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 4751 to 4775 of 4968 results
Sermon
Richard Gribble
... challenge presented to us by Saint Paul in his famous Philippians hymn, and the opportunity to reflect upon the great events of the week we commence today, must prompt us to look at our lives seriously and ask, are we truly willing to be a disciple of Jesus? To walk alongside Jesus and observe his great miracles, hear his teachings, and observe his triumphal entry into the holy city of Jerusalem is rather easy, for it does not cost us anything. However, for us to empty ourselves, as Jesus emptied himself ...
Sermon
Richard Gribble
... and challenges us to persevere in a life of self-sacrifice, confident that God’s total fidelity to us by sacrificing his only begotten Son for our sake, will lead us back home to God, if we have the courage to be true disciples. Today’s lesson from the letter to the Hebrews presents many important themes centered about the concepts of sacrifice and perseverance. As God persistently assisted the Hebrews, and manifested this fidelity through the law, so Jesus continues for the Christian community to ...
4753. Darkness
Mt 27:45 · Jn 1:5 · 1 Jn 1:5
Sermon
Will Willimon
... that's seldom done in our artificially illuminated modem world. We will sit in darkness for what seems like the longest time. We shall savor the dark on this, the darkest night of the Christian year, the dark night that Jesus was forsaken by his own people as his disciples fled into the dark, that day when darkness covered the earth from noon until three and it was is if Creation got undone by the howling grief of God over what we had done to God's only Son. Why do we worship in the dark? "The Christian ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... love for us cost him. (9) Yes, love and happiness are inseparable. But love requires sacrifice. Therefore, we must sacrifice in order to be happy. Love does not come easy in this imperfect world. But love is the central commandment that Christ gives to those who would be his disciples. It is what God made us for, and how God planned for us to operate in this world. If you don’t know that kind of love, then please ask Jesus to be Lord of your life today and discover the love that makes life worth living. 1 ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... all His children would have fellowship with Him. The second answer is to be found in our Scripture lesson for today from the opening chapter of the book of Acts. The setting is a mount called Olivet. The resurrected Christ is making his final appearance to his disciples before his ascension to be with his Father. Here are his final instructions to them: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of ...
4756. Holy Hydration!
John 12:20-33 · Jeremiah 31:31-34
Sermon
Lori Wagner
... in order for the world to live. In the context of this passage, some Greeks who had gone to the Jewish festival had come to Philip asking to see Jesus. But when Andrew and Philip told Jesus, he turned to them and made a proclamation, one that not only his disciples but also his Greek followers would see and hear. He said, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it ...
Sermon
Timothy W. Ayers
... sheep. If attacked by a lion or a bear, our good shepherd would not run, not give up protection even if it was a battle to the death. Jesus was the kind of shepherd who would lay down his life for the sheep. When Jesus told them this truth, the disciples did not understand the prophetic nature of his comments. For at that time Jesus was marching toward the cross to do exactly what the Good Shepherd promised them he would do. He was going to lay down his life for the sheep. There is no sign that any of them ...
4758. The Vine
John 15:1-8
Sermon
Lori Wagner
... refuse that invitation or accept it. Listen to Jesus’ words: If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples (John 15:7-8). The invitation of Jesus stands before us. We accept that invitation by Baptism. We accept it by our Confirmation of that Baptism. We re-accept it every time we partake of Holy Communion with Jesus. In fact, we affirm that decision each and every ...
Sermon
Timothy W. Ayers
... . We find that he is broadening the meaning and scope of the title disciple. It not only included those who surrounded him at that moment, and the many who believed in him but it appears to refer to all those who are beyond the Jews. The passage seems to refer to all believers of that time and the future. In other words, even us. ...
Sermon
Richard Gribble
... apparent, transparent as they say these days, to everyone. All people, not only those that we know, but even strangers, should by the words they hear from our lips and the actions of our lives, be able to know with certainty that we are contemporary disciples of Jesus. Yes, we will fail; we are certainly imperfect. But therein lies the great challenge. Are we ready to take up the mantle, be counter cultural despite the possible costs and provide clear evidence of our belief in the mission and message of ...
4761. Mary's Song
Luke 1:46-47, 52
Sermon
Will Willimon
... My family have been members of this church since 1932.") The blessed are those who hear and do God's word. Mary is called "blessed among women" because she hears and responds. She sings. Thus she is a model for us though she is rightly called the very first disciple. Sure, there will be dark days ahead for Mary. Her joy as a mother will be mixed with much pain, as it is for any mother. Just down the road, in Ramah, mother Rachel weeps for her slaughtered babies, as others will weep for Mary's son. But for ...
Sermon
Dean Feldmeyer
... are successful don’t fail. The truth is that they fail, often, and they let their failures inform them but they do not let their failures define them. Jesus as Phoenix In this morning’s gospel text, Jesus experiences failure and then offered advice to his disciples about how they should handle it when they find themselves and their message rejected. Jesus, we are told, went to his home town of Nazareth and taught in the synagogue but these were his old neighbors and his family. They knew him when he was ...
4763. Harmless Hospitality
Luke 10:38-42 · 2 Kings 4:8-17
Sermon
Will Willimon
... of the kitchen, listen, learn, follow me," he says. Martha, like her Shunarnrnite sister also receives a gift, but, like that given to the woman of Shunem, not the gift Martha expected. She, with Mary, is taken seriously, given opportunity to be a full disciple of the one who proclaims the intruding, barrier-breaking, living God. Be careful to whom you open your door, and whom you invite to sit at table. A pastor in Florida told me of how her congregation became concerned about the plight of the homeless ...
