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John 3:14-21 Sermon Commentary
Lent 4B
Comments and Observations John 3:16 may be the most famous Bible verse in the world but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to understand. As Frederick Dale Bruner points out in his commentary on The Gospel of John, this entire chapter is fraught with mystery. The story takes place at night, the meeting seems to be…
Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22 Sermon Commentary
Lent 4B
Comments, Observations, and Questions to Consider Psalm 107 is a thanksgiving liturgy that worshipers probably recited at a festival in Jerusalem’s temple. Some congregations still use it or a modified form of it at Thanksgiving worship services. It also serves as the basis for a number of well-known hymns, including Martin Rinkart’s stirring “Now Thank…
Ephesians 2:1-10 Sermon Commentary
Lent 4B
Comments and Observations The first three verses of this text reminded me of my two favorite criticisms of Calvinism, which has historically taken these verses as a proof text for its doctrine of total depravity. A car critic described the famously boxy Volvo as something that might have been designed by “a Calvinist with a…
Numbers 21:4-9 Sermon Commentary
Lent 4B
Comments, Observations, and Questions to Consider You really cannot appreciate this passage from Numbers 21 without paying attention to the surrounding context. In the first three verses of this chapter, we get a tiny narrative snippet about a time the Israelites got knocked around by some Canaanite king named Arad. A few Israelites got nabbed,…
Commentary posted on March 9, 2015
Lent 4B Sermon Commentary