Old Testament & New Testament Introduction, Old Testament & New Testament Theology Books, Background Commentaries, Commentary Survey, Old & New Testament Exegesis and Sermons to Read – Never Read Until You Write Your Own Sermon.
If you are in a leadership position in someone’s church, and especially if you are a pastor, let me offer a salient word of warning: Don’t become a Diotrephes who loves to be first. We all know preachers who are too big for their britches. You know the type. In the extreme, this is the guy who can strut sitting down. He exudes arrogance, either in the pulpit, outside the pulpit, or both. Joseph Parker, contemporary of Spurgeon, painted the picture of the prideful person in unforgettable prose: “Here is a little contemptible person who stuffs the unworthy sack, which he calls himself, with the shavings and sawdust of his own self interest.”
THE INCARNATION enrolls Him in our needy company. For unto us a child is born; unto us a Son is given. The Word became flesh and dwelled among us. He had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that He might make atonement for the sins of the people.
We are all born debtors. The instant we emerge from the birth canal, we owe someone for 9 months of room and board. Since the national debt just passed $18 trillion, as a United States citizen, that newborn baby will enter the world with a portion of that debt at $56,340.40.
Twenty-one years ago, I wrote about the negative impact a low view of biblical authority, rejection of propositional communication, and the focus on creating an experience, had on preaching. (David L. Allen, “A Tale of Two Roads: Homiletics and Biblical Authority,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 43.3 [2000]: 489-515.)
In 165 BC, Israel was under the control of the Syrian ruler Antiochus Epiphanes. A cruel and ruthless dictator, he attempted to force the Jews to embrace the Greek culture of the day and cease to obey the Mosaic Law. Antiochus went so far as to desecrate the temple of Jerusalem by sacrificing pigs on the altar and turning the temple into a place to worship the Greek god Zeus. Many Jews lost their lives resisting this tyranny.
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