Brian's Sermons

Yesterday we looked at Judas Iscariot, the villain of Holy Week. It is easy to describe him as the villain among the disciples, as he did the unthinkable; he betrayed Jesus to his death. Today we look at another disciple, Simon Peter. John 1:41-42 records when Peter first met Jesus. Peter’s brother, Andrew was a follower of John the Baptist. They were together when John saw Jesus and pointed him out. “Look, the Lamb of God!” The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter). Cephas, or Peter, is translated “the Rock.” So Jesus renamed Simon “the Rock.” One of my favorite stories about Peter comes in Matthew 14. Jesus sent his disciples across the lake in a boat and went to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, and the boat w...

1One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, 2he saw at the water's edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 3He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch." 5Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets." 6When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 7So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. 8When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am...

For the last two weeks, we’ve been talking about discipleship – the mission of the church is making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world . We recognized that to make disciples of Jesus Christ, we must first be his disciples. We have to count the cost and commit ourselves fully to being his disciples. Last week we acknowledged that discipleship is messy, that it’s not linear, and that it doesn’t look all that "churchy." The end goal of discipleship is for the disciple to look, think, and behave like his rabbi. If we are following Jesus, our goal is to look like Jesus: we call that process sanctification. But here’s what we believe: we believe that if we each become more and more like Jesus, the result will be the transformation of the world. Paul wrote to the Romans (12:1-2) Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform...

Peter turned around and saw behind them the disciple Jesus loved—the one who had leaned over to Jesus during supper and asked, “Lord, who will betray you?” Peter asked Jesus, “What about him, Lord?” Jesus replied, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? As for you, follow me.” So the rumor spread among the community of believers that this disciple wouldn’t die. But that isn’t what Jesus said at all. He only said, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?” John 21:20-23 “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” Some of you may have noticed that I’m a competitive guy. If you haven’t noticed that yet, I’ll invite you to come with me to play some pick-up soccer with my friends. Then you won’t be able to miss how competitive I am. It’s not just that I hate to lose, which I do, but I hate to not be the best. That competitive spirit has always driven me to do my best – I can remember in pract...