TRC Chattanooga Podcast

Do you know where this story is going? What would it mean to see the end of the story at the beginning, and to know that every tear will be wiped away? On All Saints’ Day, we turn to Revelation 7, where Jesus gives his bride a preview of the happy ending before the scroll is even opened. We consider why the winds of judgment are held back until the full number of martyrs is sealed, who the 144,000 and the innumerable multitude in white robes are, and what the great tribulation meant for the first-century church. Along the way, we see how the blood of the saints, washed in the blood of the Lamb, is not only the seed of the church but the founding of a new world. And because the Greek word for witness is martyr, we ask what it looks like for us to be faithful witnesses wherever God has placed us, trusting that the Lord is watching and does not leave the blood of his martyrs unavenged. Preached by Elder Fred Thompson on All Saints’ Day, the 22nd Sunday of Trinity Season, November 1, 2026.

This Lord's Day, November 1, 2026, was also the feast day of all saints. Listen as we hear about how to rightly remember those faithful Christians who have gone before us and press on towards the goal, finishing the race set before us. Happy All Saints Day!

Has God cast away his people? If Israel rejected her own Messiah, did God’s promises fail? Paul has spent three chapters answering the hardest question his gospel provoked, and in Romans 11 he brings his argument home. God has not abandoned Israel. He has reconstituted her around Christ: a believing remnant saved by grace, Gentiles grafted in like wild olive branches, and the unbelieving broken off, all so that the tree might be fruitful again. The church is not the replacement of Israel but its expansion and renewal, one people of God saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. And because God is sovereign in mercy, we can be confident that those who are unbelieving today may yet be raised to life from the dead. Listen as Pastor Glenn Jones walks us through Romans 11 on the 21st Sunday of Trinity Season, October 25, 2026.

The Apostle Paul wrote these words of exhortation to a truly divided congregation in Corinth. Today, these words are ever relevant and helpful in teaching us how to rightly behave in our local churches here in the 21st Century AD. Listen as Pastor Glenn Jones exhorts the congregation of TRC Chattanooga to maintain the unity that God has given us, even when disagreements arise amongst us. Delivered on the 20th Sunday of Trinity Season, on October 18, 2026.

Whose image is on you? If Jesus had been asked whether it’s lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, what would you have said? In Matthew 22, the Pharisees and Herodians, two factions who agreed on nothing but their hatred of Jesus, set what they thought was the perfect trap: a yes-or-no question about a hated Roman tribute coin. In this lesson, we look at how Jesus springs the trap on them, why the coin in their own pockets exposed their hypocrisy, and how He lifts the whole question from the politics of Rome to the claims of God: Caesar is owed what bears his image, but God is owed what bears His, which is us. Along the way, we consider what Jesus’ “revolutionary subordination” means for how we obey earthly authority, and why we owe God our obedience, our worship, and our very lives. Preached by Elder Fred Thompson on the 20th Sunday of Trinity Season, October 18, 2026.

Have you ever prayed for a loved one who seems determined to run from Jesus? If God is sovereign in election, why pray at all? Last week we saw God’s purpose in election, and this week Paul shows us what to do with it: pray, preach, and keep believing. Paul explains how Israel, zealous for God but “not according to knowledge,” stumbled over the very Messiah the law had always pointed to and tells everyone that Christ is the telos of the law, both its goal and its end. That means that God's salvation has always come through his word to those who hear it by faith, never through works-righteousness or ethnic superiority. Listen as Pastor Glenn Jones walks us through Romans 10 on the 19th Sunday of Trinity Season, October 11, 2026.

Have you ever wished you could trade places with someone, if it meant their salvation? That’s exactly what Paul says in the opening of Romans 9 - a grief so great he could wish himself accursed for his unbelieving kinsmen. From there Paul turns to the hardest (and one of the most contested) doctrines in all of Scripture: God’s sovereign election. In this lesson, beginning with Paul's proper disposition toward this doctrine, we trace its history in the stories of Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, Pharaoh and Moses, and consider the circumstance in which it comes to us. Finally, we turn to election's proper application - a doctrine meant not for doubt or pride, but for humility, assurance, and confidence, both in our own salvation and in sharing the gospel with anyone, since God will lose none of his elect. Listen as Pastor Glenn Jones walks us through Romans 9:1-29 and God’s purpose in election. Preached on the 18th Sunday of Trinity Season, October 4, 2026.

Do you know, really know, that you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit? What does it mean that you are to be adopted by God, with a new birth certificate that says you were born in heaven? Romans 8 is one of the most beloved chapters in all of Scripture, and Paul opens it as the thanksgiving that answers the cry of Romans 7: Christ has come, and there is now no condemnation for those who are in him. The coming of Christ into the world changed everything - not just us, but all of creation, which groans until now. But best of all, the entire creation has been waiting for this moment, so that in the end when God's elect are raised from the dead at Christ's return, the whole world will be handed over to them to rule and reign as co-heirs with Christ Jesus our Lord. Listen as Pastor Glenn Jones walks through all of Romans 8 on the 17th Sunday of Trinity Season, September 27, 2026.

Have you ever assumed you already knew everyone God does - and doesn't - love? What if the nation you most feared and despised turned out to be the very people God was working to save? The story of Jonah is all too often regarded as a children's tale about a big fish, but in today's lesson we unpack it as something far weightier: God confronting the most powerful, most brutal empire on earth, and choosing to spare it. Along the way, we trace the typology running through Jonah - the fish, the plant, the worm, land and sea, Israel and the nations - and show how Nineveh's repentance, Assyria's later apostasy, and God's dealings with empires all point forward to Christ, "the greater Jonah," and to the church's calling to disciple the nations even now. Preached on the 16th Sunday of Trinity Season, September 20, 2026.

Jesus warns his disciples against unforgiveness. His warning is so strong that it is uncomfortable for many modern listeners to even hear. This comes in the very same passage as Christ's directions for church discipline, therefore we also consider how it relates and applies to discipleship in the Church. Listen as Pastor Glenn Jones exhorts the congregation from Matthew 18:35 to practice forgiveness among each other and to show true repentance and love to one another. Delivered on the 16th Sunday of Trinity Season, September 20, 2026.