Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 2601 to 2625 of 4997 results

James 2:1-13, James 2:14-26

Understanding Series

Peter H. Davids

... had only heard it in the form of second- or third-hand slogans, which had taken on a meaning that Paul would have rejected. The three critical terms discussed illustrate this point. The first is the Greek ergon, which in James means what he does (charity, kindness, virtue), whereas in Paul it is always joined to the word “law” (nomos) and always means ritual acts, except in Gal. 5:19 and 6:4 where it is used positively. The second is dikaioō, which is translated in Paul correctly as “put right with ...

2602. Making One's Calling and Election Sure

2 Peter 1:1-11

Understanding Series

Norman Hillyer

... –96. Perseverance (hypomonē, lit. a remaining under): see Turner, pp. 318–19; TDNT, vol. 4, pp. 581–88; NIDNTT, vol. 2, pp. 772–76. Godliness (eusebeia): see Turner, pp. 111–12; TDNT, vol. 7, pp. 175–85; NIDNTT, vol. 2, pp. 91–95. 1:7 Brotherly kindness (philadelphia): see TDNT, vol. 1, pp. 144–46; NIDNTT, vol. 1, pp. 254–60; vol. 2, pp. 547–50. Love (agapē): see Turner, pp. 261–66; TDNT, vol. 1, pp. 21–55; NIDNTT, vol. 2, pp. 538–51. 1:8 Ineffective (argos): The same Greek word ...

2603. The Day of the Lord

2 Peter 3:1-18

Understanding Series

Norman Hillyer

... —even if it was long ago. The book of Genesis narrates the story of the original creation. Peter paraphrases that account: long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. According to Genesis, there was originally a kind of watery waste (Gen. 1:2). Then by divine fiat (“Let there be …”), the world was formed by the separation of land from water (Gen. 1:6–10). Furthermore, life in that world was sustained by water (Gen. 2:6). 3:6 But that was not the ...

2604. Consecration of the Priests

Exodus 29:1-46

Understanding Series

James K. Bruckner

... ram for the ordination.) Verses 22–27 and 31–34 describe the procedure for the meat of the ordination ram. They were to take all the fat and the right thigh and wave them before the LORD. They turned to smoke with the first ram (the burnt offering) with three kinds of bread. From the remaining meat that they were to eat, they were to separate the breast of the ram, wave it before the LORD, and give it to Moses for his share to eat. The “breast” of a ram is just behind the front legs and includes the ...

2605. The Golden Calf

Exodus 32:1-33:6

Understanding Series

James K. Bruckner

... ” from the prohibitions against worshiping other gods and making idols (20:4–6, 23; 22:20). The Lord noted especially that they had said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” God then said, “I have seen these people.” Idolatry and all kinds of intentional sin are the result of living as if God cannot see (Ezek. 8:12; 9:9; Pss. 14:1–2; 53:1–2). God continued with the request, “Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them ...

2606. Esther Made Queen

Esther 2:1-18

Understanding Series

Timothy S. Laniak

... moved” to the “best place in the harem” (v. 9). Mordecai is concerned in verse 11 about what was happening to her. Hegai shares Mordecai’s paternal role, providing for Esther with an eye toward her best interests. Khen and khesed, words typically translated “favor” and “kindness” respectively, are important terms in the book of Esther (see khesed in 2:9, 17 and khen in 2:15, 17; 5:2, 8; 7:3; 8:5) and in biblical narrative in general. Because the Lord was with him (Gen. 39:3), Joseph found ...

2607. Proverbs of Solomon

Proverbs 11:1-31

Understanding Series

Roland E. Murphy

... that the image of sowing seed is appropriate: a generous sowing leads to growth, but an unwise thriftiness leads to disaster. The saying is general enough to also be understood with a moral edge (stinginess toward others as opposed to hoarding). 11:25 Synonymous (this kind of parallelism is rare in chs. 10–15). See verses 17–19 for the idea. 11:26 Antithetic. This verse does not have the same meaning as did verse 24. Here, the issue is a wrongful hoarding of grain, a speculation about price or value ...

2608. Woe to Nineveh

Nahum 3:1-19

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... making the city a spectacle, something people looked at with horror and disdain. At last verse 7 makes explicit that it is Nineveh that Yahweh is talking about and to. Yet there is then immediately the irony that people who see what happens to Nineveh ask the same kind of question that will come to be asked shortly when Jerusalem is destroyed. “Who will mourn for her?” (cf. Jer. 15:5). Where is there anyone to comfort you (cf. Lam 1:2, 9, 16, 17, 21)? Judah can never risk relaxing as it reads Nahum’s ...

