Entitlement or Effort?

July 12, 2026July 12, 2026 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Bible, birthright, Broadway, Christ, church, effort, entitlement, Esau, faith, Genesis, God, Jacob, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, Matthew, Methodist, Ohio, parable, sower

Entitlement or Effort?

July 12, 2026*

By Pastor John Partridge

Genesis 25:19-34 Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

There is an ongoing conversation in American culture that revolves around who should, and who should not, go to college. I realize that this is not always a popular subject in a college town, particularly with many college graduates, staff, and professors in attendance, but the conversation is still worthwhile. Let me be clear, I do not mean to say that some people should not go to college based on some arbitrary measure like family income, race, religion, or other socioeconomic factors. Neither, in this case, do I intend to open the important subject of young people who graduate with a degree they didn’t really want, a mortgage with no house, and few prospects for a career that will pay off their loans. Although I regard that as a genuine problem, instead what I mean is that simply by temperament, giftedness, and passion, some among us are simply not built for higher education despite many of those people being more than capable of it.

In my previous career, I often spoke with one of our machinists. He was kind, friendly, intelligent, and a good conversationalist as well as being an experienced, and highly skilled machinist. But while higher education could have prepared him to own and operate his own business as a machinist, he had no desire whatsoever to do so. Likewise, in one of our previous appointments, one of our neighbors was a skilled auto mechanic, but although he was willing to substitute as a shift manager, he too preferred to do the hands-on labor and had little desire to be responsible for the accounting and other duties required to own and operate his own business. In a different way, while our son Noah is more than intelligent enough to tackle college courses, and while he already operates his own business, he is not at all interested in dedicating four, or even two, years to academic study.

As much as many of us value higher education, if we’re honest, we recognize that not everyone has a need, a desire, or the temperament to pursue it. And that is one of the things that we see in our scriptures for today as well as the encouragement to be aware of the needs, desires, and temperaments of the people with whom, and to whom, we are in ministry. We begin this morning with the story contained in Genesis 25:19-34, in which Abraham’s son Isaac, and his wife Rebekah, have their own children.

¹⁹This is the account of the family line of Abraham’s son Isaac.

Abraham became the father of Isaac, ²⁰and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram and sister of Laban the Aramean.

²¹Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. ²²The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So, she went to inquire of the Lord.

²³The Lord said to her,

“Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples from within you will be separated;
one people will be stronger than the other,
and the older will serve the younger.”

²⁴When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. ²⁵The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so, they named him Esau. ²⁶After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so, he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.

²⁷The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents. ²⁸Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

²⁹Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. ³⁰He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom.)

³¹Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.”

³²“Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?”

³³But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So, he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob.

³⁴Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left.

So, Esau despised his birthright.

One of Isaac’s favorite foods was wild game and, being too old to hunt, or too busy with the family business (you will recall that Abraham was wealthy and only had one heir), and so Isaac was particularly fond of Esau who preferred living in open country and occasionally brought him his favorite food. Rebekah, however, found that her favorite child was Jacob who was more of a homebody and was a man who knew how to cook. And so, when Esau came home hungry, he demanded some of the stew that Jacob was cooking, and Jacob only offered it in exchange for the birthright, in this case two thirds of their eventual inheritance from Isaac. But despite the price, Esau accepted because, as our scripture says, “Esau despised his birthright.”

But the birthright that would be passed down from Isaac wasn’t just financial, but also spiritual. The brother with the birthright would become the spiritual head of the family, and Esau is not interested or temperamentally inclined to act in this capacity. Despite God’s promise to Rebekah that “the elder will serve the younger” Jacob finds it necessary to help God out and negotiate for that position anyway. My commentary described Esau as being too “profane,” “coarse,” and “unspiritual” to be suitable as a part of the Messiah’s family tree. But more than that, I think, is that God had created Esau as a man who didn’t want the job. He was not temperamentally suited for being the spiritual leader of the household, nor did he have any desire to oversee the extensive lands, herds, businesses, and financial holdings of their family. Moreover, Esau’s own comments imply that he thought that his lifestyle of living outside in the open country would likely lead him to die long before his brother Jacob anyway.

And when we consider temperament, giftedness, and inclination in our way of thinking, then we see Jesus’ parable of farmer sowing seeds in Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 in an entirely different light when it says:

^13:1 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. ²Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. ³Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. ⁴As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. ⁶But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. ⁷Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. ⁸Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. ⁹Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

¹⁸“Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: ¹⁹When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. ²⁰The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. ²¹But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. ²²The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. ²³But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

We have all heard this parable before and have discussed it in bible study or Sunday school, but the way we usually look at it is simply as a guide to why our evangelistic efforts sometimes fail. And what we take away from such a discussion is only that we should share the message of the gospel, which is planting seeds, wherever we can, but that we should not be discouraged that many of our attempts will not be successful. And that’s all true. But what if the passage is trying to teach us something deeper? What if we look at this passage while we keep in mind the differences between Jacob and Esau? The brothers were built differently. Esau loved hunting and the open country while Jacob preferred his job as a shepherd and staying close to home. Esau was not built to be the head of Isaac’s clan, but he was good at other things. And if we consider that when we look at the parable of the sower, the deeper truth is not only that sometimes our efforts will fail, but also that we should account for the differences in the people, and the soil, in which we plant. If we thought about planting in that way, then maybe we put out netting to keep the birds from eating the seeds, add a little soil to the rocky places, and pull up a few thorns to give the seeds more space. Instead of just flinging out some seeds and accepting failure, we should, like good gardeners, also pay attention to the unique individual needs of our audience so that we can nurture them and help them grow.

By tradition, Esau was the firstborn brother and was entitled to the birthright, entitled to his father’s blessing, and entitled to becoming the head of the clan of Abraham and Isaac. But even before they were born, God knew that Isaac was the one who would be better suited and better equipped by faith and by temperament to lead his family both spiritually and financially. Although Jacob and Rebekah both conspired to make that happen, it would have happened in any case because God promised that it would be so. In the end, Jacob inherited the birthright, not because he swindled his brother out of it, but because he was better suited to it. God chose for the birthright to pass, not to the brother that was entitled to it, but to the brother that would do the work to honor God’s gift.

Likewise, just because we plant, just because we share the message of the gospel, doesn’t mean that we are entitled to any particular result. Just as it was in his creation and treatment of Jacob and Esau, God has created each person as a unique individual with different skills, talents, and abilities, but also with diverse needs. While it’s true that not every seed that we plant will produce a crop, it is also true that we cannot simply shrug and accept that our work will fail. Instead, we must consider the differences between those to whom we have shared the message of Jesus and, like a skilled gardener, put a net over some, soil over others, and a little shade and water where needed. We shouldn’t simply assume that we will fail but instead be prepared to nurture the seeds we have planted so that we can raise crops in unexpected places.

Success, both financially and spiritually, doesn’t come from entitlement, but from faith, thoughtfulness, nurture, and hard work.

Please LIKE and SHARE!

Click here to subscribe to Pastor John’s blog.

Click here if you would like to subscribe to Pastor John’s weekly messages.

Click here to visit Pastor John’s YouTube channel.

