Christ Church NC

This sermon zooms in on Boaz and Ruth as the inspired author presents them as foretastes of the glory that would be revealed in Christ and His Church. Boaz, the strong and caring protector and Ruth the grateful recipient of his kindness, all culminating in their mission together to bring new life into the world, even as they bring forth children whose births lead to the birth of our Lord and Savior. 

This sermon teaches us to expect God’s blessing without attempting to dictate the forms that those blessings will take in our lives. If we belong to Him, we should expect God to bless us; and we should expect those blessings to come in unexpected forms.

This sermon introduces the book of Ruth as a mirco narrative of the meta narrative of Scripture because within the book of Ruth we have creation, fall, and redemption all packed into one story. The first five verses present the fall movement of the book, but we know that God delights in turning the fall of His people into an opportunity to demonstrate His faithful, loving kindness. When we see a fall, we ought to look forward to see God’s forgiveness and restoration on the other side of it. 

This sermon seeks to reshape our expectations for the direction of history and the trajectory of the nations (ours included). Jesus sent His disciples out in history to see to the baptism and obedience of the nations through the salvation of large numbers of individuals within those nations.

This sermon shows the meaning of Jesus’ resurrection as defined, not by theologians, but by Jesus Himself.

This sermon analyzes the miracles that took place just after Jesus’ death on the cross and considers the message that God intends for us through them.

This sermon looks at the covenantal background of the cross in order to answer three questions: Why was Jesus on the cross experiencing a curse? What made Him cry out from the cross? What motivated Him to go to the cross in the first place? 

This sermon shows the abdication of both the Jews and the Romans as it related to both of their God-given roles and responsibilities. It also showed the collusion of those two parties as their abdication grew into outright rebellion. Despite the breakdown in and misuse of human authority, God was still working out His plan of salvation; drawing straight lines with crooked sticks. Our hope is in the fact that He has done that and that He is still doing that today.

Through a series of Old Testament allusions, Matthew shows us the sad and comprised state of Israel as she rejects her Messiah, favoring Rome rule to Christ’s rule.

This sermon on Jesus’ arrest seeks to explain why Jesus, though exerting no physical force, is met by His opposition with physical force. Jesus was and is dangerous. He posed and poses a serious threat to every nation, tribe, and tongue. He is a conquering King. But His conquest does not go forth as we’ve come to expect from earthly rulers. Jesus is a different kind of conqueror because He conquers comprehensively, not just militarily.

This sermon on Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane suggests that we read the passage as a dark parallel to the transfiguration account of Matthew 17.  It notes that God is always doing a work of transfiguration or glorification in the lives of His children, but that glorification is a process that never bypasses wilderness trecks, Gardens of Gethsemane, or crosses. In fact, the wilderness becomes a highway to the Promised Land, the empty garden becomes a garden-city full of life, and the cross becomes a conquest.

This sermon looks at the falling away of Jesus’ disciples in the wake of His arrest. We see our own frailty and infidelity in the disciples’ falling away, which underscores our need for Christ‘s fortitude and fidelity. Once aware of our own propensity to fall, we can think more clearly about how to respond when those around us fall away.

Matthew 26:17 begins at the start of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (also known as Passover); a feast that centralized and symbolized purity and the removal of sins, but this Passover would be far more than a symbol for Jesus’ disciples as He has orchestrated hardships for them that are designed to produce the purge that the Passover always symbolized.

This sermon zooms in on Jesus and Mary as Mary anoints Jesus with oil before His death. What does anointing mean in the Bible and why is it significant? Why do the disciples rebuke Mary for her action? Why does Jesus then rebuke the disciples? This message answers those questions and mines the lessons of this text for our service to Jesus here and now.

In this sermon we show how the first century fulfillment of Matthew 24 and 25 points beyond those events to an end that is greater than the end of the Old Covenant.

Jesus gives some fantastic prophecies in Matthew 24 about a tribulation worse than any in history, about the stars falling and the moon darkening, and about the love of many believers growing cold in the face of overwhelming persecution. He also provides a timeline for the fulfillment of those fantastic prophecies when He says, “…this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” The faith of many has faltered in the face of what appears to be a failed prophecy on the part of Jesus, but careful study reveals that Jesus was not mistaken at all, in fact, besides the resurrection itself, these fulfilled prophecies may be the most compelling piece of historical evidence we have to share with skeptics and critics.

Our society tends to personalize and individualize everything, but this message zooms out to show how what Jesus is doing in us personally is aimed at something far more glorious than the personal. We are caught up in something global and universal that gives real depth and meaning to our lives on the personal and individual level.

