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Calvary Evangelical Free Church

Calvary Evangelical Free Church

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 Listen to our latest weekly messages from Calvary Evangelical Free Church located in Rochester Minnesota. Calvary’s Mission is to glorify God by making disciples of Jesus who live out passion for Christ and compassion for people.© Calvary Evangelical Free Church Christentum Spiritualität
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  • Heart of Penitence

    Heart of Penitence
    Feb 22 2026
    While everything in us says “Justify yourself before God with your goodness,” true justification comes when we recognize our need for God’s mercy.
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    33 Min.
  • The God of Justice

    The God of Justice
    Feb 15 2026
    Jesus wants us to pray and never give up when we’re in need of God’s justice, knowing that the God who chose us and loves us will never ignore us. Well, I know I don’t look it, and this may be hard to believe, but there was a time in my life about 15 years ago when I was really into running marathons. I know, I know, I know, you’re thinking, where’d that guy go? He’s gone forever. He’s not coming back. I never was actually a runner. You know, like I ran, but I wasn’t a runner. I was the most reluctant of runners. I had just come off a failed church plant. My stress was high. My health was bad. I had a buddy who ran marathons. American Ninja Warrior was on TV. It was a confusing time is what I’m saying. It’s a confusing time. And somehow, somehow, in the midst of all that, I decided, hey, I’ve never run a 5K in my life, let’s start with a marathon. And so, I bought some shoes, and I trained with a schedule that I found on the internet, and I went from couch potato to starting line in 18 weeks. I ended up running three marathons over the course of two years. But there was a moment in that first marathon that comes to mind every once in a while for me, especially if I’m going through something that’s especially difficult and if it’s one of those things where I don’t see an end in sight. I had been told, for this race, that there would be water and food stations every two miles in the race. Marathons are so long, you have to eat and drink while you do them. And so, I was counting on these, and I passed the 20-mile mark, I still had 6.2 miles to go, and for a first-time non-runner like me, that is by far the worst part of the race. But as the despair started to set in to that, as I was going through that final stretch, I began to realize that there were no more water stations. I thought there would be some, but there were no more water stations. I’d burned through all my glycogen stores. There was no more sugar in my body. I didn’t have the fuel anymore, and I never found out why those stations weren’t there. For 6.2 miles all I could do was fight through the overwhelming desire to quit. All I wanted to do was just lay down in somebody’s lawn, I was running through this neighborhood, I just wanted to lay down, and everything in me wanted to just blame the race organizers and just stop. But I knew if I stopped, that I was never going to start again. Even if I tried to lie to myself and say, “well, just stop for a minute and then you’ll keep going”, I knew I would never, never start again. I knew I would just be overcome with my own frustration. So, I had to keep my legs churning because I knew that absolutely, without a doubt, the finish line was coming. I couldn’t see it. I didn’t know where it was, but I knew it was coming. Today we’re going to talk about endurance, but of a different kind. A much harder kind. We’re going to talk about the mental, spiritual, and sometimes physical endurance it takes to remain steadfastly committed to Christ when the world is crumbling around you and you don’t feel like God is listening to your prayers. Jesus is going to give us a parable today, where he will encourage us to keep our spiritual legs churning and keep our prayers to the Lord steadfast, even when we don’t see the end or we don’t see how God is going to make things right. So, our passage and this sermon this morning is especially for those of you who are exhausted today, spiritually exhausted. And I know you’re out there because there’s always a part of the church that feels spiritually exhausted, and you’re looking for that water station that you thought was supposed to be there. But it’s also this morning, for those of you who are doing real well right now, and if you’re seeing answers to prayer and life is going well and you’re excited about all that God is doing in your life. That is fantastic. But as you’ve heard me say on more than one occasion here, the best time to build your theology of suffering is when things are going well. It’s not when you’re in the midst of suffering. And so, I’d encourage you and encourage all of us today to take what Jesus tells us, put it into your spiritual toolbox so that you have it ready when things get difficult. Because Jesus wants us to pray and never give up when we’re in need of God’s justice, knowing that the God who chose us and loves us will never ignore us. We’re in a new chapter of Luke today, Luke chapter 18, but the change of chapter does not mark a change in topic. What Jesus teaches in this parable follows right on the heels of his description of his second coming and the difficult lives that we’re going to live as Christians as the world gets progressively worse leading up to his return. And so, this parable is intended to show us how to live as faithful followers of Christ while we wait and while we suffer. Last week, we talked about the longing that’s in our hearts...
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    33 Min.
  • Kingdom Come

