The Law of the Firstborn: from failure to victory

Last week I posted an article based on the first sermon in my Christmas series this year. I had plans to write up each message in full, but life intrudes. Today I’d like to summarize the series to give a coda to the opening overture of last week. The first message dealt with failure and…

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The Faithful Heart of Mary

The Evangelist Luke tells us that after the visit of the shepherds to the infant Jesus and their report of the angelic messengers, Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. We may take the comment as a historian’s citation of his source. It is possible that the Evangelist met Mary and…

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The Christmas Story

Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming in, he said to her, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with…

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Christmas and the Reliability of God’s Words

Sometimes a light surprises the Christian while he reads, even when it’s a passage he has seen many times before. As I was rereading (for the fifth or sixth time this Christmas season) Luke’s nativity narrative, I was surprised by a repeated emphasis on the utter certainty of God’s words. Over the years, I’ve given…

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The Law of the Firstborn: Failure

For almost thirty years, I’ve devoted the month of December to a special series of Christmas messages of (usually) four messages. Occasionally I’ve gotten an early start, beginning in November and almost always ending the Sunday just before New Years Day. Once we were cheated out of two December Sundays by unusual snowfalls. (In Victoria,…

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The Virgin Birth of Christ in Matthew 1

The first chapter of Matthew is designed to tell us the origin of the person whom we call Savior and Lord. Matthew begins with the genealogy of Jesus of Nazareth. Note carefully the wording of verse 16. It relates that “Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus.” Prior to this…

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Recommended Christmas Devotional Books

One of the main things that helps me keep a good perspective through December is reading a Christmas or Advent devotional book. Some years I’ve followed reading plans for Scripture that specifically deal with the coming of Christ, including the prophecies of His birth. I don’t have one on hand, but I’m sure there are…

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The Fourth Sunday of Christmas: Christ Our Peace

Luke 2:8-14 Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be…

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Why December 25?

No doubt you’ve heard the widely repeated story that the Christian celebration of Christmas is a form of syncretism, where the church decided to accommodate the celebration of Christ’s birth to the pre-existing pagan holidays. Commonly cited precedents are either the feast of Saturnalia or the celebration of Sol Invictus. The theory goes that by…

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Popular Misconceptions about the Birth of Jesus

At the perfect time in history, God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to be born of a virgin to save us from our sins (Gal. 4:4). But not everything we say about this crucial moment in history is true. Here are six such fast facts (or “un-facts”) about the birth of Christ. Did Mary ride…

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