“With all other teachers the world has ever known, the important thing is the teaching; but here is a case in which the Teacher is more important even than what he taught.”
— D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
The Gravity of Human Speech (Matthew 5:33-37)
“I once heard the worst thing
A man can do is draw a hungry crowd
To tell everyone his name, pride and confidence
But leaving out his doubt
I’m not sure I bought those words
When I was young, I knew most everything
These words have never meant as much to anyone
As they now mean to me
The weight of lies will bring you down
And follow you to every town
‘Cause nothing happens here
That doesn’t happen there
So when you run, make sure you run
To something and not away from
‘Cause lies don’t need an aeroplane
To chase you down”
— The Avett Brothers “The Weight of Lies”
Who is Your Faith Founded on? (1 Corinthians 2:1-5)
“A sermon that just informs the mind can give people things to do after they go home, but a sermon that moves the heart from loving career or acclaim or one’s own independence to loving God and his Son changes listeners on the spot.”
— Tim Keller
Behold Our King (John 19:1-16a)
“Lev.17:11: ‘For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I, I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your soul…’ In the [Biblical] case of sacrifice, the offerer tends to think, ‘I am putting this blood on the altar for the Lord.’ But here, the Lord turns that idea on its head. As scholar Baruch Schwartz explains in his essay “Prohibitions Concerning the ‘Eating’ of Blood”: What our clause does, in its unique, metaphorically graphic way, is to take a set phrase, the ‘placing’ of the blood on the altar, and to reverse the conceptual direction of the action: ‘It is not you who are placing the blood on the altar for me, for my benefit, but rather the opposite: it is I who have placed it there for you—for your benefit."‘ In his mercy and grace, the Lord has provided a way for guilty sinners to be forgiven.”
— Jay Sklar
Sent by Jesus for the Blessing of the Nations (Matthew 28:16-20)
“The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”
—Matthew 1:1 (ESV)