Love: The Final Proof preached by Pastor Don Willmean

Time of Reflection Quotations

“You must get used to the idea that it is one thing to do the works of the law and quite another to fulfill it…. [T]o fulfill the law means to do its work eagerly, lovingly and freely, without the constraint of the law; it means to live well and in a manner pleasing to God, as though there were no law or punishment.”

“Faith is a work of God in us, which changes us and…makes us completely different people in heart, mind, senses, and all our powers, and brings the Holy Spirit with it. What a living, creative, active powerful thing is faith! It is impossible that faith ever stops doing good. Faith doesn’t ask whether good works are to be done, but, before it is asked, it has done them. It is always active. Whoever doesn’t do such works is without faith…”

~Martin Luther (1483-1546) from Preface to His Commentary on Romans

“That a god should put up with adversity, I could understand. The gods of Hinduism face their fair share… Adversity, yes. Reversals of fortune, yes. Treachery, yes. But humiliation? Death? I couldn’t imagine Lord Krishna consenting to be stripped naked, whipped, mocked, dragged through the streets and, to top it off, crucified – and at the hands of mere humans, to boot. I’d never heard of a Hindu god dying… [D]ivinity should not be blighted by death. It’s wrong… For if the Son is to die, it cannot be fake… The death of the Son must be real. Father Martin assured me that it was. But once a dead God, always a dead God, even resurrected. The Son must have the taste of death forever in His mouth. The Trinity must be tainted by it; there must be a certain stench at the right hand of God the Father. The horror must be real. Why would God wish that upon Himself? Why not leave death to the mortals? Why make dirty what is beautiful, spoil what is perfect? ‘Love.’ That was Father Martin’s answer.”

~ Pi in Yann Martel’s The Life of Pi
as he first heard about the crucifixion

The “community of Christians springs solely from the Biblical and Reformation message of the justification of man through grace alone; this alone is the basis of the longing of Christians for one another.”

~Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), German pastor-theologian

Sermon Passage

1 John 3 (NASB)

     1 See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

     4 Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. 7 Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; 8 the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. 10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.

     11 For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; 12 not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.

     13 Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 16 We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. 19 We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him 20 in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.

     23 This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. 24 The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.

My, what a boost it would be to the church today if it were revived in its knowledge of God! What courage it would bring in our fight to see the gospel flourish in every part of our society. How it would motivate us to take the gospel to the ends of the earth! What the church needs today is what it needs in every era, that is to truly know God.

Something to think about from the “Kingdom Perspective”.

Don’t count on it. Jesus said that many will come to him on that final day and say Lord look at all these good and wonderful things that we did. But listen to Jesus’ reply to their false confidence: “Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” Is not the implication clear? Whether or not you really know God has eternal consequences.

2 Thessalonians 1:8 & 9 is likewise quite clear, “[Jesus] will punish those who do not KNOW God…with everlasting destruction.” Knowing God is a matter of heaven and hell. Nothing could be more important. Is there anything more important to you?

Something to think about from the “Kingdom Perspective”.

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

~Matthew 7:21-23

Transforming Grace: A Whole New Way of Living Before God preached by Pastor Don Willeman

Time of Reflection Quotations

“Men cannot get off from the notion, that it is for some goodness or service of their own, either done or expected to be done, that God accepts and receives them into favor.”
~Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) in his sermon

“Pardon for the Greatest Sinners” (Psalm 25:11)

“For Your name’s sake, O Lord,
Pardon my iniquity, for it is great.”

~Psalm 25:11 (NASB)

“All those who do not at all times trust God and do not in all their works or sufferings, life and death, trust in His favor, grace and good-will, but seek His favor in other things or in themselves, do not keep this [First] Commandment, and practice real idolatry, even if they were to do the works of all the other Commandments, and in addition had all the prayers, obedience, patience, and chastity of all the saints combined. For the chief work is not present, without which all the others are nothing but mere sham, show and pretense, with nothing back of them… If we doubt or do not believe that God is gracious to us and is pleased with us, or if we presumptuously expect to please Him only through and after our works, then it is all pure deception, outwardly honoring God, but inwardly setting up self as a false [savior]…”

~Martin Luther (1483-1546) from “A Treatise on Good Works”

“Outwardly you keep the law with works out of fear of punishment or love of gain. Likewise you do everything without free desire and love of the law; you act out of aversion and force. You’d rather act otherwise if the law didn’t exist. It follows, then, that you, in the depths of your heart, are an enemy of the law.”

