Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: Levi, disciple, evangelist, tax collector, the 12, the twelve, apostle, sermon on the mount, jewish audience, beatitudes, lord's prayer, great commission, parables, olivet discourse, mount of olives, olivet, synoptic

Showing 976 to 1000 of 4942 results

976. Israel Fights the Remaining Canaanites

Judges 1:1-36

Understanding Series

Cheryl A. Brown

Judges 1:1–21 sets the stage for the book. It focuses upon the primacy of Judah, which will appear again at the close of the book, as a lead into the story of the united monarchy. Judah, in response to divine guidance, takes the lead in obeying God’s command to possess the land and is for the most part successful. The themes of leadership, unity, and land are especially highlighted, along with an introduction of the theme of disobedience (sin), which will develop into a dominant theme in the rest of the ...

977. Gideon

Judges 6:1-40

Understanding Series

Cheryl A. Brown

The Call of Gideon: The forty years of peace under Deborah’s leadership passed quickly, and before long the Israelites found themselves in bondage again, this time to the Midianites. The reason for their bondage? As always, “they did evil in the eyes of the LORD.” But here the intensity of Israel’s enslavement was much worse than ever before, so much so that any semblance of normal life was lost. The downward spiral toward chaos hastened to its goal. But God set aside his anger, and in his compassion he ...

978. Issachar

1 Chronicles 7:1-5

Understanding Series

Louis C. Jonker

Descendants of Issachar, Benjamin, Naphtali, Manasseh, Ephraim, and Asher: In 1.4 and 1.5 the Chronicler included the southern and eastern (Transjordanian) tribes in his genealogical constructions. There, although the Chronicler’s focus is very much on Judah, Levi, and Benjamin in his overall construction, he also included Simeon, Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh in his genealogies, probably to strengthen the inclusivity of his definition of All-Israel. The next section of the Chronicler’s genealogy takes the ...

979. Tattenai's Letter to Darius

Ezra 5:1-17

Understanding Series

Leslie C. Allen

Back on Track: 5:1–2 The narrator apparently did not know of any political factors that would have brought about the shift from work stoppage to renewed activity in rebuilding the temple. All he had to illustrate this next stage was the edited text of messages from two postexilic prophets, Haggai and Zechariah (Hag. 1–2; Zech. 1–8), and copies of the Tattenai correspondence. Verses 1–2 are based on the biblical evidence. Once again prophecy plays a decisive role—not in the fulfillment of an older oracle, ...

980. Ezra's Prayer about Intermarriage

Ezra 9:1-15

Understanding Series

Leslie C. Allen

Ezra’s Challenging Prayer: The mission assigned to Ezra had two parts. While we have seen the first part carried out in chapter 8, the second part remained to be done. In 9:1–10:44, we shall read how the Judean community, complying with Artaxerxes’ decree in 7:14, 25–26, accepted the Torah. Comparison with the latter passage shows that the editor’s presentation of Ezra’s work was highly selective, and that here the issue of intermarriage with the local population was the focus of his concern. To that end ...

981. Nehemiah Helps the Poor

Nehemiah 5:1-19

Understanding Series

Leslie C. Allen

Trouble on the Farm: We seem to move into a different world in this chapter. Gone is the battle zone of chapter 4. In its place is a seemingly unrelated area of social tension, where one would scarcely think that rebuilding the wall was a top priority. The recurring pattern, from chapter 2 onward, of progress on the wall, the response of enemy opposition, and Nehemiah’s counterresponse, is put on hold. The enemy response of 6:1 appears to target the progress of chapter 4, as if chapter 5 did not exist. The ...

982. The Israelites Confess their Sins

Nehemiah 9:1-37

Understanding Series

Leslie C. Allen

Restoring Right Relations with God: This chapter follows in the wake of 7:73b–8:12 and 8:13–18. The people “assembled” (REB) once more for a third public reading of the Torah and a communal response. This time their response is one of repentant confession. As soon as the festivals of joy ended (8:12, 17), it was appropriate to act on the instinct to respond to the Torah with lament in 8:9. Set in the new literary jigsaw that chapters 8–10 constitute in their present setting, Nehemiah 9 seems to be of ...

983. Mordecai Persuades Esther to Help

Esther 4:1-17

Understanding Series

Timothy S. Laniak

The Jewish Response I: Mordecai’s Plan for Esther: There are now two royal documents that refer directly or indirectly to Mordecai. His protection of the king in chapter 2, recorded in the royal annals, would typically guarantee him a place of protection and prestige among the king’s benefactors. He is also a Jew and therefore a target of Haman’s edict in chapter 3. In fact, he is Haman’s primary target. Which of these two documents will determine the future of Mordecai and the Jews? Over the next two ...

