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“And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” –Genesis 1:31
 Creation is commended for its goodness, but it didn’t do one thing to make itself good. In other words God commends himself on his perfect work in creating the world and being faithful to complete it until he says it was “very good.” That’s how it is with the lives of his people: we’ll hear: “Well done, good and faithful servant,” on the last day not because we were the cause of doing such good and faithful things, but because He who began a good work in us was faithful to complete it. That’s the gospel!
Come here it preached and enacted in the Supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
I Sing the Almighty Power of God
Lift High the Cross
For the Beauty of the Earth
Sunday school for children (on Acts and the Early Church) and adults (on Reformed eschatology) is up and running! Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.” –Galatians 1:8
If you think about the sins in the church at Corinth, it sounds pretty bad. Even naming them today can make people blush a little. Yet, the Apostle Paul addresses them as “those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints…” And, while he instructs them in the letters concerning these sins, his preaching with them was “nothing but Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). You’d think he had something more important to preach among them in their sad condition, but Paul knew the gospel was their only remedy.
On the other hand, if you take the churches at Galatia, their problems were different. Yes, the gospel was the only remedy for them too, but Paul addresses them as having “deserted him [Christ]” and turning to “another gospel.” He uses very harsh words, not because of their lack of piety and attention to law, but because of their abandonment of the gospel. He even says that if an angel or even an apostle comes to them with another gospel (that is, other than Christ and him crucified), don’t believe them!
So, you have have the church of poor piety and the church of distorted (law-added) gospel. Which one is more dangerous in the Apostle’s estimation? Which one does he believe is closer to being without hope?
Please join us to here the preaching of Christ-and-him-crucified (gospel) rather than man-and-him-improved (law) this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
This is My Father’s World
There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy
And Can It Be That I Should Gain
This is also the Sunday for our Community Lunch. Please feel free to use the Contact Page to request more information.
Sunday school for children (on Acts and the Early Church) and adults (on Reformed eschatology) is up and running! Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” –John 6:56
There’s a terrible saying that is very common to hear today. It goes like this: “You don’t have to go to church to be a Christian.” It has a very spiritual air to it, almost like going to church is somehow a danger to your faith. But Jesus speaks of abiding in him as feeding on his flesh and drinking his blood. Not a little bit of ink has been put to paper to try to make this verse (and the whole passage) not say what it is obviously saying.
But, the implication is the really important part: while it may be true that you don’t have to go to church to be a Christian, you do ordinarily have to go to church to abide in Christ. Going to worship with the people of the kingdom to sing the songs of the kingdom to the King, to hear the King speak to his people in preaching, and to pray kingdom prayers and eat together from the King’s table is going to help you abide in the King immeasurably more than a private devotion at home. The church at worship is where the weak are made strong, the sinful are reminded of their justification, and the gospel erupts with power. Who’d want to miss that?
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Lead On, O King Eternal
Like a River Glorious
Amazing Grace
Sunday school for children (on Acts and the Early Church) and adults (on Reformed eschatology) is up and running! Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. –John 15:7-8
“By this” my Father is glorified. What is “this”? The answer is glorious: by your asking him for things and his giving them to you! “By this” points back to what he has just said. God gets the glory as the one who is rich and good enough to answer your prayer.
Of course this can sound a little name-it-and-claim-it, but the condition is clear from the start: his words must abide in us. When we are word-saturated the desires of our heart cease to be merely desires for our domain, but desires for his kingdom. Then we pray accordingly and he answers and is glorified in it. Too often we forget that our prayers are his idea and his goal and for his glory. We did not choose him, but he chose us and appointed us that we should go and bear fruit (John 15:16). That’s the gospel!
Come hear it preached and enacted in the Supper on this second Sunday after Pentecost Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Praise Ye the Lord the Almighty
Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah, O My Soul (Psalm 146)
What a Friend We Have in Jesus
Sunday school for children (on Acts and the Early Church) and adults (on Reformed eschatology) is up and running! Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.” –John 15:1-4
So many times this passage is preached basically to say, “You’d better bear some fruit or you’ll be cut off!” That’s not the gospel! First of all the original audience is not us. It was the true (not Judas) disciples. They are already infallibly his. Second, he says “every branch in me,” thus we know they are already “in him”. Next he says that they are already clean by the word. And finally he says they cannot bear fruit by themselves.
Too often we are worried that we in our strength are not bearing enough fruit. Of course we aren’t! We can’t do it ourselves. Our bearing good fruit is the result of abiding in Jesus. It is not the cause of abiding in Jesus. He gets all the glory, even for our fruit. That’s the gospel!
Come hear it preached and enacted in the Supper this Sunday as we celebrate Trinity Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Come, Thou Almighty King
Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty!
