All the Sermons

Deuteronomy 8:1-3 , Matthew 4:2-4 , Luke 4:1-4 , Key Verse: "Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." Deuteronomy 8:3B Matthew 4:4, Luke 4:4 This temptation seems easy enough for us to understand.  Physically, Jesus was hungry.  He hadn't eaten for forty days. Hunger would certainly be a natural, physical response. It would certainly be an area in which Jesus would be vulnerable at that time.  And so this is evidence that Jesus was really human. If he was all God he wouldn't have gotten hungry. Satan loves to find our vulnerabilities and exploit them for his own benefit.  Hadn't Eve been tempted by food?  True, Eve was tempted to doubt God's goodness and sincerity, but food was the vehicle that satan was able to use to accomplish man's first sin.  Jesus was hungry.  It worked once on Eve.  Perhaps it would work again. Maybe that's why they say the way to a man's heart is through his stomac...

Mark 1:12-13 , Matthew 4:1 & Luke 4:1 , 1 Corinthians 10:12-13 , Hebrews 4:14-16 Key verse:   At once the Holy Spirit sent Him out into the desert.  Mark 1:12 After descending upon Him in the form of a dove at His baptism, the Holy Spirit, the third part of the trinity, the third part of Himself, drove Jesus out into the desert.  He was not running from responsibility.  He was not proving to man his super human powers and physical abilities.  Certainly, this became a time for Jesus to commune with the Father and the Holy Spirit.  It became a time for Him to gain strength from His fellowship with them.  It became a time for Him to learn how it feels to be starving physically.  It became the time when He had His first face off with satan in His ministry.  It also, however, became a time for us to watch and learn and, in the words of Paul in Eph.  5:1, learn how better to become imitators of Christ when we undergo ou...

Psalm 2:7-12 , Isaiah 42:1-9 , Matthew 3:13-17 , Mark 1:9-11 , Luke 3:21-22 , and John 1:31-34 Key Verse: And a voice from heaven said, "This is my son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased." Matthew 3:17, Mark 1:11 & Luke 3:22 During the ordination service in the Evangelical Covenant denomination, the ordinands, (those who have completed the work required and are headed into full time ministry), kneel before the congregation, at the annual meeting, while the superintendents of our denomination, (eleven at this time), move behind every person who is kneeling, lay their hands on them and pray for their ministry.  Every leader prays for every ordinand.  When a pastor begins his ministry at a church, the superintendent of the conference of the church at which he will be serving, comes to the church and performs what is called a "Service of installation." Again, the new pastor kneels and the superintendent lays his hands on the pastor's head and...

Isaiah 40:1-11 , John 1:5-9 , & 15-28 , Mark 1:1-8 , Matthew 3:1-12 , Luke 3:1-20 , Key Verse: A voice of one calling: "in the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.  Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.  And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it.  For the mouth of the Lord has spoken." Isaiah 40:3-5, Matthew 3:3, Mark 1:3, Luke 3:4-6, & John 1:23 Just as a herald goes before his king proclaiming, "Make way!  Make way for the glorious king!  May he live forever." John the Baptist went before Jesus to prepare the way for Him, the coming Messiah.  They were cousins on their mother's side.  Both men shared miraculous birth stories.  Jesus grew up in poverty.  John embraced poverty as an adult, after being raised in a refined, priestly househ...

Malachi 3:1 & 4:1-6 ; Luke 1:5-17 Key Verse: "See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes.  He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.  Malachi 4:5-6 Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament.  It is believed to have been written about 400 years before Jesus’ birth.  There are other writings after Malachi, such as Maccabees, about struggles that the people of Israel had with their other foreign oppressors, but these books are held to be more apocryphal in nature.  This means that scholars, including Hebrew scholars, do not give these books the weight or respect of the actual canonical scriptures.  Apocryphal books are regarded more as the adventures of man.  Some of them also contain events that may not have really happened, but are more imaginary in their telling.  ...

