Search for sermons - Luke 23
The Man Who Would Be King: Christ Speaks to the Problem of Frivolous Curiosity - Luke 23:1-12 - Apr 8, 2001 - 126
This is the story of a man who had a chance but didn't take it and was never offered another one. The man's name is Herod Antipas. On Good Friday morning Jesus stood on trial before him. What happened on that fateful day led directly to the crucifixion of Christ. It also sealed Herod's eternal desti ... More
What is Heaven Like? - Philippians 3:20-21 - Jan 18, 1998 - 521
"Heaven is a place, just as much a place as is New York or Chicago." Charles Ferguson Ball I begin this sermon with two statements that I believe to be almost universally true: Everyone wants to know about heaven and everyone wants to go there. Recent polls suggest that nearly 80% of all Americans b ... More
Father, Forgive Them - Mar 30, 2007
Here is part of an email from a friend:Do you have any suggestions for getting rid of bitterness? What do you do when you are dealing with a situation where you cannot go to the person and discuss the issue with them? Of course, we both know that that is the ideal way to handle a situation, but we a ... More
Is Total Forgiveness Realistic? - Ephesians 4:29-32 - Jun 1, 2003 - 758
A few days ago I received an e-mail with a comment about these sermons on forgiveness:Since you started this series, I have made some important discoveries in my life, but am enjoying it all the same. Maybe ‘enjoying' is not the right word, but I hope you know what I mean. It's like you know m ... More
Will We See Our Loved Ones Again? - 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 - Nov 20, 2007 - 801
My subject is one that we don't often talk about. In the nearly 30 years I have served in pastoral ministry, I have had very few conversations on this topic. The reasons are not hard to understand.Death in the best of circumstances is not easy to discuss. Even as an academic topic, most of us would ... More
Is There Life After Death? Can We Be Sure? - Job 14:14 - May 28, 2000 - 212
When Barry Grunow left for work on Friday morning, he had no idea he would never come home again. It was the last day of classes at the Lake Worth Community Middle School, just a few miles south of West Palm Beach, Florida. Mr. Grunow was teaching a seventh grade English class at 3:30 p.m. when a 13 ... More
How To Behave in a Cave - I Samuel 24 - Oct 1, 2000 - 337
When last we met David, he was in the Forest of Hereth. Since then he has rescued the village of Keilah from the Philistines. In appreciation for his heroism, the citizens of Keilah report his whereabouts to King Saul who almost catches David again. David and his men move to the Desert of Ziph where ... More
Out On A Limb With Shirley MacLaine: Is Reincarnation True? - Various - Jun 4, 2000 - 216
This is a sermon about reincarnation, which means that I have a serious problem right off the bat. It is also a sermon about Shirley MacLaine, which poses a second problem. My first challenge is to convince you that reincarnation matters enough to warrant a full sermon. Perhaps this will help. Over ... More
The Fool on the Hill: What the Cross Means to the World - 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 - Jul 26, 2006 - 675
Every religion and every ideology has its own symbol. For the Buddhist it is the lotus flower. Judaism has the Star of David and Islam the crescent. In this century the communists were known for the hammer and the sickle and the Nazis for the swastika. In our day the democrats have the donkey and th ... More
What Happens When We Die? Article L: Future Reward and Punishment - Various - Jul 5, 1992 - 752
We live in a time when there is great fascination about life after death. S A few years ago Raymond Moody wrote a best-seller called Life After Life, which purported to detail the near-death experiences of men and women who "died" and then came back to tell remarkably similar stories of weightless ... More
Overcoming Fear of the Future - Esther 4:12-16 - Dec 29, 2002 - 708
Current headlines tell a chilling story:"Americans Revel Under Watchful Eyes""Riots Erupt in Bahrain""The High Cost of Peace""Thousands of Troops Head for Gulf""Terrorism on the High Seas""Kuwait Prepares for War""Predictions in Perilous Times"The last headline is arresting, at least for those of us ... More
Overcoming Lingering Bitterness - Genesis 45 - Dec 15, 2002 - 706
On Thursday morning, November 21, as the sun was peeking over the horizon in the port city of Sidon in southern Lebanon, Bonnie Penner Witherall was up early. On this day she was going to work at the prenatal clinic that offered medical services to the Muslim women from a nearby refugee camp. Tensio ... More
We Shall Be Like Him: The Purifying Hope of Christ's Return - I John 3:1-3 - Dec 9, 2001 - 694
Shortly before his recent death, ex-Beatle George Harrison was asked about his spiritual journey. The question was apt since it was Harrison who introduced the Beatles to Eastern religion in the 60s and (after the group broke up) wrote the song My Sweet Lord (a hymn of praise to the Hindu deity Kris ... More
Always Springtime in Heaven: I Believe in Life Everlasting - II Corinthians 5:8 - Jul 4, 2004 - 662
This is the final message in the series on the Apostles' Creed. When we started in January, there was snow on the ground. We end on a hot summer Sunday in July. Our church theme this year is "Back to Basics," and our theme verse is Jude 20, "But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most ho ... More
