Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1801 to 1825 of 3852 results

Drama

Angela Akers

... unknown and hearing with an understanding that was not our own." Man 2: "You see, your Honor, the joy, the sheer revelation of it all filled us to such an extent that we probably appeared to be drunk. It was certainly an intoxication of no earthly origin." Man 1: "Your Honor, we can stand straight as the trees and speak with perfect clarity. When have you seen a drunk man who could do that?" Judge: "I''ll have to admit, never. Alright, I''ll drop the public drunkenness charge, but what about the ...

1802. Who Is Jesus Christ?

John 14:5-14

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... , IT SEEMS TO ME, WE MUST GO ONE STEP FURTHER UP THE LADDER AND CONFESS WITH THOSE EARLY CHRISTIANS WHO WROTE THE CREED that Jesus Christ was not only a man, a good man, a great Teacher, but JESUS IS LORD. In fact those three words were the first and original creed: JESUS IS LORD! The word Lord means simply, Boss. It means not only the One who is an authority, but the One who is in authority. What, then, does it mean to say I believe in God—and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord? It means nothing ...

1803. What the Heck Is Sin?

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... be at the party, you can count me out. Ill be damned first! And he was! Jesus never said that we would be forgiven if we repent. Not at all. What He said was that we would be forgiven if we forgive. That is made clear in the original text of the Lords Prayer. While St. Lukes version reads, forgive us our sins, as we forgive everyone who is indebted to us., (Luke 11:4) Matthew, in an earlier Gospel, puts in an additional sentence: ..if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive ...

1804. What’s the Good Word?

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... ’ Name” and then make comments upon the words as you go. “In the beginning was the Word (logos),” says John. The term “Logos” had been a part of the religious vocabulary of both Jews and Greeks. For the Greeks, it may have originated in the teachings of Heraclitus who wrote around 560BC and lived in Ephesus (where tradition says that John composed this Gospel)! For Heraclitus, Logos came to mean Reason personified, the principle of divine order under which the universe continued to exist. The ...

1805. Christmas and the Condensed Bible

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... once said to a friend of mine, “I take the Bible literally, cover to cover.” “Good,” said the friend, “then sell all you have and give it to the poor.” That’s in the Bible, too, you know. But, like the man to whom Jesus originally spoke those words, the fellow went away sorrowfully, for he had many possessions. (See Matthew19:22) We all have our own condensations of the Bible. We like certain portions of it more than we like others. My point is that condensations of the Bible are nothing new ...

1806. On Doing the Truth

John 3:14-21

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... their own. One reason that we are real is because God thinks we are real. He created all of us to be His children. We are made “in God’s image” as Genesis so quaintly puts it. However, over the centuries that image has become somewhat tarnished. Our original resemblance to God has become overlaid with all sorts of accretions across the centuries and that is why God saw fit to issue a new edition of what it means to be truly human. We call that new edition Jesus, the Christ. And Christ called upon us ...

1807. Jesus and the Divorced Evangelist

John 4:1-26

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... lesson, we must think for a few moments about the history and geography of the Holy Land. Let’s begin with geography. People who live and teach in the land of the Bible often speak of something called the “Fifth Gospel.” It is not a new or original term, but rather was suggested by Ernest Renan, the French philologist, philosopher, and historian, some years ago. What it refers to is the land of the Bible. Around 90% of the events in the Bible take place on a stage only 50 by 150 miles. Israel is not ...

1808. To Who Can We Go?

John 6:60-71

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... that such words connoted union with Christ. That is what shocked the first-century disciples. What shocked them was not just that the Messiah was going to suffer and die, but that He was actually inviting them to join Him in His sufferings! They had originally come to Him to get something; the notion that, instead, their religion might actually cost them something was quite foreign to them. And so, the closer He got to the cross, these fair-weather friends of Jesus began to thin out. They were offended at ...

