Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 2601 to 2625 of 3099 results

John 3:1-17

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

... water birth, the Pharisees regard it as unclean. Spiritual birth, however, is beyond anything he would have studied in the school of the Pharisees. They are much too set in their ways to be open to anything like that. Moreover, when Jesus introduces the subject of the wind, Nicodemus knows that no one could consistently and accurately predict the weather because the wind has a quality about it that is quite unpredictable. In fact, we know this is true even today for our best experts still miss it with ...

2602. Here's Mud In Your Eye

John 9:1-41

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

... ego, it does not hold a candle to the testimony of this young man healed by Jesus: "One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see" (v. 25), explains this man who had never seen daylight before and who became in an instant the subject of the most exciting miracle in the gospels. From that day forward that young man could no more be silenced than a bird can cease singing its song. His is the most fascinating reaction of the five miracles recorded in the chapter. Helen Keller was asked on one ...

2603. The Time Is Now!

Luke 24:50-53

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

... Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 Paul speaks of gifts given to people. In Ephesians 4, Paul speaks of people given to the church as gifts by the ascended Christus victor. In his death and resurrection, Jesus overcomes the hostile powers that hold people in subjection; those powers of the devil, sin, the law, and death are conquered in the Lord's resurrection. Just as an Old Testament military victor has the right to give gifts to those identified with him, so Jesus Christ, who conquered sin on the cross, has ...

2604. Which Parade Are You In?

Matthew 21:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... Rome. When Pilate entered Jerusalem with his army, his aim was to prevent any possibility of violent rebellion against Roman rule. No one likes the foot of a foreign power on their necks and, to make matters worse, Rome imposed high taxes on subject nations. So there was always the threat that zealots would stir up the Jewish population to try to throw off the yoke of Rome. The Roman army that accompanied Pilate included, “cavalry on horses, foot soldiers, leather armor, helmets, weapons, banners, golden ...

2605. A New Possibility

Matthew 4:12-23

Sermon

James L. Killen

... by his own government for war crimes after the war was over. It was the commander's goal to break the spirits of the proud British prisoners through backbreaking labor building the notorious railroad through the valley of the River Kwai. He also subjected his prisoners to near starvation and to every imaginable kind of physical and emotional abuse. The first time Gordon saw some of his fellow prisoners fighting over swill that had been thrown to them while their captors laughed, he resolved that he would ...

2606. Love without Limits

Acts 11:1-18

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... sure got quiet all of a sudden.” And I nodded my head. “Am I offending you?” he asked. And before I could respond, one of the patrons who knew me said, “He is a minister.” Suddenly, there was an awkward pause, and the conversation shifted to a different subject. As I left the shop, I kept asking myself, “How could a person be so obtuse and cruel?” Lest I become too self-righteous, I want to take a scalpel to my own heart. You may want to be included. Think of the person you cannot stand to be ...

2607. Elephants in the Room: Anxiety

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... . Take a hard look at your list of fears. Circle the ones you can control, and take action on them. Next, cross out the ones you can’t control and write next to them, “Given to God.” Do you want to know why I know so much about the subject of fear and anxiety? Because I suffer from an anxiety disorder. I have suffered with anxiety since I was in my 20’s. I have had panic attacks and bouts with obsessive thinking. There were times when my anxiety was paralyzing. I could not get into elevators, and I ...

2608. The Cost of Discipleship

Matthew 17:1-9

Sermon

James L. Killen

... costly to God. Why should we not expect that it will be costly to us? But once we recognize how great and good that possibility is, we will know that it is worth the cost. An interesting interchange took place between Jesus and his disciples on that subject. It happened at a turning point in the ministry of Jesus. He was moving from a fairly popular ministry as a teacher and healer in Galilee to traveling toward Jerusalem where his work would be brought to a costly conclusion (Matthew 16:13--17:13). Jesus ...

2609. Does Prayer Make Any Diﬀerence?

Mark 1:35-39

Sermon

Charley Reeb

I want to address a subject that many of us struggle with — prayer. Deep inside many of us want to know if prayer makes a difference. And if it does make a difference, what difference does it make? Does prayer really work? If it does work, how does it work? Those of us who are Christians ...

