Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 4201 to 4225 of 4884 results

4201. Jesus and the Miraculous Catch of Fish

John 21:1-14

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... species. In effect John would be saying that all people are part of the church’s mission. But evidence for this interpretation is slim. Some scholars suggest mathematical sums (1 + 2 + 3 . . . + 17 = 153. And 17 = 10 + 7, two numbers of perfection) (e.g., Barrett, 581–82). But the riddle remains unsolved. Essentially Jesus is emphasizing the mission of the disciples. When Jesus directs their work, they will prosper. And the beloved disciple has indeed chosen the correct task: to remain with the fish ...

4202. The Fellowship of the Believers

Acts 2:42-47

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... or a perverse sense of economic utility, but in the “apostles’ teaching” (2:42) that points to the power of the work of Jesus Christ. Moreover, this practice is not to be universally imposed, as some believers still own personal property (cf. 4:37), and the perfect unity of the Christian community is a reality that is yet to be fulfilled (cf. 5:1–11). Their practice of “breaking of bread” (2:42) provides continuity with the practice of the earthly Jesus (cf. Luke 5:27–32; 7:34; 9:10–17; 15 ...

4203. Paul's Vision and His Thorn

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... his experience, that it was painful for him, and that it had enabled Satan and the thought of sin to gain entrance to his mind. Paul had “pleaded with the Lord” to remove it (12:8). But in response, he received instead divine power that finds its perfect completion when it enables the overcoming of such weak-ness. Paul’s experience itself then illustrates his message to the church. The true boast of an apostle, of one sent out by the Lord on a mission (for that is what the title truly means), is that ...

4204. Final Warnings

2 Corinthians 13:1-10

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... doing anything against the truth if it is known within. Furthermore, because his primary concern is for the Corinthians, Paul is glad to admit both his own weaknesses and their strengths. Indeed, his “prayer” is not primarily for himself but for the increasing “perfection” of his converts in actions that accord with the truth (13:9). And the same motive explains why he writes. For Paul would rather make timely use in a letter of the authority that the Lord has given him for “building up” if ...

4205. Correcting Cephas

Galatians 2:11-21

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... see Gal. 3:28). Paul acknowledges his own position among the “Jews by birth” but goes on to explain that this “advantage” (see Romans 2–3) only allows Jews to be even more sensitive to the need for God’s justification because of their own inability to perfectly follow the torah (i.e., the biblical law). Paul, then, has not denied the Jewish advantage; he only shows that the advantage in itself is not enough to provide a right standing with God. The key verse of the section is verse 16. We find a ...

4206. Therefore Walk in Unity

Ephesians 4:1-16

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... up the church, so that the believers all attain to unity of faith and knowledge of God’s Son, which will make them truly mature, fully human—by God’s standard, not their own (4:13). That standard is the fullness of Christ, humanity perfected (see Eph. 3:19). In short, the goal is that we do what Christ himself does. The corresponding immaturity is susceptible to the cunning and appeal of human opinions, especially regarding relations between God and humanity (4:14). Instead, by living the truth in ...

4207. Paul’s Life as an Example of the Truth of the Gospel

Philippians 3:1-11

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... ,” to be a total “loss” for the sake of knowing Christ. The word translated as “what is more,” which begins 3:8, is an extremely strong expression in Greek, which indicates the complete reversal of Paul’s former values, and the perfect tense of the verb “consider” in this verse indicates the continuing effects of this reversal. Even the meaning of the words “gains” and “loss” is reversed—what were “gains” according to the Jewish law are now considered “loss for the sake of ...

4208. Set Your Heart and Mind On Things Above

Colossians 3:1-17

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... sentiment is expressed in Romans 12:2, where the believers are to renounce this world and be transformed by renewing their minds (see also 2 Cor. 4:16). Genesis 1:26–27 speaks of humankind being made in God’s image, but later sin destroys that perfection (Gen. 3:6–19). Colossians 1:15 insists that Christ is the image of the invisible God, and Paul’s claim in 3:10 indicates that, in Christ, humanity has been restored to fullness and completeness. Today we tend to read such passages as referring ...

