Synonyms: Levi, disciple, evangelist, tax collector, the 12, the twelve, apostle, sermon on the mount, jewish audience, beatitudes, lord's prayer, great commission, parables, olivet discourse, mount of olives, olivet, synoptic
Showing 1 to 25 of 612 results
Understanding Series
David J. Williams
... ; 5:5ff.; but cf. also Rom. 4:25; 8:34; 2 Cor. 5:15), is that justification is not specifically linked in this verse with Jesus’ death, but with his whole messianic character (of which, however, death was a part; cf. vv. 26–29). But with a Jewish audience it had first to be established that Jesus was the Messiah. The resurrection was the key to that, hence the emphasis not only of this sermon but of all the early preaching in Acts. Only with their acceptance of his messiahship could the Jews be expected ...
2. Acts 5:27-32
Acts 5:27-32
Sweet
Leonard Sweet
... wrong to read a generally anti-Semitic attitude into the Luke-Acts account of these first-century events. The author casts this drama as more of a tragedy with the apostles continually grieving over the blindness and deafness exhibited by their Jewish audience. Today's text recounts just one of the tragic missed moments for redemption typical of the Jewish leadership. After Pentecost, the apostles had quickly established themselves as a vocal and continually annoying presence in the midst of Jerusalem. In 5 ...
Teach the Text
R.T. France
... going out of your way to help people in need. Samaritans are by definition “good.” That is precisely the opposite of what Jesus’s original audience would have thought, and it is important to communicate the hostility that the term would arouse in a Jewish audience. The parable is, of course, a fine example of helping someone in need, but that is not its main point, and the teacher should aim to expand the listeners’ awareness of its message. For this, it is important to read it in its context, as ...
4. Jesus as True King of Israel
Matthew 2:19-23, Matthew 2:13-18, Matthew 2:1-12
Teach the Text
Jeannine K. Brown
... and Sidney Poitier) home for dinner. The plot involves the girl’s parents (Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy) struggling to understand what was socially unacceptable in that era and wondering about extending welcome to this young man. For a first-century Jewish audience, the idea of non-Jewish royal servants being the first to worship Israel’s Messiah would have provided a similar point of struggle. Jesus is worthy of worship. Hymn: “In the Bleak Midwinter,” by Christina Rossetti. This hymn (1872 ...
5. Judah Unfaithful
Malachi 2:10-16
Understanding Series
Pamela J. Scalise
... (v. 14). It also moves from the broad subject of the opening statement—breaking faith with other members of the covenant people—to concrete instances from everyday life, specifically here intermarriage with non-Jews and divorce of Jewish wives. 2:10 Malachi and his Jewish audience had one Father (1:6; 3:17), the Lord, who had created them as a people (Isa. 43:1, 15). The creation of the nation Israel was accomplished by the covenant that God offered and the fathers, the ancestors of Malachi and his ...
Understanding Series
David J. Williams
... . The story, now told in Paul’s words, is essentially the same as in 9:3–19. Where it adds to the earlier narrative, it does so with details that either reflect the personal nature of the recollection or are most likely to appeal to his Jewish audience. Thus he mentions here that it was at noon that he saw the light (cf. 26:13). This emphasizes its brightness, since it outshone the sun, and therefore its supernatural origin (cf. Ezek. 1:4, 28). Only under such a constraint would he have changed the ...
7. The Disciples Confess Jesus as the Messiah
Matthew 16:1-4, Matthew 16:5-12, Matthew 16:13-20
Teach the Text
Jeannine K. Brown
... something only in the story of God’s work in and for Israel. Second, focusing our hearers on the truth that Jesus is the Messiah should follow the same trajectory that Paul followed when he preached Messiah Jesus (“Christ Jesus”) to non-Jewish audiences. Paul translates this category for his audience by emphasizing Jesus as “Lord” over all, a title that had great significance in his own context, as “Caesar is Lord” was a common affirmation in the first-century world. Jesus as Lord—God’s ...
Teach the Text
C. Marvin Pate
... for all to see. (The Decalogue could also be printed on a bulletin insert.) Then he confessed, “Yes, in my heart I have broken every one of the Ten Commandments!” The shock of the audience that day would have matched the shock of Paul’s Jewish audience in this passage. Song: “Harper Valley P. T. A.,” by Tom T. Hall. You could use the lyrics to this “oldie-but-goodie” song, which points out the hypocrisy of accusing others of the very same sins that you yourself are committing. The Torah cannot ...
