Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 301 to 325 of 2157 results

301. Through the Eyes of an Eagle (Introduction)

John 20:24-31

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... through believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:30-31) May it be so. Amen. (*Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. I use this version not only because it is based on the best Hebrew and Greek texts, but because it tries to avoid gender-specific language whenever it is not indicated in the original text ...

302. Jesus: The Life of the Party

John 2:1-11

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... ran out, she had some responsibility and authority over the occasion, for she spoke to her Son about it, and even had authority to command the servants, "Do whatever He tells you." (John 2:5) That was odd. Whose wedding was it, anyway? There is an ancient Coptic version of the Gospel which never made it into our New Testament which says that it was the wedding of John, the son of Zebedee, and that John's wife was the cousin of Mary. That would explain a lot. You remember James and John, the two boys who ...

303. The Glorious Interpolation

John 7:45--8:11

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... it doesn’t belong in the Gospel of John. In fact, we are not sure where it belongs, or where it comes from! It interrupts the order of John, and is written in a different style of Greek. Most modern translations put the entire passage in brackets. In many versions, the story is in a footnote. In the NRSV Bible the footnote reads, “The most ancient authorities lack 7:53-8:11; other authorities add the passage here or after 7:36 or after 21:25 or after Luke 21:38, with variations of text; some mark the ...

304. Let the Son Shine In

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... That’s a strange word. The New English Bible translates it as “the first light of heaven.” J.B. Phillips calls it, “The morning sun from heaven.” James Moffat describes Jesus as “the Dawn,” a translation which is carried over into the New Revised Standard Version as, “the dawn from on high.” Jesus Christ is the dawn of a new day. The dawn begins in subtle ways, almost unobserved it sneaks up upon us, but once it gets started, there is no stopping it. Clouds may come between us and the sun ...

305. On Panicking Close to Shore

John 6:16-24

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... not fulfilled), but before they could do so the boat grated on the gravel and they found themselves safely on shore. They were closer to the shore than they realized! At least, that’s the way John seems to picture it. And we might give more credence to his version of the story when we remember that of all the Gospel writers, John was the only one who (by tradition) had spent most of his life as a fisherman on that very lake. In other words, John knew the lake, he knew the sandbars, he knew the shoreline ...

306. Little Jimmy

Mark 3:13-19

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... have sworn you were more than six feet!” At any rate, our hero for this morning’s sermon was probably a man of short stature. “James the little,” he was called. On the other hand, the phrase may well have had another meaning. The King James version refers to him as “James the less.” Wouldn’t you like to go through life being called “James the less?” This was probably to distinguish him from the more famous James, the son of ebedee, brother of John, who was one of the “Inner circle” of ...

307. Jesus Came Preaching

Mark 1:14-15

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... ? “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.” (Acts 26:28) There have been a lot of good sermons preached and at least one old Gospel song written on: “Almost persuaded.” But the Revised Standard Version is closer to the Greek: “You think in a short time to make me a Christian!” Yup! That is precisely what preaching is for! Trying to make Christians in twenty minutes! Some preachers have reacted against preaching by saying that they do not want to be “manipulative.” To them Prof. ...

308. Losers Keepers

Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... the Suffering Servant passages of Isaiah with the notion of Messiah, “God’s anointed.” We are familiar with it. We even sing, “In the cross of Christ I glory,” and “Jesus, I my cross have taken,” yet we, too, rebuke Jesus all the time. We prefer a version of Christianity which leaves a cross out of it. We, too, rebuke Jesus, not by what we say and pray in church, but by the way in which we act and react out of church. Peter confessed that Jesus was truly the Christ, God’s anointed one. And ...

309. What Do You Want Me to Do for You?

Mark 10:46-52

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... come to us in Jesus, we can therefore unreservedly come to Him, and commit ourselves to Him. There is a significant variant reading of this text in an old Gospel translation called the Sinaitic Syriac. When Jesus asked the man what he wished. Our common version says, “Master, let me receive my sight.” That is the answer we might expect. It would certainly be our answer, for I can imagine that of all the terrible afflictions of humankind, blindness must surely be one of the worst. But the Sinaitic Syriac ...

310. On the Singing of Hymns

Mark 14:12-26

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... of the evolution of our present hymnal tend to view the whole flap about the new one as a tempest in a teapot. The hymns which we now sing are not sacrosanct. Some of us can remember what a battle the 1968 hymnal had in replacing the 1935 version! Hymn-changing and tampering with “the original words” is not a new pastime. It has a long and honorable history. John Wesley did not like the line “Thy saints have dwelt secure” in the hymn “Our God, our help in ages past,” thinking that was too ...

311. The Unfinished Story

Mark 16:1-20

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... looking forward to telling us more about it when he got to the end of the story. But his Gospel was never finished. The apparent incompleteness of this ending prompted early Christians to add either a short two-sentence ending which appears as a footnote in English versions, or (as in most manuscripts) a longer ending designated as Mark 16:9-20. In heraldry it is not rare to find lions blazoned with two tails. The symbol for St. Mark is the lion, as anyone who has visited the Piazza de San Marco in Venice ...

312. Thanks for the Memories

Deuteronomy 26:1-15

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... , and the Levite, and the sojourner who is among you." (4) 1. My source for this information is from Preaching Today Tape Number 22 which features a workshop by Dr. Fred B. Craddock. 2. I received this story from Rev. George Thompson of Waynesville, N.C. 3. Cokesbury Bible, RSV version, pg. 1063. 4. Cokesbury Bible, RSV ...

