Bulletin for May 18, 2025

Christ the King

We’re back to looking at the Shorter Catechism, and we continue with the kingly office of Christ.

Q. 26. How doth Christ execute the office of a king?
A. Christ executeth the office of a king, in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies.

Notice that the Catechism lists four ways Christ executes the office of a king.

First, for any king to be a true king, he must have subjects. I can declare myself king of Greene County, but if no one follows me or recognizes my kingship, then that declaration doesn’t mean much. So Christ’s first duty as king is to subdue a people to himself, and he does this by applying the gospel to us. In John 17, Jesus prays,

Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.

The kingly authority of Christ comes from the Father who has given him the power, through the Holy Spirit, to make people Christian so that he would have a people to rule.

Second, having subdued a people to himself, he rules them. This is especially relevant given that the Roman communion has just elected a new Pope whom they claim to be the ruler of the Church on earth. But we believe the only head of the Church is Jesus Christ, and he rules us through Word and sacrament. This is at the heart of the Great Commission:

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Notice that Jesus starts with his authority before telling the disciples what to do. In other words, he says, “Since I am your King, take my royal decree (the Word) and royal seals (the sacraments), and use them to guide you.”

Third, Christ defends his people. Of course, he defends us in all sorts of ways, but the primary way is to keep us secure in salvation. He says in John 10:

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

Once we have entered into Christ’s kingdom by faith, we are secure inside the heavenly gates because Christ protects us from all who would seek to snatch us away.

Finally, he restrains and conquers all his and our enemies. Jesus is not a pacifist. Notice what Psalm 2 says:

The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”

Here we have a picture of God’s enemies rising against his Anointed (lit. “Messiah”), but they are not free, they are already restrained. There they remain, restrained, until they are finally conquered, which is what the death of Christ begins. At the cross, Jesus triumphed over, conquered, his enemies (Colossians 2:15), and now ascended to the right hand of the Father, he reigns until the day when all those enemies will be finally crushed under their just condemnation.

Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. (1 Corinthians 15:24-26)

Is Christ your King? Have you bowed the knee to his rule? Do you receive his kingly promises in Word and sacrament? If so, then rest secure: your King sits at the right hand of the Father, interceding for you—and one day, he will free you from all who rise against you.

A Note on Galatians 3:19

In this week’s sermon text, Paul throws in an odd little note about how the law was given through angels. Paul’s not the only one in the New Testament who mentions this; Stephen also talks about it in his speech. If you read the Exodus story, this is not something that immediately jumps out at you. In fact, it seems as if God is speaking directly, and we even read that he wrote the Ten Commandments on the stone tablets with his own finger. So how do we reconcile these things?

There are a couple different answers, but this is the most common and, in my opinion, most satisfying. If we begin to reflect on the nature of God, we remember that “God is a Spirit, and has not a body like men.” This means that God does not have vocals cords and hands to speak or write.¹ In recognition of that fact, most commentators going all the way back even before Christ understand these things to be the result of angelic forces. Since God does not have a body to form speech, his servants, the angels, formed the words for him. The same is true of God’s writing on the stone tablets. In fact, if you compare the description of fire and thunder at Mount Sinai to the descriptions of angels in the prophetic books, it’s clear that these are not natural phenomena at Sinai, but the angels themselves.

This is what Paul and Stephen mean when they say the law was given “through angels.” The angels are the means by which God gave the law to Moses. In effect, since God does not have a body like men, the angels themselves function as his body so that he is able to audibly and visually express himself on earth.

Your friend in Christ,
Reid

Bulletin for May 11, 2025

Bulletin for May 4, 2025

Psalm 23

This month, we’ll be learning Psalm 23. We’ve sung this a couple of times to the tune of Amazing Grace, but this week, we’ll start singing the tune written for it. Listen here to get ready to worship on Sunday.

Presbytery Update

I would normally write my own update for presbytery, but our Stated Clerk, John Carter, has started putting together a newsletter for each meeting that I’m going to share with you. I hope you’ll find it encouraging.

