Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: Levi, disciple, evangelist, tax collector, the 12, the twelve, apostle, sermon on the mount, jewish audience, beatitudes, lord's prayer, great commission, parables, olivet discourse, mount of olives, olivet, synoptic

Showing 226 to 250 of 715 results

226. Luke 15:1-10

Luke 15:1-10

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... "friends and neighbors." The shepherd calls upon all these to rejoice with him exuberantly and extravagantly over the recovery of this lost sheep. Jesus calls upon the scribes and Pharisees to rejoice with him over the return of the lost of Israel, the "tax collectors and sinners," who return to the fold because Jesus' words have brought them home. Like many of Luke's parable renditions, it appears likely to scholars that the concluding message about repentance (v.7) is a literary addition as is the final ...

227. Thursday: Broken Bread And Broken Trust

Mark 14:10-26

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... . Philip who introduced Nathanael to Jesus. Nathanael also known as Bartholomew, probably the youngest. The one who asked the traditional 4 questions of the Passover Seder meal. James the son of Alphaeus. One tradition says that he was the brother of Matthew and a tax collector like his brother. Others claim he is the son of Mary the wife of Cleopas who witnessed the risen Christ on the Road to Emmaus. Thaddeus or the other Judas, the son of James, often referred to as Jude Thaddeus or Thaddeus Judas, so ...

228. Rethinking Our Riches (Series: Questioning Our Values)

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... saves us all. God loves you. Sin mars you. Christ saves you. Life awaits you. Come, you who are weighted down with the heavy loads of possessions. God will give you rest. III. One Rich Man in the Bible Is Named Zacchaeus He was a chief tax collector by profession. All tax collectors in that day had money. He made his home in Jericho, a wealthy suburb of Jerusalem, where the balsam groves perfumed the air for miles. When Jesus finds Zacchaeus, he’s up a tree, out on a limb, trying to catch a glimpse of the ...

229. Luke 7:36-8:3

Luke 7:36-50

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... he had invited a budding celebrity who would kow-tow to the establishment. If anything, the woman’s presence seems to validate what Jesus intimated in v.34, that he is considered by many to be “a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” Even as Simon muses to himself about Jesus’ prophetic status (v.39), Jesus demonstrates he has full knowledge of Simon’s doubts and disdain. Jesus speaks directly to Simon, challenging him to listen because “I have something to teach you ...

230. What Would Jesus Say About Modern Churches?

Mark 1:4-11

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... you will play a role in returning heirloom wedding and engagement rings that were lost over the holidays." I don't know if God cares about lost rings; I know He cares about lost people. When religious persons criticized Jesus for spending too much time with tax collectors and sinners, he gave them a trilogy of parables describing God's compassion for the lost. One sheep is lost out of a hundred; the good shepherd leaves the 99 and searches for the one. A coin is misplaced and a house cleaning happens until ...

231. Who You Gonna’ Vote For? - Sermon Starter

Luke 19:1-10

Illustration

Brett Blair

... life without faith? To borrow the words of Paul, "It is nothing." It is a resounding gong, a clanging symbol. Zacchaeus recognized this. He could not be in the presence of Jesus and not be moved. Moved to right the wrong in his life. He was a tax collector who taken advantage of many people. Lied to them. Swindled them. Skimmed off the top of his collections. And beyond all this, he had ignored the poor. Now it's Tuesday morning for old Zacchaeus and he has to walk in the election booth and pull the lever ...

232. No Litmus Test for Jesus

2 Kings 5:1-14

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... test that a foreigner must pass in order to gain his attention or help. Jesus reached out to his own people, but most especially those who, for one reason or another, had been brushed aside by the ruling elite. The Pharisees and scribes often accused Jesus of associating with tax collectors, those who were seen as collaborators with the dreaded Romans, and "sinners." But Jesus gave no apology for his outreach to these people; on the contrary, in some ways he sought them in a preferential way. He chose a ...

