Sharon Church | Sermons

Over the next seven weeks, we will look at each of the seven churches to whom the letter of Revelation was written. Each city is unique and therefore their introduction to the letter is unique.  In this sermon we are looking at the church in Laodicea. Laodicea is known for a few great things but it is ashamed of its water supply. Without their own supply of fresh water, they have to have water brought in via aqueducts and Jesus sees their spiritual state in much the same way. 

With the final chapter of Revelation (and the Bible), we are taken back to the beginning. The Tree of Life from the Garden of Eden appears again, this time alone and in the New Heaven and New Earth. We are being shown that eternal life is not found here on earth. There is no thing, no person, no financial status, no relationship, no job, no diet that will save and satisfy us here. And that is why the cry of Revelation 22 is, "Come, Lord Jesus". 

As the visions John has are coming to a close, the Bible itself is coming to a close, as well. And the Bible ends just like it began. In God's sovereign plan for His creation, God's presence was felt in personal, unfettered access. So, for John's final vision, God shows him a renewed earth full of God's glory but it looks like other models we have seen in Scripture before.

The first ten verses of Revelation 20 are some of the most debated verses in all of Scripture. While the church has disagreed on their interpretation for ages, we actually agree more than with disagree. Either way, Jesus wins. But the sobering truth is what we read in the last five verses of the chapter. Time runs out. So, what is the church to do before that final judgment?

As the book of Revelation reaches its conclusion, John is shown two more visions of Jesus. These two visions reveal the way Jesus is returning at His second coming. He is coming as a groom to take His bride home and to celebrate with a wedding feast. AND He is coming as a victorious warrior king to collect the spoils of the battle He has already won. This is the heart of any prophecy - revealing Jesus. 

As the book of Revelation begins to make its descent to its conclusion, John begins to call back to many of the patterns and pictures he has given us in the book. In this passage, the churches on Asia Minor - under intense persecution from the Roman Empire - are shown what Rome actually is. They have been tempted to give in or give up and John is being shown an image of a woman on the first beast that will show Christians that they need to be careful and have their eyes open. They must not be deceived by the beauty of this woman - she is fallen.

There is coming a day when the wrath of God is finally poured out. Until that day we have a choice to make regarding the finished work of Jesus.

While the dragon and its beasts are after humanity, God has a response - the eternal gospel.

The dragon has two beasts on earth to do his work in pursuit of the Church.

There is a reality that is more real than what we see everyday. There is a war being waged for the souls of mankind. 

How does the Church live as a faithful witness in a world that seems directly opposed to Jesus?

As John's vision continues to unfold, Jesus shows him a glimpse of what God is doing with those who have persecuted the Church.

With the plan of history unfolding, John sees the endurance of the church on full display.

In a moment of despair, John is given hope - but it does not come the way he expected.

There is a vision of Heaven in Revelation 4 that has The Almighty on the throne in the very center of all that is happening. Creation is worshipping, the saints are worshipping. This truth is happening now, in the present and it is the very truth that centers our lives. That throne is the center that everything revolves around. The question is whether or not we believe it and live like it.

As John begins the letter to the seven churches, Jesus tells him what to write from the middle of the churches.

In the prologue to Revelation, we get a number of clues that will tell us how we are to study and read this great book of hope for the Church.

After all the searching for meaning and purpose and progress in life, the Preacher has found none. Now, the author concludes by telling the reader what to do with this knowledge - fear God and keep His commandments.

As the Preacher wraps up his lecture on life, he turns his attention to the young listener.

In all his searching, the Preacher has still decided that wisdom is better than folly. It may not be the final solution, but it offers more than folly.

The Preacher comes back to his conclusion that life is hevel - but now gives some tangible ways to respond.

The Preacher has found great power in wisdom...and yet it still leaves him unsatsified. He has looked at the world and found a bitter truth - people are drawn to folly more than wisdom, but it is understandable because they often look so similar.

While we will never find satisfaction in money or honor, they do serve a purpose in our lives. How we steward them can lead us to contentment or vanity.

The Preacher shows us what true vanity is - it is choosing to continue talking when God has called us to listen and obey...to fear Him.

Unmet expectations lead us to becoming a lonely oppressor with no one to comfort us.

