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 1026 to 1050 of 2815 results

1026. Proper 19

Luke 15:8-10, Luke 15:1-7

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

... in today's lesson are offered as an answer to the criticism of the scribes and Pharisees in v. 2 to the effect that Jesus "accepts" sinners. The parables indicate that God not only accepts sinners, but goes out of the way to seek them out and restore them, and that repentance is a response to that gracious divine initiative. The "until" (as opposed to "if") in vv. 4 and 8 suggests that God's pursuit in recovery of ...

1027. What A Friend He Had In Judas

Matthew 26:47-56

Sermon

Thomas Long

... slap in the Gospel of Matthew. In the Gospel of John, friend is a good word. "What a friend we have in Jesus." Not in Matthew. When someone calls somebody else "friend" in Matthew, it has a kind of "Okay, Buster, back off" flavor. For example, in the parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16), when the workers who have worked all day long begin to grumble about their wages, a provoked vineyard owner looks one of them straight in the eye and retorts, "Friend, I am doing you no wrong." Or again ...

1028. Proper 19

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

... , as humans so often assume. We think: Well, I'm not as bad a sinner as that scoundrel, surely God will recognize my comparative goodness. The bean counting mindset shows that we are still living under law, not grace. Love is without limits. Mercy me. The debtor of Jesus' parable begged for mercy as he and his family were about to be thrown into debtor's prison. He ought to be the object of mercy but when he came upon his fellow debtor who owed him a little money, he was unwilling to be the subject of mercy ...

1029. Easter Day

John 20:10-18, John 20:1-9, Colossians 3:1-17, Acts 10:23b-48

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

... that sat there pondering what he had just gone through. He had personally experienced the reality of resurrection. The manure impregnated earth smelled sweet; the sky never looked so blue. That farmer looked at farming and all of existence with new eyes. He had been reborn. The Parable Of The Two Parties It was Good Friday and my family and I were on our way to worship. As we approached the lane that leads into the church parking lot, we noticed a huge party in the parking lot of a local night spot across ...

1030. I Am The Servant

Sermon

Ronald Lavin

... fact that that is what he meant when he said, "Here am I among you like a servant" (Luke 22:27). In addition, in the enacted parable of the foot washing reported in John 13:1-17, the theme of servanthood is clear. The Story Of The Foot Washing When Mark, the ... out the bowl and towel and went from one person to the other, washing their feet like a servant. It was an enacted parable. It is the story of Jesus, the servant, which has been told again and again, generation after generation. "Each time we hear it ...

1031. The Merciful

Sermon

John A. Terry

... where he had locked others, subjected to treatment that he had taught his secret police, tried in the sort of trial he had helped to engineer, he was mocked by his own cruelty. We know the blessing of this beatitude, but we need also to consider the warning of the parable. In March of 1976, Carlo Gambino, boss of all bosses of the Mafia, died in New York. He was the model for the role of Don Vito Corleone, the part played by Marlon Brando in the movie The Godfather. We lived in New York City at the time of ...

1032. Shouting At A Storm

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

William G. Carter

... of people. In the language of his sermon, Jesus is like a sower casting seed upon the mixed soil of his audience. After a demanding day, he tells the disciples to push out to sea. He drifts off into slumber, and the scene looks suspiciously like one of the parables he told that day: "The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed and go to sleep" (Mark 4:26-27). The sower sleeps, and trusts the result to an unseen benevolence at work within a fertile soil. At the crucial moment he wakens to see what ...

1033. Facing Failures With the Gospel Proclamation

Matthew 13:1-23

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

... of the Church (vv. 18ff), seems to be that, despite the fact that eventually it will find a fertile audience and yield extraordinary fruit, the gospel will initially and repeatedly fail to take root. In this regard, the injunction in verse 9 is telling the hearers of the parable either to heed its lesson, or simply to let the gospel itself "fall on deaf ears," if need be. Liturgical Color Green Suggested Hymns Forth In Thy Name, O Lord I Go The Son Of God, Our Christ O God Of Mercy, God Of Light To God, The ...