~Martin Luther from the preface to his Commentary on Romans

“The truth is not in the middle, and not in one extreme, but in both extremes.”

~Charles Simeon (1759-1836), English clergyman

Sermon Passage

1 John 1:5-10

      5 This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; 7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.

I John 4:10, 16-21

      10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

      16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. 19 We love, because He first loved us. 20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

1 John 5:1-4, 21

      1Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. 4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

      21 Little children, guard yourselves from idols.

A statement by some Christians from another era I think is helpful at this point. When asked what the meaning or purpose of life was they said, “To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” Much could be said regarding the richness of this statement but at least one thing must be emphasized. To them meaning or purpose in life is found in relation to God. Our purpose as human beings is to maximize our relationship with the Supreme Being—to enjoy Him, to glorify Him, to KNOW Him.

We were made to enjoy God. You can’t enjoy someone you don’t know. Maybe the reason you don’t enjoy your relationship with God is because you don’t really know Him.

Now that’s worth thinking about from the “Kingdom Perspective”.

A.W. Tozer said that the most important thing about a person is what they think about God. Your view, your perception of your Creator is more critical than anything else. How you answer the questions: “What do you think about God? Who do think God is? And What do you think God is like?” says more about you than anything else.

So have you though lately about your understanding of God? How well do you understand the One who made you and whom you claim to worship? Do you really know God?

Something to think about from the “Kingdom Perspective”.

Transforming Hope: How the Gospel Changes Us preached by Pastor Don Willeman

Time of Reflection Quotations

“Every man is worth just so much as the things he busies himself with.”

~Marcus Aurelius (121-180),
Roman Emperor and stoic philosopher

“Man staggers through life yapped at by his reason, pulled and shoved by his appetites, whispered to by fears, beckoned by hopes. Small wonder that what he craves most is self-forgetting.”

~Eric Hoffer (1902-1983), American social philosopher

“An empty head is not really empty; it is stuffed with rubbish. Hence the difficulty of forcing anything into an empty head.”

~Eric Hoffer

“Disappointment is a sort of bankruptcy—the bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and expectation.”

~Eric Hoffer

“Pessimism is the refusal to live in the hope of glory.”

~Os Guinness (1941-present), author and sociologist

“The problem with modern people is that they have too much to live with and too little to live for.”

~Os Guinness

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

~Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

Sermon Passage

1 John (NASB)
Chapter 2

      28 Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming. 29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him.

Chapter 3

      1See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

Colossians 3:1-5 (ESV)

      1If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

      5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

But what does this boast gain us in our status before God? Jeremiah records these penetrating words. “This is what the LORD says: ‘Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD….” (Jeremiah 9). From God’s perspective nothing else really matters except knowing Him.

So what’s your private boast? Do you have God’s perspective on what really matters?

Something to think about from the “Kingdom Perspective”.

Jesus at the end of his life had this to say, “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” (John 17:3) The implication is clear. If you want to have eternal life then you must KNOW God and therefore KNOW Jesus. Indeed “eternal life” is made synonymous with knowing God. KNOWING GOD IS ETERNAL LIFE.

Have you ever thought much about the state of your relationship with God? Do you know whether or not you know God at all? Nothing could be more critical if you desire the reality of eternal life.

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

The Transforming Love of God preached by Pastor Don Willeman

Time of Reflection Quotations

“There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance.”

~John Lennon (1940-1980)

“The people who heard Jesus’ disciples proclaiming the Good News were as impressed by what they saw as by what they heard. They saw lives that had been transformed—men and women who were ordinary in every way except for the fact that they seemed to have found the secret of living. They evinced a tranquility, simplicity, and cheerfulness that their hearers had nowhere else encountered…

“The only power that can effect transformations of the order we have described is love…

“God’s love is precisely what the first Christians did feel. They had experienced Jesus’ love and had become convinced that Jesus was God incarnate. Once that love reached them, it could not be stopped. Melting the barriers of fear, guilt, and self-centeredness, it poured through them like a torrential stream and heightened the love they had hitherto felt for others to the point where the difference in degree became a difference in kind. A new quality, Christian love, was born. Conventional love is evoked by lovable qualities in the beloved, but the love people encountered from Christ embraced sinners and outcasts, Samaritans and enemies. It gave, not prudentially in order to receive, but because giving was its nature.”

