Brownwood Church

You must believe in something humanly impossible to know that life exists after death. When God made a promise to Abraham, its was full of impossibilities, starting with waiting decades for his barren wife to have a promised son. But when God tested him by calling him to offer up that son, he had to believe something else not humanly possible.

The sending of Jesus comes with the promise of persecution, even from unbelieving family members. But despite being hated by all, Jesus has promised to save the ones who endure to the end. As He sends out His first twelve to the cities of Israel, he instructs them to deal with this persecution by continuing to go and preach the coming kingdom to them. In fact, their mission wouldn’t even be comple...

The twelve apostles were sent out into a world hostile to Jesus’ message of a coming kingdom. False teachers who couldn’t recognize the King and secular authorities who would do anything to protect their kingdoms were willing to persecute anyone who threatened them. So Jesus prepares His disciples for being dragged into scenarios where their earthly fate would be determined by their words by telli...

Jesus' sending of the twelve to the lost sheep of the house of Israel serves as the beginning of apostolic ministry, a foundation of the church. As His apostles are sent out, they are authorized and instructed to begin their ministry the way He began His: by healing and preaching the kingdom of heaven at hand.

Jesus has compassion on the crowds as He goes throughout all the cities and villages of Galilee, seeing the people as sheep without a shepherd. His care for them manifests as He heals every kind of sickness and disease, which shadows the healing they most need: that for their souls.

As Jesus feasts at Matthew’s house, the disciples of John and the Pharisees ask him why His disciples don’t fast. Jesus responds by pointing out how absurd it would be for groomsmen to fast during a wedding or betrothal feast, as though it was a time for mourning rather than celebration. He goes even further to begin to illustrate the nature of the New Covenant for them by teaching them that you c...

The heart of Jesus for the sick and the lost is so far beyond the posturing of fake religious people. As Jesus heals the paralytic lowered by his faithful friends through the roof and then goes to Matthew’s house to eat with tax collectors and other sinners, the false religion of the scribes and Pharisees is made evident in their rebukes. And Jesus even has compassion on them by putting His divini...

Often we find ourselves in situations outside of our control. Right after Jesus tells His disciples following Him will be difficult, He takes them through a storm. As the boat fills with water, the disciples find themselves in a situation they can do nothing about on their own. After Jesus calms the storm and they dock, the disciples witness two men with thousands of demons, a situation they thems...

Why is there such a great discrepancy between the number of those who decide to follow Jesus and those who truly do? Could it be that what Jesus told us it would cost was more than a hand raised, an aisle walked, a prayer prayed, or a decision made? Maybe we in the church today should reorient our emphasis and celebration from deciding to follow Jesus to truly following Him.

As Jesus goes throughout Galilee healing, Matthew shows how His physical healing points to His spiritual healing prophesied in Isaiah 53. This would be the ultimate need of every man, woman, and child healed of an infirmity in this life.

What does a life dedicated to the Lord look like? Is it more than a single resolution? As Jesus is presented and begins to grow, His life is a display of perfect and complete dedication, and is both our example and our means.

This paradox of divinity and humility in the nativity is an amazing picture of the uniqueness of Jesus. God came to the earth as an infant from the womb, delivered in a small town in a stable. Yet a multitude of the heavenly host appeared recognizing who this was. More than seasonal, this event was eternal.

God's people have a history of forgetting Him even after He redeemed them. The prophets spoke of this as walking in darkness, and God's judgment rightly came upon them repeatedly for it. However, Zechariah realized that God was doing something unique, not ultimately through his son, but through God's. For the first time, a light was dawning that would never be put out.

There was nothing about Mary that caused her to expect Gabriel's angelic visitation. She was perplexed to have found favor with the Lord and had no idea how she, a virgin, would give birth to the Savior. Mary's blessedness came more from believing the Lord than it did from giving birth to Him. Her magnificent humility is expressed as she finds her identity not primarily as His mother, but as His s...

God has a role for every man, woman, and child on this earth. He chose certain individuals to play a unique role in the recorded account of the story of redemption. Zechariah was a man who prayed for a child. His wife Elizabeth was a woman who recognized how God took away the disgrace she felt because of her bareness. And their son John would recognize his role in God's greater story as the messen...

Jesus finishes the Sermon on the Mount with the ultimate call to action: to do what He commands. Those who do build their life on the bedrock of Christ instead of the surface sands of this world, which the storms of this life and the floods of judgment will test.

Following Jesus means walking the narrow, afflicted road that leads to the narrow gate to gain entrance into the city of God, directly into the temple, where life is found in His presence. Jesus himself entered Jerusalem through the East Gate on Palm Sunday from the Mount of Olives, and juxtaposed this against the broad Roman roads that led to the pagan Gentile world, populated with the masses wal...

When Jesus repeatedly promises that we will receive what we ask for, we must understand ourselves as dependent children with a Father who desires to give us the good things we truly need. Jesus’ promise that “everyone who asks receives” is ultimately fulfilled when our desire is in line with our Father’s will, we ask in genuine and abiding faith, and in obedience to His commands, out of love for H...

As sinners, we are in no position to stand in judgment over other sinners and expect not to be judged by the same standard. Jesus’ relentless attack on hypocrisy is illustrated by the man unaware of the beam in his eye despite his fixation with the splinter in his brother’s. He’s so blinded by the sin he never dealt with, the judgment he passes has made him little more than a blatant hypocrite. A...

All things exist from God, are sustained through God, and are designed to bring Him glory. Without God's display of glory, Moses would just be a man speaking to a plant, hitting a rock, or standing in front of an unparted sea for the Egyptians to overtake God's people. Reformers like John Calvin and Theodore Beza helped recapture the all-but-lost Scriptural reality that became the final cause of t...

"Solus Christus” is at the center of what the reformers taught. No longer would Rome, the Pope, the sacraments or priests be the mediators of forgiveness and salvation. “Christ Alone” is the focal point behind grace alone, faith alone, and scripture alone to the glory of God alone.

Justification before God has always come through faith, alone. The righteousness of God is revealed in a saving way to us in the gospel, because we can only be counted righteous through Jesus' life, not our own. By works of the law, the righteousness of God can only condemn us. This is why we must have a righteousness external to ourself, received through the instrument of faith, alone. Martin Lut...

The grace of God is displayed in every area of life, because we did nothing to deserve what we have. From His design in creation to His providence and revelation, God has shown us that nothing we can rightly do ultimately comes from within us, especially in salvation. We are saved by no meritorious work of our own, but by His grace alone. Reformers like Jan Hus understood that because of this, unl...

Scripture is our sole infallible authority for all matters of life and faith. No tradition of men or position of human authority will ever be set above or equal to God's infallible Word, which stands forever. These Scriptural convictions were engrained in men like John Wycliffe and William Tyndale, and drove them to translate Bibles in the English language so people like us today could come to th...

Our heavenly Father has provided for us every day of our life and will every day until we die. Living in anxiety and constant worry is not a necessary component of life, nor does it add anything to it. As we recognize that God will continue to provide the things of this world that we need, Jesus sets us free to seek first the kingdom.