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 4876 to 4900 of 5000 results

4876. The Messianic Anointing of Jesus

Mark 14:1-11

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

... of ministry to the poor. The poor had a special place in Jewish obligations. This is stressed in Deuteronomy 15:1–11. The point is that opportunities to help the poor will always be there. But you will not always have me. This provides the key for understanding Jesus’s point. The woman has taken a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to minister to her Messiah and to prepare for his death. This was the one chance that anyone would have to perform an act of service to God’s “anointed one” (the meaning of ...

4877. Jesus Interprets the Passover Seder of Himself

Mark 14:12-26

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Grant R. Osborne

... relation to one another. And yet in the eyes of the trained quilter there is a pattern that will be revealed when all the pieces are assembled. Sometimes, from the perspective of our untrained eye, life seems random and out of control. And yet one day we will come to understand that God had a pattern and plan in mind as he accomplished his purpose. You might want to have a pile of quilting squares on hand as well as a completed quilt hung up in front or even in the entry area of your gathering place.

4878. Peter Denies Jesus

Mark 14:66-72

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

... Big Idea: This is the second terrible contrast during Jesus’s trial: the horror of Peter thinking only of himself and denying Jesus with greater intensity on each of three occasions, versus Jesus, who suffers and dies for Peter as his redeeming Lord. Understanding the Text As seen throughout the Passion Narrative, Jesus is in complete, sovereign control of the awful events taking place. The leaders of his people have not only rejected him but also have placed him on trial for his life, declared him guilty ...

4879. The Baby Messiah Recognized

Luke 2:21-40

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... the Text This scene completes the account of Jesus’s infancy. His circumcision and naming echo those of John in 1:59–63, but, as with the account of his birth, the subsequent incidents are unique, and they lift the reader’s expectations and theological understanding to a higher level. This scene provides the setting for the third of Luke’s canticles in chapters 1–2, Simeon’s song of praise, the Nunc Dimittis. This song, with its explicit recognition that Jesus is to be the Savior of the world ...

4880. Testing in the Wilderness

Luke 4:1-13

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R.T. France

... the inquisitor has done with those he has enslaved in the name of the church. Ivan’s story, ironically, turns on itself, and he becomes a great defender of Christ. It is important to read the chapter just prior to this section to more fully understand the nature of Ivan’s grief, which is about the terrible plight of children he has seen abused, even murdered, something for which he has trouble forgiving God. The second work is Christ and the Media, by Malcolm Muggeridge. In a thought-provoking passage ...

4881. The First Disciples

Luke 5:1-11

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R.T. France

... the kingdom of God. On the other hand, the continued availability of a boat for the journeys of Jesus and the Twelve (8:22, 37), along with the likelihood that Jesus was based in Simon’s home in Capernaum, cautions against too absolute an understanding of the phrase “left everything.” Theological Insights Following the account of Jesus’s exorcisms and healing, this is the first of three so-called nature miracles (those that do not have a human being as the subject) that are recorded by Luke; for the ...

4882. “Love Your Enemies”

Luke 6:27-38

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R.T. France

... . 6:37 Do not judge . . . Do not condemn . . . Forgive. The reference is to personal relationships, not to the judicial function of a court of law. What Jesus prohibits is taking a hard, critical, dismissive view of other people’s failures rather than offering understanding and compassion. This does not mean that we are never called to take a stand against wrong, or to warn others of ethical and spiritual danger; it is the attitude that is at issue, a desire for the good of others instead of simply ...

4883. Power over Illness and Death

Luke 7:11-17, Luke 7:1-10

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R.T. France

... five more years.2 Human Experience: In 7:7–8 Luke gives us a soldier’s down-to-earth approach to the issue of authority. The testimony of active or retired military personnel in the congregation may help to show how their understanding of relationship to Jesus relates to their military experience. Theological Reflection: William Barclay (1907–78) argues that the centurion was “no ordinary man,” not only because he was a “sergeant major”—a backbone of the Roman army—but also because he had ...

