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Showing 4776 to 4800 of 5000 results

4776. 2 Timothy 1:1-14

2 Timothy 1:1-14

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

As in the other two pastoral epistles, Paul begins his second letter to Timothy with a formal apostolic greeting that lays out the primary motivation for this letter: "for the sake of the promise of life that is in Jesus Christ." It is only that "promise of life" that drives Paul on, despite his imprisonment, infirmities and loneliness. Paul considers these physical limitations to be of little consequence - significant only if they provide a new layer of depth and meaning to his witness. Because of his ...

4777. Colossians 1:11-20

Colossians 1:11-20

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

The epistle to the Colossians is typically Pauline in the style and nature of its discourse, and yet somehow reaches beyond Paul's usual theological parameters. Phrases of greeting and peace and farewell all echo Paul. But there are also numerous new words, unfamiliar phrases and a longer more complicated syntax, all of which raise doubts about the authorship of this letter. Doctrinally, Colossians presents a much more cosmic Christology than usual for Paul. Much of the portion read this week reflects that ...

4778. John 10:11-18

John 10:11-18

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

As strange as it seems to us today, the comforting, consoling image of Jesus as the "good shepherd" as described in this week's gospel text was among the most problematic and polemical for first-century believers. John's gospel is sometimes known as the "I Am" gospel for a reason (for the "I am" [ego eimi] statements see 6:35, 51; 8:12, 24, 58; 10:7, 9; 11:25; 14:6; 15:1, 5). The straightforwardness and forcefulness of these "I am" declarations reveal glimpses of Jesus that are clearly intended to suggest ...

4779. John 3:1-17

John 3:1-17

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

This reading from John's gospel introduces one of his most intriguing, enigmatic figures Nicodemus. At first glance it appears that Nicodemus will be one of the more well-defined figures of John's text. Elsewhere many anonymous individuals appear and disappear before Jesus without revealing any of their personal biography. But here, John cites Nicodemus' history immediately. His name is clearly stated, and his religious authority is clearly defined: a Pharisee, a "leader of the Jews." But after this ...

4780. 2 Corinthians 12:2-10

2 Corinthians 12:2-10

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

The agonies and anxieties inflicted on Paul by the Corinthian church led him to focus fiercely on the most crucial tenets of a Christian's life and faith. The opposition Paul faced, both insidious and confrontative, forced him to take uncomfortable positions and reveal personal and spiritual experiences that he would not normally have exposed for public scrutiny. Today's reading from 2 Corinthians finds Paul in the midst of just such an uncomfortably combative debate with those who opposed his words and ...

4781. Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Mark's gospel lesson today begins where it left off in 6:13 by picking up the story of the disciples' missionary journey. Sent out by Jesus with the authority to cast out demons, heal the sick, and proclaim messages of repentance, the returning Twelve in verse 30 have been transformed. Only here in Mark's gospel are Jesus' disciples referred to as "the apostles." In part, the term reflects the role the Twelve had been given in 6:7, as those "sent out" or "missionaries." Yet it is also true that by the time ...

4782. Luke 1:39-45 (46-55

Luke 1:39-45 (46-55

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

In Luke, the lives of John the Baptist and Jesus are closely interwoven from the time of their conceptions to the time of Jesus' entrance into public ministry. Luke relates in detail the angelically announced beginnings of both John and Jesus. These two parallel stories finally come together in today's gospel text as Elizabeth and Mary, the two mothers, meet and reveal their surprising conditions to each other. Everything about this meeting is unusual. Mary, apparently unchaperoned and alone, journeys to ...

4783. Acts 16:16-34

Acts 16:16-34

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

We continue this week to follow the early missionizing journeys of Paul and his companions as recorded in Acts 16. Still in Philippi, a Roman colony within Macedonia; apparently still enjoying the hospitality of their first convert there, Lydia; Paul and some pilgrims become embroiled in a conflict that pits religious, economic and class forces against them. The dramatic series of events in today's text begins with an exorcism. A slave girl possessed by a spirit of "divination" begins to pursue Paul and ...

