Sermon and Worship Resources

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Amos 8:1-14

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

The Prophet’s Visions and Encounter with Amaziah (8:1-3): While this section contains two different types of visions and a biographical insert, it should be regarded as a unit that has been given its present form by the disciples of the prophet. The first two visions, in 7:1–3 and 7:4–6, are “event visions,” portraying what is about to happen, and they are identical in their form. The third and fo...

2. A Call to Repentance

Joel 1:13-20

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

A Call to the Priests: This entire section, which may be divided into five strophes (vv. 13, 14, 15–16, 17–18, 19–20) is directed at the priests in the Jerusalem temple, for if communion with God has been lost in Judah, the priests are those primarily responsible. 1:13 It was the priests’ duty in biblical Israel to teach and maintain their people in the ways of the Torah. But that did not mean sim...

3. A Holy Way for Us All

Isaiah 35:1-10

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

This passage has many affinities with the prophecies of Second Isaiah (Isaiah 40-55), and it has often been attributed to him. But there are differences. In Isaiah 40:3, the “way” is for the Lord, here it is for the redeemed and ransomed (vv. 9-10). In Isaiah 51:11, the reference is to the return from Babylonian exile. Here in verse 10, that context is missing, and those who are returning to Zion ...

4. A Lament and Call to Repentance

Amos 5:1-17

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

The Sentence of Death: This section is only arbitrarily broken into subunits for the purpose of convenience. Actually it constitutes a whole in the form of a funerary lament, and it begins (v. 2) and ends (vv. 16–17) with wailing over the dead. In addition, the proclamation of the divine name begins (v. 3, Adonai Yahweh), divides (v. 8, Yahweh), and ends (v. 16, Yahweh Elohim Sebaoth Adonai) the l...

5. A Messianic King

Isaiah 11:1-10

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

This passage is part of the larger section of Isaiah 10:5—11:16, that portrays the defeat of Assyria, the gathering of the remnant of Israel that was deported to Assyria in 721 B.C., and the defeat of Israel’s enemies. Specifically, it deals with the future ideal time, when Israel’s messianic king will rule in a blessed kingdom of peace. Our word for messiah comes from the Hebrew masiah, which me...

6. A Promised Ruler from Bethlehem

Micah 5:1-4

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

The Future Messiah: In the previous chapter, 4:6–8 promised the return of a remnant to Zion, Yahweh’s rule over them, and the restoration of the Davidic throne. Then there followed with 4:9 a series of three oracles, each beginning with “now,” and each portraying Judah’s current desperate situation and Yahweh’s salvation yet to come. This passage, the third in the series, deals with the restoratio...

7. A Reassuring Prophecy

Isaiah 7:10-16

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

“O that thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down” (Isaiah 64:1). When we contemplate the evil and violence in our world, that is often our plea — for God to come down and to set things right. We need the power of God that can put down tyrants, the love of God that can replace hatred with mercy, the forgiveness of God that can wipe out all the guilty past and restore our hearts and the hearts of...

8. Amos and Amaziah

Amos 7:10-17

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

The Prophet’s Visions and Encounter with Amaziah: While this section contains two different types of visions and a biographical insert, it should be regarded as a unit that has been given its present form by the disciples of the prophet. The first two visions, in 7:1–3 and 7:4–6, are “event visions,” portraying what is about to happen, and they are identical in their form. The third and fourth vis...

9. An Invasion of Locusts

Joel 1:1-12

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

The Interpreting Word (1:1): 1:1 It may be that the name Joel is more than just the proper name of the prophet. In the Hebrew, “Joel” combines two words, Yah, which is an abbreviated form of Yahweh, the Hebrew name for the Lord, and ʾēl, which means god. Thus, the name “Joel” signifies “Yahweh is God,” and while many pious parents could have affirmed their faith by giving their son that name, “Joe...

10. Ascension of Our Lord

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

As we all know, the book of the Acts of the Apostles forms the second volume, as it were, of Luke's writing. In the Gospel, he has told the account of Jesus' birth, life, death, and resurrection. Now he begins the account of the growth of the early church by the power of the Holy Spirit. To begin his second volume, however, Luke repeats some of the things he has said at the end of the Gospel stor...

11. Blessings for God's People

Joel 3:17-21

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

The Glorious Future: Joel ends his book by portraying the glorious future that awaits the people of God. Their enemies have been destroyed, and peace reigns on the earth (cf. Ps. 46:8–11). In the place of the catastrophes that they knew in the past, they have become inheritors of abundant life. Indeed, Joel’s portrayals of that life, borrowing partially from Amos 9:13, pick up the themes of his fi...

12. Can These Bones Live?

Ezekiel 37:1-14

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

This famous vision of the Valley of Dry Bones is given to the prophet Ezekiel in Babylonia shortly after the fall of Jerusalem to Babylonia in 587 B.C. As in 1:3 and 8:1, the prophet is seized “by the hand of the Lord,” that is, he is sent into an ecstatic state in which he is given to see new reality. Israel considers itself to be dead in exile (cf. 33:10; Isaiah 53:8-9). She has lost her land, ...

