Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: touch, feel, sense of touch, tactile sense, tactility, contact, using one's hands, sensation, sense, suspicion, sneaking suspicion, notion, inkling, hunch, fancy, apprehension, presentiment, premonition, foreboding, love, care, affection, fondness, tenderness, warmth, warmness, emotion, sentiment, emotional state, compassion, sympathy, empathy, fellow feeling, understanding, concern, solicitude, solicitousness, tender-heartedness, brotherly love, sensibilities, sensitivities, self-esteem, ego, pride, opinion, belief, view, impression, intuition, instinct, estimation, guess, theory, hypothesis, thought, way of thinking, point of view, atmosphere, ambience, aura, air, mood, climate, character, overtone, undertone, tenor, spirit, quality, flavour, colour, aptitude, knack, flair, bent, talent, gift, skill, art, trick, faculty, ability, propensity, inclination, sensitive, warm, warm-hearted, tender, tender-hearted, caring, soft-hearted, sympathetic, compassionate, empathetic, responsive, receptive, intuitive, thoughtful

Antonyms: bad feeling, acrimony, animosity, animus, antagonism, antipathy, aversion, bitterness, detestation, disgust, dislike, disrelish, enmity, friction, grievances, grudges, hatred, hostility, loathing, malevolence, malice

Showing 676 to 700 of 4947 results

676. Renewal of the Covenant

Deuteronomy 29:1-29

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

... a deeper truth, namely, that hearts understand, eyes see, and ears hear only through the gift of God. Knowledge of God, trust, and obedience are themselves gifts of grace, at the same time as they are matters of human choice and response. In some sense, therefore, however mysterious, the persistent and wholly culpable failure of Israel to make the right response to God and to live accordingly was indeed because the gift was not yet fully given. Thus, the words of Moses on the boundary of the promised land ...

677. The Shunammite's Land Restored

2 Kings 8:1-6

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

... saw judgment in the midst of salvation, as Jehoram’s officer died because he doubted whether prophecy could come to pass (7:2, 17ff.). Jehoram himself was found complaining about God’s tardiness (6:33)—albeit in salvation, not in judgment. Chapter 8 now adds to this sense of imminence by (at last) introducing us to Hazael. We are on the edge of fulfillment. But there are loose ends to be tied up before we can go on. We must hear the end of the Shunammite’s story, and we must catch up with happenings ...

678. Jehu Anointed King of Israel

2 Kings 9:1-13

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

... would have left Jezreel to meet him if there had been any doubt in their mind about his intentions. The Hb. hašālôm has, in fact, appeared several times already in 2 Kgs. (4:26; 5:21; 9:11), where it has always had the sense “Is everything all right?” That must be its sense in 9:22, and given its appearance so recently in 9:11 it is much better to take it this way also in 9:17–18 (and, uttered sarcastically, in v. 31; the NIV’s footnote is a most unlikely rendering of the Hb. in view ...

679. Isaiah’s Commission

Isaiah 6:1-13

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... ) that the word holy indeed applies to them, too (cf. 4:3). This tree will not be finally uprooted. Yahweh’s promise will be taken further in 11:1–12:6. Additional Notes 6:2 They covered their faces so that they would not look at God (despite the sense in which Isaiah himself did) and covered their feet for modesty (if this is a euphemism for genitals). 6:8 For us: presumably the heavenly court (see 1 Kgs. 22). 6:9–10 NIV mg. notes that the LXX renders this as a prediction rather than a statement of ...

680. The Helper of Israel

Isaiah 41:1-29

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... where they are going is the evidence that they are no-gods. They are helpless and silent. Verses 25–26 then resume the assertion of verses 2–4 and the question of verse 22. Yahweh further claims to be the only would-be God who can make sense of events. Specifically, Yahweh alone had announced them ahead of time. That is itself an evidence for that earlier claim to be the one who initiated those events. When did Yahweh do that? If Abraham is still in the picture, then the claim refers back to Yahweh ...

681. The Suffering and Glory of the Servant

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... have here is a vision. Admittedly any job description is a vision, a vision of what someone hopes and longs and believes needs to be achieved and could be achieved if the Archangel Gabriel applied for the post. It is also a vision in the more traditional sense. With the inner eye the prophet has seen something. A picture has come into the prophet’s mind. It is a static scene, but a scene that forms a still from a movie. Indeed, the movie is still being made. The prophet hears the director describing where ...

682. Tyre, Sidon—and Israel

Ezekiel 26:1-21, Ezekiel 27:1-36, Ezekiel 28:1-19, Ezekiel 28:20-26

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... . 14:9). Now, Ezekiel says, Tyre has joined them. However, the point of this imagery is not that Tyre survives in some sense in the underworld. Rather, Tyre is gone—removed, forever, from the land of the living. So, better than the NIV “I will ... The Heb. reads, mechanistically, “How you are destroyed, inhabited one, from the seas, city of renown.” The NIV and the NJPS make sense of this phrase by understanding “from the sea” to refer to those who inhabit the city. So the NIV reads “peopled by ...

