Sunday Sermons

George Whitefield | Let the Name Perish He preached to a crowd bigger than the city that held it. By the time he died, an estimated ten million people had heard him, and no church anywhere carries his name. Born in 1714 above the Bell Inn in Gloucester, his father dead before he turned two and no money in the house. He entered Oxford as a servitor, the lowest rank in the university, shining richer...

Martin Luther | Sola Gratia He mailed a complaint about a coin-operated afterlife to an archbishop, and a continent caught fire. Within a few years, roughly four hundred thousand copies of his pamphlets were circulating across Germany. Born in 1483 in Eisleben, then Mansfeld, son of a miner who saved every coin to send him to law school. In 1505, terrified by a near-miss lightning strike, he screa...

Thomas Aquinas | Sicut Palea They called him the Dumb Ox. His teacher said the whole world would hear him bellow, and it has not stopped for 750 years. Born 1225 in the kingdom of Sicily to a noble family who wanted him to be a wealthy abbot. When he joined the begging Dominicans instead, his own brothers kidnapped him and locked him in the family castle for two years to break his vow. They failed...

Francis of Assisi | Il Poverello His father gave him a fortune. He gave it back, in the town square, naked. Francis of Assisi was a cloth merchant's son, a failed knight, and the most disruptive man medieval Christianity ever produced. Born in 1181 to Pietro di Bernardone, who renamed him Francesco, "the French one," and groomed him to be a merchant prince. Francis spent his twenties throwing the...

Augustine of Hippo | Cor Inquietum Most evangelicals act like church history started with the overhead projector. It did not. Before First Baptist on every corner there was an old Greek bishop named Polycarp standing on a pyre in Smyrna, refusing to curse the Christ he had walked with for eighty-six years. There was Ignatius writing letters from a Roman ship on his way to the lions. There was Iren...

Athanasius of Alexandria | Contra Mundum They called him the Black Dwarf. He outlasted four emperors. Athanasius of Alexandria was a North African deacon, then a bishop, then a fugitive, then a bishop again, five times in a row. He was twenty-three when he wrote On the Incarnation, a book C. S. Lewis said still smelled like the second century sixteen hundred years later. He was a twenty-something...

Irenaeus of Lyon | The Man Who Gave You a Bible You've probably never heard of him either. That's still the point. Irenaeus of Lyon was a bishop, a theologian, and Polycarp's most important student — which made him three handshakes from the resurrection. His name meant peace. He spent his whole life at war. In the second century, a heretic named Marcion convinced thousands of Christians to throw o...

Ignatius of Antioch | Truly Nailed for Us in the Flesh He named himself God-bearer. Then he proved it. Ignatius of Antioch was bishop of the church where Christians were first called Christians, a disciple of the Apostle John, and a man who had pastored one congregation for forty years when Roman soldiers chained him and marched him toward the Colosseum. He had every reason to use the trip to feel...

Polycarp of Smyrna | 86 Years and Faithful unto Death You've probably never heard of him. That's kind of the point. Polycarp of Smyrna was a bishop in the early church, a student of the Apostle John, and one of the last living links to the eyewitnesses of the resurrection. When the Roman Empire gave him a choice between cursing Jesus or dying in a stadium fire, he said eight words that have echoed...

A simple question drives this message: How is your witness? What often feels like church language is revealed to be something far deeper. A witness is a life that tells the truth about Jesus. Not just with words, but with surrender. Jesus is the true witness, and through the Spirit, His people are sent to testify to Him.  The story of Stephen shows how this works. Faithful witness doesn’t start o...

Jesus rises and appears to His disciples, and what begins as good news quickly exposes unbelief. Eyewitnesses testify, but again and again they do not believe. What looks like confusion is actually hardness of heart. What feels like doubt is resistance to what God has clearly done. Then the moment shifts. The same disciples who struggled to believe are now sent. Jesus gives them a mission to go in...

The women come to the tomb, and what begins as grief quickly turns into shock. They are not expecting a miracle, they are preparing for death. But when they arrive, the stone is already rolled away. The tomb is empty, and the message is clear. Jesus is not here. He has been raised. What looks like the end is actually a beginning. What feels like loss is the turning point of history. Then the momen...

