Posts by Burleson Church of Christ (Page 13)
Acts 1: Gems and Nuggets
The Acts of the Apostles is Luke’s second letter to Theophilus, which means “a friend of God.” The purpose of Acts is similar to that of Luke’s gospel account. Whereas Luke’s gospel recorded “all that Jesus began both to do and teach,” Acts records the works and words of the apostles, primarily Peter and Paul. What lesson do we find in this? Like Jesus and the apostles, we must also be both doers and teachers. The multitude present for the…
John 21: That’s how rumors get started.
Did you know that Proctor and Gamble supports the Church of Satan? Well actually, they don’t. Yet here we are, four decades down the road with tens of millions of us still familiar with that rumor which began sometime around 1980. In Jesus’ final conversation with the disciples as recorded by John, Jesus shined a bright light on Peter relative to his denial of the Lord on the night in which he was betrayed. Some remember this as the “Feed…
John 20: “These are written that you might believe”
God seems to be talking to a lot of people these days and saving them. I find that interesting since He was quite discriminating in His personal appearances in both in the Old and New Testaments. In John 20:30-31, we see why: “And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written that you might believe…” It was never the purpose of dreams, vision, etc., to…
John 19: They Took Jesus’ Clothes and Never Gave it Another Thought
I have several items of clothing, hats, caps, etc that hold special value to me. I treasure these items because of the person who had them before me. Today’s note concerns some clothing that should have been priceless to those who possessed them but attached no lasting value to them. The practice of taking the clothes of the condemned was common in Jesus’ day. As Jesus was crucified, John records, “Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His…
John 19: They Took Jesus’ Clothes and Never Gave it Another Thought
I have several items of clothing, hats, caps, etc that hold special value to me. I treasure these items because of the person who had them before me. Today’s note concerns some clothing that should have been priceless to those who possessed them but attached no lasting value to them. The practice of taking the clothes of the condemned was common in Jesus’ day. As Jesus was crucified, John records, “Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His…
John 18: “My kingdom is not of this world.”
From the earliest days of Jesus’ ministry, many believed Him to be a Savior, and He was, but they misunderstood His mission. Laboring under Roman domination and longing for the “good old days” when Israel was a dominant force among the nations, the Jews looked for a leader to break the iron shackles of Rome (see Daniel 2) and restore Israel to prominence. Earlier in John’s gospel, the people sought to take Jesus by force and make Him their king…
John 17: Working to Thwart the Prayer of Jesus
“Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are… I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who shall believe on Me through their word; that they may all be one, as You Father are in Me, and I in You; that they may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me” (John 17:11b, 20-21). In the final moments before His…
John 16: I believe in the present work of the Holy Spirit
I am what some call a cessationist. That is, I believe the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit ended in the days shortly following the close of the New Testament. I believe the Bible makes that teaching clear in passages like 1 Corinthians 13:8-11, Ephesians 4:7-16, and 2 Timothy 3:16-17. I believe it because of the Bible’s testimony as to how the miraculous measure of the Holy Spirit was administered in New Testament times as seen in Acts 8:16-19, Acts…
John 15: You are the branches
“I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit, for without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Concerning the branches, the primary thing that one should understand in his study and application of the paragraph (John 15:1-8) is this–Jesus identifies the apostles as the branches. This is critical, particularly as we consider the immediate and remote contexts. In the text immediately preceding (14:25-31), Jesus concludes chapter 14 with…
John 14: “I am the Way”
“One of the mistakes humans make is believing there is only one way… There are many paths to what you call God… There couldn’t possibly be just one way… With the millions of people in the world there couldn’t possibly be one way.” So said Oprah Winfrey on her television program back in the early 1990s. You may see it for yourself here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lb2RUpMDk34 Thankfully, there were two women in the audience who stood up to her baseless pontification and…