Do you ever skip reading the opening and closing sections of some of the letters in the New Testament? You know, the parts where we see lists of names, greetings, and other details that seem irrelevant to our lives? That’s a mistake because these opening and closing sections give us insight into the way the early church understood their life as a community. The institutional structure of the church existed only to serve the organic relationships forged by the Holy Spirit. The New Testament does ...
Apr 19, 2024•22 min
We often don’t think about the fact that Jesus exercised faith. He’s not just perfect in his divinity, but also his humanity. God created us as dependent creatures. Our dependence upon God manifests as faith or trust. Therefore, Christ the perfect man manifests trust perfectly. He demonstrates the perfection if our faith. He’s not just the source and object of our faith, but also the exemplar of faith. Our faith in Christ strengthens when we meditate upon the faith of Christ. He’s the captain of...
Apr 15, 2024•24 min
Through the parable of the wandering sheep, Jesus reveals the heart of the father and the spiritual reality of how we ought to care for others.
Apr 14, 2024•42 min
Well-meaning preachers emphasize that the characters in the Old Testament serve not as moral examples, but pointers to Christ. We’re not to see ourselves as David, but rather see David as merely a pointer to Christ. But Hebrews 11 rejects this either/or mentality. We view the Old Testament saints not only as pointers to Jesus, but also exemplars of faithful living. Furthermore, faith is not a New Testament thing, but an Old Testament thing. Salvation from beginning to end comes by faith alone. T...
Apr 08, 2024•24 min
Jesus speaks to the disciples about how to correctly consider themselves and those around them.
Apr 07, 2024•40 min
Outdoor Easter Sunrise sermon on the hope of the resurrection for Christians.
Apr 05, 2024•25 min
There’s a famous clip of hall of fame NFL coach Bill Parcells telling his players during a game, “This is what you worked all off season for, this is why you lift all them weights.” He’s telling his players not to give up when the game gets tough. Don’t let all the blood, sweat, and tears in the weight room turn out for nothing. Coaches make it their goal to not let past accomplishments cause present complacency. Instead of resting on their laurels, athletes need to look to their past efforts as...
Apr 02, 2024•22 min
Paul reminds the Corinthian church that getting the resurrection right is of great importance as he invites them to ponder and cherish the hope that we have through the resurrection.
Mar 31, 2024•41 min
Jesus enters into Jerusalem and is welcomed and worshipped by those who were awaiting him.
Mar 24, 2024•39 min
"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” These opening lines of the Bible reveal an often overlooked truth: heaven and earth serve as two realms of God’s creation that interlock and mirror one another. Hebrews focuses on how Jesus brings about a new priesthood, sacrifice, and covenant that fulfills and makes obsolete the old. In response, non-Christian Jews accuse their Jewish Christian brethren of innovation. They’re departing from the law of God, the Old Covenant, into heresy...
Mar 21, 2024•20 min
A few years ago I go to see the Colorado mountain ranges for the first time. It was amazing driving through the reality of what I had only seen in photographs. Photographs may capture the beauty of the mountains in amazing detail, but nothing beats the real thing. In Hebrews 7-8, we see that Jesus is the real thing to the photograph of the Old Covenant. In particular, the high priesthood of Jesus brings to perfection what was lacking in the Old Covenant priesthood. This change in priesthood has ...
Mar 18, 2024•20 min
Jesus challenges the disciples to humble themselves.
Mar 17, 2024•33 min
Jesus uses an encounter with the temple tax collectors to teach Peter what it means to follow him.
Mar 11, 2024•34 min
Few things bring as much pain to our lives as seeing someone we care about “apostatize" or turn away from the faith. Perhaps that person served as a vital member of your local church leading Bible studies or evangelizing to the lost, but now he or she wants nothing to do with Christ or Christianity. Such moments rattle us with confusion and sadness. Yet Hebrews reminds us that apostasy existed in the first century just as it does now. The details may differ, but the core remains: repeated reject...
Mar 07, 2024•25 min
As Jesus heals a boy, his responses to the boy's father and to the disciples demonstrates the necessity of faith.
Mar 06, 2024•40 min
We all face anxieties and fears in life. Those fears and anxieties get amplified in a world of social media which exposes us instantaneously to every horrible event. We feel the pressure of a post-Christian world that sees our faith as dangerous and bigoted. We fear the well-being of our children and the pressures they face in a world hostile to Christ. We know we should turn to prayer, but so often we find ourselves so disoriented and confused that words fail us. It’s in those moments that we n...
Feb 29, 2024•24 min
Jesus takes three of his disciples up on a mountain and there, they see him transfigure.
Feb 26, 2024•34 min
Every single person lives their life in pursuit of something they believe will grant them rest. Rest means more than just the cessation of activity or a temporary respite from work. No, rest means complete fulfillment, when a human being attains the end for which God created him or her. The great theologian Augustine in his famous work Confessions writes, “Because you have made us for Yourself… our hearts are restless till they find their rest in You.” Augustine’s recognizes one of the key theme...
Feb 22, 2024•21 min
As Jesus reveals to the disciples what will happen to him, he presses the point that both he, and his disciples, will be known through how they handle the cross.
Feb 19, 2024•32 min
When we look into the night sky we feel a sense of insignificance. We’re just a pale blue dot in a sea of darkness speckled with light. This makes us comfortable so we distract ourselves with pleasure, entertainment, and consumption, but the feeling never leaves. The Bible, on the other hand, does not distract from, but rather embraces our smallness as a means of magnifying the grace of God. The infinite God of the universe bestows upon us his image. He gives us a destiny not of oblivion, but gl...
Feb 15, 2024•28 min
Jesus questions his disciples regarding who the people are saying he is and then, who the disciples say he is.
Feb 13, 2024•38 min
Let’s do a quick orthodoxy test. What do you think about this statement: “The central doctrine of the gospel is the atonement of Jesus Christ.” Sounds great, right? Well this statement comes from the Church of Latter Day-Saints commonly referred to as the Mormons. They use the same words as Christians but mean entirely different things by those words. Specifically, they deny the deity of Jesus Christ. Our salvation depends upon getting Jesus right. Hebrews demonstrates for us that the early Chri...
Feb 08, 2024•14 min
Jesus warns the disciples to not be formed by the teaching of the day, but to follow Him.
Feb 05, 2024•46 min
Jesus shows how the accounts in the Old Testament were a foreshadowing to his coming and his ministry as he is the fulfillment.
Jan 28, 2024•41 min
As Jesus interacts with a Canaanite women, his merciful response reveals that the kingdom is for all of those who would put their faith in him.
Jan 22, 2024•42 min
Jesus responds to the Pharisees' question about his disciples by challenging their tradition and exposing their hypocrisy.
Jan 18, 2024•50 min
Jesus displays his power as he walks on the water in the midst of a storm.
Jan 08, 2024•38 min
Paul describes how in dying to law he lives to Christ through faithful union with him.
Jan 03, 2024•36 min
Jesus coming reveals that God is love, shows God is love, and shares the love of God with His people.
Jan 03, 2024•42 min
In this season of expectations, we are reminded that for those who find their hope in Christ, there is a present and future joy to hold on to.
Dec 18, 2023•45 min
