This sermon is the second of two on Sola Scriptura, the classic Protestant (and ancient church) doctrine that the Bible is the ultimate authority guiding Christian faith and practice. I contrast this doctrine with ideas put forward by Adam Hamilton in his recent book Making Sense of the Bible . From my perspective, Hamilton is dangerously off-base.As with my previous sermon, I hope to inspire confidence that the Bible is, as Wesley said, "infallibly true"—every word of it—and that we can built o...
Oct 11, 2017•29 min
As we look forward to the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation on October 31, this sermon is about the classic Protestant doctrine of Sola Scriptura, "scripture alone"—which means that the Bible is the ultimate authority guiding our Christian faith and practice. Of course, in our culture today, the Bible's authority is under constant attack. It's even under attack in the church, including the United Methodist Church!With that mind, I pray that these next two sermons on Sola Scriptura ...
Oct 10, 2017•23 min
In today’s scripture, Jesus wants to feed approximately 15,000 people (5,000 men plus women and children). So he asks Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” He’s asking him, John says, in order to “test him.” What was the test? To see whether his disciples believed that in Christ, they had enough. Do we present-day disciples believe that?I preached this sermon on the Sunday in which our church, Hampton United Methodist, packaged over 10,000 meals for hungry people aro...
Oct 04, 2017•28 min
My previous sermon was about the classic Protestant doctrine of justification by faith alone. But that sermon didn't mention the 800-lb. gorilla in the room: What about good works? Don't they play a necessary role? In fact, doesn't the apostle James warn that "a person is justified by works and not faith alone" (v. 24)? Is James contradicting Paul? This sermon answers these questions.
Oct 03, 2017•35 min
Five hundred years ago this October 31, Martin Luther inadvertently launched the Protestant Reformation when he nailed his “Ninety-five Theses” to the door of the All Saints Church in Wittenberg. One of his core convictions, derived from scripture, is that we are justified by faith alone. We Methodists share his conviction that we can do nothing to earn or merit God’s saving grace. It is only on the basis of what Christ has done through his life, death, and resurrection that we’re saved. Why doe...
Sep 21, 2017•29 min
The following sermon is the last in my sermon series on 1 Peter. It’s mostly about our adversary, the devil, who, Peter tells us, “prowls around (J)like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” I begin my making the case for the reality of Satan and demons before talking about a couple of ways—through seemingly “small” sins (!) of pride and anxiety—that he gets a foothold in our lives.
Sep 15, 2017•28 min
This sermon is about Second Coming of Jesus Christ. I chose to preach this doctrine because of Peter's words in 1 Peter 4:7a: "The end of all things is at hand." Does this mean that Peter expected that the Second Coming would happen at any moment? Probably not. He knew, based on the teaching of Jesus, that there were signs in history that must occur before that happened. I explore these signs and talk about the most important thing we Christians should do while we wait.
Sep 07, 2017•35 min
This sermon is unusual for me because it’s about one verse, 1 Peter 4:6, which includes strange words about the gospel being “preached to those who are dead.” What does that mean? One thing it doesn’t mean, as I argue in this sermon, is that people get a second chance to hear and respond to the gospel even after they die. No, the time to receive God’s gift of salvation is now.
Aug 22, 2017•33 min
The first question-and-answer of the Westminster Shorter Catechism tells us that the chief end of man is “to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” The apostle Peter would surely agree. As he puts it in today’s scripture, we are to “live for the will of God.” Yet don’t we often push God to the periphery of our lives? I pray that this sermon inspires us to put God back at the center.
Aug 16, 2017•32 min
Today’s sermon deals mostly with what many scholars consider the most difficult verse in the New Testament, 1 Peter 3:19, which says that sometime after his death, Christ “went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison.” This verse has been used as a proof-text for a part of the Apostles’ Creed that we United Methodists no longer say: “[Christ] descended into hell.” But is that what it means? This sermon will help us figure it out.
Aug 16, 2017•38 min
The Christians to whom the apostle Peter was writing were willing to risk everything for the sake of their faith in Christ. Why? Because they understood how high the stakes were: People they knew and loved were living and dying apart from a saving relationship with God through Christ. What about us? Do we live as if we understand those stakes?
