Sermon and Worship Resources

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Sermon

Jerry Eckert

... such a fair way about him, they began cooperating. He's been taking in the back taxes so we should be caught up now. Mal Jerusalem, May 30, 13th year of Caesar TiberiusOffice of the Regional Tax Administrator, Antonius Marcellus To: Chief Tax Collector of the Tiberius region,Malchus bar Joachim Dear Mal, Amazing! You're all caught up! That Matthew must be something else. I should have a winner like him up here. For that stomach and your other problem, how about trying some goat's milk and cheese. By the way ...

2. Prepare The Way

Malachi 2:17--3:5

Sermon

Robert A. Hausman

... . It was a time of class struggle, sabre rattling, religious superficiality, and moral decay. It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. It was rather like today! The point is that John the Baptist came preaching in a real time, the time of Tiberius and Pilate and Herod. Likewise, Jesus was born at such a real time. We go about preparing for Christmas as though it had nothing to do with the world. We prepare as though the point were to create a fairy kingdom, like the Nutcracker Suite, out of ...

3. You Sent Who?

Luke 3:1-6

Sermon

John B. Jamison

... the armies, and they had the laws, and anyone who tried to act or speak against them with power was quickly silenced. I have told you all of these things so I could read this one passage: In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar ― when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod Tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip Tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias Tetrarch of Abilene ― during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the ...

4. The Message In The Means

Sermon

Erskine White

... That way, Jesus would have had a ready-made platform when He began His ministry - the whole nation would have paid attention when He began to preach and teach. But it didn't happen that way. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, wasn't born into the household to Tiberius, to inherit the political power of an emperor; nor was He born to Annas, to inherit the religious power and prestige of a High Priest. Instead, look at the way God chose for His Son to come into the world. The Baby's mother was a plain village girl ...

5. When the Word Comes to the Wilderness

Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

William G. Carter

... Who’s Who” of first century politics. When God sent the Word to prepare for the coming of Christ, the Word did not go to the halls of power and influence. The Word went to John. We might want somebody else. Just think: If God had spoken to Tiberius Caesar, the world would have been shaken awake. If God would choose to speak to the powers and the principalities, to the leaders of nations who mobilize armies and pass the laws, if God would only speak to Herod and Philip and Pontius Pilate, we could have a ...

6. John the Baptist Prepares the Way

Luke 3:1-20

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

... :6; Acts 1:5, 22; 11:16; 13:24–25; 19:3–4). Additional Notes 3:1–2a In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar: Tiberius became co-regent (i.e., co-ruler) with Augustus his father A.D. 11 or 12. If Luke means the fifteenth year since the co-regency, ... reigns of rulers are not dated back to co-regencies but to the year when the regent becomes sole ruler (see Fitzmyer, p. 455). Since Tiberius did not become sole ruler until A.D. 14, Luke’s date may refer to A.D. 29 (or 28, if 14 is counted as ...

7. Lazarus Laughed

John 11:17-37

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... , “Yes! Yes! Yes!” Then, from the quiet depths of his exultant spirit he begins to laugh, saying, Laugh! laugh! Fear is no more! There is no death! There is only life! There is only laughter! Death is dead! In the final scene of the play, Tiberius Caesar, who because of his guilty conscience cannot endure Lazarus’ laughter any longer, has him bound to a stake, with a huge pile of firewood, and orders the wood to be lighted. As the flames leap up around Lazarus’ body, the emperor and his soldiers ...

8. Jesus and the Baptists

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John.” (Luke 3:1-2) In other words, God by-passed all the big-shots, and settled on a “nobody.” At any rate, Luke’s Gospel tells us that John began to preach in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar (About 28-29 AD) Note: THIS IS THE ONLY FIXED DATE WE HAVE IN ANY OF THE GOSPELS! In the 15th year of the reign of Caesar, John began preaching repentance, and baptizing beside the River Jordan. And Jesus came to him to be baptized. Mark’s Gospel, being ...

9. Matthew 22:15-22

Matthew 22:15-22

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... one denairius per person. The silver denairius represented one day’s wage of a common laborer. Moreover, the Roman denairius depicted the image of the emperor Tiberius and was inscribed with the words, "Tiberius Caesar, august son of the divine Augustus, high priest." To any Jewish citizen, these were fighting words. Not only did the stamped likeness of Tiberius go against the second commandment (Exodus 20:4), forbidding graven images. But the declaration of this human ruler as the "son of a god" and a ...