1034. A Reign Worth Any Sacrifice

Matthew 13:44-46

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

... in this selection form a pair and say essentially the same thing from two perspectives: God's coming Reign is like a treasure or rare jewel that is so invaluable that it is worth total sacrifice. Matthew's message in recording these two parables was probably an indirect exhortation to his contemporary Church to accept self-sacrifice willingly. Liturgical Color Green Suggested Hymns From God Can Nothing Move Me Jesus, Priceless Treasure Lord, Teach Us How To Pray Aright Prayer for Proper 12 or Pentecost 10 ...

1035. Limitless Forgiveness

Matthew 20:1-16

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

... was probably verse 15, which would shift the focus of the parable properly from the laborers to the vineyard owner and would underscore his generosity. The lesson, then, is about God and God's coming Reign: God will be just to all but "unfairly" gracious to some. Liturgical Color Green Suggested Hymns All Depends On Our Possessing Father Eternal, Ruler Of Creation ...

1036. Proper 22

Matthew 21:33-46

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

... in the Synoptics and the Gospel of Thomas reveals that the original point of the story was not Christological; nor was it primarily allegorical. Rather, it was a simple, if shocking, "Kingdom" parable, whose point was the value of the coming Reign of God and the extraordinary, even desperate measures that the lowly should take in claiming it as their own. Liturgical Color Green Suggested Hymns Our Father, By Whose Name O Jesus, I Have Promised Come, Gracious Spirit, Heavenly Dove Breathe On ...

1037. Proper 23

Matthew 22:1-14

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

... (vv. 1-10 and 11-14) and allegorized them to speak to his contemporary situation. The original point of the first of these is that the coming Reign of God is to be populated by a motley assortment of outsiders -- in this parable, "street people" --rather than the respectable, invited, but finally unworthy ones (probably pious Jews) who had spurned the invitation. These are the "many called" of verse 14. Liturgical Color Green Suggested Hymns All Who Believe And Are Baptized Thee Will I Love, My Strength ...

1038. The Merciful

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

John A. Terry

1039. John the Baptist Beheaded

Mark 6:14-29

Sermon Aid

Richard A. Jensen

... "passion" story of John the Baptist. John the Baptist's story ends here with his burial by his disciples (6:29). When Jesus died there were no disciples to be found. He had to be buried by a stranger! In Mary Ann Tolbert's reading of the typology of the Parable of the Sower she views Herod as an example of seed sown among the thorns. Herod and the ruler who comes to Jesus to find out what he must do to inherit eternal life (Mark 10:17-31, appointed for Pentecost 22) are her chief examples in Mark's story ...

1040. The Servant of All's Second Prediction

Mark 9:14-32, Mark 9:33-37

Sermon Aid

Richard A. Jensen

... of today's text about welcoming the children into the kingdom of God are also a fruitful path for preaching. It would seem, however, that the response of the disciples might be the most important line to pursue. Story One could go back to the Parable of the Sower and remind people of the nature of the rocky ground. The disciples appear to be linked to this rocky ground metaphor. Story Two might be just a reminder of the three boat scenes and the three responses to Jesus' "passion/resurrection" predictions ...

1041. Calming the Storm

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon Aid

Richard A. Jensen

... ? Are your hearts hardened? (Rocky ground!) Do you have eyes, and fail to see? Do you have ears, and fail to hear?" (Mark 8:17-18). What is astonishing about this speech of Jesus is that it is the reversal of what he had said in explaining the Parable of the Sower to the disciples. There he had said that the disciples were the insiders who get to know the secret, the kingdom of God. The outsiders, on the other hand, would see, but not perceive. The outsiders would hear, but not understand (Mark 4:11-12 ...

1042. Gunda

John 6:60-71

Sermon

Robert Salzgeber

... life, the man who so passionately desired revenge and who had so curtly rejected the message of Christ sensed a power that is stronger than hate. It is the power of love.2 "What gives life is God's Spirit; man's power is of no use at all." A parable: Paul Dicerio sat nursing a glass of beer at Vero's Pub, a neighborhood bar with good food and a good reputation. In deep thought, he glanced over at the bulletin board near the entrance. The picture on the placard was of him. Paul was running for state senator ...

