Sermon and Worship Resources

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Psalm 25:1-22

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... youth and my rebellious ways” (25:7; see also 25:18). Third, there is no evidence in the psalm of a sophomoric mentality, for the psalmist recognizes his sins. This is a state of mind to which we must come as students in the school of faith. The psalmist was, as we must be, open to instruction. His circumstances, described as “affliction” and “distress” (25:18), have driven him into the classroom of faith as he has prayed for God’s forgiveness, as sometimes our life circumstances drive us. But ...

2. Daniel’s Training in Babylon

Daniel 1:1-21

Understanding Series

William Nelson

... that God is in control. One might think that Nebuchadnezzar was responsible for the deportation of the Jews to Babylon. One might conclude that Daniel was lucky to be allowed his special diet (1:8–16). One might surmise that Daniel and his friends succeeded in school because of their natural ability or because of the excellence of the training (1:5, 19–20). In each case, one would be dead wrong. It was God who caused the exile, who gave Daniel favor so that he could avoid defilement, and who gave the ...

3. Mark 10:2-16

Mark 10:2-16

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... 's extreme failure to observe Jewish law. Hillel, however, allowed that any behavior that caused the husband annoyance or embarrassment was legitimate grounds for giving the wife a bill of divorcement. Jesus refuses to give preference to either of these two schools. Furthermore, he cuts through the long-established Mosaic tradition in order to bare the true roots from which spring the marriage bond. Instead of viewing marriage as a legal contract, a mere human contrivance, Jesus locates marriage in God's ...

4. Isaiah 50:4-9a

Isaiah 50:4-9a

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... suggests that the Servant was not born with any miraculous gift of speech, but that like any disciple, he was carefully trained and instructed by an intimately present and nurturing God. The instruction that this Servant receives, however, is no narrow, old-school train of thought. It is a new and vital word which serves to "sustain the weary." The vitality of these words comforts and freshens. With true discipleship-discipline, the Servant receives instruction from the Lord GOD "Morning by morning" (v.4 ...

5. Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Inclusive Version). "Only faith can guarantee the blessings that we hope for, or prove the existence of the realities that at present remain unseen" (Jerusalem Bible). But there is another school of interpretation. This school, which dominated in the patristic and medieval exegesis of this text, argues that there is only a sense of "representation" or "demonstration" as in Hebrews 1:3 where the Son is "an exact representation of [God's] real being ...

6. Acts 19:1-7

Acts 19:1-22

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Sometime around second or third grade we all start to feel the need to “go clubbing.” No, I don’t mean visiting some late-night hot spot. I do mean joining some kind of club or another. Do you know an elementary school without its own resident organizational savant? You know, the kid who starts “clubs” and who suggests, organizes, and dictates the rules that define their “club.” The whole point of a “club” is to let some “belong” while letting others know they do NOT belong. Being ...

7. The New-Covenant Ethic of Love

Romans 12:9-21

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

... of those roads could be named Goodness and Forgiveness.” Here is a powerful example for Christians to aspire to in forgiving others for the sake of Christ. True Story: Ruby Bridges was the first African American child to attend an all-white elementary school in the South. Robert Coles, child psychiatrist and author, tells of her in his book Children of Crisis (1967), and her story has also been published as a children’s book entitled The Story of Ruby Bridges (1995), written by Coles and illustrated by ...

8. Message to Laodicea

Revelation 3:14-22

Teach the Text

J. Scott Duvall

... also mentioned in connection with Paul’s ministry (Col. 1:2; 2:1; 4:13–16). In addition to serving as a leading banking center, the city was well known for manufacturing garments made of soft, black wool and was home to a famous medical school specializing in the treatment of eye diseases. The city was earthquake prone, however, and was virtually destroyed by a massive quake in AD 60. Yet instead of leaning on Rome for money to rebuild as Sardis had done, Laodicea paid for everything itself. Because the ...

