Disciple's Journey Bible Study: Recent Episodes
Dr. Brian Freeman
The Bible is full of stories about ordinary people doing extraordinary things! Our Bible study series has something for everyone, from new believers to seasoned ministers with decades of experience. We are equipping all disciples with a firm foundation of Biblical instruction on the path to deep spiritual maturity and faith in-action! We help make sense of God’s Word by providing simple explanations of difficult passages and concepts through examples from history, archeology, ancient cultures, and Biblical languages! Build your house on solid rock…and begin your journey today! Class Overview: https://files.captivate.fm/library/9d22ff10-eeb0-46fa-8fba-2481ac56923b/disciples-journey-class-overview.pdf
Resources for churches~ Sample Elder Recruitment Plan: https://files.captivate.fm/library/7eeaa7a1-79e5-43d5-b070-7215d38bb1c0/elder-recruitment-program-example.pdf Sample Lead Pastor Job Description: https://files.captivate.fm/library/d8c24d89-134b-46b9-806f-cca69f3dda4a/lead-pastor-job-description.pdf Sample Church Education Vision: https://files.captivate.fm/library/e426f315-bf8e-4887-b697-efb14d45dc16/church-education-vision-statement.pdf
Jesus concludes the last Jewish Passover by establishing a new covenant (testament) between man and God that will be fully affirmed by the spilling of his own blood at the crucifixion.
Jesus shocks his disciples by predicting the destruction of the Jewish Temple that will accompany the birth of the Christian Church.
Jerusalem's religious leaders increase their verbal attacks on Jesus in an attempt to discredit him and turn the crowds against him.
Jesus enters Jerusalem on the last week of his earthly life and is crowned the King of the Jews by an exuberant crowd of followers.
True discipleship means putting Jesus first in our lives, even if that means letting go of all earthly idols and obstacles.
Jesus connects his physical miracles of healing the blind with the word of God which heals spiritual blindness.
Jesus strikes at the heart of religious hypocrisy by denouncing the empty works of the Pharisees and preaching a message of inner transformation.
Jesus' disciples - growing daily in maturity and wisdom - are sent out into the world to preach the Good News. Jesus' miraculous demonstration of feeding the five thousand becomes an analogy for feeding the Word of God to the lost sheep of this world.
The New Testament conclusively demonstrates that believers can pray for Jesus to intercede in the lives of others.
Jesus spoke in parables as a way of demonstrating that a faithful and loving heart precedes salvation and Godly wisdom, in contrast to our modern "debate culture" where we assume intellectual arguments lead to a saving faith.
The Jews were expecting their messiah to be a military ruler in the style of King David who would start a civil war and vanquish the Romans.
Jesus demonstrates his divine authority by linking his miracles of healing and regeneration to a message of spiritual renewal.
The Gospel of Mark was a landmark in world literature and the first published account of the life of Jesus.
Abraham's journey ends as God's faithful covenant passes to his son Isaac and then to his grandson Jacob.
Abraham purchases land in Canaan for the first time, signifying a permanent residence for him and his descendants, just as God promised years ago.
Abraham's journey with God culminates on the top of Mount Moriah where he is tested in a climactic act of faith that reveals his true heart and prefigures the monumental sacrifice of grace and mercy that Jesus will offer thousands of years later.
God reveals His plans to destroy two wicked cities but Abraham successfully prays for the Lord to deliver his family from the coming annihilation.
24 years after first promising to establish a covenant with Abram, the Lord finally reveals his detailed covenant plans to Abram and his wife Sarai: they will conceive within a year and give birth to a son, Isaac, who will be the progenitor of an entire race of "chosen people" enjoying a special relationship with God through whom the entire world will be blessed. As part of their spiritual transformation, the Lord renames Abram to Abraham, meaning "the father of many nations", and his wife Sarai to Sarah, meaning "God's princess".
As Abram's faith in God grows stronger every day, the Lord makes an everlasting covenant with Abram to bless him with countless offspring and give his descendants the "promised land" of Canaan.
