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Scripture: Ecclesiastes 12
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 12
A. The command to remember is addressed to those still in their "youth" — a relative term for anyone not yet on their deathbed
B. Solomon says specifically "remember your Creator," not merely "remember God"
C. The symbolic imagery of bodily decline (Ecclesiastes 12:3-6)
D. The application: invest in your Creator while you still have your faculties
A. God's Word is the caretaker of our joy and delight (Ecclesiastes 12:10)
B. God's Word is the caretaker of our path (Ecclesiastes 12:11)
C. Beware of substitutes (Ecclesiastes 12:12)
A. The surprising clarity of the epilogue
B. The comfort of the final judgment (Ecclesiastes 12:14)
C. The gospel resolution for those who are in Christ
Scripture: John 6:60-71
Scripture: John 6:60–71
A. The disciples grumble at Jesus's hard saying — "hard" here means spiritually offensive, not intellectually obscure
B. Belief must be granted by the Father — John 6:63–65
C. The unadulterated gospel is the instrument God uses to separate wheat from chaff
A. The departing disciples were followers who had attached themselves to Christ, calling him "Rabbi," but leave with eyes wide open
B. Rejecting the gospel is not rejecting a concept, theory, or formula; it is rejecting a person
A. Jesus asks: "What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?" — John 6:61–62
B. Peter's confession — John 6:68–69 — is true but not a mountaintop moment in context
C. No believer ever graduates from complete dependence on Christ and his Spirit
Scripture: Acts 12:1-24
A. The context: opposition against the early church
B. Peter's character and significance
C. Herod Agrippa I as oppressor
D. God's angel is the active agent throughout the chapter
E. Unanswered questions — held in tension with God's sovereignty
A. Ordinary people gathered at Mary's house — Acts 12:12
B. The hinge of the entire passage: earnest prayer — Acts 12:5 and Acts 12:12
C. The word of God — Acts 12:24
D. Application to this installation service
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 11
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 11
(Ecclesiastes 11:1-6)
A. Cast your bread upon the waters — invest what you have (Ecclesiastes 11:1)
B. Do not be paralyzed by what you cannot control (Ecclesiastes 11:3-4)
C. Use the gifts God has given you in their proper season (Ecclesiastes 11:5-6)
(Ecclesiastes 11:7-8)
A. Light and sun symbolize life — rejoice in many years, but remember the days of darkness will be many (Ecclesiastes 11:8)
B. Throughout chapter 11, Solomon balances the good with the bad to give a proper understanding of how to enjoy life
C. Youth is wasted on the young — the young assume life will last forever and fail to stop and smell the roses
(Ecclesiastes 11:9-10)
A. Rejoice, young man, in your youth — but know that God will bring you into judgment (Ecclesiastes 11:9)
B. Remove vexation and put away evil from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity (Ecclesiastes 11:10)
C. Christ is the supreme example of the good life under the sun
Scripture: John 6:49-59
Scripture: John 6:49-59
A. Jesus is the bread that comes down from heaven; the life he brings is grounded in his heavenly origin (John 6:49-50)
B. Heaven is not a spatial location reachable by travel, but the invisible spiritual realm where God's throne is
C. Adam was an earthly man given heavenly life by the breath of God (the ruach), but forfeited that life through sin; Christ is the Son of God whose origin is heaven itself
D. Union with Christ is union with heaven and with eternal life; it is spoken of in terms of eternity past
A. The language of "flesh" and "blood" in this passage evokes the violent death of the sacrificial animal offered as a substitute for sinners (John 6:51)
B. The Passover context is decisive: Jesus speaks these things at Passover time, in a synagogue where Passover texts were being read
C. Union with Christ is union with his sacrificial death
D. The concept of sacramental union: God binds the signs of his covenant so tightly to the promise that the sign is spoken of as though it is the thing itself
E. The Lord's Supper is a solemn, Spirit-wrought engagement with Christ and his once-for-all sacrifice; the Protestant church must not lose this gravity in reaction to transubstantiation
A. Jesus escalates the provocative language when challenged, intensifying rather than retreating: "unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you" (John 6:53)
B. Drinking blood was deeply offensive to Jewish hearers; Genesis 9 and Leviticus 17 commanded Israel not to consume blood because the life was in the blood — the blood belonged to God
C. Ancient rabbis spoke of "eating and drinking" the Torah — soaking the law of God into the soul; Jesus appropriates this language to himself: internalize me by faith
D. This internalized presence is an abiding presence (John 6:56) — "whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him"
Scripture: John 6:35
Scripture: John 6:35-48
A. Distinction between God's general call and effectual call
B. The effectual call is grounded in divine power, not human ability
C. John 6:37 — "All that the Father gives me will come to me"; the effectual call carries out its effect with certainty
D. Effectual calling is organic, not mechanical
A. John 6:37 — "Whoever comes to me I will never cast out"
B. 1 John 2:19 — Apostates "went out from us, but they were not of us"; those who fall away and never return were never truly in
C. John 6:39 — The Father's will is that Christ should lose nothing of all he has been given, but raise it up on the last day
D. Perseverance of the Saints considers the doctrine from man's perspective; preservation considers it from God's — the elect will always cling to Christ, even with the faintest seed of faith
