1208PODCAST

The Elect, Foreknown, Predestined, Called, Glorified Ones

As Paul gets excited about our identity in Christ, he begins throwing out important adjectives that define our identity as Christians before exploding into an epic poem about Jesus' love for us.

Everybody's Groaning

In one of Paul's most beautiful passages on resurrection, he paints the whole of creation groaning alongside Christians as the Holy Spirit groans within us.

The Two Aslan's

In this message Jamin breaks from preaching on Romans to talk about making sure we hear the tone of Jesus correctly. Then we spend the rest of service in a time of worship.

Flesh and Spirit

In this message we take a look at the four main characters of Romans 7: The Law, Sin, Humans, and Jesus. How the four interact have a lot to say about salvation and resurrection.

What if Adam and Eve Never Sinned?

In Romans 5, Paul contrasts the old sinful humanity of Adam with the new resurrected humanity of Jesus. In this message we imagine other worlds where humanity never sinned and then face our actual reality, which ends up being both stranger than fiction and immensely beautiful.

What Suffering Produces

We in the West tend to look at suffering and persecution as a negative thing, but people like Paul see it as a positive. For in our suffering is the cross, which is the crux of Jesus, who is the crux of everything.

Abraham: The Original Gentile

When Paul tries to convince the Romans that the Gentiles can be brought into the covenant family of God without first being circumcised or being subjected to the law, he uses Abraham as his example why. By Paul's reasoning, Abraham was the original Gentile that God brought into the covenant and God considered him righteous not for his works or his circumcision or his following of the law (Abraham didn't yet know about such things), but for his faith. Therefore, faith is the definition of salv...

The Law of Christ

Romans 3 is a monumental verse in the Bible that shifts the way we understand the law under the New Covenant. In this message Jamin takes a look at how the law was distributed in the Old Testament and what the law becomes in the New Testament.

Paul's Theological Adjustment

In ancient times, religion and state were the same thing. Therefore, you can imagine how difficult it was for the Jews to understand their theology when (A) some started to believe that Jesus was the Messiah, (B) the Messiah wanted non-Jewish people to join their religion/state, and (C) those non-Jewish people didn't practice any of the boundary markers that the Jews had always practiced (ie. obedience to the law, circumcision, etc). In the Book of Romans, Paul strives to help his Jewish bro...

A Church Like Nintendo

In Romans 2, Paul calls attention to how God-followers have always said one thing and done another, and for that reason the world has made fun of God. How have we been bad witnesses to the character of God today? How did we witness to Jesus throughout the pandemic? In a lot of negative ways to be sure, giving people reason to make fun of God and doubt the church as an organization. It nearly seems like most people have given up on the church at this point. And it's perhaps from organizations...

Good Works Are Required

Romans has been used over the years to diminish evangelism to nothing more than "thinking" a certain way to be on the right side of judgment. But Jesus required good works of his followers if they were to be on the right side of judgment. In this message, Jamin looks to harmonize both sides of the Bible, recognizing that even the book of Romans expects good works if we are to be on the right side of judgment. If this true, then what is really needed is a better definition of what "salvation b...

This Message is Not Ready Yet

After hours of working on his message, Jamin still wasn’t ready to preach it. Not only can the theology of Romans be a bit confusing, but it’s also deeply personal to Jamin’s own story. So in this short speech, Jamin asks for more time so that he can preach this message more effectively and reminds us that church is not all about preaching.

The Songs of Tolkien and Romans

In the Silmarillion, Tolkien pictures God singing a song and Satan trying to improve on it until he's ultimately offering a different song. Paul sees something similar in the song of order being sung in Eden and the song that humanity has sang instead via Sin. We talk more about that in today's episode as we continue through Romans.

Dikaiosyne

Paul uses the Greek word "Dikaiosyne" which Bible translations often translate as "Righteousness." But N.T. Wright suggests the phrase "covenant justice" may make more sense given Paul's context. Jamin explains why he agrees when it comes to Paul's gospel of which he is not ashamed.

Paul's Opening Words to the Romans

There's a lot to be said in Paul's opening words in his letter to the Romans. In this episode, we just read the first few verses and take questions.

Reading Romans

The letter of Romans is just that: A letter. And so to understand it correctly we must read it as we would a letter. And so, in our first service preaching on Romans, we come together and read straight through Paul's work so that we might hear it all within context. In this particular reading, we use N.T. Wright's "Kingdom" translation.

The Resurrection Life of Pentecost

The Holy Spirit made life, continues to make life, and will make life again—and that's part of the celebration of Pentecost Sunday.

Bible Women in Ministry

This Mother's Day, Jamin gives various glimpses into the Bible, illustrating its egalitarian view of women and men in ministry, ruling the world together with the same call and image.

The Misuse of the Bible to Endorse Racism

Mark Edwards, history professor at Spring Arbor University brings a powerful message to 1208 as he preaches on the historical misuse of the Bible to endorse things like slavery and racism. Check it out in this special message. And yes—those were gunshots close by our outdoor service. Everyone is okay. We reported everything that we saw to the local police and they have been investigating for the last few hours. Sometimes when this kind of stuff happens churches and congregants leave their c...

The Not So Great Disciples

Sometimes the disciples just don't get it. In this case, they are still fighting about which one of them is the greatest when Jesus' whole point is to be humble. Jamin talks about pride and humility in today's message.

Jesus Prays for Peter

According to Luke's gospel, If it wasn't for Jesus praying for Peter, we might have had a very different ending to Peter's denial of Christ.

