Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 751 to 775 of 797 results

2 Samuel 16:1-4

Understanding Series

Mary J. Evans

... Jerusalem, which since he had made it his capital had become precious to David, from siege. Sending Zadok and Abiathar back with the ark was one way of ensuring that information about Absalom’s activities and tactics could be gained and passed on to David. However, David had learned the lesson well that the ark of God was not to be used as a tool to further his own ends (2 Sam. 6; cf. also 1 Sam. 4). He knew that God cannot be manipulated. Sending the ark back was a sign of David’s acceptance of God ...

752. Shimei Curses David

2 Samuel 16:5-14

Understanding Series

Mary J. Evans

753. The End Times

Daniel 12:1-13

Understanding Series

William Nelson

... . He fathoms what is to come from the time of Persia up to “the end”: the death of Antiochus IV, the victory of Michael, the resurrection, and the judgment. However, being portrayed as an intellectually curious individual, he now he wishes to learn what will transpire after that (Collins, Daniel, p. 400). Sadly, Daniel’s quest for additional insight is frustrated. Earlier, Daniel was instructed to “close up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end” (12:4). Apparently he obeyed ...

754. The Disciples' Grief Will Turn to Joy

John 16:17-33, John 16:5-16

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... that he says is mine. Jesus can speak of his truth as all truth because all that belongs to the Father is mine (v. 15; cf. 17:10). Everything the Spirit reveals comes from the Father and therefore from Jesus. The accent is not on what human beings can learn anyway by rational inquiry or by the use of their five senses but on the much more (v. 12) that Jesus would like to tell the disciples, but cannot, about their life and mission in the world. The teaching ministry of the Spirit builds on and develops the ...

755. The High Priest Questions Jesus

John 18:19-24, John 18:15-18, John 18:25-27

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... .g., 13:33 with 7:34 and 8:21 or 14:7 with 8:19, or 16:27–28 with 8:42). Nothing he said was subversive; there were no secret instructions for a select group engaged in plotting against either Rome or the Jewish priesthood. To learn the substance of his teaching, no list of disciples, no interrogation of them one by one, was necessary. The high priest could question anyone who had heard Jesus on any number of occasions—his own priestly associates in fact—and draw his own conclusions. The exchange ends ...

756. Forgiveness for the Sinner

2 Corinthians 2:5-11

Understanding Series

James M. Scott

... he could not have known whether the Corinthians would be obedient in punishing the offender. As Paul explains in 7:12, he wrote to them so “that before God you could see for yourselves how devoted to us you are.” Since that time, Paul has learned from Titus that the church has indeed complied. As an apostle, Paul has the authority and goal of making the Corinthians obedient (10:5–6). Indeed, the reason for which Paul received apostleship was to bring about obedience of faith among the nations (cf. Rom ...

757. Hearts / Repentance

2 Corinthians 7:2-16

Understanding Series

James M. Scott

... As he waited for a response, Paul was intermittently plagued by regret (note the imperfect tense) about the harsh tone and the possible negative reaction it might elicit from the Corinthians. Hence, Titus’s report was able to dispel Paul’s fears, for the apostle learned not only that, as expected, the letter did in fact hurt the Corinthians, but also that it caused them to repent. Therefore, Paul does not regret the ultimate effect that the letter had, but rather rejoices in it (7:9a). Yet, as Paul has ...

758. Visit

2 Corinthians 13:1-10, 2 Corinthians 13:11-14

Understanding Series

James M. Scott

... the help of three accomplices in order to persuade a woman of high rank who had become a Jewish proselyte to give her purple and gold to the Jerusalem temple. When the four embezzled the gifts, which was their intention from the start, Emperor Tiberius learned of the deed and banished the whole Jewish community from Rome. 12:19 By repeating his assertion that “we speak in Christ in the presence of God” (2:17; 12:19), the apostle provides a key indication of the fundamental, structural unity of the ...

