From Chaos to Confidence

April 5, 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!

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*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.™

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.™

Restoring Hope

March 22, 2026 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Broadway, Christ, church, dry bones, Ezekiel, faith, God, hope, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, John Partridge, Lazarus, life, Methodist, Ohio, Paul, peace, restore, resurrection, Romans, Street

Restoring Hope

March 22, 2026*

(Fifth Sunday of Lent)

By Pastor John Partridge

Ezekiel 37:1-14 John 11:1-45 Romans 8:6-11

Once again, this week’s selection of scriptures is quite long. But unlike previous weeks, the stories are so good, and so important, that I am reluctant to skip through them. Instead, I will attempt to make my introduction and commentary brief and then use what time I have left to connect the dots for you afterwards.

The theme, if you have read the title of today’s message, is Restoring Hope and so, each of today’s scriptures tell us something about the way that God works and, hopefully, before we’re done, will reveal something to each of us about our roles as the followers of Jesus Christ. We begin this morning by hearing the vision that was given by God to the prophet Ezekiel at a time when the people of Israel lived in captivity in Babylon. Worse, they had only recently heard the news that Jerusalem had fallen and had been utterly destroyed. The people were emotionally crushed and without hope. It is at that moment that God takes Ezekiel’s hand and gives him the vision that he describes in Ezekiel 37:1-14:

^37:1 The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. ²He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. ³He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”

⁴Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! ⁵This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. ⁶I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

⁷So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. ⁸I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

⁹Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” ¹⁰So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.

¹¹Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ ¹²Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. ¹³Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. ¹⁴I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’”

In Ezekiel’s vision, he sees the people of Israel as a valley full of dead, fleshless, dried bones. It would be ridiculous to imagine that any life could return to bodies so decayed, but God commands Ezekiel to prophecy over the bones, and when he does, their flesh is restored and God breathes life into them once again. God declares that he will bring this same restoration to his people in Babylon and through this message, God restores hope to his people.

We see a similar message as Jesus raises his friend Lazarus from the dead in John 11:1-45:

^11:1 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. ²(This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) ³So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”

⁴When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” ⁵Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. ⁶So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, ⁷and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

⁸“But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”

⁹Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. ¹⁰It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”

¹¹After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”

¹²His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” ¹³Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.

¹⁴So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, ¹⁵and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

¹⁶Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

¹⁷On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. ¹⁸Now Bethany was less than two milesfrom Jerusalem, ¹⁹and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. ²⁰When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.

²¹“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²²But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

²³Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

²⁴Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

²⁵Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; ²⁶and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

²⁷“Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

²⁸After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” ²⁹When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. ³⁰Now Jesus had not yet entered the village but was still at the place where Martha had met him. ³¹When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.

³²When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

³³When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. ³⁴“Where have you laid him?” he asked.

“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

³⁵Jesus wept.

³⁶Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”

³⁷But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

³⁸Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. ³⁹“Take away the stone,” he said.

“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”

⁴⁰Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

⁴¹So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. ⁴²I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”

⁴³When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” ⁴⁴The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

⁴⁵Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.

Mary and Martha are crushed as they grieve the death of their brother Lazarus. When questioned, Martha confesses that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God who was foretold by the prophets of Israel, but even in her confession we can see that Martha is still blinded by her grief, but even so the words of Jesus give her a tiny ray of hope. But after Lazarus climbs out of his own grave, and his sisters unwind his burial shrouds, many who were in attendance came to believe in Jesus as Martha did and were filled with hope.

But, as I often ask, what does that have to do with us? And, as it often is, there is an answer from the Apostle Paul, and we find these words in Romans 8:6-11 as he says:

⁶The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. ⁸Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

⁹You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. ¹⁰But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives lifebecause of righteousness. ¹¹And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

Paul says that the mind that is governed by the Spirit of God is a mind of life and peace. But he also says that even though our bodies are subject to death because of sin, the Spirit of God gives us life because of the righteousness that has been credited to us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is because of Jesus’ sacrifice that God gives us life through the Spirit that lives in us. These things, these words, like having a mind of life and peace, of being confident of forgiveness, righteousness, eternal life, and the daily strength and assistance of the Spirit of God that lives within us, are like those words spoken to the people of Israel by the prophet Ezekiel and like those spoken and demonstrated to Mary and Martha at Lazarus’ funeral and resurrection.

In short, these are messages that, even in the twenty-first century, are words that give us hope.

Our calling, especially in a world that seems increasingly violent and chaotic, is to share these words of hope so that others can also find a place of peace and rest.

We are a people of hope…

…and our mission is to share that hope with the world.

Photo by gnmills on FreeImages

Visionary Blindness

March 15, 2026 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, arrogance, blind, blindness, Broadway, Christ, church, culture, David, Ephesians, expectation, faith, God, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, John Partridge, Methodist, Ohio, Paul, prejudice, Samuel, vision, visionary

Visionary Blindness

March 15, 2026*

(Fourth Sunday of Lent)

By Pastor John Partridge

1 Samuel 16:1-13 John 9:1-41 Ephesians 5:8-14

At the beginning of the 1991 war in the Persian Gulf, in what is known as the Battle of 73 Easting, a U.S. formation of M1A1 Abrams tanks from the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment encountered a division of the Iraqi Republican Guard, including a very large number of Russian made tanks. The Russian tanks had a shorter range than the American Abrams tanks, did not have modern thermal sights and, in the middle of a blinding sandstorm were effectively blind. In the end, over one thousand Iraqi lives were lost and one thousand more were taken prisoner while only twelve American lives were lost, nineteen wounded, and one Bradley fighting vehicle was destroyed. The Iraqi survivors later reported that their tanks and other vehicles were being systematically destroyed, and they couldn’t even see who was attacking them, or from which direction they were attacking.

