Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: thirstiness, dryness, parched, craving, strong desire, longing, yearning, avidity, hunger, voracity, keenness, eagerness, lust, appetite, passion, love, crave, want, covet, desire, hunger for/after, lust for/after, hanker for/after, have one's heart set on

Antonyms: aversion, distaste, apathy, dislike, hatred, antipathy, disgust, disregard, abhorrence, acrimony, wet, animosity, animus, antagonism, bad feeling, bitterness, be averse to, detestation

Showing 4451 to 4475 of 4959 results

4451. Jesus' Sorrow for Jerusalem

Luke 13:31-35

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

... tradition of killing the prophets that God has sent. The first question that immediately confronts the reader is why the Pharisees, elsewhere presented as Jesus’ enemies (5:17, 21, 30; 6:2, 7; 7:30; 11:38–54; 14:1–6), warn Jesus of Herod’s desire to kill him. Herod had already executed John the Baptist (9:9) for the latter’s condemnation of the former’s immorality. In Jesus’ case, however, Herod may have feared a messianic uprising in Galilee and so sought to put an end to Jesus. (Although it ...

4452. Jesus at a Pharisee's House

Luke 14:1-14

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

... . These people, along with the Gentiles, would be the last people to enter the kingdom of God. Why should anyone invite them to a feast? To eat with such people could result in religious defilement. Therefore, the pious Israelite would quite naturally desire table fellowship with others of similar piety. Jesus, however, does not share this narrow, self-righteous view. His proclamation of the Good News declares that even the lowly and outcast may be included in the kingdom of God. Nowhere is this idea seen ...

4453. The Parable of the Shrewd Manager

Luke 16:1-15

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

... in something deeper, in a quest for an image of uprightness before others.” Such “uprightness” would include ostentatious almsgiving, prayer, and fasting (see Matt. 6:1–18). God knows your hearts: In the Bible the “heart” is the seat of one’s emotions, desires, and loyalty. The heart reveals a person’s character. So when the Bible says that God knows the heart, it means that God knows what a person really is like, what he or she really thinks. detestable in God’s sight: The language is ...

4454. The Authority of Jesus Questioned

Luke 20:1-8

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

... (vv. 41–44); and (6) Jesus’ warning about the teachers of the law (vv. 45–47). Virtually all of this material has been derived from Mark 11:27–12:40. 20:1–8 In 19:47 we were told that the chief priests and the teachers of the law desired to do away with Jesus. Now these same persons approach Jesus, questioning his authority to do the things that he has done. The second question in v. 2 is more specific: Who gave you this authority? The question is a trap. Had Jesus answered that his authority to ...

4455. Jesus Prays on the Mount of Olives

Luke 22:39-46

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

... Jesus insisted that following him was no easy task (9:57–62). Now he himself faces a difficult task that calls for the utmost commitment to God’s will. Some manuscripts insert vv. 43–44 here, which surely reflects an early Christian scribe’s desire to show an immediate and dramatic answer to Jesus’ prayer. Fitzmyer (p. 1444) gives several reasons why he thinks that these verses should not be regarded as part of the original Gospel of Luke (Marshall [p. 832] accepts the verses as original, “but ...

4456. The Crucifixion

Luke 23:26-43

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

... , while Stephen’s similar prayer would not? The Lucan prayers of forgiveness are not clever devices that are designed, as part of an anti-Semitic agenda, to advance the plot of the Lucan narrative (as J. T. Sanders maintains). These prayers represent a genuine desire for reconciliation. It is hard to believe that if the evangelist were truly anti-Semitic, as Sanders supposes, he would go out of his way to supply two prayers of forgiveness in behalf of persons who have been presented as wrongly putting to ...

4457. The Jews and the Law

Romans 2:17-29

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... , and robbing temples? Is Paul overstating the case to make a point? Were not Jews on the whole innocent of such censorious deeds? Luther, apparently sensing hyperbole on Paul’s part, says such things “refer to the attitudes of the inner man,” to the desires of humanity to do such things, as Paul later attests in 7:16–18 (Lectures on Romans, pp. 57–58). Paul, in Luther’s understanding, is referring not to deeds but to intentions, to the problem of the hardened heart. These are the things Jews ...

