Jesus is IT (Matthew 2:13-23)

Matthew has just recounted the story of the magi coming from the east and worshipping Jesus as king.  What’s remarkable about that particular story is that Matthew is the only one of the four gospel to tell the story of the magi.

I begin there for the simple reason that this morning’s text is largely dependent upon some of the details from that scene with the magi.  By way of introduction, take a look for a second at verse 2:2 – the magi have just arrived in Jerusalem and they go straight to King Herod to ask…

READ VERSE 2:2

For a king like Herod, that was the last question you wanted to ask.  Herod was known for responding to even the most minor of threats with the full force of his cruelty.  And so such questions and the suggestion that there may another king running around was bound to result in some rash response from Herod.  Then in verse 12 we read about how the magi were spared from that wrath via a dream, and shortly after that, Joseph – through a dream – is warned to take Jesus and his mother to Egypt.

Typically, when we look at this text we tend to go in one of two directions with it.  On one hand, we frequently focus on the escape to Egypt as a picture of God’s providence and preservation of toddler Jesus.  Or sometimes we focus on the “slaughter of the innocents” and try to reconcile how it is we can believe such a thing happened when there is not one strand of evidence outside of Scripture that Herod ever committed such a cruel act.

Filed under: Bible Study, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Discipleship, Faith, Ministry, Sermon, Theology

The Visit of the Magi (Sermon on Matthew 2:1-13)

It’s a joy to be back in Portland and able to worship here at Parklane again.  I graduated from Calvin Seminary in May, and Mishaela and I have been back in the area for about 3 months now.  Just so everyone’s up to date on what we’re doing here, we decided about a year and a half ago that would start walking through the door to church planting.  What’s more, we also began to feel a real burden to see more CRC congregations in Oregon and to minister to Portland.  And so, we moved back to Portland and we’ve been working to establish ourselves in the Sellwood neighborhood, with the hopes of starting a new faith gathering in that part of town.  I suppose it’s also worth pointing out that Mishaela and I are expecting our first child in February, which we are very excited about.

As a church planter I’ve been gravitating toward the gospel of Matthew – and for good reason.  A question I’m sure many of us have wondered about is “Why are there four gospels?” After all, if the goal is to present a biography of sorts of Jesus life, won’t one do the trick?

The reality that is often overlooked is that each gospel comes with its own particular slant on what happened.  Each gospel writer, when he set out to record the events of Jesus’ life and his teachings, did so with the intention of achieving something more than just recording the events of Jesus’ life.  It’s that particular slant that has resulted in the gospels occasionally telling a slightly different version of an event or even omitting or including stories that the other gospels haven’t.

Filed under: Bible Study, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Discipleship, Faith, Ministry, Original Languages, Sermon, Theology

Women, Gentiles, & Jesus, Oh My! (Sermon on Matthew 1:1-17)

I used to make a regular habit of posting sermons I preach.  For whatever reason I’ve been getting lazy with this.  I’ve obviously been reading through – and studying – Matthew’s gospel and blogging about what I’ve been learning, but many of those posts seems to have a more academic bent to them and I’m probably not making the discipleship connection like I want to.  Fortunately, I’m doing a much better job with that when I turn around and preach those texts.  So I’m going to commit to being more diligent about throwing up my sermon manuscripts when I preach as a counterpart to the more academic posts.

This is the first sermon I preached in conjunction with studying Matthew.  Enjoy!

READ MATTHEW 1:1-17

My guess is that very few of us have ever heard a sermon on a genealogy.  Although I’m still on the younger side, I know I never have.  In fact, there almost seems to be a part of us that shies away from genealogies as much as possible.  I mean, when was the last time you actually read the book of Numbers for example.  And if you’re like me, you tend to skip the genealogies of Genesis – and Matthew – to get to the things that are more interesting and exciting.  For whatever reason, over the years we’ve come to see these parts of Scripture as mostly pointless filler that seems to have virtually no value for us today.  They may have been important to the people 2,000 or 4,000 years ago, but to us it’s just a big waste of time.

My prayer is that this morning I can change your opinion a little – at least of Matthew’s genealogy.