Last week, we discussed the blindness that stems from blaming others. Whenever we insist that someone else is at fault for our sins and other troubles, we remain at least partially, if not completely, blind to our own responsibility. This week, although we aren’t talking specifically about blame and accountability, we will find other ways in which people with otherwise normal and healthy eyesight can be blind to the things going on around them. As we read the story of David’s anointing as king by the hand of the prophet Samuel, we discover several kinds of blindness. First, as Samuel mourns the corruption and failures of King Saul, we see that he has been blinded by his dedication, his grief, and his fear. And later, as Samuel looks upon David’s older brothers with admiration, we see that he is blinded by his cultural expectations and prejudice. We begin this morning by reading this story from 1 Samuel 16:1-13.

^16:1 The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.”

²But Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears about it, he will kill me.”

The Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ ³Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate.”

⁴Samuel did what the Lord said. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town trembled when they met him. They asked, “Do you come in peace?”

⁵Samuel replied, “Yes, in peace; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come to the sacrifice with me.” Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.

⁶When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the Lord.”

⁷But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

⁸Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, “The Lord has not chosen this one either.” ⁹Jesse then had Shammah pass by, but Samuel said, “Nor has the Lord chosen this one.” ¹⁰Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, “The Lord has not chosen these.” ¹¹So he asked Jesse, “Are these all the sons you have?”

“There is still the youngest,” Jesse answered. “He is tending the sheep.”

Samuel said, “Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives.”

¹²So he sent for him and had him brought in. He was glowing with health and had a fine appearance and handsome features.

Then the Lord said, “Rise and anoint him; this is the one.”

¹³So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David. Samuel then went to Ramah.

At the beginning of this passage, God chastises Samuel for mourning king Saul’s disobedience to God and allowing his dedication, grief, and fear to prevent him from moving forward. Later, as Samuel stands in Jesse’s home, one by one he looks over Jesse’s handsome and well built sons, and each time that Samuel thinks that the one in front of him is particularly impressive, God rejects them because Samuel is looking at these men through the lens of his culture and its prejudice which informs him that kings should be handsome. But these cultural expectations blind Samuel such that God must instead guide him to the youngest son, David, who had been overlooked and left in the fields to watch over the family’s sheep.

We see the same thing in John 9:1-41, when Jesus heals a man who had been born blind.

^9:1As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. ²His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

³“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. ⁴As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. ⁵While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

⁶After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. ⁷“Go,” he told him, “Wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So, the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

⁸His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” ⁹Some claimed that he was.

Others said, “No, he only looks like him.”

But he himself insisted, “I am the man.”

¹⁰“How then were your eyes opened?” they asked.

¹¹He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So, I went and washed, and then I could see.”

¹²“Where is this man?” they asked him.

“I don’t know,” he said.

¹³They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. ¹⁴Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. ¹⁵Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.”

¹⁶Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.”

But others asked, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” So, they were divided.

¹⁷Then they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.”

The man replied, “He is a prophet.”

¹⁸They still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents. ¹⁹“Is this your son?” they asked. “Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?”

²⁰“We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind. ²¹But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.” ²²His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. ²³That was why his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”

²⁴A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.”

²⁵He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”

²⁶Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”

²⁷He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?”

²⁸Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! ²⁹We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”

³⁰The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. ³¹We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. ³²Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. ³³If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

³⁴To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.

³⁵Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

³⁶“Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”

³⁷Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”

³⁸Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.

³⁹Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”

⁴⁰Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”

⁴¹Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.

The pharisees could not understand how a man who had been born blind had miraculously received his sight. But, even when he told them how it had happened, they were unable to believe it because their cultural and religious expectations prejudiced them against the very things that their eyes and ears told them were true. Some of them could not believe because Jesus did not keep the sabbath in the way that they expected, and others thought that Jesus was a sinner because he was friendly with tax collectors and prostitutes. In both cases, their expectations blinded them to the truth, and a similar thing happened to the formerly blind man’s parents. When they were questioned by the pharisees, they claimed that they didn’t know how he had been healed because they were afraid of what the pharisees would do to them if they told the truth. For them, fear was the source of their blindness.

Finally, when Jesus once again meets the man that he had healed, he asks the man if he, himself, believes now that he has seen Jesus with his own eyes, and he both believes in, and worships, Jesus. Jesus then declares that the purpose of his coming was to bring judgement upon the world so that the blind would see, and those who see would become blind. But when a few Pharisees heard Jesus say this to the man, they took offense to his words and asked if he meant to say that they were blind as well. Jesus answers that the reason that they are guilty, is because they claim to know everything and therefore allow their arrogance to blind them.

If we consider all these ways in which we can blind ourselves to God’s reality, it seems a little disheartening. But more than that, we again find ourselves wondering what we should do with what we have learned. What is it that God wants? What is it that we, as the followers of Jesus Christ, should be doing? And this is one of the things that Paul explains as he wrote his letter to the church in Ephesus, saying (Ephesians 5:8-14):

⁸For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light ⁹(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth) ¹⁰and find out what pleases the Lord. ¹¹Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. ¹²It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. ¹³But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. ¹⁴This is why it is said:

“Wake up, sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”

Paul says that you were once blind, you were once darkness, but now you are the light because you are a part of God’s family.

Simply put, Paul says, what God wants is for us to have nothing to do with the things that are done by people filled with, and inspired by darkness and blindness. What God wants us to do instead, is to expose these deeds of darkness wherever, and whenever we can because only those things that are exposed by the light can be seen for what they really are.

The American tank crews at 73 Easting were victorious over the Iraqis because the M1A1 Abrams tank outclassed the T-72 Russian tanks driven by the Iraqis. Despite the poor to nonexistent visibility in the desert sandstorm, the Abrams tank crews could see both heat signatures and radar images when the Iraqis could not. Similarly, because we are the followers of Jesus Christ, we walk in God’s light and can see darkness and corruption in the people and in the culture around us that others cannot. But because we follow Jesus, God calls us to avoid the blindness of cultural expectations, the blindness of prejudice, grief, fear, and arrogance and instead, as people who live in the light of God, we must expose these deeds of darkness, wrongdoing, and corruption whenever, and wherever we can because, only those things that are exposed by the light can be seen for what they really are.

