Sermon and Worship Resources

Antonyms: keep, claim, continue, stick by, self-control, power through, achieve, defend, bear, hope, acquire, quick visit, adopt, continue along, adhere, remain, pursue, support, take up, keep up, reuse, advocate, stay, persevere, cherish, keep going, carry on

Showing 1251 to 1275 of 4963 results

1251. Two Shepherds

Zechariah 11:4-17

Understanding Series

Pamela J. Scalise

... -act’s meaning is the divine word in verses 16–17, introduced by For (ki). The shepherd that the Lord will establish in the land will be an anti-shepherd, a predator rather than a caretaker. The foolish shepherd’s tools may be the remaining pieces of the broken staffs from verses 10 and 14, rendered ineffectual for helping the sheep. Verse 16 suggests that the antishepherd’s tools may even be the implements of one who slaughters and eats the sheep. The description of this foolish shepherd reverses ...

1252. The Lord Comes and Reigns

Zechariah 14:1-21

Understanding Series

Pamela J. Scalise

... the most vulnerable ones with contempt. Half of the city will go into exile. This, too, was a typical aftermath of war. Both Samaria and Jerusalem had suffered such deportation. Yet, the rest of the people will not be taken from the city. A remnant will remain. 14:3–5 Zion’s defeat is only the first scene in this portrayal of the last battle for Jerusalem. It sets up the description of God’s victory. Beginning in verse 3 a third-person description succeeds the first-person announcement. Then the LORD ...

1253. Judah Unfaithful

Malachi 2:10-16

Understanding Series

Pamela J. Scalise

... husband. The first three words of the verse, rendered word-for-word, are “and not one he made.” The alternate translation retains the MT sheʾar and reads it as an infinitive absolute of shʾr, “remains,” that substitutes for a finite verb in the next clause, “not as long as life remained in him.” The “not” repeats the negation from the previous clause. Abraham sought godly offspring, the promised child of the covenant, for much of his long life. He lived to see Isaac reach adulthood. 2:16a ...

1254. Jesus Teaches Nicodemus

John 3:1-21

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... ” (cf 3:31). The rebirth of which Jesus speaks is in fact a birth from God (1:13) or from the realm of the Spirit, and in that sense “from above,” but Nicodemus’ answer focuses simply on the fact that it is a second birth. Its divine character remains to be spelled out in vv. 5–8. 3:5 Water and the Spirit: It is impossible to tell grammatically whether water and Spirit are two distinct elements or one. The fact that both are governed by a single preposition in Greek suggests that they are one. Yet ...

1255. John the Baptist's Testimony about Jesus

John 3:22-36

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... tradition of the voice from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love” (Mark 1:11; cf. the use of “One and Only” in John 1:14, 18; 3:16, 18). Also, the picture of God’s wrath “remaining” on those who reject the Son (v. 36) stands as a grim counterpart to the Spirit “remaining” on Jesus (1:32–33). In the present context, the reflection on the baptism serves two purposes: It summarizes the main theological theme of the chapter (i.e., the alternatives of faith or unbelief), and it anticipates ...

1256. Jesus Heals the Official’s Son

John 4:43-54

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... the writer calls the “behavior of the Lord” (11:8) and is probably based on Jesus’ own practice. Certainly Jesus’ ministry was an itinerant one (cf. Matt. 8:20/Luke 9:58), and the point of verse 44 is that he must not wear out his welcome by remaining too long at Sychar. To stay in a place more than two days is to make it his patris and to have no honor there. His patris in this sense turns out finally to be Jerusalem, the place where prophets traditionally are dishonored and killed (cf. Luke 13 ...

1257. Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind

John 9:1-12

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... series of interrogations (v. 34). Even though Jesus rejects the alternatives posed by the question and shifts the focus from the cause (i.e., origin) of the man’s affliction to its purpose (v. 3), the fact that the man was not only blind but blind from birth remains a highlight of the narrative. This is what sets the story apart from all the synoptic accounts of the giving of sight to the blind (Mark 8:22–26; 10:46–52 and parallels; Matt. 9:27–31). If a man is blind from birth, then the restoring ...

1258. Crucified, Dead, and Buried

John 19:17-27, John 19:28-37, John 19:38-42

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... of a certain Demetrius: We also speak well of him, and you know that our testimony is true (3 John 12). These wider parallels suggest that verse 35 reflects merely the author’s normal way of speaking about valid testimony. The anonymous witness remains anonymous. Verse 37, with its apparent identification of those who look on Jesus with those who pierced him, could suggest that the eyewitness was one of the Roman soldiers, perhaps the very one who plunged the spear into Jesus’ side (cf. the officer ...

