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 3701 to 3725 of 4968 results

3701. The Ascension of Jesus

Acts 1:1-11

Bulletin Aid

Carl Hoefler

... watched. People: He had come as God made flesh; after fulfilling his ministry, he returned to his heavenly home. Pastor: He did not return without first commissioning his disciples to be witnesses. People: We are his witnesses today, telling the story of his love and redemption for all mankind. Collect Heavenly Father, whose only Son came into our world to give his life for our redemption, and then returned to his eternal home: Move us by your Spirit to ...

3702. The Ascension of Jesus - Gospel

Luke 24:44-53

Bulletin Aid

Carl Hoefler

... to do their Lord's work. People: That same Spirit gives us joy and power to minister in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ who sits at the right hand of God the Father! Collect Almighty God, whose Son ascended into heaven, filling the hearts of his disciples with your spirit: Fill our hearts with joy as we look forward to the power which you give through your Spirit, that we may give thanks to you and share your healing love. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Prayer of Confession Father, we would crown your Son ...

3703. Christ as Servant

John 13:1-17

Bulletin Aid

James Wilson

... the Master, so let us be servants unto the world. All: Blessed be the name of the Lord! Collect O God, the Gospel is such a paradox to us: to be great we must be willing to serve. Yet Christ set a living example in washing the feet of the disciples. Make us servants, O Lord. In Christ we pray. Amen. Prayer of Confession Lord, so often we would hear a call to greatness, but we would not hear Your call to become the servants of all. Too often we desire to be important, yet we would not choose to wash ...

3704. Peter. Rock. Follower of Jesus.

Matthew 16:13-20

Drama

Thomas Blowers

... might yet become. But that time is coming and when it comes those who follow after him will see the importance of coupling their words of affirmation with acts of confirmation. Just as Jesus came bearing witness to himself through speaking and doing so, too, his disciples students followers will witness with authority when the fervor of their convictions is matched by the intensity of their commitment: "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Peter. Rock ...

3705. Epilogue: Some Early Witnesses to Christ

Luke 8:26-39

Sermon

Robert V. Dodd

... to live among the dead in one of the caves near the town cemetery. And I am sure that those villagers could hear the screams of that tortured soul coming from the cemetery at night. It must have been enough to chill your blood! When the disciples saw this raving lunatic running toward them, they did exactly what you and I would do: they gave him immediate access to the Master. More than likely, they wanted to get back into the boat and head for safer shores. But they probably huddled behind Jesus, instead ...

3706. The Same New Jesus

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Carl Hoefler

... the sun does not literally rise in the East and set in the West. It is the earth that moves, not the sun. However, such picture language communicates accurately what we experience. When the writers of the New Testament desired to picture for us what the disciples had experienced as the Son returned to the Father; they said that he ascended into the clouds and above the clouds into heaven. There he reigns in power with God the Father. To argue the historic factuality of the Ascension-event is not to achieve ...

3707. Did Jesus Die?

Lk 23:26-43; 24:36-49

Illustration

Brett Blair

... Today has an anonymous advice columnist who goes by the name Eutychus. A lay person wrote in rather distraught about their pastor's Easter sermon: Dear Eutychus: (the letter begins) Our preacher said, On Easter, that Jesus just swooned on the cross and the disciples nursed Him back to health. What do you think? Sincerely, Bewildered The colunist wrote back... Dear Bewildered: Beat your preacher with a cat-of-nine-tails using 39 heavy strokes, nail him to a cross, hang him in the sun for 6 hours; run ...

3708. Sermon Opener - A Strange New Math

John 17:20-26

Illustration

Glenn E. Ludwig

... 17th chapter. It is really a prayer of Jesus to his Father in heaven and has often been called the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus. In a sense, it is Jesus' last will and testament, his parting shot, his last effort to teach, to exhort, to encourage, to empower his disciples. Now for the math part. Listen to Jesus' words: "I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they ...

