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 526 to 550 of 4959 results

526. Why Must We Carry A Cross?

Mark 8:31-38

Sermon

Brett Blair

... can be obtained instantly by force. Peter has a worldly view of the Kingdom and Jesus is speaking about a heavenly kingdom. For a moment I would like you to listen to this story with new ears and see Jesus through the eyes of Peter and the rest of the disciples. Get rid of all your notions about who Jesus is. Take away from your mind Jesus as the Son of God. Strip from your memory that he died on the Cross and that he did that for your sins. Forget that Jesus ever said love your enemies or love your ...

527. Saving The Best Till Last

John 2:1-11

Sermon

Brett Blair

... So when this fermented wine is presented to the master of the banquet near the end of the festivities he is impressed. The earlier wine had been good but this was even better. But this was not the miracle. The miracle was known only to a few: the disciples and the servants who brought the water in, and, it seems, to Mary who knew about it even before Jesus. Turning the water into wine has long been viewed as one of Jesus’ more unique miracles. Poor planning has caused this wedding to grind to a halt. Mary ...

528. A Happy Ending

Luke 24:50-53

Sermon

Brett Blair

... despite what we might think life is still mystery. We are not the big cosmic know it alls that we think that we are. I cannot begin to explain how the ascension of Jesus happened and that does not particularly bother me. It is interesting that the disciples did not attempt to explain the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus. They simply proclaimed it. In ancient Greek dramas there was a role called the dues ex machina—god from a machine. Whenever the part of a deity would occur in the play a man would ...

529. Christ Has Gone Up

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... not know what the future held, they knew who held the future. It is said that the wife of Albert Einstein was once asked if she understood her husband’s theory of relativity. She replied, “No, but I know my husband and I know he can be trusted.” The disciples knew that Christ was with the Father and that Christ could be trusted. They believed that he was in charge and that made all the difference. I am so thankful that I am not in charge of the universe. When I look over my life and see the times when ...

530. Surprised On The Mountaintop

Mark 9:2-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... would benefit from a night to slow down and look around and think about this place where they were. (1) It would be a night Charles Kuralt would never forget. Such experiences are never really planned; they just happen, and when they do we are grateful. The disciples needed some time on the mountain. It was quite a shock when Jesus spoke so plainly about what lay ahead. This wasn't a time for cute parables or riddles. He told them he would, "undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief ...

531. Why Do You Stand Looking Into The Sky?

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... said to them was, "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth." "What's that he's saying to us?" the disciples probably asked. "We will be witnesses to the remotest parts of the earth?" These were men who probably had never been more than 50 miles from home in all their lives and they were going to be his witnesses in the remotest part of the earth? Again, their jaws ...

532. Where Meek Souls Will Recieve Him Still

John 3:22-36

Sermon

Darrick Acre

... wounds. It is time we acknowledge the “God-shaped vacuum in all of us” and allow the Savior who comes to fill us with himself until He is exalted in our lives. The Samaritan woman seemed to understand. John the Baptist obviously knew. The Baptist’s disciples were too indignant for their due to grasp who Jesus was. Nicodemus was too concerned about protecting religious territory to receive. But what about you and me? What is to be said of us? I want to close with a verse out of the hymn, “O Little ...

533. Who Counted the Fish?

John 21:1-14, John 21:15-25

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... pilgrim nun named Egeria from somewhere aound France or Spain came to this area and was shown by the local Christians a place with rock-hewn steps leading down to the water, and was told that it was on these steps that the risen Lord stood to call to his disciples who were out fishing. The landscape there today is pretty much as it was in the first century. Let’s listen to her own words: Here there “are some stone steps where the Lord stood, and in the same place is a grassy field with plenty of hay and ...