1809. Let the Son Shine In

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... pun in the title of this sermon, for the author of the Fourth gospel delights in just such puns. Many of the words which he uses have double meanings, meanings which can only be understood fully against the background in which the words were originally spoken. That is what makes this Gospel so exciting. There are hidden depths of meaning which can be found beneath the surface John says specifically that Jesus spoke the words during the Jewish “Feast of Tabernacles” (7:2) in Jerusalem. On the evening of ...

1810. The Devil Is a Liar

John 8:42-47

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... me, because I cannot recall anywhere else where our Lord toned down His message just because it might upset His listeners.) Others insist that Jesus was right: there is a Power at work in the universe against which God (and we) must struggle. In fact, the original meaning of the word “Satan” was the “Adversary” - God’s adversary and ours. As a professor of mine in seminary said a long time ago, “If there is no devil, there is sure somebody getting His work done for him!” Some years ago people ...

1811. Doors Are for Entering

John 10:1-21

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... the family for Christmas.” He mused upon that phrase and wrote, “This is only true of Christmas. We do not try desperately to rush home for the Fourth of July. Only Christmas has this live power of family attraction. This is as it should be, for the original event on a cold desert night of conspicuous stars was a family affair. (An Old-Fashioned Christmas, New York: The Dial Press, 1964, p.51) In the prologue to the Fourth gospel, there is a verse which says, “No one has ever seen God. It is God the ...

1812. Lazarus Laughed

John 11:17-37

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... been writing from first-hand experience, for there is a minority opinion among scholars that Lazarus himself was the author of the Fourth Gospel! I said it is a “minority” opinion, but it is based on some hints in the Gospels themselves. Originally, the Gospels came with no authors’ names attached to them. The Fourth gospel has traditionally been attributed to the unnamed disciple who is know only by the appellation as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” We have usually assumed that was the apostle ...

1813. One Commandment, Slightly Used

John 13:31-38

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... George Eliot, “are often poor ghosts; our sun-filled eyes cannot discern them. But sometimes they are made flesh. They breathe upon us with warm breath. They are clothed in a living human soul. Then their presence is a power.” The ideas of Jesus have originality and power not because no one else ever spoke them before or since; but because He spoke them, and because in His own person He incarnated everything that he taught. “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory ...

1814. Does God Give Out Blank Checks?

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... one individual man. Some critics say that he has never had an unpublished thought; but perhaps some of the criticism leveled against him might come under the heading of jealousy...from folks who cannot get their thoughts published at all. In any case, what originally attracted me to Father Greeley’s writings was a book written over twenty years ago titled The Jesus Myth. I found it to be just about the most interesting one-volume introduction to the Christian Faith I have ever read. What I like especially ...

1815. The War of Malchus’ Ear

John 18:1-11

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... . So I moved away from an “absolute pacifist” position and came to admit that a just war just might be possible. Since then my problem has been the realization that every war that every nation enters upon is considered to be a “just war” by the party originating it, and in today’s nuclear world, if you came upon a victim being beaten by thugs and killed them both - and yourself in the bargain, not much would be gained. Today, I guess that I am a uneasy “situationist” when it comes to war. I am ...

1816. The Huddle Is Not the Game

John 20:19-23

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... 1979, p. 47) You see, what we erroneously call “Church Work” is not supposed to be what we do in the Church, but what we do in the world as a result of what we have done in the Church. The benediction at the close of the worship service was originally intended not to be a dismissal or “sign off,” as it were, but instead a “commissioning” of Christians as they go forth into the world where they are to live out their faith day by day. As an oft-quoted clich puts it, “The Worship is over; now the ...

1817. God Doesn’t Take Vacations

John 5:1-15

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... piece of humanitarian legislation. Who says that the Bible is not concerned about social welfare? What Bible are they reading? The Bible I read tells me that God has a special concern for the poor, downtrodden, overworked, and oppressed. So the Sabbath was not originally a burden, but God’s guarantee that God’s creatures would get at least one day each week in which to rest from their labors. The Fourth Commandment says that we are not to be everlastingly “at it,” with our noses diligently applied ...

