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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.
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.