Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1 to 25 of 171 results

1. Jesus Eats with Sinners and Heals the Sick

Matthew 9:9-13, Matthew 9:14-17, Matthew 9:18-26, Matthew 9:27-34

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... analogy, that his disciples will indeed fast when he (the bridegroom) is taken from them (9:15). 9:18 My daughter has just died. Matthew has narrated a number of healings in chapters 8–9 (8:1–17; 9:1–8), but this is his first and singular example ... the Witch and the Wardrobe, by C. S. Lewis. Jesus’ ministry of healing, power, and compassion already enacts the redemptive purposes of the kingdom, even before his representative and salvific death. Lewis’s classic tale depicts Aslan the lion healing ...

2. Jesus Tempted in the Wilderness

Matthew 4:1-11

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... promises the one who takes refuge in Yahweh angelic protection against harm. While Jesus surely could rest in the promise of this psalm, Matthew shows that he is not foolish enough to presume God’s protection for such a rash and pointless act that would put God ... to the one true God is the basis for all covenant loyalty. Quote: The Screwtape Letters, by C. S. Lewis. In this book Lewis imagines a correspondence between two demons, one a master tempter (Screwtape), the other a novice (Wormwood). In one letter ...

3. Jesus’ Compassion and Authority to Feed and Heal

Matthew 15:21-28, Matthew 15:29-39

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... ; 66:18–21; Mic. 4:1–5). It was Israel’s privilege and responsibility as God’s chosen people to be a light to the nations. Matthew highlights this temporal priority of Jesus’ messianic ministry in 10:5–6; 15:24 (see also 8:5–7; this priority is evident in Acts as ... and the Wardrobe, by C. S. Lewis. In our attempts to domesticate Jesus we risk losing the power of his distinctive identity as a Jew and the priority of his mission to restore Israel. In C. S. Lewis’s famous book, the rightful ruler ...

4. What A Friend He Had In Judas

Matthew 26:47-56

Sermon

Thomas Long

... of all, Jesus is his friend. At the deepest level of all, Jesus is the friend of Judas, and he is the friend of all the disciples who "deserted him and fled" (Matthew 26:56), and he is the friend of all of us ... we who, like Judas, do not know how to love him and are betrayers of his trust. The late Lewis Grizzard was a newspaper columnist and essayist known for his offbeat, often outrageous, Southern humor. Beneath the laughter, however, there was sadness -- a life of personal suffering and loss. Some of ...

5. Decisions, Decisions

Matthew 7:13-14

Sermon

James Merritt

... a man named J. R. R. Tolkien. A little known fact about Tolkien is he was the man that was instrumental in bringing C.S. Lewis to faith in Jesus Christ. He spent much of his early life as an agnostic and then an atheist, but through a meeting one ... to travel. Unlike the other road, there are some restrictions. There are some requirements, but that is why Jesus said, "Enter by the narrow gate" (Matthew 7:13, NKJV) A gate is meant to be opened and meant to be entered. In order to open a gate you've got to ...

6. Why We Need the Pledge of Allegiance

Matthew 13:31-35, Matthew 13:44-46, Matthew 13:47-52

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... the challenge of transformation that places citizens of the kingdom of God under orders. Jesus speaks to that in his parable of the net (Matthew 13:47-52). The kingdom of heaven is like a net that catches fish. It is not like a hook thrown carelessly into ... naughty or nice. Rather, it is an acknowledgment of the struggles present in this world and the necessary reality of God's intervention. Lewis' mother died not because God didn't grant a child's wish but because the evil one had twisted God's good world ...

7. Herod and Hometown Misunderstand Jesus’ Identity

Matthew 13:53-58, Matthew 14:1-12

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... through demonstrations of power. There is something beyond the realm of indisputable demonstration about Jesus and his identity. As we have seen already in Matthew, it takes faith and trust to look at what Jesus is doing and come to the conviction that he is acting by God’s ... identity but does not guarantee acceptance and reception. Literature: The Last Battle, by C. S. Lewis. In this children’s novel, Lewis weaves the theme of testing through his portrayals of the characters. Who will prove faithful ...

8. Nightline

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... on the witness stand had to "tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God"? The scripture lesson from Matthew today tells the whole Christmas Story and truth about humankind''s reaction to God''s gift of Jesus Christ. Every year the Christmas ... but yet spiritually powerful explanation of the realities of evil in human life and the beguiling ways of Satan. C. S. Lewis warns about two dangers we will encounter as we address the demonic: "There are two equal and opposite errors in which ...