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The Blindness of Blame

March 8, 2026 PastorPartridge Sermon accountability, Alliance, blame, blind, blindness, Broadway, Christ, church, Exodus, faith, forgiveness, God, grace, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, Lent, Methodist, Moses, Ohio, Paul, Romans, Rome, Street

The Blindness of Blame

March 08, 2026*

(Third Sunday of Lent)

By Pastor John Partridge

Exodus 17:1-7 John 4:4-42 Romans 5:1-11

Today, I want us to consider the word… accountability.

It is often used in discussions of ministry, particularly when pastors or other ministry leaders have gone down a path upon which they should never have set foot in the first place. In recent years, we have seen the pastors of several megachurches fall into sin or other unseemly activity and often this has been the case when those pastors were held so high on a pedestal that they did not answer to anyone. There was no Staff Parish Relations Committee, no church board of elders, no district superintendent, and no Conference Board of Ministry to establish rules and boundaries. And that lack of accountability resulted in leaders who thought that they could do anything that they wanted to do and get away with it…. Until they couldn’t.

Accountability is sometimes discussed in political conversations and many politicians, at all levels, have similarly found themselves in moral, ethical, or legal trouble because they too thought that they could get away with doing whatever they wanted to do. Some did. Others got caught. But accountability is also an accusation that is thrown about in arguments between generations of Americans such that one accuses the other that “nothing is ever your fault.” And while we can never paint an entire generation with such a broad brush, we do see that attitude displayed quite often by individuals on social media and in the criminal court system.

But accountability is also something that we often find in scripture, though we won’t find it using that name. Instead, we often find failures of accountability, just as we often do today, by looking to see who is being blamed for the situations in question. And, with that in mind, let us look at some familiar stories of scripture beginning with the story of Moses and the people of Israel as they wander in the desert after their successful escape from Egypt in Exodus 17:1-7 where we read this:

^17:1 The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. ²So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”

Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?”

³But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”

⁴Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”

⁵The Lord answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. ⁶I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So, Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. ⁷And he called the place Massah [which means testing] and Meribah [which means quarrelling]because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

As we read this story, it is useful to remember that no one was forced to leave their slavery in Egypt. Every adult, or at least the head of every family, made a conscious choice to follow Moses and leave slavery behind. Everyone knew that Egypt was surrounded by desert wilderness, and they had to know that their journey to freedom might not be swift, simple, or easy. And yet, when the circumstances of their journey get difficult, many of them decide to blame Moses for their trouble, rather than accept responsibility for their own choices. Grumbling against Moses and asking, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt…?” only serves to misdirect and obscure responsibility for their own decision making. Even so, God instructs Moses to strike a rock and then causes water to pour forth to east their thirst. But afterward, Moses names the place “testing and quarrelling” so that no one can ever forget the blame games and finger pointing that happened in that place.

We see something similar in the familiar story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:4-42, but in this case, the blame is used less as a way to point fingers and more to deflect the conversation away from any kind of cultural introspection or personal accountability until Jesus bypasses their deflections and arrives at the heart and substance of their faithful desire.

⁴Now he [Jesus] had to go through Samaria. ⁵So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

⁷When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” ⁸(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

⁹The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

¹⁰Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

¹¹“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹²Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

¹³Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

¹⁵The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

¹⁶He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

¹⁷“I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

¹⁹“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

²¹“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²²You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

²⁵The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

²⁶Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

²⁷Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

²⁸Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ²⁹“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” ³⁰They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

³¹Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”

³²But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

³³Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”

³⁴“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. ³⁵Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. ³⁶Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. ³⁷Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. ³⁸I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

³⁹Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” ⁴⁰So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. ⁴¹And because of his words many more became believers.

⁴²They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

We can write off the first deflection as simple curiosity. When Jesus asks for a drink, the Samaritan woman immediately asks how Jesus can do that since Jews will not share dishes or utensils with Samaritans. But the second deflection is more of a skeptical attack. She asks Jesus if his offer of living water implies that he, a Jew, is greater than the Jacob, the Samaritan and Jewish patriarch who dug the well where they were standing. But then things get personal, when the woman asks for the water that Jesus offers and then recognizes that Jesus is a prophet, she deflects by placing blame on the Jews by mentioning the violent disagreement between Jews and Samaritans regarding which temple is the correct one. The goal, by casting blame, or by opening a divisive discussion of political and religious differences, is an attempt to end the discussion. But Jesus doesn’t take the bait. Instead, Jesus follows a path that allows for discussion.

Take note, however, that as the woman invites the other townspeople to meet Jesus, the testimony that she gives has nothing to do with theology but is entirely personal. When she invites others to Jesus, she doesn’t give a memorized speech about the Romans road, or explain a path to salvation, all she does is tell them what her personal experience was with Jesus. Personal evangelism doesn’t have to be scary. You aren’t required to hand out tracts, or remember a bunch of stuff, you only need to share your story about your experiences with Jesus. Once the Samaritan woman pointed the people of her village to Jesus, her testimony led them to explore for themselves.

Finally, in his letter to the church in Rome, Paul short circuits the blame game and forces each of us to consider our own accountability. As we read Romans 5:1-11, we hear this:

^5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, wehave 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 weboast in the hope of the glory of God. ³Not only so, but wealso 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.

⁹Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! ¹⁰For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! ¹¹Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Much like the Jews and the Samaritans, Paul says that we were not good people. We were once so corrupt that we were enemies with God. But, even when we were enemies, God gave the life of his own son so that we could be forgiven and reconciled to him. And Paul says that it is for that reason that we can boast about God, meaning that we can, and should, tell others the story of Jesus. Because, when we strop pointing fingers and blaming others for our sin, when we are honest with ourselves, and finally hold ourselves accountable for our own actions, we see that our sin was entirely our fault, and God chose to forgive us anyway.

That’s a story that we can share, and a story in which we can brag about God’s goodness, grace, and mercy.

We don’t have to memorize a script, or hand out tracts, or spend hours studying theology, or have the answers to everyone’s questions. But, like the Samaritan woman at the well, we only need to stop pointing fingers, share the story about what Jesus has done in our lives, and invite others to meet him and find out for themselves.

