Pastor Sullivan's Blog

Grace and Peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. 1)         “ From the day s of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. ” These are difficult words. What does it mean that the kingdom suffers violence and the violent take it by force? Was there violence and persecution against the kingdom of heaven at the time when Jesus said this? There had been none up to that point. John was still alive, although imprisoned. Jesus had not yet been crucified, nor His apostles martyred because of their preaching. That would all come in due time. But at this point in the ministry of John and Jesus, violent men had not yet tried to lay hold of the kingdom of heaven. They would try. They would execute John, crucify Christ, and martyr the apostles. They would persecute the church, burn her books, and give Christians over to lions and other creative fates. But none of the...

Grace and Peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. 1)         Jesus enters Capernaum, His own city, and is confronted by several men carrying a paralytic on his bed. St. Mark gives us more details. Mark records that Jesus was in a house, and “ Immediately many gathered together, so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door ” (Mark 2:2). Jesus preaches repentance and God’s mercy to the packed house. But the crowd poses a problem for the friends of the paralytic. They can’t get their friend’s bed to Jesus. Undeterred, they climb onto roof, hauling their friend in the bed up their too. The Israelites build their houses to have flat roofs, which is why these friends can then dig a bed-sized hole in the roof. Once “ they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying ” (Mark 2:4). It must’ve been quite a sight. Their ...

Grace and Peace be unto you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. 1)         A lawyer of the Pharisees proposes a question about the Law in order test Jesus. The Pharisees were always malicious toward Chris and always wanting to disprove and discredit Him. And though Christ knows what is in men’s hearts and perceives their malicious motivation, He is gentle and compassionate with them. He ever desires to teach sinners the way of repentance and faith, so Christ answers the Pharisee’s question. “ Which is the greatest commandment in the Law? ” Christ distills the entire Law of Moses down to two commandments. He says, “ ’You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. ” Everything that has been...

Grace and peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. 1)         “ Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted .” These words are the summary of what Jesus has just taught the Pharisees. Christ “ went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath .” On this occasion, as they gather to dine together, they watch Him closely, for the Pharisees are always looking for an opportunity to entrap Jesus and discredit Him. They want to catch Him in His words and deeds to prove that He is not the Christ. To that end, they bring in a man who is terribly afflicted with dropsy, what we call edema today. The man is in a painful condition, retaining fluid in his body. The Pharisee had placed the man at his table, not to honor him, but to see what Jesus would do. They don’t bring this man to Jesus because they love him and want Jesus to heal him. The Pharisees...

Grace and Peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. 1)         Jesus approaches the city of Nain, surrounded by His disciples and a large crowd who wanted His teaching and His miracles. As that crowd approaches the city, it meets another large crowd from the city, which is on its way to the cemetery. That crowd is led by pallbearers carrying the casket of a young man, the only son of his mother. The young man’s mother follows close by, mourning for her only son. This isn’t her first funeral procession. St. Luke tells us that she was a widow. She buried her husband some time before this. Now she buries her only son. The depth of her loss is unfathomable. Everyone looks at he with eyes of sympathy. Everyone, except Jesus. The Lord sees her and is moved with compassion for her. The heart of the Messiah goes out to this woman who has lost everything. He offers no condolences or well-wishes. He doesn’t fill her ears wi...

Grace and peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. 1)         Jesus tells us that no one can serve two masters. Our hearts aren’t built for that. We can only serve one master. We can only look to one thing to provide for us and go give us everything we need for this life. You cannot serve God and mammon. To serve God means to look to Him in faith and expect Him to give us every good thing at the proper time. To serve mammon means to give our hearts to money, possessions, and the things of this life so that we expect all good things from them. The heart that serves God is confident that God will give daily bread; daily bread being all that we need to support this body and life. The heart that serves mammon frets over how much money is in the bank or how much food is in the cupboard. The heart that serves God is content because it fixes itself solely upon God’s Word and promises. The heart that serves mammon is alw...

In the Name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.  1)         Before Matthew was known as ‘Saint Matthew,’ before he was a disciple and apostle, and before the Holy Ghost inspired him to write the account of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection that bears his name, Matthew was simply a tax collector. He writes, “ As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office .” Matthew had a tax booth at the edge of the Capernaum city limits, so that travelling merchants and traders would have to stop and pay tax on their wares as they headed to market. Being the tax man is just another God-pleasing vocation. Paul tells the Roman Christians that we pay taxes so that the civil rulers can govern. He says, “ Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor ” (Romans 13:7). But it goes for the tax man as it does for all m...