2609. Don't Just Stand There!

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... the things that are, so that no one may boast before him . . .” (1:26-29) The disciples were somewhat like you and me. I mean, what could we do to change the world? The truth is we can do much more than we imagine--just by being kind, decent caring people. There was a story that made the news about a decade ago about a man named Herbert Wirth. Herbert Wirth had died and nobody seemed to have noticed. The local minister prepared himself for a short funeral service. The funeral director had told him that ...

2610. When Jesus Prays

John 17:20-26

Sermon

King Duncan

... to the uniting work that Jesus did on Calvary by bringing us into relationship with God the Father and ultimately bringing us into relationship with each other. That is why we are known as the body of Christ. The unity that he desires for his church is the same kind of unity he has with the Father. “The real church is a body of men and women united to each other because they are united to Christ.” Listen again to his words, “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me ...

2611. The Healing at the Pool

John 5:1-15, John 5:16-30

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... (as perhaps they do in 3:16–18, 35–36). But the kinship of Son with Son of Man and the firm testimony of John’s Gospel that Jesus was actually accused of claiming divine sonship (5:18; 10:33–36) make it more likely that language of this kind goes back to Jesus (cf. Matt. 11:27/Luke 10:22; also, the voice at Jesus’ baptism in the Synoptics and Jesus’ address to God in prayer as “Abba,” or “Father”). Jesus’ authority as the Son comes to expression in his deeds or “works” (v. 20, RSV ...

2612. The Third Appearance

John 21:1-14

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... seem to have decided at some point that at least one of the “many other miraculous signs … which are not recorded in this book” (20:30) must be written down in order for the book to be truly complete. There is wide agreement that chapter 21 forms some kind of an appendix to the Gospel. Yet it is closely linked to what immediately precedes it, not only by the connective afterward in verse 1, but by the more detailed notice in verse 14 that it was the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he ...

2613. Jesus, Peter, and the Beloved Disciple

John 21:15-25

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... Jesus’ flock. Jesus speaks solemnly to Peter, using the same formula (“I tell you the truth”; Gr.: amēn amēn) with which he had earlier predicted Peter’s denial (13:38; see note on 1:51). The saying that the formula introduces is based on a kind of proverb about youth and old age, but to Peter it must have seemed more like a riddle. Two conditions of humanity are being contrasted (v. 18): When you were younger you dressed yourself when you are old you will stretch out your hands and someone else ...

2614. Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed

Genesis 19:30-38, Genesis 19:1-29

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... of living was so high in this great city that Lot was not able to be as generous as Abraham had been, or perhaps Lot was not as inclined to treat strangers that generously. 19:4–5 That evening an incident served to inform these travelers of the kind of behavior that was taking place in Sodom. All the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded Lot’s house. The emphasis on “all” indicates that the entire male population of Sodom was in accord with what was about to take ...

2615. Worshipping Other Gods

Deuteronomy 13:1-18

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

... it.” It means gods they were not committed to in covenant relationship as a result of saving experience. In that sense, Israel knew no other god (cf. Deut. 4:35; Hos. 13:4) and Yahweh knew no other people (Amos 3:2). 13:3 Signs of some kind were an expected part of a prophet’s credibility. The expectation, however, could produce demands that were little more than an attempt to evade the manifest force of the prophet’s words, as Jesus discerned (cf. Matt. 12:38ff.; Mark 8:11f.; Luke 11:29–32; John 6 ...

2616. Solomon Asks for Wisdom

1 Kings 3:1-15

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

... , there is no hint yet of apostasy. His worship at Gibeon (3:4ff.) is worship of the LORD. Yet we are bound to ask: what kind of “love” is this, that does not issue in the keeping of the Law? Certainly not a love that involves all of Solomon’s heart ... grasp of theology that first comes to expression. The basic covenant position as he understands it is that God has shown great kindness to David because he was faithful and righteous and upright in heart (3:6)—that is why Solomon sits on the throne ( ...

2617. Woe to Ephraim

Isaiah 28:1-29

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... hurt people when that seems necessary. But what is Yahweh like inside? What are Yahweh’s preferred ways of operating? And what about Yahweh’s preferred way of relating to the world? Is Yahweh the kind of boss who is happiest when there is cutting to be implemented and firing to be done? (And is Isaiah that kind of prophet?) No, says Isaiah. All this talk of bringing destruction, of which his prophecy is so full, is Yahweh’s strange, alien task. It does not naturally fit the commitment Yahweh has made ...

