Paul now deals with a topic that he had earlier touched on in 1 Corinthians chapter 10: The Lord’s Supper. In this section, Paul was admonishing the Corinthians for straying from what he had “traditioned” to them. “In following the command [the mandate of the Lord’s Supper], I do not praise you… For I received […]
Isaiah 12:1-6: Jesus is Our Salvation
May 3, 2015 by
The Old Testament isn’t easy to read. It has so much killing in it, people rebelling against God, and more history than most of us can handle. It’s also hard to understand. But don’t let that keep you from the Old Testament. If you have the patience to take in what God has for you, […]
1 Corinthians, Lesson 17: A Look at the Lord’s Supper
April 26, 2015 by
Last week, we finished looking into Paul’s use of Israel’s sins during the Old Covenant as examples of what not to do for the Corinthian Christians in the New Covenant. At first glance, it simply looked as if Paul’s examples were Israel being unfaithful to God (and they were, but the question is, “In what […]
Acts, Lesson 29: Paul Sets Sail to Rome
April 23, 2015 by
After being under house arrest for two years in Caesarea, and after speaking before Herod Agrippa and Festus, Paul’s appeal to Caesar now begins to take place. They deliver Paul to be taken by ship to Rome. Luke records these events in a parallel structure: A Paul journeys to Malta (Acts 27) . B Paul […]
1 Corinthians, Lesson 16: Don’t Keep God from Coming to You with His Life and Salvation
April 19, 2015 by
Paul continues to deal with the issue of whether it’s okay to eat the meat that was earlier sacrificed to idols. To deal with this issue, he continues to use Old-Covenant Israel as an example of what not to do and how not to approach God, all within a chiastic structure. A 8:1-13 Dealing with […]
John 6:51-58: Unless…
April 2, 2015 by
According to legend, in a time of starvation, a mother pelican may dig into the side of her chest until it bleeds to feed her chicks. And so starting from the 2nd century, the Church has adopted the pelican as a symbol for Christ. The pelican represents Christ on the cross because, like a pelican, […]
1 Corinthians, Lesson 7: Community, Holiness, and Covenant
February 1, 2015 by
In the first four chapters, when dealing with sin, Paul dealt with division in the Corinthian congregation expressed by favoring one pastor over another. In chapter 5, Paul switches subjects: he is still dealing with sin but the sin is related to the gift of sexuality. How are Christians living in Christ to live out […]
Revelation 7:9-17: Now and Not Yet, but also with the Saints and Archangels
November 2, 2014 by
If you look at the Church with the eyes of your body, the Church can often be a despicable mess. Think of how one hymn describes her: “Though with a scornful wonder the world sees her oppressed, by schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed” (LSB 644, stanza 3). And that hymn doesn’t even mention the […]
Why go to Church?
November 1, 2014 by
This lesson topic stems from the idea that if God is a loving God, then why do we “have” to come to church? Like last week’s lesson on “God’s rest” for us from the book of Hebrews (4:1), we also look in the book of Hebrews to understand why God tells us not to neglect […]
The Relation between the Tree of Life and the Sacraments
October 16, 2014 by
The Two Trees Note: In this lesson, the translations from Genesis are your pastor’s. He has done this, hoping you can you get a better “feel” of the poetic language in the Hebrew text. Genesis 2:9: And YHWH, God, made sprout from the soil every tree that was pleasing to the eye and good for […]
