Sermon and Worship Resources

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1. Signs, Sayings, and Oracles of Judgment

Ezekiel 12:1-28, Ezekiel 13:1-23, Ezekiel 14:1-11, Ezekiel 14:12-23

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... Jerusalem continue the “principle of individual moral responsibility” expressed in the extended essay in chapter 18 (M. Sweeney, “Introduction and Notes to Ezekiel,” The Jewish Study Bible, eds. A. Berlin and M. Brettler [Oxford: Oxford ... a wrong word from the prophet may come from the Lord (consider, in this regard, the “accidental” prophecy of the high priest Caiaphas in John 11:49–52). For a prophet such as Ezekiel, the point is clear: if you insist on speaking when you should be silent, God ...

2. Tyre, Sidon—and Israel

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

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... that she lies in ruins I will prosper” (v. 2). The description of Jerusalem as “the gate to the nations,” Marvin Sweeney observes, “indicates Judah’s role in controlling inland trade routes” (“Notes,” p. 1091). No longer having to pay tariffs to ... ’ cleansing of the temple in his own day makes vividly clear; see Matt. 21:12–13; Mark 11:15–17; Luke 19:45–46; John 2:14–22). Also at home in a temple context is the guardian cherub of this poem (for a discussion of cherubim in the ...

3. Personal Accountability

Ezekiel 18:1-32, Ezekiel 19:1-14

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... 9), could perhaps refer to killing and eating sacrificial animals away from the Jerusalem temple (Lev. 17:1–9; Sweeney, “Introduction and Notes,” p. 1073). However, Ezekiel mentions the mountains elsewhere as sites of idol worship (6:13; 20 ... more broadly a promise that ‘God will be with you’” (Zimmerli, Ezekiel 1, p. 382). Christian readers will recall the promise of Jesus in John 10:10: “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” To live in the divine presence, in harmony ...

4. The Home Court Advantage

Romans 12:9-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... can claim the “team spirit” advantage that the Holy Spirit brings and that a commitment to genuine “agape” love gives us. John Wesley said that the most important description of God in the whole Bible is this three word statement: “God is love.” ... that makes the whole greater than the sum of its parts. An elderly Father Ambrose put it like this in a conversation with Jon M. Sweeney: “This is the only real Christian truth: it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. But it is love all the way down.” ...

5. Two Adulterous Sisters

Ezekiel 23:1-49

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... Ezekiel 21–37, p. 480). 23:23 The men of Pekod and Shoa and Koa are “Aramean tribes allied with Babylonia” (Sweeney, “Notes,” p. 1085). For Pekod, see Jer. 50:21. 23:24 They will come against you with weapons. The word rendered ... 14:36 and Luke 22:42). However, in view of Oholibah drinking Oholah’s cup, a particularly interesting parallel is Jesus’ question to James and John in Mark 10:38: “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?” (see also Matt. 20 ...

6. A Prophecy About Tyre

Isaiah 23:1-18

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

23:1–18 The fact that the sequence actually concludes with a poem about Tyre gives it an impressive end to match its impressive beginning. Babylon and Tyre are the two significant powers at the eastern and western frontiers of Assyria’s empire, its equivalents to New York and Los Angeles. Once again it is the city’s impressiveness that is a key factor in making its downfall necessary. But Babylon, along with Elam and Media, was on the edge of Israel’s known world. Tyre was the beginning of a world that ...

7. Uncle Hilbert

1 Corinthians 12:12-31, Psalm 19:1-14

Illustration

John E. Sumwalt

Uncle Hilbert used to stand at the front door of the church every Sunday morning and greet everyone as they came into worship. He always had a big smile on his face as he called all of us by name, and he had a special handshake for us kids. It was a rare day when he wasn't there, and when he was absent church wasn't the same. You had the feeling that something essential was missing. I don't know why we called him uncle. He was nobody's uncle as far as I know. He had a couple of married sisters who lived in ...

8. Habakkuk’s Prayer

Habakkuk 3:1-19

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

A Plea and a Vision: Chapter 3 opens with a new heading that is even comparable to that of the book as a whole (1:1), and the chapter closes with its own concluding footnote (v. 19b). The heading designates it as a “prayer,” which takes the narrow form of a plea (v. 2) and of a declaration of trust in Yahweh (vv. 16–19). The main body of the chapter (vv. 3–15) comprises a description of Yahweh’s coming which is both an answer to the plea and the basis for the declaration of trust. While the book would not ...

9. A Call to Build the House of the Lord

Haggai 1:1-15

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

August: The overlaps between Haggai’s various sayings in verses 2–11, with their repeated resumptive beginnings describing them as Yahweh’s words, suggest that these are sayings Haggai delivered on different occasions and that the narrator has brought them together into a coherent longer account of Haggai’ s challenge concerning the need to take up the task of building the temple. The account thus brings together the fact that the people are living in restored homes when Yahweh is not and the fact that ...

10. Woe to the Obstinate Nation

Isaiah 30:1-33

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

Oh You Obstinate Nation: It has made sense to read much of chapters 28–29 against the background of Judean assertion of independence from Assyria and alliance with Egypt in the latter part of Isaiah’s ministry, but only in chapter 30 does reference to Egypt become explicit. While the setting might be the independence movement during the reign of Sargon in 713–711 B.C., alluded to in passages such as 14:28–32, we have separate reference to alliance with Egypt in the context of the similar events of 705–701 ...

11. Woe to those Who Rely on Egypt

Isaiah 31:1-9

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

Oh You People Who Rely on Egypt: In the introduction to chapters 28–30 we suggested that 31:1–32:20 is one unit. Chapter 31 is much shorter than the units on either side, chapter 32 has no opening “Oh” like the rest of chapters 28–33, and taken together chapters 31–32 better fit the pattern whereby chapters 28–30 give increasing prominence to reassuring promise on the other side of threat. 31:1–3 In powerful fashion these opening verses sum up the thrust of chapters 28–30 as Isaiah tries one more time to ...

12. Hezekiah’s Illness

Isaiah 38:1-22, Isaiah 39:1-8

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

A More Equivocal Response to Two Further Challenges: The background of these two further events is, again, Judah’s rebellion against Assyrian sovereignty. Yahweh’s promise of healing for Hezekiah also includes deliverance from Assyria (38:6), and an alternative chronology to the one presupposed in the Introduction does have Hezekiah living on for fifteen years after the Assyrian invasion, until 687/686 B.C. But a number of considerations suggest that the events in chapters 38–39 took place before those in ...

13. Judgment and Salvation

Isaiah 65:1-16

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

Yahweh’s Closing Critique and Vision: In these last two chapters of the book, once more we cannot discern an order or structure. The succession of phrases that look like introductions to prophecies (65:8, 13, 25; 66:1, 5, 12, 22) and the movement between verse and prose suggest that here it is not because a prophet let a stream of consciousness have its way. It is, rather, because a number of separate prophecies have been accumulated at the end of the book. These different prophecies have overlapping ...

14. Deliverance of Israel

Isaiah 27:1-13

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

Devastation and Renewal for the Whole Land: The word massa’ no longer introduces the prophecies, but not until chapter 28 do we return to the direct, confrontational challenges to the people of God that dominate chapters 1–12. Chapters 24–27 thus stand out from the material on either side. The canvas broadens yet further than it had in chapters 13–23, but the tone of these chapters continues. The prophecy depicts further disaster and devastation, but makes fewer references to specific peoples. The effect ...

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