4784. Colossians 1:1-14

Colossians 1:1-14

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

While Colossians contains some theological content that seems distinct from Paul's more common themes, there is no compelling reason to dismiss his authorship. Things that make it suspicious to some seem to be a function of the theological and personal issues Paul and Timothy are addressing. Perhaps Timothy had a more collaborative role in the authorship than is generally recognized (v.1). But our exegesis of these passages will assume Paul's overall authorship. In overall literary style, Colossians ...

4785. Hosea 1:2-10

Hosea 1:2-10

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

The uniquely painful ministry and personal message of the prophet Hosea manage to bring the fate of an ancient country and the facts of our own struggles into a sharp double focus. Despite Hosea's extreme distance from us in days, the metaphor that defined both his personal life and his preached message continues to transfix us. The power of his predicament as well as his predictions remain undiminished. A prophet in the northern nation of Israel, Hosea lived during the tumult of the eighth century B.C. He ...

4786. Luke 12:13-21

Luke 12:13-21

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Today's pericope, unique to this gospel, recounts Jesus' response to an interruption injected by a nameless individual in a question-and-answer session which takes place in the midst of a raucous crowd of thousands (12:1). The statement, in context, seems banal and hopelessly petty. Jesus has been encouraging the crowd to be fearless and faithful witnesses even in the face of persecution "before the synagogues, the rulers, and the authorities" (12:11). At this point, Jesus is interrupted with the words: " ...

4787. Luke 17:5-10

Luke 17:5-10

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

The Lukan travel narrative (Jesus' journey to Jerusalem) is interrupted rather abruptly in today's text by two distinct thoughts, the first of which is a demand placed upon him by the "apostles" (v. 5) by whom Luke clearly means the Twelve: "Increase our faith!" The request is the Lukan version of the Matthean account in 17:20 where it is attached to an incident in which the disciples, having been asked to cure a man's son of his epileptic seizures, are unable to do so. In that account, Jesus, clearly ...

4788. 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18

2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Paul's own life becomes the organizational framework upon which is built this final section of exhortations to Timothy. In verse 5, Paul outlines what is expected and required of Timothy ("As for you ...") if he is to accomplish his mission and ministry. Corresponding to and contrasting with this directive is Paul's own personal example ("As for me ...") of a mission accomplished. Paul uses a familiar first-century image to describe the current course of his life. To be "poured out as a libation" is a ...

4789. Matthew 3:1-12

Matthew 3:1-12

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

It's enough to make one suspect that Jesus and his disciples were the first postmodernists. Today's lection begins by calling us to remember the words of one of the greatest prophets of the past: "the prophet Isaiah" (v.3). Yet our reading also looks forward to a future beyond all previous faith experience: "... one who is more powerful than I is coming after me .... He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" (v.11). John the Baptist a postmodernist? It doesn't take much of a stretch to see why ...

4790. A Powerful Sacrament

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

King Duncan

Dr. William Culbertson, president of Moody Bible Institute, is an Episcopalian. So naturally he enjoys a joke at the expense of his Baptist friends. He tells a hilarious story about three rather notorious characters who had been converted and were to be baptized by immersion in the local Baptist Church. The whole community turned out. The little church had only one small dressing room which opened from the baptistery (the pool in which the men would be immersed at the front of the church). The dressing ...

4791. Knowing the Secret Right from the Start

Mark 1:4-11

Illustration

Thomas Long

In Princeton, New Jersey, there is a legendary tale about the eminent scientist Albert Einstein walking in front of a local inn and being mistaken for a bellboy by a dowager who had just arrived in a luxury sedan. She orders him to carry her luggage into the hotel, and, according to the story, Einstein does so, receives a small tip, and then continues on to his office to ponder the mysteries of the universe. True or not, the story is delightful, precisely because we savor from the beginning a secret the ...

4792. John 4:5-42

John 4:5-42

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

The lectionary stipulates this week's Gospel text begin with verse 5. Yet by omitting verse 4 we miss a very important, typically Johannine clue to the entire episode that follows. When Jesus leaves Judaea on his way back to Galilee, John records that he "had to go through Samaria." There is no geographical reason for this directive. There was no one road that necessitated a path through Samaria. The imperative here is not geographic, it is theological. John prefaces Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan ...

