Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

Matthew mentions that Jesus was followed by great crowds and no doubt each of them had a story to tell about what they thought of Jesus and perhaps some of them had received a great blessing from him. Nevertheless, Matthew chooses to describe isolated incidents in which Jesus helped unlikely people. The Gospel of Matthew was constructed by him so that we could learn about Jesus. In this chapter he includes several occasions when Jesus performed a miracle. Matthew has already mentioned that Jesus performed miracles, but he did not say very much about them. Now he chooses several that reveal among other things the power of Jesus over disease, death and demonic destruction, things that were the consequence of sin. Each incident tells us other details about Jesus as well, but the overall design is to reveal the incredible power of Jesus over other kinds of power. As far as the ritual religion of Israel was concerned, lepers were banned from the temple and could not participate in...

There are numerous surprising statements in the Bible. Some of them are connected to what God has done for sinners as explained in the message of the gospel. Other surprising statements are found in the details connected to God’s amazing plans for the future blessing of his people. But there are also surprising ones connected to the Christian life. For example, the goal of sanctification is to become like Jesus. Or we can remind ourselves that Jesus said that his people would abide in him and he in them. Somehow, they would know Jesus in their inner lives. It is obvious that Paul regarded this statement as very important. We can see that is the case from his insertion of an oath at the beginning of the sentence. Why did he feel obliged to write in this way? Why did the Holy Spirit lead him to write in his way? Maybe it was because the claim marked him out as unusual, as such an advanced Christian, that normally no one would believe that such an outlook was possible. If that was th...

We are familiar with large gatherings at New Year time in many of the major cities of the world. Sometimes the crowd seems so large that there is not any space left for any others to participate. Yet an estimate can be made as to the size of the crowd, indeed to all the crowds and get an overall figure. But that kind of estimation cannot be made of this heavenly gathering. The Bible often refers to the Book of Life, but never tells us how many names are in it. Even here, when the complete number gather together in the presence of God, we are not told how many will be there. But we are invited to look at them, and marvel. Of course, God knows how many people will be there. One reason why we are given the size of the crowd from a man’s perspective is to create within us a sense of wonder at the greatness of the achievement that Jesus will have accomplished from the throne as he directed the effects of the five seals, mentioned in Revelation 6, before the Day of Judgement. Through...

Jesus, in this section of his sermon on the mount, challenges his listeners (and readers) about where they stand with regard to his teachings. His challenge asks them to avoid assessing things by the here and now and instead assess them by the day of judgement. With regard to the here and now, he mentions three things that may distort our view of the overall situation. They are (1) the numbers on the broad road, (2) the success of religious activities, and (3) the appearance of the house built on the wrong foundation. Obviously he is instructing us to avoid judging by sight alone. Of course, we are to see the illustrations as located in the times in which Jesus lived. So we need to ask who were walking on the broad road, and who were listening to the false prophets, and who were building their house on the sand? The answer to that question initially is Israelites. Within Israel, there were various ideas being spread about how one could please God and one could assume that the...

If it had not been for Peter’s reference to this psalm in his sermon on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:25-28) we would have assumed that the psalm was only an expression of David’s dedication to the Lord. Peter tells us, however, that the speaker in the psalm, at least in its closing verses, is Jesus, which means that this is the main way in which we are meant to read the psalm. Of course, we may wonder how Peter, so soon after objecting to the death of Jesus and then denying him, could have such amazing insight. It may be that the Holy Spirit illumined his mind while he was thinking about the psalm. Or maybe the two on the way to Emmaus, who had this psalm explained to them by the Stranger who spoke to them concerning what the law, prophets and psalms said about the Messiah, had passed on this detail to the other believers. Or maybe he heard Jesus himself use the psalm during the forty days he was with them after his resurrection because it does detail how he felt as he died, what ...

In chapter 7 of Revelation we have a break or an interlude between the sixth and seventh seals. The significance of the six seals is detailed in chapter 6 and the seventh seal is mentioned in 8:1. We know that a purpose of a break or an interlude is to pause and think about an important matter connected to what is being described. As we have seen, the seals describe the history of the period between the enthronement of Jesus and his return. At his enthronement, he was given the scroll with the seals, and when he opened each of the seals something happened in history connected to divine judgement, closing with the sixth seal and it refers to the final judgement. What information would John have wanted as he considered the seals and the scroll? One obvious answer to that question would concern the existence of the Christian church and how it would fare during that period. The fifth seal had referred to the persecution experienced by the church. Yet one would expect John to desire mo...