Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 226 to 250 of 793 results

Malachi 2:17--3:5

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

A journal titled The Religion and Society Report once editorialized that people are tempted to treat religion and society purely in terms of sociology or in terms of the politics of religion. The fact is that church bodies and ecclesiastical institutions are fair game for the sociologists who like to try to measure the churches as being either to the right or to the left. However, most sociologists are not in a favorable position to make judgments in that regard, because they do not understand that they ...

227. Sine Qua Non

Mark 12:28-34

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

I read somewhere that a new Guinness World Record has been set for the world’s shortest sermon. An Episcopal priest stood up one Sunday morning, walked to his pulpit, stood there for a moment, and said one word: “LOVE.” Then he sat down. I know, some of you would like me to attempt a sermon like that one day. But it is not that easy. The word “love” is capable of many different meanings. Love is what a mother gives to her children. Love is what a thrice-divorced Hollywood actress is supposed to have for a ...

228. The Spirit of...Winter?

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

An elementary public school south of Seattle had its own run-in with this year's holiday tree controversy. The school had set up a "Giving Tree," one of those neon coiled silver-trees adorned with cut-out paper mittens, each one of which held the wish of a particular child living at one of the nearby homeless shelters. School kids were encouraged to select a mitten, purchase a wish-gift for the homeless child, and turn the gift and mitten back into the principal's office. The gifts would be taken to the ...

229. Plenty Of Room

Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

I just read a short piece about someone traveling across country, staying exclusively in Bed and Breakfasts. At one B&B which had six bedrooms, this traveler noticed these two signs side by side on the check in desk. The first sign read: "Please introduce yourself to your fellow guests since we are one big happy family." Next to it was a sign which read: "Please, do not leave valuables in your room." (1) I guess there was room for family but not for trust. Thoughout the Advent season, the weeks leading up ...

230. Kingdoms in Conflict

Matthew 21:33-46

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

When Vince Lombardi was hired as head coach of the Green Bay Packers in 1958, the team was in dismal shape. A single win in season play the year before had socked the club solidly into the basement of the NFL, and sportscasters everywhere used it as the butt of loser jokes. But Lombardi picked and pulled and prodded and trained and discipled the players into become a winning team. They were NFL champions in three consecutive seasons, and took the game honors for the first two Super Bowls. Lombardi was a ...

231. Dressed for the Banquet

Matthew 22:1-14

Sermon

Chris Ewing

232. Joshua's New Diet

Joshua 5:9-12

Sermon

David J. Kalas

What do you or your family pray at mealtime? When I was growing up, our family typically recited the "God is good, God is great" prayer that so many folks use as a table grace. At Christian camp settings as a teenager, I grew accustomed to singing the Johnny Appleseed song before we ate. My children are fond of singing the doxology at the dinner table. And over the years I have heard a great many people offer mealtime prayers, thanking God for his bounty, for fellowship, for the hands that prepared and the ...

233. Galatians 1:11-24

Galatians 1:11-24

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Paul of Tarsus. He is the earliest witness we have to the life of Jesus. He is the author of the epistles that helped shape the church and change the course of history. His theology is the foundation upon which the bulwark of the Protestant Reformation was constructed. His testimony of a Damascus Road experience of the living Christ informed all the latter “saints” of the church. This legacy makes it hard to imagine Paul as someone who was trying to “break in” to the Christian circle of believers, as a ...

234. Between a Rock and a Hard Rock Thrower

Galatians 1:11-24

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

As a kid were you ever convinced that you HAD to be adopted? I mean, really: how could you be related to your big-mouthed brother when you are so reserved and quiet? . . . Your math genius parents could never have produced your brain — a brain that can’t add up anything without using fingers and toes. . . . How can you be related when you can play almost any musical instrument and your sister is completely tone deaf? As our personalities develop, as our individual quirks and oddities, likes and dislikes, ...

235. Get Off Your

Romans 12:1-8

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Sin is less something we succumb to or fall into than it is something we are seduced by. And the greatest seduction is pride. Pride is holy halitosis. Like all bad breath, you’re the last person to know you have it. Last week in Zurich, the pride of a gold medal champion, a 3000 meter steeplechase runner, managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. French runner Mahidine Mekhissi, already a two time European champion, found himself in the final 100 meters of his race. He was well ahead of the rest ...

