Bethel Pulpit - Primitive Baptist Sermons

Fearing Jesus

In a moment of candor, most people would likely admit that there are numerous things about life in this world that prove to be an occasion for fear. But what if I told you about One who was more mysterious, more powerful and more intimidating than the many things that frighten us about the phenomena of nature? Even further, what if I said that this One is in the business of solving impossible problems, reclaiming lost causes, mending broken lives, and restoring lost hope? This 1/27/19 message by Elder Michael Gowens looks at the unsolvable, terrifying case of the Wild Gadarene (recorded in Mark 5:1-20) as an object lesson of the principle that if a person fears the Lord, there is no reason to be afraid of anything else.

With Christ in the Vessel

Elder Michael Gowens' 1/20/19 message is based on the narrative of the storm on the Sea of Galilee recorded in Mark 4:35-41. Gowens gleans numerous doctrinal and practical lessons from this passage, not the least of which are these two: (1) Because the Lord Jesus has power to calm the storms we encounter, we must never allow excessive fear to overtake and rule our lives; (2) Because the Lord Jesus possesses greater power than our problems, the best response is to fall before him in reverential worship.

The Church: A Kingdom of Priests

Elder Mike Gowens' 1/13/19 sermon looks at an expression in Exodus 19:6 in which God's people are identified as "a kingdom of priests." Gowens insists that maintaining the balance between the personal privilege of approaching God as a priest and the corporate responsibility of living together with other believers in a kingdom is critical to healthy church life. Understanding the priesthood of each believer challenges the dangerous extreme of clericalism. Understanding the community nature of the kingdom of God curbs the kind of unaccountable extremes that are so prevalent today among religious mavericks who tend to strike out on their own apart from the fellowship of the church. 

Your New Life in Christ

On the first Sunday of 2019 (1/6/19), Michael Gowens looks at 1 Corinthians 5:17-21 in a message on the ultimate "new beginning." If the new year will be happy and productive to us as God's people, it is important that we live lives consistent with the new nature that God has implanted in our hearts. Otherwise, we will simply repeat the sins and errors of the kind of people we were before grace made us new.

The Everlasting Love of Jesus

On the last Sunday of 2018 (12/30), Elder Mike Gowens looks at John 13:1: "Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end." This verse is a kind of theme for the unfolding sequence of events revealed in the narrative recorded in John 13-17. The setting is the upper room and the atmosphere is one of tension, bewilderment and uncertainty about the future. Against the dark background of the disciples' weakness, however, the unchanging and undaunted love of Christ is on full display. As we come to the end of one year and the beginning of another, no theme is more sublime and important than the love of Jesus for his own.

Gifts Fit for a King

Elder Michael Gowens' 12/23/18 sermon considers the visit of the Magi and the gifts they brought to the newborn King, as recorded in Matthew 2:1-11. Who were these "wise men"? What was the significance of the gifts they presented to the infant Messiah? Gowens attempts to answer these questions and more in this 51 minute message delivered to the congregation of Bethel PBC on the Sunday before Christmas.

The Humiliation of Christ

The Christian gospel is not a message of human ascent to God but of Divine descent to man. In this 12/16/18 sermon, Elder Mike Gowens looks at Philippians 2:5-11, one of the premier Christological passages of the New Testament. Why is the state of Christ's humiliation so important? What exactly did the self-humbling of Christ entail? Just how far down the ladder of humiliation did he descend? It is only as one begins to understand just how much He gave up to save His people from their sins that the true meaning of the incarnation and the cross come into focus. 

Recognizing God's Providential Hand

Elder Mike Gowens' 12/2/18 sermon looks at an interesting sentence in Isaiah 41:20 as he continues thoughts introduced last week concerning the Providence of God. The biblical narratives of Moses' birth and Joseph's rise to a position of prominence illustrate the fact that God moves in this world in mysterious ways. Happy is the individual who has learned to recognize when God is at work and to give him the glory for His wise and gracious providential care.

God's Unseen Hand

In this 11/25/18 sermon from the book of Esther, Elder Michael Gowens highlights the comforting theme of Divine Providence. The message begins with a reading from Esther 6:1-11. This book is distinguished as one of only two books in the canon of Scripture that never once mentions the name of God. But though the name of God is conspicuous by its absence in these pages, the hand of God is at work throughout the narrative. Even so, in our lives, we may not see overt evidence of God's activity, but He is present nonetheless, "standing somewhere in the shadows, keeping watch above His own." Esther reminds us that when God is silent, He is still there, and He is at work.

A Call to Thankful Worship

On Sunday, 11/18/18, Michael Gowens brought a Thanksgiving message from Psalm 95. The people of God have much for which to praise God in thankful song. When they assemble together in corporate worship, the Lord himself inhabits their praises. Nothing is so soul-cheering and faith-building as the privilege of collective worship with the church.