What does First B Jackson teach about steadfast love?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on steadfast love keeps returning to a single Hebrew word: chesed. Pastor Josh described it as God's steadfast love, mercy, and loyal faithfulness all bound together, and Pastor Mark put it even more concretely by way of a friend whose personalized license plates read 'Hasid' on both ends of his car. Sticky love, that friend calls it. Love that stays. The sermons draw this out from Psalm 117, the shortest psalm in the Bible, which addresses not just Israel but all nations and all peoples, and argues that the 'us' who receive God's chesed is just as wide as that command. Israel was always meant to be a channel of that blessing outward to the world, not the final destination of it.
Psalm 136 makes the same point in a different way. Its refrain, 'his steadfast love endures forever,' follows every single line, from creation through the Exodus through the wilderness through the defeat of kings, all the way to God giving food to all flesh. Pastor Brian, working through Psalm 136 with the congregation responsively, noted that the psalm's reach is not limited to one people or nation. The story of Rahab appears in several of these messages as the clearest illustration: a Canaanite woman in Jericho, outside Israel entirely, heard what God had done at the Red Sea and came to faith on the basis of that reputation alone. God's steadfast love was already moving toward her before anyone brought it deliberately.
Psalm 118 brings that same love down to the personal and the desperate. The psalm moves from calling out in distress, to God answering, to the declaration that it is better to take refuge in God than to trust in princes or governments. The crowd shouting Hosanna on Palm Sunday was singing this psalm, and Josh pointed out that Hosanna carries two meanings at once: 'save us now,' the plea of people who have no other options, and the joyful yes of people who have already received that salvation. Both were alive in that crowd, and both remain alive for anyone sitting with the question of whether God's love is actually the kind that holds.
Taught from Psalm 117 · Psalm 136 · Psalm 118 · Joshua 2 · Exodus 34:6-7
The passage taught · 1 Peter 5
1 Therefore I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and who will also share in the glory that will be revealed.
2 Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion, but voluntarily, not for dishonest gain, but willingly;
3 neither as lording it over those entrusted to you, but making yourselves examples to the flock.
4 When the chief Shepherd is revealed, you will receive the crown of glory that doesn’t fade away.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- April 13, 2025 Palm Sunday Sermon @ First B Jackson April 13th 2025 Palm Sunday sermon on the Psalms of Ascent, exploring God's steadfast love in Psalms 117, 118, and 136 as a love meant for all nations, not just a chosen few.
- April 13, 2025 His Steadfast Love Endures Forever Palm Sunday sermon on God's steadfast love from Psalms 117, 118, and 136: a love reaching every nation, enduring forever, worthy of our praise and proclamation.
- March 25, 2018 His Steadfast Love Endures Forever Palm Sunday sermon exploring the Hebrew "Hosanna," the Psalms of Ascent, and how God's steadfast love endures forever, even in our lowest moments.
Mentioned along the way
- April 10, 2022 Palm Sunday April 10th 11 am Serivce Palm Sunday sermon on the crowd's fickleness, the meaning of palm branches as symbols of revolt, and God's steadfast love that never wavers even when ours does.
- April 10, 2022 Hosanna: The Steadfast Love of the Lord Endures Forever Palm Sunday sermon on fickle human nature versus God's steadfast love, tracing the symbolism of palm branches from the Maccabees to Christ's humble entry into Jerusalem.