Brownwood Church: Recent Episodes
Brownwood Church
We desire to be a church who believes and faithfully proclaims the gospel of Christ for the glory of God in Brownwood, TX. We hold to the authority of Scripture, rely on the work of the Spirit, and trust God to present the church mature in Christ at His appearing.
When the earth was mostly desert, God watered the whole surface of the ground from below and formed man from the mud. Our origins were humble, but as clay shaped by the hands of the potter, we were formed as vessels with purpose. And when God breathed into Adam the breath of life, he was animated as living clay.
In Yahweh breathing the breath of life into Adam’s nostrils, we have a shadow of eternal life, in which the Spirit of God imparts life not merely into our nostrils and then lungs (the outer man), but into our minds and hearts (the inner man).
On the seventh day of creation, God's creation was complete and all was as it should have been. Since God was finished with His work, He blessed the day and set it apart for His people to remember the day when the world was in a state of rest. Remembering the Sabbath would not only remind Israel of a time when all was good and complete, but it would help them look ahead to a time when the world would be at rest again.
So when Jesus came and healed on the Sabbath, He was not only doing something lawful, but taking things back to their state before sin and unrest entered the world. The rest God commanded His people to observe on the Sabbaths reminded them there was a time before men were enslaved, indebted, or held captive. And ultimately, in Christ alone, we enter into this eternal rest.
One of the great Messianic Psalms which proclaims the majesty of Yahweh and points us to Christ, the Author of our salvation.
When God observed His finished creation, He said, "it was very good" to indicate its completion. Like a table now fully assembled with all its parts, every day of creation was brought together in a completeness with which God was pleased. The heavens and earth without blemish would be a shadow of something greater in the end, when the new heavens and earth are restored after the fall.
At the end of the sixth day, the completion of creation was really the beginning of God's story. God had given commands that would take millennia to obey in bringing forth, filling, and cultivating the earth as well as the hearts of those who would ultimately populate the place we all long for again.
The uniqueness of male and female finds its creational roots in the distinction of the image of God. As Martin Luther analogized by using sun and moon, the relationship between the man and the woman is derivative, reflective, and unique. When Paul repeatedly argues for headship in the man, He does so by using the distinction in imaging we see in Genesis, because man was formed first, and the woman out of him.
God's cultural and dominion mandate to be fruitful, multiply, fill, subdue, and have dominion was given to them, and though each would have primary roles, all facets would require both.
This creational reality is also teleological, and ultimately eschatological. Christ, the second and better Adam, is the image of the invisible God. And we as the church are the weaker vessel who ate the fruit, but unlike Adam, Christ did not, and we are saved through Him, as Paul argues as the ultimate end of marriage.
What does it mean that man was made in the image of God, and what was lost of it in the fall?
On the sixth and final day of creation, after creating all other living creatures according to their kind, God created man in His own image and likeness. Scripture speaks of a glory in man that not only set him above all other living creatures, but was all but lost after sin. Man, the very creature that was made to image God, did the one thing God would never do. And now, only in Christ, can man be restored in His image.
On the fifth day of creation, God filled the seas and skies with living creatures that swam below and flew above. These breathing souls were blessed and commanded by God to be fruitful and multiply. Even the great sea monsters that the Mesopotamians, Egyptians, and Canaanites saw as rival gods were actually creatures under the sovereignty of Yahweh.
In Genesis, the themes of blessing, multiplication, and fruitfulness that begin on the 5th day with God's first living creatures continue through His image bearers (Gen. 1:28), His faithful (Gen. 9:1), His people (Gen. 22:17), His nation (Gen. 28:1-3), and His tribes (Gen. 49:28).
Blessing was not just for the fish and birds. It finds its ultimate fulfillment in Christ, whose miracle on the hillside of Bethsaida was not His first time multiplying two fish. And at the last supper, we again see blessing (in giving thanks), multiplication (in the breaking of bread), and fruitfulness (in the cup). In the church, we see multiplication at Pentecost and fruitfulness as churches are planted and grow. And in the kingdom, we see multiplication as disciples are made 30, 60, and 100-fold, and fruitfulness as true believers live full of the fruits of the Spirit.
God created the sun, moon, and stars as light-bearing signs of the days, years, and seasons. These celestial bodies were not created to define the day, but to sign the day. God obviously didn't ordain the day on the fourth one, but the first.
One of the reasons we know the days of creation are the same as the days we experience now is that the when the heavenly bodies were created in accordance with the morning and evening, they did so according to the pattern of evening and morning that God had already established on the first day.
