to grasp and believe the gospel through and through. Put positively, the gospel transforms our hearts and our thinking and changes our approaches to absolutely everything. When the gospel is expounded and applied in its fullness in any church, that church will look unique. People will find in it an attractive, electrifying balance of moral conviction and compassion. Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary At the Last Supper Jesus tells his disciples to eat in remembrance of him. Of all the things he could’ve chosen to be done “in remembrance” of him, Jesus chose a meal. He could have asked his followers to do something impressive or mystical—climb a mountain, fast for forty days, or have a trippy sweat lodge ceremony—but instead he picks the most ordinary of acts, eating, through which to be present to his people. He says that the bread is his body and the wine is his blood. He chooses the unremarkable and plain, average and abundant, bread and wine. John Calvin, Institutes Scripture is the school of the Holy Spirit, in which, as nothing useful and necessary is omitted, so nothing is taught which is not profitable to know. In it, we experience God as he accommodates himself to our capacity, so that we might know him in Christ. Application Questions 1. Why is remembering the gospel so central to experiencing Christ’s presence and power in our lives? 2. In your own life, what are the ways you most often forget Christ in the routines of everyday life — and what helps you remember him? 3. How might Parish Communities this year help us remember Christ together so that we cultivate a deeper life in him?

Sermon: God's Glorious Kingdom Over All (August 24, 2025)

Scripture Text: Psalm 87 Sagar Mekwan Quotes for Reflection Erich Zenger There the nations, together with Israel, are to learn the peace that brings creation to its goal, namely to be a house of life and joy for all. Application Questions 1. What makes Zion secure and firmly established, and how should this truth bring us encouragement and comfort? 2. What are the glorious things spoken about Zion, the city of God, in verses 4–6? 3. How should we live today in joyful anticipation of the coming glory of God’s kingdom?

Sermon: Reconciling Power (August 17, 2025)

Quotes for Reflection N.T. Wright, Luke for Everyone At the heart of Luke’s picture of the cross is the mocking of Jesus as king of the Jews, which draws into a single stark sketch the meaning expressed by the various characters and the small incidents elsewhere in the narrative. Jesus has stood on its head the meaning of kingship, the meaning of the kingdom itself. He has celebrated with the wrong people, offered peace and hope to the wrong people, and warned the wrong people of God’s coming judgment. Now he is hailed as king at last, but in mockery. Here comes his royal cupbearer, only it’s a Roman soldier offering him the sour wine that poor people drank. Here is his royal placard, announcing his kingship to the world, but it is in fact the criminal charge which explains his cruel death. John Calvin, Commentary on Psalm 32 David having largely and painfully experienced what a miserable thing it is to feel God’s hand heavy on account of sin, exclaims that the highest and best part of a happy life consists in this, that God forgives a man’s guilt, and receives him graciously into his favor. After giving thanks for pardon obtained, he invites others to fellowship with him in his happiness, showing, by his own example, the means by which this may be obtained. David Brooks, How to Know a Person There is no way to make hard conversations un-hard. You can never fully understand a person whose life experience is very different from your own. I will never know what it is like to be Black, to be a woman, to be Gen Z, to be born with a disability, to be a working-class man, to be a new immigrant or a person from any of a myriad of other life experiences. There are mysterious depths to each person. There are vast differences between different cultures, before which we need to stand with respect and awe. Nevertheless, I have found that if you work on your skills—your capacity to see and hear others—you really can get a sense of another person’s perspective. And I have found that it is quite possible to turn distrust into trust, to build mutual respect. Application Questions 1. Recollect a hard conversation, recent or from the past, that didn’t end well. Why did it get stuck? 2. In Luke 23, practically everyone turned against Jesus. What about the gospel helps you move toward reconciliation with another person? 3. This week, where can you apply the subtle yet reconciling power of Jesus?

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