Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 901 to 925 of 1185 results

901. Imitating Christ's Humility

Philippians 2:1-11

Understanding Series

F. F. Bruce

... everyone see eye-to-eye or have the same opinion on every subject. Life would be very flat and dull without the give-and-take practiced when variety of opinion and viewpoint provides scope for friendly discussion and debate. 2:3 But discussion and debate cease to be friendly when each one aims at scoring points off the others and getting his or her own way. There must be no encouragement of the spirit of “Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first” (3 John 9, RSV). Do nothing out of selfish ambition ...

902. Jacob’s Children

Genesis 29:31--30:24

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... .” She looked beyond the distress caused by Jacob’s lack of affection and focused on God’s fulfilling her desire for children. With these names Leah revealed her devotion to God, praising God for honoring her with these children. Suddenly Leah’s fertility ceased. The ancients interpreted such a change to be the result of God’s closing her womb. Two explanations are possible: Leah had become infertile, or Jacob no longer slept with her. 30:1–8 Distraught at her own infertility and jealous of Leah ...

903. The Year of Canceling Debts

Deuteronomy 15:1-11

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

... verse means “the earth.” In that case, the verse is making a point of the contrast between what is universally true (there are poor people everywhere) and what is to be done about it in Israel (“your poor and your needy in your land”), NRSV translates, “Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.’ ”

904. Solomon’s Wives

1 Kings 11:1-13

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

... direction—after other gods (v. 4). The threat implied in much of Solomon’s life story to this point now becomes a full-blown reality, and hints of impropriety become direct accusation: Solomon did evil in the eyes of the LORD (v. 6). He has ceased to be like David his father (vv. 4, 6) who, whatever his other faults may have been, certainly never worshiped other gods. Solomon not only worships them, he builds sanctuaries for them on the Mount of Olives (the hill east of Jerusalem, v. 7) and elsewhere ...

905. Ahijah's Prophecy Against Jeroboam

1 Kings 14:1-20

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

... Deut. 32:36 and 2 Kgs. 14:26 it appears in association with the idea of powerlessness: the people of Israel have no strength after God’s judgment, there is no one to help them in face of their enemies. It is in this situation that there has ceased to be ʿāṣûr weʿāzûḇ. Whatever the phrase means precisely, it seems probable that when used of the males of the royal house, it is their nature as sources of “power” and “help” to the king that is in view (cf. the analogous “cutting off” of ...

906. Joash Repairs the Temple

2 Kings 12:1-21

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

... , turned to wickedness? Second Kings 12:2 might imply, if it is indeed to be translated with the NIV as “he did right . . . all the years Jehoiada the priest instructed him,” that he did not do quite so well after priestly instruction had ceased (but see the additional note). The Chronicler picks up this theme in 2 Chronicles 24:15ff., telling us of apostasy that preceded both the Aramean assault on Jerusalem and Joash’s murder. Additional Notes 12:2 All the years Jehoiada the priest instructed him ...

907. Zechariah King of Israel

2 Kings 15:8-12

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

... to the unstable government, implied by 1 Kings 14:15 and illustrated in 1 Kings 14–16, that preceded the houses of Omri and Jehu. That is what we now find. Reigns change in quick succession, as Israel plunges speedily towards its doom. All deliverance has ceased, and judgment lies just around the corner. 15:8–12 Scarcely has Jeroboam’s son Zechariah sat on his throne and repeated the evil of his fathers when he is assassinated. The promise has run its course (v. 12; cf. 2 Kgs. 10:30), and before ...

908. Manasseh King of Judah

2 Kings 21:1-18

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

... Asherah pole) in the temple (vv. 4–5, 7). The LORD of hosts (1 Kgs. 18:15; 19:10; etc.) has thus become merely a god among hosts, with a consort goddess for company, open to manipulation by occult means. It is the religion of a man who has entirely ceased to believe in the one true God—the creator of heaven and earth, transcendent in respect of the natural world (Gen. 1, esp. vv. 14–19; 2:1; cf. Deut. 4:19; 17:3), and beyond all human control. 21:10–18 Twice in the first nine verses we have ...

