Christ the King Church, Hiawassee

Christ the King Church, Hiawassee
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The sermon audio of Christ the King Church, Hiawassee. New episodes every Wednesday.

  1. 2d ago

    Everything Is Ready (Matthew 22:1–14)

    Everything Is Ready: Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 23, Year A. Matthew 22:1–14. Jesus continues his confrontation with the religious leaders by comparing the Kingdom of heaven to a king who prepared a wedding feast for his son. Those first invited refuse the summons, some through hostility and others simply because farm and business seem more urgent. Yet their refusal does not cancel the King’s purpose: the servants are sent to the roads, and the hall fills with guests, both bad and good. The second half of the parable turns from the breadth of the invitation to the seriousness of belonging at the feast. The man without a wedding garment warns against presumption. We do not stand before God in our religious record or moral résumé. Galatians gives the Church’s language: we have “put on Christ.” His righteousness, not ours, makes sinners presentable before God. Isaiah 25 and Psalm 23 deepen the promise. The Shepherd leads through the dark valley; the King gathers his people to the table; and the Lord swallows up death forever. The invitation goes broadly, judgment is real, and the righteousness we need is found only in Christ. This week Jesus calls us to stop postponing the obedience we already know, carry the invitation to one actual person, and examine the ground of our confidence. Everything is ready.

  2. Oct 7

    He Sent His Son (Matthew 21:33–44)

    He Sent His Son: Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 22, Year A. Matthew 21:33–44. Jesus tells the parable of tenants who receive a vineyard they did not plant and then act as though it belongs to them. Isaiah 5 identifies the vineyard as Israel, while Psalm 80 remembers the vine God brought out of Egypt. Jesus gathers those images into a warning about stewardship, rebellion, and the Son. The owner sends servants to receive the fruit, and the tenants beat, kill, and stone them. These servants represent the prophets. Yet the owner sends again. Judgment comes only after repeated mercy and repeated calls to repentance. Then Jesus reaches the center of the parable: “Finally he sent his son.” The Son is not merely another messenger. He is the heir. The tenants cast him out and kill him, anticipating the crucifixion Jesus is about to endure outside Jerusalem. Jesus then quotes Psalm 118: the stone rejected by the builders becomes the cornerstone. The leaders reject Jesus, but God vindicates him. The cross is followed by resurrection, and the rejected Son becomes the foundation of what God is building. Matthew 21:43 announces a real transfer of Kingdom stewardship. Israel’s covenant promises are not discarded but fulfilled in Jesus the Messiah. Jews who receive him and Gentiles who come to him are gathered into one New Covenant people, and Romans 11 gives the Church reason to pray for Jewish people to be grafted in through faith in Christ. The mark of this people is fruit. Isaiah names justice and righteousness; the Collect asks God to keep his household so that it may serve him in good works. Grace comes first, and fruit follows. The final question is personal: what will we do with the Son whom the Father has sent?

  3. Sep 30

    He Changed His Mind and Went (Matthew 21:28–32)

    Matthew 21:28–32 places Jesus in the middle of a confrontation with the chief priests and elders. He tells of two sons. One openly refuses his father but afterward changes his mind and goes. The other says, “I go, sir,” but does not go. Jesus asks the question that matters: which son actually did the father’s will? The parable exposes the distance that can open between religious words and obedient lives. The chief priests and elders know Scripture, serve in the temple, and possess religious authority, yet they refused John the Baptist’s call to repentance. Tax collectors and prostitutes believed John and turned. Ezekiel 18 sharpens the call: “Turn, and live.” We cannot hide behind the past, yet Ezekiel also points beyond human effort to God’s promise, “I will give you a new heart.” God truly calls sinners to repent, and God gives the grace by which sinners can turn. Psalm 25 gives the posture of repentance: “Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths.” The Collect gives the order of grace: pardon and peace, cleansing from sin, then service. We obey from pardon, not toward pardon. Beyond both sons stands Jesus Christ, the true Son, who does not merely say yes to the Father but goes in obedience all the way to the cross. His mercy makes repentance possible. The practical question is where the Father is saying “Go” while we are still standing still. By grace, yesterday’s no does not have to be the end of the story.

