Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

This passage from Romans 7 is one about which Christian expositors have differed greatly. We may be familiar with some of the interpretations. Is Paul here describing his pre-conversion experience, of what happened to him during the time he was being drawn to Christ? Or is he describing his ongoing Christian experience? Or maybe, he is not describing his own experience but is using the personal pronoun in a generic manner. Four introductory points I would make four brief comments before we begin examining what Paul writes in this section. The first is that the account is very personal as far as Paul is concerned. In this, Paul is very like some of the psalmists who write graphically about their spiritual experiences. From this, we can deduce that it can be helpful to use our own experiences as illustrations, provided we know the truth about what we are trying to illustrate. The second detail is the Bible has to interpret our experience and not the other way round. It is possible...

In the second section of his prayer Jesus prays for his apostles. He reveals two things about them: first, he has prepared them for their future roles and, second, he is praying for them in their future roles. As we look at the details, there will be some aspects that do not apply to use because we are not apostles and there will be other aspects that do because they apply to all believers. Yet even the details that apply to apostles are also relevant for us because they are God’s servants for the benefit of the entire church. Prepared by Jesus (vv. 6-8) The first thing we can note about the apostles is that they were a gift from the Father to Jesus. I assume that Jesus is referring to what took place in the covenant of redemption when the future of all things, including the church, was arranged. In that mysterious transaction, the apostles were given to Jesus not only as his people, but also as his particular servants. This was a great privilege for them to be, as Paul says in Ep...

Having included the explanation by Jesus of the parable of the sower, Mark then recorded four other parables by Jesus. The obvious difference between them is that we are not given the explanation of them, unless the second is an explanation of the first, and I think that is the case. Perhaps the reason for no explanations is that the meanings of them would have become obvious by the time Mark wrote his Gospel three or so decades have Jesus had first used them. The message penetrates In the first parable, Jesus describes the use of a lamp. It only works if it is used appropriately. There is no point in hiding a lamp below a basket or a bed because there will be no light given. Instead the lamp must control the room in which it is located. The question that needs to be decided is, who or what does the lamp refer to? I think Jesus is referring to himself and his message. It is easy to put Jesus and his message into a space where we don’t experience what he can do. People do that al...

Some have held that this prayer is the most profound that was ever heard in this world. Maybe it was, but then Jesus may have prayed similar prayers on other occasions. What gives pathos to this prayer is the fact that he is praying just before his arrest. It is inevitable that some will compare this structured praying with the distraught praying that marked Jesus a short time later in Gethsemane. Of course, all who venture to compare them have no idea about what it was like to pray either of them. Sometimes comparisons are impossible for us to make, and I suspect that example is one of them. It is well-known that this prayer of Jesus divides into three sections: first, he prays for himself in verses 1-5; second, he prays for his immediate group of disciples in verses 6-19; and third, he prays for all his disciples, present and future, in the rest of the prayer. At the very least, his prayer reveals the importance of structure on prayer even when situations are difficult as they wer...