*You have been reading a message presented at Christ United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first page. Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Christ UMC in Alliance, Ohio. Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you. Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry or any of our other projects may be sent to Christ United Methodist Church, 470 East Broadway Street, Alliance, Ohio 44601. These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership. You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at secretary@CUMCAlliance.org. These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.com . All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.comThe “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Through the Impossible

July 5, 2026July 5, 2026 PastorPartridge Sermon Abraham, Alliance, Bible, Broadway, Christ, church, faith, Fort McHenry, Francis Scott Key, Genesis, God, impossible, isaac, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, make a way, Matthew, Methodist, Ohio, Paul, possible, Rebekah, rescue, Romans, Star Spangled Banner

Through the Impossible

July 05, 2026*

By Pastor John Partridge

Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67

Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

Romans 7:15-25a

In September 1814, during the War of 1812, American lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key traveled to Baltimore on a truce ship. His mission, authorized by President James Madison, was to negotiate the release of Dr. William Beanes, an American civilian who had been captured by the British. While Key successfully negotiated Beanes’ release, he and his companions had overheard the British planning their upcoming attack on Baltimore, so they were detained for their own security.

On September 13, 1814, the British Royal Navy launched a massive assault on Fort McHenry, the military stronghold guarding Baltimore Harbor. For 25 hours, Key watched in captivity as rockets and bombs rained down on the fort. Because of the heavy smoke and the darkness of the night, Key could not tell if the fort had fallen or if the Americans had surrendered. The only proof that the fort was still holding was the occasional flash of the “rocket’s red glare,” briefly illuminating the skies.

At the break of dawn on September 14, the smoke began to clear. Through his spyglass, Key looked toward Fort McHenry and saw a giant American garrison flag waving triumphantly over the ramparts.

Elated and moved by the fierce American resistance, Key pulled a letter from his pocket and began crafting a poem that would later be set to music and become our national anthem.

O say, can you see
By the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed
At the twilight’s last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars
Through the perilous fight
O’er the ramparts we watched
Were so gallantly streaming?

And the rockets’ red glare
The bombs bursting in air
Gave proof through the night
That our flag was still there.

O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

– Francis Scott Key

During the dark night of September 13^th, 1814, while watching the continuous violence of the British naval bombardment of Fort McHenry, it must have seemed impossible for the American defenders to survive. Only brief flashes from the exploding shells gave occasional hints that the American flag still flew over the fort until, finally, the dawn revealed that twenty-five hours of sustained British bombardment had been unsuccessful in dislodging the defenders.

That, I think, sets the tone for the theme of today’s message. When have you witnessed the impossible unfold before your eyes? In my career as a pastor, and even before we went into ministry, Patti and I have witnessed quite a few impossible events that I cannot help but describe as miracles. And while we might not describe all the stories contained in today’s scriptures as miracles, certainly they all describe God working to bring his people through impossible situations… including you and me. We begin this morning by returning to the story of Abraham as he seeks to find a bride for his son Isaac. Not wanting his son to be misguided and led astray by a Canaanite woman from their new home, Abraham sends a trusted servant to his father’s family in search of a bride in Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67, he finds one, and this is how he explains his search to her family:

³⁴So he said, “I am Abraham’s servant. ³⁵The Lord has blessed my master abundantly, and he has become wealthy. He has given him sheep and cattle, silver and gold, male and female servants, and camels and donkeys. ³⁶My master’s wife Sarah has borne him a son in her old age, and he has given him everything he owns. ³⁷And my master made me swear an oath, and said, ‘You must not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I live, ³⁸but go to my father’s family and to my own clan, and get a wife for my son.’

⁴²“When I came to the spring today, I said, ‘Lord, God of my master Abraham, if you will, please grant success to the journey on which I have come. ⁴³See, I am standing beside this spring. If a young woman comes out to draw water and I say to her, “Please let me drink a little water from your jar,” ⁴⁴and if she says to me, “Drink, and I’ll draw water for your camels too,” let her be the one the Lord has chosen for my master’s son.’

⁴⁵“Before I finished praying in my heart, Rebekah came out, with her jar on her shoulder. She went down to the spring and drew water, and I said to her, ‘Please give me a drink.’

⁴⁶“She quickly lowered her jar from her shoulder and said, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels too.’ So, I drank, and she watered the camels also.

⁴⁷“I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’

“She said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel son of Nahor, whom Milkah bore to him.’

“Then I put the ring in her nose and the bracelets on her arms, ⁴⁸and I bowed down and worshiped the Lord. I praised the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me on the right road to get the granddaughter of my master’s brother for his son. ⁴⁹Now if you will show kindness and faithfulness to my master, tell me; and if not, tell me, so I may know which way to turn.”

⁵⁸So they called Rebekah and asked her, “Will you go with this man?”

“I will go,” she said.

⁵⁹So they sent their sister Rebekah on her way, along with her nurse and Abraham’s servant and his men. ⁶⁰And they blessed Rebekah and said to her,

“Our sister, may you increase
to thousands upon thousands;
may your offspring possess
the cities of their enemies.”

⁶¹Then Rebekah and her attendants got ready and mounted the camels and went back with the man. So, the servant took Rebekah and left.

⁶²Now Isaac had come from Beer Lahai Roi, for he was living in the Negev. ⁶³He went out to the field one evening to meditate, and as he looked up, he saw camels approaching. ⁶⁴Rebekah also looked up and saw Isaac. She got down from her camel ⁶⁵and asked the servant, “Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?”

“He is my master,” the servant answered. So, she took her veil and covered herself.

⁶⁶Then the servant told Isaac all he had done. ⁶⁷Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebekah. So, she became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.

Think about what happened. Abraham’s trusted servant, a man who does not share Abraham’s faith, is sent to place he has never been, to find a woman among a people that he has never met and, out of respect for his employer, prays to Abraham’s God that he would be led to the right woman, and specifies the conditions so that he might know that God had chosen that particular woman. And everything unfolds, exactly as he prayed that it would. What Abraham asked was difficult. What the servant prayed for was impossible. And yet, God moved through the impossible and the servant meets Rebekah in exactly the way in which he had prayed.

In an entirely different way, Jesus addresses a crowd of people who are likewise faced with impossible and insurmountable problems and many of these problems are still faced by the people around us today: Poverty, hunger, unemployment, sickness, violence, uncertainty, difficult employers, and more. On top of these daily worries, religious leaders piled on mountains of rules that made life even more difficult and more expensive. And Jesus speaks these words of comfort in Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30:

¹⁶“To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:

¹⁷“‘We played the pipe for you,
and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge,
and you did not mourn.’

¹⁸For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ ¹⁹The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.”

²⁵At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. ²⁶Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.

²⁷“All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

²⁸“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Jesus said that this generation was just like the children who played games in the marketplace and made rules that found fault no matter what choices you made. Life was already difficult, but Israel’s leaders, instead of making things easier, chose instead to make things harder in people who were already struggling. And Jesus calls to these hurting people and declares that he will help them to move through the impossible, saying, “²⁸“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

And finally, in his letter to the church in Rome, Paul describes a struggle that every Christian has faced throughout history. No matter how strong our intentions are to do better, we always seem to fall short of our aspirations, and often our failures are even more dramatic. In Romans 7:15-25 Paul writes:

¹⁵I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. ¹⁶And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. ²⁰Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

²¹So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²²For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; ²³but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. ²⁴What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? ²⁵Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature, a slave to the law of sin.

Paul admits that he simply cannot help himself. As much as he intends to do what is right and good, as much as he intends, and desperately wants, to do the things that he knows that he should do, he cannot. Worse, the things that he knows, and wants not to do, despite his best efforts, he does those things anyway. “I desire to go good, but I cannot carry it out.” And in this, Paul describes not only his inner being that delight’s in God and in doing God’s will, but also his inner human sinful nature such that good and evil live side-by-side inside of him. His point is that we fall too easily into temptation, and even when we try to do good, we often fail. But as discouraging as that may sound, Paul’s conclusion is to give thanks to God who delivers us through Jesus Christ regardless of our sin and failure.

