Post Category: Sermon Notes

Six months ago, our church began our first church-wide Bible reading plan. It is an extended verson of Robert Murray M'Cheyne's classic Bible reading plan, which takes us through the Old Testament once, and the New Testament and Psalms twice. This year we'll read Genesis-2 Chronicles, Psalms, and the New Testament. Next year we'll read Ezra-Malachi, Psalms, and the New ...

Q. What is the chief end of man?A. To glorify God and know him forever. Westminster Shorter Catechism, Question 1 There is nothing more important than knowing why you exist. And nothing provides a better answer than this: You were created to glorify God. Speaking to the people he was redeeming from the nations, God says in Isaiah 43:67, "I will say to the north, Give u...

The book of Ruth is a brief story describing a pleasant aspect of rural life. To romantics, Ruth could become the obsessive kind of idol. It has all the ingredients of a sappy soap opera: drama, tragedy, triumph, and romance (but, as we will see, the book is so much more). To scholars, Ruth is no less a treasure. "The book of Ruth is a Hebrew short story, told with consumm...

Love your neighbor. This command is echoed through Scripture (Lev 19:18; Matt 22:37-40). What does it mean to love your neighbor? Who is your neighbor? Jesus answers this question with the parable of the Good Samaritan. Neighbor love requires crossing of societal boundaries and caring for the vulnerable. Though it might prove costly or difficult, loving our neighbors is...

Who is Melchizedek? And why is Jesus called a high priest like Melchizedek? And what does Melcan we abbreviate his strange name?have to do with the church and the world today? On Sunday, I tried to answer those questions with an animated tour of the Bible. Incorporating the artistic gifts of Jeff Dionise, our elder for outreach, I preached a three part message that starte...

Expositional Preaching is 'Empowered Preaching' This week seven members from OBC attended a Charles Simeon Trust workshop at Del Ray Baptist Church in Alexandria, VA. As a preacher unapologetically-committed to expositional preaching, I was deeply encouraged to join many other 'expositors. In the three-day seminar, we walked through preaching from 1 Samuel and 'worked ou...

"Be mature as your Heavenly Father is perfectly mature." It doesn't have the same ring as "Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect," but it may be closer to the reality of what Jesus is saying in Matthew 5:48. On Sunday we finished the last of six expositions of the law that Jesus gives in Matthew 5:4348. And as Jesus addresses the topic of love and hate, we learn h...

The Extra Mile In a world of retaliation and self-protection, what does it look like to follow Jesus when one's security is threatened? How ought Jesus' disciples to turn the other cheek, and go the extra mile? Listen to this last Sunday's sermon, and go deeper with the discussion questions below: Matthew 5:38-42 38You have heard that it was said, "An eye for an ey...

What does it mean to live as people of truth in a culture that's so often less than truthful? As we continue in our series on the Sermon on the Mount, this last Sunday we looked at Matthew 5:33-37, where Jesus teaches about oaths, vows, yeses and nos. As disciples of Jesus, we must understand what it means for us that every word we say is captive to God's truth. Listen ...

Sexual sin. It is a destructive issue we face more often than we like to admit. Whether it is lust, pornography, adultery, same-sex attraction, or any number of other desires that deviate from God's good design, we are inclined to bury these parts of our lives in the dark. Yet, in Sermon on the Mount, Jesus wisely and lovingly shines a light on our hearts. Getting to the ...

This Sunday we looked at Matthew 5:2126, where we saw the first of six lessons Jesus gives us about the law of Moses applied to his new covenant disciples. Interpreting the sixth commandment, "Do not murder" (Exod 20:13; Deut 5:17), Jesus stressed the importance of making peace with those whom we have sinned against. In Sunday's sermon, we looked briefly at how Jesus appl...

What is the purpose of the Law? How are we supposed to apply Moses' commands to our lives? How does Jesus read the Old Testament? Is there any good news for Christians in the Law of Moses? These questions and more have been raised by Christians for centuries.And one of the most challenging passages on the relationship of the Old Testament to the New is Matthew 5:1720. Thi...

