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 4051 to 4075 of 4968 results

4051. Is Conscience the Best Guide?

John 16:5-16

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... coming when those who kill you will think that by doing so they are offering worship to God."(John 16:2) Sometimes we say that it was "the Jews" who hounded Jesus to death; but when we do this, we forget that Jesus and all of the disciples were Jews, and that we would be more accurate if we said that "Some of the Jews hounded Jesus to the cross." Specifically, the religious establishment; and we might ponder the question as to how Jesus would fare with any religious establishment...even today. Some of the ...

4052. Life Begins at Thirty-Eight

John 5:1-15

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... of Jerusalem was obliged to attend: they were Pentecost, the Passover, and Tabernacles, (which was sort of like our Thanksgiving). Scholars are divided as to which “festival” John is referring in the fifth chapter of the Gospel. There is also, curiously, no mention of Jesus’ disciples being there with Him, so perhaps He attended this one alone. As Jesus walked through the Holy City, he came to a certain pool. We don’t know for sure exactly where the pool was, nor even what its name was. If you check ...

4053. Food for the Fed-up

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... the Bread of Life. There are many meanings to this symbol of “Bread,” of course. Sometimes we call bread “the staff of life.” Jesus well knew the necessity for daily bread. In the pattern prayer we sometimes call the “Lord’s Prayer” (but which is really “the Disciples’ Prayer) He taught us to pray for it. He did say that we do not live by bread alone, but He was wise enough to know that without bread, we do not live at all! We are not purely spiritual creatures. We need daily bread, or its ...

4054. It Costs to Belong

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... ,” rather than enrolling in kindergarten. After joining, they have graduated, and now become alumni, whose only task now is to sit back and criticize, rather than get in and do. But from the very first, those who joined the church were called “disciples,” learners, enrolled in the school of Christ, sitting at His feet to learn of Him. Also, in the New Testament, those who belonged were called “brothers and sisters.” Some churches still preserve that custom. For them the church was a family. Within ...

4055. One Bad Apple

Matthew 26:47-56

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... leaders, and in at least one case, I recall them saying of a previous premier: “He is a Judas!” So, they do know their Bibles! We all know what “Judas” means. It means traitor, betrayer, untrustworthy. Judas was the one bad apple in the barrel of the twelve disciples. I have performed hundreds of baptisms in the last forty years. I have never once been asked to baptize a child with the name Judas. I. BUT IT IS A GOOD NAME. OR AT LEAST, IT WAS. It was a proud name before this Judas of the New ...

4056. Wining and Dining with Jesus

Mark 2:18-22

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... hath bidden all mankind.” Number 102. “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners,” said Jesus. “That’s why, wherever you find Me, you will find them.” III. THEN THERE WAS THAT PROBLEM ABOUT FASTING. The disciples of John the Baptist made a big deal about it; Jesus’ disciples did not. And that, too scandalized the Pharisees. With the stricter Jews of Jesus’ day, fasting was a regular practice. In the Jewish religion there is only one day in the year when there is a compulsory fast ...

4057. Family Reunion

Mark 3:31-35

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... we are invited into the family. “Whoever does the will of God is my brother, and sister, and mother.” (Mark 3:31) Jesus asks “Who is my brother?” Then, by way of answering his own question, he stretches forth his hand toward his disciples - the Twelve - and says, “These are my mother - and my brothers - and my sisters.” In asking the question of brotherhood, Jesus was asking after and inviting us toward a universal relationship, a category that transcends gender or class or nation. “For anyone ...

4058. The Laying on of Hands

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... ) Two things surprise us: that Jesus should think of such a mundane little detail as feeding the poor child; and that he should tell nobody to tell about what had happened. (Luke says that Jesus ordered food for the little girl first, and then afterwards told the disciples not to tell anyone about what had happened.) I think Luke has it right...not just because he was a physician, and that detail would be of interest to him, but because Jesus knew the real needs of children. All of God’s children. Did He ...

