Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: Levi, disciple, evangelist, tax collector, the 12, the twelve, apostle, sermon on the mount, jewish audience, beatitudes, lord's prayer, great commission, parables, olivet discourse, mount of olives, olivet, synoptic

Showing 626 to 650 of 715 results

626. The Appointing of the Twelve

Mark 3:13-19

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... in the New Testament give preeminence to Peter, James, and John as an inner circle among the Twelve. As far as we know, none of the Twelve was a Jewish religious leader. Rather, all were representative of the common and diverse extremes (e.g., a tax collector and a Zealot) in first-century Judaism. The inclusion of the name of Judas, Jesus’s betrayer, reminds readers that the original Twelve were not a perfect fellowship; indeed, the worst betrayer came from within the chosen rank of Jesus’s apostles.

627. The Authority of Jesus Questioned

Mark 11:27-33

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... the question, “By what authority are you doing these things?” (11:28). By “these things” they are evidently recalling Jesus’s presumption to forgive sins (2:10), supersession of torah and Sabbath (2:23–3:6), acceptance of sinners and tax collectors (2:16), disruption of temple operations (11:15–19), and other challenges to their authority. In Israel’s most authoritative place, and by its most authoritative body, Jesus is summoned to give account of his own authority. The question, “Who ...

628. The Baptist’s Ministry: Preparation for the Lord

Luke 3:1-20

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... 3:9) one should produce before judgment falls? In verses 10–14 Luke gives us a sample of John’s ethical teaching. John does not call people to imitate his ascetic lifestyle, nor does he upset the existing social order, for he does not ask tax collectors or soldiers to leave their present jobs. Instead, he counsels those who are in these professions to be honest and content with their wages. The soldiers described here are probably not Romans but the soldiers of Herod. The common people are counseled to ...

629. The Parable of the Great Banquet

Luke 14:15-24

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... the initial invitation (14:16–17). Jesus is probably referring to the religious leaders here; we need to remember that he is eating in a Pharisee’s house (14:1). The master responds in verse 21 by inviting those of the lower class (referring to tax collectors and sinners, lower-class Jews) from the town. Luke’s concern for the poor and handicapped (cf. 14:13) continues. Even after those from the lower class are brought to the banquet, there is still room for more, so the master sends his servant to ...

630. The Parable of the Lost Sheep

Luke 15:1-7

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

The setting for all of the “lost” parables in chapter 15 is the Pharisaic complaint that Jesus associates and eats with tax collectors and sinners (15:1–2). By eating with defiled people, Jesus himself would contract uncleanness. Thus these parables all emerge from a controversial setting and need to be interpreted as parables in which Jesus defends his ministry to the “lost.” Three different parables with the same basic theme are included ...

631. The Parable of the Lost Son

Luke 15:11-32

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... :32). Notice that the father reminds the older brother of his relationship to his kin by saying, “this brother of yours” (15:32). The parable ends up in the air. Will the older son enter the party? Jesus is defending his association with tax collectors and sinners. The festive eating with them is a necessity, for it symbolizes God’s joy over their repentance. And his acceptance of them indicates his forgiving grace. Like the older son, the Pharisees are invited to enter the party as well. This clearly ...

632. I Once Was Blind…and Maybe I Still Am

John 9:1-41

Sermon

King Duncan

... of a Gentile could defile them. Their faith bred in them a terrible prejudice against outsiders. Can you see how difficult it was for the Pharisees to accept the idea that Jesus could be a good Jew and actually sit at the same table with sinners and tax-collectors? Here again, we have to be very careful that we do not make the same mistake. There are many people in our community who somehow have the idea that they are not good enough to come inside these walls. One little girl said her favorite hymn was ...

633. Unstoppable Love

Mark 1:40-45

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... couldn’t worship with their faith community. They were completely ostracized. Yet Jesus disregarded the taboo and loved this leper. Jesus was always disregarding cultural boundaries and rules, especially when it came to relating to people. He reached out to hated tax collectors, oppressed women, and unclean lepers. He healed on the sabbath and didn’t care which laws he broke. For Jesus, love is the highest law. Jesus’ love is unstoppable and limitless. It knows no bounds. Nothing can stop the love of ...