God selects a man from relative obscurity to receive an everlasting promise with no strings attached, an act of unimaginable grace given to a flawed man who slowly learned to trust his creator.
Humanity begins to rebuild after the great flood. Agricultural advances enable mankind to build giant cities in the fertile region of Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) where they attempt to build giant temples that reach all the way to the heavens. In the midst of the subsequent cultural upheaval, God calls a righteous family out of the ancient city of Ur to migrate to Canaan where he will establish an everlasting covenant with the father of the Hebrew nation: Abraham.
Mankind's descent into unrestrained sinfulness is answered by God raising up a single righteous man to faithfully and obediently be the conduit for the salvation of the entire human race, where creation is renewed and an everlasting covenant is established between man and his creator.
The newly created human race begins a rapid free-fall into chaos as sin spreads unchecked through society and mankind grows further apart from God.
Human beings are a special part of God's creation: we were made in His image, set apart as caretakers of this world, and created to live in harmony with each other. Sin (rebellion against God's rules and expectations) damages us and causes great harm to ourselves and those around us. Even as sin was entering the world on those first days, God was already laying the groundwork for the redemption of all mankind.
Join us as we begin an exploration of God's marvelous word by studying where we came from, why we were created, our place in the universe, and our relationship with our divine creator.
The church is facing massive disruption. This sermon analyzes the modern church and how it has been devastated by the current global crisis. We look at how far the modern church has strayed from its original roots in the first century and examine the lessons we can apply to strengthen the global body of believers to successfully navigate the current catastrophe.
A door closes on almost one thousand years of prophecy, as the children of Israel conclude one chapter in their great history while looking forward to an even greater future that will be inaugurated by God's only begotten son and the savior of all humanity: "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness, a light has dawned..."
The Old Testament closes with the Israelites at a crossroads: they continue to fall into apathy and sin while looking forward to a new age when God's new covenant will transform the entire world.
Christians in the first century asked the same question we ask today: "If a loving god exists, why is there suffering in the world?" In a magnificent final passage that closes-out the book of Hebrews, the authors remind the young Christian community that we live in a fallen world of our own choosing, a corrupted universe that is the direct result of our rebellion against God. But the suffering we endure is also the helpful work of God perfecting our faith like the sharpest swords forged in the hottest fires, and God's discipline strengthens us to develop a deep maturity that is the hallmark of a true disciple of Christ.
Christianity is often cast as a system of blind faith where followers must entirely suspend logic and reason in order to believe in the existence of God without any proof or empirical evidence. On the contrary, those who are familiar with the Word of God...including the authors of Hebrews...demonstrate time and again that Christian faith is backed-up by overwhelming proof (in the form of physical evidence and personal experience) that demands we reject the "null hypothesis" (life is due to random chance) and accept the truth that God is real and desires to intimately know his creation.
The authors of Hebrews challenge their readers to look beyond the "letter" of the law, which is only useful for imperfectly describing sin and atonement, and focus on the "spirit" of the law to understand how Jesus gave his life as a perfect sacrifice to wipe the slate clean and destroy death once for all.
God established several covenants (contracts, testaments) with the human race over thousands of years that functioned as promises between God and his creation. The final covenant -- established by Jesus' earthly ministry and continuing to present age --guarantees a deeply personal relationship between God and humanity based on grace and mercy rather than ritual and sacrifice.
In the Old Testament, Jewish priests functioned as intermediaries between humanity and God in a flawed system that required mortal priests to make atonement for their own sins. The authors of Hebrews contend that God appointed Jesus as a final, sinless, eternal priest who enables humanity to be lovingly reconciled to our perfect, holy creator.
Olympic athletes train every day to strengthen their bodies and prepare for athletic competition. In the absence of daily activity, the body becomes weak and lethargic, eventually succumbing to sickness and death. In the same way, the author of Hebrews encourages Christians to constantly train their faith to grow stronger in the Word of God to resist falling-away into apathy and spiritual death.
