Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1 to 25 of 2925 results

Mark 1:1-8

Children's Sermon

Brett Blair

Exegetical Aim: How God repairs our lives when we repent. Props: 8"x11" paper and tape. You will need one of each for every two or three children. If you want to make it interesting use several different kinds of tape. Optional: On each piece of paper draw the letters A, B, C, D, etc. You will be able to name the teams when they are done. Lesson: Good morning! (response) Does anyone know what Chr...

2. Cultural Revolution or Spiritual Problem?

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Daniel G. Mueller

Can you imagine what it would be like if John the Baptizer were the pastor of this congregation today? I wonder who would run away first, John or all the rest of us? The way the scriptures decribe him, it sounds as if he would have been very hard to get along with. The man could never have come to your home for dinner, for instance, because he ate only locusts and wild honey. Most of you ladies do...

3. A Way Made Ready

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Darrick Acre

Have you been out to see the Christmas lights yet? It is time for the annual excursion, when you pack the car with people on a chilly December evening, and drive around to all the neighborhoods and parks made beautiful by cities or neighborhood associations with lights, lights, and more lights, in a variety of colors and hues. There are bright reds, blues, and greens; beautiful, pastel pinks and y...

4. Mark 1:1-8

Mark 1:1-8

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

While Matthew and Luke begin their narratives with biology (Jesus’ birth), and John begins with cosmology (“the Word was with God”), Mark begins his gospel by looking backward and forward at the same time: recalling biblical tradition and revealing some “good news” — the gospel itself. Like Genesis (and later John), Mark’s fitting first word is “beginning” (“arche”), letting his readers understan...

5. John the Stall Cleaner

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

“Prep Time.” Do those two words have as much meaning to anyone here as two other new words to the English language: “Thanksgiving pants.” [Those are pants with elastic or expandable waists.] I won’t ask how many of you are still wearing those “Thanksgiving pants” to church this morning. Anyone who is trying to organize and host a get together during this busy holiday season knows that what takes ...

6. Fifty-Fourth and Lexington

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

There is no song so broken, no monotone so horrible, no voice so tremulous, that God can't take it and compose it into a beautiful symphony. Have you ever played the game "Gossip" or "Rumors"? After gathering everyone into a circle, one person begins by whispering some message to a neighbor softly and quietly. The neighbor must then pass along that whispered message (or at least the version...

7. Mark 1:4-11

Mark 1:4-11

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Mark opens his gospel by "preparing the way" for the Christ, using all available symbols and appropriate images from the First Testament. Verse 4 portrays John the Baptizer in the wilderness, preaching baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Mark describes John as pulling in people from all over Jerusalem and Judea with this message. John's peculiarities are many ("clothed in camel's ha...

8. Mark 1:1-8

Mark 1:1-8

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

As the earliest gospel, Mark's writings offer a brand new kind of Jesus. Beyond oral narratives and retold stories, Mark's work brought his first-century readers a completed, coherent message a gospel. He opens his account of Jesus' life and ministry by designating it once and forever as "good news." Just as Mark's account of Jesus' life is the briefest version of the four, he seems to have an edi...

9. Mark 1:4-11

Mark 1:4-11

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

This week's gospel reading presents the story of Jesus' own baptism at the hands of John the Baptist. The stage is carefully set for this dramatic scene. But here in Mark's gospel, at least, the drama that finally occurs is a one-man show. Like the other gospels, Mark begins by introducing John the Baptist. Already foreshadowing John's mission in the Old Testament Scriptures Mark combines in verse...

10. Mark 1:1-8

Mark 1:1-8

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Mark's prologue functions to give the reader special insights, hidden knowledge, that is unknown to all the other characters in the gospel narrative, excepting Jesus himself. In this prologue we get an explanation of John the Baptist's predicted appearance and mission, which the narrator reveals is the key to correctly understanding John's identity. Whereas scholars initially included only these e...

11. Mark 1:29-39

Mark 1:29-39

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Mark uses the miracle genre to communicate the unique power and authority Jesus wields in his travels and teachings. This focus is evident in Mark from the very first miracle story onward. At the synagogue in Capernaum (1:21ff.), Jesus' teaching astounds all those present for unlike the simple scribal tradition of retelling, Jesus probes the Scriptures, challenges his listeners and speaks as one w...

12. Mark 1:9-15

Mark 1:9-15

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Jesus' baptism, and the events accompanying it, is a crucial introductory moment in Mark's gospel. Matthew and Luke spend a couple of chapters describing Jesus' conception and birth making his divine parentage and purpose abundantly clear long before he encounters John the Baptist. John's sweeping prologue also leaves no doubt about Jesus' unique, exalted position in all the universe. Mark's "shor...

13. The Beginning of the Story

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

“And now you know the rest of the story!” That’s the way Paul Harvey closes those dramatic monologues which keep your mind on tiptoe as you discover the fascinating life details and historical quirks of notable people and events. Paul Harvey is a craftsman with words and pulls us to the edge of our seat to learn the rest of the story. Mark, our Gospel writer, does the same thing - but for “the beg...