This little light of mine, I'm goin' let it shine, let it shine, let it shine. If you have been around church for any length of time, you've probably heard this children's song. It takes its wording from this week's passage, Matthew 5:1316, where Jesus tells his disciples that they are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. In truth, this is an important passa...

This Sunday we started walking through the Sermon on the Mount. Considering the question of true happiness, we first looked athowwe should read Jesus' words. And then we looked at the nine statements of blessing/happiness known as the Beatitudes. After stating that the Beatitudes are not entrance requirements for the kingdom, but words of wisdom given to Christ's disciple...

This Sunday we started a new series on the Sermon on the Mount. In this introductory message, I sought to outline the whole message and to highlight the center section, where Jesus gives us the Lord's Prayer. You can listen to the sermon online. But be sure to listen with this visual aid. Discussion questions and additional resources can be found below. Discussion Ques...

The book of Haggai centers on God's great promise to restore the temple during the days of Judah's return from exile (520 BC). In this little book, there are four messages from the Lord. The second, third, and fourth messages in Haggai are all found in chapter 2, and respectively they speak about the temple (2:19), the priesthood (2:1019), and the kingdom (2:2023). These w...

This Sunday we began a two-week series on the book of Haggai. If you are not familiar with this little book, it is the tenth book in the Minor Prophets, and its four-fold message serves as a turning point in the Twelve, as the Book of the Twelve shifts from looking at God's judgment (NahumZephaniah) to the restoration of God's people (HaggaiMalachi). In this week's sermon...

This past Sunday we finished our series in Nahum, our second book in "The Book of the Twelve." As we considered Nahum 3, we looked at comfort and vengeance. Those are not two words we normally associate with one another. In fact, our experience with vengeance of our own or another person's is the opposite of comfort. It is frightening, perhaps chaotic, out of control, and ...

What did Jesus mean when he said, "I have not come to bring peace, but a sword" (Matthew 10:34)? On Sunday, we considered that question from the book of Nahum. The connection between Matthew and Nahum is found in the fact that Nahum presents the sword of the Lord in all of its flame and fury, while Jesus comes to first extinguish the Lord's wrath in his own flesh. Then, a...

This week we began our second of three series out of the Minor Prophets, better known as the Book of the Twelve. After considering God's grace in the book of Jonah, we began to consider the complementary aspect of his holy justice from the book of Nahum. In two more weeks, we'll finish our study of the Minor Prophets by looking at Haggai. As for Nahum, it serves as Part...

While the world went looking for Easter eggs and basketball games this weekend, the church of Jesus Christ remembered the resurrection of our Lord. More valuable than anything an egg can offer, and more reliable than any team we cheer, the resurrected Christ offers us forgiveness of sins and eternal life for all who turn from sin to trust him. This is what we celebrated o...

Jonah is an amazing book, but one that requires repeated readings, a willingness to learn, and a commitment to the God who created the world, controls the nations, and directs all history to the true prophet, priest, and kingJesus Christ. On Sunday we started a six week journey through the story of Jonah. Let me encourage you to read the book in one sittingit's only 48 ve...

Since September our church has studied the book of Ephesians. This week, we finished the sermon series with a summary and reflection on Paul's letter. In particular, I argued that the gospel creates communities of faith that learn how to walk together in love. It's this love that displays the wisdom of God to the world and that builds up the individual Christian. To turn ...

Paul is unashamedly Christ-centered. And it seems that in whatever subject he is discussing, he brings it back to the Lord who saved him and commissioned him to preach his gospel. On this note, we see in Ephesians 6:59 how Paul teaches us to bring Christ to work. In five verses written to slaves and masters, he gives us at least five motivations for the workplace. While w...

Last November in our study of Ephesians, after considering how Paul established our identity and position in Christ Jesus, we turned to a consideration of "walking worthy of our calling." We looked at walking worthy in unity and maturity, walking in God's love, walking in the light of Christ, and walking wisely by the Spirit of wisdom. Walking by the Spirit of wisdom mark...