John 1:1-5 & 10-14 Key Verse: The word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.  We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.  John 1:14 Scripture begins with the words, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1)  Now, John introduces Jesus by saying, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning." (John 1:1-2) Why doesn't John just make it easier to understand by using the name Jesus, rather than the mysterious "Word," in his writing? John is actually using a Greek word, "logos," that is poorly translated into "word," in our English language.  The Greek readers of John's day would have understood what he was saying, but that meaning is definitely lost in the translation, leaving us at a loss to understand.  Logos is related to the word, logic.  I...

Daniel 9:20-27 , Galatians 4:4-5 Key verse: When the time had fully come, God sent His son.  Galatians 4:4A God's time is not our time.  So often, in scripture, we read of God acting when the time was right.  He punished the enemies of the nation of Israel when their sin was full and the time was right.  God is never swayed by pressure.  He brings about His blessings and His punishments on His timetable, to accomplish His purposes.  Trouble, hardship and punishment will come to those who do not wait patiently for the Lord, and do what they can to try to force God's hand.  Saul lost his kingdom because he couldn't wait for Samuel to arrive to perform the necessary sacrifices before the battle.  (1 Samuel 15) Abram's household was full of strife because he wouldn't wait for God to give him a son in His own way.  Jacob and Rebekah created problems by snatching away the blessing because they refused to wait for God to act on His p...

Isaiah 53:2 & Luke 2:43-52 Key Verse: "Why were you searching for me?"  He asked.   "Didn't you know that I had to be in my Father's house?" Luke 2:49 The Passover is now over and the Holy family is supposed to be headed for home.   The plan is to go back to their ordinary lives in Nazareth to take up an ordinary existence.   Suddenly, the part of the family that sets them apart is missing!  I sometimes wonder what kind of panic Joseph and Mary experienced when the realized that, not only their son, but God's son, the promised Messiah was lost!   As a parent, I've experienced that horrible panic of a lost child.   I can't imagine how much worse it must have been for them.   They had been entrusted with this precious life from God Himself and now, it appeared that they had failed!  Without cell phone or any other form of technology or friendly policeman to help, they had no choice but to return to Jeru...

Exodus 23:15 & Luke 2:41-42 Key Verse: “When He was twelve years old, they went up to the feast, according to the custom.” Luke 2:42 The holy family is on the move again.  This time, they are not moving because of a dream or vision.   This time, they are simply moving as the result of obedience to an ordinance that the Lord gave to Moses many centuries before.  The holy family was taking time to remember God's mercy to the people of Israel when He miraculously set them free from Egypt.  They were remembering the Passover when the death angel passed over their homes, but did not go in because of the blood of the lambs that He saw on their door frames.  They were taking the time to remember them and yet pray for God to act again on their behalf.  Jesus is now twelve years old.  He is practically considered a man by Jewish tradition.  Now it is his turn to act out this remembrance as well.  What those around Him didn'...

Isaiah 9:1 , Matthew 2:19-23 and Luke 2:39-40 Key verse: When Joseph and Mary had done everything required of them by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth.  (Luke 2:39) We have mentioned in earlier readings that God needed to use parents who would be obedient for the raising of His son.  We now see again how important this unquestioning obedience would be.  God, the heavenly Father, would provide what was needed for the physical care of Jesus and He began with obedient parents.  Joseph and Mary lived lives wholly surrendered to God’s will.  They had no agenda of their own any more.  Their call was to care for Messiah and they trusted God to do the leading. In a dream Joseph was told to take Jesus and His mother to Egypt for protection, and he obeyed.  Now, in yet another dream, Joseph is being told to go home, back to Galilee, back to family, where there would be loving care and support for Joseph’s s...

Matthew 2:13-18 ; Hosea 11:1 , and Jeremiah 31:15 .   Key verses:  "And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: Out of Egypt I call My Son."  (Matthew 2:15) “Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: ‘A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.’"   (Matthew 2:17-18) The slaughter of innocents and of innocence; that’s just what satan did when he spoiled the beauty of the Garden of Eden.  Now, the beautiful story of Christ's birth, the beginning of the New Creation is also marred by the slaughter of innocence, innocent children.  The gospel cannot be told without paying tribute to those who lost their lives when he was born.  Boys under the age of two, a picture of innocence, are slain at the edges of soldiers’ swords.  This also reminds us of the boys thrown Into the River Nile long before, ...

