Epiphany 1
Preaching
THE WESLEYAN PREACHING ANNUAL 2001--2002
WORSHIP HELPS
CALL TO WORSHIP
Men: Praise the Lord.
Women: Praise the name of the Most High God.
Men: Praise the name of the Most Righteous God.
Women: Praise the name of the Most Holy God.
All: Let the name of God be praised forever and ever.
OFFERING THOUGHT
If cheerful giving is what God wants then let His people give out of cheerful hearts!
BENEDICTION
Pastor: We have quenched our thirst at the well of living water this hour.
People: We will take a pitcher full of this living water to our world this week.
SERMON BRIEFS
Inside Out And Outside In
Acts 10:34--45
Introduction
In Luke's second treatise to Theophilus, the church becomes the continuing incarnation of Jesus Christ, and continues to do and to teach what Jesus began to do and to teach. Acts 1:8 traces the church's progress from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth. In this passage, the Holy Spirit of God confronts the great apostle with his own racially exclusive tendencies that restrict the progress of the gospel.
The same Spirit that propelled Jesus to minister to the "whosoever will" now drives Peter to re--evaluate his own bias.
I. God's inclusion
Peter makes it clear to Cornelius that he is just now "laying hold of the truth." The truth is that God is not one to show partiality. But what does he mean by that statement? He surely doesn't mean that God treats everyone equally. If that was so, then why did Jesus not become visible to all people? Peter plainly says in verse 41 that Jesus did not appear to everyone. What does it mean to call God "impartial"? It means that God is open to everyone's cries. It means that God is not partial to the rich or to the wellborn or to the powerful or the famous. It means that God does not offer salvation to only the few.
II. "Insiders" exclusion
But there was a problem with the plan. Intentional inclusion may fit well in the kingdom of God, but it is hard to do for those of us reared in a world characterized by power and privilege. Our comfort zones among our own people create barriers that are fearful to cross. Peter had good reasons for his exclusions. "Unclean things" can jeopardize our intent to be spiritually clean and holy. The church has often confronted its fears of crossing boundaries and touching the lost, the sinful, the different. For Peter, the religious codes that should keep us safe had become that which threatened not only him but the church and the gospel. It kept the "insiders" in, but it also kept the "outsiders" out.
III. Jesus' shalom and Peter's message
Peter's confinement ended in a trance on a rooftop. Locked into his own world of religious privilege, Peter was confronted by a God who intended a greater shalom, and inclusive shalom, than the apostle could allow on his own.
This peace which God brings is more than the absence of strife. God's shalom can sometimes be more disturbing than calming to us. Sometimes God has to disturb our peace in order to accomplish His shalom. Sometimes our inherited religious convictions wall us off from preaching shalom, God's shalom, to those who also need it desperately.
Peter exclaims, "I am now laying hold of the truth, that God is not one to show partiality." Peter is crossing the boundaries at God's leading to proclaim peace to those he may have excluded on his own. It is a message of God's peace and forgiveness and reconciliation. It is a message of shalom between us in God and between neighbor and us.
IV. Prayers, trances, and visions
To the modern mind, the idea of trances and visions seem odd. Those kinds of experiences are better left to those less informed or hyper--enthusiastic. Both Peter and Cornelius were men of prayer. They were also men open to God's instruction and leading in their lives. They were open to the movement of God not only in their lives but through their lives as well. The movement of God was from the inside out and from the outside in. The peace of God moved them through the doorways of partitions that would hinder the gospel if left intact.
This Jesus is a savior for all. His church is a church for all. His Holy Spirit pushes us beyond the boundaries of our exclusivistic tendencies to proclaim peace to those who are both near and far off. Too long we have stayed in other rooms and on rooftops and kept the message quietly safe. Peter's "aha" is recorded for you and I, so that we might gain after his insight into the ways of God for us in our church. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and uttermost parts of the earth call us. Will we do?
Ron Dalton
The optimism of grace found in Wesleyan theology
has attracted me from the beginning.
Jesus Is Lord
Psalm 20; Matthew 3:13--17
Introduction
Coarse, countrified, corrective: The Baptizer flashed his proclamation across rural Judea like a meteor (Matthew 3:1). "The axe is already at the root of the tree," he announced. Those accustomed to drawing upon the merits of their national icon, found this offensive and unpatriotic.
