Sermon and Worship Resources

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Ezekiel 38:1-39:29

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... and Tubal. Gog is called nasiʾ roʾsh (“chief prince” in the NIV). There is no need to render Rosh as a place name, contrary to the LXX and the NIV footnotes on this expression. The most natural reading of the Heb., followed by nearly all the versions (Tg., Vulg., and the Peshitta) and nearly every modern ET (NIV, NRSV, NJPS, as well as the KJV), is to see nasiʾ roʾsh as a title: nasiʾ meaning “prince,” and roʾsh meaning “head” in the sense of “leader” or “chief.” But what does it ...

1777. The Law of the Temple

Ezekiel 43:13-27, Ezekiel 44:1-31, Ezekiel 45:1-12, Ezekiel 45:13--46:24

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... appearance”) for umadedu and tabnit (“form, pattern”) for toknit (on this term, see the discussion of 28:12, above). The NIV (like the NRSV) has let the verb stand but has agreed with the LXX in reading tabnit instead of toknit. Among the versions, only the Vulg. supports the MT here. On the other hand, Joyce argues that the rarity of toknit argues for its originality, though he also understands this Heb. term to mean something like “pattern” (“Ezekiel 40–42,” p. 28). In fact, Joyce proposes ...

1778. Sermon on the Mount: Giving, Prayer, and Fasting

Matthew 6:1-4, Matthew 6:5-15, Matthew 6:16-18

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... are for more immediate concerns prior to the kingdom’s arrival, one of the first two options is most likely. 6:13 deliver us from the evil one. This prayer in Matthew ends with a request for deliverance from the evil one (Luke’s version ends with “And lead us not into temptation” [11:4]). The substantival adjective ponerou (“evil one”) at the end of this sentence can be either masculine or neuter, since these particular forms are identical in Greek. If it is masculine, then the translation as ...

1779. Community Discourse: Care for Others in the Kingdom

Matthew 18:1-9, Matthew 18:10-14, Matthew 18:15-20

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Jeannine K. Brown

... -century Greco-Roman context children were viewed as less reliable than adults, who had the full measure of logos or rational capacity. We might also emphasize that children are humble in attitude, as the language of Matthew 18:4 in some English versions suggests (e.g., “whoever becomes humble like this child” [NRSV]). Yet children are not necessarily humble in the sense of holding an attitude of selflessness. Instead, as we have seen above, children are an example in the first-century world of those ...

1780. Three Parables about the Unfaithfulness of the Jewish Leaders

Matthew 22:1-14, Matthew 21:33-46, Matthew 21:28-32, Matthew 21:23-27

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Jeannine K. Brown

... parable prepares for the presence in the next verse of a man who lacks the proper wedding clothes—that is, good deeds. 22:11 he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. The referent of “wedding clothes” (not included in Luke’s version [Luke 14:15–24]) has been variously identified. Given Matthew’s emphasis on doing God’s will (e.g., 7:16–23; 12:33–37, 48–50) and the preceding reference to people producing fruit who will inherit the kingdom (21:43), it is likely that ...

1781. Jesus’s Ministry and Popularity Continue to Grow

Mark 1:40-45, Mark 1:35-39, Mark 1:29-34

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Grant R. Osborne

... from home and society. They were to stay away from others and call out “Unclean, unclean” when anyone came near (Lev. 13:45–46). 1:41 Jesus was indignant. The majority of the Greek manuscripts as well as quite a few versions (NRSV, NIV [1984], ESV, NLT, NET) have something like “moved with pity/compassion.” However, it is easier to see later scribes copying Mark to replace “indignant” with “compassion,” a much more amenable idea for this context. Therefore, it is slightly better ...

1782. Caring for the Needy and Commissioning Apostles

Mark 3:7-12, Mark 3:13-19

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Grant R. Osborne

... is, give God one-tenth of their lives. This is unacceptable; he wants our all (see under Mark 1:18–20 above). To follow Christ is to try to emulate him in every area of our lives and to live out an explicitly Christ-centered version of Brother Lawrence’s credo, “The practice of the presence of [Christ].” 4. Jesus’s disciples exercise his authority. Those called by God to leadership are not on their own. They are charismatically endowed with God’s own authority wherever they go. Jesus said, “As ...

