Aaron Simms's Blog
April 21, 2019
He has Risen!
He has risen (Luke 24:1-12). This is the reason that we are celebrating today. We are rejoicing in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ for us.
Three days ago, on Friday, Christ died for your sins, being perfectly obedient to the Father and fulfilling all things. He spilt his blood on the cross to atone for your sins; our great High Priest made the all-sufficient sacrifice of himself on your behalf. On Saturday, yesterday, the Sabbath rest, the Lord’s body was sealed in the cool, st...
April 19, 2019
Good Friday
The Apostle John records (John 19:30):
“When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, ‘It is finished,’ and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”
“It is finished.” To understand what exactly is finished, you have to step-back and look at the entire arc of the Scriptures, beginning in Genesis.
In the very beginning, prior to the intrusion of sin into the world, God had walked in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. He had created Adam from the dust of the earth and then the woman,...
April 18, 2019
Holy Thursday
The prophet Jeremiah records the Word of the Lord which declared the coming of a new covenant. The Lord says it won’t be like the covenant that He made with His people before, the covenant that they broke (Jeremiah 31:31-34).
In the sacrificial system that was a part of this old covenant, the tribe of Levites was set apart to be priests on behalf of the rest of the people of Israel. The priests were the ones who received the Word of God and then taught the people. They were also the ones...
April 14, 2019
Palm Sunday
We’ve reached Holy Week at the end of this Lenten season in which we have been preparing for Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday – the Easter or Paschal Triduum.
This preparation is something that our Lord Jesus Christ did as well. His whole purpose in coming in the flesh leads up to this Holy Week. Indeed, God’s promises throughout the Old Testament lead up to this week, when Jesus will die for us by being raised up on the cross. It’s going to be a tough week for Jesus. He says...
March 3, 2019
The Exodus and the Transfiguration
Today is Transfiguration Sunday when we remember and celebrate the events related in the reading from Luke’s Gospel today. In this reading, Jesus takes Peter, John, and James up to a mountain to pray (Luke 9:28-36).
To put it in some context, this event occurs eight days after Peter had confessed Jesus as the Christ, which starts in verse 18 of this chapter from Luke. At that time, Jesus was praying alone and then he asked his disciples, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” And his discipl...
February 24, 2019
The Strength of Christ
“Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” These are Jesus Christ’s word to us, as we read in Luke 6:27-38 today.
In truth, what our world needs much more of is mercy. Jesus points out that God “is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.” God makes the sun to rise on both good and evil, and sends rain on the just and unjust. He sent His own Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem us from sin while we were yet enemies. God, the Creator of all things, is kind to those who hate Him. We are called t...
February 17, 2019
Blessed
“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked… but his delight is in the law of the Lord,” is in Psalm 1. Likewise in Jeremiah: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man… Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord” (Jeremiah 17:5ff). And Jesus tells the disciples something similar in Luke’s Gospel: “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! … Woe to you, when all people speak well of yo...
February 10, 2019
The Nets
In both Isaiah 6 and Luke 5, there is an encounter with the Holy Lord God which shakes the person who encounters Him.
In Isaiah, the prophet is caught up before the throne of God. The six-winged seraphim are flying around the throne; with two wings they flew, with two they covered their feet (so as not to give offense to the Lord or step on His holy train), and with the other two they shielded their eyes from the Lord’s glory. They all sang together:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts;
...February 3, 2019
A Word with Authority – Luke 4:31-44
Prior to their period of captivity in Babylon, the people of Judah worshipped in the temple in Jerusalem. But, after they were taken out of Judah and brought into Babylon and away from the temple, they had to find another way to worship, since the temple was no longer available to them. So, they developed the synagogue. This was a place where Jewish males gathered in order to read the scrolls of the Scriptures – what today we call the Old Testament – pray to God, and hear His Word expounde...
January 27, 2019
Good News
Who do people think Jesus is? Or, to narrow the question a little bit, who do the people of Nazareth in today’s reading think Jesus is (Luke 4:16-30)? He grew up there; they know him and his parents. He’s respected enough to be allowed to read in the synagogue.
So, he returns to his hometown after he’s been doing countless miracles around the countryside and goes into the synagogue on Saturday to read from the scroll of Isaiah. The selection he reads is from Isaiah 62 where the prophet,...
