WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO MEDITATE UPON GOD’S WORD?

On Sunday we were joined by guest preacher Greg Dirnberger from our sister church, Emmaus Road in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. We heard from God’s word in Joshua 1:8 and were reminded of the importance and impact of biblical meditation in our lives. What is meditation? “Meditation is a holy exercise of the mind whereby we bring the truths of God to remembrance, and do seriously ponder upon them and apply them to ourselves” (Thomas Watson). This practice grounds us in God’s word, steeps our souls in the riches of God’s truth, and empowers us to persevere in the Christian life.

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BELIEVE IN THE GLORIOUS, CRUCIFIED CHRIST

With the narrative's turn in chapter 8, Mark turned on the lights. In chapter 9, he raises the dimmer switch as far up as it'll go. Who Jesus is literally shines forth to the disciples as Peter, James, and John behold him in radiant glory. Talk about a mountaintop experience! The two scenes in the beginning of the chapter are reminiscent of the events of Exodus 19-34. Through two discipleship failures, Jesus further reveals the contours of the cross He’s now actively moving toward. For us, these scenes help us to better understand precisely what living a cross-shaped - or in other words, a “Gospel-centered” - life really looks like. Listen to last Sunday’s sermon to learn more.

LISTEN TO THE SERMON HERE

SURROUNDING THE IDENTITY OF JESUS AND THE NATURE OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE IS THE SHAPE OF THE CROSS

In Mark 8, Jesus directly asks His disciples, “who do you say that I am?”. God opens Peter’s eyes to see, albeit still dimly, that Jesus is the Christ. In response to the first accurate confession of Jesus’ identity by another human being, Jesus makes a prediction about “the Christ” that leaves His followers baffled and dismayed. Further, He explains just what it means to be a follower of the Christ. Everybody is stunned. Why? Because both of Jesus statements - about the identity of the Christ and the nature of discipleship - are characterized by suffering and self-denial. In short, the cross shapes everything. This is as true for Christians today as it was for Peter and his compatriots. Listen to last Sunday’s sermon to learn more from this stunning passage of God’s Word.

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RESOLVE TO SEE HIM EVEN JUST A BIT BETTER EVERY DAY

For the Christian, the new year is a series of opportunities, month by month, day by day, moment by moment to behold Christ. 365 days filled with every providential detail the Lord has designed to set our sights on his Son. Returning to Mark’s Gospel this past Sunday, we came to the section right before the main hinge of the story - Peter's confession of Jesus as the Christ (Mk 8:27-9:1) - and encountered 3 stories about spiritual sight. Through them, we’re warned about the blinding effects of unbelief and encouraged by Christ’s eagerness to open our eyes to all he is. We see now "in a mirror dimly" (1 Cor 13:12) yet await that great day when we'll see Jesus "face to face," just "as he is" (1 Jn 3:2). Until then, in every year in between, especially this new year of 2023, our prayer is that the Lord would help us to see Jesus more clearly.

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AFTER WEEKS OF ANTICIPATION, WE ARRIVE AT THE BIRTH STORY OF JESUS CHRIST

All Advent season we’ve been learning that Christ was born for us. And born to bring us incredible blessings at that. But on Christmas Sunday, we learned from Luke 2, that above all else, Christ was born for us to be glorified by us. His worship is worth our every moment. His glory is the foundation, fuel, and goal of all of our Christmas joy.

