Sermon Snippets

I've taken a break from blogging but now I hope to be "back and better than ever" (s/o to Mike & Mike). I'm putting "Music Monday" on hiatus for now and going to bring back "Sermon Snippets" moving forward. 

These posts will feature tidbits and/or last minute cuts from my sermons that I find interesting. One common problem pastors face is deciding what to cut from their messages - or rather, not realizing they need to cut material out to keep their audience focused. I'm writing a commentary on 1-2 Kings currently so there should be plenty of material. But last week was Easter so I will be relaunching this bit with some stuff from my Resurrection Day message. For audio of the full sermon, you can listen here.

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Jesus' first appearances carried personal and theological significance. My sermon (link above) works through the first six times Jesus revealed himself to people. The first one is where I want to focus on today. 

Mary Magdalene is the first person to see Jesus after he rose from the grave (John 20:11-18). Was that fact merely meant to be a footnote in history? What if I argued that there was a purpose and intention behind who Jesus decided to appear to first?

As others have noted, Mary was "last at the cross and first to the tomb". While her male counterparts had almost all fled out of fear, she didn't keep a low profile. She remained faithful even in the face of unspeakable grief as her friend and Rabboni suffered a criminal's death. 

Mary Magdalene's story has gotten confused and misconstrued in a variety of ways. But taking our cues from the Gospels, we know she was delivered from demonic possession early on in Jesus' ministry and she followed Jesus, even financially supporting him and his disciples on their travels (Luke 8:1-4). 

Mary Magdalene is the picture of a disciple devoted to her Savior, even when all hope seemed lost. Her pure heart of worship is revealed by her and the other women's desire to ceremonially embalm Jesus' body to complete the burial (Mark 16:1-2)

So when Jesus honors her by appearing to her first, he's rewarding this dedicated servant. He will soon appear to Peter also, who is very much the opposite of Mary. But her story reminds us that God rewards the faithful. We can cling to our Lord even when no hope seems left - and he will come through!

What an awesome testimony of God's goodness and what an awesome encouragement to be faithful!

Book Blog

We live in an era of polarization. Realities are black or white. Opinions are either/or. Especially with politics, there is no room for nuance or middle ground. Beliefs must be strong one way or the other. 

There are lots of problems with this aspect of living in America in 2019, particularly for the Christian. Why for us as Christians? Because often times, the Word of God offers us a third way that is different than one of the extremes.

Russel Moore captures this in his book Onward, which is my final book I'm featuring in this "Book Blog" series.

Moore begins with the well-founded and well-researched premise that America is increasingly departing from it's long-standing Christian influence. He then outlines in ten chapters how we as Christians ought to biblically respond to the changing culture around us. 

The aspect that I appreciate the most about his book is how specifically he addresses very relevant topics. Issues that are often politicized to death, including: religious liberty, immigration, social justice, being pro-life, and biblical family values. And this is all done within a context of urging Christians to rediscover and maintain their focus on God's Kingdom and God's values. This is how he points to a third way, rather than falling back to Republican or Democrat talking points. 

This book was published in 2015 and the "hot-button" topics it focuses on have only become more and more significant within our culture's consciousness. So much so, that reading it in 2017, I was surprised how prescient it was. To me, it was prophetic much in the way I found A.W. Tozer to be prophetic.

His call for Christians to embody God's love, grace, and "convictional kindness" with boldness and confidence is very much needed if we are to live into the mission of the Kingdom as followers of Jesus. Thus, it has become one of my favorite books of the past few years.

I hope you've enjoyed this little series and maybe even been encouraged to read some of these selections.