Cast Down, Lifted Up (Psalms 42-43)

 

Calvin: ‘All the sorrows, fears, troubles, hopes, doubts, perplexities, stormy outbreaks by which the hearts of men are tossed are here depicted by the Holy Spirit.’ See Prov.18:14. Calvin sees David as the author, but the sons of Korah could be from the Babylonian exile of the sixth century …

Beware Of Confident False Teachers (1 Tim. 1:1-7)

 

Paul was making his way to Macedonia (northern Greece) and he left Timothy at Ephesus, to fight the wolves and to feed the sheep.

  1. The pastoral authority of Paul.
    • 1:1-2. Paul writes as an apostle of the Messiah Jesus, not by good luck or as circumstances would have it,

Use Knowledge Lovingly (1 Cor. 8:7-13)

 

We are often tempted to a ‘One slogan fits all’ approach to life, even the Christian life. The biblical approach is much fuller – Galatians 5:13.

  1. We are our brother’s keeper.
    • 8:7. Kenneth Bailey met a fellow in South Sudan who had come from worshipping the red snake as

The Cost of Redemption (Hosea 3:1-5)

 

Hosea split into two different yet complementary sections

Claim that the Old Testament had come true in Jesus Christ. (Luke 4:18-21, Psalms, Ephesians). There are 300 prophecies from theh Old Testament pointing to Christ.

  1. A Faithless bride and a Faithful bridegroom
    • Gomer continually pursues her adulterous lovers rather than

Authority and Submission (Romans 13:1-7)

 

  1. We are all called to submission (v1a)
  2. All authority is given by God (v1b-2)
  3. God’s rulers serve both God and us (3-5)
  4. We should support those who rule (v6)
  5. We owe it to God to honour our rulers (v7)

Be Careful Of Scoffers (2 Peter 3:1-9)

 

Peter is writing his’last words’ as an ongoing reminder for Christians, to keep them safe from the dangers of false teachers and remind them of the coming Day of the Lord.

  1. Be aware and careful of scoffers (vv3-4)
    • This is of first importance: scoffers will come “among us” cf.

Knowledge Puffs Up, Love Builds Up (1 Cor. 8:1-6)

 

This was apparently raised in a letter from the Corinthians – 7:1, 25; 8:1a. There are two frameworks here: one is conceptual (the issue of idolatry), and the other is relational (how to interact with others).

  1. Knowledge requires love.
    • 8:1-3. This is the way of God always – Isa.

He Has Ascended! (Acts 1:9-11)

 

  1. The ascension of Christ was an historical event.
    • 1:9-11; Luke 24:50-53. In John’s Gospel, Jesus refers to it when speaking to Mary Magdalene – John 20:17. The rest of the New Testament refers to it often enough – Eph.1:20-21; Heb.1:3, 13.
    • Luke 4:20. The same language is used to

The Single Life (1 Cor. 7:25-40)

 

  1. Paul gives advice, rather than issues commandments – 7:25, 35, 40. Usually Paul writes with apostolic authority – 14:37.
  2. Meaning of ‘the present distress’ (7:26). Famine? Persecution?
  3. 7:36-38. To an engaged couple (ESV, Bruce Winter) or to parents and their virgin unmarried daughter (NASB, Calvin).
  1. God honours the single

The King of Heaven and Earth (Matt. 28:16-20)

 

James Montgomery rightly wrote in 1822 of ‘great David’s greater Son’. The focus is all-encompassing – ‘all authority’, ‘all nations’, ‘everything I have commanded’, and ‘always’. Jesus is the King who rules over all.

  • 28:16-17. Maybe something like a soldier who has been thought to have been killed in