My teaching on Jesus's rejection at Nazareth from Luke 4. Notes. Audio 1. Audio 2. 

“Paul departed and went from one place to the next, strengthening all the disciples.” Acts 18:23

Whom will you make strong today?

Take some strengthening word of Scripture with you and at the right moment speak it. - John Piper

Biblical hope: The world will NOT be this way forever

Apocalyptic Evangelism | Joel Richardson

Remember the game "telephone" kids like to play? The word "orange" might go around the circle and come out as "elephant" at the end.

For 1st century Jews, "the kingdom of God" meant something very specific. Today, the meaning comes out as something almost unrecognizable to them. -Joshua Hawkins

...rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ... (1 Peter 1:13b)

Read without prejudice, a single verse can take apart today's twin false hopes of (a) avoiding end-time persecution and (b) birthing His kingdom without Him. - Nick Uva

A church that has forgotten its transient status in the world

…will inevitably become friends with it.

“ʏᴏᴜ ᴀᴅᴜʟᴛᴇʀᴇꜱꜱᴇꜱ, ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ɴᴏᴛ ᴋɴᴏᴡ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ꜰʀɪᴇɴᴅꜱʜɪᴘ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴏʀʟᴅ ɪꜱ ʜᴏꜱᴛɪʟɪᴛʏ ᴛᴏᴡᴀʀᴅ ɢᴏᴅ? ᴛʜᴇʀᴇꜰᴏʀᴇ ᴡʜᴏᴇᴠᴇʀ ᴡɪꜱʜᴇꜱ ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ ᴀ ꜰʀɪᴇɴᴅ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴏʀʟᴅ ᴍᴀᴋᴇꜱ ʜɪᴍꜱᴇʟꜰ ᴀɴ ᴇɴᴇᴍʏ ᴏꜰ ɢᴏᴅ.”

— ᴊᴀᴍᴇꜱ 4:4

-Aaron in Writing

Jewish eschatology in the Second Temple Period was largely what we would call "premillennial" and Jesus fit within that Jewish stream.

Also, the earliest church fathers who spoke to the issue were premillennial, so that tells you most of what you need to know. - Travis M. Snow

Fellowship in…

Submit to…

Worship with…

Build up…

Make disciples in and through…

…a local church.

The local church is one of the chief means by which God keeps and sanctifies His children.

Don’t do Christianity without it.

-BA Purtle

If it wasn’t obvious, in the days ahead the Lord will bring the Church to the full embodiment of his beatitudes. A Church in sackcloth.

“Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.”

Psalm 147:5

-TJ Sewob

Paul: "To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you."

Peter: "I think it right... to stir you up by way of reminder..."

Pastors, don't aim for novelty. Not all broken records are ills. Some play glorious songs that fortify faith and redound to eternity. - BA Purtle

“Jesus answered them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign.’” Matthew 12:39

Why adulterous?

Jesus is the Bridegroom come for his bride.

But she has a preferred boyfriend.

And so pretends to need extra proof that Jesus is her betrothed. - John Piper

Daniel petitions God to act righteously by showing mercy to Israel and delivering them from their enemies...

God’s glory is at stake in Jerusalem, and Daniel wants Jerusalem restored because he loves God’s glory.

-Dr. Jim Hamilton

A Tale of Two Messiahs

The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament

There was a time in my life when I pictured Pentecost as the breakthrough moment for the Holy Spirit in the life of God’s people. Pre-Pentecost, the Spirit was in heaven. Post-Pentecost, the Spirit finally began his work on earth.

I was wrong. Dead wrong. The Holy Spirit has been active in the world since the beginning.

As in, literally, The Beginning. Genesis 1:2, “The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” In Hebrew, the word ru’ach (רוּחַ) can mean wind, breath, spirit, or Spirit, depending upon the context. Sometimes, as at the Red Sea, I suspect a double meaning is intended, for God sent a strong east ru’ach (wind? Spirit?) and made the sea dry land (Exod. 14:21). And “at the ru’ach [breath? wind? Spirit?] of your nostrils the waters piled up” (15:8).

The Spirit is all over the Old Testament, equipping the builders of the tabernacle (Exod. 31:3), coming upon prophets (Num. 24:2), giving strength to judges (Judg. 6:34), clothing a priest with courage (2 Chron. 24:20), giving visions to Ezekiel (11:24), rushing upon David (1 Sam. 16:13). David prays that God will not take his Holy Spirit from him (Ps. 51:11) and that this same Spirit will lead him (143:10). If you are reading Bible in One Year with me, in one of today’s chapters, Isaiah speaks of the Spirit being poured out from on high (Isa. 32:15).

When we read in the NT that “the Spirit had not [yet] been given” (John 7:39), this is talking about the spectacular miracle of Pentecost, not that the Spirit was somehow trapped in heaven until then.

By his Spirit, God the Father has always been active in this world: creating, guiding, comforting, inspiring, and leading. Fill our hearts with your Spirit, dear Father, that he may lead us into the life of Jesus, that there we may find peace and joy that know no end. -Chad Bird

The fact that [while Daniel was praying] Jerusalem was in ruins called forth faith that it would again be restored because the God who had set His name on the city was the continuing, unchanging God, in control of history. - Joyce Baldwin, Daniel

My teaching on Jesus's preaching in Nazareth from Luke 4. Notes. Audio 1. Audio 2. 

