Therefore, the ideal reader of Matthew’s Gospel (i.e., the one familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures) would have been prepared by the time he reached 24:34 to expect η γενεά αυτη ("this generation") to be a reference to the people of Israel viewed collectively (i.e., in corporate solidarity) as unfaithful to their God. This expectation will be demonstrated by examining some of the Old Testament (OT) passages quoted or alluded to by Matthew in his story concerning Jesus to show the presence of this new exodus motif. - Ryan E. Meyer, 'This Generation' in Matthew 24:34

"Genea" [generation] is used in a qualitative sense, not a temporal sense. - Ryan E. Meyer, 

"This Generation" in Matthew 24:34, pdf

Theology 101: Christian leaders must learn to think 4-dimensionally—not only being aware of what’s going on around them but also understanding how it got this way (the past) and where it’s going (the future). - Dr. Micheal Svigel

Realized (kingdom now) eschatology turns the normative Christian walk of embracing the cross, dying to self, patiently enduring, and awaiting our Blessed hope into trying to "manifest" alleged mystical, invisible realities. I rightly refer to it as Gnosticism. It bears a far greater resemblance to the larger worldview of pagan Greek philosophy than to the worldview described in the Bible. -Joel Richardson 

"They have seen Your procession, O God,

The procession of my God, my King, into the sanctuary.

The singers went on, the musicians after them,

In the midst of the maidens beating tambourines."

(Psalm 68:24–25)

Image via Joel Richardson

A large swath of fruitful pastoral ministry is made up of 1) selflessly listening to struggling believers, 2) reminding them of what the Scriptures teach, and 3) praying for the work of the Holy Spirit in their hearts.

The people of God don’t need gurus. They need fathers. - BA Purtle

A covenant that is not explicitly stated but implicitly assumed or hypothetically deduced is by definition not a covenant. ~ Daniel Chammas

And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise (Galatians 3:29). 

This means that Gentiles, through faith in Christ, are grafted into the covenantal blessings of Israel. But this inclusion does not nullify the original promises to the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Instead, it reveals the Messiah as the hinge upon which those promises swing open to the nations.  - Joel Richardson, Abraham Covenant, Paul, and Galatians 3:16

“They like the Bible least who know it least, and they love it most who read it most.” — Charles Spurgeon

It appears too good to be so.

Forgiveness.

Reconciliation.

Justification.

Adoption.

Communion.

Sanctification.

Future glory.

Balm for a war-torn world.

Everlasting joy.

But it's no fable. It's true- For Christ died, arose, ascended, and is soon to appear.

All hail King Jesus. - BA Purtle

The true test of a man’s spirituality is not his ability to speak, as we are apt to think, but rather his ability to bridle his tongue. ~ Kent Hughes

"In that day the LORD will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; the one who is feeble among them in that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the Angel of the LORD before them. It shall be in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem" (Zechariah 12:8-9).

"Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle. And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east" (Zech. 14:3-4a).

I see people saying that Jerusalem is the wicked, end-time "Babylon." This is a dangerous teaching that can fuel the already burgeoning antipathy against Jewish people. Consider:

1. God's intention is not to leave the Jews scattered forever, but to regather them.

2. God's intention is indeed to gather the nations against Jerusalem, but in order that He might judge those nations.

3. God's ultimate intention for the City is to make it the capital and jewel of His Kingdom, and not to leave it an eternally barren waste.

To assert otherwise comes from failing to receive the Scriptures as literally true, and from ignoring the oaths that God Himself swore. It requires more cleverness than human beings possess to transform what God has said throughout the prophets into a soup of symbolism and allegories. There are numerous Scriptures to prove the truth of this, but just to focus on one small element:

Christians are commonly taught that when Jesus returns, He will be returning to the Mount of Olives. But what will He be doing when He arrives there? - Nic Uva

Theology 101: Jesus is hope incarnate. When we grieve, we find strength in him. When we lose heart, we long for his coming. At the center of Christian hope stands not a promise, not a principle, not even a prophecy, but a Person—the Lord Jesus Christ. - Dr. Micheal Svigel

My teaching on Jesus's anointing by the sinful woman in Luke 7. Notes. Audio 1. Audio 2. 

