"They Made Confession and Worshiped the Lord" -- Nehemiah 9:1-38

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

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This Week's White Horse Inn

Can We Still Believe In Jesus?

On this edition of the White Horse Inn, Michael Horton is joined by Douglas Groothuis, professor of Philosophy at Denver Seminary and author of Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith. As we continue to look at the historic claims of the Christian faith, we take a closer look at the person of Jesus. On what basis does the Bible claim he was raised from the dead? Why should we find the interpretation of the Scriptures compelling? Is there a reason for the hope that is within us?

Is the story of Jesus the stuff of legends or of actual history? Was Jesus really a miracle-worker, or merely someone whose deeds were later embellished by his followers? How can we even know whether he existed in the first place? Join us this week on another edition of the White Horse Inn as we discuss our knowledge of this historic person, Jesus of Nazareth.

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Understanding the End Times --This Coming Saturday

Here's the place to go for Conference Information

Hope to see you there!

Ben Sasse is Rolling Up His Sleeves (Updated)

According to The Atlantic, Ben Sasse's freshman year of listening and learning is over.  He's ready to lock and load.  Sick `em Ben!

Update on Tuesday, November 3, 2015 at 02:17PM by Kim Riddlebarger

Ben's speech on C-Span

Wow!

"Sanctify Them in the Truth" -- John 17:6-19

The Fifty-Third in a Series of Sermons on the Gospel of John

As you read through Jesus’ “High Priestly Prayer” prayer in John 17, one thing virtually jumps out of the text.  In this prayer we immediately see the deep and abiding relationship Jesus has with his Heavenly Father.  Although the gospels tell us that Jesus often spent time in prayer with the Father, little is revealed about the content of his prayers.  But in John 17 we are given insight into Jesus’ prayer life when we see his fervent desire to obey the Father’s will, and bring glory to himself and to his Father.  We also see Jesus’ concern for his disciples–from whom he is about to depart.  Jesus knows that because his disciples have received and believed his word, the world will hate them, just as it hates all those who value God’s word over human opinion.  Another thing we will notice in this prayer is that Jesus’ redemptive work is focused upon saving those specific individuals whom the Father has given to the Son.  It is far too commonplace for professing Christians to sneer at Reformed Christians for supposedly “limiting the grace of God.”  Yet, this focus upon salvation being accomplished for the elect arises not from the cold Calvinist heart, but directly from the passionate prayer of Jesus in John 17, who prays “I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.”
                
For a number of weeks, we have been considering the Upper Room Discourse (John 13-17), as Jesus prepares his disciples for his imminent departure from them–which, as they are discovering (but are having trouble accepting), includes our Lord’s death, resurrection, and ascension.  We have completed the teaching portion of the Upper Room Discourse, and we are now working through Jesus’ final moments with his disciples, when Jesus stops to pray, before departing for Gethsemane and his fateful encounter with Caiaphas (the high priest) and members of the Sanhedrin, who will arrest him.  The content of the so-called “High Priestly Prayer”–which is the longest prayer of Jesus recorded in the Bible–is given in John 17.  In this prayer, Jesus prays first for himself (vv.1-5), then for his disciples (vv. 6-19), and then, finally for all those who will come to faith (that’s us) through the word of the disciples (vv. 20-26).  We are considering the second section of the High Priestly Prayer in which Jesus prays for his disciples.

In our last sermon on John 17 (vv.1-5), we covered the first portion of the “High Priestly Prayer” in which Jesus prays for himself.  Knowing that is about to be arrested and will then suffer and die, Jesus lifts his eyes toward heaven and prays to his Father that he (Jesus) would be glorified with that same which glory he possessed throughout eternity in the presence of the Father and the Holy Spirit.  We observed last time, that before returning to the Father, Jesus must complete his messianic mission by securing eternal life for all those given him by the Father.  This, Jesus says, he has done–and is about to finalize–through his impending death and resurrection.  Those who, as Jesus puts it, “know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent,” are the ones for whom Jesus is praying (in the balance of the prayer), and these are the ones for whom Jesus has completed his messianic mission.  In accomplishing his messianic mission, Jesus will bring glory to the Father and, in turn, bring glory to himself through his death, resurrection, and ascension.

To read the rest of this sermon, Click Here

This Week at Christ Reformed Church (November 2-8)

Sunday Morning, November 8:  We are returning to our series on Ezra-Nehemiah, and working our way through Nehemiah 9 and Israel's confession of sin.  Our service begins at 10:30 a.m.

Sunday Afternoon:  We continue our study of the Heidelberg Catechism, and will be discussing Lord's Day 3 (Q & A 6-8), which deals with sinful human nature.  Our catechism service begins @ 1:15 p.m.

