Go deeper in the sermon Scripture text with these weekly discussion and response questions.
As we enter a new year, we finish our study in Joshua.On Sunday we will look at Joshua 24, and the covenant renewal that concludes the book. As Joshua anticipates his own death, he leads the people of Israel to renew their covenant with God. But instead of laying a heavy burden on them, he focuses on what Yahweh has already done for them.On Sunday we will do the same, as w...
Keep Reading In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus called his followers a city on a hill (Matthew 5:1416). This title has often been used to speak of America, as well as other institutions of moral influence. Yet, it is most appropriately applied to the church. This is seen throughout the New Testament (cf. 1 Peter 2), but we also find this idea in the Old Testament. In this week's sermon...
Keep Reading As the famed Puritan, Matthew Henry, begins his commentary on Joshua 13:1, he writes, "We are not to skip over these chapters of hard names as useless and not to be regarded."Why? Because"where God has a mouth to speak and a hand to write we should find an ear to hear and an eye to read." This is a good reminder as we venture into seven chapters composed of lists, boundar...
Keep Reading Standing on the shores of the Red Sea, with Pharaoh's army buried under the water, Moses leads Israel to praise God for his powerful victory. And in Exodus 15:13, he sings, 1Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to theLord, saying, "I will sing to theLord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.2TheLordis my streng...
Keep Reading Lies and liars. Our world is filled with them, and we often struggle to know what to do with them. This is true when are deceived, but it is also true when we are the deceiver. On Sunday we saw another deception story in Joshua. And to play on wordsJoshua 9 teaches us again that (first) looks can be deceiving. For instead of seeing how the lies of Gibeon are met with swif...
Keep Reading So far in Joshua, we have seen connections between Joshua and Jesus, as well as Rahab and the Church. These connections remind us how this book of history is written for us on whom the end of the ages have come (1 Corinthians 10:11; cf. Romans 15:4). Incredibly, the inspired words of the Old Testament are not just Israel's historical chronicles; they are prophetic messages...
Keep Reading Tamar and Judah. Rahab and Salmon. Ruth and Boaz. Bathsheba and David. The Church and Jesus. What do these couples have in common? They are all in the Bible? Yes. They are all in Jesus' genealogy? Yes. And most astoundingly, each had a history with harlotry. Respectively, the dress, the (former) identity, or the actions of these couples contain some element related to id...
Keep Reading This week we kicked off a new sermon series at our church called "Seeing Jesus in the Old Testament: A Study of the Book of Joshua." You can listen to the sermon here. Response questions and additional resources on Joshua and seeing Christ in the Old Testament are below. Response Questions When think of Joshua or the book about him what comes to mind? What are the cha...
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What is expositional preaching? And why is our church committed to it? If you have ever wondered what the Bible says about preaching, Sunday's sermon is for you. As we considered preaching in relationship to worship, I argued that expositional preaching is not only the best way to preach Scripture, it is also modeled by Moses (the first preacher) and many other inspired a...
Keep Reading On Sunday we began a new sermon series considering what Scripture teaches about worship. Over the summer we will learn from Moses, David, and Paul, but this first Sunday we beganby hearing what Moses said about God's pattern for worship at Sinai. While our worshipis not at Mount Sinai, but Mount Zion (Hebrews 12:2224), the pattern of worship revealed to Israel teaches us ...
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