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26. Where Would We Be Without...?

Romans 3:21-31

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... under Luther's spell? In 1520, Staupitz signed a statement of his submission to the pope, but he relinquished his office as vicar-general of the Augustinians and became a Benedictine. Martin understood. In his last letter to Staupitz, in September 1523, Luther disavowed any harsh feelings toward the counselor who had made God's grace so plain and clear and had made such a difference in his life — Johann Von Staupitz. Here is another who made a big difference — William Farel, the fiery forerunner of John ...

27. Historic: The Declaration of Independence

Illustration

Staff

... an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we ...

28. The Martyr's Prayer

Illustration

Polycarp was a disciple of the Apostle John and an early church leader whose life ended when he refused to betray his Lord. Asked one last time to disavow his Christ, the old man replied, "Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He has done me no wrong. How can I speak evil of my King who saved me?" Here is his martyr's prayer, as recorded by the historian Eusebius: "Father of Your beloved and blessed ...

29. Formula for Eternal Life

1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... are only a seed that will germinate and grow in the resurrection of the dead. He wishes to tell the Corinthians not to concentrate so much on our lives today, but rather to concentrate on a future eternal existence with God. Paul starts his lesson by disavowing an idea the Corinthians apparently had concerning the resurrection. He tells them they should not be concerned with the kind of body they will have in the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly body must die in order to find eternal life with God. We ...

30. Galatians 2:15-21

Galatians 2:11-21

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... the covenant community of the law. Indeed, as he begins this section Paul sounds like he is making the traditional distinction between Jews, who had been “born” into the law, and all others who are by definition “Gentile sinners.” Yet Paul then immediately disavows any special position achieved by this Jewish birthright because as Christians “we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.” This is Paul’s first use of the essentially legal term ...

31. It’s Complicated

Galatians 2:11-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

32. Not Circumcision but a New Creation

Galatians 6:11-18

Understanding Series

L. Ann Jervis

... ). This all-encompassing and undoubtedly difficult involvement “in Christ” is adequate for justification and salvation. Paul knew that to preach the cross of Christ the way he did was to be persecuted (5:11). To avoid such persecution is to disavow the cross of Christ. Paul seeks further to discredit his opponents’ position by asserting that even those who are circumcised do not obey the law. The Greek “those who are circumcised” (hoi peritemnomenoi) is a present middle/passive participle. It can ...

33. Paul's Ministry in Thessalonica

1 Thessalonians 2:1-16

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... . This denies that flattery played any part in their preaching style. Flattery (kolakeia) implies manipulation—it is flattery designed to achieve the flatterer’s ends, a common enough feature of public speaking in both Paul’s day and our own. The second charge that Paul disavows is that they put on a mask to cover up greed. It may have been common knowledge that Paul received gifts from Philippi. This may have led some to conclude that he had come to Thessalonica hoping for some more of the same (cf ...

34. Sermon on the Mount: Jesus Teaches on the Torah

Matthew 5:17-48

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... , even in like kind. 5:39 If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. In 5:39–42 three examples are provided to illustrate “do not resist an evil person” (5:39). This passage has been understood to disavow any kind of resistance to evil and violence. Alternately, Walter Wink has suggested that Jesus provides a way of nonviolent resistance for his followers in the face of Roman oppression. For example, a slap on the right cheek implies a slap with an open hand ...

35. Job Destroys the Friends’ Major Argument

Job 21:1-34

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

... plans of the wicked. Echoing the language of Psalm 1:1, Job emphatically rejects the charges by the friends that his adversity proves that he is wicked. On the contrary, Job does not stand in the way of sinners, but is righteous, rejecting the wicked and disavowing all they stand for. 21:17–21 Yet how often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out? In 18:5–6, Bildad asserted that the light of the wicked goes out. By asking this question, Job now inquires rhetorically if Bildad’s claim is well founded ...

36. “The Lord Looks Down . . . to See If There Are Any Who Understand”

Psalm 14:1-7

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... of God is common to every age, even though it assumes different forms. It goes without saying that this vacuum of faith is more keenly discerned by men and women of faith. When the psalmist looked at the behavior of the naysayers, he recognized that their disavowal of God’s existence had a direct correlation to the moral decline of his day. The deniers were, so to speak, not holding their placards of protest in the public squares, but their evil deeds (14:4) gave loudspeaker clarity to their denial of God ...

37. “Blessed Is the One Whose Transgressions Are Forgiven”

Psalm 32:1-11

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... suffering belongs to the timeless category of humanity, even though modern psychology has been more inclined to understand it. At the same time, it is a timeless phenomenon that the psalmists verbalized so well. Yet the Old Testament does not lack the disavowal of this connection, with Job posing the major objection. In the story of the paralytic, Jesus begins with forgiveness and subsequently pronounces the man physically healed (Mark 2:1–12). Once his sins are forgiven, if his paralysis has been caused ...

