Category Archives: Sermons

In our age it is generally accepted that all Christians basically believe the same thing and all ministers basically teach the same thing. The assumption is that anything with the name “Christian” is actually Christian and anything calling itself “Biblical” is just that. Many assume that if someone is prophesying, that is, preaching, in Jesus’ name, casting out demons in Jesus’ name, and working miracles in Jesus’ name, then they’re a true prophet and preacher of God. In today’s gospel lesson Jesus demolishes the assumptions of our age. Continue reading →

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen For three days this multitude—about four thousand—listened to Jesus’ teaching. For three days they heard Christ’s teaching about who He is, true God and true … Continue reading →

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. If you want to enter the kingdom of heaven, you must be more righteous than the scribes and the Pharisees. Jesus seems to set the … Continue reading →

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Today the church celebrates Mary’s visitation to her cousin Elizabeth. It is not usually worth celebrating a pregnant woman’s visit to another pregnant woman. But … Continue reading →

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. “Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him.” Who are these folks and why are they flocking to hear … Continue reading →

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Jesus tells a parable in which a certain man prepares a rich supper and invites many people to enjoy it. But those whom he had … Continue reading →

Today’s epistle lessons sets the entire Christian life before us. It consists of two things. First, the apostle says, “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.” God is love. Not the way the world thinks of God as love. The world thinks “God is love” means “God loves everybody just the way they are and wants them to be happy just the way they are, no matter what they think they are how they’re behaving.” But God teaches us in Scripture that God’s love isn’t tolerance. “God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son,” meaning, “This is the way God loved the world, by giving His only-begotten Son into death to pay for the world’s sins, so that “whoever believes in Him”—not just that He exists or that He is the Son of God, but repents of their sins and trusts Him as their only mediator with God—“shall not perish but have everlasting life.” This is the love that God is. And God wants all people to believe this, to repent of their sins, and to abide in His love by living in it each day, by using the gospel faithfully. Enduring, persevering faith is how we abide in God and God in us. Continue reading →

Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, approached Jesus one night to learn the gospel from Him. Jesus begins at the beginning. “Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” There must be a rebirth, a second birth, for anyone who who wants experience God’s kingdom. It isn’t enough to be a child of Abraham, a ruler of the Jews, or a righteous man in the eyes of others. Rebirth is required. But Nicodemus doesn’t understand. “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” he asks. Continue reading →

Forty days after He rose from the dead Christ ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father almighty. Ten days later the Feast of Pentecost began. Pentecost was the Greek name for the Feast of Weeks, one of the three times a year the Lord commanded all men of Israel to appear before Him (Dt 16:16). Israel had dispersed and lived among the nations for centuries, but many had come back for Passover and then Pentecost. That’s why there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven, Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,Cretans and Arabs. They had probably been dwelling in Jerusalem for Passover which was only fifty days before. Luke tells us that on that day the apostles were all with one accord in one place, when three things happened. There came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Everyone in multitude hears the wonderful works of God—the gospel of the death and resurrection of Jesus—preached in their own native tongue. They’re amazed. Rightly so. They’re perplexed. Rightly so. The apostles are all Galileans, and yet here they are speaking in languages they had never studied, and speaking the gospel in their own language clearly and confidently. Continue reading →