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Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... or lecturing them sternly on their sinfulness. These unlikely associates Jesus, disciples, sinners are specifically described as "reclining" at table together. They clearly are a group gathered in fellowship. Jesus is literally a "friend of sinners." The Pharisees, those paragons of righteousness, are appalled at Jesus' behavior and question his disciples about it. Jesus' response in verse 12 explains to the reader why he keeps this company. Jesus describes himself as a "physician" and sinners as those who ...

27. Hebrews 11:29-12:2

Hebrews 11:29-12:2

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... role models Rahab! Although some translations and commentators have tried to rehabilitate Rahab as some sort of "innkeeper," her job description in the Hebrew is clearly that of a "secular (as opposed to a temple) prostitute." But Rahab is singled out here as a paragon of faith because, like Abraham and Moses, she had faith in the future. Trusting that God was with the Israelite spies, she bravely cast her lot with them, believing in God's promises. After a while it dawns on the author that he cannot ...

28. Proper 4

2 Corinthians 4:1-18, 1 Samuel 3:1--4:1, Mark 2:23-3:6

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... The gospel became a personal possession; it was a part of him as a "little Christ." It also means that the bearers of the cross are human earthly, frail, finite, limited and imperfect. Pew-sitters often forgot this. Preachers can be put on a pedestal as paragons of virtue and adored. The mystery of grace is that Christ uses earthen vessels to preserve and share this treasure. 3. Manifested (10, 11). The Christ that is in us cannot be hidden. He is manifested in our lives ("bodies"). People are to see Jesus ...

29. The King and I

Isaiah 6:1-9

Sermon

James Merritt

... other people think you are; and then there is the person that God knows that you are. If you would ask people on the street what they thought of Isaiah, they would have told you he was a man of unquestioned integrity, moral righteousness, the epitome of holiness and a paragon of virtue. But just one look at a holy God is all it took to reveal to Isaiah how sinful he really was. It took deity to reveal dirtiness; it took God to reveal guilt. You see the more you know of God, the less you will think of ...

30. Mourning Our Fallen Tormentors

2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... and humanity in loss. They taught me how to pull myself up, to hold my head high, and to soldier on.6 One more example: The great Christian writer C. S. Lewis was sent to an English boarding school as a child, where the schoolmaster was a paragon of cruelty, running his little empire brutally on the whim of his own nasty emotions, beating his students for the fun of it, and so on. In writing about the experience from an adult perspective, Lewis said that life at this "vile boarding school [was] a good ...

31. Thank God We Can Change

1 Timothy 1:12-17

Sermon

Clayton A. Lord

... our stories of life before Christ. Some day we ought to sit around and tell our stories. Some may even be as dramatic as Paul's story. He tells how his life was turned upside down on the Damascus Road. Before meeting Christ, he thought of himself as a paragon of virtue, a crusader for God. After the event, he sees himself as nothing more than a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. A friend of mine told me about a man in his congregation who was a real saint. He was generous and loving. He was ...

32. What Is Man?

Psalm 8:1-9

Sermon

King Duncan

... to say, “If we asked what was in God’s wallet, it probably wouldn’t be credit cards, but lots and lots of pictures, family members in the body of Christ. And not just a portrait gallery of people with the perfect pedigree or sinless paragons of virtue, but some rather unsavory characters and a few surprises . . .” (6) Amazingly, in God’s wallet, there would probably be a picture of you, and maybe, even one of me. The Psalmist writes, “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the ...

33. Boast in Our Suffering

Romans 5:1-8

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

... suffering produces endurance, And endurance produces character, And character produces hope, And hope does not disappoint us, Because... Because — we have strong faith? Because we are so firmly committed to Christ? Because we are such devoted disciples? Because our lives are such paragons of virtue? Because we are so able to "grin and bear it" when the going gets tough? Because we bear our suffering so well? No ... but because "God's love has been poured into our hearts ... For while we were still weak ...

34. Love to Life

Luke 13:10-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... in the synagogue, the woman he calls forward without her ever seeking him out, is “bent over and quite unable to stand up straight.” Luke’s text doesn’t tell us anything else about this woman. We do not know if she was rich or poor, a paragon or a pariah, someone who was honored or ostracized. All we know is that she was perceived as one who had endured “a spirit” that had crippled her, bent her in half, for the past eighteen years. We also know that despite that affliction, she still attended ...

35. Let Them Eat Cake

2 Timothy 1:1-2:13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... talk of divine love and forgiveness that went as far as loving one’s enemies if one made a confession of following Christ. Clearly these were not the world’s standard operating procedures. Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles. He was the paragon “patriarch,” the founder of many apostolic communities, a respected Pharisee, a Roman citizen, and one who had experienced the presence of the risen Christ. But Paul was also now in prison. Paul was also locked and chained down by the Roman authorities. Paul ...

36. Concluding Exhortations

Hebrews 13:1-25

Understanding Series

Donald A. Hagner

... in this verse are those of the past (the present leaders of the community are referred to in vv. 17 and 24) who proclaimed the word of God to the readers. The author exhorts his readers to consider the outcome of their way of life. Like the paragons of chapter 11, they were people of faith. That is, they remained true to their convictions through all difficult circumstances (perhaps including the events described in 10:32–34). The outcome of their way of life is not to be understood as martyrdom (cf. 12:4 ...

