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 1976 to 2000 of 4967 results

1976. Which Parade Are You In?

Matthew 21:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... an old woman and her sick son. He watched as the rabbi deposited the wood, which was enough for a week, at the old woman’s door and then quietly return to his home. The story concludes with the newcomer staying in the village to become a disciple of the rabbi. And the story ends like this: whenever he hears one of his fellow villagers say, “On Friday morning our rabbi ascends all the way to heaven,” the newcomer quietly adds, “if not higher.” (2) Jesus came into Jerusalem riding on a donkey. Part ...

1977. I Wonder Why My Prayers Go Unanswered?

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... Life of Jesus Jesus taught us what prayer is by his own example. Just read through the gospel of Luke, and you will find Jesus praying consistently at every turn in his life. He prays as he senses God’s call on his life; He prays before choosing his disciples; He prays as he serves and heals other people; He prays as he feels the demands and pressures of his ministry; He prays as he faces the cross; He prays as he finishes his work on the cross. Jesus is continually praying. You could say that prayer for ...

1978. The Cost of Discipleship

Mark 9:2-9

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... words we find any-where in the gospels. He said, “Do you really want to follow me? Consider what it is going to cost you. You must give up everything that is dearest to you, take up a cross, and follow me. Unless you do that, you cannot be my disciples.” That is not what the crowd wanted to hear. They thought this magnetic man was on his way to his own empire. They hoped that if they followed him they would share in his power and glory. What they did not realize was that when Jesus said these words he ...

1979. The Beatitudes

Matthew 5:1-12

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

... .” The response to persecution is unbridled joy. The reward in heaven (i.e., in God’s sight) is great. The prophets received that kind of treatment, and you are their true successors (cf. 23:29–36). Stendahl thinks that Jesus may be referring to his disciples as prophets in much the same way as did the Essenes (p. 776). Additional Notes 5:4 Metzger notes that if vv. 3 and 5 had originally been together, with their rhetorical antithesis of heaven and earth, it would have been unlikely that any scribe ...

1980. Jesus and John the Baptist

Matthew 11:1-19

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

... are those who fully realize their spiritual poverty. Those who take no offense at Jesus’ messianic activity and accept him for who he obviously is are said to be blessed (the beatitude of v. 6 corresponds to those in 5:3–11). 11:7–15 As John’s disciples are leaving, Jesus turns to the crowds and asks, What were you expecting to see when you went out into the desert? A reed swayed by the wind? Of course not. John was no weak and vacillating person blown about by every contrary wind of opinion. This ...

1981. Clean and Unclean

Matthew 15:1-20

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

... preaching of Jesus” (TDNT, vol. 7, p. 350). The verb often has the force of “to lead into sin” (Matt. 13:21; 24:10) and in the present context implies that their “offense” included the sin of rejecting Jesus. Jesus’ response to the timidity of the disciples, who apparently did not wish to offend the religious rulers, was that plants not planted by his heavenly Father would be pulled up by the roots, so for the time being they may be left alone (cf. the parable of the wheat and the weeds, Matt ...

1982. Signs of the End of the Age

Matthew 24:1-35

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

... word parousia (coming) occurs in the Gospels only in this chapter (vv. 3, 27, 37, 39) but is common throughout the rest of the New Testament. It is widely used in nonbiblical texts for the arrival of a person of high status. Jesus warns his disciples against being led astray by pretenders who will come claiming to be the Messiah (v. 5). However, when they hear of wars, famines, and earthquakes (signs of the approaching end in Jewish apocalyptic), they are not to be alarmed. These are but the “birth-pangs ...

1983. Despair, Hope, Easter, and Pentecost

John 20:10-18

Sermon

Tom Garrison

... tomb that they were looking at was not the work of grave robbers. It was the work of God! They could hardly grasp it. Jesus was alive again and back in the world! According to one account (Mark 16:1-8), he told the women to go and "tell the disciples and Peter" that he was alive and was going ahead of them into Galilee where the great adventure had first begun. He wanted all of them to meet him there, because it was time to get on with the mission — the great task of reconciling the world back to the ...