1043. Pathway To God's Kingdom

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

Sermon

Leonard H. Budd

... planted. I do not know that even he could identify the planter or the planting time. It may have been a parent in discussion about God's kingdom present within a human life. It may have been a church school teacher teaching a lesson from the very parables that we study now. It may have been a neighbor, a preacher, a peer in his youth. Somehow, in that mystery of spiritual influence, the seed was planted that allowed Jacob DeShazer to struggle with the mysterious growth of God's kingdom in his own life, a ...

1044. Eating Living Bread

John 6:25-59

Sermon Aid

William E. Keeney

... bread in the wilderness and died with those who eat the living bread of himself and have eternal life. Thesis: Those who partake of the living bread in Christ have eternal life. Theme: Eating means trusting Christ; drinking means obeying Christ. Key Words in the Parable 1. "Living Bread." (v. 51) Living bread becomes an alternative for bread of life as found in John 6:35, 48. 2. "Came Down from Heaven." (v. 51) A repetition of the theme of incarnation that is basic to John's gospel account. 3. "Give ... my ...

1045. God Doesn't Ask A Fig Tree To Produce Bananas

Luke 13:1-9

Sermon

Lee Griess

... we acquire them? As Christian people we know the kind of life we ought to live, and most of us have the best of intentions to do so, but how? We are afraid because we know where the road paved with only good intentions leads! This morning we hear Jesus' parable of the fig tree, telling us to repent and bear good fruit. We know what the Christian life requires of us and yet, if we are honest with ourselves, we also know how far short we fall. So the question that confronts us this morning is: "Yes, but how ...

1046. Grow Like a Fruit Tree

Matthew 3:10

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

... are a lot of ways to use an axe, but the most important use for an axe is to chop down and get rid of things that you want to get rid of around your home or work. Jesus once talked about using an axe when he was telling a parable. A parable is a story that teaches us something. Jesus said that when fruit trees stop making fruit we should get rid of them. Chop them down and use them for firewood or whatever you need the wood for. There is no sense letting a fruit tree that is not making ...

1047. The Politics Of Love

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

W. Robert McClelland

... of the good Samaritan in the context of two commands: Love God and neighbor; and Go, do likewise! Furthermore, it is clear that by casting the parable with Jewish bad guys and a Samaritan good guy, Jesus wants our love to transcend ideological differences and respond to human suffering and injustice wherever it may be found. Christian spirituality has always been characterized by its loving concern for others, but it has had trouble seeing the political dimensions ...

1048. Planting Seeds

Matthew 13:1-23

Children's Sermon

Mark A. Hultquist

... else would I need to make this work? That's right: soil, sunlight, fertilizer, water, the right temperature ... and with all of those in place, then we would have the flowers we want! That is exactly what Jesus was talking about one day when he told the parable of the farmer who went out to sow his seeds. The seeds were all ready to produce the crop that farmer needed. However the other conditions were not quite right in most cases. Some seed fell on the roadway, and others in the thorn bushes, and still ...

1049. Lent 5

John 11:1-16, John 11:17-37, John 11:38-44, John 11:45-57

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... 4:18-37 - Elisha revives the son of a Shunammite woman. Mark 5:21-24, 35-43 - Jesus raises Jairus' daughter. Luke: 7:11-17 - Jesus raises a young man at Nain. Luke 10:38-42 - Jesus is at the home of Mary and Martha. Luke 16:19-31 - The parable of Lazarus and Dives. John 12:1-6 - Mary, Lazarus' sister, anoints Jesus. Acts 9:36-43 - Peter raises Dorcas to life. The Lectionary Lesson 1 (Ezekiel 37:1-14). As Jesus' words bring Lazarus back to life, Ezekiel is commanded to preach the Word to the dead bones of ...

1050. Proper 13

Mt 14:13-21 · Rom 8:31-39 · Ex 12:1-14 · Ps 143

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... . He replied, "I like the one about the loafs and fishing." The kid may be confused whether the story of Jesus' feeding the 5,000 is a parable or a miracle. However, the miracle of multiplying is also a favorite of the gospel writers. This miracle of Jesus is the only one recorded by the four evangelists. In addition, there are two accounts of feeding the 4,000 which New Testament scholars consider to be different versions of ...

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