Holy Week Meditation for Wednesday

“The cup from which Jesus must drink [Mk 10:38] is the cup of God’s wrath, which in [Ps 75:8; Is 51:17; Jer 25:15-16; and Ezek 23:32-34] is destined variously for ‘the wicked of the earth’ (Ps 75:8), God’s rebellious people in exile or the pagan nations who oppressed them. Why, though, should Jesus drink it? Mark 10:45 provides the answer. He came ‘to give his life as a ransom for many,’ to drink the cup destined for them in their place.”

–Steve Jeffrey, Michael Ovey, and Andrew Sach, Pierced for Our Transgressions: Rediscovering the Glory of Penal Substitution (Wheaton: Crossway, 2007), pp. 69-70.

Sermon Notes (100328 PM Service)

“For He is Good: His Goodness to Discipline”

Psalm 118

Matthew Hoskinson, Pastor of Ministry Vision

Download a pdf of the notes here.

Introduction

Review of AM sermon (Psalm 118): His Goodness to Deliver

o       Call to worship (vv. 1-4)

o       The Lord’s deliverance (vv. 5-18): in three stanzas

o       Stanza 1 (vv. 5-9): delivered from distress, emphasis on God’s presence

o       Stanza 2 (vv. 10-12): delivered from impossible circumstances, emphasis on God’s power

o       Stanza 3 (vv. 13-18): delivered from (physical) attack, emphasis on God’s assistance

o       Temple scene (vv. 19-27)

o       Entrance (vv. 19-21)

o       Stone metaphor (vv. 22-23)

o       Prayer of deliverance (vv. 24-25)

o       Benediction (v. 26-27)

o       Doxology (vv. 28-29)

Transition: This morning we looked at God’s goodness expressed in his deliverance. Tonight I’d like to explore a different aspect of his goodness. Turn please to the passage we closed with this morning, Matthew 21.

2.         His Goodness to Discipline

Transition: As we considered this morning, when this passage is viewed against the backdrop of Psalm 118, three ironies emerge.

o       Unexpected request (vv. 1-11): Hosanna!

o       Unexpected scene (vv. 12-13): Jesus entered the temple

o       Unexpected response (vv. 14-16): they were indignant

I’d like to begin tonight’s discussion with a question: what did the multitude anticipate would happen next? They were right in seeing Christ as the Messiah, but what did they expect him to do?

A.     God often answers our prayers in an unexpected way (passages from Gospels)

1.      Their Expectation: texts on the Triumphal Entry

o       Mt 21.7-11

o       the Son of David: not in Psalm 118; a reference to the Davidic covenant, i.e., God’s promise that there would be a king who would rule Israel forever

o       the prophet Jesus: perhaps a reference to De 18.15, 17-18

§         The Lord your God will raise up a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen. . . . The Lord said to me, “They are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.”

§         “Though accurate, this title was inadequate in light of everything that the Gospel had disclosed about Jesus thus far” (Blomberg, CNTUOT, 65).

o       Mark 11.7-10: Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!

o       Luke 19.35-40: the King

o       John 12.12-13: even the King of Israel

o       Summary: “Jesus’ well-wishers were still hoping for a conventional nationalistic or militaristic messiah” (Blomberg, CNTUOT, 65).

Holy Week Meditation for Monday

God “set aside” “the record of debt that stood against us . . . nailing it to the cross” (Col. 2:14 ESV). Had we been among the watchers at Calvary, we should have seen nailed to the cross Pilate’s notice of Jesus’ alleged crime. But if by faith we look back to Calvary from where we now are, what we see is the list of our own unpaid debts of obedience to God, for which Christ took the penalty in our place.

–J. I. Packer, In My Place Condemned He Stood (Wheaton: Crossway, 2007), 24.

Sermon Notes (100328 AM Service)

“For He is Good: His Goodness to Deliver”

Psalm 118

Matthew Hoskinson, Pastor of Ministry Vision

Download a pdf of the notes here.

Scripture Introduction

Please turn to Psalm 118. Palm Sunday begins what Christians have traditionally called Holy Week. I’m sure many of you are making plans both personally and in your homes to celebrate the cross and the resurrection throughout the week. Certainly I hope you are planning to be a part of the Good Friday service during which we will remember the Lord’s death. This morning I want to turn your attention to what was probably the last psalm Jesus sang before he was betrayed. As I read, I want you to pay attention to how the psalmist uses repetition to drive home certain points about God and our response to him. Let’s read Psalm 118. Read text. This is the word of our God.

Introduction

Setting of the psalm: Egyptian Hallel, last psalm sung after Passover meal, “a ‘royal song of thanksgiving for military victory’ that later was incorporated into a processional liturgy” (Watts, CNTUOT, 207).

Theme of the psalm (note inclusio [v. 1 and v. 29]): give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever. Imperative grounded in indicative. Two truths about God (his goodness and his eternally loyal love) prompt the response of thanksgiving.

