wwa6 – We Love God!

If the church is a building, then we must be bricks in it; if the church is a body, then we are its members; if the church is a household of faith, then we are part of that household. Sheep are in a flock, and branches on a vine. Biblically, if we are Christians we must be members of a church. This membership is not simply the record of a statement we once made or of affection toward a familiar place. It must be the reflection of a living commitment or it is worthless.

Mark Dever

His birth was common. Men wouldn’t have had a common birth for such a King. But it was celebrated with hallelujahs by the heavenly host in the heavens above. His lodging was poor and men wouldn’t have put Him in a stable but it was attended to by celestial visitants. It was marked by a conflux of stellar bodies. He had not the magnificent equipage of other kings but He was attended by multitudes of patients seeking and obtaining healing of soul and body. He made the dumb that attended Him sing His praises and the lame leap for joy and the deaf to hear His wonders and the blind to see His glory. He had no guard of soldiers, no magnificent retinue of military men, but centurions took orders from Him...and so have millions across the earth. He didn’t control a vast empire of those who did all of His bidding, but the waves and the winds and the storms which no early power can control obeyed Him. And death and the grave durst not refuse to deliver up their prey when He demanded it. He didn’t walk on velvet tapestry but when He walked on the sea the water held Him up. All parts of the creation except sinful men honored Him as their creator. He had no vast incomprehensible treasure of wealth but when He needed His money to pay His taxes, a fish yielded it up out of its mouth. He had no barns and He had no corn fields, but when He wanted to fill the hearts and the stomachs of a multitude, He created the food right out of His own hands. And no monarch in history ever entertained that way. He didn’t have the fantastic group of people sorrowing like other people have on occasions that demanded sorrow on His behalf, but the frame of nature itself solemnized the death of its author, heaven and earth were mourners, the sun was clad in black and if the inhabitants of the earth were unmoved, the earth itself trembled under the awful load. And there were few to pay the Jewish custom of rending their garments at His death, so the rocks took their place and rent their own bowels. He didn't have a grave of His own, but other men’s graves open to Him. He came not as the subject of death, but as the conqueror and invader of its territory and He rose victorious.

John MacArthur