Sermons on Authority
The King Of Glory (Matthew 21:1-11)
Charismatic leaders have deceived entire nations into following them. They have stirred up support to enter into unjust wars. They have tortured and slaughtered innocent people (oftentimes their own citizens) in order to extend their wealth and power. History is full of leaders of that sort. The King of Kings was radically different. Rather than earning wealth and power, the second person of the Trinity was willing to empty himself of his heavenly prerogatives. He humbled himself taking on flesh,…
Is It Possible To Fall Away? Pt. 2 Hebrews 6:4-8
The author warns his readers to grab their attention. The audience had yet to mature beyond milk to solid food (Heb 5:11-14). They were stuck still learning the elementary doctrine of Christ (Heb 6:1-3). Pray & Read Hebrews 6:1-8. Three primary interpretations of this passage: 1. Genuine Christians who lose their salvation which would be contrary to Scripture that speaks to the perseverance of the saints (Phil 1:6). 2. This is only a hypothetical description. However, nothing in the text indicates…
Perfect Through Suffering
In 1970, Stanford professor Paul Ehrlich published The Population Bomb, where he predicted that hundreds of millions of people would starve to death—regardless of any mitigating efforts we might implement. The opening sentence reads: “The battle to feed all of humanity is over.” He went on to blame nearly every social problem upon the fact that we simply have too many people. His doomsday prediction was based upon a faulty hypothesis that overpopulation of the planet had reach unrecoverable proportions. Ehrlich’s…
Such A Great Salvation
In his book, The Shallows, Nicholas Carr writes about how the internet is changing our ability to think. “Neuroscientists and psychologists have discovered that, even as adults, our brains are very plastic. They’re very malleable, they adapt at the cellular level to whatever we happen to be doing. And so the more time we spend surfing, and skimming, and scanning … the more adept we become at that mode of thinking.” Wisdom is associated with deep concentration. Scholarly intellectuals, or any…
Superior To Angels
“In Defense of Being Average”, Mark Manson encourages his readers to accept that they won’t be extraordinary at most things they do, if anything. He writes: “There are over 7.2 billion people on this planet, and really only about 1,000 of those have major worldwide influence at any given time. That leaves the other 7,199,999,000 +/- of us to come to terms with the limited scope of our lives and the fact that the vast majority of what we do…
God Had Spoken By His Son
Athanasius: Constantine Augustus and his sons wrote letters to St. Anthony seeking divine wisdom. Anthony told his disciples: “Do not be astonished if an emperor writes to us, for he is a man. Wonder rather that God wrote the law for man and has spoken to us through his own Son.” The first coming of Jesus was the climax of redemptive history and his second coming marks its culmination. This hybrid sermon-letter opens with a comparison between Christ and the…
God Spoke By The Prophets
Hellen Keller lost her ability to see and hear at 19 months (scarlet fever?). She learned about 50 signs in order to communicate with her family. When she was six-years-old, the family hired a visually impaired instructor named Anne Sullivan. The first thing she taught her was how to spell words. She gave her a doll spelling “d-o-l-l” into the palm of Keller’s hand. Keller didn’t realize that a different word was used to identify each object. After a month…
“Our Glorious Judge” (Revelation 1:12-20)
Our Glorious Judge Our Glorious Judge Brad Mills / General Son Of Man / Revelation 1:12–20 In the prologue (1-3) John informed us about how the revelation came to him by an angel sent by Jesus. The Triune God has greeted his redeemed Church with grace and peace reminding us that we are a kingdom of priests (4-8). Then Christ commissioned John to write a book and send it to the seven churches in Asia Minor (9-11). John addressed…
“Jesus Calms the Storm” (Luke 8:22-25)
Jesus Calms the Storm (Luke 8:22-25) We allow our circumstances to dictate the state of our faith rather than trusting in the person and work of our Savior. Similar to the scene in Jonah, but the parallels are probably little more than coincidental with accounts of a stormy sea. Jesus has been teaching in parables about the importance of how we hear and respond to God’s Word. Read Luke 8:22-25. I. The Fear of the Disciples The “Mills Fire” –…
Justified by Grace (Titus 3:1-8)
Introduction WCF 9.3 Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation… Accepting this “bondage of the will” is prerequisite for understanding Effectual Calling (WCF 10) and Justification (WCF 11). The Cretans had a reputation for being morally corrupt (1:11). Paul has instructed Titus to establish elders to teach sound doctrine that accords with sound living. In the previous passage we learned that Jesus Christ, not Caesar,…
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