1783. Parables of the Kingdom

Mark 4:1-20

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Grant R. Osborne

... a great deal of discussion because it seems to say that Jesus’s purpose (hina, “so that”) is to keep people from believing and being converted. In other words, parables are an anti-evangelism device! Complicating this is that Matthew’s version has hoti (“because”), saying that the judgment from Isaiah 6:9–10 has come “because” of their hardened hearts. So some (1) translate this epexegetically (“that is”): the inability to understand explains the speaking in parables;3 or (2) take it ...

1784. The Gentiles Are Included in God’s Provision

Mark 8:1-13

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Grant R. Osborne

... in John 6:1–16 draws upon both Markan narrations, showing that both existed in pre-Markan tradition.1Mark would be a poor editor if he simply took an earlier story from chapter 6, changed a few details, and tried to pass it off as a Gentile version of the same story. It makes a great deal more sense if the second miracle actually happened. Moreover, in 8:19–21 Jesus considers them as separate events and distinguishes them from each other.2Jesus is including the Gentiles in his precursor of the messianic ...

1785. Realizing the True Nature of Jesus the Christ

Mark 8:27-30

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Grant R. Osborne

... from his true purpose. Teaching the Text 1. The world is ignorant regarding Jesus. The leaders considered Jesus to be a false prophet, although the common people thought that he might indeed be God’s prophet. While people later tried to make Jesus their version of a conquering messiah (Mark 11:9–10), they remained ignorant and in unbelief (John 12:37–41). Worldly minded people will always fail to recognize Jesus; to them he is a great teacher and charismatic figure, but they cannot know him as the ...

1786. The Christian Shema: Loving God and Neighbor

Mark 12:28-34

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Grant R. Osborne

... piety, since it was traditional to speak of the 613 individual statutes of the Law.”4He was trying to get Jesus’s opinion of what summed up the Torah in the best way.5He was both trying again to trip Jesus up (the Matt. 22:35 version: “tested him with this question”) and honestly seeking an answer, having recognized Jesus’s wisdom (Mark here). Matthew and Mark do not contradict each other but rather bring out two aspects of the same scene. 12:29 Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord ...

1787. The Necessity of Vigilance in Light of the Parousia

Mark 13:32-37

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Grant R. Osborne

... will be unexpected and come “suddenly” (v. 36), so Christ’s followers must be constantly prepared. 13:34 It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge . . . to keep watch. This short parable may be a shortened version of Matthew 24:45–51 and is similar to other parousia parables (Matt. 25:14–30; Luke 12:35–40) on the responsibilities of Jesus’s “servants” during his absence from this earth. This one pictures a first-century merchant going on a lengthy ...

1788. Jesus Is Crucified

Mark 15:21-32

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Grant R. Osborne

... with Jesus, death and seeming defeat are not the final word.) In the same way, Jesus gave himself up so that we might be free. Jesus took the condemnation that we deserve so that we might have life and freedom. You might want to use a clip from the movie version of this book.

1789. The Baptism of Jesus

Luke 3:21-38

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R.T. France

... adult appearance, Jesus is already a man of prayer. heaven was opened. Mark’s account of this event can be read as a private experience of Jesus, who “saw” heaven opened and to whom alone the heavenly voice was addressed. Matthew’s version makes it more objective: heaven “was opened,” and the voice spoke about Jesus in the third person (as at the transfiguration). Luke maintains the second-person address, but his description of the Spirit coming “in bodily form” suggests something that other ...

1790. Jesus’s Manifesto

Luke 4:14-30

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R.T. France

... in 3:22). Here the prophet speaks in the first person, but the passage was probably already widely regarded as a blueprint for the mission of the expected messiah (it is used in that sense in Qumran texts). Luke’s quotation follows the LXX version of Isaiah 61:1–2a, except that one clause is omitted (“to heal the brokenhearted,” after proclaiming good news to the poor) and one added (“to set the oppressed free”), the latter being drawn from Isaiah 58:6, a passage that similarly lists acts ...

1791. The First Disciples

Luke 5:1-11

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R.T. France

... which he has been living. Although he is initially very resistant to leaving, he submits his will to something he can sense is right and agrees to go. He leaves quickly, taking his walking stick. Several clips from the movie version (The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, 2012) could be used. Fishing for people, the dominant metaphor of this passage, encapsulates the missionary nature of Christian faith, which can take many forms. Christian Ministry: Rebecca Manley Pippert. Pippert, who trains evangelists, is ...

