Like a Lamb That Is Led to Slaughter …
We deserved to be slaughtered for our sin, but Jesus was slaughtered instead.
We deserved to be slaughtered for our sin, but Jesus was slaughtered instead.
It was the will of the Lord to crush him, NOT because of his own sins, but because of our sins.
The story of Easter doesn't end with a mangled shepherd lying dead among three dead wolves.
Unity in Christ and fearlessness before our opponents make the worth of the gospel clear.
The wicked flee for fear of the retribution that their wrongs deserve, but the righteous--those cleared of wrongdoing through Christ--stand boldly.
Be free from domesticated, comfort-seeking, entertainment-addicted Christianity.
How you handle your possessions shows where your heart is.
There is a number of martyrs appointed by God which must be fulfilled before the consummation comes.
Boldness is necessary if we don't want our lives to be lived in vain.
Christ has the last word. You will receive from him the crown of life. He will not let you be hurt by the second death.
Humble yourselves under the hand of God by casting your anxiety on him.
God is over you, by you, inside you, around you, underneath you. Therefore do not fear.
Even though Paul's outer man is decaying, his inner man is renewed day-by-day through his faith in the unseen weight of glory.
God will honor the work of his Son by raising your body from the dead, and you will use your body to glorify him forever and ever.
If there is no condemnation for believers, why will they have to be judged?
What will things be like after Jesus returns?
Jesus is Satan's ruler, and he uses him to save and sanctify his people.
We need each other if we are going to escape the drunkening effects of the world and live as sober aliens.
We are aliens not because men have rejected us, but because God has elected us.
Our response to being born again and being given a living hope and an imperishable inheritance in heaven should be to bless God.
Our security is not in making heaven unconditional. Our security is in God's infallible commitment to fulfill the conditions of heaven.
There is a design in your distresses as a Christian. God wills them, and he does so for your good.
God blesses us so that the nations will be blessed.
You love Jesus and trust him and rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. This is true Christianity.
We should be amazed at the greatness of our salvation and that the prophets of God and the angels of heaven long to look into it.
Avoid what numbs your mind to God and stay sober for the sake of hope.
The grace of God is the source of your hope and the holiness of God is the standard of your holiness.
God's purpose in the blood of Jesus is our justification and our sanctification. They cannot be separated.
There are ways live that hinder prayers and there is a way to live that helps prayer.
No believing prayer is in vain. Ever.
You cannot worship and glorify the majesty of God while treating his supreme creation with contempt.
The power to love comes through hoping in God.
Long for the pure milk of the Word. Do not settle for spiritual fatalism. It is not God's will for you.
We lead by example not just when we succeed, but also when we fail.
Jesus told four churches that he had something against them, but that not everything they did was in vain.
Are the sacrifices we offer spiritual sacrifices?
No human can thwart the purposes of God, neither by belief nor unbelief.
You will not be asked to live tomorrow on today's strength. The mercy to carry you through this hour is given in this hour.
If we hold fast to an unforgiving spirit, we will not be forgiven by God.
How do we get what we need to forgive those who sin against us?
If we are saved by Christ's death, what does his resurrection add?
God made us who we are to show the world who he is.
Elders must lead the church in times of blessing and of refinement.
All the commandments are full of promise, but God goes out of his way to emphasize that of honoring mother and father.
The two greatest issues in life are how the soul of man might not be destroyed and how the glory of God might not be belittled.
The aim of life—including our social and political life—is to live to God.
Radical Christianity, real Christianity, makes a difference.
A truth stripped of God is not a whole truth and will not guide the church well.
Jesus died for us to make us like him.
Paul lived by faith in future grace. And therefore he blessed all his churches over and over again with future grace.
Those married to unbelieving husbands should be like the holy women of old and hope in God. In fact, we all should.
The primary purpose of small groups is to help each other maintain the full assurance of faith.
Jesus shines bright when our hope is meek, fearless, well-defended, and zealous for good deeds.
The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Let's follow him.
The Great Commission will not be completed without suffering.
What did Peter mean when he wrote that the end of all things is at hand?
The Great King keeps his finest wine in the cellar of affliction.
Great affliction + deep poverty + abundant joy = great generosity.
When the Chief Shepherd comes, he is going to call elders to account and say, "Did you feed my sheep?"
Humility is what we need if we hope to find rest in the promises of God.
If God called you to his glory, he's going to get you to his glory.
Perishing means wrath; it means fiery torment; it means separation from God; and it lasts forever.
There is a God. He has a Son. He loves. And he loves the world.
Believe on Jesus and you shall not perish but have eternal life.
Why does eternity exist? It exists because it will take that long for us to know the inexhaustible glories of God.
The course of history has been changed again and again through the fasting of God's people.
We have tasted the wine of Christ's presence by his Spirit and cannot now be satisfied until the consummation of joy arrives.
Fasting is God's testing ground—and healing ground.
Perhaps the Christian church has not used all the spiritual resources available to us in the effort to overcome darkness.
Shall we long for the Christ less than Anna longed for him?
Jesus is not teaching on whether we should fast or not. He assumes we will and teaches us how to do it and especially how not to do it.
Be ware of substituting religious fervor for righteous living.
Let's trust the Great Physician—the Lord, our healer. Let's accept the fast that he has prescribed for us.
God is love. The implications of this for the way we live are big.
If we are to grow in our love to one another, we must first experience being loved by Christ with a deep, unshakable love.
The most worthy of living, the least worthy of dying. This is the life Jesus gave for you—that you might live.
God loved us while we were enemies. God sacrificed his Son for us while we were enemies.
God might have rescued us, sacrificed for us, forgiven us, and not gone any further. But instead he took us into his family.
Of all the great things that Easter means, it also means this: it is a mighty "I meant it!" behind Jesus' death.
How does Christ's love for us turn into our love for others?
All of Scripture hangs on two great purposes: that God be loved with all our heart, and that we love each other as we love ourselves.
Loving God sustains us through all the joy and pain and perplexity and uncertainty of what loving our neighbor should be.
Becoming a child of God and being transformed on the inside precedes and enables love, not vice versa.
Jesus is calling us not just to do good things for our enemy; he is also calling us to WANT their best.
God intends for us not merely to do to others as we would have them do to us, but he wants us to feel toward other believers a certain way.
Without seeing Christ, the burden to show him to others becomes slave labor.
Is there something in your life that is hindering your fruitfulness in Christ—something that you need to die to?
We simply cannot love the way Paul describes until we die.
The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost. He sought them, he received them, he ate with them, and he saved them.
Jesus is the seeking heart of God going out after sinners and winning our repentance.
When sinners turn from their sin and accept Jesus' fellowship as the joy of their lives, they have come home to God. And God is glad.
It dishonors God to treat him as a master in need of slave labor. What honors God is not slave labor, but childlike faith in his all-sufficiency.
To give is not to buy. And that weekly crisis is utterly important to maintain.
The New Testament gives no hint that worship services and classes are the sum total of what church was supposed to be.
We exist to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples.
Jesus Christ has released the merciful power of God by his sin-bearing death; and the Holy Spirit is applying it to our church.
Faith works through love. It becomes active and visible in the form of love that people can see.