Judges Sermons 

The Verdict: “In Those Days There Was No King in Israel; Everyone Did What Was Right in His Own Eyes”

  Scripture Readings: Judges 19-21; Daniel 2:20-21; Romans 1:18-32 November 6, 2016 • Download this sermon (PDF) Congregation of Christ: We now come to the last sermon on the Book of Judges. There are two concluding sections after the account of the 12 judges of Israel, ending with the story of Samson. The first concluding section is in Chapters 17 and 18, which we studied last week. This was the story of Micah and his Levite priest and the false religion of Israel, which mixed the worship of God with…

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Judges Sermons 

Israel’s False Religion

Judges 17-18; John 4:19-25 October 23, 2016 • Download this sermon (PDF) Congregation of Christ: We come now to the last two sermons on the Book of Judges. In Chapters 1 and 2, the book opens with an introduction to how Israel went spiraling down into idolatry and unbelief after Joshua died. The second major part of the book, Chapters 3 through 16, tells the stories of the twelve judges appointed by God for Israel, and how even the behavior of these judges also went into a downward spiral. After…

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Judges Sermons 

Samson Part 4: “Let Me Die With the Philistines”

Judges 16:1-31; Prov 6:20-26; Col 3:1-7 October 16, 2016 • Download this sermon (PDF) Congregation of Christ: Those of us who were raised in Christian homes and churches remember a few things about Samson. And these are mostly the “good” things about him: his God-given strength, his victories over the Philistines, and his prayer to God at the end to kill the Philistines in their own pagan temple. The not-so-good thing is his affair with the Philistine woman Delilah. Those of you who remember the music of the 60s may…

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Judges Sermons 

Samson Part 3: Vengeance at Firefox Field and Jawbone Hill

Exod 17:1-7; Judges 15:1-20; 1 Cor 10:1-5 October 9, 2016 • Download this sermon (PDF) Congregation of Christ: I’m not sure if they still teach World History in high school these days, but do you know that there was a Thirty Years’ War in Europe from 1618-48? This war was also known as the religious wars. It began when Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II of Bohemia (present-day Czech Republic) suppressed the religious freedom of Protestants. The Protestants then appealed to other Protestant states of England, Netherlands and Denmark for help.…

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Judges Sermons 

Samson Part 2: “She is Right in My Eyes”

Scripture Readings: Judges 14:1-20; Acts 2:22-24; 3:17-21 October 2, 2016 • Download this sermon (PDF) Congregation of Christ: In our last study in Judges Chapter 13, the writer introduces Samson, his father Manoah and his mother, and the announcement of his birth by the Angel of the Lord. The Messenger revealed to his parents that they will have a son, but God has ordained him to be a Nazirite from conception. A Nazirite has three vows: to abstain from wine or any produce from the vine; stay away from dead…

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Judges Sermons 

Samson Part 1: Two Nativities

  Scripture Readings: Judges 13:1-25; Romans 12:1-2 September 18, 2016 • Download this sermon (PDF) Congregation of Christ: Last Sunday, we learned about Jephthah’s sinful vow to offer a burnt sacrifice to the Lord to gain his favor. God never required a vow in order to approve of a person’s request. And the tragic end to this vow is the burnt sacrifice turned out to be his only child, his own daughter. Today, we will study another kind of vow made by Israelites. But this vow was not made by…

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Judges Sermons 

Jephthah Part 1: Using God

  Scripture Readings: Judges 10:1-11:28; Philippians 2:1-11 September 4, 2016 •  Download this sermon (PDF) Congregation of Christ: Last Sunday, we studied the ascension to power of Abimelech, another evil oppressor of Israel. Abimelech was not a foreign oppressor, since he was the son of Gideon. After he oppressed Israel for three years, the LORD raised up two judges, Tola and Jair, the sixth and seventh judges. Since we know very little of these two men, they and Shamgar back in Chapter 3 are called “minor judges.” In this series,…

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Judges Sermons 

Abimelech the Vengeful Destroyer

  Scripture Readings: Judges 8:33-9:57; 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 August 28, 2016 • Download this sermon (PDF) Congregation of Christ: Remember the foreboding epilogue to Gideon’s life? It says that he had many wives who bore him 70 sons. One of his sons was from a Canaanite concubine in Shechem, whom he named Abimelech. And what does “Abimelech” mean? “My father is king.” Although publicly, Gideon declined to be the king of Israel, he acted like it, and considered himself a king (Jgs 8:29-31). Our text is a long story of…

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Judges Sermons 

Gideon Part 3: All’s Not Well That Doesn’t End Well

Scripture Readings: Judges 8:1-35; 1 Corinthians 10:31; Colossians 3:17 August 7, 2016 • Download this sermon (PDF) Congregation of Christ: The title of our study this morning is the reverse of a well-known proverb or cliché, “all’s well that ends well.” It means that everything has turned out well, even though some things went wrong and the outcome was uncertain, along the way. Did you know that this proverb was popularized in Shakespeare’s play of the same name? It is the story of a beautiful woman in a court in…

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Judges Sermons 

Sermon Series on the Book of Judges

Date Scripture Readings Title 06/05/16 Judges 1:1-2:5 (text); Ephesians 6:10-20 “I Will Never Break My Covenant With You” (web) (pdf) 06/12/16 Judges 2:6-3:6 (text); Ephesians 6:1-4 “There Arose Another Generation Who Did Not Know the LORD” (web) (pdf) 06/19/16 Judges 3:7-11 (text); Romans 13:1-4 The LORD Saved His People Through Othniel (web) (pdf) 07/03/16 Judges 3:12-31 (text); Hebrews 4:12 The LORD Sends Ehud to Bring a Sacrifice (web) (pdf) 07/10/16 Judges 4:1-24 (text); Hebrews 11:32-33 Deborah: A Woman Leads Because of Men’s Neglect (web) (pdf) 07/17/16 Judges 5:1-3 (text); 1 Timothy 2:8-14; Titus 2:1-5 “Quiet…

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