Sunday – June 29, 2025
Sunday June 29, 2025 Book of Ephesians Week 32 – Ephesians 5:7-14 “Walk in the Light”
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Tag Archives: God
Sunday June 15, 2025 Fathers Day – Genesis 49:22-28 “A Fathers Blessing”
Sunday June 8, 2025 Book of Ephesians Week 30 – Ephesians 5:1-2 “Be Imitators of God”
Sunday June 30, 2024 The Gospel of John Week 68 – John 19:17-30 “How Great a Salvation”
Sunday – June 30, 2024
Word On Worship – Sunday – June 30, 2024
John 19:17-19
They took Jesus, therefore, and He went out, bearing His own cross, to the place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha. There they crucified Him, and with Him two other men, one on either side, and Jesus in between.
Donald Grey Barnhouse tells about visiting a 16th century Augustinian monastery and palace near Madrid, Spain, called El Escorial. It is a magnificent building where the kings of Spain have been buried for centuries. The architect who built it made an arch so flat that it frightened the king, so he ordered the architect to add a column that would uphold the middle of the arch. So the column was built. Years later, the king died and the architect then revealed that the column was a quarter of an inch short of the arch, which had not sagged in the slightest. In over 400 years, the arch has not moved.
That arch is like our salvation in at least three ways. First, there is a master designer or planner behind it. It did not just happen, but was carefully planned and carried out by God. Second, it is totally sufficient in and of itself. Just as the arch didn’t need the help of a column to stand, so our salvation as provided in Christ is perfect and sufficient without human works needed to supplement it. Third, there is a practical aspect or function to it. The arch wasn’t just for looks, but to support that building. Our salvation isn’t just for looks, but is to result in a life of good deeds to glorify our Lord.
The fact that Jesus finished or accomplished our salvation on the cross means that we cannot add anything to what He did. To add human works or merit to the finished work of Christ is like building a column to support an arch that doesn’t need any support. It detracts from the architect’s design and skill, as well as from the beauty of the arch he made. As Paul put it (1 Cor. 1:30-31), “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, ‘Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.’”
Just as the arch in the Escorial served a practical function, so our salvation is not just for looks. God designed it to bring Him glory as we engage in good deeds. As Ephesians 2:10 adds, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” I can only call you to the question asked by the writer of Hebrews: “How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” (Heb 2:3) The answer is we won’t escape! Make sure that you do not neglect the great salvation that our gracious God and Savior provided at the cross! Trust in Him and serve Him with all your heart!
Sunday June 16, 2024 The Gospel of John Week 66 – John 18:28-38 “Jesus Before Pilate Part 1”
Sunday – June 16, 2024
Word On Worship – Sunday – June 16, 2024
John 18:28-29
Then the Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness the Jews did not enter the palace; they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. So Pilate came out to them and asked, “What charges are you bringing against this man?”
In John’s portrayal of Jesus’ trial before Pilate, he wants us to see that even though Jesus was despised and rejected by the Jews, mocked by the soldiers, and finally condemned by Pilate, the man on the cross is the King. John wants us to see the majesty of Christ as He faced this suffering on our behalf. He also wants us to see the depth of sin that resides in every heart. Apart from God’s grace, we would have responded to Jesus as the Jewish leaders or Pilate or the Roman soldiers did. But also, hidden in this story is the way that we all should respond to Christ. You can reject Christ for many reasons, but many reject Christ because He threatens our self-righteousness. This was the tragic response of the Jewish leaders. It was the worst choice possible because they knew the Old Testament with its prophecies about the Messiah.
Why did the Jewish leaders reject Jesus as their Messiah? There are many reasons. For one thing, He didn’t fit the image that they had of Messiah as a mighty warrior who would free Israel from her political enemies. This was a major reason why even the disciples could not conceive of a suffering Servant as the Messiah. He didn’t fit their expectations. In a similar way, I’ve seen people who initially profess faith in Christ, but they expect Him to solve all their problems and to protect them from trials. When things don’t work out that way, they reject Him.
Before we condemn the Jewish leaders, we need to make sure that there are no logs in our own eyes! Religious pride and hypocrisy are not the exclusive sins of the Jewish leaders. How often we as Christians think like the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable (Luke 18:11), “God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.” It’s so easy to take pride in our church attendance or our morality or good deeds and look down on those who are not outwardly as good as we think we are! It’s even easy to take pride in your Bible reading or Bible knowledge! As Paul said (1 Cor. 8:1), “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” A true understanding of what the Bible teaches about God’s holiness and your sinfulness and God’s grace as demonstrated at the cross leads you to “pour contempt on all [your] pride.” It leads you to view people who have not trusted in Christ with love and compassion, as you realize that, except for the grace of God, you would be just like they are, or worse.