  4. Sep 23

    Do You Begrudge My Generosity? (Matthew 20:1-16)

    Matthew 20:1-16 is framed by Jesus’ warning that “the first will be last, and the last first.” Peter has asked what the disciples will receive after leaving everything to follow Jesus. Jesus affirms that faithfulness matters, but the parable warns against turning sacrifice or longevity into a claim on God. The master repeatedly goes into the marketplace, calls workers, and sends them into his vineyard. At day’s end he pays the eleventh-hour workers a full denarius, and the first workers grumble because “you have made them equal to us.” Their problem is not a broken promise but resentment of generosity. We recognize the same temptation when a newcomer’s gifts are noticed, a prodigal is warmly welcomed, or someone blessed after choices we avoided seems to receive more than we think is fair. Jonah 4 reveals the same heart: Jonah knows God is gracious and merciful, yet resents that mercy when it reaches Nineveh. Our Collect asks the Holy Spirit to pour into our hearts “that most excellent gift of charity,” because without love our deeds are worth nothing. The question becomes especially searching when grace reaches someone whose sins horrify us. Earthly justice and heavenly mercy are not the same question, yet Christ fully receives the sinner who truly repents and believes. The thief on the cross is an eleventh-hour worker. Psalm 145 gives the proper response: worship the LORD who is gracious, merciful, and good to all. Long faithfulness is itself a gift, not leverage over God. Christ came to save sinners, and his mercy is sufficient for the lifelong saint and the sinner who comes at the last hour.

  5. Sep 16

    As I Had Mercy On You (Matthew 18:21-35)

    Peter asks Jesus how often he must forgive the brother who sins against him. Seven times sounds generous, but Peter is still counting. Jesus answers with a number that makes counting useless and tells of a servant owing an impossible debt. He asks for patience, but the king gives something greater: he cancels the debt. Christian forgiveness begins there. Before we are commanded to forgive, we are sinners who have received mercy. Psalm 103 says that God removes our transgressions as far as east is from west. Then the forgiven servant finds another servant who really does owe him something. Jesus does not minimize that debt, and he does not ask us to minimize betrayal, lies, broken promises, or damaged trust. He asks us to see real wounds in the light of the immeasurable mercy we have received. Forgiveness does not mean calling evil good, immediately reconciling, or restoring trust without repentance. Forgiveness releases vengeance; reconciliation restores fellowship; trust is rebuilt through demonstrated faithfulness. Jesus’ final warning is severe, but forgiveness does not purchase salvation. A hardened refusal to forgive may reveal that a profession of receiving mercy has never truly taken root. Forgiveness is fruit, not the price of grace. So we remember the King before reopening the ledger, forgive without enabling, and place the debt into God’s hands. Holy Cross Day reminds us what forgiveness cost: God did not pretend our debt never existed. Christ gave himself for sinners who could not pay. The debt was real, but in Christ God’s mercy was greater still.

  6. Aug 26

    The Confession of the Church (Matthew 16:13-20)

    The Confession of the Church: Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 16, Year A. Matthew 16:13–20. Two Sundays ago the disciples worshiped Jesus in the boat and said, “Truly you are the Son of God.” So what is different at Caesarea Philippi? Peter adds the messianic title Christ. There is no new miracle in this scene to prompt it. And Jesus immediately names the source of the confession: flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. Evidence matters, but evidence alone does not produce the confession. The disciples had extraordinary firsthand evidence and still needed the Father to reveal it. This is why we pray before we share the Gospel, and why we keep praying for people who seem closed to it. Isaiah 51:1–6 supplies the Old Testament background: look to the rock from which you were hewn, to Abraham and Sarah. God multiplied one seemingly barren beginning into a nation. The Church is built by the same power, not its own achievement. Peter is the rock in connection with the apostolic confession the Father revealed through him, while Christ remains the ultimate foundation and cornerstone. Three applications: the confession must be received before it is made, so let us pray for the Father to open our eyes and for those who seem closed to the Gospel; we are what the rock produces, not the rock, so our confidence is not in our size or strength; and the witness of the Church is cross-shaped, so let us identify our own Caesarea Philippi, where confessing Christ costs something. “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 16:17, ESV)

  7. Aug 12

    Lord, Save Me (Matthew 14:22-33)