4458. Righteousness Through Faith

Romans 3:21-31

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... It might be regarded as such if the discussion were divorced from 1:18–3:20. Three times in 3:25–26, however, Paul declares that righteousness by faith demonstrated God’s justice. How can this be? Moral outcries against injustice arise from parties desiring redress (i.e., from innocent parties which have been wronged), but they are never heard from guilty parties. Whether one is the wronged or the wrongdoer makes a vast difference in one’s attitude towards the decision of the judge. The party in the ...

4459. Death Through Adam, Life Through Christ

Romans 5:12-21

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... are two ways of being “like God.” One is positive, in which we honor and emulate God, whereby to “be like God” is admirable. But the temptation story carries a negative sense of rivaling God and willing to displace God. It begins with a desire to discredit God (“ ‘Did God really say?’ ”), and ends with a willful disobedience of God’s concrete command. In a mysterious and terrible way Adam’s sin becomes our sin. Genesis 3 is the story of every sinful act. All humanity disputes God’s ...

4460. Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ

Romans 6:1-14

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... :8–11 Several important Greek manuscripts append “our Lord” to Christ Jesus at the end of verse 11, but this is probably a “liturgical expansion” (cf. v. 23). See Metzger, TCGNT, p. 513. 6:12–14 The ancient manuscripts are divided whether its evil desires (v. 12) refers back to mortal body or to sin. The manuscript weight would appear to tip the balance in favor of mortal body (hence, autou rather than autē). This is reinforced by the sense of v. 13. Bengel comments that “the bodily appetites ...

4461. Slaves to Righteousness

Romans 6:15-23

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... sovereign love, the present is never irrevocable, and repentance and change are possible. Here Paul speaks of shame as the condition of repentance (see Ezek. 16:61–63; Ezra 9:7–15). As long as one takes delight in sin (no matter how subtly) and inwardly desires its furtherance, one secretly hopes for some gain from sin, forbidden though it may be. There one is still under sin’s opiate. But where one sees the final consequence of sin as death, there sin’s guise of delight is defrocked and exposed as ...

4462. The Remnant of Israel

Romans 11:1-10

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... passive,” meaning God’s hardening of Israel. The quotations of verses 8–10 were gathered by the early church to explain why Jews failed to receive Jesus as Messiah. As we saw earlier (e.g., 1:24ff.), God hands people over to the sins they desire. Human resistance and disobedience are of course present and working concurrently with God’s will, but the final result is more than human failure. The outcome is a hardening from God so that they cannot see what they will not see, or hear what they will ...

4463. Ingrafted Branches

Romans 11:11-24

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... , the root and branches show how completely Paul identified the Christian church with Israel. The church is not a new plan, but the “Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16) which grows from and completes the root of Abraham. There is no salvation apart from the root! Whoever desires to be included in God’s saving plan must be grafted into that stock. God did not cut down the tree and plant a new one. He grafted other shoots into the true and eternal root (Eph. 2:1ff.; 1 Cor. 10:1–13)—although not into ...

4464. All Israel Will Be Saved

Romans 11:25-32

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... 1; 2 Cor. 1:8; 1 Thess. 4:13). The governing word in this section is mystery (v. 25). In the NT “mystery” generally means the purpose of God for salvation in Jesus Christ (Mark 4:11; Eph. 1:9). It is a mystery not because God desires to keep it hidden, but because if it is to be apprehended it must be made known by God. Contrary to all reasonable expectations, God loves this world and commits himself sacrificially to its redemption. This mystery is personified and supremely knowable in Jesus Christ, the ...

4465. Living Sacrifices

Romans 12:1-8

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... ill-fit of being transformed to God’s will. “Every Christian should rejoice most, precisely when something is done against his will and intention, and he should be very apprehensive when he has his own way. I say this not only with respect to the desires of the flesh, but also with respect to the great achievements of righteousness” (Lectures on Romans, p. 328). It is noteworthy how perfectly the prayer of St. Francis captures the essence of Romans 12:1–2. 12:3 The metaphor of the body of Christ ...

4466. Love

Romans 12:9-21

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... wager”: Suppose that your adversary is not better, and that you are not worse, than you think. He will either obtain divine grace at the end, or not. If he obtains grace he will in so doing repent of the wrong he did to you, and you will not desire to press your case to deny him the grace God wills to give him. If he does not obtain grace, the supreme Judge will justly punish him for the wrong. Either way, judgment belongs to God. See Bengel, Gnomon, vol. 3, p. 167. The metaphor of heaping burning coals ...

