We have an incurable fascination with the future, don’t we. We want to know what is going to happen, when it is going to happen, why it is going to happen. Small wonder that when Jesus foretold the coming destruction of the temple, his disciples wanted to know. Enquiring minds always want to know. When will these things be, they asked, and what wil…

It was just at the crack of dawn. First light of the new day was just starting to show over the top of the Golan Heights. Still too dark to see anything. The men in the boat fumbled around because they knew where their tackle was, they knew what the boat was like, they knew where everything was by hand, by touch. They had fished a lot at night, so …

The idea of the End of the World has a kind of morbid fascination for us. We are conditioned to think in terms of beginnings and ends of things, so it becomes not so much a question of whether, but of when. It is not a happy topic. I suppose it is a lot like a sore tooth—we have to keep exploring to see if it still hurts. I can’t pass up those old …

How would you like to know—step-by-step—all the events leading up to the end of the world? Maybe you’d rather not know. We really have a morbid fascination with the end of the world, don’t we? We fantasize about how to escape it, how to prevent it. We make movies about blowing up asteroids and extinction-level events. It was chilling, several years…

Power corrupts. Absolute Power corrupts absolutely. It is one of the reasons why men have rejected absolute monarchy and the divine right of kings. But forget about absolute power for a moment and think about power—power in small amounts. It is a little spooky to realize how little power it takes to start the process of corruption. When Jesus walke…

It was just at the crack of dawn. First light of the new day was just starting to show over the top of the Golan Heights. Still too dark to see anything. The men in the boat fumbled around because they knew where their tackle was, they knew what the boat was like, they knew where everything was by hand, by touch. They had fished a lot at night, so …

When you consider the mess the world is in right now, you might wonder if God has written us off as a bad investment. But if you read the Bible, you know that the world—at least man’s world—has been in a mess from the very beginning and yet God has taken an interest in it, and seems to be making sense out of it all. He has plan and is working the p…

There is a name that will live forever in our memories, and there is probably not a culture in the world that does not understand the significance of the name…Judas. Judas is hard to understand…almost as hard to understand as Jesus who included Judas in the small band of men he named as apostles. Because Jesus included Judas in that band knowing fr…

If I could tell you a way whereby you could live forever, would you be interested? Well, the question was put to Jesus, and Jesus gave a straight answer. Would you like to hear it? And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? Mark 10…

The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and th…

We rarely give very much thought to these days between Passover and Pentecost; but in ancient times, this was a time of very hard work. These are weeks of harvest that we are now going through. What do the weeks between Passover and Pentecost really mean? And what does an ancient agricultural rhythm have to do with the Church today?…

We rarely give very much thought to these days between Passover and Pentecost; but in ancient times, this was a time of very hard work. These are weeks of harvest that we are now going through. What do the weeks between Passover and Pentecost really mean? And what does an ancient agricultural rhythm have to do with the Church today?…

The listeners to our one station in the British Isles will know Pentecost as Whitsunday (White Sunday, that is) from the custom of the newly-baptized wearing white. I was surprised on a visit to London a few years ago to find that Whit Monday is also a holiday there. They get a extended weekend, the Brits do, based on an ancient Jewish holiday. Go …

I have asked this before, but let me ask it again: Why was a Gentile church, decades after the ascension of Christ, observing the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread—what is generally assumed to be a Jewish holiday? And why is such a notable Christian observance as Easter never mentioned in the Bible? Now if you are a King James reader, you m…

Unless you’ve recently arrived from another planet, you already know that most Christian people believe that Jesus was crucified on Good Friday and he was raised from the dead on Sunday morning. But if you read the New Testament with any care at all, you probably have got a lingering question about this. Because Jesus said plainly that he would be …

Sometimes the simplest answers are the best. I’ve asked again and again why it was that, thirty years after the ascension of Christ—long after everything that was nailed the cross was nailed there—a Gentile church was observing the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread that go along with it? Well, the simple answer is that the Passover and the …

