Fork of The Broad/Sermons from Carlton Baptist Church

Repentance isn’t about sinning less so that you can impress God with your goodness – It’s about treasuring God more than you treasure your sin, and the evidence of that – the fruit of repentance – will be your obedience to God’s Word.  In the words of the Old Testament scholar, Dr. Chad Bird, it’s time to “Trash your homemade halos.”   Stop pretending you love Jesus and you have it all together wh...

John the Baptist was a polarizing figure, and stirred things up, but Jesus who was on the way, would divide people in a way that not even John the Baptist could – Luke 3:17 says His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.  The winnowing fork was like a large wooden shovel, and the farmer w...

Adam in the Garden lived in a one-rule world – don’t eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or you will die – and Adam was disobedient to God’s Word, he didn’t trust God’s will – you know why? Scripture says the fruit looked like it would taste good – Because Satan said God was holding out on him, and there was something better than what God had given him.  Adam fell for th...

Jesus' Mission - He came to free those held in the bondage of their sins – people who can’t shake their addictions – people who wrestle with their guilt and their shame and can’t get loose from it on their own – people who want to do the right thing but make bad decisions and carry a grocery list of moral failures in their hearts – Jesus came to give more than physical healing to people who co...

In Scripture, Jesus addresses a lot of felt needs – He heals the sick, He gives sight to the blind, He makes the lame walk – But we have to remember that Jesus’ ultimate purpose was not to address my physical illness;  Jesus’ ultimate purpose was not to help me have more money in my pocket;  Jesus’ deepest concern was not the condition of my checking account – When Jesus is ministering to me and t...

There’s a great dividing line happening here – The Gospel, this good news about Jesus makes blind people see; it makes people who are slaves to their sin free; it gives people who are chained and crushed by their sin liberty; it brings dead men to life; it makes men who are filthy in their sins clean, white as snow.  How you respond to Jesus determines whether you are a child of God, or child who...

Here's what Luke is doing in this text today – He is establishing that Jesus Christ is the sovereign God – He is in control.  He holds all authority. He is Lord over all, and thus the proper response to Him is to hear His message, submit to Him, and do what He says – repent and believe the Gospel.  Repent and believe in Jesus.

Jesus’ teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum is so powerful, so authoritative, so pregnant  with the sovereignty of God, not only are the visible, human listeners astonished by His words, but also the invisible world, and the world we can’t see, is hit with an irresistible impact. Jesus not only astonishes the visible audience – He drives a demon out of the darkness and forces him to acknowledge...

Our message for today – The Word has become flesh and dwelt among us.  Jesus has come into the world.  And He is more than a man.  He is God. And we know that He is God because He is full of truth, He is omniscient, He is omnipresent, and He extends mercy to sinners, even sinners like me, even sinners like you.   And when you come to an understanding of who Jesus is, you become caught in the grip...

Jesus encounters a man with leprosy in this episode - He is in need of something beyond a natural solution to his problem.  He is in need of divine intervention.  So he comes to the one whom Mark 1:27 calls “The Great Physician” – A little later on in Luke 5:27, when Jesus asked why He spends so much time with those on the fringes of society, with sinners, He says “ Those who are well have no need...

When we sin, it’s God’s law that we have violated.  God is the only individual who has any right to be offended by our sinfulness, because He is the one who authored and perfected the law.  And since He is the One whom we offend with our sin, He is the only One who has any right to forgive us of our sins. Jesus has put Himself on the judgment seat, the place where only God Himself can sit.  The ph...

The standard of every religious system outside of Christianity is that if you are good enough, you will go to Heaven.  What sets Christianity apart is that Jesus calls sinners to Himself, to repentance and an eternal relationship with God in Heaven. Jesus said “ I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”   Who needs a doctor? Sick people.  Who needs forgiveness for sins? Sin...