The land and seed that God brought forth on the third day of creation remind us of the promised seed who was buried in the earth and came forth on the dawn of the third day as the true first fruit over all creation.
When God stretched out the expanse of the heavens on the second day between the formless waters, He began the act of forming the earth through separation. Just as He had formed time when He separated light from darkness as evening and morning of the day, He formed space when He spread out the expanse of the heavens.
Every morning and evening, the heavens are a canvas in which God paints a unique portrait for us to be reminded of His glory and the beauty of His creation. They are where the waters begin and end, and that through which the rain comes down and evaporates up. Most of all, they are the space through which we are reminded that although God descended, we cannot traverse them to Him, except through faith.
The eternal Word of God was in the beginning as the agent through which creation was spoken into existence. All things which came into being did so through the Word. Light itself illuminated the darkness of creation when the Word communicated that which was in Him, not merely as involuntary emanation, but by His eternal will.
By His sovereign will, God spoke and it was. Time as we know it began, of which this light itself is inseparably connected. And although science has recently come into more discovery of this, that connection has always been on these pages of Scripture, as Genesis intricately connects light and time with that by which it is named: “Day.”
God created the earth formless and empty so it could be formed and filled over the next six days. The darkness, or the evening of the first day, was over the chaotic waters that initially could not sustain life. But the Spirit of God hovered in oscillating movement, surrounding His newly birthed creation like an eagle over its young, indicating His love, protection, and plans for its formation and filling.
The formless and void earth that God formed and filled over the next six days was not the result of a ruined and reconstructed previous earth that resulted from Satan's fall as Gap theory proponents began proposing 200 years ago to try and account for an unmentioned amount of time between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. The formlessness and void was the initial state of an earth unable to sustain life until God formed and then filled it.
Genesis is the book of beginnings. It is God's authoritative revelation of the beginning of space & time as we know it, matter & energy, light & life, history & humanity, peoples & nations, sin & judgement, redemption & restoration. In Genesis, salvation is promised and pictured in Hebrew sensory realities.
For 2,500 years, the world that God created was not in possession of the record of its beginnings. For centuries the world speculated and mythologized, passing down their oral traditions of an ancient flood and chronicling the dragon-like creatures that roamed the earth. To this day, science labors to find the answer to the great mystery revealed in the very first verse of Scripture, and detailed on the pages that follow.
In Psalm Six David is in great distress and anguish, and he feels it in his body and soul. Though his circumstances are bleak, and his own sins apparent, he continues entrusting himself to God. His prayer is a worthy example for us to follow in trying times and points even beyond David to our greatest hope.
In this prayer of David we see that God hears his people, he keeps the faithful in their trials, and even graciously calls the rebellious to repentance. In Psalm 4 we find that God is always ready to show his goodness to mankind, if they but trust in him.
We behold the glory of Christ by faith in this life and by sight in the next. We have difficulty by faith because we only perceive a reflection, are limited by our lack of faith, and are constantly losing sight of His glory as we are distracted by other earthly matters. In his last work, the great Puritan theologian and "Prince of the English Divines," John Owen, compiled his meditations and discourses on "The Glory of Christ." On the morning of his death, he was told it would be published, to which he replied, "I am glad to hear it; but the long wished-for day has come at last, in which I shall see the glory in another manner than I have ever done, or was capable of doing in the world."
Isaiah prophesies of a Servant who would bring forth justice to the nations, yet do it without breaking a bruised reed or extinguishing a faintly-burning wick. The English Puritan Richard Sibbes wrote of the bruised reed as those who have been damaged by the effects of sin, and the smoking flax as those with only a spark of faith. Christ will not be the one to break the bruised reed or quench the small faith of the faint-hearted, but rather uphold them and fan them into flame.
Every circumstance in our life is given to us by God and intended at its exact time to mature us. If God desired to shape us in a different way, He would have placed different trials in our path. Scottish Covenanter Thomas Boston understood this as he wrote "The Crook in the Lot" during a volatile time of uncertainty among the Puritans. Boston knew that considering the crook in our lot as the work of God is the proper means for us to be rightly sanctified through God's use of it in our lives.
We will to do that which we desire, which is the great problem for sinful humanity. By nature, we are born into sin and imprisoned by it, so we must be set free by the One who was never bound by its shackles. The Puritans understood freedom the Biblical way, which was to the ability to worship and serve God. As many of the separatists fled the Church of England, they did so not to live any way they pleased, but to be free to worship God with a clear conscience.
