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SERIES: “The Need for Followership” What is the worst war in human history? One might point to World War II, which has the highest death toll of at least 90 million people. Or consider the Three Kingdoms War, which not only resulted in over 40 million deaths but also lasted for most of the third century. There is no end to the sad list of nominations: the Thirty Years War, the Taiping Rebellion, t...

SERIES: “The Need for Followership” Power is neither inherently good nor bad. Fire is powerful. The chef uses fire to create meals. But the arsonist uses fire to destroy homes. Nuclear fission is a powerful force. The engineer harnesses it, producing abundant electricity. The tyrant harnesses it, threatening others with nuclear weapons. What matters is the purpose of the one who has that power. Je...

SERIES: “The Need for Followership” A loving father gives his son and daughter a list of rules and regulations. Chores, curfews, civilities, dress code—the father makes his will clearly known. The son strives to follow the rules for two reasons. 1) He wants to get his allowance. 2) He is afraid that if he breaks the rules, his father will punish him. The daughter strives to follow the rules, also...

As Jesus concluded his Bread of Life discourse, many said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” and walked away. One disciple, though, reflected a drastically different response to Jesus and his teaching: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Even more important than either of these two responses, however, is your response. What will you do with Jesus, the Bread...

There are many different theories about the healthiest way to eat. There’s the old food pyramid, built on a foundation of whole grains. There’s the Mediterranean diet, the Atkins diet, the Paleo diet, and many others. While we can debate which is best, what is not up for debate is that no diet can keep us alive forever. Even the best diet cannot divert death. However, in his Bread of Life discours...

Physical food is a blessing from God without which we would literally wither away and die. That is why Jesus lovingly and miraculously fed thousands of followers with only five loaves of bread and two fish. Yet, while physical food is a good thing, it is far from the greatest thing God provides us. The greatest blessing God provides is spiritual food. The best thing God gives us is his Son, the br...

Shortly before he ascended, Jesus told his followers they were to engage in meaningful ministry—to work their way through the world, sharing the good news of salvation. Our loving Lord knew that was a big and often intimidating task. So, his next words were a promise. “Surely I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20). God’s people still need to hear that promise. For several weeks, we have been discus...

In the ancient Middle East, a shepherd needed certain skills to do his job well: knowledge of edible grasses, ability to trim hooves, capacity to fend off predators, competency to birth lambs. However, the greatest qualification of a shepherd is much simpler. A good shepherd needed to care for his sheep. Without that, none of those other skills would be fully utilized. In Scripture meaningful mini...

When a child asks a sibling to do something there isn’t much certainty as to the results. The sibling might simply ignore the request. However, if that same child goes to a brother or sister with “Dad said so,” it’s a very different story! Now the father’s authority is behind the child’s request.  As believers carry out gospel ministry, encouraging others to turn to Christ in repentance, people mi...

If ministry involves serving others with love and compassion, you would think that people would respond only with glee and gratitude for the help they received. Sometimes, but not always. If you offer to help a family member who is having trouble paying his bills, he might be offended, wondering if you are implying that he is not a good provider. Likewise, if you try and share the gospel with some...

Most people fear death to some degree. Some fear death because they assume it is the end. Others fear death because they assume it isn’t the end at all, but that there is some sort of reckoning after death which might not go well for them. And have you seen what happens to a dead body? It is far from pretty. So, it is understandable that most people would fear death. Not so for those to whom God h...

A powerful tornado rolls through your neighborhood. A massive hurricane heads straight for your city. A bolt of lightning sends 300 million volts to earth. The raw power and unpredictability of storms can inspire both awe and terror. We cannot stop storms from coming. We can only hope to survive them. However, we know the Almighty God can stop storms. He can calm literal storms. He could remove me...

Usually, a kingdom advances and is secured through things like military might or political force or worldly wealth. It can be tempting to believe the same holds true in the kingdom of God. Perhaps we think churches would flourish if we had the right rulers passing and enforcing the right laws. Or we believe that for a church to do good requires a robust budget. Political force. Worldly wealth. Thi...

Look at our lives—the problems, the pains—and it’s easy to conclude that we are losing. Look at the world—the brokenness, the bedlam—and it’s easy to believe that the devil is winning. It all can lead us to despair. Yet this turmoil is exactly what God said would happen already in the Garden. There God declared that until the end of time enmity would prevail between the devil and mankind. But God...

After a long day of work, you have earned the right to sit down in your favorite chair, put your feet up, and watch your favorite program. After a hard week on the job, you have earned the opportunity to relax a bit that weekend. After doing your job well for many months, you have earned those two weeks of vacation at the beach. This is how everyone thinks: rest is something you earn through hard...

Jesus told his disciples that, though he was going to ascend into heaven, he wasn’t going to leave them alone. He was going to send “the Advocate,” a title for the Holy Spirit. But Jesus wasn’t sending the Spirit to replace him; rather, he was sending him to assure us of Jesus’ eternal presence and power in our lives. With the confidence of Jesus’ ongoing power to save, the Holy Spirit equips his...

This world is broken. Oh, certainly, we still see beauty in nature. By God’s grace, we have plenty of happy moments. But that does not change the fact that this world does not function the way God designed it to. It is dangerous, especially for God’s children. Jesus once promised that those who live for him will be hated (just as Christ was hated) by those who live for the world. The even greater...

The entirety of God’s Word can be summed up in one word: love. God’s Law is all about love. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart…” and “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37,39). The gospel is all about love: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…” (John 3:16). From his compassion for the sick and broken, to his sacrificial death on the cross, to the peace h...

Self-assurance is a fickle thing. Ask the best golfers in the world how much confidence they have when they suddenly start to struggle just to qualify for the very tournaments they used to win. Self-assurance is at a high when we perform well, but as soon as we stumble in some area of life, our faith in ourselves flounders. That’s why real assurance - especially of where we stand with God - simply...

There are plenty of people today who claim they can provide healing or guidance for your soul. However, the Bible warns that, beneath the surface, not everyone is who they may appear to be. Rather than providing healing or guidance, many may actually do more harm to our souls than good. Their threats are real! But so is the resurrection reality that our Good Shepherd provides all that is needed to...

Contrary to popular belief, “repentance” isn’t the dirty word many people think it is. While repentance does involve admitting and owning up to the filth of our sins, it isn’t repentance if it stops there.  No, real repentance also includes embracing by faith what Jesus has done with our sins: wiped them away and washed us clean from them. The result? Not only are we left standing in the perfect p...

Jesus’ real resurrection brought peace and strength to those early believers. It also brought them together. That’s the power of Jesus’ resurrection: it brings us together with him through faith, but also together with fellow believers. How blest are we! Yes, we are brought to him, but also to each other!

It would not be productive to look for help in a cemetery. A corpse can do only one thing—rot. This is the source of the crushing sorrow Jesus’ followers felt. He was the one in whom they had placed all their hope for a better reality. Now he was dead, so they thought. They were overwhelmed with sorrow, not just because they missed their friend. It now all seemed so pointless: the years and miles...

Most religions believe in a powerful God. It is assumed that God will use that strength for the benefit of his followers. That is a reasonable assumption, but it begs the question. What is real strength? It is easy to assume that real strength means exerting your will over another by using any means necessary, including force. But this week we see Jesus Christ demonstrate a different kind of stren...

When we hear the word “school,” we tend to think of reading, mathematics, social studies, and all of the different subjects that students learn at the elementary, high school, and college levels. As one would naturally expect, those subjects are included in the curriculum of just about any elementary school. But they aren’t the most important subject taught in our school. They aren’t the primary r...