Sunday May 26, 2024 The Gospel of John Week 63 – John 17: 23-26 “Blessings Now Heaven Ahead”
Sunday – May 26, 2024
Word On Worship – Sunday – May 26, 2024
John 17:24
“Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am, and to see My glory, the glory you have given Me because You loved me before the creation of the world.”
In the introduction to this Gospel, John wrote, “No one has ever seen God. The only One, himself God, who is in the presence of the Father, has made God known” (John 1:18). Our Lord’s mission in life was to make the Father known to men. That He has done. Soon, our Lord will have completed His mission of providing an atonement for sin. But at this moment, He is dwelling on the fact that He has revealed the Father to men. His disciples have gotten the message; they have come to believe that the Father did send Jesus down to earth from heaven.
From Jesus’ words in our text, as well as from other texts in the Bible, we can safely say that there are at least two “glories.” There was, for our Lord, the glory of His humiliation at the incarnation and of His sacrificial service in His life and death on earth. But there is also His “future glory,” the glory that will be restored to Him, with interest, because of His obedient service and sacrifice. We should likewise look upon our earthly trials and difficulties as our present “glory,” while we anxiously await our future glory in heaven with Him.
This recognition that there are two glories solves what has been a real mystery for me. I have always been troubled by these words, written by Paul: “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Paul is writing about the great glory of the New Testament ministry which God has given us under the New Covenant, a ministry of the Spirit. He contrasts the glory of his apostolic ministry “in the Spirit” with the previous but inferior glory of Moses’ ministry “of the Law” under the Old Covenant. The ministry of Moses was glorious, but it was a “fading glory.” That is why he placed a veil over his “glowing” face. That glowing face grew dim over time, because that glory faded.
Paul says that the glory of New Testament ministry is unfading. And every time the gospel is proclaimed, and people trust in Jesus as the Messiah, the veil is removed. With “unveiled face,” we are transformed from glory to glory. I think he is saying that we are being transformed from this present glory (of suffering for Christ’s sake) to the even greater glory of Heaven. We are being transformed from the earthly glory of suffering for Christ to the heavenly glory of reigning with Christ. I wonder how many of us are really ready and willing to speak of suffering as glory. Jesus did. The apostles did. I think that tells us how our thinking should change in regard to suffering for Christ’s sake.
Sunday October 8, 2023 The Gospel of John Week 34 – John 9:13-34
Sunday – October 8, 2023
Word On Worship – Sunday – October 8, 2023
John 9:24-25
“A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.” He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!“
Every college philosophy major has to take epistemology, which deals with the question, “How do you know what you know? How can we be sure about what we think we know? When anyone authoritatively states, “We know,” the obvious question is, “How do you know?” Often, when you examine the evidence, you discover that there are knowledgeable people on both sides of the issue. The obvious question remains, “How do you know what you think you know?”
When it comes to spiritual truth, the common view today is that there is no such thing as absolute truth in the spiritual realm. So any spiritual views that you hold are just a matter of your subjective opinion or personal experience, but there isn’t universal, absolute spiritual truth. If you claim that you know the truth and that all other views are wrong, you’ll be labeled as a narrow-minded bigot. Tolerance and open-mindedness, especially on spiritual matters, are the prevailing values of our day.
It’s easy to confuse religious traditions or rules with biblical mandates to the point where you assume that your traditions or rules are equal with Scripture. But you can end up denying a miracle, even if he’s standing right in front of you! Back in the hippie era, when most people dressed up in their nicest clothes to go to church, many older church members could not accept that a bearded, long-haired guy in tattered jeans, a T-shirt, and bare feet had really been converted. Why doesn’t he look like us and dress like us? But they never stopped to question what the Bible says about how a Christian should look and dress. Wrong presuppositions based on religious rules hinder true spiritual knowledge.
The problem we see historically has become even more popular and pervasive today. Today, in the rugged individualism and relativism of our culture, the truth is whatever I as an individual want and define it to be. Truth is my truth, truth as I want it. The first thing we must do is to confess our blindness, our rejection of the truth, and submit ourselves to Him who alone is the truth, the way, and the life. When we accept God’s Word as the truth, and Jesus as the Word, then we will confess Him to be the Son of God, just as the once-blind man did. And when we trust in Him as the One who died for our sins on the cross of Calvary (and rose from the dead), then we become a child of God, whose sins are forgiven, and whose destiny is heaven. I pray that you have come to trust in Him, and that if you have not, God will grant you no rest nor peace till you come to “see” the truth in Him who is the truth.