4884. Jesus and John the Baptist

Luke 7:18-35

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R.T. France

... that John is a distant second to Jesus. John is merely the forerunner, a prophet who prepares the way for the Lord (1:76). Jesus is the Lord, the Messiah, and Son of God (1:32–35), who will accomplish God’s salvation. John’s understanding of Jesus’s ministry is also inadequate. He is evidently expecting a powerful, conquering Messiah who will destroy the Romans. When Jesus is not fulfilling this role, he sends his disciples to question whether he is the One. Jesus responds by defining his ministry ...

4885. An Encounter across the Lake

Luke 8:26-39, Luke 8:22-25

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... the man’s telling of his own story after Jesus had gone? For more on demon possession, see “Teaching the Text” on 4:31–44. If you have tackled the issue of demon possession more generally there, what has this story added to your understanding? If you have not, here is another good opportunity to help your audience consider the issue in relation to modern thinking. Illustrating the Text Jesus has power over the created order, and he is able to intervene in a crisis. Biography: Alexander Solzhenitsyn ...

4886. “Who Is This?”

Luke 9:10-17, Luke 9:1-9

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R.T. France

... recorded John’s imprisonment (3:20) but not his execution (Mark 6:17–29), which is, however, made clear in 9:9. We have seen in 7:18–35 that Jesus was popularly seen as the successor to John the Baptist, and he himself encouraged that understanding (20:1–8). That he might actually be John restored to life is a superstitious extension of that idea (though one that Antipas finds hard to credit because John no longer has a head [9:9]!). Note that all three reported popular assessments of Jesus, which ...

4887. Rejecting or Responding to Jesus

Luke 10:1-24

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R.T. France

... little children” of 10:21). No one knows who the Son is except the Father. It has been suggested that Jesus’s statement here is to be taken not as a literal description of Jesus and God but rather as a parable: just as there is perfect mutual understanding between a father and a son, so there is between God and Jesus. It may be questioned whether that would in fact be a true generalization from human experience. But even if it were, the point of such a parable here (where Jesus has just addressed God as ...

4888. “Love Your Neighbor”

Luke 10:25-37

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R.T. France

... hostile, but here we see him in essential agreement with a legal expert. This summary of the law, offered by the lawyer and approved by Jesus, could hardly be faulted (see the admiring response of the scribe in Mark 12:32–33). It is not in his basic understanding of the law that Jesus was out on a limb, but in the radical comprehensiveness of the way he applied it. This parable subverts not the ethical demand of the law, but the Jewish sense of ethnic superiority. The two chosen texts (Deut. 6:5 and Lev ...

4889. Negative Responses to Jesus

Luke 11:33-36, Luke 11:29-32, Luke 11:14-28

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R.T. France

... . The teacher or preacher will do well to show how these two objections/demands are related. What do they reveal about how people outside the disciple group perceived Jesus? And how are Jesus’s responses related? What do they reveal about his overall understanding of what he has come to do? Different groups (and different members of the same group) may differ as to how this material about demons and supernatural conflict relates to our church life and mission today. Some may have relevant experiences of ...

4890. Divided Loyalties

Luke 12:1-12, Luke 12:13-21

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R.T. France

... was looking for a legal ruling or sanction relating to his father’s will, and he thought that this “teacher” (rabbi) would be the ideal person to give it. We are not told whether he had a good case, but in any event, Jesus has a very different understanding of his own role. 12:15 Be on your guard against all kinds of greed. This is not a verdict on the specific case (though the word for “greed” may imply that the man was trying to get the better of his brother), but rather a general comment ...

4891. Ready for the Kingdom of God?

Luke 13:31-35, Luke 13:22-30, Luke 13:18-21

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R.T. France

... teacher with a good opportunity to discuss the expansion of the church in Acts, Luke’s second volume, where the gospel will be rejected by many in Israel and will be received with joy by many Gentiles. What are the implications of this for our understanding of the true people of God? Both these verses and Jesus’s lament over Jerusalem (13:34–35) raise the issue of the place of Israel in God’s plan of salvation. You might use this opportunity to discuss the difficult theological question of whether ...

4892. God and Mammon

Luke 16:16-18, Luke 16:1-15

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R.T. France

... is a spiritual power is also shown by the way we attribute sacred characteristics to our money. The issue here is not that idols have been built to symbolize money, but simply that for modern man money is one of his “holy things.” . . . We understand then why money questions are not considered part of the moral order. They are actually part of the spiritual order.4 Anecdotes: There are many stories of people who, while wealthy, were also tremendously generous, giving away great quantities of money. R. G ...

