Our Lord’s choice of the invitation to the supper is not by chance. Supper is the evening meal—the last nourishment before going to sleep—the meal before the coming of darkness. In this case of the parable, the supper is the feeding of the Holy Gospel—the last doctrine God gave us and the doctrine that will usher in the end of the world. More...
Jesus is the Light of the world. His birth announcement to the Jews was made by the bright light of the angel speaking with the shepherds. The birth announcement to the Gentiles was made by the bright light of the star which led the wise men from the East to the place of His birth. More...
Jesus is the One sent to bring glory to all of God’s people—a glory beyond human comprehension—a glory we cannot even imagine—to be crucified for us by the sins of this world—and that includes each of our sins today—and the sins of those who crucified Him—Jesus was God the Father’s preparation of the way of our salvation. More...
To fully appreciate the love of God we must understand that the Old Testament and New Testament are one continuous tapestry. Everything is weaved together to show us Christ and the love of God. More...
Jesus was arrested and bound in the Garden of Gethsemane—dragged by troops from the garden to the Sheep Gate of Jerusalem. This gate was used to bring sheep that would be sacrificed to atone for sins of the people. It was appropriate that the Lamb of God be sacrificed and very appropriate that He would be bound and led through the Sheep's Gate as any other offering would be delivered to the priest. More...
We will consider Peter’s denial beginning with Jesus' prediction of that denial and a quick look at who Peter was in his relationship with his Lord. This will help us understand why this denial is important to us. More...
Today we are going to consider the 14th chapter of the Gospel of John and we should ask ourselves the question—"If we had less than 24 hours to live, and we had an hour or so to spend with our closest friends, what would we say to them? More...
Today we are going to consider the 14th chapter of the Gospel of John—and we should ask ourselves the question—"If we had less than 24 hours to live, and we had an hour or so to spend with our closest friends, what would we say to them?"More...
Jesus was executed on the word and at the insistence of the Jewish council and the same crowd of God's people that gave praise and laid palm branches under the feet of Jesus' donkey during His triumphant entry a week prior—Pontius Pilate found no fault with Jesus.More...
Jesus, the Passover Lamb, did not simply allow Himself to be killed. Dying was not enough. Jesus had to bleed profusely to fulfill the role of Passover Lamb. In His suffering and bleeding we are reminded that it is by the Blood of the Lamb that we obtain our salvation. More...
Our Lord's burial is described in minute detail. Let's consider some of those details beginning with the timeline of events. More...
Oh death where is thy sting? Indeed, Jesus destroyed death in accordance with the Scriptures. More...
It is through the eyes of faith that the disciples would see Jesus and understand who He is, the resurrected Son of God. Their spiritual eyes could only be opened by the Holy Spirit Jesus breathed onto these gathered disciples. More...
On that first Easter Sunday our Lord established the one church on earth when He breathed the Holy Spirit into His disciples. There is still ONE CHURCH on this earth—and that is the Christian church of believers. More...
Jesus goes to prepare a place for us—prepare the way for us to follow. The traditional custom of the Jewish wedding was for the Bridegroom to “go and prepare a place” for the bride. Jesus is the Bridegroom. The Church is the bride. More...
Jesus is teaching that being a Christian is not being a "good person" who attends church regularly, recognizes that there is a God, and lives his life as he wants—being a Christian is knowing there is a God—knowing we are God’s children—and living our lives for Him until He calls us home.More...
Peter begins this chapter discussing how men of the world live and reminds Christians that we all lived in that way to some extent. But, that time has ended with our becoming Christians. More...
The Holy Spirit was Part of God’s Plan from the Beginning. More...
Nicodemus could not understand being born again. Unless he was reborn, unless he was enlightened by the Holy Spirit, he would never see the kingdom of God.More...
We are filled with the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is God. Therefore, we are filled with the love of God and from us come the fruits of the Spirit. We perform acts of love because we are filled with love. More...
Our Lord’s choice of the invitation to the supper is not by chance. Supper is the evening meal—the last nourishment before going to sleep—the meal before the coming of darkness. In this case of the parable, the supper is the feeding of the Holy Gospel—the last doctrine God gave us and the doctrine that will usher in the end of the world. More...
This is the beginning of what would become a hostile relationship between Jesus and the Pharisees. The Pharisees were highly educated Jews who were especially knowledgeable of the Old Testament, but they tended to be arrogant and looked down at those they considered sinners. More...
No wonder Paul preached with such intensity. If ever a man understood that he was a forgiven sinner, it was Paul. And with that as a background we will examine some of Paul’s writings during this trinity season.More...
There are those who believe that if you do good things for God, He will let you into heaven. Jesus is teaching us that we should not waste our time doing things for God. God doesn’t need our help nor our good deeds. He needs our loving hearts to do good for our neighbor. He desires to be glorified by our obedience to His Word. That’s the lesson Jesus is teaching us. More...
This is Satan’s world but when our Lord Jesus defeated death, Satan’s days became numbered. Christ’s victory will be our victory and our glory. Just as our victory was in Christ so is our glory in Christ. More...
The text follows Peter’s dissertation on the relationship of Christian husbands and wives, once again reminding us that the earthly marriage of man and woman serves as a constant reminder of the relationship of the Church and Christ.More...
Christ ascended into heaven and He left one Church in this world. He sent only one Holy Spirit to dwell among us and within us. Christ left one Church and we are to remain true to the Word of God until His return. This will maintain us in the truth until His return—one Church family, brothers and sisters in Christ. More...
