"Christ" Tagged Sermons (Page 3)
Jesus’ journey ends in Jerusalem, entering as prophet, priest, and king all at once, with an omnipresence and omnipotence the crowd can barely register. Even the ‘lords’ of verse 33 have no choice but to submit to the Lord.
The unnamed village of Luke 17:12 becomes a picture of every sinner: because of the fall, we are the lepers standing at a distance. Christ’s unity with his church in the victory of the cross is what finally saves those who were lost.
Luke’s Gospel keeps returning to journey, and confusion over Christ’s own route in chapter 17 dissolves once the church’s journey is read as an overlay of his. Christ’s victory on the cross, on this reading, already guarantees the church’s own.
Bethel mattered enormously to Israel, a significance traced out before turning to Elisha’s own circuit through the land. Along the way comes a weighing of how Christian fathers answer for their children’s sins, landing on Christ himself as the true house of God that Bethel only pictured.
The nine qualities of love in 1 Corinthians 13 get walked through, with love meant to be exercised, not admired as an abstract concept. Read rightly, this chapter is less a portrait of ideal human virtue than a portrait of Christ, one that extends even to mercy toward enemies.
Any easy division between ‘major’ and ‘minor’ sins gets questioned, insisting God is never the author of temptation even while examining Christ’s own temptation in Matthew 4:5-7. Adam’s sin, read this way, is far graver than we tend to admit, which is exactly why Christ’s success on our behalf matters so much.