Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 201 to 225 of 1230 results

Amos 5:18-27

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, and in the wilderness. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.” The harsh realities of the wilderness also made it an ideal place to seek sanctuary and protection. David fled from Saul to the wilderness, the Desert of Ziph (1 Sam. 23:14; 26:2–3; cf. Ps. 55:7). Similarly, Jeremiah sought a retreat in the desert from sinful Israel (Jer. 9:2). Related somewhat to this last point ...

202. The Day of the Lord

Malachi 4:1-6

Understanding Series

Pamela J. Scalise

... a common chronology. The new terminology in these verses relates Malachi’s message to other parts of the OT. 4:4 Those who fear the Lord or revere the divine name (3:16; 4:2) are known by their adherence to God’s law (torah). The ideal priest in Malachi 2:5–6 “revered” the Lord and taught “true instruction” (torah). Violators of God’s law, epitomized in 3:5, are identified as people who do not fear the Lord. The admonition to Remember the law describes the way of life required of Godfearers ...

203. Paul's Chains Advance the Gospel

Philippians 1:12-30

Understanding Series

F. F. Bruce

... R. Jewett links the people referred to here with those described in 2:21 as concerned only with their own affairs; he thinks they were missionaries who held up the “divine man” (theios anēr) as an ideal and felt that the humiliating spectacle of Paul in prison gave the lie to this ideal and endangered their mission (“Conflicting Movements in the Early Church as Reflected in Philippians,” NovT 12 [1970], pp. 362–90). Supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains: for stir up ...

204. Children of God

1 John 2:28--3:10

Understanding Series

Thomas F. Johnson

... what is sinful (lit., “the one who practices sin”) describes the Elder’s opponents, just as v. 7b described the ideal Johannine Christian as one who practices righteousness. These two opposing sides are also different in origin. First John 2:29 ... John 1:9), and to claim continually the advocacy of Jesus, who takes away the sins of the world (2:2, 12; 3:5). The Johannine ideal is not to sin (2:1; 3:6) but to practice righteousness (2:29; 3:7), though the Elder recognizes that Christians do sin, and he ...

205. God’s Love and Ours

1 John 4:7-21, 1 John 5:1-12

Understanding Series

Thomas F. Johnson

... s love is perfected (NIV, is made complete) among us. God’s love comes to completion or perfection when it realizes its objective in the believing community, and that aim is the full assurance that does not doubt acceptance and communion with God. For the author the ideal of complete or perfect love (2:5; 4:12, 17–18) is primarily a matter of the community’s (among us) sense of its being right with God, as they are being undermined by the attacks of the schismatic opponents. The remainder of v. 17 and ...

206. Cain and Abel

Genesis 4:1-26

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... blessing and support. Because his sin alienated him from God, he went to live in a land named Nod. This name makes a pun on the verb “to wander” (nud). The location of Nod is given as east of Eden. Cain was driven farther away from the ideal garden where God had put the first humans, symbolizing that he was further away from fellowship with God. 4:17–22 The genealogy of Cain includes references to the first human inventions (vv. 17b, 20b, 21, 22) and Lamech’s boasting song (vv. 23–24). Humans took ...

207. Jacob Blesses His Sons

Genesis 49:1-28

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... , and amplifies the theme of Judah’s rule over the nations (Genesis 16–50, p. 478). Each of these alternatives sees a reference to a dynasty from the house of Judah ruling Israel. Many interpreters have taken these words as a reference to an ideal king coming from Judah to achieve God’s high hopes for Israel. It must be kept in mind that the original intent of these words concerned the role of Judah in the tribal league. Nevertheless, changing historical situations cause texts to be read differently ...

208. Cities of Refuge (II)

Deuteronomy 19:1-14

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

... tenth, for example (19:14), and the ninth (19:16–19). Israel needed structures of authority and leadership that would preserve their societal commitment to justice and obedience to God’s Torah. However, even in a nation living with the ideal standards and patterns of life of 14:28–16:17 and with the ideal leaders of 16:18–18:22, things could go wrong. Premature deaths could happen, by accident (19:5–7), by design (19:11–13), in war (ch. 20), or through causes unknown (21:1–9). It was all very ...

