Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 801 to 825 of 3852 results

Deuteronomy 7:1-26

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

... by the story of the Syro-Phoenician woman; and Acts 10–11). Presumably, in the same way and for the same reason, the idea of the people of God engaging in warfare against other allegedly “pagan” nations is no longer an option because the original basis of national distinctiveness (as expressed in Deut. 7:6) does not apply to the multinational community of the followers of Jesus. This, be it understood, is a theological argument based on the transformation of the nature of Israel in Jesus Christ, not ...

802. The Altar on Mount Ebal

Deuteronomy 27:1-8

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

... (v. 16), reinforcing the centrality of the family within the national covenant relationship. Since the economic viability of the family on its own inherited share of the land is paramount, the next curse is directed at those whose greed attacks the original land division and who change boundaries to their own advantage (v. 17). This is followed by two curses against those who exploit the weak and vulnerable—perhaps the second most prominent concern of Deuteronomy after its covenantal monotheism (vv. 18f ...

803. The Mountain of the Lord

Isaiah 2:1-5

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... speaking like a judge (1:2, 10, 18, 20), and to the certainty of its effectively implementing what it announces. 2:2–5 The promise of the exaltation of Zion in verses 2–4 appears in a variant form in Micah 4:1–3. We do not know its actual origin. In both contexts it serves to promise that Yahweh’s threat of judgment (Isa. 1; Mic. 1–3) is not the final word. In the last days is literally “at the close of the days.” While the phrase always refers to a special moment when Yahweh’s promises come ...

804. A Prophecy Against Babylon

Isaiah 13:1--14:23

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... is set in the context of Yahweh’s ultimate purpose of blessing and cursing associated with the promise to Abraham. But Isaiah 13–23 keeps moving between the foci of contemporary or imminent historical events and the ultimate Day of Yahweh, the day when Yahweh’s original and final purpose will come about, when Yahweh will reign in just judgment and a son of David will reign in just judgment (16:4–5). The concern of Isaiah 8 is the many-watered roar of one great nation, Assyria. The concern of Isaiah ...

805. The Future Glory of Zion

Isaiah 54:1-17

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... drug. She will be unable to stop talking to the TV cameras. In Israel’s story, the motif of the childless woman who conceives against all the odds is an important one. The tent imagery gently underlines the reference back to the stories in Genesis. The people had their origins in that kind of act. It is tempting to believe that such acts of God belong only in the past, in the Bible, in the great days, but Yahweh has not stopped being that kind of God (cf. 51:1–3, though there Abraham is more in focus ...

806. Praise and Prayer

Isaiah 63:7--64:12

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... are sometimes inclined to assume that it is the fault of the parents if their children go wrong. So the prophet asks, Why, O LORD, do you make us wander from your ways and harden our hearts so that we do not revere you? (v. 17a). “Wander” (ta‘ah) was originally a verb to describe wandering about in the desert, when you do not know where to go (Gen. 21:14; 37:15) or have lost the path (Ps. 107:4). It is something that sheep are especially inclined to do (Ps. 119:176). “Wander” is then a verb that ...

807. An Unholy History

Ezekiel 20:1-29, Ezekiel 20:30-49

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... what has happened to Ezekiel’s generation: their moral and religious amnesia has resulted in their exile. For Ezekiel, Israel’s rebellion is, quite literally, radical: it goes to the very root of Israel’s identity, and back in time to the people’s very origin. Hosea and Jeremiah look back wistfully on the days of Israel’s founding as a honeymoon phase, when Israel depended faithfully and entirely upon the Lord (Hos. 2:14–15; Jer. 2:1–3). But Ezekiel denies that there ever was a time when ...

808. Herod and Hometown Misunderstand Jesus’ Identity

Matthew 13:53-58, Matthew 14:1-12

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... case do they come to the right conclusions, according to Matthew. The people of Jesus’ hometown stumble over him (take offense at him) because, despite his miracles, they cannot be free of seeing him in the categories of his youth and his family of origin. They cannot quite shift their frame of reference to see and recognize Jesus as the Messiah—not Jesus the carpenter’s son. Herod, on the other hand, seems to give Jesus’ miracles more weight, but he comes to the wrong conclusion that Jesus is ...

809. The Jewish Leaders as Negative Foil for Jesus’ Followers

Matthew 23:1-39

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Jeannine K. Brown

... and speaking against him to the crowds, the Pharisees “shut the door of the kingdom” to others (e.g., 12:22–24; cf. 16:12). 23:14 You devour widows’ houses. This verse, a woe about mistreating widows and saying long prayers, is very likely not original to Matthew’s Gospel. It has limited manuscript support (only later and less reliable witnesses include it), and it likely is an interpolation from Mark and/or Luke (cf. Mark 12:40; Luke 20:47). 23:16 You say, “If anyone swears by the temple ...

