Cited in sermons
Josephus
43 sermons · All people cited
The Trial of Jesus Before the Jews
John 18:13–27 interweaves two scenes: Jesus standing firm under unlawful interrogation before Annas, and Peter collapsing three times before servants in a courtyard. The passage exposes the trial of Jesus before the Jews as a juridical farce engineered to secure a death warrant from Pontius Pilate, while the Sanhedrin — the very experts in the law — trample every evidentiary requirement their own law demanded. Peter's threefold denial is set in deliberate contrast to Christ's unflinching confession, calling believers to examine whether a willingness to die for Jesus necessarily includes the daily courage to live and testify for Him.
The Resurrection and Justification
Romans 4:25 binds the death and resurrection of Christ together as twin pillars of the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Christ was delivered up because of the offenses of his people — bearing the substitutionary curse that divine justice demanded — and was raised because of their justification, the resurrection serving as the Father's public testimony that satisfaction had been rendered and righteousness secured. The sermon works through four reasons why Paul links the resurrection to justification: the resurrection declared Christ to be the Son of God with power, testified that his sacrifice was accepted, confirmed that satisfaction was rendered, and marked the completion of redemption and the inauguration of Christ's present session. Believers are called to rest their entire confidence for standing before God on this finished work, and the unconverted are urged to confess and believe in the risen Lord Jesus.
The Covenantal Status of Israel in the Parable of the Vineyard
Matthew 21:33–46 presents the Parable of the Wicked Vinedressers as a compressed history of Old Covenant Israel — a nation privileged with God's presence, prophets, and promises, yet persistently covenant-breaking and finally guilty of rejecting the Messiah himself. The parable is read against Isaiah 5 and fulfilled in the AD 70 destruction of Jerusalem, which is the covenantal judgment pronounced in verse 43: the kingdom of God is taken from ethnic Israel and given to the church, the true Israel of God. The New Covenant people — constituted by faith in Christ, not ethnic descent — are that nation bearing fruit, identified as such in 1 Peter 2 and Galatians 6:16. The sermon argues that any future geopolitical restoration of Old Covenant Israel with a rebuilt temple and renewed sacrificial system would be a reversal of redemptive history, and that ethnic Jews today stand in need of the gospel like every other nation.
The Promise of Blessings and Cursing, Part 2
Leviticus 26:14–46 sets forth the covenant curses God threatened against Israel for breaking the Mosaic Covenant — a covenant of works — escalating through drought, wild animals, war, cannibalism, wholesale destruction, and exile. These curses came to historical fulfillment in the fall of the Northern Kingdom to Assyria in 722 BC, the fall of the Southern Kingdom to Babylon in 586 BC, and the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome in AD 70 — events prophesied in the Olivet Discourse and confirmed by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 2. The chapter closes with a promise of restoration conditioned on Israel's humble repentance and God's fidelity to the Abrahamic covenant. Believers under the New Covenant are freed from these covenant curses because Christ bore them fully, fulfilling the demands of the law and standing as the surety of a better covenant.
The Triumph of Samson at Gaza
Judges 16 records the final chapter of the Samson cycle, moving from the removal of Gaza's city gates through Samson's betrayal by Delilah to his death in the destruction of the temple of Dagon. Against readings that reduce Samson to a figure of ungoverned sexual appetite, this exposition argues that Samson is a faithful judge of Israel, Spirit-empowered and strategically purposeful, whose every encounter with the Philistines is ordered by divine providence toward the deliverance of God's people. The departure of Yahweh from Samson is traced not to moral degeneracy but to Samson's disclosure of the sign of his Nazirite vow, which jeopardized the mission for which he was set apart. Throughout, Samson is presented as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose greater deliverance through death saves more than his life alone could accomplish.
The Promise of God's Provision
Genesis 22:1–19 presents the binding of Isaac as far more than a biographical account of Abraham's obedience — it is a typological promise of God's provision of the Messiah. The sermon works through the test presented to Abraham, his obedience in the three-day journey to Moriah, and God's approval through the substitutionary ram, showing how Abraham, Isaac, and the ram each function as types of the Father, the Son, and the Lamb of God respectively. Abraham's declaration in verse 8 — 'God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering' — is read as genuine messianic anticipation, confirmed by Christ's own words in John 8:56. The passage calls believers to the kind of covenant-anchored faith that perseveres under affliction, catechizes their children in the great truths of God, and rests on the substitutionary atonement accomplished at Calvary.
