Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 3226 to 3250 of 4511 results

Sermon

Robert Bachelder

"but whoever would be great among you must be your servant." - Matthew 20:26b Augustine wrote: "So deep has human pride sunk us that only divine humility can raise us." This point was not lost on St. Martin, the famous soldier-saint of France. The story goes that one day he was praying and there appeared to him a figure robed like a king with a jeweled crown and gold-embroidered shoes. The voice ...

3227. Fuel for Our Faith

Sermon

Shirley Gupton Lynn

"Whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant." (20:26) In 2005, the journal Science reported that scientists in South Korea had successfully created eleven human embryonic stem-cell lines perfectly matched to the DNA of human patients. Some scientists are elated because this may be a step toward treating diseases like Parkinson's, cancer, and Alzheimer's. Others are appalled that t...

3228. From Selfishness to Servanthood

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

I never thought I would say this but, apart from news and sports, the best things on TV might be the commercials. Whoever invented this charming little green lizard to sell insurance is an absolute genius. Let me test your memory regarding another commercial. The flight attendant on this airplane speaks to the pilot through the intercom. “Captain, we are out of Colombian coffee.” Immediately this ...

3229. Bad Timing

Sermon

Thomas Long

Some people are masters of bad timing. These are the people who burst into a party wearing a lamp shade and a hula skirt just as the conversation has taken a serious turn, a turn, say, toward a discussion of human rights or world hunger. Masters of bad timing buy high and sell low. They are the folks who try to rouse the hayriding young people to one more chorus of "She'll Be Coming 'Round The Mou...

3230. Servants Without Portfolio

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Our second scripture lesson and the text for our message this morning is from Paul’s letter to the Philippian church. I’m going to be reading from the Revised Standard Version. I’m reading the 5th-11th verses of the 2nd chapter of Paul’s letter to the Philippian church. This is the word of the Lord. Hear it. “How this mind among yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who though he was in ...

3231. Drinking From His Cup

Sermon

King Duncan

What is there about certain people that sets them apart from the crowd? That causes other people to hold them in awe? Kyle Rote, former All-American football player from S.M.U., played eleven years for the N.Y. Giants in the NFL. He scored a touchdown on an average of once every six times he caught a pass. He scored fifty times in three hundred receptions. The greatest tribute ever paid an athle...

3232. Seat of Power

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Animation: Ring and/or Ruby Slippers and/or a Ladder “Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask.” (James and John…according to Mark) How many times have we said this to God? “Lord, we want you to do whatever we ask!” We humans are creatures that want our way. We want what we want and we generally want it “now.” We like to be independent. We are self-assured. And we are ambitious. And a...

3233. A Family Member · Salome

Sermon

Gordon Pratt Baker

She was well named. For Salome was the familiar feminine form of Solomon. But not only did she bear the wise monarch's name. "The mother of Zebedee's children" was every whit as unique as he. The very fact she identified herself with Jesus' little group attested to that. For the two were family, and families often have a way of underestimating their own. Nor were the Master's kin beyond it. For at...

3234. James · A Loyal Man

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

Object: Symbol of James (a blue shield with 3 escallop shells) We are discovering some of the good friends Jesus had when he lived here on earth. Friends are really important to all of us and they were to Jesus, too. Last week we talked to you about Philip and how he sat down on a grassy slope one day with Jesus to talk and ended up that day helping to feed 5,000 people with bread and fish. Today...

3235. Jesus Enters Jerusalem as a Peaceable and Humble King

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

Big Idea: After mercifully healing two blind men, Jesus enters Jerusalem as a peaceable and humble king in concert with Zechariah’s vision of Israel’s king who comes to bring salvation. Understanding the Text This passage, which narrates Jesus healing two blind men outside Jericho (20:29–34) and thereafter entering Jerusalem in kingly fashion (21:1–11), introduces a new section of Matthew focuse...

3236. Two Blind Men Receive Sight

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

20:29–25:46 Review · Final proclamation, confrontation, and judgment in Jerusalem:In this section, Matthew narrates Jesus’s arrival and early actions in Jerusalem, the ensuing controversies with the Jerusalem leaders regarding his authority, and Jesus’s subsequent prophetic judgment of the temple and its leadership. Through these Jerusalem encounters, Matthew emphasizes Jesus’s identity as Davidic...

3237. Two Blind Men Receive Sight

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

The Last Who Are First: It is important to note the close tie between chapter 20 and the verse that precedes it. The saying about the first who will be last and the last who will be first (19:30) is repeated at the end of the first section of chapter 20 (v. 16). This Semitic device is called inclusio, and because the order is inverted it is also an example of chiasmus (for other examples compare 7...

3238. I Hate To Rain On Your Parade, But

Sermon

Johnny Dean

What a beautiful scene we see depicted in the story of Jesus’ triumphal entry into the Holy City, Jerusalem! It’s a lovely story, a magnificent story, a story so well-told that we preachers have a tough time coming up with a sermon about it. After the story is read, there really isn’t much else left to say. Plot, movement, atmosphere, emotion – they’re all here in the biblical account. Here is hig...

