So here is some festive doggerel I wrote some time ago, and which I periodically post at appropriate times of the year — and now it is the turn of 2017. Have a merry Christmas. Comments are open, but only if you want to say merry Christmas back. ‘Twas the night before Christmas and all …
The God Who Stoops
Introduction: The message of the gospel is one that not only brings us forgiveness of sin, but also one that upends all our categories. God unmakes our tawdry pasts, and replaces them with a fresh start, a new birth, a clean slate. But He also intends to unmake our officious assumptions about what all those …
500 Years of Cumulative Grace
Introduction: So we have now come to the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. What I want to do is briefly remind you of certain key elements in that Reformation, and then address the meaning of time and anniversaries. What are we doing when we commemorate things like this? Recall that 500 …
The Mines of God Go Deep/Pentecost 2017
Introduction: Last week we marked Ascension Sunday, the crown of the objective gospel. When we point to the objective gospel, we are talking about those elements of the gospel that would have been true had you or I never been born. But an objective gospel by itself saves no man—there has to be application. And …
A Series of Coronations
Introduction: On Ascension Sunday, we mark the departure of the Lord Jesus into Heaven, where He was received in great glory, and where He was crowned with universal dominion. This is our celebration of His coronation proper. But there were a series of glorifications prior to this, each one building on the last—at each stage …
Good Friday Homily 2017
As we meditate of the death of the Lord Jesus, as we consider what He has done for His people in this glorious substitutionary sacrifice, one of the things we may reflect on with profit is how many times Scripture juxtaposes blood and water, and on the different ways it does so. One of the …
Crowds of the Heart/Palm Sunday 2017
Introduction: You have often heard here that we have no real reason for assuming that the crowd that welcomed Jesus in the Triumphal Entry and the crowd that was gathered to scream for His crucifixion were made up of the same people. Those two events, just days apart, are often pointed to as evidence of …
Echoing Their Joyous Strains
The night the Lord Jesus was born, a solitary angel appeared to some very bewildered shepherds. The night was lit up as by a floodlight, only a floodlight that shone glory instead of mere brightness. The response of the shepherds was a natural one—they were, it says, “sore afraid.” The angel reassured them immediately, saying …
A Meditation on Bethlehem
For Christmas Day 2016 When the wise men come to Jerusalem and inquired about the king who had been born, their arrival amazed the whole city. The thing was news, and the city was stirred up by it. Herod was troubled by the news, and the whole city with him (Matt. 2:3). Herod, for his …
Advent Adventure: Advent IV
Introduction: Our word Advent comes from the Latin advenire, which means “to arrive.” It obviously looks forward to the arrival of the Messiah, the birth of the Prince, the coming of Immanuel. Our word for adventure has the same root, but comes to us by a different route. From wandering, traveling, happening upon things by …