A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. The text for today is our first reading, Acts 2:1-21. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Pentecostal movement raised a question for biblical interpreters. They studied the events of the Day of Pentecost and concluded that every Christian’s life should imitate the early Christians' experience on that day. Most pointedly, they concluded that all Christians should speak in tongues or prophesy as described in Acts 2. In contrast, most commentators view these events as unique and miraculous—not something Christians must imitate. Like all epoch-making works of God, Pentecost was accompanied by a spectacular, miraculous occurrence which both authenticated this event as an act of the God of Israel and served as a meaningful symbol of the earth-shaking change taking place in world history. It is a symbol lifted straight from the prophetic word of the Old Testament pro...

Click here to listen to this sermon. Peter said, “And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh” (Acts 2:17). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Today, we gather to celebrate a pivotal moment in the history of our faith—the Day of Pentecost. Make no mistake about it; it had all been for this. To pour out the Spirit, Jesus—first conceived by that same Spirit—had taken flesh from the holy Virgin. To pour out the Spirit, the obedient Son of God had lived a perfect life of love to God and neighbor, had suffered and died, had descended to hell, and had risen in victory on the third day. To pour out the Spirit, He had ascended into Heaven and was seated at the Father’s right hand. It was this day, fifty days after Easter, that Jesus kept His promise to pour out His Holy Spirit, and the Spirit came with a startling suddenness that was impossible to miss. Imagine the scene: the disciples, filled with antic...

Click here to listen to this sermon. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! They had been attending worship faithfully for two months. Actively participating in two weekly Bible studies, they seemed to drink in everything, asking the most insightful questions. They were the kind of prospective members that a pastor dreams about. “We think we’d like to join your church,” they said. “But before we do, we want to know just what you believe and teach. Do you have a book or something more in-depth that we could read?” I sent them home with one of my favorites, “Spirituality of the Cross,” by Gene Edward Veith. Two days later they returned. “Pastor, we’ve read the book you sent with us, and we just can’t agree with some of it. We can’t, in good conscience, join, because we would like to become involved in teaching. We know that we would always have some level of conflict with what you’re teaching.” Though I disagree with their conclusion, I could apprecia...

"Pentecost" by El Greco Click here to listen to this sermon. The text for today is our first reading, Acts 2:1-21. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Pentecostal movement raised a question for biblical interpreters. Pentecostals studied the events of the Day of Pentecost and concluded that every Christian’s life should imitate the experience of the early Christians on that day. Most pointedly, they concluded that all Christians should speak in tongues or prophesy as described in Acts 2. In contrast, most commentators view these events as unique and miraculous—not something Christians must imitate. Like all epoch-making works of God, Pentecost was accompanied by a spectacular, miraculous occurrence which both authenticated this event as an act of the God of Israel and served as a meaningful symbol of the earth-shaking change taking place in world history. It is a symbol lifted straight from the p...

"Jesus and Nicodemus" by Henry Ossawa Tanner Click here to listen to this sermon. "Nicodemus said to Him, ‘How can these things be?’ Jesus answered Him, ‘Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?’” (John 3:9-12). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! This week I was watching a podcast where Andrew Klavan was interviewing Jordan Peterson, the best-selling author of 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos . For those of you unfamiliar with Peterson, I would encourage you to get to know a little about him. New York Times   columnist David Brooks has called him the “most influential public intellectual in the Western world.” What I found most interesting about the conver...