I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
-2 Tim. 4:1-2.
Now that we can do audio, welcome to the latest addition to veritaspraebita–the infamous sermons that got ST canned, for lack of ‘grace’ and ‘joy’, and sundry vague issues of ‘tone’ and ‘style’. Messages from the series on the first Gospel were also characterised as ‘That Matthew Stuff’, while in mid-summer 2015 a sermon on 2 Peter 3:10-18 elicited criticism and earning the I-suppose-not-intended-to-be-flattering epithet ‘John the Baptist stuff’. Check back frequently, as ekklescake will continue to post ‘new’ messages.
SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2015: PHILIPPIANS.
Because the ‘joy’ drum was beaten so often (and apparently is still a buzzword in those parts?), our first posted messages will be tangible proof that Simon listened, and indeed, was willing to meet people more than halfway–and address their concerns and
dwell on the topic for an extended period of time–from the pulpit. Sadly, we only got a short way into the text before 13 and the naysayers, for whom the ‘joy’ mantra functioned as a Pavlovian bell peal as well as a fig leaf, conveniently ignored this evidence that ST was not a tyrant, and, being the ones who actually had the power and the will to use it, issued their edicts, and suspended and terminated him anyway.
At any rate, we open with the morning service series from 20 September-4 October 2015, from the New Testament Epistle in which we find the most well-known passages on joy: Philippians.
MESSAGE 1:
September 20, 2015 AM: Meet Philippians! (Phil. 1:1-11.)
Others in the Philippians Series:
Message 2: A Prayer for Abounding Love.
Message 3: The Important Thing.
From the Series ‘The Gospel According to Matthew’:
September 7, 2014: The King in His Glory.
ekkles’ personal favourites:
February 1, 2015: Sit and Be Blessed.
A Christian Education: Exposing Injustice & Incompetence in the Church 
Something should be said about how sermons from the first gospel were described as “that Matthew stuff.” One of the unique features of Matthew’s gospel is that it contains the most extended teaching by our Lord of the four gospels. There are five major discourses of Christ in Matthew. It was also the favorite gospel of the early church. Unless the sermons were poor, it’s hard to understand how a Christian would be disinterested in the direct teaching of Christ himself.
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Indeed…don’t some people have ‘Red Letter’ Bibles? With regard to the average quality of Templar’s sermons, that’s one of the purposes in posting them; people can judge for themselves!
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Wait a minute. On second thought…. Jesus did not go on and on about “joy” in his teaching. There was/were instruction about: how to have an abundant life, entrance into the kingdom, the importance of prayer, the need for authenticity, calls to repentance, warnings about false prophets, exhortations to holiness, commands to die to self, descriptions of true righteousness, severe condemnation of hypocrisy, the reason Christ came, and pleas to follow Him in obedience. I guess some of these topics aren’t very joyful.
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You viper, making reference to uncomfortable teachings of Christ! Like when he called the Pharisees a brood of vipers!! You are so mean.
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Can’t help it. I was born that way! Actually, it is noteworthy that much of what our Lord taught would not fit into the category of “feel good” messages or “the victorious Christian life.” Regrettably, a significant segment of American Evangelicalism has wrong-headed notions about what a sermon should be. Their expectations are shaped by the culture and by a past church experience which wasn’t biblically balanced. So, they expect and want sermons that will be therapeutic– that will make them feel better about themselves and about life. This helps to explain the phenomenon of Joel Osteen and others like him who do not preach the scripture or set forth sound doctrine. See 2 Timothy 4:3-4.
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Well, jeez, PT was speaking in direct opposition to those who didn’t/don’t understand that biblical love is rooted in the law…no wonder they got their knickers all in a twist 🙄
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How very succinctly you put it, AJ! Rom. 13:8-13: ‘8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,”[a] and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”[b] 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.’
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