Jesus is on trial. The religious leaders have accused him of breaking the Sabbath law and of blasphemy. They want to kill him. So they ask him to provide authentication of the authority by which he broke the law. The religious leaders don’t believe Jesus had any authority. The crowd watching feels the tension inContinue reading “Jesus on trial calls his first witness – John 5:31-47, Part 2”
Tag Archives: john the baptist
Ancient sedans and repentance – Advent 2022, Week 4, Part 3
Editor’s Note: This post is written by guest blogger, David Hundert. David is a current Master of Divinity student at Evangelical Seminary. Do you know what ancient sedans look like? That sedan above is old, but I’m not talking about antique cars. I’m talking about ancient sedans. Keep reading below because ancient sedans will helpContinue reading “Ancient sedans and repentance – Advent 2022, Week 4, Part 3”
The meaning of Advent – Advent 2022, Week 4, Part 1
Editor’s Note: This post is written by guest blogger, David Hundert. David is a current Master of Divinity student at Evangelical Seminary. In the Gospel of Luke, Scripture describes an image of an angel as it appears to the shepherds, along with a host of others. Luke records them as saying, “But the angel saidContinue reading “The meaning of Advent – Advent 2022, Week 4, Part 1”
The Philadelphia Eagles and humility – Advent 2022, Week 3, Part 3
Two Philadelphia Eagles players were in Lancaster yesterday for an autograph signing event at the Park City Mall. Imagine you’re coaching a local high school football team, and through the grapevine you find out the Eagles players want to come meet with local high school football players. They want to do some community outreach, investContinue reading “The Philadelphia Eagles and humility – Advent 2022, Week 3, Part 3”
Who is the Spirit and Fire Baptizer? – Advent 2022, Week 3, Part 2
Who is the Spirit and Fire Baptizer? During Advent 2022, we are studying the preaching of John the Baptist’s in Matthew chapter 3. In the previous post, we looked at verses 11-12 where John introduced us to a person who would come, a person who is greater than John because while John baptizes with water,Continue reading “Who is the Spirit and Fire Baptizer? – Advent 2022, Week 3, Part 2”
John the Baptist’s big surprise – Advent 2022, Week 3, Part 1
Have you ever seen sidewalk chalk illusions? I’m talking about the realistic, 3D pictures that look like a real deep cavern has opened up in the road coming up. Or maybe the picture is a monster lurking in a cave. The dog in the picture above seems like it is not fooled at all. InContinue reading “John the Baptist’s big surprise – Advent 2022, Week 3, Part 1”
Repentance leads to forgiveness and social justice – Advent 2022, Week 2, Part 5
Jesus’ disciple Peter once asked Jesus if he, Peter, should forgive someone seven times. Peter was on to something here. Peter was thinking about repentance the right way, that proper repentance will likely require multiple applications of repentance. (See Matthew 18:21) Peter is thinking about forgiveness from the perspective of the person who has beenContinue reading “Repentance leads to forgiveness and social justice – Advent 2022, Week 2, Part 5”
What real repentance actually looks like – Advent 2022, Week 2, Part 4
But neither sorrow nor confession is repentance. Paul writes about this in 2 Corinthians 7:10, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, whatContinue reading “What real repentance actually looks like – Advent 2022, Week 2, Part 4”
The power of the words “I am sorry” – Advent 2022, Week 2, Part 3
In our study of John’s preaching in Matthew 3, so far this week we’ve learned that he called people to repent. We also learned that repentance is often predicated by sorrow. But sorrow is not repentance. Instead, we learned the repentance is an action. What action? As we continue reading in Matthew 3, look atContinue reading “The power of the words “I am sorry” – Advent 2022, Week 2, Part 3″
Repenting is action – Advent 2022, Week 2, Part 2
I’ve been teaching a theology class this fall, and repentance was a topic we covered. It was interesting how many of the students missed this active dynamic of repentance. Actually, it seems many of them confused repentance with sorrow and confession. Those terms are certainly related to repentance, cousins maybe. As we learned in theContinue reading “Repenting is action – Advent 2022, Week 2, Part 2”
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