Sermon and Worship Resources

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1. JESUS: Liar, Lunatic, Legend, or Lord

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Brett Blair

... the Christian faith, go get this book "Mere Christianity" and give it to them. If they are honest in their doubts it will overcome many of them. In the book you will find the following idea put forth: Jesus was either a liar, lunatic, legend, or Lord. This scene from Jesus' life (John 6:41-52) demonstrates these four possibilities. Jesus is either... I First, you can come to conclusion that Jesus was a liar. That is in essence what the Jews accuse him of when he is teaching in the synagogue (v. 59). At some ...

2. Philip the First

John 1:43-51

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... The one who has seen Me has seen the Father.” As the Fourth Gospel puts it: “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (John 1:17) There is a very strange legend about Philip’s martyrdom, which shows that even after Easter, Philip had a lot to learn. According to the legend, (described in Barclay, op. cit., p. 92) Philip came to Heirapolis and found the people worshipping a great snake. He preached there with great success, which aroused the hatred and enmity ...

3. Favoritism Forbidden

James 2:1-13, James 2:14-26

Understanding Series

Peter H. Davids

... breathed his last” or “gave up his spirit” (the words for breath and spirit being identical in both Greek and Hebrew) he was dead (John 19:30; Luke 23:46; Ecclesiastes 3:21; 8:8; 9:5). A dead body is a liability that must be buried. Likewise ... text can be found in C. G. Montefiore and H. Loewe, A Rabbinic Anthology, pp. 415 and 564 respectively. See further L. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, vol. 1, p. 281. Further passages are cited in R. B. Ward, “pp. 286–90; and P. H. Davids, “Tradition and ...

4. Faith and Deeds

James 2:14-26, James 2:1-13

Understanding Series

Peter H. Davids

5. Good Old What’s-His-Name

John 14:15-31

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... hear the good news, he sent the apostle Paul. When God wanted a Reformation in the Church, He sent Martin Luther. When He wanted a revival in the Church of England, He sent John Wesley. Perhaps God is just waiting to send you to go someplace where only you can go with the good news. The legend of Abgarus and Thaddeus is a lovely legend, and a fitting place for us to end our consideration of the Twelve Apostles—for it was their calling (and ours) to know Jesus, and then to carry that knowledge out to the ...

6. The Twelve Apostles

Luke 6:12-16

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

... of Matthean authorship of the Gospel of Matthew see Gundry, pp. 609–22. Thomas: The name comes from Aramaic meaning “twin” (Heb. te’om). Hence he is called “Didymos,” which is Greek for “twin,” in John 11:16; 20:24; 21:2. Only in the Gospel of John are we told anything about this apostle. Legend had it that Thomas was Jesus’ twin. Probably for this reason the name of Thomas was associated with a variety of apocryphal writings. There is an Infancy Gospel of Thomas that tells of Jesus ...

7. Candidates for God’s Candid Camera

1 John 3:11-24

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... and Sarah’s shared meal with some passing strangers that we might at anytime be “entertaining angels unawares.” But the directive from 1 John in this week’s epistle text takes that mandate a step further. It is, in fact, sometimes much easier to extend hospitality and ... , every way. Proof positive that you are not one of these righteous ones is if you proclaim your righteousness. The Legend of the Tzadikim also asserts that the Tzadikim don’t know each other, and if they do discover another tzadikim ...

8. The True Story of the Magi

Matthew 1:1-17

Sermon

John Jamison

... the gift of myrrh. The youngest of the three was Casper, who had no beard yet, but did present the gift of frankincense to the baby. Yet another legend goes on to tell us that after seeing the baby, the three continued traveling as far as Spain, telling the world the good news about what they ... Spam (20 Billion in lost productivity) Deaths Strom Thurmond Johnny Cash June Carter Cash Donald O’Conner John Ritter Bob Hope Mr. Fred Rodgers David Bloom Buddy Ebsen Buddy Hackett Art Carney Charles Bronson David ...

