Glory Sermon Ideas
Where God is concerned, glory is radiant presence. It's recognized weightiness or worthiness. In John's gospel, Jesus's recognized weightiness or worthiness consists especially of self-spending love. Our sermons, liturgies, and prayers can incorporate the concept of glory from both the Old and New Testament.
Where does the Bible talk about glory?
Use these prefiltered searches to craft sermons and prayers, offer pastoral care, or plan worship services around the theme of glory.
- Exodus 24:15–17, God's glory on Mount Sinai
- Psalm 8:4–5, God crowned us with glory and honor
- Psalm 19:1, the heavens tell of God's glory
- Psalm 24:9, the King of glory
- Isaiah 6:3, earth is full of God's glory
- Isaiah 60:1–2, God's glory has risen upon you
- Luke 2:8–9, the glory of the Lord shone
- John 1:14, seeing Christ's glory
- John 2:9–11, Jesus's glory revealed
- John 12:23–24, Jesus glorified
- John 13:31, God glorified in the son
- John 17:22, God passes his glory to Jesus, who passes it to his disciples
When Moses went up Mount Sinai, the glory of the Lord hovered over the mountain like a bonfire inside a cloud of smoke. The cloud and the fire were already familiar to the Israelites because God had led them out of Egypt by means of a mysterious pillar of cloud each day and a mysterious pillar of fire each night.
When the gospel of John describes the Word made flesh, it says that God in Jesus "became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory." When John says "we have seen his glory," a Jewish reader would think at once of the tabernacle and the temple. Of course, glory is all over the place in the Old Testament. God's glory hangs over Israel in the open air. It settles over Mount Sinai inside a cloud, an eerie atmospheric combination of a smoky haze covering a fierce fire. Glory is in the stars because the heavens declare the glory of God. Glory is on human heads because we are made in God's image. God has crowned us like kings and queens with glory and honor. Sometimes a prophet will claim that the whole earth is full of God's glory.
Sermon ideas about glory
Consuming fire
In a sermon on glory, how can we explore what it refers to? Glory is everywhere, but in a Jewish mind the glory is especially in the tabernacle and then the temple. It is a fire inside a cloud, almost a consuming fire, and there are times when Moses in the tabernacle or the priests in the temple have to back away from their worship. God's glory is too bright. The glory is too hot today. You might say that we human beings are like moths drawn to the flame of God's glory, but it's a consuming fire. You have to watch yourself around glory. In Luke's account of the shepherds outside Bethlehem when Jesus was born, when the glory of the Lord shone around them, they were terrified.
A radiant, weighty presence
Glory is theophanic luminosity, which is a fancy way of saying it is radiant presence. Radiance, splendor, magnificence, light, brilliance—all are in the cognitive field of glory. But the word glory, in both Hebrew and Greek, also conveys a sense of weightiness, worthiness, gravitas. When the King of glory comes in, he's too big and too heavy for the gates and doors. They have to rise right up off their hinges to admit him.
Human beings themselves have great dignity because they are crowned with God's glory. We may be nobility in ruins, but we are still nobility. But glory is especially recognized weightiness and worthiness. In Isaiah 60, the nations of the world bring their national treasures into the city of God. Lebanon brings its lumber because that is its glory, what Lebanon is known for.