Archives For Bible – 1 Kings

Jesus is Enough Wisdom: Col. 2:1-7

February 11, 2013 — Leave a comment

Introduction

Paul writes the Colossians to assure them that Jesus is enough grace, power, glory, and today we consider the fact that Jesus is enough wisdom. Because Jesus is the very image of the invisible God (1:15), He is the perfect, complete Word of the Father to us. Jesus is our understanding, our wisdom.

Summary of the Text: Paul wants the Colossians and the Laodiceans (the closest neighboring church) to know that he is laboring mightily for the gospel (1:29-2:1). Paul’s “conflict” or “struggle” is his carrying out of the mission of God through preaching Jesus, warning all men, teaching all men with wisdom, as well as his suffering (1:24-25, 28-29, cf. Phil. 1:30, 1 Tim. 6:12, Heb. 12:1). Paul understands that his race/struggle is perhaps even more valuable to those who have never met him (2:1). If they have heard of Paul, if they know about his ministry of proclaiming Jesus, Paul wants them to know he isn’t living it up, relaxing in luxury. He’s out in the fray. He’s leading the charge. He’s at the head of the infantry, and this is so that their hearts may be comforted (2:2). Paul explains that he hopes this knowledge will drive them to love one another even more, and that it will drive them to draw on the “riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God” (2:2). As they understand more fully who Jesus is, it will equip them more fully to be involved in what Jesus does. Paul just finished saying that he is rejoicing in his suffering because it is another way that Jesus is being proclaimed, the mystery hid from ages and from generations is now manifest in the gospel (1:26). This is the riches of God’s glory even among the gentiles: Christ in them (1:27).

But it’s not just what’s in them. It’s what’s in Christ: “In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (2:3). And Paul is underlining this point because he knows that there are other words on offer. There are other men with different messages, with “enticing words” (2:4). But Paul wants to encourage them, though he is absent from them, and he rejoices in their military formation and courage in Christ (2:5). So the central exhortation is for them to walk the way they were born. Continue the same way they started (2:6). It was the message of the death and resurrection of Jesus that turned them from enemies into friends, and Paul urges them to hold fast to that word, grow up into that word. It wasn’t a particular experience. It wasn’t a feeling. It isn’t an elitist club. It was the message of truth that Jesus is Lord of All and has begun to bring peace to all things through the blood of His cross (1:20). And the telltale sign that this grace has taken root and is flourishing is overflowing thankfulness (2:7). Continue Reading…

In Bible - 1 Kings, Bible - Colossians, Bible - Exodus, Jesus is Enough, Sermon Outlines, TRC, Wisdom
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The Gospel of Kings

January 17, 2012 — 1 Comment

The Book of Kings is a train wreck of a story. While the first number of chapters relate the building of the temple and Solomon’s wisdom and glory, they always have a bit of an ominous silence in the background. We know what’s coming. We know Solomon is going down. We know his wives will lead him into idolatry, and then it’s all downhill from there. King after king after king, doing evil in the sight of the Lord, leading Israel in idolatrous worship, bowing to shrines, making alliances with foreign powers, just like his father before him, like his father before him.

Peter Leithart has pointed out that part of the pastoral theology of the book of Kings is the nearly unbearable patience of God. By half-way through the book, we are about as desperate and depressed as Elijah. How is there anyone left who fears the Lord? If there is anyone left, the king is probably trying to kill them. The book of Kings is a painfully careful narrative of the nation of Israel circling the drain, round and round and round. And it’s pretty tempting to just get fed up with how patient God is with His people. Sure, He gets angry. Sure, He brings calamities and trials, but again and again God spares Jerusalem. And again and again, His people don’t get it.

But this means that one of the central themes of the book is God’s commitment to His own promises concerning His people. They may be wicked, they may be wayward, they may be worshiping other gods, but Yahweh is undeterred. The Lord God of Israel is steadfast, unmoved, unshaken. He does grow weary of their sin, and He will ultimately cast them off into exile. But He does not cast them off in order to get rid of them. God does not destroy Jerusalem and the temple in order shed the ugly, harlot nation. He sends her into exile to purify her. He sends her into exile and actually goes with her into exile. Continue Reading…

In Bible - 1 Kings, Bible - 2 Kings, Church Calendar, Evangelism, Grace
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Joseph and Solomon

October 23, 2010 — Leave a comment

Joseph is a Solomon at the end of Genesis, a picture of a glorified Adam-King, providing bread for the world. And like Solomon, Joseph married an Egyptian woman. And in so far as these daughters of Egypt were actually converted to Yahweh, and these marriages represent evangelism and the gospel going to the Gentiles, they are glorious previews and glimpses of the New Covenant.

But in so far as these marriages lead to other unfaithful intermarriages with pagan wives, they are the beginning of idolatry and syncretism in Israel. While perhaps Joseph did not personally enter into marriages with unconverted Egyptian women, it is not hard to imagine other Israelite men following his “example” foolishly. Joseph married the daughter of an Egyptian priest, why can’t I?

And by the time of Moses, Israel is serving the gods of Egypt (Ez. 20:7-8).

Notice the parallels in the Solomon/Joseph narratives:

Joseph –> idolatry in Egypt –> Exodus –> worshiping a calf in the wilderness
Solomon –> idolatry in Israel –>Divided Kingdom –> worshiping calves in the northern kingdom

In Bible - 1 Kings, Bible - Exodus, Bible - Genesis
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Cut without Hands

February 18, 2010 — Leave a comment

In Mark 14, one of the accusations brought against Jesus is that he had promised to destroy “this temple made with hands” and within three days he would build another “made without hands.”

This is an allusion to Daniel’s prophecy regarding the stone in Daniel 2:34 which is cut out “without hands.” But Daniel’s stone is probably based upon a specific description regarding the building of the temple. In 1 Kgs 6:7, it is said while the temple was being constructed all the stones were finished at the quarry so that no hammer or chisel or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built.

The stones of the Solomonic temple arrived pre-cut, finished according to the design. They were stones cut “without hands.” This is why Jesus can allude to Daniel’s prophecy and apply it directly to the temple and building a new temple. If Jesus is the stone cut out “without hands” this means that He has come to be the new cornerstone, pre-cut, already prepared for the new temple which will grow up into the mountain that will fill the whole earth.

Last, note that Paul uses similar language to describe the true circumcision that is “without hands” (Col. 2:11). Our “cutting” and shaping into stones for the this new temple is not found in circumcision. In the new temple, we are quarried and finished in the death of Jesus, and baptism applies His “cutting” to us. There is no sound of a hammer or chisel or any iron tool in the construction of this new temple. We are justified, and we arrive pre-cut through the Cornerstone who was cut “without hands.”

In Bible - 1 Kings, Bible - Daniel, Bible - Mark
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