Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1 to 25 of 28 results

1. Are We Blind Also?

John 9:40

Illustration

Jon L. Joyce

What a question to ask ourselves. The answer might surprise us. How much of God do we see? He is all about us. A great scientist went home to lunch after spending the morning in his laboratory peering through a powerful microscope at the petals of a rose. When his wife asked him how he had been spending his time he replied, "I have spent the morning with God." It was Oliver St. John Gogarty who wr...

2. Become an Ant

Isaiah 43:14-28

Sermon

Jon L. Joyce

This message to the Hebrews in exile suggests a gospel proclamation to us in exile today. Although ours is not geographical or, generally, physical, it is spiritual and it is relational. The loneliness of a great number of humans in 1977 is a horror to them. Witness: most of us are never alone without a radio or television going. We tend to feel that, if we have something around us, we can forget ...

3. Blaming

John 9:2

Illustration

Jon L. Joyce

"Who sinned, this man or his parents?" the disciples asked. And Jesus replied, "Neither." But the disciples wanted to place blame on someone for this man’s blindness. Why do so many people follow this practice? Often they hurt one another as they seek to find someone at whom they can point the finger of accusation. After all, none of us is blameless. Scriptures tell us "all have sinned." It is som...

4. Christ Is a Prophet

John 9:17

Illustration

Jon L. Joyce

The Greek word used here is prophetes. It has basically two meanings. One is foreteller, revealing future events that are to take place under the hand of God. Divine inspiration is implied, contact with the Almighty. The other meaning is forthtelling, explaining the Scriptures, having divine inspiration which leads to exhortation, and sometimes reproof. Giving guidance to individuals and to nation...

5. Faith and Obedience

Genesis 12:1-8

Sermon

Jon L. Joyce

These two virtues, faith and obedience, are very closely related. Each one is incomplete without the other. In Abraham’s life and work, he illustrates these virtues admirably. When God called him to leave his home where he had lived for 70 years and go out to another land, the land of Canaan, many miles away, "by faith he obeyed." (Genesis 11:9) And when God told Abraham to offer up his dearly be...

6. God is Laughing at Us

Zechariah 9:9-13

Illustration

Jon L. Joyce

"LO YOUR KING COMES TO YOU. TRIUMPHANT AND VICTORIOUS IS HE, HUMBLE AND RIDING ON AN ASS, ON A COLT, THE FOAL OF AN ASS." Surely one sign of the lack of perceptiveness of us humans is sometimes we don’t know when we are being ridiculed, laughed at, satirized, made fun of. I remember when we arrived in Japan for the occupation years ago, the missionary’s son who was our regimental interpreter, tol...

7. God Moves Slowly

John 11:6

Illustration

Jon L. Joyce

When Jesus heard of the death of his good friend Lazarus, it saddened him but he did not go immediately to Bethany to restore his friend to life. Rather, he "stayed where he was for the next two days and made no move to go." How often we get impatient with one another, which is not good. But far worse still is to get impatient with God, as though he were at our beck and call. We cannot expect imme...

8. He Came to His Senses

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Jon L. Joyce

"At last he came to his senses," Luke writes in describing the dramatic turning point in the life of the young man whom we’ve come to call 'the prodigal son.' " That, in Today’s English Version, corresponds to RSV’s "But when he came to himself." Whatever else, this one thing is clear: the young man was obviously not himself before. His friends would have said of him, "He’s not himself these days....

9. How Great Is Your Faith?

John 11:22

Illustration

Jon L. Joyce

When Christ came to Bethany, following the death of Lazarus, the body had been in the tomb long enough for decay to set in. For Christ to be expected to restore the body to life now took even more faith than it would if he had been present immediately after Lazarus’ death. But still Mary’s faith in Christ was unwavering. She told Christ that she knew that "even now" he could perform the miracle of...

10. I Believe

John 9:38

Illustration

Jon L. Joyce

Children in church school sing "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so." To retain this simple belief all through life is the kernel of Christian faith. Jesus said "unless we have faith as a little child" we will not enter into the kingdom. In a sense we always remain "children" of the heavenly father. One time the world-renowned theologian Karl Barth was asked what he would consid...

