Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

The form of praise that Paul uses here is similar to what would have been said to God by a devout Jew, with the obvious difference that Paul’s statement of praise is Trinitarian in focus. Paul can praise God in this way because the Messiah has come and revealed profound truth about the living God. His statement of praise divides into three, with the first mentioning activities by the Father, the second activities by the Son, and the third activities by the Spirit. Of course, each of the divine persons does a lot more than what is mentioned here.  We can also see that whenever Paul comes to the close of referring to what each divine Person does, he stresses that it was done for the praise of the Father’s glory, although he uses different expressions when he says this. This is a reminder that in the plan of salvation the goal ultimately is for the Father to be glorified, as Paul makes clear in a wonderful manner in Philippians 2:11. We should note how Paul describes the Fath...

It must have been a pleasure for Luke to write about the activities of Paul and Barnabas in the First Missionary Journey that Paul engaged in. They visited so many places, and in each of them so much took place. Obviously, Luke could only highlight some of the incidents. From the time the apostles spent in Lystra, Luke records three incidents that we can call the sign, the sermon and the stoning. The authenticating sign We are not told where the miracle of the healing of the crippled man occurred, but it was probably in a synagogue because it happened during an address given by Paul. If that was the context, then it is likely that Paul would have been speaking about what the Old Testament predicted the Messiah would do, and one of those activities was to perform miracles to authenticate his mission. We are to remember that Jesus, although he is in heaven now, still functions as the Messiah, which means that if he wishes to perform a miracle he can do so, and he may s...

About five years have passed since Esther had become queen. During that time, changes were inevitable and one of them was the rise in power of Haman. The author does not tell us how this happened. We can assume that he showed the same traits in his climb that he showed once he got there – cruelty, pride and scheming. All these features make a person the ideal candidate for the devil to use. The author informs us that Haman was an Agagite, that is an Amalekite. There is also something else that could be said about the five years and that is that they were five years of silence for Mordecai and Esther about their real identities. They had managed to keep their faith hidden. No one would have doubted their uprightness, but those who were in contact with them would not know what motivated them. In order for God to use them they had to come out of secrecy about their faith. And he was about to make that happen. The affront Haman felt Although Haman had been promoted very high,...

Paul and Barnabas moved on from Antioch to Iconium. They had travelled southeast from Antioch for about one hundred miles. Iconium was an old city at that time, and it still exists today with the name Konya (it is the fourth largest city in modern Turkey).  We can see from Luke’s account that the gospel was blessed in Iconium at that time. As usual they went to the synagogue initially and had a great number of converts. Luke connects the success to how they spoke, which indicates that it is possible to speak in a wrong way about the gospel. So how would we describe a correct method? Here are some suggestions. The preparation What question comes to mind as we think about the quick success of the gospel in Iconium. Surely it should be, why was the gospel accepted so readily by some of the citizens? The answer to this question is that God had been working there beforehand preparing the soil for the seed of the gospel. It looks as if the synagogue there had attracted the lo...

The author of Ecclesiastes now introduces us to the main characters in his story. They are Mordecai and his cousin Esther. Their contributions are set in situations that reveal the sordidness and treachery of life. Yet, since this book is included in the Bible, we know that there must be holy and divine reasons for its inclusions. As with other Bible books, it tells us about God, even if his name is absent, and how he works on behalf of his people. The book also provides for us encouragements and insights as to why and how we should live for his glory in difficult situations. The king’s will be done Ahasuerus needed to find a queen. The method of doing so was to get his officials to do the work. His queen had to have qualifications: she had to be unmarried, she had to be young, and she had to be beautiful. Lots of women would fill those categories, so there had to be a method of selection whereby he would have the best one as his queen. This process was the outcome of worldly wi...

In his greetings to the church, Paul mentions three points that we can explore briefly. They are (1) a special servant, (2) a special people and (3) special blessings. Each of the points has sub-points, but the structure of our study will be straightforward. A special servant The special servant is Paul. By the time he writes this letter he has been serving the Lord for about thirty years. In what ways was he special? We could perhaps focus on his background, which was impressive from social and theological viewpoints. He belonged to a wealthy family who could afford for him to study in different places, including with the prominent scholar and Pharisee in Jerusalem called Gamaliel. No doubt, it was perceived in those days that Paul would climb high. Yet even he had, he would not have becomes as special as he did. The detail that makes him really special was that he was an apostle of Jesus Christ. There were some unique features necessary for a person to be...