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 401 to 425 of 715 results

401. A King Worth Having

Zechariah 9:9-13

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... to deal with sinners. He was willing to stoop to the lowest of humanity, for he came to seek and save the lost. He called to a little man up a tree, Zacchaeus, and told him to come down and receive him into his home. As a chief tax collector, Zacchaeus was the most hated and despised man in Jericho. Yet, Jesus was humble to the point of fellowshiping and eating with him in his house. Consider also a person like Mary Magdalene, most probably a woman of the streets, a prostitute. He was humble enough to help ...

402. Forgive To Be Forgiven

Genesis 50:15-21

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... and openness toward the offender. When he/she sees the goodwill, kindness, and lack of hostility, the offender will be moved to come to us and say, "I’m sorry I hurt you. Please forgive me." Jesus used this method with Zacchaeus, who as a chief tax collector was a notorious sinner. When Jesus saw him up a tree as he passed through the village, he did not criticize, condemn, nor curse him for his economic sins. Rather, he called Zacchaeus to come down out of the tree and invited himself to his home ...

403. Journey To The Cross II: Jesus And The Hemorrhaging Woman

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

James W. Moore

... Finally, Love Has The Power To Redeem. Let me ask you something. Be honest now. Do you know the redeeming love of Christ in your life? Has He turned your life around? Has He loved you into life? There is a beautiful old story about Zacchaeus, the tax collector. It tells how in later years, he rose early every morning and left his house. His wife, curious, followed him one morning. At the town well he filled a bucket… and he walked until he came to a sycamore tree. There, setting down the bucket, he began ...

404. The Excitement of Meaningful Living

John 10:10 · Matthew 6:33 · Ephesians 3:20

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

... were, and he still does. Zacchaeus was another kind of person - lonely, hated, separated, uncaring, loving only his money because he had nothing else to love. Jesus called him down out of the tree and walked home with him. Strangely, new life stirred in the hardened tax collector. He accepted this new spirit of life in the Master. He was cared for, and he began to care. In his new spirit he wanted to share in the life of the world. He hungered for righteousness. He said, "I will repay four times anything I ...

405. The Hiding Angel

1 John 2:28--3:10

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... and helping them become extraordinary. He took an intolerant bigot named Paul and made him the ambassador of a universal gospel. He took a wishy-washy fisherman named Simon Peter and made him the founder of his church. He took a despised tax collector named Matthew and made him the writer of the First Gospel. Just consider two South Carolinians who, though seemingly ordinary, became extraordinary for their Lord. Mary McLeod Bethune was born in the tiny town of Mayesville in 1875, the youngest of seventeen ...

406. Here Comes Jesus

Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

James Bjorge

... -face. Read what he expected of the people who came to hear him preach: And the multitudes asked him, "What then shall we do?" And he answered them, "He who has two coats, let him share with him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise." Tax collectors also came to be baptized, and said to him, "Teacher, what shall we do?" And he said to them, "Collect no more than is appointed you." Soldiers also asked him, "And we, what shall we do?" And he said to them, "Rob no one by violence or by false ...

407. JUDGE

Num. 25:5 ; 1 Chron. 17:10

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

... man must possess wisdom, a knowledge of foreign languages and of science, to be of good height, and possess an appearance which commanded respect. Among those who were disqualified were eunuchs, childless men, professional gamblers, shepherds, farmers, tax collectors, robbers, extortioners, and all those suspected of dishonesty. Judges were thought of as performing a sacred duty; deliberating over a decision was described as "inquiring of God." During the period of the Judges, these leaders were charismatic ...

408. God Makes The First Move

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... But something pulled me to go with Papa that evening. What was it? I think it was God through his prevenient grace. Prevenient grace caused a Jewish ruler named Nicodemus to seek out Jesus for a private conference one night. Prevenient grace caused a sawed-off tax-collector named Zaccheus to climb a sycamore tree so he could see Jesus. Prevenient grace prepared a man named Saul of Tarsus to encounter Jesus on the road to Damascus; and there he became Paul the Apostle. I have had so many young adults come to ...

