Biblical Exposition

I teach a small weekly Bible study that is attended by a couple of Roman Catholics one of which is practicing and the other is not. A third member has embraced the Gospel and broken ties with Rome. Recently, in one of these studies, I mentioned purgatory and received an instant, “Oh, we don’t...

On 24 July, 1536, Conrad Cordatus heard a lecture that troubled him deeply. While commenting on the Gospel of John, the Lutheran preacher Caspar Cruciger said, “Christ alone is the meritorious cause; meanwhile, it is true, in a way, that man must be active in a manner; we must be contrite, and must...

Natural Revelation God has revealed himself in nature, as Romans 1 affirms, but should natural revelation be the starting point of conversation in an apologetic or evangelistic encounter? James and Jonathan consider the text of Acts 14, with Paul’s apologetic approach to Jews and Greeks. Is seeing...

The event of Israel’s exodus from Egypt is not just an historical Old Testament account, but a more complex theme that resonates throughout the Scriptures. Jonathan and James sit down with Bryan Estelle to explore Echoes of Exodus: Tracing a Biblical Motif. Bryan walks us through several passages--...

At the beginning of the seventh century, the decision of the Council of Chalcedon that Jesus had two natures, human and divine, indivisible but distinct, was still not universally accepted. Even if the Council had specified that the expression “two natures” doesn’t mean that Jesus is “parted or...

Christians have a remarkable ability to skew what the Bible’s teaches about the church. As with so many things in life, we tend to perceive and define it with ourselves as the key reference point. But when this happens it distorts both our understanding and our enjoyment of whatever is in view. The...

"I know what the Bible says, but how can I forgive that man, after everything he has done? And he isn't even sorry." It is a familiar question or comment, and perhaps the second most common and difficult that pastors hear (trailing only "How could God let this happen?") Both ask for help explaining...

Philip Melanchthon was a brilliant scholar (one of the greatest Greek interpreters of his day), an insightful theologian, and Martin Luther’s right-hand man. Today, his memory is often limited to his mention in some of Luther’s most famous quotations. He was, for example, the indecisive companion...

I will officiate at a wedding ceremony today. My wedding sermons aren’t really sermons but meditations. They are short but calculated. I view the wedding meditation as the last effort on the heels of pre-marital counseling to sink the arrow into the target. The target, of course, is the couple. The...

Preaching is often described (and derided) as ‘monological discourse’. At one level this is true; but scratch beneath the surface and we quickly realise that nothing could be less true. There is something about Christian preaching that is altogether unique. Although we encounter ‘preaching’ in...