Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Those are the words of Jesus in Matt 5:44. The entire sermon on the mount can be read in Matt 5-7, but let’s deal right now with just this one command. Like everything Jesus taught, he not only gave the instruction but provided us with his example to follow. Jesus loved his enemies. Continue reading
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. -Romans 5: 12-17
In some ways, Jesus is like Adam. By one man’s transgression, sin entered the world. And by one man’s righteousness, victory over sin entered the world. Adam and Jesus are alike in that both are a type of “first man.” At the same time, they are total opposites if you think about it. Adam was the first man to sin; Jesus was the first man to live without sin. Continue reading
There is a lot of criticism of the Bible in our culture today, and of those who believe in it. Some of those criticisms may be valid, although many are certainly not. There are Christians who have trouble responding to these critics, partly because even those believers do not understand what they are dealing with. And of course a novice student of the Bible, even with the best of intentions, may have difficulty understanding the Bible due the nature of it’s age and form. In order to understand scripture, there are some things that one must realize first.
1) The Bible will not answer all our questions. When we look at the Constitution, it is important to try and understand the framers’ intent. The same holds for the Bible. No Biblical author was attempting to provide an exhaustive list of every answer to every possible question that would arise. Continue reading
If we began a study of the first century church, 9 times out of 10 we would begin with Acts chapter 2. The Holy Spirit comes as promised, and Peter preaches a fiery message proclaiming Jesus is the Christ. Certainly by the end of Acts 2, we see the first Christian believers come together in an organized way. But if we back up a just a few chapters, Jesus gives the disciples instructions on what will happen next, going beyond his death, burial and resurrection.
Critics of Christianity, as an organized religion (the Church), even claim that Jesus had no intention of starting a new church or movement of any kind, but rather his followers started one in his name. To put it mildly, these critics have not studied the Bible. Continue reading
There’s a lot of negative things to say about topical preaching, but I know two things: 1) Father’s Day will be one of the most searched terms today on the Internet, and 2) No matter what “topic” I begin with, before the sermon is over I will preach the Gospel.
“Father Abraham had many sons, many sons had Father Abraham.” So goes the old children’s song. While we recognize Abraham as the primogenitor of the Jewish nation, like any member our fallen race he was far from perfect. One danger of celebrating historic lives is that we elevate a person too high by never mentioning certain shortcomings or character flaws. Historians have to be careful in their presentation of certain figures, particularly the ones they like. Continue reading
I certainly teach that the whole Bible is about Jesus. The Bible, on the whole, is the story of how a holy God relates to a sinful and fallen people. Jesus is at the center of that story. You’ve heard all this before.
The question I heard raised this morning is “Can a person get saved only reading the Old Testament?” II Timothy 3 tells us that all scripture is given by the inspiration of God. Obviously the New Testament is God-given, and we need to read and study it. If the Old Testament was sufficient, why would God give us another? But still, if the gospel is all over the Bible, is there enough there to lead a person to Christ? And I say, yes it is possible. Continue reading
“History repeats itself” is actually a terrible misquote. It leads students to ask questions like “If history repeats itself, why do I have to learn it the first time?” No, the actually quote is “Those who do not learn history (the past) are condemned to repeat it.” Google George Santayana. The point is that if we learn from history, we can avoid making the same mistakes. Here’s an example of New Testament people not learning their Old Testament history. Continue reading
A fool’s lips walk into a fight, and his mouth invites a beating. -Prov 18:6
Earlier this week I indicated that this Proverb was my new favorite Bible verse. But what is the purpose of such verses in Proverbs? I have a good friend that is well studied in the scriptures that still has problems with the book of Proverbs. Proverbs falls into what we call wisdom literature. The book is a collection of Solomon’s wisdom, basically good advice he wants to leave his children, but the question is how does it fit into the gospel? Consider these two scriptures:
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God. -Psalm 14:1
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: Proverbs 1:7
A fool’s lips walk into a fight, and his mouth invites a beating. -Proverbs 18:6
That’s my new favorite verse. I think I teach this kid history 🙂
As I began preparing to preach on Mother’s Day, I searched the internet just to see what other preachers would be doing that day. What I ended up reading instead was a blogpost and comment thread about how most woman are unhappy with the Mother’s Day sermons they’ve heard in the past. Some felt the day should not be celebrated in church at all, while others thought the church should recognize mothers in some way and then the pastor should preach his message. More than a couple of commenters said that whatever text he was using, what they wanted to hear preached was the gospel! Amen to that. The general consensus was that too often the Mother’s Day sermon comes off as “light” and that wasn’t what the church needed. Continue reading
The Master's Table 