Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1076 to 1100 of 1249 results

1076. Jesus Presented in the Temple

Luke 2:21-40

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... in this context. When Simeon speaks of “all nations” (2:31), Gentiles are included, which verse 32 makes clear (cf. Isa. 49:6). The reference to the child’s father and mother (2:33) does not contradict the virgin birth because Joseph has adopted Jesus into his family. After his positive oracle Simeon turns to a more ominous matter. Jesus will “cause the falling and rising of many in Israel” (2:34). Either two different groups are being described here—one group will rise and another will fall ...

1077. The Baptism and Genealogy of Jesus

Luke 3:21-38

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... s descent. It is characteristic of Luke to mention that Jesus was praying. The words of the heavenly voice contain allusions to Psalm 2:7, Isaiah 42:1, and Genesis 22:2, indicating that Jesus is God’s Son and servant. This passage is not teaching that Jesus was adopted as God’s Son, for Luke 1:35 shows that Luke considers Jesus to be God’s Son from the beginning. The inclusion of the genealogy of Jesus (3:23–38) here is explained by Luke’s desire to give Jesus’s ancestry before the onset of his ...

1078. Jerusalem Council and the Identity of Gentile Believers

Acts 15:1-21, Acts 15:22-35

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... statement requires a different reading: Moses has been preached and read in every city from the earliest times, but we still fail to observe his commandments; why then should we require the Gentiles to do that which we failed to do? With the church adopting this recommendation, they send Judas and Silas, leaders of the Jerusalem church, with Paul and Barnabas to Antioch with a letter that outlines the decree (15:22–35). This letter emphasizes that this is not simply a decision reached by humans but is ...

1079. Introduction

Romans 1:1-17

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... 12); it establishes peace with God and access to his grace (5:1–2); it leads to the reality of the personal experience of God’s love (5:5); it secures the gift of the Holy Spirit (5:5; 7:6; 8:1–11); and it causes the believer’s adoption into God’s family (8:15–17). (3) The power of the gospel is effectively experienced by people who believe—that is, by people who come to faith in God’s revelation in and through Jesus Christ. (4) The gospel is the power of God, who saves people irrespective ...

1080. Future Glory

Romans 8:18-27

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... still be tempted by sin but the inability to pray as they should be praying. Since believers have not yet seen what they will inherit as co-heirs of Christ, they do not fully know what terms like “salvation,” “freedom,” “glory,” and “adoption as God’s children” mean with reference to the unseen reality of God’s new and perfect world. Christians experience salvation as “firstfruits” only (8:23), with the full harvest yet to come. Christians speak the language of hope. Even when they ...

1081. Empowerment: Realizing the Future

Ephesians 3:14-21

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... members of God’s family to grasp the full dimensions of this incomprehensible love (3:18). Here is the final purpose of all the foregoing purposes, the supreme goal of the family-minded God: that the readers be filled with all the fullness of God (3:19). Redemption, adoption, and empowerment all aim at one and the same object: to have at last on the earth a race of human beings who truly love each other and their Creator, and not only in the future coming age (Eph. 1:21), but right now in this present ...

1082. Living as Children of Light

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... no place in God’s new family. Attending to these injunctions prevents grieving God’s Holy Spirit (4:30). This does not mean that the Spirit becomes sad at our failings. It means that an offense against any human being is an offense against the Father’s newly adopted community and against the Spirit, who has been set as a seal on that newly united humanity (Eph. 1:13). Attending to these injunctions is what it means to put on the new self, to walk in newness. 5:1–6 · Therefore walk in love: Were it ...

1083. Holy War: Fighting Right the Right Fight

Ephesians 6:10-20

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

Paul’s argument has reached its final stage. God has redeemed, adopted, and sealed the readers as members of his new creation. They can now live together in unity, newness, love, light, and wisdom—essential characteristics of that new creation. Yet Paul is fully aware that believers in their current context face fierce resistance to living out this new lifestyle of God’ ...

1084. The Hidden Spiritual House

1 Peter 2:4-12, 1 Peter 2:13-25

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... appear to be, if they must look beyond their scatteredness and suffering and see themselves as God’s chosen people, then what should their attitude be toward their earthly circumstances? Peter’s readers must have been tempted to respond to persecution by adopting an antiworld attitude and withdrawing as much as possible into the comforting warmth of Christian fellowship. But Peter will not let them do this, even though he has underlined so powerfully their new and hidden status as God’s people and the ...

1085. The Vindication of God and his People

Revelation 20:1-7, Revelation 20:8-10

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... gospel has reached every nation (cf. John 12:31–32), the millennium is realized and Satan becomes completely bound (20:4–6). When the millennium has ended, Christ returns to stop the devil decisively (20:7–10) and launch eternity (21:1–2). Amillennialism, as adopted by this commentary, argues that the millennium (like almost all numbers in Revelation) is symbolic. Ten is the number of power and authority (2:10; 12:3; 13:1; 17:3; cf. Dan. 7:7, 20, 24), and multiples of ten symbolize an immeasurable ...

1086. Son of a Daddy

John 18:1-19:42

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

... Now the name is Barabbas. Perhaps your mind is already recognizing what it means. Paul writes, "All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, 'Abba! Father!' " (Romans 8:14-15 ESV). Ah, bar means "son" and abba means "father," so Barabbas is the "son of a father." Actually, many Bible scholars and linguists tell us that Paul's writing at this point is a bit less ...

1087. Afraid of Hope

John 20:19-31

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

As Harry Houdini, the Budapest born American by adoption stunt performer who is best remembered for his sensational escape acts, lay dying in November 1926, he made a deathbed pact with his wife Bess. He told Bess that he would try to reach her from the other world. For ten years, Bess kept a candle burning below Harry's ...

