Last week as we considered Ephesians 1, we were focused upon the three Persons of the Godhead—the Father who elects us, the Son who redeems us, and last, but certainly not least, the Holy Spirit who seals and now indwells us. This week we’ll be focusing on the one true …
Today being January 3rd means that it’s a day that falls between two holidays, one cultural, the other ecclesial. The cultural holiday, of course, is New Year’s Day, full of promise of change and new beginnings and clean slates and resolutions and the hope that this year things will be …
Our passage this morning is one of the only places in all of Scripture where we’re told anything about Jesus’ life as a child. We have various accounts of his birth—which we’ve just celebrated!—followed by his circumcision as a baby but though we’d like to know more about what Jesus …
The Gospels in the New Testament focus upon the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. And it’s interesting to note that of the four Gospels, only John begins with the adult Jesus. Matthew, Mark, and Luke—which are called the “Synoptic Gospels” because they provide synopses or summaries that touch …
Depending upon your source, this third week of Advent focuses upon joy, the shepherds, or John the Baptist—not that these are mutually exclusive! This morning we’re going to continue to look at the life of John the Baptist. Last week as we considered the Benedictus, or Zechariah’s Song, we saw …
Though there isn’t a consensus about what each of the weeks of Advent represent, many hold that this, the second week, focuses either upon the prophecies of Christ’s birth and hence it’s about Bethlehem or the Manger or the way of the prophets, which is our focus this morning. As …
To read Old Testament prophetic books is to be reminded of how hard it would be to be a prophet of God. On the one hand, what an amazing privilege it must have been to receive communications from God and present them to his people; on the other hand, we …
As we are entering Thanksgiving week, I thought it might be appropriate and helpful to consider one of many passages given to us in Scripture about thanksgiving. A few weeks ago I ended a sermon using part of this morning’s passage in 2 Corinthians and as I was perusing which …
This morning we are turning to the final “sola” of the Reformation. Having considered the first four foundational “solas”of our lives as followers of Christ—Scripture alone, faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone—we will now turn to the fifth and natural outcome of the first four, Soli Deo Gloria or to …
This morning we are considering the 4th “sola” of the Reformation, “Solus Christus” or “Christ alone.” In our passage this morning, Jesus is addressing eleven of his twelve disciples. In the previous chapter in John 13 we have three important incidents recorded that provide us with some background: First, Jesus …