For everything there is a season - but we are not meant to figure out how the seasons work.

Solomon looks death in the eyes and concludes that life is a gift meant to be enjoyed.

What Solomon has laid out here are the ways we as humans distract ourselves from ultimate reality. These are the things we chase to detach from our human circumstances...things we think will save us, even momentarily from having to feel what it feels like to be human. They are what we run to to insulate us. Ultimately, Solomon ends up at a similar understanding - it is all smoke, like chasing the wind.

As the Preacher begins his testimony of his pursuit of purpose, he lets us in on a fundamental truth he learned that carries forward through the rest of the book - knowledge and wisdom are good but not ultimate and will never satisfy our souls.

In the first verses of the book of Ecclesiastes, we find out exactly what the author is doing. He is leading us to the perils of seeking the wrong thing while here under the sun.

As the finale of his Gospel, Matthew shows us the humanity of the disciples and Jesus' unfettered call on their lives. It reminds us that God is not waiting on us to be perfect to be able to use us. He makes us faithful as we go.

We have to do something with the empty tomb. For the Romans and the religious leaders they had to cover it up. But what if it is true? Could it be that God actually became human and then defeated death?

As Jesus gives up His final breath on the cross, everything begins to spin into a whirlpool of chaos leaving religion, the cosmos, & humanity to be caught up in the wake.

When given the choice between the way of the world and the way of Jesus, our flesh grows louder and louder. We see it vividly in Matthew 27 with the choice between Jesus and Barabbas.

In His darkest night in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus reveals the depths of His humanity and shows us how to handle our own Gethsemane moments.

Judas decides to betray Jesus - but his decision did not happen over night. It was a series of events that led him to this place.

Peter & John heal a lame man on their way to worship and that lame man causes a scene in the temple - simply by being healed. 

With massive numbers of people coming to faith in Jesus, the church organizes itself around four key ideals: learning, sharing, being together, & worship.

Peter delivers a sermon to explain what the crowds are witnessing. Through the sermon they are able to see their present in light of the past and they are changed by it.

Has the church become too normal? Have we lost the mystery of the power of the Spirit?

With this final teaching on how we are to handle the long wait of His glorious return, Jesus makes heavy claims about the end of the age that line up with everything He has said thus far.

As Jesus finishes His sermon about the end of the age, He stacks two more parables to explain what it looks like to be wise and faithful in the midst of a broken world.

How do we live as followers of Jesus in a world that seems to grow darker by the day?

Jesus answers an onslaught of questions from the religious leaders and pronounces seven woes on the Pharisees and Scribes.

Jesus is no longer walking in silence. He makes a bold entrance into Jerusalem and marches right to the Temple to make His claim that He is the long-awaited Messiah.

Jesus came as the evidence of God's love for the world. How do we know God loves us? Christmas.

Through the lineage of kings in the Old Testament, Jesus has come as our King.

Jesus fulfills the Old Testament role of the High Priest - but not just in the ways we expect.

What if it is not our "bigness" that gets us to Jesus but our "smallness"?

When we forget our brokenness and neediness, we become cynical and jealous of the grace of God toward others. 

When approached by a rich young man looking for eternal life, Jesus asks him to do something that would reveal where his treasure is.

On His way to Jerusalem, Jesus is confronted by the Pharisees trying to get Him involved in a heated debate of the day regarding marriage and divorce. Jesus responds by taking them back to Genesis.

As citizens in the Kingdom of God, we handle conflict differently than the way of the world - we forgive.

Jesus makes honest assessments about the way Christians can hurt other Christians and then He shows us how to handle it.

When we forget the Gospel and we start to fight for status we hurt people and God is not pleased.

In what feels like a throw-away kind of moment, Jesus miraculously provides a temple tax payment for Himself and for Peter in the mouth of a fish. It is a story that acts as a harbinger for the price Jesus would pay for our ultimate freedom.

A critical moment in Christian history - Jesus reveals Himself as the glory of the God. But the moment was never meant to stay on the mountaintop - it is meant to make its way into our moments of little faith.

The question each person has to reckon with is, "Who do you say Jesus is?"

Jesus moves from Galilee up the coast and then around the Sea of Galilee reaching more and more people and there is a moment with a Canaanite woman that changes everything.

