A Famine Not of Bread

"Christ Preaching at Capernaum" by Maurycy Gottlieb Click here to listen to this sermon. “They went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath [Jesus] entered the synagogue and was teaching. And they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes” (Mark 1:22). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! When you mention the word “authority,” it’s likely you’ll have to qualify what you mean. Depending upon the audience’s background—and the current context—“authority” may have an extremely negative connotation. It may suggest oppression by a dictatorial governmental official, an overbearing boss, or an abusive parent. In that setting, an “authority” is a ruler—a ruler who uses you for his own advantage. And so, it’s no wonder that many of us have authority issues. But there are good authorities as well—ones who use their authority for the benefit of others instead of themselves. This use o...

Click here to listen to this sermon. Click here to view this sermon. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! In 1981, Jeffrey Stout, a professor of religion and philosophy at Princeton University, published a book called The Flight from Authority . In it, he described a social and philosophical trend in western society. Collectively, he argued, we have been on a “flight from authority” for several centuries. In the Reformation, we fled the authority of the church. Under rationalism, we ran from the authority of Scripture. With Kant, we turned our backs on the authority of reason and then morality....

"Christ Preaching at Capernaum" by Maurycy Gottlieb Click here to listen to this sermon. And [Jesus] went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee. And He was teaching them on the Sabbath, and they were astonished at His teaching, for His word possessed authority (Luke 4:31). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! What do the demon-possessed and mothers-in-law have in common? I know, it sounds like the beginning of a tasteless joke. But I’m not going there. I happen to like mothers-in-law. Some of my favorite people are mothers-in-law. No, I’m talking about our Gospel for today. What do the demon-possessed and mothers-in-law have in common? They are both healed by Jesus by His authoritative Word! The season of Epiphany is about Jesus making Himself known, about people discovering who He is. In our Gospel lesson for today, we find four more important puzzle pieces that teach us much about our Savior. The first is that He teaches, and t...

"The Pharisees' Question" by James Tissott To listen to this sermon click here. Or here. The text for today is our Gospel lesson, Matthew 21:23-27. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Let’s set the context first: The Lord Jesus, with Palm Sunday praises still echoing in His ears, has entered the temple and toppled the tables of the moneychangers, driving out the droves of buyers and sellers. After lodging overnight in Bethany, He returns to Jerusalem, curses a fruitless fig tree, and begins teaching again in the temple. It’s no wonder that the leaders of the Jews come and challenge Jesus: “By what authority are you doing these things?” Jesus either has an ironic sense of timing or He doesn’t have a clue. With all the pilgrims in town for Passover, this would normally be a busy and profitable week for the moneychangers and the merchants. Disrupting business at the temple would be something akin to shutting down a Walmart Super...

Click here to listen to this sermon. The text for today is our Gospel lesson, Luke 7:1-10, which has already been read. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It is amazing how often people accept the reality of things on face value.   Take paper money, for example.   It looks like paper, wrinkles like paper, and even burns like paper.   But everyone accepts that a $20 bill is worth $20 because the U.S. Treasury says that it is.   Our money still says, “In God we trust,” but let’s face it, if we don’t trust the U.S. Treasury it has very little or no value or purchasing power.   The Treasury could print up trillions of bills that are exactly the same in every way, but if there is no confidence in the currency it could take a wheelbarrow full to buy a loaf of bread.   Just recall the hyperinflation of the Weimar Republic in 1923, when the defeated Germans paid back foreign debt with printed money rather than gold or o...

Click here for a link to an audio version of this sermon. Jesus Rebukes the Unclean Spirit in the Synagogue by James Tissot The text for today is our Gospel, Luke 4:31-44, which has already been read. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s the Sabbath in Capernaum, and where do we find Jesus?   He’s in the synagogue—the synagogue was the “congregating place” for God’s people.   That’s what the word “synagogue” means—“a place to gather.”   We say “congregation.”     This was nothing new.   Take a look at the gospels.   Every Sabbath that is mentioned (except for the one between Good Friday and Easter where He was fulfilling the Sabbath in Himself), we see Jesus going to the congregation.   If He’s in Jerusalem for the festivals, He goes to the temple—to the house of the Lord—for prayers and sacrifices and the hearing of God’s Word.   Every other Sabbath we find Him in the synagogue with the bel...