The author of Hebrews emphasizes faith as a continually active exercise, prompting Christians to encourage each other daily - and thereby achieve eternal rest - to avoid slipping into the habit of sin and rebellion which leads to hardened hearts and eventual rejection of the Gospel message.
The parallels between the first century and today are striking: tyrannical governments consolidating their firm grip on power through propaganda and persecution of believers in the name of "public safety", apathetic followers drifting away as the novelty of Christianity lost its luster, knowledge of the Word of God sidelined in-favor of entertainment and short-term prosperity, and religious leaders focused on useless ritual rather than changing hearts and minds. To counter these problems, the author of Hebrews demonstrated how Jesus transformed the old covenants by bringing a message of hope to a hopeless world, offering eternal life to those terrified of dying, and transforming lives by replacing despair with overwhelming joy. Download a list of Bible-Study Resources: https://files.captivate.fm/library/48ddd658-44bf-4f6f-8888-293b98264418/biblical-resources.pdf
Christianity began with a spectacular "bang" in the first century as a flood of new converts came directly from the Jewish community responding to the electrifying gospel message. As the excitement and novelty of those early days began to fade, the Christian community became a melting pot of believers still clinging to the "old covenant" Jewish ritual system plus apathetic new converts attracted by the gospel message who lacked any interest in solid Biblical instruction or discipline. In response, the author of Hebrews composed a magnificent sermon proving conclusively that Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the Messiah predicted by the Jewish scriptures yet fully divine, a high priest, a king from the House of David, and the Son of God superior to all who came before him.
The early church began to face internal and external hardships almost immediately after its formation in the first century. James, writing to his fellow Jewish Christians throughout the known world, composed one of the most significant and impactful letters in human history by addressing the problems of the early church and proposing bold solutions.
The book of Samuel ends with two cliffhangers: David purchases the land which his son Solomon will use to build the Lord's Temple...and God lays the foundations for the coming messiah through establishing King David's royal bloodline.
David's song of praise -- a nearly identical copy of Psalm 18 -- is a magnificent book-end to Second Samuel and a fitting summary of David's love for his creator.
Saul's legacy of genocide against Israel's neighbors triggers repercussions for David and his people.
The repercussions of Absalom's failed coup continue to reverberate as David slowly regains control over the nation of Israel.
King David mobilizes his troops and routs the armies of his rebellious son Absalom before his son is killed by David's top general.
With his sights set on deposing his father David and making himself king, Absalom organizes a rebellion and marches on the capital city of Jerusalem, forcing David to flee for his life.
King David's eldest son Amnon commits an unspeakable crime against his half-sister Tamar, leading to an act of murderous revenge by his brother Absalom and setting the family on a path to war.
King David consolidates his power by defeating his enemies and finally creating a stable Israelite government.
David brings the Ark of the Covenant into his new capital city of Jerusalem, and God makes a promise to establish an eternal kingdom for David's descendants.
The puppet ruler of the northern kingdom is murdered in an act of treachery as Israel marches closer to unification. David becomes the undisputed king of the entire nation of Israel and makes Jerusalem his capital.
David learns that King Saul and his son Jonathan have died fighting the Philistines. A power vacuum in the wake of Saul's death leads to open conflict between Israel and Judah. The power struggle continues between Israel and Judah in the chaotic aftermath of Saul's death, as a daring act of revenge against a powerful ally moves Israel one step closer to unification.
Saul seeks guidance from a necromancer who summons the spirit of the Samuel and receives an ominous prophesy.
In a daring night-time operation, David sneaks behind enemy lines directly into the heart of Saul's camp while his enemy sleeps. But rather than taking revenge and freeing himself of his mortal enemy, David again demonstrates an incredible act of mercy that further convicts Saul of his sin and corruption.
