The Creation of Man and Woman, Genesis 2:4-25

Last time we looked primarily at the first six days of creation. Now beginning in chapter 2 and vs 4 we see a recapitulation of creation, which I believe is an expanded account of what happened in the six days of creation but also includes what happens in the next week or weeks to come. Moses begins this section by saying in vs 4 “This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made earth and heaven.” A more literal translation might read, “these are the generations of

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Creation, Genesis 1-2:3

The first four words in the Bible really set the basis for our theology. “In the beginning, God…” God does not offer evidence for His existence. He does not tell us how or when He came into being. And as the rest of the first chapter of Genesis unfolds, we aren’t really given a lot of detail or scientific evidence about how the earth or how humans came into being either. Though a lot of things presented in the Bible can be corroborated by science, or by verified history, God doesn’t seem to be concerned about trying to prove that

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In the beginning, Genesis 1:1-3

Today, as we are on the cusp of beginning a new year, we are going to begin a new series on the book of Genesis. Genesis is a book of beginnings. The word Genesis literally means origins. It is a record of the beginning of time, the beginning of the earth, the beginning of the animal kingdom, the beginning of man, the origin of marriage, the origin of sin. There are many other firsts that we will see as we study through this book. But I call this a series in Genesis, because it will not be a complete exegesis

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What Child is this? Luke 2:1-20

One of my favorite Christmas carols is “What Child is this?” And I think that this carol asks the quintessential question of all mankind, what is this Child that was born of Mary. It’s a question that hopefully you have answered in your heart. The answer to this question is declared by the angel, “for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.“ But to fully appreciate the anticipation of what this Child was that was to be born, you must be familiar with the prophesies that were made

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The birth of Christ prophesied, Isaiah 7:14, 9:6

Well, since we finished the gospel of Mark, I thought it was appropriate to do a couple of messages for the next two Sundays on the subject of Christ’s birth before we get into our next series on Genesis. And since we are studying Isaiah on Wednesday nights, I thought it would be appropriate to base our first message on Isaiah’s prophecies concerning the birth of Jesus Christ. What I want to do though is just focus on two passages of scripture in Isaiah which speak of the birth of Christ. There are other Messianic prophecies in Isaiah, but I

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The confirmation of the gospel, Mark 16:9-20

Today we will finish preaching through the book of Mark. Mark began this book by calling it a gospel, in ch.1 vs 1.  He now concludes it, in chapter 16, with the Lord Jesus sending His disciples out to preach this very gospel in vs 15.  And we stand before you today preaching this same gospel, as evidence of the power of the gospel, and the eternal purpose of the gospel.  The gospel simply means the good news of Jesus Christ.  The good news is that Jesus is God, revealed in the flesh, who came to bear our sins, to

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The resurrection of Christ, Mark 16:1-8

Today we are looking at the last chapter of Mark, particularly the section of scripture in which he records the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  The chapter begins early Sunday morning.  We ended our message last Sunday speaking of the burial that happened immediately after the crucifixion which was on Friday afternoon.  You will remember that Joseph of Arimethea and Nicodemus were in a hurry to bury Jesus’s body because the Sabbath was quickly approaching.  The Sabbath was counted by the Jews from sundown on Friday, to sundown on Saturday.  We count our days from midnight to midnight. 

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The burial of Jesus Christ, Mark 15:40-47

Death is something that is inevitable, it comes to everyone sooner or later.  And yet I suppose, for something that is so universally common, considering it on a personal level is studiously  avoided.  At the risk of sounding overly morbid, the reality is that all of us are dying.  When we are young, death seemed like such a distant, otherworldly concept, that it scarcely concerned us.  We live like we will live forever.  But as we get older, as we see more and more of death, and as we see considerably more of the sands of time in the bottom

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The King Crucified, Mark 15:21-39

I believe that the greatest pivotal event in the history of the world is the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.  The Old Testament saints looked forward to it, and the New Testament church looks back to it.  But not only is it central to Christians, the cross of Christ is the centerpiece of the history of the entire world.  Even our calendar reflects the fact of Jesus’s life and death.  I know, AD does not mean “after death.” It means “anno domini”, which means “in the year of our Lord.”  However, even though some historians now use BCE or CE, meaning

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The King on trial, Mark 15:1-20

It needs to be restated, that Mark is not writing a biography, but a gospel.  In other words, he is not attempting to record every little detail that occurred in the life of Jesus.  None of the four gospel writers do that.  Some may omit some things the others include, while including some things others omit.  And the reason for that is that they are writing a gospel, or a sermon if you will, which presents certain doctrines and principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ that they want to emphasize.  So as we consider this text before us today,

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