4764. The Invitation
Matthew 20:1-15
Sermon
Will Willimon
... . They have been given a denarius. Now Matthew, in his editorial introduction to this parable (19:31), suggests that this parable has something to do with Jesus' statement that ''the last shall be first, and the first shall be last." "Oh," say the disciples, "we get the point. Those Pharisees, who have criticized you for eating and drinking with sinners, think they are first in God's kingdom. But because of their insufferable self-righteousness and smugness, they are going to end up on the outside and ...
4765. Jesus' Vacation
Matthew 11:25-30
Sermon
Will Willimon
... , ought, must, a series of heavy, impossible commands. There are those who spend their whole lives getting over the damage done by "religion". In the very next episode in Matthew's gospel, Jesus' disciples walk through a grainfield one Sabbath. They are hungry so they pluck some grain. "Look!" cried his critics, ''your disciples are doing what it is unlawful to do on the Sabbath!" Jesus replies that they have perverted religion. God wants mercy, not sacrifice (Matt. 12:1- 8). And you can, no doubt, think ...
4766. Clean and Unclean
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Sermon
Frank Ramirez
... in hunting communities have a service of blessing for hunters to remind them of the place we all have on God’s great earth. There weren’t just laws for food. The controversy in this scripture begins with an observation by religious busybodies that the disciples of Jesus were eating with “unclean” hands. Now in point of fact they may well have washed their hands, or purified them in an acceptable way. What they neglected to do was follow the rituals as developed over the centuries by the culture, and ...
4767. A Stand-in for Royalty
John 18:33-37; Revelation 1:4b-8
Sermon
King Duncan
... power.” Wow! You can feel Peter’s excitement leap off the page when you read those words. And yet Pilate stood in Jesus’ presence and . . . missed it. Let’s not forget that our response to Jesus does not change the truth of who he is. Peter and the disciples stood in awe of his majesty. Pilate stood in contempt of his message. And whether we accept him or reject him today, neither response changes the truth that Jesus is who he says he is—the King of the world. What does it mean to say that Christ ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... you hear that? The old has gone, the new is here! Don’t you want God to do a new thing in you? Finally, we prepare for the coming of Christ by receiving God’s grace. We are not disciples of John the Baptist—as much as we admire him and as much as we try to heed his words. We are disciples of Jesus. We do repent of our sins. We do try to live righteous lives. But we know that we do not have the power within ourselves to live as we ought to live. So we throw ourselves on ...
Sermon
Frank Ramirez
... he had said. Whoever divorced their spouse and remarried is an adulterer. More insight can be gained by looking at the next four verses of today’s passage. People brought little children to Jesus, hoping for even a touch from the master’s hand, and the disciples, like many church busybodies, did their best to keep the children at bay, but Jesus, when he saw this, responded indignantly, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs ...
4770. Down by the Riverside
Mark 1:4-11 · Genesis 1:1-5
Sermon
Billy D. Strayhorn
... happen and that she would be different because of it. Because of our baptism, because of the invisible watermark of God, we can never be the same. Baptism does something to us and for us.  B. First, Jesus' last words to the disciples in the gospel of Matthew are: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." (MAT 28:19) From that time forward, baptism has been the Church's ceremony of initiation proclaiming God's grace and ...
Sermon
Billy D. Strayhorn
... is the morning after one of the strangest nights in the history of the ten cities. If you remember, Jesus calmed the wind and the waves of a sudden storm while he and the disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee. Then he healed the man possessed by a Legion of demons. After having been asked to leave town, Jesus and the Disciples have crossed back over to the other side. Again, it didn't take long for the crowds to begin to gather. They probably saw his boat coming and met it with cheers and adoration ...
4772. Are Ye Able?
Mark 10:35-45
Sermon
Frank Ramirez
... are thine. Remold them, make us, like thee, divine. Thy guiding radiance above us shall be a beacon to God, to love, and loyalty. (in the public domain) Ignatius spoke about earnestly desiring to share in the way of Jesus. In today’s Bible passage the disciples want a spot next to Jesus. They just don’t quite yet understand exactly what that meant. Mark wrote that James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus with a request — that he grant them whatever they asked of him. That kind of request ...
Sermon
Lori Wagner
... with your spiritual eyes. And you perceived Jesus differently. This is what Jesus meant when countless times he told his disciples, “You need to have eyes to see.” For faith doesn’t come from physical evidence like you might find in ... in his mind’s eye: Jesus, Messiah, Son of God. He wanted to see, so that he could follow him and be part of his group of disciples. Some of you at one time or another have probably seen a psychologist or counselor to try to deal with something in your life. Maybe it was ...
Sermon
Lori Wagner
... as people? Better yet, what does it say about who we are as Christians? John the Baptist tells us in our gospel for today, “Produce fruit that shows you have changed your hearts and lives.” That word “produce” is a radical clue. It’s not enough for a disciple of Jesus to claim to “be” different. The only way to tell what lies in a man or woman’s heart is to see them “act” differently. The “proof is in the pudding” so to speak. Our face to the world reveals what lies within our hearts ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... not what God intended for our lives. Our God is a creative God, and God made us for peace, hope and joy. So that spirit-deep tiredness poisons the life that God intended for us to have. That’s why we can relate to Simon Peter and the other disciples in our Bible passage for today. Crowds of people have come to the shore of the Lake of Gennesaret to hear Jesus preach. On the edge of the lake are the fishing boats that have come in after a long night’s work. Professional fishermen in Jesus’ day lowered ...
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