The Danger of Rejecting the Son
John 8:21–29 records Jesus warning a hostile religious leadership that they will die in their sins if they do not believe that He is the great I Am — the divine Son eternally generated from the Father, sent into the world in the economy of redemption. The sermon works through the passage in three movements: the announcement of Christ's departure and the condemnation it implies, the question of His identity and the slander levelled against Him, and the reference to His crucifixion as the moment of disclosure. The central doctrinal burden is that a deficient Christology — whether ancient Arianism, Sabellianism, or modern proposals of eternal functional subordination — amounts to the very unbelief Christ condemns, and that the church's primary calling is to preach the triune God with particular weight on who the Son is and what He has done for sinners.
The Empty Tomb and the Risen Lord
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the crowning proof that the Father accepted the Son's atoning work as a full satisfaction for sin. Expounding Matthew 28:1–10, this sermon works through the discovery of the empty tomb — the arrival of the women, the descent of the angel, and the commission given to the first witnesses — and then the appearance of the risen Lord to those same women. The resurrection is not myth or fable but attested history, with details such as the folded burial cloth, the terrified guards, and the forthright identification of women as the primary witnesses all serving the integrity of the gospel record. The empty tomb grounds the Christian's confidence in the forgiveness of sins and the imputed righteousness of Christ, and it calls every hearer to seek the risen Lord without fear.
The Trial before Pilate, Part 2
Matthew 27:15–23 records Pilate's attempt to grant amnesty to Jesus through the Passover prisoner-release custom, a device that exposes the cowardice of the Roman governor, the envious malice of the Jewish religious leaders, and the terrifying moral bankruptcy of mob rule. The passage is expounded under five heads — the custom of amnesty, the leaders' motivation of envy, the warning of Pilate's wife, the demand of the multitudes, and Pilate's cross-examination — each of which illuminates the comprehensive reach of human depravity. The substitution of Barabbas for Jesus is treated as emblematic of definite atonement: the just going to the cross in the place of the unjust, securing both the forgiveness of sins and the imputed righteousness of Christ received by faith alone. Hearers are urged not to be carried along by ungodly leaders, to flee to Christ without delay, and to eat the Lord's Supper as a memorial of the blood atonement and active obedience of the Second Person of the Trinity wrought entirely on behalf of his people.
The Meeting with James in Jerusalem
Acts 21:17–40 narrates Paul's final recorded visit to Jerusalem, where he meets with James and the elders before being seized by a mob in the temple. The sermon works through four aspects of the meeting — reception, report, response, and recommendation — to demonstrate that James and Paul were in full theological harmony, both preaching justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. The arrest that follows illustrates both the rage of unbelieving Israel and the sovereign providence of God, who uses Roman civil authority to preserve his apostle. Hearers are urged to imitate Paul's spirit of conciliation on secondary matters, insist on the gospel above all else, and trust the God who receives sinners.
The Council at Jerusalem, Part 3
James closes the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15:13–21) by grounding the inclusion of Gentiles in the covenant people of God not in human experience alone but in the prophetic word of Amos 9:11–12 and in the eternal decree of God. The rebuilding of David's tabernacle is the spiritual kingdom of Christ, which was purposed in eternity, announced through the prophets, and executed in the crosswork and exaltation of the Son. From this doctrinal foundation James renders a definitive verdict against Judaizing — that justification is by faith alone, apart from circumcision or the ceremonies of Moses — and then offers practical accommodations to facilitate communion between Jewish and Gentile believers in the one new humanity Christ has made.
The Persecution of the Church and the Power of God
Acts 12:1–24 presents the early church under coordinated assault from the civil state: Herod Agrippa I executes James, imprisons Peter, and accepts divine honors from a crowd — yet the chapter closes with Herod dead, Peter free, and the word of God multiplied. The sermon traces three movements in the passage: the persecution of the church, the miraculous deliverance of Peter, and the judicial destruction of Herod, arguing throughout that no civil power can ultimately frustrate the advance of Christ's kingdom. Listeners are called to persistent intercessory prayer for the persecuted church, confident that the same sovereign God who struck down Herod continues to reign over every enemy of his people.
