Discipling Life

This is a sermon I preach at Ebenezer and Black Creek on June 7, 2026. 1. Introduction: The Physician and the Sick Today we find ourselves standing before a table that is more than a piece of furniture—it is a battleground for the heart of the Gospel. In the cultural landscape of first-century Judea, the table was the ultimate site of radical inclusion or cold exclusion. Consider the scene in Matthew 9. Jesus is walking down the road when he sees a man named Matthew sitting at a tax booth. To the crowd, Matthew was a traitor, a collaborator with Rome, a moral leper. Yet Jesus looks at him and says, “Come, follow me.” Matthew doesn’t just follow; he opens his home. That night, the clinking of cups and the smell of roasted meat filled the air as Jesus sat as a dinner guest alongside a crowd of “notorious sinners.” Some Pharisees, watching from a distance with narrowed eyes, were indignant. They didn’t just question the etiquette; they questioned the holiness of the mission. “Why does ...

Have you ever wondered whether God could really use someone with a complicated past? Many people carry the weight of mistakes, regrets, or labels that seem impossible to escape. In Matthew 9:9-13 , Jesus walks past the tax booth of Matthew, a man many in his community would have considered a traitor and a sinner, and simply says, “Follow me” (v. 9). Matthew responds immediately, leaving behind his old life to follow Christ. This brief encounter reminds us that Jesus sees more in us than our failures. He sees who we can become through the transforming power of grace. The religious leaders were troubled when Jesus shared a meal with tax collectors and sinners. Yet Jesus responded, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick” and “I desire mercy, not sacrifice” (vv. 12-13). Christ’s ministry was not centered on preserving appearances but on restoring people. God’s grace reaches toward those who know their need, inviting them into a new way of life. Grace not o...

Matthew 28:16-20 brings the Gospel of Matthew to its powerful conclusion as the risen Christ meets his disciples on a mountain in Galilee and commissions them for the work ahead. Often called the Great Commission, this passage is both a sending and a promise. Jesus calls his followers to make disciples, baptize , and teach in his name, extending the good news of God’s kingdom to all nations. At the same time, he reassures them with the enduring promise of his presence: “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (v. 20). In these final verses, we see the heart of Christian discipleship, a life shaped by worship, obedience, mission, and the sustaining grace of Christ. Today’s text begins with the disciples gathered with the risen Christ on the mountain in Galilee. Matthew tells us, “When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted” (v. 17). That small detail is comforting. Even in the presence of the risen Christ, some struggled with uncertainty. Yet Jesus did not turn them a...

The King We Need, Not The King We Want Sermon by Alan Swartz – November 23, 2025 EUMC & BCUMC – Christ the King Sunday We live in a world that groans with anxiety. We have car loans and mortgages to repay. We scroll through our feeds, watching the relentless cycles of crisis and conflict, and deep within us, a primal desire stirs for someone to step in and simply  fix it . We long for a savior-figure who can silence the chaos, bend history to their will, and restore a sense of order to our frantic lives. It is a profoundly human desire to find a powerful figure who can make everything right, a king who will finally deliver on our hopes for security and control. But on this Christ the King Sunday, we are confronted with a kingdom that operates on a radically different logic. The scriptures present us not with the king we might design in our fear, but with the king we desperately need. Today we will see the profound and challenging difference between the king we often wan...