Naming Jesus
We call Jesus many things. We call him Lord, which means master. We call him Christ, which means anointed one (Messiah in Hebrew). We call him savior because he brings salvation from sins. Before Jesus was born the angel told both Mary (Lk 1:31) and Joseph (Mt 1:20-21) that they were to name him Jesus, […]
Jesus Didn’t Wait Until Sunday
Sometimes we get so caught up in our own traditions that we miss the bigger point entirely. The Jewish religious authorities in Jesus’ day had done this. In their effort to be holy…to cross the t’s and dot the i’s they had wrapped various commands in so many traditions that it was hard to tell […]
Jesus Inaugurates the New Creation Via the Holy Spirit
I have been thinking a lot about the Holy Spirit lately. One of the connection points that I have been looking into is the Spirit’s role in Creation and His corresponding role in New Creation. First is the Spirit’s work in God’s original creation. In Genesis 1:2 we see the Spirit of God hovering over […]
Jesus as an Illustration to Understand the Holy Spirit
Imagine yourself in a crowded street in Galilee. Jesus is there and you have found yourself swept up in a crowd of onlookers who have heard Jesus is on his way into town and a rush of people have gone out to see him. Through the bobbing heads and undulating crowd you spot him. Jesus […]
The Sermon on the Mount and the Power of Self-Deception
The sermon on the mount is one of the most powerful sermons ever preached. Maybe there is a lesson to be learned that one of Jesus’ longest sermons was only a few minutes long if we have the whole thing recorded. Sometimes less is more. But in these three chapters of Matthew (5-7) Jesus gives […]
Prophets Unaware
Several times in scripture we have people doing things that are prophetic without them recognizing it. There are several instances in the Gospels where the Gospel writer informs us of what is going on. One of those instances is in John 11. After Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead the Jewish leaders began plotting as […]
An Important Principle in Reading the Old Testament as it Relates to the New – Fulfillment
We teach a lot more Old Testament to our children than to our adults. At least that is my experience. The Old Testament is so full of great stories that work well with the imagination of our kids. We don’t ever need to graduate out of the Old Testament. Instead we need to understand just […]
Ironing Out Our Conflicting Message on the Usefulness of the Old Testament
I cannot tell you how many times I have heard in my life that the Old Testament is irrelevant to us because it was nailed to the cross and is therefore no longer useful to Christians today. People have based this view on a number of things. First there is Colossians 2:14 that says something […]
The Three People They Were Looking For in Jesus’ Day
We talk a lot about messianic prophesies in the Old Testament, as we should. What often gets missed is that they weren’t just looking for the Messiah. They were looking for two other people mentioned in the Old Testament and you see this reflected in the Gospels. Matthew 27:46-49, “About three in the afternoon Jesus […]
What Do We Know About Joseph?
The New Testament doesn’t give us an awful lot of information about Joseph but we do know a few things from what we have in Matthew, Luke and John. First, we know that Joseph was Jewish and a descendant of David and originally from Bethlehem. Matthew tells us that in his genealogy in Matthew 1. […]