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Showing 1276 to 1300 of 4943 results

1276. Matthew 10:40-42

Matthew 10:1-42

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... out, and to cure every disease and every sickness” (v.1). The bad news is “they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues” (v.17). Even more bad news follows, as Jesus warns his chosen ones that they must “take up the cross” and that they should expect to “lose their life for my sake.” But Jesus’ final words to his mission-bound disciples are the ultimate in good news. Matthew saves his most revealing Christological statement in this whole missionary discourse for v.40 ...

1277. Suffering for Independence

Illustration

Brett Blair

... no movements that have shaped the world where sacrifice was not called upon. And of course in the church we have all our grace predicated on a sacrifice and it didn't stop at the cross. Jesus told his disciples that they too would need to take up the cross. And that's what they did: Matthew suffered martyrdom by being slain with a sword at a distant city of Ethiopia. Mark expired at Alexandria, after being cruelly dragged through the streets of that city. Luke was hanged upon an olive tree in the classic ...

1278. Relay for Life

Mt 16:24; 2 Tim 4:7

Illustration

Brett Blair

... Pilate's prison to the hill on which he died to save our lives form the tyranny of death, sin, disease, hatred, loneliness, the list is endless and the race isn't over. That cross, our Lord's finish line, has become our mission. His cross has become our cross. Take up the cross and let us, his church, finish the race.

1279. Life at the End of the Line

Mark 8:31-38

Illustration

Keith Wagner

... ." What? Lose instead of win? This does not compute. This is illogical. This is now how we were conditioned to believe. Surely this must be a mistake. Jesus, however promotes an ethic of "end of the lineness." Not only are we to lose to win, we are to "deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him." For Jesus it's even worse. He is to suffer, be rejected, and killed by a hostile world.

1280. She is Gone

Illustration

Loraine Boettner

... to bear her load of living weights to its place of destination. Her diminished size is in me, not in her, and just at the moment when someone says, “There she is gone,” on that distant shore there are other eyes watching for her coming and other voices ready to take up the glad shout, “Here she comes,” and such is dying (From Loraine Boettner, Immortality [Phillipsburg, N.J.: Pres. & Reformed, 1956], pp. 29–30.)

1281. Which World?

Illustration

Michael P. Green

... him a real power for God in Great Britain at the close of the last century. Kelly had once helped a young relative prepare for Trinity College in Dublin and in this way came to the attention of the professors there. They urged him to take up work at the college and thus distinguish himself. When Kelly showed a compete lack of enthusiasm for their suggestion, they were nonplussed. One of them asked in exasperation, “But Mr. Kelly, aren’t you interested in making a name for yourself in the world?” To ...

1282. Like A Sponge

Rom 8:9

Illustration

Roy Hession

To be filled with the Holy Spirit is to be filled with one who is already there, in our hearts. Take up a sponge and while it is in your hand squeeze it. In that condition, plunge it in water and submerge it, keeping it in there. It is now in the water and the water is in it. As you hold it in the water, you open your hand, and as ...

1283. Saul’s Conversion

Acts 9:1-19a

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... drawn from the work of the potter. As the potter made vessels for various uses, so God made human beings for his own purposes (cf. Jer. 18:1–11; 22:28; Hos. 8:8; 2 Cor. 4:7; 2 Tim. 2:20, 21). In Paul’s case, it was to take up the mantle of the Suffering Servant (cf. Col. 1:24), for he would be “a light to the nations,” that Paul might “carry God’s name” (continuing the metaphor of the vessel) before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel (v. 15; cf. 26:22; Isa ...

1284. Paul Preaches at Rome Under Guard

Acts 28:17-31

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... him innocent of any crime. The prospect of gaining a conviction in Rome was not good, and the Roman authorities sometimes dealt harshly with accusers who failed to substantiate their case. Nor could the Sanhedrin have reasonably expected the Jews of Rome to take up their cause, since their own position was a precarious one and they would hardly have wished to draw attention to themselves by prosecuting Paul. In all likelihood, then, no message had been sent from Judea and none was likely to be. 28:22 ...

