Sermon and Worship Resources

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Judges 16:1-22

Understanding Series

Cheryl A. Brown

... which had been a major source of his weakness and led to his downfall (cf. Matt. 5:28–29). The final words (v. 22) of this episode are tantalizing. They begin again with the word but, this time not “but God,” rather but the hair. Yet another classic example of “It ain’t over till it’s over.” The Philistines thought they had subdued Samson when they clamped the bronze shackles on his hands and feet. But they failed to notice that his hair, sign of the Lord’s presence and empowering, began to ...

102. A Woman Burdened with Guilt

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

King Duncan

... , it also removes a critical barrier between you and God. You are now free to truly love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. All because of what Christ has done in your behalf--you, and I, are forgiven. There is a classic story about a noted conductor who was taking his choir and orchestra through their final rehearsal of Handel’s beautiful and inspiring “Messiah.” When the soprano soloist came in with the refrain, “I know that my Redeemer liveth,” she sang it with flawless technique ...

103. A Prophecy Against Babylon

Isaiah 13:1--14:23

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... and be bought and sold by them. It is a theological impossibility. 14:3–23 At last the links are explicit: Babylon’s downfall means Israel’s relief and restoration. On the way to that, it means the downfall of the king of Babylon. How is the classic beginning for an expression of horror, whether the horror is combined with grief or with satisfaction. The poem is a funeral dirge sung for a king who is at present very much alive. It parallels Amos’s funeral dirge for Israel in Amos 5:2, sung when ...

104. True and False Discipleship

Luke 6:46-49, Luke 6:43-45, Luke 6:37-42

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... teaching, this saying may also apply particularly to those who set themselves up as teachers of others when it is they themselves who need to be taught—the blind leading the blind. 6:42 You hypocrite. It is not a long step from the classical Greek sense of “hypocrite” as an “actor” to our use of the word to indicate deliberate deceit, pretending to be what you are not. But the term is used frequently in Matthew for religious leaders whose distorted understanding leads them to miss the point ...

105. The Story of Israel Now and Later

Romans 2:1-16

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

... truth. Judgment day, on which the works of each individual will be judged, is coming. Literature: The Inferno, by Dante Alighieri. To show the power of judgment, it might be good to find a pictorial illustration of Dante’s Inferno, such as Gustave Doré’s classic engravings illustrating the nine circles of hell. Dante’s poem begins on the night before Good Friday in the year 1300. Dante is lost in a dark wood (often interpreted as sin) and is unable to find the right way to salvation (symbolized by ...

106. The Spirit and the Glory of the Age to Come and the New Covenant

Romans 8:28-39, Romans 8:18-27

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

... intimately associates such realities with the new covenant: “God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God” (21:3). Such a classic formulation of the covenant is not far removed from the doctrine of the indwelling of the Spirit, who provides certain hope for the glorious resurrection and new creation. 8:26–27 the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans . . . in accordance with ...

107. Paul, Phoebe, Patronage, and Spain

Romans 16:1-27

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

... :7 may shed light on that subject, as we will see later. 4. In 16:1 Paul uses the word “church” for the first time in Romans. The New Testament word for “church” is ekklēsia, which means “gathering, congregation, assembly.” In classical Greek the term was used almost exclusively for political gatherings. In particular, in Athens the word signified the assembling of the citizens for the purpose of conducting the affairs of the city. Moreover, ekklēsia referred only to the actual meeting, not to ...

108. Job Destroys the Friends’ Major Argument

Job 21:1-34

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

... that the wicked sometimes prosper and the righteous sometimes suffer adversity in God’s world. Even though they raise deep and troubling questions, in their larger contexts they all point in the direction of God’s sovereign, but at times inscrutable, will. The classic example of this disconnect between one’s personal character and how one is treated is the death of Christ, in which the sinless Son of God suffered crucifixion at the hands of evil men, all within the predetermined plan of God (Acts 2 ...

109. “In God I Trust and Am Not Afraid. What Can Mere Mortals Do to Me?”

