A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. “Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, ‘Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb’” ( Revelation 21:9). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! As I read our text, I was reminded of the wedding announcements we used to read in our local paper. For those who don’t have such memories, here is an example from the Mitchell Daily Republic a little over 40 years ago: “[The bride] wore a gown of white satin and mandel rose galloon lace. The gown was styled with an empire waist and the bodice and bishop sleeves were of lace. The sleeves were caught in a satin cuff. Lace edged the rounded neckline. The gown featured a full-length detachable train of satin and lace… Her veil was attached to a cap trimmed with lace, satin appliques, and scalloped lace edging. She carried red roses, cushion mums, and baby’s breath tied with red and white rib...

"The Wedding Feast" by Eugene Burnand Click here to listen to this sermon. Our text for today is our Gospel, Matthew 22:1-14. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! In Come In, We Are Closed , Tyrel Bramwell tells the following story. The waitress led me to my seat. As I sat down, I noticed the man at the next booth looking at me. We acknowledged each other with a couple of quick nods. After some small talk, he invited me to join him for some coffee. He said his friends call him Shep, a nickname that goes back to his days as a pastor. “I’m glad that I bumped into you, Shep,” I said. “Since you were a pastor, do you mind if I ask you a church question?” “Not at all.” “All right, so, what do you know about churches that don’t let some people take Communion?” “Did you have a bad experience with closed Communion?” he asked. “It that what it’s called?” “It is.” “I wouldn’t call it bad . It’s just not very inviting, you know? I ass...

"The Wedding Banquet" by Eugene Burnand Click here to listen to this sermon.   Again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come” (Matthew 22:1-3). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! If you start out wrong when you read a parable, you’re going to end in the wrong place. And generally, people start out wrong. They focus on what all the sinful people are doing in the parable, trying to find a moral lesson to follow. But when Jesus tells a parable about the kingdom of heaven, the focus of the parable is on the King of heaven. Jesus is not seeking to tell you what to do but proclaiming what great things God has done for you. Therefore, as we look at today’s parable, we don’t focus on the wedding guests, even though we’ll get to them. No, this parable is about th...

Click here to listen to this sermon. “This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His glory. And His disciples believed in Him” (John 2:11). Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Three days after He called His first disciples, Jesus arrived with them at a wedding in Cana of Galilee, a small town about nine miles north of Nazareth. Jesus’ mother was also there. We don’t know what connection they had with the wedding except Jesus’ mother was close enough to the bride and groom to be involved with the serving and to assume some authority over the servants. Then the wine ran out. To be sure, it was not a crisis or an emergency, but it was embarrassing, a major first century social faux pas. Why they ran out of wine doesn’t matter. The text does not say, so we leave it alone. What does matter is that the stage was set for the first miracle of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus’ mother came to Him. “They have no wine,” she said....

Click here to listen to this sermon. Or here. The text for today’s message is the Gospel lesson, Matthew 22:1-14. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! When the last empress of China (1835-1908) lived in the historic “Forbidden City,” she held extravagant banquets, sometimes serving as many as 150 different dishes for a single meal! It was an extremely exclusive affair. Only members of the royal family and their chosen guests were allowed to attend. For ordinary citizens there was no room!   God rules in His kingdom in a totally different way. He does not exclude ordinary people. He includes them! He invites everyone in—“the good” and “the bad,” hypocrites and sincere believers. Anyone who will accept His invitation. He has also reserved a place for you at His banquet table! Please listen to Jesus’ parable again and we’ll talk more about this wonderful, gracious invitation. A certain king prepared a marriage-feast for his son. Although i...