Scripture referenced 15 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Hebrews 1:1-4 primary Christmas text on God speaking through His Son, Christ as heir and agent of creation, brightness of God's glory, purging sins and sitting at God's right hand
1 God, having in the past spoken to the fathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways,
2 has at the end of these days spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds.
3 His Son is the radiance of his glory, the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, who, when he had by himself purified us of our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
4 having become so much better than the angels, as he has inherited a more excellent name than they have.
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Keep this verse
Psalm 2
quoted as Old Testament proof: 'You are my Son, today I have begotten you'
1 Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth take a stand, and the rulers take counsel together, against Yahweh, and against his Anointed, saying,
3 “Let’s break their bonds apart, and cast their cords from us.”
4 He who sits in the heavens will laugh. The Lord will have them in derision.
5 Then he will speak to them in his anger, and terrify them in his wrath:
6 “Yet I have set my King on my holy hill of Zion.”
7 I will tell of the decree. Yahweh said to me, “You are my son. Today I have become your father.
8 Ask of me, and I will give the nations for your inheritance, the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession.
9 You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
10 Now therefore be wise, you kings. Be instructed, you judges of the earth.
11 Serve Yahweh with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
12 Give sincere homage to the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish on the way, for his wrath will soon be kindled. Blessed are all those who take refuge in him.
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2 Samuel 7
listed as one of the Old Testament proofs in Hebrews 1
1 When the king lived in his house, and Yahweh had given him rest from all his enemies all around,
2 the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but God’s ark dwells within curtains.”
3 Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that is in your heart; for Yahweh is with you.”
4 That same night, Yahweh’s word came to Nathan, saying,
5 “Go and tell my servant David, ‘Yahweh says, “Should you build me a house for me to dwell in?
6 For I have not lived in a house since the day that I brought the children of Israel up out of Egypt, even to this day, but have moved around in a tent and in a tabernacle.
7 In all places in which I have walked with all the children of Israel, did I say a word to any of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to be shepherd of my people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’”’
8 Now therefore tell my servant David this, ‘Yahweh of Armies says, “I took you from the sheep pen, from following the sheep, to be prince over my people, over Israel.
9 I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you. I will make you a great name, like the name of the great ones who are in the earth.
10 I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place, and be moved no more. The children of wickedness will not afflict them any more, as at the first,
11 and as from the day that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel. I will cause you to rest from all your enemies. Moreover Yahweh tells you that Yahweh will make you a house.
12 When your days are fulfilled, and you sleep with your fathers, I will set up your offspring after you, who will proceed out of your body, and I will establish his kingdom.
13 He will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
14 I will be his father, and he will be my son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men;
15 but my loving kindness will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before you.
16 Your house and your kingdom will be made sure forever before you. Your throne will be established forever.”’”
17 Nathan spoke to David all these words, and according to all this vision.
18 Then David the king went in, and sat before Yahweh; and he said, “Who am I, Lord Yahweh, and what is my house, that you have brought me this far?
19 This was yet a small thing in your eyes, Lord Yahweh; but you have spoken also of your servant’s house for a great while to come; and this among men, Lord Yahweh!
20 What more can David say to you? For you know your servant, Lord Yahweh.
21 For your word’s sake, and according to your own heart, you have worked all this greatness, to make your servant know it.
22 Therefore you are great, Yahweh God. For there is no one like you, neither is there any God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears.
23 What one nation in the earth is like your people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem to himself for a people, and to make himself a name, and to do great things for you, and awesome things for your land, before your people, whom you redeemed to yourself out of Egypt, from the nations and their gods?
24 You established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever; and you, Yahweh, became their God.
25 Now, Yahweh God, the word that you have spoken concerning your servant, and concerning his house, confirm it forever, and do as you have spoken.
26 Let your name be magnified forever, saying, ‘Yahweh of Armies is God over Israel; and the house of your servant David will be established before you.’
27 For you, Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, have revealed to your servant, saying, ‘I will build you a house.’ Therefore your servant has found in his heart to pray this prayer to you.
28 “Now, O Lord Yahweh, you are God, and your words are truth, and you have promised this good thing to your servant.
