Sermons

Sermon Series on the Word of God

/ James Pedlar / Leave a comment

This summer I had an opportunity to preach a three-part series and chose to focus on the Word of God. I felt a burden to do so because I realized that we appeal to Scripture constantly at my church, but we haven’t often preached or taught about Scripture as the Word of God–its authority, inspiration, etc.–and how Scripture as the Word written relates to Jesus as the Word Incarnate and preaching as the Word proclaimed.

It was hard to choose how to approach it and could have stretched the series even further, but decided to go with 1) Word of Truth, 2) Word of Power, 3) Word of Life. I hope you might find these edifying.

The Word of Truth (Psalm 119:41-56; July 28, 2024)

The Word of Power (Isaiah 55; August 18, 2024)

The Word of Life (Deuteronomy 30:11-20; August 25, 2024)

The Punishment that Brought Us Peace: A Good Friday Sermon

/ James Pedlar / Leave a comment

Preached at Wesley Chapel Free Methodist Church, March 29, 2024. Text: Isaiah 53

Watch the video of the service on Wesley Chapel’s Youtube Channel

Christ Crucified, by Velázquez, via wikimedia commons

Sermons on 1 Peter

/ James Pedlar / 2 Comments

While I preach 10-12 times a year, it is rare that I can do anything like a preaching series, since my opportunities are typically occasional Sunday morning services. This summer and fall I was able to plan a three-part series on 1 Peter. I have always been drawn to this epistle, no doubt because of its emphasis on holiness and the rich ecclesiological content in chapter 2. Since I only had three sermons to work with, I could only go as far as chapter 2 verse 12, but I hope I will be able to continue the series in the future.

The ultimate occasion for this series was an invitation to preach at a Salvation Army Men’s Camp in September, but the versions of the sermons below are the versions I preached at my home church, Wesley Chapel.

Elect Exiles: 1 Peter 1:1-12

Ready, Holy, Loving: 1 Peter 1:13-2:3

A Peculiar People: 1 Peter 2:4-12

Pandemic Preaching

/ James Pedlar / Leave a comment

It’s been a while since I added sermon audio to this site. It’s not that I stopped preaching, but our congregation used prerecorded services for the first fifteen months of the pandemic, and I never got used to preaching to a camera. It was necessary for a season, and moving to prerecorded services was the least worst option we had…but preaching in an empty room at home on a Thursday morning just wasn’t the same.

I am sure there are lots of reasons why I struggled with video preaching, but the lack of connection to the congregation was a major inhibition. Preaching is a living proclamation of God’s Word to God’s people; it is compromised, to a certain extent, when the preacher and congregation are not together in the same place and time. Preaching to a camera in my basement never felt quite right, and I think that is a good thing.

Not that I am saying God can’t use prerecorded sermons; if God works through the foolishness of preaching to a live congregation, surely he can work through a video sermon. And I know that many people are better at connecting with a camera than I am. But I still think something important is lost when preacher and congregation are not together in the same room. I was trying to get at the same issue when I addressed the question of online communion in the early days of the pandemic. At that time I wrote that “the lack of embodied gathering is a fundamental impediment to the life of the church.” Not that I want to discount the opportunities the pandemic has presented for new and creative ministries, and not that I want to deny that God can work through online communion or online preaching, but I think that these means of grace are significantly inhibited by our inability to gather together, as is the life of the church as a whole. After fifteen months of fully-online worship and now about six months of hybrid of in-person / livestream, I haven’t changed my perspective on these questions.

The first two sermons below were based on challenging texts, but I am so thankful I was able to preach them from the pulpit, the midst of the physically-gathered community.

Sermon: Tragedy and Triumph

Preached at Wesley Chapel Free Methodist Church, July 11, 2021. Mark 6:14-29.

Sermon: The Stone That Will Not Be Moved

Preached at Wesley Chapel Free Methodist Church, November 14, 2021. Mark 13:1-8.

Sermon: The Weight of Words

Preached at Wesley Chapel Free Methodist Church, January 23, 2022. Luke 4:14-21.

Teach Us to Number our Days

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I gave this short sermon for the Ash Wednesday service at Wesley Chapel on March 6, 2019. While it was given two years ago, the theme of “numbering our days” has remained with me. And it seems all the more relevant now, as we near the one-year mark for this pandemic. What has it taught us about time? We have been shown that we shouldn’t take anything for granted, and that our lives can be turned upside down in an instant. COVID has been a visceral reminder of the fragility of human life, not just in terms of our personal health but in terms of our life together – our social and economic institutions. It is as if “You are dust, and to dust you shall return” is broadcast to us in each day’s headlines. For the Christian this is not cause for despair but a call to to faith and hope in the God who has defeated death and holds our times in his hands. And it reminds us that our time in this mortal life is limited, so we should receive everything that comes into our hands as a gift that needs to be stewarded with a heart of wisdom.

I had Sandra McCracken’s setting of Psalm 90 in mind as I was reflecting on these themes. It’s a song worth meditating upon today.