The greatness of God is most clearly displayed in his Son. And the glory of the gospel is only made evident in his Son. That's why Jesus' question to his disciples [in Matthew 16] is so important: "Who do you say that I am?"

The question is doubly crucial in our day, because [no one is as popular in the U.S. as Jesus]—and not every Jesus is the real Jesus. …

There's the Republican Jesus—who ...

Most kingdoms do anything they can to protect their king. This is the unspoken premise of the game of chess, for example. When the king falls, the kingdom is lost. Therefore, the king must be protected at all costs. Another notable example comes from the Allied invasion of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill desperately wanted to join the expeditionary forces ...

At the end of his sermon on Isaiah 9:6, Ken Langley, pastor of Christ Community Church in Zion, Illinois, shared this powerful thought about the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, juxtaposed with the story of Aragorn in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Return of the King, the final book in The Lord of the Rings trilogy:

The emotional power of [Isaiah 9] lies not only in the Messiah's titles, but in their cumulative ...

Texts: Passages concerning the sacrifice of Jesus (Leviticus 16, Isaiah 53, Matthew 16:21–28, Luke 18:31–34, John 12:20–36, Philippians 2:5–11)

Principle: In the kingdom of God, death precedes life.

Objects: A sharp knife, cutting board, ingredients for making salsa (or your favorite fresh food dish), and possibly even a way to distribute the food.

Experience: Begin by asking ...

We are not to be surprised if living as Christians brings us to the place where we find we are at the end of our own resources, and that we are called to rely on the God who raises the dead.

—N. T. Wright, writer, theologian, and Bishop of Durham in the Church of England (1948–)

The evidence for Jesus' resurrection is so strong that nobody would question it except for two things: First, it is a very unusual event. And second, if you believe it happened, you have to change the way you live.

—Wolfhart Pannenberg, German theologian (1928—)

Based on a book by Francine Rivers, The Last Sin Eater is set in Appalachia in the 1800s. When Welsh immigrants settled in America, they brought along an ancient Celtic ritual known as "the Sin Eater." When someone within the community died, the Sin Eater would come and absolve the deceased person by eating a symbolic meal—often comprised of bread and wine—that was set alongside the corpse. ...

In the movie Stranger Than Fiction, Will Ferrell plays Harold Crick, an IRS auditor who suddenly finds himself the subject of narration only he can hear. Crick discovers that he is the main character in Karen Eiffel's (played by Emma Thompson) latest novel. Crick's dull existence is affected when he realizes the narrator is planning his death. Enlisting the help of a literature professor (played by ...

Of the biographies I have read, few devote more than ten percent of their pages to the subject's death—including biographies of men like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi, who died violent and politically significant deaths. The Gospels, though, devote nearly a third of their length to the climactic last week of Jesus' life. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John saw death as the central mystery ...

When I was a teenager, I became fascinated, appalled, and grieved by the literature of the Holocaust … One scene that haunts me is a picture from Auschwitz. Above the entryway to the concentration camp were the words, Arbeit macht frei. The same thing stood above the camp at Dachau. It means, "work makes free"—work will liberate you and give you freedom.

It was a lie—a false hope. ...