Isaiah 49 begins with a portrait of the faithful servant of the Lord who would bring Israel back to God and be a light to the nations. Verses 1-13 describe the redemption that would take place soon (in Israel’s return from exile), eventually (by the work of Christ), and ultimately...
Last week, we began the next section of Isaiah 40-66. In chs. 49-55, the focus is on the servant of the Lord, who would be for Israel and for the world what Israel failed to be. He would be the one chosen by Yahweh to bring faithless Israel back to...
In Isaiah 40-66, we find God’s word of comfort and promises of salvation to his soon-to-be exiled people. After promising to raise up Cyrus of Persia to liberate Israel from Babylonian exile (chs. 40-48), the focus changes in chapters 49-55 to Israel’s greater problem of captivity to sin and their...
To close Paul’s letter to Philemon, Paul demonstrates the love of Christ by asking Philemon to put Onesimus’ wrongs on his own account. In this sermon, Pastor Keith walks through the text from verses 17-25, showing us the Apostle Paul’s gospel-shaped steps of reconciliation: paying for the other, assuming the...
In the introduction of Paul’s letter to Philemon, Paul began by acknowledging Philemon’s character and affirmed the demonstration of his faith in his love toward all the saints. He drew a picture of the family of God. And now in the main body of his letter, he shows us how...
Paul’s letter to Philemon deals with the theme of reconciliation and depicts God’s people in Christ as a family that can receive and restore even a runaway slave and a thief. We will see how Paul appeals to Philemon to demonstrate the power of the gospel by welcoming Onesimus back,...
Since Isaiah 40 we’ve been hearing God’s comforting word to his soon-to-be-exiled people. To be sure, he’s had some uncomfortable words for them as well, calling them out for their sin and rebellion and idolatry and hypocrisy. It was for these reasons they would eventually lose their temple, their city,...
Having just declared that one day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that the God of Israel is the one true God, Isaiah presses this reality further by describing the fall of Babylon and all of her idols. The Lord shows his people what happens when you trust...
We’ve been working through the second half of the book of Isaiah, where we find God’s word of comfort to his people who would one day be exiled in Babylon. In chapter 45 we saw God name Cyrus, King of Persia, as the one who would set them free and...