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.

John 8:51, Faith and Grace in Discipleship

Jesus’ call to discipleship was always a call to faith and a call to grace. In this follow-up sermon on discipleship, we examine the broader scope of Scripture that paints the right picture of discipleship for the child of God. Discipleship is a means of dependence on Christ and a means of receiving His grace. Furthermore, we give some practical consideration as to how we can live as keepers of the word of Christ.

John 8:51, Never See Death

Jesus has come to give life. We all exist in spiritual death until our sins are forgiven and we enter into the joyful fellowship with God in holiness, righteousness and love. Jesus makes a universal invitation to all (“anyone”) to become His disciples and enter into this life in which we will never experience spiritual death, neither in this age or beyond. Those who are reconciled to God through Christ are never separated from God from here on out. What a blessing our God has given us through Christ.

Psalm 130, Depend on Grace

As we look ahead to the new year, let’s steer away from the common worldly attitude of self-dependence, self-sufficiency, and self-confidence and instead look humbly and with faith to the Lord for His grace. The psalmist in this precious psalm shows us how OT saints looked ahead to the Lord with faith and humility for His redemption promise to be fulfilled. May we also be men, women and children who drink richly from God’s grace each day by trust in Him and in His word with humble dependence. In His word do we also hope!

Matthew 2:1-12, The Challenge of Christmas

In this familiar Christmas story of the magi and king Herod, we see two diametrically opposed responses to the Messiah. They both had a knowledge of the Messiah by the providence of God, but one responded with worship and the other with suspicion and an attempt to exterminate the Messiah. Matthew presents to us the Messiah as the Savior and King whom people either humbly worship (as the magi did) or repudiate Him (as Herod did). How will you respond to the Lord this Christmas season, as you are also bombarded with the knowledge of the Son of God who has come to save His people from their sins (Matt. 1:21)? This is the challenge of Christmas.

John 8:43-37, Why Must Sinners Be Born Again

Jesus said, “Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). What we discover in this passage are the reasons why sinners desperately need to be born again. Without the work of God in their hearts, people are unable to receive God’s word, they are imitate their spiritual father, the Devil, and they hold fast to an irrational bias against the truth. May the Lord regenerate souls and bring them to Himself.

John 8:37-42, The DNA of the children of God

In this passage, Jesus addresses Jews who were not the children of God. He demonstrates this by showing them the traits of the children of God, which were markedly absent in their lives. These traits enable us to gauge where we stand before God. Are you a child of God or not? This passage shows us how even those who “believed” may not be truly Jesus’ disciples who are born again. May the Lord help us to see the truth about who we are in the sight of God.