Sunday October 1, 2023 The Gospel of John Week 33 – John 9:1-12 “Have You Seen the Light”
Sunday – October 1, 2023
Word On Worship – Sunday – October 1, 2023
John 9:3-5
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
How do you treat people who are suffering? Many people pass by them as though they are not there. There is no social interaction, never say “Hello” or “Thanks” or “Pardon me.” The outcasts simply don’t exist, or so it appears from the way we live our lives. To many, they are a nuisance, and the way to avoid them is not to “see” them. This is exactly what you and I do when we come to an intersection where someone is begging. We look straight ahead, not “seeing them,” so that they will leave us alone. It is a signal we send, informing them that we are not planning to contribute.
And yet, with all the Bible teaches us about the glory of suffering, we tend to respond to suffering much like the disciples do. We think that when we are prospering and healthy, it is because of our own piety, and when we or someone else is suffering, we assume it is due to sin. We take credit if our children “turn out right,” and we look down on those whose children have gone astray. But suffering is not always meted out as punishment for sin.
So how should you view human suffering? Is it the occasion to look down upon the one suffering, to ignore that person’s agony and pain? Is it a time for you to engage in idle speculation about sin and guilt? Do you see it only as a time for showing compassion and love? Or do you see it as an opportunity for ministry in a way that fulfills our calling, which brings glory to God by accomplishing His works in this sinful, fallen, suffering world? Let us be exhorted by the words of our Lord to remember that the time for such works is indeed short.
The ultimate good is not our happiness, but the manifestation of God’s glory by the fulfillment of His purposes, the doing of His works. The ultimate good is not our pleasure, nor our freedom from pain, trials, or tribulation. He who has declared and demonstrated this is the same One who gave up the most in coming down from heaven, taking on human flesh, and taking upon Himself the sins of the world, suffering the wrath of God toward sinners on the cross of Calvary. Our ultimate good is knowing and loving God, and if God purposes to use pain and adversity in our lives to get us there, it is well worth the price.
Sunday September 10, 2023 The Gospel of John Week 28 – John 7:53 – 8:11 “Drawing A Picture of the Gospel”
Sunday – September 10, 2023
Word On Worship – Sunday – September 10, 2023
John 8:12
Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”
Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Feast of Tabernacles. At that same feast, the Jews performed a ceremony where they lit four huge candelabras or torches in the Court of the Women in the temple, commemorating the fact that the Lord had been a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night to protect and guide Israel in their wilderness wanderings for 40 years. That cloud appeared on the day when Israel left Egypt, standing as a barrier between them and Pharaoh’s armies on the night before they crossed the Red Sea. Then as it went with them in that wilderness, it was a graphic symbol of the fact that the Lord God was with His people.
In the Old Testament, the Jews recognized the pillar and the cloud as the Lord (Exodus 13 & 14). Furthermore, light is often used as a metaphor for God. Psalm 27:1 proclaims, “The Lord is my light and my salvation ….” In a prophecy about Jesus Christ, Isaiah 9:2 predicts, “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them.” In Isaiah 42:6, the Lord tells His Servant, the Messiah, that He has appointed Him to be “a light to the nations” (or, “world,” in John 8:12).
As I consider Jesus as the “Light of the world,” I am reminded of the conversion of Saul as described three times in the Book of Acts. Saul, who would become Paul, was the personification of the unbelieving Jews we find in John’. He thought he was serving God as he persecuted Christians, just as the Pharisees thought they were serving God by persecuting Jesus. Paul was saved when our Lord intercepted him on a mission to arrest more Christians. Saul was blinded by the “light” of the glory of the resurrected Jesus, whom he persecuted as he persecuted the church of our Lord. That “light” blinded Saul for three days. It was after this three-day period of blindness that Ananias came to him with the gospel, and Saul was saved.
Our text reminds us that while Saul’s conversion was extraordinary in some ways, it is typical in others. We, like Paul, are blinded by our own sin. We oppose God, we oppose Jesus Christ, we oppose the people of God because we do not like the light; we do not want the light. And all the while we are deceived into believing that we’re doing the right thing. If it were not for God’s “enlightening” us, for His seeking us out, for Him opening our blind eyes, we would never see. If you have come to see Jesus as your Savior, remember that it was He who found you, He who gave sight to your spiritually blind eyes.