Sermon
A Present Hope or a Past Event?
April 20, 2025
Passages from Luke 24:1-12
“Why do you look for the living among the dead?
He is not here but has risen."
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Easter is far more than a date on the calendar. The women who followed Jesus from Galilee expected death when they went to the tomb, burdened by grief and prepared to anoint His body. They had seen Him crucified, pierced, and buried. But instead of finding a sealed grave, they found the stone rolled away, His body gone, and angels asking, “Why are you looking for the living among the dead?” It was only when they remembered Jesus’ words—that He would be betrayed, crucified, and rise on the third day—that everything began to make sense. Their sorrow turned to joy, and they rushed to share the news, though not all believed them. Peter ran to the tomb and was amazed, remembering what Jesus had said.
Their remembering changed everything. Easter isn’t about what we expect—songs, lilies, or chocolate—but about what we don’t: that Jesus rose from the dead and death is no longer the end. To remember Jesus’ resurrection is to let His power reshape our present. Like Paul, we are invited to know Christ and the power of His resurrection. If Jesus is risen, then today marks the beginning of new life. Our sins can be forgiven, our grudges released, and our hearts filled with worship. The resurrection means death has been defeated, and we are free to live for Him.
He is risen! He is risen indeed!
Behold, Your King!
April 13, 2025
Passages from Matthew 21 & 27 Listed Below
Behold, your king is coming to you!
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On Palm Sunday, we remember a key week in Jesus’ life, centered around the Passover—a celebration of God’s deliverance. As Jesus enters Jerusalem, he is hailed as king, yet the week ends with him crucified under the same title, “King of the Jews,” displayed in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. This contrast raises powerful questions: What kind of king is crowned with thorns? What kind of throne is a cross? What kind of power is revealed through such suffering?
Scripture from:
Matthew 21:1-13
Matthew 27:11-14
Matthew 27:24-31
Matthew 27:32-37
Who Would Jesus Pick?
April 6, 2025
Luke 5:27-32
Jesus replied, “I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
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Jesus repeatedly reaches out to the overlooked—the Gentile leper, the foreign widow, the unsuccessful fishermen—and in today’s passage, a tax collector named Levi. When Jesus calls Levi, he simply says, “Follow me,” and Levi leaves everything behind to do just that. This decision is more than a minor lifestyle change; it’s a total shift in direction, leaving behind old ways in pursuit of something far better.
Levi is so changed by his encounter with Jesus that he throws a dinner party and invites other outcasts—people just like himself. Naturally, this draws criticism from the religious elite, who can’t understand why someone claiming to be from God would associate with such people. But Jesus reveals something powerful: he came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. This turns religious expectations upside down. Sadly, churches often repeat the Pharisees’ mistake—gravitating toward people like themselves, hiding their messiness, and fearing a bad reputation. But Jesus reminds us that God rejoices more over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine who don’t see their need. This message challenges those of us in the “Me and Jesus” fan club, but it’s incredibly good news for the broken and cast aside. Just as it is good news for the broken and sinners, it also is for us religious people – not in our getting our way, but in God getting his. We can either stand outside and complain about the type of people Jesus hangs out with or go in and join the party with him.
Faith to Move Roofs
March 23, 2025
Luke 5:12-16
Stand and take your bed and go home.
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Jesus returns to Capernaum, where crowds gathered to see the man known for healing and casting out demons. Among them were four friends carrying a paralyzed man, convinced that if they could get him to Jesus, he could be healed. When the crowd blocked their way, they went to extreme measures—cutting a hole in the roof to lower their friend into the packed house. Rather than being annoyed, Jesus saw their boldness as faith. In a surprising turn, Jesus first forgave the man's sins before healing his body. This shocked the scribes, who silently questioned Jesus' authority to forgive sins, but Jesus, knowing their hearts, physically healed the man, revealing his divine authority.
Bridging the Gap
March 16, 2025
Luke 5:12-16
Jesus stretched out his hand and touched the man.
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We worship a God who "so loves the world that he gave his only son." In Jesus, God bridges the gap between the infinite and our finite existence. Between God's holiness and our sin.
We've been following Jesus from his birth and into his ministry. The angelic hosts of heaven proclaimed the great news of his birth; the human baby of whom they sang was laid in a feed trough. In this passage of scripture, Jesus encounters a man with a skin disease covering his body, a disease whose presence makes not only him unclean but anyone with whom he comes in contact. This disease separated the man from both God and humanity.
Jesus stretched out his hand, touched the man, and healed him. Jesus bridged the gap between the man's great need and God's love.
Gone to Meddling
March 9, 2025
Luke 5:1-11
“Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.”
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Simon and the others knew how to fish, but as good as they were, they had not caught anything all night. Jesus tells them to try again. Simon thinks it is stupid because it hasn’t worked before, but he does what Jesus asks anyway. They catch a huge net of fish and are overwhelmed. It wasn't because Jesus was a better fisherman than them but because the miracle revealed that Jesus was from God. Peter falls down at Jesus' knees and confesses that he is a sinful man.
Rather than chastizing Simon, Jesus promotes him. He will no longer be catching fish; instead, he will reach people.
If we have the faith to do what God calls us to do, even though it might seem meaningless, God uses it to do great things through us and in us.
Eyes on the Road
March 2, 2025
Luke 4:21-30
At daybreak, he departed and went into a deserted place.
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There is a common Christian malady. We can become so sure that God is on our side that we lose sight of the fact that we are called to be on God’s side. We can be so focused on what we want and think we need that we fail to see God providing what we really need.
But, at the height of his popularity, Jesus gets up and does something that differs from how-to books. Early in the morning, he goes out to an isolated place to pray. Just when you might think that Jesus has the opportunity to capitalize on his popularity, he “gets away from it all. He disconnects from human expectations to find rest and seek God’s expectations.
Blinded by Our Expectations
February 23, 2025
Luke 4:21-30
And Jesus said, “Truly I tell you,
no prophet is accepted in his hometown."
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Unfortunately, our expectations of Jesus can blind us to who Jesus is. We create an image and expectation of Jesus in our image rather than allowing him to shape us. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus challenges his hometown by reminding them that God’s generosity extends beyond their expectations—providing for a Gentile widow and healing a Syrian leper while many Jews continued to be in need. Rather than accepting this truth, they rejected Jesus because his message conflicted with their expectations.
Jesus continues to challenge religious people today, not to provoke but to call for transformation. If he spoke to us now, would we resist his truth the way his hometown did? Would we allow him to reshape our priorities, actions, and perspectives, or would we hold onto what is comfortable?
A God Who Loves Us
February 16, 2025
Psalm 36:5-10
How precious is your
steadfast love, O God!
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The amazing Rev. Dr. Nancy Graham Ogne, Pastor Paul's better half, shares God's word with us this Sunday.
Living Beyond, Now
February 9, 2025
Luke 4:14-22a
Then Jesus, in the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding region.
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Faith is seeing and living beyond the immediate and tangible. Jesus, after being tested in the wilderness, returned to preach in His hometown of Nazareth. The people were initially amazed by His words but soon dismissed Him as merely Joseph’s son, failing to recognize His divine identity. They expected the Messiah to fulfill their personal hopes rather than their being part of God’s greater plan.
Jesus' message encompassed both spiritual and earthly realities—proclaiming good news to the poor, releasing captives, and bringing sight to the blind in both the physical present as well as the eternal future, Jesus calls us to be like him - living in the present while holding to eternal hope. Our faith does not separate earthly life from eternal life; instead, our physical presence is to reveal God's eternal love and grace in our everyday lives.
