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Antonyms: keep, claim, continue, stick by, self-control, power through, achieve, defend, bear, hope, acquire, quick visit, adopt, continue along, adhere, remain, pursue, support, take up, keep up, reuse, advocate, stay, persevere, cherish, keep going, carry on

Showing 3126 to 3150 of 4943 results

3126. The Word Became Flesh

John 1:1-18

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... One and Only (v. 18). The deity of Jesus Christ is presupposed throughout, yet the message is not simply that Jesus is God. The message is that because he is God his ministry on earth has made God known to us, and that now at the Father’s side he continues to make God known through the Spirit (cf. 17:26). Throughout this Gospel, we see and hear him doing just that. Additional Notes 1:1 Was God: The absence in Greek of the definite article with “God” has led some to assume it to be used as an adjective ...

3127. Jesus Teaches Nicodemus

John 3:1-21

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... the positive Christian testimony is set forth in verses 14–17. The earthly things (v. 12) are the impossibilities of the preceding section, while the heavenly things represent the good news of eternal life through the gift of God’s Son. The note of impossibility continues in the pronouncement that no one has ever gone into heaven (v. 13a), but a crucial exception marks a change of tone: except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man (v. 13b). The time perspective of this verse and the verses that ...

3128. Testimonies About Jesus

John 5:31-47

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... think you will find life; these very Scriptures speak about me! Do not think that I have come to accuse you to my Father. Moses, in whom you have put your hope, is the very one who will accuse you.” (cf. vv. 39, 45; the fragment continues with a saying parallel to John 9:29). See E. Hennecke and W. Schneemelcher, New Testament Apocrypha (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1964), vol. 1, pp. 94–97. 5:43 If someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. The someone (Gr.: allos: lit., “another”) is ...

3129. Jesus the Bread of Life

John 6:25-59

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... as one who can satisfy their physical hunger and (they hope) their political ambitions as well (cf. 6:15). They think they have found him, but they have not. They have been fed, yet they have not begun to receive what Jesus has to give. Their search must therefore continue (cf. Luke 11:9–10). What they do not yet realize is that food is a metaphor. Like Jesus himself, whose food was “to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work” (4:34), they must work … for food that endures to eternal ...

3130. Jesus and Those Who “Believed”

John 8:31-41, John 8:42-47, John 8:48-59

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... from God the Father, and put them into practice. But his opponents’ answer (v. 39) demonstrates that their Abrahamic descent is more important to them than Jesus’ appeal on his Father’s behalf. 8:39 If you were … you would do: Some ancient manuscripts continue the note of appeal by making the second verb in this sentence an imperative: “If you are Abraham’s children, … then do” (NIV margin). But the beginning of the following verse in Greek (“But now you are trying to kill me”) makes it ...

3131. Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind

John 9:1-12

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... light of the world. Cf. 8:12. In Matt. 5:14, Jesus uses “light of the world” to describe his disciples. But here, despite the “we” of the preceding verse, the focus is on Jesus in his uniqueness. The light is in the world as long as he continues at work, and the darkness is the hour of his Passion. 9:7 (This word means Sent). The etymology of Siloam as Sent is not artificially created for the sake of the author’s symbolism. The water in the pool was, after all, literally, sent, or conducted, from ...

3132. The Plot to Kill Jesus

John 11:45-57

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... 55–56 (unlike “the Jews” in 7:11, a similar passage in some ways) are not hostile to Jesus, but neutral (more like the “crowds” in 7:12). If they knew where Jesus had previously been staying, they did not tell the authorities. The identification and continuity of the crowds of people mentioned throughout chapter 12 is a difficult matter, and it is natural to ask whether the large crowd of Jews in 12:9 who came to Bethany to see Jesus and Lazarus can be identified with the group looking for Jesus ...

3133. The Last Passover

John 12:1-11

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... ) that there was one particular crowd of worshipers (from Ephraim) that looked for Jesus at Jerusalem before the festival (vv. 55–56), found him at Bethany (12:9), and finally bore witness to his miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead (12:17). To some extent, the continuity can be tested as we go along, but there is no way to prove (or disprove) the notion that the crowd came first from Ephraim. Embedded between the search for Jesus and the finding of him is the story of his anointing at Bethany by Mary ...