In the face of overwhelming injustice, on the run for his life for a crime he didn’t commit, with his closest friends twisting truth and urging him to avenge himself upon his enemy, and with the opportunity to rid himself of Saul once and for all, David instead chooses the path of righteousness…and firmly demonstrates that he is a “man after God’s own heart.”
Desperate and running for his life, David's seemingly innocuous lies result in catastrophic damage to the Israelite priesthood and nearly lead to its extinction.
The story of David and Goliath is arguably the most famous narrative from the Old Testament, in which a young Israelite confronts a powerful enemy who is technologically and physically superior in every way. David...armed only with his courage, a few rocks, and his unshakable faith in the Living God...strikes down the giant in a spectacular act of faith and finally turns the tide against Israel's most lethal enemy.
Saul becomes completely corrupted by his absolute power, placing his own self-interests and fear of the people ahead of his loyalty to righteousness and love of God. In response, God rejects Saul and anoints David as the new king of Israel.
Absolute power begins to corrupt Saul absolutely, and he starts a downward spiral into disobedience, corruption and hysteria.
In his first test as king, Saul leads his troops into battle against the Ammonites who have threatened the cities of Israel.
God selects a young farmer out of relative obscurity to become the first king of Israel...and inaugurates a brand-new age for God's chosen people.
Following centuries of turmoil under the leadership of the Judges, the Israelites cry out to God for a king.
The Philistines - Israel's most lethal enemy during the early Iron Age - decimate the Israelite army and steal their most precious religious artifact, the Ark of the Covenant.
The Israelites finally hit rock-bottom: Following a string of failed leaders, savage military defeats and extensive religious corruption, God raises up the last judge of Israel who will completely transform his society and usher-in the greatest era of peace and prosperity the Israelites have ever seen.
At the dawn of the Iron Age, in time when God's chosen people were corrupt and divided, the last judge of Israel was born to a faithful yet barren woman who cried out to God to give her a son.
On the third day after his brutal execution, Jesus miraculously takes his first breaths and rises from death with a new immortal body. He spends the next several weeks appearing to his disciples and proving he was the man they knew as Jesus of Nazareth. His resurrection set the stage for the most rapid growth of any religion the world has ever seen.
Jesus is tried before Pontius Pilate on the charge of treason and sentenced to death by crucifixion.
Jesus was thoroughly non-violent: he never raised an army, he never wielded a weapon, and he never struck another human being. He healed the sick, cared for the poor, and encouraged the weakest members of society. Yet many people were extremely threatened by Jesus' message, including the religious elite, the morally bankrupt, and haters of God's word. To them, Jesus represented a clear and present danger: not to their physical security but to their personal beliefs and their corrupt lifestyles. As their hatred peaked -- and Jesus' popularity soared -- they decided to act: In the middle of the night, in a quiet garden hidden away from Jesus' strongest supporters, the religious leaders arrested Jesus and subjected him to a completely illegal midnight trial with the goal of executing him before the day was finished.
Jesus...the Son of God and the Savior of the world...prays for God to save his followers on the night before his execution.
“A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me. I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
As Jesus' time on earth draws to a close, he makes one last impassioned plea for his disciples to love one another just as he loved them. "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends."
Only hours remain until Jesus is crucified and God's spirit dramatically departs from the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. But before he leaves his disciples, Jesus promises that God's Holy Spirit will return in a magnificent and powerfully personal way by coming to live within each and every disciple of Jesus.
Jesus' fame reaches its zenith as he arrives in Jerusalem for his final Passover. And in a stunning admission, the author of John's Gospel finally confirms that many of Jesus' most hostile enemies within the Jewish senior leadership have secretly become believers of Jesus. Yet many would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be ostracized from their communities and become social outcasts.
One of Jesus' most spectacular miracles demonstrated his immense power over the universe while also occasioning to show his enormous compassion for his closest friends.
During the festival of Hanukkah, Jesus was teaching at the temple courts when the Jewish leaders confronted him and asked "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly!" Jesus' response was direct and severe, leading some to claim that he was demon-possessed and insane, and resulting in numerous attempts to seize him and stone him to death.
