Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 676 to 700 of 972 results

Zechariah 14:1-21

Understanding Series

Pamela J. Scalise

... one and only is most familiar from Deuteronomy 6:4. The names of the idols will have to be removed (Zech. 13:2), and the peoples of the earth will acknowledge the Lord alone as God. 14:10–11 Jerusalem is the symbol of the Lord’s exclusive reign, and the alterations to its topography this verse describes will communicate its meaning more clearly than ever. The Arabah is the plain that includes the lowest point on earth, the shores of the Dead Sea. The whole land . . . will become like the Arabah, low and ...

677. Judah Unfaithful

Malachi 2:10-16

Understanding Series

Pamela J. Scalise

... between adult partners who were individually members of the covenant people Israel. Ruth 3:9 and Ezekiel 16:8 both refer to the corner of the husband’s garment in a gesture to pledge marriage, and in Deuteronomy 22:30 it is a symbol of the exclusive relationship between husband and wife. According to verse 16 here, the evidence of “violence” will cover the husband’s garment if he divorces the wife of his youth. The evidence of his infidelity will be visible to all. In a similar way, violence may be ...

678. The Last Day of the Feast

John 7:45--8:11, John 8:12-30

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... abruptly as he appeared, and the stage is now set for Jesus to confront the Pharisees again (8:12), this time not through emissaries but directly. Yet his pronouncement I am the light of the world …, the sequel to 7:37–38, is not for them exclusively but for whoever follows me. It is universal in scope and probably, like 7:37–38, future in its orientation. The desire of Jesus’ brothers that he “show himself to the world” (7:4) is coming to realization but with the outcome Jesus foresaw, that the ...

679. The Pharisees Investigate the Healing

John 9:13-34

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... (lit., “teach”) is used here with an authoritarian connotation (cf. 1 Tim. 2:11, where wives are warned against lecturing or bossing their husbands, not against a ministry of teaching; cf. also Matt. 23:8 and perhaps James 3:1). Threw him out. The context makes it clear that formal exclusion is what is meant (cf. v. 22), not just physical ejection from the place where the interrogation was going on.

680. Jesus Washes His Disciples’ Feet

John 13:1-17, John 13:18-30

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... or close-knit community (i.e., among those who eat at the same table). Though the narrator surely thinks of Judas as the prime historical example of such betrayal (vv. 21–30), there is no reason to assume that he (or Jesus) has Judas exclusively in mind. The pain of discord and treachery is to be just as real an experience within the Christian community as the pain of persecution, and Jesus wants his disciples to be prepared. When professed believers “betray and hate each other” (Matt. 24:10), Jesus ...

681. Jesus’ Love and the World’s Hatred

John 15:1-17

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... devil” (used of Judas as early as 6:70) and “the one doomed to destruction” (17:12) suggest that the latter alternative is the correct one. Judas was a “fruitless branch” because he had no life-giving connection with Jesus in the first place. His exclusion simply made visible (to the beloved disciple at least) what was already the case in his heart. It is fair to draw the tentative conclusion that the same is true of whatever other “fruitless branches” the Gospel writer may have in mind in his ...

682. The Second Appearance and Its Sequel

John 20:19-23, John 20:24-31

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... of what immediately follows; “But stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high” (24:49b). Clearly, something is given and something is still expected. Luke’s emphasis is largely on what is still expected, whereas John’s emphasis is exclusively on what is already given. 20:23 If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven. The metaphorical equivalent of this pronouncement is the promise of Jesus to Peter in Matt. 16:19 and ...

683. No Confidence in the Flesh

Philippians 3:1-11

Understanding Series

F. F. Bruce

... with him (and therefore also with the rest of his people); compare NEB: “for the sake of … finding myself incorporate in him.” Paul was intensely aware and appreciative of his one-to-one relationship with the risen Christ, but it was not an exclusive relationship: “I knew that Christ had given me birth / To brother all the souls on earth” (John Masefield, “The Everlasting Mercy”). He was already “in Christ” but here he speaks of his ambition to be found in him. The aorist tense of the ...

684. Pressing on Toward the Goal

Philippians 3:12-4:1

Understanding Series

F. F. Bruce

... of “the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day” (2 Tim. 4:8). The word translated prize (Gk. brabeion) is used in 1 Corinthians 9:24, “all the runners run, but only one gets the prize.” But there is no such exclusiveness about this prize; it will be given, as Paul goes on to say about the wreath of victory in 2 Timothy 4:8, “not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” Paul aims to win his prize, but there is a prize for ...

