Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

Paul informed the Ephesians that the angels learn things about God and his plan by observing the church. The writer to the Hebrews reminded his readers that the angels serve the heirs of salvation, not in the sense of doing what the heirs want, but what the heirs need according to will of God. It is legitimate to assume that the angels were engaged in those activities of learning and helping during the Old Testament period as well as in that of the New Testament. We can ask of this passage if the angels would have learned anything about God’s salvation or if they engaged in serving believers by helping them.   This is a remarkable passage because it describes several activities of two angels in the homes of two believers. Some of the activities were similar and others were quite different. In each there was a meal. One visit concludes with Abraham having fellowship with the Lord and a description of divine blessing on his family; the other visit concludes with the isolation of L...

As we know, there are different ways of telling a story. This reality happens in news reports, in obituaries, in eyewitness accounts, in family discussions. The same occurs regarding the stories of Jesus in the Gospels. Each Gospel refers to what took place in Gethsemane, but they don’t report the same details. For example, John does not make any reference to Jesus’ distress and his agonising prayers. All he says is that Jesus and his disciples went to Gethsemane and that Judas appeared with soldiers to arrest him. Luke is possibly different from the other three accounts in that he was not an eyewitness of what occurred. Matthew and John were present. We may wonder about Mark, but it is regarded as likely that he is the unnamed man described in Mark 14:51-52 (in any case, it is generally accepted that Peter helped him compose his Gospel). Luke also does not say that Jesus prayed three times, nor does he say that Jesus separated Peter, James and John from the other disciples. This does ...

It was inevitable that those who resisted the recovery of the city of Jerusalem would reveal their opposition to Nehemiah and his helpers. This chapter describes some of their attempts and how Nehemiah resisted them. If the enemy was going to resist, so was Nehemiah. From one point of view, this chapter is about resistance and who would resist the longest. Nehemiah did resist longer than his opponents, but what was it that made him such a resister? Hopefully we will identify an answer to that question.   The account of the process involves three stages, so we can consider what happened in each before pointing out a couple of lessons. Stage one (vv. 1-6) The first attempt to stop Nehemiah was led by two prominent individuals – Sanballat and Tobiah the Ammonite. Those men were rulers of two neighbouring provinces. Sanballat was the governor of Samaria and Tobiah was the governor of Ammon. They were mentioned earlier in the book as being very annoyed because someone had come to Jerusa...

What features come to mind when we think of angels. Perhaps we think of their number, or their power, or their age. No doubt, those details are important, although it is impossible for us to say how many of them there are, or how powerful they are, or how old they are. Yet there are some features that we can consider in a more precise way, although in a brief and respectful manner.   The lowliness of angels The first sin of the devil when he rebelled against God was to replace lowliness with pride when he tried to rise to a height that did not belong to him and which he could not reach. He refused to acknowledge the authority of God but discovered that was impossible. His wrong action shows that angels are humble and reverent towards the Lord.   In the Book of Job, angels are described as the sons of God, yet in the references to them in Job 1 and 2 it is obvious that they are servants gathered to give a report to God. Another Bible passage that points to them as servants ...