Yesterday’s lesson mentioned Carl Sagan’s book and television series on evolution, Cosmos. Today I want to point out the great errors in Sagan’s approach to things. Let me suggest a few. The first is the error of supposing that all there is can be observed by the human eye. I cannot see anything spiritual, but I can see planets, and atoms, and the relationships between those things.
Theories will come and go. Today’s theory about psychology, or sociology, or science is very quickly superseded by another theory. We know perfectly well how passing all of that is. Yet, there is the Gospel, which endures, which is based on the very nature of God (who is reality himself) and which changes not. The world says, “Oh, all that is foolishness.”
Yesterday we looked at how the Jews, the Greeks, and the Romans were all offended by Paul’s message of the cross. So what did Paul do when faced with this opposition? When he preached to the Romans, he preached Christ crucified in weakness, but in the power of God. When he preached to the Jews, he preached Christ, who came not as a sign, but to die and give his life as a ransom for many in the power of God.
The Greatest Thing Happening Today2 Corinthians 2:5 – 3:18Theme: The glory of the Gospel.This week’s lessons teach us about what God is doing in the world today.
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The Greatest Thing Happening Today2 Corinthians 2:5 – 3:18Theme: The glory of the Gospel.This week’s lessons teach us about what God is doing in the world today.
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The Greatest Thing Happening Today2 Corinthians 2:5 – 3:18Theme: The glory of the Gospel.This week’s lessons teach us about what God is doing in the world today.
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The Greatest Thing Happening Today2 Corinthians 2:5 – 3:18Theme: The glory of the Gospel.This week’s lessons teach us about what God is doing in the world today.
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The Greatest Thing Happening Today2 Corinthians 2:5 – 3:18Theme: The glory of the Gospel.This week’s lessons teach us about what God is doing in the world today.
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Knocked Down but Not Knocked Out2 Corinthians 4:1-18Theme: Treasures in jars of clay.This week’s lessons teach us the importance of having an eternal outlook on life.
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Knocked Down but Not Knocked Out2 Corinthians 4:1-18Theme: Treasures in jars of clay.This week’s lessons teach us the importance of having an eternal outlook on life.
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Knocked Down but Not Knocked Out2 Corinthians 4:1-18Theme: Treasures in jars of clay.This week’s lessons teach us the importance of having an eternal outlook on life.
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Knocked Down but Not Knocked Out2 Corinthians 4:1-18Theme: Treasures in jars of clay.This week’s lessons teach us the importance of having an eternal outlook on life.
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Knocked Down but Not Knocked Out2 Corinthians 4:1-18Theme: Treasures in jars of clay.This week’s lessons teach us the importance of having an eternal outlook on life.
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Now Is the Time2 Corinthians 5:1 – 6:2Theme: The urgency of the Gospel.This week’s lessons remind us that we are not guaranteed a tomorrow.
LessonThis week we will be studying a long passage containing two separate sections. In the first verse of each of those sections, we find the words, we know.
Now Is the Time2 Corinthians 5:1 – 6:2Theme: The urgency of the Gospel.This week’s lessons remind us that we are not guaranteed a tomorrow.
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Now Is the Time2 Corinthians 5:1 – 6:2Theme: The urgency of the Gospel.This week’s lessons remind us that we are not guaranteed a tomorrow.
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Now Is the Time2 Corinthians 5:1 – 6:2Theme: The urgency of the Gospel.This week’s lessons remind us that we are not guaranteed a tomorrow.
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Now Is the Time2 Corinthians 5:1 – 6:2Theme: The urgency of the Gospel.This week’s lessons remind us that we are not guaranteed a tomorrow.
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Commended in Every Way2 Corinthians 6:3-13Theme: Commending the Gospel.This week’s lessons teach us how to endure in all circumstances.
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Commended in Every Way2 Corinthians 6:3-13Theme: Commending the Gospel.This week’s lessons teach us how to endure in all circumstances.
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Commended in Every Way2 Corinthians 6:3-13Theme: Commending the Gospel.This week’s lessons teach us how to endure in all circumstances.
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Commended in Every Way2 Corinthians 6:3-13Theme: Commending the Gospel.This week’s lessons teach us how to endure in all circumstances.
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Commended in Every Way2 Corinthians 6:3-13Theme: Commending the Gospel.This week’s lessons teach us how to endure in all circumstances.
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Theme: Three Views of the Human Condition
From this week’s lessons we learn that Romans 3 can be considered the heart of the Bible because of the clear and comprehensive way it shows us the depth of our sin, and what the Lord Jesus Christ has done to save us from it.
