Trinity Presbyterian Church

An air of expectancy characterized the people of Israel as Jesus began his public ministry. The source was found in the prophetic Scriptures, such as Malachi 3:1-5, which promised that the Lord would come to his temple as refiner and purifier of his people. The expectation was amplified by John’s self-identification as the voice, crying in the dessert, preparing the way for the Lord.

As Jesus began his public ministry, John records signs that Jesus performed, signs that help you understand who he is and what he does. In looking at the miracle of making glorious, abundant wine (John 2:1-11), we saw Jesus do far more than relieve a newlywed couple of an embarrassing deficit in their hospitality. As he had the jars used for purification filled with water which then quietly became wonderful wine, his sign pointed to himself as the true purifier of his people. Having blessed marriage in the first half of the chapter, Jesus now moves to a much more public setting, the temple in Jerusalem, and identifies himself as the purifier of his people and of their worship, John 2:12-25.

How can a holy God be present with his people–without their being consumed by his holy anger against sin? First with Israel in the wilderness in the Tabernacle, a portable temple, Continue reading →

Can you taste a difference between wine that comes out of a plastic lined box and that which comes from a bottle produced at one of Yamhill County’s finer wineries? I am not a wine connoisseur, but even I can distinguish them. The first miracle of Jesus that John records (John 2:1-11) involves Jesus making not some cheap wine, but rich, good, glorious wine–in abundance. And he made it from water!

Jesus and his disciples were invited to a wedding feast in Cana, a small town in Galilee. The mother of Jesus was there, apparently helping with arrangements. Wedding feasts were times of celebration which could last for days, or even a week. But, embarrassingly, at this wedding they had run out of wine.

These were times of expectation, hope for the coming Continue reading →

What gets you up in the morning? What motivates, what excites you? John, in John 1:35-51, focuses on the most important motivation. He describes enthusiastic calls to follow Jesus as he continues to introduce his Gospel with its purpose of leading you to believe in Jesus.

In response to John the Baptizer again identifying Jesus as the Lamb of God, two of his disciples begin to follow Jesus. One of them, Andrew, finds his brother, Simon, whose name Jesus changes to Cephas or Peter, and tells him, “We have found the Messiah.” (Extending that invitation was one of the greater acts of service anyone has done the church!) Andrew brings his brother to Jesus. The other disciple, Continue reading →

Have you been baptized with the Holy Spirit? You might expect that question in a Pentecostal church, but in a Presbyterian one? There has been enough confusion and misunderstanding about being baptized with the Holy Spirit that some may avoid the question or downplay its importance. But the way that John the Baptist identifies Jesus in John 1:29-34 compels you to see the baptism with the Holy Spirit as crucial to the work of Jesus Christ.

The text covers one particular day in the ministry of John the Baptizer. He begins by identifying Jesus with the title, “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” John uses a second title as he concludes his identification of Jesus that day: “I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God.” Lamb of God. Son of God.

“Lamb” brings to mind many references to the animal in the Old Testament, including the lamb offered every morning and evening as a sacrifice in the Temple. The One to whom John points is the Lamb that God provides. He comes to deal with the ugly problem Continue reading →

“The incarnation means that he who never began to be in his specific identity as Son of God, began to be what he eternally was not. . . . The thought of incarnation is stupendous, for it means the conjunction in one person of all that belongs to Godhead and all that belongs to manhood. . . . The Son of God was sent and came into this world of sin, of misery, and of death.”

“The Person of Christ,” Collected Writings of John Murray, Vol. 2, pp. 132-133, © 1977. Pub. by The Banner of Truth Trust.