Jesus demonstrated his remarkable power by healing a man blind from birth. But the event raised questions about why the man was born blind in the first place: Was he a sinner? Were his parents sinners? What is the purpose of suffering...is it simply divine retribution for human wickedness? Jesus' actions...and his answer to those questions...ignited a firestorm of controversy that continued to further provoke the religious elite while winning new disciples to Jesus' side.
Jesus' direct and confrontational style often put him at odds with the religious leaders of his day and repeatedly caused friction with those around him. Far from being the meek, passive "hippie" popularized in modern culture, Jesus had a sharp tongue and a searing wit that he often used to boldly confront hypocrisy and challenge deeply-held preconceptions, even among his closest followers.
Jesus' radical teaching and confrontational style begins to elicit major resistance -- and even physical violence -- from multiple groups including his followers, the Jews, religious leaders, and even Jesus' own brothers.
As Jesus' ministry progressed, he began to attract a huge multitude of followers. At one point he found himself preaching to a crowd of over 5,000 men (and likely triple that number in women and children). Jesus' message was thrilling...his presence electrifying...and one evening when the large crowd had nowhere to go to eat for the night, Jesus performed one of only two miracles recorded in all four Gospels: He miraculously fed the huge crowd from a small amount of bread and fish. Later, Jesus makes one of the most significant and remarkable statements of his entire ministry: He claimed that many people casually followed him simply for short-sighted, short-term, material reasons: They wanted more miracles, they wanted more messages, and they wanted more bread to fill their bellies...all because they continued to rely on worldly things to satisfy their physical nature...they continued to crave perishable things that only satisfy for a short time before needing replenishment.
Can God bless people who don't know him, or don't trust him, or who don't have a personal relationship with him? John 5 is a powerful example where Jesus does exactly that: he blesses and heals a disabled beggar who was initially clueless about Jesus' status as Messiah and son of God. In this passage, Jesus demonstrated his unlimited grace and mercy...indeed proving that God loves all people...but this was not simply a "random act of kindness": it was meant to stimulate true spiritual transformation in the man's life. Later, the man comes to realize Jesus' true nature and purpose, and Jesus sends him away with a powerful warning: "change your life and stop sinning so that you can avoid spiritual suffering and death, which are much worse than physical suffering and death!"
Jesus demonstrates the proper way to share the Gospel with others: he is willing to talk to people who are very different from him who some consider "enemies"; he treats people with respect and dignity; he establishes a close personal relationship; he doesn't lead with condemnation or rebukes; he is tender, loving and patient, expressing a genuine hope of helping them; he expresses a willingness to first meet people's physical and emotional needs before addressing their spiritual needs...and when the time is right, he shares the truth of the "good news".
This is it. This is the mountain-top. This is the point of the entire Bible: Whether you're a liar or a thief or a murderer...whether you're straight or gay or something else...whether you're a Jew or a Gentile or an atheist...God gave YOU his one-of-a-kind son Jesus so that you can live in eternal paradise. And all you have to do is believe in Jesus by entrusting him with your eternal soul. That's it! That's all! It's a free gift...So what are you waiting for?
Jesus' first miracle may seem mundane at first glance, or worse, appear like some sort of "magic trick" meant to entertain guests at a wedding feast. But Jesus turning water into wine has much deeper theological significance.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." Thus begins the Gospel According to John, an account of Jesus' life and ministry that differs in many ways from the other "synoptic" Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. In contrast to those accounts, John's Gospel contains no parables, no exorcisms, no sermon on the mount, no Lord's Supper, no Lord's Prayer, and little talk of the coming "Kingdom of God."