Aug 03, 2017•33 min
Like so much of 1 Peter, today's scripture is about unjust suffering. As I point out in this sermon, we American Christians likely won't face much suffering for our faith, yet our fear of suffering often prevents us from witnessing boldly to our faith. The difficult truth, as Peter makes clear, is that God sometimes wants us to suffer and to do so being "mindful of God." What does that mean and how can being "mindful of God" help us to suffer well? This sermon answers this question.
Aug 03, 2017•34 min
Our scripture today, Luke 15:25-32, tells the story of the older son in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. As this sermon makes clear, we Christians—who are justified by faith alone through grace alone—can easily slip into the "religious" mindset all over again: we believe that we have to earn our place in God's family.
Jul 13, 2017•37 min
For Father's Day, I began a two-part series on the Parable of the Prodigal Son, otherwise known as the Parable of the Loving Father. This sermon focuses on the more popular part of the parable: the story of the younger son, from Luke 15:11-24. Even six or seven years ago, I thought the younger son's story was for new converts to the faith—that it didn't "apply" to those of us who have been Christians for a while. Of course, now I see how foolish that is. In this sermon, I challenge us to think a...
Jul 11, 2017•41 min
"Lifestyle evangelism" is often maligned among evangelical Christians, yet Peter makes clear that it is a powerful and necessary component for effective witnessing. How do we do it? Mostly by being in love with Jesus. Are we? Our scripture for this sermon is 1 Peter 2:11-17.
Jul 10, 2017•33 min
This sermon, preached on Pentecost Sunday, emphasizes the person and power of the Holy Spirit in the church. Peter tells us that we are a holy priesthood that offers "spiritual sacrifices." I explore the nature of these sacrifices, especially as they relate to witnessing—or as Peter puts it, "proclaiming the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."
Jul 10, 2017•30 min
"Long for the pure spiritual milk," Peter writes—by which he means the "milk of the word," as the King James puts it. In other words, as God's children, we should long for the gospel, for God's Word, and for God's kingdom. As I discuss in this sermon, we can't fake "longing for" something. Either we do or we don't. And if we don't, then that's a symptom of a spiritual problem. See, when Peter tells us to "put away" these various sins in verse 1, my temptation is to preach a "try harder"-type ser...
Jun 21, 2017•42 min
In today’s scripture, the apostle Peter quotes from Isaiah 40: “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass…” We Christians are often distracted by things in our lives that don’t last. Yet Peter is calling us to build our lives on a foundation that which lasts for eternity: the gospel of Jesus Christ and God’s Word. How do we do this? That’s what this sermon is about.
Jun 20, 2017•34 min
The following is mostly a sermon about one word, “Therefore.” It appears at the beginning of verse 13. It means that everything that Peter commands us to do—and there are four commands in this passage—is in response to what God has already done for us. I conclude by reflecting on Peter’s emphasis on the mind: living a Christian life must involve thinking rather than just feeling. The main way that we “prepare our minds for action” is by devoting ourselves to God’s Word, the Bible.
May 24, 2017•35 min
Today's sermon marks the beginning of a new sermon series in 1 Peter. Its message couldn’t be more relevant for us today: the apostle Peter wants us to know deep and lasting happiness in Jesus Christ, which we can experience no matter what is happening in our lives. Even the suffering we experience and the trials we endure, Peter says, are for our good.
May 09, 2017•32 min
The angel in today’s scripture didn’t tell Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, “Jesus isn’t here. He is risen. Take my word for it.” He said, “Go and see!” And so we should rightly expect that if the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a real historical event—like any historical event that we know about—there should be evidence for it, which we can investigate. This sermon investigates some of that evidence before tackling the important question, “What does it mean?”This is my last sermon in this ser...
Apr 27, 2017•37 min
This sermon, from Matthew 21:1-11, was preached on Palm Sunday, April 9, 2017, at Hampton United Methodist Church. I begin by discussing the messianic roles that Jesus fulfills when he rides into Jerusalem in the Triumphal Entry. Then I challenge us to consider whether or not Christ is king over our lives. How do we resist his kingship? Is the Lord calling us to change?
Apr 20, 2017•31 min