Your friend in Christ,
Reid

Bulletin for April 27, 2025

Updates

1. This week, I’ll be out, but our familiar friend Pastor Ron Pierce will be preaching. Be sure to give him a great welcome.
2. If you or your child are going to youth camp on June 2-6, be sure to text me your shirts sizes as soon as possible so I can complete our registration.
3. Presbytery meets this Friday and Saturday. Please be in prayer as we meet in Meridian.

Your friend in Christ,
Reid

Bulletin for April 20, 2025

It’s Easter! Be sure to check out the bulletin and invite your friends and family to this weekend’s services!

Bulletin for April 13, 2025

Time for Easter!

Be sure to join us for all of our services over the next week.

1. This Sunday, we’ll celebrate Palm Sunday at our regular Lord’s Day service.
2. Our Good Friday service will be Friday at 6:00. Communion will be served.
3. On Easter, we’ll have our regular Lord’s Day service at 11, and our Sunrise Service at 6:30 AM in the Prayer Garden.

Remember to invite your friends and family to join us for all these celebrations!

Your friend in Christ,
Reid

Bulletin for April 6, 2025

Worship this Week

The Lord’s Supper will be served this week. All baptized members of Bible-believing churches are welcome to partake, but according to Scripture’s command, we are all called to examine ourselves as we come. Over the next few days, consider Larger Catechism 171 as an example for how to do that:

Q. 171. How are they that receive the sacrament of the Lord’s supper to prepare themselves before they come unto it?
A. They that receive the sacrament of the Lord’s supper are, before they come, to prepare themselves thereunto, by examining themselves of their being in Christ, of their sins and wants; of the truth and measure of their knowledge, faith, repentance; love to God and the brethren, charity to all men, forgiving those that have done them wrong; of their desires after Christ, and of their new obedience; and by renewing the exercise of these graces, by serious meditation, and fervent prayer.

Also, remember to continue to invite your family and friends to our Easter services. Invite cards are available in the vestibule. If you’ve already given out three, feel free to grab more and reach out to even more people!

Your friend in Christ,
Reid

Bulletin for March 30, 2025

Does God change His mind?

As we studied Exodus 32, we ran across this statement:

“And the LORD relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.” (Exodus 32:14)

This is just one place where the Bible seems to speak of God changing his mind, and I got several questions about that statement in the weeks following. Perhaps a more striking example is found in 1 Samuel 15.

The word “regret” appears three times in 1 Samuel 15. In verses 11 and 35, God is described at regretting his decision to anoint Saul king. But verse 29 says:

“And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man, that he should have regret.”

What are we supposed to do with these seemingly contradictory statements? On the one hand, the Bible seems to clearly say that God’s mind has changed, but on the other hand, it also seems to clearly say that God’s mind cannot change.

Well, when it comes to these difficult problems, we must always use the principle that Scripture interprets Scripture. Our Confession of Faith summarizes this principle as follows:

“The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself: and therefore, when there is a question about the true and full sense of any Scripture (which is not manifold, but one), it must be searched and known by other places that speak more clearly.”

To apply this principle, we need to take the whole Bible together, and what we find is that the clear testimony of Scripture is that God does not change. Consider this list of Scriptures:

• Psalm 33:11
• Malachi 3:6
• Hebrews 1:12
• Hebrews 6:17-18
• James 1:17

Now, there are two ways we could approach this. We could either read the change Scriptures in light of the no-change Scriptures or the other way around.

Just as a thought experiment, what would it look like to give the change Scriptures interpretive priority over the no-change Scriptures. We would begin by affirming that God really does change his mind, and then we would have to go to these other Scriptures and figure out an appropriate interpretation. Here’s where the problem lies: if we believe that God does change his mind, is there any way to interpret the no-change Scriptures faithfully (in the plain meaning of the words)? The answer is no! But we can interpret the change Scriptures in light of the no-change Scriptures faithfully.

We start by affirming that God does not change according to the clear testimony of Scripture. Then, we can look at the change Scriptures to see if there are faithful ways to interpret those passages in light of God’s unchanging nature. What we find is that there is actually more than one way to do this.

