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This morning, I am beginning a new sermon series I’ve entitled “Stranger,” based on the New Testament book 1 Peter, a letter written by Peter, one of the disciples of Jesus and one of the key leaders in the early church. The title of the series comes from one of the themes of the book, that as followers of Jesus we are strangers in this world, that this world is not our true home. But before I begin, let me remind you why we take the Bible so seriously.

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This Easter morning, we will be looking at Luke’s account of Jesus’ resurrection, as found in Luke 24. For those unfamiliar with Luke, he was a doctor and historian who was part of the early church and a traveling companion of Paul, and he wrote an account based on eyewitness testimonies of Jesus’ ministry and then of the early church in the sequel, the book of Acts. This morning, I’ll be focusing particularly on the account of Jesus walking with two disciples on the road to Emmaus, which begins in v. 13 and ends in verse 32. But I want to begin with verse 1, which takes place after Jesus’ body has been in the tomb a couple of days:

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Last week and this week, I am looking at some of the events surrounding the end of Jesus’ earthly life, as we prepare for Easter Sunday next week. Last week we focused on Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus willingly submitted to the plan that He and the Father and the Spirit had from all eternity to save us from sin and death by drinking to the bottom the cup of God’s righteous wrath on human sin. At the end of Jesus’ time in the garden, he was betrayed by Judas and arrested. The Jewish religious leaders charged him with blasphemy, for making himself out to be God, and turned him over to the Romans, accusing him of setting himself up against Caesar as a king. And although Pilate found no reason to execute him, he feared the anger of the crowd, and so he gave in to their demands, sentencing Jesus to death by crucifixion.

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Easter Sunday is in two weeks, and so during this week and next, we will be looking at some of the final events of Jesus’ life. This week we will look at Matthew 26:20-50, focusing particularly on Jesus’ time in the Garden of Gethsemane. Before we read, I would ask you to take to heart these words of A.W. Tozer in his book “God Tells the Man who Cares”: “The Bible was written in tears and to tears it will yield its best treasure. God has nothing to say to the frivolous man.”

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This morning, I am in the final week of my sermon series entitled “Strength in Weakness,” looking at the New Testament book of 2 Corinthians. If you are unfamiliar with this book, it is a letter written by an early church leader named Paul to a church he had started around the year 50 AD in the Greek city of Corinth, which in Paul’s day was part of the Roman Empire. After he had started the church and built it up, he moved on to start other churches, but he visited Corinth and wrote letters to them as issues arose in the church. One of the biggest issues was that false teachers had come into their community and were tearing down Paul’s reputation, winning the hearts of many of the Corinthians, and causing tension in Paul’s relationship with this church that he loved so much. He has had to spend a good deal of this letter trying to challenge the Corinthians, expose the false teachers, and restore his relationship with these people he loves so much without pushing them away. We’re going to read the final section, from 12:14 – 13:14, and use that to summarize what Paul wanted to communicate through this letter.

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This morning, I am in the tenth week of my sermon series entitled “Strength in Weakness,” looking at the New Testament book of 2 Corinthians. If you are unfamiliar with this book, it is a letter written by an early church leader named Paul to a church he had started around the year 50 AD in the Greek city of Corinth, which in Paul’s day was part of the Roman Empire. After he had started the church and built it up, he moved on to start other churches, but he visited Corinth and wrote letters to them as issues arose in the church. One of the biggest issues was that false teachers had come into their community and were tearing down Paul’s reputation, winning the hearts of many of the Corinthians, and causing tension in Paul’s relationship with this church that he loved so much. This left Paul in a really difficult situation. If he ignored the attacks, the Corinthians might think that the false teachers were right. But if Paul defended himself, boasting in his credentials, he would be stooping to their level and appear foolish. In the passage we will be reading today, Paul takes a very unique and creative approach to handling this issue. In the process, he helps us to understand how to identify false teachers, and how to access God’s power.

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This morning, I am in the ninth week of my sermon series entitled “Strength in Weakness,” looking at the New Testament book of 2 Corinthians. If you are unfamiliar with this book, it is a letter written by an early church leader named Paul to a church he had started around the year 50 AD in the Greek city of Corinth, which in Paul’s day was part of the Roman Empire. After he had started the church and built it up, he moved on to start other churches, but visited and wrote letters as issues arose in the church. One of the biggest issues was that false teachers had arisen in their midst who were tearing down Paul’s reputation, winning the hearts of some of the Corinthians, and causing tension in his relationship with this church he loved so much. As we read in v. 10 of today’s reading:

10 For some say, "His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing." 

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This morning, I am in the eighth week of my sermon series entitled “Strength in Weakness,” looking at the New Testament book of 2 Corinthians. If you are unfamiliar with this book, it is a letter written by an early church leader named Paul to a church he had started around the year 50 AD in the Greek city of Corinth, which in Paul’s day was part of the Roman Empire. This morning, we are going to be in chapters 8 & 9, a long section in which Paul is reminding them about a collection he was taking for the church in Judea, which had experienced a famine and was in need of help. Judea included Jerusalem, so it was a mostly Jewish church, and Corinth was a Greek church. As was his custom, Paul does not just remind them of the collection, but lays out a long treatise on generosity and why being generous should be a distinctive mark of the follower of Jesus. Let’s read the passage.

NIV 2 Corinthians 8:1- And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. 

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This morning, I am in the seventh week of my sermon series entitled “Strength in Weakness,” looking at the New Testament book of 2 Corinthians. If you are unfamiliar with this book, it is a letter written by an early church leader named Paul to a church he had started around the year 50 AD in the Greek city of Corinth, which in Paul’s day was part of the Roman Empire. After starting the church, he moved on to start another church. As he got news of some issues happening in the Corinthian church, he wrote and sent the letter known as 1 Corinthians. He followed that up with a visit to Corinth, which he calls in this letter “the painful visit,” where apparently, he met with opposition from an individual who had stirred up people against him, while unfortunately the other Corinthians did nothing about it. In 2 Corinthians 2:1-4 we hear about the next letter he wrote to them:

2 Corinthians 2:1-4 - So I made up my mind that I would not make another painful visit to you.  2 For if I grieve you, who is left to make me glad but you whom I have grieved?  3 I wrote as I did so that when I came I should not be distressed by those who ought to make me rejoice. I had confidence in all of you, that you would all share my joy.  4 For I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you.

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This morning, I am in the sixth week of my sermon series entitled “Strength in Weakness,” looking at the New Testament book of 2 Corinthians. If you are unfamiliar with this book, it is a letter written by an early church leader named Paul to a church he had started around the year 50 AD in the Greek city of Corinth, which in Paul’s day was part of the Roman Empire. As we have seen in the first few chapters, after Paul moved on from Corinth to start other churches, the relationship between Paul and the church became strained, and so throughout this letter, we see Paul having to defend himself against false teachers who have been slandering him and remind the Corinthians of his love for them and devotion to them.