Sermon: The First Thing on Your Second Wedding Day

“The First Thing on Your Second Wedding Day” Revelation 19:6-9 May 28, 2017 Weddings were always exciting in our home. So many things made weddings attractive and desirable: the wedding dress, the bridesmaid’s dresses, the flowers, the music, the food and friends after the wedding, the music and dancing, and (most of all?) the cake! […]

Shepherds’ Conference, Days 3-4

The Shepherds’ Conference is now over. In the busyness of the week I was unable to post my notes from the last two days, so I post them here, now. In the next week I’ll also post a summation of some of the best things I heard during the week. As usual, the week was […]

Why was Jesus Christ made flesh? Part 2

Wednesdays with Watson is a weekly reading taken from my favorite Puritan writer, Thomas Watson. This week’s selection is taken from A Body of Divinity [continued from last week]. Use one: Of instruction. See here, as in a glass, the infinite love of God the Father; that when we had lost ourselves by sin, God, in […]

What Christ gained through His incarnation

What follows is a manuscript of my message at this morning’s Christmas worship service. What’s the best Christmas present you’ve ever received? When I was a child, it was a table game called, “Pro Draft.” It was a 1974 game that simulated being a general manager of a pro football team and it came with […]

What Christ gave up in His incarnation

What follows is a manuscript of my message at tonight’s Christmas Eve service. Christmas always comes with such anticipation. For children it’s about presents and a holiday from school and special events. For adults it’s about time with friends and family, and perhaps a few vacation days and a slower pace of life, and maybe […]

Why was Jesus Christ made flesh?

Wednesdays with Watson is a weekly reading taken from my favorite Puritan writer, Thomas Watson. This week’s selection is taken from A Body of Divinity. Why was Jesus Christ made flesh? (1) The causa prima, and impulsive cause, was free grace. It was love in God the Father to send Christ, and love in Christ […]

How Christ resisted temptation

The New Testament is clear that our Savior did not sin (cf. Mt. 5:17-18; Heb. 4:15; 7:26; 2 Cor. 5:21). However, the question is how did He not sin? Did He rely on His deity and use His divine power to keep from sinning? If so, it is hard to conceive that such obedience can […]

Sermon: The Son of God Has Come

“The Son of God Has Come” Selected Scriptures from 1 John December 18, 2016 What gift are you going to give to that special person in your life? Five years ago Alan McCutchen ended his relationship with his girlfriend, Mary Jo Smith, and he thought the relationship was completely over. Not quite. Two weeks ago […]

The Lamb is…

There are many pictures in the New Testament to describe the person and work of Jesus Christ. One of the lesser used, but more commonly known is Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God. We frequently think of Christ as the Lamb of God because of His sacrificial work in atoning for our sin — […]

Sermon: Behold the Lamb of God

“Behold the Lamb of God…” John 1:29 November 27, 2016 In one sense, the death of Christ is a simple truth understood even by the youngest child. I am a sinner and Jesus died for sinners so that we can get to Heaven and get God. In another sense, there are deep complexities to the […]

When you need Christ

“They have need of Christ when they are dark, to enlighten them; when they are dead, to quicken them; when they are straightened, to enlarge them; when they are weak, to strengthen them; when they are sad, to comfort them; when they are tempted, to succour them; when they are fallen, to raise them; when […]

Sermon: Behold the Man!

“Behold the Man!” John 19:1-5 October 2, 2016 Familiarity, it is said, breeds contempt. It may not always breed contempt, but very often, it does produce apathy. We are familiar with someone or something so we no longer find the amazement and joy that we did when we were first introduced to that item or […]

God’s wisdom and the cross

He was just another New York City drunk. Found in a Bowery flophouse naked and with a deep gash in his throat, he was taken to the hospital where he languished for three days, unable to eat. He had lived to drink, and now he had died by the drink. A friend found him in […]

Meditate on the love of Christ

Wednesdays with Watson is a weekly reading taken from my favorite Puritan writer, Thomas Watson. This week’s selection is from The Christian on the Mount. Christ is as full of love as He is of merit. What was it but love that He should save us and not the fallen angels? Among the rarities of […]

Union with Christ

Wednesdays with Watson is a weekly reading taken from my favorite Puritan writer, Thomas Watson. This week’s selection is taken from The Sermons of Thomas Watson. …our being with Christ is not only local, but conjugal: we shall so behold him, as to be made one with him. What nearer than union? what sweeter? Union […]