Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: touch, feel, sense of touch, tactile sense, tactility, contact, using one's hands, sensation, sense, suspicion, sneaking suspicion, notion, inkling, hunch, fancy, apprehension, presentiment, premonition, foreboding, love, care, affection, fondness, tenderness, warmth, warmness, emotion, sentiment, emotional state, compassion, sympathy, empathy, fellow feeling, understanding, concern, solicitude, solicitousness, tender-heartedness, brotherly love, sensibilities, sensitivities, self-esteem, ego, pride, opinion, belief, view, impression, intuition, instinct, estimation, guess, theory, hypothesis, thought, way of thinking, point of view, atmosphere, ambience, aura, air, mood, climate, character, overtone, undertone, tenor, spirit, quality, flavour, colour, aptitude, knack, flair, bent, talent, gift, skill, art, trick, faculty, ability, propensity, inclination, sensitive, warm, warm-hearted, tender, tender-hearted, caring, soft-hearted, sympathetic, compassionate, empathetic, responsive, receptive, intuitive, thoughtful

Antonyms: bad feeling, acrimony, animosity, animus, antagonism, antipathy, aversion, bitterness, detestation, disgust, dislike, disrelish, enmity, friction, grievances, grudges, hatred, hostility, loathing, malevolence, malice

Showing 3801 to 3825 of 4963 results

3801. Signs of the End of the Age

Mark 13:1-31

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... mountains: There is an early tradition reported by the ancient writer Eusebius (Ecclesiastical History, iii, 5.3; about A.D. 300) that Christians living in Jerusalem fled the city to a town called Pella, east of the Jordan River, and that this action was taken in response to an oracle of God given to them before the war. The full accuracy of the tradition is disputed, however, and in any case it is difficult to link the oracle with 13:14. (For discussion of the Jerusalem church in the first century, see, e ...

3802. Jesus Anointed at Bethany

Mark 14:1-11

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... need. If so, the woman’s act was like parting with one’s savings. It was customary to anoint the head of an honored guest at a meal, but the woman’s act went far beyond normal courtesy, and it is little wonder that it aroused the surprised response mentioned in verse 4. It should be understood that it is Jesus who interprets her act as an anticipation of his coming death; there is little reason to think that the woman may have actually meant her gift to be an anointing of Jesus’ body for his coming ...

3803. The Parable of the Lost Sheep

Luke 15:1-7

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

... a man who has a hundred sheep. If one of the sheep becomes lost, what will the man do? By asking the question, Jesus forces his hearers to answer it. Undoubtedly all will answer: “I shall look for it until it is found.” This is the natural human response when something of value is lost. In this case the shepherd is even willing to leave the other ninety-nine in the open country (at some slight risk to them) in order to search for the lost sheep. When he finds it, he is overjoyed and ready to celebrate ...

3804. The Jews and the Law

Romans 2:17-29

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... :6). The premise in verses 17–20 is not that Jews harbored inflated claims of themselves. They had reason to boast in God. Their problem lay not in overestimating their importance, but in failing to live up to it. God’s favor entailed a responsibility, not an exemption. They understood their privileges to excuse them from judgment, whereas Paul argues that their privileges accuse them before God. 2:21–24 Paul now proceeds from the protasis to the apodosis or main point of his argument. On the basis of ...

3805. No One Is Righteous

Romans 3:9-20

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... sin. The noun is introduced here for the first time in Romans (a verb at 2:12), although a full explanation of sin is reserved until 5:12–7:25. Under sin is a crucial motif in Paul. The apostle, of course, believed that persons were responsible for individual transgressions, but such transgressions were only symptoms of an inner grip of evil on the human race. Paul seldom speaks of sins (as individual acts), but rather of sin as a singular nature, which he tends to personify. Sin is an external power ...

3806. Abraham Justified by Faith

Romans 4:1-25

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... of faith, grace, and promise. Abraham had to elect one option or the other. Where one endeavors to make oneself worthy of a gift, there one tries, however subtly, to take credit for something intended freely. Where there is no faith as the humble and grateful response to God’s promise, there can be no righteousness. When God makes a promise, one either receives the promise by faith or forfeits the promise. “For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his ...

3807. Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ

Romans 6:1-14

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... in dreams of future glory, but to exhort them to moral resolution here and now. To be sure, Christ’s resurrection is a prelude to believers’ resurrection at the endtime, but it bears fruit today by calling believers to moral regeneration and responsibility. The Christian life is not a new attitude or better philosophy, but the release of righteousness into everyday life in an inexorable movement, step-by-step, toward Christ-likeness. 6:5–7 Continuing with the theme of death and resurrection, Paul ...