The Christian journey is a pilgrimage that begins by entering the narrow gate (Christ) and walking the narrow way (Christ) that leads to life. The wide gates through which many others enter and broad roads the masses walk all lead to destruction. In John Bunyan's allegorical dream of a believer's life, Christian must flee the City of Destruction, enter through the gate to which Evangelist points him, and never ultimately stray from the difficult path to make it to the Celestial City of the King.
Why do the nations set themselves against the only One impossible to defeat? David warns the kings of the earth to submit themselves to the King of Kings who was coming to take back what was rightfully His. We must kiss the Son, and pledge ultimate allegiance not to the nations, nor riches, nor men, horses, chariots, or the sword; but to the Lord's anointed, our only refuge.
Like a mustard seed that grows into a tree or leaven that spreads through flour, the kingdom is growing and spreading in the earth. Jesus' parables remind us that what He brought started small, yet assuredly continues to grow. This kingdom is hidden to our eyes, yet like leaven, affects all it touches as it spreads throughout all the earth.
It is tempting to try and uproot all the evil in the world, but impossible for us to do so without damaging what God has sown. In human attempts to rid the world of every evil historically, most only add to it. The world will be rid of all evil, but not until the Lord returns with His reapers to perfectly separate the wheat from the tares at the harvest.
Jesus' parable of the soils is the key to understanding why the word of God takes root and bears fruit in some and not others. As the seed is sown, some is immediately snatched away. Some spouts up immediately because of its lack of depth. In others, it grows but is choked away over time. But the seed that makes it all the way to the good cultivated soil takes root and is the only that bears good fruit in time.
As Jesus preaches the kingdom, He opens up their minds to a reality their eyes can't see: true family. Jesus points to His disciples as the answer to His question, "Who are my mother and brothers?" This doesn't make the natural family less meaningful, but fulfills God's actual purpose for it, one that doesn't terminate on itself.
His family is eternal rather than temporal, of the Spirit rather than of the flesh, born of God rather than of man. God's family is bigger than ours, as numerous as the stars and the sand. His family is better than ours, every member of which is being perfected. God's family is eternal and indestructible, unlike every other family in the history of the world.
There had never been a generation with more evidence of the Messiah than the one in which the Son of God walked the earth. Yet in the unbelieving Pharisees' relentless demands for Jesus to bend to their will with visible sign after sign, they prove themselves faithless, ignorant of the Scriptures, and blind to God in the flesh standing in front of them, their only hope of salvation.
There is nothing more important you can do for someone in this life than declaring the whole purpose of God to them. Paul spent years in Ephesus doing just that, and as he journeyed back through on his final missionary journey, he called the elders who remained and exhorted them to guard themselves and the flock by doing the same.
Men who aspire to oversee God's church desire a good work, one that requires godliness above all else. Virtually every qualification for an elder in the church is a characteristic of spiritual maturity. Though many churches prioritize the eloquence of a pastor or the board experience of an elder, God didn't deem those vital enough qualities to mention. Even the required ability to teach and lead his household well are overwhelmingly derivative functions of an elder's character, because it would be impossible to teach or lead his family unhypocritically if his character wasn't godly. And if he is to teach and lead other families in God's church, he must be able to first teach and lead his own.
Every church in the New Testament had multiple elders to shepherd and oversee the flock of God. This practice was universal in the church for over a hundred years until Ignatius of Antioch elevated one of the elders over the others as a single bishop "in the place of God." This laid the foundation for what developed into the Roman Catholic papacy, but also set a precedent for the majority of Protestant churches in our day who have a "lead," "head," or "senior" pastor, without precedent for the practice in the New Testament. God did not put one sinful man over His church for good reason, and we must help churches come back to the model God designed for them.
Elders are responsible for shepherding and overseeing the flock of God. As shepherds (or pastors), they lead, feed, and protect the sheep who belong to God. As overseers, they keep watch over their souls, and will give an account to God for how they guarded those entrusted to their care.
Every believer has received at least one spiritual gift to be used in service, not buried in fear. These gifts are varied in measures of grace, which should come together as a mosaic, rather than homogenize. This variety should prove effective, not problematic. For that to be so, our service must not be for ourselves or about us, but for God and about Christ. Not because He needs anything, but because He deserves everything.
