SMBC Principal's Hour

We live in a world which is often hostile to God and to efforts by his people to carry out his purposes. Living for him takes courage and involves risk. How can we find the courage to live undefiled lives for God in a hostile world?

What happens when a committed, devout man meets Jesus at a dinner party? How will he respond to Jesus’ unusual actions and penetrating words? What will his experience teach us about our own hearts?

Those outside of Christ face an eternity outside of the kingdom. This reality of the fate of the lost is a sobering and confronting one. How should we respond? In Luke 13:22-35, Jesus models a response to the lost for us to follow.

Jesus brings restoration and healing into a religious ecosystem where God’s intentions for the Sabbath have been distorted and perverted.

What if there were signs telling us important things about our lives, our future and what we need to be doing now? According to Jesus, we are surrounded by such signs. In Luke 12:54-13:9, Jesus helps us to see them and understand what they mean.

When we know an important event is coming, if we are wise, we will prepare. If we are foolish, we will not. In Luke 12:35-48, Jesus tells us how to prepare for the day when he returns as judge. He has a particularly sharp warning for those to whom much has been entrusted.

Luke 12 brings us a Jesus whose words are demanding and whose claims are costly. At the same time, it’s full of imagery of a Creator Father who is unnecessarily generous. How might this work together?

In Luke 11, Jesus unleashes a series of woes on the Pharisees and experts in the law, accusing them of causing the spiritual death of those around them. His woes on them serve as warnings to all of us engaged in ministry. We need to hear and heed these warnings, lest we have the same tragic impact as they did.

Warning: This week’s Principal’s Hour contains content of a sensitive nature, pertaining to the media and political discourse, at the time of recording, related to acts of sexual violence and abuse. Listener discretion is advised. If anything mentioned in this week’s Principal’s Hour causes you any distress, please speak with someone you trust or seek help from a professional.

We need to learn to see the world as it really is in order to make good decisions about our lives. But how do we learn that? When Jesus casts a demon out of a man in Luke 11, it leads to a heated debate about what to make of what has just happened. As we hear what Jesus says in this debate, we are equipped to see the world as it really is.

When prominent Christian leaders fall, the questions we ask about them lurk as questions relating to us — how do we know we’ll reach the end of our journey — to the New Jerusalem? Will we hear the words from Jesus, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant,’ or ‘I never knew you, depart from me’? Luke 10:38-11:13 tells us what we need to reach the end of our journey.

Warning: an illustration comes at the end of the sermon which refers to Ravi Zacharias and sexual misconduct.