Scripture: Romans 3
Somewhere in my library I have a pamphlet by Donald Grey Barnhouse entitled How to Mark Your Bible.
Theme: Man’s Ruin in Sin: The Moral Dimension
From this week’s lessons we learn that Romans 3 can be considered the heart of the Bible because of the clear and comprehensive way it shows us the depth of our sin, and what the Lord Jesus Christ has done to save us from it.
Scripture: Romans 3
Verses 10 and 11 capsulize Paul’s whole theology on this subject when he writes, “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no
Theme: Man’s Ruin in Sin: The Intellectual and Volitional Dimensions
From this week’s lessons we learn that Romans 3 can be considered the heart of the Bible because of the clear and comprehensive way it shows us the depth of our sin, and what the Lord Jesus Christ has done to save us from it.
Scripture: Romans 3
The intellectual dimension involves understanding, and the same principles apply.
Theme: God’s Remedy in Christ
From this week’s lessons we learn that Romans 3 can be considered the heart of the Bible because of the clear and comprehensive way it shows us the depth of our sin, and what the Lord Jesus Christ has done to save us from it.
Scripture: Romans 3
Propitiation comes from the world of ancient sacrifices and concerns the wrath of God. Most of us do not like the idea of wrath. We push it off.
Theme: By Faith Alone
From this week’s lessons we learn that Romans 3 can be considered the heart of the Bible because of the clear and comprehensive way it shows us the depth of our sin, and what the Lord Jesus Christ has done to save us from it.
Scripture: Romans 3
Yesterday we looked at propitiation and justification. The third term is redemption. It is a business term. It has to do with buying something back.
Theme: Paul’s Last Letter to Timothy
In this week’s lessons, we look at three important charges Paul gives to Timothy.
Scripture: 2 Timothy 1:1-14
Theme: Fanning into Flame
In this week’s lessons, we look at three important charges Paul gives to Timothy.
Scripture: 2 Timothy 1:1-14
Theme: Do Not Be Ashamed
In this week’s lessons, we look at three important charges Paul gives to Timothy.
Scripture: 2 Timothy 1:1-14
Theme: Guard the Good Deposit
In this week’s lessons, we look at three important charges Paul gives to Timothy.
Scripture: 2 Timothy 1:1-14
Sermon: On Guard
Scripture: 2 Timothy 1:1-14
In this week’s lessons, we look at three important charges Paul gives to Timothy.
Theme: The Faithfulness of Christ
Sermon: The Apostle’s Last Words
Scripture: 2 Timothy 4:1-22
In this week’s study, we consider Paul’s final words to Timothy, and learn valuable lessons for our own life and ministry.
Theme: The Most Important Charge of All
Sermon: The Apostle’s Last Words
Scripture: 2 Timothy 4:1-22
In this week’s study, we consider Paul’s final words to Timothy, and learn valuable lessons for our own life and ministry.
Theme: In Season and Out of Season
Yesterday, we looked at what Timothy was to do, which was to preach the gospel. Today, we consider how Timothy should preach the gospel.
Sermon: The Apostle’s Last Words
Scripture: 2 Timothy 4:1-22
In this week’s study, we consider Paul’s final words to Timothy, and learn valuable lessons for our own life and ministry.
Theme:Two Great Encouragements
Sermon: The Apostle’s Last Words
Scripture: 2 Timothy 4:1-22
In this week’s study, we consider Paul’s final words to Timothy, and learn valuable lessons for our own life and ministry.
Theme: Encouragement from the Apostle
Sermon: The Apostle’s Last Words
Scripture: 2 Timothy 4:1-22
In this week’s study, we consider Paul’s final words to Timothy, and learn valuable lessons for our own life and ministry.
Theme: Faithful to the End
Acts 13 introduces us to the missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul, starting with God’s call of Barnabas and Saul and the commissioning of them by the church at Antioch.
If these men had trouble in their work, we should not be too shocked if we have trouble too. We sometimes talk as if everything in the Christian’s life should go smoothly, that nothing bad should enter. We expect total and unmitigated blessings. But Jesus did not promise us smooth sailing as His disciples. He promised suffering.
Paul’s sermon has an introduction, four main points, and a conclusion. All good sermons have an introduction—some long, some short. This sermon has a brief introduction. It might be the case that Paul actually gave a much longer speech with a longer introduction and that Luke is merely summarizing here. But we have the drift of it.
The second part of Paul’s sermon is a continuation of the first. Just as he has spoken of the Old Testament kerygma, so now does he also speak of God’s acts in what we refer to as the New Testament period.