Psalm 56:1-13

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... Gerhardt sums up the sense of this metaphor in one of his hymns: Thou count’st how oft’n a Christian weeps, And where his grief may lie; No silent tear can be too small, Thou tak’st and lay’st it by.19 Even the world knows Classic Sermon: Stanislav Svec was a Baptist preacher in Czechoslovakia, and in one of his sermons (“Abide with Us!”), he tells about being incarcerated in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II: “During the last war, I was taken along with a number of my school-chums ...

110. God Subjugates Judah under Babylon

Daniel 1:1-21

Teach the Text

Ronald W. Pierce

... giver of wisdom to the faithful. Film: The Wizard of Oz. The beautiful Hebrew poem of Proverbs 1:1–7 defines the book’s purpose and reveals the important principle of serving God by employing the wisdom that is readily available. In the classic film The Wizard of Oz(1939), Dorothy is accidentally transported from her home in Kansas to the magical Land of Oz, where she encounters many fantastical characters, like the Cowardly Lion, the Wizard, and Glinda the Good Witch. While a little girl from Kansas ...

111. Terror on Every Side

Jeremiah 20:1-6, Jeremiah 20:7-18

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... ’s vengeance. Praise within a lament is a standard component; one-third of all the psalms are classified as laments, and all but one (Psalm 88) contain praise. In contrast to other laments, this one is not followed by a response from God. The classical statement of cursing in 20:14–18 likely describes another occasion; otherwise its link with verse 13 presents a schizophrenic prophet. Or, this may be not Jeremiah’s curse, but a standard outcry made by people caught in calamity. Cursing the day of one ...

112. Love

Romans 12:9-21

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... maintains that the criterion for truth necessitates the establishing of the falsity of its opposite, would appear to corroborate Paul’s idea here. “If there is nothing which an assertion denies then there is nothing which it asserts either.” See John Hick, ed., Classical and Contemporary Readings in the Philosophy of Religion, 2d ed. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1970), p. 466. 12:10–13 For the Benedictine Rule and its many echoes of Rom. 12:9–21, see The Rule of St. Benedict, ed ...

113. On Divisions in the Church

1 Corinthians 3:1-23

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

... degree of precision may be seen in that his metaphor shifts to the level of a cliché at the end of 3:15: only as one escaping through the flames. See Conzelmann (1 Corinthians, p. 77 n. 85) for a list of parallels in both biblical and classical literature. Conzelmann (1 Corinthians, p. 77) summarized the significance of these two verses: “This is the reverse side of the fact that works do not bring about salvation. But we remain responsible for our works before God (2 Cor 5:11); for the life of believers ...

114. Food Sacrificed to Idols

1 Corinthians 8:1-13

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

... be good. (Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary [Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1987], p. 278) At the turn of the third millennium, however, conscience is understood in a remarkably introspective way. This understanding presents a problem for classical scholars, historical theologians, biblical scholars, and historians of psychology. Such interpreters of antiquity agree that ancients were not introspective in the sense that moderns (or post-moderns) are. K. Stendahl makes and explains this point ...

115. Punishments for Sin

Leviticus 20:1-27

Understanding Series

W. H. Bellinger, Jr.

... engaging in necromancy is found in verse 6. Holiness demands loyalty to the one true God and the cult of Yahweh (v. 7). 20:8–21 This section treats issues arising in the context of the family, mostly matters of sexual relationships. It begins with a classic exhortation in the style of the Holiness Code, to keep my decrees and to live by them, walk or follow after them, for these decrees come from Israel’s God, Yahweh. Then verse 9 follows with a prohibition in the tradition of the Decalogue. Anyone who ...

116. Zophar

Job 11:1-20

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

... he offers even that hope, Zophar has much to say in opposition to Job. Call to Refute Job 11:2 Zophar’s attack focuses at first on the multitude of Job’s words that are unanswered. Job is a talker whose words should be discounted. In classic wisdom teaching, the sage is the one who speaks few words, choosing them carefully and using them to good effect. The hot-headed fool speaks voluminously without thinking, and he often gets into trouble as a result: “When words are many, sin is not absent, but ...