409. The Forgiving Father (Father's Day)

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Brett Blair

... the worse the sin the worse off you were with God. This, of course, left the sinner with the feeling that God totally despised them. In addition, there were people whose jobs were so ceremonially unclean that they too were considered unacceptable. The tax collector, the butcher, and even the shepherds were told they were too unclean to approach God. And so, in Jesus’ day, there was, spiritually speaking, the haves and the have-nots. The haves perceived themselves as having God’s love, and the have-nots ...

410. Tearing the Roof Off

Mark 2:1-12

Illustration

Larry Powell

... the sudden changing of their sophisticated expressions as they tugged nervously at their robes and mumbled beneath their breath. However, they may not have been surprised at all ... they had joked among themselves that the Nazarene’s clientele included harlots, tax collectors, the sick, unstable, ne’er-do-wells, and common sinners. Perhaps such an abrupt intrusion through the roof did not impress them at all, but was rather consistent with the kind of people attracted by the unorthodox carpenter. But ...

411. Send Me!

Isaiah 6:1-13

Sermon

Frederick C. Edwards

... the Apostle of Jesus. And the young Isaiah was changed from the comfortable aristocrat to become the fiery prophet of God. Certainly many of the disciples had radical changes wrought in their lives upon meeting Jesus. Levi, who had become wealthy as a tax collector, exchanged material comfort for the life of an itinerant disciple. And two pairs of brothers who were fishermen gave up catching fish to catch people. In fact the scripture for today puts it this way, "They gave up everything and followed him ...

412. What God Requires of Us

Drama

Curt M. Joseph

... Son of man. You know, the Messianic title that the prophet Daniel talked of. The only reason that he can continue is that he has gained the backing of one or two wealthy men. Caiaphas: What else do we know about him? Obed: He associates with known tax collectors and prostitutes. He tries to pass himself off as a wise rabbi. But his teachings are harmless at best, and heretical at the worst. Caiaphas: Nicodemus, do you know anything about him? Nicodemus: I am not sure what to make of him. Obed: See, he can ...

413. A Man With a Scalpel and a Pen

Acts 16:6-10

Sermon

R. Blaine Detrick

... to look toward heaven, and prayed, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner" (Luke 18:9-14). And he was the one who received the redemptive grace of the Lord. Or another story that is so loved by children - of all ages - the story of Zaccheus, the tiny tax-collector who couldn’t see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree, because he desperately wanted to see Jesus. Our children sing a song, by an anonymous author, about him: Zaccheus was a wee little man, A wee little man was he. He climbed ...

414. Where Can We Find Wisdom?

Proverbs 2:1-22

Sermon

Edward Chinn

... 1:24, TEV). In Christ we see the Divine Gardener who considered many a human weed and looked before him to the possible beautiful flower that person could become. In Lloyd C. Douglas’ sermon, "The Mirror," Christ speaks to Zacchaeus, the despised tax collector of Jericho whom our Lord had befriended " ‘Zacchaeus,’ said the carpenter gently, ‘what did you see that made you desire this peace?’ ‘Good master [answered Zacchaeus] - I saw - mirrored in your eyes - the face of the Zacchaeus I was meant ...

415. A Way Back In

Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

... was always helping people come back in. He respected their freedom, thus touching them at the deepest meaning of their lives. "Do you want to be healed?" he asked a man ill for years. Once assured, Jesus brought him back in. To Zacchaeus, the lonely tax collector, he gave a way back in. When a woman was being tried by the authorities for adultery Jesus challenged the one who was without sin to cast the first stone. Then he asked a famous question "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" (John ...

416. Simeon

Drama

Charles L. Koester

INTRODUCTION: [This portion is read from the lecturn by the introducer or narrator.] Though Romans troops and unscrupulous tax collectors caused many peole in Palestine to despair, there were those who waited patiently for the deliverance they were sure God would accomplish. Among their number was an old and saintly man named Simeon. Simeon looked to God’s promise of a Messiah as His source of personal comfort, and the ...

417. COMMAND TO SHARE

Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

Ewart E. Turner

... God wants in his followers, what the true requirements of obedience are, and most of all, what are the ethical contents of faith. John the Baptizer only hinted at the religious revolution soon to be ushered in by the imminent Messiah. It would tell the tax collectors not to extort if they wanted right relations with God. It would command the soldier to treat the civilian as a brother; no violence to obtain favors. But the Baptizer caught the scent of enough for Jesus to call him the greatest born of woman ...