4793. Matthew 26:14-27:66

Matthew 26:14-27:66

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

This year on Passion/Palm Sunday, the Common Lectionary assigns almost all of Matthew's passion narrative (Matthew 26:14-27:66) as the Gospel text. Instead of haphazardly skipping through that tremendous amount of material, we have chosen to focus on two disturbing and poignant moments within this climactic reading. Matthew 26:14-16 and 27:3-10 give special insight into the motives and mistakes of the disciple Judas Iscariot. Matthew provides us with a fuller glimpse into Judas' mind and soul than do any ...

4794. 1 Peter 1:17-23

1 Peter 1:17-23

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Hope, joy, optimism and exuberance characterize the epistle of 1 Peter. Writing to those Jew and Gentile Christians who made their homes in the extreme northern reaches of Asia Minor, this Petrine author seeks to blow gentle breezes of love and joy into the midst of the far-flung faithful. Yet all these good tidings are celebrations of an eschatological future, not a humanly conceived time. Thus 1 Peter also spends as much time discussing suffering - both Christ's and his followers - as it does rejoicing. ...

4795. Matthew 10:24-39

Matthew 10:24-39

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

In the 10th chapter of Matthew's Gospel the focus is completely upon discipleship. Here Jesus gathers his 12 specially chosen followers and gives them authoritative power over the diseases of mind, body and spirit. Matthew's penchant for calling the disciples "the Twelve" purposefully calls attention to their uniquely chosen number - one disciple to represent each of Israel's 12 tribes. Jesus then gives his designated emissaries specific guidelines for the course of their crucial missionizing journeys (5b- ...

4796. Genesis 32:22-31

Genesis 32:22-31

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Among biblical figures there are few viewed with as much ambiguity as Jacob. On the one hand, Jacob is a patriarch, his name becomes Israel, he is the one chosen by God to inhabit the land for the promised descendants of God's covenant people. On the other hand, many of the stories we have about Jacob portray him as deceitful, wily, scheming and even dishonest. This chosen one of God truly had a checkered past. Jacob, the younger, the heel-grabber, appropriated both his brother Esau's birthright and ...

4797. Romans 10:5-15

Romans 10:5-15

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

In Romans 10 Paul writes out of both disappointment and urgency. He is saddened that his fellow Jews have not yet accepted the truth of the gospel, and he feels urgently called to reach these brothers and sisters in some way. Chapter 10, then, is a discussion of Paul's understanding of "righteousness," of sola fide in terms most familiar to his Jewish kinfolk. He employs both pentateuchal and prophetic writings to aid him in his designated task - witnessing to his "stiff-necked" friends. In verses 5-15, ...

4798. Romans 13:8-14

Romans 13:8-14

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

It is highly ironic that Paul, known for his pre-conversion rage against Christians, his post-conversion zealousness, his daunting Pharisaic discipline, his theological rigor and his seemingly foolhardy fearlessness of death, is also the apostle who has left us some of the most moving texts on love ever written. Of course Paul's most famous tribute to love is found in 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. Christians and non-Christians alike, even those who generally find Paul's theology and personality too demanding for ...

4799. Exodus 17:1-7

Exodus 17:1-7

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

The incident described in Exodus 17:1-7 is the third in a series of complaints the newly delivered Hebrews bring to their leader Moses. Pharaoh's army was practically still sinking into the sea when the people ceased singing Yahweh's praises and began bemoaning their hard circumstances instead. When drinking water grew scarce in the wilderness of Shur, and the waters of Marah were found to be "bitter" and undrinkable, the people immediately turned on Moses, crying "What shall we drink?" (Exodus 15:24). ...

4800. Mark 1:29-39

Mark 1:29-39

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Mark uses the miracle genre to communicate the unique power and authority Jesus wields in his travels and teachings. This focus is evident in Mark from the very first miracle story onward. At the synagogue in Capernaum (1:21ff.), Jesus' teaching astounds all those present for unlike the simple scribal tradition of retelling, Jesus probes the Scriptures, challenges his listeners and speaks as one with unquestionable authority. The authority theme continues when the unclean spirit reveals itself to Jesus ...

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