Homilies of Father Hans

St. Peter the Apostle Orthodox Church
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Father Johannes "Hans" Jacobse is the priest of St. Peter the Apostle Antiochian Orthodox Church in Fort Myers, Florida. His preaching begins with one conviction: the Orthodox Church holds the most complete understanding of what it is to be human. Every age answers the question of man, and most answers leave something out. Man is a consumer, a product of economic forces, a self to be expressed. Fr. Hans teaches that the Church knows him as he actually is: made in the image of God, fallen, and restored in Christ, the second Adam, to become fully human. This is an account of man's very being, not only of his behavior. It is why the Orthodox faith reaches the heart and does not stop at moral instruction. Each week he takes the Scripture appointed for the day and shows what it reveals about the structure of reality and the shape of the human person. He speaks of what went wrong, what repentance heals, and what a life looks like when it is rightly ordered toward God. Truth is not something we invent. It is received, and we are invited to live inside it. A native of Holland, Fr. Hans came to the Orthodox Church by way of Solzhenitsyn's Harvard Address. He studied at St. Vladimir's Seminary, founded the American Orthodox Institute, and has spent decades writing on faith and culture. He also founded the St. Paisios Brotherhood, which forms men for marriage, fatherhood, and a life in the Church that has no room for secrecy or isolation. These homilies are plain and direct. They are for anyone, man or woman, who wants to know what it means to be truly human and where that life is found. St. Peter the Apostle Orthodox Church – Fort Myers, Florida Visit our parish website: https://stpeterorthodoxchurch.com

  1. Oct 23

    He Forgave the Men Stoning Him to Death — Meet the Apostle James

    They threw him off the temple roof and then stoned him while he was still breathing — and with what strength he had left, he prayed for the people doing it. That's the Apostle James, the Lord's own brother and the first bishop of Jerusalem, whose feast Fr. Hans keeps today. James presided over the Church's first council, wrote the New Testament letter that tells us to be swift to hear and slow to speak, and even gave the Church its oldest Divine Liturgy — the one St. Basil and St. John Chrysostom later built on. Fr. Hans tells his story, untangles him from the Church's two other apostles named James, and closes with a blessing for the man in the pews who shares his name. Date: Friday, October 23, 2026 - Divine Liturgy Commemorations: Holy Apostle James, the Brother of the Lord Epistle: Galatians 1:11–19 Gospel: Matthew 13:54–58 Produced by St. Peter the Apostle Orthodox Church, Fort Myers, Florida. https://stpeterorthodoxchurch.com

  2. Oct 21

    Why God Loves a Cheerful Giver — Not a Grudging One

    He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. How much you give and how you give it is up to you. Do it freely, but do not do it under compulsion or with a grudge. Your particular gifts are for the good of your neighbor and the church. When the heart is clean and grateful, God supplies what is needed. We work with Him. We create. We do not sit back and wait. Fr. Hans calls it becoming a co-creator with Christ — building something instead of waiting to feel like it — and promises that when the heart is right, the provision always comes. Date: October 21, 2026 Commemorations: St. Hilarion the Great; St. Christodoulos of Patmos; Martyrs Theodote and Socrates Epistle: 2 Corinthians 9:6–11 Gospel: Luke 9:44–50 Produced by St. Peter the Apostle Orthodox Church, Fort Myers, Florida. https://stpeterorthodoxchurch.com

  3. Oct 18

    Their Eyes Opened When the Bread Was Broken

    Luke was not one of the original twelve. He heard the gospel while Jesus was still alive and joined the seventy who went out. On the road to Emmaus he walked with the risen Lord and did not know Him. Then they sat down, the bread was broken, and his eyes opened. That is still how the Lord is known. The gospel Luke wrote is addressed to the friend of God—anyone who wants to know Him. The power over darkness is real, but the joy is that your name is written in heaven. Date: October 18, 2026 - Divine Liturgy Commemorations: Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke; Martyr Marinos the Elder Epistle: Colossians 4:5–11, 14–18 Gospel: Luke 10:16–21 Produced by St. Peter the Apostle Orthodox Church, Fort Myers, Florida. https://stpeterorthodoxchurch.com

  4. Oct 17

    Why Proof Never Converts Anyone - Only an Encounter With Christ Does

    A fifteen-year-old looked Fr. Hans in the eye and said, I don't believe in God. They prayed one short prayer about it and let it rest - until the boy's camera jammed every time he aimed it at a saint's relics, and he came running out of the chapel in tears. Fr. Hans tells that story tonight to make a hard point: no argument has ever actually converted anyone. Only an encounter with Christ does that - and it comes through the word, preached and heard, the way the Apostle Luke first wrote it down. From a doctor turned evangelist to a trembling teenager in Greece, the same thing keeps happening: God meets people exactly where their doubt lives. Date: October 17, 2026, Vespers Commemorations: The Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke Epistle: Galatians 2:16-20 Gospel: Luke 8:5-15 Produced by St. Peter the Apostle Orthodox Church, Fort Myers, Florida. https://stpeterorthodoxchurch.com

