Sermon and Worship Resources

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Genesis 4:1-26

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... , then, was an expression of humans’ being made in God’s image and aided humans in carrying out God’s commands to fill the earth and to manage it. Protected by the mark, Cain proceeded to produce offspring. We may surmise that Cain married one of his sisters. Their firstborn was Enoch, and Cain built a city and named it . . . Enoch. The building of a city informs us that the population had begun to increase significantly. Lamech married two women, . . . Adah and . . . Zillah. Thus he introduced ...

2. Be Shrewd

Luke 16:1-15

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... from a tainted source, just as the servant received tainted wealth from a tainted world. When people criticize others for quoting someone who doesn’t get everything all right, or citing someone who made mistakes and got some things wrong, pastor Mark Cain counters “Quote whom you wish ‑‑ bees make honey from weeds as well as orchids.” Or as the founder of Methodism John Wesley put it about Egyptian gold, “plunder the Egyptians.” In his classic devotional text Imitations of Christ (chapter 5 ...

3. THE MARK

Drama

Jerome W. Nilssen

... cemetery, show him the knife, let him see the blood. Tell him that you took the revenge. Show him I didn’t get away free. And maybe he’ll call off the dogs. EVE You can’t choose your own punishment. CAIN Yes, I can. Because you promised. You have to do it now. Not too deep. Just make a mark, a sign that somebody’s done something, that I haven’t gotten away without making some payment. Here. (He gives, she takes the knife) That’s all you’ve got to do. One clean stroke. EVE Why don’t you do ...

4. The Seeds of Social Conflict

Genesis 4:1-26

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... just your brother’s brother or sister. In Act III of the drama, God punishes Cain, but puts a mark of mercy on him. In verses 11 through 16, God banishes Cain from the agricultural life. Cain becomes a transient, a nomad. But to protect him from hostile, border-conscious people, God put a mark on him. What that mark was, we do not know. But remember, the mark was not part of his punishment. It was a mark of grace, protecting Cain from harm and serving as a message that God had not forsaken him. The story ...

5. Cain and Abel

Genesis 4:1-26

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... complains about the harshness of his sentence (4:13). He will be forced to become a nomad; God will hide his face; Cain will become the object of blood revenge (4:14). This last phrase assumes a populated earth, indicating the existence of others besides Adam, Eve, and Cain. To that end God places a mark on Cain before he expels him. This will protect Cain from recrimination (and for other protecting marks see Exod. 12:13; Ezek. 9:4–6; Rev. 7:3). Here again is mercy before judgment. What clothing is to ...

6. The Sin and Doom of Godless Men

Jude 1:1-16

Understanding Series

Norman Hillyer

... denote a particular group of people: “You know who I mean!” Long ago (palai) can equally well refer to the recent past, as in Mark 15:44 and 2 Pet. 1:9. Itinerant preachers and teachers frequently caused trouble in the early church (Matt. 7:15; 2 Cor. 10– ... Adam is the usual description of Enoch in Jewish writings (1 Enoch 60:8; 93:3; Philo, On the Posterity and Exile of Cain 173; Jubilees 7:39; Lev. Rabbah 29.11). The Lord is coming is lit. “came,” (ēlthen), the Greek aorist used prophetically (as ...

7. THE OLD MAN IS WASTING

Drama

Jerome W. Nilssen

... a swindle - and I’d like to be in on it from the beginning. No more tricks, please. SETH Tricks? JAREL Marked decks, phony merchandise, invisible partners, rigged prices. I’ve been around. SETH There’s no swindle, honest to God. I ... The soil’s the truth; so when you bet on the soil you’ve got a sure thing. The smart money goes down, into the ground. JAREL Cain never fooled with land. He said it took too long to develop. SETH This isn’t DEVELOPING; this is just taking what the good Lord gives and ...

8. Who is That Crouching at Your Door?

Genesis 4:1-26

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... vintage Jesus! It is the heart God is interested in, not the “things” we do in order to try to “attain” God’s favor. Favor is not attained. But it is a freely given gift of mercy, forgiveness, and love. And Cain receives that love and forgiveness and mercy, with the “mark” God puts upon him, that literally saves his life from being taken, even while he must atone for his deed throughout his life. Some translations of Genesis 4 say, “If you do what is pleasing, you will be exalted.” However ...