9. Yahweh Speaks as the Master Teacher

Job 38:1--41:34

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

... . Yahweh, however, is not compelled by Job’s legal strategy. Instead of following what Job has set out for him, Yahweh has his own lesson plan by which he instructs Job. As the book of Proverbs demonstrates, like Job we are students in God’s school of wisdom. In his school, we need to be attentive to what God says, we need to accept his teaching eagerly rather than insist on our own way, and we must assimilate his lessons so that they affect every area of our lives. Yahweh’s purpose in posing so many ...

10. Divorce

Matthew 19:1-12

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

... man met another woman more pleasing than his wife it was tantamount to finding “something indecent” in her and was an acceptable reason for divorce. God’s declaration “I hate divorce” (Mal. 2:16) had conveniently been ignored by the more liberal school of thought. Jesus responds with a counterquestion: Haven’t you read … that at the beginning the Creator “made them male and female” (made them for marriage)? Therefore, when a man leaves father and mother to become one with his wife, no one ...

11. Divorce

Mark 10:1-12

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... hostile questions are directed at Jesus. Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife: There is no question of this, given Deut. 24:1–4, and the Matt. 19:3 parallel seems to reflect more precisely the nature of the Jewish controversy between the schools of Hillel and Shammai about the proper cause for divorce, Mark seems to reflect an adaptation of the question for gentile readers, in which there is a greater contrast drawn between what the OT law allows and what is commanded by Jesus. In ancient Jewish ...

12. Divorce

Matthew 5:31-32

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

... , such as burning a dinner or being disrespectful (m. Gittin 9.10). It is reported that Rabbi Akiba taught that finding a woman more attractive than one’s wife constituted “something indecent” and allowed divorce. Jesus agreed with the school of Shammai on this point, making an exception to permanent monogamy only for sexual impurity. The Greek porneia could refer to some sexual impropriety before marriage but undoubtedly refers in this context to an adulterous liaison after marriage. To divorce ...

13. Genesis 2:18-24

Genesis 2:18-24

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... 10 deals with a series of controversies and tests from both outsiders (various Pharisaic groups) and insiders (his own disciples). The first confrontation here is over the "hot" issue of divorce where debates over its legality were raging among the various schools (Shammai, Aquiba, Hillel). Verse two makes the motive behind the Pharisees' question explicit. They are quizzing him not to "learn" from Jesus the teacher, the rabbi, but to "test" Jesus, the threatening new leader, and possibly to label him as a ...

14. Genesis 2:18-24

Genesis 2:18-24

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

15. Mark 8: 27-38

Mark 8:27-30

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

By now, your students have returned to their colleges or universities — or will this week. In search of the best departments, the most celebrated scholars, the greatest cutting edge facilities and faculties, students travel far from home to attend the school of their dreams. Soaking in that whole academic atmosphere on campus is a huge part of the collegiate experience. Plus the football games and parties, of course. When Jesus called his disciples to “follow me” he had an entirely different kind of ...

16. Matthew 1:18-25

Matthew 1:18-25

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... the project of tracing our ancestors. As a nation of immigrants, our lines of lineage often crisscross and loop around to create “family trees” with wide stretching branches and roots that reach across continents and oceans. It’s not unusual for an elementary school report to proclaim, “I’m part Ukrainian and Spanish, part German and English, part Kenyan and English, part Mexican and Portuguese.” And that’s not any “big deal.” For most of us, our “gene pool” is not deep and still. Our ...

17. Mark 10:35-45

Mark 10:35-45

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... ” knows that there is always an established “elite” as well as a definite “out” crowd. In every school system there are the “chosen few” and the untold “unchosen.” This week’s gospel text reveals that the desire to be the cream of the crop has been with humanity for far longer than there has been adolescent slam books. In today’s gospel text we read about the “sons ...

18. Luke 13:10-17

Luke 13:10-17

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... shopping ritual, one of the most important, and expensive, family purchases is a new backpack. Does it seem to you too that every year the load our kids schlep between school and home on their backs becomes heavier and heavier? In fact, there is real concern among medical professionals about the long-term effects of this “weightiness” on the nerves, bones and muscles of young children. There are long-term studies underway to follow up the muscular-skeletal effects that may ...

