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. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many...

Click here to listen to this sermon. “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is He, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and He shall speak peace to the nations; His rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth. As for you also, because of the blood of My covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double” ( Zechariah 9:9–12). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! People caught in the despair of bondage have at least two questions. First, does God have the power to free us? Second, is God compassionate enough to free us? In Zechariah 9, the prophet answers both ...

Click here to listen to this sermon. [Jesus said:] Holy Father, keep them in Your name, which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are one” (John 17:11b). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! “The Bucket List,” tells the story of two men who have little in common except the room they share while they await treatment for terminal cancer. As their friendship develops they compile a “bucket list,” or things they want to do before they “kick the bucket.” You can tell a lot about what a person thinks is important by what they choose to say and do in their final days or hours on this earth. Jesus is no exception. In addition to teaching His disciples about true greatness through serving, telling them one more time that He was going to return to the Father, and instituting the new covenant of His body and blood, Jesus prayed—first for Himself, then His disciples, and then for all believers to come. In our text, Jesus prayed specifi...

"The Crucifixion: As Seen from the Cross" by James I. Tissot Click here to listen to this sermon. “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might He increases strength” (Isaiah 40:28-29). Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! When Henry Norris Russell, Princeton astronomer, had concluded a lecture on the Milky Way, a woman came to him and asked: “If our world is so little, and the universe is so great, can we believe that God pays any attention to us?” Dr. Russell replied, “That depends, madam, entirely on how big a God you believe in.” [i] How big is your God? Is He big enough to create everything out of nothing and to keep it going with only His Word? Is He big enough that the sky serves as His tent and the inhabitants of the earth look like s...

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...