3239. An Unidentified King

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

I have always sensed there was something strange about the original Palm Sunday celebration in Jerusalem. A huge question mark looms in the background. There is a glaring discontinuity about the whole event. Think about it...A crowd estimated to be between 100,000 and 200,000 lines the roadsides to cheer an itinerant preacher from Nazareth named Jesus; yet they are not really sure why they are che...

3240. The Guy With The Donkey

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

There is an old story about a pastor who was having problems and decided to leave the ministry. But he ran into trouble finding another job. Finally, in desperation, he took a job at the local zoo. The gorilla had died, and since it had been the children's favorite animal, the zoo officials decided to put someone in a gorilla costume until a real replacement could be found. To the minister's surpr...

3241. On His Way

Sermon

Larry Powell

See in your mind’s eye a city that has doubled in population almost overnight. The city is Jerusalem and faithful Jews have converged upon the holy city from great distances to celebrate the Passover. They have come from every country district and all the lands of the Diaspora. The Jewish historian, Josephus, recorded that as many as 1,000,000 pilgrims came annually to the feast. Families were reu...

3242. Are You Willing to Be a Donkey?

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

One of the classic images of the Old West is that of the gnarled, grubby gold miner trudging through the creek-beds, canyons, and mountain passes with his trusty, heavy-laden donkey by his side. Miners didn't use horses because they were not sure footed enough to traverse the rough terrain, the narrow, winding trails, the slippery creek-side stones. After all, a successful miner had a donkey loade...

3243. Matthew 21:1-11 - Roll Out the Green Carpet

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Palm Sunday at last! And thank God for John, even though our reading comes from Matthew. But if it weren’t for John’s gospel (John 12:13), we wouldn’t know that palm branches were used for the celebration that welcomes Jesus into Jerusalem. In Matthew’s gospel this is Jesus’ first time in the holy city, the official center of Jewish life and faith. In fact this “new to Jerusalem” theme explains mu...

3244. Matthew 21:23-32

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Although it is not new for Jesus to be challenged about in whose authority he preaches, teaches and heals, the context of today's gospel lesson makes this particular confrontation much more dangerous. Jesus has now entered Jerusalem, the scene of all the passion events he has predicted. Furthermore, Jesus' entrance into the HolyCity and the holy temple has not been unobtrusive. First, he enters Je...

3245. Matthew 21:1-1

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

If you want a different perspective on your neighborhood, try getting out of your car and walking (or biking) to those places to which you usually drive. The route to the grocery looks different, and when you are walking you can only get one bag of groceries at a time. There are short-cut trails through the brush behind the strip mall, connecting shops in ways you never knew. Even the scruffiest v...

3246. Great Men Are Often Broken by Their High Ideals

Illustration

Brett Blair

Some years ago a book was written by a noted American historian entitled "When The Cheering Stopped." It was the story of President Woodrow Wilson and the events leading up to and following WWI. When that war was over Wilson was an international hero, There was a great spirit of optimism abroad, and people actually believed that the last war had been fought and the world had been made safe for dem...

3247. The Triumphal Entry

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

For Matthew, Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem (21:1–11) enacts Zechariah’s prophetic announcement that Israel’s king would arrive in Jerusalem not as a warrior on his horse but on a donkey—as in times of peace (Zech. 9:9–10; also 1 Kings 1:33, 38). Just as Zechariah’s prophecy anticipates a “gentle” king (21:5; see the Greek Septuagint of Zech. 9:9), Matthew’s Jesus has already identified himself as “...

3248. The Triumphal Entry

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

21:1–5 Jesus and his disciples crossed the Jordan and traveled south through Perea in order to avoid Samaria. This brought them through Jericho and up to Jerusalem from the east. When they arrived at the village of Bethphage, Jesus sent two of his disciples ahead to secure a donkey and her colt. Bethphage was located on the Mount of Olives and considered the eastern boundary of Jerusalem (the name...

3249. An Unidentified King

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

I have always sensed there was something strange about the original Palm Sunday celebration in Jerusalem. A huge question mark looms over the whole event. Think about it...A crowd estimated to be between 100,000 and 200,000 lines the roadsides to cheer an itinerant preacher from Nazareth named Jesus; yet they are not really sure why they are cheering. They are not even sure who Jesus is. What if ...

3250. A Salvation Army Parade

Sermon

Lee Griess

Different churches celebrate Palm Sunday in different ways. At one church in Chicago, there is a tradition for worshipers to gather outside the church. Palm branches are distributed, and when the time comes, another group of worshipers emerge from the front doors playing instruments and together they march around the block, singing the songs of Palm Sunday. One year as the procession made its way ...

Showing 3226 to 3250 of 4511 results