759. Faith and Deeds

James 2:14-26, James 2:1-13

Understanding Series

Peter H. Davids

... . 25:31–46). Therefore it is the unified witness of the Gospels that Jesus followed standard Jewish teaching and taught that God would show mercy only to those obeying him and doing likewise. James’ use of this saying shows that he had learned Jesus’ tradition carefully, for it becomes his clinching argument. Even if the logical and biblical arguments have not convinced the reader that justice and love demand that the poor be treated honorably, then the Christian must still honor the poor person out ...

760. Praying for Endurance and Healing

James 5:1-6, James 4:13-17, James 5:7-12, James 5:13-20

Understanding Series

Peter H. Davids

... the phrase who spoke in the name of the Lord, he both excludes false prophets and focuses on the true prophets’ crucial characteristic: They confessed true faith in God by word and deed. There is no need to cite them by name, for Jewish Christians had learned the stories. The prophets are to be looked at as an example of patience in the face of suffering. Their crucial virtue was the ability to endure, whatever the trials. Whether an Amos commanded not to speak (Amos 7) or an Elijah pursued by Jezebel (1 ...

761. Praying for Endurance and Healing

James 5:7-12, James 4:13-17, James 5:1-6, James 5:13-20

Understanding Series

Peter H. Davids

762. Praying for Endurance and Healing

James 5:13-20, James 4:13-17, James 5:1-6, James 5:7-12

Understanding Series

Peter H. Davids

763. Praise to God for a Living Hope

1 Peter 1:1-12

Understanding Series

Norman Hillyer

... ,” for despite their exalted status in the spiritual world, even they do not know the range and detail of the divine plan, and they “long to look into” it more deeply. In this passage, Peter incidentally lets us see how grand a panoramic sweep he himself has learned to take of God’s work. In a few words, he brings together in a remarkable fashion the OT and the NT, that is, the old and the new divine covenants, by declaring that it was the Spirit of Christ himself who was inspiring those early OT ...

764. Be Holy

1 Peter 1:13-2:3

Understanding Series

Norman Hillyer

... Scripture to validate his teaching, to demonstrate that he is not expressing his own ideas but passing on divine teaching. Remember the Cost of Your Salvation 1:17 Following the example of their Master, who addressed his Father as Abba (Mark 14:36), Christians have learned to call on God as a Father (Rom. 8:19; Gal. 4:6). But such an approach commits anyone claiming that family relationship to expect fatherly discipline. In a Jewish family, the father’s word was law, and this is the aspect of the intimate ...

765. Wives and Husbands

1 Peter 3:1-7

Understanding Series

Norman Hillyer

... to be subject to men, but to each wife to be faithful in conjugal relations solely to her husband. The reference to Sarah in verse 6 has the same sexual implication. The occasion when she is recorded in Scripture as addressing Abraham as “her master” is when she learns that despite their advanced ages, she is to bear him a son. Her submissive response is a laughing “My lord is rather old!” (Gen. 18:12 LXX). Thus both in verse 1 and in verse 5 the meaning of the wife’s submission to her husband ...

766. Walking in the Light and the Problem of Sin

1 John 2:15-17, 1 John 1:5--2:14

Understanding Series

Thomas F. Johnson

... claims that this understanding of God is what Jesus taught; it is the message (angelia) which the first generation heard from him and now declares (anangellō; the same verb is translated as proclaim in vv. 2–3) to those who follow. It is also what they learned from observation of his life (John 14:9: “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father”). The last part of the verse strongly affirms, as if in bold contrast to an unspoken claim to the contrary, that there is absolutely no darkness in God. Light ...

767. The Call of Abram

Genesis 12:1-9

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... Abram takes Lot under his care (12:4). 11:29–30 Abram’s wife was Sarai. In Hebrew her name means “princess,” and in Akkadian it means “queen,” the name of the moon god’s consort. None of her lineage is given, but in 20:12 we learn that she is Abram’s half-sister, born to Terah by a different mother than Abram’s. Nahor married his niece Milcah, another Akkadian term for “queen” and the title of Ishtar, the moon god’s daughter. These names indicate that this family came from a culture ...