3709. Sermon Opener - The Friend At Midnight

Luke 11:1-13

Illustration

... to ourselves, or are we speaking to God? If you feel somewhat inadequate in knowing how prayer works and exactly how to pray, then take heart you are in good company. For none other than the disciples felt the same way. Even Paul wrote in Romans 8:26: “We do not know how to pray as we ought.” One day the disciples, after listening to Jesus pray, asked him if he would teach them how to do it. In response Jesus did not give an extended seminar on the subject but rather told a wonderfully human story, that ...

3710. Learning to Walk on the Water

Matthew 14:22-36

Sermon

... boat, as you and I would. When he walked, he usually walked on earth, as you and I do. But in Matthew 14:22-33 we have an exception. Here the story is told of a night when Jesus walked on the storm-driven waves of Galilee. Some of his disciples were out there in a boat, fearing for their very lives, many furlongs from land, beaten by the waves, the wind against them. Along about three o'clock Jesus came to them, emerging out of the mist and shadows. Believing they were seeing a ghost, they cried out in fear ...

3711. An Everyday Theology

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... . To read the prologue to the Gospel of John, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God," is to hear the good news of God in Christ in terms of Greek philosophy. And when Jesus teaches the disciples to pray, "Our Father...," we are in the presence of a profound everyday theological style. Recognition is not always given to the importance of the learned style of theology in the history of the church. There have been times when Christians thought that all they needed ...

3712. Christ Has Set Us Free

John 8:31-41

Sermon

... make it on their own, to acknowledge to their families, to their faces, that they’ve been a nuisance and an embarrassment. But this discipline is necessary before they become free not to drink. As Jesus said: "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples." The program of A.A. is just an application of the word of our Lord on how to be free of any enslavement: to repent of our past, to look to him, to receive his pardon, and to live forgiven, getting strength from the fellowship of other sinners ...

3713. Is Christianity An Escape?

Luke 21:5-38

Sermon

... first been on the other side, hauling Christians off to prison. And then after his conversion, he was himself flogged with whips, beaten with rods and pummeled with stones. In the thick of the fight, the fight for our spirits. There were the hundreds and thousands of nameless disciples who were marched single file past a flame, and all they had to do was throw a pinch of incense in the fire and proclaim, "Caesar is Lord," and who didn’t do it and were then fed to lions to amuse the crowds in the Colosseum ...

3714. Emancipation Proclamation

John 8:31-41

Sermon

These are slippery words that Jesus used when, fifteen centuries ahead of Martin Luther, nineteen centuries ahead of Abraham Lincoln, he issued the emancipation proclamation: "If you continue in my word, then you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." Slippery words, I said, for when we think we have these concepts, truth and freedom, neatly boxed and wrapped with pretty ribbons, they begin to slip away. The usual baggage we have stuffed inside of them is ...

3715. The Sermon on the Level

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

... came to him, and he began his teaching. But in the sermon as Saint Luke remembers it, it can be called The Sermon on the Level, for when Jesus came down with his newly-chosen twelve disciples, he stood on a level place and leveled with them on the quality of Kingdom life that was as strange in their time as in ours. It’s a quality sometimes admired with awe in those rare folk like Mother Theresa, but as for us in our cash-centered culture, ...

3716. Heaven Can’t Wait

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

... in his example and his teaching as he drains our mere existence of its common values and re-creates new life in us, new attitudes, new motives, and new values. Heaven can’t wait. That day when Jesus went up on the mountain near Capernaum, sat down with his disciples and instructed them, it was as though he said, "Let me draw a picture for you." And with the master strokes of a verbal brush he painted a new scene that they had never known before. In what is called The Sermon on the Mount, and especially in ...

3717. How to Stay on Top of It

Luke 21:5-38

Sermon

... in fortune cookies, studying their horoscope, buying tickets at the lottery, and meanwhile watching out for black cats on their pathway. But the hopeful are the people who can see God’s end and new beginnings in his promise. The Warning Jesus did not answer the disciples’ question. Instead he issued a broad warning about false messiahs who would claim the office of messiah, saying, "I am he. The time is at hand." Do not be led astray. And instead of giving them a sign as they had asked, he said that in ...

