Monday Morning Pulpit: Joy of the Soul Through Study of Scripture

Posted on January 9, 2018 by blund

Sometimes you run out of room or time in your Lord’s Day sermon, and so “Monday Morning Pulpit” is a chance to expand upon or reinforce ideas you didn’t have a chance to finish during the sermon.

George Mueller (1805 – 1898) was a remarkable man of God who ministered to people, proclaimed the Gospel as an evangelist, shepherded thousands of orphans through his orphanages that he built and sustained, and did it all without ever fundraising or asking for a dime. Most importantly, for our faith, he did it all through an ardent and vibrant prayer life. Mueller experienced living by faith for real world difference.

John Piper had a beautiful quote by Mueller that I didn’t have time for, but that is too good to ignore. Mueller preached these words when he was 59 years old in a New Year’s day service. Continue reading →

Monday Morning Pulpit: The Coming Kingdom Disrupts All Other Kingdoms

Posted on December 27, 2012 by blund

Doing some last minute sermon prep the other week brought me to this gem in Herman Ridderbos’ The Coming of the Kingdom. It was incredibly helpful to recast some of the homiletical language from the sermon in the kingdom language that Ridderbos so helpfully draws out from the text:

…in John’s [the Baptist] and Jesus’ preaching the coming and break-through of the kingdom are put in the foreground, and not the state of things at the time of fulfillment. This tremendous dynamic of the divine coming which sets the world of the angels in motion (Matt. 1; Luke 2); fills the devil’s empire with alarm (Matt 4:3ff; Mark 1:24; Matt 12:29); yes, even causes Satan to fall from heaven (Luke 10:18), permeates and transmits itself in everything and in all who are touched by it. For the coming of the kingdom is the initial stage of the great drama of the history of the end. It throws man and the world into a crisis.

Continue reading →

Monday Morning Pulpit: Judging

Posted on August 15, 2011 by blund

We wrapped up a short, topical series on God’s Judgments and Judging at Zion Ev. & Reformed Church. Especially in the second sermon in the series, we looked at what it means for God to Judge of all the earth (Genesis 18:25; Psalm 50:1 – 6). After demonstrating his judgments in Creation by issuing divine decrees on His own handiwork (“it was good,” “it was very good”) God shows His just judgments in salvation history. God’s judgment climaxes in condemning our sin at the cross, and vindicating Christ at His resurrection (Romans 4:25; I Timothy 3:16), and thus pronouncing us to be justified by faith in Christ (Romans 8:1).

Since God is Judge, how then should we live?