This is the miracle that we see every day as the followers of Jesus Christ. Just as God made a way through the impossible so that Abraham’s servant could find the bride that God had chosen for Isaac, God continues to make a way through impossible circumstances for us today. No matter how hard life can get, no matter what difficult circumstances we may find ourselves in, no matter the struggles that we face, Jesus calls to hurting people and declares that he will help them to move through the impossible, saying, “²⁸“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Likewise, when we are tempted to criticize and beat ourselves up because of our failures, Paul reminds us that our failure only reminds us that we are human. The good news is, as it has always been, that this is why we follow Jesus and why Jesus gave his life to save us, because despite our failures, despite the drama, despite our overwhelming shortcomings, God delivers us through Jesus Christ our Lord.

No matter what we face, no matter how impossible, God always makes a way.

Please LIKE and SHARE!

Click here to subscribe to Pastor John’s blog.

Click here if you would like to subscribe to Pastor John’s weekly messages.

Click here to visit Pastor John’s YouTube channel.

Life and Death Choices

June 21, 2026June 21, 2026 PastorPartridge Sermon Abraham, Alliance, Bible, Broadway, Christ, church, death, faith, Genesis, God, Hagar, Ishmael, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, life, life and death, Matthew, Methodist, Ohio, Paul, Romans, Sarah, Street

Life and Death Choices

June 21, 2026*

By Pastor John Partridge

Genesis 21:8-21 Matthew 10:24-39 Romans 6:1-11

Have you ever been in a position where you were compelled to make a choice, but none of the choices were good ones? One of the most famous of these is that of Socrates who, in 399 BCE was convicted of impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens with his philosophy and was given the choice of exile or death by poison. Neither was a good choice, but Socrates felt that exile was a fate worse than death and thus chose poison. In the modern era, being confronted by bad choices remains common. In combat, soldiers and sailors are often faced with choices that have terrible results regardless of what they choose. Likewise, the homeless, those in poverty, and many others are faced with choosing between multiple bad choices with no good options. What do you choose when faced with a fine for $300 or three days in jail, when you don’t have $300 and will lose your job if you miss three days of work?

I don’t have the answer because, obviously, there are no good answers. But this is what Abraham faces as we read from Genesis 21:8-21. Isaac, the son of Abraham and Sarah, had grown enough to be weaned from his mother, possible at the age of three, or perhaps a bit older, but when that happens, Sarah forces Abraham to make a choice that he doesn’t want to make, and in which someone will be hurt no matter what he chooses.

⁸The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. ⁹But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, ¹⁰and she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.”

¹¹The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. ¹²But God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the boy and your slave woman. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. ¹³I will make the son of the slave into a nation also, because he is your offspring.”

¹⁴Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the Desert of Beersheba.

¹⁵When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. ¹⁶Then she went off and sat down about a bowshot away, for she thought, “I cannot watch the boy die.” And as she sat there, she began to sob.

¹⁷God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. ¹⁸Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”

¹⁹Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So, she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.

²⁰God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer. ²¹While he was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Egypt.

There are several things that might be helpful as we try to understand this. First, as revered of an ancestor as he may be, Abraham was just as flawed and just as human as the rest of us. He made mistakes, and we cannot argue that this interaction, as painful as it is, was anything close to perfect. Second, culturally, despite Hagar being owned by Abraham, once she bore him a child, she legally became his wife. Therefore, although Isaac was the child of Sarah, and the child that God had promised to them since this entire adventure began, it can be argued that Ishmael was, legally, the firstborn male child and would therefor inherit the lion’s share of Abraham’s estate. Third, because Hagar was legally his wife, Abraham could not sell her, or give her away, or set her free, or simply throw her out as it appears that he did. Instead, legally, what we are witnessing is a legal divorce proceeding. Although the details are not included in the writing of Genesis, in order for Abraham to send Hagar away, there had to be some formal stuff that legally satisfied the requirements of divorce.

With all that in mind, Sarah forces Abraham to make a choice that has been coming ever since he chose to make a baby with Hagar. The choice to do nothing results in Ishmael being declared as the firstborn son, and displacing Isaac as the child of God’s promise. The second choice is to divorce Hagar, send her away, but raise Ishmael for himself, again resulting in Ishmael being understood as the firstborn son, The third option was to divorce Hagar, and send both her, and Ishmael, away leaving Isaac as the only son. Abraham didn’t want to do any of those things. Not surprisingly, as his son, he had feelings for Ishmael, and likely for Hagar as well. But Abraham also had feelings for Sarah and for Isaac, didn’t want to hurt them, and also wanted to honor God’s gift by allowing Issac to receive the inheritance that had been promised to him. No matter what Abraham chooses, something gets broken and someone gets hurt. Could Abraham have done better by Hagar and Ishmael? Should he have done better? Yeah, probably. But as we all know, it’s easy to sit in judgement when you don’t have all the facts.

In any case, Abraham is forced into a life-or-death choice, with nothing to ease the pain and loss except for God’s promise to care for Ishmael. But, like it or not, all of us face life-or-death choices. Hopefully, the choices that we face have some good mixed with the bad and, like Abraham and many others, we will not be forced to choose between several bad options. But, in Matthew 10:24-39, Jesus describes one of those choices we will have to make, when he says:

²⁴“The student is not above the teacher, nor a servant above his master. ²⁵It is enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!

²⁶“So, do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. ²⁷What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. ²⁸Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. ²⁹Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. ³⁰And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. ³¹So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

³²“Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. ³³But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.

³⁴“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵For I have come to turn…

“‘a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
³⁶ a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’

³⁷“Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. ³⁸Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ³⁹Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

Jesus says that it is enough for us to be like our teachers and like our master, Jesus. We should not be afraid of those who criticize or condemn Jesus, and to an even greater degree, us. In the end, Jesus says, the truth will be made known. Everything that has been hidden will be revealed, everything that has been deliberately concealed will be made public. Nothing will linger in the shadows, all conspiracies and secrets will be brought into the light, all lies will be exposed. And so, Jesus urges us to put away our fear of those who can only kill us, but who cannot take away our life with an eternal God. Rather, we should choose carefully whom we would rather have as our enemy. Should we ally ourselves with those who might attack our credibility, tell lies about us, conspire against us, or even kill us, but whose schemes will be revealed on the day of judgement? Or should we ally ourselves with the creator of the universe, the champion of truth, the bearer of all wisdom, and the keeper of our souls for all eternity? It is a life-or-death choice.

When Jesus says, “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. ³³But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven” He isn’t talking about silly internet memes that demand that you repost if you really love Jesus. He is saying that we must choose a side. We must put Jesus first, above our parents, above our families, and above our own well-being. But by choosing Jesus, and placing him first, we will find life.

Paul reinforces this teaching as he writes to the church in Rome in Romans 6:1b-11, saying:

^6:1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ²By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? ³Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

⁵For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— ⁷because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

⁸Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. ¹⁰The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

¹¹In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Paul says, “Shall we go on sinning?” and point out that we have choices to make. We chose to follow Jesus. We chose to be baptized and make a public statement that we were following Jesus. And, Paul asks, if we have been baptized, and we have died to sin and raised to a new life in Christ, then shouldn’t we live as if we are following the example, and the teachings, of Jesus?