To those I'm discipling in our local church, I recommend a prayer list made up of the kinds of things they will be glad to have consistently prayed for once they reach the end of their lives. Or to put it another way --- a list of those things or people they'd be ashamed to have neglected in prayer when they stand before God.

Here's a summary of mine:

(PERSONAL)

1. My own remembrance of the Gospel.

2. My personal growth in godliness in every sphere of responsibility (as a disciple, husband, father, grandfather, steward, neighbor, elder, etc.).

3. Power, character, and spiritual gifts to minister effectively.

(FAMILY)

4. My wife's flourishing.

5. The salvation and blessing of God upon my children and grandchildren.

6. Extended family.

(CHURCH)

7. The health and flourishing of my local church/fellow elders and their families, members, other leaders, missional communities, etc.

8. Other churches/ministers I'm in relationship with.

(GREAT COMMISSION/GOSPEL ADVANCE)

9. Salvation of specific neighbors, acquaintances, and for fruit in ongoing Gospel conversations

10. For my city and nation (governmental leaders, citizens, and churches)

11. For the salvation of the lost sheep of the house of Israel - through evangelism now and through the return of the Lord.

12. Mt. 9.37-38 - For Gospel advance among unreached/unengaged peoples.

Your prayer life shouldn't be confined to a list, but it can be helped by one. That has certainly been the case for me. Frankly, some of the things on my list I might forget to bring regularly before God if I didn't have them written down. I have the list posted in the front of my primary reading/studying Bible and turn to it morning by morning. 

I recommend something like this. Obviously, you don't have to do it just like I do -- however suits you best.

But a good number of our people have testified to this simple approach and how it's been helpful to them. If your prayer life has been inconsistent, or you've been neglecting specific focuses of petition that you know ought to be regular petitions, how about making a list? It's a simple and practical step towards a more focused prayer life.

Use it consistently, while asking the Holy Spirit to deepen and widen your devotion and enjoyment of prayer.

Remember, saints: The Father delights in the prayers and supplications of His people. "The righteous cry out and the Lord hears."

-BA Purtle 

    Psalm 118: 22 The stone that the builders rejected

        has become the cornerstone.

Jesus could not fulfill Psalm 118 at his first coming because he had not previously been rejected. It must find its fulfillment in the second coming.

They haven't seen the last of Him. 

 - Chad Brewer, Psalm 118 and the Triumphal Entry

A gentle reminder that from the beginning, belief in the return of Jesus has been one of the most essential doctrines of the historical Christian faith. His return has always been the blessed hope of the Church. Believing in the return of Jesus is not some unique Dispensationalist idea—it's basic Christianity.  - Joel Richardson

If Jesus is just a dead man, wager on any religion or philosophy you want. But if Jesus rose from the dead, all bets are off. - Dr. Micheal Svigel

However, we will see that his [Ireneaus's] eschatological perspective may be described as premillennial and futurist, as he believes in a seven-year tribulation period at the end of the age, climaxing in the return of Christ as king, the resurrection of a righteous as well as the remnant of mortal survivors of the Antichrist’s reign left to repopulate the earth, followed by a thousand-year intermediate kingdom, and concluded with the resurrection of the wicked and ushering in of the eternal renewed creation.  - Dr. Micheal Svigel, Fathers on the Future, Go Deeper Excurses

In light of this [Polycarp's discipleship of Irenaeus], it seems unlikely that Irenaeus would have knowingly, consciously, and willfully promoted an eschatology [historical premillennialism] in discord with that of his own teachers. His was an intentionally conservative approach to theology: receiving, articulating and defending, then passing forward the faith of the apostles and prophets. Novelty in theology was far from Irenaeus’s agenda. - Dr. Micheal Svigel, Fathers on the Future, Go Deeper Excurses

If the reading of Scripture one is proposing relies upon a particular brand of typology for establishing itself, that is a huge red flag.

