Understanding the Jesus of the Gospels
Sermons from the Gospels
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Tag: jesus
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John 20: 19-31 Offered to the congregation of the Long Valley Presbyterian Church, Long Valley, NJ April 12, 2026, by Mel Prestamo, Ruling Elder PCUSA This passage from John begins the story of the culmination of Jesus’ first day being resurrected as the Christ [the Chosen One] of God. Previously, his body has been taken…
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Luke 17: 11-19 Mel Prestamo, Ruling Elder, PCUSA Offered to the Wharton Hungarian Church on October 9, 2022. Recently as we have been going through the Gospel of Luke, as we follow along the Lectionary for this year, we have been treated to some of Jesus’ most well know parables and stories. However, today’s text…
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Luke 14: 1, 7-14 / Psalm 112 Mel Prestamo, Ruling Elder, PCUSA Offered to the Wharton Hungarian Church, Wharton, NJ on June 19, 2022 I have a concern about being in fear of the Lord. Psalm 111 tells us that Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom. In other words, I am uncomfortable…
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Luke 16: 19-31 Mel Prestamo, Ruling Elder, PCUSA Offered to the Wharton Hungarian Church of Wharton, NJ on September 25, 2022 I want to start my message today by commenting that Luke’s retelling of Jesus’ parables is unique in its richness. We have here today the parable of The Rich Man and Lazarus. This parable…
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Luke 16: 1-13 Mel Prestamo, Ruling Elder, PCUSA Offered to the First Presbyterian Church of Franklin, NJ on September 9, 2022 This is a difficult parable to understand. I think more than just a few of us scratch our heads and wonder, “What is Jesus telling us here? What does he mean by the “children…
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Genesis 18: 1-8 / Luke 10: 38-42 Mel Prestamo, Ruling Elder, PCUSA Offered to the First Church of Hanover, NJ on July 17, 2022 The two passages from the Old and New Testaments this morning make a curious juxtaposition of ways of being “Welcoming”. We see Abraham in this story from Genesis observes three travelers…
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Mel Prestamo, Ruling Elder PCUSA Offered to the Community Presbyterian Church of Chester, NJ on July 10, 2022 The last time I visited with you was back in February of this year and the lectionary that Sunday was from Luke 6 about the Golden Rule – “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate…
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Mel Prestamo, Ruling Elder PCUSA prepared for the Mine Hill Presbyterian Church, February 22, 2026 OK. Jesus fasted. That is where we are in the lectionary in the Gospel of Matthew. And that fits since this is the first Sunday in our Lenten season. But before we get into Jesus fasting and what the purpose…
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Offered to the United Presbyterian Church of Alpha NJ on February 8, 20236 Mel Prestamo, Ruling Elder, PCISA Salt & Light [Matthew 5:13-16] These words of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel today are not the most famous, most recognizable words that Jesus had spoken during his ministry; but these in Matthew’s Gospel today are perhaps the…
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Prepared for the Rockport Presbyterian Church / January 25, 2026 Mel Prestamo, Ruling Elder, PCUSA Before we get into this story in Matthew’s Gospel, I want to first just get a picture of what Jesus was doing. The first thing that Matthew tells us is that John the Baptizer was arrested and put into prison…
