St Marcus MKE Sermons

This summer we’re going to be working our way through the first half of Paul’s  Letter to the Romans , which is considered by many scholars to be the most foundational of Christian writings. It is here that the Apostle Paul, who is the primary human agent that God uses to record the New Testament, lays out the essence of the gospel in the most comprehensive form. This week, as we hear Paul stating...

This is our final week in the series and we’ll be worshipping under the theme  “Merely Human Messengers.”  This week we examine a fascinating account from Acts 14:8-21 in which the pagans in the city of Lystra don’t know what to make of Christian missionaries Paul and Barnabas. In fact, after witnessing a miracle, they start worshipping them as gods. This week we’ll examine what we can l...

Our theme for this week is  “Paul’s Early Preaching.”  When it comes to witnessing, an area where many Christians get stuck is in debating peripherals – aspects of the sanctified life God intends for his people. In reality, the most important point of discussion is “Did Jesus rise?” Our willingness to submit to his will all hinges on whether or not he’s God. The Apostle Paul is excellent...

Our theme for this week is  “What the Church Did.”  In Chapter 11, after hearing three stories of conversion, we start to understand that the gospel is moving full force out into the Gentile world. Perhaps the best example of that is the church in Antioch under the leadership of Barnabas. Studying that location and that guy will give us a fantastic insight in how the Holy Spirit see...

Our theme for this week is  “The Conversion of Saul.”  The  Book of Acts  tells us a great deal about conversion. Conversion is an essential part of Christianity. And while in one sense, our hearts are converted only once, in another sense, as our sinful unbelief it’s perpetually being fought by the Spirit, our hearts are continually converting. Saul of Tarsus, who turns from p...

Our theme for this week is  “Philip and a Foreigner.”  The  Book of Acts  tells us the story of the Early Christian Church. By and large, what the Spirit of God moved the early Christians to believe and do would seemingly fully apply to us still today. This includes things like gospel proclamation, conversion, discipleship, communal love and healing, etc. In the second quarter...

Our theme for this week is  “Jesus: Coming as King.”  The Bible is filled with irony at its most crucial moments. When God becomes human at Christmas, he’s born  in a barn , lower than most humans. When Jesus conquers Satan on Good Friday, it’s not the blood of enemies, but  his own blood  being poured out. When Jesus rises on Easter Sunday he appears first to women, who  don’t legally qualify as...

Our theme for this week is  “Jesus: The Next Life.”  Will we be married in heaven? It’s not a question to which a simple “YES” or “NO” is a sufficient answer. It’s complicated. But it’s also beautiful. And it’s practical. That’s what made it a great test question when the Sadducees presented it to Jesus. His answer is paradigm-shifting. And in the process, Jesus exposes the  real  issue with the S...

Our theme for this week is “Jesus: Why Grace and Not Merit.” This week we’re taking a look at one of the most seemingly UNFAIR stories in the Bible. It’s a parable in which Jesus teaches us how His Kingdom works. And it totally exposes our flesh’s inherent dislike of grace. On Saturday we’ll be studying The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard from Matthew 20:1-16.

Our theme for this week is  “Jesus: How To Forgive.”  When defining Christianity, the place you have to start is forgiveness. While this might seem obvious, it’s often forgotten. The fact that we’re bitter comes from holding grudges. This is a lack of forgiveness. The lack of self-esteem we have and the self-loathing that comes from regret. This is a lack of forgiveness. The inability to form and...

Pastor Jeske's message from the Feast of St. Patrick service. Acts 18:1-4 After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.   There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them,   and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them.   Every...

Our theme for this week is  “Jesus: Sufficient Evidence.”  A major factor to our insecurities in life is not as much a lack of evidence/reason to be secure, but a lack of belief  despite  the evidence. This week, we’ll see Jesus teach the Pharisees about the sufficiency of the “Sign of Jonah.” The death & resurrection of Christ is the ultimate proof that we are loved by God and that God is in cont...

Our theme for this week is  “Jesus: The Necessity of Priority.”  A fallen human heart struggles to ascribe value to the right things. We are, by nature,  mis prioritizers. Since the word “worship” comes from the Old English “worth-ship” (meaning,  to ascribe value ), we should assume that without the guidance of God’s Word, we’re continually struggling with  worshipping  the wrong things. We need...