Genesis 22:1-24
Genesis 22 presents the testing of Abraham's faith as the pinnacle of the patriarch's walk with God — a command so severe that it required Abraham to march three days to Mount Moriah to offer up Isaac, the son of promise. The narrative is read as dense with typological significance: Abraham foreshadows the Father who gives his only Son, Isaac prefigures Christ who carries his own wood and submits as a willing victim, and the substitutionary ram points forward to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The obedience of Abraham is shown not to establish his righteousness before God but to manifest the validity of the faith already credited to him as righteousness in Genesis 15, consistent with James 2 rightly read against any Roman Catholic scheme of initial faith sustained by subsequent merit. The sermon closes with a call to faithful perseverance under trial, grounded in the confidence that God provides and that Christ has borne what no angel stayed.
The Empty Tomb and the Risen Lord
The empty tomb of Matthew 28:1–10 is not merely an absence but a proclamation: Christ was raised bodily from the dead by the Father, vindicating His atoning work and confirming every prophetic word He spoke. The sermon works through the discovery of the empty tomb by the women and the appearance of the risen Lord, attending carefully to the apologetic weight of the narrative details — the guards' terror, the invitation to examine the tomb, the folded graveclothes, and the physical feet of Jesus grasped in worship. The message closes with 1 Corinthians 15, pressing the stakes of the resurrection: without it, faith is futile and sin remains unatoned; because Christ is risen, justification, sanctification, and glorification are secured for all His brethren.
2 Kings 6:24–7:20
The siege and deliverance of Samaria in 2 Kings 6:24–7:20 exposes both the devastating covenantal consequences of Israel's idolatry and the sovereign mercy of Yahweh who refuses to abandon His people. The cannibalism, famine, and political helplessness that afflict Samaria are not arbitrary calamities but the precise covenant curses of Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28, visited upon a nation that had abandoned Yahweh for the gods of Canaan. God's deliverance comes not through royal power or military might but through four leprous outcasts, an unnamed servant, and a supernatural terror sent upon the Syrian army — instruments so unlikely that only God can receive the glory. The passage presses its hearers to trust the prophetic Word of God rather than political power, and to proclaim the good news they have received rather than remain silent.
1 Kings 14:21 - 15:24
The books of Kings and Chronicles present the reigns of Rehoboam, Abijam, and Asa in the southern kingdom not as mere political history but as theological testimony to the universal depravity of the covenant people and the sovereign faithfulness of God to the Davidic covenant. Both north and south are shown to have plunged into idolatry and its attendant wickedness, echoing the progression Paul traces in Romans 1 from the exchange of God's glory for idols to moral collapse and divine judgment. Asa stands as a partial exception — a reformer compared favorably to David — yet his reliance on Syrian military alliance rather than on Yahweh exposes the persistent weakness of even the best of David's sons. The passage ultimately directs the reader to David's greater Son, in whom the lamp promised to Jerusalem is eternally secured.
The Prologue to the Passion Narrative
Matthew 26:1–5 opens the Passion Narrative with two structurally parallel statements placed side by side: Christ's sovereign prophecy of His own crucifixion and the chief priests' conspiracy to accomplish it. The sermon argues that the word 'delivered up' (paradidōmi) carries far greater theological weight than a simple 'betrayed,' pointing ultimately to the Father as the primary agent who delivered His Son according to the eternal covenant of redemption. The Passover timing is no coincidence but the deliberate fulfillment of Old Testament typology — Christ is the new Moses leading a new exodus — and the only fitting response to such grace is worship, adoration, and the resolve to point children and neighbors to the cross.
The Olivet Discourse, Part 10
Matthew 24:32–35 presents the parable of the fig tree and Christ's solemn declaration that 'this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.' This sermon argues the preterist interpretation: the parable is not a prophecy about the 1948 rebirth of Israel but a sign given to first-century disciples that the judgment on Jerusalem in AD 70 was near, confirming that Christ is presently enthroned at the Father's right hand. The phrase 'this generation' carries the same lexical and contextual meaning it holds throughout Matthew's Gospel — the contemporaries of Jesus — and Christ staked His prophetic integrity on the fulfilment of every detail within that generation. Hearers are urged to let the text drive their eschatology, and ultimately to flee not to the mountains of Judea but to Christ, the only refuge from divine judgment.
