Christmas Communion 2024: Sunday December 22nd morning was not recorded due the style of its service. However, the Communion Service sermon was recorded. The text is Matthew 1:21. When God shows up, when the Almighty Sovereign Ruler and Maker of the Universe when He becomes flesh He doesn’t come so you and I can say, “I don’t know Him,” or “If He’s real, He doesn’t like me,” no when God shows Himself to us He does so as Savior.

I love this, in Exodus 3, God tells Moses, “My name is Yahweh, I am,” and here when that God becomes flesh, when that God who scared Moses and scared His people and destroyed their enemies, when He becomes flesh He says, “My name is Yahweh, I am, and I Am Savior. That’s why I’m here.”

After 3 or 4 other attempts at Scripture passages and sermons, I came to my keep-it-simple-stupid-senses, and listened on my audio Bibles to the story of the birth of John, a promised son near the Promised Son Himself: Jesus. And I heard this... this prescribed muteness. This judgment, this discipline of “You shall not speak,” and that spoke to me, because I’ve been feeling like I can’t speak behind the pulpit without greater and greater struggles most weeks. And I said, “LORD, let’s explore this.” Let’s explore how, quote, a, “righteous [man] in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and decrees of the Lord,” faces the Lord, quite literally, is face-to-face with a Messenger, an Angel of the LORD, and ends up not only silent, speechless, but it’s because of unbelief! A priest, one of the relatively few who gets to enjoy this office, is chosen by lot, and again – is righteous and blameless, but he comes to a place of exercising unbelief.

Have you ever gone back to read, in context, those times Matthew says, "This was to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet..." and wondered? When Christ fulfilled "Out of Egypt, I called my Son," why is Hosea talking about the Exodus of the Israelites? And Isaiah 7:14, why is that in the middle of a narrative about Isaiah confronting unrighteous King Ahaz about a war brewing between two alliances? The sign that Ahaz will have is about a virgin who gives birth, that Ahaz won't even be around for? Was Matthew trying to pull a fast one on us, or are we missing something?

A couple. A promised Son. The presence of God. A promise of the Son saving God's people. It's all there. Written for history to see.

Abraham’s denying what God has promised, and is asking Him to bless his – Abraham’s – sloppy seconds. His feeble attempts at doing what God has promised. Have you ever been there? You settle. You say, “Maybe this is it?” And you begin to believe it so much that when God does show up – when there’s maybe a glimmer of something better, something God-sized, you’re more willing to latch on what’s before your face, than what’s promised. Because you’re not sure if what’s promised can be accomplished.

Literally from history’s beginning, from the first moments of sin’s intrusion into the world, Jesus was promised. The Son in the cradle, that Joseph and Mary held - He was promised. He was promised first in God’s declaration to Satan, and He was foretold by the blood of Abel.

A sermon is released from the sermon vault, as Woodland does "open worship" today. In this message from the book of Mark, Kevin examines Jesus' memorable moment at the Temple, as he reveals the rotten religion of his day. See another sermon from the sermon vault on Woodland Friends' YouTube channel.

The 144 thousand. The Great Tribulation. These are loaded terms and have a popular interpretation behind them. What are they, if we examine the context and counsel of all Scripture? How are the 144K spared who come out of the Great Tribulation?

It sounds kind of final. It sounds kind of world-ending. What's hard is what Revelation shows us, and maybe we miss it because we don’t study enough Old Testament prophets, maybe we just don’t like to saturate in this truth, I don’t know - but God is capable of great wrath. He is capable of horrific judgment. He is the Sovereign over it.

Revelation feels so otherworldly. It feels like a science fiction novel placed at the end of a rather large chunk of books that are timeless, ancient, but timeless. The Bible opens with us getting to know Yahweh, getting to know Jesus and His followers, and then right smack dab on the end, we're taught,” “And this Book is about a whole new cast of characters and dramas yet to take place,” and it felt like throwing in – I don’t know – a platypus at the long line of a cat, a mountain lion, a leopard, and a lion, and then here’s a platypus. That’s Revelation. Or is it?