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The Bible is one of my favorite topics. I love the text. Therefore, I get excited with every reminder in the text at how great the text is. Our text today is a great reminder of the necessity of God’s word in our life. In preparation for today’s sermon, I was looking at passages where the Bible claims its sufficiency. I spent some time in Psalm 119. This one chapter in your Bible gives scripture the following attributes: Righteousness, Truth, faithfulness, unchanging, eternal, pure, inerrant, and more. If you think about those attributes, they belong to God. So scriptures claim for itself is that it reflects the character of God. That is a must if it’s truly God’s word. God’s words can’t contradict God’s nature. Peter emphasized the eternality of scripture at the end of chapter one. It’s an extension of God himself. So, it’s all the things it claims to be. Scripture can’t lie. That understanding should make you hungry for the word of God. You should desire the word and what it says. This is one of the reasons we are such a Bible-heavy church. We trust scripture, crave it, and know it leads to growth.

Today is a great day. The resurrection of Jesus Christ, along with the death of Jesus Christ, is the greatest event in the history
of the universe. Of everything that is ever celebrated, for Christians this should be truly embraced. Belief in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave is absolutely essential to ones Christianity. Romans 10:9 – says we must believe that God raised
Him from the dead. Now Christ’s resurrection is so important because it’s connected to several things.

First, His resurrection is connected to His death. One can’t rise from the dead unless they first die. Christ’s death was the necessary payment to release God’s people from their bondage to sin and death. The resurrection was proof of God accepting that payment. God was satisfied with the sacrifice. Romans 4:25 says He was delivered up for our trespassed and raised for our justification. If Jesus didn’t rise, God would not have approved His death and we would not be justified.

Second, Jesus Christ’s resurrection is the guarantee of our own resurrection. The Bible calls Christ the first fruit of those who
have fallen asleep. That means there is more resurrection to come.
1 Corinthians 15 makes it clear that all people will have a bodily
resurrection. Death isn’t the end of us spiritually or bodily, and
Christ’s resurrection guarantees that.
Lastly today, Christ’s resurrection is the hope of His future
ministry. We know that Christ is interceding for His people today.
He isn’t dead. He rose and continues to be the great High Priest for
those that are His. But the Bible also makes a lot of future promises concerning Christ. Christ will judge, rule, reward, and fellowship with His people. Those things would be impossible if He was
dead. He conquered death forever and lives! We must celebrate
the amazing resurrection of Jesus Christ. His death and rising is
the greatest event to ever take place.

Psalm 118:22-26 is a Psalm of rejoicing at the Lord’s triumph. Verse 22 says “the stone which the build-
ers rejected has become the chief cornerstone.” This is the work of God and leads to the salvation of
His people v.23-25. Verse 25 specifically is a cry for salvation, “Yahweh, save! Yahweh succeed!” All of
that leads to v.26 the rejoicing over the one who comes to save. “Blessed is the one who comes in the
name of Yahweh.” That is the exact phrase that the Jews were shouting as Jesus comes into town for
the final week of His life. They lay palm branches and coats on the ground before Him and quote from
Psalm 118:26. The people were proclaiming that Jesus was the Messiah. They were shouting in antici-
pation of victory as they raise their voices and declare Jesus the one sent from God. Luke 19:39 tells us
that the Pharisees rebuked this and wanted it to stop. They understood what the claim was. But Jesus
tells them that if the people didn’t shout it the rocks would. It was the right proclamation. Jesus is the
Messiah coming into town to save His people. However, the people’s shouts change drastically by Fri-
day early morning. You see they wanted a savior, but they wanted it done their way. Jesus wasn’t here
to do things according to the people’s plan but to follow God the Father’s plan. Many people today are
like the crowd welcoming Jesus to town. They love the idea of a savior, but they want that savior on
their terms. The crowd wanted a king, but they weren’t willing to see a beaten and bloody servant as
that king. In application to us, unlike the crowd that day we can’t come to Jesus on our terms. The Bible
doesn’t give us terms to work with. We are dead sinners that must die to self completely. Love the
bloodied, beaten savior that took your place under the wrath of God, and live for Him.

