Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 526 to 550 of 2962 results

Luke 1:1-4

Sermon

James Merritt

... that an explosion took place in a junkyard and the first car just came together. I can’t prove to you this world was created. You can’t prove to me that it wasn’t, but there is far more evidence that this world was designed by a grand designer than there is that something was produced when nothing exploded and produced something. Now we raise the question, “How did we get the Gospels? How did they come into existence? Why should we believe them? Do they bear signs of being historical and does the ...

527. Saints Are Awake to Life's Deepest Joy

Luke 6:20-31

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... Christians who have died, but also as the living Christians who lead exemplary lives of faith or who serve as extraordinary teachers of the faith. The Roman Catholic church has a narrower understanding and well-defined process concerning sainthood. The designation of saint is bestowed only on those who have met certain stringent requirements — particularly those in heaven who experience the deepest joy, happiness, and blessedness that comes only by meeting God face-to-face, i.e., those who have attained ...

528. When the New Comes, the Old Passes

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... was never quite the same again. Sherwin Nuland, in his best-selling book, How We Die, writes from his perspective as a physician when he contends our attempts to find a Fountain of Youth will always be futile because the human body is not designed for endless use. Therefore, physical life will always be limited. Even if we created a perfect environment and cured or eliminated every disease, science will never move the average life expectancy much beyond 110 years. To put that in a different way, the human ...

529. The Wrong Gift

Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... his parents or a nickname he claimed when he became a Christian, it is a marvelous title for all who read about Jesus and call him Savior and Lord. As Luke notes, becoming a Christian is always a kind of homecoming. The gift of God announced to the shepherds is designed to bring them home. "For to you is born today, in the city of David…" We are all displaced people, whether in little or great ways. The gospel story reminds us that God came into our world in the person of Jesus to find us and to bring us ...

530. The Word According to Superman

Genesis 15:1-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... to defeat us but to make us stronger. This is a truth we are emphasizing in our Lenten journey. God wants us each to grow strong in our mental, emotional and spiritual lives. And so God has placed us in a world that tests us--but the tests are not designed to defeat us but to make us stronger. God established a covenant with Abram. He had him look up at the stars and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars--if indeed you can count them.” Then He said, “So shall your offspring be.” And God kept ...

531. Second Chances

Luke 13:1-9

Sermon

King Duncan

... same foolish mistakes? We are making a pilgrimage through the Lenten season. On the first Sunday, we dealt with Christ’s temptations in the wilderness. We called it a test. And we noted that this is how we should always look at temptations, not as a test designed to defeat us but as an opportunity for us to become stronger. Last Sunday we saw how Abraham was tested when he doubted God’s promise that God would provide him with an heir. This test was another way of making Abraham stronger. In the same way ...

532. Cell Division or Unity

Illustration

Michael P. Green

... to do. It is the function of the head to bring all these different functions together, so that the body operates effectively as each cell gives itself to the task of functioning according to its design. Certainly the body would not operate properly if its cells chose to go their own way. Do you know what we call a rebellion of the cells of your stomach? We call it indigestion! A revolt of your brain cells is called insanity. Any time the cells in our body ...

533. The Trial Before Felix

Acts 24:1-27

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... perhaps that this pestilence was contagious. He was trying to make out that Paul was one of the rash of messianic revolutionaries who were appearing at that time (Josephus, War 2.228ff.). The accusation referred chiefly to Paul’s activities elsewhere, but was designed to raise the ire of Felix, who prided himself on keeping order. Tertullus’ ploy was the familiar one of accusing Christians of treason in the hope of involving Rome in what was essentially a religious dispute (cf. 17:7; 18:12ff.; 19:37ff ...

534. Accusations

2 Corinthians 1:12--2:4, 2 Corinthians 2:5-11

Understanding Series

James M. Scott

... and an internal component (“conflicts on the outside, fears within”). We may also compare 11:28, which includes external dangers alongside the daily pressure on the apostle because his concern for all the churches. If the use of thlipsis in 2:4 is thus designed to recall Paul’s tribulation as described in the thanksgiving (1:3–11), then it is interesting to note that his suffering in Asia happened for the sake of the Corinthians (1:6). Thus, both forms of thlipsis become expressions of Paul’s love ...

