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 3151 to 3175 of 4967 results

3151. Proper 21

James 5:13-20, Esther 7:1-10, Esther 9:18-32, Mark 9:38-41, Mark 9:42-50

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... , power and spirit of Christ himself. According to this passage, anyone has the right to use Jesus' name to do good. The church has no copyright on the name as Coca Cola has on its name. 3. Little ones (v. 42). The "little ones" probably refers to the disciples. They may be children or any who are new and weak in the faith. The "little ones" are innocent, weak and easily misled. To lead a weak Christian down the wrong path is a terrible sin. Whoever does this deserves to be drowned, Jesus says! It is bad ...

3152. Proper 4

2 Corinthians 4:1-18, 1 Samuel 3:1--4:1, Mark 2:23-3:6

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... Use Sunday to fill a human need v. 25. b. Put priorities in order: man above law v. 27. c. Have the authority of one greater than Moses v. 28. 2. Was Jesus a law-breaker? (2:23-28). Need: The gospel depicts Jesus as allowing and approving his disciples' breaking the Sabbath law. Jesus' enemies were sure he was a law-breaker. After this episode and the healing of a man on the Sabbath, the Pharisees and Herodians met to plot his assassination. They thought that no man of God would teach the breaking of God's ...

3153. I Am the True Vine - Sermon Starter

John 15:1-17

Illustration

Brett Blair

... the vineyard. He waters and tends the soil, so that the vine is properly nourished. He takes pride in his crop. But this means that he also prunes the vines and removes the dead wood. The grapes hang on to the branches. What Jesus is saying is clear. The disciples should receive their strength from Jesus. He is the true vine. If they break away from him, they will be like unproductive branches and die and bear no fruit. They then will have to be pruned out. What can we make of this analogy in terms of our ...

3154. A Violent Wind

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... greater than physical air. He promised those who seek it, that the Holy Spirit would come upon us and give us new life. Let’s face it, most people just exist day to day. Their lives have no zest, no joy, no real purpose. Few of us have what the disciples had on the Day of Pentecost. They had such a party that passersby accused them of being drunk and disorderly. I doubt that anyone will make that mistake about our service. We don’t seem to have God’s Spirit at work within us like they did. And it’s ...

3155. We Are All in the Same Boat

Mark 4:35-41

Illustration

... who is asleep in the stern of the boat. But if you look more closely, you will discover that there is something that is not quite right. There are too many people in the picture. So you count them. There are fourteen. There should only be thirteen (twelve disciples and Jesus). But instead there are fourteen. It is then that you notice that one of the men in the boat is Rembrandt. He has painted himself into the picture. He has placed himself in the same boat. Which is precisely what we should do. It is the ...

3156. Reasons for Rest

Mark 6:30-34,45-56

Illustration

Charles Hoffacker

... in a way that we would never push others. Our life may be productive, we may check off everything from our daily "to do" list, but deep down we recognize something is wrong, that we lack a sense of deep meaning, and so we feel cheated The disciples have returned from their travels, but the pace has not slackened. As the Gospel reports, "Many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat." Does that scene sound familiar to you? Is your workplace like that? Is your home like that? This is ...

3157. Jesus Takes Command

John 6:1-21

Illustration

Phillip Yancy

... the sick, always an energy drain, and speaking to a crowd large enough to fill a modern basketball arena. The issue of food came up. What to do? There are at least five thousand men, not to mention the women and children! Send them away, suggested one disciple. Buy them dinner, said Jesus. What? Is he kidding? We're talking eight months' wages! Then Jesus took command in a way none of them had seen before. Have the people sit down in groups of fifty, he said. It was like a political rally--festive, orderly ...

3158. Wise, Worshipful, and Wonderfully Wayward

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... the world. Seeing different solutions to the problems of humanity. Celebrating a very “different” kind of victory — a victory that starts with a death on a cross and whose end was not yet come. The gospel is less about “better” than “different.” Disciples of Jesus are not just called to be “better” but to be “different.” A Christian’s motto might be “I beg to differ.” Being different, living different — that is the life-blood which keeps the circulation of the body alive and ...