984. Riches Are Meaningless

Ecclesiastes 5:8--6:12

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Huwiler

The Human Dilemma (5:8-20): The segments in this section are connected by the theme of the human individual, both in isolation and in relationships within social, familial, and religious systems. A concern with labor and material prosperity connects this section with the rest of the book. The development of thought is difficult to follow, though, and interpreters disagree not only about the logic of the argument but even about the claims that Qohelet is making. Acknowledging these difficulties, the reader ...

985. How Beautiful You Are

Song of Songs 4:1-16

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Huwiler

Admiration and Invitation: This is the only section in which the central man’s voice is more prominent than that of the central woman. He speaks in every verse but one (4:16) and is the only speaker in all of these but the last (5:1). This section also contains the formal center of the book. The man begins by describing the woman’s beauty from the head downward in the first of the Song’s descriptive motifs (4:1–7). Then he speaks to her directly (4:8–15). He invites her to come with him, telling her that ...

986. Day of Disaster

Jeremiah 16:1--17:18

Understanding Series

Tremper Longman III

Don’t Marry, Don’t Mourn, and Don’t Celebrate (16:1-13): This unit, which is related to the one that follows at the end of the chapter, presents three prohibitions in the light of the judgment that is coming and which itself is the result of the people’s sin. These prohibitions lead to behaviors on Jeremiah’s part that are resonant with prophetic significance and therefore should be considered a prophetic sign-act that incarnates the words he is speaking. These prohibitions seem to be directed to Jeremiah ...

987. How the Lord has Covered the Daughter of Zion

Lamentations 2:1-22

Understanding Series

Tremper Longman III

The Lord Is Like an Enemy: 2:1 Alef. The opening word (How) invites the reader to contemplate the extent of Judah’s destruction. It also strikes a tone of lament over that same suffering. One can hear a note of disbelief that God would bring such a horrific judgment on his people. Indeed, it is total as expressed by the fact that the cloud of his anger has engulfed all of the Daughter of Zion. The expression Daughter of Zion is an intimate way of referring to Jerusalem by its most sacred space and then ...

988. Israel Punished and Restored

Hosea 2:2-23

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

The Desire of the Lord (2:2-15): Once again the disciple who arranged chapters 1–3 has included a passage that serves as a summary of much of Hosea’s preaching (2:16–14:9). All of 2:2–15 represents genuine oracles of Hosea, but it is possible that this unit as a whole has been put together from originally independent oracles, such as 2:2–4; 2:5–7a; 2:7c–10; 2:11–13; and 2:14–15. As it now stands, however, the pericope forms a rhetorical whole. The setting for these words is a court of law, indicated by the ...

989. The Charge Against Israel

Hosea 4:1-19

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

God’s Court Case with People and Priests (4:1-10): The redactor of Hosea’s book summarized the prophet’s message for us by collecting together the material in chapters 1–3 and placing it at the beginning of the work. The redactor’s intention with such a collection was that we read chapters 4–14 in the light of that introductory summary. With chapter 4, however, we begin an examination of the separate oracles delivered by the prophet. But they too have been arranged by a redactor, and that constitutes a ...

990. Israel to Reap the Whirlwind

Hosea 8:1-14

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

Israel Shall Reap What She Sows (8:1-7a): As is frequently the case with Hosea, it is very difficult to know how to divide chapter 8 into its separate oracles. From a form-critical standpoint, verses 1–3 could form an independent unit because they include summons, accusation, and judgment. But they are intimately linked to what follows by their subject matter. Verse 4 spells out the two primary ways in which Israel has rejected what is good (v. 3). It is then connected with verse 5 by the repetition of the ...

991. Warnings and Exhortations for Jerusalem and Judah

Zephaniah 1:1-3, Zephaniah 1:4-13, Zephaniah 1:14--2:3

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

1:1 Whereas Nahum and Habakkuk have rather nonstandard introductions, the introduction to Zephaniah follows the pattern of other prophetic books; it is especially close to that of Hosea. First, its editors describe the book as a whole as The word of the LORD. The word dabar can signify a section of a discourse such as a sentence, but it commonly signifies a complete discourse of some kind, such as a message or command or promise or statement (cf. 2:5). Thus little stretch would be involved in describing a ...

