God is love. That simple phrase carries a beautiful and accurate sentiment that has gotten lost in our commercialized world. We see it used on bumper stickers, billboards and co-opted by organizations with their own agendas. But God truly is love. The natural world world wants to see God as rules, judgement and punishment. But …
Propitiation isn’t commonly used in today’s dialogue but it has a beautiful and powerful meaning. We hear in today’s sermon how the word propitiation, in ancient Greek, meant a “sin offering” to appease the wrath of God. And there is no greater appeasement than that of Christ’s suffering and death for our sins. Christ quite …
Most of us are very familiar with the story of Satan tempting Jesus in the desert. But have you wondered why Satan chose those particular three temptations? Compare them to Adam’s temptations, where he was tempted with the knowledge of good and evil. Knowledge that he believed would make him be like God. However, the …
Due to inclement weather, no church will be held on Sunday, February 14th. However, we are sharing a sermon from 2010 and invite you to listen above. We pray you stay safe and warm! The sermon is based on Luke 4, 16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was …
“Who is this Jesus?” Even in the first century, anyone who didn’t know that Jesus was the Christ simply wasn’t paying attention. God had been telling how He would come and who He would be with prophet after prophet. John the Baptist was the last of these. John’s birth was a miracle. John’s naming was …
In this familiar story, we hear about Mary and Joseph spending three days looking for Jesus only to find him in the temple. We might be tempted to say, well, of course he was there, like Jesus says to them. But how often do we look for Jesus in the wrong place? Our human nature …
The wages of sin is death. We know this, but we too easily think of death as an unstoppable natural power. Instead, by faith, we should see death as the consequence of our sins and a tool that Christ used to redeem us to the Father. With His own death and resurrection He demonstrates that …
Christ’s work on earth was, simply put, amazing. Yes, he miraculously healed physical afflictions but more so, he brought about spiritual miracles. He showed first-hand how God’s love is for everyone – Jew and Gentiles. He fulfilled a 700 year old prophecy (today’s OT reading, Isaiah 29:18). And as Mark wrote in chapter 7, “He …
“I am the bread of life”. Jesus is challenged by a crowd as he preaches and relates to Old Testament teachings. He mentions Moses and that the Father sent bread from heaven, not Moses. Then Jesus shares that he is the bread of life. Note the tense Jesus uses not the past or future tense …
Our world is troubled and full of suffering. Our first parents enjoyed the bounty of the Garden of Eden, apart from any burdensome work. But after the fall, toil and labor was guaranteed. But into this broken world came Jesus the Messiah to restore creation. Having compassion on the weary multitudes, He renewed the bounty …