Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1351 to 1375 of 4884 results

Hebrews 4:14-5:10

Understanding Series

Donald A. Hagner

... sense Jesus serves as a model for the readers. This achievement of faithfulness to the will of God in adverse circumstances is a kind of learning insofar as it means arriving at a new stage of experience. The final stage of that experience is being made perfect, that is, when he accomplished the greatest obedience at the cost of the greatest suffering, his death (cf. 2:10). For, as our author will argue eloquently in later chapters, it is by his death that he became the source of eternal salvation (cf. 9:12 ...

1352. Taming the Tongue

James 3:1-12, James 3:13-18

Understanding Series

Peter H. Davids

... tongue. The need to control the tongue was well known in Judaism and Christianity (Prov. 10:19; 21:23; Eccles. 5:1; Sirach 19:16; 20:1–7). James points out here, as he did in 1:26, its importance, since a person who controls his speech is a perfect [person], able to keep his whole body in check. That is, such a person is fully mature and complete in Christian character (1:4) and thus able to meet every test and temptation and control every evil impulse (1:12–15). As “Ben Zoma said: ‘Who is mighty ...

1353. Praying for Endurance and Healing

James 4:13-17, James 5:1-6, James 5:7-12, James 5:13-20

Understanding Series

Peter H. Davids

... judicial murder, either by active or passive means. Actively the courts are used to have inconvenient righteous people executed. Passively the courts are used to rob the poor of their livelihood by taking their farms or other means of support. It is all “perfectly legal,” and the poor “just happen” to die of diseases related to malnutrition. God calls both types murder. The last half of the charge is more difficult. It is true that the poor often cannot resist the rich and powerful and so frequently ...

1354. A Call to Persevere

Jude 1:17-25

Understanding Series

Norman Hillyer

... we are, fit to stand in his glorious presence without fault, amōmos. The Greek word is a sacrificial term and applied in the OT to perfect animals suitable to be offered on the altar to God (Exod. 29:38; Lev. 1:3; 3:1). God can do still more. He can ... object is to make the church of believers fit to be presented to himself (Eph. 5:27) as a sacrificial offering, “through” the actual perfect sacrifice of “Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Pet. 1:19). The same thought is in Eph. 1:4; Col. 1:22; 1 Thess. 3: ...

1355. Jephthah

Jud 10:6–11:40

Understanding Series

Cheryl A. Brown

... conclusion, therefore, is that Jephthah did intend a human sacrifice. But could or would Jephthah, an Israelite, a hero of the faith (Heb. 11:32), have made such a vow? It is not impossible that he could or would have done so. Biblical heroes were never perfect but were capable of committing all kinds of gross immoral acts. David, who violated almost every one of the Ten Commandments in his sin against Bathsheba and Uriah (2 Sam. 11), is a case in point. It will not do to distort the Bible’s presentation ...

1356. Restoration of Israel

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Understanding Series

Tremper Longman III

... saved”). As Lundbom (Jeremiah 21–36, p. 423) suggests in favor of the MT, “nothing precludes a cry of gladness occurring simultaneously with a plea of salvation,” but he also notes that the Dead Sea Scrolls (4QJerc) supports the reading of the verb as a perfect. 31:15 This verse is cited in the infancy narrative of Jesus in Matthew (2:18) in reference to Herod killing the young boys in the city of Bethlehem in an attempt to eradicate the expected Messiah. In this case, rather than just the northern ...

1357. Rend Your Heart

Joel 2:12-17

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... ”; i.e., to be separated out of the profane realm and reserved in God’s holy realm for divine purposes alone. When translated into NT Greek, it could be rendered with the word “saint” (1 Cor. 1:2). Saints, therefore, are not those who are morally perfect—certainly Paul could not address the church at Corinth as “saints” if that were the meaning. Rather, saints are those who have been separated out from the world to be used for God’s work. In this sense, every Christian is a saint. 2:17 The ...

1358. Habakkuk’s Prayer

Habakkuk 3:1-19

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... the message Yahweh has given Habakkuk. 3:3 The NIV begins God came, which immediately flags a complication about the verbs in 3:15, as “came” is a yiqtol (“imperfect”) verb, which in prose usually refers to the future. It is not qatal (“perfect”), which in prose usually refers to the past. But in poetry yiqtol verbs can refer to something that has already happened (the background lies in some aspects of the history of Hebrew and its relationship to cognate languages). This whole poem refers to a ...