29 Now therefore let it please you to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever before you; for you, Lord Yahweh, have spoken it. Let the house of your servant be blessed forever with your blessing.”
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Deuteronomy 32
listed as one of the Old Testament proofs in Hebrews 1
1 Give ear, you heavens, and I will speak. Let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
2 My doctrine will drop as the rain. My speech will condense as the dew, as the misty rain on the tender grass, as the showers on the herb.
3 For I will proclaim Yahweh’s name. Ascribe greatness to our God!
4 The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are just. A God of faithfulness who does no wrong, just and right is he.
5 They have dealt corruptly with him. They are not his children, because of their defect. They are a perverse and crooked generation.
6 Is this the way you repay Yahweh, foolish and unwise people? Isn’t he your father who has bought you? He has made you and established you.
7 Remember the days of old. Consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you.
8 When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the children of men, he set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel.
9 For Yahweh’s portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
10 He found him in a desert land, in the waste howling wilderness. He surrounded him. He cared for him. He kept him as the apple of his eye.
11 As an eagle that stirs up her nest, that flutters over her young, he spread abroad his wings, he took them, he bore them on his feathers.
12 Yahweh alone led him. There was no foreign god with him.
13 He made him ride on the high places of the earth. He ate the increase of the field. He caused him to suck honey out of the rock, oil out of the flinty rock;
14 butter from the herd, and milk from the flock, with fat of lambs, rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the finest of the wheat. From the blood of the grape, you drank wine.
15 But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked. You have grown fat. You have grown thick. You have become sleek. Then he abandoned God who made him, and rejected the Rock of his salvation.
16 They moved him to jealousy with strange gods. They provoked him to anger with abominations.
17 They sacrificed to demons, not God, to gods that they didn’t know, to new gods that came up recently, which your fathers didn’t dread.
18 Of the Rock who became your father, you are unmindful, and have forgotten God who gave you birth.
19 Yahweh saw and abhorred, because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.
20 He said, “I will hide my face from them. I will see what their end will be; for they are a very perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness.
21 They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked me to anger with their vanities. I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
22 For a fire is kindled in my anger, that burns to the lowest Sheol, devours the earth with its increase, and sets the foundations of the mountains on fire.
23 “I will heap evils on them. I will spend my arrows on them.
24 They shall be wasted with hunger, and devoured with burning heat and bitter destruction. I will send the teeth of animals on them, with the venom of vipers that glide in the dust.
25 Outside the sword will bereave, and in the rooms, terror; on both young man and virgin, the nursing infant with the gray-haired man.
26 I said that I would scatter them afar. I would make their memory to cease from among men;
27 were it not that I feared the provocation of the enemy, lest their adversaries should judge wrongly, lest they should say, ‘Our hand is exalted, Yahweh has not done all this.’”
28 For they are a nation void of counsel. There is no understanding in them.
29 Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!
30 How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and Yahweh had delivered them up?
31 For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves concede.
32 For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, of the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are poison grapes. Their clusters are bitter.
33 Their wine is the poison of serpents, the cruel venom of asps.
34 “Isn’t this laid up in store with me, sealed up among my treasures?
35 Vengeance is mine, and recompense, at the time when their foot slides; for the day of their calamity is at hand. Their doom rushes at them.”
36 For Yahweh will judge his people, and have compassion on his servants, when he sees that their power is gone; that there is no one remaining, shut up or left at large.
37 He will say, “Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge;
38 which ate the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise up and help you! Let them be your protection.
39 “See now that I myself am he. There is no god with me. I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal. There is no one who can deliver out of my hand.
40 For I lift up my hand to heaven and declare, as I live forever,
41 if I sharpen my glittering sword, my hand grasps it in judgment; I will take vengeance on my adversaries, and will repay those who hate me.
42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood. My sword shall devour flesh with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the head of the leaders of the enemy.”
43 Rejoice, you nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants. He will take vengeance on his adversaries, and will make atonement for his land and for his people.
44 Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Joshua the son of Nun.
45 Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel.
46 He said to them, “Set your heart to all the words which I testify to you today, which you shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law.
