Legend Community Church

In Revelation’s vision of the New Jerusalem, the leaves of the tree of life are “for the healing of the nations,” and the curse that has fractured our relationships with God, one another, creation, and ourselves is finally gone.

But we live between the two trees—between the brokenness we know and the restoration God has promised. In this sermon, Justin explores what it means to follow Jesus in that in-between space: receiving healing ourselves, bringing healing into the lives of others, and confronting the injustices that wound our world. To live as Christ is to become a healing presence, moving with God toward the day when all things are made new.

In Revelation 21, John imagines a city so secure that its gates never need to close. What would it look like to begin living with that kind of security now?

In this week’s message from our Between Two Trees series, Eric explores the story of Maximilian Kolbe, the strange spiritual wisdom of waiting for a cookie, and Jesus’ call to a life of self-giving love. Rather than protecting our comfort and clinging to false substitutes for security, we can learn to live now out of the world God has promised—a world of open gates, resurrection, and restoration.

Even small acts of sacrifice can become “shafts of light” in dark places, giving the world a glimpse of the kingdom that is coming.

John’s vision of the New Jerusalem contains something astonishing: there is no temple, because God’s presence fills the whole city. In this sermon from Revelation 21:2–3 and 22–23, Jason explores how the church becomes a living, imperfect symbol of that promised future—a community marked by welcome, generosity, reconciliation, and care for the vulnerable.

In the opening sermon of Between Two Trees, Justin introduces Revelation 21–22 not as a coded roadmap for escaping the world, but as a vision of where God is taking it.

From the Tree of Life in Genesis to the Tree of Life in the New Jerusalem, Scripture tells a story of God making all things new: death defeated, tears wiped away, nations healed, gates thrown open, and God dwelling with humanity. If that is where the story is headed, Revelation asks a much more important question than When will the end come?:

How should that future change the way we live right now?

Justin explores how Christians can begin pulling that promised future into the present through healing, reconciliation, generosity, Sabbath, care for creation, hospitality, and a way of life that refuses the fear, greed, and power of “Babylon.”

What if the deepest truth about you isn’t that you’re a sinner who somehow convinced God to forgive you, but that you are deeply and eternally loved?

As we conclude our six-week journey through Jesus’ prayer in John 17, Jason looks at Jesus’ final request for his followers: “that the love you have for me may be in them.” Before the cross, before empire, before sin and death, even before creation itself, there was love between the Father and the Son. And Jesus prays that we would be brought into that love.

What changes when we actually believe that? What kind of people could we become if we no longer had to protect ourselves, earn our worth, defeat our enemies, or live afraid of losing? And what kind of church could be built around the conviction that God loves us, our neighbors, and even those unlike us with a love older than creation itself?

In the final week of our series on John 17, we explore Jesus’ audacious prayer, the love that carried him toward the cross, and what might happen when that same love becomes the foundation beneath everything we do.

What does Christian unity actually look like?

In John 17, Jesus doesn’t simply pray that his followers will agree or get along. He prays that they will become one in a way that allows the world to see God through them.

In this sermon, Justin explores the difference between a community built around people who already think, vote, live, and believe alike, and the much more interesting community Jesus imagines: people with different stories, backgrounds, convictions, and experiences who choose to share a table, serve one another, forgive each other, and refuse to walk away.

In a world that is remarkably good at uniting people around common enemies, Jesus invites us to become a people united around a common Savior. Through ordinary acts of hospitality, reconciliation, generosity, and love, the church can become the answer to Jesus’ prayer: a community where people encounter us and catch a glimpse of God.

In John 17, Jesus prays, “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” But where exactly have we been sent—and what are we supposed to do when we get there?

In this sermon, Jason explores the church’s calling to make Jesus visible through truthful witness, self-giving love, costly presence, and stubborn hope. In a world that constantly demands our attention, outrage, and anxiety, Jesus offers us freedom: we do not have to repair everything, respond to everything, or control every outcome. Instead, we can become faithfully present to the people and places God has entrusted to us—and live as if the resurrection is true.

In week three of our John 17 series, we explore one of Jesus' most misunderstood prayers. As He prepares for the cross, Jesus doesn't ask the Father to remove His followers from the world. Instead, He prays that they would be sanctified—set apart to live differently within it.

Too often, Christians have defined holiness as rule-keeping or escaping culture. But Jesus paints a different picture. His followers are called to reject the world's systems of fear, power, greed, and self-interest, and instead become a community marked by love, truth, generosity, and sacrificial service.

What if holiness isn't about earning God's love, but becoming the kind of people through whom God renews the world?

Join us as we discover why Jesus' prayer is not about withdrawal from culture, but faithful presence within it—and how the Church can become a living witness to a different way of being human.

As Jesus prays His final prayer before the cross, He gives a surprising definition of eternal life: "That they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent."

In this second message from our John 17 series, we explore what it means to build our lives on knowing God rather than on control, success, politics, security, or fear. Standing inside New York's magnificent St. Patrick's Cathedral raises a larger question: What gives the Church its life? Is it beautiful buildings, cultural influence, or something deeper?

Jesus' answer is both comforting and challenging. The future of the Church has never rested in our hands—it has always rested in the Father's. Our invitation is not to manage God's Kingdom but to trust Him, know Him, and become a community shaped by His love.

If you've ever wrestled with anxiety about the future, disappointment with the Church, or wondered what "eternal life" really means, this message is for you.