9. Send Her Away!
Matthew 15:21-28
Sermon
King Duncan
... , just maybe, this story was included as a reminder of how pervasive prejudice is in every culture and how hurtful it can be to use a derogatory term for another human being. Maybe it was intended to shock us. Remember, Matthew was writing for a Jewish audience. They themselves had probably referred to Canaanites as dogs, if not overtly, at least within their hearts. At any rate, this caustic phrase hangs out there causing us discomfort, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the ...
Understanding Series
William Nelson
... worship any god except their own God (3:28). God does not always rescue from death, as the martyrs of the second century B.C. learned (1 Macc. 1:57, 60–63; 2 Macc. 6:8–11, 18–31; 7:1–42). The book of Daniel encourages its Jewish audience to trust in the Lord, defy the Seleucid authorities, refrain from worshiping pagan gods, and be willing to sacrifice their lives. The same message is relevant for us today. We should put our trust in God and defy the world. We may not be tempted to bow down before ...
Teach the Text
Jeannine K. Brown
... : Temple Theology Jesus was not the first Jew to critique the temple’s practices and leadership, as the Jeremiah text cited by Matthew attests (Jer. 7:1–20; see also Ezek. 8; Mal. 1:6–14). In his critique Jesus and his Jewish audience could well have been aware of the Jewish expectation for a “final temple wrought not by human hands” (cf. Heb. 9:24).6This eschatological hope within Judaism gives context to Jesus’ critique without assuming that he was rejecting the temple outright. Instead ...
Sweet
Leonard Sweet
... a great many of us have wings. For those of us “on the fly,” it is even more important to know our ancestors, to know who we are, if we don’t always know where we are. It was much the same for the first century Jewish audience Paul was addressing in today’s Roman’s text. There had been no Jewish state, no Israel or Judah, for hundreds of years. Throughout the centuries the Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, indeed almost all of Israel’s middle eastern neighbors, had over-run the “promised land ...
13. Acts 2:1-13
Acts 2:1-13
Sweet
Leonard Sweet
... Age of the Spirit, that “age to come,” is now here. Peter’s presentation of Joel 2:28-32 is almost an exact quote of the LXX text (he does add “above” to the “portents of heaven”). This was a familiar prophetic text for this pious Jewish audience. This citation of Joel, while clearly presenting the judgment motif of the “last days,” ends with the promise of salvation for “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord.” The new age of the Spirit ushered in by Pentecost is not the end of ...
14. Christmas 2
Jn 1:1-18 · Lk 2:41-51 · Eph 1:3-18 · Jer 31:7-14 · Ps 147
Sermon Aid
Russell F. Anderson
... cradle in which it is placed changes. The preacher must raise the question: "How well is the gospel being communicated to the culture in which we live?" Outline: Why doesn't John have a Nativity story? Answer: He is trying to relate to a non-Jewish audience. Explain the Logos (Word, wisdom) concept. Christ is the Logos and was present before the created world. The grace of Jesus is inherent in creation itself. In Christ, the Logos, we see the wisdom and knowledge of God. John places Christ in a different ...
15. Romans 8:14-17
Romans 8:14-17
Sweet
Leonard Sweet
... "God-fearers" (Gentiles who worshipped the One God and kept the commandments). Accordingly, Paul used terms and images with a rich tradition in Jewish history. Today's epistle lesson is steeped in language and imagery familiar to a first-century, Roman-influenced Jewish audience. Although not part of today's reading, verses12-13 are usually read as a unit with verses 14-17. The distinction made in verses12-13 between those who "live according to the flesh" and those who live "by the Spirit" is made even ...
16. The Messianic Age
Matthew 3:13-17
Illustration
Adrian Dieleman
... Testament Scriptures clearly state that the beauty and wonder of the Messianic Age will become a reality; but this will be so only with the coming of the Messiah. The Messiah. It is He Who brings about the Messianic Age. Today, in the story of Jesus' baptism, Matthew tells his Jewish audience that the Messiah has come and that the Messianic Age is about to begin. And, in a departure from Jewish expectations about the Messiah, Matthew tells his ...
17. Lazarus
Luke 16:19-31
Sermon
Lori Wagner
... . This is what provoked the Pharisees to begin with. Was Jesus telling a folk tale with which they would be familiar, with his own twist? We can’t be sure, but it’s clear that “Abraham’s bosom” would have been known to a Jewish audience. Jesus does not mention the kingdom of God here, or heaven, or paradise, or garden, or any other eschatological reference. But he refers to the “Bosom of Abraham” perhaps because this is what the Pharisees…and Sadducees might most understand. The Bosom of ...