Jesus is brought before Pilate, and what begins as a trial quickly turns into a trade. The leaders accuse, the crowd is stirred, and Pilate tries to find a way out. He offers a choice between Jesus and Barabbas, thinking the answer is obvious. But the crowd chooses the rebel over the righteous. What looks like a decision is actually a revelation. What feels like justice is the exposure of the huma...

Jesus leads His disciples into the garden, and what begins in quiet prayer quickly turns into crushing pressure. He asks them to watch, but they sleep while He wrestles in anguish before the Father. What looks like weakness is actually obedience. What feels like sorrow is submission to the will of God. Then the moment shifts. Judas arrives with a crowd, and a kiss becomes betrayal. The disciples s...

Jesus and His disciples leave the temple, and the disciples marvel at the massive stones and grandeur of the building. But Jesus shocks them with a prophecy: the temple they admire will soon fall, and not one stone will remain. What feels permanent will collapse, because God is bringing a covenant transition. The disciples ask when these things will happen, and Jesus answers not with dates to calc...

Jesus stands in the temple courts during His final week and the religious leaders demand to know where His authority comes from. What unfolds is not a sincere investigation but a series of calculated attempts to trap Him. Through questions about politics, theology, and the law, every group tries to embarrass or expose Him. Yet each exchange only reveals the opposite. Jesus exposes their shallow th...

Jesus enters Jerusalem to shouts of praise, palm branches waving and Scripture on the lips of the crowd. Yet beneath the celebration lies a deep misunderstanding. The people welcome a King they believe will bring immediate victory, but Jesus rides in humility, not conquest. He inspects the Temple, curses a fruitless fig tree, and confronts worship that looks alive on the surface but bears no lasti...

Jesus walks ahead on the road to Jerusalem, fully aware of the suffering that awaits Him, while His disciples follow in fear and confusion. As He speaks openly about betrayal and death, they reach instead for status and glory, revealing a blindness that clings to ambition rather than mercy. Jesus redefines greatness, not as power over others, but as service that gives itself away, anchoring His Ki...

Jesus presses into the places we’d rather keep private. Conversations about marriage, children, money, and security reveal a deeper question beneath them all: Can life be achieved, or must it be received? The Pharisees search for loopholes, children are dismissed as insignificant, and a sincere, moral man walks away sorrowful when asked to surrender what he cannot release. Jesus exposes the lie of...

Jesus pulls back the veil on the mountain, revealing a glimpse of His glory to trembling disciples who still do not fully understand what kind of Messiah He is. Moses and Elijah appear, but the Father makes it unmistakably clear: Jesus alone is the beloved Son, and He alone must be listened to. The moment is breathtaking, but it does not last. Coming down the mountain, glory gives way to chaos, ar...

Jesus leads His disciples into Caesarea Philippi, a place crowded with false gods, political power, and rival claims to lordship, and asks a question that still divides the world: Who do you say that I am? Surrounded by idols and empires, Peter confesses Jesus as the Christ, but immediately stumbles over what that confession truly means. Jesus reveals that Messiahship is not about triumph without...

In this talk, we pause to look back at God’s faithfulness in our first year as a church and look ahead to the next season He is inviting us into. What began as a simple plan for a Bible study quickly became weekly gatherings marked by God’s presence, baptisms, growing community, deep discipleship, and generous mission in our city. Most importantly, we have watched God form people, not just build a...

After a lifetime of waiting, Simeon finally holds the promise he has trusted God for. Taking the child Jesus in his arms, his long hope gives way to peace, and his song becomes a quiet declaration that God keeps His word. Having seen salvation with his own eyes, Simeon is ready to face death without fear. This sermon invites us into the difference between anxious waiting and faithful waiting, and...

After months of silence shaped by discipline and grace, Zechariah’s voice is restored and his first words become praise. His song announces that God has visited His people, kept His covenant, and brought light to those sitting in darkness. This sermon invites us to see Advent as the breaking of a long night, where forgiveness is proclaimed, fear is lifted, and the dawn of salvation guides our feet...

Mary’s song rises from obscurity, tension, and surrender. In the midst of unexpected calling and personal cost, she magnifies the Lord and interprets what God is doing in the world. This sermon explores the upside-down kingdom revealed in the incarnation, where God sees the lowly, scatters the proud, fills the hungry, and remembers His mercy. Advent begins not with sentiment, but with awe, trust,...