Sunday worship

Last Sunday we wrapped up our study of Exodus. For the last two years I’ve been preaching primarily from this book of the Bible, and I trust that the congregation has benefited from going through it passage by passage (I did skip a couple of sections). As we looked at Exodus week by week, we were reminded that the Church is God’s people today, and that God has delivered us from our bondage to sin and death through the One greater than Moses, the Lord Jesus Christ.

I preached from chapter 40, the final chapter in Exodus. After Moses assembled the tabernacle, the Lord filled it with his glory. The glory was so great that not even Moses could enter the tent of meeting. Here is one way Exodus testifies to the coming Christ – a more perfect mediator than Moses was necessary to bridge the distance between God and his people. As God in the flesh, Jesus shares in the holiness of God so that he can do what Moses could not do – bring us into the presence of a holy God.

So as wonderful as God’s presence among his people was as his glory filled the tabernacle, still the communion between God and man wasn’t complete. But Christ, who “tabernacled among us” (the literal reading of John 1:14), has perfected our communion with God by taking away our sin and giving us his own righteousness. As a result, God doesn’t make his presence known among us by filling a sacred tent with his glory. Rather, he dwells within the hearts of his people by his Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16). If Exodus ends with glory, how much greater is the glory of the new covenant – Christ in us!

My preaching plan from here is to preach on Psalm 8 this Sunday, then do a series of sermons on the “ordo salutis” (the order of salvation – calling, justification, faith and repentance, etc.), and then begin preaching from the Gospel of Luke.

After the morning service we held our annual congregational meeting. Then at the evening service I continued to speak/preach on the Heidelberg Catechism.

Committee on Foreign Missions

One way the Lord has given me to serve the church is to be a member of the Committee on Foreign Missions of the OPC. I count it a great privilege to serve on this committee. But even more I am humbled by the tremendous sacrifices our foreign missionaries and families make to serve Christ in other countries. Earlier this week I flew to Philadelphia for our meeting (we meet twice a year). The highlight this time was interviewing a family who is preparing to serve in an Asian nation. I look forward to hearing how the Lord will use them in the years to come.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Pastor Scott