Sermons

Jesus tells the parable of the mustard seed. Just as a seed that looks exceedingly small becomes a great tree, he knew beforehand that the small and wavering faith of his disciples would also be sown in good soil and grow. Even after hearing his words, the disciples were not fully convinced that the Kingdom of God truly existed, or that Jesus was the Messiah.

A seed buried in the ground frets over whether it must break through, yet once it puts down roots and comes up, it meets the sunlight, the rain, and the God who brings all of it about. Even amid fear and doubt, the truth grew within the disciples, until at last they became a mighty tree that bore witness to Christ, even to the point of martyrdom. Those who hear the word with prejudice and a crooked heart, however, turn back like Judas Iscariot and never fulfill their calling.

Caught in a great windstorm on the boat, the disciples woke Jesus in their fear, and he rebuked them for their lack of faith. The work of God is accomplished according to his plan, not by human ability or circumstances. So when the faithful do their utmost where they now stand and believe that the Holy Spirit is with them, even faith like a mustard seed will without fail grow great.

The crowd that gathered by the sea had come looking for miracles and for answers to their troubles rather than for the truth. So Jesus brought them the word through a simple story of a farmer sowing seed. Some seed fell by the road, some on rocky ground, some among thorns, and some on good soil, and only the seed on good soil bore fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundred times as much.

The roadside is the person whose heart has grown hard, who hears the word yet has no desire to let it take root. The rocky ground is quick to give thanks and quick to make resolutions, but it soon grows cold when hardship comes. Among the thorns the seed does take root, but the cares and desires of the world choke it so that it can grow no further and rots where it stands. Such people seem outwardly to have faith, so they do not see their own limits, and this is the greatest danger of all. The parable of the weeds that follows is not about the heart. The field is the world, the good seed are the children of the Kingdom, and the weeds are the children of the evil one. Though the two grow together in one world, people do not separate them; God does that at the harvest.

The sermon taught that what matters is not how much has been given but how faithful one has been with it. The way to become good soil lies in laying down one’s own righteousness and obeying with patience. It closed with the word that hardship is not something to flee but an occasion to hear God’s voice, and that a life which endures in this way becomes at last the fruit gathered into the barn.

Josiah became king at the age of eight and led a reform that no one before him had achieved. When the book of the covenant was found during the repair of the temple, he tore his clothes before it; he pulled down the idols and high places throughout the land, and with the people he kept the Passover. Yet this same king went out to war against the king of Egypt, was struck by an arrow, and died to no purpose.

Measured by the logic of reward and retribution, it is a death that cannot be understood. The Hebrew word ‘to know’, however, speaks not of grasping information but of a deep union in love. It was in this way that God knew Josiah, and the promise that he would go to his grave ‘in peace’ meant not a death free of suffering but wholeness and completion.

Josiah’s early death was a merciful removal, which delivered him from the terrible destruction at the hands of Babylon and the captivity that were soon to overtake Judah. As with Abraham, with Joseph, and with the cross of Jesus Christ, the work of God is always accomplished in ways that overturn our expectations.

Jesus’ mother and brothers said he was insane and tried to take him away by force. The scribes accused him of casting out demons by the prince of the demons, and he answered that Satan cannot cast out Satan.

Not even his own family recognized him as the Messiah. They treated him with disrespect, and so the truth could not gain strength among them. In all this Satan was using the scribes, and even Jesus’ family, to hinder his ministry; the sins people commit become the food that gives Satan his strength. The king of Tyre and the fallen angel had also received God’s love in abundance. Yet they grew proud, tried to make themselves like God, and were cast off.

Slandering pastors, sowing discord, complaining: every word and deed that hinders the church is the sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. Every other sin people commit can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. God’s people must remember that his true family are those who take the lowly place in humility and do the will of God, and they must live by it.

New ordained deacons and senior deaconesses are being installed. Yet church office is neither a rank nor an honorary title. It is a charge from God, who loves the church and therefore summons people to serve it.

Those who feel afraid because of their shortcomings are showing a healthy heart. Moses, too, pleaded his inadequacy and declined God’s summons. But God does not wait for finished people. He holds fast to those he has called until the end and brings his work in them to completion. What an officer must put on first is not a title but compassion, humility, gentleness, and patience, and above all these, love.

The church is built up not by office but by character and love. Stephen was great not because he was appointed a deacon but because, even as he was dying, he prayed for his enemies. Philip came to be remembered less as a deacon than as an evangelist. What God seeks is not ability or achievement but faithfulness, and on that day a single word will be enough: “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

When the disciples pick ears of grain and eat them, the Pharisees protest that they have broken the Sabbath. Jesus heals a man with a withered hand and asks whether it is right on the Sabbath to do good and to save life, but they have no answer.

The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. When Jesus declared himself Lord of the Sabbath, he meant that he would give not a rest kept only in outward form but true rest. It was hardness of heart, hearing the truth and still refusing to change their minds, that kept the Pharisees and scribes from going any further along that way.

Jesus called the disciples to be with him, to send them out to preach, and to give them authority to cast out demons. Judas Iscariot did not repent and lost his place; Peter, after denying him three times, wept bitterly and turned back. Sin is not forgotten, but repenting of it or refusing to bears entirely different fruit.

