Madison Reformed Church

Lions take advantage of the early morning hours to roar loudly as a warning to all who would try to take their territory. Lions are fierce and mighty. And in this passage, the patriarch Jacob blesses his fourth-born son Judah by calling him a lion.  One will come from Judah's line who is like a lion. It is our Lord Jesus Christ, descended from Judah’s tribe, a leader worth following.

Gen. 15:1–6 

Jer. 23:1–8 

Matt. 1:18–25 

Heb. 2:14–18 

Ever get tired of waiting? If you open the Bible, that’s a pretty constant complaint. “How long, O Lord?” is a question that’s on repeat. The incarnation of the Son of the God is God's answer to that question. In this message, we look at Matthew 1:18–25 to see how this great miracle came about and why God did it.

Have you ever thought about what you’d like to use your last words for? In Jacob's deathbed scene, he speaks prophetic blessings to his 12 sons. These words set the trajectory for the tribes that come from these men, and also give us a glimpse of life in the Church. In his first three sons—Reuben, Simeon, and Levi—we learn what God is able to do even through sinners whose sins echo down to the next generation.

Gen. 3:8–15 

Lam. 3:49–60 

Mark 5:24b–34 

Heb. 2:14–18 

When humankind fell into sin, God could've acted in swift and overwhelming justice. But instead, He made a promise. He promised that a chosen offspring would come to battle the devil, and undo all his harm. This is the promise of the covenant of grace, forged by divine love, and useful for us in all our trials and temptations.

God’s will was that the covenant promises would pass on to the next generation in the unexpected way. That’s the divine pattern. He uses the weak to shame the strong. In Jacob’s adoption of Ephraim and Manasseh, we see Jacob embrace this divine pattern. After years of learning to discern the grace of God, he gets it right. This gracious God still works like this in the world today. And because that’s the case, we’re called, like Joseph, to put away our assumptions, and embrace God’s way of grace. 

What has the Church to do with the state? Genesis 47 gives us plenty of biblical insights into how God's people—who abound in blessings—are to bless the nations they inhabit. Energized by the redemption we have in Christ, we are called to godly engagement with our earthly governments, even while we rest and hope for the eternal Kingdom of God.

Deut. 7:6–11 

Isa. 41:5–10 

John 15:15–17 

Eph. 1:3–14 

The doctrine of election is not meant to be a topic for debate, but good news for sinners. God has chosen to save those who could not and would not save themselves. And in this message, we learn where this choice comes from, what it leads to, and why we teach it.

What has the Church to do with the Family? In Genesis, the covenant family of Abraham is the Church, and so we are given wonderful answers to this question when we study how this family makes it through trials from without and from within. In this message, we learn that the blessings God has given His Church are so abundant that they overflow to families who join themselves to it: the blessings of peace, covenant worship, and family honor.

Gen. 5:1–11 

Job 14:1–6 

Matt. 15:10–20 

Rom. 5:12–21 

Have you ever wondered why it is harder to maintain good habits than it is to slip into bad ones? Why do we need to teach children, over and over again, how to obey while disobedience comes naturally? In short—why is it so much easier to do wrong? The answer is that we have a deep, ingrained problem called a sin nature, or "original sin." Original sin is the corruption that all people have inherited from Adam and that deserves death.

In this next section of the Joseph story, his brothers experience the biggest twist imaginable: not only that Joseph is still alive, but that he still loves them as family. This is the great unveiling that happens to all people who come into contact with the Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 2:11 says that Jesus is not ashamed to call us "brothers.” What else does Jesus reveal to us about Himself? We answer that question in this sermon.