Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

The prophecy is concerned with an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We may want to ask, ‘Who is the outpourer?’ We are told in verse ten that it is the One whom they have pierced, which is reference to Jesus and his crucifixion. In fact, the verse says that it is Jesus who is speaking here – note the use of ‘when they look on me ’. So that description indicates that it will involve those who crucified him or at least caused it to happen. The apostle John twice makes use of this descriptive prediction. One is found in John 19:37: ‘And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.”’ John mentions this in connection to the action of the soldier who pierced Jesus to ensure that he was truly dead. And we know that the group of soldiers on duty that day had already pierced his hands and feet. They came to confess shortly after that Jesus was the Son of God. So their looking had transforming results. John would have seen their look since he was present at the cross...

The brief book of Haggai covers a brief period in the experience of the returned exiles from Babylon. Those who had returned had become dilatory in their commitment to rebuilding the temple because of internal and external discouragements. Internally, they were small numerically and it was obvious that they did not have the resources to build a new temple similar to the one that had been built by Solomon. Externally, their opponents were more numerical than they were, and they were prepared to use political threats as well as other means to hinder any sign of progress, with the outcome that the people stopped working on the temple, and that led in turn to divine chastisement, which was not a pleasing situation for God or for them. So God sent Haggai to explain to the people why they should work for the Lord at that time in history. In the section of his message that we will consider, the prophet mentions several encouragements for a discouraged people. God has a plan The first reason t...

Sometimes, when reading the Bible, we come across an unexpected verse or passage. Who would imagine that in the genealogies of 1 Chronicles we would read about the prayer of Jabez and the answer he received from God? Or perhaps when we are reading Psalm 18 we notice that David gives the credit for his greatness in Israel to the gentleness of God. It may be the case as well that we did not realise that this astonishing pair of verses were in the Book of Zephaniah. One commentator describes them as the John 3:16 of the Old Testament. We get the point that he was making when we recall that John 3:16 is all about the love of God. Not much is known about Zephaniah. We can say that he was a prophet who announced that first Judah would go into captivity in Babylon because of their sins but, second, they would be restored eventually to their country. Given that God had punished them for departing from him and worshipping idols, it would be an issue of concern as to how God would deal with them...

Habakkuk lived in an exceedingly difficult time for Judah. The armies of Babylon were on the march and no other country or group of countries seemed able to prevent their progress. Yet what made things more difficult for Habakkuk was that the One he trusted in, God Almighty, who had the power to do something about the situation, allowed the Babylonians to continue in their campaigns. Not that Habakkuk disapproved of God using the pagan Babylonians as a means of punishing the other nations for their pagan behaviour – that divine action would not have been surprising for Habakkuk. But he was astonished that his God also intended to use the Babylonians to punish the Jews severely for their sinful behaviour. For us living today, the time of Habakkuk was long ago and no one worries about the Babylonian empire anymore. Yet God has seen fit to include the response of a disappointed and disturbed prophet in his Word in order to help others who may find themselves living in very difficult times...