sermons | study
These are sermons preached during our Sunday worship services. (Recordings were not always successful, so there are gaps in the postings.)
Sunday | January 4, 2015
In this poignant opening to the last of Paul’s letters preserved in Scripture, he makes a passionate plea for following and guarding sound doctrine. As timely now as it was then, this passage is an encouragement and challenge to all who call themselves Christians.
Sunday | January 4, 2015
This passage will introduce a sermon series designed to cover the essential elements of Christian theology. Here Paul focuses our attention on the centrality of a heartfelt confession of faith to our relationship to Jesus Christ.
Sunday | December 21, 2014
Matthew’s Gospel closes the infancy narratives with events interpreted in the light of the Hebrew Scriptures. Both the events and their interpretations foreshadow Jesus’ ministry and point to the realization of the good news that he has come to save his people.
Sunday | December 14, 2014
Continuing this Advent series from Matthew, the drama heightens as strangers appear in Jerusalem seeking Jesus. The unexpected homage from unnamed Easterners brings riches, but also puts Jesus’ very life in danger from the despotic Herod. Already Jesus’ identity is provoking radically differing responses from others, even as the gospel does today.
Sunday | December 7, 2014
Joseph is rarely the focus of contemporary Christmas sermons or stories, but he is central to Matthew’s Gospel account of Jesus’ birth. He is a remarkable and godly man, and we can profit much from his example and his experience as recorded in Scripture.
Sunday | November 30, 2014
Beginning an Advent series in Matthew, we find ourselves in a literary context not far from that of Genesis. Genealogies figure prominently in Genesis, and Matthew opens his Gospel with a genealogy, using significant terms and names from Genesis narratives. The covenant promises made by God to his people in Genesis (and developed in the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures) find their fulfillment in Jesus the Messiah.
Sunday | November 16, 2014
Fittingly, Joseph has the last word in the book of Genesis, and though the Book of Beginnings ends with a coffin in Egypt, the word that Joseph leaves us with is one of faith, hope, and love.
On a personal note, it is with some regret that I end this sermon series from Genesis. It began in September of 2010 and with several interruptions, has included 81 sermons, but there is so much that I have not dealt with in the book, that I wish that I could begin again! What a wonderful part of the Scriptures it is!