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THE ANSWER TO OUR GREATEST FEARS IS THE ARRIVAL OF PERFECT LOVE

Christ was born to bring sinners into his joy. The birth of Christ holds out to us good tidings of great joy and peace on earth among those with whom God is pleased (Lk 2:14). But is he pleased with you or me? If he is, will he continue to be? What confidence do you and I have that having received the joy of Jesus, we can remain in the joy of Jesus? Even as a Christian, maybe you're afraid you really don't belong. Fearful that you'll be found out and exposed as a hypocrite. Afraid you won't be able to keep God pleased with you and persevere in the Christian life. Whatever fears you're facing, the Christmas season has traditionally held out the hope of better things to come. The classic songs of the season celebrate the coming of Christmas as the dawn of a new day where “all our troubles will be out of sight” and we can look ahead to a future “without any fear.” In Luke 1, Zechariah the priest sings a similar song. He agrees that the coming of Christmas means the end of our fears. But he disagrees on the root cause of our fears and the true remedy to live lives "without fear" (Lk 1:74). The song of Zechariah points us to the reality that Christmas is the answer to our greatest fears because it's the arrival of perfect love. 

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GOD OPPOSES THE PROUD BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE

Christ was born to be the Savior of sinners. A category that includes us all. Yet, not all have received him. Why is this? What sort of sinner is able to receive the joy he came to bring? Mary's story & song key us in: the humble. Christmas joy comes to us as a gift that's unearned, undeserved, and unconcerned with our pride. Mary takes God at his word and rejoices in her Savior. Elizabeth & John leap and shout for joy. And all those "who fear" the Lord shall receive his mercy and join in Mary's song (Lk 1:50). Rightly understood, Christmas is the most wonderful & humbling event of all time. God coming to us when we could not come to him to do for us what we could not do ourselves. To those who seek to have their hunger satisfied by the Lord, he fills with goods things, but to those who believe they've come into a better joy than what God provides, he sends away empty (Lk 1:53). We're all sinners - the message of Christmas makes that clear. But, the wonder and warning of the gospel is this: that "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble" (Jas 4:6) - as the meaning of Mary's song makes clear. The birth of Jesus was not a silent night. It was an utter upturning & reversing of men's values & joys - destabilizing the proud and comfortable of the world and satisfying humble sinners who were hungry for the joy that God alone could provide.

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IF IT WEREN’T FOR OUR SIN, JESUS WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN BORN

Last week we learned that Christ was born from sinners for sinners. But in what way did Jesus come for sinners? To raise their spirits? To be an example? To inspire them to be better people? Or to rescue them from an otherwise inescapable situation? Matthew 1:18-25 teaches us that Jesus was not born to be an example, inspiration, or sentimental piece of tradition - he was born to be a Savior. To save us from the sins which deserved God’s wrath and separated us from God’s presence. In this way, Christmas is a confrontation before it’s a celebration. An annual reminder that it took the Son of God taking on flesh to save me from my sin. But, once we’ve been confronted, we’re made ready to celebrate the only Savior who, unlike so many “so-called saviors,” doesn’t mock our deepest hopes, but fulfills them.

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WHO JESUS WAS BORN FROM TEACHES US WHO HE WAS BORN FOR

As we begin our 2022 Christmas Series on the birth stories of Christ, we begin by taking a look at his family tree. What sort of people did he descend from? What kind of men and women did the Second Person of the Trinity deem fit to relate to as he took on flesh and entered into the world? The answer in Matthew's genealogy should surprise us. It's a family tree of sinners, foreigners, and imperfect people! God chose weak, weary, and unfaithful ones to be the ones through whom his Son would come. They seem like unlikely candidates, but who else could he pick? Who else but a family line of sinners for the Son of God who’d come to save sinners? In the drama of the Christmas story, these are the men and women we relate to. We are the unfaithful ones, born in sin and suffering under the curse, who receive the rescue of God's own Son. Christ was born for them, Christ is born for us.

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god has been gracious to others. there’s plenty left for you.

As the Gospel of Mark approaches chapter 8, Jesus travels into regions inhabited by Gentiles. This journey begs one enormous question: will Jesus do for non-Jews what He has done for the Jews? This question maps onto our own experience. The bitter root of comparison and envy takes hold in our hearts and we wonder, “will God be gracious to me like I see Him being gracious to that person in my life?” The three accounts in Mark 7:24-8:10 and the cross that Jesus is eminently marching toward, though, answer all such questions. Listen to last Sunday’s sermon to learn more.

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