Tuesday, December 22, 2015

The World That Jesus Entered, part 3: Darkness

One of the great themes of Christmas is light shining in the darkness.  "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light," the prophet Isaiah writes as he looks forward to the birth of the Savior.

But just last week, we talked about how the Jews celebrated the "Festival of Lights."  How did this time of great victory become so dark?  What hope does Jesus bring to the darkness of our own time?


Tuesday, December 15, 2015

The World That Jesus Entered, part 2: The Maccabees



Sunday was the 8th day of Hanukkah.  This Jewish holiday commemorates an event that was pivotal in both shaping the Jewish world in which Jesus lived and forms a background for many New Testament prophecies about the end times.

So who has heard a Baptist preacher give a Hanukkah sermon?  Well, here it is...


Tuesday, December 8, 2015

The World That Jesus Entered, part 1: World in Transition

When you open up the pages of the New Testament, what you find is drastically different from the world of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Malachi.  This month, we are going to tackle two key questions:

What happened in the history "between the Testaments" to shape the world that Jesus entered?

What can we learn from this era about how to live as God's people in a world in transition?