2610. Pop Verses: Romans 8:28

Romans 8:28

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... Bible. It is also one of the most misused and abused verses of the Bible. Some people read this verse and interpret it to mean, “Everything happens for a reason.” “God has caused all things to happen for a good reason.” I preached on this subject about a year ago. In the wake of the Orlando shooting I received calls this week requesting that I address it again. Social media has been covered in bad theology in response to the horrific event in Orlando. This platitude has reared its ugly head again ...

2611. Clean and Unclean

Matthew 15:1-20

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

... as the written law itself, although the Sadducees rejected it, and the “people of the land” (the ‘am-hā’āreṣ) ignored it. The “washing” before eating had to do with ceremonial uncleanness, not personal hygiene. Leviticus 11–15 treats the subject of unclean foods. From the Jewish point of view, people became unclean by contact with any sort of ceremonially unclean object or person. To ensure purity, people would go through a rather elaborate ritual of purification before they ate. It ...

2612. Divorce

Matthew 19:1-12

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

... marry (v. 10). This runs counter to the divine intention in creation (Gen. 1:28). It is better to take Jesus’ statement in verse 11 as referring to his teaching on divorce and remarriage in verses 3–9. Not everyone is able to accept his strict position on the subject, but only those to whom it [the ability to accept] has been given. It is not a question of whether or not a person should refrain from marriage for the sake of evangelism or because the end of all things is not far off. The issue has to do ...

2613. The Parable of the Wedding Banquet

Matthew 22:1-14

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

... . Since Matthew’s acknowledged style of composition is to gather into one place the teachings of Jesus on a specific topic, it would not be unusual for him to append to the first parable about a wedding feast additional teaching related to the same subject. Verses 1–10 stressed the Jewish resistance to the invitation of Jesus; verses 11–14 speak of one guest who came to the wedding feast improperly attired. Both deal with judgment, but the former deals with the judgment of the reluctant and the latter ...

2614. Signs of the End of the Age

Matthew 24:1-35

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

... account of the widow’s gift (Mark 12:41–44) is omitted. As Jesus was walking away from the temple (hieron, the entire complex), his disciples called attention to the buildings. In 20–19 B.C. Herod the Great obtained permission from his subjects and began to rebuild the temple of Zerubbabel. An architectural masterpiece, it was fully completed only a few years before its destruction by Titus in A.D. 70. Jesus responded with the prediction that the buildings would be brought to ruin. Not a single ...

2615. Death, Risk, and Confidence

Matthew 10:24-39

Sermon

Tom Garrison

... else the dying person is having to experience. They force them needlessly "to walk that lonesome valley all by themselves." I think the cross-currents in which I found myself that afternoon are very typical of our American culture when it comes to the subject of death and dying, and real progress could be made for all of us if well before the actual experience of dying we could lay aside our fears and honestly "ask, seek, and knock" about what Gail Sheehy, the author of Passages in Caregiving: Turning ...

2616. What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You

Matthew 13:36-43, Matthew 13:24-30

Sermon

Tom Garrison

... aware. This is what makes imperative some kind of "inward journey," for unless we work to bring more of ourselves into the light of consciousness, we are destined to do what that man did — in that we need other people's reality-perception to add to our subjectivity, and this only comes by a "sleepwalk" of unconscious action, or we will sow tares in our own wheat fields. Jesus was fully aware of the fact that what we do not know in terms of self-knowledge can hurt us. Do you remember that haunting prayer ...

2617. Hallelujah! Come On, Get Happy

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

David G. Rogne

... and concerned with who gets the credit can be very useful in extending Christ's kingdom. Their happiness comes from being useful. "Happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness," says Jesus. These are people who want to do God's will. We have been subjected to the idea that happiness involves being able to do pretty much as we please with little concern for how it affects others. I recall a line in the movie Three Days of the Condor that describes many people in to-day's world. Robert Redford ...

