We finish this series in Leviticus with this study, where we see once more how the people of God are to worship a God who is holy and demands that His people are holy.
Last week, we learnt about how the priests were set apart for God’s work. This study is a continuation of the previous study, and it focuses on holiness as a lifestyle and requirement for the people of God.
Leviticus 21 focuses on God's priests, who have been set apart to serve Him. These might seem foreign and even distant to us today, but if we believe that it has been breathed out by God, we know that even these passages in Leviticus can teach, rebuke and reprove us.
Leviticus 20 emphasises the need for God’s people to be holy in every way. Today, we finish up this section by taking a look at what holiness looks like, and how we ought to reflect it.
The Israelites were surrounded by nations practicing their own set of sexual norms. But Lev 20:10-21 is meant to show us that God has a say even in the most private of spaces. God's people were to live in a holy way, even in the area of their sexual relations.
When God speaks, He is not giving us more information. When God speaks and gives His laws, He is not speaking to neutral parties, but rebellious, idolatrous sinners. With this in mind, we'll take a look at these 9 verses that appear seemingly irrelevant to our modern lives today.
This study deals with the rest of Lev 19. A key idea in this chapter is that God is holy and His people are to live in a way that reflects His holiness. These verses continue to illustrate how the people of Israel were to live this truth out practically.
Lev 19:1-19 is supposed to be a picture of a nation. A foreigner coming in to the people of Israel should see a Godward holiness reflected through a people of God who live lives revolving around the nature of God. Today, we'll see in these verses how a Godward holiness also shapes our relationships with other people.
Christians often talk about the holiness of God, and a holy God. But what is holiness? Lev 19 helps us understand more about the holiness of God and it's implications for our lives.
We are now at the beginning of our third series in Leviticus. Chapter 18 marks the beginning of what is sometimes called the Holiness Code, because it is about God’s instructions on how to be holy.
In this last study in our Scripture series, we'll pick up on events that take place after the death and resurrection of Christ. The events of Luke 24 take place after the resurrection, and in these accounts, of all the things the resurrected Jesus could do, He meets with the disciples and takes the effort to explain Scripture to them. Jesus took Scripture seriously. What does He say is the point of Scripture?
Psalm 1 is the first Psalm in the entire book, and in many ways sets the stage for the rest of the book of Psalms. As we meditate upon God’s word tonight, we'll see how the verses of Psalm 1 apply not just to the other 149 Psalms, but to the entire Bible.
Rev 1-3 forms a series of letters to churches. Today, we'll look at Rev 3, which is part of seven letters to seven churches. Before we look at the text proper, we need to realise that Jesus has a view on your life, and how you use the Bible. If Jesus could comment on your use of the Bible, what would He say?
This is the first in a new series, which takes it's title from the hymn "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" by Martin Luther. In this series, we hope to see in a fresh way what the Bible says about itself.
In this study, we come to the death of Christ, which is a familiar topic to most of us because it is so central to the story of Jesus. However this familiarity sometimes works against us – we start to take things for granted, instead of taking them to heart. "What kind of death?" is this that we are going to look at? It is no ordinary death. Every part of Jesus’ death is out of the ordinary and we have to avoid making it ordinary so that we can fully understand it. Let's not come to Jesus' death in a flippant way. His death should be something we behold and treasure.
We move closer and closer to the cross, and in this study, we'll take a closer look at the trial that Jesus went through on the way to the cross. Mark 14:53 picks up right after Jesus was betrayed by Judas and arrested.
The book of Mark is disproportionately divided. The first half covers the first 33 years of his life, while the latter half covers the final week. Mark 14, which we are going to look at today, records for us the last hours of Jesus' life. In the final hours of his life, he was still in control, and he spends it with his friends. We're going to look at 3 different friends, and how they treated Him when He reaches the cross.
This passage is set on "the first day of Unleavened Bread'. Jesus and His disciples were celebrating the the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which was commanded by God in Exodus 12. It was a celebration for the time when God passed over the sins of the Israelites in judgment, before they left Egypt. It is here that the Passover Lamb is sacrificed, to celebrate and remember God passing over the Israelite camp and sparing the lives of their firstborn. Thus, Jesus and his disciples were celebrating this, and participating in this Jewish ritual. This Feast was to become a statute and part of their law, because it was important enough for them to celebrate it every year. Exodus 12:14, 17 specifically calls for Israelites to remember God in their Exodus. In a way, this is the day Israel became a “nation”, they became independent, and it marked their freedom and deliverance by God.
Today's study takes us into a parable of Jesus. Parables were used by Jesus to illustrate specific points, thus we need to beware of reading too much into it, because they have been designed for a specific illustrative purpose. Jesus is addressing the scribes and Pharisees here, and this context will prove helpful as we look at what Jesus is trying to say, and what kind of a Judge He is.
Lent is meant to prepare our hearts for Good Friday and Easter, as we trace the steps our Savior took to the cross. The Bible, and these passages especially, gives and shows us Jesus. As we read these passages, the circumstances and scenes may seem very foreign to us, with all the mentions of cloaks, colts, etc. Yet our 2016 world bears some similarities to the New Testament world of the Bible. We live in a world of refugee crisis due to oppressive regimes and crimes abound in our society. We are not that far off from the life of the NT Jews in Mark. They too, live under the oppressive Roman rule, and are distressed and insecure. This is the world that Jesus entered.