by Phil Auxier
The sermon from 7/24/11 entitled Qualified from Hebrews 5:1-10 is now online. In this sermon, I sought to unfold what is an amazing text of Scripture, showing how amazingly qualified Jesus is to not only be our great high priest, but, deeper, to be our Savior for all of eternity. We need this truths as anchors for our souls. I hope you profited from this message.
In the evening, many of our church’s small groups gathered. It was an enriching Lord’s Day. I hope you were blessed.
by Phil Auxier
As a pastor in the Bible church context, it seems that what could be the favorite verse for people in our neck of evangelicalism is something like 3 John 4: “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” It’s truth, truth, truth, always the truth. But, the problem is, often, that our definition of truth is a narrow bit of interpretive secondary issues and not the “truth” that John spoke of at all.
You see, John had personally encountered the “Truth” when He walked on earth. He even quotes Jesus in a verse we love: “Jesus said, ‘I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one gets to the Father except through Me.'” We love this verse. But, when we think about walking in the truth, we often aren’t thinking of walking more precisely in the Gospel, we are thinking about moral or very specific doctrinal confines.
Therefore, today, let’s heed those words of that grandfatherly apostle in 3 John. There is no greater joy than to be walking in the truth, than to be walking in Jesus and all the implications that the Gospel has for us. The Gospel changes us. Let’s walk in that joy.
by Phil Auxier
Prepping for this coming Lord’s Day (7/24/11) and a sermon on Hebrews 5:1-10, I listened to a sermon by Piper entitled He Is the Source of Eternal Salvation for All Who Obey Him from Hebrews 5:4-10. In explaining why this passage is so important, he said at one point:
All hell will rage at you one day with this one message—especially when you are nearing death: your salvation is not sufficient; your guilt remains; condemnation hangs over your head; and the wrath of God is not removed. At that moment you will need truth about the foundation of your eternal salvation. And one truth that will strengthen your confidence in that hour is the truth that you have no ordinary High Priest, but one who has the infinite dignity of the Son of God, and he has therefore become the source of eternal salvation.
I was really excited when I heard Piper say this, because this was exactly why my heart was excited. There is quite simply no Savior like the Lord Jesus Christ. I hope as you think about His perfections, you see how qualified He is to be THE source of our salvation.
by Phil Auxier
This coming Lord’s Day we will, Lord willing, look at Hebrews 4:14-16 and the amazing picture we are given of our sympathetic high priest, Jesus the Son of God. In reading to prepare for this, I thought Kent Hughes gave an amazing illustration that helps us see just how tuned in Jesus is to us:
His instrument, so to speak, was the same as ours. It is a fact that if you have two pianos in the same room and a note is struck on one, the same note will gently respond on the other, though not touched by another’s hand. This is called “sympathetic resonance.”
Christ’s instrument was just like ours in every way. And hear this! He took that instrument, that body, to Heaven with him. It is his priestly body. And when a chord is struck in the weakness of our human instrument, it resonates in his! There is no note of human experience that does not play on Christ’s exalted human instrument. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses” — praise His name!
I hope as you consider the picture we see of Jesus in Hebrews 4:14-16, you too would be humbled by the truth that He’s tuned in to your struggles and the result would be you praising God.
by Phil Auxier
Today’s sermon, Gospel 101, from 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 is now online. The sermon sought to unfold the basics of the Gospel highlighting: The Gospel Message: Jesus (vv.3-8), The Gospel Effect: Change (9-10), and The Gospel Call: Repent and Believe (1-2, 11). We had a great morning and I hope you enjoyed basking in the glory of God through His Risen Son.
by Phil Auxier
Yesterday’s sermon, Losing Jesus from Luke 2:41-52, is now online. In this sermon, I draw applications from Jesus’ parents losing Jesus to how we so easily lose the Gospel and drift from the core foundational realities that are to define our life. I think it was C.J. Mahaney who urged his listeners (in sermons on the Cross-Centered life from New Attitude 2001) to “tighten our grip on the Gospel — no days off allowed.” Too often we relax and subtly drift from the message of first importance. This was the heart of my sermon: for you to not drift from the Gospel but to hold fast to it.
