Bible Resources
Bible Resources
Notes on Luke 23.33-43 November 24
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- Category: Notes on the Gospel readings from Luke
Notes on Luke 23.33-43 November 24
We have read a lot about the kingdom of God in Luke’s gospel. We have heard Peter declare that Jesus is the Christ, the King. As Jesus approached Jerusalem, the tension increased. So did the opposition to Jesus. Now, at last, Jesus, whom many thought was God’s king, is being executed.
Luke tells the story so that we understand that this is a story about the King. At least six times the story refers to the King or to the Messiah (which refers to the same person).
The rulers, the soldiers and one of the criminals all sneer at him. Even the charge against him, which is written above him, is a kind of mockery.
But one of the criminals thinks there is more to Jesus than what most people can see. He still holds out hope that Jesus will become a king. He wants Jesus to remember him. And Jesus makes a promise to him.
Notes on Matthew 2.1-12 Epiphany Sunday January 5
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- Category: Notes on the Gospel readings from Matthew
Notes on Matthew 2.1-12 Epiphany Sunday January 5
Five groups of people feature in this passage.
1. The Magi: They were astronomers and astrologers from somewhere east of Judah, maybe Persia, or Babylon, we don’t know. They are very impressed with a new star they see in the sky. They think it is connected with a new king of the Jews. So significant is it that they travel to pay their respects to the new king. They travel to the Jewish capital, ask directions and are told to go to Bethlehem. When they find the child they offer gifts and show their respect by bowing down and giving worship. The gifts are nit symbolic. They are just very good gifts appropriate to a foreign king.
Notice that the star does not provide them with enough information. It just starts them off on their search. They need help from the people in Jerusalem who know the story of the Messiah. The worship of the child is also very elementary. They don’t know much. There is much more to learn about this king. Later others will take the whole story of the King Jesus to their land, and from there it will be taken further east as far as China.
2. Herod the Great: was a great builder. He was also very cruel and ruthless. When he hears that the Magi are looking of a new king of the Jews, he connects this with the Messiah. He asks the scholars about where the Messiah is to be born. He does this privately. He also speak to the Magi privately. He wants them to find the child and tell him. He says he wants to worship the child, but he really wants to kill him (2.16). He is simply opposed to any rule but his own (like all human beings).
3. The Religious Scholars: the chief priests and the teachers of the law are asked where the Messiah is to be born. They know the prophecy of Micah. They also know what the Magi are searching for, because all of Jerusalem knows. But they don’t seem to have any interest in connecting the two things. They don’t seem to be interested in the birth of the Messiah. They seem happily caught up in their own religious world. As though their religious action and knowledge was an end in itself. They may be like the person who thinks, “What we know is all we need to know.”
4. The child Jesus (and Mary his mother): although he doesn’t say anything the child is the centre of the story. He attracts:
- respect and worship from the foreigners
- deadly opposition from Herod the ruler
- passive non- interest from the religious leaders
But according to Micah, he is the ruler who will shepherd God’s people. The Messiah, God’s anointed ruler and saviour.
5. The readers: We are part of this story too. As we hear the story, we need to decide what we will do about it. Will we:
- passively ignore it, leave it in its Christmas box
- be hostile to this king, even in a polite way
- pay our respects, but keep our independence
- do what the Magi pointed us to: to worship him with our life
Dale
1 Corinthians 5-11 Eight Case Studies of Church Life
- Parent Category: Bible Resources
- Category: 1 Corinthians
{podcast id=342}
1 Corinthians 5-11 Eight Case Studies of Church Life
Sermon preached at St Mark's Bassendean on Sunday 16 October 2016
Bible Readings: Deuteronomy 6.1-9; Psalm 15; 1 Cor 9.13-23; Luke 22.14-32
Case Study 1: The Puffed Up Church 5.1-11
Case Study 2: Legal and Other ways to do Wrong 6.1-11
Case Study 3: Bodies Matter 6.12-20
Case Study 4: Marriage and True Devotion 7.1-40
Case Study 5: Participating in Other Religions 8.1 - 11.1
Case Study 6: Dress Codes for Ministry 11.2-16
Case Study 7: When is the Lord’s Dinner not the Lord’s Dinner? 11.17-34
Case Study 8: St Mark's Bassendean
Job Reading Guide
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- Category: Reading Guides to Bible Books
Reading Job
These questions may help you think about some of the issues in this book. You will think of other questions yourself as you read it. At this stage read the book as many times as you can in order to form your own picture of what it is about.