19. Peter Speaks to the Onlookers

Acts 3:11-26

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... of the temple, the Court of the Gentiles (see note on v. 2), was surrounded by porticoes, of which the one known as Solomon’s Colonnade lay along the eastern wall (see Josephus, Antiquities 15.391–420; cf. 20.219–223). In its colonnades the scribes held their schools and debates (cf. Luke 2:46; 19:47; John 10:23), and the merchants and money changers conducted their business (Luke 19:45f.; John 2:14–16). It was also a favorite meeting place of the Christians (5:12; cf. 2:46; 5:20f., 42; Luke 24:53 ...

20. Living as Children of Light

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Understanding Series

Arthur G. Patzia

... , pp. 177–78. 4:18 Robinson supports the translation “blindness.” See his lengthy discussion on the word pōrōsis in his commentary, pp. 264–74. 4:20 Barth, Eph. 4–6, has many helpful comments in his discussion “The School of the Messiah,” pp. 529–33. Specific Ethical Directions The moral exhortations in this section are especially appropriate for maintaining unity within the body of Christ. The vices mentioned are destructive to Christian fellowship; the virtues promote the corporate unity ...

21. 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

... the Law of the Temple and Torah derived from a common tradition see G. Fohrer and K. Galling, Ezechiel (HAT 13; Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1955), p. 155; M. Haran, “The Law-Code of Ezekiel XL–XLVIII and its Relation to the Priestly School,” HUCA 50 (1979), pp. 62–63; A. Hurvitz, A Linguistic Study of the Relationship between the Priestly Source and the Book of Ezekiel: A New Approach to an Old Problem (CRB 20; Paris: J. Gabalda, 1982), pp.150–51; and Tuell, Law of the Temple, pp. 142 ...

22. Jesus Demonstrates Status Inversion in the Kingdom

Matthew 19:1-12, Matthew 19:13-15, Matthew 19:16-30

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... ? The Pharisees ask Jesus about the Torah’s provision for divorce. From later Jewish sources, first-century Jewish views on divorce seem to be quite diverse, with some rabbis limiting divorce to cases of adultery (school of Shammai) and others allowing quite a wide set of allowable reasons (school of Hillel) (see, e.g., Josephus, Ant. 4.253). The Pharisees’ test that mentions “any and every reason” seems aimed at aligning Jesus with the latter, broader set of allowances for divorce and showing him ...

23. The Story of Abraham versus the Story of Israel

Romans 4:1-25

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

... of procreation, one preacher put it this way: it would be like if today a hundred-year-old husband and his ninety-year-old wife were so confident that God was going to give them a natural-born son that they bought a home beside an elementary school to prepare for his arrival. The third miracle, resurrection, God did for Jesus. His body was dead and buried, but God spoke the word and raised his Son to life. Recently, some scientists claimed to have solved the mystery of the Shroud of Turin, the supposed ...

24. Paul the Apostle of the New Covenant to the Gentiles

Romans 15:14-22

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

... between foster homes and homelessness, he had no fixed address until he was sixteen. The Tuohys, a Christian family, took Michael in and cared for him, eventually adopting him. After hiring a tutor for him, later they sent him to Briarcrest Christian School. At the entrance of the campus is inscribed this statement: “With God, all things are possible.” Michael’s adoption and transformed life resulted from the power of God through the effective ministry of the Tuohy family. Book: To End All Wars, by ...

25. Christian Maturity

1 Corinthians 3:1-23

Teach the Text

Preben Vang

... leaders and effective communicators to build with “hay and straw.” 3. Finding superior building materials. Just as accredited schools and universities are required to document learning outcomes for students, Paul exhorts the church to build its ministry ... learn to share, not to interrupt, to obey. If some of these disciplines are not in place by the time these children start school, their lives will be difficult, and the lives of those around them will be disrupted. So too growing Christians learn to put ...

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