Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

James is engaged in a difficult project, which is to compose a letter of encouragement for suffering believers. How can he advise them to remain faithful in difficult times, in circumstances that may get worse before they get better? In such situations, many misconceptions can arise and wrong solutions can be suggested, as was the case with his readers who made wrong deductions about the trials they were enduring. What those believers needed to hear was truth, but they needed to hear it in a way that was bearable. It is possible to prevent truth in crushing ways, and one example of such a disgraceful method would be the three friends of Job who analysed him in a very clinical fashion that they based on several obvious ‘truths’, which turned out to be absurd as far as Job’s circumstances were concerned. His gifts When we look at the statement, ‘Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,’ we need to work out if James is describing two different kinds of gifts – good or

Most Christians are familiar with the list of heroes of the faith found in Hebrews 11. There they read about commendations of several Old Testament believers. Perhaps, as they read, they wonder if there is a similar list of New Testament followers and here we have one in Romans 16. So far we have thought briefly about Phebe and Priscilla and Aquila from this list of names. In this sermon I want to look at some of the comments that Paul makes about the other individuals he mentions. Most of them are unknown to us today. Yet the comments that he makes help us to see what kind of people they were. Perhaps we wonder how Paul knew so many people in a location that he had not yet visited. One answer to that question is that he heard about them from Priscilla and Aquila because they lived in Rome at different times. A second answer is that he could have met them in other places where he preached the gospel and formed churches. Clearly he remembered their names and what they did for Jesus.