634. Learn To Play Again

Mark 10:13-16

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... thought they knew everything there was to know about God. Jesus came along and said, “You just don’t get it. I come eating, drinking, and having a good time and you accuse me of being a glutton, drunkard, and a friend to sinners and tax collectors.” Someone once said that basically Jesus was accused of being a party animal! They thought Jesus was playing too hard. They thought they knew everything about God. They thought God was not into fun, games, and play, but they were wrong. They just could not ...

635. Jesus Sends Out the Twelve

Matthew 10:1-42

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

... of Talmai; cf. 2 Sam. 13:37) rather than a name. He is commonly identified with Nathanael of John 1:46. The name Thomas means “twin,” as does the Greek didymos (Didymus; cf. John 11:16). Only in the Gospel of Matthew is Matthew thew called the tax collector. It reflects the author’s amazement that Jesus would call into his service one who had served in such a disreputable occupation. In the final set of four only the infamous Judas Iscariot is well known. James son of Alphaeus is so named in order to ...

636. Jesus and John the Baptist

Matthew 11:1-19

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

... (Matt. 9:14) and drinking no wine (Luke 1:15), and they said he was demon-possessed. Jesus came eating (Matt. 9:15), and drinking (John 2:1–10), and they reviled him as a man “given to gluttony and tippling” (Weymouth)—a friend of tax collectors and “sinners.” Like children who refused to play either game, they rejected the asceticism of John and the way of freedom offered by Jesus. Green understands the verses in a slightly different way. The children who sit in the market place and call to ...

637. The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

Matthew 20:1-16

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

... New Testament scholars regarding who is intended by the first and the last. In the context of Matthew’s presentation the latecomers would be those who did not appear to have the same claim upon the goodness of God. They were the tax collectors and other religious outcasts. Gundry adopts a different approach, holding them to be Gentiles who had entered the church only recently, whereas those who came first would be their detractors among Jewish Christians (p. 399). Yet another approach is tied in with ...

638. Captains or Parties

Matthew 21:33-46

Sermon

Kristin Borsgard Wee

... supporting the priests in the temple. This vast accumulation of wealth was used for a party! Can you believe it? A party! All the people of Israel were expected to travel to Jerusalem and participate in a gigantic blow-out party. And everyone was invited: the tax collector, the poor, the rich, the lame, and the blind! No wonder the children of Israel said, "I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go to the house of the Lord!'" (Psalm 122:1). In ancient Israel, God was worshiped in celebration. The kingdom ...

639. The Gift of Failure

Matthew 21:28-32

Sermon

Kristin Borsgard Wee

... later goes. Then Jesus asks the religious leaders, "Which of the sons did the will of the father?" They say the second son of course. Jesus says to them, "You are the son that did not go, because you chose not to go into God's vineyard, tax collectors and prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God before you." Imagine their shock. It's like saying an ex-con will get into the kingdom before a church council member. (Remember, Jesus is speaking to leaders of the synagogue.) The point of the parable is this ...

640. The Twelve Apostles

Luke 6:12-16

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

... Lord.” He is probably the same person as “Levi, son of Alphaeus” (Mark 2:14), however the “Alphaeus” coincidence or confusion is to be explained, for reasons mentioned in the commentary above. In Matt. 10:3 Matthew is identified as a tax collector. Tradition ascribes authorship of the Gospel of Matthew to this apostle. Papias says that Matthew wrote down the logia (“oracles”) of the Lord in Hebrew, and everyone translated them as best as he could. Many regard this tradition as unreliable. Even ...

641. The Parable of the Persistent Widow

Luke 18:1-8

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

Unlike much of the preceding material (17:20–37), the two parables that make up this section are found only in Luke: the Parable of the Widow and the Judge (vv. 1–8), and the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (vv. 9–14). The two parables are linked by the theme of prayer (see vv. 1, 7, 10) and so make up a unit. The Parable of the Widow and the Judge, however, also relates closely to the preceding section (cf. 18:8b with 17:22, 26, 30), so much ...

642. Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ

Romans 6:1-14

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... for us, and if our efforts achieve nothing for salvation, why make the effort to live a good life? The issue at stake here lies at the root of Jesus’ breach with a common Pharisaic attitude which he exposed in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18:9–14). If a bad person receives justification before a good person, what is the value of the moral life? The point of 5:20, however, as Luther rightly noted, was not “to excuse sin, but to glorify divine grace” (Epistle to the Romans ...

643. Future Glory

Romans 8:18-27

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... pronounced than in the NIV. It might be translated, “For we do not know how we ought to pray.” God wills that believers adapt their prayers to his saving purpose in history. But in this we fail. In the parable of the Pharisee and tax collector, Jesus taught that effective prayer is based not on virtuosity and profuseness, but on sincerity (Luke 18:9–14). Paul knew firsthand that sincerity sometimes issues in weakness and speechlessness (2 Cor. 12:6–10). In prayer, as in every facet of faith, God ...

644. Ingrafted Branches

Romans 11:11-24

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... penned with this in mind, although the message was certainly not limited to Gentiles in Rome, for the issue was larger than whatever might have been happening in the capital. Jewish society as a rule regarded Gentiles with condescension and scorn, likening them to tax collectors (Matt. 18:17) or dogs (Mark 7:27). But far from begrudging his apostleship to the Gentiles (Gal. 2:7, 9), Paul gloried in it and highlighted his unique calling. Verse 13 might be translated, “I am the Gentile apostle” (see 1:5 ...

645. Love for Enemies

Matthew 5:43-48

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

... favor extends to all. To be children of God requires that we meet moral conditions. To be like God we must show our favor not simply to those who are ready to love in return. There is no reward for loving those who love us. Even the despised tax collectors do that. And if we show courtesy only to our friends, there is nothing out of the ordinary in that. What God requires is that his children be perfect, therefore, just as he is perfect (v. 48). This last statement (v. 48) has often been misinterpreted. It ...

646. Jesus Questioned about Fasting

Matthew 9:14-17

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

9:14–17 Jesus is still at table with tax collectors and “sinners” (v. 10) when a group of followers of John the Baptist come and ask him why his disciples do not fast. Pharisees apparently fasted twice a week (cf. Luke 18:12; Didache 8), and John’s disciples fasted as well. In the previous paragraph the question was whether ...

647. The Parable of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast

Matthew 13:31-35

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

... which was unclean or evil (cf. Gal. 5:9; 1 Cor. 5:6–8). In this parable, however, the leaven does not carry that idea. Jesus is not saying that the kingdom is in certain respects evil! Lohmeyer explains that from the Jewish standpoint the tax collectors and sinners were unclean but would turn out to be those who initiate the redeemed community (pp. 220ff.). The parable of the yeast is not unlike the parable of the mustard seed; in both, great results stem from small beginnings. Leaven was normally a small ...

648. The Parable of the Lost Sheep

Matthew 18:10-14

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

... ). Additional Notes 18:11 Verse 11 is not included in the better manuscripts and has undoubtedly been borrowed from Luke 19:10 to provide a connection with the parable that follows. 18:14 In Luke the parable of the lost sheep is used to justify Jesus’ practice of ministering to tax collectors and sinners (i.e., religious outcasts, cf. Luke 15:2ff.). In Matthew the parable serves to teach God’s concern lest a single member of the flock, however insignificant, wander from the truth.

649. The Parable of the Two Sons

Matthew 21:28-32

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

... spoke answered correctly that it was the first son who did what his father wanted. The second son represents the professedly religious Jews who rejected Jesus, while the first son represents the publicans and sinners who turned to him in faith. So Jesus concludes, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you (i.e., “instead of you”; another example of the last who will be first and the first who will be last, cf. 20:16). What a devastating shock to the religious ...

650. A Man with Leprosy

Mark 1:40-45

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... him. In doing this, Jesus could be seen as actually violating the laws about ritual purity for the sake of healing the man. No doubt Mark wanted his readers to see the similarity of this action to Jesus’ welcome of other “outcasts,” such as tax collectors. The uncertainty expressed in the man’s plea, If you are willing, is answered by Jesus’ firm, I am willing, and the reader sees in this exchange a revelation of the heart of Jesus. Mark is unique in attributing to Jesus directly an emotion in ...

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