~Huston Smith (1919-present), Religious Studies scholar

“This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.”

~A paraphrase of 1 John 4:10 by Eugene Peterson (The Message)

Sermon Passage

1 John 4:10-5:5 (NASB)

     10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

     15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. 19 We love, because He first loved us. 20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

Chapter 5

     1 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. 4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

     5 Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Knowing is Half the Battle preached by Kevin Schwartz

Time of Reflection Quotations

“Ultimately, many of the lost and the confused and the separated found themselves and their loved ones at the Boylston Street end of the Public Garden. There was a general milling about and, for a moment, it almost seemed as though the spirit of the day had been recaptured, until you realized that a lot of this joy was about finding out your wife or your son wasn’t maimed, and until you saw the people sitting alone, their backs against the trees, staring up through the branches as if they were hanging prayers on every one of them.”

~Charlie Pierce (1953- present), American sportswriter

“Do you mortify? Do you make it your daily work? You must always be at it while you live; do not take a day off from this work; always be killing sin or it will be killing you.”

~John Owen (1681-1683, On the Mortification of Sin

“The Christian way is different: harder, and easier. Christ says, ‘Give me All…I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. I don’t want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked-the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.’”

~C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), Mere Christianity

Sermon Passage

1 John 5:16-21 (ESV)

     16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.

     18 We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.

     19 We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

     20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. 21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

Knowing that You Know preached by Pastor Don Willeman

Time of Reflection Quotations

“If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name in a Swiss bank.”

~Woody Allen

“We are speaking not of an irrational leap into the unknown, but of the responsible acceptance of a personal invitation: ‘Follow me.’”

~Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), British theologian and missionary to India,
in Truth and Authority in Modernity

“Jesus does not give recipes that show the way to God as other teachers of religion do. He is Himself the way.”

~Karl Barth (1886-1968), Swiss theologian

“By knowing God we come to love him, and my loving him we come to know him.”

~Ellen T. Charry, contemporary Princeton professor and theologian

“The truth is not in the middle, and not in one extreme, but in both extremes.”

~Charles Simeon (1759-1836), English clergyman

Sermon Passage

Selections from 1 John (NASB)
Chapter 1

     1 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life— 2 and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us— 3 what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. 4 These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.

     5 This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; 7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

Chapter 2

     3 By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; 5 but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected…

Chapter 3

     23 This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.

Chapter 4

     2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God…

     7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

Chapter 5

     11 And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.

     13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

     20 And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

God of Love, God of Judgement. Is God Schizophrenic? preached by Michael Ramsden of the Oxford Center for Christian Apologetics

Time of Reflection Quotations

“Reason’s last step is the recognition that there are an infinite number of things which are beyond it. It is merely feeble if it does not go as far as to realize that.”

“Two excesses: to exclude reason, to admit nothing but reason.”

~Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), French thinker

“There is a feeling that we lack something important. I have had many discussions with American students who had this feeling…They felt they lacked something in life. Not necessarily the church…[T]he need for something spiritual goes beyond our consumerist society. I think it’s widespread all over the world. So I don’t expect, as many people did in the 18th century and beyond, that religion will vanish. I don’t believe it will vanish.”

~ Leszek Kolakowski (1927-2009), Polish-born philosopher,
historian and humanist scholar

“God’s vengeance did not fall on the sinners, but on the only sinless one, the Son of God, who stood in the place of sinners, Jesus Christ bore the vengeance of God…That was the end of all false thoughts about the love of a God who does not take sin very seriously. God hates and judges [his enemies] in the only righteous one, the one who prays for forgiveness for God’s enemies. Only in the cross of Jesus Christ is the love of God to be found.”

~Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), pastor-theologian,
executed in a concentration camp for his opposition to the Nazis

“The essence of sin is we human beings substituting ourselves for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for us. We…put ourselves where only God deserves to be; God puts himself where we deserved to be.”