2618. Who Cares?

Matthew 25:31-46

Sermon

David G. Rogne

... In order to help you remember the fundamentals of Jesus' message in this passage, I offer them as six Ss, hoping the alliteration will aid memory. One of the things he says is that scrutiny is part of the process. There comes a time when our conduct is subjected to judgment. He says that nations and people come before the king and there is a separating of people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. The British poet Studdert-Kennedy said that he once had a dream about this scene. In the dream he ...

2619. Clean and Unclean

Mark 7:1-23

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... 47 and Deut. 14:1–20 and were elaborated by scribal authorities in ancient times and on down to the present in more traditional forms of Judaism. “Kosher” foods are ritually “clean” foods fit for eating by scrupulous Jews. (For references to technical literature on the subject of clean/unclean in Judaism, see, e.g., Lane, pp. 249–58; also see “Clean and Unclean,” IDB, vol. 1, p. 641–48.) 7:19 And then out of his body is literally “and then goes into the latrine.” In saying this, Jesus ...

2620. The Faith of a Syrophoenician Woman

Mark 7:24-30

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... that it was God’s will for salvation to be preached first to the Jews and then to all the world (e.g., Rom. 1:16; 2:9–11; cf. Acts 3:26; 13:26–48). In seeing this passage properly in its Markan context, we should note how the subject of food appears at several points in the narrative near this incident. In 7:1–5, there is the question of eating in a state of ritual purity. In 7:14–23, Jesus discusses food, whether some foods make one “unclean.” And now there is the reference to food (bread ...

2621. The Birth of Jesus

Luke 2:1-7

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

... more reliable than Josephus, it may be wise in this case to suspend judgment. There is some evidence (Marshall, p. 104) that because of strained relations between Augustus and Herod in the latter’s later years, the Roman emperor demanded that Herod’s subjects swear an oath of allegiance. After Herod’s death, and after the relatively brief and incompetent rule of his son Archelaus as tetrarch of Judea, a census was ordered. Luke could have viewed the entire sequence as a single episode, or at least ...

2622. John the Baptist Prepares the Way

Luke 3:1-20

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

... A.D. 6, Judea became a Roman province under the authority of Roman governors (or “prefects”; “procurator” not being used until after the time of Pilate). Pilate served as governor from A.D. 26 to 36, during which time he frequently outraged his Jewish subjects by forcing Roman customs and religion upon them (see Josephus, War 2.169–177; Antiquities 18.55–59). See also Luke 13:1 where reference is made to “the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.” It was by Pilate’s ...

2623. The Temptation of Jesus

Luke 4:1-13

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

... role. All of the suggestions put to Jesus by the devil reflect popular ideas and beliefs about what the Messiah would do when he appeared. Just as God had during the wilderness wanderings, the Messiah was expected to bring bread down from heaven, to subject the other kingdoms to Israel, and to perform some dazzling sign that would convince religious leadership (see Luke 11:16). But the question may now be raised, what new significance, if any, does Luke attach to the temptation narrative? Coming, as it does ...

2624. Jesus Sends Out the Seventy-two

Luke 10:1-24

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

... up to the holy mountain (Exod. 24:1, 9); they share in God’s Spirit (Num. 11:16) and are enabled to prophesy (Num. 11:24–25). Jesus enjoins his appointed seventy to preach the kingdom (Luke 10:9) and later tells them that the “spirits” are subject to them (Luke 10:20). Another important aspect of the word “seventy” is that this is the name of the Greek version of the OT (from the Latin septuaginta or LXX). The mere reference to “seventy” may very well have been intended as a hint at the ...

2625. Warnings and Encouragements

Luke 12:1-12

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

... . The “hypocrites will be unmasked” (Marshall, p. 512). The truth of the gospel is to be proclaimed openly (from the roofs), and through it will come the exposure of false religion and hypocritical motives. 12:4–7 Jesus’ concern now shifts away from the subject of Pharisaic hypocrisy to words of warning (vv. 4–5) and reassurance (vv. 6–7) for the disciples. He tells his friends (see note below) not to fear those who kill the body, for they cannot do any further harm (Matt. 10:28: “but cannot ...

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