14. What Would Jesus Say About Modern Churches?

Mark 1:4-11

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

The Church is of God and shall be preserved to the end of time as the visible body of Christ on earth. The local church remains God's best hope for humanity. For a lifetime now, the Church has captured my heart, my mind, and my deepest devotion. After all these years I can still join Timothy Dwight in saying: Beyond my highest joys I prize her heavenly ways. Her sweet communion, solemn vows, h...

15. Mark 1:1-8

Mark 1:1-8

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Over the centuries the gospel of Mark often has been considered a kind of pale imitation of the other “more substantial” gospels. Not as historically detailed as Matthew, not as narratively elegant as Luke, not as theologically articulate as John, at first glance Mark appears almost a derivative of the other texts. But over the last century Mark has been re-examined by biblical scholars to the po...

16. Back To Basics: The Three R's of Baptism

Mark 1:1-8, Mark 1:9-13

Sermon

Brett Blair

Baptism is a powerful force in the life of a Christian for two reasons. It is something we share in common. Christians all over the world can say that they were baptized in Christ. You met a Catholic in Ireland. He was baptized. You met a Pentecostal in Nigeria. She was baptized. The second reason Baptism is a powerful force is that baptism takes us back to the basics. Now let me set these two ide...

17. Jesus and the Baptists

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

A little girl who normally attended another Sunday School happened to attend a Methodist Sunday School one week-end, while visiting her grandmother. In the course of the morning she heard a number of things she wasn’t quite sure about, but when the teacher said that Jesus was a Jew she responded, “Maybe Jesus was a Jew, but God is a Baptist!” Of course, God isn’t a Baptist; and neither was John ...

18. Secretary to Saint Peter

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

MARK’S GOSPEL IS THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOK IN THE WORLD! So says Prof. William Barclay of Scotland, the dean of New Testament Biblical commentators. Why? Because, says he, It is agreed by nearly everyone that Mark is the earliest of all the gospels, and is therefore the first life of Jesus that has come down to us. (Daily Study Bible, Phila: The Westminster Pres, 1956. P. xiii.) In other wor...

19. Jesus’s Identity as Messiah and Son of God Established

Mark 1:1-8

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

Big Idea: The good news centers on Jesus the Messiah, who shows himself to be the Son of God by inaugurating God’s kingdom age. He is declared as such first by Old Testament prophecy and then by the wilderness voice, his forerunner John the Baptist. Understanding the Text This passage is the “prologue” to Mark (cf. John 1:1–18), and the purpose is to inform the reader about the primary truths in...

20. Preparation for Ministry

Mark 1:1-8

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

The first verse of Mark summarizes the content of the Gospel and functions as its de facto title. The opening word, “Beginning,” recalls the opening word of Genesis (so too the book of Hosea and Gospel of John), implying that in the gospel of Jesus Christ a new creation is at hand. “Beginning” should probably be understood not as the first of several things in a sequence but rather first in terms ...

21. The Wind

Mark 1:4-11

Sermon

Charley Reeb

John the Baptist says something interesting in Mark, “He (Jesus) will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” Those were prophetic words. John was pointing to a time when those who followed Jesus would be infused with the power of the Holy Spirit. Later this prophetic word would be underscored by Jesus’ baptism when the Spirit of God descended upon him like a dove. Just a few years later John’s words w...

22. John the Baptist Prepares the Way

Mark 1:1-8

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

1:1–8 In this brief but fully packed introductory section, Mark first describes Jesus by titles that summarize for the author the proper significance of Jesus and then links him with Old Testament prophetic themes and with the historical figure John the Baptist. It is interesting that, although Mark presents the human characters in his story, even the disciples, as largely unable to perceive prope...

23. Ready Or Not

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

King Duncan

Remember as a child when you played hide and seek? Remember how you would cover your eyes and count? Then you would speak those immortal words: "Ready or not, here I come." Do you get the feeling this time of year that you can hear the voice of Christmas like Marley's ghost saying to us, "Ready or not, here I come." The next few weeks will be filled with so much activity, all the parties, the sho...

24. The Missing Figure in the Nativity Scene

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

King Duncan

A three-year-old was helping his mother unpack their nativity set. He announced each piece as he unwrapped it from the tissue paper. “Here’s the donkey!” he said. “Here’s a king and a camel!” When he finally got to the tiny infant lying in a manger he proclaimed, “Here’s baby Jesus in his car seat!” Well, it wasn’t a car seat, but that would be an easy mistake to make, wouldn’t it? We all love ...

25. God's Training Wheels

Mark 1:1-8, Mark 1:9-13

Children's Sermon

Brett Blair

Exegetical Aim: To teach that baptism is a foundational event in the life of a Christian. Props: Bicycle training wheels. Lesson: Good morning. (response) What do I have in my hands? (response) How many of you have bicycles? (response) How old were you when you learned to ride it? (response) Who taught you how to ride? (response) Before you learned to ride you had to use some special wheels call...

Showing 1 to 25 of 2925 results