Our text from Zechariah on the fourth Sunday of Advent builds on the picture of restoration and hope we saw in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Amos. Like all the prophets before him, Zechariah saw a day that was coming when God would return to Jerusalem, rebuild David’s house, restore his people, and deal with their sin. […]
To close Paul’s letter to Philemon, Paul demonstrates the love of Christ by asking Philemon to put Onesimus’ wrongs on his own account. In this sermon, Pastor Keith walks through the text from verses 17-25, showing us the Apostle Paul’s gospel-shaped steps of reconciliation: paying for the other, assuming the best of the other, and […]
In the introduction of Paul’s letter to Philemon, Paul began by acknowledging Philemon’s character and affirmed the demonstration of his faith in his love toward all the saints. He drew a picture of the family of God. And now in the main body of his letter, he shows us how to conduct ourselves in the […]
In this sermon, pastor Matt looks at the third section of Paul’s indictment against sinful humanity in chapter 1 and shows how our rejection of the truth about God is the most fundamental sin that leads not only to all other sins but especially to his judgment. What we ultimately see, however, is that the […]
Our world longs to hear a word of encouragement. We want someone to come along with a message that affirms who we are, and the last thing we want to hear is a message that offends us. No one wants to be told that their beliefs are flawed, their ambitions are misguided, or that they […]
Having received a vision from God in which all food was declared “clean,” Peter’s eyes were opened to see the ever-expanding redemption story of God’s love for a people from every nation. Just like all food was pronounced by Christ to be clean for eating, so Peter is to no longer refuse to be among […]
To worship God is to give him all honor and glory for who he is and what he has done. Yet this worship must be offered rightly, since God alone defines what worship is acceptable to him. Today, however, many understand worship to be nothing more than performance based on emotion. Worship is simply the […]
Acts 4 recounts the first of many instances of persecution experienced by the followers of Jesus. Here, Peter and John find themselves on trial before the very men who had accused and condemned their Lord. Yet they faithfully bear witness to Jesus, declaring that “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no […]
The greater the authority rebelled against, the greater the punishment. To strike your brother is one thing, but to strike a police officer is another. But consider the consequences of rebelling against the Creator of heaven and earth, the infinitely holy and terribly just God. Every sin we commit is a direct assault on his […]
Under the Old Covenant, when the Law was given to the people of God on tablets of stone, three thousand fell by the sword (Ex 32:25-29). But under the New Covenant, when the Holy Spirit was poured out on God’s people to write the Law on their new-creation hearts, three thousand were saved, baptized, and […]
David’s prayer in Psalm 86, like the prayers throughout the Psalter, is highly instructive and illuminating for our times of communion with God. He makes a total of fifteen requests, yet he is essentially he is calling upon the name of the Lord his God for one thing: grace. In the first seven verses, David focuses […]
On the road to Emmaus, Jesus rebuked two of his disheartened disciples for not understanding and believing all that the prophets had spoken about his sufferings. Since the Messiah was coming to redeem his people from the power of sin and death, it was absolutely necessary that this Anointed One experience the suffering of death […]
Writing to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul makes a staggering declaration: “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. . . . If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Cor. 15:17-19). The claims […]
In the Old Testament, three significant types of people were anointed and set apart for service: prophets, priests, and kings. When Jesus came into the world, he came as the Christ, the Anointed One par excellence. And as the Christ, he holds all three of these offices. As prophet, he reveals the will of God for our […]
After the devil had ended his temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, Luke tells us “he departed from him until an opportune time” (Luke 4:13). In Gethsemane, however, that time had now come. It was time for the Son of Man to be betrayed into the hands of sinners, to be led like a lamb […]
