Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

If someone asked this question, ‘How often is Tychicus mentioned in the New Testament?’, what would reply. Or if the person asked, ‘tell me the books in which he is mentioned,’ what would we say? He is mentioned in Acts, Ephesians, Colossians, Titus and 2 Timothy.  Who was Tychicus? He is first mentioned in Acts 20 as one of the Christians  who accompanied Paul to Jerusalem with the collection that had been gathered from several churches to help the suffering believers in Jerusalem. We are not told where he came from in Asia although it is reasonable to assume that he was one of Paul’s converts. By this time, he had matured enough to become a trusted delegate to the church in Jerusalem. The next mention of his name is with Paul during his first Roman imprisonment (Eph. 6:21; Col. 4:7), which indicates that he had remained with Paul after his arrest in Jerusalem and had accompanied him to Rome. These references state that he had been chosen by Paul to take his l...

The Lord’s Prayer, as this prayer is usually called, is not a prayer that Jesus would have used about himself because he would not have had to confess any personal sins. Yet it is his prayer in the sense that it is the kind of prayer that he wanted his disciples to use. Obviously, as far as the number of its words are concerned, it is a short prayer. It can be used as it is, but it can also be used as a model for longer prayers. An obvious detail about the prayer is that it is a family prayer for God’s people to use. Sometimes, people regard it as a prayer that anyone can say. Yet the petitions that Jesus includes are all connected to the growth of his kingdom and describe spiritual interests that appear in someone’s heart after they are converted. Even the petition about daily food has this family dimension because it expresses the conviction that the Father provides it. This is not so much a pray for conversion, but a prayer for the converted to use. At the same time, it is an...

There are some sayings of Jesus that most people would accept as wise and realistic – people often say that they admire the Sermon on the Mount, but then usually indicate that they do not practice it. There are other sayings of Jesus that most people would assume were connected to his particular aims and therefore express important aspects of the Christian religion. And there are some sayings that many people would assume were completely unrealistic as far as daily life is concerned.   Into which of those categories would most people place the third beatitude? I think most would place it in the third category because they would say that such a thing does not happen in real life. Indeed, they would say that the opposite happens. It is not the meek who get things, rather it is the self-centred and the driven who climb the ladder to the top, ignoring others as they climb. No-one gets to the heights by being meek is the opinion of the majority. What would a meek person look like i...

We can see from Paul’s words here that ongoing prayer is connected to the use of the spiritual armour that he has described. He may have in mind the idea that prayer is the equivalent of a warrior’s war cry, which was designed to frighten the enemy, and prayer is certainly an activity that the powers of darkness fear. Pray about each piece of armour The need of prayer indicates that our use of the armour may be faulty, or we may forget how important it is. We noticed that the pieces of armour indicated (1) the truth of the gospel, (2) the righteousness of Jesus imputed to us, (3) the sure standing of reconciliation with God, (4) the necessity of informed faith in Christ to repel the devil’s darts, (5) an understanding of salvation in all its dimensions and (6) an awareness of the Bible’s promises and instructions - the sword of the Spirit. We need to pray over these details and ask the Lord to enable us to use those pieces of armour correctly. We can express our gratitude to G...

We have already thought about the first three pieces of armour that Paul mentions in this passage. It is assumed that Paul follows the order by which a soldier would put on the armour and this helps us understand the points he is making about being ready for spiritual warfare. The first three seem to be items that the soldier would be wearing all the time, and they depict spiritual benefits that are given to Christians.  First, we need to put on the belt of truth, which can represent the message of truth, the gospel. Second, we must put on the breastplate of righteousness, which can represent the righteousness of Christ which, like a breastplate, protects our vital organs from enemy attack (the devil cannot remove Christ’s righteousness from a believer). Third, we have the shoes connected to the gospel of peace. Just as shoes gave stability to a soldier, so the fact that we have peace with God through the gospel gives stability to Christians as they face the devil’s onslaught....

Luke informs us that this last saying of Jesus on the cross was also a loud cry. Other loud cries were his fourth saying (‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’) and his sixth saying (‘It is finished’). While we are not told why they were spoken loudly, it is reasonable to assume that reason was that many people would hear what was said. The place where Jesus was crucified was near the public road and it is likely that many people would be walking along it and heard what Jesus cried. We might be curious to know what they thought of the cry, but we are not told.  Luke does inform us of three responses: (a) the centurion praised God and affirmed the innocence of Jesus; (b) the crowds who were attaching went home, beating their breasts, an action connected to repentance; (c) the friends of Jesus watched from a distance. What can we make of those three responses? The response of the centurion is another affirmation of the innocence of Jesus. Luke indicates that the words of...

Sometimes, we come across a statement that seems contradictory and we wonder why the person phrased his words that way. Initially we may wonder how Jesus could say that those who mourn are blessed because we don’t as a rule connect sadness and happiness. Yet Jesus says that those who mourn will find comfort. The mourning is a characteristic of true disciples and the comfort is a benefit of the kingdom of heaven, one of its resources for its citizens.   The mourning here is specific and does not refer to mourning in general. Yet we can see that mourning is a strong term, because it is difficult to imagine shallow mourning. It is also possible to have what we can call selfish mourning, which is not what Jesus has in mind here. We can mourn the loss of something that was an idol in our lives – some people get distressed when their football team loses a game. Instead, the mourning Jesus has in mind is spiritual mourning. Since it is spiritual mourning, we can look at how it is...