Jeremiah 31 [the new covenant] cannot be accurately used to describe the experience of any community — yet. - Mark Nanos

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” Mark 2:17

Call? The adamantly self-sufficient hear no compelling call. - John Piper

According to Luke and Acts, the death and resurrection of the Messiah are bound inextricably to both the land and the people. In the final analysis, his salvific work either includes them in its scope, or fails in its purpose.

Jerusalem will suffer many things, as the prophecies of Zechariah (12–14), Ezekiel, and Jesus (Luke 13, 19, 21, and 23) all foretell. But the city will be consoled when the LORD comes to defend her at the end. Luke still awaits that day when “the times of the gentiles are fulfilled,” which will also introduce the “time” when God will “restore the kingdom to Israel"...for the narrative of God’s dealings with Jerusalem, Israel, and the nations has not yet been closed. - Mark Kinzer

The Bible becomes more meaningful to us to the degree that we grow closer to its Author. - Derek Kistner

"But he [Lot] lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city."

Sometimes in our lingering, the Lord is merciful to seize us and drag us away. - Gabe Cali

"... the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21)

Jesus wasn't telling wicked Pharisees that they had a spiritual kingdom within their hearts, nor was he saying that he was the kingdom in their midst. He was correcting their non-apocalyptic eschatology. - Joshua Hawkins

The fact of the resurrection is absolutely essential to our assurance. Hence those who say that it is immaterial and unimportant that you should believe in the literal, physical resurrection are always people who are without assurance.

Indeed they are without a gospel. - Martin Lloyd Jones

My teaching on a brief survey of apostolic teaching and preaching in the book of Acts. Notes. Audio 1, Audio 2

Though the Apostles lived with an expectation of the Day of the Lord and the 2nd Coming of Jesus, they were simultaneously more devoted to evangelism, discipleship, and planting and pastoring churches as a result. - Travis M. Snow

“The Trinity is proof that God is love. For love requires a lover, a beloved, and the spirit of love between them.” - St. Augustine

“For the Lord has chosen Zion, he has desired it for his dwelling, saying, “This is my resting place for ever and ever; here I will sit enthroned, for I have desired it.”

Psalms 132:13-14

No focus on eschatology + no theology of the cross = bad discipleship -John P. Harrigan

Except a man be born again, he will wish one day he had never been born at all. -JC Ryle

It is a humble man who has rest for his soul. A man that is clothed with humility has rest, but a man that has not the humility of the Spirit of Christ does not know what rest is. -DL Moody

"Indeed, none who wait / hope for you shall be put to shame / disappointed." (Psalm 25:3)

“Salvation is not a reward for the righteous; it is a gift for the guilty.” -Steve Lawson

When upon your death-bed you come calmly to review your life, how comfortable will it be to reflect on the conquest which you have made over the depraved feelings of your heart. - John Flavel

Jesus isn’t a step ladder to your destiny. He’ll kill your destiny, and then resurrect you into His upward calling. - Corey Russell

Transgression, limitation, and promise: the consistent pattern critical to understanding the early narratives in Genesis and how they provide a foundation for the rest of the story of the scriptures. -Joshua Hawkins

Christian life and hope is best summarized thusly: "Suffering before glory"—in that specific order. -Joel Richardson

For Luke, as for Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, Jerusalem represents both the people of Israel and the land of Israel, fusing in one vivid image the corporate life of the Jewish people and the site apportioned as its promised inheritance. - Mark Kinzer

History shows that when the Kingdom of God is believed to be now, the logical end of "advancing the kingdom" is the church using law, government, and ultimately the military to achieve its goals. -Joel Richardson

"The greatest proof that the Bible is inspired is that it has withstood so much bad preaching!" -A.T. Robertson

A core interpretive fork in the road we encounter in the NT is whether Jesus' ministry fulfilling or somehow becoming connected to an OT motif, such as the Exodus, the Temple, the Jubilee, the Davidic Monarchy, etc., implies that these motifs have become prophetically exhausted through his 1st-century ministry, or at the very least, to the point that any future fulfillment of these motifs will not involve the same literal features these motifs had in prior "OT times." E.g,, "Jesus will reign as king in a new cosmos in the future, fulfilling the Davidic promise, but he will not actually do so on David's throne in Jerusalem. Or, Jesus did partially fulfill the Jubilee from 27-30 AD, and will do so to an even greater degree when he returns, when he sets humanity free from ultimate bondage. However this future fulfillment of the Jubilee does not necessitate a literal restoration of Israelite land and cities as it did originally in Leviticus 25."

This preferred path of much of Christendom when they encounter the hermeneutical fork in the road is out of touch with the way first-century Jews conceptualized God's work through the Messiah, that is to say, it is out of touch with first-century Jewish eschatology, as evidenced for example in both the Pharisaic and Essene literature. First-century Jews, Jesus included, saw history as moving towards the tangible re-enactment and visible manifestation of Israel's prior history, including the prophetic motifs that comprise the fabric of her Scriptures. From a close reading of the prophets, they saw a grass-roots future Exodus, an Israel-centered future Jubilee for people and land, an actual throne for the Son of David in Jerusalem, a holy Temple made of stone on the Temple Mount, etc. Years of Greek philosophical influence on Christian thinking, w/its emphasis on ethereal realities and allegorical readings of the text has obscured the Church's ability to taste and see the goodness of the Lord epitomized in the blessed hope which He has outlined in Scripture. -Travis M Snow

Living for the age to come often comes at the expense of living for this one. And that's okay, because our life in this age isn't worth saving if God is really going to do all that he's said. The mark of a true disciple is proving that to others through our words and lifestyle. -Joshua Hawkins

So we sing our praises here below
as we wait for Jesus' final blow
to Satan's head, when death will die
and from the grave our bones will rise

¡MARANATHA!

"The oldest saint still goes to school to the Lord Jesus. Oh, how little we know when we know most. The wisest saints are those who most readily confess their folly." - Charles Spurgeon

Paul’s binary metaphors (spirit/flesh, new/old man, darkness/light, seen/unseen, etc.) are not that mysterious.

Rather than speaking about two conflicting present realities, he is simply using metaphors to contrast this age and its brokenness with the glory of the age to come. - Bill Scofield

My teaching on contending for prayer in the local church. Audio 1, audio 2, notes. 

Men fall in private long before they fall in public. — J. C. Ryle

“Tho’ with a scornful wonder, 
Men see her sore oppressed, 
By schisms rent asunder, 
By heresies distressed, 
Yet saints their watch are keeping, 
Their cry goes up, ‘How long?’ 
And soon the night of weeping 
Shall be the morn of song.” 
 

“The Church’s One Foundation” —Samuel J. Stone