Theological term
Consummation
3 sermons · All terms
The Gospel According to Hosea: Part 1
Hosea 2:14–23 presents the gospel in the form of an ancient Near Eastern marriage sequence — courtship, betrothal, and consummation — in which Yahweh pursues His unfaithful bride with an offer of abundant and eternal life. The passage is read as a mirror, not a window: the same spiritual harlotry that defined Israel before God defines every human being who has followed Adam into exile from God's presence. Justification is the legal transaction by which the sinner entrusts herself to God as husband, not master — received by faith alone, sealed by Christ's atoning work as the bride price of righteousness and mercy. The sermon closes with an urgent call to the unbeliever to accept the offer of eternal life, and with an exhortation to the believer to press on in anticipation of the consummation still to come.
The Institution of the Lord's Supper
Matthew 26:26–30 records the institution of the Lord's Supper by Christ on the night of Passover, and this sermon works through that text to establish the supper's setting, its elements, and its eschatological horizon. The bread and cup are not transformed in substance — transubstantiation is explicitly repudiated as repugnant to Scripture, reason, and the 1689 confession — but are consecrated from common use to signify Christ's broken body and shed blood. The blood of the new covenant is shed 'for many,' not all without exception, anchoring the supper in the doctrine of particular redemption and the forgiveness of sins as the chief covenantal benefit. Believers are exhorted to receive the supper not as a reward for good behavior but as a means of grace by which God strengthens, fortifies, and confirms the faith of His pilgrim people.
The Parables of Seed and Leaven
The two briefest parables in Matthew 13's kingdom discourse — the mustard seed and the leaven — address a perennial temptation: to judge the kingdom of God by its small and seemingly insignificant beginnings. This exposition argues that both parables teach the same essential truth: the kingdom inaugurated by Christ begins imperceptibly but grows inevitably and pervasively, and its lowly origin in the incarnation, ministry, and crucifixion of Jesus is not a contradiction of royal power but its very pattern. The sermon concludes with a threefold application — the parables explain Christ's ministry, call the church to resist discouragement, and confront the unconverted with the call to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.