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
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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