Our theme for this week is   “Jesus: The Danger of Rejection and Joy of Reception.”   Perhaps the single most common question I get about God as a pastor today is some variation of  “How could a loving God send someone to hell?”  Closely related to that is the question of if salvation comes through the good news of the gospel, how is it fair that some people seemingly have more access to the gospe...

Our theme for this week is   “Jesus: Sends Out The Weak.”   Last week we said that if you’re a Christian, that means that you’re  called . But God always calls people  in  for the purpose of  sending them out . YOU will be his witnesses! What will we accomplish? How should we prepare? What can we expect? We learn all of that as we see Jesus send out his disciples for the first time in Matthew 10:5...

Our theme for this week is   “Jesus: Calls Sinners.”  Since Matthew is writing predominantly to Jewish leaders, he’s often pushing the angle of how the good news of Jesus and following Jesus is different from traditional religion. This week, that tension is highlighted by the phrase,  “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matt. 9:13)  When Jesus calls us, what is he calling us awa...

This week we get to look at a collection of Jesus’ miracles as we worship under the theme  “Jesus: Healer of Wounds.”  What is the goal of Jesus’ miracles? What is the environment in which they take place? What do they teach us about the character of Jesus and where we’re going? What do they tell us about how we should be spending our time on earth? We’ll discuss all of these as we do an overview...

We finish up our look at Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount this week by learning the difference between real & false Christianity. The Sermon on the Mount is less a tale of good vs. evil and more a tale of authentic vs. counterfeit Christianity. And Jesus, this week, teaches about the marks of genuine faith, as we study Matthew 7:15-23.

Our worship series in early 2019 is titled  The Gospel of Matthew:  The One You’ve Been Waiting For .  This week, we move into Jesus’ famous “Sermon on the Mount.” We live in a society that tells us we must never make judgments upon others and sometimes even says this is fully a biblical sentiment. What does Jesus really teach about making judgments? He offers a brilliant, somewhat controversial t...

Our worship series in early 2019 is titled  The Gospel of Matthew:  The One You’ve Been Waiting For . This week, we encounter the famous story of Jesus’ Testing in the Wilderness. It’s the single best blueprint he gives us in the Gospels for overcoming temptation. But his endurance also helps us understand the depths of his love. This week we’ll be studying Matthew 4:1-11. 

As we start a new year, we start a new worship series, titled  The Gospel of Matthew:  The One You’ve Been Waiting For .  As we begin Matthew’s Gospel, we’ll study a young Jesus’ flight from Bethlehem to Egypt and back to Nazareth. This story tells us something very interesting about the journey not only of Christ, but of our lives. We will face opposition at every stop, and glory will come from u...

The end of the year is a nice time not only to remember, but also to let go. The biblical concept of forgiveness is primarily  letting go  of holding things against others any longer. This doesn’t come naturally. And when it doesn’t come at all, this bitterness turns into what is called  WRATH . It’s the same impulse that led to Esau desiring to kill his own brother. We need to learn how to forgiv...

Without question, perhaps especially this time of year, the world struggles with  ENVY . And for many of us, it’s not nearly as simple as wanting more material things. Sometimes it’s the charm of a seemingly perfect family. Sometimes it’s the talents of someone who objectively just has more gifts than us. Or sometimes it’s simply the nostalgic longing for “the way things used to be.” But that year...

If the world has a definition of “sin” anymore, it’d probably be something like  doing bad things . That’s partially true. In Catechism classes, we might call that “Sins of Commission.” But more subtle, and sometimes more offensive, are what we might call “Sins of Omission.” This is not so much doing the  wrong  thing, but failing to do the  right  thing. This hurts people just as much. And these...

The concept of the Seven Deadly Sins is not so much that we love  bad  things, but that we hyper-love and over desire  good  things. It’s an excessiveness and misguided prioritization of the heart. The sin of LUST is primarily a sin of craving the excitement and pleasure of human sexuality in a way outside of God’s beautiful design. This week we’ll be looking at a case study on  LUST  in the story...