Outside the Rules

March 1, 2026 PastorPartridge Sermon Abraham, Abram, Alliance, breaking rules, Broadway, Christ, church, faith, Genesis, God, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, John Partridge, Lent, Methodist, Ohio, Paul, Romans, rules, Street

Outside the Rules

March 01, 2026*

(Second Sunday of Lent)

By Pastor John Partridge

Genesis 12:1-4a John 3:1-17 Romans 4:1-5, 13-17

One of the accusations that people make against Christianity, or even against religion in general, is that it’s just a list of rules to follow. Sometimes the accusations are specifically that the rules were written by male clergy to perpetuate the existing patriarchal power structures and to enrich the church and the clergy. But while there might have been some truth to some of that at one time, and while there are certainly a few megachurches and televangelists to whom this still applies, there are very few clergy who get rich from serving the local church, and few churches that we would likely label as wealthy. Christ Church has an endowment, but while it may look like a lot, it’s less than many people have saved for retirement and generates just enough income to help offset, but not completely pay for, the maintenance costs of our building. More to the point of today’s message is that much of Christianity exists because Jesus, Jesus’ ministry, and the church that grew up to follow him, broke the accepted rules. But, before we dive too deeply into that, let’s go back to one of the origin stories of our faith, to the calling of Abram, who would become Abraham, the father of the Jews and the people whose descendants would eventually include Jesus and bring about Christianity.

Reading from Genesis 12:1-4a, we hear this:

^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.

The story itself is simple. God called Abram to trust him, to go into the unknown, to travel to an unknown place, for an undefined and undescribed future, that would, eventually, bring blessings to him and to his family. And, despite the unbelievable, and almost unimaginable, level of trust that this required, at the age of seventy-five, Abram walked away from his entire life, completely redefined who he was, and Abram went.

Many things happen between the time of Abraham and the time of Jesus, but it is a story with which you are familiar. After the time of Abraham, the people of Israel lived as slaves in the land of Egypt and were rescued from their slavery by the power of God working through the leadership of Moses. After leaving Egypt and escaping across the Red Sea from the pursuing Egyptian army, God gave Israel the Law and the Commandments as guides to their worship and to knowing what their God expected of them. But, by the time of Jesus, the worship of God had become so academically over-studied and so extensively over-interpreted, that it became increasingly rigid and less of what God intended for it to be. And it is in that environment that Jesus has a discussion with Nicodemus, a man who had dedicated his life to following the rules and doing the things that they believed that God wanted. We hear that story in John 3:1-17, which says:

^3:1 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. (Note: This is the Sanhedrin, seventy-one members who ruled over Israel) ²He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

³Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

⁴“How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

⁵Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. ⁶Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spiritgives birth to spirit. ⁷You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘Youmust be born again.’ ⁸The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So, it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

⁹“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

¹⁰“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? ¹¹Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still, you people do not accept our testimony. ¹²I have spoken to you of earthly things, and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? ¹³No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. ¹⁴Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

¹⁶For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Nicodemus, unlike some other Pharisees and leaders in Israel, openly accepts that Jesus is a teacher that has been sent by God. This seems obvious because of the miracles and other signs that Jesus performed. But he did not understand when Jesus said that no one could enter the kingdom of God without being born of the spirit. And, while Jesus criticizes church leadership for their failure to understand, he patiently explains to Nicodemus that anyone who wants to go to heaven must follow someone who knows how to get there and, since Jesus is the only person that has already been there, it would be wise to follow him. Anyone who believes in Jesus will have eternal life and live with him in God’s house. But Jesus also makes and important proclamation that is often ignored but is important for us to remember. Jesus says that “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” And, if we make the logical conclusion that we should follow his example, we must therefore understand that our job is not to condemn sinners for sinning, but instead to point them toward Jesus so that they can find the rescue that we have already found.

But why is this conversation, and what it represents, so disruptive to the concept of following the rules? And why does Jesus, and the people that follow him, deviate so strongly from the rules that everyone thought that they knew about following God? Paul answers this question in his letter to the church in Rome, and in Romans 4:1-5, 13-17 we hear this explanation:

^4:1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? ²If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. ³What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

⁴Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. ⁵However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.

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.

Paul explains that Abraham was a faithful follower of God long before the rules were written, long before Moses was born, or generations of priests, scholars, and theologians studied and interpreted the Law, Commandments, and the words of the prophets. No one could ever say that Abraham wasn’t suitably Jewish, or that he couldn’t rest with God, but Abraham didn’t follow the rules that the Pharisees and the leaders of Israel thought were so important. Instead, Paul says, following God isn’t an act of labor in which we work to earn points with God or to, in some other way, earn our way to righteousness by following the rules.

Instead, like Abraham, it is our faith in God, and in Jesus, for which righteousness is credited to us. Yes, Paul says, the Law is important because it tells us about the character of God and the ways in which God wants us to behave, but it is not the law that saves us. In fact, Paul points out, the reason that Abraham would become the father of many nations as God promised, and not just the father of Israel, is that other, non-Jewish, nations can follow the faith of Abraham even if they aren’t descended from anyone in his family. We worship the God of creation and the God that has brought the dead back to life, and anyone can choose to follow God, and his son Jesus Christ. Anyone can put their faith in Jesus, just as Abraham put his faith in God, be credited with the righteousness of God, be accepted into God’s family, and find a place in God’s heavenly home.

Despite begin accused of being agenda driven rule followers, the rules never have been, and never will be, a path that allows us to work our way into the good graces of God. The only path to God is to follow in the footsteps of Abraham, trust God, and put our faith in Jesus.

The rules have their place, but they will never save a single person.

The only thing that can save us from ourselves… is faith in Jesus.

And that’s a lot easier to explain to our friends than a list of rules.

