A Portrait of Jesus: Sermons from Matthew

The impulse to publish these sermons came to me after I had successfully published my book, For Our Age of Anxiety, based on the Sermon on the Mount. All of these sermons were first written and preached while I was pastor of the Seven Hills Baptist Church in Owensboro, Kentucky where I served for thirty-four years. As I considered the idea of publishing a follow up book of sermons from the remaining chapters of Matthew, I went to my files and began the process of selecting the sermons to be included. After I had selected these sermons, I began to see that they could be put together under the theme of a portrait of Jesus. This book features sermons that focus on the early days of the ministry of Jesus particularly as they related to the ministry of John the Baptist. They also shed some light on the temptations of Jesus in the desert, on the call of those who would be his first disciples, and what is involved in being a disciple of Jesus then and now. Some of the sermons are based on the miracles of Jesus, thus revealing the compassion of Jesus. These sermons also deal with the idea of the Kingdom of God, showing some of the principles and characteristics of the Kingdom. The last two sermons are about the person of Jesus. It is my hope that these sermons will indeed help the reader to draw his or her own mental and spiritual portrait of Jesus.