Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 2751 to 2775 of 5000 results

Hosea 4:1-19

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... loosed from the one source of life itself. We see here the comprehensive meaning of tôrâ (law) in the OT. It actually encompassed the whole of Israel’s religious tradition—all of its “teaching” about God and what God had done. Perhaps the best illustration of tôrâ’s full meaning is the book of Deuteronomy, which tells the history of God’s loving dealings with Israel and then spells out, by means of commandments, the nature of the love Israel owes to God in return for covenant love. But that ...

2752. Judgment Against Israel

Hosea 5:1-15

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... contra NIV: in their heart). As in 4:12 and 4:19, the Israelites have become enslaved to their sin and have no possibility of returning by their own power to a faithful and loving relationship with God. Verse 4, along with 4:12, 19, is a powerful illustration of the futility of moralism, according to the biblical faith. A prophet or a preacher may admonish the people to turn from their evil ways and to do the good, in obedience to God alone. But if that people is captive to a “spirit of harlotry,” they ...

2753. Punishment for Israel

Hosea 9:1--10:15

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... their altars and their sacred maṣṣēbôt. The fact that verse 3 begins with “because” or “for” (kî in the Hebrew) gives the reason for Yahweh’s destruction. They have completely rejected him as their King (see above). Verse 4 then illustrates their rejection of Yahweh, but the NIV has obscured the meaning. The Hebrew reads: “Speak words, swear falsely, make a covenant,” and the reference is to the empty words and false oaths and faithless loyalty that the Israelites speak to their God ...

2754. Israel’s Ill-Placed Confidence

Amos 5:18-27

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

If you need help signing up or have questions call us. You'll get us, not a call center: 813-808-1681. Sermon Tools Bible Illustrations Current Events Overview and Insights · God Demands Justice, Not Mere Coldhearted Ritual (5:1–6:14) The theme of justice and righteousness runs throughout Amos, but is presented with particular focus in Amos 5. This chapter accuses Israel of numerous social injustices: trampling on the poor and extorting grain (their ...

2755. Habakkuk’s Second Complaint

Habakkuk 2:2-20, Habakkuk 1:12--2:1

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... notes) but it is clear enough that verse 4a refers to someone who is not upright in spirit or desire or appetite (nefesh) and that verse 5a similarly refers to someone who is arrogant (Prov. 21:24, the only other occurrence of this word, illustrates its implications). The remaining four lines of verse 5 put flesh on this and make clear that the “person” that the verses are describing indeed stands for the superpower that takes over all the nations in Habakkuk’s world. Perhaps it sees itself (or ...

2756. Warnings and Exhortations for Jerusalem and Judah

Zephaniah 1:1-3, Zephaniah 1:4-13, Zephaniah 1:14--2:3

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... about Judah and Jerusalem. Zephaniah lambasts it for worshiping gods other than Yahweh and for reckoning that Yahweh will never take action against it. In 2:1–3 he then indicates the response that the prophecy requires. The passage 1:2–2:3 illustrates well the ambiguity in the Prophets concerning whether the prophet speaks as Yahweh or for Yahweh, and of the way Yahweh can move between speaking in the first person and self-referring in the third person. The text alternates unsystematically between these ...

2757. A Call to Return to the Lord

Zechariah 1:1-6

Understanding Series

Pamela J. Scalise

... warning and judgment, but also God’s will expressed in law, as predators or enemy attackers from which the ancestors could not escape. The text does not mention here the human armies who carried out the attack. This sentence succinctly illustrates the relationship between God, prophetic messengers, and the people. Prophets set God’s word loose in the world to accomplish God’s will, generation after generation. Then they repented reports what the succeeding generation did. Survivors of the Babylonian ...

2758. The Man Among Myrtle Trees

Zechariah 1:7-17

Understanding Series

Pamela J. Scalise

... of sufferers, even ones who are suffering as a consequence of their sin. (Jer. 30:12–17 is a particularly good example of this perspective.) The same dynamic is found in prayers for help (laments) and other prophecy. We have already seen the second principle illustrated in verse 12: the extent of the judgment is limited. Seventy years, or the length of a good long life, is the period at issue for Zechariah’s audience. Verse 15 expresses the third principle: God says, “I was only a little angry” with ...