Part 1 Overview
1. Reading
1.1. Read Job a number of times. Look for the structure, the recurring themes and main ideas.
1.2. Don’t read any notes, introductions in your Bible, or other books. Try to work out what it is about yourself first.
2. The Book
2.1. What is the broad structure of Job. Can you see any pattern?
2.2. Can you see where poetry and prose are used?
2.3. What references are there to Israel’s history or traditions?
3. The Author
3.1. Who is telling the story?
3.2. Why was it written?
3.3. What was the author’s thesis?
3.4. Do you think the author succeeded in what he or she set out to do?
4. The Content
4.1. Compare the beginning 1.1 – 2.10 with the end 42.10-17
4.2. How does the behind the scenes story (1.6-12; 2.1-6) make a difference to our understanding of Job’s response?
4.3. What is it that characterises Job in Chapters 1-2 and 42?
5. God
5.1. When God spoke to Satan, was it a dare, a challenge, a bet, or …?
5.2. What was at stake in this interaction between God and Satan?
5.3. Why did God do it?
5.4. Why does Satan not feature at the end of the story?
5.5. What is God’s role in job’s suffering?
Part 2: The speeches of Job and his Friends Job 3-31
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You may like to make your own analysis of this section without, or before, using this guide.
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In 42.7,8 God says the friends have not spoken of God what is right as his servant Job has. What was wrong and what was right in the speeches of the friends?
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What are job’s main complaints and accusations against God?
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What are Job’s main requests?
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What is the theological foundation from which Job is speaking?
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Does Job charge God with wrong (1.22)?
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The grid below may help identify some of the main ideas in the section.
- Does Job have a theory to explain his suffering?
| CHAPTER | SPEAKER | FRIENDS' MAIN IDEA | WHAT SAID ABOUT GOD THAT IS NOT RIGHT | ANSWER TO JOB | JOB'S MAIN IDEA | WHAT IS SAID ABOUT GOD | WHAT IS SAID TO GOD | JOB'S COMPLAINT | IMPORTANT OTHER THEMES |
| 3 | JOB1 | ||||||||
| 4-5 | ELIPHAZ 1 | ||||||||
| 6-7 | JOB 2 | ||||||||
| 8 | BILDAD 1 | ||||||||
| 9-10 | JOB 3 | ||||||||
| 11 | ZOPHAR 1 | ||||||||
| 12-14 | JOB 4 | ||||||||
| 15 | ELIPHAZ 2 | ||||||||
| 16-17 | JOB 5 | ||||||||
| 18 | BILDAD 2 | ||||||||
| 19 | JOB 6 | ||||||||
| 20 | ZOPHAR 2 | ||||||||
| 21 | JOB 7 | ||||||||
| 22 | ELIPHAZ 3 | ||||||||
| 23-24 | JOB 8 | ||||||||
| 25 | BILDAD 3 | ||||||||
| 26-28 | JOB 8 | ||||||||
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29-31
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JOB SUMM |
Part 3: The Final Speeches: Job 32-42
You may like to use these questions to help you think through the last part of Job, and review the book as a whole.