3159. Heaven: One Way And One Way Only

John 14:1-6

Sermon

James Merritt

... it can be an eternity away. Contrary to one world view that says that the only heaven there is, is the happiness that we experience here on earth, Jesus Christ definitely believed in a place called heaven. In the very passage that we are looking at today, He told his disciples - "In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am ...

3160. Clean Hearts and Clean Hands

Mark 7:1-23

Illustration

Paul Janke

... the Pharisees and teachers of the law we meet in today's Gospel lesson. After a bit of observation, they asked Jesus, "Why don't your disciples wash their hands?" Their concern was not the hygiene of the disciples. People in those days didn't know what we know now about germs theory and the spread of disease. No, their concern was that the disciples were not following "the tradition of the elders," which prescribed ritual hand washing before meals and after returning from the marketplace. In his response to ...

3161. The King and His Castle

Matthew 16:13-18

Sermon

James Merritt

... selfishness, and yet it is still on its feet. Go back 2,000 years ago to when Jesus made this statement. When Jesus was walking down that dusty path and made this statement, He was one solitary man called of God to redeem the world. Later He called twelve disciples to follow Him. Of those, one didn't make it. On the morning of Pentecost, there were 120 believers. But on the first day of Pentecost the church mushroomed to 3,000 in one day. In A.D. 45, roughly ten years after Jesus had died, and been raised ...

3162. Experiencing God

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... . It illumines our understanding of God and creation and motivates us to make sensitive moral judgments. It "confirms the biblical message for our present." That's the purpose of religious experience. Not to sustain emotion, but to connect us to faith. Even the original Pentecost disciples had to find the faith for the long haul. What we are saying is that when the feelings fade, we still need to be glad for the experience, for it was that, which for many of us, first opened the door of faith and helped ...

3163. Fish and Sheep

John 21:15-25, John 21:1-14

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

... , fishing — except for the rich — was a way of making a living and not much of a hobby. In that day and time, most everything had some connection to providing food, clothing, and shelter. Jesus was good at tapping into the fishing business for disciples! Yes, we discover the Big Fisherman first failing and then succeeding. It seemed like that was the story of his life! The gospels again and again depict him as a bumbling sort of fellow who managed — at first — to botch most everything. Surely, a ...

3164. Keeping His Word

John 14:23-29

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

... in belief. He left nothing undone to maintain that continuity would be manifest to all believers. No one could accuse him of not planning ahead! His successor would be in place and all of the power and unlimited variations are to be enjoyed and enriched by his disciples. Is there thanksgiving in our hearts? If there isn't, there should be. Is there a sense of being at one with the Lord and drinking from his bottomless well of blessings? If there isn't, why not? We are privy to secrets hidden for the ages ...

3165. Call to Oneness

John 17:20-26

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

... the Holy Spirit. They are one, united in love, that the most heinous satanic forces cannot destroy. Calvary proved it once and for all. As sons and daughters, we are to believe innocently and completely. The Father and Son provide the model for disciples. The Father and Son are one. It only follows that disciples are to be one with each other. As they give evidence to the world, the world will know the Father has sent the Son to redeem it. It is a matter of depth and undisputed quality, isn't it? You and I ...

3166. Ministering When You Are Not Welcome

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

Sermon

David R. Cartwright

... from Luke. Nor does Jesus sugarcoat the job. He does not stoop to doing what we in the church have sometimes been guilty of to get someone to take a position of leadership. Jesus does not say, "Oh, there's nothing to it. You'll love it!" Jesus wants his disciples to know what they're getting into. So much so, that in some ways it's a rather bleak picture that he paints for them. "The harvest is plentiful." That is, the time is ripe — but there's a catch — "but the laborers are few" (Luke 10:2). And ...

3167. What Price Must We Pay?

Luke 6:20-31

Sermon

John Wayne Clarke

... the world. Our reading today throws a major curveball at all of our assumptions about living the life Jesus wants for us to live. Let us retrace some of what has already happened to this point in Luke's Gospel. Jesus chooses twelve of his disciples for a special role. We can say, with some authority, that he chose twelve because that number represents the twelve tribes of Israel. By choosing these twelve Jesus was saying that they represented for him the new Israel. With something new, comes some new ways ...

