When Christmas descends on us, as it seems to do so suddenly every year, it presents us with a picture of life. And Christmas now doesn’t look much different than it did at the first Christmas 2000 years ago: Bethlehem was a bustling town, buzzing with commerce. The announcement of a census brought an influx…
Category: Expository Sermons
Mark 1: Prologue
Over two thousand years ago, in a land on the Mediterranean Sea, a king was born. His name was Alexander, heir to the throne of his father, Philip of Macedon. Philip had unified the Macedonian people under his rule, and had gone on to conquer the other Greek speaking people in Greece. When he was…
Abraham
My child. ‘Yes, Lord’. I want you to take your child, whom you love, and go to the mountains and sacrifice him for me. So, the next morning you and your child pack up and drive to the mountains. The trip takes three days. You are cherishing these last moments, but your child has no…
God the Son: His work
Today we will be thinking about what is perhaps the most important Christian doctrine. (The word ‘doctrine’ refers to those bodies of truths that make up the content of our faith. For example, the Bible reveals a number of things that are true concerning the Church. Those truths together make up what we would…
Acts 2 & 4 Vital Signs
Last week I listened to a sermon that was prompted by the pastor’s being regularly asked, ‘So, how’s your church doing?’ That is a good question, and it is one that deserves more than a glib, off-the-cuff answer. If someone was to ask you, ‘How’s your church doing?’ what are the things that you would…
Acts 3:1- 4:4 A beggar is healed
On vacation, our family stayed in a cabin near Mount St. Helen’s in southern Washington. My wife’s brother and his family were in the cabin next door, and that morning the eleven of us gathered around the picnic table and read God’s Word and prayed together. When I later commented to my little girl that…
Acts 2:14-41
Here’s a question and answer that might surprise you: ‘Pastor, how do you know that Jesus is Lord?’ My answer: ‘I don’t.’ The truth is, I don’t know. But I believe he is. In fact, I believe strongly enough to make Jesus’ Lordship the center and foundation of my whole life. And considering we only…
Acts 2:1-13 Pentecost
My kids have recently discovered the old Looney Tunes cartoons. Many of you will remember those cartoons, and their characters: Bugs Bunny, Tweety Bird, Sylvester, Elmer Fudd, the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote, etc. Though there were always different episodes, and if you remember those old shows, you know that there was essentially one storyline…
Acts 1:12-26 Prayer and choosing a twelfth apostle
Praying and Choosing Matthias Last week we began our study of the Book of Acts, which is the historical account of the early church. In this time when we as a church are very deliberately fixing our attention on the person of Jesus, Acts shows us what happens when a community of people is fired…