~John Stott (1921-2011), famed theologian
and rector of All Souls Church in London

“Let us wonder; grace and justice
Join and point to mercy’s store;
When through grace in Christ our trust is,
Justice smiles and asks no more.”

~John Newton (1725-1807), Anglican pastor

Sermon Passage

Jonah 4:1-4 (NIV)

     1But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the LORD, “Isn’t this what I said, LORD, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

     4 But the LORD replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

Sermon

The Resurrection Account preached by Pastor Don Willeman

Time of Reflection Quotations

“The function of man is to live, not to exist.”

~Jack London (1876-1916), American author

“If being a kid is about learning how to live, then being a grown-up is about learning how to die.”

~Stephen King, American novelist

“The Resurrection…is not a redemption from the creation but the redemption of the creation.”

~Ken Myers, cultural commentator

“…The majority of New Testament scholars today, not conservatives, not fundamentalists, concur with the facts of Jesus’ honorable burial, his empty tomb, his postmortem appearances, and the origin of the disciples’ belief in his resurrection. This is a surprising truth, not widely appreciated by non-specialists.”

~William Lane Craig, American philosopher and theologian

“The evidence for the resurrection is better than for claimed miracles in any other religion. It’s outstandingly different in quality and quantity…from the evidence offered for the occurrence of most other supposedly miraculous events. But you must remember that I approached it after considerable reading of reports of psychical research and its criticisms. This showed me how quickly evidence of remarkable and supposedly miraculous events can be discredited.”

~Antony Flew (1923-2010), British philosopher
and arguably the foremost academic atheist in the latter half of the 20th century

“The problem with modern people is that they have too much to live with and too little to live for.”

~Os Guinness, author and social commentator

Sermon Passage

Luke 23:50-24:12 (NASB)

     50 And a man named Joseph, who was a member of the Council, a good and righteous man 51 (he had not consented to their plan and action), a man from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who was waiting for the kingdom of God; 52 this man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. 53 And he took it down and wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid Him in a tomb cut into the rock, where no one had ever lain. 54 It was the preparation day, and the Sabbath was about to begin. 55 Now the women who had come with Him out of Galilee followed, and saw the tomb and how His body was laid. 56 Then they returned and prepared spices and perfumes.

     And on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.

Chapter 24

      1But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. 2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing; 5 and as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living One among the dead? 6 He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, 7 saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.” 8 And they remembered His words, 9 and returned from the tomb and reported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. 10 Now they were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James; also the other women with them were telling these things to the apostles. 11 But these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them. 12 But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings only; and he went away to his home, marveling at what had happened.

The Triumphal Entries preached by Lindsay Whaley

Time of Reflection Quotations

“All who call on God in true faith, earnestly from the heart, will certainly be heard, and will receive what they have asked and desired.”

~Martin Luther (1483–1546)

“Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.”

~St. Augustine (354-430)

“Palm Sunday tells us that…it is the cross that is the true tree of life.”

~Benedict XVI, Pope Emeritus (1927-present)

“Trust a crowd to look at the wrong end of a miracle every time.”

~Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007), American author

“God loveth adverbs and careth not how good, but how well.”

~Joseph Hall (1574-1656), Puritan preacher

Sermon Passage

Mark 10:46-11:11 (ESV)

     46 And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. 47 And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48 And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 49 And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart. Get up; he is calling you.” 50 And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. 51 And Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” And the blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight.” 52 And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.

Chapter 11

     1Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples 2 and said to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. 3 If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.’” 4 And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it. 5 And some of those standing there said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” 6 And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go. 7 And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. 8 And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. 9 And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!”

     11 And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

On the Witness Stand preached by Markes Wilson

Time of Reflection Quotations

“But witnesses incur responsibilities, as anyone who has ever seen a traffic accident and had to go to court to testify, knows. In the new world of globally televised war crimes, the defence of ‘not knowing,’ or neutrality, will dissolve for everyone. To be a witness or bystander is not a value-free choice but, inadvertently, a moral position; and in this sense the ‘guilt’ of people who live with the memory of crimes committed by members of their families, or communities, has been unwittingly extended to everyone who watches appalling pictures on the news.”

