Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

As we saw in a previous study, Jesus had restored the sight of Bartimaeus the beggar just before he entered new Jericho. No doubt, the travellers accompanying him were amazed at what they had seen him do. Of course, a real matter of interest for us in reading about it would be whether there was an anticipation in the crowd concerning what Jesus would do next. One thing that can be said of Jesus is that his next action was not predictable, and that remains true today. For example, when he calmed the sea, who would have thought that his next action would be to heal a demoniac? Luke gives a hint that something will happen when he says that Jesus was passing through the city. Otherwise he would have merely said that Jesus had left the city after helping Bartimaeus. Who was Zacchaeus? There is a statement in the Old Testament where God says he will bring one person from a city and two from a family and bring them to Zion (Jer. 3:14). That statement says that God at times is satisfied when o...

Paul begins this section of his letter by highlighting the importance of corporate prayer meetings. When he writes ‘first of all’, he is not as it were striking out items in a list. After all, he does not go on to say secondly or thirdly. Rather he is stressing the significance of such prayer in the life of a congregation. He may even be saying that prayer is the most essential aspect of a healthy church. Paul wanted Timothy to instruct the believers in Ephesus to pray in a global manner. I take his reference to all people to mean all nations rather than all individuals since that would fit with the context in which he mentions rulers and others in authority. If he meant all individuals, it would be unusual then to mention rulers specifically. Why distinct types of prayer? We see that in addition to global prayer, he also instructed Timothy to ensure that varied types of prayer would be offered. He mentions four kinds of prayer: supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings....

The time Isaiah tells us when this meeting took place, but he does not say why he was in the temple. Maybe he had gone there to pray or to offer a sacrifice. It was in the year when King Uzziah died. This does not mean that Uzziah had died before the vision took place. He could have died after Isaiah saw the vision. In 1:1 Isaiah says that he was a prophet in the reign of Uzziah, and perhaps those years of his ministry are described in chapters one to five of his prophecy. So this vision could have been divine preparation for the sovereign’s death, which the Lord knew would happen that year, rather than a reaction. Uzziah became king when he was sixteen and he reigned for fifty-two years, first as a teenager and then as an adult, perhaps initially as a joint-ruler with his father. For most of his reign, he pleased the Lord, although he did commit a sin that had drastic consequences for him. In that sense, Uzziah is a reminder that it is not enough to start well but to keep on fearing G...

The condemnation (vv. 1-5) Part of a sermon by Micah is recorded in these verses. His message concerns those whose aim in life was to increase in wealth. During the years of the kings mentioned at the start of the book, those practices had been taking place. Certain powerful people spent each night thinking about how to increase their wealth and when the morning came they enacted the plans they had made. Because they had power, no one could stop them (vv. 1-2). What was wrong with their plans? We might assume that Micah would highlight lack of natural justice or a failure to be neighbourly, but that was not Micah’s perspective. For him, the problem was abuse of religious benefits. Those men were taking what did not belong to them. The land that they coveted had been given to their owners by God as an inheritance. Perhaps we think of the story of Ahab and Naboth and how Ahab coveted Naboth’s vineyard. Naboth refused to sell it because the Lord had given it to him as his family’s inherit...

Luke does not tell us the name of the blind man, but Mark in his Gospel tell us that his name was Bartimaeus. Matthew, who was an eyewitness, tells us that there were two lepers. At some stage on this momentous day for him, he was taken to the roadside where he would beg for alms. Since the time of the Passover was drawing near, there would have been more travellers than at other times because pilgrims would be making their way to keep the feast. This explains why there was a crowd present, travelling with Jesus and others to Jerusalem. Jericho at that time was two cities. There was ancient Jericho and there was the new city of Jericho, erected by Herod the Great. When a person passed through old Jericho, he would come to new Jericho. The blind man was somewhere between the two because Matthew and Mark say Jesus was leaving Jericho (old) and Luke says that he was entering Jericho (new). How often did Jesus come to Jericho? We don’t know. Jericho was located on one of the routes from Ga...

Do you know some people who in the past were eager to witness that they were Christians, but now no longer do so? Do you know anyone who once delighted to read the Bible, but now no longer does so? Can you recall someone who used to enjoy the means of grace but now regards them as boring and dry? What has happened to them? One answer is mentioned by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:18-20 – they have quenched the Spirit and he no longer affects their life. The idea behind quenching is to put out a flame or a fire with water or by ground, which is why some translate the exhortation as ‘Do not put out the Spirit’s fire!’ So it is appropriate to consider what is meant by linking fire to the Holy Spirit. We may think of the prediction of John the Baptist when he said that Jesus would baptise with the Spirit and with fire (Matt. 3:11-12) and wonder if that is what Paul had in mind. Or we may recall that something like tongues of fire appeared on the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came on God...