Guerrilla Christianity

June 30, 2024

Old Testament: 2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27

Psalter: Psalm 130

Epistle Lesson: 2 Corinthians 8:7-15

Gospel Lesson: Mark 5:21-43

Scripture quotations from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

S.D.G.

Sermon #287

Two major considerations face us today as we continue our examination of the Apostles' Creed.  First, what is the point of mentioning Pontius Pilate?  When Jesus was betrayed by so many - the crowds, the Sanhedrin, Judas Iscariot - why do we affirm that he "suffered under Pontius Pilate?"  Next, we look at the dual nature of Christ and that he was fully God and fully human, as demonstrated in that he was "crucified, dead, and buried - none of which makes any sense if Jesus were only God and not human.

Text: John 18:33-19:16

Recorded at Hudson UMC on June 24, 2018 (Originally published September 5, 2018)

S.D.G.

S11E47: The Trinity in the Cross (Trinity Sunday 2024)

Sermon #608

On this Trinity Sunday (the first Sunday after Pentecost) we look at the work of all three persons of the Godhead in salvation at the cross of Jesus Christ.  At the heart of the doctrine of the Trinity is the relationship between the three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  The Father is eternal and uncreated.  The Son is eternally begotten of the Father and is likewise uncreated.  The Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from both the Father and the Son, is personal and not ephemeral, and each person is glorified and magnified equally.  Yet there are not three gods but one God.  It is an eternal mystery that Christian theologians have struggled to understand for centuries, and yet in this passage from John's gospel, we see the effortless way Jesus explains the work of the Father, Son, and Spirit in the salvation of the cross to an earnest Pharisee named Nicodemus.  

John 3:1-17

Recorded at Hudson UMC on May 26, 2024

Who Is God in Three Persons? Paperback by John R. Tyson (Amazon)

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S.D.G.

Sermon #450

The story of David and Goliath is a very familiar story to anyone who was raised in the church.  It is one of the first stories we learn in Sunday school.  And because of its familiarity, as adults sometimes we can gloss over the greater meaning of the story.  David was a shepherd, not particularly exceptional and decidedly not a battle-hardened warrior like Goliath.  Yet David had something that Goliath did not, and that is faith in God.  He saw Goliath as a little problem because he knew that his God is a big God who spoke and the worlds were formed.  And he also knew that victory would not come because of his ability but rather because of his lack of it, for, as he said, the battle is the Lord's.  God uses the weak to confound the strong, and ultimately He gets the glory for it.

1 Samuel 17

Recorded at Ebenezer UMC on June 20, 2021 (Originally published August 16, 2021)

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S.D.G.

Sermon #449

How do we judge people?  I know, we're not supposed to judge people but we do, don't we?  And how do we do it?  Most of the time we judge by sight, by what a person looks like, by the things that they do outwardly.  That's not how God judges.  What we think of as wonderful, often God sees as corrupt.  What we think of as worthless, often God sees as valuable.  We as human beings are limited in our senses, but God knows all and sees all, and so when God judges, he judges by the content of our hearts.  He knows our motivations.  He knows our desires, even better than we do.  And this is why God can reject a tall and handsome warrior king like Saul, and anoint a lowly shepherd boy like David.  God looks on the heart.

1 Samuel 15:34-16:13

Recorded at Hudson UMC on June 13, 2021 (Originally published August 5, 2021)

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S.D.G.

Sermon #286

As we continue our examination of the Apostles' Creed, we come to one of the most difficult affirmations for the modern believer, that Jesus was "Conceived by the Holy Spirit" and "Born of the Virgin Mary."  Such things we would be tempted to write off as superstitious nonsense and mythos but we need to be reminded that in affirming this belief, what we are saying about the birth of Jesus is that it is very special, for a child born of a very special purpose, and that it was real - and also very human.  

Text: Matthew 1:18-25

Recorded at Ebenezer UMC on June 17, 2018 (Originally published on August 29, 2018)

S.D.G.

June 16, 2024

Old Testament: 1 Samuel 15:34-16:13

Psalter: Psalm 20

Epistle Lesson: 2 Corinthians 5:6-17

Gospel Lesson: Mark 4:26-34

Scripture quotations from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

S.D.G.

Sermon #448

Welcome to the 9th season of Guerrilla Christianity!  We are beginning a new series for the season of Pentecost called "Prophets & Kings."  We will be looking at how God has appointed kings to rule over Israel, and how He uses prophets to speak to those kings when they get out of line, which is a frequent occurance.  In today's lesson from 1 Samuel 8, we see the people crying out for a king to rule over them, God's warning through the prophet Samuel that the king they get will not be the king they want, and their ultimate rejection of both Samuel and God as they clamor for a king to rule over them "like the other nations."  

1 Samuel 8:4-20

Recorded at Ebenezer UMC on June 6, 2021 (Originally published July 28, 2021)

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S.D.G.

Sermon #607

At Pentecost, Christian churches around the world celebrate the birth of the Church and the giving of the Holy Spirit as related in the Book of Acts, chapter 2.  There were 120 disciples in the upper room when the Holy Spirit came upon them and they ran out into the streets proclaiming the gospel in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.  We are told that three thousand were added to their ranks that day.  Two thousand years later there are two ends of the spectrum when it comes to how churches approach the work of the Holy Spirit among us.  Some would diminish the importance of the work of the Spirit.  Some would over-emphasize it to the point of making the Holy Spirit the central object of their worship.  But as we see in today's lesson from the Farewell Discourse of Jesus, recorded in John's Gospel, the role of the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity, is to point us to the Second Person of the Trinity, that is, Jesus Christ, and to glorify him.  We can neither ignore the work of the Spirit in the church, nor can we make it the only thing we focus on, but Pentecost shows us that the Spirit is living and active among us and points us to the saving work of the Father in Jesus Christ our Lord.

John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

Recorded at Hudson UMC on May 19, 2024

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S.D.G.

June 9, 2024

Old Testament: 1 Samuel 8:4-20; 11:14-15

Psalter: Psalm 138

Epistle Lesson: 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1

Gospel Lesson: Mark 3:20-35

Scripture quotations from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

S.D.G.