I know we had a lot of people out visiting family, as well. I hope you had a great weekend and continue to delight in your Savior through these days.
by Phil Auxier
…from someone who researched the matter fully:
The Birth of Jesus Christ
2:1 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 And all went to be registered, each to his own town. 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. 6 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
The Shepherds and the Angels
8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. 17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
by Phil Auxier
There’s nothing new under the sun so says Ecclesiastes. Last night, my Wed PM class, which is working through Lloyd Jones excellent work on 1 John entitled Life in Christ: Studies in 1 John, came face to face with the Doctor’s opinion on this as it relates to the truth of Jesus. He said, in his explanation of 1 John 4:2-3, the following:
There is no modern heresy. All the clever people who propound their apparently new ideas about Christ are simply repeating what has already been said; there have literally been no new heresies since the first centuries. (p.415)
In that regard, then, let me recommend a series over on the Resurgence entitled Know Your Heretics. It is great know these things so that when things come up, we can “test the spirits” and have some measure of discernment against the standard of Christ.
by Phil Auxier
Here’s a great post from Life2gether on Our Christmas Traditions with lots of practical tips for families. I sent this to Meg last season and we plan on doing some of these things this season.
* Advent Calendar – This has been a fun way for our family to count down the days in anticipation of Christ’s coming. The kids take turns as we talk about the Christmas story. Be sure to choose a calendar that centers on the birth of Jesus!
* What God Wants for Christmas – This is a great interactive kid-friendly nativity – with seven gift boxes, a colorful pop-up, and an illustrated poem that we’ve used for the last couple years. It’s a fun way to talk about the Christmas story together. (available at FamilyLife.com)
* Christmas Devotion Jar – Looking for devotions to do with your kids? All you need to do is cut out red, green, and white little strips of paper and write Christmas verse(s) to read together, or craft/activity to do together, or creative ways to reach out to others. Put the slips of paper in a jar, decorate the outside, and set it on the dinner table to pick one out each night.
* Christmas Cookies – We take an evening and let our kids help us make cookies that they themselves deliver to teachers, neighborhood friends, special babysitters, people in need, etc.
* Scripture Memory – The best way we’ve found to memorize a passage of Scripture is by putting it to song. Thankfully the folks at SEEDS Family Worship have done just that. On the Seeds of Encouragement CD, the song Joy is taken right from Luke 2:8-14. Great song!
* Listen to Christ-Centered Christmas Music – As we travel, we try to have a few good CD’s that exalt Christ during this Christmas season. Our kids seem to like Savior: Celebrating the Mystery of God Become Man by Sovereign Grace Ministries the best.
* Re-enact the Christmas story – Every year we have fun acting out the story from Luke 2. We actually do it with Jaime’ sister and family and video the whole thing. It’s pretty funny!* Serving and Giving Together – Christmas is a time of giving. This year we made and delivered Thanksgiving baskets to needy people in our community and hope to deliver Christmas baskets as well. We also gather our old clothes and toys and give them to Goodwill. Our kids really enjoyed it.
What are some of your Christmas traditions? Feel free to share.
by Phil Auxier
Today was another great Lord’s Day as we gathered to celebrate at the Lord’s table together. Today’s sermon was entitled Christ: All from Colossians 3:11. The basic idea in the sermon was that as people who have put on the new man and are being renewed in knowledge in conformity to Christ, we shouldn’t be governed by earthly distinctions. All that matters is Christ and He indwells all.
This has profound implications for how we posture ourselves toward one another in the body of Christ. If earthly distinctions like religious (Jew/Greek, circumcised/uncircumcised), cultural (barbarian, Scythian), and social (slave/free) separation are done away with, what does it say for the capricious ways we exalt ourselves toward each other. Christ should be all that matter. He indwells us all and that should affect us all.
Hope you had a good Lord’s Day and enjoy small groups tonight.