Transition: We’ll focus today on God’s goodness, specifically, two ways in which we experience his goodness. This morning let’s ponder His Goodness to Deliver.

Body

1.      His Goodness to Deliver

A.     Structure of the Psalm

1.      Call to Worship (vv. 1-4)

o “We have a glimpse of how the congregation saw itself, as made up of lay Israelites, priests (the house of Aaron) and God-fearers in general—the latter perhaps a term for both the former groups, but perhaps an acknowledgement of non-Israelite converts, who were an element in Israel from the beginning” (Kidner, 441).

2.      The Lord’s Deliverance (vv. 5-18): in three stanzas

o       Stanza 1 (vv. 5-9): Delivered from Distress, emphasis on God’s presence

o       Note the interchange between God’s character and our response

• his goodness and steadfast love — I called on the LORD (5a)

• he answered me and set me free (5b)

• the Lord is for me (6a) — I will not fear (6b)

• the Lord is for me as my helper (7a) – I will triumph (7b)

• Application to wives: showing the glory of God.

o      Wisdom statement (vv. 8-9): take refuge in the LORD

• “All make this acknowledgement, and yet there is scarcely one among a hundred who is fully persuaded that God alone can afford him sufficient help” (Calvin, 6.380).

• Illustration of looking to the next election to fix what you think is wrong with this nation. How many times have you thought that this week? Democrats felt that way about 2008, Republicans feel that way about 2010. Princes will not help!

• What would this look like? “That man has attained a high rank among the faithful, who, resting satisfied in God, never ceases to entertain a lively hope, even when he finds no help upon earth” (Calvin, 6.380).

o       Stanza 2 (vv. 10-12): Delivered from Impossible Circumstances, emphasis on God’s power

o       all the nations (10): evidence that this is a Davidic king’s “triumph over the encircling hostile nations” (Watts, CNTUOT, 207).

o       His circumstance and God’s deliverance

•      His circumstance repeated: surrounded

•      Even the fourfold repetition gives the image of the psalmist looking in every direction and seeing the enemy closing in

•      His circumstance illustrated

•      bees = an old image (of the Amorites in De 1.44) depicting a swarm of countless, angry enemies

•      fire = “brings out the unnerving closeness and fury of the attack” (Kidner, 449)

•      His deliverance repeated: in the name = by the power

•      His deliverance illustrated

•      Suddenly the image shifts (they go out like a fire among thorns): “such a fire burns out as suddenly as it flares up, and the power of evil will turn out to be as short-lived as it was fierce” (Kidner, 449)

o       Application: Some of you are right here (e.g., health, jobless, afflicted with doubts, sin). Deliverance won’t come from you. He delivered Jesus; will he not deliver you?

Meditation for PM Worship

God’s servants do not have the same gifts, the same tasks, the same success, or the same degree of divine intervention. It is partly a matter of gifts and calling; it is partly a matter of where we fit into God’s unfolding redemptive purposes. Has he placed us in times of declension, for example, or of revival; of persecution, or of major advance? Let God be God; let all his servants be faithful. –D. A. Carson

Meditation for AM Worship

The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof,

the world and those who dwell therein,

for he has founded it upon the seas

and established it upon the rivers.

Lift up your heads, O gates!

And lift them up, O ancient doors,

that the King of glory may come in.

Who is this King of glory?

The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory!

–Psalm 24:1-2, 9-10

Sermon Notes (100321 PM Service)

“The Self-Controlled Believer”

Various Passages

Dan Brooks, Pastor 

Download a pdf of the notes here.

I.       Self-Control defined for the Believer 

A.     Hebrew:

1.      מַעְצָר: restraint; restraint of the spirit, i.e., the exercising of control over the desires and actions of the self^[1]

2.      Pr 25:28 A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.

B.     Greek:

1.      ἐγκρατεια:“Possessing power, strong, having mastery or possession of, continent, self-controlled.”^[2]

2.      σωφροσύνη: Sober–mindedness, moderation of desires, passions, or conduct.^[3] (See 1 Tim 2:9, 15)

II.                God looks for self-control from the heart.

Meditation for PM Worship

A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.

–Proverbs 25:28, ESV

Meditation for AM Worship

Would you have your flesh obey your spirit? Then let your spirit obey your God. You must be governed, that you may govern. –Augustine

Elder-Deacon Retreat

Our annual Elder-Deacon Retreat begins this evening. Please pray for the leadership team as they gather to worship God, pray for the congregation, and plan for the next year. In God’s kindness we have more elders and deacons than ever. That blessing comes with the responsibility of communicating well with one another so that each person knows his role and how that role relates to the others.

Pray that our eyes would be open to all that God is graciously doing for us in Christ (Eph. 1:15-23), that we would be empowered by his Spirit to fulfill his will (Eph. 3:14-19), and that the word of the Lord would run and be glorified at Heritage (2 Thess. 3:1-5).