Pastor Sullivan's Blog

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Forty days after He rose from the dead Christ ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father almighty. Ten days later the Feast of Pentecost began. Pentecost was the Greek name for the Feast of Weeks, one of the three times a year the Lord commanded all men of Israel to appear before Him (Dt 16:16). Israel had dispersed and lived among the nations for centuries, but many had come back for Passover and then Pentecost. That’s why there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven , Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs . They had problem been dwelling in Jerusalem for Passover which was only fifty days before. Luke tells us that on that day the apostles were all with...

  Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Christ has good news for His apostles. The good news is that, although He was going back to the Father, He promised to send them the Helper, the Comforter, the Advocate, the Holy Spirit who proceeds from God the Father. The Holy Spirit would testify of Christ to the nations and He would do that work of testifying through the apostles. They would also bear witness — that is, testify — because they had been with Christ from the beginning of His earthly ministry. They were eyewitnesses to all of it so they would testify to Christ’s ministry and miracles, His teaching and doctrine, His suffering and death to pay for the sins of the world, His resurrection from the dead to justify and sanctify believers, and His ascension far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things (Eph 4:10). This was a great promise. The Holy Spirit, the third person of the eternal and coequal godhead, would be present in thei...

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Forty days after He rose from the dead, Jesus ascends into heaven. Mark writes, “ He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God .” We confess this every Sunday in the creed, and we've heard Jesus throughout the Easter season teach His disciples that He was going away to the Father. But this is the day it finally happened. Christ the Lord, true God and true man, ascends far above the highest heavens to sit at the right hand of God the Father almighty. But what does it mean that Christ has ascended to the right hand of God? If we think of it spatially, as if the right hand of God were a certain place in heaven, then it doesn’t make much sense to celebrate Christ’s ascension. Jesus is here one moment. The next He’s gone, in His special heavenly place and there to remain until the Last Day when He will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trump...

Jesus had already taught His disciples how to pray. They approached Jesus back in Luke 11:1, saying, “ Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples .” Jesus taught them to pray by giving them the Our Father , the Lord’s Prayer as we call it. Jesus begins by teaching them to approach God, His Father, as their Father. He is their father because they believe that Jesus is His Son who has come into the world to save sinners as St. Paul writes, “ You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus ” (Gal 3:26). Jesus teaches them to pray to God, to present their requests to God, as a child asks his earthly father for something he needs. Jesus also teaches them what to pray for. They are to pray that God’s name be hallowed, that is, that His Word be taught purely and plainly and that those who hear and believe would lead holy lives according to His word. They are to pray for God’s kingdom to come, that is, that the Holy Spirit works in their hearts through His word to creat...

Romans 13.11-14 Matthew 21.1-9 Today is the First Sunday in the season of Advent—the penitential season in which we prepare our hearts for Christ’s coming in glory on the Last Day—which means it is also the first Sunday of the Church’s new year. In what may seem like an oddity, we begin this season of penitential preparation and the new year by hearing of Christ’s entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. But it’s not odd at all when we consider all that the Holy Spirit wants to teach us in this event. Jesus and His disciples draw near Jerusalem. They come to the village of Bethphage at the Mount of Olives. There Jesus tells two of His disciples—which two doesn’t matter—to go to the village. There they will find a tethered donkey and a colt. Jesus didn’t sent scouts into the village. Being God in human flesh, He sees all things and knows all things. By telling His disciples what they will find when they enter the village, Jesus wants to teach them—and us—that He truly knows all things. He...