534. The Adventure of Discipleship

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

Paul E. Flesner

... real blessing, despite the gospel's two edges. We know that God has promised to be with us always. That means that we are never alone in life, no matter how we may feel at a given moment, or how unsettling life's changes may seem to be. Being a disciple means that God is not just a "Sunday friend," but a "daily companion" in our life. It means that all things "do indeed work together for good." Oh -- it doesn't guarantee that we won't get the flu or have to face unpleasant experiences. It does mean that as ...

535. The Holy Spirit Came Upon Them

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... given to all. In short, a new age was beginning. The coming of the Kingdom of God was being prepared. Jesus Christ had embodied in his person the powers of that kingdom (cf. Mark 1:15; Luke 11:20), and now by the gift of his Spirit to the disciples, that power was spreading through all the world. God was beginning to usher in his final rule over all the earth. His final coming would be ushered in by "wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth beneath" (v. 19), but before that time, the gospel was ...

536. Branching Out

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Michael Milton

... had a few days of sunshine and we all thought it was spring! But a cold snap came and did some damage. It was a temporary spring. God is not talking about a temporary, circumstantial feeling you can have. You can have good days and bad days as a true disciple. You can be up or down. Jesus wept and so will you. Some of the most joyful Christians have had unhappiness in their lives. No, the Gardener’s goal for your life is a joy that is supernatural and can never go away. We must surely, also, say that this ...

537. The Time of Waiting Is Over

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... therefore I won't sink. But there is a third call. It came at Caesarea Philippi when Peter was asked by Jesus, "Who do you say that I am?" And Peter said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Which is like the final exam for the disciples. And Peter passes it with flying colors. "You are the Christ. You are the Son of God. You are the one we have been waiting for. You are the ruler of this world." Now they are ready for the third call. It comes immediately after Peter's confession. Jesus says ...

538. This Is Not the Race I Entered

Mark 8:27-38

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... point comes in the exact middle of the narrative. There are sixteen chapters in the Gospel of Mark, and this scene comes in the eighth chapter. Behind us in the first seven chapters are the halcyon days in Galilee, those three years in which he gathered his disciples and taught them. Ahead of us now are those horrible days in Jerusalem, where he is crucified. So this is a turning point in the story, and it is marked by Peter's confession, "You are the Christ." Peter is answering Jesus' question, "Who do you ...

539. Confused as Pigeons

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... him by "my Father," by divine inspiration, not by any human analytical abilities. Peter's words are so profoundly true that Jesus makes that confession the foundation, the rock, upon which his church will be built. Think how joyous Peter and all the disciples must have felt, how overwhelmed with wonder, washed over with awe, at finally knowing their Master's identity. The endlessly-awaited, eternally longed-for Messiah had truly come. No less than the Son of the living God stood right there in front of ...

540. Pay It Forward!

Luke 19:28-44

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... take is still outrageous. Livestock was wealth. In the first century your investments, your inheritance, was typically on the hoof. A young colt, strong and vigorous with a long life ahead of it, was an extremely valuable commodity. Yet Jesus expects his two disciples to approach such an animal, untie it, and simply walk off with it. Although Jesus acknowledges that their actions might be questioned by the colt's owner, he gives them only a single phrase with which to explain themselves: "The Lord needs it ...

541. Easter 5

John 14:5-14, John 14:1-4, 1 Peter 2:4-12, Acts 7:54--8:1a, Psalm 31:1-24

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... To follow in the way of Jesus is to know the Father. The close interrelationship of Jesus and the Father leads to a theology of the name of Jesus in vv. 12-14, which provides an answer to the opening question of how Jesus will be present with his disciples in the post-Resurrection age. Whoever believes in Jesus and follows in his way has the power of the name of Jesus. What this means practically is that calling upon God (through the name of Jesus) becomes a channel for the risen Lord to be present with the ...

542. Easter 6

Psalm 66:1-20, Acts 17:16-34, 1 Peter 3:8-22, John 14:15-31

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... in this text. The first is the importance of the Paraclete or Holy Spirit in the life of the Church; the second is the new perception of the world that results from having the indwelling of the Spirit; and the third is that the presence of the Spirit in disciples will result in loving action. First, the importance of the Paraclete for the life of the Church. There are five passages about the Paraclete in John, of which todays lesson is the first (14:15-17, 26; 15:26-27; 16:7-11, 12-14). Scholars who have ...

