Sunday, January 25, 2026

Sermon Series: “Who is Jesus?”

Scripture: Matthew 7:24-29

Sermon Title: “Jesus: The Teacher”

A few weeks ago, we celebrated Epiphany, when the Magi or wisemen came to visit Jesus. But you might be surprised to know that Epiphany in the church isn’t just one day, it’s actually a season in the church. We are still in this Season of Epiphany, which will end when Lent begins. Our Wednesday Morning Women’s Bible Study is studying a book for this season called “Everyday Epiphanies: Meeting Christ in the Ordinary Moments of Life.”

In the introduction to “Everyday Epiphanies,” Jim Harnish quotes historian and author Diana Butler Bass. He writes, “Bass awarded Epiphany the dubious honor of being ‘the most undervalued’ season of the Christian Year. It is often nothing more than the vacant space to catch our breath between the joyful celebration of Christmas and the somber days of Ash Wednesday and Lent.” (Everyday Epiphanies, Jim Harnish)

I think I’d have to agree with Epiphany being the most undervalued season of the Christian Year. Most of us know what the Season of Advent is. Its all about hope and expectancy, preparing ourselves for the birth of Christ. Most of us know what Lent is, it’s the season of preparation for Easter, often marked with confession, repentance, giving things up, or taking new spiritual practices on. But the season of Epiphany? We tend to forget about that season.  

It’s the in between time between Christmas and Lent.

If you have a busy schedule, you might feel like you’re often on the go, going from appointment to appointment. If you’re working, maybe it’s from one work meeting to another. If you’re retired, maybe it’s one doctor appointment to another. If you’re involved in the church, maybe you feel like you’re going from one church committee meeting to another. Or maybe you find yourself running from one child or grandchild event to another.

 As a pastor especially, I can have days where I go from one thing to the next. One recent Wednesday I went to a PTA meeting at Tomoka Elementary, then Women’s Bible Study, then Women’s Clergy Lunch, then picked Ellie up from her after school program to then drop her off for Wizard of Oz Rehearsal, then went to Disciple Bible Study. It was a busy day.

Sometimes when we’re just going from one thing to the next, we don’t have time to catch our breath. But it’s in the in between moments, between activities, events, appointments, that we have time to sit in the silence and hear from God. Maybe even experience a realization or epiphany from God.

So, my hope for all of us, is that during this season of Epiphany, this season that often feels like an in between time between Christmas and Lent, that we would have an encounter with God even in the ordinary. That God would be revealed to us in unexpected, new and fresh ways.

For the rest of this season of Epiphany, we’re going to be in a series titled “Who is Jesus?”

We’ll be looking at different characteristics or titles for Jesus. There are certainly more than just these 4, but we’ll be looking at these 4. We’ll be looking at Jesus: The Teacher, Jesus: The Healer, Jesus: The Shepherd, and Jesus: The Shepherd. It is my hope that this titles for Jesus will help us to have our own epiphanies and realizations about who Jesus was and is.

When you look back on your life, do you have a favorite teacher? Maybe it was when you were younger, when you were in elementary school. Or maybe it was when you were older in high school. Maybe it was even a college or grad school professor. Are you picturing that teacher in your mind?

What was it about that teacher that made that person a great teacher? Did they make you understand things in a new way? Did they help you to love learning? Were they funny or kind?

When I look over my life, two teachers come to mind, my first-grade teacher and my high school English Teacher. My first-grade teacher was Miss Johnson, and I think everyone I knew who had her as a first-grade teacher agrees with me. She was simply the best first-grade teacher. She was beloved. She was kind, she made students have a love of learning. And even years later she always stayed in contact with “her kids.” I’m even Facebook Friends with her.

When I look at high school, learning is different than in elementary school. But my favorite teacher was probably Mrs. Jordan-Squire who I had for AP English. I’ve always had a love of reading, and I feel like she continued to foster in me a love of good books. She was funny as well. Teenagers connect with that. And to this day, every week when I’m writing a sermon, I feel like I’m using the skills I learned in her class from AP English twenty years ago.

A good teacher is kind, compassionate, funny, helps you to connect with the material, helps you to understand and love the material you’re learning. A good teacher is memorable.

Jesus was often referred to in scripture as Teacher. He was called “Rabbi,” which means teacher. Many people around the world who aren’t Christ followers will refer to Jesus as a great teacher. They believe he had good things to teach us, but that was it. We believe more than that, as we’ll see when we get to the end of our series. But we also do believe Jesus was and is a great teacher, and his lessons have a lot to teach us as well.

Jesus was most famous for speaking and teaching in parables. Most Biblical Scholars would say there are between 30 and 40 parables in the scriptures. Jesus also gave his most famous sermon which we refer to as The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapters 5-7. Our scripture for today comes right at the end of that chapter. I mentioned in the newsletter, but if you didn’t happen to see it, I would encourage you to go and read the entire Sermon on the Mount. I promise its not too long, just 3 chapters of the Gospel of Matthew.

It is in this famous sermon or teaching that we get the Beatitudes, you know the part that says, “Blessed are those… for they will.” We also get the Lord’s Prayer in this sermon. We get some other lessons. We’re told to be the Salt and Light of the Earth, to love our enemies, give to the needy, not store up treasures in heaven, not to worry, not to judge, ask, seek, and knock. There truly are a lot of lessons crammed into these 3 chapters.

And then Jesus finishes with a parable or a story. Why? Because good teachers, good preachers know that people remember stories.