~Erna Paris (1938-present), Long Shadows: Truth, Lies and History

“Even on the cross He did not hide Himself from sight; rather, He made all creation witness to the presence of its Maker.”

~ St. Athanasius of Alexandria (296-373), On the Incarnation

“I don’t pray because it doesn’t work. Prayer doesn’t fix anything. Bad things happen anyway.”

~ Nicholas Sparks, Three Weeks With My Brother

“We tend to use prayer as a last resort, but God wants it to be our first line of defense. We pray when there’s nothing else we can do, but God wants us to pray before we do anything at all. Most of us would prefer, however, to spend our time doing something that will get immediate results. We don’t want to wait for God to resolve matters in His good time because His idea of ‘good time’ is seldom in sync with ours.”

~Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)

Sermon Passage

1 John 5:5-15 (NASB)

     5 Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? 6 This is the One who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7 For there are three that testify: 8 the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. 9 If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for the testimony of God is this, that He has testified concerning His Son. 10 The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son. 11 And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.

     13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. 14 This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.

Faith that Overcomes the World preached by Ryan Bouton
Sermon recording will be available after 3/17.

Time of Reflection Quotations

“What has changed is the modern world. The rise of the Modern World through the Industrial Revolution is so powerful, so pervasive, and so pressurizing that you can barely get away from it. The world is so powerful today that what’s surprising is there’s almost no world-denying branches of the Christian faith left. Evangelicalism used to be very attentive about worldliness, but no longer cares about it much today.”

~Os Guinness, contemporary Christian thinker

“Worldliness is that system of values, in any given age, which has at its center our fallen human perspective, which displaces God and his truth from the world, and which makes sin look normal and righteousness seem strange. It thus gives great plausibility to what is morally wrong and, for that reason, makes what is wrong seem normal.”

~David Wells, Losing Our Virtue

“Even in peacetime I think those are very wrong who say that schoolboys should be encouraged to read the newspapers. Nearly all that a boy reads there in his teens will be known before he is twenty to have been false in emphasis and interpretation, if not in fact as well, and most of it will have lost all importance. Most of what he remembers he will therefore have to unlearn; and he will probably have acquired an incurable taste for vulgarity and sensationalism and the fatal habit of fluttering from paragraph to paragraph to learn how an actress has been divorced in California, a train derailed in France, and quadruplets born in New Zealand.”

~C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy

“All of the testimonies that I had heard up to this point were egocentric and filled with pride. Aren’t I the smarty-pants for choosing Christ! I made a decision for Christ, aren’t I great? I committed my life to Christ, aren’t I better than those heathens who haven’t? This whole line of thinking is both pervasive among evangelical Christians and absurd. My whole body recoiled against this line of thinking. I’m proof of the pudding. I didn’t choose Christ. Nobody chooses Christ. Christ chooses you or you’re dead. After Christ chooses you, you respond because you must. Period. It’s not a pretty story.”

~Rosaria Butterfield, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert

“Negotiations and love songs are often mistaken for one and the same…
The thought that life could be better is woven indelibly
Into our hearts and our brains.”

~Paul Simon, “Train in the Distance”

Sermon Passage

1 John 5:1-5 (ESV)

     1Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. 4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Keep Calm and Carry On preached by Kevin Schwartz

Time of Reflection Quotations

“But in Huxley’s vision [Brave New World], no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think…Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance…Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy…Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.”

~Neil Postman, foreword to Amusing Ourselves to Death

“The paradox of hospitality is that it wants to create emptiness, not a fearful emptiness, but a friendly emptiness where strangers can enter and discover themselves as created free; free to sing their own songs, speak their own languages, dance their own dances; free also to leave and follow their own vocations. Hospitality is not a subtle invitation to adopt the life style of the host, but the gift of a chance for the guest to find his own.”

~ Henri J.M. Nouwen (1932-1996), Reaching Out

“Spending time in God’s presence doesn’t weaken the body. Leaving the seemingly innocent and permissible pleasure of the world for a time will, on the contrary, give us comfort. In fact, God won’t allow a soul that is searching for Him to be comforted anywhere other than with him. So it makes sense to sacrifice ourselves for some time in His presence.”

