Category Archives: Jesus Christ

Christ’s wonderful person

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A summary of ch. 5 of John Flavel’s The Fountain of Life.

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” John, 1:14

Here we have:

  1. The Person assuming, the Word, that is, the second Person or Subsistent in the most glorious God-head; called the Word, either because he is the scope or principal matter, both of the prophetical and promissory word; or because he expounds and reveals the mind and will of God to men, as verse 18: “The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared” or expounded “him.”
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The myth of a sexually permissive Jesus

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It is often supposed that Jesus was more permissive with regard to sexual ethics than the Old Testament.  The reverse is, in fact the case.

Robert Gagnon invites us, in response, to consider the following:

1. The three stories of sexual sinners

Jesus reached out to sexual sinners. The key stories are: the sinful woman in Luke 7:36-50; 50; the woman caught in adultery in John 7:53-8:11; and the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4.…

Mt 24:34/Mk 13:30/Lk 21:32 – ‘This generation will not pass away’

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Mt 24:34/Mk 13:30/Lk 21:32 – “I tell you the truth, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.”

Jesus has been speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem and the ‘coming’ of the Son of Man.

Taking our Lord’s words at face value, it is possible to suppose that he is teaching that the parousia would take place within the lifetime of his hearers (‘this generation’).  If that is what he meant, then he would appear to have been mistaken.…

Christ in all the Scriptures, but…

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We preachers are rightly urged to preach Christ from every Old Testament passage.  This is sound advice, and finds support from our Lord himself, in Luke 24.

There are, however, some dangers and pitfalls in doing so, as helpfully pointed out by Colin Adams.  Here’s what he has to say (in his own words, but slightly abbreviated):

i) Christ is everywhere in the Old Testament but he’s also the promised one.

Christ was certainly present in the entire history of redemption (John 8:56-57, Hebrews 11:26, Jude 5).…

Good news! Jesus is just like you!

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With his customary incisiveness, Ian Paul has shown how easy it is for us to trim and shape the New Testament picture of Jesus so that it becomes a reflection of ourselves.

Liberals: good news! Jesus is just like you! He criticises the Pharisees for being too religious, and imposing their religious expectations unfairly on others (Matt 23.4). He appears to have a radical programme for social change, in which the poor are rewarded and those unjustly imprisoned are released (Luke 4.18), and this is rooted in a long-term vision for the inversion of social roles in which the rich and powerful are humbled, and privilege is removed (Luke 1.52).

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Why we preach Christ from the Old Testament

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“You must preach the text as it lays,” someone said to Jared Wilson.

“Indeed,” replied Jared, “and every OT text lays, as Spurgeon put it, ‘along the road to Christ.’”

In support of his assertion, Jared points to the following New Testament texts:

John 5:39 — “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me”

John 8:56 — “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day.…

The tabernacle – God’s dwelling place

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Christians sometimes regard the accounts of the tabernacle, temple and priestly service as tedious and irrelevant.  This is a mistake.  They point to a vital reality – the presence of God with his people.

The tabernacle itself is of seminal importance.  It is the first in an important series (tabernacle, temple, incarnation, church, new Jerusalem).  The account of its construction is much more detailed than that of the temple (see 1 Kings 5-8), and the tabernacle found a permanent home in the latter structure. …

Incarnation and the tabernacle

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James K. Bruckner writes:

‘The tabernacle provided, for the first time since Eden, a place for the visible presence of God in the midst of the people.’

He adds: ‘the Gospel of John provides a window that helps Christians interpret the significance of the tabernacle in relation to the incarnation.’

Consider John 1:14-15a – ‘The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  We have seen his glory.’

  1. ‘The Word became flesh’ ‘matches the detailed descriptions of the tent of meeting as a location of God’s presence (Exod.
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John 1:6-8, 19-34 – Witness to the Wonder – sermon notes

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Witness to the Wonder, John 1:6-8, 19-34

How can we witness to the wonder of Christ(mas)?

Learn from John the Baptist, and his witness to Jesus Christ.

1. He knew who he was

‘He was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light’ Jn 1:8.

(a) ‘I am not…’, vv19-21

  • The Christ, v20; Lk 3:15; Acts 19; 2nd century; Mandaeans (Iraq)
  • Elijah, v21a, Mal 4:5f. (Jesus described John as an Elijah-type figure Lk 1:17; Mt 11:13-15; 17:12f, but not in the sense they meant it)
  • The Prophet, v21b, Deut 18:15-18

(b) ‘I am…’, vv22-28

  • A voice, v23; Isa 40:3
  • A baptizer, v26
  • A servant, v27 – in fact, less than a servant!
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Matthew 2:23 – ‘Jesus would be called a Nazarene’

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‘[Joseph] came to a town called Nazareth and lived there. Then what had been spoken by the prophets was fulfilled, that Jesus would be called a Nazarene.‘

Where does it say in the prophets ‘that Jesus would be called a Nazarene’?

This wording is not to be found in any of the prophets.  In fact, Nazareth is not mentioned at all in the Old Testament.  Bethlehem, on the other hand, had a higher status as the ‘city of David’.…