Category: Jesus Christ

Legion!

“And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? And he said, Legion: because many devils were entered into him” (Luke 8:30).

When the Lord entered left Galilee for the land of the Gadarenes, we move one scene of chaos to another. Just before this passage, the Lord Jesus was asleep in the boat as a violent storm raged on the Sea of Galilee. At a word from Him—“Peace, be still”—the storm was subdued and a great calm followed. Now, as in Gadara we encounter a different kind of storm, not on the waters but in a man’s soul. Here again the King of glory comes to subdue chaos and to bring peace, and He does so not by force of arms but by the sovereign power of His word and His grace.

When Jesus steps onto Gentile soil, He does not leave His authority behind. Unlike the false gods of the heathen, who were thought to rule only within certain territories, He is the Lord of heaven and earth. He goes where He wills, and He wills to go into this dark, heathen region to display His grace and His dominion. Immediately He is confronted by a man whose condition shocks us: naked, homeless, living among the tombs, violent and uncontrollable. This is a man made in the image of God, yet utterly broken, dehumanized, and enslaved. He once belonged to the city, but now he dwells among the dead. It is a fitting and terrible picture of what sin and Satan do to a human being!

Continue reading “Legion!”

Vox | “The Narrow Gate”

In this passage from Luke 13:22-30 (listen above), Jesus makes His listeners very uncomfortable! We think religion is easy, salvation is easy. Actually, it’s much, much harder than we tend to think.

What do you think? Is Jesus right? Or are his comfortable listeners?

Join us for our afternoon service at 4:00 p.m. this Lord’s day (Sunday) when we will treat this passage at the Presbyterian Reformed Church, located at 1870 Route 50, in Tuckahoe. And please feel free to stay after for a shared supper around 5:30 p.m. We would love to have you there!

Vox | “Sense the Time, Settle Up”

In this passage from Luke 12:54-59, Jesus basically scolds his hearers for being so dull. Now, Jesus is never needlessly harsh. But sometimes we are so thick that we need to have a friend slap some sense into us!

Jesus is that Friend—a far better friend than anyone we could have in this world. “No one has a greater love than this, that a man should lay down his life for his friends.” He did just that! He loved His friends so much that he surrendered his life!

But if you would take Jesus’ friendship, you’ve also got to take His rough words, His humbling you, and His exposing your folly. Let’s wake up! Let’s silence our phone, let’s unplug—and plug into the Wisdom of God, Jesus Christ. Let’s learn to discern the times from the perspective of Heaven. Let’s make peace with our fellow man and bury the hatchet, while “it is still called today.” And let’s follow Jesus safe and sound through an evil, perverse age into heavenly glory.

Join us for our afternoon service at 4:00 p.m. this Lord’s day (Sunday) when we will treat this passage at the Presbyterian Reformed Church, located at 1870 Route 50, in Tuckahoe. And please feel free to stay after for a shared supper around 5:30 p.m. We would love to have you there!

Jesus preached hell

“And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” “And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more than they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.”

There are those who tell us that fear ought to be banished from religion; we ought, it is said, no longer to hold before men’s eyes the fear of hell; fear, it is said, is an ignoble thing. Those who speak in this way certainly have no right to appeal to Jesus; for Jesus certainly did employ, and insistently, the motive of fear. If you eschew altogether that motive in religion, you are in striking contradiction to Jesus. Here, as at many other points, a choice must be made between the real Jesus and much that bears His name today. But who is right? Is Jesus right, pr are those right who put out of their minds the fear of hell? Is fear altogether an ignoble thing; is a man necessarily degraded by being afraid?

-J. Gresham Machen

Vox | “Be Afraid, yet Don’t Fear”

In this passage from Luke 12:1-12, the Lord Jesus Christ deals with the subject of fear. The godless have every reason to wake up and be afraid—very afraid!—since they are living on heavily borrowed time. But even true followers of Jesus should beware of letting fear take over, because that very fear can turn God into their enemy. And yet, God’s children have no reason to be afraid of anything in this world, if they only trust Jesus and reject all fear of man.

Are you afraid? Of what—and why? Or are you content, without a care in the world when you should really be alarmed?

Join us for our afternoon service at 4:00 p.m. this Lord’s day (Sunday) when we will treat this passage at the Presbyterian Reformed Church, located at 1870 Route 50, in Tuckahoe. And please feel free to stay after for a shared supper around 5:30 p.m. We would love to have you there!

The Son of God, who is our Red Sea

[Our rebirth] does not happen by the physical water [of baptism] but by the sprinkling of the precious blood of the Son of God, who is our Red Sea, through which we must pass to escape the tyranny of Pharaoh, who is the devil, and to enter the spiritual land of Canaan. So ministers, as far as their work is concerned, give us the sacrament and what is visible, but our Lord gives what the sacrament signifies—namely the invisible gifts and graces; washing, purifying, and cleansing our souls of all filth and unrighteousness; renewing our hearts and filling them with all comfort; giving us true assurance of his fatherly goodness; clothing us with the “new man” and stripping off the “old,” with all its works.

Belgic Confession of Faith (1561), Article 34