1984. The Healing of a Blind Man at Bethsaida

Mark 8:22-26

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... , it is possible to see that for Mark the removal of the two men from their village crowds in some sense signified the separation from one’s past that Jesus’ message demanded. In the contextually close account in which Jesus receives the acclamation as Messiah from his disciples, he predicts his own execution by the Jewish leaders and warns his followers that they must be prepared for the same fate (8:31–38). As to the nature of the man’s condition in 8:22–26, it would appear that the man once saw ...

1985. The Transfiguration

Mark 9:2-13

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... was only a foretaste and assurance of Jesus’ true glory. The close of the vision in 9:8, which leaves them back in earthly conditions with no one except Jesus, shows this. The voice from heaven not only recognizes Jesus as the Son of God but also commands the disciples to pay attention to what he is telling them about the task and suffering that lie ahead, both for Jesus and for them. The command in 9:9 not to speak of the glory of Jesus until after the resurrection means that it is only in the light of ...

1986. Jesus Again Predicts His Death

Mark 10:32-34

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... climactic prediction in the series. Every item in the passage serves this purpose. The geographical note, on their way up to Jerusalem (v. 32), indicates that Jesus’ ministry is taking him to the city of his destiny. The description of the disciples’ attitude, astonished … afraid (v. 32), heightens the tension. In the actual prediction itself, there is the most specific description yet given of the events of Jesus’ arrest and execution. For the first time there is the mention of gentile involvement ...

1987. Lord of the Sabbath

Luke 6:1-11

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

... if it was lawful for David and his men to eat consecrated bread (and the rabbis agreed that David’s action was justified in this case), then why would it not be lawful for Jesus (the “Son of David”; see Luke 18:38, 39; 20:41, 44) and his disciples to glean from the fields for some food? Jesus is implying that just as David was going about the task of establishing a new reign in Israel, so now Jesus is going about a similar task. Just as David’s special circumstances made it permissible to eat the ...

1988. Samaritan Opposition

Luke 9:51-56

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

... :61–62 below) that despite Elijah’s great reputation Jesus does not feel bound to follow the former prophet’s precedent. Since Jesus has come not to judge and punish (see commentary on 4:16–30) but to save the lost (19:10), the request of the disciples is completely inappropriate. The addition in some mss., “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of, for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them” (see NIV footnote), is probably inauthentic, but it certainly does ...

1989. Jesus Sends Out the Seventy-two

Luke 10:1-24

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

... Sower (Matt. 13:3–23; cf. Luke 8:4–10). Nevertheless, the respective Matthean and Lucan contexts are quite similar. In both Gospels Jesus’ saying is private (Matt. 13:10; Luke 10:23) and in both Gospels the saying is applied to the great privilege that the disciples enjoy in being able to witness the messianic ministry of Jesus and the dawning of the kingdom of God, something that many prophets and kings wanted to see and hear (cf. Isa. 52:15). Evans (p. 43) compares Luke 10:21–24 to Deut. 3:23–4 ...

1990. The Parable of the Persistent Widow

Luke 18:1-8

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

... is quite possible that Luke has intended 18:1–8 to be a transition from one section to the next). 18:1–8 Verse 1 is not part of the parable proper but is Luke’s editorial introduction. Luke understands the parable as teaching Christian disciples that they should always pray and not give up. As the parable is later interpreted (vv. 7–8), however, it also teaches something about the faithfulness of God himself. The parable itself seems to drive home two points, as seen in the principal characters, the ...

1991. The Scroll and the Lamb

Revelation 5:1-14

Understanding Series

Robert W. Wall

... a community which bears witness to the new Jerusalem in the age to come (Cf. S. C. Mott, Biblical Faith and Social Change N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 1982). The power of God which raised Jesus from the dead is at work in the community of his disciples to raise up a people whose devotion to God directs the attention of the present evil age to the future age of shalom and grace. History tells us that the emergence of the spiritual and social realities of the coming age within the life and history of ...

1992. The Woman and the Dragon

Revelation 12:1--13:1a

Understanding Series

Robert W. Wall

... Israel. In this way, Michael had come to symbolize for many religious Jews a triumphant Judaism. Such a role, however, has been given to the exalted Christ (cf. 1 Tim. 2:5), who alone champions a true Israel—made up of Christ’s disciples—before God’s throne. 12:10–12 The circumstances of the church’s current crisis have now been established: the exaltation of Messiah, the wilderness sojourn of the messianic community, and the banishment of the enormous red dragon from heaven to earth where ...