First, we might talk about anthropomorphism, that is, ascribing human characteristics to non-humans. We do this all the time with animals and inanimate objects. If I say that the copy machine is fighting me, we all know that the copy machine doesn’t actually have any animosity toward me, but that language helps us understand what’s happening. The same is true when we speak of God anthropomorphically. We know that God is not a man, but we speak, and often Scripture speaks, of God on human terms to help us understand God better. So when we say God changed his mind, we’re not saying that literally, but we’re using those words as a merely human description to get at something deeper.

Second, while God himself does not change, our experience of God does. Think of your experience of the Sun. The Sun has a regular course in the sky, completely independent of your location. But your understanding of the Sun changes depending on whether you’re inside or outside, whether you’re wearing sunscreen, whether you’re hot or cold, etc. Now, if I say something like, “The Sun finally decided to go down,” does that mean that the Sun made a conscious decision to stop shining? No! When we or Scripture say that God changed his mind, the same is true. It’s not as if God has changed; he’s always the same. But our experience or understanding of God has changed.

This is the best way to understand the apparent conflict between the change and no-change passages, and it’s the way the Church through the ages has always understood these passages. A deeper discussion of this question requires a dive into philosophy, so I won’t go there now. But if you’re interested, I did three lectures on this topic a few years ago that you can find here.

Easter Schedule

Be sure to join us for our Easter services, and invite your friends too! Easter is a great opportunity for outreach to our community. Many people, whether they ordinarily go to church or not, are happy to join you for this one week. If each of us invites just three people, we’ll have extended almost 200 invitations.

On Sunday, I’ll have some cards with information that you can share with your friends and neighbors as we get ready for our Resurrection celebrations.

Congregational Meeting

This week, we’ll also have our congregational meeting immediately following the worship service. Agendas are available on the hallway table at the church. If you have any questions for me or any of the nominees, be sure to ask them before Sunday!

Upcoming Communion services

We’ll have communion twice in April. First, we’ll have regularly stated Lord’s Day communion next week on April 6. Our Good Friday service will also be a special communion service.

If you plan on participating in either service, be sure to be preparing your hearts. As always, if you profess faith in Jesus Christ and are a baptized member of a Bible-believing church, you are welcome to partake from the Table.

Your friend in Christ,
Reid

Bulletin for March 23, 2025

Christ the Priest

Christ’s prophetic office is primarily about how God communicates with us. But it’s one thing for God to speak to us and another thing entirely for us to speak to God. In order to do that, we need a mediator; we need a priest. A priest stands before God on behalf of the people. The priest is the way that the people can interact with God.

We’ve already spoken about how Christ is the only Redeemer of God’s elect, and when we come to his priesthood, we’re talking about how he redeems us. So how is it that we can approach God?

Q. 25. How doth Christ execute the office of a priest?
A. Christ executeth the office of a priest, in his once offering up of himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice, and reconcile us to God; and in making continual intercession for us.

Notice that the catechism gives two ways that Christ executes the office of a priest. First, he executes the office of a priest in his once offering up of himself a sacrifice. We know, of course, that this was what Christ was doing on the cross, and truly in all his sufferings. He was doing the ultimate priestly work of giving his own life for the people. All other priests offer up other sacrifices, but Christ gave his own life as a sacrifice for sins. He is himself the lamb brought to slaughter (Isaiah 53:7).

This achieved a twofold redemption. First, Christ’s sacrifice satisfied divine justice. The word we often use for this is propitiation. A propitiation is a kind of covering. In this case, Christ is our covering from the wrath of God, a shield against righteous judgment and a protection against God’s holiness. He is able to make this satisfaction because “he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (Isaiah 53:4). Isaiah goes on:

But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

And in satisfying God’s justice, Christ’s sacrifice also reconciles us to God (Romans 5:10-11, 2 Corinthians 5:18, Colossians 1:21-22). The word we often use for this is atonement. This was a word invented by William Tyndale when he translated the Bible, and it means what it says: at-one-ment. Christ’s sacrifice makes the elect one with God, bringing us together into his fellowship through Christ’s death.

