Cited in sermons
Josephus
43 sermons · All people cited
Samson's Victory at Gaza
Judges 16 presents Samson not as a man driven by fleshly passion but as a Spirit-empowered covenant agent executing divine judgment against Israel's Philistine oppressors. Careful attention to the narrative parallels between Judges 16 and Joshua 2 challenges the assumption that Samson sinned with the harlot at Gaza, revealing instead a strategic military mission consistent with God's call on his life from the womb. Though Samson's capitulation to Delilah's manipulation brings catastrophic consequences, the grace of God is displayed precisely in the nadir of Samson's failure, as God hears his prayer and grants him a victory in death greater than any he achieved in life — a pattern that points forward to Christ, who was delivered up by his own people and accomplished more in his death than in his earthly ministry.
Judges 16
Judges 16 presents the concluding episode of Samson's judgeship, closing the largest section of the book (chapters 3–16). Working through three movements — the removal of Gaza's gates, the departure of the Lord, and the destruction of the Philistines — the study argues that Samson is consistently misread as a brute driven by lust, when the narrative instead presents him as a purposeful, faith-walking servant of God raised up to crush Philistine oppression. The typological resonance of Samson's death — killing more enemies in death than in life — points forward to the greater Deliverer whose death and resurrection accomplish what no judge could complete.
The Murder of John the Baptist
Matthew 14:1–12 narrates the imprisonment and beheading of John the Baptist by Herod Antipas, and this exposition argues that the account is ultimately about Jesus Christ — the fate of the forerunner foreshadows the fate of the Coming One. The sermon traces three movements: the imprisonment of John for faithful law-preaching, the morally depraved celebration that occasions his murder, and the execution itself, which Matthew frames as a typological preview of the crucifixion. The characters of Herod and Herodias are examined as New Testament counterparts to Ahab and Jezebel, whose guilt-driven conspiracy to silence God's law illustrates that no sin can be covered except through the death of Christ. Hearers are called to forsake self-made coverings for sin and to believe on the one in whom alone is forgiveness and the gift of righteousness.
The Gospel's Prophetic Prologue
Mark 1:1–4 introduces the gospel not as a literary convention but as the announcement of a real, historical event: the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This passage establishes that the gospel's ministerial beginning is rooted in prophetic fulfillment, as both Malachi 3 and Isaiah 40 foresaw a wilderness messenger who would prepare the way of Yahweh himself. The identity of Jesus as the divine Son of God is not incidental to the gospel but is its very foundation — without his deity, there is no sufficient Redeemer. The sermon closes with a call for believers to know and proclaim the gospel precisely, to walk in a manner worthy of it, and for unbelievers to turn from sin and believe on Christ alone.
The Murder of the Preborn, Part 1
Exodus 21:22–25 provides the case-law context for examining what Scripture teaches about the sanctity of human life, the personhood of the preborn, and the biblical prohibition against abortion. The sermon grounds the argument against abortion in the imago Dei — man is not merely made in God's image but is the image of God, a dignity that extends from conception through old age and that no civil court or medical consensus can override. The preborn child is demonstrated to be a full human person through the consistent testimony of Genesis, the Psalms, the Prophets, and the New Testament, while the Lex Talionis of Exodus 21 establishes that taking the life of a child in the womb carries the full capital sanction reserved for murder. Hearers are called to understand, articulate, and act upon this biblical truth — in their prayer closets, at the ballot box, and in their own personal holiness.
Joshua 11
Joshua 11 records the northern campaign of the Israelite conquest, in which a massive coalition of Canaanite kings assembles against Israel with numerical and technological superiority, only to be routed by the hand of God. The chapter closes with a sweeping summary of the entire conquest, highlighting three interlocking themes: divine sovereignty in hardening the hearts of Israel's enemies, the faithful obedience of Joshua who left nothing undone of all God commanded, and the long, gradual character of the conquest that models durable fidelity for the people of God across generations. The sermon draws a direct line from Joshua's seven years of warfare to the church's calling to patient, faithful labor in the Great Commission, resisting any expectation of immediate success.
