Dr. McKellar’s Lesson for October 13, 2024

Why We All Need Jesus

Hebrews 1:1-4

Series: Highlights in Hebrews

1. Background

• theme: Jesus is better…
• original audience: Jewish Christians in need of endurance

2. Scripture Presents Jesus as God’s Final Word 1-2a

• assertion that God has spoken
• a four-fold contrast: when, how, to whom and through whom

3. Scripture Discloses the Incomparable Credentials of Jesus 2b-4

• a catalog crammed into just over two verses:
• heir of all things
• agent of creation
• radiance of glory
• exact representation
• upholds by His word
• completed work of purification for sins
• sat down at God’s right hand
• superior to angels

4. So What?

• In light of Scripture’s testimony to His supremacy, recognize that Jesus is all you need now and forever.
• “He is not the kind of deity who keeps Himself to Himself.” (H. Jones)
• “All there is of salvation for us is to be found in Jesus.” (L. Duncan)
• “We’re all broken people. Don’t we all need Jesus? Every moment of our lives, 24, 365…” (D. Gokey)

Dr. McKellar’s Lesson for September 8, 2024

Series on Psalms For Sonburst

Comprehensive Care

Psalms 23:1-6

This beloved Psalm has comforted countless pilgrims in this life. Since the LORD, who lacks nothing, cares for those who lack everything, satisfy yourself in Him as the Shepherd of your soul.

1. Comprehensive Care Means No Lack 1-3

• first five words: intimacy and exclusivity
• sufficiency, refreshment and renewal: for the sake of His name

2. Comprehensive Care Means No Fear 4

• protective tools
• scouting the landscape of your life

3. Comprehensive Care Means No End 5-6

• overflowing certainty
• pursuing His sheep with goodness and mercy

4. Comprehensive Care Means No Other

• connection to Christ: the supreme Shepherd (John 10) and sacrificial Lamb
• the rest of the story: Psalm 22:27; Rev. 7

5. So What?

• the only hope for wayward sheep: a watchful and sacrificing Shepherd
• “The King of Love my Shepherd is, whose goodness fails me never. I nothing lack if I am His and He is mine forever…Perverse and foolish I have strayed, but in His love He sought me, and on His shoulder gently laid and home, rejoicing, brought me.” (Baker, “The King of Love My Shepherd Is”)

Dr. McKellar’s Lesson for September 1, 2024

Never Abandoned

Psalms 16:1-11

Series: Psalms For Sonburst

1. Appeal for Sovereign Protection 1-4

• request
• recognition

2. Assessment of Supreme Value 5-6

• portion/inheritance (Num. 18:20)
• cup

3. Assurance of Sustaining Power 7-11

• instruction
• contemplation
• confidence
• connection to Christ: (Acts 2:25-36, 13:35-37, 1 Cor. 15:20)
• unutterable bliss

4. So What?

• Because the LORD’s love and care for you lasts forever, face your future with full assurance.
• “God is not one to give up His friends.” (Kidner) (See Phil. 1:6)
• Build assurance through absorbing God’s Word.
• “When God is mine and I am His, of paradise possessed, I taste unutterable bliss and everlasting rest.” (“I Know That My Redeemer Lives,” C. Wesley)

Dr. McKellar’s Lesson for June 2, 2024

Taken up from You into Heaven

Acts 1:1-11

1. Background 1-5

• authorship and recipients of Acts
• doctrine of the Ascension
• promise of the Holy Spirit

2. A Question about Restoration 6-7

• kingdom to Israel
• fixed by the Father

3. A Focus on Reception 8

• empowerment
• extension

4. A Fulfillment of Revelation 9-11

• lifted up (Psa. 2:7-9, 68:18, 110:1-4; Heb. 9:24, 1 John 2:1-2)
• cloud
• angelic confirmation

5. So What?

• Because Christ’s Ascension confirms His claims, acknowledge its encouragements and apply its truths.
• “The dust of the earth sits on the throne of heaven.” (J. Duncan)
• “You have raised our human nature on the clouds to God’s right hand; there we’ll sit in heavenly places, there with You in glory stand. Jesus reigns, adored by angels, man with God is on the throne; mighty Lord, in Your ascension, we by faith behold our own.” (“See, the Conqueror Mounts in Triumph!” by Christopher Wordsworth)

Dr. McKellar’s Lesson for February 18, 2024

This Time Next Year

Genesis 17

In Genesis 17 the LORD reiterates and expands on the instructions/promises He conveyed previously. In the events leading up to Genesis 17, Abram did what most of us have done when presented with situations that seem incompatible with God’s promises: He attempted to run ahead of God.

