Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 776 to 800 of 4942 results

776. Resurrection and History

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

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Preben Vang

Big Idea: The veracity of bodily resurrection is not up for debate. Christ’s resurrection is the climactic point of salvation history—the moment when God most decisively altered the course of history—as announced beforehand in the Scriptures and attested to by faithful eyewitnesses. Understanding the Text Chapter 15 functions both as a crescendo of this letter and as the high-water mark of Paul’s theological exposition. It provides the theological key that reveals Paul’s mind to his audience and explains ...

777. Resurrection and Transformation (Part 1)

1 Corinthians 15:35-58

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Preben Vang

Big Idea: Death does not have the power to hold believers in the grave. God will raise them from the dead with a new body restored and fitted for a new reality in God’s eternal kingdom. Understanding the Text As if to make sure no one will misunderstand and confuse his emphasis on the bodily resurrection with a notion that somehow the flesh that decays in the grave will be reinvigorated (cf. 2 Bar. 49.2; 50.2), Paul concludes his discussion on resurrection with a climactic statement on the nature of the ...

778. The Protective Sealing of God’s People on Earth

Revelation 7:1-8

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J. Scott Duvall

Big Idea: Before God pours out his wrath on a wicked world, he will give his people spiritual protection. Understanding the Text The interlude of Revelation 7 stands between the sixth and seventh seal judgments. (There is another dramatic interlude between the sixth and seventh trumpets in Revelation 10:1–11:14, but no interlude at the end of the bowl judgments.) Interludes in Revelation often shed light on the current situation of God’s people and offer insight into their present responsibilities and ...

779. The First Four Trumpet Judgments

Revelation 8:6--9:21, Revelation 8:1-5

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J. Scott Duvall

Big Idea: God responds to the prayers of his people by pouring out the first four trumpet judgments on an unbelieving world. Understanding the Text We see three sets of judgments in Revelation: seals, trumpets, and bowls. In both the seal and the trumpet judgments, we find a 4 + 2 + 1 pattern with an interlude coming before the last element: Pattern…Judgments…Revelation Text 4…Seals 1-4…6:1-8 2…Seals 5-6…6:9-17 --…Interlude…7:1-17 1…Seal 7…8:1 4…Trumpets 1-4…8:2-12 2…Trumpets 5-6 (Woes 1-2)…8:13—9:21 --… ...

780. Seven Angels with Seven Plagues

Revelation 15:1-8

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J. Scott Duvall

Big Idea: Because of his holy and righteous character, God will finalize his wrath against evil, resulting in justice and vindication for his people, all to the praise of his glory. Understanding the Text Revelation 15 introduces the bowl judgments of chapter 16, the third and final series of seven judgments (seals in 6:1–8:1, trumpets in 8:2–9:21; 11:14–19). The unit of 15:1–8 is marked off by the inclusio (“bookends” marking the beginning and the end) of seven angels with seven plagues completing the ...

781. A Lifestyle of Holiness and Love

Leviticus 19:1-37

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Joe M. Sprinkle

Big Idea: The basis of biblical ethics is God’s holiness and love. Understanding the Text Leviticus 19:2 emphasizes the theme that gives the laws of holiness (Lev. 17–27) their name: “Be holy, because I, the Lord your God, am holy” (v. 2). Leviticus 19 marks a conceptual center of Leviticus. It is surrounded by chapters with similar themes (Lev. 18; 20) to highlight the centrality of this passage.1 It is hard to see an organizing principle in the disparate laws of this chapter, save that each encourages ...

782. Moses’s and Aaron’s Sin at Meribah

Numbers 20:1-13

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Joe M. Sprinkle

Big Idea: Leaders of God’s people are fallible. Understanding the Text Numbers here skips to the fortieth year after the Israelites left Egypt (see comments at Num. 20:1). Evidently, not much worth mentioning has happened in the intervening years. The Israelites had been condemned to forty years of wilderness wandering when they refused to enter the land of Canaan (Num. 14:33–34). By now, as predicted, most of those persons twenty years of age and older have died in the wilderness. Even the old leadership ...

783. Saul’s Finest Hour

1 Sam 11:1-15

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Robert B. Chisholm Jr.

Big Idea: The Lord alone is his people’s Savior and source of security. Understanding the Text In chapter 10 we read of how the Lord gave Israel a king yet placed limitations on him (v. 25). However, not everyone was pleased with this arrangement or with the Lord’s choice of a king (v. 27). Indeed, hesitant Saul appeared to be an unlikely candidate for the job; his apparent qualifications were only superficial. The chapter ends in tension. Would Saul be an effective leader and deliver Israel from their ...