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

Ezekiel 40:1--43:12

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... after Cyrus’ defeat of Babylon (44:1–3; 46:1–3, 8–10, 12; 47:1–12, 13–48:29), and another from well into the Restoration period after the exile (the final form of chs. 44–46). However, it could be argued that while such approaches make sense of the expansions to the core vision, they do not address as effectively the meaning of the text in its final form. Is the impression of a final unity in chapters 40–48 after all only an impression? I have proposed that we can attribute the present form ...

684. The Law of the Temple

Ezekiel 43:13-27, Ezekiel 44:1-31, Ezekiel 45:1-12, Ezekiel 45:13--46:24

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... 48:8–22. 45:5 As their possession for towns to live in. The MT has “as their possession, twenty chambers” (ʿesrim leshakot)—a reading the Tg., the Vulg., and the Syr., as well as the NJPS, support. However, as Block observes, “it makes little sense in the context” (Ezekiel 25–48, p. 649). The LXX has “towns to live in,” presupposing the Heb. ʿarim lashabet (or, lashebet), an expression found three times in the HB, each time with reference to Levitical cities (see Num. 35:2; Josh. 14:4 ...

685. The Authority of Jesus over Sickness and Death

Mark 5:21-43

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Grant R. Osborne

... well acquainted with death, and when everyone “laughs” at Jesus’s remark, that points strongly to the reality of the little girl’s death (but also to their lack of faith). So Jesus meant that in the eternal sense she was only asleep (a common first-century euphemism for death but used in an ironic sense here) and was soon to come back to life. 5:41 Talitha koum! The mourners lack faith, so Jesus leaves them outside and brings only the parents and his disciples into the place of healing. In one ...

686. The Arrest of Jesus

Mark 14:43-52

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Grant R. Osborne

... common, and in Luke 22:36 Jesus encouraged his disciples to buy swords.3 The high priest’s servant (named “Malchus” in John 18:10) may have a fairly high post in the high priest’s retinue and perhaps is the deputy who leads the group.4 In that sense, Peter’s blow may have been not an accidental wound but deliberately aimed at maiming the man, thus disqualifying him for his office.5 At any rate, Peter is trying to protect Jesus from the mob and may well believe that he is striking the first blow in ...

687. Jesus Is Crucified

Mark 15:21-32

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

... martyr) and John (highlighting the cross as the throne of the royal Messiah) stress the positive aspects, whereas “there is terror in this text. The mocking and torture of the innocent and righteous Son of God are not intended to make but to shatter sense, to portray the depths of irrational human depravity.”9The three hours of darkness and the tearing of the temple’s veil signify God’s judgment, a harbinger of the destruction of the temple soon to come and of the final judgment against the enemies ...

688. The Baptism of Jesus

Luke 3:21-38

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R.T. France

... Here in Luke, coming after 1:34–38 and pronounced by the very voice of God himself, it is clearly more than simply an honorific term for a human leader. In 3:22, then, Jesus is declared to be God’s Son in a unique and theologically significant sense. But then in 3:38 the genealogy concludes that he is “the son of Adam, the son of God.” This is a different kind of “divine sonship,” one that Jesus shares with all created humanity. By placing the two so close together, Luke perhaps intends to alert ...

689. Jesus’s Manifesto

Luke 4:14-30

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R.T. France

... :1–4 (which has already been echoed in God’s declaration in 3:22). Here the prophet speaks in the first person, but the passage was probably already widely regarded as a blueprint for the mission of the expected messiah (it is used in that sense in Qumran texts). Luke’s quotation follows the LXX version of Isaiah 61:1–2a, except that one clause is omitted (“to heal the brokenhearted,” after proclaiming good news to the poor) and one added (“to set the oppressed free”), the latter being drawn ...

690. True and False Discipleship

Luke 6:46-49, Luke 6:43-45, Luke 6:37-42

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R.T. France

... , this saying may also apply particularly to those who set themselves up as teachers of others when it is they themselves who need to be taught—the blind leading the blind. 6:42 You hypocrite. It is not a long step from the classical Greek sense of “hypocrite” as an “actor” to our use of the word to indicate deliberate deceit, pretending to be what you are not. But the term is used frequently in Matthew for religious leaders whose distorted understanding leads them to miss the point of God’s ...

691. Jesus and John the Baptist

Luke 7:18-35

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... and lawyers (scribes). Theological Insights This passage illustrates the ambivalence that runs through all the Gospel accounts of John the Baptist. On the one hand, he is a great prophet, the one privileged to prepare the way for the kingdom of God, and in that sense there is a direct continuity between his ministry and that of Jesus. On the other hand, he is never more than the forerunner; he stands at the point of transition, and 7:28 places him outside the blessings of the kingdom of God. He prepared ...