~Brother Lawrence (1614-1619) in The Practice of the Presence of God

Sermon Passage

1 Peter 4:1-11 (ESV)

     1Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2 so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. 3 For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. 4 With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; 5 but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.

     7 The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. 8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: 11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

The Practice of Words preached by Pastor Don Willeman

Time of Reflection Quotations

“There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance.”

~John Lennon

“The people who heard Jesus’ disciples proclaiming the Good News were as impressed by what they saw as by what they heard. They saw lives that had been transformed– men and women who were ordinary in every way except for the fact that they seemed to have found the secret of living. They evinced a tranquility, simplicity, and cheerfulness that their hearers had nowhere else encountered…”

“The only power that can effect transformations of the order we have described is love…”

“God’s love is precisely what the first Christians did feel. They had experienced Jesus’ love and had become convinced that Jesus was God incarnate. Once that love reached them, it could not be stopped. Melting the barriers of fear, guilt, and self-centeredness, it poured through them like a torrential stream and heightened the love they had hitherto felt for others to the point where the difference in degree became a difference in kind. A new quality, Christian love, was born. Conventional love is evoked by lovable qualities in the beloved, but the love people encountered from Christ embraced sinners and outcasts, Samaritans and enemies. It gave, not prudentially in order to receive, but because giving was its nature.”

~Huston Smith, contemporary Religious Studies scholar

Sermon Passages

Ephesians 4:25, 29-32 (ESV)

      25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.

      29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Proverbs 12:18 (ESV)

      18 There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts,

     but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

Proverbs 18:24 (ESV)

      24 Death and life are in the power of the tongue…

Matthew 12:34b-37 (ESV)

      34 “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. 36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Victory in the One True King preached by Steve Thiel

Time of Reflection Quotations

“There is a feeling that we lack something important. I have had many discussions with American students who had this feeling, even if they were not brought up in a religious tradition. They were attracted…quite independently of their upbringing. They felt they lacked something in life. Not necessarily the church. But the need for something spiritual goes beyond our consumerist society. I think it’s widespread all over the world. So I don’t expect, as many people did in the 18th century and beyond, that religion will vanish. I don’t believe it will vanish. And I hope it will not.”

~ Leszek Kolakowski (1927-2009), Polish-born philosopher,
historian and humanist scholar

“The sermon which does not lead to Christ, or of which Jesus Christ is not the top and the bottom, is a sort of sermon that will make the devils in hell laugh, but make the angels of God weep.”

~Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892), famed London preacher

“When David was young in years he was old in experience, because he had watched the hand of the Lord in its dealings with him. He had not been an idler among the hills, but a worshipper, a worker, a student, a practical, living man of God . . . thus he gained his experience by the active discharge of his duty as a shepherd. He did what he was called upon to do with holy daring, and in so doing he learned the faithfulness of God. Many men have lions and bears, but no experience.”

“The lazy-bones of our orthodox churches cry, ‘God will do his own work’; and then they look out the softest pillow they can find, and put it under their heads, and say, ‘The eternal purposes will be carried out: God will be glorified.’ That is all very fine talk, but it can be used with the most mischievous design. You can make opium out of it, which will lull you into a deep and dreadful slumber, and prevent your being of any kind of use at all.”

~Charles Spurgeon in a sermon on the biblical story of David & Goliath

Sermon Passage

1 Samuel 17:1-58 (NASB)

Sermon Outline

SERMON THEME: Victory over sin, death, and the devil only comes by sharing in the victory already won for us by the One True King, Jesus Christ, who stands for His people.

I. King Engages the Battle (17:1-40)
     A. Philistine champion challenges God’s army (vs. 1-11)
     B. Lowly shepherd boy sent to the battle (vs. 12-19)
     C. David hears Goliath taunting the living God (vs. 20-30)
     D. One true anointed king engages the fight (vs. 31-40)

II. King Conquers the Enemy (17:41-58)

     A. Purpose stated – Battle is the Lord’s (vs. 41-47)
     B. Plan executed – Serpent’s head crushed (vs. 48-51)
     C. People rewarded – Partake in King’s victory (vs. 52-58)

III. King Offers His Victory to All

     A. Clarity on the true enemy of our soul
     B. Confidence in our fight against sin
     C. Courage to plunder the enemy’s house