9. First, Last And Always--god!

John 13:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... we may even repudiate that love--but we cannot keep God from loving. That is God's very nature. God is love. There is an old legend that after God finished creating the world, He still had the task of naming every creature and plant in it. Anyone who has ever faced the ... law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." (31:33) In John 8:36 we read, "If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed." And in Romans 3 we read, "Since all have sinned ...

10. Your Image of Tomorrow

Matthew 3:1-12

Sermon

Leonard Mann

... back into the shadows. There are dimensions of greatness in the character of anyone who can do that as gracefully and graciously as did John. In the story of Adam Bede, George Eliot describes a certain conceited person as being "like the cock who thought the sun had ... ships. But as things turned out, it wasn’t that way at all. You know, if Columbus had believed half the maps and legends of his time he would never have lifted an anchor! Well, we are all traveling into the unexplored land, and we ought to ...

11. The Boy Jesus in the Temple

Luke 2:41-52

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... from society as John’s did. The two summaries in 2:40, 52, which remind us of the accounts of the child Samuel in 1 Samuel 2:21, 26, use the same Greek terms to speak of Jesus’s “wisdom” and of the “grace (favor) of God,” themes that have been illustrated in the story of 2:41–50. But this time we hear also of Jesus’s good reputation in the village (“favor with . . . man”). His supernatural origin did not make him into the enfant terrible that some later Christian legends made him. We ...

12. Nothing Difficult Is Ever Easy

Matthew 22:34-40

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... it’s great if you can contribute large sums of money to the church, and it’s great if you volunteer to work in various ministries of the church. But above all else, we are to love God and love our neighbor. There is a legend handed down from the early church about John, the beloved disciple of Jesus. Of the twelve original apostles, only John is said to have lived to be a ripe old age. In his later years not only his body but also his eyesight and his mind began to fail him. Eventually, according to the ...

13. Coming Down The Mountain

2 Kings 2:1-18

Sermon

Frederick C. Edwards

... his authority as a prophet of God. The power and greatness of Elijah always seem to be expressed in terms of legends and miracles. One of these legends is inferred at the very beginning of today’s reading, that Elijah would not die as ordinary mortals do. Rather, like ... messing with people’s emotions, but in cultivating the ability to hear the word of Jesus, and then to do it. John Wesley was a powerful dynamo of spiritual power who started a movement that profoundly changed a nation and produced a body ...

14. One Bad Apple

Matthew 26:47-56

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... God responsible for sin and evil. That, I cannot accept. I believe that Judas had as many possibilities for greatness as did Peter, James or John. He could have chosen the high road instead of the low one. He chose the low. Why? I don’t know why. Why do we ... threw himself from a precipice. But what happened to Judas ultimately? That’s what many have wished to know. All sorts of lurid legends have cropped up around this man whom many centuries later the poet Dante was to locate in the lowest depth of the ...

15. LENT: The Passion of Christ: "Betrayed"

John 13:21-30; Matthew 26:14-16; 45-50

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... Betray him just as Judas did. Let's look at the passages of Scripture for this morning. There are two: John 13:21-30; Matthew 26:14-16; 45-50 John 13:21-30 (NRSV) [21] After saying this Jesus was troubled in spirit, and declared, "Very truly, I tell you ... for?" Without turning his head, Jesus shoulders sag a little and answers simply, "I'm waiting for Judas." It is just a legend. It's just a legend but I think it contains a kernel of truth. Whatever the motive behind the Betrayal by Judas, Jesus death on the ...

16. Naomi and Ruth

Ruth 1:1-22

Understanding Series

Michael S. Moore

... and Legends, pp. 97–102). 1:3b She was left: C. Barth discusses death’s ability to intimidate the living in Die Erretung vom Tode in den individuellen Klage-und Dankliedern des alten Testaments (Basel: Zollikon, 1947), pp. 87–94. D. N. Fewell and D. M. Gunn (“ ‘A Son is Born to Naomi!’ ” JSOT 40 [1988], pp. 99–108) see Naomi as a scheming manipulator whose only goal is power and position. B. Batto (Slaying the Dragon: Mythmaking in the Biblical Tradition [Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John ...

