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 1 to 25 of 182 results

1. Luke’s Beatitudes And Woes

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

James Garrett

... which should be read and left alone, says Dr. Craddock. Texts to be released into the room and let them do their work. To let them speak for themselves. To let them introduce us into a world of values and experiences about which we don’t talk very much. The Beatitudes cast their blessings into the room. They say their words. The blessing goes to anyone in reach of it. Hear the Word of God. Luke 6:17-26: Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now for you shall be ...

2. Blessed

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

... entertained and impressed, and emotionally inspired won’t work. Those who actually experience the presence of God in their lives are the ones who focus on God and do the work that comes with dedicating their lives to the pursuit of God’s will. The promise of the beatitude is that if we are willing to do that work, we will, in fact see God. We will walk the streets of God’s kingdom now, from time to time, and when it is finally made fully manifest. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called ...

3. Double Image

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

William G. Carter

... Try being meek tomorrow when you go to work and see how far you get. Meekness is fine for church, but in the real world, the meek get to go home early with a pink slip and a pat on the back."3 It is difficult to understand the beatitudes of Jesus. Perhaps this wild, untamed quality is the very source of their power.4 Anybody who learns these words from the Gospel of Matthew may not understand them right away. Whoever takes these teachings seriously may wonder how Jesus can actually say them in such a rough ...

4. Plain Talk

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... you preach a sermon on Luke's version." So that is what we have done. Let me create the setting for Luke's version of the Beatitudes. It is here in the sixth chapter that Jesus begins to teach. He outlines what it means to be a Christian, what it means to ... parables about the future, like the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, which is so appropriate as a companion text for the Beatitudes and Woes in Luke. The parable of Lazarus is only in the Gospel of Luke. Lazarus, a poor man, is hungry. He lives on ...

5. Christian Liberty

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

Brett Blair

... next meal we should eat. We are slowly and methodically told it is O.K. to live our life of luxury while others live their life of poverty. But it is not so in the Kingdom of God! This is not the attitude of disciples. How can we reclaim the Beatitudes? How can we hear them over the Superbowl halftime shows and million dollar commercials? It’s not easy. I am a small voice here and there is only you out there in the pews. But Jesus had fewer still. He turned away from the crowd and spoke only to his ...

6. Trial-and-Error or Grace

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Thomas Peterson

... must keep the faith and suffer for the cause of Christ as a redeeming agent, a servant in God’s work, a co-creator of the Kingdom of God. If I am convinced that life will eventually teach each of us by trial and error what Jesus teaches in the Beatitudes, why then would I be concerned about it? As a preacher of good news, I hate to see people waste precious time waiting around for life to teach them through hurt, despair, and defeat. To be forced to learn by trial and error is not good enough for those ...

7. Saints Alive!

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Theodore F. Schneider

... It is not, after all, a matter of earning our salvation, nor of believing that only superhuman piety can prevail. In our baptism, we have God's promise. He has given us his word. We need only cling to it. But then, that's just how Jesus began the Beatitudes in the first place. O the bliss of the man who has realized his own utter helplessness, and who has put his whole trust in God ...2 This is a day of thanksgiving for all the saints ... and especially for those who now rest from their labors. The prayer ...

8. The Glorious Company

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

Theodore F. Schneider

... Saints From the beginning the church has addressed the need to recall with thanksgiving the lives and witnesses of faithful women and men, known and unknown, who have accepted with devotion the call to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, saints all who read the Beatitudes of Christ as a means to bring the kingdom's grace into their world. The earliest reference to such a day is a feast day for all martyrs of the church, observed in the fourth century by Saint John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople. As a ...

9. The Poor in Spirit

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

... of happiness. Instead, blessedness refers to a deep abiding happiness that can neither be given nor taken away by the world. It is well-being and prosperity: the gift of God to all people. Today, I do not want to talk about all of the qualities expressed in the Beatitudes. I want to take one of them and see if it can shed light on the rest. "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." Notice that Jesus did not say, "Blessed are the poor." Jesus knew that blessedness was not tied to ...

10. The Poor In Spirit

Sermon

John A. Terry

... our relationship to God and our lives. Lasting happiness is discovered in our awareness of God in our lives, our openness to God, and our acknowledgment of our dependence on God. Here Jesus invites us into a new relationship with God. The first of these beatitudes is: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." More common advice today is expressed in Ruddigore, a Gilbert and Sullivan opera: If you wish in the world to advanceYour merits you're bound to enhanceYou must stir it and ...

11. The Persecuted

Sermon

John A. Terry

... which it is not. If our concern is our immediate reward, we will pity ourselves for the injustice done us. However, if our concern is to do what we do for Jesus' sake, then the things that happen to us are seen in the larger context of these Beatitudes. In fact, the normal and healthy response to being reviled and persecuted and having all kinds of evil spoken against us falsely is not gladness and joy. It is like the conversation between a parent and child at the checkout line at the grocery store. As the ...

12. The Poor In Spirit

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

John A. Terry

... of our relationship to God and our lives. Lasting happiness is discovered in our awareness of God in our lives, our openness to God, and our acknowledgment of our dependence on God. Here Jesus invites us into a new relationship with God. The first of these beatitudes is: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." More common advice today is expressed in Ruddigore, a Gilbert and Sullivan opera: If you wish in the world to advance Your merits you're bound to enhance You must stir ...