810. Jesus Is Anointed and Celebrates the Passover with His Disciples

Matthew 26:1-5, Matthew 26:6-13, Matthew 26:14-16, Matthew 26:17-30

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Jeannine K. Brown

... fitting to the redemption God brings through Jesus at the fullness of time. With his statement that the Passover bread is his body (26:26), Jesus was drawing into one event a millennium and more of Jewish celebrations. The Jews had believed for some while that the original Exodus pointed on to a new one, in which God would do at last what... he had long promised: he would forgive the sins of Israel and the world, once and for all. Sin, a far greater slave-master than Egypt had ever been, would be defeated ...

811. Family in the New Kingdom Community

Mark 10:13-16, Mark 10:1-12

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Grant R. Osborne

... allowed it even for things such as burning a meal or finding another woman more attractive. 10:5 because your hearts were hard. Since they did not really care what God actually thought of divorce, Jesus now clarifies that the permission from Moses has its origin not in God’s own will but rather in human sinfulness and spiritual hardness (Deut. 10:16; Ezek. 3:7). God is conceding to the human situation rather than sharing his actual intention. In Jesus’s eyes such conduct is actually due to rebellion ...

812. Jesus Claims God-Given Authority to Condemn the Leaders

Mark 12:1-12, Mark 11:27-33

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Grant R. Osborne

... what right or power he has that would allow him to do such a thing. They are thinking secular and religious authority (themselves), and they have ignored the true source of his authority, God. 11:30 John’s baptism—was it from heaven or of human origin? The leaders asked two questions, and Jesus uses one counter question, a normal ploy in rabbinic debate1used often by Jesus (7:18; 10:3, 38). His tactic is simple: “Answer me, and then I will answer you.” Behind this, of course, is the fact that the ...

813. Jesus Defines Himself as Lord in Contrast to the Leaders of Israel

Mark 12:41-44, Mark 12:35-40

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

... :1. This is a coronation psalm and the most frequently quoted Old Testament text in the New Testament, quoted or alluded to some thirty-three times. Jesus quotes it not to deny that he is the royal Messiah but rather to clarify that he is much more. Affirming the Davidic origin of the psalm, Jesus stresses that David wrote it under inspiration from the Holy Spirit. Moreover, if David was the author, he could have meant, “The Lord (Yahweh) said to my Lord (the Messiah).”1It is common to think that ...

814. A Special Child Promised

Luke 1:5-25

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R.T. France

... reader’s surprise, not with Jesus but with the promise of the birth of John the Baptist. The reader will be invited to compare the origins of the two men, both born by the special power of God, both heralded by the same angelic messenger, both named by the angel, and ... and her family in these chapters (as opposed to the focus on Joseph in Matt. 1–2) suggests that they may originate in Mary’s own reminiscences. They are full of the atmosphere of traditional Jewish piety and are notable for the sequence ...

815. Hearing and Responding

Luke 8:19-21, Luke 8:16-18, Luke 8:1-15

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R.T. France

... their unbelief, since they do not have the capacity to understand the parables and respond to them? The parable of the sower, however, is not designed to answer these questions. It sets out the fact of unbelief and of inadequate response, but it neither explains its origin (except perhaps briefly in the reference to the devil in 8:12) nor prescribes its cure. It is clear that enlightenment is possible, since it has already been given to the disciples (8:10), and 8:16–17 insists that truth is meant to be ...

816. Rejecting or Responding to Jesus

Luke 10:1-24

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R.T. France

... in Isaiah 14:12, from the same passage that Jesus alluded to in 10:15. The eviction of Satan and the other “fallen angels” from heaven (often associated with Gen. 6:1–4) became established in postbiblical Jewish thinking as an explanation for the origin of evil. It is graphically developed in Revelation 12:7–13. But here Jesus attributes that fall to his own ministry of deliverance, exemplified in the exorcistic ministry of his disciples. 10:19 to trample on snakes and scorpions. This is probably ...

817. “Love Your Neighbor”

Luke 10:25-37

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R.T. France

... had good reason to be cautious of the reception that he might meet in a Jewish inn (presumably in Jericho), but this traveler’s evident familiarity with the innkeeper (10:35) suggests that he was a regular visitor whose wealth no doubt outweighed his dubious racial origin. Even so, he was a brave man, since to turn up with a badly wounded Jew thrown across his donkey was to invite dangerous misunderstanding. 10:35 he took out two denarii. This is about two days’ wages (cf. Matt. 20:2), enough to pay ...

