Cited in sermons
Dale C. Allison
4 sermons · All people cited
The Necessity of Christ's Passion
Matthew 16:21–23 presents the first formal announcement of what Christ himself calls a divine necessity: he must go to Jerusalem, suffer at the hands of the elders and chief priests, be killed, and be raised on the third day. The sermon traces this necessity through the covenant of redemption, the Old Testament prophetic witness — Psalms 22, 69, and 110, Isaiah 52–53, Daniel 9, Zechariah 9–14 — and a series of informal anticipations across Matthew's Gospel. Peter's sharp rebuke is examined as a representative failure to grasp the messianic agenda of a suffering Servant, and Christ's equally sharp response — 'Get behind me, Satan' — is shown to be the definitive affirmation that substitutionary curse-bearing is non-negotiable: error here is not a skin disease but a disease at the heart. The congregation is urged to hold fast to the doctrine of Christ crucified and risen as the only stable ground of perseverance in the Christian life.
The Great Commission, Part 3
Matthew 28:19 commands that disciples be baptized into the singular name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — a text that stands as one of Scripture's clearest witnesses to the doctrine of the Trinity. This sermon works through the baptismal formula to establish what the one name and three persons require the Christian to confess: one divine essence, three distinct subsistences, free from the errors of tritheism, modalism, and subordinationism. The active obedience of Christ is exposited as the ground of the righteousness imputed to sinners in justification, showing that the gospel itself is inseparable from a right doctrine of God. The congregation is urged to study the confession's chapters on theology proper and Christology, and to hold the doctrine of the Trinity as a white-knuckle conviction worth dying for.
The Use of the Blood Money
Matthew 27:6–10 records the chief priests' disposal of the thirty pieces of silver used to betray Jesus — and Matthew's citation of this event as the fulfillment of prophecy attributed to Jeremiah. This sermon examines the rank hypocrisy of the religious leaders who scrupled over depositing blood money into the treasury while simultaneously orchestrating the judicial murder of an innocent man, exposing the self-condemning logic of ceremonial fastidiousness divorced from the weightier demands of the law. The sermon then defends the inerrancy of Matthew's composite citation of Zechariah 11 and Jeremiah 18–19, 32, showing how Matthew functions as a biblical theologian weaving together prophetic themes of rejection, judgment, exile, and restoration to demonstrate that the passion of Christ was the fulfillment of the entire prophetic witness. The application calls hearers to recognize their own guilt before a holy God and to flee to the imputed righteousness and atoning blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Betrayal of Christ by Judas
Judas Iscariot's betrayal of Christ for thirty pieces of silver exposes the deadly convergence of unrepented sin, satanic opportunism, and the utter insufficiency of religious privilege as a ground of salvation. Working through Matthew 26:14–16 in its narrative context, this sermon examines both the identity of the betrayer — his position, character, and the devil's capitalizing on his covetousness — and the mechanics of his conspiracy with the chief priests. The central application is that unconverted hearts, however outwardly privileged, will be seized upon by Satan through their ruling sin; the only remedy is sovereign grace received through faith in Christ alone.