A Famine Not of Bread

"The Appearance of Christ at the Cenacle" by James Tissot Click here to listen to this sermon. "On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, even so I am sending you.’ And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.’ “Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see in His hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my...

Click here to listen to this sermon. Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! It is never easy when a loved one dies. A death during Holy Week complicates things with all the other activities and worship services. But on the positive side, it really gives us another opportunity to proclaim Christ’s death and resurrection. Today, I won’t speak a lot about Helen, but I will tell you about Helen’s Redeemer. The message of Good Friday is that Jesus, the Incarnate Son of God, died for the sins of the world. Every sin has been paid for by Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. On Easter, we celebrate the Good News that the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for His sheep has taken it up again. His sheep hear His voice and follow Him. He gives eternal life, and we will never perish, and no one will snatch us out of His hand. The message of Easter is of life in the resurrection of the crucified Son of the living God. This has been the hope that God’s people ...

"The Holy Women at the Tomb" by William Adolphe Bouguereau Click here to listen to this sermon. On the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how He told you, while He was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And they remembered His words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apo...

"Christ's Triumphal Entry in Jerusalem" by Felix Louis Leullier Click here to listen to this sermon. "See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god beside Me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of My hand” (Deuteronomy 32:39). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! The Lord contrasts the worthlessness of the false gods and idols that many of the people of Israel had been worshiping with the greatness of Himself. “See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god beside me” (v 39). The repetition of “I” by the Lord here is emphatic! That is, “I and only I am God. There is no other God.” This is the name by which God revealed Himself to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM,” in Exodus 3:14. The Lord is the living God, the only true God, which He reveals in His Word and in His actions, and which the people of Israel had experienced, seen, and heard. The Lord reminds them, “I kill and I make ali...

Click here to listen to this sermon. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus ( Philippians 3:...