Click here to to be taken to our YouTube page.
For the Week of March 23
Scripture Intro
This morning we reach the half-way point of our Lenten mystery sermon series. Our reading is once again from Matthew’s gospel, like the past two weeks–and the next two if you want a sneak peak, but that’s not the secret theme. This particular passage was especially meaningful for the author; listen and see if you can figure out why.
This is Matthew chapter 9, verses 9 through 15.
Scripture Reading
As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax-collection station, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.
And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with Jesus and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.”
Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “The wedding attendants cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”
For the Week of March 16
Scripture Intro
This morning we continue our mystery sermon series with another reading from Matthew’s gospel. After calling his first disciples in last week’s reading, Jesus has continued to teach and heal people in and around the town of Capernaum. His ministry there did not go unnoticed and his fame grew, along with the size of the crowds coming to see him. Our reading this tells what happened when the crowds became so large that Jesus decided to move on.
This is Matthew chapter 8, verses 18 through 27.
Scripture Reading
Now when Jesus saw great crowds around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. A scribe then approached and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Another of his disciples said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”
And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. A windstorm suddenly arose on the sea, so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves, but he was asleep. And they went and woke him up, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a dead calm. They were amazed, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?”