Sermon and Worship Resources

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1. Pharisees Reject the Divine Origin of Jesus’ Power

Matthew 12:22-37, Matthew 12:38-45, Matthew 12:46-50

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

Big Idea: Although Jesus is accused of healing by Satan’s power, Matthew shows him to be enacting the kingdom by God’s Spirit and so warns of judgment upon those who fail to accept Jesus’ identity and respond in obedience. Understanding the Text The controversy between Jesus and Galilean Pharisees intensifies in this passage. The Jewish leaders again accuse Jesus of casting out demons by the prince of demons (12:24; cf. 9:34). Jesus addresses their accusation with a set of analogies, claiming in the ...

2. The Beginning

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... four, and seven, while spatial aspects of creation are addressed in days two, three, five, and six. Furthermore, the ordering of each of the first three days corresponds to what is created on days four through six. The light-giving bodies of day four correspond to the origin of light on day one. On days five and six God fills the space defined on days two (sea/air) and three (land) with the appropriate life forms. A number of literary features point to God’s creation of humans on the sixth day as the goal ...

3. The Resurrection

Mark 16:1-20

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... of divine power, e.g., 2:12; 5:42; 4:41; 5:15, 33; 9:6. An Old Ending to Mark 16:9–20 As indicated in the discussion of 16:1–8, nearly all scholars believe that the material designated 16:9–20 is not a part of the original text of Mark (and that the same must be said for the other variant endings attached to Mark in some ancient manuscripts). However, because for many centuries the form of Mark known to most readers included 16:9–20, we shall discuss this material briefly. These verses seem to have ...

4. 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

... of 43:11a). Eichrodt (Ezekiel, p. 553) and Wevers (Ezekiel, p. 216), on the other hand, strike the entire clause as a later insertion. With the NIV and NRSV, I propose that we follow the MT here. As in 43:7b–9, and in contrast to the original vision at 43:7a, God’s presence is conditional in 43:11: “the very possibility of experiencing reconciliation with the divine is predicated on the repudiation of past sins” (see Tuell, Law of the Temple, p. 43). The other difficulties in v. 11 all relate to the ...

5. Egypt

Ezekiel 29:1-21, Ezekiel 30:1-26, Ezekiel 31:1-18, Ezekiel 32:1-32

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... throughout the Mediterranean region, so that the African Ludites of Gen. 10:13 could well be the same group as the Lydians of Asia Minor. The NIV and the NRSV both follow the LXX, Syr., and Vulg., which all render the MT kub as Libya (assuming an original lub, as in Nah. 3:9). However, Hebrew k and l are not that similar, making this an unlikely scribal error. It may be better, with the NJPS, to render Cub as a place name, recognizing that its location is unknown. People of the covenant land. Block ...

6. Prologue to the Law of the Temple: The Lord Comes Home

Ezekiel 40:1--43:12

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... city B. 40:5–42:20 Temple measured C. 43:1–4 Glory enters the eastern gate D. 43:5–7a The LORD speaks C′. 44:1–2 Eastern gate closed forever B′. 47:1–12 River measured A′. 48:30–35 City called “THE LORD IS THERE” In the original vision report, a divine speech comes at the center of the text: “Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place for the soles of my feet. This is where I will live among the Israelites forever” (43:7). The unconditional promise of the Lord’s ...

7. Jesus Made Like His Brothers

Hebrews 2:5-18

Understanding Series

Donald A. Hagner

... ) with Jesus is evident throughout the NT (see, e.g., Acts 2:21, 34f.; Rom. 10:13; Phil. 2:9–11; 1 Pet. 3:15f.; Rev. 19:16), and accounts for the OT quotations in this verse which the author attributes to Jesus. See I. H. Marshall, The Origins of New Testament Christology, (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1976), pp. 104–8. It is of no concern to our author that in the quotation of Ps. 22:22 in the preceding verse it is the one who is addressed, and not the speaker, who is kyrios. (The “Lord” addressed ...

8. Tyre, Sidon—and Israel

Ezekiel 26:1-21, Ezekiel 27:1-36, Ezekiel 28:1-19, Ezekiel 28:20-26

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... vv. 27, 33). 27:15 The men of Rhodes. The NIV has followed the LXX here; the Heb. text has “Dedan.” However, as scribal confusion of d and r is common, and as the verse goes on to refer to many coastlands, it is likely that the original referent was the island of Rhodes, rather than the inland Arabian city of Dedan. 27:16 Aram. Some Heb. manuscripts, and the Syr. Peshitta, read “Edom” instead. Again, the confusion of d and r is easy to understand (see Ezek. 16:57, where this same confusion of place ...

