κήρυξον τὸν λόγον

O Lord and host of the great supper, You have prepared all that is necessary for us to be blessed in Your Kingdom. Lead us to hear your call and have true faith ... that we know nothing greater than Your feast. Grant us repentance and build us up in Your Word. In Jesus’ Name . Jesus was at a feast in the house of a Pharisee. He had just finished telling everyone a parable about the Lord’s Great Feast ... of how to prepare for it (Lk 14:7-11), and of how blessed you will be when you attend this magnificent and neverending event (vv 13-14). Suddenly, one of the guests cried out, Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God! (v 15)  And oh, how right he was! Blessed is anyone who responds to the call of the Gospel, and thus receives the forgiveness of sins. But sadly, though they have been invited to come, some people don’t actually want to be blessed by God ... they are more interested in maintaining tradition or trying to bless themselves (vv 18-20). They aren’t intere...

Then [Abraham] said to [the rich man], If they do not hear of Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one should rise from the dead (v 31). 4. I heard you all confess that you believe in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. But do you believe in hell? I need to ask you this question today because there are too many people who call themselves Christians who don’t believe in hell, or Hades. They don’t believe God will consign those who refuse to listen to Moses and the Prophets to burn in the unquenchable fire he prepared first for the devil and his minions. They don’t believe in sin, and they don’t believe that unrepentant sinners will suffer punishment forever too.  Far more people today believe in heaven than believe in hell. Go figure. More people are looking for a positive experience in church. More people want to hear an inspiring message that teaches them a good word about good living, that teaches them how to be better Christians. To be sure we...

[Jesus said,] Indeed, no one has gone up into heaven except the one who came down out of heaven, [namely] the Son of Man (v 13). You couldn’t go to God on your own. So God came to you. You couldn’t ascend into heaven on your own. So God descended to you. You had no place with God. So God made his place with you. ... When you really get down to it, that’s what today’s Gospel reading from John 3 is about. God loved you in this way: He gave his only begotten Son , to be born without sin and to live without sin so that he could die for your sin, overcome death for you, ascend into heaven ahead of you, and prepare a place for you. Jesus has done all this for you. He descended so that you may ascend. GOD COMES DOWN TO TAKE YOU UP This is our theme for the Feast of the Holy Trinity.  Brothers and sisters in Christ, this the Gospel given by God to you. As Jesus said, No one has gone up into heaven except the one who came down out of heaven, the Son of Man (v 13). This is Good News becaus...