Pastor's Blog

The Annunciation The holy angel who appeared to Mary told her that the Son she was privileged to bear would be great and would be called the Son of the Most High. And he added, “The Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Lk. 1:32-33).    Jesus, Son of David That Jesus was descended from David is a point that is frequently emphasized in Scripture and seems to have been widely known, or at least widely suspected by his contemporaries. Some in his day had no hesitation in hailing him as “the Son of David.” Matthew tells us that on one occasion, “two blind men followed him, crying aloud, ‘Have mercy on us, Son of David’” (Matt. 9:27). Even a Canaanite woman, a Gentile, “came out and was crying, ‘Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David’” (Matt. 15:22). The crowd that accompanied him during his Triumphal Entry shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who c...

I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. — Luke 2:10  — More than anything else, our celebration of Christmas ought to be characterized by joy .  We should thank God that he doesn’t call us to be Stoics; i.e. , he doesn’t call us to stifle all feeling. There are Christians who seem to think that demonstrations of emotion are unspiritual, that spirituality is pure rationality .  But while emotional ism may be unspiritual, emotion per se is not.  The various ways in which God deals with us inevitably evoke different emotions (love, joy, fear, guilt, peace, etc.).  The natural emotional response to the message the angel brought the shepherds was joy .  “I bring good news of great joy.”   This is how we should receive the message, as well, the message of our Savior’s birth.  Even still.  Even after more than two-thousand years.  Of all the causes for joy (and there are many) none is greater than...

This line from the Christmas carol, What Child is This?,  draws attention to the seeming incongruity of the Son of God being laid in a manger. Have you ever considered how the whole narrative of our Lord ’ s birth shows us that  God delights to do great things by humble means?  Think, for example, of this prophecy from the book of Micah, delivered some 700 years before the event: But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,            who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me            one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old,            from ancient days (Micah 5:2) There are several important truths that can be gleaned from this prophecy, but one that is often overlooked is what it says about Bethlehem itself, namely that it was “too little to...

The Word Became Flesh  A Study in John ’ s Prologue, pt. 2 John 1:1-18 December 30, 2012 The Gospel of John is in many respects very different from the other three Gospels. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are often grouped together and called the synoptic  Gospels. The word comes from two Greek words. One of these,  opsis , means to view . The other, syn , means together . The synoptic Gospels, then, view the life and ministry of Christ together, which is to say, they record many of the same events. John, however, written sometime after the other three, chooses to record a number of things the other Gospel writers omit, and to omit a number of things which they record.           I agree with Bishop J. C. Ryle ( 1 ) that the things that are peculiar to John ’ s Gospel are among the most precious possessions of the Church. They are among the most cherished truths of Scripture. None of the other Gospel writers has given us such a full account...