47 For it is no vain thing for you; because it is your life, and through this thing you shall prolong your days in the land, where you go over the Jordan to possess it.”
48 Yahweh spoke to…
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Psalm 97
listed as one of the Old Testament proofs in Hebrews 1
1 Yahweh reigns! Let the earth rejoice! Let the multitude of islands be glad!
2 Clouds and darkness are around him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
3 A fire goes before him, and burns up his adversaries on every side.
4 His lightning lights up the world. The earth sees, and trembles.
5 The mountains melt like wax at the presence of Yahweh, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.
6 The heavens declare his righteousness. All the peoples have seen his glory.
7 Let all them be shamed who serve engraved images, who boast in their idols. Worship him, all you gods!
8 Zion heard and was glad. The daughters of Judah rejoiced, because of your judgments, Yahweh.
9 For you, Yahweh, are most high above all the earth. You are exalted far above all gods.
10 You who love Yahweh, hate evil. He preserves the souls of his saints. He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.
11 Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.
12 Be glad in Yahweh, you righteous people! Give thanks to his holy Name.
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Psalm 104
listed as one of the Old Testament proofs in Hebrews 1
1 Bless Yahweh, my soul. Yahweh, my God, you are very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty.
2 He covers himself with light as with a garment. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain.
3 He lays the beams of his rooms in the waters. He makes the clouds his chariot. He walks on the wings of the wind.
4 He makes his messengers winds; his servants flames of fire.
5 He laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be moved forever.
6 You covered it with the deep as with a cloak. The waters stood above the mountains.
7 At your rebuke they fled. At the voice of your thunder they hurried away.
8 The mountains rose, the valleys sank down, to the place which you had assigned to them.
9 You have set a boundary that they may not pass over; that they don’t turn again to cover the earth.
10 He sends springs into the valleys. They run among the mountains.
11 They give drink to every animal of the field. The wild donkeys quench their thirst.
12 The birds of the sky nest by them. They sing among the branches.
13 He waters the mountains from his rooms. The earth is filled with the fruit of your works.
14 He causes the grass to grow for the livestock, and plants for man to cultivate, that he may produce food out of the earth:
15 wine that makes glad the heart of man, oil to make his face to shine, and bread that strengthens man’s heart.
16 Yahweh’s trees are well watered, the cedars of Lebanon, which he has planted;
17 where the birds make their nests. The stork makes its home in the cypress trees.
18 The high mountains are for the wild goats. The rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers.
19 He appointed the moon for seasons. The sun knows when to set.
20 You make darkness, and it is night, in which all the animals of the forest prowl.
21 The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their food from God.
22 The sun rises, and they steal away, and lay down in their dens.
23 Man goes out to his work, to his labor until the evening.
24 Yahweh, how many are your works! In wisdom have you made them all. The earth is full of your riches.
25 There is the sea, great and wide, in which are innumerable living things, both small and large animals.
26 There the ships go, and leviathan, whom you formed to play there.
27 These all wait for you, that you may give them their food in due season.
28 You give to them; they gather. You open your hand; they are satisfied with good.
29 You hide your face: they are troubled; you take away their breath: they die, and return to the dust.
30 You send out your Spirit and they are created. You renew the face of the ground.
31 Let Yahweh’s glory endure forever. Let Yahweh rejoice in his works.
32 He looks at the earth, and it trembles. He touches the mountains, and they smoke.
33 I will sing to Yahweh as long as I live. I will sing praise to my God while I have any being.
34 Let my meditation be sweet to him. I will rejoice in Yahweh.
35 Let sinners be consumed out of the earth. Let the wicked be no more. Bless Yahweh, my soul. Praise Yah!
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Psalm 45
listed as one of the Old Testament proofs in Hebrews 1
1 My heart overflows with a noble theme. I recite my verses for the king. My tongue is like the pen of a skillful writer.
2 You are the most excellent of the sons of men. Grace has anointed your lips, therefore God has blessed you forever.
3 Strap your sword on your thigh, mighty one: your splendor and your majesty.
4 In your majesty ride on victoriously on behalf of truth, humility, and righteousness. Let your right hand display awesome deeds.