692. A Sick Woman and a Dead Girl

Luke 8:40-56

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... important because you were distracted or when you let someone down because you were inattentive to their needs. In this passage, Jesus is not only able to notice an individual touching his garment in the middle of a crowd, but he is also able to sense the faith and trust behind that touch. Nor does stopping to pay attention to this woman detract from his perfect timing and provision for Jairus’s daughter. Invite your listeners to wonder at the miracle that Jesus’s attention is never divided like ours is ...

693. Lessons on Devotion and Prayer

Luke 11:1-13, Luke 10:38-42

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... ’s concern to emphasize the role of women among Jesus’s disciples. If 8:1–3 might have suggested that their sole function is to look after the material needs of Jesus and the disciples, Mary represents a less mundane calling; she is a disciple in the fullest sense, and she is a model for men as well as women. In 11:1–13 the twin themes of prayer and of the fatherhood of God are brought together and are shown to be inseparable. Prayer that is merely a religious routine has missed the point. Prayer ...

694. God and Mammon

Luke 16:16-18, Luke 16:1-15

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R.T. France

... obscure saying, but one that in some way underlines the climactic period of history inaugurated by John’s mission. 16:17 It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear. This is another independent saying (cf. Matt. 5:18), which is perhaps intended here to balance the sense of a new beginning in 16:16. The law and the prophets are being fulfilled in the kingdom of God, but that does not mean that they are dispensable. Matthew 5:17–20 and especially the examples that follow in 5:21–48 tease out the ...

695. The Story of Israel Now and Later

Romans 2:1-16

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C. Marvin Pate

... commentators think that Paul now addresses “moral” Gentiles in 2:1–11 in contrast to “pagan” Gentiles in 1:18–32, most believe instead that Paul is turning his attention to the Jews (cf. 2:17). There are several reasons for this position. First, the sense of entitlement to divine mercy referred to in 2:4 is more characteristic of Jews than Gentiles (recall my earlier comments on Wis. 15:1–2 relative to Rom. 2:4). Second, indeed there are notable points of contact between Romans 2 and Wisdom of ...

696. Applying God’s Wisdom to Life’s Issues

1 Corinthians 2:6-16, 1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5

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Preben Vang

... and to some extent still is.5 It is not a new, transient wisdom but one that has been true since before time began. Even then, God willed for it to be revealed in Christ. 2:9 What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard.6 Human senses may instruct human judgments, but they are not reliable alone as instruments for understanding God’s heart and will. 2:10 things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. For Paul, as for all Christians, life guidance comes from God’s Spirit, not from human orators. Only ...

697. Many Parts, One Body

1 Corinthians 12:12-31

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Preben Vang

... believers have with Christ and each other is guaranteed by the Spirit, who has made them “one body.” Furthermore, given the parallelism of 12:13 with 6:15–16, where the allusions to Genesis 2:24 are unmistakable, the quality of this union almost carries a sense of corporeality in Paul’s thinking. Analogous to a husband, who joins his wife and becomes one flesh with her, believers, who are joined by the Spirit, become one body—Christ’s body (cf. Eph. 5:28–30). 12:14–20 the body is not made ...

698. Resurrection and Christian Living

1 Corinthians 15:12-34

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Preben Vang

... that baptism enables loved ones to meet up again after death demands a belief in resurrection. 15:30–32 why do we endanger ourselves every hour? Paul continues his argument by adding new questions that affirm the foolishness of rejecting resurrection. What would be the sense of exposing oneself to danger and risk of death if there were no hope beyond death? To make sure the Corinthians are aware that Paul has done just that, he mentions his brush with death in Ephesus (Acts 19:1–20:1; 2 Cor. 1 ...

699. Resurrection and Transformation (Part 1)

1 Corinthians 15:35-58

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Preben Vang

... :51). Such total transformation is necessary because “flesh and blood” (sarx kai haima [15:50]), the quality of the body in its fallen nature, cannot inherit the kingdom of God, where decay and death do not exist. Paul uses “flesh and blood” in the traditional Hebraic sense as a figure of speech that refers to human beings in their present fallen situation (Matt. 16:17; Gal. 1:16; Eph. 6:12; Heb. 2:14) as opposed to a reference to a separable physical (nonsoul) part of the human being, the body. The ...

700. The Census and Duties of Levites

Num 3:1–4:49

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Joe M. Sprinkle

... so the names of the leaders of Gershon, Kohath, and Merari use the term “El” (“God”) rather than “Yahweh” as the theophoric element, an indication that this list is ancient. 3:27 Amramites. Amram son of Kohath is Moses and Aaron’s father, possibly in the sense of ancestor (Exod. 6:18–20). 3:28 8,600. The numbers in verses 22, 28, 34 in the Hebrew text add up to 22,300 rather than 22,000 (see v. 39). The reading “8,600” probably should read instead “8,300” (NIVmg). The Septuagint ...

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