    "Lord, Save Me". Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost, second Sunday of Movement III: the King acts and is recognized. Matthew 14:22–33. Last week’s question was answered at three in the morning, in a storm, by men in a battered boat: Truly you are the Son of God. The storm is not the absence of Christ; it is often the occasion of his coming. After feeding five thousand, Jesus sends the disciples across the Sea of Galilee and withdraws to the mountain to pray. They row through the night against the wind and waves. The fourth watch (3–6 AM): hours at the oars, cold and exhausted. They are in this storm not because of disobedience but because of obedience to Jesus’ command. Jesus watches from the mountain, seeing them making headway painfully (Mark 6:48). He comes not by calming the storm from a distance but by walking into the middle of it, into the same wind, toward the same waves. This is the shape of how God saves: not salvation from a safe heaven but the Son of God entering what threatens to destroy us so he can be with us in it. He speaks: “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” Jesus identifies himself with the divine name revealed to Moses. Psalm 29, the appointed psalm: “The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord sits enthroned as king forever.” The disciples are in the middle of that psalm. Peter asks to come; Jesus says come; Peter walks on water, the only human other than Jesus to do so. He sees the wind; distazo (dis-TAD-zo), hesitation or wavering: not lost faith but lost focus. He begins to sink and cries, “Lord, save me.” Jonah 2, the appointed Old Testament reading, is the experiential key across both testaments: a man going under, a cry from the deep, a rescue, ending in worship. Jesus reaches out immediately; the hand is faster than the sinking. Little faith that cries to the right person is enough, because Christ is enough. The wind ceases. Now, for the first time, the disciples worship Jesus. They had watched healings, exorcisms, the feeding of five thousand. Not yet. Demons knew, the Father declared at the baptism, Satan acknowledged in the wilderness, the crowds wondered. Now, halfway through the Gospel, the disciples confess what heaven declared from the beginning: “Truly you are the Son of God.” The storm was not incidental to the confession; it was the occasion of it. The Feast of the Transfiguration was Thursday, August 6: the same face that walked on the water and caught Peter is the face that will shine like the sun on the mountain. The Feast of the Virgin Mary falls this Saturday, August 15. Three applications: the storm is not the absence of Christ but often the occasion of his coming; “Lord, save me” is enough, two words to the right person; the storm produces what calm could not, the worship of those who have been rescued. The collect: “Give us the increase of faith, hope, and love.” Every Christian eventually learns this prayer. Some beside a grave. Some in quiet despair. Two words. The remarkable thing is what happened next: immediately, the hand. The Church is still in the boat. The wind still rises. His people still worship him. Not because the storm has passed, but because he is in the boat. “The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord sits enthroned as king forever.” (Psalm 29:10, ESV)

  8. Aug 5

    He Had Compassion (Matthew 14:13-21)

    "He Had Compassion". Tenth Sunday after Pentecost, first Sunday of Movement III. Matthew 14:13–21. The miracle begins in grief, not abundance. Jesus has just learned of John the Baptist’s execution and withdraws by boat to grieve. The crowd follows on foot and is waiting when he lands. He steps off the boat and has compassion: splanchnizomai (splank-NIDZ-oh-my), gut-level visceral compassion that acts before calculation. He heals the sick. As evening comes the disciples suggest sending the crowd away; Jesus issues an impossible command: you give them something to eat. Five barley loaves — the bread of the poor. The question is never whether five loaves are enough; it is whether the one holding them is merely a rabbi or the Lord who fed Israel in the wilderness. He took, blessed, broke, and gave: the same four verbs Matthew uses at the Last Supper in 26:26. The feeding of the five thousand anticipates the Table. The desolate place (erēmos) echoes the Sinai wilderness where God fed Israel (Psalm 78:19; Nehemiah 9:20). Moses interceded for Israel; Jesus fulfills the wilderness bread, declaring, “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35). Twelve baskets remain, pointing to the new Israel Christ is gathering around himself. This week the Church celebrates the Feast of the Transfiguration on Thursday, August 6. The same face that had compassion on the crowd will shine like the sun on the mountain. Christ’s compassion meets us before we are ready, receives our inadequate offerings, and returns them with abundance through his blessing. “When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.” (Matthew 14:14, ESV)

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The sermon audio of Christ the King Church, Hiawassee. New episodes every Wednesday.

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