From the Pastor’s Desk (1/13/2016)

The Presbytery of the Southwest will be meeting for its stated Winter meeting this Thus thru Saturday in the D-FW area (our mid-cities church in Bedford).  Please pray for wisdom, grace, and perseverance as we deal with the business of the church.  These meetings are often both tiring and encouraging – at times dealing with difficult issues, but also hearing about the great things the Lord is doing in building his church.  I look forward to reporting on the meeting in a few weeks during our Sunday school time.

• Officer training to continue THIS SUNDAY following worship.

• Our church Wednesday evening Bible study will begin Wed, 1/20, at 7:00 at the VanTubergen’s home.

• The ladies’ Bible study will begin on Monday, 1/18, at 7:00 PM at the Haley’s home.  Their address is 4915 Whispering Falls Drive, Houston, 77084.

• We will have a congregational meeting immediately following worship on Sunday, 1/24.

• This week’s devotion is a follow-up to last week and considers the ‘hermeneutical foundation’ to Peter’s sermon in Acts 3.

God bless and I will see you this Lord’s Day!

From the Pastor’s Desk

Mid-week Devotional

“Covenantal Preaching”

Acts 3:25, “You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”

Peter preached Christ!  He proclaimed the Lord Jesus Christ as the crucified, risen, and exalted King!  He proclaimed Christ as the one in whom there is forgiveness of sins.  Last week we highlighted Peter’s ‘Christ-centered’ preaching from his sermon in Acts 3:12-26.  But Peter’s proclamation of Christ was not ‘floating in mid-air.’  That is, Peter’s preaching of Christ was grounded in redemptive-history.  Christ did not appear out of thin air, but was the fulfillment of God’s promises to his people.  In other words, Peter’s preaching was characterized by an overarching structure.  The coming of Christ was seen in light of a ‘hermeneutical grid.’  There are four texts in Peter’s sermon that clearly demonstrate the foundation of Peter’s proclamation of Christ:

 

“But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled” (v. 18).

 

“Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.  You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you’” (v. 22).

 

“And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those came after him, also proclaimed these days” (v. 24).

 

“You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed’” (v. 25).

 

Put simply, Peter’s preaching was covenantal.  Peter preached the words – the promises – of the prophets.  Specifically, he preached that the promises of the prophets have been fulfilled in Christ.  The ‘days’ the prophets looked to have come in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The coming ‘prophet’ Moses spoke about has come in Christ.  The seed the Lord promised to Abraham who would be a blessing to the families of the earth has come in the Lord Jesus Christ.  As Paul would later write, “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him” (2 Cor 1:20).  God’s glorious plan of salvation – announced and foretold by the prophets – is being realized in Christ.  Christ is the key to our hermeneutics – to our Biblical interpretation.  He is the alpha and the omega of God’s word.

Brothers and sisters, to preach Christ means more than simply talking about Jesus.  To preach Christ means to proclaim that the grand plan, purposes, and promises of God all find their fulfillment in the first and the second comings of Christ.  The Old Testament looks forward to him; and the New Testament once and for all reveals him in his humiliation and exaltation.  The covenant – God’s promises to his people – is the foundation for true Christ-centered preaching.  His plan is announced in seed form in Gen 3:15 and finds its culmination in the New Heavens and the New Earth of Revelation 21-22.  May Christ be preached each Lord’s Day in all his glorious fullness!