Servants of the local church must be trustworthy believers. Paul instructs Timothy in the qualifications for deacons and deaconesses who serve the needs of the congregation. Those who serve well may not gain a high position in the world or a prestigious title, but more importantly, they gain good standing in the faith, and confidence they are functioning in the purpose for which God designed them.
As the church grows, needs increase and problems arise. In the early church, the apostles instructed the congregation to choose from among themselves Spirit-filled, trustworthy servants to collectively care for specific needs. As hands were laid and the official responsibility became theirs, the apostles were freed to devote themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word, their primary service to the church. God's designs had to be better than that of the world's because His mission was larger and greater than that of a nation, business, or other earthly institution.
Jesus helps us understand the ultimate purpose of deacons: to serve. His own incarnation was the greatest manifestation of this because He came and served our greatest need: to be ransomed from our sin. In contrast to James' and John's desire for exaltation and the Gentile exercises of lordship and authority down upon the people, Jesus taught His disciples that greatness in the kingdom came by serving others.
What is our motivation for faithful and generous giving? When Paul tells the church that God supplies seed to the sower to multiply, it is to have an abundance for every good deed, not for the accumulation of personal riches. As the church transitioned from the legal requirement of paying multiple tithes to now every believer as a priest purposing in his heart what they are to give, it is joy that always motivates the greatest sacrifices.
The church was a family. It IS a family. It is THE family. And because the early church understood this, they continually devoted themselves to reflections of that reality. Like a family, they taught each other, had a participation of fellowship in their sharing and contributing, ate together, and prayed with and for each other. Like a family, they considered their possessions not merely their own, but provided for any as each had need. This wasn't a cult or communism: this was family, as God truly intended. Though they didn't share their own blood, they were brought together by the more precious blood of Jesus.
Why do we assemble together? As the first believers were transitioning from the shadows of worship in the temple to the gathering of the church, assembling together became where they reminded each other to hold fast to their new confession of Christ as the fulfillment of the law, prophets, sacrifice, temple, and priesthood. As these new members of the church assembled together, they encouraged one another to love and good deeds.
In due time, every tree will identify itself when it bears its fruit. The words we truly speak can only ultimately come from that which is already in our hearts. So in the end, the fruit of our lips will prove the condition of our hearts, which is why Jesus can rightly say that we will be justified or condemned by our words.
The generation Jesus came to had been given more light than any before. They were witnessing His mighty works and hearing the kingdom proclaimed greater than ever. Yet the Pharisees, in the face of the most obvious displays of the works of the Spirit of God, attribute His power to Satan himself. They were insulting the Spirit of grace, and if one rejects the Spirit, there is nothing else that remains. This blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is the most serious sin one could ever commit.
What was God's ultimate purpose in the Sabbath? Why could Jesus’ disciples pick grain on it? How did David’s men eat the consecrated bread for the priests, which was unlawful? In what sense could the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and remain guiltless? And why was Jesus healing on the Sabbath not only lawful, but a means by which His ultimate fulfillment of it was demonstrated?
The Father is pleased to hide spiritual things from the lofty and reveal them to the lowly. Jesus invites all of us who are weary and heavy-laden to come to Him and receive rest for our souls; to unyoke ourselves from the cares of this world and the heavy burden of sin, and to put on His easy yoke of righteousness.
As John sits in prison, he begins to wonder why others were experiencing the promises of the kingdom when he was seemingly not. Jesus would reassure him He was the One to come, but John’s greatness will be perfected in suffering. God is so serious about His mission that He promises the same reward to the one who receives His messengers as the reward they will receive themselves. To receive the messenger is to receive the message, yet the generation that rejected John also rejected Jesus, and His Apostles.
The sending of Jesus comes with the promise of persecution, even from unbelieving family members. But despite being hated by all, Jesus has promised to save the ones who endure to the end. As He sends out His first twelve to the cities of Israel, he instructs them to deal with this persecution by continuing to go and preach the coming kingdom to them. In fact, their mission wouldn’t even be completed before He came in judgment upon their nation.
The twelve apostles were sent out into a world hostile to Jesus’ message of a coming kingdom. False teachers who couldn’t recognize the King and secular authorities who would do anything to protect their kingdoms were willing to persecute anyone who threatened them. So Jesus prepares His disciples for being dragged into scenarios where their earthly fate would be determined by their words by telling them: “Be wise; be innocent; and do not worry...”
Jesus' sending of the twelve to the lost sheep of the house of Israel serves as the beginning of apostolic ministry, a foundation of the church. As His apostles are sent out, they are authorized and instructed to begin their ministry the way He began His: by healing and preaching the kingdom of heaven at hand.