Jesus Loves Our Oppressors Too

We're all aware that Jesus ate with sinners, but sometimes we don't realize the kinds of things those sinners have done or why it would have stood out that he ate with them. Tax collectors, for example, we're quite oppressive. Let's take a look at the story of Zacchaeus and see how it might relate to today.

All Things Resurrection

He is risen indeed! Jamin jumps into all things resurrection this Easter and then we baptize two 1208ers and watch the seeds of resurrection begin right in front of us!

When the Presence Entered the Second Temple

Throughout the Old Testament, there was a cloudy manifest presence of God that led God's people and entered sacred places. In this message, Jamin looks at this theme through the eyes of Palm Sunday.

The Most Confusing Parable in the Bible

Ask any scholar what they think of Luke 16:1-13 and you'll get an entirely different nuanced answer. What is going on here? We ask 1208 what they think.

Pray Impudently

As we move out of our series in Isaiah, we move into select passages from Luke and highlight a few stories that we haven't hit on in the other gospels we've preached through over the years. In this case, we stop on a passage where Jesus teaches us to pray impudently.

The Master's House

Starting this week, Jamin moves his series on Isaiah to his blog and then hops into a one-off message on his cats—which yes, may sound weird—but has spiritual applications.

Chaos Creatures

In Isaiah 27:1, God is seen slaying some kind of water dragon with a sword. What's going on here? The JXN Cloud team addresses this passage together live at 1208 Greenwood.

Love Is...

Jamin takes a break from our current series on Isaiah to share a poem about God's love.

Church Unity and Division

We continue our pause in our series on Isaiah to ask another question: "If prophetic critique often creates division in the church, is Jesus not concerned with church unity?"

What is a Prophet Anyways?

We take a break in our series on Isaiah to ask the question, "What exactly is a prophet anyways? What do they do?"

In Jackson as it is in Heaven

If you don't plan on returning in-person next week, you can watch our services online via an unpolished Facebook livestream. But if you'd like a more polished online church, check out our fully online church, JXN Cloud.

God Loves Your Enemies

Today's passage is Isaiah 19, where the prophet begins to prophesy about Israel's enemies in a very intruiging way. Join us for another episode of 1208TV!

The King of Babylon

The Perfect King

The popular passage found in Isaiah 11 describes the coming Messiah as a King anointed with wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge of the Lord, and fear of the Lord. His peace shall be so great that even the animal kingdom will be at peace with one another. In this message we take a deeper look at these attributes of the coming King.

God's Eyes Are on the Oppressed

In Isaiah 10, the prophet preaches a message that is fully at home among the messages of all the prophets: God expects humanity to take care of the oppressed among them. In today's service, we dive deeper into this prophetic word and its parallels with our world today.

The Interruption of Christmas

Erick Ewaskowitz, Director of Coaching and Training in the Southern Michigan Conference brings us a special Christmas Eve message!

The Patience of Christmas

The prophecies said that a messiah would be born and that he would reign over all things. Not only did these things happen differently than expected, but they also happened more slowly than expected.

Discerning Christmas

Our Nerd Church Pastor, Tylar Salter, brings a special message on discerning the practices that we have in Christmas.

The Wonderful Counselor and Mighty God

Who is human/divine Son that is the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace? Isaiah hints at something spectacular.

The Forbidden Arts

As we continue our series in Isaiah, the prophet calls out Israel's use of mediums and necromancy. The church often says "No," to these things, but rarely explains why. In today's message we explain why God forbids such things.

Isaiah & Conspiracy

As cases rise, we've returned online to 1208TV! Join us for worship, new announcements and a message on conspiracy theories as we continue our series in Isaiah. "For the Lord spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying: “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread." (Isaiah 8:11-12)

Guest Missionaries: The Rosado's

Guest missionaries, the Rosado’s, stop by to share with us!

Ask for a Sign

In the divided kingdom of Israel, the northern kingdom of Ephraim teamed up with the nation of Aram in order to protect themselves from the Assyrian Empire. In attempts to further ensure their protection, they tried to overtake the southern kingdom of Judah, which was when Isaiah showed up to the king of Judah with a prophetic word. What was it? We talk more about that in today's passage in our series on Isaiah.

Isaiah Stands in the Divine Council

As Isaiah approaches the throne room of God, he agrees to take on a task that God needs someone to fulfill. This brings about images of the divine council worldview of the Bible. But what is a human doing there? We talk more about that in this message.

A Meditative Journey through Isaiah's Vision

Find a quiet place as we practice the prophetic art of visions and submerge ourselves into Isaiah's surreal vision of God's temple throne room.

Stink Fruit

In Isaiah 5 a song is sung about how God set the stage perfectly for His people, and yet they failed to produce. We dive deeper into this theme in today's message.

A Canopy of Glory

At the end of all things, Isaiah sees the fullness of God's presence being installed on the earth amidst those who have remained faithful to him. Jamin goes on to explain how we can catch glimpses of this manifest presence even today.

The Humble God of the Universe

Isaiah 2 calls us to be humble and God Himself images that quality to us. As we zoom out across the universe in this message, we begin to see just how small we are—though also how big we are in the eyes of God. *Jamin originally confused equatorial radius and circumference in this message. We tried to edit those parts out :P

The Edenic Mountain of God

In Isaiah 2, the rivers of all nations are flowing up God's mountain and people are turning their weapons into gardening equipment. What's going on here?