13. The Persecuted

John 15:18-27

Sermon

John A. Terry

14. Who Has Everything?

Matthew 5:5

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... to do some research on him this week, but could not find him listed in the encyclopedia, or even in a book about the movies. But he personifies to me every concept I used to have of meekness. Coincidentally, his name was Donald Meek. This Beatitude of Jesus comes as a real surprise to us because it is so completely and entirely the opposite of everything that we think of as twentieth century measures-of-men. We think in terms of strength and power, ability, self-assurance and aggressiveness. "Ah, he’ll ...

15. Let’s Climb a Mountain

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

James W. Robinson

... are now taking in the country. When we look out over the countryside, it is like seeing a reflection of God." That’s where the pursuit of purity will lead. C. And then there are those who hunger and thirst from their rigorous climb for righteousness. A beatitude from this second trio of peaks has the same reassuring word for them, "This is the trail. This is the way. Walk in it." The righteousness that they so intensely desire lies within their grasp. God wants to give it to them. The person who longs for ...

16. What Making a Difference Looks Like

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... of the same kingdom. Our unity is not that we all have the same experience or that we are all at the same place; our unity is in Jesus who has the right to do with us as he will and when he will. We must also not separate the beatitudes from the story in which Matthew places them. A few disciples, four thus far, have said Yes to the challenge to tag along and observe as Jesus announces and enacts the kingdom of God. Simon, Andrew, James and John. Jesus does the same thing everywhere he goes; in each village ...

17. Who Keeps Getting in My Way?

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... does mean that, but it means more. To get right with God means we have to make him sovereign over our lives. It means that in any situation our first thought is of God and not self. I suppose we could come closer to understanding this first Beatitude if we were to substitute the word "ego" in its earlier meaning for the word "spirit." Blessed are those who are poor in ego. Ego means self in the sense of too much emphasis on self: self-satisfaction, self-seeking, self-centeredness. Words like pride, conceit ...

18. The True Nature of Happiness

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

Brett Blair

... is that we really don’t grasp the true nature of happiness, and because of that it so often seems to elude us. You see, we think that happiness deals with our outer circumstances. We think that the truly happy man is one who has achieved outer success. Thus our beatitudes read: 1. Blessed is the man who makes a fortune. 2. Blessed is he who earns six figures. 3. Happy is the man who has a palace in the city and a summer home in the mountains. 4. Blessed is he who has won the applause of his pears. 5 ...

19. The True Nature of Happiness

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Brett Blair

20. The Challenge Of Simplicity

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

John Jamison

... think it matters where he said it: mountain, plain, boat, on the dock at Josiah’s Bait and Tackle Shop; it doesn’t change what he said. For just a few minutes, I’d like to see if we can tune out some of the distractions and hear the Beatitudes. But before we begin, I need to warn you that this is going to be difficult at times — not difficult to understand what Jesus was saying; that’s not difficult at all. Jesus had the take on things that other people made complex, and he was good at explaining ...

21. The Peacemakers

Sermon

John A. Terry

... !" The courageous young man answered, "Sir, I recognize that it has not come for you, nor yet for Russia, nor for the world. But it has come for me." And so we are called to living by an understanding and an ethical imperative that Jesus set apart in these beatitudes. I was born during World War II. About that time a columnist in Chicago told of a London taxi driver by the name of Herbert Hodge who had come to Chicago for a visit. This man had suffered and seen all the horrors of the battles of London. As ...

22. The Peacemakers

Ephesians 2:11-22

Sermon

John A. Terry

23. Is The Gospel Only For Women?

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

... - many of us will acknowledge the influence for good our womenfolk have had upon us. Even Archie Bunker used to admit once in a while that he was lucky to have as his wife Edith who was the soul of everything our Lord mentions in the Beatitudes: meek, merciful, pure in heart, and peacemaking. There’s no one so lovely as a Christian woman, and if the Gospel nurtures women like Mary, mother of Jesus, and another Mary, sister of Martha - and the Roman Catholic Sisters, who run Our Lady of Good Counsel ...

24. Rejoicing in Reality

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

... of God's face. O the blessedness of suffering and struggle, for joy is the fruit of adversity. Rejoice and be glad in the reality of our living, for it is in that reality that God is building a kingdom of love. One preacher has summarized the beatitudes very simply. "You are loved. Go, therefore, and act like it!"2 May it be so - for you and for me. Amen. 1. From a sermon preached by Dr. Thomas Long at the 1989 Westminster Worship and Music Conference. 2. Barbara Brown Taylor, The Preaching Life (Cambridge ...

25. Those Who Most Need a Blessing

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... , or those who mourn, or those who take the risk to make peace. Jesus' blessings here are in the future tense. Those who mourn will be comforted. The pure in heart will see God. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled. Jesus begins the beatitudes by saying that the poor in spirit are blessed because theirs is the dominion of heaven. The dominion of heaven is the second marshmallow. We in the church wait now for the dominion of heave to come in its fullness. Every now and then, we get to ...

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