Dan Lee
John 17:9-13, For the Joy of God's Elect

Jesus’ first petition for His disciples is found in these verses. Jesus prays that the Father would keep them in His name. Jesus prays for a special people, His disciples and He does so because He was about to physically leave His disciples. What He would no longer be able to do in His physical absence, He asks the Father to accomplish. May the Lord grant to us a greater work of His Spirit to draw us to walk in Jesus’ ways and thus live with His joy evermore in our hearts.

Dan Lee
John 17:6-8, Two Realities of Salvation

Jesus describes the salvation of His disciples from two perspectives, one from heaven and the other from earth. In heaven, salvation was the product of the intratrinitarian transaction between the Father and the Son. On earth salvation was the product of divine revelation through the word of God and the hearty response of faith on the part of believers. The heavenly realities evoke worship, humility, and thanksgiving. The earthly realities compel us to take seriously every word of our Lord Jesus Christ and act upon them by faith.

Dan Lee
John 17:3-5, Salvation for the Glory of God ...

In His prayer, Jesus defines eternal life for our benefit. Contrary to popular belief, eternal life according to the Son of God is a reconciled relationship with God that begins in the present and stretches out to eternity. Jesus also reveals to us that He is the God of eternal glory which is demonstrated through the cross which He was about to bear. In the cross of Christ, the glory of God’s grace shines brilliantly so that all the redeemed and all the angelic host would glorify God forever and ever.

Dan Lee
John 17:1-2, Salvation for the Glory of God

Jesus’ prayer in John 17 begins with a focus on the glory of God. Jesus prays that His impending death will ultimately glorify the Father and that this would come about through the granting (gifting) of eternal life to His elect. What Jesus’ crucifixion puts on display is the glory of God’s grace in salvation.

Dan Lee
Deuteronomy 27-34, Two Ways to Live

As Moses closes his final message to the children of Israel, he focuses on the consequences of obedience and disobedience. He does so by setting down before them two pathways: the pathway to life, good, and the blessing, and the other pathway to death, evil, and the curse. Along with these options for their future, he reveals to them their future in apostasy, judgment, and even a restoration afterwards. The Pentateuch closes with an allusion to the prophet like Moses to come, the Lord Jesus, who speaks from the LORD and all the people ought to hear. The call to choose life echoes throughout the ages, calling all to be reconciled and restored to God and to enter into His blessing through the Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 4:7-11, Eschatological Ministry [Part 1]

Christ is coming and will usher in the end of this age. How shall we prepare for His imminent return? Peter gives us a fourfold answer: pray, love, share and serve. In this first installment of our study of 1 Peter 4:7-11, we examine the first two imperatives to pray and love. We are to maintain our spiritual senses sharp (“be of a sound mind” and “be sober”) for the purpose of prayer, and we are to exercise a love that goes beyond what is merely human and natural, a “stretching love” that cares for those from a different background but brethren nonetheless, and a forgiving love that overlooks offenses and exhibits graciousness that we all need and want from others.

Matthew 6:5-13a, Pray to your Father [Part 3]

The Lord’s way of prayer includes praying knowledgeably (knowing God’s fatherliness and His heavenliness) and worshipfully (seeking His glory in all things), and dependently. In this third installment on prayer, we examine the third aspect of the Lord’s way of prayer. We depend on God for all things as children dependent on their parents. We seek God’s provision, help and protection whether our needs are physical, spiritual or circumstantial.

Matthew 6:5-13a, Pray to your Father [Part 2]

The Lord taught us how we ought not to pray - hypocritical prayer and meaningless repetition. People of God do not pray like the hypocritical religious leaders of Jesus’ day, seeking to be seen by men, but keep our motives pure, as we go to God in prayer, treasuring the personal time we have with our Father. Neither do we engage in praying with meaningless repetition as pagans do, thinking to impress or obligate their deity. This is out of place for one who communes with the one and only true God. He has no interest in repeated words, but those who approach him with a sweet, quiet confidence, as one that approaches Him as their Father. How then shall we pray? The Lord shows us the way we ought to pray through His model prayer. In this sermon, we observe two facets of the Lord’s way of praying : knowledge and worship. We approach God knowing who He is and we approach God with an attitude of worship.

Matthew 6:5-13, Pray to your Father [Part 1]

The very first thing everyone must do to have a relationship with God is to come to believe in the person of Jesus Christ and to receive the forgiveness of sins through faith in Him. Without Christ representing us before the Father, we have no right to go before God and call Him our Father. For the redeemed, prayer is now their great privilege. It is a delight and an essential part of walking with the Lord. In this passage, the Lord shows us what is prayer and how are we who walk with the Lord to pray?

Psalm 1:1-6, Two Ways to Live [Part 2]

The blessed man is likened to a healthy and fruitful tree. As its success is the direct result of its nearness to the constant water source, so the blessed man thrives because he is ever near the necessary source of spiritual nourishment, the Law of the LORD. Those who spiritually thrive constantly abide in the Word of God. Remove yourself from the Word of God, and your soul shrivels up. Plant yourself by the Word of God, your soul will thrive.

Psalm 1:1-6, Two Ways to Live

This is part 1 in our series on “daily walk with the LORD.” The Psalmist presents two ways to live where one is clearly the right/wise choice and the other the damnable one. The right way to live involves three refusals to listening to, living like and laughing with the world. This right way also involves a delight in the LORD’s commands (the Law of the LORD) and making them our meditation all the time. Knowing and living out the will of the Almighty God is the supreme treasure in this life.