4467. Submission to the Authorities

Romans 13:1-7

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... the same teaching on government at a period when Rome was openly hostile to Christians. How then is Romans 13 to be understood? The question has been long and intensely debated in the church. The foregoing historical review would suggest that Paul desired to instruct his Roman readers on the place of government in God’s economy, including the responsibilities of rulers to execute justice and of citizens to submit themselves to government rule. His purpose in so doing was both to demonstrate that civic ...

4468. Love, for the Day Is Near

Romans 13:8-14

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... and happiness come as a by-product of love of God and others (e.g., “Whoever loses his life for me will find it,” Matt. 16:25). All people do, in fact, show love for themselves in various ways by providing for their needs and desires. Few people need be taught how to promote their own good. Paul (and Jesus, cf. Mark 12:31) simply commands believers to promote the good of others in like manner! That is the meaning of “love your neighbor as yourself.” The Future Is Retroactive Christians sometimes ...

4469. Food Sacrificed to Idols

1 Corinthians 8:1-13

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

... by the eating of idol meat. Paul teaches that freedom is not abstract, but concrete. Real freedom is being freed from the necessity to assert only, or primarily, one’s own rights. Knowledge alone is dangerous. What ultimately matters is that believers desire the well-being of others rather than insist on their own rights and privileges. 8:7 Paul bluntly refutes the claim of some of the Corinthians that they possessed special knowledge, saying, But not everyone knows this (referring to some Corinthians ...

4470. The Believer's Freedom

1 Corinthians 10:23--11:1

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

... 6:12, but not everything is beneficial. Then, he repeats the slogan and limits it in relation to edification or building up, but not everything is constructive. Paul’s reasoning recalls the line he advocated at 3:10–15, so that one sees that Paul desires the unity and proper development of the church. 10:24 Paul builds on these qualified statements by declaring a maxim, Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others—literally, “Let no one seek that of the self, but that of the other.” No ...

4471. Propriety in Worship

1 Corinthians 11:2-16

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

... ” had become somewhat synonymous, so Paul’s mentioning of “image” and “glory” may be complementary or compound rather than distinct. One must note, however, that Paul is not simply teaching Bible lessons; in fact, the situation in Corinth and Paul’s desire for a resolution to the problems in worship clearly control his selection of texts and the exegesis or interpretation that he offers. Apparently Paul’s logic runs this way: God brought forth man who now as the creature is explicit evidence ...

4472. The Lord's Supper

1 Corinthians 11:17-34

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

... is practical and rather minimal given the seriousness of the situation as he seems to have understood it. When Paul tells the Corinthians to wait, he instructs the congregation as a whole to put both others and the whole church before their individual desires. As he did earlier in the letter, Paul calls for the Corinthians to forego or perhaps even to use their rights for the responsible execution of God’s will. Cliques in the congregation meant catastrophe for the celebration of the Lord’s Supper ...

4473. The Collection for God's People

1 Corinthians 16:1-4

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

... . There was no standard timetable and there was no formula for how much one should give. Tithing apparently was not yet an idea in the church. Paul says, however, that he does not wish to do fund raising when he arrives in Corinth; indeed, he desires the giving to be done naturally and willingly, so that generosity is more charismatic than duty-bound. He does, however, sketch a procedure for the gathering of the collection. As Talbert (Reading, p. 105) has noticed, by focusing on the phrases in Paul’s ...

4474. The Throne in Heaven

Revelation 4:1-11

Understanding Series

Robert W. Wall

... that John describes as resembling an emerald—surely reminding the reader of a merciful God’s everlasting covenant with all creatures promised to Noah (cf. Gen. 9:8–17). God’s power is merciful and not coercive, indicating the Lord’s desire to transform (rather than to destroy) all things. Significantly, God’s promise to Noah, signaled by the rainbow, is tied to his authority as creator—the very point of the praises of the elders and creatures. Surrounding the throne were … twenty-four ...

4475. The Seals

Revelation 6:1-17

Understanding Series

Robert W. Wall

... noticed. In collective rebellion against a good creator, all creatures, human and non-human, have perverted God’s intentions for the world order, but have thereby prevented themselves from finding those things that can make it whole. In what follows, the world desires peace, but finds war; it works for prosperity, but it finds scarcity; it seeks life, but finds only death. The messianic event challenges this corrupted creation and promises a new earth on which the intentions of a good creator are realized ...

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