543. Transfiguration

Psalm 2:1-12, Matthew 17:1-13, 2 Peter 1:12-21, Exodus 24:1-18

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... he had been talking with God." In Matthew's telling of this story, the active hand of God is recognized subtly through the simple use of a passive verb, "he was transfigured." And while Matthew points to the glory of Jesus and the respect of the disciples, he heightens the divine elements of the story (the cloud itself is "bright") as he plays down the human limitations. Unlike Mark, Matthew does not say Peter spoke in ignorance. Thus we see a strong theological bent in this narrative, as well as a rich ...

544. The Bloodline of Christ

John 20:19-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... kind of funny, except for this: The same is true for you and for me. Ultimately, the only way out of everything you face in life is through the power of God, shown most vividly in the empty tomb of Jesus Christ. The Easter gospel says, “The other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in , and he saw and believed...” Jesus’ tomb was as empty then as it is today. Jesus said, “He who believes in me will live, even though he dies.” That is the good news of Easter. Jesus Christ is risen today ...

545. A Call to Action

Matthew 9:9-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... “oned with Christ.” Even Plato understood that the human species was designed by God for participation, not mere attendance: Plato declared that human reason was nothing less than our ability to “participate in the Divine mind.” Let me put this another way: disciples of Jesus have been called to “dramatize” the gospel. “Drama” comes from the Greek word which means “to do.” The Incarnation is all about God’s drama of salvation, and God’s invitation for us to join in God’s drama of ...

546. Love Them Before You Leave Them

John 19:25-26

Sermon

James Merritt

... how, right to the very end, we do need to love our families. I. The Devotion To His Family "Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, ‘Woman, behold your son!'" (vv.25-26) The first face Jesus saw in the cradle was the face of His mother; and the first face He saw at the cross was the face of His mother. Just as an athlete ...

547. Outrageous Love

John 13:1-15

Sermon

Shirley Gupton Lynn

... opens the door a little wider by telling us what is going on with Jesus. Notice what all Jesus knows. Jesus knows who he is, that he is about to die, that he came from God and is going back to God. He knows who will betray him, that the disciples can't understand his actions now but will after the Resurrection. John tells us not only what Jesus knows, but how much Jesus loves. At the very beginning of the story, John lets us in on Jesus' hidden motive: "Having loved his own, who were in the world, he loved ...

548. Accepting the Unconventional in Life

Mark 2:13-22

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven ... a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away...." Jesus realized that one day he would leave this world; that would be the appropriate time for his disciples to fast. Christ saw the tradition and established conventions as serving humans, not the reverse. The Lord's third response to his critics was a metaphor: "No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise the patch pulls away from it, the new from ...

549. Acts 1:15-17, 21-26

Acts 1:15-17, 21-26

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... his prayer in verse 13, his word reminds us of how often he found time to go to God in prayer. The Bible teaches us that Jesus spent many hours and many nights on his knees. In fact, Jesus had a reputation for being a person of prayer. Whenever his disciples couldn't find him, they often assumed he had slipped away to pray. In Mark's Gospel Jesus is seen as rising "long before dawn" in order to pray, probably two or three hours before the first traces of light. Jesus prayed also at dusk and between three to ...

550. Mark 4:35-41

Mark 4:35-41

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... faith. The shape of this tale takes on a standard miracle story format. It begins by setting the scene and placing it in context with what has preceded it. In this case we find Jesus concluding a long day of teaching by proposing that he and the disciples now cross over the sea of Galilee to begin work on the opposite shore. A word of caution here: Mark's geographical information is not to be taken literally. As Jesus is constantly leaving one area, crossing that sea, he seems to be traveling west to east ...

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