784. The Lord Chooses a New King

1 Samuel 16:14-23, 1 Samuel 16:1-13

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Robert B. Chisholm Jr.

Big Idea: When choosing his servants, the Lord gives priority to inner character, not outward appearances. Understanding the Text In the previous chapters Saul lost his dynasty (13:13–14) and then his position as king (15:26–28). Chapter 16 is a turning point in the story: the process of Saul’s actual removal from kingship begins. God withdraws his Spirit and sends another spirit to torment Saul and undermine his kingship. Prior to this, the Lord announced that he would raise up “a man after his own heart ...

785. Séance in Endor: Bad News from Beyond the Grave

1 Samuel 28:1-25

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Robert B. Chisholm Jr.

Big Idea: Those rejected by God forfeit his guidance and must face the inevitability of judgment. Understanding the Text The narrator briefly suspends the story of David’s escapades while based in Philistine territory and turns his attention back to Saul. In chapters 29–30 he resumes David’s story before again focusing on Saul in chapter 31. The switch back and forth between the two principal characters reflects their geographic separation, yet also foreshadows their contrasting destinies. David and Saul ...

786. Yahweh Speaks as the Master Teacher

Job 38:1--41:34

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Daniel J. Estes

Big Idea: Yahweh poses questions about the physical world to demonstrate that Job’s knowledge is too limited to explain how God works in his world. Understanding the Text Throughout the speeches in chapters 3–37, the various human speakers claim to know what Yahweh thinks about Job’s situation, but in chapter 38 Yahweh finally breaks his silence and speaks for himself. Yahweh addresses Job in 38:1–40:2, focusing on his design for the world (38:2), and then Job replies briefly in 40:3–5. Yahweh resumes ...

787. “The Lord Is My Light and My Salvation—Whom Shall I Fear?”

Psalm 27:1-14

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C. Hassell Bullock

Big Idea: Our lives, guided by a single purpose, find their security in our relationship to God. Understanding the Text This psalm has two distinct parts, which leads some interpreters to suggest that it was originally two separate poems.[1] Part 1 (27:1–6) has the qualities of an individual psalm of trust (see the sidebar “Psalms of Trust” in the unit on Ps. 16),[2] while part 2 (27:7–13) takes the form of a complaint[3] or lament. The difference in genre cannot, of course, be the definitive word, since ...

788. “Taste and See That the Lord Is Good”

Psalm 34:1-22

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C. Hassell Bullock

Big Idea: Having experienced God’s goodness, we invite others to “taste and see that the Lord is good” and thus experience the assuagement of their fears. Understanding the Text In addition to being an alphabetic acrostic,[1] Psalm 34 shares at least three other features with Psalm 25, another acrostic: (1) the waw (the sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet) is missing from both poems; (2) each closes with a supernumerary verse beginning with the Hebrew letter pe; and (3) the same verb begins each of these ...

789. “When You Ascended on High, You Took Many Captives”

Psalm 68:1-35

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C. Hassell Bullock

Big Idea: The story of God’s redeeming grace gives us the sense of being present on the journey. Understanding the Text There is no virtue in trying to make a difficult psalm sound easy. It is widely agreed that Psalm 68 is textually and theologically one of the most difficult psalms in the Psalter. Yet most scholars agree that there is a story line that stretches through the psalm, a condensed history of Israel—or we should probably say, of Yahweh’s presence with Israel—from Egypt to Zion. The action on ...

790. Daniel in the Den of Lions

Daniel 6:1-28

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Ronald W. Pierce

Daniel’s Success and Darius’s Decree (6:1-9): Big Idea: God may allow those who remain faithful to him and his word to experience jealous opposition from unbelievers in a hostile environment. Understanding the Text Daniel 6:1–28 is woven into the book’s overall literary structure in two ways. First, it advances the narrative of chapters 1–6, in which the first four focus on Nebuchadnezzar (chaps. 1–2 with historical markers and 3–4 without) and the last two show the transition from Belshazzar of Babylon to ...

791. The Rise of Media, Persia, and Greece

Daniel 8:15-27

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Ronald W. Pierce

Big Idea: God reveals with measured detail a future that includes suffering for his people, but he assures them that he will triumph over the forces of evil. Understanding the Text See the unit on 8:1–14 for a discussion of the larger context, structure, and comparisons of this chapter. Against this backdrop, 8:15–27 begins and ends with the resumptive “I, Daniel” and another reference to the Ulai Canal (8:16). The explicit mention of the Medes, the Persians, and the Greeks in the interpretation—with an ...

