Guerrilla Christianity

Sermon #444

When we claim victory over something or someone, we are establishing complete dominance over that thing or person.  Just as the allied forces claimed victory over Germany and Italy on May 8, 1945, so Jesus also claimed victory over sin and death in the resurrection.  And we who confess that Jesus Christ is the very Son of God can also claim that victory.  By allying ourselves with the victor, we also become with Jesus t...

Sermon #603

I saw a meme on Facebook this week that put forth the notion that religion is defined by what we hate.  Yet if we learn anything from John's first epistle, it is that the central theme of Christianity is love, and not just any kind of love, but agape love.  The word "agape" means a higher form of love, a godly love, a transcendent love that is sacrificial and puts others before us.  And so Jesus commands us to love God,...

Sermon #602

It's often been said that we are all children of God, every one of us in humanity's fold.  But this simply isn't true.  John's gospel tells us that to those who receive Jesus, who believe on his name, God gave the right to become sons and daughters.  So how can we know if we are truly regenerated, reborn into the family of God, adopted as sons and daughters of God?  It is through our association with God's attributes, e...

Sermon #443

The Greek word "agape" describes a higher form of love.  It is a love that is completely selfless and giving, expecting nothing in return, and it is the kind of love that God shows to us in Jesus Christ.  Since agape is a Godly form of love, it stands to reason that the world at large does not and cannot conceptualize this kind of love.  Homer used the word only ten times in his writings; Euripides only thrice.  Yet the...

Sermon #442

Those who experienced the resurrection first-hand (the apostles, and the many eyewitnesses to Jesus' resurrection as reported by Paul) had a certain boldness to their evangelism.  After all, they had seen the resurrected Jesus in the flesh.  We who have received their eyewitness accounts can also experience this boldness when it comes to conviction of sin.  While the Spirit within us convicts us of sin when we give into...

Sermon #439

As Christians we have a temptation to say that we ought not to mourn in times of sadness.  Yet there is much biblical evidence that mourning is a proper response to sad events, such as the death of a loved one.  The disciples, who heard Jesus' teaching about his own death and resurrection, still mourned when he was killed on the cross.  But their mourning was turned to joy when they encountered the risen Christ.  What w...

Sermon #601

We're beginning a new series for the season of Easter based in the first general epistle of John.  The purpose of John's letter was to dispute the twin heresies of Docetism and Gnosticism that was rising in the First Century church.  Using statements that contrast dark and light, righteousness and sin, John systematically presents a case that shows that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all (1:5).  He also...

Sermon #441

What is hope?  The worldly definition is that hope is a desire for something as yet unfulfilled.  The Christian definition of hope is inextricably tied to the promises of God, that he has fulfilled those promises in the past and will fulfill them again in the future.  That is our hope, and it was the hope of the early disciples who continued to proclaim the resurrection of Jesus because they had seen it with their own e...

Sermon #438

Easter Sunday is the day when we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and so it seems fitting to focus on the resurrection of Jesus throughout the Easter Season.  The resurrection is what gives our faith validity.  Without the resurrection, Jesus was merely a good teacher (although how good could he be, since he claimed to be the Son of God?).  The resurrection is the receipt for the debt that Jesus paid...

Sermon #600

Why were Jesus' followers so willing to die for the truth of the resurrection?  Why was the Christian Sabbath shifted from the seventh day to the first day of the week?  Why did Paul insist that believing in the resurrection was of utmost importance?  On this Easter Sunday (2024) we take a look at a letter that Paul wrote to the church in Corinth in 54 AD, and he stresses that the knowledge of the death and resurrection...

Each year on Good Friday, the churches of the Ministerium of Penns Grove, Carneys Point, and Pedricktown hold a joint worship service from Noon until 3 PM. The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross are presented, with worship music and sermon messages for each word. Each year for the last six years I have participated in this service, and each year I have preached on a different word. This year (2020) was to be my seventh year, b...

View Full Service on YouTube

Tenebrae is a Latin word that means "Darkness." The Tenebrae service is a reading of the Passion account from John's Gospel, broken down into 16 readings, and after each of the first fourteen readings a candle is extinguished until the entire sanctuary is clothed in darkness. This represents the light of Christ being extinguised on the cross, and it also represents the three hours of darkness that the p...

Sermon #598

When we look at the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, we find a story that we know very well.  After all, we celebrate Palm Sunday every year; ever since we were kids in Sunday School we learned about how Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and the people threw their cloaks and palm branches at his feet, crying "Hosanna!"  But it's that word, Hosanna, which always confused me as a child.  I thought it was a cry...