236. Matthias Chosen to Replace Judas

Acts 1:12-26

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

The period between the ascension and Pentecost was one of waiting, but not of inactivity. Chiefly, for the disciples, it was a time of prayer, but it also saw them finding a replacement for Judas. In this connection, we have the first speech in Acts. Like most of the speeches in this book, it is probably only a summary of what Peter said. Nevertheless, behind Luke’s report we can still catch the original tones of the apostle. 1:12–14 As instructed, the apostles retraced their steps from the Mount of Olives ...

237. The Church in Antioch

Acts 11:19-30

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

Luke now leaves the “acts of Peter” for the time being. He will return to them again in chapter 12, after which, except for a brief reappearance in chapter 15, Peter passes out of the narrative and Paul becomes the focus of attention. The author’s purpose in these present chapters (8 to 12) is both to tell the story of the church’s early expansion (exemplified by certain carefully selected events) and at the same time to prepare the ground for the story of the Pauline mission. Thus he has given an account ...

238. Gift

2 Corinthians 8:16--9:5, 2 Corinthians 8:1-15, 2 Corinthians 9:6-15

Understanding Series

James M. Scott

The first part of this letter to the Corinthians (1:12–7:16) is concerned primarily with a defense of Paul’s apostolic authority. The second part (chs. 8–9), which deals with the collection for the church in Jerusalem, has a related issue. When Paul went with Titus to the so-called apostolic council in Jerusalem in order to present his gospel, the other apostles not only unequivocally acknowledged his gospel, his apostolic authority, and his mission to the nations, but they also added nothing to him, ...

239. The Armor of God

Ephesians 6:10-20

Understanding Series

Arthur G. Patzia

Since the imagery of war and armor is quite prominent throughout the NT, this section in Ephesians does not specifically represent any new teaching. Paul, for example, speaks of his own Christian life as a spiritual fight (1 Cor. 9:24–27), and the author of the Pastorals encourages Timothy to “fight the good fight” (1 Tim. 1:18; 6:12) in an age of apostasy. On several occasions Paul even identifies the weapons that the Christian is to use. Because the battle is a spiritual one, he says, “the weapons we ...

240. Rules for Christian Households

Colossians 3:18-4:1

Understanding Series

Arthur G. Patzia

The Household Rules The NIV entitles this section “Rules for Christian Households.” Here Paul sets forth a series of reciprocal admonitions that are to govern the relationships between wives and husbands, children and parents, and slaves and masters. This list forms what has come to be known in academic circles as the Haustafeln, a German term meaning a list of rules or duties for members of a household. Similar lists to the one in Colossians are found in Ephesians 5:21–6:9 and 1 Peter 2:18–25, 3:1–7. The ...

241. The Sin and Doom of Godless Men

Jude 1:1-16

Understanding Series

Norman Hillyer

Writer and Readers 1 By custom, Hellenistic letters began with a threefold formula: (a) the name of the sender; (b) the name of the recipient; and (c) an opening salutation. Greek writers followed the pattern “(a) to (b): greetings.” A NT example is the letter of Claudius Lysias to Felix (Acts 23:26). Jewish letters were introduced slightly differently. The opening sentence gave the names of writer and recipient. A second sentence invoked a blessing upon the reader. The three elements of (a) author, (b) ...

242. Ezra Reads the Law

Neh 7:73b–8:18

Understanding Series

Leslie C. Allen

Back to Basics: Nehemiah’s work of repopulating Jerusalem is put on hold until chapter 11. The editor has put chapters 8–10 together and placed them here in pursuit of a different but related agenda. This chapter presents the first two of a series of readings from the Torah. At first sight, the topic of the Torah seems irrelevant to Nehemiah’s practical measures. In fact this material develops chapter 1, where Nehemiah’s prayer traced Judah’s plight and Jerusalem’s sorry state back to breaking the Torah, ...

