Jesus used the parable of the vine and vineyard, a common feature of Palestinian life that would have been familiar to the disciples in order to teach them the importance of the believer’s relationship with Christ. In it, he likened himself to the vine, his disciples to branches, and God the Father to the Gardener that maintains the entire vineyard. Let’s read from John 15:1-8.
In the early days, Jesus’ disciples didn’t view their master’s sudden disappearance as a big problem. But as the time went on they were very bothered, and began to be inquisitive of what was happening? Maybe they secretly followed Jesus Christ to the garden of Gethsemane, to find out what is He doing? They saw Jesus go down on their knees and have a quiet conversation with His heavenly father. This caught their interest so much that they wanted to do the same. Then they asked Jesus to teach them how to pray.
Leonard Ravenhill in “The Last Days Newsletter” tells about a group of tourists who were visiting a picturesque village. As they walked by an old man sitting beside a fence, one tourist asked in a patronizing way, “Were any great men born in this village?” The old man replied, “Nope, only babies.” He is right. Leadership is developed. Not discovered. In today’s sermon, we are going to learn how God did just that with the man called Joseph and why it is still relevant to us.
The Timothean epistles were written at a time when a wave of false teachings swept the church of Ephesus. Paul appointed Timothy to the office of the “Senior Pastor” in the large church he planted in Ephesus to effectively combat these teachings and their sources. As time passed by however Timothy faced a challenge much broader than false teachers.
In the Bible, we meet several gentiles who were helped by God. Among them, the account of the Syrophoenician woman is quite significant because of her conversation with Jesus. Today there’s a lot of talk going around as to why Jesus made such a rude statement. Our attention, however, should be on her clever reply because in it there are some strong lessons for us. Let’s see what her statement meant to Jesus and what are its implications for us.
The news was out: help was available for the sick! But a certain paralytic had no way to get to it. Physically disabled people like him were not only immobile but usually poor. Useless to society and lacking help from the government, they invariably lived as social outcasts.
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