"Every tree not producing good fruit," John warned, "will be cut down and thrown into the fire" (Matthew 3:10 NIV).
While baptizing all who confessed their sins, he declared the immanent arrival of another kingdom, ruled by a greater person with a more powerful message.
Among those seeking baptism came a young Galilean and what followed calls us to consider the lordship of Jesus. John hesitated, recognizing superiority. "Permit it to be," Jesus urged.
"It is fitting for us ... to fulfill all righteousness" (Matthew 3:1 NKJV). Jesus' ordination announced His sonship, declared new citizenship, and revealed a new life in the Spirit.
I. Jesus' Sonship
The baptismal announcement completed His ordination and Jesus went preaching (kerussein, Matthew 3:17) what John heralded (kerysso, from keryz, a herald, kerussein, Matthew 3:1). New citizenship called for higher loyalty and total allegiance.
Israel accepted the role of chosen people, but linked salvation with national liberation. Tasting freedom under the Maccabees, they pursued it until 63 A. D. when destroyed by Titus. John's word of God's imminent intervention, after four centuries without a prophet, thrilled the faithful and threatened the faithless. Matthew viewed Jesus as the promise fulfilled in empowering presence (Matthew 2:5; 1:23; 1:21).
I was a young airman when I met and married my wife. We lived on a shoestring in tiny apartments, ate lots of BLT sandwiches, and moved often, but presence fulfilled promise!
Generations have since met Jesus and experienced Immanuel (God with us). Skeptics label Him a fool, a fraud. Some call Him a fantasy, but none call Him evil. Is it not more rational to accept His sonship than to believe He perpetrated history's most heinous hoax, deluding us to accept faith, hope, and love?
II. God's Kingdom
Jesus' sonship pointed higher than Israel. It brought heavenly citizenship into the Gentile world, creating a new community, built on faith in God, and revealing greater understanding of God's mission to humanity (Hebrews 8:7--13; 9:15, 28--29).
God's kingdom is for people of faith, not ethnic purists. "Whoever does the will of my Father" finds an open door, declared Jesus (Matthew 12:50). Our New Testament is our new covenant, our peace, the story of the One who "made the two (Jew and Gentile) one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility ... to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace ... to reconcile both ... through the cross" (Ephesians 2:14--16 NIV).
"The law and the prophets were until John," Jesus confirmed; "since that time the kingdom of God is preached and every man presseth into it" (Luke 16:16 KJV). No mere historic parenthesis, the church of the redeemed became an expression of the Spirit's empowerment, offering God's grace to everyone accepting it.
III. Life in the Spirit
Jesus' baptism was fitting (NKJV), proper (NIV) "to fulfill all righteousness." The time was right (Hebrews 1:1--3). Israelite nationalism was axed, but repentance opened the door into the kingdom. Jesus' baptism clearly evidenced the Trinity, making us Trinitarians when we accept his Lordship and live under His Spirit.
The Spirit administers God's Grace Department. He applies and distributes what comes from joint--headquarters. He revives our recall of Jesus, illuminates His Word, quickens our consciences, renews our minds, and confirms our acceptance (cf. Matthew 3:11; John 16:8; Ephesians 1:13--14).
Our decadent society compromises men, ministries, and churches, leaving a stench. The Swindoll family returned to a stinking house, saturated with the odor of a maggot--filled possum in the attic. Searching feverishly, they discovered a product called "Anti--Icky Pooh," guaranteed to rid the odor of dead and decaying flesh.
Let us confess His Lordship by allowing His guaranteed "Anti--Icky Pooh" to restore righteousness.
Conclusion
A debilitating atmosphere of worldliness sickens a church in need of rediscovering the Lordship of Jesus. Truth provides the fulcrum on which the Spirit's lever rests. Faith in Jesus' sonship is the conveyor carrying salvation. The Holy Spirit empowers and brings wholeness, holiness, and healing.
He is Lord, He is Lord!
He is risen from the dead and He is Lord!
Ev'ry knee shall bow, ev'ry tongue confess
That Jesus Christ is Lord.1
Wayne M. Warner
____________
1. "Worship The Lord," Hymnal of the Church of God, (Anderson: Warner Press, Inc., 1989), p. 223.