4059. Radical Surgery

Mark 9:42-50

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... had thorns growing out of her neck. And when Jesus said “I am the door,” (John 10:9) He did not mean that He had hinges attached to His shoulders. It is so easy to miss the point by approaching Scripture with a wooden literalism. Jesus said that His disciples were “the salt of the earth,” but no one thought He meant that they should be used as seasoning for meat. He said that they were “the light of the world,” but His hearers did not think of making them lamps for the home. A few years later ...

4060. On Claiming One’s Inheritance

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... Someone once said that his French was very good...all except the verbs. For many of us, our faith is very good...all except the verbs. And Jesus gave this man several verbs, several things to do. But (as we note in the story) he could not become a disciple, he could not even begin doing them until he rearranged his priorities, got over his idolatry, and gave his first loyalty to Christ and not to himself. He could not open his hand to receive God’s gift of grace until he first let go of his possessions ...

4061. What Do You Want Me to Do for You?

Mark 10:46-52

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... we seek. The Christian faith teaches us that what we seek is Jesus. Nothing more. Nothing less. As St. Augustine put it: “Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee.” One can only wonder where the disciples were in all of this - they who had been given the task of bringing others to Jesus. They are not heard from in this account, except as seekers after their own positions of power. Perhaps this is a parable of the church, so preoccupied with its own ...

4062. On Being in the Wrong Place

Mark 15:21-32

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... Negro. Many Jews lived in Cyrene, the capital city of the North Africa District of Cyrenaica.” (New York and Nashville, The Abingdon Press, 1952, P.357) (Thus ruining dozens of good sermons.) But there is another kind of “cross.” One day Jesus said to His disciples: “If anyone would come after me, that one must deny himself, take up the cross..and follow.” (Mark 8:34) When Jesus spoke about carrying the Cross He did not mean something which we are drafted into. It is a burden we pick up and carry ...

4063. Did You Leave the the Door Open? (I am the gate)

John 10:1-21

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... that he does not depend on fear, deceit, and coercion to reach his sheep. Others do that--he does not. The work he does is done in the light. After all he is the "Light of the world." I believe he shares these words in John 10 to reassure his disciples that he is the true revelation of God--and also to expose the religious charlatans who might have been in the crowd at that very moment. In other words they were pretending to be shepherds--but really did not care for the sheep. They were in it for profit ...

4064. The Lord's Prayer: Our Father

Matthew 6:5-15

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... in the Jewish spiritual liturgy. THE FIRST THING I WANT TO SHARE IS THE SENSE OF COMMUNITY EXPRESSED IN THIS PRAYER. So often we tend to miss the first word of this great prayer. The word "Our" is a crucial dimension. Jesus chose to teach his disciples to pray in the second person plural. Perhaps Jesus is sharing a word of caution when we only pray for ourselves and forget others. The May 22, 1992, devotion in the Daily Bread publication related a story told by Dr. George Sweeting, former President of the ...

4065. When It Is Tough to Follow Jesus: The Third Word

John 19:17-27

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... the cross--you know where she got her strength to love and serve. Jesus fulfills his last human responsibility when he commits the care of his mother Mary to his closest friend John. John also benefits because we know that he was the youngest of all the disciples. Therefore Jesus is giving Mary another son, and John now has a mother to care for and also to be nurtured by. My friend J. George Mamourian believes that this was John''s finishing school: he was polished and refined by Mary so that he could make ...

4066. Hissing in the Garden

Genesis 3:1-24

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... the desolate landscape, he is being tested and tempted. William Barclay observes that we would have never known of this temptation/testing of Jesus, unless He had shared it with his disciples and they shared it with the early church. Who else could have been present except for Jesus. Yes, Jesus shares with his disciples this very real struggle. These temptations are of such extreme importance that they are placed at the beginning of Jesus'' ministry like a table of contents to all the decisions Jesus ...

4067. Your Faith: Winning or Whining?

Hebrews 11:1-40

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... :1-6. Both of these passages deal with an ingredient that is fundamental to the understanding and practicing of what we call "Christian faith." Would you like to have greater faith in God? The Disciples did. They were honest and forthright, and they asked our Lord, "INCREASE OUR FAITH!" (Luke 17:5) The Master''s reply to His Disciples who actually wanted to please Him was, "If you had faith like a mustard seed...." As Paul writes in the eleventh chapter, he also felt led by God to explain very concisely to ...

