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 201 to 225 of 3314 results

201. What Is Our City?

Acts 4:32-35

Sermon

Ken Lentz

... talked about candle height or proper vestments or a church building drive, it's not noted. We do know that the "apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus" (v. 33). What makes the church community different from other communities ... everything they owned was held in common" (v. 32). Furthermore, they sold their lands and houses and "laid (the proceeds) at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need" (v. 35). In an American capitalist society, it might be ...

202. The End of The Beginning

Acts 1:1-11, Luke 24:50-53

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

... may well have been Paul's personal physician. In any case, Luke was writing to an influential and rich convert who is new in the faith. In Acts, Luke begins where he left off, with the Ascension of Jesus, but in Acts 1:8 Jesus had commanded the apostles to go from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria, and then into all the world. As former missionary Chalmer Faw put it, "Jesus directs their minds away from the matter of times and seasons and onto the task that awaits them."1 And then to confirm this, while the ...

203. Responsibility Comes with Privilege

Acts 8:4-8

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... . We are reminded not only of the Lord's baptism, as we hear described by all the synoptic evangelists, but possibly more importantly our own baptism. This sacrament brought us great privileges but significant responsibility is ours as well. The Acts of the Apostles, from which our lesson is taken today, is really two books in one. Often referred to as the "fifth gospel," due to its probable authorship by Saint Luke, and its content, Acts presents two separate but important stories. In the early chapters we ...

204. In Lystra and Derbe

Acts 14:8-20

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... chosen the forum as his regular pitch. So it was that the lame man of this story was “sitting in his customary place” (the force of the Greek) when Paul noticed him. He may have already heard the missionaries on several occasions, but now he caught the apostle’s eye. Paul saw evidence of faith—‘the man’s heart shone in his face’—and he spoke the healing word (cf. 3:4, 6). Immediately the man jumped up (aorist tense) and began to walk (imperfect tense; v. 10; see disc. on 3:8). Luke comments ...

205. Making One's Calling and Election Sure

2 Peter 1:1-11

Understanding Series

Norman Hillyer

... transliterate the sender’s first name as Symeōn, the Hebrew form applied to Simon Peter elsewhere in the NT only in Acts 15:14, in the appropriate Jewish-Christian setting of the Council of Jerusalem. The author further calls himself a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ. The term apostle was used alone in the opening of 1 Peter (see Additional Note on 1 Pet. 1:1). Here, the writer adds the humbler description servant (doulos), bondslave, as do Paul (Rom. 1:1; Gal. 1:10; Titus 1:1), James (1:1), and Jude ...

206. The Sin and Doom of Godless Men

Jude 1:1-16

Understanding Series

Norman Hillyer

... 7:11 (“a town called Nain”). 2. It means to call someone to take up a task or responsibility. Paul is “called to be an apostle” (Rom. 1:1). Certain servants are “called” to take charge in their master’s absence (Luke 19:13). 3. It is used to summon someone ... entrusted (paradidōmai, to commit, hand over) to the saints, to the people of God as a whole, not just to apostles or to later leaders. The faith is not something we discover for ourselves, still less is it something constructed from our ...

207. Paul's Chains Advance the Gospel

Philippians 1:12-30

Understanding Series

F. F. Bruce

... , would its outcome serve to advance the gospel throughout the Roman world? Paul knows what is in their minds, and he proceeds to reassure them, to impart to them something of the confidence that fills his own heart as he contemplates the situation. 1:12 That the apostle to the Gentiles should be in chains might well have been regarded as a blow to the advance of the gospel that he was commissioned to proclaim. But no: whatever might be Paul’s own situation, the word of God was not in chains (cf. 2 Tim ...

208. No Confidence in the Flesh

Philippians 3:1-11

Understanding Series

F. F. Bruce

... and great commandment,” to love the LORD his God, was honored in his love for Christ, the image of God: “the man who loves God is known by God” (1 Cor. 8:3). A relationship of mutual knowledge and love was established there and then between the apostle on earth and his exalted Lord, and to explore the fullness of this relationship was from now on Paul’s inexhaustible joy. For him, in short, life was Christ—to love Christ, to know Christ, to gain Christ: “Christ is the way, and Christ the prize ...

