A Wedding Homily I Corinthians 13 Check out these helpful resources Biblical Commentary Sermons Children's Sermons Hymn Lists I Corinthians 13 Pastor Steven Molin Don and Sara, on behalf of those who are standing beside you, and those family and friends who are seated behind you, I want to thank you for inviting us [...]
Paul didn't write First Corinthians 15 as a scientific textbook. Instead, he simply gives us a glimpse into eternity, and promises that it will be wonderful. Paul concludes: "Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (15:57).
Perhaps the greatest line about the Resurrection comes from the famous preacher of another age, J. S. Whale, who said, "The Gospels do not explain the Resurrection; the Resurrection explains the Gospels."
Do you remember the Etch-A-Sketch? When you made a mistake you could shake it and voila — clean slate — you could start over. We're here this morning to celebrate Easter--God's shaking up the world so that we could start over. All the death and sin that had been written and drawn has been erased and God has begun a new creation.
Eugene Smith never sang much. But one year his daughter persuaded him to sing with the choir on the Hallelujah chorus. Near the end, he was just about to sing a couple more Hallelujahs when the choir stopped. He said, "Since that time I have been going around with a couple of Hallelujahs inside just waiting to get out."
Paul wrote to friends in distress: Back to basics, friends. I give to you what I received, the most important thing, that Christ died for our sins, was buried and was raised on the third day and then appeared to one, to twelve, to many, many more including me, even me. If you believe this, you will receive grace--and become grace for others.
As N.T. Wright puts it, "They knew as well as we do that things like that just don't happen. When people died they stayed dead.... Jesus' followers weren't expecting him to die in the first place; when he did, they certainly weren't expecting him to rise again. Yet they say, loud and clear, that that was what had happened. He had gone through death and out the other side, into a new mode of human existence."
Now this is not a sermon on divorce. I am not saying that people should never divorce. This is a sermon about love, and the subject of love gets all wrapped up with marriage. Now compare Shelley Winter's view of love with that of the Apostle Paul, who said....
Here Paul explains what he DOES mean. Love is not some warm-fuzzy feeling. Love means some very practical things: Love is patient--kind--does not envy--does not boast--is not proud--is not rude--is not self-seeking--is not easily angered--keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth. It always protects--trusts--hopes--perseveres. No sentimental journey here. This is where the rubber meets the road.
Ancient philosophers said that everything is made of four elements: earth, air, fire, and water. The movie "The Fifth Element" imagined that there was a fifth element that tied these four together. That fifth most important element was "Love." Maslow, the psychological theorist, said that Love is one of the five basic needs of a human and that to be healthy and happy we need to love and be loved.