3718. Advancers Over Decliners

Luke 19:11-27

Sermon

... gained by trading." The day of reckoning had come. Give an account of your stewardship. The final Dow, with a summary of advancers and decliners, was to be given. The Purpose of the Parable Luke tells us that the parable was spoken to disciples who anticipated that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. As they left Jericho, where Zacchaeus had received salvation, they continued upward on their journey from the Jordan Valley to Jerusalem where they expected Jesus to assert himself, claim the Kingdom ...

3719. Believing is Seeing

Luke 23:26-43

Sermon

Alton F. Wedel

... but Caesar." It Had Come to This So this is what the Gospel of the Kingdom now had come to. Here those heightened expectations crashed. Talk about those kingdoms on the rise and wane. None ever rose and waned like this one! And even those professed disciples of the Kingdom, except for one who stood compassionately at the side of mother Mary, had lambed out. By three o’clock that afternoon the imposter king was dead. The world had heard the last of him. The pits of Hades must have echoed with the noise ...

3720. The Sign in the Subway

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

Carveth Mitchell

... , travel in that time and place was often done late in the day to avoid the heat. Hospitality, as they also knew, was an assumed necessity. Village bread was most often baked at home. The result of these things was the situation Jesus described, one which the disciples themselves might have shared on occasion. They could sympathize with the neighbor. To get out of a warm bed into the cold dark with no light and no fire was not pleasant: but still the neighbor’s need was met. It was done "because of his ...

3721. Overcoming Life's Obstacles

Matthew 14:22-36

Sermon

... year ... So you are the Christ you're the great Jesus Christ Prove to me that you're no fool walk across my swimming pool If that was the motivation of Jesus, then we have a sorry Messiah indeed. But his real motivation, as well as that of the disciple Peter, is much more nearly reflected in the famous song from another religious rock opera, Godspell. You know the song: Day by day, Oh dear Lord, three things I pray: To see Thee more clearly, love Thee more dearly, Follow Thee more nearly, day by day So let ...

3722. Everybody Pray!

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

... territory near the cities of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman who lived in that region came to him, 'Son of David, sir!' she cried. 'Have mercy on me! My daughter has a demon and is in a terrible condition.' But Jesus did not say a word to her. His disciples came to him and begged him, 'Send her away! She is following us and making all this noise!' Then Jesus replied, 'I have been sent only to the lost sheep of the people of Israel.' At this the woman came and fell at his feet. 'Help me, sir!' she said ...

3723. If Only We Would Be Open To The Spirit ...

Joel 2:18-27

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... interpret it to others. Moses had expressed his wish that God would put his Spirit on all the people of his day. (Numbers 11:29) Other prophets looked forward to an outpouring of the Spirit! in messianic times (Isaiah 32:15; Ezekiel 39:29) Jesus gathered his disciples in an upper room on the night before his death and made them witnesses to his last will and testament. He said, in essence, that part of the legacy he was leaving them was the Spirit. Five times around that table he reiterated the promise of ...

3724. The Passion of Our Lord

2 Corinthians 5:21

Sermon

... : "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." To the penitent thief, dying beside Him, who turns to Him for help at the hour of his death, He says this: "This day, thou shalt be with me in Paradise." To Mary, His mother, and the beloved disciple John, kneeling before the cross, He says this: "Woman, behold thy son; son, behold thy mother." Then, quoting from the 22nd psalm, a psalm of suffering and God's victory, He says this: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me"; a psalm uttered from the ...

3725. Slavery and Freedom

John 8:31-41

Sermon

... being enslaved by them. Freedom Having Jesus help us identify sin is an asset, but it is only a beginning. What happens when we are enslaved in spite of his efforts to help us avoid enslavement? Jesus said, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." (John 8:31-32) This truth, this good news, was cleverly unveiled in this passage when Jesus compared a slave to a son. He reminded these people of something they already knew; a slave ...

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