Sermon
Dean Feldmeyer
... would be to us. No matter that some people actually enjoy eating groundhogs and collecting the pelts of muskrats for sale, we consider them creepy and disgusting and that’s the way Luke’s audience would have seen these pigs. A first-century Jewish audience would have no ethical problems with destroying a herd of pigs so a person could be saved from a self-destructive mental illness. Jesus gave the demons permission to enter the herd of swine and the pigs, immediately, stampeded over the nearby cliff ...
19. Acts 17: 22-31
Acts 17:16-34
Sweet
Leonard Sweet
... week’s Acts text (17:22-31) is one of the most memorable of Luke’s Pauline portrayals. Already Paul’s preaching to a synagogue congregation had been recorded (13:16-41). At Pisidian Antioch, Paul, the learned Pharisee, had addressed a Jewish audience as a Jew, using the common ground of scripture and tradition to introduce his listeners to the new kind of messianic reality found in Jesus Christ. Now Paul addresses a completely different kind of audience, and the apostle adapts his message accordingly ...
20. Matthew 3:1-12
Matthew 3:1-12
Sweet
Leonard Sweet
... sinners seeking repentance, the Baptist portrays the rigorously righteous as a slither of snakes trying to slip out of a blazing field or a fiery future (i.e., "the wrath to come"). Invoking still another vivid image familiar to his Jewish audience, John next demands that his listeners, especially those slippery Sadducees and Pharisees, "Bear fruit worthy of repentance" (v.8). Once more invoking their common past, the Baptist denies that an Abrahamic genealogy gives an individual any special access to the ...
21. “Who Is This?”
Luke 9:10-17, Luke 9:1-9
Teach the Text
R.T. France
... deeply rooted tradition in Middle Eastern life. On Herod Antipas, see “Historical and Cultural Background” on 3:1–20. The feeding of a large crowd in an uninhabited area, in the absence of any regular food supply, strongly recalls for a Jewish audience the experience of Israel in the wilderness (Exod. 16), with the miraculously multiplied bread corresponding to the divinely provided manna. There is also a more directly parallel miracle story about Elisha (2 Kings 4:42–44), which is clearly echoed in ...
22. Correcting Cephas
Galatians 2:11-21
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
... remainder of the letter, reminds one of the arguments found in Romans (esp. chaps. 3, 6–8). Such parallels have influenced many, including this writer, to view these two epistles as written at about the same time. Paul uses terminology appropriate to a Jewish audience and reflects the universal division of the human race from a Jewish perspective: “Jews by birth” and “sinful Gentiles ” (2:15). This division will be seen to have an ironic ring to it, since Paul will show later in the letter that ...
23. Lasting Impression
Luke 3:34-38, Matthew 1:5, 16
Sermon
James Merritt
... out in a woman that is mentioned in Matthew and two men who are mentioned in Luke. Here is the first piece of good news that we learn - I. Everyone Is Invited To God's Family Keep in mind that Matthew was a Jewish author writing to a Jewish audience about a Jewish Messiah. Jews, rabbis, and Hebrew scholars would have been extremely excited and intrigued reading about the lineage and the family tree of this man named Jesus Christ. But, what if you weren't Jewish? What if you were a Gentile? We often think of ...
Understanding Series
William Nelson
... intended “the spirit of the gods,” because he was a polytheist, but the Israelites would have understood Joseph to be endowed with the “spirit of God.” Likewise, Nebuchadnezzar’s theology would have been expressed as “spirit of the holy gods,” while the Jewish audience reading this book would have understood “the spirit of the holy God” to be influencing Daniel (the phrase also occurs in Dan. 5:11, 14). 4:9 In the clause here is my dream, the MT (4:6) has khezwe, “visions” (“visions ...
Understanding Series
F. F. Bruce
... it. See W. D. Davies, Paul and Rabbinic Judaism; E. P. Sanders, Paul and Palestinian Judaism; and E. Rivkin, A Hidden Revolution. 3:6 In Gal. 1:14 Paul calls himself a zealot (Gk. zēlōtēs) for the ancestral traditions; in Acts 22:3 he tells a Jewish audience in Jerusalem that, before his conversion, he “was just as zealous for God as any of you are today”; in Acts 21:20 the elders of the Jerusalem church tell Paul that all its members are zealots for the law. In none of these places is the noun used ...
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