Thursday: The Arrival of the King

Theme: The Nature of Christ’s Kingdom

During this week leading up to Easter Sunday, we look at the story of Jesus’ coming into Jerusalem and learn about the nature of his kingdom as seen in his own suffering and death for sinners.

Scripture: Matthew 21:4-5

There is also a third reason. He came to show the nature of His kingdom. That's why He came in the way He did. I think here of the great contrast between what Jesus actually did and what at an earlier point in Matthew's gospel the devil suggested He do. In the temptation of our Lord recorded in Matthew 4, the devil came to Him in the wilderness and suggested that the way He was going about things was inappropriate for one who wanted to be the king of the Jewish nation and of the world besides. He said, in effect, "You're hungry, here are these stones. You need to get into the miracle business and begin to do spectacular things by changing these stones into bread."

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

The Spirit and the Supper

Feeding on Christ in the Supper empowers the Christian to live the Christian life. The Lord’s Supper is spiritual nourishment promised by the sign of bread and wine and realized by the Holy Spirit. If this empowering is the work of the Holy Spirit, it must also be said that the Spirit works through faith. This empowering comes through believing the Gospel, both as it is preached and as it is offered to us in the sacraments.

One of the most characteristic features of Calvin’s teaching on the Supper is the way in which he understood the Lord’s Supper to be “spiritual food." It is here where we find the most obvious influence of biblical wisdom theology.

The Supper as Empowering Food

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Christward Collective is a conversation of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Christward Collective and the mission of the Alliance.

Wednesday: The Arrival of the King

Theme: How Does the King Come?

During this week leading up to Easter Sunday, we look at the story of Jesus’ coming into Jerusalem and learn about the nature of his kingdom as seen in his own suffering and death for sinners.

Scripture: Matthew 21:4-5

And yet as much as Matthew presents Jesus as a prophet and priest, I suppose that of all three functions it is the function of the Lord Jesus Christ as king that is most emphasized by Matthew. You can go back to the very beginning of the first chapter of the book to find this idea. There, you have a record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David. David was the great king of Israel, and so when Matthew begins his gospel by saying this is a record of Jesus Christ, the son of David, he's making it clear that Jesus Christ stands in the royal lineage as the king of this nation, and in fact of the world besides. You find it emphasized in other ways, including in the second chapter, which contains the story of the Magi coming to Jerusalem to inquire of Herod where the king of the Jews was born.

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

Tuesday: The Arrival of the King

Theme: Prophet, Priest, and King

During this week leading up to Easter Sunday, we look at the story of Jesus’ coming into Jerusalem and learn about the nature of his kingdom as seen in his own suffering and death for sinners.

Scripture: Matthew 21:4-5

In thinking about how to summarize the person and work of Christ, the Protestant reformers used a very handy and concise tool for doing just that. It was comprehensive because the reformers were thoughtful men and they went back into both the Old Testament and the New Testament to do it. And it was biblical because it was expressed in the Bible's own language.

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

Monday: The Arrival of the King

Theme: Who Is Jesus?

During this week leading up to Easter Sunday, we look at the story of Jesus’ coming into Jerusalem and learn about the nature of his kingdom as seen in his own suffering and death for sinners.

Scripture: Matthew 21:4-5

One of the difficult things that I have had to do in working with various organizations is to try to summarize the purpose of the organization in order to focus your energies and sometimes communicate to other people what you're trying to do. Sometimes when this kind of thing is attempted, one comes up with a comprehensive statement, which is good, but which can also be a bit long. At least in some cases, it is helpful to be able to shorten the purpose statement to make it more effective in terms of recognizing and remembering it.

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

Friday: Righteous Judgment for a Wicked Man

Theme: A Contrasting Portrait of the Righteous

This week’s lessons remind us that those who do evil will eventually receive the judgment of God, and that in response to this truth we as Christians are to praise the Lord for his righteousness and trust in God’s unfailing love.

Scripture: Psalm 52:1-9

We have to be careful at this point, of course, because we are sinners too, and it is fatally easy for us to forget our own evil when we see how others are brought down and find improper satisfaction in it. Which is why we have the third and final stanza. In it David suggests what the proper attitude of the righteous should be, using himself as an example. He says, “But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God's unfailing love for ever and ever. I will praise you forever for what you have done; in your name I will hope, for your name is good. I will praise you in the presence of your saints.”

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

Thursday: Righteous Judgment for a Wicked Man

Theme: A Prophesied Judgment

This week’s lessons remind us that those who do evil will eventually receive the judgment of God, and that in response to this truth we as Christians are to praise the Lord for his righteousness and trust in God’s unfailing love.

Scripture: Psalm 52:1-9

Having described Doeg's evil character, David next prophecies his end. For it is an important principle in the psalms, often stated by David but also by others, that in a moral universe ultimately evil does not prosper but is instead brought down. And by contrast, the righteous excel.

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

One Step Evangelism

Effectiveness in proclaiming the gospel comes from the degree to which God’s Spirit has enabled the speaker to see and hear Christ. The more we are consumed by the power and wonder of God, and the salvation we have received freely by grace, the more our actions and words will look different

Aren’t you due for a fresh round of evangelism penance? Chances are your church is already offering a healthy assortment of channels through which you can merit some level of atonement for your recent oversight in this area. You could at least take a minute out of your day to savor, like a bitter mint, some good and necessary guilt for your failure to use these means. Maybe there’s somebody in your church who has invited you to help them pass out tracts? Or you have that evangelism training program or Christianity explored course – you could have done one of those.

The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals is member supported and operates only by your faithful support. Thank you.

Christward Collective is a conversation of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Christward Collective and the mission of the Alliance.

Wednesday: Righteous Judgment for a Wicked Man

Theme: Using Words as a Weapon

This week’s lessons remind us that those who do evil will eventually receive the judgment of God, and that in response to this truth we as Christians are to praise the Lord for his righteousness and trust in God’s unfailing love.

Scripture: Psalm 52:1-9

Doeg used words as his weapon. This is the third aspect of Doeg’s evil character. At first glance this does not seem so bad to us. In fact, it seems out of place. We know that boasting is bad, and loving evil is bad by definition. But words? Words seem relatively harmless. Yet when we look carefully at the stanza we see that this is the vice most emphasized: “Your tongue plots destruction; it is like a sharpened razor, you who practice deceit. You love evil rather than good, falsehood rather than speaking the truth. You love every harmful word, O you deceitful tongue” (vv. 2-4).

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

Tuesday: Righteous Judgment for a Wicked Man

Theme: Portrait of a Very Wicked Man

This week’s lessons remind us that those who do evil will eventually receive the judgment of God, and that in response to this truth we as Christians are to praise the Lord for his righteousness and trust in God’s unfailing love.

Scripture: Psalm 52:1-9

The story of David and Doeg is told in this brief section of 1 Samuel 22 and is never mentioned again anywhere else in the Bible, except in the psalm we are studying, which is introduced, as I noted above, by these words: "When Doeg the Edomite had gone to Saul and told him: ‘David has gone to the house of Ahimelech.’”

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

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