Jesus has compassion on the crowds as He goes throughout all the cities and villages of Galilee, seeing the people as sheep without a shepherd. His care for them manifests as He heals every kind of sickness and disease, which shadows the healing they most need: that for their souls.
As Jesus feasts at Matthew’s house, the disciples of John and the Pharisees ask him why His disciples don’t fast. Jesus responds by pointing out how absurd it would be for groomsmen to fast during a wedding or betrothal feast, as though it was a time for mourning rather than celebration. He goes even further to begin to illustrate the nature of the New Covenant for them by teaching them that you can’t merely put a patch of the new on the old without tearing it worse, nor can the old structures contain the substance of the new wine without bursting.
The heart of Jesus for the sick and the lost is so far beyond the posturing of fake religious people. As Jesus heals the paralytic lowered by his faithful friends through the roof and then goes to Matthew’s house to eat with tax collectors and other sinners, the false religion of the scribes and Pharisees is made evident in their rebukes. And Jesus even has compassion on them by putting His divinity on display and directing them to the heart of God revealed in their Scriptures.
Often we find ourselves in situations outside of our control. Right after Jesus tells His disciples following Him will be difficult, He takes them through a storm. As the boat fills with water, the disciples find themselves in a situation they can do nothing about on their own.
After Jesus calms the storm and they dock, the disciples witness two men with thousands of demons, a situation they themselves are powerless to change. But Jesus has compassion upon them and casts the demons into a herd of pigs.
What a reminder this is that even though we are powerless to control the natural or supernatural, Jesus is Lord over them both.
Why is there such a great discrepancy between the number of those who decide to follow Jesus and those who truly do? Could it be that what Jesus told us it would cost was more than a hand raised, an aisle walked, a prayer prayed, or a decision made? Maybe we in the church today should reorient our emphasis and celebration from deciding to follow Jesus to truly following Him.
As Jesus goes throughout Galilee healing, Matthew shows how His physical healing points to His spiritual healing prophesied in Isaiah 53. This would be the ultimate need of every man, woman, and child healed of an infirmity in this life.
Jesus finishes the Sermon on the Mount with the ultimate call to action: to do what He commands. Those who do build their life on the bedrock of Christ instead of the surface sands of this world, which the storms of this life and the floods of judgment will test.
Following Jesus means walking the narrow, afflicted road that leads to the narrow gate to gain entrance into the city of God, directly into the temple, where life is found in His presence. Jesus himself entered Jerusalem through the East Gate on Palm Sunday from the Mount of Olives, and juxtaposed this against the broad Roman roads that led to the pagan Gentile world, populated with the masses walking the path to destruction.
When Jesus repeatedly promises that we will receive what we ask for, we must understand ourselves as dependent children with a Father who desires to give us the good things we truly need. Jesus’ promise that “everyone who asks receives” is ultimately fulfilled when our desire is in line with our Father’s will, we ask in genuine and abiding faith, and in obedience to His commands, out of love for Him, for the purpose of bearing fruit.
As sinners, we are in no position to stand in judgment over other sinners and expect not to be judged by the same standard.
Jesus’ relentless attack on hypocrisy is illustrated by the man unaware of the beam in his eye despite his fixation with the splinter in his brother’s. He’s so blinded by the sin he never dealt with, the judgment he passes has made him little more than a blatant hypocrite. And so, THE judge calls him to deal with his own overwheming sin first, if he truly cares about helping his brother with his.
Our heavenly Father has provided for us every day of our life and will every day until we die. Living in anxiety and constant worry is not a necessary component of life, nor does it add anything to it. As we recognize that God will continue to provide the things of this world that we need, Jesus sets us free to seek first the kingdom.
Earthly wealth is the only kind guaranteed to one day fail us. Jesus redirects our pursuit of wealth in this life to the better investment: the one that lasts forever.
Fasting is not a sign of how righteous we are. Fasting is a sign of how broken things are. It is a recognition and reflection of the brokenness of the world and our need for God. Jesus rightly connects it with mourning, and it is appropriately observed by sinners in true repentance and dependence upon Him. Disconnected from its substance, it becomes nothing more than an external religious display. But when we seek God in the type of fasting that He accepts, that fast will be turned into a feast.