Numbers 24:15-19 & Matthew2:1-12 Key Verses: "I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near.  A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel."  (Numbers 24:17A) "Where is the One who has been born King of the Jews?  We saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him."  (Matthew 2:2) Jesus’ ancestor, David, declares in Psalm 19: "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.  Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge." ( Psalm 19:1-2 ) Balaam, the enemy of Israel, had nevertheless foretold a star that would rise out of Jacob.  Now, knowledgeable men, who understood the language of the sky, had received the message and had come to worship what the stars had proclaimed.  We don't know exactly what this message meant to the Magi, but their behavior lets us know that they believed that this was an important event.  They knew that a...

Luke 2:36-38 Key verse: Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.  Luke 2:38 Most people would have seen Anna as having had a wasted life.  She never had children.  This would have been seen as a curse to the people of her day.  She had been widowed young and never married again.  She spent her time in the temple fasting and praying, but we don’t know for what.  As far as we know, she never held down a job or produced anything of earthly value. We are only given one clue to hint at how she came to have such a devoted life despite living such a seemingly tragic life.  We are told that she was from the tribe of Asher.  Asher is actually one of the tribes that was dispersed during the Syrian conquest seven hundred years earlier.  For knowledge of her origins to survive, and for her to be found in the temple, suggests that he...

Luke 2:25-35 Key Verse: "My eyes have seen Your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to Your people Israel." Luke 2:30-32 Simeon, that righteous, devout old man, was waiting for the "consolation of Israel." Certainly, Israel was under a great deal of stress.  They were oppressed by Rome and oppressed by their own religious leadership.  The people, the downcast and the poor, needed to be consoled for the burden that life had become.  Jesus would be that consolation.  "Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest." ( Matthew 11:28 ) Did Simeon know just how true his prophecy would be? Jesus had come to bear the burden of sin.  Jesus had come to be a light of hope for the Gentiles.  Jesus had come to be a blessing to the people of Israel, but when Simeon saw Him, He was just a baby in His mother's arms.  Did Simeon see the cross? Th...

Leviticus 12:1-4 & 6-8 and Luke 2:22-24 Key verse: As it is written in the law of the Lord, "every first born male is to be consecrated to the Lord." Luke 2:23 Jesus is now 40 days old, or almost six weeks.  The span of forty days is significant in scripture.  In Exodus, Moses stayed with God for forty days, twice, on Mount Sinai.  The prophet Elijah went without food for forty days after being fed by the Lord himself.  (1 Kings 19:3-9) In the future, Jesus would fast forty days in the wilderness before beginning his ministry.  Here, at the beginning of His life, His mother Mary is considered unclean, by God's own law, for forty days and must do what is necessary to become clean.  One might be tempted to think that after having given birth to the Son of God, that there would be some special dispensation given to be allowed to set aside some of the restrictions imposed on man.  After all, Mary was chosen.  Mary was special!  ...

Eight Days Old Genesis 17:10-14 , and Luke 2:21 Key verse: On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise Him, He was named Jesus, the name the angel had given Him before He had been conceived.  Luke 2:21 When we discussed this passage in Genesis back on Day 7, I had mentioned that this covenant of circumcision represented the first covenant that would require something of man, but I also said that God Himself would submit to it as well.  Now is the time that God will submit to the covenant that He made with Abram long ago.  Jesus is eight days old.  The time has come for Him to undergo what He Himself had ordained.  Just as Abram's name was changed at the initiation of the covenant of circumcision, now at this circumcision, the baby will be given the name, Jesus, or in Hebrew Yeshua, which means, salvation.  There is a profound lesson in the Jewish rite of circumcision.  First of all, God had declared in his law that after birth...