All the Sermons

Isaiah 61:1 , & 65:1-5 , Mark 5:1-20 , Matthew 8:28-34 , Luke 8:26-39 , Psalm 116 Key Verse: "Jesus did not let him, but said, "Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how He has had mercy on you." Mark 5:19 From battling a storm from the outside, Jesus now finds Himself confronted by a man who has a raging battle within. Jesus is master of both when we invite him to do so. Imagine being one of the disciples. You've just spent a harrowing night at sea, grateful to have survived. You see land and you breathe a sigh of relief. Remember, there were also land lovers in Jesus' rag tag bunch. No sooner does your boat touch shore when your ears pick up the deafening screams of a crazy man that sends chills down your spine! The sound echoes through the tombs in front of you. Then, when you look up and focus, you see the source of the noise, a wild man, naked, hair all matted and disheveled.  From shackles on his wrists

Mark 4:35-41 , Matthew 8:23-27 , Luke 8:22-25 , Psalm 46:10 , Key Verse: “Be still, and know that I am God, I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46:10 Imagine having God right with you, so close that you could reach out and touch Him, and still being afraid. This is exactly the situation these men found themselves in. He was right there, in the boat with them, but they still had fear. Some of them were fishermen, experienced at sea, yet, in the moment, even they had fear. “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” (Mark 4:38a) How like us. “Lord," we cry out in panic, "don’t you care? Why aren’t you acting immediately to ease my suffering or give me an answer?” Jesus wasn’t worried. He knew who was in control. “I will lie down and sleep in peace, for You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.” (Psalm 4:8) What good was all that worrying and panic doing for the disciples anyway? I suppose it could make them bail faster, but

Matthew 13:52 , 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Key Verse: He said to them, "Therefore, every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the Kingdom of Heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old." Matthew 13:52 Law here does not mean courts. Law refers to God's law, the first five books, believed to have been written by Moses, plus the man made laws, called, "the hedge around the law,” created to hopefully prevent the Jewish people from ever breaking the original Law again. It was assumed that this Law was complete. Jesus, however, knew differently. He knew that He was adding an understanding to the Law that had either been lost over time or never fully understood to begin with. He also knew that, through writers such as Paul and Peter, more would be added to further our understanding of God's intent so that the Jews would gain better comprehension, but the Gentiles also would begin to understand. A

Matthew 13:47-52 Key Verse: "This is how it will be at the end of the age." Matthew 13:49a What's this? It sounds like a different version of the parable that Jesus has already shared about the wheat and the weeds. This time, however, Jesus is talking fisherman's language instead of farm talk. Why does Jesus spend so much time talking about the end? Could it be to encourage us to hold on through the middle? I just happen to be one of those very undisciplined readers that doesn't handle the tension in the middle of a story very well. Many is the time, in the middle of a good novel, I let my curiosity get the better of me and turn to the last page just to read the last paragraph. Now, I already know that the purists among us will label me as a cheater. You know what, you're right. I allow myself to do something with a novel that we can't do in real life, glance at the end to assure myself that, as bad as it looks, things will turn out alright.

Matthew 13:44-46 Key Verse: "He sold everything he had and bought it." Matthew 13:46-B It's amazing the stories that we hear from time to time about valuable treasures found at yard sales. I've heard stories of people finding valuable books, valuable paintings, and on and on. While the original owner may not recognize the value of what they have, an observant person can take one man's junk and turn it into a valuable profit for him or herself. The secret is in being able to recognize a treasure when you see it. Both purchasers in today's reading knew the value of what they had found. It was worth enough in both cases for them to go and sell everything to have the new found treasure. It doesn't sound like they were taking a risk here, or making an investment for the hope of a future return. Both men knew that what they had found was worth more and was more worth having than anything else that they presently possessed. Jesus used this to ex

Matthew 13:24-30 & 13:36-43 Key Verse: "The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will weed out of His Kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil." Matthew 13:41 This seems to be the basic plot of any good novel. Everything starts out in blissful harmony, then, something happens, often something intentionally evil, to upset the apple cart, and the rest of the book deals with the characters working against evil to restore the blissful harmony once again while the main characters deal with the effects of the ordeal that they experienced. This is the basic plot of the story told in the Bible. Eden was beautiful, then enter the serpent to tempt eve, who succumbed, and from Genesis 3 on, God unfolded a plan to make things right again. No one needs a theological degree to explain this parable. Jesus does it for us. The farmer is Jesus. The good seed is His followers. The field is the world. The bad seed are those who are bent on evil. They

