This Week at Christ Reformed Church (March 27-April 2)

Sunday Morning, April 2:  We are continuing our series on Paul's letter to the Galatians.  We are addressing Paul's statement that we are not justified by works of law, but by faith in Christ (Galatians 2:15-21).  Our worship service begins at 10:30 a.m.

Sunday Afternoon:  We are looking at the Heidelberg Catechism's discussion of baptism (Lord's Day 27, Q & A 72-74).  Our catechism service begins @ 1:15 p.m.

Wednesday Night Bible Study, March 29 (7:30 p.m.):  We continue our series on personal evangelism entitled, "Telling the Truth in Love."  We are contrasting self-centered evangelism with God-centered evangelism.

Academy, Friday, March 31 (7:30 p.m.):  We will be viewing and discussing Allen Guelzo's Teaching Company Course, The American Mind.  Our text for this series will be Hollinger and Capper, The American Intellectual Tradition.  Be sure to get a used copy!  They are much cheaper!

For more information on Christ Reformed Church you can always find us here (Christ Reformed Info), or on Facebook (Christ Reformed on Facebook).

"That the Truth of the Gospel Might Be Preserved" -- Galatians 1:10-2:14

Here's the audio from this morning's sermon:  Click Here

This Week's White Horse Inn (Updated Website)

Sin and Grace in the Christian Life

How should we think about sin and repentance in a life of Christian discipleship? Do Christians continue to struggle with sin or is it possible to live a victorious Christian life? On this program the hosts will discuss what it means to be simultaneously justified and sinful by walking through chapters 6-7 of Paul’s letter to the Romans as they wrap up their series on the doctrine of Original Sin.

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"Bring Back Some of the People of Israel" -- Daniel 1:1-7

The First in a Series of Sermons on the Book of Daniel

We know that Daniel was young man of noble Hebrew descent living in Judah in 605 B.C.  That was the year when, in the providence of God, King Nebuchadnezzar sent his armies to lay siege to Jerusalem–only to destroy the city and its temple eighteen years later in 587 BC.  Along with a number of Jewish youths, Daniel was taken from his home and family in Judah, and exiled to Babylon, where he lived out the balance of his long life as a believer in YHWH in the capital city of a pagan empire.  Although an exile far from home, Daniel rose to such prominence in the Babylonian royal court that eventually he became a confidant of Nebuchanzezzar himself.  Little did Daniel know that the terrible day when he was taken captive and removed from his home and family was just the beginning of a amazing life–a life which, through a series of dreams and visions given him by God, led to the production of a book of the Bible which reveals some of the profound mysteries of God’s sovereign plan for human history, by taking us on a panoramic sweep from Israel’s patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) to the coming messianic age, all the way to the end of time and day of final judgment.  The Book of Daniel is also the story of a faithful Jewish exile, in a pagan land, serving in a pagan royal court, all the while living his life in such an exemplary way that he may indeed have been used by God during the reign of the Persian king Cyrus (in the 530s) to help secure the freedom of those Jewish exiles who returned to Jerusalem (in a second Exodus) as recounted in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.  The Book of Daniel is not only an important guide to redemptive history, it is also the remarkable story of a faithful life lived in exile.

We begin this series on the Book of Daniel with a word of caution.  One of the most capable commentators on the Book of Daniel warns us that this book has often defeated even the most skilled of expositors–a warning not to be taken lightly.  One reason why Daniel is difficult to interpret is that Daniel predicts the course of world empires–although still future to him, are ancient history for us.  To interpret Daniel correctly one needs a fair bit of knowledge of ancient near-eastern history, which most moderns simply do not have.  Covering this ground is hard to do in the context of the typical sermon–and frankly, a sermon should not be a mere history lesson.  Yet as we saw in our series on Ezra-Nehemiah, the situation on the ground, so to speak, far too often gets left behind by those interpreters looking for “practical application,” and who instead focus upon things like Nehemiah’s leadership skills, while ignoring the historical circumstances behind the book, circumstances which are far more interesting and relevant than turning Nehemiah into an ancient motivational speaker or strategic business plan expert.  

We did not do that in our study of Ezra-Nehemiah and we cannot do that with Daniel if we expect to understand the true meaning of his prophecy and get something truly useful from our time spent studying this book.  So, any series on Daniel will be challenging because even though Daniel will offer a panoramic vision from Israel’s past to the end of time, much of his prophecy has to do with the great empires of the ancient near east (Babylonian, Persian, Greek, Roman) from 600 B.C. until the coming of Jesus and the dawn of his messianic mission (30 AD).  So, we will proceed slowly at the beginning of our series, lay the necessary historical groundwork, but we will pick-up speed as we go along.

To read the rest of this sermon:  Click Here

Ben Sasse -- The Judge's Robe

This Week at Christ Reformed Church (March 20-26)

Sunday Morning, March 26:  We are continuing our series on Paul's letter to the Galatians.  We move into chapter 2, and Paul's confrontation with Peter over the nature of the gospel (Galatians 1:10-2:14).  Our worship service begins at 10:30 a.m.

