Rev Chris Roth

My mind has been expanded by a couple authors as I read the Old Testament. I am still processing some of this, but they are helping me to see some things I wasn't seeing.  The first author is Stephen De Young, an Orthodox Priest, and a Biblical Scholar. I find pretty much everything he writes to be helpful. For this sermon I found c hapter 2 "The Spirit, Presence, and Name of God"  of his book  Religion of the Apostles: Orthodox Christianity in the First Century    Particularly helpful.  There is also an Evangelical Old Testament scholar named Michael Heiser, who is remarkably similar in his thinking. Chapter 6 "The Word, the Name, and the Angel" of his book Supernatural has much of the information as the above mentioned book.   Supernatural is a more accessible version of his book The Unseen Realm . Chapters 16, 17, and 18 are helpful for anyone wanting to look deeper into what I talk about in this sermon.  Now to our topic. Today is Trinit...

  Acts 2: 1-21 In our reading from Acts, the disciples are in Jerusalem. Meanwhile, there was a festival called Pentecost taking place. Pentecost was a Jewish festival. It was the second of three harvest festivals. It is also sometimes called the Feast of Weeks because it took place seven weeks (or ~50 days) after the Passover ( Pentekostos means ‘fiftieth’). It was also considered to be the anniversary of the giving of the Law and the establishment of the covenant at Mount Sinai, which was believed to have happened 50 days after the Exodus from Egypt. Faithful Jews would gather from all over the known world to give offerings at the Temple. 1st century Jewish writers (like the historian Josephus and the philosopher Philo) retell the story of the giving of the law, and as a part of that story they speak about strong winds, [1] and a kind of mysterious fire. [2] Later medieval rabbinic sources make some interesting comments regarding the giving of the Law. In the 5th century B...

  1 John 4: 7-21; John 15: 1-8 You might have heard that there are different words used for “love” in Greek- eros, stergo, phileo, and agape . Eros is sexual love, as you can probably guess from the word “erotic”. It is an asking, begging, demanding kind of love. It seeks its own fulfillment. Stergo is the love that exists between parents and children, or between members of a family. This carries a sense of devotion to the family group. Phileo is love between close friends. This is the love between two people who are well-matched. Agape is the word that is mainly used in the New Testament to talk about the love of God. This is high-level love. It is a word that translators have often struggled to translate. It almost needs to be capitalized. It comes with deep emotion. It deeply values the person. Agape holds the beloved in great awe, respect, and admiration. The beloved is precious. Agape is a giving love. It drives the lover to action- even self-sacrificial action. Eros...

Acts 3: 12-19; Psalm 4; 1 John 3: 1-7; Luke 24: 36-48 In our reading from John’s letter today we are told that, out of God the Father’s great love for us, that we are now children of God. But God isn’t stopping here. What we will become hasn’t been revealed to us, yet. John says that when he is revealed, we will be like him. We hear a similar message elsewhere in the New Testament. Paul says in 2 Corinthians,  “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor 3:18). Think about what is being said here. We behold the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image. Peter’s letter tells us that through God’s promises  “you may become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4).  And the letter to the Colossians says,  “… your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:3).  We are becoming partakers of the divine nature- wrapped in Chris...

1 Corinthians 15: 1-11 ; John 20: 1-18 During Holy Week we focus on Christ’s journey to the cross, and then on Easter morning we celebrate his resurrection. It is a profound thing to take time to meditate on the events that lead up to his death and resurrection- The Triumphal Entry, the betrayal, Jesus washing the disciples’ feet, the gift of the Lord’s Supper, the agonizing trial, torture, and crucifixion. We follow as his body is lovingly prepared for burial and placed in the tomb, and then we wait… and on Easter morning we celebrate the shocking and earth shattering reality that Christ has risen from the dead. One of the obvious themes for Holy Week and Easter is salvation. Jesus has done something for us that we could not do for ourselves. He has saved us. So, this morning I want to look at what we mean when we talk about Jesus saving us. Metropolitan Kallistos Ware was a monk, bishop, and theologian who just died in 2022. And he describes the work of Christ fo...

Sometimes our Christian ancestors would do theology by telling a story. C.S. Lewis did this through his book “The Screwtape Letters”. Tonight, I would like to share one of those stories with you tonight. Its present form dates back to the 300’s or 400’s, but parts of it are probably older. It is often called the “Gospel of Nicodemus”. https://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/gospelnicodemus.html https://sacred-texts.com/bib/lbob/lbob10.htm If you want a contemporary English version you can find a pretty good one for sale here, which is the one I drew this from.  https://a.co/d/5v5ACtQ I want to share a part of this document, but I’ve edited a lot to make it shorter. The part of the document I’m going to read is about Jesus after he is killed on the cross and descends into Sheol, the place of the dead. The is where the prophet Samuel is when King Saul and the Witch of Endor summon him back from the dead to seek his advice. ... We meet the the Devil after he has co...

  Mark 11:1-11; Isaiah 50:4-9; Psalm 31:9-16; Philippians 2:5-11; Mark 14:1-15:47 Palm Sunday is kind of like Holy week packed into one day. Palm Sunday is when we begin the slow journey towards the cross that makes up the last week before Jesus is killed. We inch along with him. … It requires a certain kind of emotional strength to walk through these days. … It’s doesn’t begin with sadness, though. It begins with celebration as Jesus enters Jerusalem. … Jesus had quieted voices that revealed him to be the Messiah, but now the secret was out, and through his actions on Palm Sunday, he is publicly declaring that he is the awaited Messiah. The people of Israel were expecting a Messiah who would come to save them- a great and faithful warrior king, who reflected the national memory of King David, who lived 1000 years earlier. David had united the people into the nation of Israel, and defeated their enemies. This Messiah would be a “son” of David. He would evoke that memory and ful...