The 4th of July falls on Sunday this year. The comparisons between our liberty and freedom as Americans and the freedom found in Christ are easy to make, but we need to be careful. I wish to present a sermon that is both patriotic and scriptural, but also fair and truthful. The Declaration of Independence was written in 1776 – the Bible was not. Continue reading
Category Archives: Bible
Unusual Father’s Day Text
And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.” Peter answered him, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.” Jesus said to him, “Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” Peter said to him, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!” And all the disciples said the same. -Matthew 26:30-35
This selection from Matthew’s Gospel is well known, but is most often used during the Easter season. We all know what happened next, right? By the end of v. 56 the scripture says “Then all the disciples left him and fled.” The sad truth is that people are going to let you down. There are some folks we are naturally suspicious of, but most people we would like to think we can trust. My advice to people is trust in God, but lock your car. Sometimes it is the very people we should be able to put our trust in that let us down. In this sinful, fallen and broken world it is sometimes the police, a school teacher, a church leader or a parent that crosses the line and hurts rather than helps. Continue reading
The Bible is About Jesus
The Bible is about Jesus. I’m certain I have said this before, but after looking high and low for a post with that title I cannot find one. So let me go on record making this statement: the Bible is about Jesus.
I did find a post titled Old Testament God is the God of the New Testament. To some, there is almost two different Gods in the Bible. In the Old Testament, God is angry, vengeful and scary. He is more like Zeus or Thor than the mild-mannered, pacifist Jesus found in the New Testament. Let me suggest that 1) like the Pharisees, you are not reading the Old Testament correctly. While he is a God of judgement in the Old Testament, he is also patient and longsuffering toward the nation of Israel. 2) Jesus is not just presented in the Gospels as patient, kind and loving towards all. He also raises his voice and drives the money changes out of the temple – with a whip in John’s Gospel! Jesus is present as judge at the end of Revelation. There is one God. Perhaps a re-read of the text is necessary. Continue reading
Instead of a Mother’s Day Sermon…
Last year I read a rant from a woman that refused to listen to one more preacher read Proverbs 31 and tell her how to be a godly woman. Right or wrong, she made a couple of good points. 1) She has a good teaching pastor that opened the Bible each week, delivered a solid scripture-based sermon and shared the Gospel. Mother’s Day each year turns into a one hour Hallmark card. 2) There are those in the church who may have lost a parent, or a child, or perhaps are disappointed they cannot become parents. Honoring mothers can be especially painful for those that have tried and failed. And we personally know what that’s like. So, here is the sermon I preached on Mother’s Day, May 9, 2010.
God is relational. He seeks a relationship with his people, who in a general sense are all his children. Let’s begin with the relationship of marriage. Continue reading
The Law of Love
Paul has a lot to say in his letters about the Law. Throughout the Book of Romans, the paragraphs have subject headers like “Judgement and the Law,” “Released from the Law,” “Sin and Law” and so on. As a Pharisee, Paul had studied the Law well and enforced it. As a Christian sharing the Gospel, he realized that the Law and the Prophets had been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. His opinion of the Law remained very high. Paul says the Law is like a tutor, or school master. It teaches us about the attributes of God. Living under the Law though would mean we are still subject to God’s judgement. Living under grace is far superior to meeting the requirements of the Law. Keeping the Law is a burden we cannot bear.
Paul also has a thing or two to say about love. I was struck during my last read of Romans at how Paul relates love and the Law together. Note this passage from Romans 13:
Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. -Rom 13:8-10
Wow. Love is the fulfilling of the Law; very similar to Jesus’s answer about the greatest commandment in Mark 12. In that case, Jesus says the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, mind and strength and the second is like it, to love your neighbor as yourself. There is no way to violate any one of the 10 commandments if this love is our guiding principle. Which is exactly what Paul explains here. In John 15, Jesus said things like “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love,” and even “I give you this commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” I’m still amazed at the way Paul expresses love as the fulfillment of the Law.
Gideon Sunday
Today was Gideon Sunday, at least where we live. It may not be the same in every county or state, but once a year the Gideon’s spread out and each take a church to visit and share with. For those that may not know, the Gideons is an organization that does nothing but print and distribute Bibles. If you have ever been in a hospital or hotel room, there was probably a Gideon Bible there. That’s only a part of what they do. Continue reading
The New Thing in Sermons
In the Old Testament, the prophet was a person who did the speaking for God. Not necessarily predicting future events, the prophet acted as the spoken voice of God on earth. During Jesus’s earthly ministry, he was found daily in the temple or synagogue reading and teaching. While his sermon on the mount may have turned the Pharisees’ world upside down, he was regarded as a rabbi in most Jewish circles. In Acts chapter 2, on the Day of Pentecost, Peter preaches something entirely new. Continue reading
The “Triumphal” Entry
Several well known statements are found in Psalm 118:1-25: “His steadfast love endures forever,” “this is the day the LORD hath made,” “the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and even others still. Verse 25 reads “Save us, we pray, O LORD” in the ESV; “O LORD. we beseech thee, save us now!” in the King James. The Hebrew word rendered in English as save now is hosanna.
All four Gospels tell the story of Jesus’s triumphal entry. Palm Sunday is our celebration of Jesus entering Jerusalem for the last time to observe Passover with his disciples. Continue reading
Who Framed Jesus?
I can tell that Easter is near. Every year about this time, several television specials and news magazines focus on the fact that Christians still believe in Jesus even though they should not. In about a week, expect Time Magazine (or its equivalent) to run a cover story on how/why the resurrection could not have possibly taken place. Predictably, they will claim Jesus either 1) did not die 2) stayed dead, or 3) was never alive in the first place. Each year, several media outlets predict an end to Christian faith, despite the fact that each year there are still billions of Christians around the world. Continue reading
Jesus Greater Than Moses: Heb 3
Hebrews is easy to preach because its form is much more like a sermon than an epistle (letter). At the heart of its message is an impassioned plea not to leave the Christian faith for another, and so in order to be convincing the author of Hebrews makes many comparisons between Christ and all the things of the Old Testament he is superior to. We have already seen that Christ is superior to the angels, and that through suffering he becomes the perfect founder of our faith. Chapter 3 begins this way:
Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house. For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope. Hebrews 3:1-6
The Master's Table 