Sermons by Chuck Webster (Page 35)
A Voice Crying in the Wilderness
The way Luke chooses to begin this chapter is fascinating . . . he sets the stage by listing the most powerful people in the world, starting with the Emperor of Rome and narrowing in on the local secular and religious leaders. And then he takes us to John, an eccentric character who receives God’s word in the wilderness. Tiberius reigns in Rome, but Luke wants us to see what God is doing in the backwater region of Judea: he’s…
On These Two Commandments
This is the last of the sermons I’ll preach in 2018 on the theme for the year: Love God. Love People. Change the World. I will try to wrap it up, summarizing the theme as we end the year and look toward a new one. There’s plenty of evidence around us that loving God and the people he created will need to be a continual emphasis of Christians everywhere. We’re surrounded by hate and violence and political division. What the…
Too Bad or Too Good?
The essence of Satan’s nature is that he lies to and about us. He loves to make accusations concerning us, and here’s one of his favorites: About the good news of Jesus Christ, he’ll say one of two things: For some people, he tells them that they’re too bad, that they have no hope for mercy. “Your sins are worse than everybody else’s . . . God doesn’t show mercy to people like you.” And many people believe him, assuming…
Why We’re Here: A Worshiping Community
A few weeks back I started a four-part series under the heading, “Why We’re Here,” focusing on Luke’s description of the earliest Christians in Acts 2:42-47. The previous sermons have emphasized the church as a learning community, a sharing community, and an eating together community. For this last sermon in the series, I’m going to emphasize the church as a worshiping community. If you’ve traveled to Europe, you’ve noticed that what used to be the center of Christianity–as indicated by…
Lights in the World
On each month’s first Sunday morning in 2018, we’ve emphasized our theme: Love God. Love People. Change the World. As we near the end of the year I’m using a couple of these Sunday morning sermons to emphasize the last part of that theme: Change the World. God put us here to make a difference, not for us just to meet weekly and talk about how bad the world is, but for us to worship so that we might be…
Why We’re Here: Breaking Bread
This is the third of a four-part series called “Why We’re Here.” I’m aiming to help us as a church think introspectively about some practical reasons why God put us here. To do this, we’re considering Luke’s description of the earliest Christians. The third thing Luke writes that these Christians were devoted to is “the breaking of bread.” Sometimes that expression means the Lord’s Supper, and it may very well have that meaning here. But sometimes it refers to normal…
Why We’re Here: Sharing
We live in a world where many people—especially younger adults—are turning away from organized religion. They still believe in God, but for different reasons they no longer see the need to be a part of a church—a local, visible community of people who are following Jesus. In this world, we in the church need to ask ourselves: Why are we here? Why should Christians be involved in a local church? Why did God put us here? This was the second…