But while Christ’s death was once for all, his work is not finished. The second way he executes the office of a priest is in his continual intercession for us (Romans 8:34, Hebrews 7:25). To intercede is to stand on someone’s behalf. Christ is now, at the right hand of the Father, pleading our case before him. When you sin and ask forgiveness, Jesus Christ himself takes your prayer and lifts it up to the Father. He does the same with all of our requests. This is why we pray in the name of Jesus, because whenever you pray, you do not pray alone, but you have a prayer partner.

How would we pray if we knew that Jesus was always standing beside us, praying alongside us, perfecting our prayers to receive a blessed response? Whether we realize it or not, this is exactly what’s happening. The Lamb who died for your sins has risen again for the express purpose of bringing you to God, of bringing your desires and petitions to him. So when you pray, remember your priestly prayer partner. Trust in him, in his sacrifice that brought justice and reconciliation, and in his prayers which always arise for you to his Father.

Updates

Don’t forget about our congregational meeting, next week, March 30th, immediately following the worship service!

Your friend in Christ,
Reid

Bulletin for March 16, 2025

Christ the Prophet

The next question of the catechism sets up the rest of the section on Christ.

Q. 23. What offices doth Christ execute as our redeemer?
A. Christ, as our redeemer, executeth the offices of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king, both in his estate of humiliation and exaltation.

So Christ has three offices and two estates. The next questions deal with these five things. This week, we begin with Christ’s prophetic office.

Q. 24. How doth Christ execute the office of a prophet?
A. Christ executeth the office of a prophet, in revealing to us, by his word and Spirit, the will of God for our salvation.

Moses, of course, is one of the most important people in all the Bible, and his primary role was to speak God’s Word to the people. He was a prophet. But when we get to Deuteronomy, there’s a problem: Moses is about to die, and Israel’s access to new revelation from God will be limited. It’s in that context that we get this prophecy:

I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. (Deuteronomy 18:18)

In Acts 3, Peter tells us explicitly that this prophet is Jesus Christ. With the advent of the prophet Jesus, there are no more prophets like the days of old. He is the last prophet, and he appointed his apostles to write down his teaching and close the canon of Scripture. Hebrews 1:1-2 reminds us of this:

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

But what does it mean that Jesus is a prophet? It means that he is the person through whom God speaks. First, he speaks by his Word. In Luke 4, Jesus says that he was appointed to preach the gospel and to proclaim the Lord’s favor (Luke 4:18-19). In Matthew, he is presented as a new and better Moses as he stands on the mountain and preaches and interprets the Law to the people of Israel (Matthew 5-7). Second, he speaks through his Spirit. He promised to his disciples that the Spirit of God would come to testify and bear witness to the truth (John 15:26-27). He is the only mediator of God’s elect who brings the truth of God to his people, and the truth that he brings is the gospel, that he is the way, the truth, and the life, that no one comes to the Father except through him.

But how does Christ now execute that office since he is ascended? The answer is the same that he himself gave: by his Word and Spirit. In the Word of God, we have Jesus’ words. We, of course, have the red letters in the Gospels, but since Jesus is God, we find that he is actually the author behind all of Scripture. Every word of every prophet is the word of Jesus, so we’re called to hear him in Scripture as it has been handed down to us. By the power of his Spirit, Jesus reveals the Word to us. The Spirit provides illumination to the believer so that he not only hears the words of Jesus, but understands them and is changed by them.

The prime way this happens is in the public preaching of the Word. Through his appointed servants, the Prophet still speaks. In fact, one old way of referring to preaching is to call it prophesying. It’s not that the preacher has new revelation to give, but his prophetic ministry is to repeat the words of Christ to the Bride of Christ. This is the preacher’s call and commission.

So do you want to hear Jesus speak prophetically to you? Open your ears to the preaching of the Word in the Lord’s Day assembly. Listen as the minister reads the Word of God to you. Read the Word to your family and in your private worship. And pray that in all these things, the Spirit would guide you into sanctification and deeper fellowship with your Savior Prophet.

Psalm 3

I meant to share this last week, but here’s a recording of the psalm we’re singing over the next few weeks. Make not of the word “de-li-ver-ance” (4 syllables) in the last verse!

Updates

A congregational meeting is scheduled for March 30, 2025. We’ll meet immediately following the worship service to vote on a new rotational system for officers and elect new elders.

Your friend in Christ,
Reid

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