3168. Caring for Others: The Christian Vocation in the World

Ephesians 1:15-23

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... of the proper Christian life, from his own actions and certainly his words. What the Pope preached was rooted in the need for us to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, who took on our humanity in all aspects save sin. He often spoke of the need to be disciples of Jesus and to realize that this was the only authentic path to life. In a talk to youth in New Orleans during his 1987 United States visit, he stated, "The true success of our lives consists in knowing and doing the will of Jesus." There is a need ...

3169. The Difference between Knowing and Doing

Galatians 2:15-21

Sermon

John Jamison

... that circumcision was non-negotiable, and the only way into the salvation of the church. Those preaching from other corners of the world insisted that such laws were unjust, and the acts of false believers. At one point, Paul met the Apostle Peter, one of the original disciples, and ended up in a yelling match with him. It seems that Peter, who was one of the Jerusalem boys, had had a dream about the laws regarding cleanliness. In Acts 10, we read that Peter had a dream about a big white sheet being lowered ...

3170. Becoming as a Child - Sermon Opener

Mark 10:1-12

Illustration

... , perhaps caught up in their own self-importance, saw them as a nuisance and an annoyance and ordered them away. There position doubtless was: This is serious business; we don't have time for this; don't bother the man. It is hard to imagine the disciples taking such a position. It strikes us today as rather uncaring and cold. I can assure you, however, that I have been in churches that, in their own subtle way, are not child friendly. I well remember a congregation where a group of people bitterly fought ...

3171. The Three Poison Pills of Position, Prestige, and Power - Sermon Starter

Mark 10:35-45

Illustration

Brett Blair

... Washington learn such leadership skills? I have no doubt he learned them here. In these words of Jesus: Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant. The young corporal had these words modeled to him from the man at the top. The disciples, likewise, receive from their leader a picture of servant hood. And it is high time they start imitating their leader. It is now five days before Jesus' crucifixion. Four days before his betrayal and trial. One day before the clearing of the temple. A few ...

3172. Essentials

Isaiah 50:4-9a

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

... such a thing? We can. We do. We have. Isaiah said: "The Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame ..." (Isaiah 50:7). Time and again Christian disciples, faced with the choice of standing by Jesus or standing for the world, have set their faces like flint and have not been put to shame. On a February day in the year 156, Polycarp, the overseer of the church in Smyrna, was arrested on the charge of practicing ...

3173. The Bedrock of Faith - Sermon Starter

Mk 13:1-8; Lk 21:5-38

Illustration

Brett Blair

... area. Inside the four walls was 45 acres of bedrock mountain shaved flat and during Jesus' day a quarter of a million people could fit comfortably within the structure. No sports structure in America today comes close. You can then understand the disciples' surprise. As they walked down the Kidron Valley and up Mount Olive Peter, James, and John wanted to hear more. Jesus' prediction that a structure so immense would be leveled to the ground seemed implausible. But they pressed Jesus for more information ...

3174. I Am the Vine

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... of God. And yet, Jesus said to them, that isn’t so. I am the true vine. And those who love me, not those who are descendents of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, not those who have been circumcised, but those who love me, they are the branches. Now the disciples got that message. And we’re praying that we will get it today as we continue our series of sermons on the great claims of Jesus. Looking at this especially great claim of his, I am the true vine. I want us to lift out of that passage of scripture ...

3175. Shaped By The Fire

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... the name of the Lord shall be saved.' The wind and the fire of God's Holy Spirit swept into the lives of the disciples and believers in the early church and changed their lives and our lives forever. The wind blew through with an awakening. The fire shaped ... is two fold. First: You're called to let the Fire of God's Holy Spirit warm your heart and set it on fire like the early disciples. And Second: You're called to let the Fire of God's Holy Spirit shape you, form you and mold you into the person God would ...

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