Tried With Fire

God kept His promise from Genesis 3:15: "The New Testament witnesses to the fact that Jesus of Nazareth is the One in whom and through whom all the promises of God find their fulfillment. These promises are only to be understood from the Old Testament; the fulfillment of the promises can be understood only in the context of the promises themselves. The New Testament presupposes a knowledge of the Old Testament. Everything that is a concern to the New Testament writers is part of one redemptive history to which the Old Testament witnesses. The New Testament writers cannot separate the person and work of Christ, nor the life of the Christian community, from this sacred history which has its beginnings in the Old Testament." The Goldsworthy Trilogy: Gospel and Kingdom by Graeme Goldsworthy, 2011, Paternoster Press, pp. 18-19.

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Matthew 1:21 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!  John 1:29

Last night, we had the opportunity to hear Andrew Peterson and friends perform "Behold the Lamb of God". I'm terrible at estimating people, but my guess is at least 600+ attendees were at the sold-out concert. The first half was a round table performance by the various artists on the tour. In addition to Peterson, Andrew Osenga, Matthew Perryman Jones, Ben Shives, Andy Gullahorn, and Jill Phillips each sang twice. This was an unexpected treat as we had only expected to hear the songs from "Behold the Lamb of God". I especially enjoyed the songs from Andrew Peterson's latest album, Jill Phillips' new version of the hymn Man of Sorrows, and from the opposite end of the spectrum, Andy Gullahorn's (who is Phillips' husband) satirical song about skinny jeans. The second half was "Behold the Lamb of God". Although some of the instrumentation was different from the recording, it was even better live.  The voices and instruments dovetailed...

 God bless you this Christmas as we remember Jesus' first advent and eagerly await His second!     

From yesterday's sermon: John the Baptist did not declare, "See how great is your sin!".  No he declares, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"

Have a blessed Christ-exalting Christmas!