10. Matthew 22:15-22

Matthew 22:15-22

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... being an obedient citizen and yet being an observant Jew, dedicated to the worship of the one true God and following the mandates of the Torah. The poll tax was required to be paid with Roman coinage, coins which bore the portrait of the Emperor Tiberius and were inscribed “Tiberius Caesar Divi Augusti Filius” on one side and reading “Pontifex Maximus” on the other. Not only did the personal portrait of the emperor offend Jewish sensibilities about creating graven images. The declarations that ...

11. Saul in Damascus and Jerusalem

Acts 9:19b-31

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... to enlist the aid of the Nabatean ethnarch (NIV “governor”) in the attempt. It appears that by now Damascus had come under the rule of the Nabateans. Their king, Aretas IV, had been at war with his son-in-law, Herod Antipas. With the death of Tiberius in A.D. 37 and the consequent withdrawal of Vitellius, the Roman governor of Syria, whose aid had been promised to Herod, Aretas may have pushed as far north as Damascus. This supposition, based in part on Paul’s reference, is borne out by there being ...

12. Paying Taxes to Caesar

Mark 12:13-17

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... erupting in the Jewish revolt of A.D. 66–70. (On the nature of Jewish unrest at this time over taxation and other matters, see, e.g., David M. Rhoads, Israel in Revolution 6–74 C.E. [Philadelphia: Fortress, 1976].) Caesar at this time was Tiberius (A.D. 14–37). 12:15 Jesus knew their hypocrisy: The term hypocrisy is used in Mark only here and the term “hypocrites” only in 7:6. Both terms refer to play acting or pretending and in the Gospels mean insincerity and religious pretense. A denarius ...

13. Stamped with God’s Own Image

Matthew 22:15-22

Sermon

Albert G. Butzer III

... . As a result, that little coin made a big statement — political as well as religious — demanding your loyalty every time you used it — the emperor is the Son of God, there is no other. No faithful Jew would ever willingly call Caesar a god or Tiberius “Son of God.” Such statements flew in the face of their most cherished belief: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord alone” (Deuteronomy 6:4). What then did Jesus mean when he said, “Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor ...

14. The Big Move!

Matthew 4:12-23

Sermon

John Jamison

... . He made it the capital of his realm, and it became such an important city that for a while the Sea of Galilee was known as the Sea of Tiberius. It was a Roman city, filled with all things Roman, and considered ritually unclean to the Jews. But Tiberius attracted travelers from all around the world, and many of them stayed and settled in other towns in the area. As close as it was to Nazareth, they were not the same. The idea that a nice Jewish boy from Nazareth would pack up and move to Galilee would ...

15. Leveling the Landscape

Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

Charles H. Bayer

... institutionalizing his message. You see, we have the church, and in the church we can make Jesus be anything we want him to be. Luke begins today's text by ticking off a list of the powerful -- mountain dwellers. He starts at the top with Tiberius Caesar. Then he lists Pontius Pilate, the governor of Syria; then Herod. This list of the mighty ends with Annas and Caiaphas, the high priests. After telling us who the movers and shakers are -- the mountain dwellers -- he has John declare that the landscape is ...

16. Give To God The Things That Are God's

Matthew 22:15-22

Illustration

Phyllis Faaborg Wolk

... the emperor, or not?" When the Pharisees asked Jesus that question, he responded with a request, "Show me the coin used for the tax," and someone handed Jesus a coin embossed with the head of the current Roman emperor, Tiberius. Engraved around his head was the inscription, "Tiberius Caesar, majestic son of the majestic God, and High Priest." "Whose image is on this coin?" Jesus asked. "The emperor's," they responded. "Well then," Jesus said, "give to the emperor what belongs to the emperor." The image of ...

17. The Backside Of God

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... empire. But Jesus turned the tables. There was more than one kind of coin available for use in first-century Judea. There were the standard Roman coins, minted with the likeness of the emperor. They held the inscription, "Tiberius, Caesar, son of the divine Augustus" or "Tiberius, Caesar, the majestic son of God." Both the image, understood to be a violation of the second commandment prohibiting idols, and the language were clearly offensive to pious Jews. But there were other coins, coins depicting sheaves ...