At this church, we often talk about the importance of holiness. We must be a church that cares about the things God
cares about. The Bible is the key to living like Christ. Colossians 6:16 says “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, with all
wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with gratefulness in
your hearts to God.” When one embraces scripture as the true word of God and without reservation seizes the truth
found in it, God’s will is worked into their lifestyle. Scripture shows us that God is holy. He set himself apart from creation,
humanity, and all pagan false Gods. Psalm 99:9 says “the Lord your God is holy.” As we study that holy God, we see
He foreordained a holy savior. He also sends the Holy Spirit to every believer upon salvation. It’s no wonder we must
prioritize sharing in His holiness. Christians therefore must be growing to be like God in character and conduct. This is
done by submitting to the transforming work of the Holy Spirit through the holy Word of God. To truly love holiness,
we must love the text

Last week we talked about the doctrine of election. It’s a hard doctrine for many to swallow but a doctrine that is found all throughout the pages of scripture. As I was processing last week’s sermon, I wanted to give you the most basic answer to what you do with that doctrine. Worship! We were created to worship God. He is worthy to be worshiped. While God created all things to worship Him, the redeemed’s redemption is the foundation for their worship. Worship is the only appropriate response to salvation. In Luke 19 Jesus said He came to “seek and save that which was lost”, in John 4 He told the woman at the well that the Father was seeking true worshipers. Jesus came seeking the true worshippers of the Father. The plan of salvation was laid with the purpose of producing worshipers. The correct response to God’s election is worship. That’s the main theme of scripture, the main theme of heaven, and the main theme of our redemption.

1 Peter is Peter’s first inspired letter to the church. It is written at a time of persecution when the church is being
blamed for the burning of Rome. Nero was responsible for setting the fire to the city, but he quickly passed the blame
onto Christians who were already hated because of their association with Jews. As this time of intense persecution
was happening, Peter writes to encourage and strengthen those believers in their sufferings. Peter doesn’t promise
them that life will get easier throughout this book. He knows the persecution is great and it seems to be increasing, so
he encourages them to suffer well and live victoriously through it. One simple way to summarize the book is Peter
calls them to remember. In the midst of your suffering, remember the salvation you have, remember your testimony
before others, and remember that Christ will return and reward His people.

I look forward to starting the book of 1 Peter with you. We will begin that series on February 5, just two weeks from today. 1 Pe-ter is Peter’s first inspired letter to the church. It is written at a time of persecution when the church is being blamed for the burning of Rome. Nero was responsible for setting the fire to the city, but he quickly passed the blame onto Christians who were already hated because of their association with Jews. As this time of intense persecution was happening, Peter writes to en-courage and strengthen those believers in their sufferings. Peter doesn’t promise them that life will get easier throughout this book. He knows the persecution is great and it seems to be increasing, so he encourages them to suffer well and live victoriously through it. One simple way to summarize the book is Peter calls them to remember. In the midst of your suffering, remember the salvation you have, remember your testimony before others, and remember that Christ will return and reward His people.

From the beginning of the church on we see a group of men who are Elders, doing the decision-making for the church. You could split your Bible up into the church of Jerusalem, the Pauline churches, and the non-Pauline churches and you would see every one of these all being led by a group of Elders. To establish ourselves as an Elder led church is Biblical and we want to be a church that follows God’s word. I know that when things are changed, people have questions. Ask those questions. We want you guys to be informed and excited about this change. We want our whole church on the same page saying “God’s way is the best way.” But I do want to squash a preconceived idea that many seem to have upon hearing this new setup. An Elder led church is not excluding people from ministry. Ephesians 4 makes it clear that Elders are to feed the flock so the flock can do the work of the ministry. While the Elders will have to meet and discuss issues, the people of the church will be encouraged and free to do ministry.

It’s officially 2023. With a new year upon us there are some big changes coming to North Street. Starting this morning from the pulpit you will be hearing about church governance. The New Testament is clear that the church is to be led by a plurality of men not just one man. Today and the next two Sundays you will be hearing about what the New Testament says concerning church leadership. This will lead us to change the bylaws of North Street and officially make North Street an elder-led church. It’s very exciting and you will hear more about it in these three sermons but know that God’s way is always the best way. At the end of these three sermons there will be a vote for all the members of North Street on the new bylaws. This will be the last congregational vote held at North Street. If you are a member of North Street come to that meeting which will be immediately after church and vote in the new bylaws. The bylaws are available on the church website as well as some hard copies for those that don’t have Internet access. Hard copies can be picked up at the back of the worship center. Looking forward to a great year and lots of study through God’s word together.

This year the Elders of North Street have prepared an Advent series to help prepare us for Christmas. As we get to this time of year it is helpful to have a reminder of what Christmas is. God becoming a man is miraculous. The incarnation is not just another event in history, it’s life-changing, it’s life-saving! With December 25 being a Sunday this year, we decided to encourage our entire congregation to study the same passages together from December 1 through Christmas Eve. Every day we will look at a passage that points us to the coming of Jesus Christ. We are asking you to read the selected passage and think about it for that day. To help you understand the Elders have prepared a short video explanation of each passage. The videos will be released onto the church website daily as well as on social media. This will have all of us dwelling on the same amazing facts about God’s plan of redemption, leading up to Christmas Day when we will come together and worship Sunday morning. Grab an advent reading list from the entrance of the church and get ready to read through December.