Brian's Sermons

Rarely has there been a clearer villain. He was hand-picked by Jesus as a disciple, one of only twelve to be in Jesus’ inner circle of closest friends. Yet he betrayed Jesus to his death. It can be easy to simply dismiss Judas as the “bad guy” in the story, but as with everyone, his story is much deeper than simply the villain. As I reminded you yesterday, there was a reason Jesus chose Judas to be one of the Twelve. The Twelve regularly went on mission, healing the sick, driving out demons, preaching the Gospel, and there is nothing to indicate that Judas was not a part of this ministry. He was so much a part of the Twelve that John 13:29 indicates that he became their treasurer. Jesus saw him as a follower and a disciple and even among the disciples, Judas had a position of leadership. Unfortunately the Bible does not record Judas doing much more that we can call positive. In John 12:3-5, we see Mary taking a expensive bottle of perfume and anointing Jesus’ feet wit...

Matthew 16:13-16 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”   Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”   As we begin these forty days of Lent, the preparation for Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, I am arranging my sermons around the topic “Seven Essential Questions.” These are questions that are most important in the life of Christians. The first question we will look at is “who is Jesus?” I get confused for different people all the time. Last year, when I was in the USA, I got an American SIM card for my phone. Instantly, I started getting SMSs. “Happy Birthday!” “I haven’t seen you in a long time. Just wanted to make sure you’re ok. And Happy Birthday!” “Hey man, wanna party...

Luke 18:35-43 One of the worst feelings in the world is when you can’t find something – you know you just had it, but now you can’t find it. What’s worse is when it is right in front of you and you still can’t find it. About 20 years ago, there was a fad – 3D hidden pictures. The idea was if you looked hard enough at the right angle, then you would see a hidden picture. Honestly, I could almost never see the picture and I always wondered if there really was one. The idea that someone else could see what I couldn’t always drove me nuts. But it’s a mainstay in Jesus’ ministry; sometimes it seems like the least likely were the ones who saw things the most clearly. In the passage immediately before the one I read today, (Luke 18:31-34) Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the Prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flo...

John 11:1-44 They say that the two things we can count on in this life are death and taxes.  And although it’s almost taboo to talk about death in our culture, I’m sure not touching taxes with a ten foot pole.  So we’re stuck talking about death. Think about how hard it is to talk about death; we have all sorts of phrases we use to avoid even saying the word.  “passed away” “passed on” “went to be with the LORD” or (Tara’s grandfather’s old favorite) “six feet under.”  We have our bodies embalmed and we say things at funerals like “oh, she looks so natural!” – and sometimes it’s true.  Our culture is obsessed with looking younger and staving off old age.  Just ask a woman how old she is… or maybe don’t!  But here’s the deal: we’re mortal.  We will all die.  The only thing we can be absolutely certain of is that this life always ends with death.  And I don’t think we like that much.  So we do everything we can to avoid even the t...

John 6:1-15, 25-40 One of the great things about college ministry was that it was relatively easy to attract college students.  All you had to do was put up a sign that said, “Free pizza.” Everyone loves free food. I remember a really cool promotion held by Carmen’s pizza, the best Chicago deep-dish pizza place in Evanston (where I went to college) – during the first week of school, if you showed your student ID, proving you were a freshman, you got as much free pizza as you could eat.  The line was a block long. But college students aren’t the only ones who love free food.  Somewhat routinely, Chipotle offers free burritos (if you showed up on Halloween dressed like a burrito, you’d get a free one).  The first time I experienced this, we were driving by and saw a sign proclaiming “free burritos today” and of course we stopped! People were waiting for 45 minutes in a thunderstorm to get free food! Free food is always a draw.  But as this crowd gathered, th...

4th message in our series: Putting the Pieces Together: a Journey toward mature discipleship*. Rabbi Edwin Friedman tells the story of a man on a journey. As he hurried along toward his destination, he came to a bridge that crossed high over a dangerous river. After starting across the bridge, he noticed someone coming from the opposite direction. As the stranger came to greet him, the man realized that he had a rope wrapped many times around his waist. The stranger began to unwrap the rope as he walked. Just as the two were about to meet, the stranger said, "Pardon me, would you be so kind as to hold the end of the rope for me?" The man agreed, and, without a thought, reached out and took it. "Thank you," said the stranger. Then he added, "Two hands now, and remember, hold on tight." At that, the stranger jumped off the bridge. "What are you trying to do?" he shouted to the stranger. "Just hold tight," came the reply. "If you let...

...for they will be called children of God. Matthew 5:9 When I was a little boy, I had a definite role in my family. I was the peacemaker, being able to get along well with both my brother and my sister. Unfortunately my methodology was often suspect. My preschool teacher reported that I needed to learn to solve my problems verbally instead of physically! It’s kind of like the fraternity brother and college roommate I had who proclaimed, “I’m a pacifist. If you don’t believe me, I’ll fight you to prove it to you.” You may laugh at those images, but that’s the kind of Messiah that Israel was awaiting. They were looking for someone in the line and character of King David, one who would destroy Israel’s enemies in order to bring peace to Jerusalem. Remember that in Jesus’ time, Israel was an occupied state. They didn’t even have their own sovereignty; they were ruled by Rome. Jesus had something else in mind when he talked about peace. In John 14, Jesus told his disciples that when he lef...