A Real Q & A (John 6:28-29)

 

There is a paradox in verse 27 – ‘work’ for that which the Son of Man will ‘give’ you. This prompts a question which Jesus will answer.

  1. The question above all questions.
    • 6:28; Matt.19:16 – the emphasis is on what they can do.
    • Acts 2:37; 16:30. Complacency is the

True Spiritual Wisdom (1 Cor. 2:6-16)

 

Human wisdom does not explain the way of salvation – 1:18; whom God calls to Himself – 1:27; nor whom God uses to make known the gospel – 2:4-5. When Timothy McVeigh was executed on 11 June 2001 as the Oklahoma City bomber who took 168 lives, he quoted …

What is Certain

The common saying is that only death and taxes are certain; everything else is up for grabs. Actually, there is some doubt about taxes. Jonathan Riley-Smith says that it was the Crusades which helped to promote nursing and income tax – mixed blessings, perhaps. Governments have always managed to extract …

The Folly of Preaching (1 Cor. 2:1-5)

 

Let us ask: ‘What? How? and Why?’

  1. What Paul preached.
    • 2:2. Obviously Paul preached more than five words in his sermons – Acts 20:27. He majored on the gospel, on the crucified King.
    • Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones began his ministry by preaching on this verse in 1926, and when he

Frayed About the Edges

It is a common failing of any writer, teacher or preacher to impose one’s individual circumstances on a whole community – to assume that what one is going through, all are going through. Nevertheless, it is a reasonable diagnosis to say that Australian society, and Western society in general, is …

The Folly of God’s Call (1 Cor. 1:26-31)

 

The basic principle is in 1 Cor.1:25. Friedrich Nietzsche attacked Christians as weaklings and fools. Essentially, the Bible agrees.

  1. God chooses the lowly.
    • 1:26-28. See Deut.7:7-8; Matt.5:5; 11:25. For most of the apostles, see Acts 4:13. In the 18th century Lady Selina Huntingdon mused: ‘Saved by an m. Paul

Goodness and GOD

In 1797, with the battle against the slave trade under way, William Wilberforce wrote the first of his three books, with the imposing title A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians in the Higher and Middles Classes of this Country, Contrasted with Real Christianity. Today it …

The Folly Of The Cross (1 Cor.1:18-25)

 

Isaac Watts:
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God;
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.

The cross seems foolish and weak, but it is God’s means to save; it is true wisdom and …

Divisions In The Church (1 Cor.1:10-17)

 

Look at the cross, and divisions will fade.

  1. Be of one mind in Christ.
    • 1:10-12. Calvin says that there is no greater unity than religious unity and no greater contentions than religious contentions. Note Rom.14:1; 15:7. Paul is writing not of heresy and truth, but of a party spirit.

Thankful For Grace (1 Cor.1:4-9)

 

  1. Paul gives thanks to God.
    • 1:4; also e.g. Rom.1:8; Phil.1:5. It is not there in 1 Timothy, Titus (both personal letters) or Ephesians (a general letter, almost a treatise), and is replaced by horrified wonder in Galatians – Gal.1:6. But even in wayward Corinth, Paul can still give thanks