The Pharisees and Scribes come from Jerusalem with accusations against Jesus and His disciples.

The death of John the Baptist signals the closing section of Jesus' earthly ministry and He amps up the training of the disciples.

As Jesus finishes this section of Kingdom parables, He concludes by commissioning the disciples to take what they have learned and put it on display.

There is such joy in the Kingdom of Heaven but it comes with a cost.

The Kingdom of Heaven is found in small and hidden places but makes an impact over a period of time.

The Kingdom of Heaven is here now - in the present, not in the future. So, what do we do with the fact that it is here along with earthly kingdoms?

Jesus is beginning to explain in more detail His mission. It is centered around a new Kingdom come to earth but we have to have eyes to see it.

The Pharisees have crossed the line now. They have accused Jesus of working with the Enemy and Jesus is furious. He unleashes a lesson full of metaphors and Old Testament references that come to a culmination in a picture that perfectly explains the hardness of the Pharisees' hearts.

There is a space between doubting Jesus and having disdain for Him. What do we do when we find ourselves there? 

In a big moment for the history of the church, Jesus empowers humans to embark on the mission of His Gospel. There is great warning in Jesus' admonition to the apostles, but great hope as well.

The compassion of Jesus leads to the mission of His people.

As Matthew wraps up this portion of his account, he makes it subtly clear to the reader that there are three responses to seeing Jesus. It is the response of the crowds that is most sobering to most of us.

As Jesus continues to heal and save, His actions catch the attention of the religious leaders.

What do we do when God doesn't give us the miracle we have been asking for?

As the word of Jesus' miracle working power gets out people are coming to follow Him. But He knows that to follow Him because of signs and wonders will not be reason enough to endure through the dark nights of the soul.

As evidence of the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven Jesus performs two miracles that totally disrupt the religious establishment of His day.

At the conclusion of His sermon, Jesus reiterates the fact that we only have two options: His way or any other way.

The Kingdom of Heaven is not about behaving, it is about becoming. How do we become a citizen in the Kingdom? We keep asking, we keep seeking, & we keep knocking.

Before the listeners of the Sermon on the Mount begin to think too highly of themselves, Jesus gives a challenge that has been misinterpreted by many to this day. How do we love our brothers and sisters well?

As Jesus moves through the middle of His sermon, He is beginning to draw lines in the sand to distinguish between the kingdom of earth and the Kingdom of Heaven. How we handle mammon informs us as to which side we are on.

As followers of Jesus we are called to be response-oriented people rather than results-oriented people. We give, pray, & fast not to gain anything but because we have already been given all we need.

What if the Lord's Prayer is more than just something we recite before football games? What if Jesus was not just telling us how to pray, but how to keep our lives free from hypocrisy? 

As Jesus continues His sermon, He causes waves by exposing the things we want to keep hidden.

We are the light of the world.

In living like citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven we should expect the world to misunderstand us. What we do with that misunderstanding is what reveals where our allegiance lies. 

Why does persecution exist for those who are just trying to live righteous lives? 

We look like our Father in heaven when we reconcile relationships.

What does it mean to be pure in heart? Do we understand it how Jesus meant it?

The blessing to the merciful is the pinnacle of this section of Jesus' sermon.

What does it mean to hunger and thirst for righteousness? How have we misinterpreted this verse?

A defining characteristic of the Kingdom of Heaven is meekness because the King is meek. 

Recognizing that we are poor in spirit should lead us to mourning for our sin. And when we find ourselves there - we find the good news of resurrection!

As Jesus begins His sermon on the mount, He addresses the crowd with "The Great Surprise." 

As Jesus begins His ministry, He institutes the Kingdom of Heaven. It begins much like God has worked in the Old Testament. 

Immediately following a celebratory moment in His baptism, Jesus is led into the wilderness for 40 days of hunger and a battle with the devil.

Matthew moves forward to a moment of revelation in Jesus' life - His baptism at the Jordan River.

Matthew skillfully proves the Messiah-ship of Jesus by showing Him to be the fulfillment of the Old Testament - as a better Israel.

When the magi make their way to see Jesus their response is one of overwhelmingly joyful worship. Our response to the presence of Jesus should be the same.