Sermons on Aram:

Are You Ready For Christmas?

Contributed by Stephen Aram on Apr 22, 2020

John the Baptist told people to make preparations to meet Jesus that were very different from our preparations for Christmas.

I hope we are all making some progress towards being ready for Christmas. We know the drill, decorations, shopping, Christmas cards, wrapping presents, cooking, and so on. Today we meet John the Baptist, who gives us a very different list of things we need to do to be ready to ...read more

Scripture: Luke 3:1-14

John The Baptist: Challenge For A Deeper Life

Contributed by Stephen Aram on Apr 22, 2020

John the Baptist didn't follow in his father's footsteps as a priest in the temple. He challenged people to break out of normality and live radically new lives.

(John, entering from the back, in costume, down the center aisle.) Wake up, everybody! God’s Messiah is coming! That’s really good news! Get ready! Things have got to change around here! God’s blessings are coming for you! But you have to be ready! Clean it up, folks! (John standing in ...read more

Scripture: Luke 3:1-18

Point Them To Jesus

Contributed by Stephen Aram on Apr 22, 2020

Churches easily get struck in a rut and decline. John the Baptist serves as a model for vital ministry: focus on Jesus above all else.

Last week we started looking at the ministry of John the Baptist. He was a prophet. He cared for the spiritual health of his nation with all of his heart. He saw clearly what needed to be done and he spoke out what people needed to hear, boldly, without any sugar coating. His boldness was what ...read more

Scripture: Luke 3:15-18

It' Not About Us

Contributed by Stephen Aram on Apr 22, 2020

We love our church traditions and are proud of the good things we do. But our calling is to honor Jesus above ourselves and change any tradition to better point people to Jesus, like John the Baptist.

One of the fun parts of the Christmas season is getting letters from old friends and learning how their kids are turning out. Erik, whom I confirmed years ago, is in the Air Force now. Annie is a commercial artist. Allen, who used to get bullied, is a police officer now. Tim is married, with ...read more

Scripture: Luke 3:1-17

A Family Like Ours

Contributed by Stephen Aram on Apr 22, 2020

We may be tempted to skip over the account of Jesus' ancestry, but it is an important part of the good news of Jesus.

If you had the job of writing up the story of the life of Jesus, one of the decisions you would make would be what to do with the opening paragraph. You know how important the opening is. You want something to grab people’s attention and pull them into reading the whole thing. What would you ...read more

Scripture: Luke 3:23-37

Ruth: Refugee With A Human Face

Contributed by Stephen Aram on Jun 21, 2021

The Book of Ruth doesn't get much attention, but it can remind us that God sees refugees and can use them in his purposes.

I imagine we probably all have a favorite book of the Bible. The gospels should be high on everyone’s list because they tell us the story of Jesus. And when the church’s heart and mind are fixed on Jesus, everything comes together. When we lose sight of Jesus things go wrong. Luke is my ...read more

The Best Mother's Day Ever

Contributed by Stephen Aram on Feb 7, 2022

Mothers care that their kids are well provided for. That is close to God's heart of concern for those less fortunate in our world.

We all know what mothers are supposed to want on Mother’s Day. A card is great, whether professionally made, with a beautiful picture on the front and a sentimental poem on the inside, or maybe home made, decorated inside and out with crayons that are handled with more love than professional ...read more

Scripture: Luke 4:16-21

Not A Tame Lion

Contributed by Stephen Aram on Feb 7, 2022

We like to keep things calm and happy in church, but one day Jesus really upset folks in his home synagogue. Are you ready to follow him?

You’ve heard me say before that I love The Chronicles of Narnia, written by C.S. Lewis. We read them over and over again to our children as they were growing up. Maybe a year ago one of them, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, came out in a very successful movie. That inspired me to read ...read more

Scripture: Luke 4:14-30

Membership Has No Privileges

Contributed by Stephen Aram on Feb 7, 2022

Do we come to church for what we can get or for what we can give?

Our sermon text for today is really scene two of one of the key moments in Jesus’ early ministry. We looked at scene one several weeks ago, that was Luke 4:16-22, and Kurt just read it for us again as a refresher. Scene one is a proud moment. Jesus has been speaking in synagogues in a number ...read more

Scripture: Luke 4:23-30

Jesus Spoke With Authority

Contributed by Stephen Aram on Feb 7, 2022

The modern mind doesn't like to submit to authority, but if you don't recognize Jesus's authority, you don't recognize Jesus.

Three weeks ago we left off of our series on the early ministry of Jesus as he was walking out of his home town, Nazareth, very much alone, having been violently rejected by the people of the synagogue where he grew up. What a tragic story. We don’t know that he ever went back. If you missed ...read more

Scripture: Luke 4:31-37

Devoted To Good Works

Contributed by Stephen Aram on Feb 7, 2022

If we follow Jesus, he will call us to service of others

I am endlessly fascinated by Jesus Christ. I have been seriously studying the New Testament for more than 4 decades, and I am still coming to new appreciations of the life he lived. Over and over again, as I come to understand what we have written about him, I am stretched as I see how he ...read more

Scripture: Luke 4:31-37, Ephesians 2:10, Matthew 5:16, 1 Timothy 6:18, Hebrews 10:24, Hebrews 13:16  (view more)  (view less)

A Broader Vision

Contributed by Stephen Aram on Feb 7, 2022

Our lives can get so cluttered with good things that we miss the best.

Our text for this morning is Luke 4:38-44. “After leaving the synagogue Jesus entered Simon's house. Now Simon's mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked him about her. Then he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. Immediately she got up and began to ...read more

Scripture: Luke 4:38-44

Jesus And The Crowds

Contributed by Stephen Aram on Feb 16, 2022

Are we content to just see the same people in church week after week or do we really want to welcome many more?

We are working our way through the life and ministry of Jesus, as told in the Gospel of Luke. We’re still very early in his ministry. And in today’s text a problem starts to emerge that will come to be a difficulty for Jesus on many days. It’s the problem of too many people wanting to come and ...read more

Scripture: Luke 5:1-3

Now You Do It

Contributed by Stephen Aram on Feb 16, 2022

What will you do when Jesus calls you to take a step of faith that is outside of your comfort zone?

We all have memories that are indelibly impressed upon our minds. Do you remember where you were when you first heard the news of Pearl Harbor, or the assassination of President Kennedy? Can you remember the scene of a certain wedding or a funeral, or any number of things? For me, one of those ...read more

Scripture: Luke 5:1-11

Followers Of Jesus

Contributed by Stephen Aram on Feb 18, 2022

It's nice to stand on the fringes of what Jesus is doing and watch good things. But remember that he just might call you to jump in to some form of service.

For the last several weeks we’ve followed the course of just 24 hours in Jesus’ life. It was an amazing time. It started on the Sabbath day. He preached in the synagogue at Capernaum, cast a demon out of a heckler there, went home to Peter’s house and healed Peter’s mother-in-law in the ...read more

Scripture: Luke 5:1-11