5 Your arrows are sharp. The nations fall under you, with arrows in the heart of the king’s enemies.
6 Your throne, God, is forever and ever. A scepter of equity is the scepter of your kingdom.
7 You have loved righteousness, and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.
8 All your garments smell like myrrh, aloes, and cassia. Out of ivory palaces stringed instruments have made you glad.
9 Kings’ daughters are among your honorable women. At your right hand the queen stands in gold of Ophir.
10 Listen, daughter, consider, and turn your ear. Forget your own people, and also your father’s house.
11 So the king will desire your beauty, honor him, for he is your lord.
12 The daughter of Tyre comes with a gift. The rich among the people entreat your favor.
13 The princess inside is all glorious. Her clothing is interwoven with gold.
14 She shall be led to the king in embroidered work. The virgins, her companions who follow her, shall be brought to you.
15 With gladness and rejoicing they shall be led. They shall enter into the king’s palace.
16 Your sons will take the place of your fathers. You shall make them princes in all the earth.
17 I will make your name to be remembered in all generations. Therefore the peoples shall give you thanks forever and ever.
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Psalm 102
listed as one of the Old Testament proofs in Hebrews 1
1 Hear my prayer, Yahweh! Let my cry come to you.
2 Don’t hide your face from me in the day of my distress. Turn your ear to me. Answer me quickly in the day when I call.
3 For my days consume away like smoke. My bones are burned as a torch.
4 My heart is blighted like grass, and withered, for I forget to eat my bread.
5 By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bones stick to my skin.
6 I am like a pelican of the wilderness. I have become as an owl of the waste places.
7 I watch, and have become like a sparrow that is alone on the housetop.
8 My enemies reproach me all day. Those who are mad at me use my name as a curse.
9 For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mixed my drink with tears,
10 Because of your indignation and your wrath, for you have taken me up, and thrown me away.
11 My days are like a long shadow. I have withered like grass.
12 But you, Yahweh, will remain forever; your renown endures to all generations.
13 You will arise and have mercy on Zion; for it is time to have pity on her. Yes, the set time has come.
14 For your servants take pleasure in her stones, and have pity on her dust.
15 So the nations will fear Yahweh’s name; all the kings of the earth your glory.
16 For Yahweh has built up Zion. He has appeared in his glory.
17 He has responded to the prayer of the destitute, and has not despised their prayer.
18 This will be written for the generation to come. A people which will be created will praise Yah.
19 For he has looked down from the height of his sanctuary. From heaven, Yahweh saw the earth;
20 to hear the groans of the prisoner; to free those who are condemned to death;
21 that men may declare Yahweh’s name in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem;
22 when the peoples are gathered together, the kingdoms, to serve Yahweh.
23 He weakened my strength along the course. He shortened my days.
24 I said, “My God, don’t take me away in the middle of my days. Your years are throughout all generations.
25 Of old, you laid the foundation of the earth. The heavens are the work of your hands.
26 They will perish, but you will endure. Yes, all of them will wear out like a garment. You will change them like a cloak, and they will be changed.
27 But you are the same. Your years will have no end.
28 The children of your servants will continue. Their offspring will be established before you.”
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Psalm 110
listed as one of the Old Testament proofs in Hebrews 1
1 Yahweh says to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool for your feet.”
2 Yahweh will send out the rod of your strength out of Zion. Rule among your enemies.
3 Your people offer themselves willingly in the day of your power, in holy array. Out of the womb of the morning, you have the dew of your youth.
4 Yahweh has sworn, and will not change his mind: “You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.”
5 The Lord is at your right hand. He will crush kings in the day of his wrath.
6 He will judge among the nations. He will heap up dead bodies. He will crush the ruler of the whole earth.
7 He will drink of the brook on the way; therefore he will lift up his head.
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Hebrews 2:5-9
on mankind made a little lower than angels, crowned with glory and honor, and Christ tasting death for everyone
5 For he didn’t subject the world to come, of which we speak, to angels.
6 But one has somewhere testified, saying, “What is man, that you think of him? Or the son of man, that you care for him?