1818. That Would Be Some Miracle!

John 6:1-15

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... showing all kinds of flora and fauna of the area with outstanding artistry and even humor, but most important for Christian pilgrims, under the altar there is a mosaic which shows a basket with loaves and fishes. This reminds us of what the church was originally built to commemorate: Jesus’ feeding of the multitude with such a small amount of food. Well, what are we going to do with this miracle? What happened back there on that warm spring day when five thousand (and more) were fed? When we ask that ...

1819. Slippery Rock

Matthew 16:21-28

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... two options, he almost always chose the wrong one. Yet, somehow, with Christ’s help, everything came out alright in the end. Maybe that is why I feel so close to him. Here is a saint with shortcomings! He had his ups and downs, even as you and I. His original name was Simon Bar-Jona, or “Simon, son of John.” Jesus gave him a new name: Peter, Rock. So his real name was “Rock Johnson!” I can relate to a man named Rock Johnson! But he turned out to be a slippery rock, indeed! II. FOR ONE THING, HE ...

1820. It Costs to Belong

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... He killed James the brother of John with the sword...” Tradition says that James died in A.D. 44, just seventeen years after he had left his nets to follow Jesus, thus becoming the first martyr among the twelve. (It is interesting that the word “martyr” originally meant simply “witness,” but very early in the life of the Church it became synonymous with dying for one’s witness.) James didn’t live long, but he lived deeply. This is a reminder that it really doesn’t matter how long we live, it ...

1821. Son of Thunder, Son of God

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... the middle ages: “We are God’s chosen people, let all the rest be damned; God’s love is just for us alone, we can’t have heaven crammed!” (I actually saw an ad in the Saturday Church pages of a newspaper years ago for the “Original Church of God, Number Two.”) Evidently, at least some of the disciples believed that nobody could act in Christ’s name except them. They got rattled when, in fact, someone was acting in Christ’s name and doing it rather more effectively than they were! One ...

1822. Good Old What’s-His-Name

John 14:15-31

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... referred to in the poem by Ralph Spaulding Cushman: “There are two kinds of people, you know them,/ As you journey along on life’s track,/ The ones who take all of your strength from you, and the others who put it all back.” So this last of the original twelve we are considering was a man who had three names! What shall we make of that? II. IT OCCURS TO ME THAT GOD, TOO, HAS THREE NAMES! We have heard the distinctively Christian way of speaking of God for so long that perhaps we have come to take it ...

1823. Secretary to Saint Peter

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... (and, indeed, Peter) spent all of their lives without ever hearing about the miraculous event called the Virgin Birth, which seems so important to some Christians. It gives us something to think about. There is one further interesting thing about Mark’s Gospel. In its original form the gospel stops at 16:8. We know that for two reasons. One, the verses which follow are not in any of the great early manuscripts. Two, the style of Greek is so different that they cannot have been written by the same person ...

1824. Afraid of Sanity

Mark 5:1-20

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... express extreme puzzlement about the details. Some even suggest that it doesn’t belong in the Gospels at all, but was a local folk tale of an unknown Jewish exorcist who played havoc with some pagan’s pigs. It may even have been a humorous story, originally. Imagine how the destruction of pigs would appeal to an orthodox Jew! But perhaps it is best to leave the story as it stands: a simple story about a notorious and dangerous character who was healed by the power of Jesus Christ. Remember how the story ...

1825. On Talking to Oneself

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... interruptions.’” (Interpreter’s Bible, New York and Nashville: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1951, p. 719) To the eye of a modern efficiency expert, Jesus’ average day must have looked like a hodge-podge of poor planning. His days were filled with things not on the original agenda. First there was the coming of Jairus with the tale of his dying daughter. And when did Jairus come? Just as “a great crowd gathered about him.” (v.21) In other words, Jesus was just about to address a huge gathering of ...

Showing results