While the temple was being repaired, the Book of the Law was found, and as its words were read aloud, Josiah tore his clothes and wept. He did not lay the blame on his fathers but counted himself among those under God’s wrath, and though he already knew judgment was coming, he sent men to inquire once more of God’s will.

That the Word had to be found at all shows how long it had lain buried in dust within the temple. The people held fast to the assurance that the temple stood among them, while the Word that belonged at the center of their lives was nowhere to be seen. To be pierced and unsettled before the Word is nothing strange; it is the response of a spirit that is still alive.

The prophetess Huldah declares that the judgment on all Judah would not be withdrawn, yet God had heard the tears of one man, Josiah. God looks not for the flawless but for a broken spirit. Wherever there is even one person whose heart is torn in this way, whether in a home, a church, or a nation, God will not forsake that place.

A paralyzed man’s friends broke open the roof and lowered him down before Jesus. Seeing the faith of those determined to save him, more than the sick man himself, Jesus declared his sins forgiven, and the Pharisees nearby took his words as blasphemy. He then called Levi the tax collector, who rose and followed at once, and who invited tax collectors and sinners into his home so that they might share a meal with Jesus.

As it is the sick who need a physician, so Jesus came to call not the righteous but sinners. Wedding guests do not fast while the bridegroom is with them; in the same way, with Jesus present, this is no time to keep up the outward forms of mourning but a time to feed on the Word. No one sews a patch of new cloth onto an old garment or pours new wine into old wineskins, and neither can the gospel be confined within the worn-out forms of legalism.

To forgive sins is to wrest his weapon from Satan, and that grace is given freely, whatever a person’s condition or circumstances. The church must be built not on laws and forms of human making but on the words of Jesus alone. Those who grasp his purpose in coming to call sinners will go on to proclaim the gospel boldly to the world.

Gathered for worship outdoors, among trees and grass in full growth, the sermon speaks of faith that grows as well. To faith must be added goodness, to goodness knowledge, and then self-control and perseverance, until at last it arrives at love.

Mature faith is measured not by the amount of service given or the number of years spent in the church, but by how closely a person is coming to resemble Jesus. Peter, hasty and hot-tempered, denied Jesus three times, yet God did not give up on him; instead he made him the rock on which the early church was built. As a tree grows sturdy through seasons of wind, rain and snow, faith grows through hardship and waiting.

Growth in faith shows itself not in remarkable powers but in the small things of daily life: guarding one’s words, being honest, being considerate of others. Faith does not grow in isolation but within a community where people hold one another up, and where that growth leads in the end is love. However much someone knows and however great their abilities, without love they are nothing; this is the conclusion of the day’s message.

On the shore of Galilee, Jesus tells Peter, who is washing his nets, to let them down once more. Peter has caught nothing all night, yet he obeys the word, and the catch is so great that the nets begin to tear. Later, in the synagogue at Capernaum, a man possessed by a demon recognizes Jesus and sets himself against him, but Jesus rebukes the spirit and drives it out of the man.

The miracle came when Peter laid aside his experience as a fisherman and his pride, and relied on the word. The demon, by contrast, shows that Satan does not seize control of people by force. When a person will not decide whether to serve the truth or what is false, that person gives up the ground of their own accord. Just as he did with Eve, Satan still leads people to doubt God and whispers lies as though they were truth, and so brings them down.

The word of God makes no compromise. The faithful must not fear Satan; they must discern by the word and fight boldly, leaning on the Holy Spirit. Those who do good and hold fast to the truth will dwell under God’s absolute protection.

Manasseh became king at twelve and reigned for fifty-five years. In his day Judah, the southern kingdom, stayed loyal to Assyria and prospered. It rebuilt the high places Hezekiah had torn down, served Baal and Asherah, and shed innocent blood. Yet outwardly all was at peace.

The heart of the problem was not the number of idols. Life was comfortable and prosperous, so the people stopped listening to the word of God, and that was the most wicked state of all. The same deception is at work today, when technology and success brainwash people into thinking they can live without God.

Only after Manasseh was taken captive by Assyria and dragged away in chains did he humble himself greatly and fall on his knees before God, and God brought him back to the throne in Jerusalem. What matters to God is not who succeeded but who obeyed. The only strength that can overcome the last days is obedience that is faithful unto death.

John keeps trying to dissuade Jesus from being baptized by him, but Jesus says it is a baptism he must receive in order to bear the sins of all humanity. After the baptism the heavens are torn open, the Holy Spirit comes down like a dove, and the voice of God is heard: “You are my beloved Son.”

By baptizing Jesus, John the Baptist took the place of the one who transferred all the sins of humanity onto him. Afterward the Holy Spirit sends Jesus into the wilderness, and Satan tempts him with the test of turning stones into bread, the test of throwing himself down from the top of the temple, and the test of being offered all the kingdoms of the world. Each time, Jesus drives Satan back with the word.

Satan knows that in the end he will have to yield to Jesus, yet he still tries to make believers stumble. Those who believe have no strength of their own to overcome the devil, but when they rely on the Holy Spirit, they can stand without giving in and give glory to God. They must not believe everything they see, but must rely on the truth alone.