Sermons

We ask God for what we need in life, but even when our prayers are answered, the joy does not last long, and new problems come. God does not ignore our real needs, but he sees the root of a problem deeper than what we want right now, and he deals with it.

At the time of prayer, Peter and John meet a lame man who is begging, and instead of silver and gold, they declare that in the name of Jesus Christ he is to get up and walk. This miracle was not meant to show off the apostles’ power; it was meant to reveal the saving authority of the name of Jesus and to turn people’s eyes to him.

Our prayers must not become a list of requests for getting what we want; they must be a time of asking God to shape us into the kind of people he is making us to be. The name of Jesus is more than a power that meets our needs; it is the saving power that turns us from sin and brings us back to God.

Repentance, which means recognizing sin and turning back to God completely, and baptism in the name of Jesus Christ are not a price paid to gain salvation. They are the fitting response to the grace God gives. Through them, people receive forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit and go on to live a new life.

Those who receive the gospel are not simply changed as individuals. They are built into a community that learns the apostles’ teaching, shares fellowship with one another, breaks bread, and prays. Their faith does not stay as knowledge alone. It shows itself in practical love and service as they share their possessions and their time.

To such a community the Lord adds day by day those he is saving. We do not strive to build the church by our own strength. Relying on the grace the Lord gives, we grow as a community that is the body of Christ, learning the word, loving one another, and serving our neighbors.

When the 120 gathered together in one place on the day of Pentecost and prayed, a sound like the rushing of a mighty wind came, and tongues like fire, distributed among them, rested on them. This was not a miracle that suddenly fell from the sky. It was the fulfillment of the Holy Spirit whom God had promised long before through the prophets.

The coming of the Spirit is the beginning of the new covenant, in which the law engraved on tablets of stone is written on human hearts. God’s presence does not stay in one particular place, the temple, but dwells within the body of each believer, and this is remarkable grace. Because of this, people who speak different languages hear the same gospel, and the division brought about at the tower of Babel is healed as they become one.

The world dismisses this strange event as drunkenness, but Peter proclaimed that it was evidence that Jesus Christ had become Lord and Christ, just as the prophet foretold. The Holy Spirit is not one who gives special powers; he dwells within us and makes us bear witness to Jesus. We must not take the presence of the Spirit for granted, but must obey his leading and live lives that reveal Jesus Christ.

After his resurrection, Jesus does not answer the disciples’ question about restoring the physical kingdom of Israel. Instead, he promises that the Holy Spirit will come upon them, that they will receive power, and that they will be witnesses from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.

The church’s task is not accomplished by human ability or programs. It is the work of being witnesses of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit alone, and only those prepared according to God’s will can carry it out.

To fill the empty place, the disciples chose candidates, prayed, and then left the decision to God by casting lots. The church is a place that seeks God’s will rather than its own judgment when deciding important matters, and that waits for the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Pharisees took issue with the disciples for eating without washing their hands, placing human tradition above the commandment of God. Fixed on outward rites of purification and the keeping of rules, they had lost the very essence of the law: love for God and love for one’s neighbor.

Jesus rebuked their hypocrisy, for they honored God with their lips while their hearts were far from him. Worship that teaches the commandments of men as doctrine is in vain. True faith is found not in formal ordinances but in a pure heart and in love.

To evade the duty of supporting one’s parents under the pretext of Corban is to make the commandment of God void. Faith does not merely change outward conduct; it must be a life that loves God, cares for souls, and grasps the essence of the Word.

In a deserted place, a hungry crowd of tens of thousands followed Jesus. The disciples counted how far the bread and fish would fall short and looked for a practical solution, but Jesus was testing their faith and the way they saw the situation.

The five barley loaves and two fish that a boy offered were, to human eyes, too small to be of any help. Yet when that small gift was placed in Jesus’ hands, it became a miracle that fed thousands, with food left over.

God desires not those who have much, but a pure heart that gives in faith whatever it has. When we look beyond the limits our eyes can see and obey the word of Jesus, God fills up what we lack and pours out abundant grace upon us.

For rebuking Herod’s immorality, John the Baptist was thrown into prison and put to a cruel death. While he was there, word reached him that Jesus was working miracles and preaching the gospel. Uncertain whether his devotion had been in vain, he sent his disciples to put the question to Jesus.

