A Famine Not of Bread

"Christ and the Storm" by Giorgio de Chirico Click here to listen to this sermon. "And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and sea obey Him?’” (Mark 4:41). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Put yourself in the disciples’ sandals for a moment. It’s still early in Jesus’ ministry. They have not yet been away from the region of Galilee where Jesus called the first of them. But they’ve already seen a lot! They have been astonished by His teaching. Amazed by His casting out of the evil spirits. They’ve seen Jesus heal multitudes, including Simon’s own mother-in-law. They’ve watched Jesus heal a paralytic and forgive sins. They’ve heard Jesus skillfully answer the questions about fasting and keeping the Sabbath. They’ve been sent out by Jesus to preach and given authority over demons. They’ve had Jesus explain the meaning of His parables about the kingdom of God. That’s a lot to...

"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...

"The Nativity" by John Singleton Copley Click here to listen to this sermon. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! A great mystery of the ages. The key sentence of John’s Gospel. Everything before it anticipates this verse and everything that follows grows out of this verse: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). The eternal Word who was with God in the beginning and who was very God of very God, “became flesh.” Notice: The Word didn’t stop being who He is, namely, true God. But He also became true man—a real flesh-and-blood human being. Fully God and fully man. The eternal Word by whom all things were created took on flesh and received the name Jesus. He was born in the flesh like every human being, complete with human emotions, human frailties, human needs. In His life, therefore we see Him weep and sleep and eat and hurt an...

Click here to listen to this sermon. “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ” (Ephesians 1:7–9). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! “Listen, I tell you a mystery”—so Paul writes the Corinthians concerning the resurrection of the body. Today, in our text from his letter to the Ephesians, Paul also tells us a mystery, a mystery made known to us by God. This is not a different mystery, but the same one, for it has its substance and its solution in Christ Jesus. From Sherlock Holmes to Miss Marple, from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to Agatha Christie, the characters and authors of mysteries are part of our culture. Even those who usually write in other genres often try their hand at mystery writing, learning the difficulty...