God’s Word helps us grow as followers of Jesus. At Messiah we believe in being a 3/3’s church. By that we mean all ages - in God’s Word - everyday. Through study of God’s Word people of all ages can grow in faith as followers of Jesus.

Martin Luther was amazed and moved by the Syrophoencian woman’s interaction with Jesus. Luther saw the gospel in it. “This woman saw the gospel - that you’re more wicked than you ever believed, but at the same time more loved and accepted than you ever dared to hope…On the cross, the Child of God was thrown away, cast away from the table without a crumb, so that those of us who are not children of God could be adopted and brought in. Put another way, the Child had to become a dog so that we could become sons and daughters at the table. And because Jesus identified like that with us, now we know why we can approach Him” (Timothy Keller, King’s Cross, 89-94).

“Chapter 8 of Mark’s Gospel is a pivotal chapter. It’s the climax of the first act, in which the disciples finally begin to see the true identity of the one they have been following…Here at last Peter begins to get the answer to the big question, ‘Who is Jesus?’ He proposes to Jesus, ‘You are the Chirst.’ Peter is using a word that literally means ‘anointed one.’ Kings were traditionally anointed with oil as a kind of coronation, but the word Christos had come to mean the Anointed One, the Messiah, the King to end all kings, the King who’s going to put everything right” (Timothy Keller, King’s Cross, 95-96).

“Jarius came to Jesus for a fever cure, not for a resurrection. When you go to Jesus for help, you get from Him far more than you had in mind…Or take the sick woman. She came to Jesus for healing. But she wanted to just touch and run.” Both the healing of Jarius’ daughter and the sick woman is a foreshadowing of the cross. “Are you trying to hurry Jesus? Are you impatient with the waiting? Let Him take you by the hand, let Him do what He wants to do. He loves you completely. He knows what He’s doing” (Timothy Keller, King’s Cross, 65-69).

“The word Sabbath means a deep rest, a deep peace. It’s a near synonym for shalom - a state of wholeness and flourishing in every dimension of life…Jesus is the source of the deep rest we need…When Jesus calls you to rest, He is calling you to take time off - physical and mental time off from work on a regular basis. But there’s another level of rest, a deeper level…Jesus has lived the life you should have lived, He has died the death you should have died. If you rely on Jesus’ finished work, you know that God is satisfied with you. (And) you can be satisfied with life” (Timothy Keller, King’s Cross, 42-43).

“The Bible says that our real problem is that every one of us is building our identity on something besides Jesus” (Timothy Keller, King’s Cross, 30). It’s important that we let Jesus be our Savior!