“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

As Christ opens the Beatitudes with the promise that the poor in spirit possess the kingdom of heaven, we cannot assume that in his reference to “those who mourn” here he means a generic sadness. Certainly, the “mourners” refers to those who mourn as citizens of the kingdom of heaven. Or, in other words, those who mourn righteously and in faith. Or even those who mourn what ought to be mourned.

Chiefly, of course, we are to mourn our sin against our holy God and our neighbors. Paul says that godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, while worldly sorrow produces death (2 Cor. 7:10). Godly sorrow in this instance is an acknowledgment of our own depraved states apart from Christ, by which we come to realize our need of him and his work on our behalf. 

But there are other things godly saints may mourn over as well: Jesus wept at the death of Lazarus. Paul acknowledges the pain of lost loved ones experienced by the Thessalonian church.

So no, the Christian life is not one of being blissfully unaware of life’s hardships. Nor is it an attempt to hover above them or pretend that the loss we experience in life doesn’t really hurt. The Christian life is a life of sins forgiven, of brokenness healed, of the dead raised, and of mourners comforted. The promise of comfort is not a promise of immediate relief from hardships. Like Job, many of us will endure great and deeply painful trials. The comfort comes to us in the presence of Christ himself by His Spirit, whom he calls “the Comforter.” Our comfort is not that God will withhold trials and hardships from us, but that he will be with us through them and that he will use such trials for our good and that he will see them to completion whether in this life or in the life of the world to come. 

A passage like this is always particularly relevant at Christmas time as many of us can no longer enjoy the fellowship of our friends and relations whose earthly lives have ceased. Whether parents or children, siblings or friends, many of us are currently mourning the loss of these loved ones as we remember past Christmas celebrations and feel the searing lack of their presence at our tables. Still, others of us are mourning the loss, not of the lives, but of the relationships that we once enjoyed that are now marred by years, even decades, of estrangement and bitterness. Each Christmas comes with a reminder of sin’s devastating effects on those around us. 

In these and many other scenarios which we currently mourn, let us now look to Christ’s promise here that we shall be comforted in them that we might have peace that surpasses all understanding.

Zach Wilke – December 24, 2023

Read Full Article

One of the truths that will be shocking to unbelievers on the day of judgment is that they missed out on what it means to be fully human. Some of them will have heard and rejected the truth that Christ came to save sinners from hell. But most of them will have not heard that Christ came to make man truly man. This part of the good news is ours to tell and it is to our shame that we neglect it.

Our hymn Hark! The Herald Angels Sing makes the point—

Rise, the woman’s conqu’ring Seed,

Bruise in us the serpent’s head.

Now display Thy saving power, 

Ruined nature now restore

Jesus took on human nature to restore our nature. The Second Adam has come as a life-giving spirit that we might have life and have it abundantly.

Put it this way. Christians know the truest human who has ever lived. If you want to know what our race used to be before the ruin, look to Him. If you want to know what we Christians are becoming, then look to Him. 

This is why we confess our sin. 

You are not simply to kneel and tell the Lord what you did wrong as if there are marks against your clean record and you need to get them removed. We confess our sin because we are in the process of becoming more human. God made us an upright race, and though we have fallen, Mary’s Son has come to restore our nature. 

How much sin should you confess? Well, how restored do you want to be? Look at Jesus the man, and you will want to be like Him. And because He became like us, we are free to become like Him.

Jared Longshore – December 24, 2023

Read Full Article

Advent season brings with it a good deal of extra labor. You still have your regular work rhythms. Added to those, you have gift purchasing, party planning, meal organizing, and the sense that you should have an eye out to bless those you are able to bless. This means that advent season is a grand opportunity to learn what our Lord teaches in Luke 9:24, “Whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.”

This teaching is a mystery. An unbelieving man calls it crazy. “By definition,” he says, “if I lose my life then it shall indeed be lost, not saved!” But, we can see just how wrong this man is around this time of year. Those who are spending and being spent for others are somehow growing in merriment and greatness of heart, while those who are hedging their sacrifices are not. As the Puritans used to say, “The way down is the way up, to be low is to be high, to give is to receive.” Advent, then, is an opportunity to learn how to lose. In the language of Scripture, it is a time to learn how to be poured out. According to the paradox, if you lose, then you will gain. If you are poured out, you will not only be filled up, but you will find that your vessel has been enlarged and then filled up, so that you might be poured out again.

This often catches us by surprise. But it shouldn’t. Our Father gave His only Son. The Son gave His life. And He received it back, along with the salvation of the world. We must do likewise. Lose your life for Christ’s sake, and you will find life abundant.

Jared Longshore – December 17, 2023

Read Full Article

The Incarnation of God highlights a foundational truth of the gospel – that God first comes to us.

But while the Incarnation is the ultimate example of this truth, it is not the first demonstration of it. This is how it has always been, from the very beginning when God sought after Adam and Eve in the Garden as they hid in their shame (Gen. 3:9:10, 15. Throughout all of history, we see God as the Great Initiator in the salvation of His people. 

As Scripture tells us, no man seeks after Him, not one (Rom 3:10–12). Without God, we are all dead in our sins, and not only are we unable to seek after Him, we are also utterly unwilling and uninterested. And yet… God pursues (Eph. 2:1–7). Out of His own love, according to His very character and being, He determined from eternity to not abandon His fallen creation. And He did so at great cost to Himself.  

Two thousand years ago, while the world stumbled in the dark, blind to righteousness, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn. 1:14). Christ the Son of God appeared. 

As G.K. Chesterton wrote of the Incarnation in one of his Christmas poems, 

“Outrushing the fall of man, 
Is the height of the fall of God.” 

Great indeed was mankind’s fall into sin. But how much greater was, as we may poetically put it, the “fall” of God in pursuit of man, as seen in the Incarnation?

And so the exhortation this morning is quite simple, although not easy. In all of the excitement and busyness of this season, find time to truly contemplate this great mystery of our faith, that “though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor…” (2 Cor. 8:9). Whether it be in a quiet evening beside the Christmas tree, while singing hymns in church, or while buried under last-minute sheets of wrapping paper with scissors in your hand. In light of the Christ’s incarnation, ponder again these words of the Apostle John, “We love God, for He loved us first” (1 Jn. 4:19). And believe them. 

Shawn Paterson – December 17, 2023

Read Full Article