209. Miscellaneous Laws

Deut 23:15–25:19

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

... of food or seed grain in a difficult season or (in Leviticus) those who had fallen into severe poverty over a longer term. Such is the evil of human nature, that desperate human need is commonly an opportunity for unscrupulous exploitation. True to OT ideals of justice and compassion, the ban on interest in Deuteronomy, Exodus, and Leviticus is primarily concerned to stop the hardhearted from making a profit out of hard times. This may, as some think, be the reason why the ban did not apply to foreigners ...

210. David’s Charge to Solomon

1 Kings 2:1-12

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

... 7): a model of dutiful service to his king, who is rewarded by peaceful fellowship around the king’s table. The passage is thus most carefully structured so as to present Solomon with an ideal (peaceful community) and to suggest to him what kind of people from David’s past must be removed (those likely to disrupt peaceful community) if this ideal is to be attained. As we shall see, he is not slow to understand. 2:10–12 A death and burial notice concludes the account of the king’s reign; this will be ...

211. Solomon's Daily Provisions

1 Kings 4:20-28

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

... fear under vine and fig tree, in which the nations come in pilgrimage to Zion (Mic. 4:1–5). The gathering around Solomon’s table described in 1 Kings 4 represents in essence a kind of proto-messianic banquet (cf. Matt. 8:11), with Solomon as the ideal king! But what about the horses referred to in verses 26 and 28? Do they merely attest to Solomon’s great wealth? This seems unlikely. We noted in chapter 3 how the authors are intent, even in a passage that is otherwise very positive about Solomon, to ...

212. Distress and Help

Isaiah 33:1-24

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... king specifically takes up 32:1. Beauty once more replaces branding (3:24); but beauty was a standard expectation of a king (e.g., David in 1 Sam. 16, Absalom in 2 Sam. 14, the king of Tyre in Ezek. 28). In contrast with the confines of little Judah, the ideal will also be realized in a land that stretches far. The expression is no longer a threat (cf. 30:27, and related words in 5:26; 6:12). In their thoughts that had likewise gone far away from Yahweh (29:13) they will ponder the former terror like the ...

213. Luke the Historian

Luke 1:1-4

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... , and the formal style of Luke’s opening words conforms to that Greco-Roman literary convention. But not all ancient historians seem to have delivered quite what they promised, and there has been much debate as to how far Luke was able to fulfill his stated ideal. On the one hand, there are specific problems such as the Roman census referred to in 2:1–3 (see commentary there), or the fact that Luke’s account of Jewish insurrections in Acts 5:36–37 differs in sequence from Josephus’s account of the ...

214. The Trials of Peter and of Jesus

Luke 22:66--23:25, Luke 22:63-65, Luke 22:54-62

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... guilty. But somebody in this courtroom is. Now, gentlemen, in this country our courts are the great levelers. In our courts, all men are created equal. I’m no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and of our jury system—that is no ideal to me. That is a living, working reality. . . . I am confident that you gentlemen will review without passion the evidence that you have heard, come to a decision, and restore this man to his family. In the name of God, do your duty.2 Atticus Finch ...

215. Worthy Is the Lamb Who Was Slain

Revelation 5:1-14

Teach the Text

J. Scott Duvall

... the tribe of Judah” (Gen. 49:9–10) refers back to Jacob’s blessing over his son, identifying the tribe of Judah as the royal line and signifying Jesus’s power and strength as a mighty warrior and ruler. The “Root of David” echoes the promise that an ideal ruler would come from the “Root of Jesse,” King David’s father (Isa. 11:1, 10; 2 Sam. 7:1–17; Rom. 15:12; Rev. 22:16). John need not weep because Jesus, the long-expected royal Messiah, is able to open the scroll and defeat the powers ...

216. “Oh, What a Tangled Web We Weave”: Power Poisons the Conscience

2 Samuel 11:1-27

Teach the Text

Robert B. Chisholm Jr.

... godly king. But eventually David’s power gets the best of him. In the end both his successes and his failures leave us yearning for a godly leader. Surely the exilic readers experience this desire, especially as they reflect on the prophets’ visions of an ideal Davidic king to come. (2) The account also reminds us that the omniscient God sees all that human beings do and assesses all that he sees from a moral perspective. He often allows evil actions, but he does not approve of them and holds evildoers ...