When you confess your sin you acknowledge and admit guilt to that sin. God forgives your sin and you are expected to make changes to avoid sinning again. More...
Today’s text has so many lessons for us to learn, but we must limit ourselves to one aspect of the truth. Paul says we must live by the Spirit that is within us. Every Christian has the Holy Spirit dwelling within him and it is by listening to the Sprit within us that we should live our lives. More...
We cannot understand that Jesus is the Christ without the Holy Spirit. Our very understanding of our salvation is a gift of God through the Holy Spirit. More...
All of our gifts have one thing in common—they are not gifts for the individual they are given to—they are gifts to be shared with others. These gifts are entrusted to us as Christians to share with everyone we can share them with. Consider your gifts and determine whether you are using them to the fullest extent for the Church. More...
Christ died on the cross, not that He was taken by force, but that He offered Himself as a sacrifice on our behalf. He died for our sins. His resurrection was our victory over death. More...
The wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. Yet, from the beginning of time, man has sought after the wisdom of this world. That is what caused the fall of man into sin. More...
Paul understood that we are saved by God’s grace and that our salvation is by faith—a gift from a loving God. Paul taught us that it has always been that way. More...
Paul says we are heirs, heirs of Christ, therefore for us to inherit eternal life, Christ had to die. Now consider the blood of our Lord which was shed for us. God the Father demanded payment for sin and because we all sin and fall short of the glory of God our sins are redeemed by His blood. More...
The tendency for us today is to compare ourselves with others and believe we are doing better than them so God must love us enough to let us into heaven. We must understand that it is by grace that we are saved and just because we are not as big a sinner as the next person does not mean that we are seen as good. More...
Paul was a dead man walking in sin until his conversion on the road to Damascus and he knows better than anyone that he passed from death to life through the message of the Gospel. He is saved by grace and he wants everyone to know how it is that the power of God that saved him might also save them. More...
We recognize the familiar words of the Lord's prayer. This is part of the much beloved Sermon on the Mount when Jesus was teaching the Jews how to properly interpret and live by the instructions of the Old Testament. There are some who chastise us for memorizing and repeating the Lord’s Prayer each day, even several times a day. I would answer those critics with these Words of Scripture. More...
Today we continue with our discussion on prayer and how we should pray. Sometimes we have a friend who suffers and needs help. We pray for them. Does it do any good? What should we pray for? How should we pray? More...
Paul describes the ways of the natural man—old man—and the ways of the Spirit-filled man—new man.More...
Paul is admonishing Christians—those who have heard the Gospel—those who have the Holy Spirit within them, but have become complacent in their journey through life. They are not yielding to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. They forget they are still flesh. They think their fight with the devil is all over. They boast of being Christians, but their conduct doesn’t indicate likewise. More...
The lesson: as long as we forgive, we have grace. When we refuse to forgive, our own forgiveness slips out of our grasp. Forgive your neighbor and God forgives you. More...
Paul is teaching that there are many who claim to have the truth of the Word, but they preach the foolishness of this world—not the wisdom of the Word of God. Paul says “use me as your example”. Not that Paul is the human example, but that Paul follows the teachings of Christ. He is telling us to pattern our lives after his life. More...
When God placed Adam and Eve in the garden paradise He allowed them the free will to decide to obey Him or not to obey Him. Man remains the only animal in God’s creation to have a will to obey or disobey God. When we obey we bring glory to God. That is why God created us, to obey Him and bring glory upon Him. More...
On the last Sunday of the church year we traditionally speak of the end-times, the time when this world will end and a new world begins. How do we know this? God told us in His Word. We pray for each week in the Lord's Prayer “Thy Kingdom come” that His Kingdom be established here on the new earth let us consider the things of God’s Word in our text. More...
Today we celebrate the anniversary of the Reformation of the Christian Church. We studied the early Church a few years ago and learned how the Gospel was spread by the persecution of the early Christians. The Reformation caused a similar occurrence when religious persecution in Europe forced Christians to flee to America. Again God used circumstances of persecution to spread His Word. More...
Paul uses a physical example to make a spiritual point—the transition from night to day is to go from darkness to light—from evil and untruth—to the truth of the Gospel. The reference is to dawn and these people lived in the dawn of the Gospel. The New Testament was being written, literally, as these words were penned by Paul. Paul tells them to cast off the works of the devil. Paul says wrap yourself with the spiritual protection of the Light. And the Light is Christ. More...
Jesus is the Bread of Life. Thank God for His sending of the Holy Spirit that you know this truth. It is by His grace that you are saved because by His grace and by His love for us God sent His Son to die for us that we might be saved. More...
Today the third Advent candle is called THE SHEPHERD CANDLE symbolizing the coming of the Savior into our hearts and lives through His Holy Word and most times through the preaching or teaching of one of our Lord’s shepherds or ministers of the Word. No minister should consider himself anything but a messenger, a teacher of the Word. We can find evidence of this teaching as far back as the Old Testament. More...
Paul instructs us to pray for each other and to pray for thanksgiving—thanksgiving for the gift of God—Jesus Christ—God’s Son—Paul says we have the peace of God—and that peace is beyond human understanding—but does this conflict with the words of Jesus Himself?—Jesus told us that He did not come to bring peace to the world—yet all around us we hear requests for peace on earth—and some think Jesus brings that peace—listen to the words of Christ. More...