909. Woe to David’s City

Isaiah 29:1-24

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... rare in the prophets. Yahweh will indeed increase the people in accordance with the promise to Abraham; reduction to a remnant is not a permanency. (b) Like other traditional societies, Judah is a “shame” culture. In modern societies where community breaks down, shame ceases to matter. Where your place in society matters, the removal of shame and the restoration of pride is a powerful promise. (c) Such restoration of pride is not in tension with awe before God; rather it links with it. People will hold ...

910. Woe to the Obstinate Nation

Isaiah 30:1-33

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... are repeated for emphasis: lit. “in weeping you will not weep; in being gracious he will be gracious.” NIV neatly conveys the tone of the latter, but it is more difficult to find an equivalent for the former. The point is not merely that weeping will cease. The idea is “Far from weeping, how gracious you will find Yahweh to be when you cry.” The last clause is also expressed with a vivid succinctness (two words in Hb.), “as-his-hearing, he-has-answered-you.” 30:20 NRSV “Teacher” rather than ...

911. 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

... of the prince remains in the prince’s family, apparently, is supposed to prevent eviction and land theft by making them unnecessary. We have encountered these themes before: 45:9 introduced the laws regarding the prince with a prophetic oracle calling for evictions to cease, following a denouncement of the greed of the princes (45:8) and the depiction of the prince’s estates (45:7). The material between 45:9–10 and 46:16–18 is all concerned, in one way or another, with the prince. It is appropriate ...

912. Sermon on the Mount: Giving, Prayer, and Fasting

Matthew 6:1-4, Matthew 6:5-15, Matthew 6:16-18

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... for the kingdom—what Luke Timothy Johnson refers to as the prophetic dimension and thus the countercultural nature of the Lord’s Prayer. The single greatest countercultural act Christians perform is to worship together and proclaim that Jesus is Lord. To cease from the constant round of commerce and consumption, to resist the manipulation of media that insists that working and possessing [define] worth, and to proclaim with the body language of communal gathering that Jesus, not any other power, is Lord ...

913. Jesus as the Isaianic Servant of the Lord

Matthew 12:15-21

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... depend on the heart to bring oxygen to organs and tissues (if your context allows, consider using pictures or video of the heart in action). For just a moment, consider what would happen if the heart stopped giving out what it took in. What if the heart ceased this pattern of receiving-giving-receiving-giving? God’s people have been blessed so that they might be a blessing (Gen. 12:1–3). We are given life so that we might extend it to others. Jesus, as the servant of Yahweh, enacts the dual kingdom ...

914. Eschatological Discourse: Prediction of the Temple’s Destruction

Matthew 24:1-35

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... after its destruction, communicates that such prophetic knowledge confirms the claims of Jesus to be Messiah. Sports: During the 2013 Super Bowl, a loss of power caused the stadium to go dark for a full thirty minutes. The game and all other activity ceased during this time of darkness. There was no mistaking the darkness and its effects. While Jesus’ predictions of the fall of the temple indicate multiple warning signs that might be confused with the timing of the actual event, there will be no mistaking ...

915. The Authority of Jesus over Sickness and Death

Mark 5:21-43

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

... would know her) and slinks up to touch Jesus’s robe. 5:29–30 Immediately her bleeding stopped . . . power had gone out of him. The powerful effects of the miracle are “immediately” felt by both the woman and Jesus. Not only does the bleeding cease, but also she feels “free from her suffering,” undoubtedly a physical sensation of wellness and the lifting of the terrible burden that she had lived with for so long. The effects on Jesus are equally powerful. The woman had hoped to pass unnoticed ...

916. The Path of Discipleship

Mark 8:31--9:1

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

... is to face constant uncertainty and anxiety, for this world will never be our friend. More importantly, to choose the earthly over the heavenly will result in the greatest loss imaginable, the loss of eternal life. The soul is an everlasting creation and will never cease to exist, but that eternity can be what is called “eternal destruction,” eternal punishment in the lake of fire (Rev. 20:15; 21:8). 3. The kingdom is coming soon. The message of 8:38–9:1 deals with the final accounting that every ...