In the way of introduction there are a few things to keep in mind as we look at this text.  First off, we absolutely cannot underestimate the fact that each of the four gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – are written from a particular perspective.  This might make some of you uneasy to think about.  When each author sat down to write his gospel, he did so with the intention of making a point.  In other words, the gospels are not simply relaying the cold, hard facts of Jesus’ life and teachings.  That’s why the gospels sometimes put the same story in different places or present slightly different versions of an event.  There was something in the life of the author or early church that necessitated the author to write what he did.  We then discover clues to what that thing was and it helps us understand what we’re reading better.

Filed under: Bible Study, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Evangelism, Faith, Ministry, Sermon

The Practice of Prayer (Luke 11:1-13)

This morning we’re moving into the part of our series on discipleship in which we begin talking about discipleship practices.  For the past three weeks, we’ve been taking an overview of what this spiritual journey we’re on looks like.  And depending on where you are on that journey, things will look slightly different.  Perhaps you’re still wrestling with who exactly Jesus is.  Or maybe you’re still trying to wrap your head around this religion known as Christianity.  Maybe you recently made a decision to follow Jesus, making him your Lord and savior.  Or maybe you’re an “old pro,” with 20, 30, or more years of church under your belt.  Where ever you may be, there’s always room to grow.

And I hope that you’ve had the opportunity over the past three weeks to start to narrow down where you land on that journey.

The next part of this series is going to focus on several practices – or habits or rhythms – that help us progress along this journey.  To be a disciple means more than just going to church once a week and calling yourself a Christian.  A few weeks back I defined disciple as a student, one who is learning a certain way of life.  And so there’s a sense that, no matter how long we’ve been doing something, discipleship never ends.

If growing and progressing along this spiritual path is something you’re interested in doing, then these next few weeks will make you salivate.  But I warn you, growth won’t happen if all you do is show up every week and listen to a compelling sermon from Pastor Henry or Amy and a mediocre sermon from me; you have to be willing to be challenged and shaped, to take some initiative on your own outside of church…

Lucky for us the first practice we’re looking at, our topic for today, is prayer.

Let’s start by reading our text…

READ 11:1-13

I think it’s safe to say that prayer is something that virtually everyone in America – perhaps even the world – is familiar with.  Granted, not everyone has the same understanding of prayer, but we’re all familiar with the concept.

Speaking for myself, I have a tendency to think of prayer as a bit like wishful thinking.  That’s not Biblical, but that’s how I often treat it.  I’m praying that I pass my finals next week, or that Mishaela will relent and allow us to go out for lunch after church today.

Filed under: Bible Study, Christian Living, Faith, Ministry, Preaching, Sermon, Theology, Worship , Prayer

Paul the Searcher (Gal. 1:11-17)

Well I’m kicking off a new series here at Monroe.  In the ancient church, the time right after Easter was intended to be a time of spiritual growth; a time to learn more about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus and what the life of a disciple looks like.  I don’t think we were intentionally following tradition, but today we are beginning a series on discipleship.

Let me give you a little heads up on what to expect over the next several weeks…

The first three weeks of this series are going to focus on seven points along the discipleship journey.  These are places that most of us have been to before, and all of us are at one of these places right now.  When you came in today, you should have received a “Your Spiritual Journey Guide.”  In this little booklet, you’ll find a list of these seven spiritual places.  This is intended to be a guide to help you discover where you are on your journey.  What we don’t want, is for someone to look at this and become discouraged because they’re not further down the line.  This does not tell you how good a Christian you are; this helps you recognize what areas you can work on and where you’re going…it’s like a spiritual map.

Pastors Henry, Amy, and myself are going to leads us as we look at the life of Paul and gain a better idea of where we as individuals may be through the example of Paul’s life.

And then after that, we”ll spend a few weeks looking at what are called “spiritual disciplines.”  These are tools that we can use to help ourselves and each other move from one place to the next and to the next.

So if we’re talking about discipleship, there’s something that we absolutely must do before we can very far into this conversation.  We need to define exactly what discipleship is.

Discipleship is the process of being or becoming a disciple.  That makes perfect sense, right?  Ya, right…

So what’s a disciple then?

Filed under: Bible Study, Christian Living, Faith, Preaching, Sermon, Theology