CALL TO WORSHIP
Men: Praise the Lord.
Women: Praise the name of the Most High God.
Men: Praise the name of the Most Righteous God.
Women: Praise the name of the Most Holy God.
All: Let the name of God be praised forever and ever.
OFFERING THOUGHT
If cheerful giving is what God wants then let His people give out of cheerful hearts!
BENEDICTION
Pastor: We have quenched our thirst at the well of living water this hour.
People: We will take a pitcher full of this living water to our world this week.
SERMON BRIEFS
Inside Out And Outside In
Acts 10:34--45
Introduction
In Luke's second treatise to Theophilus, the church becomes the continuing incarnation of Jesus Christ, and continues to do and to teach what Jesus began to do and to teach. Acts 1:8 traces the church's progress from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth. In this passage, the Holy Spirit of God confronts the great apostle with his own racially exclusive tendencies that restrict the progress of the gospel.
The same Spirit that propelled Jesus to minister to the "whosoever will" now drives Peter to re--evaluate his own bias.
I. God's inclusion
Peter makes it clear to Cornelius that he is just now "laying hold of the truth." The truth is that God is not one to show partiality. But what does he mean by that statement? He surely doesn't mean that God treats everyone equally. If that was so, then why did Jesus not become visible to all people? Peter plainly says in verse 41 that Jesus did not appear to everyone. What does it mean to call God "impartial"? It means that God is open to everyone's cries. It means that God is not partial to the rich or to the wellborn or to the powerful or the famous. It means that God does not offer salvation to only the few.
II. "Insiders" exclusion
But there was a problem with the plan. Intentional inclusion may fit well in the kingdom of God, but it is hard to do for those of us reared in a world characterized by power and privilege. Our comfort zones among our own people create barriers that are fearful to cross. Peter had good reasons for his exclusions. "Unclean things" can jeopardize our intent to be spiritually clean and holy. The church has often confronted its fears of crossing boundaries and touching the lost, the sinful, the different. For Peter, the religious codes that should keep us safe had become that which threatened not only him but the church and the gospel. It kept the "insiders" in, but it also kept the "outsiders" out.
III. Jesus' shalom and Peter's message
Peter's confinement ended in a trance on a rooftop. Locked into his own world of religious privilege, Peter was confronted by a God who intended a greater shalom, and inclusive shalom, than the apostle could allow on his own.
This peace which God brings is more than the absence of strife. God's shalom can sometimes be more disturbing than calming to us. Sometimes God has to disturb our peace in order to accomplish His shalom. Sometimes our inherited religious convictions wall us off from preaching shalom, God's shalom, to those who also need it desperately.
Peter exclaims, "I am now laying hold of the truth, that God is not one to show partiality." Peter is crossing the boundaries at God's leading to proclaim peace to those he may have excluded on his own. It is a message of God's peace and forgiveness and reconciliation. It is a message of shalom between us in God and between neighbor and us.
IV. Prayers, trances, and visions
To the modern mind, the idea of trances and visions seem odd. Those kinds of experiences are better left to those less informed or hyper--enthusiastic. Both Peter and Cornelius were men of prayer. They were also men open to God's instruction and leading in their lives. They were open to the movement of God not only in their lives but through their lives as well. The movement of God was from the inside out and from the outside in. The peace of God moved them through the doorways of partitions that would hinder the gospel if left intact.
This Jesus is a savior for all. His church is a church for all. His Holy Spirit pushes us beyond the boundaries of our exclusivistic tendencies to proclaim peace to those who are both near and far off. Too long we have stayed in other rooms and on rooftops and kept the message quietly safe. Peter's "aha" is recorded for you and I, so that we might gain after his insight into the ways of God for us in our church. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and uttermost parts of the earth call us. Will we do?
Ron Dalton
The optimism of grace found in Wesleyan theology
has attracted me from the beginning.
Jesus Is Lord
Psalm 20; Matthew 3:13--17
Introduction
Coarse, countrified, corrective: The Baptizer flashed his proclamation across rural Judea like a meteor (Matthew 3:1). "The axe is already at the root of the tree," he announced. Those accustomed to drawing upon the merits of their national icon, found this offensive and unpatriotic.
