Bible

I most recently preached on Matthew 14:24-33 (the story of Jesus walking on the water) in January 2018.

On Social Media

"Of making many books there is no end" (Ecclesiastes 12:12)

If that was true when Ecclesiastes was written, how much more true is it in the days of social media. Surely the writer of Ecclesiastes would comment: "Of the writing of opinions on social media, there is no end"!

All of our church services are currently online-only, due to Covid-19.

This morning, rather than preaching on a single passage, I did a topical sermon, unpacking a biblical theology of hand washing.

Here's Darrell Bock (paid link), commenting on the birth of Jesus in Luke 2:6.

There's a little gem of a commentary (paid link) on Luke's gospel, by G B Caird, long out-of-print, but can easily be picked up second-hand.

I think he gets to the heart of Luke 2:1-7 succinctly in a way that many more detailed commentaries don't.

On Saturday, I posted notes from Darrell Bock's commentary on Luke (paid link), addressing the questions that are often asked of the historicity of the census mentioned in Luke 2:1-2.

His arguments are excellent and detailed, so I wanted to reproduce them in fairly full form, as that will help some people.

I often hear it said that Luke got his history wrong in Luke 2:1-6. He refers to "the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria". It is said that there was no such census; it never took place.

This is a serious charge to levy against a gospel writer who is historically impeccable when he records any fact for which we have independent records, and who says (Luke 1:1-4) that he worked hard to check everything out with primary eye witnesses.

Much ink has been spilled on this. However, the commentary on Luke by Darrell Bock is thorough and contains a helpful excursus examining this question at length. For my own future reference, and for the benefit of others, here's a summary of his argument.

I sometimes note illustrations here that may be useful for me to find later, and that may be useful for others as well.

Here's the teaching of Christ:

Give up everything to follow Christ

This is a familiar part of what Jesus taught: It costs to follow him.

Last Sunday, at our all-age service, we looked at the visit of the Magi, as recorded in Matthew 2:1-11.

(I know, 6 weeks early. There's a reason, but never mind).

So often, when you read a commentary on part of the Bible you're studying, you have pages and pages of material but the commentator doesn't seem to be puzzling over the same details of the passage as you are.

How refreshing when the commentator asks exactly the questions you were asking, and has some very sensible things to say.