The story of Abraham tells us that although we have many choices to make, sometimes we will be faced with choices that have no good options. Sometimes our choices will hurt people. Sometimes our choices may be the pivot between life and death for ourselves or for others. But Jesus reminds us that our choices also decide with whom we will ally ourselves. Will we choose to be God’s ally, or God’s enemy? Will we choose to put Jesus first, even ahead of our family, our jobs, our wealth, and our well-being?

Will we choose to life as if following Jesus means something?

As Joshual once said, “choose for yourself this day whom you will serve.” (Joshua 24:15)

And having done that, we must live as if that choice means something.

But… choose wisely, because these really are… life and death choices.

Please LIKE and SHARE!

Click here to subscribe to Pastor John’s blog.

Click here if you would like to subscribe to Pastor John’s weekly messages.

Click here to visit Pastor John’s YouTube channel.

Photo by Vexels.com on FreeImages

Unexpected, Undeniable Miracles… and You

June 15, 2026June 15, 2026 PastorPartridge Sermon Abraham, Alliance, Bible, Broadway, Christ, christophany, church, demonstration, faith, freedom of navigation, God, grace, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, Methodist, ministry, miracle, miracles, mission, obvious, Ohio, Paul, Romans, theophany, undeniable, undeserved, unexpected, United Methodist, unmerited

Unexpected, Undeniable, Miracles… and You

June 14, 2026*

By Pastor John Partridge

Genesis 18:1-15 Matthew 9:35 – 10:8 Romans 5:1-8

If you haven’t occasionally read about such things, there is a territorial dispute between China and the rest of the world in the South China Sea. While everyone typically recognizes a nation’s right to a 12 mile exclusion zone as their territorial waters, in the South China Sea, the nation of China has repeatedly claimed some shallow waters, shoals, and sketchy manmade islands in order to push their claim of territory past what the rest of the world, and international law, recognizes as international shipping lanes. While China and other nations occasionally lift diplomatic and legal protests against one another, sometimes the United States and its allies employ a more… visible demonstration. By that, I refer to what is called a “freedom of navigation” cruise. Because China can, and often does, threaten and bully smaller, neighboring nations like the Philippines, occasionally the British, or the United States, and others with more powerful navies, will deliberately sail several ships through these legally recognized, international waters just because they can, because they want to make a point, and because they know that the small Chinese Coast Guard ships really can’t do anything about it.

While I don’t have anything much to say, politically, about such things, I mention this because it is a real-life demonstration of the principle that while talking and posturing might be important, sometimes a more tangible demonstration is required. And that is what we see God doing as we read today’s scripture lesson. We begin this morning in Genesis 18:1-15, where three men, with God among them, visit Abraham and Sarah, both now well advanced in years, Abraham near one hundred years old and Sarah something over ninety.

^18:1 The Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. ²Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.

³He said, “If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord,^] do not pass your servant by. ⁴Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. ⁵Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way—now that you have come to your servant.”

“Very well,” they answered, “do as you say.”

⁶So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. “Quick,” he said, “get three seahsof the finest flour and knead it and bake some bread.”

⁷Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it. ⁸He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree.

⁹“Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him.

“There, in the tent,” he said.

¹⁰Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”

Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. ¹¹Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. ¹²So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?”

¹³Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ ¹⁴Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

¹⁵Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.”

But he said, “Yes, you did laugh.”

There is a lot here that we could easily dig into. First, at least two of the three men who appear must be messengers of God, or angels, and one of them may be God in human flesh, because the passage begins by saying that “the Lord appeared to Abraham.” Theologically speaking, this is a theophany, a moment when God appears to humans on earth, but may also be a Christophany, because if we are to understand that Jesus’ role in the trinity is God in human flesh, then this may very well be him, two thousand years before he is born. But we don’t know for sure, so don’t hurt your head trying to understand that.

The point that I want to highlight from this exchange is that God is honoring his promise of children to Abraham and Sarah in the most visible and miraculous way possible. Rather than just allowing them to have children, when ordinary people have children, usually somewhere between the ages of 15 and 45, God allows so much time to pass that even Sarah no longer believes that it is possible. And to be fair, why would she? It becomes increasingly rare for women to have babies after the age of forty, and even rarer if they haven’t already had children. The oldest woman on record to have a baby naturally, is Dawn Brooke, from the United Kingdom, who in 1997, had a healthy baby boy at the age of fifty-nine. But just to be sure that everyone knows that this is a divine miracle, God waits until Sarah is ninety.

A little closer to home is a message that informs our present-day mission and ministry, and that is the story of Jesus sending out his twelve disciples to do ministry without him in Matthew 9:35 – 10:8.

^9:35Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. ³⁶When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ³⁷Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. ³⁸Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

^10:1 Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.

²These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; ³Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; ⁴Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

⁵These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. ⁶Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. ⁷As you go, proclaim this message: “The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ ⁸Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.

Jesus begins by asking the disciples to pray for workers that would go out into the harvest field, but immediately equips, and sends them out into the countryside to do exactly that. First, just as we saw in the story of Abraham, Jesus makes sure that the work of the disciples, raising the dead, healing incurable diseases, and driving out demons will leave no doubt that God is doing miracles. But we cannot miss that when we pray for God to help us do the work of mission and ministry, that the very next step is for us to get our hands dirty and get started doing the work.

And finally, as Paul writes to the church in Rome in Romans 5:1-8, he explains how God has performed a visible and unexpected miracle in each of our lives, saying:

^5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ²through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. ³Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

⁶You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

First, Paul reminds us of the message that we heard just last week, that God has justified us through our faith and has given us peace with God through his son Jesus Christ. And it is through Jesus that we have gained access to the grace of God. But the miracle is this: when we were powerless, when we had done nothing to earn the blessings or the grace of God, while we were still the enemies of God, Christ still died for us. The gift that we have been given, purchased at the expense of Jesus’ very life, was completely un-merited, and un-deserved.

Just as we see in “freedom of navigation” cruises, there are times when powerful nations do things in a highly tangible and visible way rather than exercise simpler, safer, and quieter legal and diplomatic options. And, as we have seen in our scriptures today, God sometimes does the exact same thing. God could have kept his promise to Abraham and Sarah by giving them children when they were much younger but chose instead to allow Sarah to bear a child in her nineties when her husband was over one hundred years old. Jesus could have sent his disciples out into the countryside to preach and teach, but he chose to bless them with the power to raise the dead, heal the sick, cure the incurable, and cast out demons so that everyone would know that God himself walked with them. But we should never sell ourselves short in this regard because the salvation and rescue of each and every one of us is a visible and tangible miracle. When we were unlovable, God chose to love us. When we least deserved favor, God blessed us. When we were God’s enemies, God chose to forgive us and welcome us into his family, his life, and his home.

Never forget that you are a walking miracle.

Whenever we pray for mission and ministry, we are not praying for God to send others to do that ministry for us, but for God to send others to join us.

Never forget that when we pray for mission and ministry, the very next step is to get our hands dirty and get started doing it.

Photo by Czarest on FreeImages

Directions and Credits “For Us”

June 7, 2026June 7, 2026 PastorPartridge Sermon Abraham, Abram, Alliance, Bible, Broadway, Christ, christianity, church, credits, directions, faith, Genesis, God, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, Matthew, Methodist, Ohio, Paul, rules

Directions and Credits “For Us”

June 07, 2026*

By Pastor John Partridge

Genesis 12:1-9 Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26 Romans 4:13-25

How do you explain Christianity to the people around you?