4068. The Power of Remembrance (Part III)

Philippians 1:1-11

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... responded, "It will one day." And in truth it happened. Picasso had a vision of what she would look like and be one day and he framed the vision in his famous portrait. Only God knows the power and potential that can be unlocked in a Christian disciple when they open their hearts and minds to the indwelling power of God in Christ Jesus. Imagine all the Lydias and slave girls we have discounted in our own time because we have forgotten how we began our journey as Christian believers. We can boast of having ...

4069. The Marvelous Message of Easter

Mark 16:1-20, Matthew 28:1-10

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... a glass of cold water. He immediately recognized the rock as a huge lump of gold. In fact, it proved to be the largest gold nugget ever found east of the Rocky Mountains. Like the man who failed to recognize gold when he held it in his hands, the disciples failed to recognize the true nature of our Lord after spending three full years with him. Jesus holds all the keys of life; He holds life and death, heaven and hell, the abundant life, the authentic life, all of them are in the hands of Christ. This is ...

4070. Easter for Thomas, Too

John 20:24-31

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... were privy to the news of Easter and had experienced it firsthand, but for some reason Thomas was not there when that happened. Maybe he had the flu, or was out of town, or had a doctor's appointment. The point is, the other disciples experienced something he hadn't. "We have seen the Lord," they tell him and Thomas finds that absolutely incredulous. It's bad enough to be out of the loop, but it's even worse when -- having been given the inside scoop -- you find it impossible to believe! I suspect that ...

4071. What Gets Into People?

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

King Duncan

... --Christ can set us free. We are beginning today a series of messages on the healing ministry of Jesus. We know that Jesus’ ministry consisted of three basic functions: preaching, teaching and healing. In our lesson today Mark tells us that Jesus and his disciples were in Capernaum. It was the Sabbath and Jesus was teaching in the synagogue. The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. Suddenly a man in the synagogue who, accordig ...

4072. Time Out!

Mark 1:35-39

Sermon

King Duncan

... a time out. He needed to get away by himself. Anyone here ever feel like that? It goes with modern life, doesn’t it? Jesus needed a time out and so often he would rise early and go off to a solitary place. “Everyone is looking for you!” his disciples would report. But that time out was essential to the effectiveness of Jesus’ ministry. You and I need to learn to take “time out” as well. Our lives become so frantic. So chaotic. With all there is to do, we can lose our soul if we are not careful ...

4073. It's Happening!

Mark 4:30-34, Mark 4:26-29

Sermon

David G. Rogne

... They would be a small, discouraged group of fugitives without a leader. Now was the time to provide them with a message that would give them hope in times of discouragement and sustain them in the face of future persecution. His words have a message, not only for his original disciples, but for us as well. The first thing these words of Jesus do is to remind us that we are called to do something. He spoke of seed to be scattered. If the Kingdom of God is to become a reality, we who are aware of God's grace ...

4074. The Dangers of Being Religious

Mark 7:1-23

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... ... if you think Jesus might have overstepped his bounds when he turned water into wine ... if you think big hair is a sign of holiness ... if you go to church to prove you're good! Seriously, in the Gospels Jesus issues three bewares to his disciples. Mark 8:15, "Beware the leaven of the Herodians." Such were Jews who went along with the occupying army of Rome that they might prosper materially. To them nothing was more important than property, career, and money. Jesus also said, "Beware the leaven of the ...

4075. Deliverance: The Forgotten Third of Jesus' Ministry

Mark 9:14-32

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... , and look for cumulative evidence. It is when one finds numerous symptoms beginning to add up that one can be more certain. But ultimately it is the Holy Spirit who confirms it. How to Evict? The fifth question is crucial: How does one evict demons? In the Bible the disciples often tried but failed. Yet Luke 9:1-2 says Jesus "gave them power and authority to drive out all demons." Note the power to deliver is not our own. It is given to us. The other day I watched a traffic cop throw up his hand and stop ...

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