685. Warning Against Antichrists

1 John 2:18-27

Understanding Series

Thomas F. Johnson

... NIV’s addition of the direct object, the truth, which the translators borrowed by analogy from the next verse. Furthermore, all of you know, not just some of the members. Because all have received the Spirit, all are knowing; there is no exclusive, elite group with “inside” spiritual knowledge of divine mysteries, such as the false teachers are likely to have claimed. 2:21 Because the Spirit-anointed, faithful Johannine Christians know the truth, the author was writing not to inform them as if they ...

686. Test the Spirits

1 John 4:1-6

Understanding Series

Thomas F. Johnson

... , i.e., those who are not from God, reject the orthodox message. They do “not continue in the teaching of Christ,” but they bring a different teaching (2 John 9–10; cf. 2 Cor. 11:4; Gal. 1:6–9). There is almost a predestined flavor to these mutually exclusive categories, as in John 10:26: “you do not believe because you are not my sheep,” and John 8:47: “He who belongs to God hears (akouei, ‘listens to’) what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.” This ...

687. Fear the Lord

Deuteronomy 10:12-22

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

... people is not complicated and esoteric but fundamentally simple. Not simple as in “easy”—if obedience were easy there would be little need for these chapters full of encouragement, warning, and promise. The motivation for obedience is total and exclusive commitment. The substance of obedience is relatively straightforward (a) because there is only one God to whom obedience is owed, so the moral confusion of polytheism is avoided, and (b) because Yahweh has made his moral will known with unmistakable ...

688. Worshipping Other Gods

Deuteronomy 13:1-18

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

... was also a factor (cf. 13:11: “Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and no one among you will do such an evil thing again”). On the rationale behind Israel’s penalties, cf. Wenham, “Legal System.” 13:7 The text makes the exclusiveness of Israel’s loyalty to Yahweh as valid worldwide as Yahweh’s own uniqueness is valid throughout the heavens (cf. 4:32). The word land should really be “earth” (exactly the same as in 28:64). The lordship of Yahweh was not subject to geographical ...

689. Miscellaneous Laws

Deut 23:15–25:19

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

... That community itself, however, needs clear definition and measures to protect its religious distinctiveness and purity. This need explains the presence, alongside laws that immediately appeal to us by their charitable nature, of other laws that appear much harsher and exclusive. 23:15–16 This is an astonishing law. It is diametrically opposite to the whole thrust of slave legislation in other ancient Near Eastern law codes, and indeed in the legislation governing slavery in more modern times. The normal ...

690. The Altar on Mount Ebal

Deuteronomy 27:1-8

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

... to the grant of the land and its legitimate possession—“a ceremony within a ceremony.” See Hill, “The Ebal Ceremony.” 27:5 The instruction here to set up an altar at Mt. Ebal clearly conflicts with the assumption that ch. 12 prescribes the exclusive centralization of worship in one place—“the place the LORD your God will choose”—if that place is asumed to be Jerusalem. Since the so-called “centralization formula” is not used here, the chapter obviously does not intend that Mt. Ebal was ...

691. Renewal of the Covenant

Deuteronomy 29:1-29

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

... -generational inclusiveness of OT Israel. 29:16–21 The fundamental covenant demand. The third section of the speech moves on, logically, to the most foundational stipulation of the covenant—namely, the total renunciation of all other gods and idols out of exclusive loyalty to Yahweh (the first and second commandments). Again Moses appeals to experience as a counterbalance to any attractiveness that Canaanite idolatry might hold. Just as eyes that had seen the works of the living God ought to be eyes of ...

692. The Lord's Devastation of the Earth

Isaiah 24:1-23

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... from this devastation (v. 2). This reminds us again of Tyre in the previous chapter. In due course it transpires that the face was not so lovely after all. It was already defiled by the people who lived on it. Unless the “land” refers exclusively to Israel, verse 5 expresses a striking conviction that all people live in a pure land within a covenant relationship. This parallels the description in Genesis 9:8–17, where God enters into covenant relationship with the whole world. That covenant is purely ...