18. Vacillation - Pontius Pilate

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... , the Sanhedrin, decided that this was no 'son of God.' Therefore, it condemned him as a false prophet and a blasphemer. Now, even though I think it is barbaric to execute someone who uses his tongue the wrong way while invoking his deity, this is their law. And Tiberius ordered me to uphold their law. What else could I do?" After a long pause, I said, "It was extraordinary on my part even to conduct a second hearing." "Why did you do it then?" she asked. "Because I wanted to determine if the man was really ...

19. Be Joyful

1 Thessalonians 5:12-28

Sermon

King Duncan

... like that in church. It is God's will for us to be joyful. Dr. Paul S. Rees tells about a short article with the intriguing title, "Gloomy Caesar and Happy Jesus." The author contrasted what we know of Tiberius Caesar, who ruled Rome in A.D. 30, with what we know of the Savior. Of Tiberius, with all his power, pomp, and possessions, the historian Pliny wrote, "He is the gloomiest of mankind." But of Jesus we read that sitting in the shadow of his cross, he "took bread, and gave thanks . . ." and when the ...

20. He Has Done All Things Well

Mark 7:31-37

Sermon

King Duncan

... , "Did you do your best?" I realize that we are only human. We are not Jesus. None of us are going to do "all things well." Having said that, though, I believe that it behooves us not to live as Tacitus once described Tiberius, the Roman emperor. Tacitus said about Tiberius, "He feared the best, was ashamed of the worst, and chose the innocuous middle." Do you live in the innocuous middle? The angel said to the church at Laodicea, "Would that you were hot or cold, but because you are lukewarm because you ...

21. Jesus and the IRS

Mark 12:13-17

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... livelihood would be threatened by any withholding of taxes. “Bring me a coin,” said Jesus. The coin was a “denarius.” The image on it would have been that of Tiberius, the current emperor. All the emperors were called Caesar. Round the coin there would be the title which declared that this was the coin of “Tiberius Caesar, the divine Augustus, son of Augustus,” and on the reverse would be the royal title: “pontifex maximus...” i.e., “high priest of the Roman nation.” (Ibid., Barclay p ...

22. The Hinge of History

Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

J. Ellsworth Kalas

... 's Gospel introduces us to the person and ministry of John the Baptizer. He identifies the opening of John's ministry by naming seven individuals who were filling government or ecclesiastical posts at the time. Their identification is as all-encompassing as Tiberius Caesar, to such regional officials as Pontius Pilate or Lysanias, and to two religious figures -- Annas and Caiaphas -- whose role mattered only to the Jews. All of this marshaling of history was to give us a setting for a Jewish prophet -- John ...

23. Proper 24

Exodus 33:12-23, Matthew 22:15-22, 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10, Psalm 99:1-9

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... the story. There were more kinds of coins than one available for use in first-century Judea. There were standard Roman coins, minted with the likeness of the head of the emperor. Some held the inscription, "Tiberius, Caesar, son of the divine Augustus, the high priest"; whereas others read, "Tiberius, Caesar, the majestic son of God, the high priest." Both the image, understood to be a violation of the second commandment prohibiting idols, and the language were offensive to pious Jews. Thus there were other ...

24. The True Feng Shui Life

Matthew 14:22-36

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... water — a beach, a lake, a river (for him it was the Sea of Galilee). The closest Jesus came to picking a place to live was the freshwater lake, fifteen miles long and eight miles wide, known as Lake Tiberius, or as we know it, the “Sea of Galilee.” 650 below sea level, the beautiful green hills around Lake Tiberius peak at sea level. And on a clear day, you can see in the distance snow-capped Mount Hermon in Lebanon. A sign on the wall of a small seaside cottage reads “A waterfront view isn’t a ...

25. Where Are You From?

John 18:1-19:42

Sermon

David T. Ball

... , and had sent the emperor's standards into Jerusalem. This was met with outrage, for in Judea the Roman authorities did not flaunt the image of the emperor as a god as they did throughout the rest of the empire, and in Jerusalem the image of the emperor Tiberius was not allowed at all. A Jewish delegation came to Pilate's palace at Caesarea, on the coast, to demand that the standards be taken down. For five days, he had refused. On the sixth day, he lost his patience and threatened to kill all of them if ...

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