1359. A Room with Locked Doors

John 20:19-23

Sermon

King Duncan

... just before you boarded your plane. Madden says that once while he was standing in line at the insurance policy machine, he noticed there were three pilots ahead of him waiting to buy insurance, as well. (2) Well, that would make me a little nervous too. You may be perfectly at ease in the air, but all of us are afraid of something. It may be cancer, or if you are of a certain age, Alzheimer’s. It may be losing your job or being deserted by your spouse. It may concern the safety of your children or simply ...

1360. Jesus Teaches at the Feast

John 7:14-24

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... to his enigmatic remark two chapters earlier, “My Father is always at his work, and I, too, am working” (5:17). Jesus’ argument makes sense because of an assumption among Jewish teachers that circumcision accomplished the perfection of man (e.g., Mishnah Nedarim 3.11: Abraham was not called perfect until he was circumcised). They too argued from the lesser to the greater that if circumcision “which attaches to only one of the 248 members of the human body, suspends the Sabbath, how much more shall ...

1361. The Impending Departure II

John 16:5-16, John 16:17-33

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... . This is the period of Jesus’ absence, a time of grief and anguish. The time of joy is that future time, after Jesus’ return, when faith becomes sight. The pattern is clear enough; the designation of the whole age of the church as only a little while is perfectly consistent with the early Christian conviction that it “is the last hour” (1 John 2:18; cf. James 5:8; 1 Pet. 4:7; Rev. 1:1, 3; 22:6, 10). But there is a difficulty with this pattern. In verses 23–24 Jesus makes specific statements and ...

1362. Thanksgiving and Prayer

Philippians 1:1-11

Understanding Series

F. F. Bruce

... the servant of Christ, but he implied by his choice of the word meaning “slave” that he was totally at the disposal of his Master. Yet for that very reason his words and actions carried his Master’s authority, and in his bondservice to that Master he realized perfect freedom. The recipients of the letter are called saints or “holy people” (those whom God has set apart for himself)—a very common designation for Christians in Paul’s letters (cf. Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Cor. 1:1; Eph. 1:1; Col. 1 ...

1363. No Confidence in the Flesh

Philippians 3:1-11

Understanding Series

F. F. Bruce

... who viewed Paul’s hardships, including his present imprisonment, as a sign that he had not yet reached that stage of spiritual perfection that they themselves claimed to have attained (cf. 1 Cor. 4:8). Paul views them quite differently: they are for him ... that brings them out of the realm where the rest of the dead are. Additional Notes 3:7 I now consider: Gk. hēgēmai (perfect); the reference is not particularly to his conversion experience, as it would be if the aorist hēgēsamēn had been used. (In v ...

1364. Children of God

1 John 2:28--3:10

Understanding Series

Thomas F. Johnson

... . While the two previous references to love (agapē; 2:5, 15) were to human love, this is the first reference to God’s love. (God’s love will be the author’s main focus in 4:7–10, 12, 16–18.) God’s love has been lavished on us. The perfect tense connotes love which has been and continues to be given to us, with the continuing consequence that we are called children of God. People are born into God’s family (2:29; John 1:13) and are given the right to become children of God because they have ...

1365. Driving Out the Nations

Deuteronomy 7:1-26

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

... of God’s people. On the contrary, he emphasized it even more in calling for his followers to be utterly different from the world around them and its standards, expectations, and behaviors. That, he said, was what it meant to be “perfect” as God is perfect, or “merciful,” as God is mercifui—these are his distinctive interpretations of the OT demands (Matt. 5:48; Luke 6:32–36). And so, the concept and implications of the distinctiveness of the people of God and their separation from the ...

1366. The Year of Canceling Debts

Deuteronomy 15:1-11

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

... the other; for the fruitful ethical tension between what ought to be and what actually is (Theological Diversity, pp. 153–66). The function of verses 4–6, then, is to set the highest possible agenda, to point to the ultimate goal of a perfect confluence of divine blessing and human obedience. Such a vision also functions eschatologically (as all the sabbatical institutions do), pointing to a future hope of a people living in blessing and obedience and without needs. It cannot be accidental that Luke, in ...