I think that you know what I mean. Your friends certainly know that you are a Christian, or that you regularly, or… occasionally, attend church. And, if they are comfortable in their relationship with you, they may eventually ask a question like, “How does that work… exactly?” How does one become a Christian, and what do you have to do because you are a Christian? Some of that we know, and if we’re honest, we spend years of our lives working out some of the other parts of it. But we also know that many people who claim the name of Jesus Christ, and who call themselves Christian, get a lot that wrong. But, as confusing as that is, I think, or at least I hope, that our study of today’s scriptures should help clear away some of our confusion.

But before we jump into our scriptures, I want to read two quotes that will frame our discussion.

First, Margaret Mead, a well-known American anthropologist who spent her life studying human behavior, once said, “What people say, what people do, and what they say they do are entirely different things.” This explains an awful lot about politics but reveals the truth that we see in our everyday lives. “What people say, what people do, and what they say they do are entirely different things.” The second quote, from Sir Winston Churchill, is similar, but the focus is different, and will lead us very well into today’s scripture, and that is, “I no longer listen to what people say, I just watch what they do. Behavior never lies.”

“I no longer listen to what people say, I just watch what they do. Behavior never lies.”

That really is powerful.

And so, I want you to keep these ideas in mind as we read and think about today’s scripture lesson. We begin this morning reading from the story of Abraham in Genesis 12:1-9 which says:

^12:1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

²“I will make you into a great nation,
    and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
    and you will be a blessing.
³I will bless those who bless you,
    and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
    will be blessed through you.”

⁴So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. ⁵He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.

⁶Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. ⁷The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspringI will give this land.” So, he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

⁸From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.

⁹Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev.

I pause here to do something that Engineers rarely do. I pause here to teach a little English. You are all familiar with the past, present, and future tenses, but English also has an imperative, which we use in instructions and commands. This is important, because while every sentence typically requires both a noun and a verb to make sense, in the imperative, a noun is only implied and not required. This is why commands like “Jump” or “Get out” make perfect sense even though they don’t have a noun in them. The noun, typically “you” is implied. And this is what we see when God commands Abram. If we include the implied noun in the first verse, God says “You go” or “I command you to go” from the places, people, and things that you know, and to the place that I will show you. But, then in the second verse, God explains that Abram’s obedience is not pointless, but that God is offering a transaction. Verse one says “You go” but in verse two, God says that if Abram goes, then “I will” do these things. And this becomes God’s promise to Abram.

But as we noted earlier, regardless of what Abram might have said, which is not recorded, it is important for us to watch what Abram does. And as we read the story, we see that Abram does several things. First, Abram goes. He is seventy-five years old, well-established, and reasonably wealthy, and he leaves it all behind, family, friends, and everything familiar, and heads off into the unknown. But on the way to the place that God is leading him, he stops, twice, both in Shechem, and in Bethel, and builds an altar to worship God and to give thanks, while he is still on the way to the blessing that he has not yet received. And, after giving thanks to God, Abram packs up and continues the way toward wherever it is that God is leading him.

And we see something similar in the gospel of Matthew as Jesus calls the disciple Matthew to follow him. But we also see something quite different, even the opposite, in the same story. In Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26, we read this:

⁹As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

¹⁰While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. ¹¹When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

¹²On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. ¹³But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

¹⁸While he was saying this, a synagogue leader came and knelt before him and said, “My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.” ¹⁹Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples.

²⁰Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. ²¹She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”

²²Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment.

²³When Jesus entered the synagogue leader’s house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes, ²⁴he said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. ²⁵After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. ²⁶News of this spread through all that region.

So, where we saw God and Abram in the previous story, here we have Jesus and Matthew having a similar conversation. Jesus says, “Follow me” and Matthew gets up and follows. But as soon as Jesus arrives at Matthew’s house, the Pharisees complain that Jesus is socializing with the wrong kind of people. Jesus says, “It is not the healthy that need a doctor but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” But where Matthew did what Jesus told him to do, the implication of the story is that the Pharisees surely did not. Jesus said, “go and learn” and the Pharisees ignored his instructions.

But to add contrast to the contrast between those two stories, the gospel writer immediately follows that story with two more in which people act in ways that demonstrate their faith through their actions. First, by a woman who gave herself directions to touch Jesus’ cloak, and second by a synagogue leader who asked Jesus for help, and then did whatever Jesus asked him to do even when the crowd of people, in his own house, laugh at Jesus, and by extension, the synagogue leader himself, for even imagining that the girl could be alive.

And that’s where we get to us. In Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, he explains what following Jesus means, how we become followers, or what we now name as being Christians, and also covers how many Jews of his day, and Christians today, get the whole thing wrong. Reading from Romans 4:13-25, we hear this:

¹³It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. ¹⁴For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, ¹⁵because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.

¹⁶Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. ¹⁷As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.

¹⁸Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” ¹⁹Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. ²⁰Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, ²¹being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. ²²This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” ²³The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, ²⁴but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. ²⁵He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

Paul reminds the Jews of the first century that while Abraham was the father of their tribe and of their religion, he did not possess the writings of the Law or the prophets in which the Pharisees, teachers of the law, and so many others placed so much importance. Paul says that it wasn’t the ten commandments that made Jews righteous, nor was it the Law, or the prophets, nor the adherence to the hundreds of rules that regulated the behavior of obedient Jews. Instead, Paul explains that the thing that made Abraham righteous, and the thing that lay at the core of what made people righteous for all time, was that they had placed their faith in God. Paul says that now, for us, this is what we have as believers in Jesus Christ. It isn’t because we adhere to the ten commandments, or because we follow a bunch of rules about alcohol, tobacco, snake handling, how we say our prayers, how we dress, how we speak, how we worship, or dozens of other rules that people say Christians are supposed to follow, but that God credits us with righteousness, God sees us as righteous, simply because we believe in Jesus Christ.

Just as the Pharisees thought that Jesus’ faith was wrong because he ate with tax collectors and sinners, lots of people, church people, and non-church people alike, often get this backwards. We aren’t Christian because we follow a bunch of rules. We are Christian because we have put our trust in Jesus.

But then why do we follow some of the rules and behave in certain ways? The example that springs to mind is the reason that I do not ride motorcycles. I like them. I once thought that I would surely own one. But the idea of me riding a motorcycle would worry my wife to no end. I stay away from motorcycles, not because Patti has made some kind of rule, or because she has forbidden me from doing so, but because I love her, a choose to behave in ways that give her comfort and not worry. And the same can be said for why Christians do many of the things we do. We do not follow rules because following rules makes us Christian. Putting our faith in Jesus is what makes us Christian. We follow certain rules, and adopt certain behaviors, not because we must, but because we choose to do so because we love Jesus and want to honor him.

Photo by Comstock on FreeImages

Gifts of Spirit, Wind, and Fire

May 24, 2026May 31, 2026 PastorPartridge Sermon Acts, Alliance, Bible, breath, Broadway, Christ, christianity, church, Corinth, faith, family, fire, God, history, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, John Partridge, Luke, Methodist, Ohio, Paul, Pentecost, Shavuot, spirit, wind

Gifts of Spirit, Wind, and Fire

May 24, 2026*

(Pentecost)

By Pastor John Partridge

John 20:19-23 Acts 2:1-21 1 Corinthians 12:1-13

Every family, and every family member, has a story. Our stories tell us who we are, and where we come from. In my family, there are stories, or at least speculation, about the first of the Partridges to come here from England, stories about my grandfather’s time fighting for Germany in World War One and his immigration to the United States afterward. We tell the story of his marriage to my grandmother on the docks of New York after he sent for her to join him, and there are stories of how my parents met in college, of Dad’s time in the Navy during World War Two, his brothers that served in other branches, Dad’s call to ministry, my brother Steve being drafted during Vietnam, my volunteer service in the Army Reserve and eventual call to active duty for Desert Storm and my own call to ministry. There are many more stories from Patti’s side of the family, stories about the miracles that we have seen, how our children joined our family, and many, many more. But it is the telling of those stories that anchor us in history and tell us who we are and how we got here.

