Substitute preacher

I had the honor of preaching at my church this morning—Second Presbyterian Church of Oil City. Our beloved pastor left to explore his new path in ministry, so now we’re looking for a new one. In the meantime, we elders are taking turns at the pulpit.

My sermon was about Luke 8:26 – 39—Jesus healing the Gerasene demoniac. As you might have guessed, there were lots of visuals.

 

0 replies
    • johnmanders
      johnmanders says:

      Thanks! Mercifully, there isn’t a recording of the sermon! Really, I was just pitching in; I’m not a preacher by any stretch. The drawings I show in this post were there to support 2 points: 1) Gerasa was a town of Hellenized (Greek-culture) Jews—a holdover from the conquest of Alexander 300-some years earlier—which explains why they were eating pork in the middle of Israel. I raised the possibilty that Jesus allowed the demons to possess the swine as a rebuke to the townspeople who had forsaken God and His dietary laws. 2) Exorcising the demoniac came at great cost. I figured the cost in terms of raising pigs and taking them to market in today’s dollars. It was meant to be a light-hearted way of demonstrating that even at a high worldly price, salvation of the man’s soul was infinitely more valuable.

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