Author: timmacbride

Holiday series: Matt 8:5-13

/ timmacbride

During the school holiday break, we’re reliving some posts from 2014 which look at Matthew chapters 8 & 9.

We began a series yesterday working through Matthew chapters 8 & 9. Following on from Jesus’ first public words in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew narrates Jesus’ first public actions. Throughout this series we’ll be looking for the big picture Matthew is building up by arranging these stories together.

Yesterday, we saw Jesus’ first healing: of a man with leprosy, an Israelite who was an outcast in his own society. It was a story of Jesus meeting people’s needs in the here-and-now, as a sign that he was fulfilling the “suffering servant” role spoken of in Isaiah 53.

Today, we see Jesus’ second healing, which is equally significant: a non-Israelite, who nevertheless displays the key requirement for experiencing the blessing of the kingdom – faith.

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Holiday series: Matt 8-9

/ timmacbride

During the school holiday break, we’re reliving some posts from 2014 which look at Matthew chapters 8 & 9.

We begin a new series through Matthew chapters 8 and 9. In our last look at Matthew’s Gospel (chapter 5), Jesus was saying a lot of stuff. Here, he’s doing a lot. It’s the walk that backs up the talk. We see healings, exorcisms, provocative encounters, and even someone raised from the dead. Although this might seem to be just a random collection of cool stories involving Jesus, there’s a very deliberate point being made by the Gospel author throughout these chapters. Our task will be to work out what that is.

In the meantime, we’ll look through the stories one-by-one, to build up a picture of what Matthew is telling us. Keep this quest for the big picture in mind, as any application we find in each story will mostly be secondary to this larger point being made.

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Psalm 34 – Part Three

/ timmacbride

Over the past two days we’ve considered Psalm 34: praise for the God who delivers, and testimony about the God who delivers. Today we ask: how, exactly, does God deliver?

How does God deliver?

I mean, now. Sure, he delivered David from the hands of Achish, Goliath, Saul, the Philistines, the list goes on… But I’m unlikely to fall into the clutches of any marauding barbarian kings, at least in the places where I regularly hang out. And if I do, I’ll remember to keep that whole saliva-in-the-beard, faking-insanity strategy up my sleeve. (You can’t accuse the Bible of not containing practical advice.) But what does “God delivers” mean today?

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Psalm 34 – Part Two

/ timmacbride

Yesterday, we read Psalm 34 and saw how David praised the God who delivers. Specifically:

  • God delivers those who are weak, yet put their trust in him
  • God delivers those who fear him
  • God delivers more than just individuals

And we spent some time praising God for how he has delivered us. But it doesn’t stop there.

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Psalm 34 – Part One

/ timmacbride

Psalm 34 is all about ‘the God who delivers’. The word ‘deliver’ occurs 4 times:

4 I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.
7 The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.
17 The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles.
19 A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all;

The God who delivers. But what exactly do we mean by that? Because the word “deliver” when used this way tends to be a bit of a Christian jargon word. Certainly we use it quite differently from how the rest of the world understands it.

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Resurrection: 1 Cor 15:50-58

/ timmacbride

In this post-Easter week, we conclude our look at Paul’s discussion of the resurrection, in 1 Corinthians 15.

Fear and hope are two of the great motivators. Fear of what we have to lose, and hope of what we have to gain. We’re used to advertisers and politicians playing on these emotions, but it’s not a new thing. The great Greek and Roman orators (with whose work Paul would have been familiar) saw these as the two primary motivations in play when persuading an audience.

Early in 1 Corinthians 15, we’ve seen Paul build a rational case that if there is no resurrection of the dead, there is no hope. He carefully shows the Corinthians what they stand to lose if they abandon the Christian teaching about a bodily resurrection, and conform to Greek ideas about the soul and body. The first part of the chapter (esp. verses 12-19) was designed to make them (rightly) fear losing the very basis of their faith.

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Resurrection: 1 Cor 15:35-49

/ timmacbride

In this post-Easter week, we continue looking at Paul’s discussion of the resurrection, in 1 Corinthians 15.

Thirty-four verses in to chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians, it can be easy to get lost in the trees of Paul’s argument, and miss the forest. So before we continue, here’s a quick summary of what we saw last week:

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Resurrection: 1 Cor 15:29-34

/ timmacbride

In this post-Easter week, we look at Paul’s discussion of the resurrection, in 1 Corinthians 15.

Yesterday, Paul sold the benefits of Jesus’ bodily resurrection: he’s the firstfruits, the taster of what will happen to us, too. In today’s brief passage, Paul then points to the Corinthians’ own behaviour, that showed that they had hope in such a resurrection. He says:

1 Corinthians 15:29 Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them?
 

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Resurrection: 1 Cor 15:20-28

/ timmacbride

In this post-Easter week, we look at Paul’s discussion of the resurrection, in 1 Corinthians 15.

Yesterday, we saw Paul arguing against “some” in the Corinthian church who claimed that there was no resurrection of the dead. (They were probably Greeks who viewed a bodily resurrection as absurd; in Greek thought, people hoped to escape from the prison of the body into the superior, spiritual realm.) Paul showed how Jesus’ bodily resurrection was integral to the gospel: without it, we would still be sinners and faith in Christ would be futile. Today, he turns to the benefits of Jesus’ (and our) bodily resurrection:

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Resurrection: 1 Cor 15:12-19

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In this post-Easter week, we look at Paul’s discussion of the resurrection, in 1 Corinthians 15.

Yesterday, Paul reminded his audience of the tradition about Jesus’ death and resurrection which he heard from eyewitnesses and passed on to them. He wanted to affirm again its reliability, and its status as the basis of the Christian faith:

1 Corinthians 15:1-2 Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

But Paul did this in service of a bigger point, relating to our resurrection, in the future. Because some in Corinth were doubting this:

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