May the Mind of Christ My Savior
Sunday school for children (on Acts and the Early Church) and adults (on Reformed eschatology) is up and running! Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” –John 14:1-4
This is a famous passage and one of great comfort. What we often miss because of the chapter division in John is that the context is the upper room. Jesus asks Peter there in the room, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times.” What a heart-troubling thing to hear! And the next line out of Jesus’ mouth, probably without much pause is, “Let not your hearts be troubled.” It seems that the prerequisite of not having a troubled heart is having one. Then Jesus comes along and tells you who he is and what he is doing for you, and that is the cause of a peaceful heart. You’re not the cause of your peaceful heart. You can’t pacify your heart. Jesus is the cause of your peaceful heart because of who he is and what he has done. That’s the gospel!
Come hear it preached and enacted in the Supper this Sunday as we celebrate the Day of Pentecost.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder
Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove
Spirit of the Living God
Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart!
This Sunday is our community lunch for Pentecost. Use the contact page for more information.
Sunday school for children (on Acts and the Early Church) and adults (on Reformed eschatology) is up and running! Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” –John 11:21-26
Like most of us, Martha spends her time lamenting the past and taking an unexcited hope that it will all work out, but Jesus brings it to her immediate present. Jesus doesn’t says, “I will be the resurrection and life if you will just…” or “I will give you a resurrection and life if you will just…” But, “I am the resurrection and life. Whoever believes in me, though he die yet shall he live.”
There are so many great things about this passage, but probably one of the very best is that Jesus doesn’t invite Martha to try harder to measure up to earn resurrection and life. Whether or not she deserves it doesn’t even enter into the picture. On the contrary Jesus already is the resurrection and life and simple faith is all that is required. That’s the gospel!
Come hear it preached and enacted in the Supper this Sunday as we celebrate the event of Christ’s ascension.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name!
Crown Him with Many Crowns
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
Sunday school for children (on Acts and the Early Church) and adults (on Reformed eschatology) is up and running! Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 John 10:11, Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
It’s easy to imagine that a shepherd might put himself in harm’s way for his sheep or at least risk something, but lay down his life for the sheep? Most of us would find that ridiculous. But it’s exactly what Jesus did. In fact in verse 17 of the same passage Jesus says, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.” Why does the Father love him? Because he laid down his life for the sheep.
Among other things, this tells us that his work wasn’t just a good example of sacrifice or love. It truly secured the eternal life of his sheep. These are not sheep who call out to the Shepherd so the Shepherd can hear their voices either. These sheep hear their Shepherd’s voice who calls them by name. He knows who are his. That’s the gospel!
Come hear it preached and enacted in the Supper this Sunday as we continue reveling in his resurrection.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Let All Things Now Living
Good Christians All, Rejoice and Sing!
Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us
Our next Community Lunch is this Sunday following the service. Click here if you’d like to find out more.
Sunday school for children (on Acts and the Early Church) and adults (on Reformed eschatology) is up and running! Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 John 10:9, 10, Jesus says, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
He not only protects the door of things going in and out of the life of his sheep, but he is the door of their coming and going. And the goal is abundant life, and he guarantees it for the sheep. He’s not like the “shepherds” in his original audience who, even perhaps well-meaning, ended up scattering the sheep for the institution’s sake and personal reputation. No, with him, he is ensuring rest, protection, and green pastures for his sheep. That’s the gospel.
Come hear it preached and enacted in the Supper this Sunday as we continue reveling in his resurrection.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken
Christ the Lord is Risen Today!
Take My Life and Let It Be
Sunday school for children (on Acts and the Early Church) and adults (on Reformed eschatology) is up and running! Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 Jesus said to some Jews who challenged his claims and were confident in themselves, “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” –John 8:56
Then we look over at Hebrews 11:8-10, “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.”
There’s more about Abraham looking forward with faith too, but Jesus makes it clear that Abraham was really looking for him and lived that way. Not only did Abraham see Jesus, but it constituted his gladness.
Perhaps this is why just a few verses later in Hebrews 11:16 we are told, “Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.” Wow! God, ashamed? That’s not everyday language! But he isn’t. He isn’t ashamed to be called the God of all those who forsake their merits and personal confidences and ability in this world, and abide instead in the word of Christ. That’s the gospel.
Come hear it preached and enacted in the Supper this Sunday as we continue reveling in his resurrection.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
How Firm a Foundation
Christ is Alive!
Fairest Lord Jesus
Our third community lunch is this Sunday following the worship service. For more information, please use the contact us page.
Sunday school for children and adults (on Reformed eschatology) is up and running! Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
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Creation is commended for its goodness, but it didn’t do one thing to make itself good. In other words God commends himself on his perfect work in creating the world and being faithful to complete it until he says it was “very good.” That’s how it is with the lives of his people: we’ll hear: “Well done, good and faithful servant,” on the last day not because we were the cause of doing such good and faithful things, but because He who began a good work in us was faithful to complete it. That’s the gospel!