4893. Two Parables about Prayer

Luke 18:9-14, Luke 18:1-8

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R.T. France

... will and action rather than a unilateral work of God that overrides our freedom and responsibility, must be supplied from elsewhere. 2. The Pharisee and the tax collector. This is not so much a “how to pray” parable as a sharp challenge to our conventional understanding of “goodness” in relation to God. Like so much in Luke’s Gospel, it turns accepted values upside down. The kingdom of God is the realm of grace, not of achievement. God’s love is not earned; it is freely given to those who are ...

4894. Use It or Lose It

Luke 19:11-27

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R.T. France

... of unfairness: why should he have yet more? 19:26 to everyone who has, more will be given. The same principle was expressed in 8:18 in a comment following the parable of the sower, apparently relating there to people’s capacity to understand Jesus’s teaching. Here it seems more general in its application. Success breeds success, and failure is compounded. As an observation on economic and social life, ancient and modern, this would be true, though many would find it regrettable. But it relates here ...

4895. The Coming of the King

Luke 19:45-48, Luke 19:28-44

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... still on the way, at 13:34–35. Now the crisis is closer, and the prophecy more detailed. 19:42 If you, even you, had only known. A better translation in context is “If you too had known”—if the city had been able to share the disciples’ understanding of the climactic importance of the Messiah’s coming, as they have expressed it in 19:38. The “peace” offered to Jerusalem (note the repetition of the same word as in 19:38), but about to be rejected, is that of the king of peace (Zech. 9:9 ...

4896. The Trials of Peter and of Jesus

Luke 22:66--23:25, Luke 22:63-65, Luke 22:54-62

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... , but for Luke, he is still in the courtyard. His accusing (or pitying?) look, following immediately after the cockcrow, was enough to bring Peter to his senses. 22:62 he went outside and wept bitterly. In the light of 22:32, we should probably understand this as the moment of Peter’s “turning back.” It is this repentance that differentiates his “betrayal” of Jesus from that of Judas. For Peter, there is still a future. 22:63–65 The men who were guarding Jesus. In Matthew and Mark it ...

4897. The Risen Jesus Revealed

Luke 24:13-35

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R.T. France

... sufficiently unchanged (though restored after the horror of crucifixion) to be perceived as a normal human being (cf. John 20:15; 21:4). 24:16 they were kept from recognizing him. Compare Luke’s strong statements about the disciples’ earlier inability to understand Jesus’s words (9:45; 18:34). The language in Greek here is quite forceful: “their eyes were overpowered.” As in John 20:16; 21:7, recognition will subsequently follow. In this case, however, it takes longer, and this allows time for ...

4898. Paul Reinterprets the Story of Israel

Romans 2:17-29

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

... old covenant. He argues that the very attempt to obey the law is keeping Israel in bondage. This is because obsession with the Torah derailed Jews from accepting Jesus as the Messiah and from seeing that the law was fulfilled in him and finished at the cross. Understanding the Text Romans 2:17–24, together with 2:25–29, focuses on the twin themes of the law of Moses as the stipulation of the Old Testament covenant and circumcision as the sign of that covenant. We can divide 2:17–24 into three points ...

4899. The Faithfulness of God and the Covenantal Curses on Israel

Romans 3:1-8

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

... both of the principal actresses Academy Awards, Anne Sullivan (played by Anne Bancroft) uses tough love to break through to the deaf and blind Helen Keller (played unforgettably by Patty Duke). In what has been called “The Breakfast Scene,” Anne Sullivan understands the necessity of bringing Keller, who has been allowed to behave wildly and violently, under control and into a civilized way of life. Over and over Sullivan must overcome Keller’s wild behavior until she is brought into the submission of ...

4900. The Whole World Is under the Curses of the Covenant

Romans 3:9-20

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

... -cultural considerations are key here because, although Romans 3:9–20 may seem clear enough to the reader, recent theologians have questioned its more traditional interpretation. 1. The label “total depravity” is not defined the same by all Christian traditions. Some understand the idea to mean that humankind is sinful to the core of its being and unable therefore to do good. Others argue that total depravity means that humans have a propensity to sin, but they also have a conscience that can ...

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