217. “Blessed Are Those Who Have Regard for the Weak; the Lord Delivers Them”

Psalm 41:1-13

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... righteous man. David indeed is the “blessed” person who “has regard for the weak” (41:1). As already observed, this ideal profile actually begins in Psalm 40:4, where the benedictory term ’ashre occurs to draw attention to the person who ... use of “blessed” (’ashre) that opens the psalm, here applying that general ascription of Psalm 1:1 to David, the ideal righteous man. The word ’ashre is a recognition that the person is healthy, prosperous, and spiritually well balanced. In comparison, ...

218. “Endow the King with Your Justice, O God”

Psalm 72:1-20

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... as Psalm 70 is an illustration of the reprocessing style at work in the Psalter as a whole. Teaching the Text To begin our lesson or sermon, we may observe that David, in his prophetic voice (cf. Ps. 71), prays for his son Solomon, asking God to make him the ideal king who will defend the afflicted and needy (72:2–4, 12–14) and have a long and prosperous reign (72:5–11, 15–17a). As the man of war, David is not permitted to build the temple, but his son, he prays, will reign over an era of peace ...

219. The Reign of Rehoboam

2 Chron 10:1–11:4

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... Davidic-Solomonic kingdom becomes the exemplar against which all future generations will be evaluated. In general the tone is negative, although there are several key positive examples that approximate the earlier ideal, especially Hezekiah (chaps. 29–32) and Josiah (chaps. 34–35). The northern kingdom is largely ignored as a political entity in the post-Solomonic account, although those northern Israelites who join the South are affirmed. While the accounts of Athaliah and especially Ahaz constitute ...

220. The Righteous Branch

Jeremiah 23:1-8

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... oracle has allusions to Judah’s last king. If so, then all of Judah’s last kings, beginning with Josiah, would have been named (22:10–23:6). It is better, since the oracle is in the future tense, to see in it the description of the ideal king, who from our vantage point is Jesus, the Messiah. The oracle about a glorious return from exile (23:7–8) is elaborated in chapters 30–31. The exodus from Egypt was significant in shaping a people. So will the “new” exodus of the exiles, the descendants ...

221. The Fellowship of the Believers

Acts 2:42-47

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

The many who respond to Peter’s message become the foundation of the early Christian community (2:41–47). These believers’ sharing “everything in common” (2:44) fulfills the Hellenistic ideal of a utopian community, and the fact that they gave to “anyone who had need” (2:45; cf. 4:34) also fulfills the Jewish ideal of the sabbatical/Jubilee era (cf. Deut. 15:4). This portrayal again reaffirms the location of this community at the end of time as they experience the renewed presence of God in ...

222. Living to Please God

1 Thessalonians 4:1-12

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... good (3:6), Timothy brought other news about sexual misconduct in the church. Paul begins by affirming that “it is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality” (4:3). While Greek ethics were organized around a collection of ideals or virtues, Christian and Jewish ethics centered on the will of God (Rom. 12:2; Eph. 6:6). The passage contrasts the life oriented around God’s will with that guided by passions (4:5). Here the will of God is their sanctification, or ...

223. Denunciation of the Intruding Teachers

Judges 1:1-36

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... a total conquest, summarized essentially in Josh. 10:28–43), while Judges begins with its own version of the events, which was anything but a complete conquest. It is likely that Judges portrays the more real picture and Joshua the more ideal.[20] But even in Joshua’s ideal presentation we find references that correspond to Judges’ version (Josh. 11:18, 22; 13:2–6; 15:63; 16:10; 17:12–13). The relationship between the two accounts must be understood in terms of the theological tendencies of each ...

224. Life Through the Spirit

Romans 8:1-17

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... dispositions, literally a “mindset” that leads to a goal. “Flesh” then connotes not base instincts or the material side of life, but that which human nature in its rebellion against God has made of itself. Spirit, likewise, is not a noble or ideal self, but God’s transmitting of the effects of Christ’s salvation to believers and God’s infusing himself into them. We noted that there are twenty-one references to the Spirit in chapter 8. Only slightly less important is sarx, “flesh,” which ...

225. Gifts of Prophecy and Tongues

1 Corinthians 14:1-25

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

... a self-revelatory declaration. Thus, the reader should not take Paul’s example at this point in reference to himself with utter literalness. Paul can and does use references to himself in an illustrative fashion that does little more than set up an idealized or exemplary figure. The reference here is not concerned with Paul’s own practice except as it illustrates a general truth that he is attempting to teach the Corinthians. 14:15 The reference to praying and singing is the result of Paul’s concern ...

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