Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

‘May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.’ These words were written by Paul to the church in Thessalonica, a relatively new church that had recently undergone persecution for the faith, and which received two letters from the apostle as a consequence. Understandably, Paul initially was worried about how they were coping with their trials, but we know from 1 Thessalonians that Timothy had returned from Thessalonica with a good report about how they were progressing on in the Christian life. Since then it seems that Paul had received further information about two problems in the Thessalonian church and he wrote this short letter informing them how they should respond to those issues. One problem is mentioned in chapter 2 and it concerned wrong notions about the second coming of Jesus being spread within the congregation and the other problem is mentioned in chapter 3 and it concerned the notion that some people had that they should not ...

Verses 1-11 describe a man who is in great distress. He has been in this state for some time. He is overwhelmed by it all and is in isolation, with no one to speak to apart from himself and God. What is the problem? Divine providence personally and divine providence nationally as far as Israel is concerned (the people were probably in exile in the Babylonian Empire). Things are not in a good way from his perspective. Is God indifferent now about his cause? Is he no longer interested in answering prayer? Have we ever felt like that with regard to divine providence? Yet we should observe that he is thinking things through, speaking to himself about the matter and at the same time speaking to God. Have we ever done that, engaged in a mixture of self-assessment and prayer? It is as if he was saying to God, ‘Here I am, puzzled and battered spiritually, and there are you, the eternal God.’ And we must note that this psalm is included by the Holy Spirit in the Psalter as suitable as an item o...

‘To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen’ (1 Tim. 1:17). Paul wrote these words as his response, as it were, to giving his own testimony about his conversion to Jesus Christ many years previously. He had been a bad man, but he had become a new man, and therefore he had a story to tell about divine grace, and how he loved to tell it, even to Timothy who had probably heard it many times before! Moreover, his words reveal his attitude towards the merciful God who had saved him despite his awful actions against the Saviour whom he had blasphemed (no doubt by denying his deity), whose people he had persecuted (almost to extinction), and whose purposes he had opposed (by attempting to crush the church in its infancy). Paul’s mind has been drawn to the ages, perhaps because he sensed his time on earth was running out, although he had a few years yet to live. In verse 16, he mentions that when sinners believe in Jesus they have the...