Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

In the preface to his letter (1:1-4), the apostle John had stressed that Christian fellowship is always with the Father and the Son. Such fellowship involves interaction with the Father and the Son around the various features of Christian doctrine and living in which they delight. In our previous study, we considered how we can have such communion in a wide variety of ways. Some of these aspects are referred to by John elsewhere in this letter. For example, he describes in 1:5-7 how consecration contributes to fellowship, and later in the chapter he will point out the connection between confession of sin and fellowship with God. As is well-known, John also shows throughout his letter that true fellowship involves practical expressions of brotherly love. Jesus’ Message about God When we want to share important matters with a person, we need to know that he is reliable. The only ways by which we can discover this feature is by information from a dependable source and by a descript...

I wonder what life was like in Rome in the late 50s when Paul wrote this letter to the church there. There would be discoveries, debates, delights, devotion (idolatries), diversions (sport), disappointments, diseases, debauchery, dangers, and death. I wonder what life was like in the church at that time, in addition to some of the features I have just mentioned: there would be developments (evangelism), discoveries of grace, divisions between Christians, doctrinal confusion, and danger of persecution. What would the church members in Rome have thought when they heard this verse from a man many of them had never met? What is life like in Inverness in 2015 for the country and for the church? What do we think when we read this verse? This is one of the best-known verses of the Bible, often mentioned by believers in times of trial and distress as a means of comfort. It is part of a passage in which Paul is reminding believers of their privileges as sons of God. What are those privileges...

In the Gospel of Matthew, the author says that after the incident involving the Syro-Phoenician woman, ‘Jesus went on from there and walked beside the Sea of Galilee. And he went up on the mountain and sat down there. And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them, so that the crowd wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel’ (Matt. 15:29-31). Matthew’s account mentions that Jesus helped many people whereas Mark focuses on what happened to one individual during that time. Since Luke and John do not record this incident, it means that Mark is the only Gospel that includes it. Perhaps it spoke powerfully to Peter, and we can imagine him relating the details to the author. It is not clear if the deaf man was a Jew or a Gentile. The area known as the Decapolis was inhabited by ...

Just before the feeding of the five thousand, recorded in Mark 6, Jesus had indicated that he wanted a time of rest for his disciples. Several events had prevented them reaching such a location and maybe this is what is described in the opening verse of our passage. Whether it was or not, the incident here reminds us that Jesus was prepared to travel outside the geographical limits of Israel in order to bring blessing to sinners. Although the intention of Jesus was to have a time away from regular activities, we should recall that he is teaching his disciples how they should serve him. So we now move to a classroom in a Gentile community and here several important lessons were conveyed to his disciples. In a sense, Jesus was showing them what they would yet be doing for him after he had returned to heaven. Don’t despise religious outcasts It is an obvious fact that the religious leaders of Israel would not have wanted to help this woman because she was not an Israelite. She was ...

Paul has already mentioned two different expressions of groaning in this passage – the groaning of creation and the groaning of Christians – with each connected to the future glory that God’s people will have. Now he mentions a third expression of groaning, one that comes from the Holy Spirit. The groaning of the Spirit is connected to some of the prayers offered by God’s people, which tells us that this is an experience that only believers know. The first comment that we can make about the groaning of the Spirit is that it is connected to the other two expressions of groaning. Both those expressions were positive and not negative because they are concerned about the future entry by God’s people into their inheritance. The Holy Spirit has his eye on that day as well, so we can deduce that his groaning is one of sympathy with the groaning of Christians. A second comment we can make is that this activity of the Spirit is intended as a support for Christians in their weaknesses. Of t...