1259. Jesus, Peter, and the Beloved Disciple

John 21:15-25

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... in terms of the scene in which he was first introduced (or introduced himself) to the Gospel’s readers, 13:23–25. The thrust of Jesus’ blunt answer to Peter is that the beloved disciple’s fate is none of Peter’s business: If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? (v. 22). Discipleship implies a specific level of commitment but not a specific outcome to one’s life. Everyone who would be a disciple must yield total obedience to the call and command of God, but the call and ...

1260. Imitating Christ's Humility

Philippians 2:1-11

Understanding Series

F. F. Bruce

... p. 106). Various renderings are offered of the next statement: in addition to the NIV text, he did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, we have the marginal rendering in GNB, “he did not think that by force he should try to remain equal with God.” But these two renderings do not exhaust the possibilities. “Existing as he already did in the form of God, Christ did not regard equality with God as a harpagmos”—such is the literal force of the words. The interpreters’ crux lies in ...

1261. Timothy and Epaphroditus

Philippians 2:19-30

Understanding Series

F. F. Bruce

... sorrow upon sorrow if Epaphroditus had actually died. His recovery was a token of God’s mercy to Epaphroditus himself, but it was a token of God’s mercy to Paul also, as Paul viewed it. 2:28 Now that Epaphroditus had recovered, he would willingly have remained in Rome and served Paul further, but Paul said, “No: our friends back in Philippi have been very anxious about you and will be relieved to see for themselves that you have quite recovered. Besides, I am giving you a letter for them to tell them ...

1262. Test the Spirits

1 John 4:1-6

Understanding Series

Thomas F. Johnson

... and gone out into the world. The same thing is said about “the deceivers” in 2 John 7. First John 2:19 states that they “went out from us,” but they were never true members of the community. Yet they continue to try to win over the remaining Johannine Christians who are loyal to the Elder (2:26; 3:7; 2 John 10). Given this situation, the readers are to test the spirits, the purpose of the test being to determine whether they are from God. Previously, the Elder had divided his followers and the ...

1263. The Flood

Genesis 6:1-8:22

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... twenty-seventh day of the second month. God charged all those leaving the ark to be fruitful and increase on earth. This command reiterated the one God had given humans at creation (1:28), indicating that God’s purpose for the population of the earth remained the same. 8:20–21 As his first act on dry ground Noah built an altar to Yahweh. He took some of all the clean animals and clean birds, slaughtered them, and offered burnt offerings. He presented these animals as praise offerings, lauding God for ...

1264. The Covenant of Circumcision

Genesis 17:1-27

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... penalty most likely excluded a person from worshiping at the central shrine. 17:15–16 In the third speech, God announced to Abraham that his wife’s name was being changed from Sarai to Sarah. Since this change was only a dialectic variation, the nuance remains obscure. Nevertheless, in changing her name God changed her destiny from that of a barren woman to the mother of Israel. God promised to bless her so that she would give Abraham a son. God’s blessing would make her the mother of nations, and ...

1265. Abraham and Abimelech

Genesis 20:1-18

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... Egypt, Abraham introduced Sarah as his sister. Presumably having heard rave reports about Sarah, who had recently arrived in his capital with her brother, Abimelech sent officers to bring Sarah to the palace. After Sarah arrived at the king’s household, she possibly had to remain in special quarters as she underwent a variety of rituals preparing her to join the harem (see Esth. 2:12–13 for an extreme example). God came to Abimelech in a dream one night and warned him that he was under threat of death ...

1266. Jacob Apprehension in Meeting Esau

Genesis 32:1-32

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... past vile behavior, Jacob resolved not to flee, hide, or trick his brother. To prepare himself for the meeting Jacob stayed behind, spending the night in the camp. 32:22–23 Deeply troubled and unable to sleep, Jacob got up and forded his family and remaining possessions across the Jabbok. There are two possible reasons for his doing this after dark. The next morning he did not want to be involved with getting his family across the Jabbok when Esau arrived. Or perhaps he had a strong inner need to spend ...

