After over 400 years of silence, the word of the God came to Zechariah and Elizabeth’s son, John – the last and greatest of the Old Testament prophets. We read that “he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Luke 3:3). But John wasn’t […]
Unique to Luke’s Gospel is the mention of two characters who play a small but profound role in the events surrounding Jesus’ birth. These two saints, Simeon and Anna, had been faithfully committed to serving and worshiping God. They knew that God had promised a Messiah who would come to save and restore his people and […]
The Gospel of Luke invites everyone to place their faith in Jesus Christ, the King who defeated death with his love. Over and over again, Luke shows us that the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ, entrance into God’s kingdom, is an offer made to the entire world. But Luke doesn’t stop there. His […]
Addressing the people of Israel, the prophet Isaiah rightly foretold of God’s impending judgment coming against the nation. They were to be destroyed, ripped out of their homeland, and forced into exile, “thrust into thick darkness” (Isa. 8:22). Yet this darkness ultimately was not referring to their physical exile but their spiritual exile, their separation from God […]
Continuing to describe the practical outworking of being filled with the Spirit, namely, “submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Eph. 5:21), Paul applies the gospel to the relationships between children and their parents, as well as slaves (employees) and their masters (employers). In these relationship, believers are radically called to be obedient, kind, gracious, […]
“Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep” (Ps. 121:4). Traditionally sung by pilgrims traveling up to the temple in Jerusalem, this Song of Ascent declares the faithful, vigilant, keeping power of God over his chosen people. But can we Gentiles sing and apply this Psalm today? If we aren’t making pilgrimages to Jerusalem, celebrating Jewish feasts, or even […]
Having urged us to walk worthy of our calling, to put off the old man and put on the new, Paul now commands us to walk as children of light. For those who were once darkness but were now light and partakers of all the promises of Christ through the gospel, what fellowship can light have darkness? But not only has the […]
The old self, that Paul is encouraging the church to put off and be replaced by the new man, was one completely defined and corrupted by deceitful desires (Eph. 4:22). Having been deceived by Satan to chase after the lusts of the flesh, the pleasures of this world, and the pride of life, we chose to find our […]
Of all the psalms in the Old Testament, it is Psalm 110 that is the most often quoted and alluded to by the authors of the New Testament. This enthronement psalm is centered on and fulfilled by Christ, who, having taken on the form of a servant and humbling himself to death on a cross, was […]