917. Prophetic Actions—The Temple Condemned and the Fig Tree Cursed

Mark 11:12-19

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

... to be the center of God’s presence and the people’s worship. Instead, it had become the very opposite, the core of the power and wealth of a small minority—the chief priests, the Sadducees, and the aristocracy. The temple and the nation had ceased to serve God; instead of being a “house of prayer,” the temple housed greedy leaders who turned it into a criminally commercial enterprise (a “den of robbers”) that only aided the few. Therefore, since the nation and its temple had, like the fig tree ...

918. 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

... (in Matt. 22:42 Jesus addresses the leaders directly). The answer was known by most Israelites. In the Old Testament the Davidic covenant promised that the throne of David would be established “forever” (2 Sam. 7:12–13). When the Davidic line ceased to rule toward the end of the divided monarchy, the covenant promise centered on a coming one who would fulfill the prophecy, labeling that messianic figure “the righteous Branch of David” (Jer. 23:5–6 = 33:15–16), the “stump of Jesse” from ...

919. Mary’s Song—the Magnificat

Luke 1:46-56, Luke 1:39-45

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... of the as yet unborn Messiah. It is not so much that God’s people will be given actual political power and material prosperity, but rather that under God’s new regime there will be a new scale of values, and the old social divisions will cease to matter. The first will be last, and the last first. 1:54 He has helped his servant Israel. The spirituality of the Magnificat and of the Benedictus remains firmly within the tradition of Old Testament religion. It is only with the Nunc Dimittis that Luke ...

920. The Baby Messiah Recognized

Luke 2:21-40

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... childhood years, in 2:41–51. Theological Insights This scene in the temple plunges us into the world of traditional Jewish piety and also into an atmosphere of prophecy. It is often said that the Jews believed that prophecy had ceased with Malachi, until John the Baptist revived it. But Luke here tells a different story, and modern scholarship agrees that there were strands of prophetic activity that were widely recognized among ordinary Jews in this “intertestamental” period.1Whereas Matthew’s ...

921. Power over Illness and Death

Luke 7:11-17, Luke 7:1-10

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... where the Messiah should expect to find faith, but this non-Jew puts Israelite faith to shame. Luke is gradually building up the theme of Jesus as a “light to the Gentiles” (2:32), and here is a foretaste of a church in which racial origin will cease to be the defining factor. 7:12 a dead person was being carried out. Cemeteries were located outside the towns. Burial normally took place within twenty-four hours of death, and it was an event for the whole community. 7:13 his heart went out to her ...

922. A Sick Woman and a Dead Girl

Luke 8:40-56

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... Princess Bride, etc. You may even want to show a scene from the Princess Bride where the protagonist, Wesley, explains “death can’t stop true love—all it can do is delay it for a while.”) Explain that, in the same way, when Jesus enters a person’s story, death ceases to be the final word—whether it is through a miraculous healing in this life, or a complete healing in heaven, Jesus upends death and brings the victory.

923. Two Parables about Prayer

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

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... years passed, in which I wallowed “in the mire of the deep” and in the darkness of error, and although I often strove to rise out of it, I was all the more grievously thrust down again. But all the while, that chaste, devout, and sober widow . . . ceased not in all her hours of prayer to lament over me before you. Her prayers entered into your sight.1 Autobiography: Out of a Far Country: A Gay Son’s Journey to God, a Broken Mother’s Search for Hope, by Christopher Yuan and Angela Yuan. Christopher ...

924. Paul Reinterprets the Story of Israel

Romans 2:17-29

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

... to the law (and to the gospel) has rendered their most sacred rite, circumcision, invalid; it is as if they are uncircumcised. Such an accusation by Paul would have brought to mind the decree by the Syrian ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes that Jews cease the practice of circumcision. Paul’s criticism of circumcision would have also brought to mind those Jews who went so far as to have their foreskin surgically replaced (a procedure called epispasmos) so that Gentiles would not ridicule them (see again 1 Macc ...

925. Introduction and “Hello”

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Teach the Text

Preben Vang

... not of his effort but of God’s grace. To church members this is a lesson on remembering that all things come from God and gratitude should be a natural reaction even when blessings seem to flow to others rather than to oneself. When thanksgiving ceases, it is because life no longer is understood as an experience of God’s grace. 2. The Christian life is community life. The church is an alternative to the culture of secular society. Rules are turned upside down. Prominence comes from servanthood. The weak ...

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