209. Witnesses of the New Covenant

Romans 12:1-8

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

... differ and overlap. Interpretive Insights 12:3 by the grace given me I say . . . : Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought. This verse contains the authority behind Paul’s exhortation in 12:3–8 and the content of that exhortation. Paul is the apostle to the Gentiles, commissioned to be so by the sheer grace of God. This divine authority empowers Paul to make requests of the Roman believers (12:3a). The content of Paul’s exhortation is this: the members of his audience should not have an ...

210. Paul Called by God

Galatians 1:11-24

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... not have to agree with or submit to the opponents who claimed to be from there). Further, he wanted to show that it was the opponents who would have to submit to his authority in Galatia, since he had been recognized by the major Jerusalem apostles as holding the lead position over the Gentile missionary enterprise. To do this he needed to show that he owed nothing to Jerusalem for the authority he had received to proclaim the gospel. His first visit to Jerusalem is said to have occurred “after three ...

211. Thanksgiving and Appeal

2 Timothy 1:1-2:13

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... ,” this “testimony of our Lord” is the same notion Paul described in 1 Tim. 6:13), so must Timothy be ready to testify and suffer. Nor should Timothy be ashamed of his own spiritual mentor, despite Paul’s having to minister from a Roman prison. The apostle stresses the power of God on display in the gospel (1:8). Verses 9 and 10 virtually sing of the glory of the story he and Timothy have been given to tell. Paul highlights three things: God’s salvation comes from his own purpose and grace; this ...

212. The Life You've Always Wanted

Acts 5:27-32

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... to vacation. They are like the man who wrote: I get up each morning, dust off my wits Pick up the paper, and read the obits. If my name is missing, I know I’m not dead So I eat a good breakfast — and go back to bed.[2] The Apostle Paul would describe this person as the “living dead.” And the legacy he would leave behind would be sad, indeed — the talents wasted, a destiny wasted, a life wasted. Dead at 30, buried at 60. Let me ask you a pointed question: “What will be said about you when your ...

213. Godstruck

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... your enemies your footstool. Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for ...

214. Elohim

John 1:29-34, Genesis 1:1-2:3

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... more than yourself. Alone-ness is deadly. One-ness with “The One True God” is the very meaning of Life. “No one has ever seen God. But the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.” (The Apostle John) For God SO loved the world, that He revealed Himself through His Son, so that all could know Him, be with Him, be saved by Him, be in relationship with Him, be redeemed by Him. Be made whole. For the many are One in God. The many are one ...

215. The Gospel Ship

John 6:1-21

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... .” This sense of adventure you feel right now, this anticipation of what lies ahead, the joy of the salt air and open seas, the starry skies above, the wind and the waves. This is the church’s definition of mission and what it means to be an apostle of Christ. Many churches have forgotten what that feels like, that sense of adventure. Some churches today may feel more like an abandoned shipwreck on the shore rather than a hardy ship on the open seas. But this is who you are. You are adventurers. You are ...

216. The Little Boat

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... 't you care?" This is the question we often ask in the storms of life. We, too, get sucked into the illusion of the moment. "Where is God when we need him?" "God, are you asleep? Don't you care? Aren't you there?" That is the feeling which the apostles had when the storm threatened them as Jesus slept. That is the feeling which many have as they face the storms of life, cry out to God for help, and get no immediate answers. The ambiguity of the human situation is that at the worst times, it may seem that ...

217. What Are You Looking At?

Acts 3:11-26

Sermon

Paul W. Kummer

... grew to millions and millions, are waiting eagerly and expecting Jesus to come back soon. No, we are living in the days of the apostles again because just as the message of a crucified, risen Messiah was so new and misunderstood then, so it is now. Just as only ... in which we live and work, the text for today is dynamic and alive. It's a simple message, but is that not what the apostles preached back then? What we need is the boldness of Peter to say three things as he seizes their moment of wonder: 1) Don't ...

