A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. “The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! The word folly refers to a lack of good sense, judgment, or wisdom. It describes actions, ideas, or beliefs that are considered foolish, unwise, or absurd—often because they go against common sense or accepted wisdom. Folly can also mean a costly or foolish undertaking that is unlikely to succeed. But “accepted wisdom” is not always wise. What is considered folly is not always unwise. History is full of so-called follies that only looked foolish until the day they bore fruit. For instance: When Robert Fulton put a steam engine on a boat in 1807, people laughed and called it Fulton’s Folly . Many observers mocked the project beforehand, convinced that a steam engine could never reliably or safely propel a boat upstream against the current. ...

"Get Behind Me, Satan" by James Tissot Click here to listen to this sermon. And Jesus went on with His disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way He asked His disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And they told Him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” And He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered Him, “You are the Christ.” And He strictly charged them to tell no one about Him. And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And He said this plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But turning and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” And He called to Him the crowd with His disciples and said to them, “If anyone would co...

"The Crucifixion with the Virgin and St. John" by Hendrick ter Brugghen Click here to listen to this sermon. “For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree” (1 John 5:7-8). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Is pure doctrine so important that it is worth arguing about? Worth ruffling a few feathers? Worth enduring suffering for? St. John certainly thought so. His first epistle, from which comes our text, is wholly and vigorously polemical, aimed at false teachers and the heresies they were putting forth. Before the end of the 1 st century AD, false teachers had already arisen within the Church. “They went out from us,” John writes, “but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us” (1 John 2:19). These false teachers had apparently established themselves as a separat...