Reality Church Vancouver Teachings Podcast

We continue our series exploring the topic of housing in the city by looking at the Biblical theme of land. By tracing the theme through the Bible in 7 acts, we learn how Jesus fulfills the story of the land and invites us to new identities and orientation towards land. Recorded April 28, 2024.

This week we began a new series exploring how we live in the city as followers of Jesus during the current housing crisis. In this introduction, we explore some of the personal contours of the housing story in Canada, and receive the invitations to listen to and tell our stories, center on the story of Jesus and discern where the Spirit is leading us. Recorded April 21, 2024.

As we close our series in the gospel of John and move towards the summer season, we take a last look at Jesus around the table. While in the gospel of John, the table is portrayed as a classroom, in the gospel of Mark the table is a practice, with the vision of us extending it to our friends, family and neighbours. Recorded April 14, 2024.

As we end our series in the gospel of John, we turn our eyes to the commissioning of Jesus’ disciples in John 20. Although given 2000 years ago, Jesus’ promise to his disciples of another Advocate who brings peace is important and timely in our age of anxiety. Recorded April 7, 2024.

As we celebrate Easter Sunday, we turn to the Gospel of John's account of the resurrection of Jesus where he emphasizes three things: the evidence that invites us to stoop, the exhortation that invites us to see, and the invitation to become an endorsement of the resurrection as the people of God. Recorded March 31, 2024.

Jesus ends his longest recorded prayer with a surprise: out of all the things he could have prayed for his disciples of all time, he prays for unity. This week we end our series in the Upper Room with Jesus by looking at what unity looks like, how we can pursue it, and some examples of how to be united. Recorded March 24, 2023.

As we continue in our study of Jesus' final teaching in the Gospel of John, we look once again at the prayer for his disciples in John 17. Jesus adds to his invitation to the disciples to be sent to the world as he was sent, in vision, fluency, and practice. Recorded March 17, 2024.

Jesus continues his longest recorded prayer by praying for his disciples and he seems very concerned about their relationship to "the world". We explore what Jesus means by "the world" and the delicate tension of living as a disciple of Jesus within "the world". Originally recorded March 10, 2024.

How does Jesus approach the “hour” of distress that has arrived? Ending his longest teaching, and beginning his longest prayer, Jesus approaches this hour as a priest. Instead of trying to grab more control, or evade discomfort, Jesus offers himself to God and pleads to be glorified. This week we are invited to remember the weight of God’s glory, and to follow Jesus in ASKING for God to show us his glory, so that we might display his glory to the world. Re-recorded March 4, 2024.

Why would Jesus go away? And why would he say it's "better" that he goes away? This week, we explore these questions as we learn what Jesus is trying to accomplish and how the Spirit ministers, specifically in spaces of persecution and sacrifice. Recorded February 25, 2024.

As we continue in our series on the Upper Room Discourse in John’s Gospel, we come to difficult words from Jesus about conflict and hatred. Looking at Jesus’ words within the language of apocalypse, we see why Jesus uses this language, whom the conflict is between and what this means for us today as people invited to sit around the table with Jesus. Recorded February 18, 2024.

We continue our study of the Last Supper in the Gospel of John where Jesus instructs his disciples and us around the table. This week, we study Jesus words in John 15 , where the God who has made us clean invites us to abide through the practices of confession and repentance. Originally recorded February 11, 2024.

At the Last Supper, Jesus sits down with his disciples to drill into them the most fundamental and important things he wants to remember. This week, we look at a block of Jesus’ teaching that tells us some very important basics: what Jesus offers, how we get it, and how we share it with others. Recorded February 4, 2024.

We continue our journey with Jesus and his disciples around the table in the gospel of John. This week, we look at Jesus' amazing words about the relationships within God of Father, Jesus and Spirit, which the church has called the Trinity. We explore how this relationship is designed to break our brains, how we can know God through Jesus, and how we are faced with an amazing invitation. This teaching included watching a video by the Bible Project, which can be found here - https://youtu.be/eAvYmE2YYIU?si=23p28GQ8l0Hm-2bW Recorded January 28, 2024.

This week we look at Jesus' famous claim that he is "the way, the truth and the life". Through understanding the comfort and challenge of this passage in it's original context, we learn how Jesus might comfort and challenge us as modern and postmodern people. Recorded January 21, 2024.

As we continue in our series on the Last Supper in the gospel of John, this week we begin to focus on Jesus' iconic statement that he is the way, the truth, and the life. As we notice that Jesus self-disclosure comes as the answer to Thomas' question, we are invited to consider how important our questions might be for our personal and communal relationship with Jesus. Recorded January 14, 2024.

This week we start a new series looking at a unique contribution from John's gospel: the Lord's Supper. We begin by examining Jesus' footwashing in John 13 which challenges us to serve as Jesus did. Recorded January 7, 2024.

As we gathered for a Christmas Eve service, we focused on the word “behold” which occurs several times in Luke’s Gospel. Merry Christmas! Recorded December 24, 2023.

This week, we end our fall series in Genesis 2 and 3 with a focus on the character of Yahweh Elohim. How will Yahweh Elohim respond to human failure - with justice or mercy? Recorded December 19, 2023.

This week, we continue on in our study of Genesis 2 + 3 as we take a final look at the consequences from God’s poem in Genesis 3. By hopping around Genesis 3 and its surrounding narratives, we learn how power struggles between humans, specifically between men and women will sadly become the new normal in a world of sin. Recorded December 10, 2023.