Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

An obvious theme of Psalm 107 is divine providence. The author describes several types of situations that occurred in his day, and how the Lord often responded to cries for help by bringing relief. It is a reminder that divine providence is active in a fallen world in which there are many problems. In the psalm, the author mentions four examples: deliverance from hunger and thirst (vv. 4-9), from imprisonment (vv. 10-16), from sickness (vv. 17-22), and from storms at sea (vv. 23-32). Each example is concluded with an exhortation to praise God for his goodness.   From verses 33 to 42, there is a description of how God is at work in everyday life, almost in a cyclical manner, with times of distress and poverty followed by times of prosperity and plenty, and the process continues. In verses 33-38, the author highlights changes in the countryside and in verses 39-42 he describes changes in people, whether those at the top or those at the bottom of society.  Verse 42 mention...

One of the best ways of discovering information is to ask questions. I know a man who does not like to stop his car and ask passers-by where a certain place is. Instead, he keeps on searching and usually gets there half-an-hour behind everyone else, unless his wife happens to be with him because she will ask a passer-by and then they get there half an hour early. In this section of the interaction between Jesus and his disciples, we see the benefits of asking questions to someone who can provide the answers. Question 1 – Where are you going and how can we get there? Thomas expresses his inability to understand what Jesus had described in the previous verses when he said that he was going to his Father’s house. We can see from the answer of Jesus in verse 6 that what he had in mind was not so much going to a place, but going to a person, the Father: ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’   His description of himsel...

‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake,  for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’ (Matthew 5:10). The Saviour concludes his list of eight beatitudes with a reference to persecution of his followers. Right away, we can see an obvious difference between the last beatitude and the previous seven in that the eighth is the only one that refers to how others will respond to his disciples. The spiritual qualities highlighted in the previous seven beatitudes will not always result in people thinking well of his disciples. Instead, there will be the opposite response. Righteous living that offends The particular detail that is going to arouse opposition and persecution is the righteous practices of the disciples. Those righteous practices are detailed in the Sermon on the Mount and they mean more that being very religious in one’s behaviour: ‘For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of...

There are several pictures of the Christian life in the Bible. It is likened to a journey (walk), to a battle (fight), to a school (learn), and here it is likened to a race. In the previous chapter, the author mentions some of the runners who ran their race, and he describes them as ‘so great a cloud of witnesses’. Along with them, he mentions the current runners (‘let us run’) and he mentions the best Runner (Jesus).   The great cloud of witnesses When the writer refers to a cloud, he is speaking of a large number. It was common at that time to use the word ‘cloud’ in this way. Many of the runners mentioned in Hebrews 11 would not have seen other participants. How many did Abel see? Noah did not see many. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would not have seen many. In contrast, Moses would have seen many runners within Israel, as would leaders such as Joshua and David. But together, there had been lots of runners, and even although they finished their race a long time ago, they are s...

It was common in Israel for people to be regarded as externally pure if they followed the procedure laid out in the religious rituals connected to their worship. If a person touched a dead body, for example, he was regarded as unclean until he had performed the various requirements co nnected to him being regarded as clean. The obvious danger that people faced was empty formalism, based on an assumption that the Lord only cared about outward observance. As long as they did what was expected of them, others would regard them as devout, whereas what really mattered was what a person was like on the inside. Have you ever listed Bible verses containing the word ‘pure’? In case you have not, here are some: It is the initial feature of heavenly wisdom : ‘ But the wisdom from above is first  pure , then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere’ (Jas. 3:17). It marks dedication to Christ : ‘ But I am afraid that as the serpent dec...