218. Fools For The Sake Of Christ

1 Corinthians 4:1-21

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... in Mississippi on religion and public life, a topic which has gotten a lot of attention the past few years, particularly since the publication of Stephen L. Carter's book The Culture of Disbelief. In the course of that speech Justice Scalia quoted from the apostle Paul's letter to the Corinthians where he says that we Christians are sometimes called to be "fools for Christ's sake" or, in the NRSV, "fools for the sake of Christ." Working from secondhand wire-service reports and without the benefit of a full ...

219. I Am Who I Am

Sermon

Ronald Lavin

... Who is this?" and the meaning of Christ's answer, "I AM," is by looking at the classic statement of Saint Paul in Philippians 2:6-7, "Though in the form of God...he emptied himself," and Martin Luther's explanation of the second article of the Apostles' Creed in the Small Catechism: "I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten from eternity and true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord." Let's begin with the humanity of Jesus. Jesus Is True Man Luther, following the Bible, says, "Jesus was true man ...

220. Choose To Be Chosen

Mark 6:7-13

Sermon

George W. Hoyer

... the foundation of the world." That's the good news in today's Second Lesson. What a relief to know that! The twelve chosen apostles help us comprehend the greatness of that blessing in today's gospel. You did not, you could not, do that choosing. That is God' ... us could have added to what these disciples said had we been one of a pair who entered a villager's house. To whatever the apostle said we would be able to say, "And what's more..." and we could use all that today's Second Lesson has spelled out as ...

221. The Greatest Wonder Of All!

John 14:5-14

Sermon

John M. Braaten

... which needed to be spoken and written in every tongue so that all people might hear the gospel, the good news of how God saved us through Jesus Christ, in their own language. In other words the world was to be their congregation! The content of the apostle’s message, says Jesus was to "convince the world of sin, and of righteousness and judgment (John 16:8)." That may sound confusing because we tend to think of sin and judgment in negative ways. However, a word of judgment can awaken a sinner to their ...

222. Empty Prisons Without Walls

Acts 5:17-42

Sermon

Carl Jech

... when we visit prisoners), and work to eliminate the need for jails. (Remember that the first thing Jesus did after his death according to 1 Peter 3:19 was to "preach to the spirits in prison," an image which has meaning on a number of levels.) As with the Apostles, when the God of love is by our side, we can walk through the doors and walls of all prisons as if they weren't even there. We can break down "the dividing wall of hostility ... so making peace." (Ephesians 2: 14-15) Conclusion A number of poets ...

223. Justification and Reconciliation

Romans 3:21-31

Sermon Aid

T. A. Kantonen

... Paul, sin is both endemic and universal. It is a destructive power which dwells within a man and compels him to do what he knows is wrong (Romans 7:15 ff). This is true of all men, for they are all members of a fallen and sin-tainted race. The apostle is thus led to speak of Adam’s fall, for all mankind is one flesh with Adam and his disobedience has affected all. But he does not proceed to describe the fall as an historical event but as a diagnosis of a universal and perrennial human predicament. The key ...

224. Pilgrim Living in a Vagabond World

Matthew 7:13-14

Sermon

Leonard Mann

... Saddleworth Station. Make for that." I would make this point: a pilgrim is one who sees a glimmer in the distance and makes for it. Every footstep brings him closer to it. He may or may not reach his goal, but he is one who is on his way. The Apostle Paul had a magnificent sense of pilgrimage, and he expressed it this way: "Leaving what lies behind, and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13-14). Much of our ...

225. TWELVE IMPORTANT MEN

Revelation 21:14

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

... stones, which made up the most important part of the wall, and on each of these stones was written the name of one of Jesus’ apostles. It meant that there were only twelve of these stones. I wonder if you have ever thought of how important names are to people. Let ... . They were so important to Jesus that the writer said that when this great city is built for everyone to live in, the apostles will be greatly honored. That’s a good reason to know their names, but it is even more important to know what they ...

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