A. John 6:45-46 — "They will all be taught by God"; closest parallel is Isaiah 54:13
B. John 6:40 — Faith involves looking on the Son and believing; the Spirit opens the eyes to see Christ as the radiance of God's glory — Hebrews 1:3
C. Calvin and Thomas Boston on the faculties of the soul: understanding, will, and affections
D. Election does not destroy free will — it is the only means by which the will can be truly free
Scripture: John 6:22-34
Scripture: John 6:22-34
A. Jesus rebukes the crowd's motive for seeking him — they came not because they understood the signs, but because they ate their fill (John 6:26)
B. Two key ironies in the crowd's response
C. The pattern of Israel in the wilderness: no number of miracles satisfied them
D. Seeking a sign as a condition for belief is condemned by Christ
E. Application: believers whose worship of God is conditional on favorable circumstances share this same disposition — the aim must be the Benefactor, not the benefits
A. The crowd's materialistic mindset is exposed: when Jesus directs them to believe in him for eternal life, they demand a sign and invoke the manna (John 6:30-31)
B. Jesus uses strong language — "because you ate your fill of the loaves" (John 6:26) — indicating that physical satiation was their only aim
C. The crowd's response in John 6:34 — "Sir, give us this bread always" — confirms they want the gift, not the Giver; they seek Christ-plus-bread, not Christ alone
D. Illustration: spoiled children whose love for parents is measured only by what they receive; tantrums begin when the gifts stop
E. The historical trajectory of the West: as material wealth increased through the Industrial Revolution, God was progressively displaced
F. Application to the Lord's Supper: the minuscule portions of bread and cup are designed to draw our hearts away from getting fat on loaves and toward feasting on Christ alone
A. Moses was effectively idolized in first-century Judaism; Jesus corrects the misconception — it was not Moses but the Father who gave the manna, and now the Father gives the greater bread, his Son (John 6:32-33)
B. Jewish Messianic expectation held that the Messiah would replicate the gift of manna (2 Baruch 29:8); Jesus is fulfilling and surpassing that expectation
C. Rabbinic teaching also spoke of the law given at Sinai as giving "life to the world" — Jesus fulfills both the manna and the law as the bread of everlasting life
D. The Jews loved the law as a badge of distinction separating them from Gentiles, but they did not love the Lawgiver; they loved the inscripturated Word but not the Word made flesh
E. Illustration: Benjamin Franklin loved George Whitefield but not the Christ Whitefield preached — it is possible to esteem the messenger and the Book while rejecting the Lord they proclaim
F. Application: the right question to ask of any church is not merely "Is it Bible-believing?" but "Does it proclaim, glorify, and magnify the Christ of the Bible?"
G. Conclusion: the chief aim of Moses, the law, the prophets, the apostles, and the whole counsel of God is to glorify Christ and enjoy him forever — come to the table hungry for the bread that has come down from heaven
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 10
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 10
A. A little foolishness goes a long way — Ecclesiastes 10:1
B. Guard the heart, for folly begins there — Ecclesiastes 10:2
C. Foolishness identifies itself — its stench can be learned and avoided
D. Wisdom responds to provocation with calm — Ecclesiastes 10:4
A. Foolishness brings its own sting in the realm of work — Ecclesiastes 10:8–11
B. Foolishness stings in the realm of rulers and society — Ecclesiastes 10:5–7, 16–17
C. Believers should expect, not be surprised by, the fool in leadership
D. Our better King bears the sting on behalf of his people
A. Levity is woven through the passage to expose the absurdity of foolishness
B. Without the bigger picture — the end of the matter — mankind lives toward silly goals
C. The end of the matter reframes everything — Ecclesiastes 12:13
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 9:13
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 9:13-18
A. Solomon encounters something that seems "great" to him — a rare moment in Ecclesiastes
B. Solomon's conclusion: wisdom is better than might, even without recognition (Ecclesiastes 9:16)
C. Wisdom functions as salt in a foolish world (Matthew 5)
A. The loud rule over the quiet (Ecclesiastes 9:17)
B. Popularity is as enticing as riches
C. Wisdom is by nature quiet and self-effacing; foolishness is loud and self-promoting
A. One sinner destroys much good (Ecclesiastes 9:18)
B. Sin's destruction spreads like gangrene
C. Sin destroys what is good, not what is evil
D. The greater one man: Christ reverses Adam's ruin
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 9:1-12
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 9:1-12
A. The preacher's methodology: laying all things to heart and examining them with humility (Ecclesiastes 9:1)
B. Death comes to all — the one universal certainty (Ecclesiastes 9:2-3)
C. The living have hope precisely because they can know they will die (Ecclesiastes 9:4-6)
A. Outcomes in life do not always follow expected patterns (Ecclesiastes 9:11)
B. The day of death is itself uncertain (Ecclesiastes 9:12)
C. James mirrors the preacher's teaching on uncertainty (James 4:13-16)
A. A call to live — the imperatives of Ecclesiastes 9:7-10
B. The reason for this way of life: God has already approved what you do (Ecclesiastes 9:7)
C. Jesus embodies and fulfills the message of these verses
D. Every call to eat and drink with joy points forward to eternal fellowship with Christ
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