Wednesday Night Bible Study (November 4):  We are working our way through Paul's letter to the Galatians, and we are still in chapter 5.

The Academy:  On Hiatus (TBA)

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

"I Am the Resurrection and the Life" -- John 11:1-44

Here's the audio from this morning's sermon from Dr. Mike Horton, on the occasion of Reformation Sunday and our Twentieth Anniversary.

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This Week's White Horse Inn

Can We Still Believe the Bible

On this edition of the White Horse Inn, Michael Horton sits down with Craig Blomberg, professor of New Testament at Denver Seminary and author of Can We Still Believe the Bible? In lieu of all that we see on T.V. concerning Jesus and the New Testament, do Christian claims have a leg to stand on in the public square? Can we actually believe the things portrayed in the Bible? Or is the Bible filled with crippling error?

How can we trust a book containing so many miraculous stories, with so many miscopies and mistranslations? Isn’t it more reasonable to argue that the Bible should be read as mythology? Was the canon of Scripture decided upon for political reasons? Join us this week on another edition of the White Horse Inn as we discuss the authenticity of the biblical texts.

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Pics from Christ Reformed's Twentieth Anniversary Celebration

Mike Horton addressing the question of whether or not the Reformation is over

I offered a number of reflections on Christ Reformed Church's twenty years of ministry

Here's the White Horse Inn crew (Shane Rosenthal, me, Mike).  Yup, we've been on the air twenty-five years now.  We are not getting older, we are getting better older.

"The Hour Has Come" -- John 17:1-5

The Fifty-Second in a Series of Sermons on the Gospel of John

Their evening together is now over.  The hour has come.  Jesus must leave the Upper Room, cross the Kidron Valley, and go to an olive grove on the Mount of Olives, where he will be arrested by members of the Sanhedrin (the Jewish ruling council).  But in the moments before Jesus departs to accomplish his work of redemption, Jesus stops just long enough to pray:  for himself, for his disciples, and for all those who will believe in him throughout the centuries yet to come after his ascension into heaven.  Known as the “High-Priestly Prayer,” in the seventeenth chapter of his gospel, John reveals to us the heart of Jesus in the form of a prayer which Jesus offers to the Father in his final private moments with his disciples before together, they head out to Gethsemane.  In this prayer (which is as much a “farewell” prayer as anything else) Jesus reveals much about the nature of his messianic mission, as well as the Father’s intention to save all those whom he has chosen, and whom he has given to the Son to redeem.  This is the longest prayer of Jesus revealed anywhere in Scripture, and it comes at that critical moment between the end of his messianic mission, and the beginning of his Passion.  In this prayer, we see that Jesus seeks nothing more than to bring glory to his Father, and in turn, to realize that glory he has known with the Father from all eternity.

One of the difficulties a preacher faces when preaching through John is that this Gospel contains lengthy discourses from Jesus which ideally should be covered in a single sermon to understand the overall flow of thought–so as not to miss the forest for the trees.  Unfortunately, we do not have time to cover passages like John 17 in a single sermon without skipping over the Old Testament background, which is extensive, and which is necessary to fully understand what Jesus is saying and why.  Furthermore, this passage is loaded with doctrinal significance and is just too rich in content and too important theologically to simply skim in a single sermon.

So, we will break up Jesus’ high priestly prayer into three sermons, each of which dealing with the particular focus of that section of the prayer.  In John 17:1-5, Jesus prays to the Father that he (Jesus) will be glorified through his suffering and death which he is about to undergo, so as to bring the Father glory through his own obedience to the Fathers’ will.  Then, we will devote a sermon to Jesus’ prayer for the disciples (vv. 6-19), before we conclude with that section of the prayer (vv. 20-26) in which Jesus prays for us–as Jesus puts it in verse 20, “those who will believe in me through . . . [the disciples’] word.”  Once we complete the high priestly prayer, we will have completed the Upper Room Discourse, and we will then move into the final section of John’s Gospel (chapters 18-21) dealing with Jesus’ Passion.

John 17 is a truly remarkable passage because in it we witness the eternal word and Son of God pray to his Father on behalf of those for whom he is about suffer and die.  There is much to learn about Jesus’ person and work as covenant mediator from studying the content of his prayers–especially this one.  Jesus’ prayers are really one of the few hints we have of Jesus’ direct interaction with the Father, in the presence of whom and the Holy Spirit, Jesus has enjoyed an eternal bliss and fellowship.  In the so-called “High Priestly Prayer” of John 17, Jesus seeks to bring glory to the Father and to himself, and he also prays that his disciples will be protected from the evil we will inevitably face in the world.

To read the rest of this sermon, Click Here