1. The Elihu speeches 32 – 37
1.1 According to Elihu what was wrong with the ideas of
a. the friends
b. Job
1.2 What main ideas did Elihu put forward to explain Job’s predicament?
2. The LORD’s Answer 38-41
2.1 What are the main ideas the LORD puts forward?
2.2 How do these answer Job?
2.3 Is Satan’s role referred to, or are there any supernatural references such as in chapters 1-2?
3. Job’s Answer and Restoration 42
3.1 Was Job satisfied?
3.2 What convinced Job to stop complaining?
3.3 Was Job charged with wrong by God?
3.4 What brought about the end of Job’s sufferings?
3.5 Why was Job’s prayer for the friends necessary?
4. The book as a whole
4.1 What is the main thesis of the book? or
4.2 What is the main story of the book?
4.3 Why do you think it was written?
4.4 What picture does it give of
i. The LORD
ii. Satan
iii. Job
4.5 Why did these things happen to Job?
4.6 Did he learn or benefit from what happened?
4.7 What help does it give to others who are like Job?
4.8 To whom will the “happily ever after” apply?
5. Job in the Bible
5.1 How do the main ideas of the book of Job develop through the Bible?
5.2 Does it find any fulfilment in the NT?
5.3 What help is the book to a follower of Christ?
Psalm 90
- Parent Category: Bible Resources
- Category: Help from the Psalms
Thoughts on Psalm 90
Psalm 90A Prayer of Moses, the man of God. 90:1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place 3 You return man to dust 5 You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, 7 For we are brought to an end by your anger; 9 For all our days pass away under your wrath; 12 So teach us to number our days The Holy Bible, English Standard Version™
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The 17 Psalms of Book 4 (Ps 90 - 106) are all anonymous, except for one credited to Moses (90) and two to David (101,103). The fact that Book 4 is introduced with a Psalm of Moses gives a clue to one of the themes of this book - that of the covenant not with David (which concludes Book3 - Ps 89), but with Abraham and Moses. One commentator has suggested that these 17 Psalms could have been used at the Feast of Tabernacles (Lev 23.39-43; Deut 31.9-13) as the people celebrated the exodus.
Is this the prayer of a pessimist or a realist? "All our days pass away under your wrath.". Our life is just toil and trouble, (sounds like Ecclesiastes). Even the people who lived as long as a thousand years (like the long-lived people before the flood), are still powerless in the face of God who sweeps them away. Most of us only live for 70 or maybe 80 years. And how can we deal with a God who knows all our secret faults, who sets our sins in front of him so he can see them, who brings us to an end in his anger and returns us to the dust from which we came? It does sound pretty pessimistic, or at least it describes the thoughts of a person who is up against it, whose life is difficult and full of trouble and toil. The heading of the psalm says it is a prayer of Moses, the man of God. Can we imagine Moses composing this prayer? Perhaps in Egypt while the people were toiling in slavery, these kinds of thoughts could come to mind. Many of us in the present time find our work or life situation difficult and often without hope of improvement. We can easily associate with the feelings expressed in the psalm. But it is not just a complaint or a lament. The psalm begins by reminding God about his past. He has always been the place where his people lived securely (as Isaac Watts paraphrased it - see Australian Hymn Book 46; Songs of Fellowship 415, or here on the web). He is God from everlasting to everlasting - in contrast to us who, even if we lived for a thousand years, would still occupy only an insignificant fraction of time. It is this contrast between God's greatness, power, and eternity and our smallness and fragility that redeems the pessimism. The prayer is spoken to the everlasting God who has always been the place where his people lived. There was never a time when his people did not live in his presence. That is what being his people means. And although much of the psalm reflects the danger of living in the presence of God - he sees our sins and brings his wrath on us - it also appeals to the same power and ownership of God to help his people. Like Job, the prayer asks God to relent, to turn back to us, to have mercy, to show compassion, to satisfy us with his love every morning. Moses the man of God has given us an example of what to do when things are bleak and difficult. Lamenting is good, but hope lies in calling on the God who has said he is our God. The psalm appeals to God to act, to help, to show favour, to make us glad. The prayer also asks for help in our understanding of time. Time is very important in the psalm, how long God exists for (from everlasting to everlasting), how long we live for (80 years if we are healthy), how long God thinks a thousand years are (not very long), especially how long the days of our life are. So we want to learn how to count our days. Not how to calculate our age or work out how much longer before we are 70, but rather to be able to account for our days. That is, to be able to have some explanation both for the shortness of our life and the trouble that fills it. If we can understand that then we will have a wise heart. And does the Psalmist understand it? How does he count his days? He knows we live a short life because we are made from the dust (unlike God), and he knows that we live in a world under God's judgment. But he knows his days are from God, and he knows that the God who gave him life from the dust is also able to make him happy. He knows that despite his sin, God is able to show mercy and compassion. He knows God is splendid and wonderful and can fill his days with love and blessing. He counts his days as days which can be filled not only with toil and trouble but with gladness and joy. Because he understand that, he wisely calls out to God. Dale |