792. The Call of Abram

Genesis 12:1-8

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

This next major section of Genesis (12:1–25:18) covers the life of Abraham. Here in chapter 12 God’s first word to Abram is an imperative: leave! The three things he is to leave behind are arranged in ascending order: country, people, father’s household. The imperative is followed by a series of promises relating to progeny, reputation, and blessing. There is quite a contrast between 11:4 (“we may make a name for ourselves”) and 12:2 (“I will make your name great”). The climax of the divine “I wills” is ...

793. Separating Defilement from Sanctuary and Community

Leviticus 16:1-34

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

Once a year on the tenth day of the seventh month, called the “Day of Atonement” (Lev. 23:27–28; 25:9), it is necessary for the high priest to purge the sanctuary of the evils that have reached it and accumulated there throughout the year. These evils consist of severe physical ritual impurities, expiable “sins,” and rebellious “transgressions” (16:16). The impurities and expiable sins affect the entire sanctuary when purification offerings that remove these evils from their offerers contact parts of the ...

794. Wisdom’s Final Appeals

Proverbs 8:1-36

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

8:1–36 Review · In Proverbs 8–9, personified Wisdom makes her final appeal, speaking again in the first person to her young audience. Chapter 8 offers a lengthy discourse commending wisdom, which can be divided into four sections. In verses 1–11, wisdom’s surpassing value is asserted, while verses 12–21 portray wisdom’s “associates” and attributes. Wisdom’s worth is then further affirmed in a description of its ancient origin—at the time of creation (8:22–31), before wisdom assumes the role of the parent/ ...

795. One Should Embrace Wisdom and Avoid Folly

Ecclesiastes 9:13-10:20

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

9:11–10:20 Review · If one understands “his hour” and “evil times” (literally “his time,” “bad time”) in 9:12 as referring to death (as in 7:17), then one can view 9:11–12 as the conclusion of the discourse on death. It is preferable, however, to view these verses as the introduction to the following section on the benefits of wisdom in contrast with folly. This chapter strongly resembles the book of Proverbs in both form and content and is more loosely organized than the rest of Ecclesiastes. 9:11–10:1 · ...

796. Paying Taxes to Caesar

Mark 12:13-17

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

All the stories in 11:27–12:44 portray the opposition of the Sanhedrin to Jesus. The chief priests challenged Jesus in 11:27–33, and beginning in 12:13 the remaining constituents of the Sanhedrin—the Pharisees (12:13–17), Sadducees (12:18–27), and scribes (12:28–40)—challenge Jesus as well. The Pharisees are sent “to catch [Jesus] in his words” (12:13), and they begin by flattery (12:14). The Herodians appear to have been partisans of Herod the Great and his pervasive dynasty. Their coalition with the ...

797. Whose Son is the Christ?

Mark 12:35-40

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

“From then on,” notes Mark, “no one dared ask [Jesus] any more questions” (12:34). Jesus has survived interrogation from Sanhedrin (11:27–33), Pharisees (12:13–17), Sadducees (12:18–27), and scribes (12:28–34)—and prevailed over them. Now, at the end of the day, Jesus asks the question of the day. Why do the scribes say that “the Messiah is the son of David?” (12:35). As in the parable of the vineyard (12:1–12), Jesus chooses to raise the question of “the Son [of God]” at the heart of Israel and before the ...

798. Interpreting the Times

Luke 12:49-53, Luke 12:54-59

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

The relationship of the next paragraph (12:49–53) to the preceding one may be the thought of judgment. The fire that Jesus wants to be “kindled” (12:49) is the fire of judgment that discriminates between the unrighteous and righteous. It probably does not refer to the Holy Spirit here (but cf. Luke 3:16). The purifying fire is also related to Jesus’s imminent baptism (12:50). The baptism that Jesus must undergo is not a literal baptism; rather, it is a metaphor of some overwhelming catastrophe—clearly his ...

799. Foreshadowing Death and Resurrection

John 11:1-16

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

It has often been argued that 10:40–42 was at one time the conclusion of Jesus’s public ministry in John’s Gospel and that at some later stage the Gospel was edited to include chapters 11 and 12. For instance, the sequence of events here (movement to Perea, Bethany, Ephraim, and back) is difficult to reconcile with the Synoptics, as is the motive for Jesus’s arrest (11:45–53; 12:9–11). Further, the term “the Jews” now loses its harsh polemical tone so common to John (cf. 9:22 with 11:19, 45). But despite ...

800. Paul's Vision and His Thorn

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

A final issue, closely related to the third, apparently pertained to the ability to recount previous personal experiences of revelatory visions (12:1–13). Once again, though there is really nothing to be gained by an attempt to supplement the record of divine support that he has already presented, Paul consents, as before, to “go on boasting” in an attempt to win the wayward Corinthians back to his side (12:1). But once more he does so in a way that shows his reticence to cooperate fully in any contest of ...

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