992. A Man With a Measuring Line

Zechariah 2:1-13

Understanding Series

Pamela J. Scalise

Vision Report: A Young Man Measuring Jerusalem (2:1-5): 2:1–2 Again, as in 1:18, Zechariah simply looked up and the vision was before him. He saw a man with a measuring line in his hand! During periods of intense building activity men with measuring lines must have been a relatively common sight around Jerusalem. They stretched out the line to mark the location of the structure and to measure its dimensions so that building materials could be acquired and prepared. Ezekiel’s temple vision also includes a ...

993. Judgment on Israel's Enemies

Zechariah 9:1-8

Understanding Series

Pamela J. Scalise

The First Oracle: The arrangement of the various prophetic sayings in Zechariah 7–8 has opened up a space between the return to the land and the promised age to come. God has reaffirmed the cherished promises but moved them into the future relative to the fourth year of Darius, thereby encouraging the waiting community to hold on to its hopes. Meanwhile, God makes clear to them that the Law and the earlier prophetic preaching still define their relationship to God. Even after coming through the experience ...

994. Jesus and Those Who “Believed”

John 8:31-41, John 8:42-47, John 8:48-59

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

The reaction of many of the Jewish authorities with whom Jesus has been speaking is to believe in him (v. 30), and the remainder of the discourse is focused on this group of “believers.” The prediction that they will realize later who Jesus is (v. 28) appears to be coming true even before they lift him up on the cross. It sounds, and it is, too good to be true. Their faith is not genuine (cf. 2:23–25). Jesus has directed their attention toward the future, but they will have none of it. The present is good ...

995. No Confidence in the Flesh

Philippians 3:1-11

Understanding Series

F. F. Bruce

First Conclusion: Call to Rejoice “With this communication about Epaphroditus now the epistle seems to be at an end” (Ewald, ad loc.). If so, nothing remains but a final word of greeting. The reader is therefore prepared for Finally. 3:1 Finally: the natural inference from this phrase (drawn by most commentators) is that Paul is on the point of finishing his letter. If the letter be regarded as a unity, it must be assumed that something suddenly occurred to him which prompted the warning of verse 2 with ...

996. Pressing on Toward the Goal

Philippians 3:12-4:1

Understanding Series

F. F. Bruce

Paul's Ambition Whatever others may claim for themselves, Paul knows that he has not attained perfection yet. So long as mortal life lasts, there is further progress to be made. Not until the end of the race is the prize awarded. 3:12 Paul now passes from the language of accountancy to that of athletic endeavor (cf. 2:16). He is running a race; he has not yet breasted the tape or won the prize, and he must keep on running until he does so. Some of his converts elsewhere imagined that they had attained ...

997. Warning Against Antichrists

1 John 2:18-27

Understanding Series

Thomas F. Johnson

This section of 1 John is unified by its concern for maintaining the truth which has been given to the Johannine community over against the lie of the antichrists. The antichrists are those who have seceded from the community (2:19) and who deny that the fully human Jesus is the Christ, the divine Son of God (2:22). The Elder’s aim is to reassure the remaining loyal Christians that they have the truth and to urge them to remain in it (2:24, 27). 2:18 The two key notes of this verse are the announcement of ...

998. The Birth of Isaac

Genesis 21:1-7

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

The Birth of Isaac and the Expulsion of Ishmael: Sarah bears the child of promise. In light of this couple’s waiting twenty-five years for God’s promise to be fulfilled, it is amazing how matter-of-fact is the report of Isaac’s birth. Directly following this happy, triumphal account comes the report of an ugly incident in which Sarah demands that Hagar and Ishmael be expelled from the household. The latter incident receives more coverage because it relates the drastic rearrangement the birth of the son of ...

999. Jacob Blesses His Sons

Genesis 49:1-28

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

Jacob’s Last Testament: Just before his death, Jacob, the patriarch whose name Israel will become the name of the nation that will develop from his children, delivers his last testament, focusing on the destinies of his twelve sons. Since God has appeared to Jacob from time to time, he has the authority to describe the character of each tribe in regard to its future settlement in the promised land. This testament is a complex piece, for it is the composite of three genres: deathbed blessing, farewell ...

1000. Obedience Commanded

Deuteronomy 4:1-14

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

Obedience and Loyalty to Israel’s Unique God: The historical recollections now give place to urgent exhortation. 4:1–8: This chapter is the natural conclusion to the lessons of this first speech of Moses and comes to a powerful climax in 4:32–40. At 4:44 and 5:1 we are introduced to the second major discourse, which includes the rest of the law itself. With this chapter we also move into the “inner frame” of the book’s structure, comprising chapters 4–11 and 27–30, with their many common themes. Chapters 4 ...

Showing results