17. The Sign of the Dove

John 1:29-34, John 1:19-28, John 1:1-18, Luke 3:21-38, Luke 3:1-20, Mark 1:1-8, Matthew 3:13-17, Matthew 3:1-12

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... for this Trinity Sunday, the Holy Spirit of God descends upon Jesus at his baptism, not as a dove but “like a dove,” engraving forever in John the Baptist’s mind and in ours not only that Jesus is the Messiah, but what kind of Messiah he is! He is the Son of ... enchanting. It’s a story for young and old about a world in crisis based in part on Stefan Zweig's parable “The Legend of the Third Dove.” In “The Lost Dove” there is so much death and destruction that the doves of the world leave their ...

18. The Time of Our Visitation

Sermon

Leonard Mann

... Jesus; he says, "I will see you again," (John 16:22) and death comes, but it ... legend has the innkeeper saying something like this: "When he came to my inn many years ago, I did not let him in because I did not know who he was, and I did not know that he was coming, and I wasn’t looking for him when he came. And now, having seen him die, I do not think he is dead. I have the feeling that he could come at any time and knock on any door." It seems to me that Jesus has given quite a satisfactory answer to John ...

19. The King Of Ifs

Luke 23:26-43

Sermon

Richard Andersen

... Jesus the King of Ifs in a way that none other did who stood there that Friday...not Mary His mother, nor even the disciple John. It was implied, if not worded as such as that robber thought, If You are the Righteous One, and I am decidedly not righteous at ... O most blessed of children, if ever there comes a time for having mercy on me, then remember me and forget not this hour.'" The legend says that the robber youth grew to become a kind of Robin Hood, robbing the rich to aid the poor. It is said the boy ...

20. It's All About the Messiah

Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)

Sermon

Derl G. Keefer

... with a complete human nature and was born as Jesus, the God-man. The apostle John wrote, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us!” (John 1:14). James Montgomery Boice’s chapter in his book, God the Redeemer, stated that ... It means that the two are equal. Jesus is fused as God and man in such a way that he became our one and only hope of salvation. A legend is told about the casting of a great bell in Peking. It is the bell on which midnight is sounded, and it was cast a century and a half ...

21. The Unexpected Universe

Matthew 11:1-19

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... his chariot in all his royal robes to hear the rustic preacher by the Jordan River. Any nervous king would be suspicious of John, but Herod may also have had a twinge of conscience. On a recent trip to Rome he had seduced his brother Philip's ... statues are long gone. The majestic columns of the Rotunda lie about in pieces -- a crumbled monument of Alexander the Great, who, as legend says, wept because there were no more worlds to conquer. But travel a little farther from Olympia to Sparta or Patras or Athens ...

22. Looking for Rainbows

Genesis 9:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... humanity for its sin, but in saving humanity from that sin. You and I need to hold on to that promise. It’s spelled out in John 3:17: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” That has ... examine all of the troubles hanging in the branches. Anyone may freely choose someone else’s unhappiness as their own. But, the legend concludes, no one will choose someone else’s sorrows: everyone will reclaim their own over those of others. This is a way ...

23. It Costs to Belong

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... me.” (See Matthew 25:40.) When he died, the most significant thing that the writer of the Book of Acts could think to say about James, the brother of John, was simply “he belonged to the Church.” There is a curious legend about the death of James, and it is rather exotic. To this day St. James (or St. Iago) is the patron saint of Spain. Legend says that he went to Spain and preached Christ to that country. Afterward, he returned to Palestine where he was executed by Herod Agrippa, as the New Testament ...

24. The Healing at the Pool

John 5:1-15, John 5:16-30

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... the charge that he or his disciples are guilty of breaking the Sabbath. Most of his answers are based on logic or on practical considerations (e.g., John 7:22–23; Mark 2:25–27; 3:4; Matt. 12:3–7, 11–12; Luke 13:15–16; 14:5), but at least one focuses on ... v. 7. The longer addition was then attached as an explanation (based on popular legend) of why the waters became agitated from time to time. The truth in the legend is perhaps that the pool contained an intermittent spring that was thought to have ...

25. Life Through the Son

John 5:16-30, John 5:1-15

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

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