That’s our scripture for today. About building our house on the rock or on sand. It’s actually a pretty popular Sunday School lesson for kids, and I believe there’s a kid’s song about it as well.

Jesus says, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” (Matthew 7:24)

I think we hear this parable, this story and don’t put it in its context. This comes at the end of Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount. So, Jesus is telling us to put all of his words he has just explained for 3 chapters, put them into practice. And if we do, our life will be like the builder who built his life on the rock.

We live in Florida, so I think we more so can relate to people building their homes on sand. We have experienced hurricanes that have swept away homes. If you live up in Ormond By the Sea, you know they have worked hard on making a sea wall. We lived up there for 3 years before moving here, so we saw the equipment working, my girls loved seeing the construction work.

And so for us who have lived through hurricanes, or even if our neighborhood wasn’t affected by the storms, we have seen pictures on tv, we have seen roads flooded and washed out,  these words of Jesus might have even more impact, “But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.” (Matthew 7:26)

We can see why Jesus was remembered as a good teacher. This image sticks with you doesn’t it. The person who builds their home on the rock, that home weathers the storm. The person who builds their home on sand; their home is destroyed.

Jesus is telling us the wise thing to do is build our life on the teachings of Jesus, specifically the Sermon on the Mount. And yet, if we truly look at the Sermon on the Mount, the words at first glance might seem unwise.

Words in the beatitudes like “Blessed are the poor in spirit, Blessed are those who mourn, Blessed are the meek, Blessed are the peacemakers,” at first glance doesn’t sound the wisest. But if you spend time reading the words and lessons of Jesus, we will realize that often the way of Jesus is upside down from the way of the world.

Poor, meek, peacemakers do not sound like the way of the world. But it’s the way of Jesus.

Going on further in the Sermon Jesus tells us, “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’  But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.” (Matthew 5:21-22, NIV)

Again, these are hard words of Jesus. Jesus isn’t just telling us not to murder. He is telling us not to murder in our heart. He is telling us not to be angry with a brother or sister. For Jesus, its all about the heart.

It’s in this same sermon that Jesus tells us to “turn the other cheek,” and to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

These are just a few of the good, tough, convicting words of Jesus. And so I encourage you today, go home, read the entire Sermon on the Mount.

And then after reading, keep in mind this parable, story or image of Jesus.

If we put these words of Jesus into practice, we will be like the builder who built our home on the rock. If we don’t put these words of Jesus into practice, we will be like the builder who built our home on sand.

And the truth is, the world will tell us that the things of this world, things like power, pride, hate, you name it, are the rock that brings stability. But Jesus tells us the truth. It is love, humility, servanthood, grace, and mercy that is the rock on which we are to build our lives. That is what we are to build our lives on.

And we must choose. Will we build our life on the rock, the truth of Jesus? Even when the truths of Jesus seem contradictory to the ways of the world? Or will we build our life on the sand, the ways of the world?

Since our scripture is from the Gospel of Matthew, I was reading a little bit about Matthew’s Gospel this week. And one of the things I read this week shared how Matthew begins his point of his Gospel with the Story of Joseph.

Remember we heard Joseph’s Story back in Advent. Remember Joseph is engaged to marry Mary and finds out that Mary is pregnant. Joseph was righteous, and yet he doesn’t know what to do. He wants to honor the Torah; he wants to be faithful to the commandments and divorce Mary quietly. And then an angel shows up in a dream. And Joseph has a choice to make. Will he be faithful to the law? Or faithful to the messenger of God?

Thomas Long writes this about Matthew’s Gospel, “Matthew wants his readers, his congregation to become like Joseph.” (Long, Proclaiming the Parables)

Long explains, “First, they are to be righteous people, steeped in the traditions of Israel, whose laws are obedient to the law of God.” (Long, Proclaiming the Parables)

But there is another way Matthew wants his readers to be like Joseph. He wants them “to be open to serving a God who does not always right in straight lines, a God who fulfills the promises of the law and the prophets in new and unexpected ways, a God who is even now breaking forth before our eyes, a God who speaks not only in holy writ but also in the whispers of angels in the middle of the night.” (Long, Proclaiming the Parables)

Thankfully, after the angel showed up, Joseph chose to be open to this new thing God was doing. And we see in the words in Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is instructing us in new ways of doing things. There’s a section in Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount where he says a few different times, “You have heard this… but I tell you this…” Jesus is challenging what they have always thought. Will we be open to these new things Jesus wants to tell us?

This Epiphany Season, how might God want to show up in your life, in the life of our church in new and unexpected ways? How might God want to challenge your old ways of thinking? Will we be open to these epiphanies of God? Will we be open to what God wants to do in our midst?

I’ll leave you with a famous quote attributed to Ghandi. Some argue whether he actually said this or not. But either way, I think it’s a convicting quote for us as followers of Jesus Christ. “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

Ouch, that’s tough to hear, isn’t it?

One of the biggest obstacles for others becoming Christians is that many of us claim to be Christians, but don’t embody the teachings of Jesus. Now I’ll be the first to admit, I’m not perfect either. But I hope and pray, through the power of the Holy Spirit, I’m becoming more and more like Christ, embodying his teachings.

So, the question for us all today is, will we choose to not only hear the teachings, but live out Christ’s teachings? Will we build our life on the teachings of Christ, specifically his Sermon on the Mount? Or will we build our lives on the sand of this world?

I hope we choose to build our lives on the words and rock of Jesus. I hope through the way we embody and live out the teachings of Jesus; others will see Christ in us and want to follow Christ as well.

That’s my hope. And I hope it’s your hope as well.

Amen