"In those days there was no king in Israel...all the people did what was right in their own eyes."The book of Judges concludes as the author illustrates the depths to which the Israelites have sunk without a Godly king on the throne: moral decay, social depravity, kidnapping, rape, murder, war and genocide. Civil war erupts between the people of Israel with one tribe (Benjamin) almost completely obliterated in an act of furious rage and revenge. Although the Israelites made one last attempt to seek God's council, they go far beyond what God expected and nearly destroyed the fragile alliance of tribes kept God's people together for almost 400 years.
"...and he did not know the Lord had left him."Samson's great strength wasn't "magic": It didn't originate from his long hair and it wasn't automatically weakened by violating his Nazirite vows. Indeed, Samson had no control over his incredible strength: the great miracles Samson performed came from God...and God alone.Samson was an incredibly flawed man who God repeatedly chose to bless with great strength so that God's plans would be fulfilled (and Israel's enemies defeated). But Samson's most egregious sin occurred when he abandoned God and took credit for his own successes. He thought HE was in control of his miraculous strength, that all of his powers came from his OWN body and that the source of those powers laid in his "magic hair". Indeed, Samson became so disconnected from God that God finally removed his Spirit (and thus Samson's mighty strength) resulting in Samson's capture and mutilation.
Samson struggled throughout his life to control his emotions. He made poor choices that often led to disastrous consequences. When challenged, Samson usually responded with impulsively violent outbursts that greatly harmed the people around him, often ending in death and destruction. Samson was a man living on the edge.*As the period of the Judges ended, a cataclysmic apocalypse engulfed the entire Mediterranean and Near-East regions. Highly-advanced civilizations disappeared almost over-night: cities were suddenly depopulated and burned to the ground, economies collapsed, and writing disappeared. This "Late Bronze Age Collapse" was sudden, violent, and unprecedented...and partially the result of wars fought by the mysterious "Sea Peoples" who settled in Canaan and later became known as one of Israel's greatest enemies: The Philistines.
The birth of Israel's most famous judge has many parallels with the birth of Christ: An angel announces his coming to a woman who has never born any other children; the angel makes an additional announcement to the woman's husband, the boy is destined to be a chosen leader of his people, and the Spirit of God was destined to work powerfully in his life. But unlike Jesus, Samson was a flawed human who repeatedly struggled to act righteously and follow God. But even though Samson was an imperfectly flawed sinner, GOD was able to make Samson righteous and work through him to fulfill his holy plans in the world. We can learn an important lesson from Samson by realizing that God can do amazing things through anyone...no matter how flawed or broken we are.
God can raise up anyone to bless and serve Him, regardless of background or personal history. Jephthah was the son of a prostitute who was ostracized from his mixed family because of his heritage. He ran away from home and fell-in with "worthless fellows", and he struggled to faithfully follow God. But Jephthah was a great leader and a cunning warrior who gained the admiration of the Israelites and the blessings of God, who raised him up to deliver Israel from her enemies.
Gideon achieved complete victory over the Midianites because he was faithful to God and followed God's commands. But with victory in-hand, not only did Gideon fail to worship God for the miracles He had provided, Gideon continued to pursue his enemies to exact complete vengeance and kill anyone who got in his way. And once his enemies were dead -- with peace and security around him -- Gideon fell away from God into a cycle of sin and idolatry.How many times have we reaped the miraculous benefits of prayer only to forget God, assign His intervention to chance (or our own power), or worst of all go back to our sinful ways because we no longer need God?
Gideon perfectly represented Israel's judges: He was a humble farmer who was plucked from obscurity by God to become a mighty warrior and lead the Israelites into battle to deliver them from the crushing oppression of the Midianites. At first, Gideon questioned God's messenger to understand why his people were suffering if God truly loved them. "Didn't the Lord being us out of Egypt? But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian!" When the Lord answered "Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand", Gideon responded by asking for "signs" for God to prove Himself.
3400 years ago, in an age of overwhelming male dominance and control, one of the most remarkable women in world history was the undisputed leader of God's Chosen People. Deborah was smart, strong, brave and righteous. She was a prophet and a judge who held court under the "Palm of Deborah" and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided. When she ordered her male army commander to attack their violent enemy and free their people from the yoke of oppression, he flatly refused to go into battle without her! In response, she famously said “Certainly I will go with you...But because of the course you are taking, the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman!”
