For our 2024 Advent sermon series, we will consider the four blessings traditionally associated with each week of Advent: Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace, and we will do so using the Gospel of John. In this sermon, pastor Mitch reflects on the blessing of hope from John’s gospel, where John declares that “the light shines […]

Advent is the annual celebration of the coming of the Lord Jesus. Yet it’s not just a time for remembering his first advent—his coming in humility to die; it is also a time of waiting for his second advent—his coming in glory to reign. In a world full of darkness, the believer eagerly awaits the dawn […]

The Olivet Discourse comes at the end of a section of Luke’s gospel that began with Jesus entering Jerusalem and pronouncing judgment on the temple (Luke 19:41-44). In this teaching, Jesus is speaking directly to his disciples primarily about the the future fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple. He calls them to […]

The Olivet Discourse comes at the end of a section of Luke’s gospel that began with Jesus entering Jerusalem and pronouncing judgment on the temple (Luke 19:41-44). In the final week of his earthly ministry, before his crucifixion,  he had cleansed the temple, challenged the authority of the temple leadership, pronounced woes against the scribes and […]

The kingdom of God—his reign over all creatures, kingdoms, and history— is one of the central themes of the Bible. Scripture is filled with promises concerning God’s future, everlasting, unchallenged, and glorious rule. Jesus Christ, the Son of Man (Dan. 7:13-14), was the sign that God himself had come in the flesh to inaugurate the […]

While the second coming of Jesus Christ is clearly taught in Scripture (Luke 12:40;  1 Thess. 5:2-4; 2 Pet. 3:10; Rev. 16:15), many in the church today are either consumed with making fanciful predictions about his return or simply neglect this doctrine out of frustration and confusion. For a disciple of Jesus, however, neither of […]