Churches have the same stories. Christ Church has stories of beginning downtown, buying property on the hill and, eventually, building the church in which we now worship. There are stories of the Glamorgan family and how they came to donate the bells in our bell tower, stories about how the bells were hoisted, using horses and ropes long before the era of hydraulic cranes. Like biological families, our church has countless stories, passed down from generation to generation, and those stories tell us something about who we are and how we got here. But Christianity itself has stories that are a part of us, some that date back to the very beginnings of our faith, and some which, again, tell us about who we are and how we got here.

In recent months, as we have worked our way through the liturgical year, and through the scriptures highlighted by the lectionary, we have walked through many of those stories. You will remember hearing John the Baptist in Luke 3:16, when he said, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” And those words had to echo in the mind of Jesus disciples after Jesus’ death and resurrection when this happened in John 20:19-23:

¹⁹On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” ²⁰After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

²¹Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” ²²And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

We remember that the words that we translate in English as wind, spirit, and breath, are all the same word in Greek. And so, Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the holy breath” but also, as the NIV translated, “receive the Holy Spirit,” but also leaving us the option of “receive the holy wind,” which we will see as important in just a moment. Before Jesus ascended into heaven and left the earth, he reminded the disciples of John’s words by giving them the gift of the Holy Spirit. But he wasn’t done. In Luke 1:4-5, Jesus also told his disciples “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. ⁵For John baptized with water, but in a few days, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

And so, as we read in recent weeks, the disciples and other followers of Jesus did just that. They stayed together in Jerusalem, worshiping in the temple each day, praying, and sharing meals together until, in Acts 2:1-21, this happened:

^2:1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. ²Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. ⁴All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them.

⁵Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. ⁶When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. ⁷Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? ⁸Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? ⁹Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, ¹⁰Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome ¹¹(both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own languages!” ¹²Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”

¹³Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”

¹⁴Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. ¹⁵These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! ¹⁶No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

¹⁷“‘In the last days, God says,
    I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
    your young men will see visions,
    your old men will dream dreams.
¹⁸Even on my servants, both men and women,
    I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
    and they will prophesy.
¹⁹I will show wonders in the heavens above
    and signs on the earth below,
    blood and fire and billows of smoke.
²⁰The sun will be turned to darkness
    and the moon to blood
    before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
²¹And everyone who calls
    on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

On the day of Pentecost, the believers and followers of Jesus Christ were gathered eating, socializing, praying, or otherwise being together and suddenly there was wind as Jesus had said, and there was spirit, and there was fire just as John had said several years earlier. But what is also notable, beyond the fulfillment of the words of John and Jesus, was the result of the infilling, and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit in the followers upon whom the flames of the spirit had fallen. Filled with the spirit of God, the followers of Jesus went out into the streets just as the people in the streets gathered and crowded to search for whatever had made the sound of a violent wind on what was likely a calm and quiet day. And each person in the crowd of people who had come to Jerusalem from all over the know world for the Jewish festival of Shavuot, which is also known as the Festival of Weeks, heard the retelling of the story of the good news of Jesus in their own languages. And this from men and women who were uneducated, rural folk, who were considered to be country bumpkins.

The speakers certainly did not know the languages in which they were preaching… and yet they did so because of the power of the Holy Spirit working through them. Peter explains to the crowd that what they were witnessing was not a crowd of drunks, but the miraculous fulfillment of God’s prophecy for the last days of creation, that God was, even now, pouring out his spirit upon the people so that those who called upon his name could be saved.

But still, it was not always clear what the filling and indwelling of the Holy Spirit meant, and the people of the church had questions about what indwelling meant, or what it meant to be baptized by the spirit, or what God’s purpose was in doing so. And so, in 1 Corinthians 12:1-13, Paul writes to the believers in Corinth, and he explains it this way:

^12:1 Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. ²You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. ³Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

⁴There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. ⁵There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. ⁶There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.

⁷Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. ⁸To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, ⁹to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, ¹⁰to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of languages, and to still another the interpretation of languages.¹¹All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.

¹²Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³For we were all baptized byone Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

First, Paul clarifies that anyone that says that Jesus is cursed is not a follower of Jesus and is not filled with the Spirit of God. Second, Paul says that anyone who says that Jesus is Lord is indeed permitted to say so by the Holy Spirit. I would caution, however, that other scriptures still indicate that saying this does not automatically ensure all of what they preach is trustworthy. In any case, Paul continues by saying that the gifts that are given to each believer, when they are filled and empowered by the spirit of God, are not the same for each person. There are some common types and some common groupings of gifts, but each person is just as unique as one part of the body is from another. Just as the parts of the body work together to allow humans to do amazing things, our different gifts allow us, as the body of Christ, to work together and accomplish amazing, even miraculous things for the kingdom of God, in the name of Jesus Christ.

Pentecost is one of our key stories that we repeat each year because, just like family stories, it tells us where we came from and who we are, both as a church, and as individuals. We are the body of Christ as we use our gifts, together, to do the work of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. Each of us are unique and different from one another, but each of us has been given a specific set of gifts and talents, and then filled with, and empowered by the Holy Spirit, so that we can do our part as God calls us, and leads us as we work to accomplish his mission and ministry.

Remember the stories.

Remember where we came from.

Remember who you are.

And never forget whose you are.

Please LIKE and SHARE!

Click here to subscribe to Pastor John’s blog.

Click here if you would like to subscribe to Pastor John’s weekly messages.

Click here to visit Pastor John’s YouTube channel.

Resumé, Request, Blessing, Mission

May 17, 2026 PastorPartridge Sermon Acts, Alliance, anxiety, Bible, blessing, Broadway, Christ, christianity, church, faith, fear, God, humility, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, John Partridge, Methodist, mission, Ohio, Peter, promise, purpose, request, resume, Street

Resumé, Request, Blessing, Mission

May 17, 2026*

(Seventh Sunday of Easter)

By Pastor John Partridge

John 17:1-11 Acts 1:6-14 1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11

If you are like me, many of you have changed jobs from time to time. As a young person, the first time you apply for jobs, the process is intimidating, unfamiliar, awkward, and uncomfortable. But the second time the process feels more familiar, and by the third or fourth time, you understand the process well enough to feel the flow of it, to anticipate what will happen next, and almost read the minds of the people interviewing you. There is a current that flows between the initial contacts that are made and the work that is performed after you are hired to do the job. And, as I read our scripture passages for today, it is that flow that came to mind, and that process that you will see as we read, digest, and understand the path that the disciples, the followers of Jesus Christ, and we ourselves follow from the time we meet Jesus until he sends us out to do the work of God’s kingdom. We begin this morning by reading John 17:1-11, as Jesus prays with, and for, his disciples before his arrest and crucifixion.

^17:1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:

“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. ²For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. ³Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. ⁴I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. ⁵And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

⁶“I have revealed youto those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me, and they have obeyed your word. ⁷Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. ⁸For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. ⁹I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. ¹⁰All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. ¹¹I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power ofyour name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.

As Jesus prays to his father, it is as if he reads his resume and reminds God of the work that he has done during his time on the earth. And afterward, he requests that God return him to the glory that he had with God before the world began. Next, Jesus prays over the resume of his disciples, as if reminding God of who they are, what they have done, and what Jesus had taught them and given to them. And again, afterward, Jesus requests that God would protect them so that they would be unified in spirit, purpose, and mission for the kingdom work that they would be sent to do.

