Sermon preached on John 1:1-18 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Christmas Eve Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 12/24/2009 in Novato, CA.  This special service was held at Atria Tam Creek Retirement Community.

Manuscript: The Coming of the Incarnate Word

The Coming of the Incarnate Word [ 26:45 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Who do you want Jesus to be?  Of course, who you want Jesus to be, is quite different than who he really is.  Yet it is a common temptation for us to want to tell Jesus who he is supposed to be.  Or what he is supposed to do for us, or for our life.  Mark, however, has been presenting us with the Biblical Jesus.

Throughout the book, Mark has been asking the question, “Who is Jesus?”  And so as we look at this climactic passage in the book of Mark, I want to remind us of this question Mark has been asking.  I want us to look again today at who Jesus is.  I want us to look again at what it means for him to be the Christ and what it means for him to be the Son of God.  It’s quite fitting that Mark drives home this message with the story of the cross.

Passage: Mark 15:33-41
Author: Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Sermon originally preached during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 03/22/2009 in Novato, CA.

Manuscript: Darkness Over the Whole Land

Darkness Over the Whole Land [ 35:37 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This year for our Christmas sermon I want us to reflect on the genealogy of Jesus Christ.  When we look at the Bible, we see lots of genealogies throughout.  And that is fitting.  Right from the fall of mankind God had made a promise to Adam and Eve.  God promised that the seed of the woman would one day crush the seed of the serpent.  That meant humanity had to be on the lookout for the promised child.  Family trees were then recorded.  Genealogies passed down.  But for generation after generation, the promised seed still hadn’t come.  And then we find God renewing that promise along the way through other men as well.  And so the records kept building until one day they found their fulfillment in Jesus.

Passage: Matthew 1:1-17
Author: Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Sermon originally preached during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 12/21/2008 in Novato, CA.

Click here for the manuscript.

The Genealogy of Jesus Christ [ 36:17 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

If you go to an optometrist, it’s to help you see better.  The disciples in our passage, had trouble seeing.  They had trouble recognizing Jesus.  When they saw him in the waters, they thought he was a ghost.  Did they need to see an optometrist?  Well, no.  That wasn’t their problem.  It wasn’t their physical sight at the end of the day that kept them from recognizing Jesus.  Because at the end of the passage, they will physically see that it is Jesus.  He will call out to them, and then even get into the boat with them.  But even when that happens, and they see with their eyes that it is indeed Jesus, they seem to still have trouble truly recognizing him.  They saw him with their eyes, but they didn’t understand him with their hearts.  That’s what verse 52 tells us.  Their hearts were hardened.  So if they didn’t need an optometrist, does this mean that they needed a cardiologist?  No, their problem with recognizing Jesus was not something that any earthly doctor could solve.  They did need their hearts to be worked on, but that was something only Jesus, the Great Physician could do.  Not with craft of human hands, of course, but by the working of his spirit inside them.  And this is the same sort of heart surgery that each of us needs.

Passage: Mark 6:45-56
Author: Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Sermon originally preached during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 06/22/2008 in Novato, CA.

Click here for the manuscript.

They Supposed It Was a Ghost [ 33:53 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download