In Ephesians Paul calls the church to walk in wisdom by the power of the Spirit. This includes children. And in this week's sermon, we saw how children in the Lord (believing children) are motivated to obey and honor their parents. Indeed, in only three verses (Ephesians 6:13) there are a lot of things to consider, especially with the way Paul uses Exodus 20:12 to motivat...

Few things in life are more delightful and more difficult than marriage. And this week, as our church, returned to the book of Ephesians we picked up Paul's Christ-centered teaching on marriage. You can find the sermon online. Below there are discussion questions with additional resources that include some preliminary thoughts on marriage that fed into this weeks sermon. ...

In recent years, it's been hard to miss our country's rise in racial tensions. Or maybe we are just seeing what's been there under the surface all along. Our country seems overwhelmed by all kinds of racialized sentiments.And in the church, Christ's multi-ethnic bride continues to bear the scars of deep-seated racial division and hurt that goes back decades and centuries. ...

Review and discussion questions for Sunday's sermon on Psalm 119:25-32....

Review and discussion questions for Sunday's sermon on Psalm 119:17-24....

Robert Murray McCheyne said famously and wisely: "For every look at yourself, take ten looks at Jesus." On this last day of 2017, we spent our Sunday considering the person and work of Christ from Isaiah 61:13. This sermon wraps up a three-part series on Isaiah 5961 and encourages us to look to Christ as we enter the new year. Indeed, whether we are coming off a great 2...

At Christmas we celebrate God's light come into the world. And on Christmas Eve this year we looked at how Isaiah 60 both predicts and expands our understanding of God's glorious light.In the fullness of time, we see how the Magi in Matthew 2 fulfill Isaiah's promise of the nations coming to worship the Lord. This teaches us that coming to Zion is not simply a future reali...

Perhaps Isaiah 59 is not the first passage that comes to mind when you think of Christmas. A month ago, it wasn't on my radar as a "Christmas passage," either. However, after doing some preliminary study on the armor of God in Ephesians 6, which quotes Isaiah 59:17, I soon realized how much Isaiah 59 (with the rest of Isaiah 5666) prepares the way for Christ. Today, we be...

What is a Spirit-filled church? What does it mean to walk in the Spirit? And if you feel empty of the Spirit, what sort of 'magic' does it take to feel full again? On Sunday, I sought to answer that question from Ephesians 5:1521, as we considered the last of Paul's instructions towalk worthy.In some ways this is the pinnacle of his instructions, going back to Ephesians 4...

Walking seems like such a simple thing until we break a toe or all the lights go out. Thankfully, the command to walk worthy of our calling is not something we must figure out on our own or something we must do in our own strength. Rather, in Christ the Christian has been given all they need to walk in love and light. Just as important, we have been given a community wit...

After laying out the riches of God's grace and glory in Ephesians 13, Paul turns to the way in which Christians are to walk in their new life. Five times in Ephesians 45 he uses the word "walk: in light of Christ's work of salvation, Paul calls us to walk worthy of our calling (4:1), to walk unlike Gentiles (4:17), to walk in love (5:1), to walk in light (5:8), and to walk...

This last Sunday Ben Purves preached on Ephesians 4:17-32. Below you will find the Scripture text, sermon outline, and discussion questions for your family/or Community Group.You can listen to the sermon mp3 here. Ephesians 4:17-3217 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are dark...

In recent years, few passages have captured my imagination more than Ephesians 3:1421. That is to say, few texts of Scripture have struck me with such a vision for the need for prayer in the church and prayer for the church, and hence my own need to pray more for the church. In Ephesians 13:13, Paul outlines a glorious vision of the church created by Christ's cross and un...

As we gathered at church this Reformation Sunday, we did so with the fruits of the Reformation still impacting our lives. From the Bibles in our laps (or on our phones) to the message justification by faith alone in Christ alone, we who know the true gospel of grace are, in so many ways indebted to the men and women of the Reformation. Through their suffering, couple with ...