3808. Living Sacrifices

Romans 12:1-8

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... cultivate our talents, or improve our morals, but to redeem the whole person, and beyond that the world itself. As creator of the universe, sustainer of all things, and eternal judge, God is Lord of all things. If God loves the whole person, then the only fitting response is to return the whole person to that love, to offer our bodies as living sacrifices (v. 1). This sacrifice is holy and pleasing to God and our spiritual … worship. If “God is for us” (8:31) then God is free from the charge of being ...

3809. Love, for the Day Is Near

Romans 13:8-14

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... like us, not even because they are chosen by us, but because they are given to us by God with a need which we can meet. Indeed, Christ himself meets us in that need (Matt. 25:40, 45). Whereas in the foregoing section Paul anchored love to civic responsibility, here he defends against conceiving of love as a euphoric high. Love is not a world apart, but the transformation of this world. It is not above the law but it fulfills the law (v. 8), and keeping the commandments is an expression of agapē. In verse 9 ...

3810. Paul the Minister to the Gentiles

Romans 15:14-22

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... not a consequence of God’s grace to him. If advice is nothing more than one person speaking to another, then well ought restraint or silence be observed; but where advice is prompted by grace and is thus more than human speech, there it has a higher responsibility to God and can be spoken quite boldly. If in his advice Paul treads on the limits of propriety, he quickly adds that it is only to remind you … again (v. 15) of that which the church everywhere teaches and takes for granted. Verse 16 provides ...

3811. Personal Greetings

Romans 16:1-27

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... of verse 19, I want you to be wise about what is good and innocent about what is evil must have been guided by Matthew 10:16. This may strike the reader (especially the modern reader who is attuned to social injustice) as a rather complacent response. Obedience, however, is not complacency. True, there is no hint of retaliation against opposition here, and it is that which may appear naive to modern readers. But of what use is physical force against spiritual powers? They must be met on their own terms, i.e ...

3812. The Believer's Freedom

1 Corinthians 10:23--11:1

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

... . Implicitly he agrees with those in Corinth who say that the food has not been tainted through association with idols and that they are free to eat it. Nevertheless, when a third party becomes involved, the Christians have a different set of responsibilities. As Paul said, Christians are to think of others, not of themselves (v. 24). Thus, when another person informs the Christians of the association of the food with idols—perhaps out of concern for the Christians, perhaps out of concern for themselves ...

3813. Spiritual Gifts

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

... parameters of legitimate enthusiasm. The Holy Spirit moves the one under the power of the Holy Spirit to declare, “Jesus is Lord”! Other NT authors and writings faced this same dilemma in the life of the early church, and while patterns of language vary in response to each distinctive situation, the solutions offered by the NT authors are remarkably consistent: see Mark 9:38–40; John 15:26; 1 John 4:1–3. Additional Notes 12:1 The language at the outset of the discussion is ambiguous in Gk., but the ...

3814. The Resurrection of the Dead

1 Corinthians 15:12-34

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

... God in resurrection from the dead) did not deal with the sins of the Corinthians. Thus, anyone in Christ who died simply perished. Paul’s argument has led the Corinthians to an undesirable conclusion, quite deliberately. 15:19 One can read this verse as Paul’s response to or rejection of a statement that the Corinthians made (only for this life we have hope in Christ), but in the wake of the argument generated in verses 16–18, it is more likely that Paul is driving home the unacceptable nature of the ...

3815. The Throne in Heaven

Revelation 4:1-11

Understanding Series

Robert W. Wall

... only those who are faithful to God’s Christ (Luke 22:28; cf. Rev. 14:1–5); and, second, those who rule over eschatological Israel as their elders are those apostles to whom Jesus delivers his “testament” and in whom he has entrusted the responsibility for Israel’s restoration (Luke 22:29–30; cf. Rev. 21:14). If we suppose that John recognizes the vision of the twenty-four elders by the Jesus tradition, then for him the heavenly chorus of elders exemplifies the community of the “true” Israel ...

3816. 144,000 Sealed

Revelation 7:1-8

Understanding Series

Robert W. Wall

... to the martyrs’ question, “How long?” while the second half (i.e., the vision of the great multitude) responds to fallen humanity’s lament, “Who can stand?” By combining both concerns into a single passage, John suggests that both questions are appropriate responses to the reign of God that has triumphed through the slain Lamb. The sealing of the 144,000 is prefaced by an exchange between four angels standing at the four corners of the earth and another angel … having the seal of … God. The ...