1792. Feasting and Fasting

Luke 5:33-39, Luke 5:27-32

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R.T. France

... simply inappropriate to the present time of celebration. For Christian fasting, see Matthew 6:16–18. 5:36 the patch from the new will not match the old. In Mark and Matthew this saying focuses on damage to the old cloth, but Luke’s version stresses incompatibility. New and old in religion do not mix. 5:37 the new wine will burst the skins. Here the theme of damage is added. The (powerful, effervescent) new wine represents the gospel message and those who embrace it; they cannot be confined within ...

1793. Jesus and Women

Luke 7:36--8:3

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R.T. France

... could mean that her love was the basis of her forgiveness, but that would be to turn on its head the message of the preceding parable in 7:41–43 and of the following clause, in which little love is the result of little forgiveness. Thus, most versions, like the NIV, find ways of indicating that her love is the evidence of her (antecedent) forgiveness rather than the basis for it. 7:48 Your sins are forgiven. Jesus speaks directly to the woman for the first time. As in 5:20, his declaration provokes ...

1794. “Who Is This?”

Luke 9:10-17, Luke 9:1-9

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R.T. France

... own needs on this retreat, and they would have been dependent on local hospitality. 9:14 About five thousand men were there. The Greek for “men” would normally denote only males; Luke says nothing of women and children (contrast Matt. 14:21). John’s version of this story suggests a political and even military flavor to the gathering (John 6:15), so that the crowd may have been mainly or only men. A similar connotation has been suggested on the basis of the “groups of about fifty,” like military ...

1795. The Messiah and His Glory

Luke 9:28-36, Luke 9:18-27

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R.T. France

... Shakespeare. In this famous St. Crispin’s Day speech, Henry V inspires his troops during the Battle of Agincourt (1415). It emphasizes (especially in the last few lines) the glory that follows heroic suffering. Kenneth Branagh’s rendition of the speech from the 1989 film version is particularly powerful. This day is called the feast of Crispian: He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named, And rouse him at the name of Crispian. He that shall live this day ...

1796. The Failure of Israel’s Leadership

Luke 11:37-54

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R.T. France

... the leaders determined to destroy Jesus (11:53–54), sets the scene for the coming confrontation in Jerusalem, where (as has already been predicted in 9:22) scribes will play a significant role in the events leading to Jesus’s death. A fuller version of this critique appears in Matthew 23. That is set in Jerusalem, where the majority of Pharisees and scribes were based. Luke perhaps has transferred it into his loosely structured journey section so as to bring it together with the accounts of opposition ...

1797. Divided Loyalties

Luke 12:1-12, Luke 12:13-21

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R.T. France

... as a whole makes this highly unlikely. The term “Son of Man” here suitably recalls the imagery of the judgment scene in Daniel 7, from which it is derived. 12:10 anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. There are different versions of this saying in Matthew 12:31–32; Mark 3:28–29. All agree that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven, and in Matthew and Mark the reference in context is specifically to the charge (already recorded by Luke in 11:15) that ...

1798. Affluence and the Afterlife

Luke 16:19-31

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R.T. France

... there can be a reversal of fortunes after death, and that selfishness does not pay in the end. 16:20 a beggar named Lazarus. He is the only character in any of Jesus’s parables to be given a personal name, a Greek abbreviated version of the Hebrew name “Eleazar,” meaning “God has helped.” (The medieval use of “lazar” for “leper” derives from this parable; it did not mean “leper” in ancient times.) The naming of the beggar here may simply serve the literary function of providing a ...

1799. A Blind Beggar and a Rich Scoundrel

Luke 19:1-10, Luke 18:35-43

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R.T. France

... lost” was graphically portrayed in the parables of chapter 15. Theological Insights Several scholars, notably I. H. Marshall,1have located the focus of Luke’s message in the term “salvation” (and its verb “save,” which tends to be obscured in English versions by the use of “heal” instead of “save” where the problem is physical). This emphasis is well summarized in 19:10, but so also in these two stories, representing two men who were “lost” in different ways, but who found salvation ...

1800. The Coming of the King

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

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R.T. France

... , which no one has ever ridden. Matthew and John specify that it was a donkey, and both quote Zechariah 9:9 in explanation. Luke follows Mark in using the Greek word for “(new) colt,” which occurs (for the Hebrew for “donkey”) in the LXX version of that verse, and the disciples’ response in 19:38 makes it clear that they took this as a deliberate enactment of the Zechariah prophecy. After walking some one hundred miles from Galilee, Jesus, who is never recorded as riding elsewhere in the Gospels ...

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