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Are miracles meant to be everyday occurrences?

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We have no reason to think that God will not, still less cannot, grant miracles in our own day.  But before we conclude that they ought to be everyday occurrences, we might pause to consider that:-

  • in the Bible, ‘miracles clustered round the principal organs of revelation at fresh epochs of revelation, particularly Moses the lawgiver, the new prophetic witness spearheaded by Elijah and Elisha, the Messianic ministry of Jesus, and the apostles, so that Paul referred to his miracles as “the things that mark an apostle”.’
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Ex 14 – Baptised in the sea (sermon notes)

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Exodus 14

The crossing of the Red Sea is used throughout Scripture as a picture of what it means to become a follower of Jesus Christ.

1 Cor 10:2 – ‘They were all baptised into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.’

1. Behind them was a place of slavery

v5 – ‘We have lost their services’(!)

Jn 8:34, “Everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.”

“Sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace” (Rom.…

Mt 21:1-16 The ‘triumphal’ entry (sermon notes)

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Matthew 21:1-16 (Mk 11:1-10; Lk 19:29-38; Jn 12:12-15)

Grand entrances.  Wedding.  Royalty.

Verse 10 – “Who is this?”  Note:-

(a) the deliberate ‘staging’ of the entrance.  He is in sovereign control, (and yet uses human means).

(b) the nature of the entrance.  Similar to ancient ‘victory parades’.  Solomon, 1 King 1:33.  2 Kings 9:13 – ‘They took their cloaks and spread them under him on the bare steps.  Then they blew the trumpet and shouted, “Jehu is king!”…

Jesus in the Proverbs

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Compared with some other books of the Old Testament, it is not quite so easy to find Jesus in the Proverbs.  So writes David Murray, in Jesus On Every Page, pp175-186.  [The substance of this section of his book can be found here]

But, since all Scripture witnesses to Christ, we will look for him, and expect to find him there.  Of course, the witness of Proverbs to Jesus will be ‘temporary, provisional, preparatory, and prophetic’, because in Jesus himself, “A greater than Solomon is here.”…

Mt 7:13-29 – Two ways to live (sermon notes)

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Matthew 7:13-29

Intro: ‘It ain’t those parts of the Bible I don’t understand that bother me, it’s the parts I do understand.’ (Mark Twain)

Ch. 5 – v4, 11, 20, 22, 28, 29, 32, 48.  ‘You cannot be serious!’

1. Two Gates, vv13f

V13 – “Enter through the narrow gate.”

(a) Wide vs narrow – easy vs confined.  Self-denial, Mt 16:24-26.  Acts 14:22, “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God”.

(b) ‘Many’ vs ‘few’ – not about statistics, popular, going with the flow.…

‘In his name’

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‘Jesus’ disciples prophesied “in his name” (Mt. 7:22), cast out demons “in his name” (Lk. 10:17), performed miracles “in his name” (Mk. 9:39), etc. With the use of this expression it becomes evident that the disciples spoke and acted like Jesus, in His place and with His authority, as did the prophets of Yahweh in the OT (see Acts 4:7–10). Similarly, the gospel is to be preached in all the world “in his name,” i.e., by His authority, and thus be made effectual to save people (Lk.…

‘Jesus is Lord’

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‘The most frequent name for God in the OT, Yahweh (LXX Kyrios, “Lord”), now becomes the Church’s favorite name for Christ. The Church’s earliest confession of faith in Christ was in all likelihood “Jesus is Lord” (cf. Rom. 10:9; Phil. 2:9–11). Hence, all that can be said about the name of Yahweh—that prophets prophesy in that name (Jer. 20:9), the righteous trust in that name (Isa. 50:10), people call upon that name (Ps. 105:1), etc.—can be and is said about the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 4:17f.;…

The book of life

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G.W. Hawthorne notes that ‘expressions such as “your names are written in heaven” (Lk. 10:20), “whose names are in the book of life” (Phil. 4:3), “whose name has not been written … in the book of life” (Rev. 13:8), and “I will not blot his name out of the book of life” (Rev. 3:5), crop up several times within the NT. The figure is taken from the OT (cf. Isa. 4:3; Ezk. 13:9; Dan. 12:1), or from the secular world where a criminal’s name was removed from the civic register to take from him all rights of citizenship.’…

Don’t overspecify the biblical text!

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Mark Ward comments on the (otherwise excellent) conference speaker who, referring to Titus 2:4, said that because phileo is ‘friendship love’, it’s important for husbands and wives, and parents and children, to be friends.  Although there may well be some truth in this (Ward remarks), as far as the text in Titus is concerned, it is reading too much into the word; it is ‘overspecifying’ the text.  Husbands and wives are to be lovers, and not just friends. …

Puritans on penal substitution

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In chapter 15 of The Atonement Debate (2008), Stephen Holmes gives an account of British evangelical accounts of the atonement, with special reference to the doctrine of penal substitution.

Holmes argues three points:-

  1. Evangelical preachers and writers have generally insisted upon substitutionary understandings of the atonement, but with much less emphasis on penal substitution.
  2. Evangelicals have usually taught penal substitution as one of a number of metaphors relating to the atonement.
  3. Evangelicals usually accepted penal substitution without controversy until about 1800. 
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