Following the remarkable success of Joshua's initial conquest of Canaan (the "Promised Land"), the Israelites descend into repeating cycles of moral and spiritual decline. The troubles of God's "Chosen People" are the result of disobeying God, disobeying leaders, idolatry, religious apathy, and intermarriage with wicked Canaanites who didn't share the Israelite's religious beliefs. In response to Israel's spiritual apathy and religious apostasy, God gave the Israelites over to be oppressed by their regional neighbors.The cycle of decline includes: 1) God's people depart from God, 2) God allows Israel's neighbors to oppress them, 3) The Israelites return to God and plead for Him to save them, and 4) God raises-up Judges (often military leaders) to deliver the Israelites from their enemies. This cycle is repeated numerous times, and God's Judges are often portrayed as flawed leaders who vacillate between acts of faithful righteousness and terrible acts of sin...much like the rest of us…
In the last days of the Bronze Age, in a tiny strip of land that was the crossroads of western civilization, nestled among the crumbling remains of the world's mightiest empires, a group of people who worshipped a single all-powerful God who referred to His children as the "chosen ones" began to take control of a region they called the "promised land" and organized themselves into one of the most influential civilizations in human history. They were called Israelites...the Sons of Abraham.This is the story of twelve loose-knit tribes who continually struggled to faithfully follow God, and repeatedly called-out for deliverance from their hostile neighbors.The authors of Judges created a narrative that emphasized the pitfalls of Israel's leadership vacuum and the moral decay that results from spiritual aimlessness. For the authors of Judges, only one solution would solve their social and religious problems: establishing a religious monarchy and crowning an Israelite king.
In his closing chapters, Paul highlights his apostleship to the Gentiles and expresses his wish to visit Rome.
It's human nature to look down upon those who are different or perceived to be "less capable" than ourselves. In the First Century, the blossoming Christian church was a great melting pot of people from very different backgrounds including diverse cultures, socioeconomic strata, and most importantly varying levels of Christian knowledge and faith. Many of the new converts were once orthodox Jewish believers. This melting pot caused great rifts in the church between Gentiles who shunned the Mosaic laws (primarily the food laws and belief in honoring the Sabbath) and devout Jews who staunchly believed in upholding their cultural and religious laws. Paul makes very clear that many issues in the Christian church are matters of personal belief and opinion. It's important to honor God in our own way, but just as importantly, we can't let our own personal opinions and beliefs cause us to judge other Christians.
Jews of the First Century were seeking a religious military leader who would finally overthrow their Roman oppressors through a bloody armed rebellion and establish a king who would vanquish the enemies of God forever. Jesus of Nazareth, in contrast, never supported violence or open military conflict against the government. In fact, Jesus' "rebellion" was only against the hypocritical and erroneous teachings of the Jewish leaders of his time; Jesus never supported open conflict with the Jewish elite or Rome. Ironically, Jesus' message caused great divisions within the Jewish community and even led to widespread riots that caused the Jews to be briefly expelled from Rome in 49 AD. Worried these events could quickly spiral out of control, Paul commanded Christians to submit to government authorities and give Rome no reason to fear/attack them: Christians should pay their taxes, respect their leaders, and clearly show the government that they were NOT a threat.
Christianity is virtually unique among world religions in the doctrine of loving our enemies. Paul emphatically calls upon Christians to pray for those who harm us, help those who hate us, and NEVER seek revenge. Loving our enemies not only demonstrates God's unending merciful love to others...it helps US find true inner peace through actively giving grace and mercy to others.
