Introduction Today is Ascension Sunday, the time when we remember the ascension of the Lord Jesus into the heavenly realms, where He was ushered on the clouds of heaven into the presence of the Ancient of Days, where He was given universal power, authority, and dominion. From that place, He rules on earth, but also …
Identity in Christ: Bedrock Discipleship
Introduction Today is Resurrection Sunday, our annual commemoration of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the dead. We mark this annually, but it is important for us to remember that we also mark it weekly—every Lord’s Day is a celebration of the resurrection. But what exactly are we celebrating when we do this? The …
Relationships: Bedrock Discipleship
Introduction On Palm Sunday, we remember the Lord’s entry into Jerusalem shortly before He was betrayed, condemned, and executed. As we reflect on this moment in His mission, we should take care to remember what that mission was. His mission was not just to save people, it was also to save a people. The Text: …
Two Kinds of Unity and One Kind of Growth
Introduction We should always want to turn to Scripture for instruction on what to do where we are. We ought to minimize the study of Scripture that focuses on what might happen to us some other time. Application should always be now, obedience should never be a matter of postponement. The Text: “I therefore, the …
Bedrock Discipleship: Assurance
Introduction We wanted to begin this series of messages on bedrock discipleship by grounding everything we believe on the teaching of Scripture. We want everything we hold on this to be established by the Bible, and to ensure that this is so, we need to be biblically literate people. When we come to the Scriptures …
Bedrock Discipleship: Testimony
Introduction We are evangelical Christians, and so we are very familiar with the word testimony. We have heard a good many of them. But we are also reformational Christians, and this means that a number of us grew either weary or suspicious of the practice because of how it has been mishandled so regularly in …
Bedrock Discipleship: Bible Reading
Introduction Many of you were kind enough to fill out the survey on Bible reading that we sent out to the congregation. The results were of a nature to delight a pastor’s heart—which they certainly did. About ninety percent of you read the Bible either daily or multiple times weekly. That’s a good business, and …
Strangers in Your Midst
Introduction: From the beginning, the Christian faith has been at home in cosmopolitan settings. This has worked in two basic ways. One is when God’s people are living together in a way that truly honors God, and He blesses their land. When this happens, others are attracted to that blessing, and they want to come …
Working on a Building III
Introduction Water brings life, and living water more so. We have spoken before on the importance of “assuming the center,” and one of the central ways to do this is to create a place where living water can flow. Water is a gathering force. The Text: “Afterward he brought me again unto the door of …
Working on a Building II
Introduction A basic truism of modern design is that form follows function. This is self-evidently true, but the reason modern men have found themselves living, working, and worshiping in overgrown shoeboxes is that we have allowed ourselves to drift into a truncated and reductionist view of what our actual function as human beings truly is. …