9. Surviving the Big One

Matthew 18:10-14

Sermon

James Merritt

... to seek forgiveness than it is to show forgiveness. It is easier to ask for it than it is to give it. C.S. Lewis wisely said, “Everybody thinks forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive.”[1] You are in this room today or on ... ’t give up on us we should not give up on others. Jesus says in this case, “Take one or two others along with you.” (Matthew 18:16, ESV) What is the purpose of doing that? First of all, when you take other people with you are showing the person you are ...

10. The Trials of Peter and of Jesus

Luke 22:66--23:25, Luke 22:63-65, Luke 22:54-62

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... him into the house of the high priest. The actual arrest is mentioned only at the conclusion of the scene on the Mount of Olives. Matthew and John tell us that the high priest was Caiaphas, whom Luke has mentioned in 3:2 (cf. Acts 4:6) but does not name ... to Jesus, he had first betrayed him, even after having been warned. Literature: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, by C. S. Lewis. One of the memorable story lines in this familiar and moving children’s tale is Edmund’s refusal to believe his sister ...

11. It’s How It Ends That Matters

Matthew 21:28-32

Sermon

... actually persist in getting there. It isn’t how the journey starts that counts. It’s how it ends that matters. The text from Matthew for this day is, once more, set in parable. Jesus tells the story of two sons. One of the two said to his father ... lives. Some of us will never have a crisis in our faith life, such as did St. Paul, Augustine, Luther, Wesley, C.S. Lewis, Malcolm Muggeridge, the philosopher Camus, or Ralph Vaughn Williams. Some of us may never have had an experienee of white light, of sudden ...

12. Preaching the Miracles of Jesus

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... given for a miracle: St. Augustine: "A miracle is an occurrence which is contrary to what is known of nature." C. S. Lewis: "I use the word, miracle, to mean an interference with nature by supernatural power." William Barclay: "A miracle is an event in ... Messiah. In response, Jesus said that no miracle would be given to an evil generation like his own except the sign (miracle) of Jonah (Matthew 16:1-4). There had to be a good reason for a miracle before Jesus would perform it. There was always a purpose for ...

13. Preaching the Miracles of Jesus

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

14. Hell under Fire

Matthew 5:22; 28-30

Sermon

James Merritt

... you how the biblical world view differs from the non-biblical world view, I want you to know that I agree wholeheartedly with C. S. Lewis. He said, "There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than [hell], if it lay in my power….I would ... from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell." (Matthew 5:22; 28-30, NASB) The reason I quote Jesus may shock you but most of what we know about the biblical view of Hell ...

15. Moving At The Speed Of Light

Ephesians 3:1-13

Sermon

Frank Luchsinger

... Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age" (Matthew 28:16-20). Once again, the Light is on the move. How does light move? Differently, depending on its courier. One can imagine a ... with a rope. Ignoring peril to herself from weak and rotten ice, she pulled one, then the other to safety. All told, Ida Lewis personally saved something like 25 people in fifty-plus years of keeping the light. Her last reported rescue came at age 63 when ...

16. Building According To Code

Matthew 7:24-29

Sermon

Brett Blair

... the Bible). And I would suggest that if you are going to build a home that you start in the fifth chapter of the book of Matthew and read to the end of the 7th. If you are going to build a home, Jesus said, you must build upon something solid. There are ... then a memory would flash through his mind and the pain would resurge once again. It was in his hour of grief that C. S. Lewis turned to God and used those inner resources that God had been equipping him with for so many years. He wrote: “You never know how ...

17. The Assumption Of Discipline

Matthew 6:1-4, Matthew 6:5-15, Matthew 6:16-18, Matthew 6:19-24

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... we often seem to be skimming the surface of things. We assume that this is just the way things are. The words from Matthew 6, traditionally read on Ash Wednesday to begin Lent, reveal some very different assumptions on the part of Jesus of Nazareth. He knew, ... , people might say that these teachings of Jesus no longer apply to us because we are not first century Palestinian Jews. But, Lewis pointed out, if we accept the doctrine of the Incarnation, that God was fully speaking God's word through Jesus in a ...