768. Abraham Pleads for Sodom

Genesis 18:16-33

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... of righteous underscores the fact that the moral climate in Sodom and Gomorrah had decayed so badly that there were virtually no righteous left in those cities. There were no moral grounds for God to preserve them from destruction. In chapter 19 the reader learns that the heavenly messengers invited six people to flee based on their relationship to Lot, but only three of them accepted and so escaped the terrible destruction. Yahweh was not willing to spare the city for so few righteous. Just as he had ...

769. A Silver Cup in a Sack

Genesis 44:1-34

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... to make him a slave in Benjamin’s place so that the boy could return home with his brothers. He underscored his offer with the passionate plea that he not be made to see the misery that would come upon his father. In this speech Joseph learned how grievously his father mourned his absence. Judah was demonstrating the complete change in his attitude to his younger brother; he was willing to submit himself to a hard situation in order to protect a son of Rachel from becoming a slave. Joseph witnessed that ...

770. Joseph Makes Himself Known

Genesis 45:1-28

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... . 13:14), and “ruler of all Egypt” means that his particular authority extended throughout the land of Egypt. In selling him they had merely been agents of God’s will. 45:9–13 Joseph next enjoined them to return to his father and tell him what they had learned: Joseph was alive and God had made him lord of all Egypt. They were to give Israel the command to come down to him without delay. When he arrived in Egypt, he would live in . . . Goshen and be near his son. Joseph made it clear that there was ...

771. Rebellion Against the Lord

Deuteronomy 1:26-46

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

... same circumstances to be an act of obedience or an act of disobedience, depending on the word of God in relation to it. It is possible for it to succeed or fail, depending on the presence or absence of God in the enterprise. Israel later learned through equally humiliating events (the loss of the ark to the Philistines) that the presence of God could not be physically or magically dragooned into the service of a disobedient people either (1 Sam. 4). Later still they expressed this principle in a psalm that ...

772. The Ten Commandments

Deuteronomy 5:1-33

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

... that anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below could be an adequate representation. No created thing can funetion satisfactorily as an alternative to the living God—a lesson that human beings have not yet learned in spite of countless generations of trying. Modern investment of ultimate value in our own ideological, economic, political, and techno-scientific creations has proved equally barren, devoid of divinity, and prey to the demonic. The text gives its own motivation for ...

773. Tithes

Deuteronomy 14:22-29

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

... blessing (7:13 and 11:14)—they are not mere products of the fertility of nature, still less the gift of any fertility god of Canaan. Deuteronomy’s constant educational passion surfaces again at the end of the verse (so that you may learn . . . ), but with typical Deuteronomic human warmth. Inculcating the fear of God could be achieved during a family party just as much as during family prayers. The allowance made for long-distance commuters (vv. 24–26) only serves to reinforce the intention that the ...

774. Israel's Rebellion Predicted

Deuteronomy 31:14-29

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

... song and the Book of the Law as separate entities, even if they came to be included in the same document, each intended to function as a witness against the Israelites if and when they broke the covenant. Hence the importance attached to the Israelites actually learning and singing the song (v. 19, 22). Its witness must be on their own lips. 31:26 Place it beside the ark of the covenant: Only the tablets of the Ten Commandments were actually in the ark. The distinction is thus preserved between the special ...

775. Jair

Judges 10:3-5

Understanding Series

Cheryl A. Brown

... commonly designated as minor judges, because their stories are condensed into a few brief lines. In most cases, all we know about the judge is his tribal affiliation, his geographical location, and how many years he led Israel; sometimes we learn about his economic situation. But, strikingly, the stories make no reference to the charismatic activity associated with the major judges. While they provide interesting information for historians and biblical geographers, what is not clear is the process by which ...

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