Here is what you’ll find: there is an audio player with the sermon audios built-in to it, just click to find the one you want. You’ll also find the embedded YouTube videos of each sermon.
Learning, Teaching, and Laughing
The occasional thoughts of an ordinary man serving an extraordinary God. Come with me as we learn, teach, and laugh along the way.
Monday, October 28, 2024
Sermon Recap for October 27 2024
Monday, October 21, 2024
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
Sermon Addendum for October 16 2024
We continue on in our sermon series in 1 John. There's not enough space in a sermon or this blog to cover all the details of the Johannine Letters. I would recommend you pick up Letters to the Church by Karen Jobes for some of those background pieces of information.
An important part of the background material on any letters in the New Testament is who wrote it. When you look at the letters of John, there are several theories of authorship related to these three short books. First, you should take note that, unlike the Pauline Letters, John's letters carry absolutely zero authorship claims. The closest you get is that 2 and 3 John claim to be written by "The Elder," but this is a title and not a name.
Our options for authorship are the traditional view that John the Apostle, author of the Gospel of John, wrote these letters. He's not named in named as the author of any of these letters, but longstanding church traditions identify him as the author. We, of course, cannot prove it. This tradition is generally held, it does not really have any significant counter-evidence. It's more a matter of questioning whether or not the lack of evidence is enough to drive us to a different view.
The second view, which does have a fairly solid following, is that there is another early church leader named John who wrote the letters, but he's not the same guy as the Apostle John. This theory separates "John the Apostle" from "John the Elder."
This comes from a comparison of grammar and vocabulary between the Gospel and the letters. Some scholars interpret the differences between 1 John and 2/3 John as showing that the author of the first letter is not the author of the other 2.
The last viewpoint of significance is that the letters are written much later, after the 1st century, and attributed to John by a group of disciples who trace their heritage back to John. That holds sway in some academic circles, but there are some manuscripts of these letters that do not allow them to be composed much later than 150 AD.
Why does the authorship matter?
Well, 1 John starts off talking about being an eyewitness to Jesus. If John the Apostle wrote it, he's an eyewitness to Jesus and many other things. If it's written by an anonymous group some fifty years later, that's another matter entirely.
The authorship issues also connect with date issues: when are 1, 2, and 3 John written? They are probably not written in the same year as each other, though 2 and 3 have some similarities that suggest they were written close together.
The timing of the writing then helps us understand what issues may have prompted John to write. It also tells us whether he's writing to churches that possibly have written Gospels of Matthew, Mark, or Luke in hand, or maybe have received letters from Paul.
Information like this does not dictate the meaning of the text, but it helps us as we strive to understand what's happening in the text.
Tuesday, October 15, 2024
Book: Nobody's Mother by Sandra Glahn, Ph.D
Today, I'd like to introduce you to Nobody's Mother by Sandra Glahn. Dr. Glahn is a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary.
Nobody's Mother started off when Glahn was studying deeply in 1 Timothy, especially the passage in 1 Timothy 2:12 about women being "saved through childbirth." As it does for many of us, that line just hit her as odd.
So, she did the logical thing: dug into an extended study of Ephesus, Artemis of the Ephesians, and how all of the cultural factors weigh on Paul's writing to Timothy.
I mean, that's the logical choice to make when you do not understand something: get the information you need to understand it better. Fortunately, going forward, you or I can grab a copy of Nobody's Mother from Amazon (or direct from IVP) to do our in-depth study. That way we only have to have one footnote instead of multitudes.
Glahn's work in Nobody's Mother points the reader to the cultural climate of Ephesus in the 1st Century. She starts by correcting a commonly-held misconception, that "Artemis of the Ephesians" from the New Testament era was likely a fertility goddess. Instead, the evidence shows that Artemis, also called Diana, was more the goddess of the hunt and an advocate for birthing mothers and virgins. (How the Greeks thought "both" here is something developed in the book, and takes a few pages.)
The evidence cited includes non-biblical writings from the era, inscriptions in the archaeological remains of Ephesus, and examinations of architecture and art. Glahn also notes when the "Artemis as fertility goddess" ideas first seem to appear in the historical sources, and notes that this occurs more than a hundred years after Paul wrote.
She then builds an excellent case for how to understand Paul's intent as he wrote Timothy, with some notes that can expand our understanding of much of the New Testament.
Why do I think this book, overall, is helpful?
First, Glahn writes from the assumption that the Bible is right and that we must work to understand the Scripture rather than discard those parts we find hard to grasp. Too many times, a weird passage like 1 Timothy 2:12 will simply be explained away, rather than examined and given a clear light on its original perspective. That's one of the critical steps in biblical interpretation.
Second, Glahn has worked to dig into major recent scholarship on Ephesus and Artemis. One thing that is hard to admit, but does happen, is that many of our "interpretative helps" for the Bible are not new and also not old enough. Rather, they came into common usage between the 17th and 19th century, and have since been repeated to the point of being unquestioned tradition. Artemis as "fertility goddess" is one of those, much like the oft-repeated (and completely wrong) "needle-eye door" understanding of Jesus' teaching about wealth. Someone picked it up, it got passed on, and now to question it will drive some people batty.
But those things which are not definitively in the text should be questioned. The assumptions we make about the culture surrounding the text should be questioned, and we have to realize that newer research can overturn older ideas in history as much as in chemistry or physics.
Do yourself a favor: pick up a copy of this book and stretch yourself a bit in your learning about the background of the Bible. Then, get your pastor/main Bible study teacher a copy, too, and talk about it. Talk about what you aren't sure about, ask a few good questions and go into detail. It can help a lot.
Monday, October 14, 2024
Sermon Recap for October 13 2024
Here is what you’ll find: there is an audio player with the sermon audios built-in to it, just click to find the one you want. You’ll also find the embedded YouTube videos of each sermon.
Monday, October 7, 2024
Sermon Recap for October 6 2024
Here is what you’ll find: there is an audio player with the sermon audios built-in to it, just click to find the one you want. You’ll also find the embedded YouTube videos of each sermon.
Friday, October 4, 2024
Smokey and the Bandit Day 2024
Why would anybody care? In truth, probably nobody really does.
It's just fun nonsense.
And every now and then, a bit of fun nonsense is a great idea. Pulling it from popular culture is certainly a disposable thing, but, again, what's the harm in some disposable nonsense?
The real "life thought" for the day is this:
When is the last time you laughed because you were relaxed and having fun?
Not because you were intoxicated or because you just couldn't figure out how else to respond, but you just, rather spontaneously, laughed. Even a little?
Maybe find those things that are part of your personal and family culture that help you lighten up and laugh.
You'll probably feel better.
Sermon Recap for October 27 2024
Here is what you’ll find: there is an audio player with the sermon audios built-in to it, just click to find the one you want. You’ll also...
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A couple of weeks ago, I ran through a few of my in-print organizational resources. Moving on from there, I thought I’d share the three main...
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So I still, from time to time, get books to review. It works like this: I get a free book and agree to review it. Then I beg for an extensio...
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Today, I want to give you a few quick suggestions for workflow tools. I do not have affiliate status with any of these companies, so there’s...