3134. Crucified, Dead, and Buried

John 19:17-27, John 19:28-37, John 19:38-42

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... life is only possible because of Jesus’ death. Just as he quenches thirst by becoming thirsty, so he provides “living water” (4:14; 7:38) in no other way than by shedding his blood. The account of Jesus’ burial (vv. 38–42) is a natural continuation of the events associated with the removal of his body from the cross (vv. 31–37). As far as Pilate was concerned, the granting of permission to Joseph of Arimathea to take charge of Jesus’ body was simply an extension of the permission he had ...

3135. The Third Appearance

John 21:1-14

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... each other (cf. 13:1–20). John’s Gospel, unlike Luke’s, is not the first half of a two-part work, yet chapter 21 functions as a small “Acts of the Apostles,” told in the form of one more symbolic narrative or sign rather than a continuous account of the establishment and expansion of the church in history. After the sign, it remains only to compare briefly the acts of two apostles in particular as models of what it means to follow Jesus. Additional Notes 21:2 From Cana in Galilee: The notice is ...

3136. Jesus, Peter, and the Beloved Disciple

John 21:15-25

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... 14:3), the hope of it must not be made to depend on the survival of a single individual. Though Jesus had promised that “if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death” (8:51; cf. 11:26), he knew that physical death, at least, would be a continuing reality in the world and that none of his followers could be presumed to be exempt from it. His enduring promise was not that any particular person could be certain of living until his return, but that “he who believes in me will live, even though he dies ...

3137. No Confidence in the Flesh

Philippians 3:1-11

Understanding Series

F. F. Bruce

... of the body that were forbidden by the law of Israel (Lev. 19:28; 21:5; Deut. 14:1; cf. 1 Kings 18:28). But it is not to Jews in general that he refers here so scathingly, nor yet to those Jewish Christians who may have continued to circumcise their sons in accordance with ancestral custom. The people against whom Gentile Christians needed to be put on their guard, and whom Paul elsewhere denounces in the same kind of unsparing terms as he uses here, are those who visited Gentile churches and insisted that ...

3138. Exhortations

Philippians 4:2-9

Understanding Series

F. F. Bruce

... the assurance is more valid for those living only a short time before the unknown date of his advent than for those living a longer time before it; but in the sense that Paul’s words probably bear here the Lord is always equally near his people, continually “at hand” (KJV). “Christ, then, is ever at our doors; as near eighteen hundred years ago as now, and not nearer now than then, and not nearer when He comes than now” (Newman, p. 241). 4:6 Because “the Lord is near,” his people need not be ...

3139. The Beginning

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... . The entire created order honored the human exercise of moral obedience to God. 2:1–3 A summary statement tells us that the creation of the heavens and the earth was completed. Since the cosmos was exactly as God wished and since the world was capable of continuing on its own, on the seventh day God rested. In resting God showed that he was neither bound to the creation for support nor limited in any way by it. God blessed the seventh day, setting it apart from all other days by making it holy. From ...

3140. From Adam to Noah

Genesis 5:1-32

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... toledoth formula is preceded by the term “book,” suggesting that the author took the names that follow from a written record. Or it may refer to the following as a “list” or “document.” To stress that the distinctive quality of humans continued after their expulsion from Eden, verses 1a–2 reiterate from the creation account that God created humans (’adam), both male and female, in his likeness (1:26–28). All succeeding humans (’adam) are like the head ancestor Adam (’adam). There is ...

3141. From Shem to Abram

Genesis 11:10-32

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... ’s life from the time he receives God’s call to the time of his death. (See the Introduction for a survey of the Abraham narrative as a unit.) The Abraham narrative opens with a travelog and the family history, or toledoth, of Terah, which begins here, and continues through 25:18. Members of this family set out from their home in Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan (11:31). They stop at Haran, where they decide to settle. Later God commands Abram to go on to Canaan, and Abram obeys. Once there, he moves ...

3142. The Three Visitors

Genesis 18:1-15

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... promise (17:17). The narrative highlights their laughter to underscore the stupendous nature of God’s promise. To counter her unbelief and to reinforce his message, Yahweh reaffirmed that through his intervention Sarah was to bear a son at the appointed time. Continuing to speak to Sarah through Abraham, Yahweh asked him why Sarah had laughed. Yahweh pressed the issue, addressing the note of unbelief in her laughter by asking if there was anything too hard for Yahweh to perform. This is the great question ...