"Every tree not producing good fruit," John warned, "will be cut down and thrown into the fire" (Matthew 3:10 NIV).
While baptizing all who confessed their sins, he declared the immanent arrival of another kingdom, ruled by a greater person with a more powerful message.
Among those seeking baptism came a young Galilean and what followed calls us to consider the lordship of Jesus. John hesitated, recognizing superiority. "Permit it to be," Jesus urged.
"It is fitting for us ... to fulfill all righteousness" (Matthew 3:1 NKJV). Jesus' ordination announced His sonship, declared new citizenship, and revealed a new life in the Spirit.
I. Jesus' Sonship
The baptismal announcement completed His ordination and Jesus went preaching (kerussein, Matthew 3:17) what John heralded (kerysso, from keryz, a herald, kerussein, Matthew 3:1). New citizenship called for higher loyalty and total allegiance.
Israel accepted the role of chosen people, but linked salvation with national liberation. Tasting freedom under the Maccabees, they pursued it until 63 A. D. when destroyed by Titus. John's word of God's imminent intervention, after four centuries without a prophet, thrilled the faithful and threatened the faithless. Matthew viewed Jesus as the promise fulfilled in empowering presence (Matthew 2:5; 1:23; 1:21).
I was a young airman when I met and married my wife. We lived on a shoestring in tiny apartments, ate lots of BLT sandwiches, and moved often, but presence fulfilled promise!
Generations have since met Jesus and experienced Immanuel (God with us). Skeptics label Him a fool, a fraud. Some call Him a fantasy, but none call Him evil. Is it not more rational to accept His sonship than to believe He perpetrated history's most heinous hoax, deluding us to accept faith, hope, and love?
II. God's Kingdom
Jesus' sonship pointed higher than Israel. It brought heavenly citizenship into the Gentile world, creating a new community, built on faith in God, and revealing greater understanding of God's mission to humanity (Hebrews 8:7--13; 9:15, 28--29).
God's kingdom is for people of faith, not ethnic purists. "Whoever does the will of my Father" finds an open door, declared Jesus (Matthew 12:50). Our New Testament is our new covenant, our peace, the story of the One who "made the two (Jew and Gentile) one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility ... to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace ... to reconcile both ... through the cross" (Ephesians 2:14--16 NIV).
"The law and the prophets were until John," Jesus confirmed; "since that time the kingdom of God is preached and every man presseth into it" (Luke 16:16 KJV). No mere historic parenthesis, the church of the redeemed became an expression of the Spirit's empowerment, offering God's grace to everyone accepting it.
III. Life in the Spirit
Jesus' baptism was fitting (NKJV), proper (NIV) "to fulfill all righteousness." The time was right (Hebrews 1:1--3). Israelite nationalism was axed, but repentance opened the door into the kingdom. Jesus' baptism clearly evidenced the Trinity, making us Trinitarians when we accept his Lordship and live under His Spirit.
The Spirit administers God's Grace Department. He applies and distributes what comes from joint--headquarters. He revives our recall of Jesus, illuminates His Word, quickens our consciences, renews our minds, and confirms our acceptance (cf. Matthew 3:11; John 16:8; Ephesians 1:13--14).
Our decadent society compromises men, ministries, and churches, leaving a stench. The Swindoll family returned to a stinking house, saturated with the odor of a maggot--filled possum in the attic. Searching feverishly, they discovered a product called "Anti--Icky Pooh," guaranteed to rid the odor of dead and decaying flesh.
Let us confess His Lordship by allowing His guaranteed "Anti--Icky Pooh" to restore righteousness.
Conclusion
A debilitating atmosphere of worldliness sickens a church in need of rediscovering the Lordship of Jesus. Truth provides the fulcrum on which the Spirit's lever rests. Faith in Jesus' sonship is the conveyor carrying salvation. The Holy Spirit empowers and brings wholeness, holiness, and healing.
He is Lord, He is Lord!
He is risen from the dead and He is Lord!
Ev'ry knee shall bow, ev'ry tongue confess
That Jesus Christ is Lord.1
Wayne M. Warner
____________
1. "Worship The Lord," Hymnal of the Church of God, (Anderson: Warner Press, Inc., 1989), p. 223.