9. 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

... harmonizes Ezekiel 47:1–12 and Genesis 2 and captures the meaning of Ezekiel’s vision. For John, of course, the river of life flows not from the temple, but “from the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Rev. 22:1). Remember, though, that in Ezekiel’s original vision report the Lord declares of the heavenly temple in Ezekiel’s vision, “Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place for the soles of my feet. This is where I will live among the Israelites forever” (43:7). The point, then ...

10. Nebuchadnezzer’s Dream of a Tree

Daniel 4:1-18

Understanding Series

William Nelson

... he not go straight to Daniel? On this puzzle the text is silent, but it may be because chapters 2 and 4 were originally independent stories that have only loosely been tied together in the larger work. Parts of chapter 4 are in poetry, but there is ... Notes 4:1–3 These verses (or variants of them) are found at the end of chapter 4 in the LXX. The MT order is probably more original. It is more likely that a scribe would move them from the beginning to the end, than that he would move them from the end to the ...

11. The Remaining Promise of Rest

Hebrews 4:1-13

Understanding Series

Donald A. Hagner

... God still offers the promise of entering his rest to his people (cf. vv. 3, 6, 11). It follows that that promise cannot have referred to entry and possession of the land, but must have been a more fundamental kind of rest. The key word rest is drawn from the original quotation (3:11; cf. 3:18) and is the subject of the exposition that follows (cf. vv. 3–5, 8, 10, 11). Let us be careful (cf. 1 Cor. 10:12) is perhaps a little weak for the strong warning of phobēthōmen, “let us fear” (cf. KJV; RSV ...

12. Sabbath Year and Year of Jubilee

Leviticus 25:8-55, Leviticus 25:1-7

Teach the Text

Joe M. Sprinkle

... liberty” of Leviticus 25:10 inscribed on the bell was liberty or release in conjunction with the Year of Jubilee, the year that slaves were to be set free (Lev. 25:39–41). This use of the bell’s citation of Leviticus comes closer to the verse’s original meaning than its use in 1753. One of the few times in living memory that the bell has been struck was on D-Day, June 6, 1944, when the mayor of Philadelphia struck the bell to proclaim liberty to those oppressed by tyranny in Europe. This sounding of ...

13. Personal Greetings

Romans 16:1-27

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... (or perhaps brother and sister). If the name is feminine, then Paul’s referring to Andronicus and Junia as outstanding among the apostles, who were in Christ before I was, is very significant. It would indicate that (1) apostles refers to a group larger than the original Twelve, (2) among whom was to be counted a woman, (3) and probably a wife, (4) who had been an apostle before Paul was! In saying this we are still holding to the high ground of probability. Now to plunge to more speculative depths: that ...

14. Elihu

Job 32:1--37:24

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

... also Hartley, Job, pp. 455, 458: “For it is not for a man to set a time . . .”). The awkwardness of the phrase has led NIV (and others) to its interpretive translation. The reference to God in come before him for judgment is explicit in the original text. The point remains clear: Job ought not to seek any future meeting with God to establish justice in his case. God has already seen all and will shatter the mighty without warning and replace them. Elihu intends the warning to convince Job that God’s ...

15. Daniel Interprets the Dream

Daniel 2:24-49

Understanding Series

William Nelson

... the materials in the statue. The vision indicates that the rock is cut out (2:34) but not that it is out of a mountain. The rock becomes a mountain (2:35) but is not cut out from one. This leads some commentators to think that the phrase is not original. It is quite possible that “out of a mountain” was added later. On the other hand, one might ask whether all the details must be found in the dream description. The stone was cut out (2:34) of something. It is possible that the author of Daniel left this ...

16. God Disciplines His Sons

Hebrews 12:1-13, Hebrews 12:14-29

Understanding Series

Donald A. Hagner

... all this, the readers are to be thankful for what is theirs in Christ and to put out of mind all thoughts of lapsing from their Christianity to their former way of life. Additional Notes 12:25 The a fortiori form of the argument is more obvious from the original, which reads “how much more shall we not escape.” The same verb for see to it (blepō) is used earlier in 3:12 in a similar connection. That the verb for refused (paraiteomai) is the same as that used in v. 19 (NIV’s “begged”) lends some ...