535. Paul's Concern for the Corinthians

2 Corinthians 12:11-21

Understanding Series

James M. Scott

... seen, however, even after the good news from Titus about the repentance of the majority in Corinth, the situation is still tense; Paul is still in a position of having to defend himself. His statement in 7:16 is clearly an exaggeration, designed more to effect a positive response than to compliment the church for already having one. 12:21 Scholars have debated whether the vice lists in v. 21b (impurity, sexual sin and debauchery) and v. 20b (“quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, slander ...

536. Identification and a Wish for Grace and Peace

Galatians 1:1-10

Understanding Series

L. Ann Jervis

... as in most of his other letters, Paul identifies himself as an apostle (cf. Rom. 1:1; 1 Cor. 1:1; 2 Cor. 1:1; and, if Pauline authorship is accepted, Eph. 1:1 and Col. 1:1). In Galatians Paul places his name in direct relation to his self-designation as apostle and then immediately goes on to qualify what kind of apostle he is. Often at the beginning of a letter Paul qualifies his apostleship as being by the will of God. In Galatians Paul makes a similar point in a particularly graphic and emphatic way, by ...

537. The Law and the Promise

Galatians 3:15-25, Galatians 3:1-14

Understanding Series

L. Ann Jervis

... here would be “we receive the Spirit through the faith (of Christ) in which we participate by being in Christ, and we are in Christ because we are believers.” 3:15 This is the first time since 1:11 that Paul addresses his readers as brothers. (This designation undoubtedly was meant to refer to both the male and female members of the Galatian churches.) He says that he wants to get at the issue at hand from the perspective of everyday life. Paul takes his example from the legal world and uses the case of ...

538. Freedom In Christ

Galatians 5:1-15, Galatians 5:16-26

Understanding Series

L. Ann Jervis

... is cut off shall not be admitted to the assembly of the Lord. Paul’s wish that the rival evangelists emasculate themselves may then also include a wish for a graphic demonstration that their message is alienated from God’s plan. Paul’s use of the designation agitators for his rivals betrays more of his negative regard for them. This term is used elsewhere in the NT to signify political agitation (Acts 17:6; 21:38). Paul may be tarring his opponents with the same brush with which they tarred him, that ...

539. Paul the Preacher to the Gentiles

Ephesians 3:1-13

Understanding Series

Arthur G. Patzia

... 19 = 1:23) Presenting the Mystery of the Gospel 3:1 As indicated in the introduction, the phrase for this reason points back to the theological ideas that have been developed in the preceding section and that lead the apostle to prayer. I, Paul, is an emphatic expression designed to draw attention to the apostle and what he has to say (cf. 2 Cor. 10:1; Gal. 5:2; Col. 1:23; 1 Thess. 2:18). What is emphasized is that Paul is the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of the Gentiles. The NIV rightly translates ...

540. Freedom From Human Regulations Through Life With Christ

Colossians 2:6-23

Understanding Series

Arthur G. Patzia

... , such as the fundamental principles of learning (the ABCs), or the elements from which the world was created (earth, air, fire, and water). These principles may have been elevated to the level of spirits or angels in the Hellenistic world. Stoicheion also designates the heavenly bodies that in some cases were personified and worshiped. The control that these elemental spirits had over human beings (fate) could only be broken by correct knowledge (gnōsis) and/or ritual, usually in the form of magic or ...

541. Paul's Ministry in Thessalonica

1 Thessalonians 2:1-16

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... their message alike centered on God. We speak, says Paul using the present tense to express what was always their practice, not trying to please men but God (cf. 2:15; 4:1). Here again, Paul may be refuting his opponents’ accusation that his preaching was designed to please people—that he was, in this sense, ever ready to “become all things to all men.” He was, of course, always ready to be so, only not in that sense, not in the sense of compromising his preaching. Rather, he sought to accept and ...

542. Godlessness in the Last Days

2 Timothy 3:1-9

Understanding Series

Gordon D. Fee

... the false teachers, both by characterizing their existence as in keeping with these evils and by implying that they themselves fit many of the items in the list (pride, arrogance, greed, lack of love, slander, etc.). The list itself doesn’t seem to have any clear design to it, such as one finds in 1 Timothy 1:9–10. Some items seem to be in pairs, but that is not evident for all. It begins appropriately enough with lovers of themselves (cf. Titus 1:7 where “not self-willed” tops the list) since ...