1367. Signs and Oracles of Judgment

Ezekiel 4:1-5:17, Ezekiel 6:1-14, Ezekiel 7:1-27

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... :9), which they then understand as a punning reference to the rod (matteh) to punish wickedness in v. 11 (e.g., Wevers, Ezekiel, p. 63; Zimmerli, Ezekiel 1, p. 196; Blenkinsopp, Ezekiel, p. 47). However, as we argue above, emendation is unnecessary; the text is perfectly meaningful as is. 7:26 The teaching of the law by the priest will be lost. Iain Duguid argues that the king and the priests, who come in for comparatively little criticism in the body of the book, receive their reward with significant roles ...

1368. Epilogue to the Law of the Temple: River, Land, City

Ezekiel 47:1-12, Ezekiel 47:13-23, Ezekiel 48:1-29, Ezekiel 48:30-35

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... find themselves. John’s vision, on the other hand, is a vision of the new heaven and new earth, beyond the destruction of this world. That John’s vision of the future should take the form of heavenly reality is scarcely surprising: the eternal beauty, peace, and perfection of God’s realm reflect God’s dream for our world, too. It is as Jesus taught us to pray: “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10). Nor should we be surprised that John’s visions draw ...

1369. More Parables of the Kingdom

Mark 4:30-34, Mark 4:26-29, Mark 4:21-25

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

... . The mustard seed is not actually the smallest of all seeds (the orchid seed is smaller), but this is deliberate hyperbole to emphasize the smallness of the new messianic community in Jesus’s time. It is the smallest seed that produces so large a bush, and thus it is a perfect model for the growth of the church. The seed is so small that you could not really see it in the palm of your hand, yet the bush is ten to twelve feet tall. with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade. This is a ...

1370. God’s Miraculous Provision: Caring for the Needy

Mark 6:30-44

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

... , and there is no hint of such in Mark. Still, at least in the number of baskets left over (twelve and seven in the two stories) there may be some significance because these were the two most important numbers biblically. They would highlight the perfect work of God that took place on these occasions. Theological Insights God’s provision for his people has always been symbolized by food, from the manna in the wilderness at the exodus to the messianic wedding feast at the eschaton. The desperation of the ...

1371. A Call to Servanthood and Suffering

Mark 10:46-52, Mark 10:35-45, Mark 10:32-34

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

... your hands up to mirror the volunteer’s hands and explain that as you move your hands, he or she is to follow you. Begin slowly so that it is easy for the volunteer to follow, and then quicken the movement so that there is no way to perfectly follow your hand movement. Explain that simply trying to imitate Jesus is not enough. Rather, we have to live in Christ in such a way that we pray regularly, read his word continually, and submit our selfish desires to him on a daily basis. To illustrate this truth ...

1372. Praying in Faith

Mark 11:20-25 (26)

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

... ” and asking “in Jesus’s name,” with both aspects similar to the place of faith here. It connotes a God-dependent, Christ-centered prayer stance. Jesus in his exaltation “sat down at the right hand” of God and “went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle,” thereby opening up for us “a new and living way” (Heb. 8:1; 9:11; 10:20) in our access to God. Prayer changes things, and it channels the presence of God into situations, with the result that incredible things are accomplished ...

1373. The First Disciples

Luke 5:1-11

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... Christian faith. We do not merely wait for recruits to volunteer; we go looking for them. Teaching the Text A good way to teach this passage is to show the contrast between Peter’s (and our) total unworthiness to be Jesus’s disciple and his perfect suitability to be used by God. Jesus takes imperfect instruments and uses them to accomplish his purpose. Peter is not ready or able to follow Jesus wholly until he experiences Jesus’s power and majesty and recognizes his own sinfulness. Then Jesus can take ...

1374. A Sick Woman and a Dead Girl

Luke 8:40-56

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... . In this passage, Jesus is not only able to notice an individual touching his garment in the middle of a crowd, but he is also able to sense the faith and trust behind that touch. Nor does stopping to pay attention to this woman detract from his perfect timing and provision for Jairus’s daughter. Invite your listeners to wonder at the miracle that Jesus’s attention is never divided like ours is by a world full of simultaneous needs—he is enough to satisfy all of us with personal care. Death is never ...

1375. Rejecting or Responding to Jesus

Luke 10:1-24

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... humans (the “little children” of 10:21). No one knows who the Son is except the Father. It has been suggested that Jesus’s statement here is to be taken not as a literal description of Jesus and God but rather as a parable: just as there is perfect mutual understanding between a father and a son, so there is between God and Jesus. It may be questioned whether that would in fact be a true generalization from human experience. But even if it were, the point of such a parable here (where Jesus has just ...

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