7 You made him a little lower than the angels. You crowned him with glory and honor.
8 You have put all things in subjection under his feet.” For in that he subjected all things to him, he left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we don’t see all things subjected to him, yet.
9 But we see him who has been made a little lower than the angels, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God he should taste of death for everyone.
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Psalm 8
quoted within Hebrews 2 on what is man, mankind crowned with glory and honor, all things put in subjection under his feet
1 Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth, who has set your glory above the heavens!
2 From the lips of babes and infants you have established strength, because of your adversaries, that you might silence the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained;
4 what is man, that you think of him? What is the son of man, that you care for him?
5 For you have made him a little lower than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You make him ruler over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet:
7 All sheep and cattle, yes, and the animals of the field,
8 The birds of the sky, the fish of the sea, and whatever passes through the paths of the seas.
9 Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
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Ephesians 2:8-9
used to explain that salvation by grace must be accessed through faith
8 for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
9 not of works, that no one would boast.
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Philippians 2:5-11
the Christmas story in Philippians: Christ emptying Himself, taking the form of a servant, obedient to death, and exalted above every name
5 Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus,
6 who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped,
7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.
8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, yes, the death of the cross.
9 Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name;
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth,
11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
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Galatians 4:4-5
on the fullness of time, Christ born of woman and under the law, to redeem those under the law and give adoption as sons
4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law,
5 that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of children.
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John 3:16-17
read during the Advent candle lighting for the Sunday of love
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
17 For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him.
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
This message came from Hebrews 1 and 2, with supporting passages from Philippians 2 and Galatians 4, all pointing toward one repeated claim: Jesus Christ really is that awesome. Pastor Mark walked through what the writer of Hebrews says about who Jesus actually is, and what that means for why Christmas is worth celebrating. The whole sermon kept returning to the difference between subjective feeling and objective truth.
What was said
The opening movement of the sermon was Hebrews 1, which Pastor Mark read as an introduction to what Hebrews is fundamentally about. He pointed out that God, who spoke in various ways through the prophets, has in these last days spoken through His Son. That Son is the heir of everything, the agent through whom the world was made, the radiance of God's glory, the exact imprint of God's nature, and the one who upholds all things by the word of His power. None of that, Pastor Mark said, stops being true based on how anyone feels about it.
He drew attention to the phrase "when he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down." Christ did not handle a portion of the problem while leaving the rest to us. He handled all of it by himself, and then sat down. The sitting down matters because Hebrews goes on to show that He is now at the right hand of the Father, interceding for everyone who trusts in Him.
The sermon then moved into Hebrews 2 and Psalm 8. What is man? God has crowned humanity with glory and honor and placed the world under our authority. But the honest answer to whether everything is alright with the world is a plain no. Mankind was given the role and failed it. That failure is the problem Christmas is addressing.
Into that failure, the writer of Hebrews places three words: "but we see Jesus." Pastor Mark lingered there. Jesus, who is more excellent than the angels, was made lower than the angels when He took on flesh. He did not skip over humanity. He was born into it, grew in it, lived it without sin, and was crowned with glory and honor through the suffering of death.
Philippians 2 came in as what Pastor Mark called "the Christmas story in Philippians." Though Christ existed in the form of God, He emptied Himself, took the form of a servant, and became obedient to death on a cross. For that reason God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name above every name, so that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. The name above every name is why we say "Merry Christmas" and not any other name.
Galatians 4:4-5 brought it to a close. When the fullness of time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that He might redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. Pastor Mark spent time on the word "might" in those purpose clauses, explaining that it is subjunctive, meaning two wills are in play. God's intent is clear. Whether it lands depends on whether a person places faith in what Christ has already done. The might is left in the listener's lap, and that, he said, is on each person individually.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- The pastor described Jesus Christ as the agent of creation who also upholds all things by the word of his power. What does it mean to you personally that the same one who created and sustains everything stepped down into human flesh?
- The sermon pointed to Psalm 8 and said mankind has been crowned with glory and honor, yet we do not yet see all things put under us the way God intended. Where do you see that gap most clearly in your own life or in the world around you?
and 3 more questions in the guide