~ Dr. Paul Henebury, “The Words of the Covenant”

People dismiss or avoid dealing with the Gifts of the Spirit by using an invented vocabulary to talk about them. They use terms that have no basis in Scripture (for example, "sign gifts") and which actually embody their theological conclusions rather than give people a proper definition. This makes it easier to then say, "Well, the 'sign gifts' have passed away."

The same goes for the term "miraculous gifts." Today's modern English word "miracle" does not necessarily have anything to do with God's supernatural acts in the New Testament.

The word commonly rendered as "miracle" in English Bibles in the Greek simply means acts of power, acts in which God's power is displayed. It doesn't have the connotation that it possesses in English — that something outside the ordinary course of nature is occurring; it simply means that Divine power is being applied to the situation.

When discussing the activity of God's Spirit, let's employ a biblical vocabulary. 

-Nick Uva 

Earliest explicit appearance of millennial views:
—Postmillennialism: 12th century (Joachim di Firori)
—Amillennialism: 3rd century (Origen of Alexandria)
—Premillennialism: 1st century (Epistle of Barnabas, or earlier with Didache)

For more, see: https://t.co/0x3sDDPGNd

-Dr. Micheal Svigel

This world is fallen, full of tragedy, sin, and death. Even so, there is such profound beauty.

Imagine how magnificent it will be "when the Son of Man shall sit on His glorious throne," when "the wolf shall dwell with the lamb," and the nations "shall train for war no more."

Glory.

-BA Purtle 

Knowing the secret of the future that God is about to implement can challenge the hearers to radical obedience, in preparation for taking part in the glories of the age to come. - John Barton

The beauties that await us in the Millennial reign of Christ and the New Jerusalem to follow are beyond our wildest imaginations, especially the unveiled majesties of God Himself. It's going to be worth every suffering on this side of the day of YHWH. Hold fast, saints. - BA Purtle

"How much time do you spend at His feet?" -Paul Washer

I believe that this replacement interpretation is anachronistic. It imposes later developments of church theology on a Jewish document, thereby misinterpreting it. ~ D. Thomas Lancaster, Hebrews

It is difficult to imagine how the prophets and psalmists could possibly have expressed more strongly the personal character of the wrath of God. While disaster is regarded as the inevitable result of man's sin, it is so in the view of the Old Testament, not by some inexorable law of an impersonal Nature, but because a holy God wills to pour out the vials of His wrath upon those who commit sin. Indeed, it is largely because wrath is so fully personal in the Old Testament that mercy becomes so fully personal, for mercy is the action of the same God who was angry, allowing His wrath to be turned away. It should be noted that many passages place the wrath and the mercy of God on the same plane as personal activities, for example, 'He retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy' (Mi. 7: 18), or, 'Thou hast forgiven the  iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin. Thou hast taken away all thy wrath: thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger' (Ps, 85: 2f).  - Leon Morris, Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, p.153

The wrath of God is often confused with that irrational passion we so frequently find in man and which was commonly ascribed to heathen deities. But this is not the only possibility. Thus Dr. Maldwyn Hughes says: 'let it be granted that anger is not an ideal word for our purpose, and that we use it only, as Augustine would say, "in order that we may not keep silent." Our concern is with facts not with words. The fact which we have to face is that in the nature of things there must be an eternal recoil against the unholy on the part of the all-holy God',' If we can understand the wrath of God in some such fashion as this there seems no insuperable objection to our thinking of that wrath as a reality to be reckoned with, and to seeing propitiation as the means of averting that wrath from the sinner, who, unless this can be done, finds himself in evil case.  

To the men of the Old Testament the wrath ofGod is both very real and very serious. God is not thought of as capriciously angry (like the deities of the heathen), but, because He is a moral Being, His anger is directed towards wrongdoing in any shape or form. Once roused, this anger is not easily assuaged, and dire consequences may follow. But it is only fair to add that the Old Testament consistently regards God as a God of mercy. Though men sin and thus draw down upon themselves the consequences of His wrath, yet God does not delight in the death of the sinner. He provides ways in which the consequences of sin may be averted.  - Leon Morris, Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, p.149

“He who hung the earth is hanging.

He who fixed the heavens in place has been fixed in place.

He who laid the foundations of the universe has been laid on a tree.”

-Melito, On Pascha