1088. This Spirit Is Not Spooky

John 14:15-21

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

... Jesus. How do we know we know Jesus? Through the Holy Spirit, for we read, For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, 'Abba! Father!' it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God. (Romans 8:14-16) "This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he ...

1089. What Was That All About?

Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon

James L. Killen

... John did what they had heard he would do. He invited all who were sincere about their repentance to wade into the river with him and go through a version of the Jewish rite of puriﬁcation. This was a ritual typically used when a non-Jew adopted the Jewish faith. Ordinarily Jewish people would have resented any suggestion that they needed this kind of puriﬁcation. But when John called for the penitents to come into the river with him, people came -- lots of people, all kinds of people. The people on the ...

1090. More Beyond

Acts 16:16-34

Sermon

Charley Reeb

Centuries ago, Portugal adopted a national motto. The motto read: “No More Beyond.” It was an appropriate statement since Portugal, at the time, was the end of the world. But later some adventurous persons sailed beyond Portugal and discovered a whole new world. So the question arose: “What do we do with our national ...

1091. I Wonder about The End of the World

Mark 13:32-37

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. God is transforming us and the world to ...

1092. No Longer Orphans

John 14:15-21

Sermon

King Duncan

... s First Lady, as well as in her service as a diplomat, author and writer. Some other remarkable people were orphaned, not by the death of their parents, but because of a break-up of their families which resulted in them being put up for adoption. Notable among these are people like Steve Jobs, Nelson Mandela, musician John Lennon, President Andrew Jackson, and many others. Many great people have found themselves orphaned. What I want to say to you, however, is that there are times when all of us feel like ...

1093. The Parable of the Sower

Matthew 13:1-23

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

... Greek hina (“in order that”) has become hoti (“because”). Jesus speaks in parables to those on the outside not to harden their hearts but because their hearts are already hardened (Schweizer, p. 299). At this point in his ministry Jesus deliberately adopted the parabolic method (cf. 13:34) in order to withhold from those who did not believe further truth about himself and the kingdom he was bringing. Since the knowledge of truth carries with it the responsibility of acceptance and appropriate action ...

1094. The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

Matthew 20:1-16

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

... intended by the first and the last. In the context of Matthew’s presentation the latecomers would be those who did not appear to have the same claim upon the goodness of God. They were the tax collectors and other religious outcasts. Gundry adopts a different approach, holding them to be Gentiles who had entered the church only recently, whereas those who came first would be their detractors among Jewish Christians (p. 399). Yet another approach is tied in with the observation that Peter’s question in ...

1095. Jesus Drives Out an Evil Spirit

Mark 1:21-28

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... It appears that during or after the Babylonian exile religious Jews began to meet on the Sabbath for prayer and religious instruction, and from this practice the fully developed synagogue institution arose. The term is Greek, meaning “a gathering,” but was adopted as a loanword into Jewish speech. Ten adult males were the required minimum for a proper synagogue. Already by Jesus’ time the term was being applied to the buildings used for the gatherings, and it appears also that a somewhat standardized ...

1096. Jesus Heals a Paralytic

Mark 2:1-12

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... and humble position toward God and in the eyes of the world. There have been elaborate attempts to classify the ways the term is used in sayings attributed to Jesus, and intense arguments as to how many reflect the authentic words of Jesus. The position adopted in this commentary is that Jesus did use the term as a self-description, though the variations in the Gospel sayings of Jesus between “the Son of Man” and “I” show that the term may have been inserted in some sayings by the Gospel writers ...

1097. The Calling of Levi

Luke 5:27-32

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

... that Jesus apparently did not fast often, nor was he overly concerned about the religious purity of the food that he ate. Thus, in the eyes of his critics, not only did Jesus fellowship with the wrong kind of people, he also had adopted wrong habits. The major difference between the outlook of the Pharisees and the approach taken by Jesus was that whereas the former were separatistic and exclusivistic, Jesus called people of every sort to himself. Jesus was not interested in isolating himself from sinners ...

1098. Jesus and Beelzebub

Luke 11:14-28

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

... that Jesus is empowered by Beelzebub and Jesus’ reply (vv. 14–23), and (2) Jesus’ teaching on the return of an evil spirit to the person from whom it had gone out (vv. 24–26). The first part is derived from Mark 3:20–27, which is also adopted by Matthew (12:22–30). The second part is found elsewhere only in Matthew (12:43–45) and so probably is derived from the sayings source. Evans (p. 44) finds a few interesting parallels with Deut. 9:1–10:11 (“greater strength,” Deut. 9:1 and Luke 11 ...

1099. Warnings and Encouragements

Luke 12:1-12

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

... his anointed one, the Messiah Jesus. The reference to “yeast” connotes something that spreads throughout whatever it comes in contact with (see Matt. 13:33). In other words, hypocrisy characterizes the Pharisaic approach to religion, and the disciples are warned not to adopt their ways of thinking. The essence of the warning is given in vv. 2–3. The truth will eventually be known. The “hypocrites will be unmasked” (Marshall, p. 512). The truth of the gospel is to be proclaimed openly (from the ...

1100. The Crucifixion

Luke 23:26-43

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

... to supply two prayers of forgiveness in behalf of persons who have been presented as wrongly putting to death Jesus and one of his followers. Had Luke truly hated the Jews, and believed that there could be no forgiveness for them, he could have adopted a much harsher biblical precedent. Consider the words of an angry Isaiah: “Forgive them not!” (Isa. 2:6, 9). Compare also the unforgiving words of the martyred sons of the Maccabean revolt: “For you [i.e., Antiochus IV] there will be no resurrection to ...

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