693. Comfort for God's People

Isaiah 40:1-31

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... Judah or the Judeans. But this little community is the embodiment of Jacob-Israel, God’s people as a whole. “Jacob-Israel” functions rather like the word “Church”: it is a symbol for God’s people as a whole, though embodied (non-exclusively) in the community the Poet addresses. Additional Notes 40:3 NIV mg. offers an alternative punctuation that conforms the translation to Mark 1:3. NIV main text follows the MT’s punctuation. The parallelism makes clear that the main text punctuation is right ...

694. Riddles and Metaphors

Ezekiel 15:1-8, Ezekiel 16:1-63, Ezekiel 17:1-24

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... -Hemmes; Biblical Interpretation Series 1; New York: Brill, 1993], pp. 169–70; and Blenkinsopp, Ezekiel, p. 76). On the other hand, as Daniel Smith-Christopher notes, we have no reason to think that Ezekiel’s audience was predominately or exclusively male (“Ezekiel in Abu Ghraib: Rereading Ezekiel 16:37–39 in the Context of Imperial Conquest,” in Cook and Patton, eds., Ezekiel’s Hierarchical World, p. 146). Moreover, “the images of violence, bloodshed, vengeance, and terror are not concoctions ...

695. Personal Accountability

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

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... keeps my laws” (v. 9). This statement is a clear reference to Leviticus 18:3–5, from the Holiness Code. Here in verse 9, the “decrees” and “laws” refer particularly to those just mentioned, in the list in verses 5–9. But this is not an exclusive list. The point is not that the righteous person does this and nothing more, but rather that these kinds of actions are typical of the righteous person. The end of such a lifestyle is made very clear: “That man is righteous; he will surely live ...

696. Two Adulterous Sisters

Ezekiel 23:1-49

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... my Sabbaths” (v. 38). Although God directs the judgment against both sisters, it is actually Jerusalem that is the target here. Ezekiel 8 describes the defilement of the temple through idolatry in horrific detail, while desecration of the Sabbath is a major reason for exclusion from the land in 20:13, 21, 23–24 (see also 22:26). Now, to describe the foreign alliances of the two cities, the account returns to allegory. The sisters sent messengers for men who came from far away (v. 40). They prepare ...

697. Prologue to the Law of the Temple: The Lord Comes Home

Ezekiel 40:1--43:12

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... , seem to describe the state of affairs in the preexilic temple. We have no reason to question the attribution of these verses to Ezekiel. However, the virtual equality of these two priestly classes in verses 44–46 gives way in 44:13 to an exclusive restriction of the title “priest” to the Zadokites alone. As we will see, this tension is fundamental to understanding the history of chapters 40–48 in their final form. In verse 47 the angel resumes his measurements with the inner court. It was square ...

698. Jesus Tempted in the Wilderness

Matthew 4:1-11

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... to gain “all the kingdoms of the world” (4:8)—by affirming the most basic command given to Israel: “Worship the Lordyour God, and serve him only” (Deut. 6:13 [my translation]) (see also Deut. 6:4–5, the Shema, which calls Israel to love God exclusively). Jesus will not succumb to the temptation to “follow other gods” (Deut. 6:14) as Israel often did in their history as recorded in the Old Testament. Jesus proves to be the true and faithful Son of God, who serves the one true God only and ...

699. Transition to Jesus’ Public Ministry

Matthew 4:12-17

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... comes first to preach and enact the kingdom for his own people (see 1:21; 15:24). 2. God’s salvation in Jesus will reach to the Gentiles. Matthew’s Gospel centers on salvation for God’s people, the Jews. During his Galilean ministry Jesus will focus almost exclusively on Jewish crowds and seekers. Yet Matthew hints and highlights across his Gospel that Gentiles will be included in the people of God (e.g., 1:3–6; 2:1; 8:11–12; 15:21–28; 21:43). Here in the headline about Jesus’ ministry (4:12 ...

700. Jesus, Isaiah’s Servant of the Lord, Heals Many

Matthew 8:14-17, Matthew 8:5-13, Matthew 8:1-4

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. The astonishing twist in the use of this Old Testament motif in Matthew 8 is that the “many” joining the messianic feast will include Gentiles. The reference to the exclusion of the “subjects of the kingdom” is not meant to be exhaustive; Jews most certainly will be included in the kingdom (e.g., the twelve disciples and the many seekers who put their faith in him [e.g., Matt. 8:1–4; 9:1–8]). The effect of ...

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