No Cross, No Crown

Philippians 2:5-11 The expression NO CROSS, NO CROWN has been widely used and among the early users was William Penn, founder of the Quaker colony which became Pennsylvania in his tract NO CROSS, NO CROWN published in London in 1669. How well it encapsulates the meaning of the Palm Sunday pro

The Attractiveness Of Jesus

John 12:20-33 In the older lectionaries the fifth Sunday in Lent was always Passion Sunday but that has now elided with Palm Sunday. We cannot preach on the cross of Christ too often. Still litigation is widespread to remove the cross from all public places in America. The cross has been exci

Magnifying The Message Of Grace

Ephesians 2:1-10 "God loves you as you are, but he loves you too much to allow you to stay as you are." So spoke one of the leading characters in last summer's widely viewed film, JUNEBUG. This familiar insight from an unexpected source flies in the face of a maudlin senti

Worship: Our Ultimate Response

John 2:13-22 A young man decided to make a climb on the Swiss Alps and hired two men to be his guides. It was a steep, hazardous ascent to the top of the mountain. The experienced guides placed him in the middle of the trio as they climbed. After hours of struggling they reached the summit

The Priority Of The Cross

Mark 8:31-38 The date: May 21, 1946. The location: Los Alamos, New Mexico. The experiment: To determine the amount of U-235 necessary for a chain reaction for the atomic bomb. In his effort to discover the amount of uranium it takes to produce the "critical mass," scientist Lou