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Showing 4651 to 4675 of 4964 results

4651. Jesus’ Love and the World’s Hatred

John 15:1-17

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... :37, 40). The thrust of Jesus’ prophetic vision is that all the hatred directed against him from the beginning of his ministry, expressing itself in persecution (5:16) with the intent to kill (5:18), will be redirected at his disciples after his departure. His hope is that the disciples will remember that I warned you (v. 4a) and be reassured by two things: first, by knowing why the religious authorities are persecuting them (because they have not known the Father or me, v. 3); and second, by knowing that ...

4652. Thanksgiving and Prayer

Philippians 1:1-11

Understanding Series

F. F. Bruce

... friends); 2 Cor. 5:2 (of Christians’ “longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling”). Here, however, it is used, without a dependent infinitive, of Paul’s affectionate yearning for his friends (cf. 2 Cor. 9:14, of the deep love which, as Paul hopes, the Jerusalem church will conceive for his Gentile converts at the reception of their gift; also 2 Cor. 7:7, 11, where the noun epipothēsis is used of the Corinthian Christians’ feeling for Paul). See C. Spicq, “Epipothein. Désirer ou chérir ...

4653. From Adam to Noah

Genesis 5:1-32

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... that they longed for relief. It also discloses that even those who worshiped God were experiencing God’s curse on the ground. Such agony resulted from God’s general curse; it was not punishment for specific wrongdoing by members of Seth’s line. Lamech’s hope for relief was realized when Noah grew the first vineyard and made wine (9:20). Seth’s genealogy concludes with a segmented pattern. Noah’s three sons were Shem, Ham and Japheth. Additional Notes 5:3–27 In the Sam. Pent. and LXX some of ...

4654. The Birth of Isaac

Genesis 21:1-7

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... went a little way—as far as one could shoot an arrow—and sat down. In agony, fearful that her son would soon die from lack of water, she thought, “Do not let me look on the child’s dying.” Her words were a desperate prayer. Her only hope for either of them to survive was through God’s intervention. She began to sob in the deepest anguish. Ishmael, too, was crying. God heard the boy crying. Then the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, . . . “Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying ...

4655. Jacob Apprehension in Meeting Esau

Genesis 32:1-32

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... would soften Esau’s anger so that he would receive his younger brother. The text reads literally, “I will see his face, and perhaps he will lift up my face” (nasa’ panim). “Face” captures the critical issue. If the anger was removed from Esau’s face, Jacob hoped that he might see his brother’s face and that Esau would look on his face with respect. Intent on meeting Esau face to face as he owned up to his past vile behavior, Jacob resolved not to flee, hide, or trick his brother. To prepare ...

4656. Dinah and the Shechemites

Genesis 34:1-31

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... a plot of land (33:19), Hamor appealed to his longing for ownership of land in Canaan. Since Hamor’s position and power greatly exceeded Jacob’s, he thought he could easily entice Jacob and his sons into an alliance. Shechem, his son, spoke up (vv. 11–12), hoping to move Jacob and his sons to agree to the proposed accord. He assured them that his heart was set on Dinah by offering to give them any price they asked for Dinah’s becoming his bride. He encouraged them to set the price high as long as ...

4657. David’s Charge to Solomon

1 Kings 2:1-12

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

... there are counter-indications in the text as well, and although the monarchy is gone by 2 Kings 25, yet there is still a king in Babylon (25:27–30). Is the promise really dead and God’s grace wholly constrained by law? Or is there yet hope that grace will triumph over human sin and folly? Has David told Solomon everything he knows? We shall explore such issues further as we move through the commentary. 2:5–9 David’s attention now turns from the future to the past. “Wrongs” have to be punished ...

4658. The Temple’s Furnishings

1 Kings 7:13-51

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

... your strength” (Hb. beʿuzzeḵā), describing what divine strength has done for the king. The name would then embody the hope that God will act in a similar way on behalf of the king who has built the temple. Certainly this interpretation ... 2:12, 24, 45, 46 of God “establishing” David’s throne and Solomon upon it. A pillar named “he will establish” clearly implies that hopes for the future of the dynasty are now bound up with the temple. God will establish the throne of the temple builder, as he ...