2618. Woe to David’s City

Isaiah 29:1-24

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... when (in)sight is restored. Lebanon will stand for forest in general. Even allowing for this, the two-sided picture in verse 17 is at first a further puzzling parabolic image. It turns out to hint in another way that God’s wisdom knows the time for both kinds of visitation (see vv. 18–19 and 20–21). We might be tempted to answer the opening question with a no, since no such event has taken place. Such a reversal would take place a century later than Isaiah’s day, and perhaps the phrase in a very ...

2619. The Glory Departs

Ezekiel 8:1-18, Ezekiel 9:1-11, Ezekiel 10:1-22, Ezekiel 11:1-15, Ezekiel 11:16-25

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... worthy of deliverance. In verse 6, destruction is meted out to old men, young men and maidens, women and children—no one, apparently, is to be spared. Such total destruction is connected elsewhere with holy war—specifically with kherem, or the ban, where an enemy becomes a kind of whole offering to God (1 Kgs. 20:28; Jer. 6:11). But here God places God’s own people, and God’s own city, under the ban. The destruction begins at Jerusalem’s heart, in the temple itself (v. 6). Just as Josiah had once ...

2620. Jesus the Messiah from Joseph’s Family Line

Matthew 1:1-17

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... of Matthew. On the other hand, we might be tempted to miss the forest for the trees. Matthew’s desire is not that we choose our favorite Old Testament characters who show up in the genealogy and make multiple connections between that character and Jesus (a kind of allegorizing). Instead, we should keep the big picture in view, since Matthew guides us to focus on major junctures of the genealogy. By attending to the broad strokes of the genealogy, we also get a sense of the full sweep of Israel’s history ...

2621. Sermon on the Mount: Jesus Teaches on the Torah

Matthew 5:17-48

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... law exhorts us to equality when it ordains that the penalties inflicted on offenders should correspond to their actions” (Spec. Laws 3.182). Jesus takes this law that provides limits for retribution and limits it further by prohibiting revenge or retaliation, even in like kind. 5:39 If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. In 5:39–42 three examples are provided to illustrate “do not resist an evil person” (5:39). This passage has been understood to disavow any ...

2622. Sermon on the Mount: Praying, Not Judging

Matthew 7:7-12, Matthew 7:1-6

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... in 7:1–12 yet a few themes emerge. The first in 7:1–6 revolves around judging others. The emphasis is upon avoiding the tendency to judge, although 7:6 introduces the importance of discernment, which is a form of judgment. An initial question regards the kind of judgment that is prohibited in 7:1. It is likely that the second clause (“you too will be judged”) refers to God’s final judgment rather than judgment by other people. Reference to the final day when God will make right judgments about all ...

2623. Jesus as Isaianic Messiah and Wisdom Embodied

Matthew 11:1-19

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... of the Messiah” (see comments on 11:2). Teaching the Text 1. Jesus comes as a Messiah who enacts Isaiah’s message of healing and the good news of God’s reign. It is common to hear from pulpits that Jesus was a completely unexpected kind of Messiah. However, if Jesus had defied all expectations for the Messiah, he would have been completely unintelligible. It is important then to discern in what ways Jesus defied expectations. This passage gives us some clues. When asked by John’s disciples if he is ...

2624. Parables Discourse: Importance of Response to the Kingdom Message

Matthew 13:1-23

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... in 5:3–11) announces blessing on those present for the arrival of the kingdom. Here it is the disciples specifically who are beneficiaries of God’s work in Jesus, which they have been seeing and hearing. The crowds have not been privy to the same kind of revelation as the disciples; they hear about the kingdom only in parables (see 13:11). But Matthew also compares the disciples to those in Israel’s past in order to emphasize the temporal nature of the blessing on the disciples. Prophets and righteous ...

2625. The Disciples’ Insufficient Faith to Heal as Jesus Heals

Matthew 17:14-23, Matthew 17:24-27

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... ’s final use of “little faith” to describe the disciples (see also 6:30; 8:26; 14:31; 16:8). Jesus provides this answer when the disciples ask him why they could not cast out the demon from the boy. In spite of being empowered to do this kind of healing, the disciples fall short of Jesus’ expectations due to their little faith (already at 14:15–16; 15:32–33). if you have faith as small as a mustard seed. Given that Jesus has already referred to the mustard seed as “the smallest of all seeds ...

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