This sermon is a lesson in biblical interpretation that seeks to demonstrate the integration of the Old and New Testament Scriptures. This message will show you that Leviticus 14, the whole books of Acts, many references in the epistles, and much of the book of Revelation are actually about what Jesus predicts in Matthew 23:29-39.

On top of an exposition of Jesus’ Woes to the Pharisees, this sermon considers the question of whether or not it is lawful and wise to imitate Jesus’ toughness and aggression, or whether it is best to stick to imitating His tenderness.

The message looks at the Sadducees and Pharisees’ attacks on Jesus, both digging into their particular arguments with Him about marriage in the resurrection and which is the greatest commandment, and noting Matthew’s theological point in documenting the conflict in the first place.

While this sermon doesn’t engage the question of political engagement squarely, it does establish the fact that Jesus’ rule, reign, and Kingship touches down to earth in the here and now, not just in the “there and later,” as is often assumed. The fact that Jesus’ Gospel is the Gospel of the Kingdom of God means that it is inescapably political, and Christians ought to stop hiding from that reality and pretending that apolitical, “just preach the Gospel and leave the politics to the pagans,” thinking is biblical or holy.

This sermon demonstrates the necessity of Old Testament background to New Testament understanding. Why does Jesus curse a fig tree? What does it mean that the Apostles’ faith can move a mountain into the sea? What is the vineyard in the parable that follows, and who are the tenants? The Old Testament gives us the answer.

Matthew 21:1-17 mixes seemingly contradictory Old Testament images. Images of peace and images of violence come together in this chapter in order to instruct us about how peace is achieved, and where threats to peace actually come from.

In Matthew 20:23, Jesus tells James and John that they will drink the cup that He is going to drink. But isn’t that the cup of God’s wrath for sin?! How could they possibly drink that cup? This messages seeks to answer the question raised by Matthew 20:23.

Themes from this include, works vs grace, Israel vs the Church, and our work vs Christ’s work.

This sermon on Jesus’ interaction with the “Rich Young Ruler” seeks to provide some historical context to help us understand the conundrum that Jesus’ command to sell off his goods presented. The message discusses wealth and he kingdom of Heaven.

This sermon explores Jesus’ seemingly strange and off topic discourse on eunuchs in Matthew chapter 19. What is a eunuch? What does the Bible say about them? How can you be one for the Kingdom of Heaven? What is the cultural significance of all of this for us?

This sermon explores the issue of divorce as it relates to the picture of God’s faithfulness that our marriages are intended to paint.

This sermon explains the significance of Jesus’ call to forgive 70 times 7 times and celebrates the inequality that exists between God’s justice and His mercy.

This sermon connects the dots between Jesus’ call to humility at the beginning of chapter 18 and His call to confrontation of sin further down. We have a tendency to think that confrontation is fueled by arrogance, but Jesus identifies it as a function of humility.

This sermon talks about how Jesus’ teaching on humility is to be applied to our relationships with other believer.

This sermon explores the purpose of the transfiguration of Christ, the inability of the disciples to exercise a demon, and God’s plan for the world.

Did Jesus say that His return would be before the death of the apostles? What does Jesus’ shining face in Matthew 17 have to do with you and me in 2023? Is John the Baptist Elijah? These, and other interesting points come together in this sermon to send us out into faithful obedience to Christ.

This sermon explores the Bible’s use of the words “death,” and “satan,” and teaches us to stop avoiding the death that we’re called to die because to do so is to delay the resurrection life that we’re meant to live.

In this message you’ll learn about the implications of Jesus using Peter as one of the foundation stones of the Church, how the building of the Church is related to the growth of God’s kingdom, and what Jesus’ title “Son of Man” means.

This sermon applies the feeding of the 5,000 to our every day Christian lives and shows the hope and consolation this account provides for Jesus’ people.

This sermon on Matt. 14:1-12 deals with slavery to sin, how we sin specifically as men and as women, and how our children are implicated and impacted by our sin.

Christ Church Sermon 4/23/23

Christ Church Sermon 4/16/23

Christ Church Sermon 04/09/2023

Christ Church Sermon 4/2/23

Christ Church Sermon 3/26/23

Christ Church Sermon 3/19/23

Christ Church Sermon 3/12/23

Christ Church Sermon 2/26/23

Christ Church Sermon 2/19/23

Christ Church Sermon 2/12/23

Christ Church Sermon 2/5/23