If we don't love Christ's "first appearing," His life, death, and resurrection, and if we do not love His "appearing" to us today in the Gospel, in the Scriptures, in prayer, and in the Church; our love for His future appearing can be little more than eschatological curiosity. -BA Purtle

"Without doubt, they [the Jews] will return to their own land; because when their unbelief ceases, their dispersion, the dreadful and signal punishment of their unbelief, will cease too. . . . And as they have hitherto continued a distinct nation that they might continue a visible monument to His displeasure, for their rejecting and crucifying their Messiah, so after their conversion will they still be a distinct nation, that they may be a visible monument of God's wonderful grace and power in their calling and conversion.

But yet, we are not to imagine that the old walls of separation will be set up again. But all nations will be as free to come to Judea, or to dwell in Jerusalem, as into any other city or country, and may have the same privilege there as they themselves. For they [the Jewish people] shall look upon all the world to be their brethren, as much as the Christians in Boston and the Christians in other parts of New England look on each other as brethren." 

"Nothing is more certainly foretold than this national conversion of the Jews is in the eleventh chapter of Romans. And there are also many passages of the Old Testament that can't be interpreted in any other sense, that I can't now stand to mention. . . . The world affords nothing else like it- a remarkable hand of providence. When they shall be called, then shall that ancient people that were alone God's people for so long a time be God's people again, never to be rejected more, one fold with the Gentiles, and then also shall the remains of the ten tribes, wherever they are, be brought in together, and shall be united as one people as they formerly were under David and Solomon (Hos. 1.11), and so in the last chapter of Hosea, and other parts of his prophecy."

"And it is the more evident, that the Jews will return to their own land again, because they never have yet possessed one quarter of that land, which was so often promised them, from the Red Sea to the river Euphrates (Ex. 23.31; Gen. 15.18; Deut. 11.24; Josh. 1.4). Indeed, it was partly fulfilled in Solomon's time, when he governed all within those bounds for a short time; but so short, that it is not to be thought that this is all the fulfillment of the promise that is to be. And besides, that was not a fulfillment of the promise, because they did not possess it." 

(The Works of Jonathan Edwards: Apocalyptic Writings, ed. Stephen J. Stein; New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1977-- 5:135., etc.)

The cure for Christendom is a return to the Cross in context to first-century Jewish apocalypticism. - John P. Harrigan

The Christian culture I grew up in made God out to be a Divine Butler and Cosmic Therapist, ready to solve my problems and make me happy.

But as I got older and experienced life in this present evil age, I realized that version of God had zero power to sustain joy in trials.But I was left asking myself "does following Jesus mean I must live a joyless, painful, dull life, obeying because I know it's just the right thing to do?" The more I read the scriptures, the more I realized the answer to that question was a resounding "no".

Over and over again, the scriptures connect *obedience* with *delight*.

Yes, maybe for some new believers, there is an initial joy of knowing that their sins are forgiven. But modern Christianity has often neglected to emphasize the joy and delight that comes from obedience. 

How does this even work? How is it possible to have joy through trials and delight in obedience to Jesus' teachings?

I offer a humble explanation with some passages of scripture in this short video:

-Joshua Hawkins

Theology 101: Someday, the God to whom you owe everything will hand you a bill you can't pay. On that day, you’ll need somebody rich in mercy and merit to cover you. - Dr. Michael Svigel

Lo! He comes, with clouds descending,

once for our salvation slain;

thousand thousand saints attending

swell the triumph of His train.

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

God appears on earth to reign.

Ev’ry eye shall now behold Him,

robed in dreadful majesty;

those who set at naught and sold Him,

pierced, and nailed Him to the tree,

deeply wailing, deeply wailing,

shall the true Messiah see.

Every island, sea, and mountain,

heav’n and earth, shall flee away;

all who hate Him must, confounded,

hear the trump proclaim the day:

Come to judgment! Come to judgment!

Come to judgment, come away!

Now redemption, long expected,

see in solemn pomp appear!

And His saints, by men rejected,

coming with Him in the air.

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

See the day of God appear!

Yea, amen! Let all adore Thee,

high on Thine eternal throne;

Savior, take the pow’r and glory,

claim the kingdom for Thine own:

O come quickly, O come quickly,

Alleluia! Come, Lord, come!

(Cennick/Wesley, 18th cent.)

You can know some things about God by studying his creation, but the supreme way we can know God is by knowing Jesus from the words in the Bible. From Genesis to Revelation, God is telling us the story of his Son and he invites us into that story by reading and studying and relating to this Perfect Man.

The deepest longing in the human heart is to know and be known. The One Creator God also longs to be known and his primary means of being known is in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth.

Wherever it is that those who are “taken” go, we don’t want to go there. - D. Thomas Lancaster. 

The loss of eschatological faith leads to ethical weariness. -John P. Harrigan

The Day of the Lord, the kingdom of God, the resurrection, and the judgment were all part of the apostles' unified eschatological expectation. Gentiles turning to the God of Israel in advance of that Day accords with the prophets and confirms (not redefines) that expectation. - Josh Hawkins

A lot of folks proclaim the name of Jesus as their Lord and Savior without much thought about the history and understanding that accompanies it. That’s okay.

Learning about 2nd temple, 1st century Judaism has only solidified my faith and ever more hungry for His glorious appearing. -TJ Sewob