There’s an old hymn I remember singing in church when I was just a boy. It’s striking to me today, because it represents an understanding of the Bible in earlier generations that I think has been lost in many churches today. The song goes: Christ our redeemer died on the cross died for the sinner, paid all his due, All who receive him need never fe…

By Ronald L. Dart

By [email protected] (Sermon by Ronald L. Dart)

By [email protected] (Sermon by Ronald L. Dart)

By [email protected] (Sermon by Ronald L. Dart)

How is it possible that a Christian church, some 25 years after the ascension of Christ, was still observing the oldest known Jewish holiday? And they were. It is easily demonstrated. And they weren’t even a Jewish church. This one was mostly Gentile. Paul wrote to the church in Corinth in about AD 55, and scholars generally agree that the letter w…

A very wealthy man had a manager who had allowed a dangerous cash flow situation to develop. Various customers had built up debts and were slow to pay. The manager had allowed this, not so much out of negligence, but out of aggressive business policy. But the thing got out of hand, and the manager’s job was on the line. It is odd to think that a sp…

Is it hard to be a Christian? Or is it relatively easy? What is demanded of us to actually be a servant of Jesus the Christ? I suppose it depends on your theological perspective. If we are talking about forgiveness of sins, then salvation is by grace through faith. There is not a thing you can do to rescue yourself from the consequences of your sin…

The chances are pretty good that you know someone who has had a miraculous answer to prayer. There are a lot of people walking around out there who ought to be dead. But people have prayed for them, and tumors have disappeared. The problem is often that the healing can be explained away: missed diagnosis, spontaneous remission, etc. There is one mi…

It doesn’t seem that praying should be all that hard. It certainly isn’t when you are in trouble. Lord help me comes quickly enough. And we probably have some childhood prayers we memorized. The first prayer I can recall is Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the lord my soul to take. T…

There are, in some of Paul's letters, some things that are...well, the only words I can say for it is astonishing and astounding. We spend a lot of time in these epistles explaining the problems, or expounding from those scriptures where Paul exhorts the church to do these things and do the other things, and where he addresses theological concepts,…

There are, in some of Paul's letters, some things that are...well, the only words I can say for it is astonishing and astounding. We spend a lot of time in these epistles explaining the problems, or expounding from those scriptures where Paul exhorts the church to do these things and do the other things, and where he addresses theological concepts,…

How much we take for granted. Every year the Easter season comes around with Palm Sunday, followed by Good Friday, followed by Easter Sunday. And each Easter has the sunrise service, new bonnets, Easter eggs, and Easter Bunnies. I’ll never forget the Sunday morning we were sitting having brunch in a hotel, and in the front door bounds this six-foot…

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Unless you just arrived from another planet, you have heard that sentence many times in your life. These words are the words of Jesus and they are found in John 8:32. They are true beyond a doubt, and in a wide range of applications. But you may not be familiar with the response to that s…

I think we have discovered why some of the words of Jesus are so obscure. Deep into the years of his ministry, there were so many people laying wait for him, trying to trap him and wanting to kill him, that he often spoke in riddles and allegories which he later had to explain to his disciples. It was not so much that he was afraid as it was that h…

There are some things about Jesus that are bound to be troubling to a Christian reading the New Testament—that is, if you are reading the New Testament carefully and thinking about what you read. It’s a testimony to the hateful antisemitism that still exists that some people get real uncomfortable when I remind them that Jesus was, after all, a Jew…

It is becoming increasingly common these days for a minister, a pastor of a church, to be caught in some kind of sexual sin. I recently read that upwards of 30% of church pastors have committed adultery or some cognate sin at some time in their pastorate. I don’t know why I should have been surprised at that. Our society is so sexually overcharged,…

Therefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. Hebrews 13:12–14 KJ2000 [Paul_Study_Questions_Link]By Ronald L. Dart

Can God read your mind? 99 people out of 100 who believe in God would say, Yes, God can do anything. He can read your mind. But if you are a serious Bible reader, you probably have had reason to wonder if that is really true—at least, if it is true all the time. To even ask the question is to call the issue in doubt. And it is an important issue to…