233. The Gospel of IRS

Humor Illustration

... , and if this is true, the clarity and the simplicity of this Gospel comes as a surprise to anyone who reads it. Imagine, a Gospel written by a tax-collector! What do you suppose a gospel written by the IRS might sound like today? "Once there was an adult male named Joseph, a self-employed carpenter with two dependents, Mary, who was an unemployed housekeeper, and a minor son named Jesus. Jesus was born six days before December ended, and ...

234. God Can Turn Your Trash Cans into Treasure Chests

Psalm 51:1-19

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... his church. Mary Magdalene was a woman of low-reputed. But she recycled her fallenness and became a saint. Simon was a zealot who killed Roman soldiers and Jewish collaborators, the chief of which were tax collectors. But Simon recycled his violence and became an apostle. Matthew was a tax collector. Yet he recycled his miserliness and became a disciple of Jesus. Saul of Tarsus, a persecutor, a hater of Christians, recycled his hatred and became the greatest of the missionary theologians. What about you ...

235. When We Feel Lost

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

King Duncan

... and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.’” The story of the prodigal is intended to give hope to the tax collectors and the sinners. But it is a devastating judgment on the attitudes and actions of the scribes and Pharisees. For you see, they are the elder brother in Jesus’ parable keeping the Law, but looking with disdain upon those not as righteous as they. And friends, that ...

236. The ME and the WE

Luke 15:8-10, Luke 15:1-7

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... them, and looked forward to his time with them. The laws of ritual purity kept Torah observant Jews from dining with Gentiles. But it also kept Jews whose Torah observance was questionable or negligible at more than arm’s length. Tax collectors did business with the Roman government every day and so necessarily interacted physically and socially with Gentile culture and traditions. “Sinners” would define any and all who failed to live a life of Torah-based righteousness — i.e. maintaining dietary ...

237. Honk If Something Falls Off

Matthew 5:43-48

Sermon

King Duncan

... you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” The perfection that Christ asks us to pursue is perfection in love. This is a ...

238. Traveling Tables

1 Corinthians 6:12-20

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... called out to him “Hurry and come down, Zacchaeus. I must stay at your house today” (Luke 19:5). Jesus always needs a table. Jesus’ followers must always be ready to provide a place for others to dine with us — whether they are friends or family or foe, tax collectors or exit-ramp job hunters, big wigs or small potatoes. Christ calls all to join him at the table: “Come and dine.” “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and dine” (Rev.3:20 ...

239. Lost

Luke 15:1-7

Sermon

James Merritt

... the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?” (Luke 15:3-4, ESV) This is actually a rhetorical question that Jesus asks. He finally found something that everybody would agree on - He, the sinners, the tax collectors and the Pharisees. Anyone knows that if a shepherd loses a sheep that shepherd is going to go after that sheep, because good shepherds don’t care about some of the flock or even most of the flock. They care about all of the flock and especially ...

240. Surviving the Big One

Matthew 18:10-14

Sermon

James Merritt

... involved as you are and they bring accountability to both parties. What if that doesn’t work? “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” (Matthew 18:17 ESV) Obviously when Jesus spoke about the church at that point there was no New Testament Church. It hadn’t been formed yet. What He meant was take this to a group of people that you trust that may also have a relationship with the other ...

241. Community Discourse: Care for Others in the Kingdom

Matthew 18:1-9, Matthew 18:10-14, Matthew 18:15-20

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... the Septuagint translators using ekklesia routinely to translate qahal.The whole community is to work for restoration of a brother or sister who has sinned. treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector. It is true that Matthew often portrays Gentiles (ethne; here “pagan” [ethnikos]) and tax collectors positively responding to Jesus’ ministry (e.g., 8:10; 21:32). Yet Matthew also uses these categories, in more or less offhand fashion, as examples of outsiders, as in popular Jewish parlance (see 5 ...

