We study through the Bible inductively & we preach the Bible expositionally.  On the board here is a particularly tough study day in Daniel chapter 9, the prophecy of 70 weeks.

This is a happy teacher with a pile of well done final exams.  Each student organized a book of handouts from Genesis to Revelation and summarized them in a table of contents exam.

After completing the final exams we celebrated graduation:

After celebrating graduation, we feasted on goat!

These men not only fulfilled a dream, but they blessed my socks off!

pic

pic

end

“How can God judge us? How can He know about suffering?” snapped a brunette, jerking back a sleeve to reveal a tattooed number from a Nazi concentration camp. “We endured terror, beatings, torture, and death!”

In another group, a black man lowered his collar. “What about this?” he demanded, showing the rope burns. “Lynched for no crime but being black! We’ve suffocated in slave ships, been wrenched from loved ones, and toiled ‘til only death gave release.”

Hundreds of such groups were visible across the plain. Each had a complaint against God for the evil and suffering He permitted in His world. How lucky God was, they all seemed to agree, able to live in heaven where all is sweetness and light, without weeping, fear hunger or hatred. Indeed, what does God know about man? What does He know about being forced to endure the trials of life? After all, God leads pretty sheltered life.

So each group sent out a leader, chosen because he had suffered the most. There was a Jew, a black, an untouchable from India, a person who was illegitimate, a person from Hiroshima and others who had tasted life’s bitterest dregs. At last they were ready to present their case. It was rather simple: Before God would be qualified to be their judge; He must endure what they had endured.

Their decision was that God should be sentenced to live on earth as a man. But because He was God, they set certain safeguards to be sure He would not use His divine powers to help himself.

• Let Him be a Jew.
• Let the legitimacy of His birth be questioned.
• Let Him champion a cause so just, but so radical, it brings upon Him the hate, condemnation and destructive attacks of political and religious authorities.
• Let Him be indicted on false charges, tried before a prejudiced jury and convicted by a cowardly judge.
• Let Him see what it is to be terribly alone and completely abandoned by every living being.
• Let Him be tortured and … let Him die.
• And let His death be humiliating; let it take place beside common criminals, while He is jeered at, mocked, and spit on.

As each leader announced his portion of the sentence, loud murmurs of approval went up from the great throng of people. But suddenly, after the last one had finished pronouncing sentence, there was a long silence. No one uttered another word. No one moved. For suddenly, all recognized the stark reality; God had already served his sentence.

[Author unknown]

Here are the notes:

talent n. Probably before 1300, inclination, disposition, will, desire; borrowed from Old French talent, from Medieval Latin talentum inclination, leaning, will, desire, from Latin talentum balance, weight, sum of money, from Greek talanton, balance, weight, sum. The ancient unit of weight or money is found in Middle English before 1382, borrowed directly from Latin talentum. The meaning of a special natural ability, aptitude, is first found about 1430, and developed from a figurative use of the word in the sense of money, value, taken from the parable of the talents in the Bible.

I will let A.T. Robertson (a Greek New Testament Scholar who wrote “Word Pictures in the New Testament” – one of my favorites!) answer that question. He said, “Probably Paul often saw these athletic games.” The great scholar seems a little bummed about this, but I am elated!

The key words as you read Paul’s letters are:

Race
Wrestle
Fight
Train
Compete
Rules
Judge
Disqualified
Crown
Prize
Goal
Cloud of witnesses

These 12 words (& there are more!) picture the Greek games of Paul’s day. They are the background of some the greatest passages in the New Testament (1 Corinthians 9:24-27, Philippians 3:12-14, Ephesians 6:10-13, 2 Timothy 2:5, 4:6-8, 1 Timothy 6:12, Acts 20:24 & Hebrews 12:1-2).

Watch the games with your Bible open & let the Word come alive!

The word “nations” in English, as we define it & count it, represents approximately 242 political nations. For example, there are 205 nations represented in this Olympics out of 242 nations that exist right now. But the word in the Bible goes deeper than politics. The Greek word for nations is ethnos, i.e. ethnicity. There are far more ethnicities than countries.

The U.S. Center for World Mission (our neighbors over in Pasadena!) estimates that there are 24,000 people groups in the world today. Can you imagine a Parade of Nations of 24,000 different people groups? If it took several hours for 10,960 athletes from 205 countries to enter a stadium, how long will it take for:

“A great multitude which no one could number,
Of all nations, tribes, peoples and tongues,
Standing before the throne and before the Lamb,
Clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands,
and crying out with a loud voice, saying,
“Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!””
(Revelation 7:9-10)

Now that is eternity!