The Prelude to the Giant Slaying
What is the actual point of the David and Goliath narrative, and does it transcend the familiar moral lessons about courage and faith against odds? This exposition of 1 Samuel 17:1–32 argues that the passage exists to demonstrate to all the earth that there is a God in Israel, with David's zeal for the name and honour of Yahweh driving the entire account. The sermon works through four movements: the introduction of the battle scene and its scale, the detailed description of Goliath as a proficient, well-armoured, and blaspheming giant, the contrasting portrait of David as a humble and obedient son, and the prelude to the slaying in which David's God-centred zeal stands out against Israel's dreadful fear. Throughout, David is presented as a type of Christ — the unassuming champion who accomplishes what no one else in Israel could, conquering the enemy and enabling his people to march forward — with the call to unbelievers to flee from Goliath's end and take refuge in Christ by faith.
Deuteronomy 28
Deuteronomy 28 sets out the covenantal sanctions of the Mosaic economy: comprehensive blessing for obedience and devastating curse for disobedience, with the curses dwarfing the blessings in scope and detail. The chapter's structure mirrors ancient Near Eastern treaty form, and its predictive detail concerning plague, exile, siege, and national reversal has been dismissed by naturalistic interpreters who deny Mosaic authorship — a denial the sermon firmly rejects. The curses, including cannibalism during siege and the reversal of every Abrahamic promise, are traced through Israel's history from the wilderness to A.D. 70. The sermon closes by directing the hearer to praise God for the new covenant, in which Christ as covenant surety rendered the personal, entire, exact, and perpetual obedience Israel never could, bearing the curse of the law so that the blessing of Abraham might come upon His people.
The High Priest of the New Covenant
Hebrews 7:20–28 presents Jesus Christ as the high priest of the new covenant who surpasses the entire Levitical order in three decisive respects: his appointment by divine oath rather than tribal descent, his permanent and unchangeable priesthood grounded in an endless life, and his sinless character and once-for-all self-offering. The sermon expounds why Christ's eternal intercession and definitive sacrifice leave nothing undone for the salvation of his people, pressing these doctrines as the ground of perseverance against every temptation to seek completeness elsewhere.
The Persecution of the Church and the Power of God
Acts 12 sets the persecution of the early church against the sovereign power of God: Herod executes James, imprisons Peter with an overwhelming guard, and receives divine worship — yet God delivers Peter through angelic intervention, strikes Herod dead for his idolatry, and the Word of God grows and multiplies. The chapter exposes both the reality of suffering for Christ's people and the futility of every human attempt to extinguish the gospel. Four movements structure the exposition: the persecution of the church, Peter's miraculous escape, the judgment of Herod Agrippa, and Luke's progress report on the unstoppable advance of God's Word. The sermon calls hearers to honest reckoning with suffering, earnest corporate prayer, and worship of the God who shares his glory with no one.
The Object of Our Gaze
Hebrews 12:2 commands believers to run the race of faith by 'looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.' This sermon works through three aspects of that gaze: the means (faith, not physical sight), the direction (Christ alone, away from temple religion, self, and human performance), and the object (Jesus Christ as the one in whom faith, hope, and love have their only proper anchor). The practical burden is that every displacement of the gaze — onto one's own faithfulness, the visible condition of a congregation, the conduct of fellow believers, or the splendors of religious ceremony — is a form of the same error the first-century Jewish recipients of Hebrews were tempted toward, and must be corrected by a constant return to Christ as both the beginner and the completer of salvation.
The Ministry of John the Baptist
John the Baptist's ministry in Matthew 3:1–6 is examined as the divinely appointed fulfillment of Isaiah 40:3, marking the end of four centuries of prophetic silence and the inauguration of the messianic kingdom. John appears as the promised Elijah-figure whose wilderness preaching summons Israel to genuine repentance — a thoroughgoing change of mind that produces visible fruit — in preparation for the coming of Yahweh himself in the person of Jesus Christ. The sermon presses the doctrinal content of John's call to repentance against shallow professions of faith, asking whether hearers have truly forsaken sin and entered the kingdom of God by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
The King Sets Himself Against Christ
Matthew 2:13–23 presents three movements in the narrative of Christ's early life — the flight to Egypt, the massacre at Bethlehem, and the return to Nazareth — each laden with Old Testament typology. Matthew deliberately parallels Jesus with both Moses and Israel: as Israel was called out of Egypt and Moses delivered God's people from bondage, so Christ is the true and greater deliverer who fulfills what they only foreshadowed. The passage confronts human depravity head-on in the murderous rage of Herod, attributing it not to social conditions but to enmity against God Most High, while simultaneously displaying God's sovereignty overruling the machinations of Satan through entirely ordinary means. The sermon closes by calling unbelievers to trust this man of sorrows — whose humiliation began in infancy — as the champion, deliverer, and mediator of the new covenant promised in Jeremiah.