TRC Chattanooga Podcast

John the Baptist began to proclaim at the time of Jesus' Baptism that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah, the Lamb of God, sent into the world to save the world from sin. This title of Christ as the Lamb of God derives from the Old Testament Exodus events and goes on to be the glorious name of Jesus Christ in the final book of the Bible, the book of Revelation. Listen as Elder Glenn Jones preaches from John's Gospel and expounds the...

The Apostle Paul regularly opens his letters with thanksgiving, even giving thanks as he wrote the first letter to the Corinthians with all their divisions and troubles. Given this pattern in the Epistles, it is good and right to conclude that all Christians should be thankful, even if they and their local congregations are not perfect people. Listen as Elder Glenn Jones exhorts the congregation of Trinity Reformed Church from 1 Co...

Today’s Gospel lesson shows us Jesus’ baptism according to St. Matthew’s account. We need to understand the distinction between John’s baptism and Christian Baptism. But we also must understand why it is that John initially refuses to do so. Finally, we need to ask ourselves what the significance of this text is. It’s kind of easy to gloss over certain accounts and miss the point. This text might be one of them, but it should not b...

Isaiah 42:4 is part of the “Suffering Servant” passages. In it, we learn that Jesus will not be discouraged (or perhaps crushed) until he has established justice in the earth. This means we need to understand the sort of justice Jesus is establishing here. It’s controversial and misunderstandings abound. But it also imposes an obligation on us. Using Christ as our example, it means we also ought not be discouraged. We are in a spir...

The old Christian hymn - We Three Kings Of Orient Are - reminds us of the great tradition of Christian interpretation surrounding the wise men and how it came to be that they knew to look for a star of Israel that would mark the coming of their Messiah and King. These royal travelers from the East came bearing royal gifts from afar and when they found baby King Jesus, they fell down and worshipped him. Listen as Elder Glenn Jones r...

St. John begins his Gospel with a prologue. Riding on top of, and magnifying, themes found in his Gospel, this prologue makes devestating points against the Hellenistic world. The Word was in the beginning, and he was with God. We also learn that the Word tabernacled among us. But what does all of it mean? If the Word/Logos is something foundational to all of existence, understanding that the same Word came and dwelled among us is ...

St. Paul tells us in Galatians 4 that we are no longer slaves but sons. That is very good news indeed. But there must be more to the story, because everywhere Paul refers to himself as a slave, or a servant. By examining other writings from Paul, we begin to get a clearer sense of how exactly Jesus Christ has saved us, and we can make sense of Paul’s good news in Galatians 4:7. We are free. We are free to live as sons of God. Liste...

Isaiah prophesied about the coming birth of Christ long before it actually happened. Then when it did happen, Matthew's Gospel referenced Isaiah's writing. For about 2,000 years, we were all pretty happy with that explanation. Until some historical critical theologians got ahold of it and made a mess of things. What should we know about the prophecy concerning Jesus Christ's incarnation? Listen as Rev. David Beckmann preaches at TR...

We’ve all had people and institutions who have let us down over the years, or at least failed to meet our expectations. When two disciples are sent by John the Baptist to Jesus to ask him whether he is the coming one, Jesus asks them to observe what they see around them and draw their own conclusions. Did John the Baptist have his own Doubting Thomas moment? Or does it really matter, anyway? What is Holy Scripture attempting to tel...

The theme for the third Sunday in Advent is: joy. Paul tells us in both Philippians and Romans that Christians ought to be joyful…always. This is the expected biblical disposition of the Christian’s emotional and mental state. The problem is that we’re not always joyful. The world loads us down, especially in Advent, when calendars get more full than we might like. But if Christians have a God who saved them, then Christians must r...

A new Church year is upon us and that means that we must prepare our minds and hearts to celebrate and remember how Christ came into the world at Christmas. But before we get to the Christmas season, it is always helpful to gain a deeper understanding of the season of Advent as a whole, especially in how Jesus' coming into the world is a unified whole - Christ has come, Christ is coming, and Christ will come again. Listen as Elder ...

The Gospel text for Christ the King Sunday is a bit of a surprising selection for the uninitiated. We find Luke’s account of the crucifixion of our Lord, and that doesn’t exactly seem like a King reigning on his throne. That’s the problem for us: things often seem upside down to us. But reigning is exactly what he is doing. Christ has put all his enemies under hit feet. And at the throne of his cross, he puts sin, death, and the de...

Christ is the image of the invisible God. No one has ever seen the Father, but we have seen Christ. And if you have seen Christ, you have seen the Father. So it is fitting for us, on the last Sunday of the church year, to consider the lordship of our Savior Jesus Christ. Today is Christ the King Sunday. How does St. Paul help us to understand what that means? Listen as Elder Wes Keene exhorts the congregation at TRC Chattanooga, ba...