Posts by admin (Page 24)

As one looks over the geography of the Book of Exodus a clear and somewhat surprising pattern emerges as Daniel Hyde draws our attention to in ‘God in Our Midst’. Exodus takes place in three geographic locations. The story opens where Genesis ends—with Israel in Egypt—and continues there in chapters 1–13 (cf. Gen. 50:22–26). After leaving Egypt in the dark of night, the…

The Scriptures plainly declare that “the Lord has established his throne in heaven and his kingdom rules over it” (Ps 103:19). Christ is the Lord over his creation. His throne is in heaven, and He is king over creation. This kingship is ‘His official power to rule all things in heaven and on earth, for the glory of God, and for the execution of God’s…

The priestly office of Christ occupies a major place in the NT and includes not only a discussion of the office itself, but also of Christ’s sacrificial death to redeem sinners from their sin. In Hebrews we are told “to fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess” (Heb 3:1). We are informed that we “have a great high priest who has gone…

It was John Calvin who brought the so-called ‘threefold office’ of Christ into prominence. The threefold office presents Jesus Christ as prophet, priest, and king, who in his saving work, fulfilled all the anointed offices of the Old Testament. For Calvin, ‘the Son of God, therefore, is not properly called Christ apart from his office, for it is there, in his official…

“Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Mk 11:9) For the Jewish people the story of the Triumphal Entry, as we call it, is a story of misplaced and disappointed expectations.  The Jews were looking for one thing and Jesus was another.  They expected and wanted so badly a…

It isn’t just wisdom that we need.  It’s a certain kind of wisdom.  There are two kinds.  There are two very different angles of vision for seeing everything, two opposing strategies for negotiating life, as the Bible makes clear in James 3:13-18.  One wisdom is “earthly, unspiritual, demonic.”  That’s blunt.  The other wisdom “comes down from above.”  The former wisdom…

Today we consider Jesus’ teaching on Mark 10:35-45, where Jesus says “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” An Old Testament passage that will help us understand the idea of ransom which forms this climax of our passage is Exodus 21:1-6. Here we have a description of how slaves were to be treated in…

In the Reformed tradition, the authors and composers of our original church songbooks often included example prayers to instruct the people. For instance, when the preacher and churchman Petrus Dathenus (1531–1588) put together the first complete church songbook for Dutch Reformed Christians in 1566, behind all the songs he included sample prayers that Christians could…

“For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”  Matthew 18:20 I want to celebrate something with you.  Let’s celebrate something that deserves to be celebrated but rarely is.  Let’s celebrate the Church.  Celebrate the Church? It might seem like bragging about a car that looked great in design, on paper, but it turned out to be a lemon.  But…