Sunday Afternoon:  We are looking at the Heidelberg Catechism's discussion of the sacraments (Lord's Day 26, Q & A 69-71).  Our catechism service begins @ 1:15 p.m.

Wednesday Night Bible Study, March 22 (7:30 p.m.):  We continue our series on personal evangelism entitled, "Telling the Truth in Love."  We are contrasting self-centered evangelism with God-centered evangelism.

Academy, Friday, March 24 (7:30 p.m.):  We will be viewing and discussing Allen Guelzo's Teaching Company Course, The American Mind.  Our text for this series will be Hollinger and Capper, The American Intellectual Tradition.  Be sure to get a used copy!  They are much cheaper!

For more information on Christ Reformed Church you can always find us here (Christ Reformed Info), or on Facebook (Christ Reformed on Facebook).

"The Gospel of Christ" -- Galatians 1:1-9

Here's the audio from this morning's sermon--the first in a series on the Book of Galatians

Click Here

This Week's White Horse Inn (Updated Website)

Sin and Grace

In his conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus said that a person can’t even see the kingdom of God unless he is first born again. In other words, because we are dead in sin, we must first be spiritually regenerated before we can express faith in Jesus or make a decision to follow him. Coming to grips with the seriousness of sin helps us to better understand the amazingness of grace.

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I Wonder If Baseball's "Siri" Will Get Tired of All the Inane Questions

Jose Siri is a Cincinnati Reds minor leaguer.  Can you imagine the grief he'll endure should his baseball career progress?

"Hey Siri, where's my glove?"

"Siri, where's the closest Starbucks?"

"Siri, what's the traffic like on my way home?"

"Hey Siri, who was the thirty-first president?"

"Siri, who won the 1975 AL MVP?"

"Siri, would you send a text to my wife?"

"Siri, you bum, why'd you strike out?"

"The Son of Man Is Coming" -- Matthew 24:29-44

An Introduction to the Book of Daniel (Part Two)

Before we begin our series on the Book of Daniel, we are spending several weeks looking at Jesus’ use of Daniel’s prophecy as recounted in the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24.  Jesus sees the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy as centered in his own messianic mission.  Jesus even declares himself to be Daniel’s mysterious “Son of Man,” making a connection to the remarkable vision found in Daniel 7.  At the end of Matthew 23, Jesus pronounces seven words of woe (covenant curses) upon Israel, the Pharisees, and teachers of the law.  Jesus also announced that Israel will be left desolate–its people scattered among the nations.  And then shortly after as he was walking in the temple area with his disciples, Jesus points to the temple’s great stones and tells them “you see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”  If the magnificent temple of Herod will be destroyed, the disciples quite naturally thought the end of the age must be at hand–they are mistaken.  It is in the context of dispensing covenant blessings and curses upon Israel that Jesus appeals to Daniel’s prophecy.  

With this prophetic warning ringing in their ears, at the very first moment the disciples are alone with Jesus they ask him three questions, prompted by all of the things that Jesus has just told them.  In the opening verses of Matthew 24–the account of Jesus’ speaking about the course of future events known as the Olivet Discourse–the disciples ask Jesus “`tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”  In the Olivet Discourse, Jesus answers these three questions, and in doing so speaks authoritatively about the future desolation of Israel as well as his own coming in judgment at the end of the age.  Throughout the discourse, Jesus appeals to the prophecy of Daniel, and as we will see, Jesus even speaks of himself as the “Son of Man”–one of the key figures from the remarkable vision in the seventh chapter of Daniel’s prophecy.

The key to interpreting the Olivet Discourse correctly–given what Jesus has foretold about the immediate future of Israel–is that the disciples incorrectly assume that an event so disastrous to Israel such as the destruction of the temple, must mean that when the temple is destroyed the end of the age must therefore be at hand.  But this is not correct, and as we have seen, as Jesus answers their questions, he corrects this faulty assumption.  The destruction of the temple and the city of Jerusalem will come to pass within a generation–AD 70, but the end of the age, and the Parousia (or coming of the Son of Man) will come much later, only after an indeterminate period of time, when the sign of the Son of Man appears in the sky and all of the nations mourn as the day of the Lord and final judgment has come.

In verses 4-14, Jesus answers the disciples’ last question put to him first–“what are the signs of the end of the age?”  In answering their question, Jesus speaks of various signs of the end of the age, including wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes and famine, the coming of messianic pretenders, the coming persecution of God’s people, as well as the preaching of the gospel to the ends of the earth.  While all of these things will be experienced by Jesus’ disciples between the time of his soon to come death and resurrection, and the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70, these signs also extend into the present age as guarantees of our Lord’s second advent at the end of the age.  Because Jesus speaks of the preaching of the gospel to all nations as a sign of the end, the things of which Jesus has just spoken will indeed continue on into the present age after the destruction of Jerusalem, in A.D. 70.

To read the rest of this sermon, Click Here