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Three Thousand Years of Call

January 18, 2026January 18, 2026 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Broadway, Broadway Street, call, Cephas, Christ, church, faith, God, Isaiah, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, John Partridge, John the Baptist, Methodist, Ohio, Paul, Street

Three Thousand Years of Call

January 18, 2026*

By Pastor John Partridge

Isaiah 49:1-7 John 1:29-42 1 Corinthians 1:1-9

If you’ve looked at the title of today’s message, you will have noticed that I used the world “call.” We do that a lot in church. We talk about the “call” of God, or being “called” to ministry, or even being “called” to a secular vocation of one type or another. But what does that mean? Most of us who have been in the church for any length of time probably have a feel for what we mean by a call, or a calling, even if we might have trouble writing down a dictionary style definition. At least a part of our problem grows out of us being users of the English language, which is grammatically bizarre, and while it is sometimes scientifically precise, in other cases, like this one, it leaves us with more than a dozen different dictionary definitions, and common usages, for the same word.

I could say that I called someone, and it could mean that I dialed them, messaged them, or spoke loudly so that they could hear me. I could say that I called my dog, Natasha, and it could mean that I wanted her to come to me, or that I was telling you that Natasha was the name that she had been given. If I said that I had called on one of our shut-ins, I might have used the telephone, or it might mean that I had visited them. If we saw that the weather was terrible on Sunday morning, to say that we had called, or called off, the service means that we had cancelled it. To call for an investigation is to demand one, and to call in a card game communicates a similar sort of demand. To call a meeting is an invitation, calling a strike is more of an order, but to call the stock market is to make a prediction. If we say, “I would call it an even dollar,” describes an estimate, the quarterback’s call in a football huddle is a selection, and a military call to active duty is a summons. And if that isn’t enough, most of these have several variations as well.

Are you confused yet?

So, what do we mean when we say things like “the call of God”?

As we consider that, let us begin by reading a bit about God’s call of his prophet Isaiah and his prophecy of God concerning Israel’s coming messiah almost three thousand years ago in Isaiah 49:1-7, where it says:

^49:1 Listen to me, you islands;
    hear this, you distant nations:
Before I was born the Lord called me;
    from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name.
²He made my mouth like a sharpened sword,
    in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me into a polished arrow
    and concealed me in his quiver.
³He said to me, “You are my servant,
    Israel, in whom I will display my splendor.”
⁴But I said, “I have labored in vain;
    I have spent my strength for nothing at all.
Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand,
    and my reward is with my God.”

⁵And now the Lord says—
    he who formed me in the womb to be his servant
to bring Jacob back to him
    and gather Israel to himself,
for I amhonored in the eyes of the Lord
    and my God has been my strength—
⁶he says:
“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant
    to restore the tribes of Jacob
    and bring back those of Israel I have kept.
I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,
    that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”

⁷This is what the Lord says—
    the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel—
to him who was despised and abhorred by the nation,
    to the servant of rulers:
“Kings will see you and stand up,
    princes will see and bow down,
because of the Lord, who is faithful,
    the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”

Isaiah says that God had called him, which we understand as having placed a call upon his life, even before he had been born. In calling Isaiah, God gave him the ability to speak powerfully and equipped him to represent God’s kingdom. But things didn’t always go well, and sometimes Isaiah felt as if his work and his labor was all for nothing, but he was content in knowing that the reward for his faithfulness was in God’s hands. But at the end of this passage, God says that having received the call from God, meant that God had chosen Isaiah. The call of God wasn’t and isn’t random. God knows everything that there is to know about his creation and so God’s call upon our lives is thoughtful, deliberate, and individually tailored to who we are and who we will become.

We get some additional insight into the call of God from the stories of John the Baptist, Jesus, and the Apostle Peter. We hear that story as John introduces his own followers to Jesus in John 1:29-42:

²⁹The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! ³⁰This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ ³¹I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”

³²Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. ³³And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ ³⁴I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”

³⁵The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. ³⁶When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”

³⁷When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. ³⁸Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”

They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”

³⁹“Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”

So, they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.

⁴⁰Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. ⁴¹The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). ⁴²And he brought him to Jesus.

Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).

There are several things going on here as it relates to the call of God. First, because the mission to which John was called is ending, when he sees Jesus, he points to him and announces to his disciples, and anyone else nearby, that Jesus is the one that he had been sent to announce. Further, he goes beyond his calling and testifies that he had personally seen the Spirit of God come down from heaven and that it was Jesus who would baptize others with the Holy Spirit. This act connects John’s followers to Jesus and passes their calling from following John to following Jesus. Two of John’s disciples were the brothers, Andrew, and Simon, and when Jesus met Simon, he declared that Simon would be called Cephas, or in English, Peter. In this case, the phrase, “you will be called” is a naming, and not a call of God. However, anyone reading the story would know that God had already placed a call, or a summons, on Peter’s life and that call had just passed from following John to following Jesus, so, at least two dictionary meanings are in play.

Isn’t English great?

And so finally we hear from the Apostle Paul to speaks, not only of his own call, but of the call that God has upon every follower of Jesus, including you and me. We read these words in 1 Corinthians 1:1-9:

^1:1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,

²To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:

³Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁴I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. ⁵For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge— ⁶God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. ⁷Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. ⁸He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Paul says that God called him to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and we know that Paul’s conversion story and subsequent call by God, also with a name change, on the road to Damascus was particularly dramatic. But Paul goes on to tell the people of the church in Corinth something about their own call. Paul says that the people of the church were called to be God’s holy people, together with those everywhere who follow Jesus. Paul goes on to say that because God has called them, that they have been enriched with all kinds of speech and knowledge as a means of confirming what they had been taught. Further, the people of the church have been, as a group, been given all the spiritual gifts as they wait for the second coming of Jesus so that they can stand firm in their faith. Paul then repeats his message that the people of the church in Corinth, and thus every follower of Jesus Christ, has been called into fellowship together with one another and with Jesus Christ.

So, let’s review what we have seen this morning about the call of God.

