Sermons by Jeff Cottone (Page 21)
Resurrection & Life – 1 Corinthians 15; John 11
There’s nothing more tragic than when Christians don’t live with a yearning for the hope of heaven. Many Christians I think not only don’t live with a yearning for heaven but have an expectation of heaven that’s characterized at best by boredom and at worst by dread. In the Bible and especially in the NT, the hope of heaven is a real, full, life-giving joy-producing endurance-strengthening hope. In modern-day terms the word “hope” is kind of an empty wish –…
The Forgiveness of Sins – Psalm 130; Matthew 18:21-35; Colossians 3:13
If I came to you and said, “You’re free!”, that may or may not be good news to you. For most of us, it wouldn’t be really news at all – you might say, “OK… I didn’t know I needed freeing.” It would only be good news if there was a few inches of glass between us and I was delivering that news to the telephone – and even then only if I was relaying the news of the judge…
The Saints – Acts 2:42-47, Romans 12:3-21, John 13:34-35
Origen (church leader in Egypt in 4th century): “Jesus is always being falsely accused… He is silent in the face of this and does not answer with his own voice. But he makes his defense in the lives of his genuine disciples, for their lives cry out the real facts and defeat all false charges.” I wonder if he would he say the same thing about the church today? What he’s saying is that the lives of Jesus’ disciples is…
The Church – Matthew 16:13-20, Ephesians 4:1-6 & 5:25-27, 1 Peter 2:4-10
The Church At this point in the Creed, we see a sort of a shift in the content of what we profess: a shift from professing our faith in the essentials of our triune God and how our salvation was accomplished by Jesus; to professing our faith in the essentials of our life in that triune God and how we live out that salvation which we receive from Jesus. From the Trinity of our faith to the lives of the…
The Holy Spirit – Genesis 1:1-2, Acts 2:1-21; Titus 3:4-7
The Holy Spirit I said in an earlier sermon in this series that the Creed tells a story. And the flow of that story moves with the main actors of that story: It begins with the Father’s work of creating; it moves on to the Son’s work of rescue; and now it ends with the Spirit’s work of re-creating – in which the spirit brings us into a new community – the holy catholic church; gives us a new relationship…
Ascended, Seated, Coming – Acts 1:1-11, Act 17:29-31, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
On the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From there he will come to judge the living and the dead. Jesus didn’t exit this world through the shame of death; but through the glory and honor of ascension. We don’t focus as much on Jesus’ ascension in our tradition as some other churches – certainly not as much as we focus on…
On the Third Day, He Rose Again – Matthew 28 & Romans 1:1-4
How do we account for the strange phenomena of Christianity? quote: “either Jesus really rose from the dead, or this is the weirdest, most unlikely thing that ever happened in human history – that people on such a large scale, across time and place and ethnicity and culture and language would believe it, have their lives changed by it, and even give their lives for it.” If Jesus really rose from the dead, then the historical outworking of Christianity makes…
Died, Buried, Descended – Matthew 27:57-66; Hebrews 2:14-15; Romans 8:37-38
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary; he suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended into hell. The Apostles’ Creed wanted to make sure that an essential part of the Christian Faith, was that Jesus, the founder of our faith and the one we call Lord and God: died. When you think about it, it’s kind of odd. How…
Suffered & Crucified – Matthew 27:11-56
“I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, Our Lord, who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, Born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified.” Last week we looked at the phrase of the creed in which we confess Jesus supernatural conception and birth. And up until that point in the Creed, all seems well. We are perhaps left with the sound of children singing silent night softly in our ears while we envision a peaceful night…
Conceived & Born – Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-38 & 2:1-20
Jesus was anything but ordinary. The life of Jesus is book-ended by the same thing which characterized it throughout – the extraordinary; the supernatural. Quote: “And at the beginning of Jesus life he makes an impossible entrance; and at the end of Jesus life he makes an impossible exit: he enters & exits from places where life life ordinarily doesn’t enter or exit from: A virgin’s womb; and a sealed tomb.” Life normally doesn’t make an entrance from a virgin’s…
Jesus Christ, His Only Son, Our Lord – Philippians 2:5-11, Romans 10:9-10
Jesus Christ, His Only Son, Our Lord Few people would deny that Jesus is pretty central to the Christian Faith. But sometimes, then, people want to reduce the Christian faith to a simplistic “I believe in Jesus” or “I love Jesus” or “I follow Jesus” – but, like we talked about in the initial sermon in this series – in order for those statements to have any meaning, then it’s pretty crucial to have a basic understand of who the…