17. Warning Against Refusing God

Hebrews 12:14-29, Hebrews 12:1-13

Understanding Series

Donald A. Hagner

18. Daniel’s Training in Babylon

Daniel 1:1-21

Understanding Series

William Nelson

... Persian period, we must consider that evidence points to the final form of the book being from the second century B.C., in which case the book is addressed to the Jews suffering under Antiochus IV. It may not be clear what Daniel 1:8 meant in its original context, but the message it would convey to the Jews just before the Maccabean revolt is very clear. They were forced to eat pork and other unclean meat that had been sacrificed to idols, or they would die (1 Macc. 1:41–64): “But many in Israel stood ...

19. The Year of Jubilee

Leviticus 25:8-55

Understanding Series

W. H. Bellinger, Jr.

... to return to Hebrews who may have sold it. Redemption (v. 24) is the buying back of land by the next of kin. That practice is more common than Jubilee, which of necessity would be a later resort. Then any land which has, for whatever reason, not returned to its original owner would do so. The key theological basis for the practice is in verse 23. God is the owner of the land, and so it is not to be sold permanently, that is, it is not to be sold completely or finally or so that it is beyond reclamation. God ...

20. The Glory of the New Covenant

2 Corinthians 3:7-17; 4:1-6

Understanding Series

James M. Scott

... heavenly realities in contrast to the face-to-face vision at the Parousia. On Ezek. 1 as the background of 2 Cor. 3:18, see, e.g., Segal, Paul the Convert, p. 60 with n. 94; Halperin, The Faces of the Chariot, p. 212 with n. 22; Seyoon Kim, The Origin of Paul’s Gospel (2d ed.; WUNT 2/4; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1984), pp. 231–33. Cf. a passage from the Visions of Ezekiel referring to what Ezekiel saw “at the river Chebar [Ezek. 1:1],” in Halperin The Faces of the Chariot, p. 230; also p. 265. Cf ...

21. Christ's Sacrifice Once for All

Hebrews 10:1-18

Understanding Series

Donald A. Hagner

... and 8:7, 13, where it is said that the former commandments and covenant must give way to the new. Here it is the sacrifices of animals that must give way to the sacrifice of Christ in obedience to God’s will. The will of God referred to in the original quotation (and in its recurrence in v. 9) is identified at the beginning of verse 10 as that by which we have been made holy. In by that will, the last word is the first of three deliberate allusions (in v. 10) in midrashic fashion to the psalm quotation of ...

22. Test the Spirits

1 John 4:1-6

Understanding Series

Thomas F. Johnson

... is he who is in you than he who is in the world,” a strong incentive to rely on the indwelling Spirit of God. 4:5 While the members of the Johannine community are “from God” (v. 4), their opponents are from the world; it is the source and origin of their thinking, values, and actions. They love the world and all that is in it (2:15–16). Having seceded from the community, they have “gone out into the world” (4:1; 2 John 7). The world is now their base of operations, but it is territory of “the ...

23. Warnings from Israel's History

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

... Scrolls attest to the practice of ritual immersion for religious, ceremonial rites of cleansing in the Qumran community (1QS 3.5–9), and the NT records the ministry of baptism of John the Baptist in the Jordan River. Nevertheless, Paul makes an original set of connections, first, in unifying Israel’s experience of the cloud and the sea; second, in referring to that experience as “baptism”; and, third, in referring to this “baptism” as being baptized into Moses. Paul’s reshaping of the story at ...

24. Job's Third Reply to Bildad

Job 26:1--31:40

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

... thus far received only silence in reply. The friends have been vociferous in their attempts to undermine Job’s claims. But God, the only party besides Job who can know the truth of the matter, has yet to present evidence. The translation, “let my accuser,” turns the original Hebrew a bit. The more literal meaning is, “the man of my law suit.” It is not so much that Job thinks of God accusing him, as that he is naming God as the other party in his legal action. The Hebrew behind put his indictment ...

25. Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream

Daniel 2:1-23

Understanding Series

William Nelson

... king. He becomes so angry and furious that he orders the execution of all the wise men (2:12). 2:13–23 These verses appear to be either a later addition meant to smooth over differences with chapter 1 or a variant tradition. We would expect that, in the original story, if Daniel was one of the wise men, he would have been summoned with them (2:2). Though Daniel is not presented as a member of this group, he is interested in saving them (2:24). He himself is merely “a man among the exiles” (2:25). He ...

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