Matthew 5:6 , Luke 6:21 , Psalm 63 Key Verse:  My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise You.  Psalm 63:5 What are you hungry for, really?  When that question is addressed to our physical interests, we seem to have no shortage of answers.  Some of us like Chinese food, while others prefer Mexican.  Some prefer sweets, while others, like me, prefer the salty foods such as chips and crackers.  We have no problem finding food to satisfy our physical appetites and, as a result, most of us Westerners are overweight and out of shape.  How sad then that, for spiritual food, where the selection is God's Word itself, so many of us are malnourished.  It's the one food craving that He promises to fulfill, yet too many of us do not accept His offer, preferring instead the items that do not satisfy and will only have to be supplied again.  If only we were as concerned about satisfying the longing of our souls as we are motiv

Psalm 78:1-3 , Matthew 13:33-35 , Luke 13:20-21 Key verse: "O my people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things, things from of old what we had heard and known, what our Fathers have told us." Psalm 78:1-3 Again Jesus takes an opportunity to turn common analogy and accepted teachings of the Kingdom of God on their heads by using another every day occurrence. This time, instead of the farmer in the field, He moves to the kitchen and talks about a woman making bread. Who in that day wouldn't be familiar with this? Mother making bread was a daily occurrence that everyone could relate too. The Kingdom of God is like yeast that a "woman," hid in a "Large amount of flour." First of all, yeast is usually used in Scripture to describe the spreading of evil. Jesus Himself advised His disciples to avoid the "yeast," of the Pharisees. During the Passover, God comman

Psalm 78:1-3 , Matthew 13:31-32 , Mark 4:31-34 , Luke 13:18-19 Key Verse: "O my people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth.  I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things, things from of old, what we had heard and known, what our Fathers have told us." Psalm 78:1-3 In Jesus' day, the common expectation was that the Kingdom of God would come crashing in to save the day, in a similar way that we view His Second Coming today. God would come in, triumphantly to set all things right; demolish the enemy’s strongholds, (in this case overthrow the Romans), and bring in a reign of peace and tranquility for all the good, devoted, righteous Jews. With this parable of the mustard seed, once again, Jesus is turning expectations on their head. Like a mustard seed, the Kingdom of God will begin small, but grow to an amazing size and serve as a refuge for many. To the people of Jesus’ day, the mustard seed was known to be the smallest of al

Isaiah 55:8-11 , Mark 4:26-29 Key Verse: "as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is My Word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." Isaiah 55:10-11 Behold a mystery: the seed that the farmer plants in the ground sprouts and grows and produces for the farmer. Behold a mystery: the seed of the Word of God, planted in the soil of a willing heart, sprouts and grows and produces for its maker. If the farmer were to wait until he fully understood the process, he may never have a crop. If we wait until we fully understand the mystery of God's Word in the heart of a man, we may never lead another to the Lord. God's ways are not our ways and we need to accept that. It would be foolish for the farmer to lose sl

Matthew 13:1-23 , Mark 4:1-20 , Luke 8:4-15 , Key Verse: He said, "The knowledge of the secrets of the Kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, "though seeing they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand." Luke 8:10 Four kinds of soil, but only one kind of seed. All farmers know that to get a good crop, the work needs to be concentrated on the soil first before the seed can be planted. If the seed is the Word of God, and the soil is the heart of man, what can we learn from this parable about ourselves, about sharing the gospel, so that we have the best chance at being the fourth soil, producing a bountiful crop for our heavenly Father? Consider the soil of the heart of the first person. It is so hard that the seed doesn't even have a chance to penetrate. It just lays on the surface and is easily snatched by the birds. This person's heart is hard. It may be wounded by many scars and hurts from the

Psalm 69:7-9 , Matthew 12:46-50 , Mark 3:31-35 , Luke 8:19-21 Key Verse: "For whoever does the will of my Father in Heaven is my brother and my sister and my Mother." Matthew 12:50 Before I make any comments on this passage, I believe that I need to make clear my opinion of the physical make up of Jesus' immediate family while here on earth. After a careful reading of scripture and research, I believe that, after the birth of Jesus, Mary and Joseph went on to have a normal marriage, including physical relations. One verse that I can use to support this view is Matthew 1:25, "But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son." It does not say "never," it says that he waited until Jesus was born. There is a view, mostly from the Catholic theology, that Joseph was a widower with children and that Mary was his second wife, but scripture just doesn't seem to support this view. Thus, it would appear that Jesus was the oldest son, w

