Sermon Notes

For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.  Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.  They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”

There is a little bit of comedy in these passages of Scripture in my opinion.  Repeatedly, Jesus has asked them to go back and stay in Jerusalem the entire time between his resurrection and ascension.  To be more correct, he told them to stay in Jerusalem before he was arrested and crucified.  Now, we are at the ascension of Jesus in the land of Galilee!  However, Jesus himself was leading them back.

Now, I don’t mean to single Peter out, but I must use him and his actions as an example to learn from because there are definite changes in the maturation of Peter as he matures, especially after receiving the Holy Spirit.

They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together  and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.  In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?  He is not here; he has risen!

Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. 22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

The Gospel of Luke is indeed a fascinating and in-depth look at the life and ministry of Jesus.  While our story from last week has Jesus making his triumphal entry on what would be known as Palm Sunday, Luke has Jesus doing multiple things between his anointing by Mary and his triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  The biggest teaching that is worth investigating is Jesus’ teaching about the kingdom of God.  Amazingly, Jesus was quite direct and plain in his description.

In our story today, a couple of years has passed and now we are winding down the ministry of Jesus.  Jesus is back in Bethany and had brought Lazarus back to life and now Lazarus, Mary, and Martha are throwing Jesus a party.  Lazarus is reclining with Jesus, Martha is again working the kitchen, and Mary again is at the feet of Jesus.  But what Mary does is cultural taboo.