13. Commandments of Conduct

Nehemiah 7:73b--8:18

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

We live in a society in which right and wrong have become largely a matter of personal opinion. All individuals are seen as a law unto themselves, and what is right for one person is not necessarily right for anyone else. Indeed, if any person tries to impose their ethical standards on another, the response is usually defensive anger. "Don't try to impose your middle-class morality on me," goes th...

14. Deliverance and Destruction

Micah 5:5-15

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

Delivery from Future Enemies (5:5-6): 5:5–6 The NIV has attached the first line of verse 5 to the foregoing oracle, but in order to do so, it has had to emend the line. The Hebrew does not say, And he will be their peace. Rather it reads, “And this shall be peace.” The line belongs with this oracle, though indeed “this” refers to the messianic figure of verses 2–4. There has been much scholarly di...

15. Deliverance Promised

Micah 2:12-13

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

The Goal of Yahweh’s Action: The book of Micah is never content to rest with the message of one historical period or with one manifestation of Yahweh’s action. (See the introduction and the comment on 1:2–5b). The preceding oracles have dealt with the fall of Samaria (1:5c–7), with the Assyrian conquest of the Judean towns to the west of Jerusalem (1:10–16), with the threatened fall of Jerusalem (...

16. Endings

Isaiah 43:14-28

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

Endings can be sad. Your son calls you unexpectedly from college and wants nothing more than to tell you about his studies and his new girlfriend, and you're sad when the call has to end. Or you attend the symphony and are swept up by the glorious music and are very sorry when the finale comes. But of course, those are temporary endings. Other endings are much more permanent. I just retired from ...

17. Evaluating Our Names

Isaiah 62:1-12

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

For those who like to preach from all three lectionary texts, the stated readings for this Sunday could cause a preacher great perplexity. How on earth do they all fit together? The Epistle lesson deals with the variety of gifts given by the Spirit to the church. The Gospel lesson recounts Jesus' first "sign" at the wedding at Cana, when the water turned into wine, became the symbol of his blood p...

18. False Prophets

Micah 2:6-11

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

Opposition to the Prophet: As the arrangement of chapter 2 now stands, this passage shows the reaction of Micah’s listeners to his announcements in both 2:1–3 and 2:4–5. Those to whom he preaches take insulted exception to his words of doom directed against them; this is not an unusual reaction to the words of OT prophets (cf. 1 Kgs. 18:3–4; 19:10; Jer. 11:18–19; 20:1–2; Isa. 50:6, etc.). Persons,...

19. Following Summons

Acts 9:32-43

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

A number of subsidiary themes emerge in this reading from Acts, and we probably should take note of them, although they do not form the main thrust of the text. We have here a brief story of a Hebrew woman given the Aramaic name of Tabitha, which means "gazelle," or called Dorcas in the Greek. This is the only mention that we have of Dorcas in the scripture, but over the centuries, her reputation...

20. God Shows No Partiality

Acts 10:23b-48

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

We have a crowd here today on this Easter Sunday. Churches are always crowded on Easter. As the prophet Isaiah would say, the multitudes literally trample the courts of God. And we are glad you all have come. A lot of different reasons have led us here, of course. For those of us who worship regularly in this church, Easter Sunday is the crown and climax of the Christian year. For others, who do ...

21. God's Battle Against Sin

Zephaniah 1:1-3

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

Can we believe that God is carrying on a war against all sinners? He is, of course, according to the scriptures. Jeremiah gives us pictures of God attacking his sinful people in the form of that mysterious Foe from the North (Jeremiah chapters 4-6). Ezekiel declares that there is a breach in our wall of defense, caused by our sin, and that the role of a true prophet is to go up into that breach an...

22. God’s Love for Israel

Hosea 11:1-11

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

The Nature of God: The almost hidden note of hope with which chapter 10 ended is here sounded at full volume: God cannot give up this people! (Cf. my son v. 1; my people v. 7.) The principal theological question that this passage raises is, What finally will be the factor that determines the outcome of human history? And certainly the prophetic answer to that is “God.” As the Lord of all history, ...

23. God's Messenger

Malachi 2:17--3:5

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

If we read the Old Testament in tandem with the New Testament, we sometimes have to employ a double focus. Verse 1 of our passage promises that God will send a messenger ahead to prepare the way of his coming. And that is certainly true when we look toward Christmas. God gives all sorts of preparatory signs before Jesus Christ is born in Bethlehem. An angel choir announces to shepherds that the on...

24. God's Zeal for Salvation

Joel 2:18-27

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

2:18–20 We now come to the turning point of the book of Joel—the point at which God’s jealousy leads to pity for the chosen people. God removes both the everyday judgments and the threat of final judgment from their lives, verse 18. This passage too, however, is not to be understood in terms of some sort of self-seeking on God’s part. Rather, God’s “jealousy” could also be translated as God’s “ze...

25. Growing with God

1 Samuel 2:12-26

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

There are times in the life of the world or of a nation when one individual changes the whole course of history. Perhaps we might say that such a change occurred when the Emperor Constantine declared Christianity to be the official religion of the Roman Empire. Certainly we could agree that Martin Luther introduced an entirely new era when his actions initiated the Protestant reformation. And we m...

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