1. “So loved,” then isn’t about how much but instead simply how.
  2. This week we will take a closer look at God's love in Scripture.
  3. Love is pointing to Jesus who said, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
  4. Forty days after giving birth, Mary, along with her husband Joseph, presented their firstborn Son at the temple and "bought" him back with a sacrifice of two small birds. This is known as the "Presentation of Our Lord."
  5. Christ our Word, as with a two-edged sword, burst the devil's belly.
  6. All of Scripture, every last syllable of it, is meant to drive us to "consider Jesus," the One who comes to "make us right" by gifting us his righteousness.
  7. The sign of the cross, according to the earliest centuries of Christians, is “the sign of the Lord,” and every baptized Christian was “marked” with it.
  8. As the writer to the Hebrews affirms, what makes the Christian gospel so much better is that we are no longer dealing with “types and shadows."
  9. God resolves his wrath through the unexpected giving of his Son.
  10. Despite our best efforts to avoid him, King Jesus remains very much unavoidable.
  11. The king has arrived and has already begun his reign forever and ever.
  12. Who would ever want all these screamers and haters? It turns out that Christ does.