9. A King Like No Other

Luke 23:26-43

Sermon

King Duncan

... that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). And on another occasion he declared, “The well have no need for a physician, but those who are sick” (Mark 2:17) These are the people Jesus gave his life for. We need to remember that. Jesus didn’t come to benefit good people. He came ... or sister who needs help. Some of you may remember the well known British actor Michael Caine. Caine wrote a book several years ago in which he described how he fought his way out of a poor South London neighborhood to pursue his dream ...

10. Love One Another

1 John 3:11-24

Understanding Series

Thomas F. Johnson

... The themes of life and death, love and hate continue into v. 15. Hate for one’s brother, mentioned previously in 2:9–11, caused Cain’s jealous murder of his brother (3:12), and it shows that one belongs to the evil one (3:12), is like the world (3:13 ... ) implies knowledge based on experience. On Jesus as a pattern for Christian conduct, see, e.g., Matt. 11:29 (“learn from me”); Mark 10:42–45 (service); John 13:14–17 (foot-washing), 34 (love); Phil. 2:5 (“attitude”); 1 John 2:6 (“walk as ...

11. The First Murder - 1940

Matthew 7:1-6

Sermon

Kent Moorehead

... sacrifice barbarous. The simple fact of the matter is that, as the Bible says, the attitude of the two men was entirely different. Abel came with a sincere recognition of his own sense of sonship and Cain was only doing the conventional, formal thing. It is the unrecognized distinction that always marks the true worshiper from the pseudo-worshiper. How many of us have played both roles? There have been times when religion meant much to us, when we came with great conscience, without considering some social ...

12. The River of Life

Revelation 22:1-6

Understanding Series

Robert W. Wall

... speculations of nascent gnosticism or docetism, echoed in 1 John and the Fourth Gospel, to eschatological concerns. 22:3a My colleague, Frank A. Spina, has pointed out that Cain’s curse is personal and more demanding than God’s previous curse “of the ground” in that he was charged to till cursed ground rather than good ground. As such it marks a regression in God’s relations with humanity from creation to creature. Indeed, Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden but not from God’s face. It ...

13. Dirty Dreams and Slick Schemers

Jude 1:8-11

Sermon

James Merritt

... go back to the prior examples that Jude had given in vv.5-7 you will find these same three marks of the apostate. Sodom and Gomorrah defiled sexual purity, the angels defied supernatural authority, and Israel defamed spiritual dignity. II. ... ever before." We are not only a people of the book, we are a people of the blood. You see, the difference between Abel and Cain is the difference between Christianity and every other religion in the world. One says we're saved by grace through faith and not of works. ...

14. When Someone Else Gets The Honor

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

King Duncan

... the bulb and ninety-nine to say, "I could have done that." As someone has said, "After a person makes his mark in the world, a lot of people begin showing up with erasers." One of the most basic elements in the make-up of human beings is ... here is not the fairness of the situation. none of these situations is fair. The workers had a point. The elder brother had a point. Even Cain seems to have had a point. Life is not fair. If life were fair all men would look like Robert Redford and all women would look like ...

15. By Faith

Hebrews 11:1-40

Understanding Series

Donald A. Hagner

... in the text. Even the LXX is probably not to be followed when, departing from the Hebrew text, it attributes the unacceptability of Cain’s offering to a ritual mistake: “not rightly dividing it” (Gen. 4:7, LXX). For the verb “be well attested” (martyreō), see ... the expression “only son” in reference to Christ occurs only in the Johannine literature of the NT. (For “beloved son,” see Mark 1:11; 9:7; 12:6, and parallels.) Isaac, of course, was not Abraham’s only son—but he was the only ...

16. The Spread of Sin

Genesis 12:1-8

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... , God’s grace follows his judgment. Adam and Eve do not immediately die. They are clothed by God himself — God the tailor — and God helps Eve have a child (Genesis 3:21; 4:1). Despite the fact that Cain is driven away from the face of God and from every human community (Genesis 4:14), the Lord nevertheless puts a mark on him, so no one will kill him (4:15). In the flood, Noah and his family and representatives of every living creature are saved on the ark (6:18-19), and God himself makes sure that the ...