First, God had known everything about us since before we were born, and as such, God’s call is not generic or random but rather, thoughtful, deliberate, and individually tailored to who we are and who we will become. Second, being called by God means that God has specifically chosen you to be a part of his kingdom work in the world in which you live, and among the people that you know, encounter, and interact with every day and he has equipped you to do that work. Third, just a Simon Peter was called to follow John, and then Jesus, the calling that you have today may change. Just as the person you were ten years ago may not be the person you are today, and the skills with which you are equipped, the place that you live, and the people that you know might be different than they once were, what God calls you to do may be different as well. Fourth, you are not alone. Just as Isaiah, John the Baptist, and the Apostle Paul were called, so has everyone, everywhere, who has put their faith in Jesus Christ, though each call is as individual and unique as the life of the person involved. Fifth, because of God’s call, your life had been enriched in every way with all kinds of speech and knowledge, and that enrichment confirms the teaching that you have received from your parents, pastors, and Sunday school teachers. Sixth, along with your calling, God has given each of us spiritual gifts that he intends for us to use as we wait for the return of Jesus Christ. And finally, God has not called you to be alone. This is different from when I said that you are not alone in being called, but that God has not called you to work, or to live, or to live out your calling, alone. God is faithful and not only calls us to do his kingdom work, but he also calls us into community and into fellowship with one another and with Jesus Christ.

And so while our understanding of God’s call overlaps several dictionary definitions, and while the English language doesn’t do us any favors, I hope that our scriptures and our time together today will help us to better understand what we mean when we say that each of us are “called” by God.

And remember, every one of us has work to do, and the work to which we are called is as unique as we are, but none of us are ever called to do that work alone.

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Promise Fulfilled… and Expanded

December 21, 2025 PastorPartridge Sermon Advent, Ahaz, Bible, christianity, Christmas, corrupt, evil, expand, expanded, faith, fulfill, God, grace, Isaiah, Jesus, John, John Partridge, Matthew, mercy, mission, promise, prophecy, prophet, Revelation, Rome

Promise Fulfilled… and Expanded

(Fourth Sunday of Advent)

December 21, 2025*

By Pastor John Partridge

Isaiah 7:10-16 Romans 1:1-7 Matthew 1:18-25

Today we celebrate the fourth Sunday in Advent, the Sunday that we remember Love. In previous weeks we have often spoken of God’s message of hope and the faithfulness of God demonstrated to us by the way in which he keeps his promises. But as we read the scriptures for today, what we discover is that God has not only fulfilled his promises to his people, but that his love is so amazing that he expanded and extended that fulfillment in a way that his people, and the world, never expected. We begin this morning by reading the promise of God given through his prophet Isaiah both to the people of God in the time of King Ahaz, eight hundred years before the birth of Jesus, and to future generations and beyond. Reading from Isaiah 7:10-16, we hear this:

¹⁰Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, ¹¹“Ask the Lord your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.”

¹²But Ahaz said, “I will not ask; I will not put the Lord to the test.”

¹³Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also? ¹⁴Therefore the Lord himself will give youa sign: The virginwill conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. ¹⁵He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, ¹⁶for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.

God’s promise to King Ahaz wasn’t just a future promise of a messiah eight hundred years in his future, but may have been fulfilled in the normal pregnancy of Isaiah’s daughter. It was a short enough time that, although at least eight or nine months in the future, Ahaz could find comfort in knowing that it would not be long before the threat of the two kings he feared would end. But that promise was always understood to be something more than just a baby that would be born in a year or so. God’s people read this and had long understood that it was about something more, about a rescuer that would come long after the time of Isaiah and King Ahaz, but about a messiah that would rescue Israel and its people forever.

And it is this understanding that that anchors the words of the apostle Matthew as he tells the story of Jesus’ birth in Matthew 1:18-25:

¹⁸This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹Because Joseph her husband, was faithful to the law, and yetdid not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

²⁰But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

²²All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ²³“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

²⁴When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. ²⁵But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

By connecting his description of Mary’s pregnancy with the prophecy of Isaiah, Matthew declares to the world that the prophecy that had long been believed to be about Israel’s promised messiah had finally been fulfilled in a more permanent way than it had been in the time of King Ahaz. Matthew’s declaration is that the time had come for God to rescue Israel and his people forever. It is for that reason, Matthew declares, that the rest of his story, what we now know as the gospel message of the book of Matthew, is something that was of the utmost importance.

But even that doesn’t go far enough. As we read Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, we hear him point to the ancient messianic prophecies of the prophets and their fulfillment in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but then we also hear him declare the great expansion of God’s grace. In Romans 1:1-7, we hear this:

^1:1Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— ²the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures ³regarding his Son, who as to his earthly lifewas a descendant of David, ⁴and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in powerby his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. ⁵Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes fromfaith for his name’s sake. ⁶And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

⁷To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul begins by reminding everyone that the gospel, the story of the Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection, was a story that had been promised throughout the ages by God’s prophets. But Paul goes on to say that through Jesus, God has expanded on the message of the prophets and opened the doors of his grace and apostleship to all of the people that weren’t Jewish, to all of the Gentiles, so that all the people in all the world might come to obedience and faith in Jesus. Paul then reminds the people reading that letter, the people of the church in Rome, that they are among the Gentiles that are called to belong to Jesus, but then the big shoe drops. Paul then says that everyone in Rome is loved by God and is called to join his holy people.

And that’s a big deal.

In Christian circles, because of its power, its politics, its corruption, its polytheistic religions, its historic hostility towards Israel and the Jewish people, and the lingering cultural hatred ingrained Rome’s treatment of Jesus and the entirety of the Jewish people, Rome was often described as evil and cast as the bad guy. In Revelation 17:5, John goes as far as to describe Rome as “Babylon the great mother of prostitutes and of the abominations of the earth.” But Paul flips the script and reminds the people of the church that despite the things that Rome and its people have done, God still loves every one of them and calls them to join his family.

For thousands of years, the prophets of Israel told the people about God’s promises of a coming messiah.

And, with the coming of Jesus, his birth, life, death, and resurrection, God gave flesh to the words of the prophets and fulfilled his promises to his people. But God’s love was bigger than what could be contained in the words of his prophets and the coming of Jesus expanded on God’s grace and mercy, and invited the entire world to become the people, and the apostles of Israel’s God. Even those who God’s people often had thought of as being the most evil and corrupt were told that God loved them and was calling them to become his holy people.

