Tag: Revival

Right Track Wrong Track

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Biblical Text: Luke 10:1-20

This sermon is a traditional mission day sermon. The sending of the 72. But I took it in a different direction. I wanted to ask a different question, or maybe I should say a question that I think is on many minds. For all the talk of missions and growth in the church, why does it seem like we see little of it? Why knowing that we need revival, does it not happen? To me there are three answers. The first is denial. Hey, it is not so bad. The second in to blame God. And the last is to examine ourselves. And this is where I think our text helps us. Jesus gives a bunch of advice to those on mission. 1) Pray earnestly. 2) Don’t take the moneybag. Depend upon the providence of God as you step out like lambs amidst wolves. 3) Receive the word of peace. And finally, 4) rejoice that your names are in heaven, which I take a reminder to put first things first, which is simply God.

This message might be a bit hot. I admit that. But I think it is true. I think it is a valid answer as to why revival tarries. It is a honest examination of why we know we have a spiritual problem, but it doesn’t go away.

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And They Remembered

Biblical Text: John 2:13-22
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The text is the cleansing of the Temple. It is an episode that is in all four gospel. Words from it end up at the Sanhedrin trial of Jesus. In Matt/Mark it is the proximate cause or fig leaf for convicting Jesus. In John it is moved to the front – the first action by Jesus of his public ministry – for theological reasons. All that is to say that the Scriptures view this as important. The indictment of Jesus is that the people have turned His Father’s house into a marketplace. It was easier to make God a transaction.

I have to say that much of American church life can feel like that at times. That sometimes it is just easier to pay the temple tax than to carry the cross.

Where does renewal start? “The disciples remembered…and they believed the scriptures and the word that Jesus had spoken.” The disciples remember. The sheep hear his voice. The new temple is a temple of living stones. A temple cleansed in the blood of Jesus. A temple where the sacrifices are the broken and contrite heart. The renewal…the life starts by being deep in that word.

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