We’re not stuck on Easter; we are looking at the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus. He appeared to many different people, individually and sometimes in large groups, for a period of 40 days. Last week we look at two disciples on the road to Emmaus. This week we are in Matthew 28 which concludes with the great Commission to make disciples in all nations.
We will soon need to make some hard choices, as far as the website is concerned. We have nearly used up the 6 GB of storage space we purchase from WordPress. The vast majority of that is sermons, going back to when the website was launched in 2015. It’s been nearly nine years and for a few different reasons I don’t think buying additional digital storage is the right thing to do.
One would hope that after pastoring this church for nearly a decade my sermons are better now than they used to be. I will go back and replay a few of the older ones and try to confirm the truth in that statement. Some of them are repeats, or close to it. Every year during Advent for instance we retread some of the same ground, and again before and after Easter. Finally there’s the law of supply and demand. I will check the stats but I doubt anyone is looking at the church website and deciding to listen to sermons that I preach seven, eight or nine years ago. Like dusty boxes that sit in the attic they are just taking up space.
In the very beginning, March or April of 2015, I was adding slides to the sermon audio and loading the final video to YouTube. That process was time and labor intensive. It took a couple of hours to create and even longer for the final video to render. So those are hosted on YouTube and do not take up any memory here. Then we switched to uploading audio to the website and so it began. If you want to roam the halls of the virtual archive now is the time to start. I will listen to a few of the old ones and might keep a handful for posterity’s sake; maybe Mama’s Buttermilk Biscuits or a few others that really speak to me. I will start with the oldest in the archive and delete sermon posts from 2015 and 2016 so that more 2024 sermons can be added. If you find anything from back then you really like you can listen to it again or download it yourself. One 30 minute audio recording saved as .m4a takes only a few megabits of memory. But when you save 50 a year for nine years it really adds up.
This sermon fills in the gap we left in Luke 24 last week. Two disciples have the scriptures expounded for them by Jesus himself about the scriptures are about Jesus without realizing who is teaching them. He is revealed in the breaking of bread which is pure poetry, if you think about it.
Just like it was God’s flood (not Noah’s) so it was God’s plan of salvation and Jesus was the willing and obedient servant that helped bring it. This sermon concludes the 11 part series “Be About the Father’s Business.”
The disciples were familiar with Passover and had been keeping that annual festival for their entire lives. Jesus sat down with them to receive Passover for the last time and gave it new meaning; or more precisely, he revealed to them what the Passover had really meant all along.
Near the end of his earthly ministry, Jesus began transitioning into his role as our Great High Priest. John 17 has many statements of Jesus yielding to the Father’s will and way.
Throughout the earthly lifetime and ministry of Jesus he sought to do the will of his Father. Our series is nearing the end of that life and realizing this Jesus prayed harder than ever before in Luke 22. “Not my will but yours be done” summarizes his life, ministry and thought process. It was not always easy but it was always his way.
This is the Week of Prayer for North American Missions. We handed out prayer guides at Unity Baptist on Sunday but you follow along online and also watch short videos each day to meet our missionaries and hear their stories. Click this link to view the guide online or download a copy. Keep in mind that the missionaries highlighted this week are examples of work being done across Canada, the United States and its territories. We are also sharing daily on the Unity Baptist Facebook page.
Some can give, some will go, we all pray.
When the Samaritan woman (from last week’s sermon) went into town to tell everybody about Jesus, the disciples returned with food. Jesus said “My food is to the will of him that sent me.” That’s what I mean by eat like Jesus. Prioritizing God’s will ahead of everything else is in our best interest. Be sure to check out Matthew 6:31-33 before you go.
There is a lot of setup here for next week’s sermon but make no mistake, there’s a lot of goodness in just the first half of this text. This week: Living Water. Next week: How to Eat Like Jesus.
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