17. Number One Mother

Genesis 2:4-25

Drama

Dr. Raymond Bailey

... thought I'd share with you some of my perceptions about the very first mother on this "Mother's Day. " About a century ago, Mark Twain, I'm sure with his tongue in his cheek, claimed he found, and translated from hieroglyphics, our diaries. You may find his ... legs were shorter than its rear ones, and it traveled about on all fours with its rump in the air. So I named it "Caingaroo" -- Cain for short. Eve loved it. I hadn't seen her so happy since we'd been evicted from the garden. She claimed it was a human ...

18. The Mark Upon Us

Sermon

Lee Griess

... and Eve, the Bible pulls no punches. In the picture of that first man and woman and their rebellion toward God, we see ourselves echoed in this portrayal of humanity. Adam and Eve turn their back on God and are marked with death. Cain slays his brother, Abel, and he, too, is marked. In fact, throughout the Scriptures, there is an image, a picture of humanity, that is reflected even in our world today. It is a picture of willful rebellion against God, sinful disobedience, a desire to do our own thing, to ...

19. The Mark Upon Us

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Sermon

Lee Griess

20. Why We Believe In God

Hebrews 11:1-40

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... to the universe after God was finished than there was before he started. And look at the other verses. Remember the story of Cain and Abel? Cain always took from those around him. He always tried to see what he could get from them. Abel gave the best he had ... why life is a pilgrimage for us, why we look for the meaning of our lives in the future, why we carry our question marks with us toward that far horizon. William Wordsworth put it beautifully in one of his poems. He describes our life as a journey across ...

21. Love One Another

1 John 3:11-24

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... 35), the elder leverages the worst of fratricidal archetypes: Cain, the brother killer (3:12; Genesis 4). Would any in his audience relish the idea of being numbered among members of “the Cain Party”? Of course not! The threat of being ... as motivated by the love of Christ simply had to do with caring for the sustenance of fellow believers—sharing. After all, if this was the mark of the true fellowship of believers after the Holy Spirit had come upon them (Acts 2:42–47; 4:32–37), why was it not more ...

22. Get a Peace of the Rock

Luke 10:1-24

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... against the Jews, and the world sent blankets, beans, and bandages to camps controlled by the killers, apparently hoping that everybody would behave nicely in the future." (Philip Gourevitch, We Wish to Inform You...170). How can we escape this mark of Cain, this geyser of blood and violence, destruction and depravity that erupts like Old Faithful throughout human history? Jesus sent out his missionaries with one message on their lips. Peace. The peace they were proclaiming was the arrival of the kingdom ...

23. The Object of Envy Is Trapped

Mark 6:1-6

Illustration

Scott Hoezee

... one of Abel's paintings. This particular painting is a depiction of the Cain and Abel story itself from the Bible. At first, the doctor is convinced that the face of Cain in the painting is modeled on his own face. And he becomes furious! How ... you. Neither approach nor avoidance can help the envied one. It's difficult to know how much of a role envy plays in Mark 6 but surely the sneering attitude of Jesus' fellow townsfolk revealed at least a smidgen of envy-driven sentiments. Maybe this had something ...

24. The Death of John the Baptist

Matthew 14:1-12, Mark 6:14-29, Luke 9:1-9

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... :13 Congreve, “The Mourning Bride”, Act III, Scene VIII, 1697). Based on the Story Lectionary Major Text Matthew’s Witness to the Death of John the Baptist (14:1-13) Mark’s Witness to the Death of John the Baptist (6:14-32) Luke’s Witness to Herod’s Thought that Jesus was the risen John the Baptist (9:7-9) Minor Text The Story of Cain’s Murder of Abel (Genesis 4) David kills Bathsheba’s husband and is confronted by Nathan (2 Samuel 11 and 12) Joseph’s Brothers throw him into a pit for dead ...

25. The Flood

Genesis 6:1-8:22

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... of God were the men of Seth’s line and the daughters of men were the offspring of Cain. These women from the rebellious line of Cain led the Sethites into the pleasures of sin, thereby over time squelching the worship of the one God ... to live like the other primeval peoples until his death. A second problem is the literary issue of how to explain the repetitions that mark this account. Those repetitions include two names for God, Yahweh and Elohim; a flood of forty days (7:4, 12, 17a) and a deluge of ...

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