1993. The Rich Ruler

Luke 18:18-30

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

... back by a greater amount (Mark 10:30 reads: “a hundred times as much”) in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life. God is a debtor to no human. Luke has modified Mark probably because he wishes to avoid the idea that the disciples are motivated to follow Jesus because they hope for a material reward in this life. Additional Notes 18:18 A certain ruler: Fitzmyer (p. 1198) translates “magistrate” and notes that it is not at all clear that this person was a “religious leader.” It is most ...

1994. Pop Star Madonna and the Cross

Mark 8:31-38

Sermon

King Duncan

... ’s you and me. We can’t miss our favorite TV show? We can’t afford to give more than a pittance out of the abundance with which God has blessed us to the work of Christ in this world? What has happened to us? “Whoever wants to be my disciple,” said Jesus, “must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.” You will have to evaluate your own life, as will I. Are you ...

1995. Faces of Failure: Jesus’s Family

Mark 3:20-21, 31-35

Sermon

Don Tuttle

... God with all my heart, soul, mind and spirit or love my neighbor as myself; I don’t need to go the extra mile, turn the other cheek, pray for my enemies, lay up treasures in heaven, or trust the Lord for daily bread; I don’t need to make disciples of all nations and teach them all that Christ commanded.” By dismissing him as a liar, lunatic, myth, or guru, their life remains their own to do with as they will. And that, of course, is viewed as the greatest good possible in our day and culture. But God ...

1996. Fish Tales

Luke 24:36b-48

Sermon

John Jamison

... his mind. Then it struck him and he began to write. He began the story innocently enough, simply telling one of the other stories that Mark chose not to tell. It was Sunday afternoon, the same day that Mary and others found the tomb was empty. Two of the disciples had made the seven-mile walk to Emmaus. Luke doesn’t tell us who they were or why they went to the little town of Emmaus because that’s not why he was telling the story; it just was not important to him. While the two were walking, they ...

1997. In It for the Long Haul

John 6:60-69

Sermon

King Duncan

... the passion cools, when the numbers drop off, can you maintain your intensity? That is the mark of a champion. Finishing is what faith is all about. I said I am grateful to those of you who are here for the long haul. Some of you have been disciples of Jesus Christ all your lives. You’ve seen pastors come and go. You’ve watched the church grow--with all the excitement that goes with that. [And, sadly, you’ve watched it decline.] Through good times and bad, though, you’ve been here. Some of you have ...

1998. Setting His Face Toward Jerusalem

Luke 9:51-62

Sermon

King Duncan

... is the place where he would suffer and die. A BBC sports announcer commented on the hiring of a new soccer coach for a troubled team: “He was hired to take them in a new direction, and he did. Unfortunately, [the direction] was backwards.” (2) The disciples did not understand where Jesus was leading them. If they had known, they would have thought he was leading them backwards. “What do you mean you’re going to Jerusalem to suffer and die?” But Jesus was moving forward by obeying God’s will and ...

1999. What Super Power Would You Choose?

Luke 10:1-11, 7-20

Sermon

King Duncan

... amazed. So why did he send out these seventy-two to do the work he could have done more effectively himself? My guess is that it was for the same reason his last words to the church, recorded in Matthew 28:18-20, was that we should go make disciples of all nations. Jesus sent the seventy-two out, first of all, because he knew that they needed to see what he saw. They needed to feel the hurts and hear the questions from people who are living and dying without any knowledge of God, without any hope for ...

2000. Seeing God

Matthew 4:12-23

Sermon

King Duncan

... to serve God and those who needed her than on the life that she left behind. But there’s one more thing to be said. If you want to see God more clearly, you’ll find Him in serving others. Look at what Jesus was offering his new disciples. He didn’t say, “Come, follow me, and I will make you more successful, or happier, or wealthier.” He didn’t say, “Come, follow me, and we will challenge the power of Rome, or restore the nation of Israel.” He didn’t even say, “Come, follow me, and ...

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