Sermons by Bernard Bell (Page 7)

Sermons by Bernard Bell (Page 7)

A Window on Advent

PRELUDE: GOD Before God can come to his world and his people, there must be a world and a people. But before that there must be God; and so we begin at the very top of the window with God, represented by two symbols. On the left is the Alpha and Omega, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. In the Old Testament God declared, “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god” (Isa 44:6 esv; cf. 48:12). In the New Testament Jesus applies the same language to himself: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Rev 22:13; cf. 1:8, 17; 21:6). Everything begins and ends with God, and so our thinking must begin and end with God, otherwise we’ll get everything wrong.

Formed by Word

As we continue in our summer series, “Formed Into Christ,” today’s topic is “Formed By Word.” We take the Word seriously. We identify ourselves as a Bible Church: not such-and-such Baptist Church, though we do believe baptism is for believers, nor Presbyterian Church, though leadership rests within the eldership, nor even Community Church, though we stress the value of community. We are Peninsula Bible Church, and PBC has been such for 65 years, whether in Palo Alto, or Cupertino, or…