Jesus made John no promise of rescue. Instead he told the messengers to report the signs that announce the Messiah’s presence: the blind see, and the dead are raised. This means that John’s calling had already been completed. He was no longer to be the one crying out, and now he had to prepare to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

In the eyes of the world John’s death may look empty and wretched, yet he bore his calling to the very end and completed the course God had set before him. The sermon declares that true faith means faithfully fulfilling the task God has entrusted, even in suffering and persecution, and that the hope of the Kingdom of Heaven that comes of it matters more.

Twenty-three years have passed since Watercourse Church was founded. Many have left, yet new souls have come to fill their places, and the church still stands. This is not the church’s own strength; it is because God planted us.

We mistakenly think that God will receive us only once we have offered him something. But the gospel is not a matter of proving ourselves; it is the truth that God has already accepted us in Christ. Genuine faith means living out our days with thankful hearts, as people who have already been given grace.

A tree is set in the ground not to remain there for many years but to bear fruit. Neither age nor weakness can serve as an excuse. Whoever is planted in God still yields fruit, even in old age.

Our fruit is not for our own display but for making God known. Each of us must live by the Word wherever our lives have placed us, bearing witness to the gospel through love and forgiveness.

The years ahead must be measured not by what the church has accomplished, but by how beautiful the fruit is that the planted Word produces in our lives. We need to become a church where the gospel ripens in homes and workplaces, and so reveal God.

The people of the world look on miracles with curiosity, or fall into unbelief once a miracle costs them something; the people of God, however, must have their hearts set firmly on the Word. Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, laid aside his position and his pride to plead with Jesus to save his dying daughter. The woman with the discharge of blood was unclean, and she came forward in fear, yet she believed that if she only touched his clothes she would be made well.

Jesus rose above both the eyes of the crowd and the purity regulations of the law. The touch of an unclean woman could not defile his power; instead, he gave her life. When he sees faith that clings to him earnestly and a heart that is sincere, he answers, and in answering he reveals his glory.

Yet when word came that his daughter had died, the gratitude in Jairus’s heart turned to anger, and his faith was shaken. To show that he is the Lord of life, who raises the dead, Jesus commanded the girl, “Talitha cumi! Girl, get up!” Even where despair looks like death, the place becomes a place of life once the word of Jesus is proclaimed, and so the faithful must hold to faith instead of fear.

The walls of Jerusalem are broken through, and the king flees, only to be captured. After being made to watch his sons die, he has his eyes put out and is led away to Babylon. The temple is burned, and all of its vessels are carried off.

This judgment did not come because Babylon was strong. It was the fulfillment of the word God had long spoken in warning through the prophets. The people held fast to the confidence that, with the temple standing, they could not perish. Yet what God desired was not the temple but a sincere heart at its center.

The church can fall, and so can church office and long years in the faith. But God’s covenant does not fall. A king taken into captivity was later released and given a seat at the king’s table, and his name remained in the genealogy of Jesus Christ.

After King Josiah died, the southern kingdom of Judah fell within twenty-three years. In that time the throne changed hands four times, and the nation swayed back and forth between Egypt and Babylon. King and people alike reckoned only which power to cling to in order to survive.

Aligning first with Egypt, then with Babylon, then turning back to Egypt once more, the kings chose differently each time. Yet as God saw them, they were all one and the same. They had simply shifted their ground as circumstances changed, and not one of them stood upon the word of God. Though Jeremiah cried out for them to turn back, the king would not listen, while other voices proclaiming peace rang louder.

Even as the nation crumbled, God kept Jeremiah safe and left people here and there to help him. The kingdom fell, but those who held fast to the word remained. Today God still asks the same question: not whether it is Egypt or Babylon, but whether you are standing on my side.

As Jesus and his disciples stepped out of the boat, a demon-possessed man came running at them with a terrible cry. He was strong enough to snap chains, and no one could subdue him. Night and day he roamed among the tombs and in the mountains, cutting himself with stones.

The demon that ruled him was called Legion, an army in itself. When Jesus ordered them out, these many demons saw that they could no longer keep the man as their slave. So they begged Jesus to send them into a nearby herd of pigs. To save one soul, he allowed it, and the whole herd rushed into the lake and perished.

The people who had lost their pigs counted their own loss greater than one man’s life, and they pleaded with Jesus to leave. The man who had been restored wanted to follow him. Jesus told him instead to go home and tell what God had done, and from then on he proclaimed the gospel to his own household and throughout the Decapolis.