242. Lord of the Sabbath and Appointing the Twelve

Luke 6:12-16, Luke 6:1-11

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... , it is salutary to note that those whom he chooses as his helpers and representatives come not from the top layer of society but rather from ordinary life: the ones whose professions we know are four fishermen and (if Levi = Matthew) a tax collector. Luke will later describe Peter and John as “unschooled, ordinary men” (Acts 4:13). Nor were the Twelve an altogether compatible group: Simon “the Zealot” was not necessarily a committed freedom fighter (the later meaning of “zealot”), but he was at ...

243. Jesus and John the Baptist

Luke 7:18-35

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... so they will meet with the approval of all who are guided by wisdom, even though the thoughtless majority are not persuaded. Thus, wisdom will be vindicated. This conclusion picks up the thought of 7:29–30: the ordinary people and the tax collectors prove, shockingly, to be wisdom’s children in place of the Pharisees and lawyers (scribes). Theological Insights This passage illustrates the ambivalence that runs through all the Gospel accounts of John the Baptist. On the one hand, he is a great prophet ...

244. Lessons in Discipleship

Luke 17:11-19, Luke 17:1-10

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... to Samaritans (9:51–56; 10:30–37; Acts 8:4–25), and contrast them with Matthew’s only such reference (Matt. 10:5). Why was this theme so important to Luke? There are at least two important reasons. First, the Samaritans—like sinners, tax collectors, lepers, prostitutes, and other outsiders—are among the “lost” that Jesus came to save (19:10). Second, in Acts, Luke’s second volume, the proclamation of the gospel in Samaria (Acts 1:8; 8:4–8) is essential for the outward expansion of the ...

245. A Lesson Learned from a Snake

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... as a flower girl, and always will; but I know I can be a lady to you, because you always treat me as a lady, and always will.” It is both interesting and encouraging to notice how Jesus treated people--whether it be a woman of the streets or a tax collector in a tree. He saw something no one else could see. He could see potential. He could see a life changed. He could see a vessel of the kingdom. That is the first thing we need to see. Jesus was more eager to see Zacchaeus than Zacchaeus was to see ...

246. What Was That All About?

Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon

James L. Killen

... cosmopolitan villages of Galilee and the Greek cities of the Decapolis. All kinds of people had come from all directions to see and hear someone who became the talk of the region. Most were working people and business people. There were even some soldiers and tax collectors and some of the religious leaders -- the last people you would have expected to travel to see and listen to a dynamic young preacher. But they had all come. They were coming in increasing numbers. It had been a long time since the people ...

247. A Brother Who Sins Against You

Matthew 18:15-20

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

... such disparagement” (p. 380), and Barclay claims that it is “not possible that Jesus said this in its present form” (vol. 2, p. 187). There is no necessity, however, to read into the statement an attitude that need not be there. Pagans and tax collectors were widely considered by the Jewish population to be outside the circle of God’s immediate blessing. It was simply another way of indicating what happens when a person is removed from the believing fellowship. 18:18–20 Verses 18–20 are quite ...

248. The Appointing of the Twelve Apostles

Mark 3:13-19

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... that the “Judas son of James” of the latter account is not mentioned in the parallels in Mark or Matthew. Of course, there are speculations about these being the same man, but we cannot be sure. The Matthew of 3:18 is described in Matt. 10:3 as a tax collector and seems to be presented there as the Matthew of Matt. 9:9, called Levi in Mark 2:14! Is this again a case of a man with two names? Some of the other names are interesting for what they mean. Bartholomew means “son of Talmai” in Aramaic (cf ...

249. Broken Promises

Matthew 21:28-32

Sermon

King Duncan

... was the first son who did what his father wanted. Then Jesus looked the chief priests and the elders in the eye and said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him . . .” Interesting parable. We always enjoy it when Jesus sticks it to the ...

250. How It All Began

Luke 2:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... Frost adds this important observation, “It becomes obvious in any study of Jesus’ life and teaching that he had a strong preference for being with such people. It was rumored that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute. Certainly the disciple Matthew was a tax collector. Jesus touched and healed lepers and even valued the faith of a Gentile Roman centurion above anyone else’s in Israel. How fitting, then, that at his birth he should be attended by such ‘sinners.’” (4) Those should be comforting words ...

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