The preacher’s body, voice, and manner are either servants of the message or competitors with it. Every pulpit habit that draws attention to the preacher rather than to Christ has failed the sermon before the first word is spoken. The standard is simple: does this help…
Poverty is broader than the absence of money. A person may be materially comfortable and still be desperately poor — in relationships, in character, in fellowship with God. The poor Jesus declares “blessed” (Matt. 5:3) are not the materially destitute; they are the poor in spirit…
Second Timothy is a letter from a prisoner to his most trusted companion — written with the awareness that Paul will not leave Rome alive. The two chapters are saturated with the tension between Paul’s circumstances (imprisonment, abandonment, suffering) and his instructions (teach, endure, handle the…
The final two chapters of II Timothy are the last words of an apostle who has finished his course. They alternate between warning and charge: warning about the times that are coming, warning about the enemies of truth, and the charge to preach anyway, to endure…
The parable of the householder is a parable about where you are and what you are doing there. The kingdom of heaven is the vineyard — the church — and the one who enters it enters to labor, not to observe. There is no reward for…
Paradox is not a deficiency in Jesus’s teaching — it is a deliberate strategy. When truth stands on its head, it demands attention that straightforward assertion does not. The paradoxes of the New Testament are not puzzles for the uncommitted; they are invitations to the kind…
The first gospel sermon was preached to an audience that had more personal connection to the events of the gospel than any audience since. They were eyewitnesses or near-witnesses of the birth, the ministry, the crucifixion, and the reports of the resurrection. Peter preached by the…
The first chapter of I Timothy is a charge to a young preacher stationed at a difficult post, anchored in the apostle’s own testimony of grace and framed by the two dangers that threaten any congregation: false doctrine from those who want to be teachers without…
Chapter two of I Timothy governs two aspects of congregational life: prayer and the conduct of women. Both are anchored in theological claims rather than mere convention. Prayer for all men — including kings — is grounded in the universal saving will of God and the…
The third chapter of I Timothy governs the selection of the church’s leaders. The qualifications are not aspirational ideals — they are observable, verifiable criteria that a congregation can apply. A man who does not meet them should not hold office; a man who does is…