4209. False Teaching

2 Timothy 3:1-9

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... relations with the false teachers (the latter may explain Paul’s concern with sexual purity in these two letters—see 1 Tim. 2:9–10; 3:2; 5:2, 11–15). Regardless, these women have an insatiable religious hunger, and this hunger perfectly complements the false teachers and their manipulative speculations. Paul likens the false teachers to the magicians who opposed Moses and produced lying miracles before Pharaoh (Exod. 7:11–12, 22; 8:7—Paul uses names supplied by Jewish tradition). Further, Paul ...

4210. Leaders and Rebels

Titus 1:1-16

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... church life on an island that is home to some of Greek civilization’s most ancient memories. Moreover, Titus is a veteran of Paul’s battle over Jewish custom and teaching in Gentile churches (Gal. 2:3). Paul considers him the perfect emissary for dealing with a situation in which teachers “of the circumcision” (1:10) complicate these new converts’ situation. In this salutation, Paul deliberately emphasizes the purpose of his apostleship rather than its source. God’s elect people should be ...

4211. Jesus Made Like His Brothers

Hebrews 2:5-18

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... itself harks back to Genesis 1:26 and the supreme dignity bestowed on humanity, God’s unique image bearer and vice regent. Elsewhere in the New Testament (Matt. 21:16; 1 Cor. 15:27; Eph. 1:22) it receives a messianic interpretation. Jesus is the perfect fulfillment of that dignity as the Son of man and last Adam. The incarnate Son’s history has two periods: that of his humiliation and that of his eternal exaltation. Those in Christ recapitulate his history—they too, though lower now, will one day rule ...

4212. Warning against Falling Away

Hebrews 5:11-6:12

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... , all evil thoughts and actions from which the conscience must be cleansed (Heb. 9:14; cf. Rom. 6:21). Though the believer is obliged to pursue maturity, God’s grace and action are necessary (6:1 reads, literally, “let us be carried to perfection”). The NIV omits the “for” with which verse 4 begins and which indicates that in the case of apostates, God is unwilling and not permitting (6:3). Perhaps some in this community had already apostatized; others were alarmingly near to doing so, prompting ...

4213. The Blood of Christ

Hebrews 9:11-28

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... containing the ashes of a heifer [Numbers 19] could be due to the significance attached to such ceremonies of cleansing in nonconformist Judaism; cf. Dead Sea Scrolls, Rule of the Community 2:25–3:12). But the sacrifice of the incarnate Son of God, infinite in his perfection as a substitute for his guilty people (Heb. 2:9–10), actually satisfied the demands of God’s justice on their behalf and turned away his holy wrath from them (Heb. 1:3; 2:17; 9:27, 28); it thus provided the removal of sin and ...

4214. Concluding Exhortations

Hebrews 13:1-25

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... imitate the sturdy faith of those one has known in the flesh and to whom one is greatly indebted. Whether “outcome” suggests martyrdom or, as is probable, simply the righteous character of their lives, they are apparently now numbered among the “spirits of the righteous made perfect” (12:23) and thus serve as examples of those who have persevered to the end. Amid all the uncertainties of life in this world, the character and word of Jesus Christ stand firm (13:8; see also 1:12; 7:24–25; 10:23). He ...

4215. Listening and Doing

James 1:19-27

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... heard. But the person who carefully listens to God’s word and continues to put it into practice, not forgetting it—this person receives God’s approval (1:25). It should be noted that the “word” of verse 22 has become in verse 25 “the perfect law that gives freedom.” This is indicative of James’s holistic understanding of God’s word: the “word of truth” (1:18) that regenerates us is also God’s law that demands our heartfelt obedience. For James this “law” clearly involves some Old ...

4216. The Sin of Favoritism

James 2:1-13

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... the infringement of any one law incurs the penalty for the breaking of the whole law. This is so because the law is the expression of God’s demand; ultimately, one either meets or fails to meet that demand—there can be no partial perfection. Therefore, James concludes, we had better speak and act with the realization that our conduct will be measured by the standard of “the law that gives freedom” (2:12). James’s Christian understanding of the law is implied here again by this description (see ...

4217. True Christian Faith seen In Its Works

James 2:14-26

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... deeds, that you have faith. You can’t do it, can you? But I can point to my deeds as the clear evidence of the reality of my faith. Why, faith without deeds is no better than the intellectual ‘faith’ of demons; they have a perfectly correct ‘theology’ but do not have the commitment to what they believe—their faith has affected their minds, but not their wills. So a faith without deeds is also a less than Christian faith, a bogus faith.” This “foolish person” (2:20), the imaginary objector ...