4659. The Man of God from Judah

1 Kings 13:1-34

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

... ’s construction of his altar, in order to prevent the kingdom “returning to the house of David,” and his attempts to prevent the man of God from returning to Judah. The failure of the second hints at the failure of the first, already alluded to in 11:39—although the hope enshrined there is hope for a future that, in the context of the book as a whole, must lie beyond the time when Judah too has been led astray and “buried in the grave” beside its northern neighbor (2 Kgs. 17:18–20).

4660. Jehoahaz King of Israel

2 Kings 13:1-9

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

... that is the case to this day (Hb. ʿaḏ-ʿāttâ, cf. 2 Kgs. 8:6) in this postexilic period for Israel. There is, therefore, hope for Israel in Abraham, as there is for Judah in David. Grace will triumph over law in the end. With this understanding of 2 ... on 1 Kgs. 13:33 for another place where death appears to be a metaphor for exile). Yet even in exile, there is hope. If contact with the great prophets of the past is maintained, through obedience to their teachings (we presume), death may yet be followed ...

4661. The Suffering and Glory of the Servant

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... in 53:2–9 is hardly a description of Israel. Our puzzlement at the picture partly reflects the fact that “description” is too prosaic a word for it. What we have here is a vision. Admittedly any job description is a vision, a vision of what someone hopes and longs and believes needs to be achieved and could be achieved if the Archangel Gabriel applied for the post. It is also a vision in the more traditional sense. With the inner eye the prophet has seen something. A picture has come into the prophet ...

4662. An Unholy History

Ezekiel 20:1-29, Ezekiel 20:30-49

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... and save (as, indeed, Ezek. 18 appears to affirm). Here, however, Ezekiel pulls the rug out from under that option. Obedience to the law in itself cannot save God’s people, because the law itself has become a cause of their defilement. There is no hope at all except in the action of the Lord, based solely on God’s own character. Ezekiel’s astonishing, scandalous take on the law results in a situation not unlike that which the Christian doctrine of original sin poses: we cannot save ourselves, but we ...

4663. Jesus Tempted in the Wilderness

Matthew 4:1-11

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... temptations. This means that we can preach and teach Jesus’ example for his followers as we encounter temptation. As Jesus walked through temptation without succumbing to it, so those who follow him and experience his presence among them (28:20) can have hope for resisting temptation (6:13; cf. 1 Cor. 10:13). 2. Allegiance to the one true God is the basis for all covenant loyalty. Each of Jesus’ responses from Deuteronomy to the tempter revolves around questions of allegiance. These same questions can ...

4664. Sermonon the Mount: The Beatitudes

Matthew 5:1-12, Matthew 5:13-16

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... this way (e.g., “poor in spirit,” “meek”). This suggests a reading of the beatitudes as an announcement of status reversals that accompany the arrival of God’s kingdom. Second, in Jewish theology and hope Yahweh was revealed as a God who sides with the poor and lowly (e.g., Isa. 61:1–3). Jewish eschatological hope centered on a day when God would make all things right, so that those who lived to see the time of the Messiah would experience the great blessings of that day. For example, Psalm of ...

4665. Jesus Demonstrates Messianic Authority over the Temple

Matthew 21:12-17, Matthew 21:18-22

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... Israel (1:21). We would be wise to consider carefully how our preaching characterizes first-century Judaism in this regard. For Matthew, Jesus is the center of the good news not because Judaism offered bad news but because he is the fulfillment of Israel’s hopes and the completion of Israel’s story. 2. Jesus calls his disciples to unwavering faith. As Matthew has already emphasized, followers of Jesus can and should trust in him and his authority in their lives (e.g., 6:25–34; 17:20). Here Jesus calls ...

4666. The Actions of the Triune Godhead Prove Jesus’s Divine Office

Mark 1:9-15

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

... new covenant age.3With Jesus the kingdom has arrived, and the new age of the “gospel” of salvation has begun. John has come as the messianic forerunner (cf. Mal. 3:1), the last of the Old Testament prophets, and now Jesus the Messiah will take center stage. The hopes of the Old Testament are now to be realized (see 1 Pet. 1:10–12). 1:15 The time has come . . . The kingdom of God has come near. This closes the prologue and sums up Jesus’s kingdom preaching. There are four elements, the first two ...

