Will Vaus

  Today we are continuing a new sermon series I have entitled “Route 66” because we are taking a journey together through all 66 books of the Bible in 66 Sundays. My challenge to you, after hearing a message about each book of the Bible is to read the book of the week. Then we invite you during the week to join us for one of our small groups where I will try to answer questions you may have about your reading.   So, today we are focusing on the second book of the Old Testament, the book of Exodus. Each week my plan is to tell you something about the author of the book we are studying, the date it was probably written, the themes of the book, the structure, and then focus on one key concept from each book. So, here we go…   Author   Last week we talked about the traditional view that Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. I pointed out that there is no internal claim to Mosaic authorship in any of these books. Deuteronomy talks about Moses writing down the Law...

Today we begin a new sermon series I have entitled “Route 66” because we are going to take a journey together through all 66 books of the Bible in 66 Sundays. My challenge to you is to read the book of the week and then come to church to hear a message about that book. You can also join us during the week for one of our small groups where I will try to answer questions you may have about your reading.   So, let’s begin at the beginning, with the book of Genesis. Each week my plan is to tell you something about the author of the book we are studying, the date it was probably written, the themes of the book, the structure, and then focus on one key concept from each book. So, here we go…   Author   The traditional view is that Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. However, there is no internal claim to Mosaic authorship in any of these books. The view of modern scholarship, for the past 200 years, is a bit more complicated.   The view of modern scholarship reg...

Margaret Sangster Phippen wrote that in the mid 1950s her father, British minister W. E. Sangster, began to notice some uneasiness in his throat and a dragging in his leg. When he went to the doctor, he found that he had an incurable disease that caused progressive muscular atrophy. His muscles would gradually waste away, his voice would fail, his throat would soon become unable to swallow. Sangster threw himself into his work in British home missions, figuring he could still write, and he would have even more time for prayer. “Let me stay in the struggle Lord,” he pleaded. “I don’t mind if I can no longer be a general but give me just a regiment to lead.” He wrote articles and books and helped organize prayer cells throughout England. “I’m only in the kindergarten of suffering,” he told people who pitied him. Gradually Sangster’s legs became useless. His voice went completely. But he could still hold a pen, shakily. On Easter morning, just a few weeks before he died, he wrote a lette...

“Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.’ Having said this, he breathed his last.” Luke 23:46 In a sense, Jesus died just like everyone else has died or will die. A moment came when he breathed his last breath on earth. Then his friends took his body and buried him in a tomb. But there are, of course, some ways that Jesus’ death was different… First, Jesus spent the final moments of his earthly life praying. Luke is the only Gospel that records this saying, perhaps because Luke had a special interest in prayer. Now, I am not saying that Jesus is the only person who ever came to the end of his earthly life in prayer. In fact, in his prayer, Jesus is quoting Psalm 31:5. The quotation was used as part of a Jewish evening prayer; the use of this prayer fits the evening of life just as it fits the evening before sleep. The time of Jesus’ death may have actually been the time of evening prayer, the ninth hour. Jesus set an example that others...