The Olivet Discourse, Part 5
Matthew 24:15–20 presents Christ's command to flee Jerusalem when the abomination of desolation appears — a command the preterist interpretation locates in the first-century siege and destruction of the city by Rome in AD 70, not in a distant eschatological future. Working through the prophetic background in Daniel 9 and 12, the parallel account in Luke 21, and the covenant-curse framework of Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26, this exposition argues that every detail in the passage — the reference to Judea, the architectural urgency, the concern for pregnant women, the prayer about winter and the Sabbath — is intelligible only as instruction addressed to first-century disciples facing a localized, historical judgment. The AD 70 destruction functions typologically, however, pressing every hearer to flee now to Christ, the only refuge when he comes in glory to judge the living and the dead.
The Olivet Discourse, Part 4
Matthew 24:14 declares that 'this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.' Preaching from a preterist perspective, this exposition argues that the gospel proclamation described in verse 14 was fulfilled in the first century prior to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, and that 'the end' in view is not the final judgment but the termination of the old covenant dispensation and the Jewish temple. The sermon develops a biblical-theological account of the temple — from Eden through the Mosaic tabernacle, Solomon's temple, and into Christ as the antitype who fulfills and renders obsolete the entire sacrificial system — drawing especially on Hebrews 8. The practical conclusion is an unqualified call for the church to maintain its unchanged mission of gospel proclamation regardless of external persecution, internal apostasy, or cultural pressure.
The Olivet Discourse, Part 3
Matthew 24:9–14 presents the church with two realities that precede the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70: the persecution of the church (vv. 9–12) and the proclamation of the gospel (v. 14, deferred to the following week). Working from a preterist interpretation, the sermon argues that external threats from unbelieving Israel and the Roman Empire, internal threats of apostasy, betrayal, false prophecy, and antinomianism, all demonstrably occurred in the first century and are documented throughout the New Testament. The practical weight falls on every generation equally: because Christ reigns at the right hand of the Father, his people are called to endure, to hold the law of God as the concrete expression of love, and to resist the cold that lawlessness produces in the heart.
The Olivet Discourse, Part 2
Jesus' Olivet Discourse opens not with a timetable for the end of all things but with two commanding exhortations: 'Take heed that no one deceives you' and 'See that you are not troubled.' Expounding Matthew 24:4–8 within a preterist framework, this sermon argues that Christ's description of false messiahs, wars, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes depicts the conditions preceding the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 — the covenant curses of Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 falling at last upon an apostate people who rejected their Messiah. The practical burden is twofold: guard theological sanity by submitting to the Word rather than to prophecy speculators, and guard emotional stability by resting in God's sovereign governance of history rather than panicking at world events.
The Olivet Discourse, Part 1
The Olivet Discourse opens with a decisive act: Jesus departs the temple he has just pronounced desolate, and his disciples — grasping the covenantal weight of that moment — point to its magnificence even as he foretells its total destruction. This sermon establishes the interpretive framework for Matthew 24–25, arguing from the immediate context of chapters 21–23, the parallel witness of the Old Testament prophets (Ezekiel, Micah, Jeremiah), and the time-texts of the discourse itself that Jesus addresses first-century Israel, not a distant eschatological future. The Preterist reading on offer holds that AD 70 was the exhaustion of the covenant curses of Deuteronomy 28 upon apostate Old Covenant Israel, that the church — not ethnic Israel — is now the covenant people of God, and that this understanding guards against both anti-Semitism and Christian Zionism.
The Believer's Response to Trials
James 1:2–4 commands believers to count trials 'all joy' — a response so counterintuitive that James must ground it in theology before it can be practiced. This sermon works through four elements of the believer's response: the nature of the trials in view (external afflictions and hardships, not solicitations to sin), the settled expectation that trials are a normal feature of Christian life, the disposition of joy that must govern the believer under trial, and the recognition that God's purpose in trial is the production of endurance leading to spiritual maturity and completeness. The governing application is that Christians must be formed by passages like this one before trials arrive, so that when they do, the believer counts God as sovereign and purposeful rather than panicking, raging, or despairing.