As we celebrate Christmas this week, we are reminded that, like the people of Rome, we are among the Gentiles that are being called to belong to Jesus. And, like the people of Rome, there is no one on the face of the earth, that is so evil, or so corrupt, or so wrong in their present religion or beliefs, that God doesn’t love them.

As he has since the time of Jesus, God is calling the people of the entire world, with no exclusions, to become beloved and holy members of his family… if they will only hear his call and come to obedience and faith in his son Jesus Christ.

There are people that you know that desperately need to hear this.

Let’s make every effort to tell them.

Because that is the mission to which God has called us.

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Promise, Proof, Patience

December 14, 2025 PastorPartridge Sermon Advent, Alliance, Baptist, Beethoven, Broadway, Christ, Christmas, church, faith, faithful, fulfill, God, Isaiah, James, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, joy, Methodist, Ohio, promise, prophecy

Promise, Proof, Patience

(Third Sunday of Advent)

December 14, 2025*

By Pastor John Partridge

Isaiah 35:1-10 James 5:7-10 Matthew 11:2-11

At the end of last week’s service, we remembered that there is more to the meaning of peace than the absence of war. It is, instead, a place of comfort and an absence of stress and conflict such that we can have peace even in the midst of war. But this week, as we celebrate the third Sunday of Advent, we celebrate joy. But again, what is joy? We talk a lot about joy, especially during the Advent and Christmas seasons, and a great many works of art and music reference or speak openly of joy. Ludwig van Beethoven wrote the Ode to Joy in which he describes joy as a beautiful spark of divinity and a daughter of Elysium, the hymn, Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee, which is also known as the Hymn of Joy, says that all the works of God surround him with joy. All of these teach that joy comes from the power that God has demonstrated, the character of who God is, the love that God has shown to his creation, and the faithfulness that God has demonstrated in keeping his promises. Much of what we read and remember during the seasons of Advent and Christmas focus on that, on the fulfillment of God’s promises to his people. And that is what we see in our scriptures as we begin this morning by reading the promises of God given to his people through the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 35:1-10 where we hear these words:

^35:1 The desert and the parched land will be glad;
    the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.
Like the crocus, ²it will burst into bloom;
    it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,
    the splendor of Carmel and Sharon;
they will see the glory of the Lord,
    the splendor of our God.

³Strengthen the feeble hands,
    steady the knees that give way;
⁴say to those with fearful hearts,
    “Be strong, do not fear;
your God will come,
    he will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution
    he will come to save you.”

⁵Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
    and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
⁶Then will the lame leap like a deer,
    and the mute tongue shout for joy.
Water will gush forth in the wilderness
    and streams in the desert.
⁷The burning sand will become a pool,
    the thirsty ground bubbling springs.
In the haunts where jackals once lay,
    grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.

⁸And a highway will be there;
    it will be called the Way of Holiness;
    it will be for those who walk on that Way.
The unclean will not journey on it;
    wicked fools will not go about on it.
⁹No lion will be there,
    nor any ravenous beast;
    they will not be found there.
But only the redeemed will walk there,
¹⁰    and those the Lord has rescued will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
    everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
    and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

God says that the desert will bloom, Israel will become as green and as verdant as the nation of Lebanon which supplied much of the ancient world with the massive cedar timbers that were used to build temples and other important buildings. He says that the eyes of the blind would be opened, the deaf would hear, the lame would be healed, the mute would speak, and Israel would become a place of safety and holiness. And it is precisely those promises that we hear Jesus lift up when John the Baptist began to have doubts and sent his disciples to ask if Jesus is really the Messiah that God had promised. We find that story in the words of Matthew in Matthew 11:2-11 when he says:

²When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples ³to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”

⁴Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: ⁵The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosyare cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. ⁶Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”

⁷As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind? ⁸If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings’ palaces. ⁹Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. ¹⁰This is the one about whom it is written:

“‘I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way before you.’

¹¹Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

When John asks if Jesus is the Messiah that God had promised, Jesus points back to the words of Isaiah and simply says, “Go back and report… what you hear and see.” The blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the incurable is cured, the dead are raised, and the good news of God even reaches the poor. After John’s disciples leave to give him the message, Jesus goes on to say that the mission of John the Baptist had been exactly what the prophet Malachi had foretold, to prepare the way for the arrival of the Messiah.

“‘I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way before you.’ (Malachi 3:1)

Jesus says that if there is any doubt that he is the Messiah, then just look at the proof the everyone could see with their own eyes. Jesus was doing the things that God’s prophets had predicted hundreds of years earlier. But not all of them. Some of the things that God promised through Isaiah did not come to pass in the time of Jesus and have not yet happened in our own time. This was understood in the first century as much as it is today. Israel had not yet achieved the greatness that Isaiah described, the desert has not yet been transformed, and Jerusalem is not yet a place of safety and holiness. But as God’s people considered these things, the Apostle James encouraged them by saying that just because it had not happened yet, didn’t mean that it wasn’t going to happen. In James 5:7-10 he said:

⁷Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. ⁸You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. ⁹Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!

¹⁰Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

James, and the people of the first century understood that while Jesus had not fulfilled all of God’s promises during his time on earth, that he had fulfilled enough to prove that he was the Messiah and would fulfill the remaining promises upon his return. Until then, James said, be patient. Just as farmers must be patient as they wait for a crop that they have planted, we must have faith in the process and wait. We must be patient and stand firm in our faith and trust in God’s character. And as we wait, we must treat each other well and not grumble and complain about what other siblings in Christ are doing or how they do it. James understood the truth that many of those in the church in the first century, and in the twenty-first century, did not have a great life. Many of those who believed in Jesus Christ had endured suffering and few of us can escape suffering as we live our lives upon the earth. As such, James points to the prophets themselves, nearly all of whom suffered even after answering the call to speak for God. But even in their suffering, they were patient because they knew that God would be victorious over evil and they trusted their lives, their futures, their descendants, and their eternity in God’s hands.