37. Samson's Vengeance on the Philistines

Judges 15:1-20

Understanding Series

Cheryl A. Brown

... him for upsetting the status quo (v. 11). This is not the Judah we met in Judges 1. Forty years of subjugation had taken its toll. It was much easier to go along with the circumstances and not rock the boat. Although Samson was not the paragon of virtue, he at least was willing to fight the subjugating power—God’s enemy—even if the fight was mostly in his selfinterest. Although we cannot condone much of Samson’s attitudes, style, and methods, we can be thankful that he, if not anyone else ...

38. Mordecai Honored

Esther 6:1-14

Understanding Series

Timothy S. Laniak

... people, Mordecai could have sought recognition for this act but had not. Second, as noted above, Haman’s royal ambitions for himself are at the expense of true loyalty to the king. In contrast, Mordecai and Joseph (and Daniel) are presented as paragons of loyalty to their sovereigns. Their other loyalties (to God, kin, and custom) are perfectly complementary to their loyalties to the foreign king. 6:8 Have them bring a royal robe: Haman’s answer shares the sentiments of an exiled Spartan king: “When ...

39. The Greatness of Mordecai

Esther 10:1-3

Understanding Series

Timothy S. Laniak

... in no formal religious observance. There is fasting, but this is all. She eats the king’s food and sleeps in the king’s bed. The message of hope in Esther is rooted not in cultic observance but in loyalty to the Jewish people. Esther is a paragon of virtue in this sense. She risks everything to save her kin. Her courage and sagacity are the virtues of the wisdom tradition more than Torah. Mordecai, like Esther, is an emblem of honor (note the last two verses of the book) rather than an example of ...

40. Personal Accountability

Ezekiel 18:1-32, Ezekiel 19:1-14

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... : “Yet you ask, ‘Why does the son not share the guilt of his father?’” (v. 19). Whether his audience actually raised that question or not is beside the point; Ezekiel demands that they be consistent. While they may not claim to be paragons of righteousness, they do see themselves as the innocent victims of their parents’ punishment. Verse 20, however, rules out this approach entirely. Ezekiel sets forth the point of this family history in verses 5–20 unequivocally: The son will not share the ...

41. Job's First Test

Job 1:6-22

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... The Adversary, with insight into normative human nature, responds with rhetorical questions of his own, focusing on Job’s motivation: “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not put a hedge around him?” Removing the protection would expose Job as no paragon of piety. God accepts the challenge. His role may be exonerated by pointing out that the Adversary is the true agent of Job’s destruction. Though true, the view is likely overly optimistic and guilty of hand-washing. God and the Adversary, at ...

42. The Previous Pastor

Humor Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

The previous pastor had been a paragon of virtue. He lived up to all the people's expectations and was willing to live on a very low salary to boot. He loved to work around the manse and keep both house and grounds in repair. But the new pastor wasn't that type. He hired someone to ...

43. Reflecting God’s Abundant Love

Luke 18:9-14

Sermon

Molly F. James

... 14). I love this passage because it describes humanity so well! We all like to think we are like the tax collector, willing to admit when we have gone astray, humble and contrite, seeking mercy for our sins. Hopefully most of the time we are like the tax collector, a paragon of humility, seeking only to follow the Lord and do right. Three cheers and a pat on the back for all the times we have been like the tax collector! But what about the times we are like the Pharisee? What about the times in which we are ...

44. He’s Not Who We Thought

Mark 9:2-9

Sermon

Michael L. Sherer

... not appear to have happened. So, did it really happen? This story appears in Matthew and Mark as well. But in all of those versions of the gospel story, Peter, who is described as having been present at the Transfiguration, does not seem to be a paragon of loyalty and virtue when the tough times came during the last week of Jesus’ life. Why not? The best answer we can give is that The Transfiguration has been artificially shoe-horned into the middle of Mark’s gospel by the writer himself — and Matthew ...

45. It Helps If You Laugh

John 15:9-17

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... to share that might just get you through on those occasions. Her cookie jar is always filled, Her car is always ready; She never shouts when milked is spilled, She lets her kids go steady. She rings a most indulgent curfew, Her cooking's like no other. Who is this paragon of virtue? Why, EVERYBODY ELSE'S Mother! The whole point is, it's not easy to be a mother or a parent. Parenting kids is kind of like holding a wet bar of soap. Too hard a grasp and it shots out of your hand like greased lightening, too ...

46. If It Helps You Laugh

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

47. Beware! Angels

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

Will Willimon

... (Word, 1975), headed the bestseller list for months and has remained Graham's most popular volume. Several books on the subject followed during the '80s, notably Mortimer Adler's The Angels and Us (Macmillan) and Geddes MacGregor's Angels: Ministers of Grace (Paragon House)....during the past five years the number of angel books in print in the U.S. has gone from five to at least 200, according to Gannett News Service. ''If nothing else, the angel phenomenon indicates that philosophical materialism- the ...

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