A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15). Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! The evidence is overwhelming. It’s undeniable. You read it in the pages of history. You see it on the television news. You hear it in the voice of your neighbor.  You feel it in the very fiber of your being. There is something wrong, my friends! There is something wrong with this world! There is something wrong with this nation! There is something wrong with your neighbor! There is something wrong with me! And there is something wrong with you! That something is sin—an awful, broken condition that goes all the way back to Adam and Eve and their fall into sin in the Garden of Eden. Sin. Not simply a “mistake” or “error.” No, what happened with Adam and Eve was lawlessness, rebellion, outright disobedienc...

Click here to listen to this sermon. The text for today is our Gospel lesson, Matthew 1:18-25. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! “This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.”   So begins our text.   Actually, the Greek word translated as birth is “genesis,” the same word used for the first book of the Bible.   Depending on its context, the word can mean “birth,” “genealogy,” “beginning,” or “origin.”   We know from Scripture that as the Son of God, Christ had no beginning.   He’s at the Father’s side from eternity.   But we also know that as a human being He had a beginning, and it’s this origin the evangelist relates.   Matthew tells us of the way the Messiah assumed human nature and took upon Himself our flesh.   No other person had an origin in this way.   Oh, yes, the origin of Adam was wonderful: “God formed the first man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the...

The text for today is our Gospel lesson, Matthew 1:18-25, which has already been read. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! “This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.”   So begins our text.   Actually, the Greek word translated as birth is “genesis,” the same word used for the first book of the Bible.   Depending on its context, the word can mean “birth,” “genealogy,” “beginning,” or “origin.”   We know from Scripture that as the Son of God, Christ had no beginning.   He’s at the Father’s side from eternity.   But we also know that as a human being He had a beginning, and it’s this origin the evangelist relates.   Matthew tells us of the way the Messiah assumed human nature, and took upon Himself our flesh.   No other person had an origin in this way.   Oh, yes, the origin of Adam was wonderful: “God formed the first man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his ...