1285. The Awesome Power of Love

John 15:9-17

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

Object: A potted plant Good morning, boys and girls. I brought my friend with me this morning. (Set plant down in front of them.) How many of you have a plant for a friend? Actually, plants are our friends, aren't they? They take up the Carbon Dioxide in our air and convert it to oxygen. They give us food to eat and they make our world colorful. We could not live without plants. They are truly our friends. For quite a while people were writing in magazines about talking to your plants. Plants need ...

1286. The Song of the Vineyard

Isaiah 5:1-7

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... what they refer to and the distance between hope and reality. The men who identified with the man’s desire for vengeance have signed the warrant for vengeance on themselves, like David in his judgment in 2 Samuel 12 (Oswalt, Isaiah 1–39, p. 151). The technique is one Jesus takes up in his parables, as is the vineyard theme. Jesus’ parables will also imitate Isaiah’s technique whereby the prophet then leaves the hearers to work out the implications for themselves.

1287. A Prophecy Against Babylon

Isaiah 21:1-10

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... itself a century or two later, it is good news. Additional Notes 21:1 The reference to the Desert by the Sea is a mystery. It may refer to the fact that Babylon was a desert area in the region of Mesopotamia near the Persian Gulf and/or it may take up the word desert from later in v. 1. 21:5 On oil the shields, see 2 Sam. 1:21. But we do not know whether (for instance) this was a religious rite, a form of anointing, or an aesthetic act, to make the shields look nicer, or a practical task ...

1288. God’s Day of Vengeance and Redemption

Isaiah 63:1-6

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... ; 27:10; 34:13; 36:1), also links with words meaning “grape harvest” (cf. 24:13; 32:10; Lev. 26:5). So Edom and Bozrah’s names suggest pools of grape juice that turn out to be pools of blood. The conversation between lookout and warrior takes up the references to the prayer to which the Preacher and the lookouts committed themselves (62:1, 6). The return of the warrior signifies the answer to that prayer. The prophet describes the aftermath of the event rather than the event itself (cf. 52:7–10) and ...

1289. Job's Second Reply to Eliphaz

Job 16:1-17:16

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... his life and his exception to the rule, he would be more encouraging than they. His friends are no friends. Job’s alienation from the traditional response about calamity is potently seen in his address now directly to God (16:7–17). Job takes up, understandably, a lament similar to his opening soliloquy (Job 3). In rhetoric similar to that of Lamentations 3:1–20, Job describes himself as a persecuted and oppressed man. The persecutor, the enemy, is God himself. This powerful lament is painted onto the ...

1290. Warnings against Infidelity

Proverbs 6:20-35

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

This next lesson resumes the typical instructional form, with an extended call to heed the parental counsel (6:20–23) preceding the specific warnings (6:24–35). It also takes up the topic of Proverbs 5, developing the grave consequences of sexual immorality more fully. Presumably one ties the commands of both parents “around your neck” (6:21) in order to keep them plainly in view when deciding which direction to head. Verse 22 cites three daily situations in which such ...

1291. Time and Eternity

Ecclesiastes 3:1-22

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... the divinely assigned tasks that occupy humans, Qoheleth concludes that God “has made everything beautiful in its time.” The NIV’s “burden” in verse 10 for Hebrew inyan is too negative. Verse 11 may echo the creation narrative (Gen. 1:31), also taking up the key word of the preceding section, “time” (occurs twenty-nine times in 3:1–8, but only ten times in the rest of Ecclesiastes). All such activities have their appropriate or fitting occasion within God’s sovereign ordering of the times ...

1292. Worship Protocol

Ezekiel 45:13--46:24

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... traverse the entire outer court. That the gate is left open until evening (46:2) probably indicates that the laity may look into the holy precinct while they worship by the exterior entrance. After speaking of the prince’s voluntary and daily offerings, Ezekiel takes up the matter of how the prince should give gifts of land to his sons or servants, and what limitations apply when those endowments of crown land are given to servants. Gifts the prince gives to his courtiers are to revert to the crown in ...