418. Commanded By Example

John 13:31-38

Sermon

O. Garfield Beckstrand, II

... ). Look at the BREADTH of Jesus’ love. It is as the sea. People set narrow limits for their love - limits like race, color, creed, money, or position. But Jesus never placed boundary lines around his love. His friends included lepers, outcasts, hated tax collectors, sinners, people with whom no respectable person would associate, and men with whom no honest person would do business. His love reached out to those who were suffering all kinds of afflictions - women who sold themselves, people unknown to him ...

419. In Quest of Fire

2 Chronicles 36:15-23

Sermon

Larry Powell

... things, and who gave you this authority?" Jesus responded by informing them that he was under no obligation to qualify his actions. He would, however, propose two parables: (1) the Parable of the Two Sons, following which he informed the luminaries that tax collectors and harlots would enter the kingdom before them; (2) the Parable of the Wicked Tenants, in which he referred to his own death at their hands. Neither parable went down well: When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they ...

420. Scandal!

1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5

Sermon

... also with sick people in an age when illness was considered divine punishment for sin. This is the same Jesus who derided the most respected people of the day, the Pharisees, the same rabbi who had among his closest disciples a revolutionary, a crooked tax collector, and a half-dozen backward fishermen. In our age when church membership is the ultimate sign of respectability we have not been nearly scandalous enough in our living. We too easily forget that Paul calls us to be "fools for Christ." And we don ...

421. Cultural Revolution or Spiritual Problem?

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Daniel G. Mueller

... him. Mark tells us that all of Judea and all the people in Jerusalem came out to see him. Multitudes of people were attracted to him and believed what he had to say because they were baptized by him. All kinds of people came - tax collectors, soldiers, Pharisees, Sadducees, Temple priests - they all came asking John what to do and they listened to what he told them. One could attribute John’s popularity to a charismatic personality perhaps. Every once in a while a person comes along with such a magnetic ...

422. No Longer Afraid

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Daniel G. Mueller

... were of God, there may not have been anyone who was ever afraid of Jesus except for the single exception of the moneychangers whom he cast out of the Temple. Children came running up to him for blessing. They knew they wouldn’t be turned away. Tax collectors, prostitutes, a crucified thief, all kinds of people with lots of reasons to feel guilty and afraid, came to Jesus. "I don’t condemn you ..." he said to the woman taken in adultery. A preacher might well have made such people feel very ashamed; but ...

423. Jesus Knows Everything! Jesus Is God!

John 1:43-51

Sermon

Daniel G. Mueller

... anymore. Even more than parents, God knows everything. Better than to try to hide from our all-knowing God and Savior is to expose ourselves to him, to confess what he already knows about us anyway. To confess means, in its most basic sense, to expose oneself. The tax collector Jesus told about in one of his parables knew that God knew all about his sin and it was senseless to try and hide. So he confessed, "O God, have mercy on me, a sinner." God accepted him, Jesus tells us in his story, and forgave him ...

424. Who Does He Think He Is?

Mark 2:1-12

Sermon

Daniel G. Mueller

... said, "Only God can forgive sins!" Jesus did it because he is God. By his own power he forgives sins. And does he forgive! He forgave the thief dying on the cross next to his own. He forgave the woman caught in adultery. He forgave the dishonest tax collectors. He forgave the prostitutes. He forgave the woman who had been married six times. He even forgave Peter, who had betrayed him three times, swearing he didn’t know the Man. Jesus forgives sin. He forgave those who nailed him to the cross. All we can ...

425. And He Shall Reign

Jeremiah 23:1-8

Sermon

Alton F. Wedel

... , to implant a new heart in the breasts of people, and to rule in righteousness and justice. The royal trappings were conspicuous by absence. The manger was his castle, the cross his throne, his conquering army that sad looking lot of fisher folk and erstwhile tax collectors. He rose from the ranks of a carpenter’s son in the alleys of Nazareth - to bring good news for the poor, liberty for the oppressed, sight for the blind, and release for the captives. And when he died, the victim of his own compassion ...

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