Most of the time when we read the Bible we seek to make direct application to ourselves. Because the Bible is for our instruction and sanctification, this is absolutely right. Sometimes in Scripture, however, we find that the first application isnotto ourselves. Ephesians 3:113 is one of those instances, and yet it is also a passage bubbling over with grace for the believe...

The church is more than just a collection of individual Christians or a consumer-oriented store for the religious. It is a people created by the cross of Christ, joined together in Christ to display his power and grace to the world. For this reason, the church is called a temple. As we learned last week, temples display the power of the God who dwells therein. And in the c...

Instead of a Sermon Discussion guide this week, I've written up something of a Post-Script to the Psalms, a few reflections on reading and preaching the Psalms as one unified book. For the PDFs of each book, seeBook 1,Book 2,Book 3,Book 4,Book 5. Hopefully, in the next few days I can publish the bibliography of resources (books, chapters, articles) that I found useful in r...

What happens when your dreams are pulverized? To whom do you turn? Where do you run? In the Psalms, Book 3 (Psalms 7389) concludes with the crushing news that the crown of David had been buried in the dust of the earth. In short, because of Israel's sin, and the sin of David's sons in particular, God permitted the nations of Egypt and Babylon to plunder and then exile the...

From Exaltation to Exile: The Tragic Fall of David's House In his chapter on the Psalms, Paul House writes of Book 3, Psalms 7389: Subtle shifts in tone, superscriptions and content leading up to historical summaries in Psalms 78 and 89 indicate that part three [Psalms 7389] reflects Israel's decline into sin and exile. This national demise occurs in about 930587 B.C. an...

This last Sunday we looked at Psalm 73. This psalm displays Asaph's struggle as he observes the wicked prospering while the righteous suffer. Asaph looks horizontally and sees the prosperity of the wicked and how they mock God. He then shifts his focus heavenward and finds correction for his heart. It is then that he can say, "Whom have I in heaven but you?" As you consid...

This last Sunday we considered three Psalms (Psalms 22-24) as a single unit telling one unified story. You could even label this trilogy "The Cross, the Crook, and the Crown." While each is a complete poem in and of itself, we have a more complete picture when we view them together . They are also a trilogy from the standpoint of how we understand the narrator in each of ...

How do you know who you are? For all of us stories, especially family stories, define who we are. While the world tells us we can define ourselves however we want, the truth is we need an overarching story to set the context for our lives. Apart from Christ, we seek to write a story with our lives that satisfies our cravings and bolsters our self-confidence. When we come...

The Psalters is comprised of 150 Psalms, divided into five books. Is this incidental? Or should we seek to discern the message of the Psalms by examining the five books? Last week, we started our journey through the Psalms, as we considered the way Psalms 12 introduce the whole book. This week, we looked at the first 41 Psalms. In particular we traced what I called three ...

Wisdom, Kingship, and Salvation: Looking at the Psalter through Psalms 1 and 2(Sermon Audio) Few books have had a more personal or profound impact on the worship of the church than the Psalms. And for the next two months our church is going to meditate on their message. But what is their message? And how do we find it? Is it possible to read the Psalms as one unified book...

The Bible begins with a marriage, and it ends with a marriage. In fact, the goal of all humanity is a spiritual union between Christ and his bride the Church. In between, we must decide if we will abide by God's design for marriage or design our own. To be completely honest, every single one of us has sinned and fallen short of God's ideal for sex and marriage. Born outsi...

When Paul finishes his doctrinal defense of the resurrection, he says, "Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain" (15:58). Clearly, in his mind the resurrection is not an esoteric point of doctrine; rather, it fuels ministry andmissions. Indeed, in 1 Corinthians 16 ...

On the cross Jesus exclaimed this glorious truth: Tetelestai! It is Finished! Our eternal security is settled by this truth. And this week we celebrate Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday because Jesus Christ finished his gracious work of redemption on on the cross. Strangely, we are less certain about the finished work of the Holy Spirit. Some might even question whethe...

Proverbs says a soft answer turns away wrath. James 3 says that the tongue is a fire which can set a whole forest ablaze. 1 Corinthians 14 says to not forbid speaking in tongues, yet it also gives a long list of qualifications. With all these words about the tongue and tongues, how should we proceed? Our words have incredible power for building up or tearing down.This is ...

