Real Peace. Real People.

In this teaching, Jesus explores unbelief and faith. As he does, he lays bare the root causes of unbelief. He argues that unbelief is not what unbelievers say it is. He then explains the nature of faith and calls us to it. This sermon seeks to examine the truths that Jesus lays out for us and, finally, revel in the beautiful call to faith that Jesus gives to us all in closing.

There are four temptations in Matthew 4. What are they? The first three are apparent even if they do need some explanation. This sermon moves through this Scripture sequentially expositing each of the temptations. Along the way, Jesus shares his method of beating temptation, but, more, he shares that he has overcome temptation. The sermon closes with a look at how Jesus is our great champion in our failure.

This sermon, preached on the occasion of Ash Wednesday, moves through Jesus’ portrayals over various actors: the prayer, the faster, and the giver. It seeks to show the listener how and why we often play to the wrong audience as they did. It then moves the listener onto a different stage before a different audience. It seeks to make the unseen seen and make the listener an actor who plays to the only audience that has ever mattered.

As people reflect on this account of the transfiguration, Peter understandably takes a lot of hits. He’s impetuous. He’s seemingly a little over-enthusiastic about his building project. Maybe you get that. This sermon, however, seeks to critique Peter the way God does. More importantly, it aims with Matthew to leave the listener listening to Jesus, only Jesus.

Jesus has called his disciples to ministry. This is a fact. Going further, he has invited them to perform that ministry a certain way - as he did. This sermon explains the fact of ministry, the style of ministry, and the fear that we can have of ever carrying it out. We leave his message here with the confidence that the only being in this universe worth fearing is not to be feared at all in Jesus' name.

Matthew, in this Scripture, tells the story of Jesus calling him. It’s hard to tell that at first, but that’s what he does. What is the significance of that for today’s Christians? How are we called? And what does that exactly mean? This sermon uses the story Matthew tells to show Christians how they are called and what they are called to do. It closes on a gospel note empowering Christians with the new wine of Jesus’ forgiveness. May his new wine intoxicate every believing heart.

Jesus performs three specific and described healings here. Is that what we have going on here? Or is there something more going on? This sermon explores something more than cure. It explores the true spirituality of sickness, the nature of complete faith, and the foundation up which it rests. It covers a lot, but then again, Matthew covers a lot too. We post it here with this hope: that we might all believe that one-day sickness will itself get sick and in Jesus’ great name die forever.

In this Scripture, Jesus concludes his great teaching called the Sermon on the Mount, sending his disciples back to the narrow road of life with two definite warnings. This sermon looks at those warnings and applies them to modern life by pointing the listener to specific and common pitfalls. It concludes with a preaching of Jesus’ gospel and a call to authentic faith that rises out of Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount.

This is a sad part of Scripture. There’s a reason why one of its most prominent images is that of weeping and mourning. Why were those infants murdered? And what do you do with it? And, more, how do we react well to the hostility that Jesus evokes both outside of us and inside of us? This sermon calls the listener to faith in the child who was tossed around and abused to make us children of God.

The Baptism of Our Lord used to be can’t miss worship. People used to show up for it like it was Easter. It also used to be can’t miss preaching. Preachers as important as Ignatius of Antioch, Chrysostom, Jerome, and Martin Luther preached some of their most memorable and beloved sermons for the event. Today the event frankly doesn’t get a lot of attention. Why not? This sermon explores that question seeking to move the baptism of Jesus deeply into the heart of the listener.