313. Easy to Say, Hard to Do

1 John 4:7-21

Sermon

Paul E. Robinson

... is love, God is love. Beloved, let us love one another, First John four, seven and eight. What I want us to note are the two words in verse 7. The author writes, "For love is of God." The New Revised Standard Version states that "love is from God." The New International Version says that "love comes from God." The first statement the author of 1 John makes about the specific relationship between God and love makes it clear that God is not an ephemeral, mysterious force field of goodness which we call love ...

314. Saints In The Light

Colossians 1:1-14

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... of the inheritance of the saints in the light.” Now what does that mean? — or, what promises are offered to us as saints in the light? What does it mean to be “partakers of”, as the King James Version has it, or “share in the inheritance of” saints in the light, as our Revised Standard Version puts it. When the Great Russian author, Tolstoy, was 50 years old, he tells us that life suddenly paled on him. He went stale and for two whole years he felt drab and despondent. He saw no reason for ...

315. Called To Finish What Is Finished

Colossians 1:24--2:5, Colossians 1:15-23

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... there in verse 24. Let's read it: "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh, I complete what is lacking in Christ's affliction for the sake of his body -- that is, the church." The King James Version uses the term "Fill up" for the word the Revised Standard Version translates "complete". And that's not a bad translation. The word for "complete" in Greek (antanaplerose) means "to fill up in turn". Paul is saying to us that it's now our turn to do the work of reconciliation, to suffer if ...

316. Loving The Jesus Way

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... to keep ourselves in perspective. Paul said love is not boastful or arrogant or rude.. Phillips provides this translation, "Love is neither anxious to impress, nor does it cherish inflated ideas of its own importance." That adds the modern ring to what the King James version says, "Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up." Let that rest for a moment in your mind -- love is neither anxious to impress, nor does it cherish inflated ideas of its own importance. C. H. Dodd was for many years a professor of ...

317. A Love For All Seasons (ii) (communion Meditation)

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... anyone or anything as hopeless. II. And now this final word: Love endures all things. Listen to different translations of this. The New English Bible: "There is no limit to love's endurance. The Jerusalem Bible: "Love endures whatever comes." The New International Version: "Love always perseveres." We could dwell on the nuances of all these. But listen to Barclay's translation: "Nothing can happen to break love's spirit." Wow! Listen to that...nothing can happen to break love's spirit. In the sermon last ...

318. At Home In The Daylight

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, lest the darkness overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of the light." The King James Version has that -- "That you may be children of the light." Do you see the connection? Paul is saying almost the same thing as Jesus: "For once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of the light." Listen now. To be in Christ ...

319. How To Be Rich And Poor

James 1:1-18

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... is not my home,I'm just a passing through,My treasures are laid up,somewhere beyond the blue.The angels beckon me from Heaven's open door,And I can't feel at home in this world anymore. The word our Revised Standard Version translates "boast" is rendered "Glory" in the King James Version, and "brag" by Barclay. It raises some questions. Are we to boast, or brag, or glory in the fact that we are poor? Not at all. There is an emotional and spiritual sickness that takes pride in poverty. And there is an even ...

320. Pack Up Your Troubles

James 4:13-17

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... that are coming upon you." So there are consequences of what we have done, how we have lived, and we don't escape those consequences. I came across a marvelous expression of it in my Bible reading recently -- Romans 6: 21. I was reading from the Revised Standard Version, and this is what that translation says: "But then what return did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death." I did with that verse what I often do with words of scripture that really grab my ...

321. When You Pray

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... what it is. Let’s go to the benediction!” (Reverend William G. Stell, “Perfect Love” Preached at St. Luke’s U.M.C. in Houston, Texas.) You may have noted that Luke’s account is a far more succinct and compressed version than Matthew’s. Matthew’s version is the one we commonly use. Interestingly, Matthew puts the prayer in the context of the Sermon on the Mount, and follows it with teachings about forgiveness, fasting, laying up treasure in heaven, the eye being a lamp to the body, having ...

322. Turn in an Account of Your Stewardship

Luke 16:1-15

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... foundation, let’s move to other lessons in the Scripture. These lessons huddle around the suggestive phrase in verse 2: “Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer. Now the old Revised Standard Version and the King James Version puts it in this way: “Give”...or “Turn in an account of your stewardship” Isn’t that the request the Lord constantly makes of us? “Turn in an account of your stewardship.” Wouldn’t life take on more intentionality and ...

323. Growing In Self-esteem

Psalm 81:1-16

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... them with glory and honor.You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet. That's pretty clear isn't it? We are taken care of by God. The King James Version says we were created a little lower than the angels, but the Revised Standard Version and a number of other translations, say "a little lower than God." Wow! That's who we are: "a little lower than God...and crowned with glory and honor..." I read recently of an elderly bachelor and a never married ...

324. The Heart -- Our Mirror

Proverbs 25:1-28

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... in varied translations, suggesting significant different meanings. Here are three of those translations. First, the New Revised Standard version from which we read our text: "Just as water reflects the face, so one human heart reflects another." ... Jerusalem Bible: "As face answers face reflected in the water, so one man's heart answers another's." And third, the New King James Version: "As in water face reflects face, so a man's heart reveals the man." I want us to focus on the third translation, though we ...

325. Epiphany:The Joy of Fulfillment

Luke 4:14-30

Sermon

J. Ellsworth Kalas

... 't know how many such books or tracts were available in the first century. With the kind of impact the gospel was making on so many lives, it was natural that anyone who knew anything about Jesus either first- or secondhand -- would want to tell others their version of the story. The best and most significant of these accounts survived, perhaps simply because God meant it to be so. But from the human side we can see a reason, too: no doubt the most beloved books were copied and recopied for sharing. We know ...

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