2 Samuel 13:1-22
The rape of Tamar by her half-brother Amnon (2 Samuel 13:1–22) is examined as the beginning of God's covenantal judgment on David's house, fulfilling the word of Nathan the prophet in 2 Samuel 12. Before entering the narrative, the study clears apparent contradictions in the Mosaic legislation on rape and incest (Deuteronomy 22; Leviticus 18; 20), demonstrating that the Pentateuch treats rape as equivalent in gravity to murder and that the disputed passage in Deuteronomy 28–29 describes consensual seduction, not rape. The passage is then worked through under four headings — Amnon's lust, Jonadab's counsel, the act itself, and its aftermath — with sustained attention to what each character reveals about the nature of sin, the failure of justice, and the sovereignty of God even in sordid judgment.
2 Samuel 8:1-18
2 Samuel 8 records David's military conquests as the God-ordained stabilization of Israel's land in preparation for Solomon's temple-building, rooted in the promises of the Davidic covenant in 2 Samuel 7. The chapter is expounded under three headings: the advancement of the kingdom through David's campaigns from north to south, the stability of the kingdom seen in the dedication of spoils to Yahweh and the administration of judgment and justice, and the power behind the kingdom — not David's military skill, but Yahweh's faithful preservation of His servant wherever he went. David's reign is treated as typologically anticipatory of Christ's kingdom: conflict precedes conquest, the wealth of the nations is consecrated to Israel's God, and the Son of David exercises universal dominion in judgment and justice as promised in Psalm 2 and Isaiah 9 and 11. The study closes with a call to recover the church-militant posture, trusting the same God who gave David victory to bring victory to the new covenant church through the weapons of prayer, preaching, and faithful witness.
1 Samuel 10:17–11:15
The public recognition of Saul as king and his first military victory over the Ammonites mark the decisive transition from the period of the judges to the Israelite monarchy. God's indictment of Israel's rebellion in demanding a king frames the entire ceremony at Mizpah, yet divine grace operates through this very act of national sin to establish the covenant people under a new order. The Spirit of God coming upon Saul — not the institution of kingship itself — is the power behind Israel's deliverance, a pattern the church cannot afford to miss. The lesson closes with four redemptive-historical observations: the significance of the move to monarchy, the grace displayed through Israel's rebellion, the Spirit as the true source of victory, and the perpetual opposition of God-haters toward the covenant people.
1 Samuel 5
1 Samuel 5 records the Ark of the Covenant's journey through Philistia after its capture at Ebenezer, where the God of Israel systematically humiliates Dagon and devastates every city that receives the Ark. The chapter is structured as a deliberate polemic against idolatry: Dagon is twice found prostrate before Yahweh, then stripped of head and hands, while Yahweh's 'heavy hand' of judgment moves from Ashdod to Gath to Ekron. The passage calls for reverent, humorous recognition that idols must be propped up by their worshippers, whereas the living God carries His people. The sermon draws out the perennial relevance of this account by connecting it to Isaiah 44, Isaiah 46, Psalm 106, and Romans 1, arguing that modern idolatry — whether of self, money, sexuality, or ideology — is the root disease for which the gospel of Christ is the only cure.
The Call of Samuel the Prophet
The call of Samuel in 1 Samuel 3 marks a decisive turning point in redemptive history — the transition from the era of the judges to the era of the monarchy, with Samuel functioning as God's appointed prophet and king-maker. The chapter opens with a judgment: the word of the Lord was rare in Israel, a condition the sermon argues is never accidental but always the fruit of covenant unfaithfulness, as God withdraws the lamp of His word from a people who have despised it. The Eli narrative exposes the consequences of passive, toothless pastoral authority, while Samuel's emergence illustrates the mercy of God who meets the absence of His word with a new voice. The sermon closes by pressing the abundance of available Scripture upon contemporary hearers as an undeserved grace, calling both believers and unbelievers to be where the Bible is preached and to receive Christ's imputed righteousness by faith alone.
The Warning Against Heresy
Matthew 16:5–12 records Christ's warning to His disciples to 'take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees' — a command the disciples immediately misread as a remark about physical bread. This exposition works through three movements: the warning Christ issues, the disciples' failure to comprehend it, and the clarification Christ graciously provides. The sermon argues that a small doctrinal error, like leaven, silently pervades and corrupts an entire religious system, and draws direct lines from Pharisaic works-righteousness and Sadducean rationalism to contemporary threats — Arminianism, Roman Catholic merit theology, and theological liberalism. The congregation is urged to prize the means of grace, resist the addition of human tradition to Scripture, and rest in justification by faith alone in Christ alone, recognising that it is revealed truth, not human will, that produces saving faith.