What Christians mean when they say that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead may be helpfully clarified by saying what we do not mean.
1. The resurrected Christ is not a ghost. At first, that is what the disciples thought they had seen, but Jesus refuted the notion, (Lk 24:36–43). A ghost is a spirit without a body, but Jesus showed them that he had a real body.
2. The resurrection is not a resuscitation. …
In chapter 14 of The Art and Craft of Biblical Preaching, Michael Quicke, while acknowledging the difficulty of classifying preachers and preaching types, suggests that a fourfold structure may be helpful. What follows draws on that chapter, but includes my own thoughts as well.
1. Teacher preachers aim to impart scriptural instruction. They stay close to the biblical text, and seek to explain it and apply it. They will often preach consecutively through a book of the Bible, taking one section (such as a paragraph) at a time.…
There is great pressure on today’s preacher to be ‘positive’. “Don’t criticise me, judge me, accuse me,” hearers seem to be pleading. “Uplift me, inspire me, encourage me.”
To what extent should preachers give in to this pressure, and to what extend should they resist it? This question is addressed by Craig Brian Larson in chapter 68 of The Art and Craft of Biblical Preaching.
As Larson says,
One of our most important decisions when crafting a sermon is whether to frame it positively (what to do, what’s right, our hope in God, the promises) or negatively (what not to do, what’s wrong, the sinful human condition).…
She looks as if she has been the victim of a vicious mugging. She has been beaten within an inch of her life. Her body is covered with terrible wounds, but they are uncared-for, untended. Her condition is deteriorating. She needs help, quickly. And yet her pain and misery are self-inflicted. She’s brought it upon herself, and she’s doing nothing to put a stop to it.
That’s the picture that is drawn for us in Isa 1:5f. …
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The first two chapters of Luke’s Gospel contain many allusions to the story of Abraham (Genesis 11-21). In addition to the two explicit references to Abraham Lk 1:55; 1:79, S. Young (DJG [2nd ed.], art. ‘Birth of Jesus’ mentions:-
J.…
Text: Mark 4:1-20
Spring-time by the Sea of Galilee. A large crowd gathered to hear Jesus.
The pathway – the stony soil – the thorny ground – the good soil.
No explanation given. What was it all about? Imagine a conversation between four family members:-
Father – “He’s a charlaton.”
Miriam – “I just love those charming stories.”
Mother – “He talks a lot of sense – but I have chores to do, friends to visit, letters to write.”…
Tim Chester has written a short piece on ‘What to look out for in Mark’s Gospel’. What follows is a précis.
The big question in Mark’s Gospel is ‘Who is this?’ (Mk 4:41). Who is Jesus and what has he come to do?
1. The King who must die
Right at the beginning, Mark introduces us to Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God (Mk 1:1). Messiah (Christ) means ‘anointed one’, and this reminds us that the kings of Israel were anointed with oil. …
Before we embarked on a preaching series in Paul’s Letter to the Romans in our church, I was asked to provide a summary of some of the main interpretative issues. Most (but not all) of these are related to the so-called ‘New Perspective on Paul’.
| Issues | Questions | Implications |
| 1. Reformation spectacles (Rom 1:17) | Have we distorted the message of Paul by reading it through ‘reformation spectacles’? | Protestant/Catholic relations |
| 2. 1st-century Judaism (Rom 2:17ff; see also Lk 11:37ff) | Was the Judaism of Paul’s (and Jesus’) day essentially a religion of merit, or of grace? |
Taking Phil 2:7 (“he emptied himself”), along with 2 Cor 8:9 (“he became poor”), has led some to develop a kenosis theory, according to which Christ’s becoming human necessarily entailed a renunciation of some of his divine qualities. Otherwise, how could he share in those limitations of space, time, power, knowledge, and so on, that are part and parcel of human existence?
According to one version of the kenosis theory, Christ emptied himself of his ‘metaphysical’ attributes (omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience and so on), but not his ‘moral’ attributes (love, justice, holiness, and so on).…
