A sermon based on John 14-16.

On this festival Sunday we use passages from the Gospel of John chapters 14-16 because they deal most extensively with the Holy Spirit (also called the Paraclete, the Counselor, the Advocate).
What is the Holy Spirit about? We know that there are competing claims about where Holy Spirit is and how the Holy Spirit works.

At the First Vatican Council in 1870, Roman Catholic bishops voted to confirm (promulgated the dogma) that when the Pope declares (using the words: “I declare”) something on faith and morals for the universal church, his decision is infallible because the Holy Spirit is believed to guard the Pope when he is doing that.

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John 17:20-26

A Sermon for the Seventh Sunday of Easter

The text for today is the famous text for Christian unity: “That they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that may also be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me” (John 17:21).

Probably a million or more sermons are being preached on this text today. What are pastors saying about it? Many probably are saying the church is one, and therefore, the oneness needs to be made visible, and the oneness is to be found in the majority, therefore we need to be with the majority wherever they are said to be.

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Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5; John 14:27

A Sermon for the Sixth Sunday of Easter

Today we again have a reading from 21st chapter of the Book of Revelation. Last week we had that fantastic picture of the new heaven, the new earth, and the New Jerusalem coming out of heaven. Today we have more about the New Jerusalem.

Our text cuts out some verses in the middle of the 21st chapter which give the dimensions of this beautiful city. In those missing verses it says there are so many gates with the names of the tribes and the foundations with the names of the apostles. Then it says the city is 15 hundred miles wide, 15 hundred miles deep and 15 hundred miles high. And with this wall going around it which is about 100 feet high.

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A Sermon for the Fifth Sunday of Easter

A Lutheran pastor tells about attending a special Sunday night event at the Pentecostal Church in his town to hear a visiting preacher. The place was packed. The noted preacher said he had seen the New Jerusalem coming out of the clouds as described in our text for today, Revelation 21. He said it was a cube, 1500 miles on each side. He had seen it coming through a telescope, and it would arrive very soon, just the way it is described here in Revelation 21.

Most people think that when we die, we go to heaven which is somewhere else. But it says here in the text that the new heaven and the new earth are coming here.

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Psalm 23, John 10:22-30

A sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Easter

The Twenty-Third Psalm is full of promises, and as we read it as New Testament Christians, it says what our hope is all about. (Using the RSV which is strongly influenced by the KJV.)

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters
He restores my soul
He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

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