Sermon Matthew 3:13-17 Renew Your Baptism Check out these helpful resources Biblical Commentary Children's Sermons Hymn Lists Matthew 3:13-17 Renew Your Baptism Dr. Philip W. McLarty This should be old hat for most of you: • The Sacrament of Holy Baptism is the defining trait of all Christians. Whether Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Pentecostal, Evangelical [...]
"Every tub must sit on its own bottom" seems to be obvious. A tub can't very well sit on another tub's bottom. The meaning, of course, is that people have to be responsible for themselves.
(This sermon was delivered to a group recovering from alcohol and drug addiction.) When I was sitting in treatment for the second time–I got assigned to one of the toughest counselors on the staff. He said: “Hi, my name is Ted – I’m your counselor, … and I’m going kill you!”
Judas Iscariot. We find Judas both fascinating and frightening. Fascinating because we don’t understand him, we don’t understand why he did what he did. And frightening because we have a tendency to find our story within the story of the disciples.
We find Judas Iscariot both fascinating and frightening. Fascinating because we don’t understand him. And frightening because we have a faithful tendency to find our story within the story of the disciples.
Into the shallow, muddy waters of the Jordan they have come. Sinners all. There is Levi, that rascally tax collector, and Miriam the harlot. Simeon, who trades in camels and is known to illegally roll back the mileage on his older models, is there as well. Sinners all.
One of the biblical scenes that artists have tried to portray more than any other is the Last Supper scene. Each artist uses his imagination as he paints the scene.
THE BAPTISM OF JESUS; Consider how the mission of Jesus begins. He is not given a throne. He is not invested with a sash of honor. No one gives him either keys or crown. Instead, he goes down, he goes down, he goes down into the muddy brown river water... This is how Jesus' mission gets started.
What better place to deal with the garbage and refuse of the sins that separate us from God than on a trash heap like Golgotha. What better place to come to the realization that Jesus is the Son of God, than in the shadow of the cross, the very cross of our salvation?
Peter was a multiple betrayer on that night. But, unlike Judas, Peter reached out for forgiveness and God heard him. Then there was the fickle mob of casual betrayers. Most of the world’s sins are banal acts or slothful omissions. They are the work of casual betrayers, like us.