  5. Oct 14

    Freedom, Love, and the Apostolic Call to Brotherly Care

    Father Hans examines the apostle Paul's profound valuation of Christian brotherhood and communal service. Drawing from the epistle reading, he explains how God's love constrains His omnipotence—God cannot violate His own nature of love, and therefore works through believers who freely give their love to one another. This is not a minor ecclesiastical concern but the interior life of the church itself. When brotherhood flourishes, God dwells and the church thrives. When believers fight and gossip, their hearts close to love, and God will not work. Contrasting the loving God of Abraham with the coercive deities of pagan religions and Calvinist theology, Fr. Han presents Christian freedom as essential to genuine love. He concludes with a powerful testimony of a small Midwestern Antiochian church that was spiritually revitalized when its members repented of division and recommitted to fraternal love. In an era when cultural institutions have collapsed into emptiness, the church remains the only place where authentic meaning, warmth, and genuine community can be found. Date: Wednesday, October 14, 2026 Commemoration: Saint Callistus I (Pope and Martyr, d. 223) Epistle Reading: Philippians 2:24-30 Gospel Reading: Luke 8:22-25 Produced by St. Peter the Apostle Orthodox Church, Fort Myers, Florida. https://stpeterorthodoxchurch.com

  6. Oct 11

    The Seed Is the Word of God. Guard Your Heart.

    A sower went out to sow. Some seed fell on the path. Some on rock. Some among thorns. Some into good soil. The seed is the Word of God, and it is not neutral. When it is heard, Christ Himself is revealed. But the heart must be prepared, or He will not remain. Guard your heart. You play a role in your own salvation because God made you free. Date: October 11, 2026 Commemorations: Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council; Apostle Philip of the Seventy; Venerable Theophanes the Confessor Epistle: Titus 3:8–15 Gospel: Luke 8:5–15 Produced by St. Peter the Apostle Orthodox Church, Fort Myers, Florida. https://stpeterorthodoxchurch.com

  7. Sep 27

    We Are the Temple of the Living God. That Is Not a Metaphor.

    God said He would live in them and move among them. Fr. Hans says that is not poetry. It is the Church. We are the temple of the living God—not each of us alone, but we, together. You are here because He called you. Separate yourself from what is unclean, and He will be a Father to you, and you will be His sons and daughters. Date: September 27, 2026 Commemorations: 17th Sunday after Pentecost; Martyr Callistratus and his 49 companions; Apostles Mark, Aristarchus, and Zenas of the Seventy Epistle: 2 Corinthians 6:16–7:1 Gospel: Luke 5:1–11 Produced by St. Peter the Apostle Orthodox Church, Fort Myers, Florida. https://stpeterorthodoxchurch.com

  8. Sep 26

    Jesus Did Not Come to Invent Worship, He Fulfilled It

    People think Jesus came to start a new religion and throw the old prayers away. He did not. He came as Israel's Messiah, and the lighting of the lamps at dusk is still how the Church prays at evening—now naming that light as Christ. We do not get to manufacture worship in our own image. Worship is not how Jesus makes you feel. It is given, sober, and real: the living God coming to us in matter, the way He took a body from His mother. Date: September 26, 2026  Commemorations: Repose of St. John the Evangelist and Theologian; Righteous Gideon  Epistle: 1 John 4:12–19  Gospel: John 19:25–27; 21:24–25 Produced by St. Peter the Apostle Orthodox Church, Fort Myers, Florida. https://stpeterorthodoxchurch.com

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About

Father Johannes "Hans" Jacobse is the priest of St. Peter the Apostle Antiochian Orthodox Church in Fort Myers, Florida. His preaching begins with one conviction: the Orthodox Church holds the most complete understanding of what it is to be human. Every age answers the question of man, and most answers leave something out. Man is a consumer, a product of economic forces, a self to be expressed. Fr. Hans teaches that the Church knows him as he actually is: made in the image of God, fallen, and restored in Christ, the second Adam, to become fully human. This is an account of man's very being, not only of his behavior. It is why the Orthodox faith reaches the heart and does not stop at moral instruction. Each week he takes the Scripture appointed for the day and shows what it reveals about the structure of reality and the shape of the human person. He speaks of what went wrong, what repentance heals, and what a life looks like when it is rightly ordered toward God. Truth is not something we invent. It is received, and we are invited to live inside it. A native of Holland, Fr. Hans came to the Orthodox Church by way of Solzhenitsyn's Harvard Address. He studied at St. Vladimir's Seminary, founded the American Orthodox Institute, and has spent decades writing on faith and culture. He also founded the St. Paisios Brotherhood, which forms men for marriage, fatherhood, and a life in the Church that has no room for secrecy or isolation. These homilies are plain and direct. They are for anyone, man or woman, who wants to know what it means to be truly human and where that life is found. St. Peter the Apostle Orthodox Church – Fort Myers, Florida Visit our parish website: https://stpeterorthodoxchurch.com

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  • Creator
    St. Peter the Apostle Orthodox Church
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    14
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 St. Peter the Apostle Orthodox Church (Fort Myers, FL)
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    Homilies of Father Hans

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