543. Jesus Made Like His Brothers

Hebrews 2:5-18

Understanding Series

Donald A. Hagner

... translation. The word indicates not merely an additional instance of the taking on of humanity (as in “too”), but emphasizes the likeness of Jesus’ humanity to ours (cf. Barclay: “in exactly the same way”). Devil and Satan are the two main designations for the supernatural enemy of God. They are used about equally often in the NT. Devil means “slanderer”; Satan, a Hebrew word, means “adversary.” The devil is “the prince of this world” (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11). The connection between ...

544. The Living Stone and a Chosen People

1 Peter 2:4-12

Understanding Series

Norman Hillyer

... the “rejected stone” typology. Paul, for example, also mentions the two Isaiah passages (Rom. 9:32–33; 1 Cor. 3:11), though not Psalm 118:22. Peter applies Isaiah’s prophecy concerning the cornerstone to Christ. It is noteworthy that a cornerstone controls the design of the building and holds the structure together. In the NT, the symbol of the foundation stone is used both of Christ (1 Cor. 3:11) and of the apostles and prophets (Eph. 2:20). But only Christ combines the functions of both foundation ...

545. The Ark

Exodus 25:10-22

Understanding Series

James K. Bruckner

... were to cover the ark with pure gold, both inside and out. The gold molding around it would have been decorative, but it probably also functioned as a rim to secure the lid, that had the same dimensions as the box. The design was left to the artisans who made it. God also left the design of the four gold rings, the dimensions of the poles that fit into them, and the four feet (or “corners”) to the artisans. The poles were also made of acacia wood and overlaid with ordinary gold. They were perpetually to ...

546. The Lampstand

Exodus 25:31-40

Understanding Series

James K. Bruckner

... on the south side of the tent of meeting, stood the lampstand, opposite the Table of the Presence. The lampstand (menorah) was made of approximately thirty-five kilos (75 pounds, a talent) of pure gold of one piece. The text does not give dimensions, leaving the design to the artisans. The talmudic tradition says that it was just over four feet tall (Plaut, The Torah, p. 613). It was similar in shape to a sage plant that still grows in the Middle East (salvia moriah) but was decorated as an almond tree. It ...

547. Cities of Refuge

Joshua 20:1-9

Understanding Series

J. Gordon Harris

... as places of “refuge,” “admittance,” or “inclusion” (the term does not appear in Deut. 19). The passage in Joshua lists three cities west of the Jordan from north to south (v. 7) and three cities east of the Jordan south to north (v. 8). The verses designate the cities as geographical regional centers of asylum. The lists also mention cities east of the Jordan by tribe. The cities of refuge are Kedesh, Shechem, and Hebron in Canaan, and Bezer, Ramoth-Gilead, and Golan in Transjordan. These are ...

548. Ehud

Judges 3:12-30

Understanding Series

Cheryl A. Brown

... of the City of Palms: Jericho was the closest city and elsewhere called the City of Palms (Deut. 34:3), but problematic is Josh. 6:21–26, which indicates that Jericho remained a ruin (cf. 1 Kgs. 16:34). Soggin (Judges, p. 54) suggests that the designation “City of Palms” “can easily be explained by the desire of the redactors not to create tensions between the note and the traditional theory according to which the city was destroyed by Joshua, only to be rebuilt in 1 Kgs. 16:34.” The problem is ...

549. David's Plans for the Temple

1 Chronicles 28:1-21

Understanding Series

Louis C. Jonker

... footstool of our God.” This is not a strange metaphor, since it also occurs elsewhere with reference to the temple as a whole, to Jerusalem or Mount Zion, and even to the earth (e.g., Isa. 66:1; Ps. 99:5; 110:1; 132:7; Lam. 2:1). The designation of the temple as (literally) “a house of rest” links back to the speech in 1 Chronicles 22, where Solomon is called “a man of rest.” This wordplay (with the same word in Hebrew) is certainly not a coincidence (see Additional Note on 28:2). The reason for ...

550. Haman's Plot to Destroy the Jews

Esther 3:1-15

Understanding Series

Timothy S. Laniak

... perspective and likely hyperbolic. The highest tribute paid by any satrapy was 1,000 talents (Babylon). According to Herodotus (Hist. 3.89–95), the total revenue for the Persian empire was 14,560 Euboeic talents, or about 17,000 Babylonian talents. Whichever of these two designations was current at this time would make Haman’s offer more than half the empire’s economy. For these figures, see Fox, Character, p. 51. It is unclear if Haman is offering his own funds or those at his disposal (i.e., in the ...

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