All for your consideration.
Christ established the foundation of his church through the definitive work of the apostles, who then set up a structure of overseers who would steward the apostolic foundation. Apostolicity, then, is defined by our faithfulness to the apostolic doctrine, structure, and mission.
Just as Jesus comes to the disciples in the storm and reaches out to save Peter, Jesus has come to us. Jesus, the Son of God, met us in our storm. He came from heaven to earth to reach us in the form of a man. He plunged the depths of death by dying on a cross to rescue us from spiritual death, and then he rose from the dead to bring us with him into everlasting life.
There are no lengths he has not gone to find you. Not just sweeping the house, not just searching the hills for a sheep; God came from heaven to earth. The Son of God Jesus Christ took on flesh to find his lost. He came from glory and bliss to homeless rags. And even that wasn’t far enough.
If you are waiting for your own kingdom to fix all the problems we face, don’t hold your breath. Any kingdom under the sun is ultimately a part of the problem. What we need is a new kingdom to break in and free us from Satan. That’s the reason Jesus Christ came.
The glory of the cross is not that people get to escape hell and enjoy eternal comfort. The glory of the cross is that God saves. Salvation is about God before it is about us.
The genealogy of Jesus is the story of God with us, and every name is a chapter.
Many of us feel a sense of dread when it comes to work, even if we really like what we do. Why is that? And what hope do we have to find satisfaction?
If you are a believer, if you call Jesus your Lord and savior this morning, you are already at the heart of the greatest rescue story imaginable.
After enduring the anxiety of death and all the chaos of hell, Jesus rose as the King of kings, the crowned Prince of heaven who was victorious over all his enemies. And the first words this champion king spoke to his fearful disciples was “Peace be with you.”
The whole world was created to be a temple, and in the center of his temple God places his own image: humanity. Man and woman were meant to be the image of God in the world—not lifeless idols made of stone reflecting dead pagan gods, but living breathing humans reflecting the living God.