"Christ" Tagged Sermons

Preparing for the MARRIAGE SUPPER

The great composer Frederick Handel composed on of the most famous piece based upon this verse. The Hallelujah Chorus: Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. And He shall reign forever and ever. While this chorus is a masterpiece, it cannot even be slightly compared with the chorus these heavenly beings are singing.
Why are they singing?
• They witness the final triumph of good over evil
• They witness the final triumph of Christ over Antichrist
• They witness the final triumph of God over Satan
• They witness the final triumph of the Holy Spirit over the spirit of evil.
We must understand that since the fall of Adam, the faithful angelic beings around the throne of God have anticipated that ultimate day when God would finally judge Satan and those who follow him in his rebellion against God Almighty.
In verse 2 of this chapter we read that God’s judgment are true and righteous. The great harlot, religious, political and commercial Babylon has been judged. All that Babylon typifies since the days of Nimrod, when he inaugurated a system that led men away from God. In other words, all the iniquities of past ages will be justified in this ultimate destruction when God will judge Babylon. According to verse 3, God’s judgment upon this religious, political and commercial Babylon will be complete. Satan will never be permitted to rebuild that system ever again. No wonder those in heaven were singing for joy.
For almost 2000 years Christians around the world prayed: “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. When the heavenly beings sing the Hallelujah chorus, they do so in great anticipation of the promised return of the King of the universe, Jesus Christ, to set up His glorious Kingdom on this earth.
Paul is using a wedding to picture the Lord’s relationship with His church.
In Biblical times, a marriage was the single greatest celebration. Their wedding preparations were even more elaborate and lasted much longer than in modern times.
Such wedding preparations consisted of 3 different stages:
First was the engagement. It consisted of an arrangement by both sets of parents contracting the marriage of their children. Such an engagement was legally binding and could only be broken by a divorce. This engagement did not just include those two children, but it included the union of two families. There were years of preparation for the time of marriage, as the boy prepared for his bride.
Second step was the so called PRESENTATION. Here both families would celebrate with the entire town for up to a full week. This presentation was always just prior the actual wedding ceremony. When the celebration came to an end, the groom and his best men would go to the bride’s house and take her and her bridesmaids to the ceremony.
Third step was the most anticipated and significant one. During this ceremony the bride and the bridegroom finally exchanged the wedding vows. After this ceremony the families and their friends would have one more final meal before the newly weds would depart.
We as Christians are His workmanship, he made us new, a new creation. What’s the purpose? FOR GOOD WORKS, WHICH GOD PREPARED BEFOREHAND that we should walk in them. The purpose of every born again believer is to be available to the Lord for “good works”. We can be faithful or we can be unfaithful to walk in the things God prepared beforehand.
The Devil is a master deceiver and the father of lies. He tells those who are not yet in God’s kingdom, “WORK FOR SALVATION”. If they don’t listen to that lie, and eventually someone comes along to share the Good News with them and accept Jesus as their Savior, the Devil will change tactics: He will say: “Now that you are saved freely by grace, you don’t have to do anything.” That’s not Biblical. I think the Apostle Paul’s experience should teach all of us a vital lesson: Acts 9:1-16
We make ourselves ready by faithfully walking in the work God has prepared for us to do here on earth. Such work will be rewarded greatly by God Himself, and those rewards will reflect on our garments we will wear throughout the 1000 years here on earth as we rule and reign with him.
Are you ready?

The Root of Bondage or Freedom

We have already learned that all of us are subject to spiritual warfare; that Satan and his demons have built strongholds in our mind, that is, have make us believe certain doctrines that are contrary to the Word of God. And we all have learned from the Apostle Paul’s admonition that such strongholds, such doctrines that contradict the Word of God, must be pulled down, demolished, pulverized.
Last week we examined the reality of God’s sovereignty and that not even Satan can go beyond the boundary God has set for him. Now we have to look at what our responsibility is in all of this. The Bible is very clear regarding our responsibilities in the spiritual battle. While God Almighty has equipped us more than adequately to face our enemy, Satan and his demons, he also demands that we use the weapons supplied to us and stand strong in the battle.
THE MAJORITY OF OUR SPIRITUAL BATTLES SPIRITUAL ARE FOUGHT IN OUR MIND.THE MIND IS THE MOST STRATEGIC POINT WHICH WE HAVE TO DEFEND against the attacks of our enemy.
Satan will use people that look like followers of Christ, spiritual leaders who claim to represent Christ, but in actuality they represent Satan, attacking your mind with false doctrines, that is, doctrines of demons. If you choose to accept those teachings, Satan will then have successfully neutralized your mind to engage him in any spiritual battles.
In other words, Satan will attack your mind with the purpose to entangle us with a yoke of bondage. Do you recognize now that the root of bondage or freedom is found in the mind, the way we THINK?
In this parable in Matthew 15 Jesus give his disciples insight HOW GOD WORKS TO CHANGE THEIR HEART. By understanding spiritual truth, Biblical truth. The question of eating food with unwashed hands was used by Jesus to reveal the truth that everything has its root in the heart and mind of the person. The heart will be changed by the mind. And the mouth, the language you use, reveals what’s in your heart. Your language reveals a huge amount of spiritual information: Matthew 15:19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.
Because the Mind is the gateway to the transformation of the heart.
Without UNDERSTANDING GOD’S TRUTH, NO TRANSFORMATION TAKES PLACE. And understanding will only come through LIFE APPLICATION. Reading God’s word with no intention to apply it to our daily life is one of Satan’s most powerful tool to keep us in bondage. God’s intention is to bring us to freedom, freedom we can experience in every day life. Freedom that comes through transformation of the heart. That is God’s objective all along.
The root of bondage or freedom is found in our mind. The way we think. The way we UNDERSTAND GOD’S TRUTH.

It’s Who You Are

If you would have to give a definition of who Jesus is, what would it be?
Peter simply stated: You are the Christ, the anointed one, the promised Messiah, the Son of the living God.
The apostle Paul in the letter to the Colossian church is getting all excited when he giving them a definition of who this Jesus Christ is.
Notice how valuable that treasure is. First, the man finds the treasure and immediately recognizes HOW VALUABLE that treasure is. He does not tell anyone about his find, because he is concerned that someone else would take it from him. His heart is filled with great joy as he goes and liquidates everything he owns so he can go and buy the field in which the treasure is hidden. IN OTHER WORDS, TO GET THE TREASURE, HE IS WILLING TO GIVE UP EVERYTHING ELSE.
In the second parable, the man is portrayed as a merchant, a person of great wealth. He is seeking pearls so he could resell them with a profit. However, in his search He came across ONE VERY SPECIAL PEARL OF GREAT VALUE, he also was willing to go and sell everything he owned so he could get that particular PEARL. The treasure hidden in the field and the pearl of great price are both POINTING TO THE GREATEST TREASURE OF ALL TIME, JESUS CHRIST. In order to get that treasure we must be willing to give up everything.
Today’s evangelistic sermons are full of sugar that brings the hearer to a temporary “sugar-high” only to crash a few hours and days later.
The truth is that the person who finds the treasure, who finds the pearl, never has enough to procure this treasure unless he or she is willing to let go of everything.