1293. Fifth Vision - Zerubbabel Empowered

Zechariah 4:1-14

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... insignificant and futile. But now this negativism will be replaced by rejoicing. The message is clear and unequivocal: God, whose omniscient interest in man’s activities spans the earth, has had his watchful and approving eyes on Zerubbabel’s efforts. Verses 11–14 take up again the matter of the two olive trees. More detail is given through Zechariah’s questions. In addition to the olive trees, he wants to know about the two olive branches beside the two golden pipes that pour out golden oil. This ...

1294. Jesus Heals the Sick

Matthew 4:23-25

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... Matthew 4:23–25, Matthew summarizes Jesus’s ministry by describing his three primary activities: teaching, preaching, and healing (4:23). Preaching “the good news of the kingdom” connects with the summary of Jesus’s preaching at 4:17, while subsequent chapters take up teaching (chaps. 5–7) and healing (chaps. 8–9). The summary statement in 4:23 is virtually repeated at 9:35, creating a bracket surrounding the narration of Jesus’s Galilean ministry of teaching and healing (4:23–9:35). The ...

1295. Jesus Sends Out the Twelve

Matthew 10:1-42

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... to one’s family (10:34–37). This notion was quite countercultural in the first-century Jewish context, where family loyalties and obligations were paramount (cf. also 8:21–22). To be “worthy of [Jesus]” is to love Jesus more than all others and to take up one’s cross and follow him (10:38). On the story level, which focuses on Jesus’s teaching the Twelve, the metaphor of a cross poses a vision of discipleship as a path to death, since carrying one’s cross was what Rome forced criminals to ...

1296. Jesus Predicts His Death

Mark 8:31--9:1

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... , these are not two separate matters but two sides of the same coin. A proper confession of Jesus is inevitably also a confession of what believers must become. In verse 34, Jesus teaches that discipleship consists of following him, denying self, and taking up one’s cross. Today the cross is primarily an object of art or jewelry, but in Jesus’s day it was a hated instrument of cruelty, suffering, dehumanization, and shame. Reserved for the lowest social classes, and particularly slaves, the cross was ...

1297. The Transfiguration

Mark 9:2-13

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... ” (9:7) designates Jesus as the prophet who would follow Moses (see Deut. 18:15–18), and it assures the bewildered disciples that Jesus’s prediction of his suffering and death in Jerusalem (8:31) is not a mistake but God’s providential will for him. Taking up one’s cross and following Jesus (8:34) is a difficult teaching, to be sure, but the transfiguration does not end on an ominous note, for Jesus does not escape to heaven with Elijah and Moses but remains “with [the disciples]” (9:8) on the ...

1298. The Crucifixion

Mark 15:21-32

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... a man of color. Mark may mention the names of his sons Alexander and Rufus because they were known by or members of the church in Rome to which he was writing (see Rom. 16:13). Simon becomes the first person in Mark literally to take up his cross and follow Jesus (8:34). According to Jewish and Roman custom, victims were executed outside city limits (Lev. 24:14; Num. 15:35–36). Jesus is brought to a place called “Golgotha” (15:22; Aramaic “skull” or “scalp”) for crucifixion. Both the oldest ...

1299. Entrance into Jerusalem

Luke 19:28-44, Luke 19:45-48

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... climbs on the colt, and his entry into Jerusalem is acclaimed in messianic terms. The riding of the colt symbolizes the humility of his entrance. The Pharisees object to the enthusiastic words of the crowd, but Jesus replies that if they are silent the stones will take up the shout. The sight of Jerusalem moves Jesus to tears (19:41–44), not because of his own fate but because of the fate of the city. They have not recognized that in his person they have been visited by God, that the prospect of peace ...

1300. The Disciples Rejoin Jesus

John 4:27-38

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

Now Jesus takes up the subject of true nourishment (4:27–38). When the disciples return from the village (see 4:8), the woman departs in haste, leaving her jar behind (4:28). In the light of Jesus’s offer, is it now obsolete? Her positive report in Shechem (“Could this be the Messiah?”) ...

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