'Tis the Season
Sinclair Ferguson has recently released his second advent themed book, Love Came Down. Together with his previously published Child in the Manger, this has quickly become one of my favorite sources for advent meditations. That is not at all surprising, as I have found Sinclair's advent sermons to be among the most thought provoking and spiritually enriching. There are gold nuggets in all of them. For instance, in one of his sermons on the virgin birth, Sinclair explained,
"If God was to speak the language and the mathematics and the physics that was necessary to express creation out of nothing and virginal conception, our minds would seek to expand to their limit--to take it in until we reach the the point that we said, 'I'm sorry that I asked the question. I am just a man or a woman, a boy or a girl. This is too great for me!' And you see, that's the point that we come to recognize that here is the difference between the believer and the unbeliever. That's the point where the believer is content to say, 'You are God and I am not, and I'm content that it should be that way.' Whereas the unbeliever will say, with Friedrich Nietzsche, 'If there is a God who can do such things, how can I bear not to be that God; and so I will not believe.' Yes, it is an amazing, supernatural miracle; but like God's great works-creation, incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection-done safe from men's prying eyes. He brings light out of darkness. He brings His Son into the dark womb of a virgin."
Dr. Ferguson preached a significant number of advent sermons during his time at First Presbyterian Church in Columbia, SC. He has also preached a few in St. George's Tron in Glasgow, Scotland and in St. Peter's Free Church in Dundee, Scotland. You can find these messages below:
St. Peter's Free - Carol Service (Matthew 2:1-12)
The Incarnate Word (John 1:14)
Led by Another Way (Matt. 2:1-12)
The Rejected Word (John 10:1-13)
The First Woman in His Family Tree (Gen. 3:1-21)
The Light Giving Word (John 1:4-9)
Mary: Mother of Jesus (Luke 1:26-38)
The Eternal Word (John 1:1-3)
Joseph: The Prophet (Matt. 1:18-25)
Joseph: The Journeyman (Luke 2:1-75)
And the Baby Lying in a Manger
A Four-Legged Wooly Hump of a Christmas
How Christmas Brings Everything You Need (Heb. 2:5-18)
Celebration: the Joy of Christmas
Adoration: the Effect of Christmas #1 (Luke 2:14)
Incarnation: the Meaning of Christmas (John 1:1-14)
The Man with PCSS (Post-Christmas Stress Syndrome) (Matt 2:1-15)
Jesus, Name Above All Names: Immanuel (Matt. 1:18-25)
Name Above All Names: Jesus (Matt. 1:18-25)
Jesus, Name Above All Names: The Fourfold Name (Isaiah 9:2-7)
Name Above all Names (Phil. 2:1-11)
A Troubling Visitor (Luke 1:5-25)
Magnificat (Luke 1:30)
Around the Manger:Shepherds (Luke 2:1-20)
Around the Manger: Jesus (John 1:1-18)
Around the Manger: Mary (Luke 1:26-38)
An Angel's View of Christmas: What Angels Long to See (1 Peter 1:1-12)
An Angel's View of Christmas: What Angels Come to Do (Matthew 1:18-25)
An Angel's View of Christmas: What Angels Want to Say (Luke 2:8-20)
Born Into a World of Poverty (Luke 2:1-7)
A Teenager's Christmas (Luke 1 & 2)
The First Christmas (Luke 2:8-20)
Announced Very Unexpectedly (Matt. 1:18-25)
Prepared in Ancient History (Matt. 1:1-17)
Promised in Earliest Prophecy (Gen. 3:1-15)
Glory to God in the Highest (Luke 2:8-20)
The Coming of Messiah (Isaiah 9:6)
It Was the Best and Worst of Times (Luke 1:26-38)