1267. Judah and Tamar

Genesis 38:1-30

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... her father-in-law convincingly whenever the occasion arose. Since Judah did not have any money with him, he promised to send her a young goat from the flock, a very generous offer. But Tamar shrewdly asked him for a pledge. Unwittingly, he allowed her to remain in control by asking her to define the pledge. She requested his seal . . . cord, and staff. A seal was usually a small precious stone in the form of a cylinder on which were inscribed a person’s name along with some symbols that were closely ...

1268. The Death of Joseph

Genesis 50:22-26

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... saw his grandchildren to the third and fourth generation. The ancients viewed such a privilege as the reward for righteousness. 50:24–25 Before his death Joseph wished to give his extended family a word of promise that would sustain and guide them as long as they remained in Egypt. He reiterated the promise that God would surely bring them out of this land to the land that God had sworn to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The God of Israel is especially known as the God of these three patriarchs (e.g., Exod. 3:6 ...

1269. Clean and Unclean Foods

Deuteronomy 14:1-21

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

... that, for Christians, the distinctive badge of Jewish separateness had no further theological significance in the new, multi-racial, people of God (cf. Gal. 3:26–29; Eph. 2:11–22). The division of the animal kingdom that had mirrored it was accordingly abolished. Yet food remains a matter of theological and ethical concern in the NT. What you ate and who you ate with could be controversial and divisive issues (Gal. 2:11–13; Rom. 14; 1 Cor. 8; 10:14–11:1), as could the question of who gets to eat ...

1270. Atonement for an Unsolved Murder

Deuteronomy 21:1-9

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

... to death under the law should be hung up in open view. But it is a known custom, occasionally recorded in exceptional circumstances in the OT itself (e.g., Num. 25:4; Josh. 8:29; 10:26f.; 2 Sam. 21:5–9). This law limits the exposure to the remaining daylight hours of the day of execution. The explicit reason for the ruling is sacral—the offense to God and the desecration of the land. But it is not unlikely that part of its intent (and certainly its practical effect) is to spare the victim from further ...

1271. Solomon's Throne Established

1 Kings 2:13-46

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

... v. 40) is deafening. He is going westward to Gath, not eastward to Bahurim. But Solomon takes the opportunity to have him executed anyway (v. 46). David’s instructions have been carried out; Solomon has proved himself to be a “wise” king. And his kingdom remains, inevitably, firmly established in his hands. As we look back over 1 Kings 1–2, what do we see? We see, first, a dying king, now out of touch with reality, now fully in control, with a selective memory and a curiously ambivalent attitude to ...

1272. Solomon Builds His Palace

1 Kings 7:1-12

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

... on 9:25). Until this point, the temple is little more than an empty shell. We should understand 7:1, then, in the following way: “But his own house Solomon spent thirteen years building, and he completed the whole of his house!” 7:6–12 The remaining buildings that formed part of the complex are now described. There was a colonnade (“hall of pillars,” v. 6), almost as large as the temple, but of uncertain use; a throne hall, also called Hall of Justice, the use of which is at least partly self ...

1273. Solomon’s Wives

1 Kings 11:1-13

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

... sense of confusion. The implicit threat of 2:4, etc., is unexpectedly mitigated: I will not do it during your lifetime. And what of verse 13? Here it is no longer the whole kingdom that is jeopardized by disobedience but only eleven of its tribes. One tribe remains out of grace, for the sake of David and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen. This is more than readers of Kings (or indeed Solomon), with their knowledge only of law, had any right to expect; but it is certainly less than the readers ...

1274. The Man of God from Judah

1 Kings 13:1-34

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

... to a view of the prophet as basically benevolent—a view that is difficult to square with the fact that he knowingly lied. Given the context, it is much more likely that his concern is not so much to be remembered in the grave as to be allowed to remain in the grave. Thus, this is his alternative plan (after his hospitality stratagem failed) to avoid the desecration of his bones that he knows will otherwise take place (v. 32; cf. v. 2). As it turns out, this second plan is one that works (2 Kgs. 23:17–18 ...

1275. Elijah and Obadiah

1 Kings 18:1-15

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

... her prophets, and he cannot gather them to himself at will. Certainly we must see the absence of the prophets of Asherah from the proceedings on Mount Carmel as linked to the absence of Jezebel herself. For both represent the absent threat that will still remain (although grossly underestimated by Elijah) at the end of ch. 18. Elijah has dealt decisively with the men on the mountain; but what of the women, who were never involved in the proceedings? Ahab has been brought to submission, Baal shown to be no ...

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