Category Archives: Bible

Jesus Suffered: Hebrews Chp 2

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I am preaching through the book of Hebrews, and expect to post on Hebrews many times in the weeks ahead.  While Hebrews looks a little like a letter (epistle) in many ways it is more like a sermon.  That makes it really easy to preach.

I recommend reading Hebrews 2.  When I preach this sermon, I read most of it as the text; it isn’t long.  The writer of Hebrews contends that Jesus tasted death for everyone, and that his suffering has made him the perfect founder of our salvation.  Because of it he is not ashamed to call us brothers. Continue reading →

The Symbol is Not the Thing

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I don’t normally come home from church and blog my pastor’s sermon.  I know some people do.  I am making an exception.  The following is my take on the Sunday a.m. service preached by Ken Bolin of Manchester, KY.

I Samuel 4:1-11

Luke 22:14-23

In I Samuel, the Israelites confuse the Ark of the Covenant for what the Ark represented, namely the presence of God.  They wrongly assumed carrying the Ark into battle would protect them. Continue reading →

God Sent His Son – Hebrews 1

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I am about to start a sermon series on the book of Hebrews, and will endeavor to share those messages here.  Hebrews ties together the Old and New Testaments by showing how Jesus is carrying forward into the church age the work started by God among the Hebrew people.  Written to a Jewish audience, the letter to the Hebrews strives  to prove that Christianity is the continuation of Judaism, and not something else entirely.  If you have ever questioned why a Christian should read or study the Old Testament, this book will be an eye-opener.  Quite simply, most of what God was doing in the Old Testament was meant to help us understand the work of Christ in the New. Continue reading →

Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, and the Kingdom of God

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Lincoln, King and the Kingdom: what’s the relationship?  I’ve always wondered who in the government decided to put Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) together.  Although my students will tell you that sometimes I get a little preachy when I teach history, I’ve always tried to not lecture history from the pulpit.  This time, I’m going to ask that you indulge me just a little bit.

It’s always around this time of year that my American History class studies the Civil War.  It just so happens that right in the middle of that, my wife and I visited D.C. over the Christmas break.  I stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, and looked across the reflection pool toward the Washington Monument.  The words of the Gettysburg Address are carved into Lincoln’s memorial in 12″ letters.  It’s hard not to come back and say something about it. Continue reading →

…And the Holy Spirit

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God manifests himself in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  It’s easy to recognize the Father and Son in many of our Christmas stories and traditions, but the Holy Spirit is sort of the missing character.  That’s just in our remembrance of the story; in the Biblical account, he is all over that story.

If we’re aware of the Holy Spirit in the Christmas narrative at all, it’s probably when the angel Gabriel tells Mary that the Holy Spirit will come upon her and she will conceive, Luke 1:35.  That’s just the first time Luke will mention the Spirit. Continue reading →

Advent: Faith

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Week 2 of Advent is about faith, and we light the Bethleham candle.  This candle reminds us of the faith Joseph and Mary had to go to Bethleham, believing God was fulfilling his promise to Israel and blessing their family at the same time.  I began by reading Psalm 79.  Most of the psalm is a lement over the destruction of Jesrusalem. Continue reading →

The Ten Percent Tithe

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tithingTithing is a tricky thing.  If a church pastor preaches a sermon on tithing, he will be accused of being interested only in money.  The pastor’s salary (minister, priest, etc) is probably set in the church budget.  It’s not like if the church has a good day at the offering plate, he’s going out to Golden Corral after the service.  But try to teach on the subject of tithing if you don’t believe me, and see if  words like meddling or greedy aren’t tossed around freely.

The issue I wish to address here is the practice many Christians have of tithing exactly ten percent of each dollar earned.  I mean to respond to questions such as:

  • Is tithing an Old Testament command?
  • Are Christians required to tithe?
  • Does Jesus demand a tithe?
  • How much should one tithe, if anything? Continue reading →

Building on the Rock

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jesus_teachingAs Jesus finishes the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7) he offers some practical advice concerning his teachings.  He says that anyone who hears his words and does them is like a wise man that built his house on a rock.  Do we all know what happens next?  The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew, but the house did not move.  To not heed the word of Jesus is to be the foolish man who build his house on the sand; great was the fall of it.  Continue reading →

The Discovery of the Short Post

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timeI was warned when I started blogging about writing posts that were too long.  Shorter posts stand a better chance of being read.  Well, I’ve recently been trying to get our youth involved in some online discussion on their Facebook page.  I tossed out what I hope will be conversation starters, and realize that I don’t have to say everything I know in order for a post to be good.  Here’s an example, titled Jesus Read the Bible and Prayed:

 

There are sometimes tough choices to make when deciding how a Christian should act or what one should do in certain circumstances. What’s easy to understand is that we should be imitating the things that Christ did.

We know from the New Testament that Jesus was frequently found in the temple and synagogue reading the Hebrew scrolls. He is the Word of God, and he also read the Word of God. Jesus also spent serious time in prayer. Not just reciting the Lord’s Prayer, but we might say Jesus was hardcore in his prayer time. He often got up well before sunrise to pray, and on occasion prayed all night ’till sunrise. In Gethsemane, he prayed until Luke says his sweat was like great drops of blood.

Sometimes we get the mistaken notion that the closer we get to God, the less we need to pray. The opposite seems to be true; you can’t get closer than Jesus.

The Importance of the Resurrection

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Jesus, resurrectionThere was a time I wondered why so much emphasis was placed on the resurrection.  Jesus died on the cross as the all-sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the world.  Even if there had been no resurrection, his sacrificial death would have brought salvation; what could be more important than that?

The blood of Jesus was a more excellent sacrifice than that of bulls, sheep and birds.  His death on the cross brought an end to the temple sacrifice system.  The entire Gospel pivots around the cross.  It is the universal symbol of Christianity.  But the implications of resurrection are equally powerful, a fact that I can now appreciate as well.  Continue reading →