God's Scapegoat: "Buried" - Leviticus 16 - Mar 28, 2004 - 651
"I believe in Jesus Christ ¼ who suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried." The Apostles' CreedThis is a sermon based on a word that doesn't seem necessary. We know Jesus died. We know he rose from the dead. If we know what happened on Friday and we know what happened on Su ... More
Forgiveness: Healing the Hurt We Never Deserved - Matthew 18:21-35 - May 4, 2003 - 757
This is the first sermon in a series I never planned to preach. The story of how it came to be starts in February when I spent a week preaching at Word of Life Florida. One day I ate lunch with George Theis, former executive director of Word of Life. He told me about a book called Total Forgiveness ... More
God's Simple Plan of Salvation - Romans 10:5-13 - May 26, 2006 - 766
This is a very familiar passage of Scripture. Most of us know certain parts of it by heart. I have asked the Lord to do me a favor and not let me say anything new. I don't want to say anything you haven't already heard. All I want to do is reinforce a truth that you already know to be true so that y ... More
What is a Christian? - 1 Thessalonians 1:4-10 - May 20, 2007 - 775
A friend sent me an email telling about a question posed to her by a co-worker. Here is the exact text of the question:How is a Christian defined? It used to be that if you were not Jewish or Hindu or Buddhist, you were a Christian, whether Catholic or Lutheran or Episcopal or Baptist. But it seems ... More
Will We See Our Loved Ones Again? - 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 - Nov 3, 1996 - 315
My subject this morning is one that we don't often talk about. Over the twenty years I have served in pastoral ministry I have had very few conversations on this topic. The reasons are not hard to understand.Death in the best of circumstances is not easy to discuss. Even as an academic topic, mos ... More
Payday Someday: Why I Believe in Heaven and Hell - Various - Nov 26, 1995 - 797
This morning we come face to face with the most basic question of all: What happens when we die? For thousands of years men and women have pondered this question and offered differing answers. The materialist says that there is no such thing as a soul or spirit so that when we die, we simply ceas ... More
Self-Control: The Fine Art of Keeping Your Cool - Proverbs 16:32 - Jan 29, 1995 - 616
Prosecutor Christopher Darden set the tone in his opening statement in the O.J. Simpson murder trial. Everyone knows about O.J. the athlete and O.J. the celebrity. And by now most of us know far more about his personal life than we care to know. But Mr. Darden was not speaking to us, but to the twel ... More
What Happens When We Die? - Hebrews 9:27 - Sep 28, 1997 - 532
We live in a time when there is great fascination about life after death.• A few years ago Raymond Moody wrote a best-seller called Life After Life, which purported to detail the near-death experiences of men and women who "died" and then came back to tell remarkably similar stories of weightl ... More
Letter From a Friend - Romans 15 - Mar 6, 2007 - 737
“I need to ask your forgiveness.” Thus began a letter from a friend. The letter went on to describe a situation that was very understandable to me. During a phone call with someone else, my friend made a comment that he now regretted. And so he now wrote to ask my forgiveness. In h ... More
The Strangest Part of the Creed: He Descended into Hell - I Peter 3:18-19 - Apr 4, 2004 - 654
What happened to Jesus between his death and resurrection? We know his body was buried, but what about his spirit? Where was he and what was he doing between his death at 3:00 p.m. on Friday and his resurrection sometime before sunrise on Sunday morning? Christians have wondered about these things f ... More
Inner Beauty - I Peter 3:1-6 - Feb 6, 2005 - 598
“Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised” (Proverbs 31:30). "Beauty? Let me tell you something, being thought of as ‘a beautiful woman’ has spared me nothing in life, no heartache, no trouble. Love has been difficult. B ... More
A Time to Die - Luke 23:46 - Aug 4, 1991 - 548
3 P.M. Friday afternoon. It’s another hot day in Jerusalem. Things are worse now. More blood. More screams. More gore. The insects swarm around the three naked bodies. There are shouts, restless words from the crowd. Several hundred people have gathered at Skull Hill to watch the end. It hasn&# ... More
Last-Second Salvation - Luke 23:43 - Feb 10, 1991 - 543
It is Friday in Jerusalem. The smell of death is in the air. Outside the city wall, just north of the Damascus Gate, in a place long reserved for public executions, three crosses stand beside a road. A crowd has gathered this day. Not that crucifixion was unusual. But this day is different. An unusu ... More
Forgiving the Unforgivable - Luke 23:34 - Jan 6, 1991 - 542
The man called me on the phone and said, “Pastor Ray, could I come see you?” He told me this story. “My wife left me for another man and when she got tired of him, she decided to come back to me. Everything seemed fine for a few weeks and she left me again for the same man and stay ... More
Angry Man Alert - Aug 29, 2008
I would like to begin by calling your attention to two uncomfortable verses in the New Testament. If these verses don’t bother you, they should.Colossians 3:19 says, “Husbands, love your wives and do not be embittered against them.” It’s not the first part that grabs our atte ... More