818. Two Parables about Prayer

Luke 18:9-14, Luke 18:1-8

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... :8). Those who pray persistently even to the end will experience vindication at the coming of the Son of Man. 2. The Pharisee and the tax collector. In your teaching be sure to highlight the fact that, although we think of Pharisees as hypocrites, the original audience would have had great respect for them and complete disdain for the tax collector. Bring the parable into the present day by thinking of highly respected pillars of your society, and of those considered the lowest of the low. Do we still need ...

819. The Death of Jesus

Luke 23:44-49, Luke 23:26-43

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... on his own agony of abandonment (as in Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34) but rather on compassion for others (the women and the believing criminal) and confidence in his Father (23:46). The tradition of his prayer for the soldiers in 23:34, even if not an original part of Luke, comes from the same mold. Repeated echoes of Psalm 22 (dividing clothes and casting lots [Ps. 22:18], mocking [22:6–7], the saving of God’s chosen one [22:8]) establish Jesus’s death as fulfilling the Old Testament role of the righteous ...

820. The Christian’s New Dominion: Dedicated to Righteousness

Romans 6:15-23

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C. Marvin Pate

... s grace increases, while the perspective in 6:15 goes astray in assuming that since believers are no longer under the law, they are under no obligation to live a holy life (cf. 3:5–8). Robert Jewett notes that the phrase “under the law” probably originated as a slogan coined by Judaizers in the Galatian crisis who followed early rabbinic interpretation of Exodus 19:17 and Deuteronomy 4:11 to the effect that the law was hanging in a threatening manner over their heads.2As we have seen before and will ...

821. Freedom from the Law through Christ, Enslavement to the Law through Adam

Romans 7:7-25, Romans 7:1-6

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C. Marvin Pate

... –20) and the two laws (vv. 21–23). Because verses 14–20 contain parallels (see the outline above), we may conveniently treat the paired verses together (vv. 14, 18; vv. 15–16, 19; vv. 17, 20). Verse 14 states that the law is spiritual, meaning that its origin is the Holy Spirit (cf. Ps. 19:7–11; t. Yad. 2.14; see Str-B 3:238). But Paul is “fleshly” (sarkinos [NIV: “unspiritual”]), which means that Paul/everyone is sinful (for the same use of sarkinos, see 1 Cor. 3:1). Verse 18 essentially ...

822. The Spirit and the Glory of the Age to Come and the New Covenant

Romans 8:28-39, Romans 8:18-27

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C. Marvin Pate

... is a good place to summarize the blessings of the new covenant that belong to the church as spelled out in Romans 8. We can do no better than to quote Thomas Schreiner on this point: One of the striking themes in chapter 8 is that the blessings originally promised to Israel have become the province of the church. Israel was promised the Holy Spirit (Ezek. 36:26–27) so that they could keep the ordinances of the law, but this promise has come to fruition in the church through the gift of the Holy Spirit ...

823. “Weak and Strong” Should Get Along

Romans 14:1--15:13

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C. Marvin Pate

... adduces four pieces of evidence in support of that contention. First, the dispute between the weak in faith and the strong (14:1–15:13) corresponds to the differences between Jews and Gentiles (see Rom. 1:18–4:22; 9–11; 15:14–33). Second, a Jewish origin of the position of the weak can clearly be seen in the term koinos (“unclean” [14:14]), which had become a semitechnical way of proscribing certain foods under the Mosaic law (see Mark 7:2, 5; Acts 10:14).6It is probably in that light that we ...

824. The Seventh Trumpet (Third Woe)

Revelation 11:15-19

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J. Scott Duvall

... entire story of salvation (Heb. 8:1–9:28). Surprisingly, the ark can now be seen by everyone rather than just by the high priest once a year. God will keep his promises, destroy his enemies, and bring his people into his presence, thus fulfilling the original purposes of creation (Gen. 1–2). The storm theophany occurs at the end of the seal, trumpet, and bowl judgments and designates the final judgment of God (8:5; 11:19; 16:18; cf. 4:5). Theological Insights This text highlights what it will mean for ...

825. The Beast from the Earth (The False Prophet)

Revelation 13:11-18

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J. Scott Duvall

... to apocalyptic riddles. It’s easy to lose our interpretive minds when it comes to the “mark of the beast” or “666.” Speculation abounds. We do well to remember a few basic principles of interpretation. First, a text will mean what it meant to the original audience. John tells his audience to “calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man” (13:18). In other words, John expected his readers to know who he was talking about, which points in the direction of Nero as the beast ...

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