4667. Jesus Claims God-Given Authority to Condemn the Leaders

Mark 12:1-12, Mark 11:27-33

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

... you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” And we are instructed in 1 Peter 3:15, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” We should not only ask for God’s wisdom in a moment’s opportunity to respond to critics, but also study and prepare to respond to those who oppose Jesus. Jesus is the cornerstone of the church. News Story: On November 7, 2012, a six ...

4668. The Trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrin

Mark 14:53-65

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

... Sanhedrin and of Peter’s Denials” in the unit on 14:66–72). Peter followed him at a distance. Peter does not flee with the others (John 18:15–16 tells us that John actually got Peter access to the courtyard) but instead follows Jesus, probably hoping that somehow he could help Jesus. In light of verse 50, Peter and John likely turned back a short time after fleeing and began to follow the arresting party discreetly. The night was cool, and this occasioned fires in the courtyard to keep the guards ...

4669. The Resurrection of Jesus and the Promise of Victory

Mark 16:1-20

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

... is the “last enemy” (1 Cor. 15:26), but in another sense it is the transition to that glorious reality where we will be “away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8). Because of Jesus’s resurrection and the living hope that gives us, death loses its sting in the victory of Christ for us. 2. God chooses the lowly and the despised. Throughout the Bible God has always chosen the lowly and the insignificant to accomplish his great deeds of deliverance. A Moses who had trouble speaking ...

4670. The Birth of John

Luke 1:67-80, Luke 1:57-66

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... in life or how dark the night, the “rising sun” has come “to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace” (1:78–79). The dawn of God’s end-time salvation gives us hope for the future and peace in the present. Illustrating the Text God can use ordinary family events (in this case, a circumcision and naming) to demonstrate his presence and power. Film: The Nativity Story. As noted earlier, this film is a natural resource for showing the ...

4671. Sabbath in Capernaum

Luke 4:38-44, Luke 4:31-37

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... been spelled out as “the kingdom of God.” It is a central theme of Jesus’s teaching in the Synoptic Gospels that God’s reign is being established through his own ministry. It was Israel’s national hope that in the last days God would establish his kingship over all people, and that hope is now being fulfilled (cf. 4:21). Such a message cannot be confined to Capernaum and must not be subordinated to the admittedly messianic work of healing and exorcism, which the local people clearly wanted to keep ...

4672. Table Talk

Luke 14:1-14

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... an application to our relationship with God rather than merely with other people on a social level. 14:8–10 When someone invites you to a wedding feast. This whole scenario could be read simply as prudential advice for social climbers: it is better to aim low and hope for promotion than to aim too high and risk loss of face (cf. Prov. 25:6–7). But human society does not usually work like that: in the real world it tends to be the assertive who are noticed and honored, whereas those who do not push ...

4673. A Blind Beggar and a Rich Scoundrel

Luke 19:1-10, Luke 18:35-43

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... them directly but inoffensively, telling them the story of his job loss, of the death of his wife, and of his having “tramped” through the city without finding any “word of sympathy or comfort except from your minister here, who said he was sorry for me and hoped I would find a job somewhere.” He says about himself, “I’m not an ordinary tramp, though I don’t know of any teaching of Jesus that makes one kind of a tramp less worth saving than another. . . . What do you mean when you sing, ‘I ...

4674. God’s Saving Righteousness and the Restoration of Israel

Romans 3:21-31

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

... the first couple’s loss of divine glory upon their sin in paradise (see Gen. 1:26–28; Ps. 8:4–8; Apoc. Mos. 21.6; 3 Bar. 4.16; 1QS 4.22–23; CD 3.19–20; 4Q171 3.1–2) as well as the eschatological hope of the restoration of that glory.2 3:25–26 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement [propitiation] . . . to demonstrate his righteousness. The death of Jesus reconciled God’s judging and saving righteousness (see “The Text in Context” section above and table 1). According to Paul ...

4675. Freedom from the Law through Christ, Enslavement to the Law through Adam

Romans 7:7-25, Romans 7:1-6

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

... wants to go back to the suppressive relationship of living under the law. Only the fruit of death awaits that decision. But the Christian needs to see the potential for life in the new covenant in Christ in the way a downtrodden wife needs to see the hope for a better life apart from her abusive husband. Second, a message entitled “Romans 7:7–12 and the Hijacking of the Law by Sin” could be preached by rehearsing Paul’s argument regarding those verses. The main point to make is that the serpent/sin ...

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