Christ’s kingdom is one of love. And even now, he’s calling us, he’s working in us, he’s changing us – so that the love of his kingdom would be in us.
He is not God of the dead, but of the living.
As long as this current world remains, the power of earthly politics never has been, and never will be the hope of God’s people. We don’t owe it to Caesar to give him that much credit.
Either you’ll receive the Son, and be made right with the true master of the vineyard. Or you’ll repel him, and you'll try to be the master.
In Psalm 31 David's experience shows us that in the midst of persistent problems we can take refuge in the Lord Jesus Christ.
It’s a consequence, when Jesus leaves people in their ignorance. In fact, it’s one of the most serious consequences that you and I could face.
Jesus is offended by superficial religious activity that doesn’t produce reverent fruit toward God.
Jesus comes humbly, as a suffering servant. He uniquely comes as a righteous representative for humanity, bringing salvation to a ruined people.
But here’s what Bartimaeus was good at. He knew how to beg for mercy. And he knew who to beg from.
Our king came down to serve his peasants. The master of heaven came to give us the most precious thing he had. He came to give us himself – to give up his dying breath, so that we could be filled with His Spirit of life.
With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.
Not only does God support his people with a lifetime warranty. But he tells us that his faithfulness is forever. His faithfulness to those who trust him – it continues beyond our earthly lifetimes.
God’s justice should drive us to be really humble and honest about our moral failings.
God is goodness itself. Because he acts completely in line with his good nature, God does good to all his creatures, but especially he does good to his people, even using suffering to bring about their good. God also must make us good. He does so by teaching us his word. And to do that, he must first open our eyes to the reality that on our own, we are not good.
We all struggle with feeling like imposters. The good news is that Jesus gives believers a new identity as God's treasured possession.
The way God is, should shape who we’re becoming.
Even the greatest kings and armies of the earth are just small specks of nothing compared to God.
When Joshua the High Priest stands before God in filthy clothes, we learn that on our own we stand condemned before God. But the good news is that Jesus has taken our filthy garments on himself and paid for our sin on the cross, and he gives us robes of perfect righteousness. And not only do we stand clothed before God when we put our faith in Christ, but we live in those clothes, as we stand called to point to Christ as testaments to his great grace in our lives.
At the cross, God addressed the sin problem we couldn’t see, with a Savior we didn’t know we needed, in order to bring us eternal life that we didn’t even know was possible.
Because God's being is entirely unlike us, it should astound us that he draws near to us, by even taking on human nature and dying for us.