Paul writes that Jews who reject Jesus are being preserved as a "remnant" by God's grace as an act of His divine mercy in order to fulfill the promises He made in the holy Jewish scriptures (Old Testament). God has allowed Jesus to be a "stumbling block" to the people of Israel so that their transgressions will allow the Gentiles to be "grafted in" to fully participate in the benefits of the covenant salvation promised to God's "chosen people"...His elect, who are the Jews. The hearts of the Israelites will remain hardened until "the full number of Gentiles comes in" and then all of Israel will be saved by God's endless mercy! Christians...rather than being the enemies of the Jews...instead draw nourishing "sap" from the covenant relationship established between God and the Israelite nation.
Paul said that his "heart's desire" was for his fellow Israelites to believe the "good news" that Jesus Christ was indeed the long-awaited Messiah. But ultimately, many Jews of the First Century rejected Jesus and refused to accept that God would extend His salvation to Gentiles (non-Jews) even though this -- and their rejection of the Messiah -- was clearly predicted in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). Although religiously zealous, Paul stated that his fellow Israelites failed to submit to God's righteousness in their hearts and accept Christ as the culmination of the Hebrew covenants and Mosaic laws. The path to salvation is not impossible and not based on lineage, but rather "If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved!"
"I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers [the Jews], my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen." - The Apostle Paul.
Paul makes the argument that God's Elect ("chosen people") are not just the Israelites who were descendants of Abraham and followed the Mosaic Laws...they are ALL people (Gentiles included) who are spiritually adopted ("grafted-in") through faith in Jesus Christ.
The are several controversial (and often misunderstood) topics in the Bible including God's "calling", His "elect", God's “hardening of hearts”, human faith, and predestination. We present an empirical, evidence-based approach to elucidate truth from the Bible and separate fact from fiction for these important topics. In summary, you must choose to accept God’s gift of salvation, but the power to save is completely in His hands. We highly recommend you download the study guide: https://files.captivate.fm/library/ecdb2639-f498-42db-856c-f857a5edb5b5/separating-biblical-fact-from-fiction.pdf
Our attempts to follow religious laws and "be good people" paradoxically result in our moral decay as we strive to serve the law and not God. The very laws that promise life tragically result in our spiritual death. By accepting Jesus as our personal savior, we die to sin (and the law) and are reborn into a new covenant relationship with God - akin to marriage - where we can experience God's full grace, mercy, peace, love, trust and freedom.
Christian water baptism is a physical act that mimics the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But true baptism occurs inwardly when the believer gives his or her life to Christ and is “baptized” by God's Holy Spirit in a magnificent spiritual resurrection. However, baptism is not a "free pass" to engage in sinful behavior, and Paul emphasizes a continual effort to focus on obedience and righteousness rather than being a slave to sin.
Sin (and death) entered the world when God's created "son" Adam rebelled against his creator. God's moral and Biblical laws weren't meant to provide us with a check-list path to salvation...but rather a check-list of crimes and sins which further condemn us all. God's true son Jesus gave his life as a willing sacrifice to provide all of humanity with a path to the free gift of salvation through earnest faith in Jesus Christ the Messiah.
If salvation is based on works, then we have the power to save our own souls: grace and faith have no purpose, Jesus' ministry was pointless, the New Testament irrelevant, and God is a powerless bystander. Paul refutes these ideas by revealing that salvation is based solely on the gift, grace and power of God...and that no human being is capable of saving themselves.
"Once I'm baptized, I can continue sinning freely because I'm already saved, right?!" Paul refutes this concept of "cheap grace" by emphasizing that Christians still have a responsibility to live according to God's moral standards.
If faith in Jesus supersedes the Mosaic laws of the Old Testament, and Gentiles can achieve salvation previously reserved only for the Jews, then what was the point of the Mosaic laws? What was the value of Judaism? These are the issues Paul addresses in the second chapter of Romans.
Romans is the quintessential theological work of the New Testament and arguably the Apostle Paul's most significant work. This video provides a background of Paul's letter to the Roman church including the major themes of Romans, when it was written, the composition of the Roman church, Paul's defense of his apostleship, and an explanation of some of the Greek words used by Paul in his letter.