A Famine Not of Bread

"Pentecost" by El Greco Click here to listen to this sermon. The text for today is our first reading, Acts 2:1-21. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Pentecostal movement raised a question for biblical interpreters. Pentecostals studied the events of the Day of Pentecost and concluded that every Christian’s life should imitate the experience of the early Christians on that day. Most pointedly, they concluded that all Christians should speak in tongues or prophesy as described in Acts 2. In contrast, most commentators view these events as unique and miraculous—not something Christians must imitate. Like all epoch-making works of God, Pentecost was accompanied by a spectacular, miraculous occurrence which both authenticated this event as an act of the God of Israel and served as a meaningful symbol of the earth-shaking change taking place in world history. It is a symbol lifted straight from the p...

"The Last Supper" by Pieter Pourbus Click here to listen to this sermon. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Shh! Listen closely! Our Lord is praying. It is the night of the Last Supper. He is soon to be betrayed, but not yet. He and His disciples have not even reached the garden. They are in the upper room, and the Lord is praying. So, listen closely, dear friends—because He is praying for you: “Father, the time has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son may glorify You. For You granted Him authority over all people that He might give eternal life to all those you have given Him” (John 17:1-2). The Son prays to be glorified. But consider this carefully. He is not praying for the world’s idea of glory. The world defines glory in terms of splendor, strength, beauty, and celebrity. The one who wins is the glorious one. But Jesus defines His glory quite differently. Because the Father has given Him authority over all people, all people are H...

Click here to listen to this sermon. The text for today comes from our Epistle lesson, 1 Peter 3:15-22, which has already been read. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Death is inevitable. Sooner or later you and I must face the prospect of the end of our lives, because unless the Lord comes back for us first, we are all going to die. At this point, you may fear dying. You may be angry at the prospect of death. These are appropriate and valid feelings. Death never was God’s will or intention for humanity. He created us to live forever, but sin brought death. At the same time, we Christians need not fear death, for it is only the doorway into the loving presence of our heavenly Father. It is not a leap into the dark, but a welcome home into the arms of the One who first created us and has loved us from our mother’s womb. I firmly believe this. I am not courting my own death, but I have no anxiety about it either. I know that my eternal life—in wh...

Click here to listen to this sermon. “ As you come to Him, a Living Stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:4-5). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Peter uses a metaphor drawn from the Old Testament, this one being particularly significant to the apostle himself. God’s people come to a Living Stone and are built up as living stones in Him. Who better to deliver a picture of stones than the one who got his name changed by Jesus, from “Simon” to “Rocky”? When Jesus asked the disciples in Matthew 16, “Who do you say that I am?” it was Simon Peter who confessed, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in he...