4218. The Taming of the Tongue

James 3:1-12

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... Acts 20:26–27). One of the reasons the teaching ministry is very difficult is that it makes use of the most dangerous, untamable member of the body: the tongue. So difficult is the tongue to control and subordinate to godly purposes that James calls the person “perfect” who is able to subdue it (3:2). The power of the tongue may seem to be out of proportion to its size. But James reminds us with two pointed illustrations that small objects can have great power. The skillful rider uses a small piece of ...

4219. Preparation for Action

1 Peter 1:13-2:3

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... exhortation “be alert and of sober mind” in 4:7 and 5:8). The mind that is girded up, redirected by the Scriptures, will begin to think in a new way. However threatening the present, the fully girded-up mind will set its hope “perfectly” or “fully” on God’s grace. The redirected mind will focus on God’s priority, holiness. At its heart holiness means separateness: God calls us to be different, because he is different. Peter’s readers must not worry about their distinctiveness that provokes ...

4220. The Question of Sin and the Commandment to Love

1 John 1:5--2:14, 1 John 2:15-17

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... of the Lord: “Love your brothers and sisters!”: The true evidence of knowing Christ is incarnational: obeying his commandments, the chief of which is to love one another. To obey the original commandment of Jesus is to experience God’s love being perfected within (2:5). The elder now moves to the third-person singular in confronting the problematic community member. “Whoever says . . .” is the hook, and the three laudable statements listed are that one has come to know him (2:4), to abide in ...

4221. The Victory That Overcomes the World

1 John 5:1-12

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... one’s sin, one here makes God a liar by not receiving God’s testimony about Jesus’s fleshly humanity (5:10). Might there be a connection here? If claiming to be without sin is less a matter of asserting flawless perfection and more a matter of arguing that cultural and religious assimilation (participating in pagan festivals, worshiping Caesar, maintaining guild memberships with their votive inductions, etc.) are not sinful, these liberties were likely challenged by the docetic teaching that Jesus was ...

4222. The Celestial Woman and the Dragon

Revelation 12:1--13:1a

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... the lineage, history, and faithfulness of God’s people that the Lord’s Messiah was born. Now enters the celestial dragon (12:3). This one is gigantic, fiery red (a symbol of bloodshed and violence; Rev. 6:4), with seven heads (a symbol of mock perfection), having ten horns (a symbol of false power; cf. Dan. 7:7–8), and wearing seven royal crowns (symbols of political authority, unlike the stephanos, or athlete’s laurel, worn by the woman; 12:1). The dragon is the anticreator, who disrupts the order ...

4223. The Beast out of the Earth

Revelation 13:11-18

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... –8; cf. Heb. 11:36–38). Those with Nero’s number would be citizens loyal to Rome who carried on his legacy of corruption, persecution, and vainglory. Alternatively, the number 666 could simply designate sinful humanity. Six is one short of seven, perfection. Therefore, 666 would be complete or utter imperfection and sinfulness (Irenaeus, Against Heresies 5.28.2–3). Although the word “antichrist” is not used anywhere in the book of Revelation, many Christians have thought of the first beast as an ...

4224. Dr. Jekyll Meet Jesus

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... amazing grace. And that brings us to the final way we are set free from the power of sin: that is to humble ourselves following the example of Christ and seek to live a new life by his grace. This does not mean that we arrive at a state of perfection. In this life we never escape completely the nature of Adam. But we do seek by his grace to be conformed to the image of the new Adam, Christ himself--to have the same mind that was in Christ Jesus who humbled himself and became obedient unto God. The writer ...

4225. Accept His Peace

John 4:1-26, Romans 5:1-11, Exodus 17:1-7

Sermon

King Duncan

... water. They are thirsty and complain to Moses, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst? That’s a legitimate complaint, don’t you think? If you are faced with a problem that severe it’s perfectly all right to complain to the Lord. If you’re dying of thirst. If your children are in danger of starving. If you have a terminal illness, you have a right to ask, “Where are you, God?” The children of Israel after an extended in the desert stay ...

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