3143. Abraham Tested

Genesis 22:1-19

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... abruptly with a detail that anchors it to real life: Abraham returned to his servants. They gathered up all the goods and set off together for Beersheba. The group who had come to Mount Moriah on a solemn mission returned to Beersheba in joy. There Abraham continued to live. Additional Notes 22:2 In the Hb. “whom you love” is attached to “your only son.” Given the number of terms here for Isaac, it is hard to capture the Hb. wording and emphasis in the Eng. translation. The location of the land of ...

3144. Jacob Gets Isaac's Blessing

Genesis 27:1-40

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... formal expression of his father’s love. Isaac pointed out that he had made Jacob lord over him and that all his relatives were to be his servants. He had sustained him with grain and new wine. What then could he possibly do for his favorite son? Esau continued to plead that his father should give him a blessing. He then wept aloud. Esau expressed much more concern over the loss of the blessing than he did at the loss of the birthright. It is likely that he had resolved that, having sold his birthright, he ...

3145. Jacob’s Flocks Increase

Genesis 30:25-43

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... doing. Then he asked what he could do to provide for his own household. Taking this question as Jacob’s way of asking for a gift, Laban wanted to know what he could give him. Jacob replied that he was not asking for a gift. He would continue on as a shepherd if he could do one thing, that is, build his own flocks. The following transaction is described so elliptically that it is necessary to reconstruct what took place. Jacob proposed that he be permitted to go through all the flocks that day and remove ...

3146. Jacob Flees from Laban

Genesis 31:1-21

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... Laban probably changed the terms of Jacob’s contract in an effort to get terms that would increase the size of his own flocks and limit the growth of Jacob’s flock. Nevertheless, God blessed Jacob, and the size of his flocks continued to increase. There was a continual struggle of wit between these two men as they sought to outdo each other. To convince his wives to leave their father’s house, Jacob emphasized that he had survived their father’s many devices only because God had not allowed Laban ...

3147. Jacob Meets Esau

Genesis 33:1-20

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... P. Šeb. 9:2), not far from Peniel. Sarna (Genesis, p. 231) suggests that Jacob stayed there for a season or two in order to replenish his flocks, depleted by his large gift to Esau. 33:18–20 After an unspecified length of time Jacob continued his journey to the promised land and arrived safely at Shechem. “Safely” communicates that God had fulfilled the conditions of Jacob’s vow about returning to Canaan (28:21). God had been faithful to Jacob through the many trials he faced in Paddan Aram. Jacob ...

3148. Jacob Returns to Bethel

Genesis 35:1-15

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... promised land, Jacob follows in the steps of Abraham. His moving from Shechem to Bethel and then south toward Hebron parallels Abraham’s initial journey through the land of promise. At Bethel God blesses Jacob with the Abrahamic blessing. The imprint of Abraham continues when Jacob and Esau inter their father Isaac in the Cave of Machpelah, the only plot of land in Canaan owned by Abraham (35:27–29). This portion of the Jacob narrative contains three sections: Jacob’s pilgrimage to Bethel (vv. 1–7 ...

3149. Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife

Genesis 39:1-23

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... against God. Joseph understood well that doing wrong to another human is not only a crime but also a sin against God. His fear of God guarded him against being caught by such a tempting offer. 39:10–12 Passing off Joseph’s refusal, Potiphar’s wife continued to entice him to lie with her. One day when Joseph entered the house to work, she was the only one present. Taking advantage of the occasion, she became aggressive, grabbing his cloak and pleading with him to come to bed with her. Terrified at the ...

3150. The Cupbearer and the Baker

Genesis 40:1-23

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

Joseph Interprets the Dreams of Pharaoh’s Servants: Joseph is now about twenty-eight years old (Sarna, Genesis, p. 276). While he has been in Egypt for at least eleven years, the number of years he has spent in prison is uncertain. God nevertheless continues to direct events from behind the scenes. Two things happen in prison that will prove to be crucial for Joseph’s future rise to power. He makes contact with Pharaoh’s personal servants, and he displays his skill at interpreting dreams. During his ...

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