Ruf Mississippi State University

When Jesus rode into Jerusalem the Sunday before Passover, the people shouted "Hallelujah" to the king. By the end of the week, the crowds would cry "Crucify!" In this passage, the triumph of king Jesus and what he's bringing is real, but the reality of the tragedy of it all can't be ignored.

What does real and assured faith in this Jesus look like? As Jesus draws near to Jerusalem, Luke sets up an answer to that question for us that seems like a bad "walked into a bar" joke. What's the answer? Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose.

Jesus came in glory, and all beheld his glory, but it was totally unlike any glory anyone was looking for. Jesus called anyone who would follow into that his glory: a daily dying to self, sin and the world. Most unexpected? Where that glory would be most magnified.

Jesus did not live up to many people's expectations, and so they were all left with the choice of what to make of him. In this passage, we see a spiritual juggernaut, an upstanding citizen, and a woman of the city all coming to grips with the unexpected of Jesus. The results? Unexpected.

In what is commonly known as the Sermon on the Mount we find Jesus doing what he has already said he expressly came to do: preach the good news of the kingdom of God. What does this kingdom look like? How can we know it when we see it?

For most, Jesus and miracles go together without question, whether you believe they were historically factual or not. How are we supposed to process the miracles presented to us in the gospels, especially given the fact that we weren't there?

Luke wants us to be certain about just who this Jesus is. So he tells us a story about how he was rejected in his hometown. How do we make sense of that?

How did Jesus resist temptation in the wilderness? If your default answer is "Because he was God," perhaps you have missed a beautiful truth: Jesus was tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin. What does it mean that Jesus was tempted?

Few stories stick out in people's collective mind like the nativity, yet only two of the four gospel writers record it. Even then, there emphasis is clearly on events surrounding the birth of Jesus rather than the birth itself. As Justin Martyr records in "Dialogue with Trypho," 'You endeavor to prove an incredible and well nigh impossible thing; that God endured to be born and become Man.'

To conclude his glorious letter packed with so many glorious truths and their implications on our daily lives, Paul concludes by telling us something we most probably already know: life's a battle. More than that, Paul says living as children of the light means that there will be spiritual warfare.

Paul has been unfolding for us the grand mystery of God from before time to unite all things in Jesus Christ. How does marriage fit into that? Paul tells us it's a picture of what God has done and is doing for us in Jesus.

The gospel tells us that God has done for us in Christ what we cannot do ourselves. The gospel also gives us new life, and with that new life comes a new way of living. Here Paul spells out how the Christian should walk.

If you are in Christ, if the glorious truths of the gospel are true of you, then you are a new creation. In the latter half of Ephesians 4 Paul outlines exactly what that looks like.

As Paul makes his turn into the second half of Ephesians, he makes a sweeping application of the truth of the gospel for the church: Unity.

Paul concludes the first half of Ephesians, which has been a glorious account of what God has accomplished for us in Christ, with a prayer. What does he pray for? That we would be rooted in the glorious truths of the gospel.

Why do there seem to be so many walls in our relationships and in society? Paul says that apart from Christ our natural condition is one of separation and alienation, but that in Christ the walls have been torn down.

Paul makes an astonishing statement: we were all once the walking dead. The gospel does more than tell us good news, it tells us why we need good news. God has done something in Christ that we could never do for ourselves. He brought the dead to life.

What is it that causes Paul to erupt in a prayer of praise to begin his letter to the Ephesians? It is that God has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing through grace before time, grace in the here and now, and grace that will carry us home.

Who are you? Who do you think you are? Identity is one the fundamental aspects of life. At the opening of Ephesians, it's clear that Paul is excited about something, and it has everything to do with his readers' new identity and its life changing implications.