1. The Purpose of God’s Design

• to stagger us
• to show us

2. The Parameters of God’s Dominion

• Elohim
• El Shaddai
• significance of a name change

3. The Priority of God’s Desire

• orientation
• renewal of covenant promises
• “…walk before me…blameless…”
• Ishmael and Isaac (Gen. 21:1-7)
• same day submission

4. So What?

• Since the Lord keeps His promises, anticipate His future faithfulness in every facet of your life.
• “God loves to magnify His sovereign grace and keep us in our humble place.” (Piper)
• Orient your life to God’s presence and God’s promises.
• It really is all about Jesus (John 8:58)!

Dr. McKellar’s Lesson for December 24, 2023

Christmas Message

First Christmas Comprehension

Luke 2:1-15

1. Historical Setting 1-5

• acknowledgement of earthly governmental activity
• from Nazareth to Bethlehem with his betrothed, who was pregnant

2. Holy Birth 6-7

• the time came for Mary to give birth to her firstborn son
• wrapped in cloths and placed in a manger
• an ancient “no vacancy” issue

3. Heavenly Announcement 8-15

• singling out the shepherds
• angelic appearance and shining of glory
• fear acknowledged and addressed with the ultimate birth announcement
• peace for whom?

4. So What?

• Because of the first Christmas, sinners like us can know true liberation that leads to lasting celebration.
• “God of God, Light of Light. Lo, He abhors not the virgin’s womb; very God, begotten not created…” (F. Oakeley, verse 2 of “O Come, All Ye Faithful”)
• “The very mention of the cross should be far removed not only from a Roman citizen’s body, but from his mind, his eyes, his ears.” (Roman orator Cicero in a speech to the Senate a 100 or so years before Paul penned Phil. 2:5-11 under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit)
• “He was poor, that he might make us rich. He was born of a virgin, that we might be born of God. He took our flesh, that he might give us His Spirit. He lay in the manger, that we may lie in paradise. He came down from heaven, that he might bring us to heaven…that the ancient of Days should be born… that he who thunders in the heavens should cry in the cradle…that Christ should be made of a woman, and of that woman which himself made, that the branch should bear the vine, that the mother should be younger than the child she bare, and the child in the womb bigger than the mother; that the human nature should not be God, yet one with God. Behold love that passeth knowledge! Come and worship!” (Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity)

Dr. McKellar’s Lesson for November 26, 2023

Guest Speaker: Dr. Jim Sibley

Messiah

The Undercover Messiah

Deuteronomy 18:15-19

I. The Prophet Prophesied: Deuteronomy 18:15–19

a. The Prophet as the Suffering Servant of Isaiah (Isaiah 40–55)
b. The Prophet as the Authoritative Word

II. His Encounter with the Woman of Samaria: John 4

a. An Understanding of the Samaritans’ Identity
b. An Understanding of Jesus’ Identity: John 4:19

1. The Discussion Regarding Water: John 4:10
2. Supernatural Knowledge: John 4:16–18

c. The Unanticipated Result

1. In the Village: John 4:39, 41–42
2. In the Nation: Ezekiel 37:15–22; Acts 8

III. The Feeding of the Five Thousand: John 6

a. The Miraculous Provision of Bread: John 6:8–13
b. The Identity of Jesus Revealed: John 6:14

IV. The Transfiguration: Matthew 17

a. The Correspondence of Time: Exod 24:16; Matt 17:1
b. The Correspondence of Companions: Exod 24:1; Matt 17:1
c. The Correspondence of the Clouds: Exod 19:9; Matt 17:5
d. The Correspondence of the Countenance: Exod 34:29; Matt 17:2

A. M. Ramsey writes, “Moses went up into the Mount . . . and when he came down to the people the skin of his face shone. Here, in contrast is the new and greater Moses, whose face shines not with a reflected glory but with the unborrowed glory as of the sun’s own rays.”

e. The Conversation on the Mount

1. The Exodus of Jesus
2. “Listen to Him”!

Dale Allison says, “It is natural to see in [Matthew] 17:1–9 the greater than Moses theme; for, at the last, Moses and Elijah disappear, and the reader is left with the command to ‘hear him,’ that is, the one Son of God, Jesus.”

The Prophet Still Speaks, “Listen to Him”!