Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

Paul continues with his explanation of how to live for the Lord and highlights three more requirements. He stresses that the Christian walk is a careful one if we want to reach the right destination. The requirements are wisdom, filled with the Spirit and submission. Wisdom The first detail that he mentions is the need for wisdom. Wisdom presupposes knowledge, but we can have knowledge without wisdom. Wisdom is the proper application of our knowledge.  The knowledge that we have is the will of the Lord. God has a secret will, but that is not the will meant here by Paul. Rather it is God’s revealed will for our behaviour and we are told about it in the Bible by precept and by example. Sometimes the details are expressed positively, telling us to do them; sometimes the details are expressed negatively, telling us not to do them. They are summarised in the Ten Commandments, expanded in the Sermon on the Mount, and mentioned in different ways throughout the Bible. Wise...

There are three individuals called James who were leaders in the New Testament church. There is James, the son of Alpheaus, who was one of the apostles, but very few details are given about him. A second James was the brother of Jesus who was converted after the resurrection of Jesus, as stated in 1 Corinthians 15. He became a leader in the church in Jerusalem and later he wrote the epistle of James that is included in the New Testament. The third James is the brother of John, the apostle who wrote several of the New Testament books. Who was he? The father of James was Zebedee and he ran a fishing business with his sons James and John. They also had a partnership with Andrew and Simon, although we are not told if James and John came from Bethsaida, the place where Andrew and Simon came from. James was probably the oldest of the two brothers because his name is placed first when they are mentioned together. The mother of James was Salome. Depending on how one reads the lis...

We all know what it is like to meet with an important person. Sometimes, the meeting is pre-arranged and we have to prepare for it because it is an important occasion. Moses had been instructed to meet with God on a very important occasion. It was the renewal of the covenant with God as expressed in the Ten Commandments. It was a renewal because the Israelites had spoiled the previous attempt by their false worship connected to the golden calf. Nevertheless, we should remind ourselves that the Lord had told Moses when he called him to be the leader that there would be a great worship gathering at Mount Sinai. We might think that the sin of the Israelites would have caused that prediction to be nullified, but here we see that was not the case. The Lord wanted to have a covenant relationship with his people in which they would serve him and he would bless them.  Moses acted as a go-between. He represented the Israelites as their leader and he represented God to them as hi...

Psalm 65 is clearly connected to the harvest, as we can see from the closing verses of the psalm. It is suggested that David composed it for use at the annual feast of Tabernacles in Israel which was connected to the harvests. So we can deduce that the psalm teaches us how to approach God when giving thanks for the harvest that he provides. Therefore we can look at the psalm and find guidelines for us. Coming near to God (vv. 1-5) The first detail is that approaching God involves  consecration  on our part (v. 1). I think this is the significance of the psalmist’s reference to vows. God had been good to them and therefore they came to worship him with a strong sense of dedication. We can think of Romans 12:1-2 in this regard since Paul connects the activity of offering ourselves as a living sacrifice to the great goodness of God shown in his mercy towards us. And hear too they are thinking about God’s goodness, although more in natural matters. The second detail is ...

Nathaniel is mentioned twice in the Gospel of John – the other reference to him is John 21:3 which says that he came from Cana in Galilee. It is assumed that he is the same person as the apostle Bartholomew. Church tradition indicates that  His contact We are not told why Philip contacted Nathaniel. Maybe they were related to one another or perhaps they identified with those who were waiting for the imminent arrival of the Messiah. Whatever the reason for the contact, it was successful initially in that Nathaniel was persuaded by Philip to meet with Jesus. His concern Philip informed Nathaniel that Jesus, the person whom Philip now believed was the Messiah, came from Nazareth. Immediately, this piece of information caused concern to Nathaniel. His concern was twofold. One reason was the general opinion people had of Nazareth and the other reason was his own knowledge of the place, given that Cana was only seven miles from Nazareth.  ...

The background The background to this incident is well-known. A few weeks before this interaction with God, Moses had led the Israelites out of Egypt in an incredible display of divine power. All this was done in fulfilment of the Lord’s promise to do so. However, it was not long before the Israelites began to complain about various matters, which indicated their ingratitude. Still, the Lord forgave them and eventually they reached Mount Sinai, which again was a fulfilment of a divine promise. The gathering at Mount Sinai was meant to be an occasion of worship, as the Lord had said to Moses when he called him to be the Leader of his people. While he was up the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments from God, the people did engage in worship, but it was false worship. They were judged for this by a plague and by the Lord indicating that there would be a reduced sense of his presence with them. We may be surprised by how a people who had experienced the Lord’s power in such great...