Matthew 12:38-42 Key Verse: "Now one greater than Jonah is here." Matthew 12:41C & "Now one greater than Solomon is here." Matthew 12:42C My goodness! After everything Jesus has done, the religious leaders still have the audacity to say, "We want to see a sign." I must admit that, reading this myself, evokes a comment within me something like, "Get your eyes checked. Haven't you been paying attention? I mean you've practically criticized every sign you've been given!" While this wasn't exactly Jesus' response, He did make note of the foolishness of their request. He knew that the Pharisees were only asking for another sign so that they could do more of the same, that is, ridicule His ministry and belittle the ones drawn to Him. The signs that He had already given, they had attributed to satan. Jesus knew that without the gift of the Holy Spirit, and a willing heart, the situation was pretty hopeless. So,

Matthew 12:43-45 , Luke 11:21-26 , Ephesians 6:10-18 Key Verse: "He who is not for Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me, scatters." Luke 11:23 "When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up the spoils." (Luke 11:21-22)  This is a continuation from yesterday when Jesus was talking about the fact that a house divided against itself will fall.  Now, however, Jesus basically asks the question, even if it’s not divided against itself, "In whom and what do you ultimately trust?" The religious leaders were like the strong man trying to protect his own house. Their religious practices enabled them to clean their houses, or consciences, but then what? They had nothing better, in themselves, to replace what they had removed. They prayed, they fasted, and then they went right back to the

Mark 3:20-30 , Matthew 12:22-37 , Luke 11:14-20 Key Verse: "I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin." Mark 3:28-29 A house divided cannot stand. A bad tree cannot bear good fruit and a good tree cannot bear bad fruit. Jesus was being accused of doing Satan's work. Healing and teaching are satan's work? To us, the accusation sounds ludicrous. However, that demonstrates for us the power of jealousy and religious zeal. Nothing, not even seeing with their own eyes, was going to get in between themselves and their traditions and preset convictions. Truly, the closed mind can be a dangerous thing. Even when Jesus points out the truth that any soldier knows, that if you divide and fight among yourselves, the war is lost, yet even that practical fact would not change their minds. It is this closed mindedness that causes J

Luke 7:36-50 Key Verse: Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace." Luke 7:50 We can't help but admire this brave, desperate woman. Her reputation obviously preceded her. Everyone in the room knew who she was and how she lived and what she did, perhaps for a living. Perhaps Jesus had had a previous conversation with her and had shown her love and tenderness in a way she had never known. Thus, she was now responding to that love. Jesus did not recoil for the sake of His own reputation but continued to show her mercy; mercy that her fellow human beings had refused to give. God the creator, God the Holy one, allowed Himself to be touched by sin, to forgive it and make her whole. We don’t know why the Pharisee invited Jesus to dinner, but it wasn’t out of any kind of gratitude, and Jesus will go to great lengths to point that out and embarrass his host! In that culture it was really rude for a guest to let the host know how he had failed t

Matthew 4:12 -&- 11:1-19 , Luke 7:18-35 , Key Verse: "Are You the One who was to come, or should we expect someone else?" Matthew 11:3B & Luke 7:19B In John 3:31, John the Baptist, Jesus' cousin, had said of Jesus, "He must increase and I must decrease." Subsequently, John was arrested and Jesus grew in popularity with the people. Now, languishing away in prison, probably a cold, dark dungeon, John has had plenty of time to think and wait. Perhaps he thought that, as Messiah, Jesus would set him free. After all, wasn't that one of the signs of Messiah, "to set the captives free?" Well, John was certainly being held captive, and for the cause of God! Surely, it would have been reasonable for John to expect Jesus to come riding in, the hero of the day, and vindicate John for his bold truths and faithfulness to God's law. John sat waiting. His disciples brought him news of Jesus' teaching and miracles, but left alone

Luke 7:11-17 Key Verse: When the Lord saw her, His heart went out to her and He said, "don't cry." Luke 7:13 We have no idea who this woman was. Her name is never mentioned. We only know of her desperate situation. With both her son and husband gone, she was alone in the world with no one to support her. She had no other children or grandchildren. We don't know if she had any extended family. With the loss of her son, she probably faced a very bleak future. With no one to provide for her, how would she even get her next meal? Who did she have to care for? Who did she have left to care for her? Jesus noticed. Jesus cared. He knew the future that she faced. He recognized her reality and He knew that there was something He could do about it. After all, was it not said of Messiah, that He would, "comfort those who mourn, and provide for those who grieve?" (Isaiah 61:2B) First, Jesus offers comfort. "Don't cry." Then, Jesus acts. He