I said earlier that Paul’s sermon is not only like that of Stephen before the Sanhedrin in its review of Old Testament history. It is also like that of Peter at Pentecost in its citation of Old Testament texts. This is what Paul does in the third part of the sermon, beginning in verse 32.
The hardest of all ideas for human beings to grasp is the doctrine of salvation by grace alone. This is because we all always want to add something to it. This is a serious matter, because if a person is trying to add anything to the work of Christ for salvation, that person is not saved and is operating under a fatal misunderstanding.
Many of the “circumcision party” were no doubt honest and even spiritual men. Paul was not so charitable when he spoke of them in Galatians. He regarded their view as heresy, as indeed it is, and he considered those who were advancing it to be subverters of the church and God’s enemies.
If you have ever been in church circles, you know how it is. There is an issue to be decided. But there are people who are afraid of offending those who are on the wrong side. These therefore always try to work out a compromise that will satisfy everyone but actually satisfies no one. That must have happened in Jerusalem.
Luke reports the speeches of three people—four, if we count Paul and Barnabas separately. The first whose words he reports is Peter, but there were many who had spoken before him. Verse 7 says that it was “after much discussion” that Peter made his speech. This means that there were pros and cons, and that Peter, Paul, Barnabas, James and the others let them air their positions.
James was wise too, in his own way. He understood that the people to be won over to the right position were not the Gentiles. Probably not many of them were present at the meeting. It was not the Gentiles who needed to be persuaded. It was the Jews. So James began by referring not to Paul, who was the apostle to the Gentiles—that may have been a sticking point in itself—but by referring to Peter.
We come in this study to the end of what is by any measurement a most remarkable book. In F. F. Bruce’s volume, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?, there is a section dealing with Luke’s two-volume history of Luke/Acts. Bruce points out that Luke set out to chronicle the expansion of Christianity from a small beginning in Judea, a distant province of the Roman Empire, to where it had become a world religion and a force in many cities, a not inconsiderable task.
The last verses of Acts describe two meetings the apostle Paul had with people in Rome. Three days after he arrived and got settled he called the leaders of the various Jewish communities in the city together. There were a number of synagogues in Rome at the time. The remains of some of them exist even today, so we know that there were at least three, and probably more than that. Paul got in touch with the leaders of these synagogues, because he wanted to explain why he was in Rome, what he had been charged with and why the accusations had been false.
At his second meeting with the Jewish community in Rome, Paul preached the Gospel and did it all day long (v. 23). He began in the morning and went on until evening, declaring the kingdom of God and preaching Jesus. That is a sermon I would like to have heard.
We may wonder whether Paul was puzzled or discouraged by the Jews’ reaction. I do not know the answer. I do not know whether Paul was discouraged or not. When we preach the Gospel even under the most adverse circumstances, we preach optimistically. We expect God to work. Since Paul met with this very strong resistance, it may be that, humanly speaking, Paul was discouraged or downcast. But he was not puzzled. The reason is that he had worked through the problem of Israel’s rejection of the Gospel.
What does matter is whether we are faithful in the calling to which God has called us. The Lord Jesus Christ told His disciples, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matt. 24:14). That end has not yet come. So you and I still have the task of preaching it.
The most important thing that John has to say in his preface is that Christianity is Jesus Christ. Without Christ there would have been no Christianity, for Christianity began by God’s revelation of Himself in Jesus and continues by the authoritative testimony of the apostles and others to that revelation.
In yesterday’s study, we ended by drawing our attention to the phrase “the word of life” and mentioning the way this might be understood at first glance. We said that we would tend to interpret it as “the life-giving Word” or “Christ who gives life.” There are several reasons for questioning this first and easy identification of “the word of life” with Jesus, however.
The second channel through which John gained knowledge of Christ was the eye, for the apostle says that he and other apostles “have seen” Him. Of all the sense words used by John in this preface—hear, see, look upon, and touch—this one was apparently the most important to John personally, for he repeats it in each of the first three verses.
As objective and tangible as the revelation of God in Christ was, this would nevertheless have gone unnoticed by John and the others unless God had also intervened to reveal Christ to them subjectively.
At the conclusion to yesterday’s study, we saw that the first word used to describe how the Gospel is shared is martyrein, which originally denoted the bearing of testimony in a court of law.
Second, John says, we “proclaim” what we have seen and heard to you. On the surface this verb seems much like the other, involving a verbalized testimony to what has been seen and heard. But it also suggests something else. It suggests a commission from Christ, and therefore authority.
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