Theological term
Chiasm
4 sermons · All terms
The Laws Concerning Homicide and Bodily Injury, Part 3
Exodus 21:33–22:15 sets out Israel's case laws governing property damage, animal theft, and home defense — laws designed not as an exhaustive legal code but as representative principles equipping judges to adjudicate equitably. Three features of biblical law emerge with force: the pervasive principle of restitution (the offender must make the victim whole, not merely 'pay a debt to society'), the absence of a prison system in the Mosaic economy, and the explicit legitimacy of lethal self-defense when a thief breaks in under cover of darkness. The sermon calls hearers to appreciate the pro-victim orientation of God's law and to think biblically about criminal justice, property rights, and self-defense in the present civil order.
God the Righteous Judge
Psalm 94 presents God as the righteous judge who hears the cry of His oppressed people, sees the wickedness of their persecutors, and will not ultimately abandon His inheritance. This expository treatment works through the chiastic structure of the psalm, showing how the cry for justice (vv. 1–3) is answered by justice administered (vv. 20–23), and how the folly of those who deny God's omniscience mirrors the divinely-given wisdom of His people. The sermon draws out the covenant comfort of God's chesed — His steadfast faithfulness to those He has chosen — as the ground of peace in the midst of affliction, and closes with a direct call to repentance for any who remain outside of Christ.
The Instruction of the Church, Part 2
Titus 2:6–10 addresses young men, Titus himself as minister, and bondservants, calling each group to a specific pattern of conduct grounded in the gospel. Young men are summoned to comprehensive self-control, while Titus is charged to exemplify good works and to teach with integrity, gravity, and incorruptible soundness — precisely so that opponents are silenced and put to shame. Bondservants are exhorted to willing obedience, pleasing service, honest fidelity, and freedom from back-talk or pilfering. The overarching motive uniting every group is that their conduct may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior — not earn salvation, which rests solely on the redemptive work of Christ received through faith alone.
The Family of Christ
Mark 3:31–35 presents Christ distinguishing his earthly family from his spiritual family, using the arrival of his mother and brothers as a teaching moment about the nature of true belonging to God. The sermon works through two headings — Jesus's earthly family (vv. 31–32) and Jesus's spiritual family (vv. 33–35) — showing that physical descent and bloodlines carry no weight in determining who belongs to Christ. Membership in the family of God is defined by doing the will of God, which is unpacked as faith in Christ — repentance and belief in the gospel — not moral effort or ethnic identity. The hearer is pressed to consider whether they are an insider or an outsider, with the call to draw near to the elder brother through the means of grace.