2759. When Jesus Prays

John 17:20-26

Sermon

King Duncan

... the Lord very much. They were Roman Catholic and talked about their concern for Christian unity and how in Jesus Christ all of us have been made one. The woman reached into her purse and took out a card. She said that it was a portrait of Jesus that illustrated the meaning of Christian unity in a powerful way. Her card was very wrinkled; obviously she had had it for a long time and had looked at it a great deal. As you looked at this picture at arm’s length, you could see an ordinary picture of Jesus ...

2760. A Woman Burdened with Guilt

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

King Duncan

... a Redeemer and thus do not know the joy of being redeemed. This woman who anointed Jesus’ feet with her tears knew, and so she loved Jesus with a love that the righteous Pharisee could never know. 1. This sermon is adapted from a classic sermon from Dynamic Preaching. This illustration was contributed. The source is unknown. 2. Jen Barnet, http://www.lakestreetumc.org/Sermons14/JB050414.htm.

2761. John the Baptist's Testimony about Jesus

John 3:22-36

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... had had with an anonymous Jew about ceremonial washing (including, presumably, baptism). The nature of the dispute is unclear, but the disciples’ remark perhaps echoes something the Jew had said about the apparent success of Jesus’ ministry of baptism. If so, the scene aptly illustrates the situation referred to in 4:1: Jesus and John are seen as rivals, and Jesus appears to be the more successful of the two. Even while recalling John’s earlier testimony to Jesus in 1:19–34, John’s disciples seem ...

2762. Jesus Heals the Official’s Son

John 4:43-54

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... The repetition of these exact words in verses 50 and 53 (cf. also v. 51) both verifies the miracle and makes the point that Jesus’ words are life-giving words. The restoration of the physical life and health of the government official’s son illustrates and reinforces Jesus’ promises made earlier at Jerusalem (3:15–16) and in Samaria (4:14, 36). To some degree it also anticipates his self-revelation as giver of life in the following chapter (5:19–29). For the moment, these deeper implications are ...

2763. Spiritual Blindness

John 9:35-41

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... setting and probably in the earliest recounting of the incident. The fact that the former blind man’s confession of faith comes only after his expulsion from the synagogue is strong evidence that the narrator’s concern here is historical, not just theological or illustrative. Though the man born blind is presented as a typical convert from Judaism to Christianity, he is also a real person with a real history. The case study is an actual case, not a made-up one, and clearly not a parable or allegory ...

2764. Jesus Predicts His Death

John 12:20-36

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

The principle that the “whole world has gone after” Jesus (v. 19) finds immediate illustration in some Greeks who were among the worshipers at the festival (v. 20). Their request to see Jesus was directed at Philip (cf. 1:43–44), ceremoniously passed along by him to Andrew, and by the two of them to Jesus (vv. 21–22). These two disciples have been seen ...

2765. Jesus Washes His Disciples’ Feet

John 13:1-17, John 13:18-30

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... is himself the beloved disciple or whether he is drawing on eyewitness material that comes from this person, he seems to assume the beloved disciple’s place at the table and to write from his standpoint. The ignorance of the rest of the disciples is illustrated by their misunderstanding of Jesus’ last words to Judas, What you are about to do, do quickly (v. 27). The statement that No one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him (v. 28) gives evidence of being written from the beloved disciple ...

2766. The Impending Departure II

John 16:5-16, John 16:17-33

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... message of verses 8–11 amounts to a Christian redefinition of all that was of vital concern to the Jews. Yet the same message will confront the pagan world as well (cf. 18:33–38). Paul’s confrontation with the Roman governor Felix aptly illustrates these verses; when Paul spoke to this pagan official and his Jewish wife about “righteousness [i.e., “justice”], self-control and the judgment to come” (Acts 24:25), the governor was afraid and told Paul to leave. Nowhere is it made plainer than in ...

2767. The Arrest of Jesus

John 18:1-11, John 18:12-14

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... he has already been placed on the other side, with the adversaries, standing there with them as they were driven back by Jesus’ self-revelation (v. 5). The narrator’s comment in verse 9 makes the physical safety of Jesus’ disciples an illustration of their spiritual well-being. Jesus himself takes full responsibility for their flight at the time of his arrest and incorporates it into the divine purpose. They are indeed “scattered, each to his own home” (16:32), yet Jesus’ prayer has restored ...