As we continue our line by line journey through the Book of Luke, we find the tension escalating between Jesus and the Pharisees - Jesus defies their man-made Sabbath laws by healing on the Sabbath, and in doing so, declares Himself to be "Lord of the Sabbath". Jesus chooses mercy over empty religious works.

In this episode, Jesus chooses 12 apostles, or emissaries, to carry on His message of repentance, forgiveness of sins, and love. He chooses a most unlikely array of characters to fulfill His mission and build His church, from bad-tempered fishermen to tax-collecting extortionists to outright traitors - And does so to demonstrate that the work to be done is not man's work, but God is to receive...

Luke describes the controversial beginning of the ministry of John the Baptist, including his powerful first recorded words in Scripture. John’s preaching calls us all to repentance and faith in the one who can save us from our sins.

Jesus is presented at the Temple, and Simeon and Anna prophesy over Him, declaring Him to be the Messiah. We don't hear from Jesus again until He is 12 years old, when He is found teaching the religious experts in the Temple, and He openly states for the first time that He is the Son of God.

The narrative of Christ’s birth contains the story of two kings-One, Caesar Augustus, had a name whose meaning was “supreme and majestic”, and he was expected to be worshiped like a god; the other was born in the most humble way possible-Jesus was born in humiliation, and would die in humiliation. One was a king; but the other was the King of Kings. Hear the Christmas story as it defines the perso...

Zechariah’s song at the birth of John the Baptist beautifully binds together the Old and New Testaments by pointing out that Christ is the fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant, the Abrahamic Covenant, the New Covenant. Israel has expected God’s promises to be fulfilled through a leader that would lead them to political power and prosperity, but John the Baptist’s message paved the way for the Messi...

Luke is writing to a Roman official named Theophilus in order to explain the ministry and work of Jesus, and strengthen his faith. But Luke is doing more here than just writing a biography about Jesus. This is more than just facts about the life of Jesus.  What Luke wrote is about what God accomplished in human history through Jesus - This is a story with eternal ramifications.  This is salvation...

The priest Zechariah is visited by the angel Gabriel, who announces to him that he's going to be the father of a son. Zechariah responds with unbelief, because he and his wife are old, and she is barren. So the question for today is, how do you respond to the Word of God?  There’s only two responses – either you respond with unbelief, or with belief. Either you trust God, or you don’t.  RC Spr...

The angel Gabriel appears to Mary and delivers a message - "Mary, you’re going to give birth to the Son of God, God in the flesh – His name will be Jesus". Here’s what’s interesting about the name Jesus – it means Healer – It means Saviour.  Mary understands the implications of this -She knows the Old Testament teaching about a Messiah coming from the family tree of David to save Israel...

Magnifying God isn’t about making God look bigger than He really is – It’s about sharing a true picture of how big our God is.  Our worship of God, in our singing and in our normal, day to day activities are opportunities to demonstrate how incredible and magnificent Jesus is, even though the world doesn’t pay Him much attention; even though Hollywood and Washington, DC don’t think He’s that impor...

The birth of John the Baptist brought about joy, wonder, fear, and finally, hope.  When the people saw how powerfully God was moving, they asked the question, “What then will this child be?”  The real question was, “What’s God going to do next?”  Even as an infant, God was working in John the Baptist’s life, blessing him and guiding him toward his fulfilling his purpose.  John the Baptist drew cro...

Zechariah's song is one of four songs sung in The Book of Luke. The overarching theme in Zachariah’s song is hope– remember, this is a people who have lived under Roman rule as slaves; they’ve not heard from God in 400 years – and now suddenly, their deepest hopes, hope for freedom from God’s wrath, hope for reconciliation with God through Christ, is unfolding right before their eyes. The majo...

There are constant battles going on in our world – on a macro level, we see the United States and China bickering about airspace; we see Democrats and Republicans debating about gender ideology and race and inflation;  on a smaller scale, we see husbands and wives arguing over loading the dishwasher incorrectly; we see parents and children quarreling over grades and what the kids want to wear and...