Brian's Sermons

On Maundy Thursday, we celebrate Communion with Jesus and His disciples. Some of his disciples are pretty well known, but others aren't well-known outside of the biblical record. But tradition is rich with what they did following Jesus' resurrection. Celebrating Communion with Jesus' disciples gives us insight into who they were, and though most of them fell away (only John stuck around for the crucifixion), and Peter famously denied even knowing Jesus, they went on to change the world. Simon Peter: Native of Galilee, was a fisherman with his father, Jonas, and his brother, Andrew. He was originally a disciple of John the Baptist, but his brother, Andrew, came to him with good news: “We have found the Messiah!” So he goes to meet Jesus, who immediately gives him the nickname, “Cephas” or “Peter” (meaning “Rock”). He was one of Jesus’ closest friends and followers and he became the regular spokesman for the disciples, taking a place of leadership among them. It was Pete...

Good Friday Community Service Everything started exactly right. Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden, with God as their God and friend. But you know the story; they sinned, and the entire world felt the sting. Separation from God ensued. The God of the Universe pursued His creation, created from nobody a people, a people He would bless to be a blessing to the world. The Lord would be their God and they would be His people. God led Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Later, God called Moses to lead His people out of Egyptian captivity – leading Israel in a cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night. But in the last five chapters of the book of Judges, three times we find the phrase: “in those days Israel had no king.” This is an important designation, because a king was not simply the ruler of his people. In the Ancient Near East, a king didn’t function quite like a king or ruler might function today. It was the universal understanding that the king was not the top dog – the deity w...

Matthew 21:1-11 Today is Palm Sunday, and with Palm Sunday, we begin Holy Week, when we recognize the immense sacrifice that Jesus made for us. But Holy Week doesn’t start with resurrection; neither does it start with crucifixion. Holy Week starts with coronation. I will get more into this on Friday at our Lenten service at noon. But as we look at this text, the first thing that stands out to me is that this is a story of obedience . Jesus told the disciples to do something, and instead of asking questions like, “Did you already clear this with the owner of the donkey?” they simply obeyed. I love the verse that says, “The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them.” When I’m talking with church people, one thing I hear a lot is “I don’t really know the Bible all that well.” While I agree that our culture is almost entirely biblically illiterate, this is usually a cop-out. Here’s an example: Jesus commanded (not asked) his followers to “ go and make disciples of a...

Psalm 51:16-19 When I chose Psalm 51 for the scripture for my first Sunday back from vacation, I had no idea that it would be a three-part series. I thought I would cover Psalm 51 in one sermon. .. As it is, we are in our third week on Psalm 51 and the plan is to finish up today. Next Sunday we will celebrate Palm Sunday, and Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, Thursday evening at 7 we will celebrate Communion and look into the lives of Jesus’ Twelve Disciples, and Friday at noon we will gather with the community churches next door at the Presbyterian Church and look at Jesus’ coronation ceremony. Then it will be Easter, time to celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! We started in Psalm 51, looking at the human condition, selfish, unholy, and full of sin – we stand in desperate need for God’s intervention. Last week we looked into the celebration that happens when lost people come to Christ – and how we are saved so we can have an impact on their lives, so ...

Psalm 51, part 2: Saved for Celebration Psalm 51:11-15 Last week we ended with the reminder that Christianity isn’t about what we do or how much we have done, because we are all sinners by nature and we can never do enough to somehow appease God or to outweigh our “naughty” list with our “nice.” Christianity is not a religion of “do” – it’s a relationship with Jesus, who has already “done” what we could not do. We are in Psalm 51, the song David wrote after the prophet Nathan confronted him with his sin after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba. As we return to the text, let’s take a moment in prayer. In college, my indoor soccer team was playing for the league championship. Late in the game, the opponents were rushing toward the goal. I was the last defender back. As the guy with the ball passed the ball across the goal toward his wide-open teammate, I stuck my foot out… and the ball bounced off my foot, past our goalkeeper, and into the goal. We lost the champion...

It’s not my fault. Someone else is to blame. I would never have done that. I’m the victim here. These are not new claims; in fact, they are the oldest excuses in the book – the Bible, that is. They go all the way back to Genesis, when Satan tempted Adam and Eve and Adam blames Eve and Eve blames the snake… It seems like the same thing gets repeated again and again and again and as we repeat it, we get better at it. We even start to believe it ourselves! The more we tell a story, the truer we think it is. And one story we tell a lot is “it isn’t my fault.” If you don’t know the back story behind Psalm 51, in 2 Samuel 11, King David was at the height of his power, but in the Spring, when kings go to war, David was lollygagging around the palace, spying on a neighbor woman bathing. He acted upon his urges, got her pregnant, tried to cover it up by bringing her husband home from war, but when he wouldn’t sleep with her, David had the husband killed in the war. He felt pretty ...