But, before that could happen, Jesus concluded his time on earth, ascended into heaven, and returned to his father. But only a moment before he did so, he made a promise and assigned a mission to them, both the promise and the mission have been passed on to us. We hear this in the words of Acts 1:6-14:

⁶Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

⁷He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. ⁸But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

⁹After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

¹⁰They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ¹¹“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

¹²Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walkfrom the city. ¹³When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James, and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. ¹⁴They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

Jesus is plain in saying that there are limits to God’s willingness to share the details of his plans for the future. While he called the disciples in the first century, and calls us today, it is not for us to know when God will choose to do the things that God will do. The important thing is that God promises to give us the power to do the things that he calls us to do, and that our mission is to carry his story and message of hope to the ends of the earth. Like the disciples, we cannot simply stand around, looking up at the sky, waiting for Jesus to return. Instead, we must wait in anticipation, and busy ourselves with the work that must be done until the time of his return.

But doing the work to which God has appointed us will not always be easy. In his letter of 1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11, the apostle Peter gives the people of the church some advice on how we should live in order to accomplish the work of the kingdom, saying:

^4:12Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. ¹³But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. ¹⁴If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

^5:⁶Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. ⁷Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

⁸Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. ⁹Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

¹⁰And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast. ¹¹To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.

Peter reminds the people of the church that they should not be surprised that an ordeal of suffering had come to test them. Instead, rather than complain, flee, or quit, he encouraged them to rejoice that they cold share their suffering with Jesus and be happy that they would be rewarded on the day of Christ’s return. If we are insulted because of our faith in Jesus, Peter says, that is a sign that the Spirit of God’s glory, and the Spirit of God itself rests upon you.

Moreover, rather than being proud, or arrogant, that you are a follower of the Jesus and a follower of the most high, creator God, humble yourself before God and let him lift you in praise as he sees fit at a time of his choosing. Instead of worrying and being anxious about your life, trust the God that cares for you, and let him carry the burden of your anxiety and fear. Your job is to be alert to the manipulations of the enemy because he prowls the earth looking for ways that he can deceive, subvert, mislead, and consume the followers of Jesus Christ. Resist these temptations that are so common in our culture and stand firm in the faith that you share with many who are suffering. In the end, although God may allow you to suffer temporarily, he will ultimately restore you in body, mind, and spirit.

As we have seen in our scriptures today, there is often a process with God just as there is when we seek employment. God has seen our resume and Christ himself has prayed that God would protect you and bless you so that the followers of Jesus Christ might be one with God and be united and unified in purpose. We won’t always know the plans that God has for our future, but God promises to give us the power to do the things that he calls us to do. Our lives, as the followers of Jesus Christ, are not guaranteed to be filled with roses, and rainbows, and unicorns, but may often have its share of discomfort, suffering, insults, and fiery ordeals. But we rest in the knowledge that as we suffer, we share in the suffering of Jesus, and we are invited to humble ourselves, and let him carry the burden of our anxiety and fear.

Our calling is to stand firm in our faith and to resist the enemy of our souls, to be alert for his attempts to deceive, mislead, and tempt us to wander from the path of truth. Our mission is to carry the good news of Jesus Christ and his message of hope, healing, and restoration to the ends of the earth.

Just like finding a new job and building a career, it isn’t something that happens overnight. It is a path. It is a process. And it is a journey that we must choose to travel…

…one step at a time, one day after another, until at last we meet Jesus at the throne of grace.

Until then, let us do as the disciples did so long ago, let us pray together, worship together, and work together to rescue the lost, and do the work of God’s kingdom.

Photo by Vexels.com on FreeImages

From Chaos to Confidence

April 5, 2026April 19, 2026 PastorPartridge Sermon Acts, Alliance, Bible, Broadway, Christ, church, Colossians, creation, culture, Easter, faith, Genesis, God, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, John Partridge, Methodist, Ohio, Paul, resurrection, testify

From Chaos to Confidence

April 05, 2026*

(Easter Sunday)

By Pastor John Partridge

John 20:1-18 Acts 10:34-43 Colossians 3:1-4

Easter can still be surprising if we look at it from a different angle than we usually do. And one way to do that is to consider Easter as an act of God’s creation. That may seem unusual but bear with me and this message will become clear before we’re done. In the first words of Genesis, we hear these words:

^1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ²Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (Genesis 1:1-2)

And, as easily as this passage comes to our memory, consider that the Hebrew that we translate as “formless and empty” is tohu va-bohu which implies an environment understood by the ancient world as one of terrifying disorder, such that in some modern translations, this phrase is being rendered simply as chaos. The world in the beginning was a place of terrifying chaos, and from it, God created order. And again, while the parallels might not be immediately apparent, bear with me as we begin this morning by remembering the first Easter morning that we read in John 20:1-18:

^20:1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. ²So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

³So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. ⁴Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. ⁵He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. ⁶Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, ⁷as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. ⁸Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. ⁹(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) ¹⁰Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.

¹¹Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb ¹²and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

¹³They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” ¹⁴At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

¹⁵He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

¹⁶Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

¹⁷Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

¹⁸Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

The actions of the players in this story may not seem all that strange to us in the twenty-first century, but in the context of the first century, everything understood to be culturally normal is turned on its head. Women were believed and understood to be unreliable such that, under Roman law, the testimony of a woman in court was only considered to be dependable if produced under torture. But here, while the women are understandably emotional, they are the ones doing the work that must be done while the men have remained at home paralyzed with grief. Similarly, we are told that the disciples, who had walked with Jesus for three years, still did not understand that Jesus had to rise from the dead. These men were baffled, confused, and emotionally incapacitated to the point that they follow the leadership of Mary and the other women. Moreover, Jesus’ first appearance isn’t to any of his trusted friends and disciples, but to the women whose testimonies would automatically be doubted. From the perspective of the disciples and the people in story, everything here is upside-down and utterly chaotic. If the disciples had chosen to invent a story about the resurrection, this is exactly the kind of story that they would have avoided at all costs because it would have been completely unbelievable. To the original audience, this story is utter chaos.

But just a few weeks later, when Peter confronts a crowd of people in the temple courts in Acts 10:34-43, he says this:

³⁴Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism ³⁵but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right. ³⁶You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. ³⁷You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached— ³⁸how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.

³⁹“We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross, ⁴⁰but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. ⁴¹He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. ⁴²He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. ⁴³All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Peter admits that it all seems crazy. He knew that the women saw Jesus first, that the men were the ones who were overly emotional and paralyzed by grief, and he finally sees the truth, he now understands that God’s plan doesn’t automatically follow the prejudices and favoritisms of human culture. Despite the chaos, despite turning the preconceived assumptions of culture on their heads, Peter admits that they stood as witnesses to the truth of the story that they shared and the message that they preached. The story that Peter and the disciples were preaching was chaotic, crazy, culturally disconnected, and felt uncomfortable and wrong to many who heard it, but nonetheless, they stood up and swore that this was the truth that they had witnessed.

But where does that leave us? Why does it matter? And what does it mean for us?

And as we read Paul’s letter to the church in Colossae, he connects the dots for us. Reading from Colossians 3:1-4, we hear this:

^3:1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ²Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. ³For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. ⁴When Christ, who is yourlife, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Paul summarizes the story that the disciples told. Because Jesus died and rose to life again, and because we have chosen to follow him and to put our trust in him, we too have been raised from the dead. But, because have, and because we have this hope for the future, God calls us to live our lives differently from the people around us. We are called to focus on God’s kingdom and not on the things that our earthly cultures label as important. More importantly, we have confidence that when Christ returns, we will live with him in the glory of his kingdom.