Yesterday, Ben Purves, pastor for student ministries at our church, preached a tremendous message on 1 Corinthians 13. Let me encourage you to listen to his message, "The Necessity and Definition of Love," as he unpacks Paul's explanation of love in the context of spiritual gifts. Even more, Ben also showed us how Christ fulfilled the qualities of love and how we can look ...

The Church's One Foundation: Spiritual Gifts and the Universal Church (Sermon Audio) This week's sermon looked more closely at the spiritual gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12:810. I argued that the sign gifts were given to the apostles and prophets to "lay the foundation" of the universal church, which is described as Christ's body in 1 Corinthians 12:13. Just as Paul des...

Holy Spirit Power: The Gift, the Giver, the Goal, and the Gifts (sermon audio) Despite their obvious flaws, Paul loved the church at Corinth. And in his section on spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 1214, he aims to help his spiritual children come to a true understanding of the Holy Spirit and the purpose of the spiritual gifts. Important for us standing twenty centuries ...

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and...

Abortion is a bloody evil that has taken the lives of almost sixty million children since 1973. Rightly, Christians (and non-Christians like Secular Pro-Life) have stood up against this modern-day holocaust. Through prayer vigils, sermons, information campaigns, legislation, and pro-life marches, much ground has been gained ground in the fight against abortion. But much gr...

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 15:78 Yesterday I preached a message on disciple-making that, for me, is the culmination of about 15 years of thinking on discipleship and Christian hedonism. In college God used...

Yesterday, Ben Purves, our Pastor for Student Ministries at Occoquan Bible Church, continued our series on spiritual disciplines. What follows are some discussion questions and resources to go deeper in Psalm 119....

As we begin 2017, our church has taken January to focus on a handful of spiritual disciplinespersonal and public. The first in our series is prayer. But instead of just commending its importance and techniques to help, I took the route of seeing how God forms desire for prayer in our hearts. By drawing near to God, by remembering the promises of his Word, and by desiring ...

Few passages of Scripture are heavier than Matthew 2:1618, the historical account of Herod's slaughter of the innocent children in Bethlehem. But few passages are also able to reach the depths of human loss and comfort the grieving in their deepest pain. When read in conjunction with Jeremiah 31:15, which Matthew quotes in verse 18, we find in Matthew's Gospel a promise o...

Christmas is a time of holiday cheer, or at least that's the way it's usually sold. But biblically, we find something much different, something much more like what happened in Egypt yesterday morning. In the infancy narratives of Matthew, Jesus becomes a refugee when Herod seeks to take his life. Matthew tells this brief account in Matthew 2:1315 and explains that this was...

In Matthew 2:112 we find the incredible story of the Magi. Sunday, Ron Comoglio, one of OBC's elders preached a message on that passage. What follows are discussion questions related to that sermon and further resources for studying the incredible account of the Bethlehem Star which led the Magi to meet the Christ-child and offer him worship. Matthew 12:112 Now after Jes...

This week we started a new sermon series through Matthew 1-2. As we celebrate the birth of our Lord, we look to the way Matthew explained his birth as the "fulfillment" of God's promises of old. For instance, as Matthew writes, Jesus is Son of Abraham and the Son of David (Matthew 1:1), the "Immanuel" promised in Isaiah 7:14 (Matthew 1:23), the royal son born in Bethlehem,...

"God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him," is John Piper's famous dictum fusing God's passion to be worshiped and man's passion to be happy. Yet, spoken into our hyper-individualistic culture, this glorious truth might lead some to think glorifying God is an individual's task. In truth, God is glorified as we use our freedom to serve others. We canno...

Last week we saw the covenantal nature of communion and how the Lord's Table not only creates a thick relationship with Christ but also with one another. This week's sermon furthered that discussion looking at ways we must resist the pulls of demonic-inspired idols. In an applicational message on 1 Corinthians 10:14-22, I argued Communion creates culture-for good or ba...