18. A Portion of Thyself

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... . When you give your tithes to the poor, he said, you are giving them to me! Jesus echoed that idea in a later teaching. In Matthew 25 he talked about the end of time, and the day we will all appear before the throne of God for judgment. God will say ... herself if people were so ungracious?! “Why indeed?” asked Jesus. If that’s what it’s all about, why indeed? In C. S. Lewis’ sermon The Weight of Glory, he talked about the idea of rewards in the Christian faith. He said, God promises us a reward for ...

19. What Making a Difference Looks Like

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... has the right to do with us as he will and when he will. We must also not separate the beatitudes from the story in which Matthew places them. A few disciples, four thus far, have said Yes to the challenge to tag along and observe as Jesus announces and enacts the kingdom ... is the path to spiritual insight, Yes even to divine revelation, to seeing what God is up to so you can join in. C.S. Lewis wrote: “We are afraid,” he wrote, “that heaven is a bribe, and that if we make it our goal we shall no longer be ...

20. At the Tomb

Luke 24:1-12, Luke 23:50-56

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... to be empty. 24:2 the stone rolled away from the tomb. Luke has not previously mentioned the stone, which features largely in the accounts of Matthew (27:60, 66; 28:2) and Mark (15:46; 16:3–4). Luke does not indicate how it was removed, or whether it was to let Jesus ... abandoned all hope, we’re blind to what we previously longed for.3 Literature: The Silver Chair, by C. S. Lewis. Lewis has an interesting way of reminding his readers to remember what is true regardless of where they find themselves. In ...

21. The Sound of Silence

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... surely they were getting excited at the success of Jesus’ ministry. So it must have seemed strange that, as we read in Matthew 5, Jesus walked away from the huge crowds and retreated to a mountainside. Why interrupt a good thing? Wasn’t this the perfect ... in the flesh stepped into this broken world, he died on behalf of this broken world, to guarantee us a place in His kingdom. Dan Lewis, in his daily Now I Know! email newsletter, shares the story of a man named Joe Serna who was sentenced to serve a 24- ...

22. Broken Promises

Matthew 21:28-32

Sermon

King Duncan

... that you devote to them is your sacrificial gift because you care for them? Evidently not. They sure don’t act like it. C. S. Lewis kept his promise. He had no power to control his friend’s widow’s response to his kindnesses. But he did have the power to ... should make today?] 1. Adapted from http://www.agreeley.com/homilies99/sep2699.html. 2. http://sermonsfrommyheart.blogspot.com/2014/02/matthew-2123-32-first-shall-be-last-and.html. 3. Contributed. Source unknown. 4. Frank Pittman, Grow Up! How Taking ...

23. Hiding in Plain Sight

Matthew 2:13-18, Matthew 2:19-23, Exodus 2:1-10, Exodus 2:11-25

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... embedded with glimpses of the divine and hints of God’s holy and powerful presence just waiting to be discovered. Like Lewis’s wardrobe, the scriptures are relational conduits between the human quest for God and God’s outreached right hand. When we ... Him and Moses Later Hides in Midian (Exodus 2) The Massacre of Infants in Judea and Jesus’ Hiding Places in Egypt and Nazareth (Matthew 2) Minor Text Jonathan Helps David Flee from Ramah and Hide from Saul (1 Samuel 20) The Lord Bids that Elijah Hide in ...

24. Proper 21

Matthew 21:23-27, Matthew 21:28-32, Exodus 17:1-7, Ezekiel 18:1-32, Philippians 2:1-11

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

... own salvation, for it is God who is working in you. Faith never operates in a vacuum; it only grows as you exercise it. Gospel: Matthew 21:23-32 Not the talk but the walk. In the parable that Jesus told, the first son initially refused to obey his father but ... these issues from a detached philosophical perspective and quite another to have to struggle with them in our personal experience. When Lewis' wife of only months died, he had to struggle with the gut feeling that her death was unjust. As he struggled ...

25. Would a Loving God Really Let Anyone Go to Hell?

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... the lips of Jesus. The Lord was right vivid in his descriptions of the afterlife for the unrepentant. In Matthew 8, Jesus calls it "outer darkness."(4) In Matthew 13, he calls it "the furnace of fire [where] men will weep and gnash their teeth."(5) In ... a possibility that some will continue to reject God, to hang on to their sins, no matter how much "adjustment" has gone on. As C. S. Lewis has written, "There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom ...

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