Prayer is not a mere external religious act to be performed overwhelmingly in front of others to be seen. It is first and foremost communion with our Father. We come to Him like a child their Father, in true relationship, and speak with Him overwhelmingly one on one. And like a Father, He provides for us, protects us, leads and guides us, delivers us, and reconciles us to our brothers.
Jesus' call to righteousness goes beyond our outward actions, to our inward motivations. Performing religious acts to be noticed is as unrighteous before God as neglecting them altogether. The generosity to which Jesus calls his disciples is not to be done to be recognized by others, but actually to be such a normal part of our lives, that in a way, it isn't even recognized by us.
Perfection is not the "enemy of good" or the "enemy of progress," but the only standard for good and the only true progress for a sinful world. Contrary to popular belief, perfection is not the enemy of rest, but the only actual means by which it truly comes. The world is not at rest because it is not in a state of perfection, and we will not be at rest until we find ourselves in the One who is perfect.
Our perfect God is the one who first rested, and the One who gave us rest. In Christ, perfection is counted to every believer, commanded of every believer, and the final state of every believer. It is a reality only because God Himself is the source of perfection, and is pleased to conform us likewise.
The kingdom of heaven, which is the kingdom of God, is His rule and reign that is presently experienced, yet still to come in its fullness. This kingdom was inaugurated by Christ at his coming and will be consummated following His return. This kingdom stands in contrast to the kingdoms of this present world because it is indestructible, unshakable, heavenly, eternal, perfect, and incorruptible.
When Christ returns to consummate this kingdom, he will first judge the living and the dead. Those whose names are not written in the Lamb’s book of life, who have not repented and believed in Christ in this life, will experience the righteous wrath of God for eternity in hell. But for those in Christ, because there is no condemnation, they will see God face to face and dwell with Him forever in the fullness of His kingdom to come.
Discipleship is a reorientation of all of life to the kingdom of God. As disciples, we are called to learn and to follow Jesus in every area of our lives, which is a life of repentance and faith. Because the work of God is to believe, our faith will be evidenced as we walk in the works God prepared beforehand. And as disciples, we are now called to go and make disciples of all nations.
The Church is the body of Christ, and we are individually members of it. The Church is the family of God, because we are His sons and daughters, brothers and sisters in the faith. The Church is the bride of Christ, who is called to submit to Him in everything, because He is the bridegroom who loved us and sacrificed for us. The Church is God's building, and we are living stones in it, Christ being the chief cornerstone and foundation, and God the builder who has promised to build His church. The Church is God's field, where seed is sown and God gives growth, in which there will be a harvest.
Jesus built his Church on the confession of faith that he is the Christ, the son of the living God. Christ is the head of the church and has promised that the gates of hell will not prevail against it. He is the Chief Shepherd who has appointed elders to pastor and oversee local churches and deacons to serve. Jesus has given the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper as symbols and remembrances of his death and resurrection, and the visible sign of the New Covenant in His blood.
The Spirit is of the Father and of the Son, proceeding from both, truly and fully God. He is a person, called the Helper and the Spirit of truth. He is the author of Scripture, our guide, our guarantee, and our intercessor in prayer. He convicts the world regarding sin and righteousness and judgment. He is a teacher and a witness to us of the things of God. He regenerates and renews us, dwelling in those who are in Christ.
The gospel was delivered to us as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day. The good news is that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He chose us in him before the foundation of the world and, in love, predestined us for adoption according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace. He made known to us, whom he taught, the mystery of his will.
Jesus willingly gave his life on the cross to atone for our sins by satisfying the wrath of God. His perfect life was counted a substitute, exchanging our sin for his righteousness. Jesus' death on the cross justifies those who believe in him by faith and we have peace with God by the blood of his cross.
The gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. We are saved by grace through faith, which is not our own doing and not a result of works, but rather the gift of God. Salvation is in Jesus Christ and there is no other name by which we must be saved. In Christ, we are chosen, adopted, and justified. In him, we are being sanctified and will be glorified. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, and God will complete the work that He began in those who have truly repented and believed in Christ for salvation. For those who have been born again, salvation can never be taken away.
The eternal Son of God is the Word, who, in the beginning, was with God and was God. All things were created through him and for him. He is the anointed of God who sits at his right hand. His throne is forever and his years will have no end. He is the image of the invisible God and the exact imprint of his nature. The fullness of God dwells in him and all things will be reconciled to him.