Just as God’s presence in the story of creation transformed chaos into order, the resurrection of Jesus on that Easter morning two millennia ago has transformed the confusion and chaos of our culture into a calm assurance for our future and for eternity.

What began as chaos has been transformed, through faith, into confidence.

Our mission is to remember, and to live out, the words of Peter that we heard in Acts 10. ⁴²He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. We are called to preach, and to tell the world, not because we seek power, or influence, or because we want to manipulate people for our own selfish purposes, but because we choose to share the peace, confidence, assurance, and love that we have found, and because we want to help others to escape the chaos of our culture.

Happy Easter everyone!

Please LIKE and SHARE!

Click here to subscribe to Pastor John’s blog.

Click here if you would like to subscribe to Pastor John’s weekly messages.

Click here to visit Pastor John’s YouTube channel.

Scriptures for Easter Sunrise

April 5, 2026 PastorPartridge Sermon Bible, Easter, faith, Jesus, resurrection

Scriptures for Easter Sunrise

April 05, 2026

by John Partridge

Friends, I am not in the habit of preaching a long sermon at the Easter Sunrise service. I use this time as a musical celebration with our praise team, and for remembering the story of Easter. Since last year’s service used the story from the Gospel of John, this year I have interwoven passages from Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Happy Easter everyone!

Where we left off on Good Friday…

Matthew 27

⁶²The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. ⁶³“Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ ⁶⁴So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”

⁶⁵“Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” ⁶⁶So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.

______________________

And how the story resumes on Easter Morning…

Mark 16

^16:1 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. ²Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb ³and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”

Matthew 28

²There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. ³His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. ⁴The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

Mark 16

⁴But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. ⁵As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.

⁶“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. ⁷But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”

Matthew 28

⁸So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. ⁹Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. ¹⁰Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

Luke 24

⁹When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. ¹⁰It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. ¹¹But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. ¹²Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

Matthew 28

¹¹While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. ¹²When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, ¹³telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ ¹⁴If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” ¹⁵So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.

Betrayal, Humility, Sacrifice

April 2, 2026April 2, 2026 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, betrayal, Bible, Broadway, Christ, christianity, church, Corinth, Corinthians, faith, God, Holy Thursday, humility, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, John Partridge, Methodist, Ohio, Passover, Paul, sacrifice

Betrayal, Humility, Sacrifice

April 02, 2026*

(Holy Thursday)

By Pastor John Partridge

Exodus 12:1-4, (5-10), 11-14

John 13:1-17, 31b-35

1 Corinthians 11:23-26

What is it that makes your family, your church, your civic organization, or your community unique? What is the story that you tell others about how you started, or about your mission, that explains who you are and what you do? As I was growing up, I often heard that while we were encouraged to try new things, Partridges did not quit. If we tried something new, we had to give it a fair trial. Learning to play an instrument is difficult, and so was wrestling when I only weighed seventy-two pounds. But I wasn’t allowed to quit until I had, at least, completed a year or two of band and at least a full season of wrestling. I stayed in band until my second or third year in college and stayed in wrestling for two seasons until I finished junior high school. Patti and I sent the same message to our children when they were growing up. We encourage you to try new things, but once you start, you cannot quit until you’ve given it a fair chance. Every group, and every family, has similar stories that shape the character of the organization as well as the character of its members. And for the people of Israel, and later for the followers of Jesus Christ, one of those formative and defining stories is the story of the first Passover that we find in Exodus 12:1-4, (5-10), 11-14.

^12:1 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, ²“This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. ³Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. ⁴If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. ⁵The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. ⁶Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. ⁷Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. ⁸That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. ⁹Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire—with the head, legs, and internal organs. ¹⁰Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. ¹¹This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover.

¹²“On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. ¹³The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

¹⁴“This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance.

The Passover story declares to everyone that all of Israel, from the least to the greatest, is a family and that everyone is included. It is also a story of God’s rescue and his love for his people.

And it is with this background in mind that we enter the story of Jesus’ betrayal, arrest, and crucifixion found in John 13:1-17, 31b-35 and hear this:

^13:1 It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

²The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. ³Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; ⁴so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. ⁵After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

⁶He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

⁷Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

⁸“No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

⁹“Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

¹⁰Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” ¹¹For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.

¹²When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. ¹³“You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. ¹⁴Now that I, your Lord, and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. ¹⁶Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. ¹⁷Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

³¹When he [Judas] was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him. ³²If God is glorified in him. God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.

³³“My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.

³⁴“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Jesus knew that these were his last hours on earth and, rather than fleeing to save his own life, Jesus followed the pattern of God, of Israel, and of the Passover, by placing love, family, and rescue ahead of his own wellbeing. Jesus takes on the role of the lowest ranking servant and humbles himself as he washes the feet of those who follow him. Jesus says that just as every person who belongs to the nation of Israel is a part of the family, every person who follows him must be humble enough to wash feet and serve others. The distinguishing character of Jesus’ followers will not only be family but also love and humility. Jesus says, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” This can’t be the ordinary love that we see among families and friends, but it must be so extra-ordinary, so singularly distinctive, that people will see it and know that we belong to Jesus.

But there is another thing that makes our community unique and shapes the character of the organization and its members, and it goes beyond who we are and how we act. In 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, the Apostle Paul explains it this way:

²³For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, ²⁴and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” ²⁵In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” ²⁶For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Paul says that he was passing what he knew forward to new generations and that this was a key part of his mission. It was important that he passed on to others the knowledge and teaching that he had received from God. He passed on the importance of sharing a meal at the Lord’s table and remembering Jesus’ last supper, but he emphasizes that each time we share that meal together, we proclaim the message of Jesus’ sacrifice, death, and resurrection and teach others about him. Our celebration of the Lord’s table, or the Eucharist, or Communion, is a reminder to us, and a reminder to the world, of the gift that Jesus gave to all of us. And, like Paul, our mission is not to keep that gift to ourselves, but to share it with others and pass it forward to new generations.

*You have been reading a message presented at Christ United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first page. Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Christ UMC in Alliance, Ohio. Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you. Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry or any of our other projects may be sent to Christ United Methodist Church, 470 East Broadway Street, Alliance, Ohio 44601. These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership. You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at secretary@CUMCAlliance.org. These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.com . All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Pastor Partridge

Sermons, blogs and other things from Pastor John Partridge

Bible

Entitlement or Effort?

Entitlement or Effort?

July 12, 2026*

Through the Impossible

Through the Impossible

July 05, 2026*

Life and Death Choices

Life and Death Choices

June 21, 2026*

Unexpected, Undeniable Miracles… and You

Unexpected, Undeniable, Miracles… and You

June 14, 2026*

Directions and Credits “For Us”

Directions and Credits “For Us”

June 07, 2026*

Gifts of Spirit, Wind, and Fire

Gifts of Spirit, Wind, and Fire

May 24, 2026*

(Pentecost)

Resumé, Request, Blessing, Mission

Resumé, Request, Blessing, Mission

May 17, 2026*

(Seventh Sunday of Easter)

From Chaos to Confidence

From Chaos to Confidence

April 05, 2026*

(Easter Sunday)

Scriptures for Easter Sunrise

Scriptures for Easter Sunrise

April 05, 2026

Betrayal, Humility, Sacrifice

Betrayal, Humility, Sacrifice

April 02, 2026*

(Holy Thursday)