-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
A lot of Christians struggle with assurance. Sometimes they have doubts about the truth of the gospel: “I’m not sure God even exists.” More often, they believe the gospel but aren’t sure it’s good news for them. “Yeah, Jesus died and rose again, but maybe I’m not included.” This isn’t really a problem of assurance but…
Hebrews 6 issues a stern warning about falling away, and follows with an extended metaphor involving rain, earth, and plants. Rain falls on earth, but yields different crops. As a son or daughter of Adam, you’re made of earth. You’re designed to produce fruit that will delight you and feed others. You’re created to be…
Every week at Immanuel, after we confess our sins, I say this: “Arise and hear the good news. Brothers and sisters who have been baptized into union with Jesus Christ, God Himself promises you the forgiveness of the Father, the victory of the Son, and the glory and empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Believe this,…
Acts 27 is one of the longest and certainly the most dramatic episode in Acts. Luke has taken us aboard ships with Paul before, but never in this kind of detail or excitement. There’s a raging storm. The ship drifts off-course. It runs aground on a sandbar, with waves breaking it to pieces. Everyone onboard…
Paul seems a helpless pawn. He’s arrested in Jerusalem, whisked away to Caesarea under Roman guard, left in prison for two years. When Festus replaces Felix as governor, he wants to do a favor for the Jews by sending Paul back to Jerusalem, where Jews lie in wait to kill him. Throughout Acts, Rome protects…
Some of Paul’s Jewish opponents grow impatient of the deliberate slowness of a court process. Forty of them swear to fast from food and drink until they kill Paul (Acts 23). These are thugs, street activists who start riots and assassinate Romans and collaborating Jews. But they have friends in high places. They ask the chief priests and elders to…
Paul makes his way toward Jerusalem, following in the footsteps of Jesus. Like Jesus, he meets people who don’t want him to go. Paul already knows that bonds and afflictions await him. The disciples at Tyre tell him not to set foot in Jerusalem. The series of warnings come to a dramatic climax in Caesarea.…
Paul describes a model of pastoral ministry when he describes his own work in Ephesus in his farewell address to the Ephesian elders (Acts 20). What does a shepherd look like? Paul is present. He doesn’t lead from a distance, doesn’t hide and make occasional appearances. “From the first day I set food in Asia, I…
At the center of Luke’s account of Paul’s mission in Corinth (Acts 18), Paul receives a nighttime vision. His second missionary expedition began with a dream of a man from Macedonia, asking him to come. It ends with another vision, directly from “the Lord,” Jesus, who assures him he can stay where he is. Things…
At the beginning of Samuel, the Lord judges the house of the high priest Eli. Eli and his two wicked sons are killed on the same day, during and after the battle of Aphek.During the battle, Eli’s sons bring the ark of the covenant out onto the field. The Philistines capture the ark and take…
Immanuel Reformed Church 