Crossway Christian Church

Today we begin to look in earnest at the explanation of the law given by Moses in Deuteronomy. The major sermon of the book, spanning from chapters 6-26, seems to be difficult to outline, switching between groups of related laws and miscellaneous laws without much hint about their connection. Today, we will begin to outline how these chapters explain the law (the 10 commandments) by looking at the...

The relationship between the NT and the law is often very difficult to comprehend. We see that God has given the law to his people, and specified that the taking of the land, and thus the truthfulness of his promises, was dependent upon them being faithful. Today we look at how God can be true to his promise, even though Israel was doomed to fail in keeping the law.

We find ourselves in a similar position to the Israelites: hearing the promise of God about a kingdom, waiting on the precipice for it to come. Therefore, we understand the words of Deuteronomy, here primarily concerning the promise of God, to be a word for us as well. Moses relates Israel’s history, not simply to set a context for the Israelites, but to remind them of God’s already fulfilled prom...

Today, we start a new sermon series looking at the book of Deuteronomy. This sermon, then, will be slightly atypical, as it serves primarily to introduce the book of Deuteronomy to us, along with its themes.

Jude, who wants to write a letter of encouragement, must instead write a strong letter of warning, because some false-teachers are “perverting the grace of our God into sensuality.” These teachers have made grace into a non-stop party for the flesh. Such teaching has threatened the hold that the gospel once had on these believers.

Last week we considered the need for care when considering who we supported. We cannot lend aid and support to those who preach a false gospel, no matter how loving it seemed, as it slandered the truth. Today, John warns us about keeping our support back from those who do deserve it.

We are often told that love rules over all – that if we were more concerned with love that the world would be a better place. Science screams for truth – so that if we were more dedicated to the truth, the problems of the world would be eliminated. Both are wrong without Christ, and in Christ both are true. If God is love (1 John 4:8), and Jesus is the truth (John 14:6), then truth and love must e...

We are a church that steadfastly believes that the Bible is God’s word revealed to us. We believe that each word was carefully written and preserved for us by the Holy Spirit. We are stretched by passages like Colossians 4:7-18, as this passage seems so personal and dated that it holds little for us. But this is not so! We can learn much from Paul’s emphases in this section of Colossians.

God cares very much how we speak. God has spoken to make all things, through his Word he has created all that we see; it makes sense then that we, who are made in his image, should also be careful with our speech. Paul instructs us today about our speech, both before God in prayer and before humans in evangelism.

One of the chief complaints that people tend to lay against Christians is that we simply nit-pick from Scripture the things to which we adhere. Homosexuality? No, the bible denies it as a valid way of life for a child of God. But, they ask, “What of slavery? It is rampant in Scriptures, never forbid, and yet Christians today are directly (and rightly) against it? How is this not like homosexuality...

The people in your family are sometimes the most difficult people you will have to deal with. They are people who are supposed to love and care for your the most, which makes their failures (and yours!) all that much more difficult to withstand. How are we to best arrange our families, to avoid many of the pitfalls and difficulties that damage and destroy lives?

Today we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, to the virgin Mary. The incarnation of the Son in flesh can hardly be overestimated in either its importance or in its miraculous power. We have been preparing for this celebration by observing advent – the preparation for the coming of Christmas. Today we will look at the importance of advent by looking back over the Scriptures that were h...

Introductions are important things. They set the place, time, themes, and genre of both literature and film. We typically gather a lot of information from them, even though we might not notice it. What does it mean, then, that Matthew’s Gospel starts with a genealogy? What does Jesus’ family tree tell us about the promised child, laying in a manger?

When God names someone or something, he is not naming it for what it is, but rather, for what it will be. Here we look at the name "Jesus" and seek to determine what it means to "do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus."

People spend quite a lot of time worrying about how they present themselves to the outside world. Whether in dress, the avoidance over embarrassment, or even just the keeping up of appearances, people generally care a great deal what others think of them. Such instincts can be bad when used solely for self-aggrandizement, but those same instincts can be helpful for our pursuit of holiness. Paul, m...

Paul has emphasized the Christian's union to Christ, both throughout the second chapter of Colossians and, especially, in 3:1-4. It is from this union that Paul turns fully to imploring the Colossians in holiness. It is this union that makes such holiness both necessary and possible. Therefore, before speaking about what we are to do, Paul speaks of what we must never do. We must kill sin!

Having exhorted the Colossians to not look to regulations and asceticism to aid them in putting to death sin, Paul turns now to the positive: they are to look at the things which are above. The problem, however, is that it is not clear what “the things above” are, or how they are to help Christians avoid “the indulgence of the flesh.” Today, we will try to explain this passage through the use of a...

Paul has written to the Colossians with one goal in mind, that the Colossians might growing in faith and godliness. He has stated this in several ways: that they walk in a manner suitable to Christ Jesus (1:10), that they be presented mature (1:28), that they might be rooted and built up in Christ (2:6-7). So far in chapter 2, Paul has mentioned several things that the Colossians can avoid. Now, h...

Christianity is correctly understood as the fulfillment of the Jewish religion; its purpose and its rightful end. Its connection to Judaism, however, was a source of much confusion in Christianity's early days, not to mention today. We ourselves are at times perplexed about how to handle the OT; how much more those who knew of no other Scripture, and knew of no other life before God than that live...

Paul has urged the Colossians to “continue in the faith” (1:22), and to not be taken captive by the thoughts and schemes of men (2:4, 8) because Christ is where “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (2:3) are. Christ is all the Colossians need in their life. Such a claim is huge, especially for people who are used to turning to separate gods for their every need. Paul would say nothing diffe...

The next passage (2:9-15) introduces two major biblical themes, circumcision and baptism, that require a closer look. Some denominations, based on the similarities of baptism and circumcision, baptize infants (paedobaptism). Colossians 2:11-13 closely relates the two rites, and provides some credence to the paedobaptist theology. But baptism is not limited to the symbolism of physical circumcision...

We are stuck as sojourners and aliens in a foreign land (1 Peter 2:11). This land, filed with a strange mixture of blessings and curses for us, has pitfalls everywhere we turn. How then, are we to keep ourselves from, like Joseph, being tossed by the world into a pit (Genesis 37:12-24)? What advice would Paul give us?

What we do on Sunday mornings is odd, at least to outsiders (and sometimes to us!). We gather, pray, sing, and then open a 2,000-year-old letter, from someone we have never met to people we know little about. And we think that this has meaning for us! Why do we care what Paul says? What good is Paul for us? Much, in every way, as we will hopefully see today.

While Paul is insistent that Jesus Christ has reconciled all things to himself, both the things in heaven and on earth, he is just as insistent that such a cosmic act has come to make an impact in Colossae. Paul provides insight into that reconciliation in Colossians 1:21-23, as well as a warning for the young congregation.

The text of Colossians 1:15-20 is most assuredly poetic, and could very well be an early Christian hymn dedicated to the supremacy and deity of Jesus Christ. In this second sermon about the poem, we will look at how Paul links Jesus' saving work with the Son's creative work.