117. The Golden Calf

Deuteronomy 9:7-29

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

... pattern and focus on the same priorities (cf. Dan. 9:1–19; Neh. 9; Joel 2:17b); it is a powerful model for God’s people at all times. There is, of course, a mystery about prayer in general and intercession in particular, and this classic case study in intercessory prayer never fails to raise questions about the ways of God and the implications of how the conversation unfolds between God and Moses. Was God really serious in this declared threat? If Moses had not interceded, would God have carried out ...

118. How Well Do You Listen?

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Sermon

King Duncan

... King, “she fired off her next question. ‘Can you tell us some of the outstanding guests you’ve had?’” Larry King says that her whole crew started breaking up in the studio. According to Woolf, the inspiration for Larry’s put-on was a classic routine by an old radio comedy team whom some of you may remember named “Bob and Ray.” This skit featured a character on their radio program named Wally Ballou. Wally would be on the street, saying, “This is Wally Ballou, world-famous interviewer. Here ...

119. The Order of the Magi

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... a sacred caste in Medes. The Encyclopedia Iranica calls them a designation of priests of western Iranians, in Median, Achaemenid, Parthian, and Sasanian periods. Documents about these priests were translated in Old Persian, Aramaic, Parthian, Akkadian, and other classical languages of Antiquity. They spread into Egypt and became official priests for kings, including Xerxes, who consulted his magi about any decision he made. They normally traveled not in singles or even triples, as our traditions may suggest ...

120. The Lame Truth

John 5:1-15

Sermon

Lori Wagner

“Get out there! Get in the game!” I would hear my father shout from the living room chair on a Sunday afternoon. “He’s an armchair coach!” my mother would point and whisper. It’s baseball season! Any armchair coaches in here? All through growing up, I always heard my mother say that about my father, as he yelled at the team to do this or that and growled under his breath when they messed up a play. “I wonder how they’ve gotten along without you!” she would quip. Our town neighborhood alone had about 20 ...

121. The Unclean Palate

Acts 10:1-8, Acts 10:9-23a, Acts 10:23b-48

Sermon

Lori Wagner

How many of you have eaten a bug? A snail? Caviar? You know those are fish eggs, right? What about Octopus? Snake? Haggis? Squirrel? Groundhog? Some of us are more adventurous than others. But on the whole, we eat what we are comfortable with, and we avoid what is not comfortable. And what is not comfortable is usually what is either not acceptable to us in our culture or just not in our daily habit of rituals. For example, some of us might eat this: But never would we eat this: Or this: What kinds of ...

122. The Dwelling Place

Luke 9:28-36

Sermon

Lori Wagner

“Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Yeshua (Jesus), by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, His body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings.” (Hebrews 10:19–22) This week, I was learning the art of turkey roasting from one of our expert turkey roasting members! And I discovered that one of the important ...

123. Immersed

Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Washed in the blood of Jesus. That’s what our early hymns proclaim. We are washed in the blood of the Lamb, the blood of sacrifice, the blood of salvation, the cleansing blood of the messiah Jesus. For most of us today that sounds like a rather strange concept. But then, when you think about it, so is partaking of the “body and blood” of Jesus as we celebrate what we know as Holy Communion. In fact, this was a strange concept in the early church as well! Early Christians were in fact often called out for ...

124. The Crack in the Wall

Joshua 2:1-24

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Prop: large wall blocks (people will remove them one at a time as they come forward in the service) You’ve all heard “border” stories, about those crossing their country’s borders into other countries in order to find a better life, or to find security of life itself sometimes. You know too that every country has walls, some you can see and some that you can’t. In USAmerica, there are guarders of our country’s walls who deliberately and illegally assist “border crossers.” They are called cleverly, “cracks ...

125. Dream Weaver

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Lori Wagner

How many know the 1975 song, “Dream Weaver” by Gary Wright? Wright apparently took the idea for the song from John Lennon, who in his song “God” saw himself as the “dream weaver” of the 1960s, “breaking away from the influences and dogmas that informed his life.”* Lennon in fact spent his life trying to “break free” of the childhood traumas and psychological demons that plagued him, as well as cultural conventions. That “liberation” theme came out frequently in his music, and in his life. Lennon was ...

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