3817. The Beast out of the Sea

Revelation 13:1b-10

Understanding Series

Robert W. Wall

... his messianic vocation, and having been exiled from heaven to earth where he can no longer influence the decisions of the Cosmocrater, the dragon turns his malicious attention to God’s people on earth. He is naturally upset over his recent demotion, and his response is to lash out at those who are associated with the one who brought him down. The reader already knows from the flashback (12:6; and repeated in 12:13–14) that the church’s desert home symbolizes its tribulation, made even more difficult ...

3818. The Lamb and the 144,000

Revelation 14:1-5

Understanding Series

Robert W. Wall

... Babylon and sets it on the path to God’s shalom as firstfruits to God and the Lamb (cf. Jer. 2:3; Ladd, Revelation, p. 192). God’s salvation is the experience of a covenantal people, who live and worship in a relationship of shared responsibility. Faithful disciples of the sort who make up the 144,000 are untainted by the lies and fictions of secularism and materialism, and they are blameless and therefore acceptable to God. However, their eschatological fitness is not only the result of their faithful ...

3819. The Three Angels

Revelation 14:6-13

Understanding Series

Robert W. Wall

... redeemed from the earth” (14:3; apo tēs gēs), from these unredeemed who dwell on the earth (epi tēs gēs). The question forced by the seer at this point is this: how can the eternal gospel be “good news” for God’s enemies? Our response to this important question is threefold. First, the eternality of the gospel reminds the reader that its content is theocentric; it is rooted in the truth of the eternal God, “who was, and is, and is to come” (4:8). This point is underscored if, as Ford and ...

3820. The New Jerusalem

Revelation 21:1-27

Understanding Series

Robert W. Wall

... ethical (orthopraxy) conditions of covenant. Thus, those who belong to the second death rather than “first resurrection” (cf. Rev. 20:4–6) are the cowardly, the unbelieving … the idolaters and all liars who can not belong to the messianic community because of improper responses to God. They are not dressed in the “fine linen” of righteous deeds; they have not followed the Lamb, and so they cannot drink from the spring of the water of life; rather they are thrown into the waters of the fiery lake ...

3821. The Arrangement of Tribal Camps

Numbers 2:1-34

Understanding Series

W.H. Bellinger, Jr.

... , and here the Priestly editors are intentional about that order rather than working from some implicit hierarchy, which could be open to manipulation and misuse. The lines of accountability are clear. Along with positions of authority come responsibilities; the Levites are a good example. They are responsible for the Tent of Meeting at the center of the camp. These emphases anticipate what is to come in Numbers 3–4. The tribal lists show that positions of prominence can change. The notion that God can ...

3822. Balak Summons Balaam

Numbers 22:1-20

Understanding Series

W.H. Bellinger, Jr.

... narrative: Those you bless are blessed, and those you curse are cursed. The messengers, described in verse 7 as elders of Moab and Midian, take a fee for Balaam and relay Balak’s message to him. Balaam asks that they stay the night and promises a response. Balaam then consults God and informs God of Balak’s request. God responds with instructions not to go to Balak: You must not put a curse on those people, because they are blessed. Balaam reports this decision to the messengers and sends them back to ...

3823. The Birth of Samuel

1 Samuel 1:1-20

Understanding Series

Mary J. Evans

... undoubted, but particularly in this polygamous situation, it was not enough to replace one child, let alone the ten he suggests it might. 1:9–16 The writers clearly and sensitively portray the deep distress of Hannah’s prayer at the door of the sanctuary. Prayer is the natural response to Hannah’s situation: it is God, the giver of life, who has closed her womb, and it is only God who can open it. Hannah’s prayer is not meant to be a bribe to God: “give me a son and I promise I’ll give him back ...

3824. Samuel Anoints Saul

1 Sam 9:1–10:8

Understanding Series

Mary J. Evans

... statement that all the desire of Israel is turned to Saul and his family is obscure. Samuel perhaps wanted to be certain that this was God’s way forward before he committed himself. However, Saul’s response indicates that he has understood Samuel to be assigning him a significant task within Israel. His response may reflect a genuine humility and lack of self-confidence, but it may also be a normal part of Eastern good manners requiring self-effacement. The double mention of his tribe (v. 21) may have ...

3825. Samuel Rebukes Saul

1 Samuel 13:1-15

Understanding Series

Mary J. Evans

... . However, his decision was to prove disastrous for Saul. 13:13–14 There is no question of the kingship being taken away from Saul at this stage. However, Samuel informs him that his behavior means that he will never be able to found a dynasty. Samuel’s response may have had its root in his keen memories of the attempt of earlier military leaders to manipulate God by using the ark as a kind of good-luck charm. Saul’s action could be seen as following a similar pattern and making the same theological ...

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