2768. The Second Appearance and Its Sequel

John 20:19-23, John 20:24-31

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... by Thomas) was overcome and their faith in Jesus found its voice in the decisive confession My Lord and my God (v. 28). This means that verses 19–29 present essentially one resurrection appearance of Jesus in two stages, a week apart. Together, they illustrate the same ambiguity about the disciples’ faith that has been present in the narrative all along (cf., e.g., 16:29–33) and dramatize the terse statement of Matthew’s Gospel that when Jesus appeared to the disciples on a mountain in Galilee ...

2769. The Third Appearance

John 21:1-14

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... men” (Mark 1:17), that is, of winning converts to Christianity by proclaiming the message of Jesus. The full net (153 fish is a lot of fish when they are all large) indicates the successful completion of that mission, while the unbroken net (contrast Luke 5:6) illustrates the principle, voiced by Jesus several times, that “I have not lost one of those [the Father] gave me” (18:9; cf. 6:39; 10:28; 17:12). Yet when the metaphor is pressed too far, confusion is the result. If the 153 big fish represent ...

2770. No Confidence in the Flesh

Philippians 3:1-11

Understanding Series

F. F. Bruce

... Epiphanes (175–164 B.C.) set himself to abolish it (cf. 1 Macc. 2:42; 7:14; 2 Macc. 14:6). At an earlier date those pious groups receive honorable mention in Malachi 3:16–4:3; their devotion to the divine law is illustrated by Psalm 119. The term Pharisees means “separated ones”; it has been variously explained, but among those so designated it probably emphasized their separation from everything that might convey ethical or ceremonial impurity. They built up a body of oral tradition which was ...

2771. Joy at Believers’ Walking in the Truth

3 John 1:1-14

Understanding Series

Thomas F. Johnson

... Give me money,’ … you must not heed him …” (11:12). “Every one who comes to you ‘in the name of the Lord’ must be welcomed. Afterward, when you have tested him, you will find out about him” (12:1). The passages from the Didache illustrate not only the widespread and necessary practice of hospitality in ancient times but also the need for discernment in providing financial support. The term ethnikos (pagan, Gentile) occurs only four times in the NT, once here and three times in the Gospel of ...

2772. Cain and Abel

Genesis 4:1-26

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... are unable to live in harmony. Hatred propels Cain to murder his own brother. The tragic, brute power of sin also finds expression in Lamech’s boasting song, in which he brazenly gloats over a wanton killing while pronouncing threats against others. These incidents illustrate how Adam and Eve’s disobedience unleashed sin as a destructive power in society and brought death into the world. This chapter has four parts: the births of Cain and Abel (vv. 1–2a), Cain’s murder of Abel (vv. 2b–16), Cain ...

2773. Dinah and the Shechemites

Genesis 34:1-31

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... s sons made no reference in their counterproposal to trading and buying land, the two motivating factors that Hamor had set forth, further supports this. Not picking up on these incongruities, Hamor and Shechem blindly accepted their terms. This episode illustrates the dangers that the seed of Abraham faced any time they entered into a pact with the inhabitants of Canaan. A cornerstone for accommodation between two groups was intermarriage; entering into such unions for Jacob’s small family, however, held ...

2774. Joseph’s Dreams

Genesis 37:1-11

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... toward Joseph, Joseph must have spoken ill of all his brothers, not just those by the concubines. This incident suggests that Joseph continually influenced his father’s attitude negatively toward his brothers. 37:3–4 The Joseph narrative begins with an illustration of Israel’s deep love for Rachel’s firstborn. He lavished on Joseph a richly ornamented robe or cloak. The upper class wore this type of garment; its design precluded manual labor (von Rad, Genesis, p. 351). Immediately becoming a symbol ...

2775. Pharaoh's Dreams

Genesis 41:1-40

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... not that Joseph no longer remembered his family or the hard times but that the bitterness of that memory had been eased. His second son he named Ephraim, . . . because God had made him fruitful in the land of his suffering. The meanings of these names illustrate Joseph’s attitude toward the hard years he had endured and foreshadow the way he would relate to his brothers. 41:53–57 Seven years later, as God had forewarned Pharaoh, the famine began. It proved to be a terrible famine, spreading well beyond ...

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