A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. “The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, crying out, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!’ And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, ‘Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!’ His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about Him and had been done to Him” (John 12:12-16). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Palm Sunday processions come in many shapes and sizes. In some churches, they gather in the parking lot. Palms are distributed and blessed and then the crucifer leads then up the doors of the church. There, the crucifer lifts up the processional cross like a javelin and pounds th...

"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...

"Crucifixion" by Titian Click here to listen to this sermon. “ You who fear the Lord, praise Him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify Him, and stand in awe of Him, all you offspring of Israel! For He has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and He has not hidden His face from Him, but has heard, when He cried to Him ” (Psalm 22:23-24). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Have you ever painted yourself into a corner? That’s how I feel tonight. My plan for our mid-week Lenten services was to use the appointed psalm for the week as the text for our sermon. Tonight’s psalm is the last part of the messianic psalm, Psalm 22, that provides many prophetic details of Christ’s suffering and death. But our appointed text is only verses 23-31, in which the psalmist calls all people to praise the Lord for His faithfulness: “You who fear the Lord, praise Him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify Him, and stand in awe of Him...

Click here to listen to this sermon. An mp3 file is available upon request. The text for today is our Gospel lesson, Luke 23:27-43. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Today is the Last Sunday of the Church Year, where our attention is pushed to the last things.   All things promised will be completely fulfilled in Jesus’ glorious return.   The resurrection of the dead will bring body and soul together.   There will be a new heaven and a new earth.   Sin and Satan will be dispatched forever.   All God’s people will be taken to live in His eternal presence. However, the readings for today also draw us back to the cross, when Jesus fulfills the ancient prophecies of the Christ, the Chosen One.   He delivers His people from darkness and into His kingdom, through the forgiveness of sins, because He is the firstborn from the dead (Colossians 1:13-14, 18).   Those in the book of remembrance are God’s treasured pos...