While this is the special duty of the ministers of the gospel, 1 Tim 6:2; 2 Tim 4:2; Tit 2:6,15, it is also the duty of all the members of the churches -and a most important, but much neglected duty. This does not refer to public exhortation, which more appropriately pertains to the ministers of the gospel, but to that private watch and care which the individual members of the church should have over one another.…
‘From what does God call men?
(1.) From sin. He calls them from their ignorance and unbelief. 1 Pet 1:14. By nature the understanding is enveloped with darkness. God calls men ‘from darkness to light,’ as if one should be called out of a dungeon to behold the light of the sun. Eph 5:8.
(2.) From danger. As the angels called Lot out of Sodom, when it was ready to rain fire; so God calls his people from the fire and brimstone of hell, and from all those curses to which they were exposed.…
Biblical prophecy is more than “fore-telling”: two-thirds of its inscripturated form involves “forth-telling,” that is, setting the truth, justice, mercy, and righteousness of God against the backdrop of every form of denial of the same. Thus, to speak prophetically was to speak boldly against every form of moral, ethical, political, economic, and religious disenfranchisement observed in a culture that was intent on building its own pyramid of values vis-à-vis God’s established system of truth and ethics.…
Robert Mounce, in his 1960 book The Essential Nature of New Testament Preaching, explains that the in outline form kerygma consisted of three parts-
1. A historical proclamation of the death, resurrection and exaltation of Jesus, seen as the fulfilment of prophecy and involving man’s responsibility.
2. A resulting theological evaluation of Jesus as both Lord and Christ.
3. An ethical summons to repent and receive forgiveness of sins.
This summary is derived from an analysis of Peter’s five speeches recorded at the beginning of Acts.…
See Gen 47:30; Deut 31:16; 2 Sam 7:12; 2 Chron 9:31; Psa 13:3; Dan 12:2; Mt 27:52; Lk 8:52; Jn 11:11-13; Acts 7:60; 1 Cor 7:39; 11:30; 15:6,18,51.
The comparison between death and sleep is apt, because:-
(a) sleep implies rest from labour, Rev 14:13.
(b) sleep implies cessation of activity in the environment of one’s wakeful life.
(c) sleep is a prelude to awakening, 1 Thess 4:16.
Notice, it is the body which sleeps in death; the person (if the Lord’s) goes to ‘be with Christ’.…
The church is described in the ancient creeds as:-
1. One, Eph 4:4-5.
2. Holy, 1 Pet 2:9; 1 Cor 1:2.
3. Catholic, Col 3:11; Gal 3:28.
4. Apostolic, Eph 2:20; Acts 1:8.…
‘Paul underlined the need for careful attention to principles of communication in preaching. While he refused to adopt some of the cunning word craftiness of the secular rhetoricians of his day, (2 Cor 4:2 1 Thess 2:3,5) nevertheless, he adapted his preaching well to a variety of audiences and needs. In the synagogue Paul spoke to Jews about the special dealings God has with his people; (Ac 13:16-41) but to the Greek philosophers he presented a living God as a challenge to their love for fresh ideas, quoting from their own writers as he did so.…
Habakkuk 3
Psalm 65:9-13 – God has given us many material blessings. And we have as many reasons to be thankful.
But what if there is nothing? What then?
Ch 1 – Habakkuk’s complaint. The Lord’s reply. Habakkuk’s further complaint. 2:1 – He sets himself to watch and wait for what God will say.
Ch 3 – Nothing in Habakkuk’s circumstances has changed. He is still facing an appalling prospect: the ravages of war, the horrors of invasion, the devastation of resources, the removal of all basic necessities.…
‘When I speak of passive graces (writes J.C. Ryle in his celebrated book, Holiness), I mean those graces which are especially shown in submission to the will of God and in bearing and forbearing towards one another. Few people, perhaps, unless they have examined the point, have an idea how much is said about these graces in the New Testament and how important a place they seem to fill. This is the special point which St.…
Both Jesus and the apostles warned about fraudulent prophets.
They were characterised by greed, 2 Pet 2:3,13, arrogance, 2 Pet 2:18, immoral lives, 2 Pet 2:2,10-13, and general ungodliness, Jude 4.
Bar-Jesus was a Jewish magician whom Paul and Barnabas denounced as false and deceitful, Ac 13:6-10. Such false prophets belong to the same line as Jezebel from the church of Thyatira, Rev 2:20.
Christian believers in every age are to test those who make prophetic claims. …