    Kingdom Come
    Feb 8 2026
    Jesus teaches us the mystery of his second coming so that we will keep our lives focused on pursuing his mission. Well, as you can hear from our reading today, we are going to spend our time in the Word this morning in the area of eschatology, which is the theology of last things. And even as I say the word eschatology this morning, there’s probably a few different reactions happening in the room right now. Some of you are very excited to just talk about eschatology; you’ve been waiting for this, you love to search the scriptures, to learn about Jesus second coming and the new heavens and new earth, and the culmination of the kingdom of God. But sometimes, for some of you, maybe you’re a little too excited, huh? I mean, is that fair? Maybe a little too excited about it. And then on the other end of that spectrum, some of you are not excited at all. In fact, you heard the word eschatology. You just tuned out. You’re already tuning out right now, probably because you’ve interacted with too many people who have too much zeal and certainty on their views. They’ve got a chart. They’ve identified the Antichrist. They have awkward rapture ready conversations with you. And you’re just not into it. But this has caused you to pull away from what the Bible has given us in His Word on this topic, God’s Word on this topic. And there’s part of the Bible that you’re ignoring, and that’s not good either. Some of you are more in the middle in a position that I will label curiosity. You’re far from certain, but you’re not checked out either. Your certain Jesus is returning. You’re not certain how it will happen. I’d like to invite all of us this morning to take a little step closer to that middle position. Today we live right now in between Jesus first coming and his second coming. So, we believe in linear history. Some worldviews are circular. Some have no ending and no beginning. Christianity teaches a clear beginning to our universe, and a forward advancing timeline that culminates in the return of Jesus. So, while we don’t have endless information on exactly what Jesus coming second coming is going to look like, we do have substantial information. And as part of God’s Word, those passages are intended to shape the way that we as Jesus disciples live our lives today. So, eschatology is about the future, but it’s not given to us just so that we can speculate about the future. It’s given to help us to think and to live for Jesus today. So, while we should never claim to have certainty about Jesus return and become overly fixed on it, neither should we ignore it and act as if it doesn’t matter. Luke chapter 17, verses 20 to 37 is Jesus teaching on his own second coming and the judgment of sin that comes with that. It’s a detailed, detailed story. A lot of imagery and metaphor in it. Some of that imagery is clear. Some of it is mysterious. The portions that are mysterious are meant to be. Because part of Jesus point about his second coming is that we’re not supposed to have all the information that we want to have about it. That’s part of his teaching. Did you know that there there’s a part of Jesus teaching where he taught us that we’re not going to know everything that we want to know? It’s like, if I were your math teacher and you came into class one day and I had a math problem on the board, and I said, sit down. Today’s lesson is you are never going to figure this out, right? That would be odd. Now, the mystery, though, is not taught to us for no purpose. On the contrary, Jesus teaches us the mystery of his Second Coming so that we will keep our lives focused on pursuing his mission. Today, this life is fraught with meaningless directions. Some of them are worldly, and they end up in judgment. Some of them simply make followers of Jesus ineffective. And we’re going to see some of that today. But with eschatology, God keeps us on track. That’s the point of eschatology. It is God keeping us faced in the right direction and properly on track. So, I encourage you this morning, keep your Bibles open to Luke chapter 17. It’s a long passage, so it’s not going to be up on the screen this morning. We’re just going to walk through Jesus teaching beginning to end. And it has two parts to it. The first part is short. It’s addressed to the Pharisees, and it concerns the beginning of the kingdom of God. The second part is longer. It’s addressed to Jesus disciples, and it concerns the culmination of God’s kingdom that comes when Jesus return. So, we’re going to start with the beginning, and then we’re going to look at five things to know about Jesus second coming. So, here’s the beginning. It starts in verse 20 and 21. Jesus is once again he’s speaking to the Pharisees, who were Jewish leaders, mostly in opposition to him. I say mostly because some Pharisees did eventually put their faith in Jesus. Did you know this? Nicodemus famously, is one of ...
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    30 Min.
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