In the fullness of time, he was sent by the Father, put on flesh, and dwelt among us in the person of Jesus. God became a man when He put on flesh and came into the world as Jesus Christ. Two distinct and whole natures were inseparably joined so that the person of Christ was and is both fully God and fully man. Jesus was born of a virgin, grew, and lived a life of perfect obedience to God the Father. He came to fulfill the Law and Prophets, to serve and give his life as a ransom, and to seek and save the lost. He is the Savior of the world, the judge, and our prophet, priest, and king.
In his mercy, God promised to save his people. Beginning with Adam, God covenanted with man and foreshadowed the gospel in the garden. Through types and shadows, God continued to reveal his plan of salvation by covenant (Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic). These earthly copies and shadows were fulfilled in the New and better Covenant, enacted and mediated in Christ.
Tempted by the serpent, man disobeyed God and brought death to all through Adam. We are guilty in Adam because one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all men. Now, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Man is born in iniquity and we are by nature children of wrath and enemies of God. We have been corrupted in heart, mind, and will, and have been separated from God because we all, like sheep, have gone astray.
On the sixth day of creation, man was created in the image of God, male and female. Man was created upright and declared "very good.” Adam and Eve were historical human beings, the first of their kind. Man did not evolve from other creatures, but was made in God’s image from the dust, and woman from the rib of man. God gave them dominion over all other living things on the earth and told them to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and subdue it. They were made in a state of maturity with an initial condition of sinlessness, but were fallible.
God created everything that has been made, and this by the power of His Word. All things were created through him and for him, and in him all things hold together. Without him was not anything made that was made. In six days the LORD made heaven and earth and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh.
God has revealed Himself by his Word; that is, through the sixty-six books of Scripture and by his Son. The Scriptures were given by inspiration of the Holy Spirit and are infallible and inerrant in the original languages. The Scriptures are sufficient in matters of life and faith, and they are clear, reliable, necessary, indestructible, and authoritative. The Word became flesh in the incarnation of Jesus as revealed in Scripture. Although God has revealed himself generally to all through creation, he has revealed himself to us more fully by his Word.
The LORD (YHWH) is the one true and living God who exists personally as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God is one in essence and three in persons, each of whom is fully and truly God, equal in divine nature. The Father is God; neither created, nor begotten, nor proceeding from anything else. He is co-eternal with the Son and the Holy Spirit, not before either in time, but with both, did create all things in the beginning. He is divinely co-equal with the Son, whom he eternally beget, and with the Spirit, who proceeds from him and the Son. God is Spirit and He is love. He is uncreated, self-existent, and worthy of worship. He is creator of heaven and earth. He is LORD, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. He is righteous and just, holy and glorious, sovereign and wise. He is eternal, transcendent, and immutable. He is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-present. From him and through him and to him are all things, and to him be glory forever.
The perfect life of Jesus manifested in the flesh without resistance or retaliation against evil men. He overcame evil by laying down his life and loving His enemies as the ultimate fulfillment of God's law.
Vows to God and oaths to men were sworn by something or someone to help people understand how serious their words were to God. But the people of Jesus' day had created a hierarchy of objects to give more weight to their promises than they intended to give. They believed that if they didn't swear by God, they wouldn't be accountable to Him for their broken promises. Jesus corrects all of this in a few short statements.
Jesus' interpretation of the law of Moses continues to lay his hearers guilty and challenge any semblances of self-righteousness in them. His words cut deeper than any of the other teachers of His day, and yet He proves His yoke is easy and burden is light because God's commands are not burdensome.
Jesus begins to use a series of "You've heard it said...but I say to you" statements to show what was required to fulfill God's law. Our temptation towards self-justification regarding God's commandment not to murder falls utterly short in light of our sinful anger towards our brother.
Throughout his ministry, Jesus promised that three days after he died, he would rise from the grave. In a veiled way to the Pharisees and plainly to his disciples, Jesus repeatedly spoke of the necessity of his resurrection from death.
After being anointed, Jesus rode into Jerusalem to declare to His people “fear not,” for their king was coming to them. His declaration of peace on a donkey’s colt fulfilled prophecy that one day war would be cut off.
Like salt in the earth and light in the world, the disciples were never to make life about them, but to extract and illuminate what God has done, both in this world and ultimately in the kingdom.
Jesus begins his great sermon with a description of what blessing looks like, which happens to be the exact opposite of how the world sees it.
As Jesus preaches good news of the coming kingdom, he demonstrates one of its greatest realities: the absence of every kind of disease and sickness.
All of our natural life is reoriented to the kingdom when we become disciples. As Jesus calls his first disciples, he begins by reorienting their earthly work as fishermen to their kingdom work as fishers of men.
