The King Rejected and Received, Luke 23:32-43

As we look at this familiar passage today which deals with the crucifixion of Jesus, there is a temptation for a preacher to try to present something which is very familiar in a fresh way. And so often the way that is done is to dramatize the story by adding all sorts of details concerning the method of crucifixion, or the torture of crucifixion, or other details that might make the story more interesting. But the gospel writers do not expend much effort attempting to dramatize the physical act of the crucifixion. Luke just states it as simply as possible

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The reason for the season; Luke 23: 26-31

It’s amazing that in spite of Christmas being a celebration of the birth of Christ, essentially celebrating Jesus’ birthday, the enemy is doing everything he can to detract from the true meaning and diminish people’s recognition of what it is all about. I can’t imagine that our culture would tolerate the kind of animosity that is happening today towards Christmas if it were a celebration of any other historical or religious figure’s birthday. But even so, Christmas is still a very popular holiday celebrated the world over. However, I’m afraid that even when we recognize Christmas for what it truly

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What will you do with Jesus? Luke 23: 1-25

What will you do with Jesus? That is the question of the ages. It is the question that every person of every age must answer for themselves. It is in this scenario played out here in the final chapters of the gospel of Luke that we see one person after another faced with the question of “what will you do with Jesus?” See, it is not enough to simply believe that He exists. All the players in this last act of the ministry of Jesus certainly believed that He existed. But they all must decide not if He is, but

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From faith to fear to failure; Luke 22: 49-62

I’ve often jokingly said that I discovered panic attacks. And I’m only half kidding when I say that. Almost 18 years ago I went through a period where I had debilitating panic attacks every day for about 3 years. I may make light of it sometimes now, but I can assure you that panic attacks are no laughing matter. So along the way I learned something about panic attacks. And one of the things I first learned was that when you have a panic attack, your body wants to respond in one of two ways; fight or flight. That is

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Selling Jesus, Luke 22: 47, 48

Before I became a preacher I used to be an antique dealer. And as such I sometimes spent a lot of time around auction houses. The typical situation was I would usually get there some time before the auction started to preview the material. And then at an appointed time, the auction would begin. Since I was a specialty antique dealer, there were usually only a few items in the sale that I was interested in. The items were numbered according to lots. And sometimes the item you wanted was maybe lot 150 or 250. That meant you had to

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The effective, fervent prayer of Christ, Luke 22:39-46

Many years ago I built a house in Harford County, MD on eight wooded acres. And as part of that process I cleared a large portion of the land. There were a couple of acres of meadow at the bottom of the hill that I piled up two great big mounds of fallen trees and brush and so forth. Eventually it became time to burn these big huge piles of brush and logs. The first one I made a little fire off to the side and fed it gradually with the debris from the large pile. It took a really

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The invisible kingdom of God made visible; Luke 22: 28-34

As I was thinking and trying to prepare for this message this week, I found myself wondering how I could present this passage in such a way that it would make a difference. Not to just prepare a message that after it was all said and done we might say, “well, I learned a little bit about Peter, I learned a little about what happened in the Upper Room, but so what?” I mean, why are we here this morning, to just learn a few facts about the Bible? To just fulfill some sort of societal obligation we may feel

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The Sinner, the Saints and the Servant; Luke 22: 21-30

The first three gospels of the New Testament are what we call the synoptic gospels. They each present the story of Christ incorporating a number of similar events and all follow a similar sequence. But as we have noticed in our study of Luke up to this point, Luke tends to present his information in such a way as to emphasize certain principles of the gospel that he wants to stress through his particular arrangement. This passage before us today is no different. Luke has deliberately included some things of this last discourse in the upper room and left others

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Jesus, the Passover Lamb, Luke 22: 7-20

Today we find ourselves looking at a passage of scripture which is the basis for a ceremony which is part of one of the most controversial doctrines in the history of the church. It was one of the primary points of dispute in the Reformation. Consequently, it has the distinction of being a major contributing factor in the separation of many denominations. I’m talking, of course, about the Lord’s Supper, or Communion. For hundreds of years, many theologians and preachers a whole lot smarter than I am have debated this issue, and so I don’t pretend to have solved every

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The plan to kill Jesus, Luke 22: 1-6

Every year a certain website publishes the most popular baby names. It’s interesting to see how that changes from year to year. One hundred years ago the most popular boy’s name was John, and the most popular girl’s name was Mary. Not all that exciting. In those days people tended to name their children from the Bible. According to baby center dot com, in 2014, the most popular boy’s name is Liam, and the most popular girl’s name is Emma. You might imagine that Bible names might have fallen out of favor somewhat, but a surprising number are still in

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