243. The King's Edict in Behalf of the Jews

Esther 8:1-17

Understanding Series

Timothy S. Laniak

Esther’s Counterplot: Chapter 8 begins with the king’s personal fury abating, but Esther and her people still have a problem. The architect of the edict against them is dead but the edict itself—the unalterable edict—is still alive. This chapter continues the reversals begun with the parade in chapter 6. Many elements from chapters 2–3 are now taken up in the movement toward resolution. Haman’s edict from 3:12–15 will be reversed by the edict that allows the Jews to protect themselves in 8:9–16. Mordecai ...

244. Hosea's Wife and Children

Hosea 1:1-2:1

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

Superscription (1:1): In a sense, chapters 1 through 3 in Hosea’s book serve as a summary of his entire message. Centered around the “sign” of Hosea’s marriage to Gomer, they prepare for and condense all that follows after in the story of God’s poignant love affair with the people of Israel in the eighth century BC. Perhaps they originally circulated in Judean circles independently of chapters 4–14. But whoever placed them in their present position intended to help us understand the oracles of chapters 4– ...

245. The Last Day of the Feast

John 7:45--8:11, John 8:12-30

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

Jesus’ third public announcement at the Feast of Tabernacles took place on the last and greatest day of the Feast (v. 37). It is perhaps the most remembered and certainly the most widely discussed saying in Jesus’ temple discourse if not in the entire Gospel. Of the nineteen articles on John 7 listed in the bibliography of Raymond Brown’s major commentary, seventeen deal with verses 37–39! (The Gospel According to John, AB 29A [New York: Doubleday, 1966], p. 331). This is attributable both to the intrinsic ...

246. The Jews Continue in Their Disbelief

John 12:37-50

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

Jesus’ last plea to the crowd was “put your trust in the light” (v. 36), and the first note struck in the narrator’s concluding summary (v. 37) is that they would not believe in him. Jesus’ public ministry is summarized as a series of miraculous signs intended to nourish faith, but the result instead was unbelief. The very purpose of John’s Gospel, as stated in 20:30–31, was to reverse that result, but in order to do so realistically the strength and stubbornness of unbelief had to be presented in the most ...

247. Pressing on Toward the Goal

Philippians 3:12-4:1

Understanding Series

F. F. Bruce

Paul's Ambition Whatever others may claim for themselves, Paul knows that he has not attained perfection yet. So long as mortal life lasts, there is further progress to be made. Not until the end of the race is the prize awarded. 3:12 Paul now passes from the language of accountancy to that of athletic endeavor (cf. 2:16). He is running a race; he has not yet breasted the tape or won the prize, and he must keep on running until he does so. Some of his converts elsewhere imagined that they had attained ...

248. Wanderings in the Desert

Deuteronomy 3:21-29

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

Reminder of Past Victories: The first three chapters of Deuteronomy not only warn the people from past failures but also encourage them from past victories. The words to Joshua near the end of the section (3:21f.) give the point of the whole: God can do again what they had seen God do before, even for other nations. Their God did not lack experience! The structure of the section can be presented as follows: 2:1–8 – Encounter with Edom 2:9–18 – Encounter with Moab 2:19–23 – Encounter with Ammon 2:24–37 – ...

249. Jesus Begins His Ministry to Israel

Matthew 4:23-25, Matthew 4:18-22

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

Big Idea: Jesus announces the arrival of God’s kingdom by preaching and healing and calls disciples to follow in his mission. Understanding the Text This passage begins a new section of Matthew’s story of Jesus in which Jesus begins to minister to the people of Israel in the area of Galilee (as signaled by the narrative formula at 4:17; 16:21). The inaugural message of Jesus—“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (4:17)—is identical to John’s earlier preaching (3:2). Jesus’ preaching of the ...

250. God’s Protection Takes the Form of a Faithful Friend

1 Samuel 20:1-42

Teach the Text

Robert B. Chisholm Jr.

Big Idea: Sometimes God protects his chosen servants through other faithful servants who are willing to put God’s agenda above self-interest. Understanding the Text Saul persisted in his efforts to kill David, but Jonathan saved David again, risking his own life in the process. David was finally forced to run away, setting the stage for the next part of the story: David needs to wander from place to place to escape Saul’s hostility. As in the previous chapters, the narrator presents contrasting responses ...

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