A Famine Not of Bread

"The Transfiguration" by James Tissot Click here to listen to this sermon. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! The mountain traditionally identified as Mount Nebo is located about 12 miles east of where the Jordan River enters the Dead Sea, and it rises more than 2.600 feet above sea level. The Dead Sea is the lowest spot in the world, 1,300 feet below sea level. What a dramatic view of this land that Moses longed to see! By inviting Moses to a bird’s eye view of the Promised Land, the Lord showed one last act of kindness to this special leader of God’s people. But maybe it was more than that. Biblical precepts let a man view land he was about to possess. Perhaps this was the Lord’s way of giving Moses a legal guarantee that Israel would really inherit the land, even though Moses would die before it happened. The Lord had an even better promised land in mind for Moses. The writer to the Hebrews includes Moses on his list of believers wh...

"Sermon on the Mount" by Carl Bloch Click here to listen to this sermon. “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Our text for today is a continuation of Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain that we started listening to last week that began with blessings and woes. In the fourth of those blessings, Jesus alerts His disciples to the fact that they will be hated, excluded, reviled, and spurned for following Him (Luke 6:22). A person who experiences such treatment might be tempted to respond in kind. Jesus, however, commands an altogether different kind of behavior, one totally unexpected in this world. He says to His disciples: “Love your enemies” (Luke 6:27). This is a call to action, not just emotion, for to love one’s enemies requires an unnatural act of the will. Your enemies are those who hate you and persecute you, which Jesus pictures as an inevitable consequence of being part of His Kin...

  Click here to listen to this sermon. [Jesus] came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all the crowd sought to touch Him, for power came out from Him and healed them all. And He lifted up His eyes on His disciples, and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God. “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets. “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received ...

"Isaiah's Vision by Frank Marsden   Click here to listen to this sermon. Our text is Isaiah 6:1-8. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! It’s a view that’s been reserved for a select few while still living here on earth: the throne room of heaven. The prophets Ezekiel, Daniel, and Isaiah as well as St. John the Evangelist were each privileged such a vision during their ministry. And you can tell by the description of their visions that each man has difficulty putting into human words the wonders, glory, and awe that they experienced. What would you do if you were given a vision of the Lord, in all His glory, sitting upon His throne in the heavenly temple? To riff on the popular contemporary Christian song, “One can only imagine.”   The first thing Isaiah sees in his vision is the Lord seated on His throne, the train of His regal robe filling the room. Isaiah’s use of the name “Lord” emphasizes His authority, superiority, and power. This ...