11. I know You by Name

Exodus 33:12-23

Sermon

Jon L. Joyce

YET THOU HAST SAID, ‘I KNOW YOU BY NAME.’ How often in Holy Scripture the promise of personhood is carried out by Almighty God. As for instance, when he speaks through Isaiah in the first verse of the 34th Chapter: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name, and you are mine." Or as that promise is fulfilled in the New Testament in John 10:3: "He calleth his own sheep by name."...

12. Illustrations for Lent Easter Old Testament Texts

Isaiah 42:10-17, Isaiah 42:18-25

Illustration

Jon L. Joyce

1. God destroys as well as preserves [Isaiah 42:14] Luther says that God is to be both loved and feared. The same God of compassion who is eager to show love to those who turn to him is equally determined to root out and destroy evil. Isaiah is warning us not to be lulled to sleep by thinking only of the kindness of God. He who shows patience toward our waywardness will eventually cease to overlo...

13. In the Fires of Life

Daniel 3:1-30

Illustration

Jon L. Joyce

Back in 1917 during the Russian Revolution, a Russian Orthodox priest and eleven of his parishioners were placed in a prison by the Bolsheviks. They were left there to rot. From time to time, as the weeks went by, the guard of the prisoners would tell his superior: "There is someone else in that cell besides those twelve men. There is someone getting to them who helps them and provides them with w...

14. In The Nick of Time

Genesis 22:1-19

Sermon

Jon L. Joyce

The story of stewardship goes back to the beginning of the Bible when, high on a mountaintop, a father actually offered up his little boy. It is the first reliably recorded "pledge" in the Bible. We moderns, however, have flinched so in horror at this barbaric episode, which God stopped in the nick of time, that we have been afraid to take another look; and we have missed the extraordinary valor ...

15. It will Crumble into Dust!

Isaiah 12:1-6

Illustration

Jon L. Joyce

The following story could be used as a basis to point out some of the plights we need to be delivered from. In one story of the Holy Grail, a knight rode forth in searth of fulfillment. He came to a singing brook, deep meadows, trees plentiful with fruit. But even as he ate the fruit, it turned to dust. No feeding of the flesh could satisfy his deepest hunger. Further on he saw a home, a lovely ...

16. Lo, I am with You Always

John 20:1-9

Illustration

Jon L. Joyce

In John 20:9 we read, "We hadn’t realized that the Scriptures said ... ": How much do we know what the Scriptures say? In a day of biblical illiteracy people seem to know less and less of the glorious things on those pages of holy writ. But they are there for us to read, and to realize that they apply to us. It is God’s personal message for each of us. A most interesting incident is told concerni...

17. More Bad Guys Pour In

Luke 11:14-28

Illustration

Jon L. Joyce

As Jesus explained in this Scripture: the only way to be rid of a demon for good is to crowd him out with the best. Don’t leave any room for his return. The room will be filled. If you don’t fill it with good friends, it will attract vandals. Our lives are like the old unruly western frontiers. Lawbreakers bully the town that has no competent marshall. And even if there is a posse and a successful...

18. Seek God's Will

Matthew 17:1-13

Sermon

Jon L. Joyce

Jesus was nearing the close of his earthly ministry. The ordeal of the cross was not far away. All along Jesus believed he was to die on the cross, but as the time drew near he seemed to want further assurance from God that he was doing his will. So he took Peter, James, and John and went up on the slope of Mount Hermon, and the transfiguration was God’s answer of assurance. Luke (9:28-29) says th...

19. Service Is the Way to Honor

Matthew 20:27

Illustration

Jon L. Joyce

Once a clergyman wrote an article for a magazine that attracted considerable attention. It was titled "Why I Do Not Want My Son to Become a Minister." In the article he stressed how many are the demands made upon a minister and stated that he wanted his son spared these irritating requests for help. Another minister commended that the title of the article should have been "Why I Want My Son to be ...

20. Significance in Life

Isaiah 55:1-13

Sermon

Jon L. Joyce

"WHY DO YOU SPEND ... YOUR LABOR FOR THAT WHICH DOES NOT SATISFY?" A woman in our parish referred a lady to me for consultation, and the parishioner said of her friend: "I don’t know what her problem is. She has a very successful husband. She is certainly a success at everything she tries herself. I really can’t understand what her difficulty is." But when the lady came in, she placed her finger ...