The message of joy that we hear during the season of Advent is that our God is faithful and always keeps his promises. He has proven his faithfulness in the life, death, and resurrection of his son, Jesus, and we are called to be patient as we endure the suffering and struggle of our lives on earth until the return of Jesus Christ, and his final victory over sin and death.

In the stories of scripture, and in the stories of Christmas, we have seen the evidence of God’s faithfulness…

…and we are filled with joy.

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The Danger of ‘No’

August 24, 2025 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Bible, blessings, Broadway, Christ, christianity, church, consequenses, danger, faith, God, Hebrews, Jeremiah, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, John Partridge, Luke, Methodist, no, obedience, Ohio, Saying no, worship

The Danger of “No”

August 24, 2025*

By Pastor John Partridge

Jeremiah 1:4-10 Luke 13:10-17 Hebrews 12:18-29

How familiar are you with the word… ‘No?’

I mean, certainly we all know it and use it. Some of us are better at using it while others of us say ‘yes’ more often than we should. But other than that, there are different kinds, or different levels of saying no. The repeated refrain that we hear in public, and that we teach our young people, is that “No means no.” That healthy and respectful relationships require both parties to consent. The concept of “No means no” applies not only to romantic relationships, but also to group dynamics such that peer pressure should not unduly compel individual members of a group to do things that they are not comfortable doing.

In these situations, saying no, and hearing and accepting no, are important. But there are other situations where no is not as meaningful, and where saying no can cause problems. If your boss gives you an assignment, saying no may not mean anything at all. Your boss may simply ignore your refusal and assume that the task will be done regardless and, if it is not, then you can expect that there will be consequences. In the military, there are obvious situations where ‘no’ is simply not an acceptable answer. In my own career, in which the bishop appoints itinerant pastors to move where and when they say, the unwritten rule of thumb is that you can say no… once… in your career, and even then, saying no to the bishop may have significant career implications.

But what happens when we say no to God?

Sometimes, it may not seem as if there are any consequences at all. We say no to God and stay home from worship, we don’t read scripture, we live in ways in which we know God would not approve, and we do our best to ignore the call that he has on our lives to do his work in our community and in the people around us. But the operative word here is “sometimes.” Scripture is filled with warnings about the potential consequences of ignoring God or saying ‘no’ too often. Some of those warnings tell us that God will withhold his blessings, others that God may punish you, but often it is that God will simply allow you to suffer the natural consequences of your actions, or in today’s language, God will allow what goes around, to come around.

In any case, today we will look at three case studies from scripture and we will begin in Jeremiah 1:4-10, where we hear God call Jeremiah, possibly only twelve years old, to speak for him as his prophet, we hear Jeremiah attempt to say ‘no,’ and finally we hear God command Jeremiah’s obedience anyway. Jeremiah begins by saying:

⁴The word of the Lord came to me, saying,

⁵“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born, I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

⁶“Alas, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.”

⁷But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. ⁸Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord.

⁹Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I have put my words in your mouth. ¹⁰See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”

God tells Jeremiah that even before he was born, God had a purpose and mission for his life. Despite that, Jeremiah makes excuses, saying that he is too young to do anything useful for God, but God isn’t buying it. Rather than even consider Jeremiah’s objections, God simply reaches out and equips Jeremiah with the things that he needs to get the job done.

And then in Luke 13:10-17, we hear the synagogue leaders say ‘no’ to Jesus because, in their mind, Jesus isn’t following the rules correctly.

¹⁰On a Sabbath, Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, ¹¹and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. ¹²When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” ¹³Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.

¹⁴Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”

¹⁵The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? ¹⁶Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”

¹⁷When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.

Just to be clear, Jesus was teaching, on a sabbath day, in church, and paused to heal a woman who had been crippled for eighteen years. Rather than be excited that they had witnessed a miracle, or simply happy that the woman had received healing after a lifetime of pain, the synagogue leaders get upset because, somewhere along the line, someone decided that healing is work. As such, since faithful people were taught to refrain from working on the sabbath, Jesus should have waited until the following day, and made this woman wait yet another day, before healing her. But Jesus isn’t buying it. Jesus reminds them that even his accusers feed and water their animals on the sabbath because, clearly, decency and kindness shouldn’t be restrained by deciding that they are work. The leaders of the synagogue said ‘no’ to God and defended their refusal in language that sounded both religious and traditional.

Our final case study is found in the book of Hebrews, current scholarship believes that this was written by Barnabus or Apollos, and reminds the people of the church that we have good reason not to say no. We hear these words in Hebrews 12:18-29:

¹⁸You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; ¹⁹to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, ²⁰because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.” ²¹The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”

²²But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, ²³to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, ²⁴to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

²⁵See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? ²⁶At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” ²⁷The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.

²⁸Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, ²⁹for our “God is a consuming fire.”

First, we are reminded that we do not live in the time of Moses when God lived on the top of a mountain and everyone was terrified of his presence. Instead, because we have chosen to follow Jesus, instead of coming to the foot of a scary mountain, we present ourselves to God in the new heavenly city of Jerusalem. There, we come to God where Jesus stands as our mediator and speaks on our behalf. Because of that, we should not refuse the commands of God and say ‘no.’ The writer then reminds us of how it often did not end well for those persons in scripture who had said no to God. And so, since we are receiving the kingdom of God, we should be thankful and worship him with reverence and awe because our God consumes those who refuse him, but we are consumed with passion for his kingdom.

There is danger in saying ‘no’ to God.

Jeremiah said ‘no’ and God equipped him for his mission and ministry and sent him out anyway.

The leaders of the synagogue said ‘no’ to God and made up a bunch of traditional and religious sounding reasons why, but Jesus called then out on their hypocrisy and explained that God doesn’t place limits on kindness, decency, and compassion.

And the writer of Hebrews reminds us that it often didn’t end well for those in scripture that said ‘no’ to God. If we don’t want to be consumed by God, we should worship him with reverence and awe, be consumed with a passion for his kingdom, and say ‘yes’ to his calling, his vision, and his mission as he sends us out into the world.

Saying ‘no’ to God is a dangerous thing.

Let us do our best to say ‘yes’ instead.

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