As Jesus moves to Capernaum to begin his earthly ministry, the people of Galilee will be the first to witness the dawn of the kingdom. But that kingdom was coming in ways that couldn’t be observed by sight, only faith.
As Jesus is led to the wilderness to be tempted, the schemes of the devil all have one thing in common: forgetting God. But Jesus doing nothing apart from the Father is yet another fulfillment of all righteousness.
Jesus is presented as the fulfillment of all righteousness by John. As His ministry begins at His baptism, His divinity is confirmed as the Spirit descends upon Him and the voice of the Father expresses His pleasure in His beloved Son.
John’s baptism foreshadowed a greater division that Jesus came to bring. Those who came to it unrepentantly were warned of the baptism Jesus was coming to bring.
What is the kingdom of heaven and why was it John the Baptist’s primary reason to call people to repentance? As Jesus’ ministry begins to usher in a new kingdom, a changed mind becomes necessary to see it.
When we forget that the testing of our faith has a present and eternal purpose, we lose sight of joy. Our sufferings are never wasted and purposeless because they produce endurance as we place our faith in God alone.
What does it look like to live a life of faith by holding on to the treasure? Joseph embarks on a journey to keep the treasure, but it wasn't the gold or expensive spices.
Magi from the East were set on a journey by God to find His Son. What a picture it is when God pulls us out of our pagan world and reorients our lives to find Jesus.
The last man in Jesus' genealogy was faced with one of the most difficult situations imaginable. Ultimately he would come to believe God is with us.
James introduces himself as a slave of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. This distinction shows us the necessity of James’ confession. Counting it all joy when we fall into various trials is challenging. However, that does not mean we neglect mourning and tears which are also biblical.
Jesus lineage flows through a people whose disobedience caused them to be banished to exile in Babylon. But even when God brought them back home, their worship yet again became nothing more than giving God the leftovers of their lives. As they are plunged into darkness for the last time, Jesus' genealogy is a reminder that God is forever faithful to a people who never could be on their own.
God ordained a line of kings from which Jesus would come to prove that no other man could uphold the throne forever.
Matthew's gospel proves Jesus to be the Messiah of God's people. He was the promised seed of Abraham and their promised coming King.
Maturity in Christ is the aim of our lives, individually and as the church. It is the final state of who we are as believers for all eternity.
The Scriptures are the living, active, God-breathed, inspired sacred writings. Nothing else compares, or has the ability to prepare us for every good work.
The world doesn't recognize the work of the Spirit in creation, in the origin of life, or in the authorship of Scripture. But perhaps the greatest work of the Spirit, that in salvation, is often missed even by the church.
When Jesus came to preach the gospel to the poor and the blind and the oppressed captives, his good news was for their spiritual sinful condition.
The glory of God is not only the purpose of life, it's the end to which all things exist. And when God gives us glimpses of that glory, we begin to understand that He is uniquely set apart from creation.
No matter what situation we find ourselves in, the doctrine of God as our Savior is the picture to the world that there is redemption. Young men and slaves alike who have been transformed by grace should have eyes to see how their endurance may be the greatest picture of the gospel their opponents and masters may ever see in this world.
Because discipleship isn't a career, we never retire from it in this life. Paul recognizes the importance of Godliness in the older men and women of the church and instructs Titus to encourage them in the worthy endeavor of a reverent life committed to the body of Christ.
How important was the purity of the gospel for the believers in Crete? Important enough for Paul to command Titus to silence those who corrupted it. How would Titus go about doing that? With the truth.
The church is God’s primary instrument in this world to bring the hope of eternal life through the truth of the gospel of Christ. The apostle Paul, who had committed his believing life to that end, is now giving that charge to others as he instructs faithful men to appoint elders in every city to shepherd the churches.
The peace Jesus gives and the power the Holy Spirit is sent with are essential as we are sent out into the world.
After drinking the passover cup with his disciples for the last time until kingdom come, another cup remains in front of Jesus.
The prophets weren't asking whether or not God would fulfill His promises. They were searching and inquiring to know when they would come to pass. And in God's promise of Advent, that the Messiah would come, His faithfulness was proven to us in the greatest way of all.
Jesus is the only one who truly loved righteousness and hated wickedness. He is the only king who established a kingdom of uprightness. And He's the only one who made a worthy sacrifice at the Lord's table.
Like servants left with their master's estate while he is away, we are called to live in readiness for his return.