Which is more important, do you think, pursuing a religious argument with someone, or giving a life to man who doesn’t have one? Note that I said, pursuing a religious argument, not resolving a religious difference. These arguments never seem to be resolved, so we must engage in them for our own entertainment. And when I talk about giving a life to…

It is hard to imagine the confusion that swirled around Jesus during his ministry. The entire Jewish world had already been ripe with expectations of a Messiah, but Jesus was not exactly what they expected. It is strange when you think about it—that a person could miss seeing the Messiah because he expected the Messiah to be different. I think this…

Do you wash your hands before you eat? Well, if you had a mother, you probably do. It is a habit acquired in childhood. But chances are you don’t worry about it very much unless you have just been petting the dog or something like that. Why do I ask? Well, it became a major issue between Jesus and the Pharisees, believe it or not. Jesus had made a …

There were at least three major categories of people who heard Jesus speak. There was a smallish group of people who immediately responded to him. To them, he was like water on dry ground. They soaked up his every word and wanted more. There was another small group that bristled at Jesus’ every word. There was something about him that annoyed and a…

For Christ has not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest enters into the holy place every year with blood of others; For then must he often have suffered since the foundation …

It had been a hard three days. David and the handful of young men with him had left in hurry and they had taken no food. By the time they got to a place called Nob, they were in a bad way. They needed food and there was only one place David thought they might get something to eat. So he went to the priest at the tabernacle, a man named Ahimelech. 1…

Was Jesus a racist? You know, he live in a society that was, frankly, racist. Religious Jews would not eat with gentiles and Samaritans were beneath contempt. Oh, they were happy enough to make a proselyte from among the Gentiles, but they still treated them as second-class worshipers of God. So what was Jesus doing when he sent his disciples out a…

Jesus must have given a lot of people whiplash. For one thing, he didn’t seem to be very religious. That is not to say that he was not a law-abiding person, or that he was profane or irreligious. It was just that he wasn’t religious in the accepted sense. For one thing, he consorted with the wrong kind of people. And he was under near constant crit…

Why was Jesus so hard to understand at times? Oh, there were times when he was clear as crystal, and we just don’t like what he said, but there are other times when he is not clear at all. Jesus, like any good communicator used all the various devices, analogies, illustrations, stories, comparisons, etc. But he had another tool that he used frequen…

Imagine for a moment that you and your family go out to a movie one night and when you come home, your house has burned to the ground. I know, it would be a terrible loss. You would all shed a lot of tears. It would be horrible. But assuming you had your house properly insured, have you ever considered how free you would be the next morning? The in…

For the word of God is living, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrew 4:12 KJ2000 [Paul_Study_Questions_Link]By Ronald L. Dart

When reading the Bible, especially the words of Jesus, have you ever wondered why Jesus did not speak more plainly? He was a man of few words, and I often find myself wishing for more words from him—more detail, more explanation. Only a part of the problem is the brevity of Jesus’ remarks. Part of it is an assumption of knowledge on the part of his…

Abide with me; fast falls the eventide; The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide. When other helpers fail and comforts flee, Help of the helpless, O abide with me. It is an old, familiar friend, this hymn. There’s a good chance you know the tune and could sing it. Too often, when we sing these songs in church or hear them on the radio, we sing them…

And, you, Lord, in the beginning have laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of your hands: They shall perish; but you remain; and they all shall grow old as does a garment; And as a mantle shall you fold them up, and they shall be changed: but you are the same, and your years shall not fail. Hebrews 1:10–12 KJ2000 [Paul_St…

Finally we come to Second Timothy. Paul is now an old man—one who had been over a lot of roads, been to a lot of places. He had been imprisoned, beaten, shipwrecked. Paul may not have lived as many years as some in the Bible, but he put an awful lot of miles on in that period of time. He also changed a lot. The Paul we know in Luke’s early writings…