Preaching expository sermons through entire books of the Bible is truly a gift to the church from God himself through great men like the Apostle Paul, Saint Augustine, and John Calvin (to name just a few). Working our way through the Gospel of Mark is a rewarding process. As we dive deeper into the text, we’re learning more and more about what it means to be a Christian and what the experience was like of the first believers. During this time of unfolding and unpacking the teachings in Mark, keep an eye open for these various themes: insiders and outsiders, the authority and identity of Christ, the ultimate mission to the Gentiles, and many others! The more we study and apply the teachings of Scripture, the better, more faithful Christians we’ll become.

​Expository teaching isn’t limited to Scripture. One form of expository teaching is thematic, and that is what you will experience in Bible study this year. I am taking a systematic, article by article examination of the Westminster Confession of Faith. It is a heavy and lengthy summary of the doctrines of Scripture (though it’s length and breadth are but a glimpse when compared to Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion or Hodge’s Systematic Theology). Yet, it remains a paramount document for Reformed theology. In my examination of the Confession, I will show where it is grounded in Scripture and how it relates to us in the 21st Century. I am deeply indebted to Dr. R.C. Sproul, whose book Truths We Confess, is my roadmap through this study series. His book and many other resources can be found online at Ligonier.org.

​Our youth group is no stranger to expository teaching! This year we continue with in-depth Bible study with weekly meetings, so that I can walk our youth through the details of Scripture. In our study of Paul’s Letter to the Romans, the youth’s interests were peaked with some of his teachings on the end times. So much so, that this semester we will take a systematic look at John’s Revelation of Jesus Christ. This book has been and will continue to be a challenge for Christians to interpret, because much of its language is shrouded in symbols and many of the events described haven’t happened. Decoding Revelation with a focus on Reformed interpretation will be my goal as I prepare our youth not only for the coming of Christ but also for their life outside of high school, where many interpretations will attempt to twist or subvert the Word of God.

Bible101 is an in-depth reading group for new believers. This course is an introduction to Paul’s theology and where I survey the gospel of grace in Galatians, our relationship to Christ in Colossians, and the Christian life in Ephesians. Paul’s theology is truly the Bible’s theology. God used the Apostle to enumerate Old Testament truths in the New Testament context. Though that was two-thousand years ago, today’s context is unsurprisingly similar and therefore unsurprisingly relevant.

​A new small group called the Men’s Bible Study is geared toward empowering men to live as Christ commands. The inaugural series is an in-depth look at the doctrines of biblical eldership through Paul’s First and Second Letters to Timothy and Titus. God designs the ordered ministry of the Church and outlines the qualifications and duties of elders throughout Scripture, but most poignantly in the Pastoral Epistles. As we strive to live biblically, we must likewise strive to worship and serve.