Sermon Notes for the 18th Sunday after Trinity, 19 October 2025, the Anglican Orthodox Communion (Bishop Jerry Ogles)
The Collect.
LORD, we beseech thee, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil; and with pure hearts and minds to follow thee, the only God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Epistle. 1 Corinthians i. 4.
Please observe the common appeal to grace across our Collect and two textual references of today’s lesson. It is only by the grace of almighty God whereby we may overcome the temptations of the world. This requires our souls to be constantly in the hands of the Holy spirit in order to resist those persistent temptations of the world - both large and small. It is the small foxes that bear watching more than the greater beasts of the wilderness. That grace comes from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul reiterates our dependence upon the grace of the Lord to overcome the power of temptations of the world and points our that the confirmation of that grace continues in Christ to the end of our worldly lives. All good gifts derive from that imputed grace of the Lord.
Our Gospel text opens with the enemies of Christ banding together in alliance against Him. The righteous will always be outnumbered by the sinful elements of the world. Satan and his subordinates always attempt to deceive by causing doubts to arise in the minds of their following. Like Satan, the Scribes and Pharisees begin their attempt to deceive with a question. That is the approach always taken by Satan. Remember how Satan began his beguilement of Eve in the Garden - “Yea, hath God said?” So his adherents follow in his footsteps in the matter addressed today in our Gospel text. “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” We try to gloss over righteous judgment in dealing with sinners, but Christ does not hesitate to identify open sin. We try to compromise our Bible teaching often to keep from hurting feelings when we are actually doing more harm to the listener by covering his sinful notions.
The Pharisees, who considered themselves righteous without just cause, could not fathom how this itinerate carpenter from Galilee could so consistently put them to shame regardless the cunning of their questions. He always turned the tables - not just in the Temple - but also in their arguments against Him.
In our text, one of the Pharisees who was a learned lawyer of the word posed a question which he doubtlessly hoped would entangle Jesus in the intricate details of the Law of Moses. “Master, which is the great commandment in the law?” Notice how he feigns a false respect in addressing Jesus whom he hoped to destroy when possible. “Master” which means teacher. Despite His humble beginnings, these boogers could accept Jesus as a teacher, but never admit to His Sonship with God. I believe, beyond any doubt, that they knew precisely who He was, but could not accept it without the loss of power, prestige and the confidence of the people.
Jesus is the Author of the Law. How could He not answer correctly. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”
This is called, in the reformation faith, the Summary of the Law. There is nothing therein to supercede the Ten Commandments of God, but makes both tables even more binding under the banner of LOVE.
How simple is this summary by Jesus. Yet, it is nearly impossible to love they neighbor as thyself. Only a heart fully committed to the Love of God could comply with this last part of the summary.
The Pharisees had failed to stymied Christ with there question on the Law. Now Jesu turns the tables on them with a question they could not have answered without admitted His own divinity: “What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?” This question the Pharisees could in no wise answer. It was a question of great depth and one inconvenient to their cause to answer even if they knew the answer. “And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.”
Now, our Lord asks a question that is applicable to us all: “What think ye of Christ?” Do we study the Gospel of our Lord with the same leisure as reading the morning paper? I hope not. It is the most important matter of our souls. How we read and study Scripture reveals how we answer that question - “What think ye of Christ?” Unless we have fed and digested the Word of God, how could we have a saving knowledge of Christ?
We must make His Word a part of our being. We must feed upon His Word daily just as the body requires daily nourishment for health. We need a healthy and understanding view of the Lord who bled and died in redemption of our sins. Can you answer the second part of the question Christ posed to the Pharisees?
“How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son.” The answer to that question is an open admission that Christ came in the flesh as the Son of David with the nature of both Man and God. This explains why the Pharisees could not, or would not, answer Him. Can you?