21. The Old and the New

1 Corinthians 5:1-13

Sermon

Jon L. Joyce

"CLEANSE OUT THE OLD LEAVEN THAT YOU MAYBE A NEW LUMP" I suppose that the oldest controversy in history is the struggle between the old and the new. Even our Lord got into it one day when he said to the religious leaders: "No one puts a new patch on an old garment" ... and ... "neither is new wine put into old wine skins." So the conflict goes on between the past and the future. In age after age,...

22. The Temptations

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

Jon L. Joyce

No matter how many times I look at this text, I come back to my first inclination: "Temptations of Ministry." Each of the temptations can be related to temptations of the individual Christian or the corporate Christian body today. In a sermon based on that theme, you might make several points which may not be obvious to the worshiper who has just heard the Gospel read orally: 1. Jesus’ temptation...

23. To Receive or Worship?

Matthew 22:1-14

Sermon

Jon L. Joyce

1. The Master needs them [Matthew 21:2] There is much talk of priorities today, the placing of things in their proper order of importance, with first things coming first. When Christ needed the donkey to ride into Jerusalem, it was enough to say to the owner that the Master needed the beast. Christ was to have first call on its use, as a matter of course. This should be the case in Christ’s reque...

24. Trumpets in Church on Easter, The Very Idea!

Mark 16:1-20

Sermon

Jon L. Joyce

"HE HAS RISEN" It was a solid, staid, old parish to which I was called just after the war, one that needed a bit of waking up here and there, and on our first Easter, we arranged to have the Sunrise Service begin with a fanfare by a quartet of trumpets sounding forth from the balcony. Well, the trumpeters were quite enthusiastic, and I must admit, quite loud; and, quite frankly, the innovation wa...

25. We are Not Simply "Now" People

Deuteronomy 26:1-15

Illustration

Jon L. Joyce

One of the main thrusts of Deuteronomy 26 is the call to continually renew (remember) our vertical relationship to God, a relationship that is, by its nature, deeply rooted in the Judaeo-Christian tradition and the whole history of salvation. We need to remember that we are not simply "now" people, but are, basically, a continuing part of a history that is founded in and rooted in a vertical relat...

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Showing 1 to 25 of 28 results

1. Are We Blind Also?

John 9:40

Illustration

Jon L. Joyce

2. Become an Ant

Isaiah 43:14-28

Sermon

Jon L. Joyce

3. Blaming

John 9:2

Illustration

Jon L. Joyce

4. Christ Is a Prophet

John 9:17

Illustration

Jon L. Joyce

5. Faith and Obedience

Genesis 12:1-8

Sermon

Jon L. Joyce

6. God is Laughing at Us

Zechariah 9:9-13

Illustration

Jon L. Joyce

7. God Moves Slowly

John 11:6

Illustration

Jon L. Joyce

8. He Came to His Senses

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Jon L. Joyce

9. How Great Is Your Faith?

John 11:22

Illustration

Jon L. Joyce

10. I Believe

John 9:38

Illustration

Jon L. Joyce

11. I know You by Name

Exodus 33:12-23

Sermon

Jon L. Joyce

12. Illustrations for Lent Easter Old Testament Texts

Isaiah 42:10-17, Isaiah 42:18-25

Illustration

Jon L. Joyce

13. In the Fires of Life

Daniel 3:1-30

Illustration

Jon L. Joyce

14. In The Nick of Time

Genesis 22:1-19

Sermon

Jon L. Joyce

15. It will Crumble into Dust!

Isaiah 12:1-6

Illustration

Jon L. Joyce

16. Lo, I am with You Always

John 20:1-9

Illustration

Jon L. Joyce

17. More Bad Guys Pour In

Luke 11:14-28

Illustration

Jon L. Joyce

18. Seek God's Will

Matthew 17:1-13

Sermon

Jon L. Joyce

19. Service Is the Way to Honor

Matthew 20:27

Illustration

Jon L. Joyce

20. Significance in Life

Isaiah 55:1-13

Sermon

Jon L. Joyce

21. The Old and the New

1 Corinthians 5:1-13

Sermon

Jon L. Joyce

22. The Temptations

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

Jon L. Joyce

23. To Receive or Worship?

Matthew 22:1-14

Sermon

Jon L. Joyce

24. Trumpets in Church on Easter, The Very Idea!

Mark 16:1-20

Sermon

Jon L. Joyce

25. We are Not Simply "Now" People

Deuteronomy 26:1-15

Illustration

Jon L. Joyce

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