38. “For Your Sake We Face Death . . . as Sheep to Be Slaughtered”

Psalm 44:1-26

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... 3) Part 2 Lament about God’s failure to honor Israel’s faithfulness (44:4–26) a. Psalmist’s voice confessing God’s past faithfulness (44:4) b. Congregation’s voice confessing God’s past faithfulness (44:5) c. Psalmist’s voice disavowing victory through weapons (44:6) d. Congregation’s voice confessing God’s affirming victory through God’s power (44:7–8) e. Congregation’s voice lamenting defeat in battle despite God’s past faithfulness (44:9–14) f. Psalmist’s voice lamenting ...

39. Paying Taxes to Caeser

Luke 20:20-26

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... thought that the payment of such a tax necessarily involved compromise of their religion. Moreover, the image of the emperor on the coin was thought to be a violation of the second commandment. The questioners were probably hoping either that Jesus would disavow paying taxes and incur trouble with Pilate or that he would advocate complete submission to the Roman government and alienate Jewish patriots. By calling for a denarius (20:24), Jesus shows that even pious Jews possessed coins with Caesar’s image ...

40. The Rights of an Apostle

1 Corinthians 9:1-27

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... on the altar” (9:13), Paul has chosen not to make use of this or any of his rights, and he is not corresponding with the Corinthians for the purpose of requesting them. He has elected instead to make his boast in a ministry that disavows any dependence on another except the one who compels him to preach. Thus it is an almost involuntary obedience to God’s call, rather than a voluntary and carefully planned decision to take up a self-supporting career, that stands behind Paul’s attempt to “discharg ...

41. The Greatest Commandment

Mark 12:28-34

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... very striking, and it justifies asking why Mark so describes the man and his question. The answer is probably that Mark wanted to show that the conflict between Jesus and the Jewish establishment was not based on a rejection of the OT or a complete disavowal of the law by Jesus but instead on the refusal of the Jewish authorities to accept Jesus as the final interpreter of the OT law. Of course, as Mark describes it, Jesus’ power to interpret the law as messianic Lord involved a considerable re-ordering ...

42. Spiritual Gifts

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

... become so elevated in their spirituality that they had no use for, and even expressed disdain for, the all-too-human Jesus who suffered the disgrace of dying on the cross. Paul will have none of this kind of spiritual expression; he disavows such activity and tells the Corinthians how to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate demonstrations of spiritual power. 12:1 Verse 1 shows that the Corinthians brought this topic to Paul’s attention. The Greek word translated Now about (peri) has already ...

43. To the Church in Ephesus

Revelation 2:1-7

Understanding Series

Robert W. Wall

... the apostolic witness to the word (cf. 2:2; 1 John 1:1–5; 2:18–27), as advanced for example by the Nicolaitans, constitutes opposition to the essential conviction of Christian preaching: God is love. To forsake one’s “first love” would constitute the disavowal of this core conviction of apostolic teaching and would be considered apostasy. Second, the proper response to the belief that God is love is concrete actions of love for one another (1 John 4:20–21). The use of the Balaam typology in 2:14 ...

44. Surrendering to God’s Inescapable, All-Searching Presence

Psalm 139:1-24

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

... .) Apparently the goal is not merely to increase God’s knowledge but also to further the relationship between the speaker and his God. God has the prerogative to search the speaker, and he is now welcomed to do so. Although the speaker clearly disavows association with the wicked, he does not thereby presume to be without fault: he knows he may have anxious thoughts and offensive way[s]. The Hebrew term for the latter (ʿōṣeb) is a noun meaning either “hardship” or “idol.” The ambiguity may be ...

Conservatism discards Prescription, shrinks from Principle, disavows Progress; having rejected all respect for antiquity, it offers no redress for the present, and makes no preparation for the future.

Benjamin Disraeli

46. “Until An Opportune Time…”

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... to pursue. The second way of responding to temptation is accommodation. Accommodation is the submission to the notion that “it’s not really that bad.” Even in the moment that this sermon takes shape we can see this in certain peoples’ refusal to disavow neo-Nazi and racist rants from hate groups under the guise of something like, “there is hate on all sides.” Or worse still is the toleration of genocidal hatred in the name of freedom of speech. This is the attitude that shrugs its shoulders ...

47. Sola Fide

1 Peter 1:3-9

Sermon

Dr. Ronald Love

... to believe that Jesus and the Holy Spirit were equal expressions of God. The doxology we sing in worship today, the Gloria Patri, was made the official statement of orthodox theology for the church at the Edict of Thessalonica of 380. It was composed specifically to disavow the beliefs promoted by the Armenians. The words of the Gloria Patri should be familiar to us: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end ...

48.

Psalm 139:1-24

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles