The wonderful love of Christ

Wednesdays with Watson is a weekly reading taken from my favorite Puritan writer, Thomas Watson. This week’s selection is taken from The Lord’s Supper. It was wonderful love that Christ should suffer death. “Lord,” says Bernard, “thou hast loved me more than thyself, for thou didst lay down thy life for me.” The Emperor Trajan […]

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 […]

Sermon: “You Must Be Born Again”

“You Must Be Born Again” John 3:1-8 July 31, 2016 (Communion Sunday) The book of John is all about belief and faith — John uses the verb “believe” 98x in his gospel. He asks questions like, “how does one come to believe in Christ?” And, “how does a believer in Christ live and act?” The […]

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 […]

Sermon: What Christ Has Done

“What Christ Has Done” Colossians 2:11-15 May 1, 2016 Author and publisher Leonard Woolf (husband of Virginia Woolf) lamented near the end of his life, “I see clearly that I have achieved practically nothing. In the world today and the history of the human anthill during the past five to seven years would have been […]

The crucified Christ — forsaken and loved

Several years ago, after participating in and observing a great many miscommunications, I began saying, “Communication is a beautiful thing — when it happens.” Too often, for all our desperate attempts to be clear and concise, we misspeak, or speak incoherently enough that our intended meaning is misunderstood. And people are puzzled by our speech, […]

Near the cross – and far from it

“The two malefactors were crucified together. They were equally near to Christ. Both of them saw and heard all that transpired during those fateful six hours. Both were notoriously wicked; both were suffering acutely; both were dying, and both urgently needed forgiveness. Yet one of them died in his sins, died as he had lived […]

“Today You Will be with Me in Paradise”

“Today You Will be with Me in Paradise” Luke 23:39-43 March 25, 2016 — Good Friday For reasons that are pragmatic and biblical and theological, I have never gambled or participated in the lottery. And because of that, Raye Jeanne and I taught our daughters not to gamble. And that makes a situation that Emily […]

Another thought about redemption

Still a few more leftovers from Sunday’s sermon on redemption: while it is always good to speak of the truth of God’s work for us on the cross, how might we stimulate our hearts to gratitude and joy in that work, and transformation by that work? Here are three suggestions for what you might do […]

Christ’s work of redemption

In his book, Scandalous, D. A. Carson has a helpful discussion of the concept of redemption and its use in the ancient world — In our world a word like redemption belongs to God-talk. In other words you normally do not talk fluently about redemption in everyday life. Redemption is something religious people talk about. […]

Sermon: Redemption

“The Message of the Cross: Redemption” Ephesians 1:7-8 October 25, 2015 Sometimes communion feels like an afterthought to a worship service: “it’s our monthly duty and we just squeeze it into an already full morning of worship.” But because the work of Christ is central to our salvation, communion should never feel like an after […]

Good Friday — “Father, forgive them”

It is hard to forgive; it is harder to forgive one who intentionally sins against you. I know of no story that better illustrates that statement than the account of Kevin Tunell. On New Year’s Day, 1982, 18-year-old Susan Herzog was killed in a car accident when her car was struck by one driven by […]

Sermon: For This Purpose I Have Come to This Hour

“For This Purpose I Have Come to This Hour” John 12:27-36 March 29, 2015 (Palm Sunday) Today is Palm Sunday. It’s a day to remember that everybody loves Jesus. Everybody loved Jesus on the day He entered Jerusalem riding on the donkey, making His claim to be Messiah. And everybody loves Jesus today. Except that’s […]

How gracious is God’s grace?

A number of years ago I cleaned out and rearranged my bookshelves and in the process found a number of empty binders that I was no longer using. Seeing this accumulation of treasures, my then 6-year-old daughter asked me for them so she could “play school.” [Now she teaches English at a middle school in […]

Sermon: The Message of the Cross – Grace

The Message of the Cross: Grace John 1:14-17 January 25, 2015 The story (I assume it’s apocryphal, but who knows…) is told about a woman who went to a photographer to get a portrait done. She was anticipating the day when he would call her back to see the result of his work on her […]