Category Archives: The Gospels

The Lesson of Tyre

Matthew 15:21-28 is an example of Scripture that is difficult to understand, until we put the verses in context with other passages. It works on multiple levels to reveal the love of God for all of us. It can be a little too easy to paint this as a story of a woman’s persistence, and miss the deeper lesson that Jesus gave the disciples.

John Paine's avatarLessons in Lent

Limts Of Tyre The Limits of Tyre by Vasily Polenov, 1911

Today’s Lenten devotional by N.T. Wright (Week 3, Wednesday), focusing on Matthew 15:21-28, describes one of those passages in Scripture that is difficult to grasp in isolation. What’s really going on here? What does the text tell us about the values of Jesus Christ? Why didn’t He just heal the Canaanite woman when she asked? Is Jesus calling this woman a ‘dog’? Did this woman talk Jesus into changing His mind?

Thankfully we have a parallel text in Mark 7:24-29, and a clue about what life was like at this point in Jesus’ ministry in Luke 6:17-19, so let’s put them all together.

And He came down with them and stood on a level place with a crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and…

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Framing John the Baptist

John Paine's avatarLessons in Lent

The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist, Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1499 The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist, Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1499

Today’s Lenten devotional by N.T. Wright (Week 2, Wednesday), focusing on Matthew 11:1-19, explores the character and mission of John the Baptist, and the love of our Lord.

Two Gospel writers (Matthew and Luke) relate the account of John the Baptist sending his followers to ask Jesus if He was indeed the true Messiah. So John had doubts when the heat was on. Got it—he was human.

In response, Jesus cited His miracles as proof of His messianic authority. (You can’t get away from the purpose of miracles in the Bible.) But Jesus went further than merely answering the question—he set John the Baptist apart as the greatest man born of women. He recognized John’s doubt, addressed it, and restored John’s reputation. That grace in the face of doubt reveals how…

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Matthew’s Gospel Truth

I’ve had multiple conversations over the past two weeks on witnessing and evangelism, all centering on how we present Jesus and the Gospel. One thing that strikes me is how many Christian brothers and sisters seem to be without a plumb line when it comes to presenting the Gospel. Some sound doctrine would greatly help. Here is a post I contributed to our church’s Lenten blog series that speaks to the issue.

John Paine's avatarLessons in Lent

“One of the great lies of our time is to suppose that because Jesus brings forgiveness, and urges us to be forgiving people, meek, and gentle, there is no sharp edge to his message. To hear some people, you’d think the whole of the Christian message was simply a call to accept one another, never to judge another person.”
N.T. Wright, Lent for Everyone, Matthew, Year A

Personally, if I had to pick one word to sum up Jesus Christ (and the Bible, and the Christian faith for that matter), it would be ‘veracity’—partly because Jesus called Himself “the truth” in John 14:6. We’re dealing with the truth when we’re dealing with Jesus. Really.

Certainly as much as any other Gospel writer, Matthew gives us a fully-developed, true picture of Jesus Christ and His message—and it’s not the saccharine depiction many people make it out to be (just wait until…

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Grace & Truth (& Distractions)

From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
John 1:16-17 (NIV84)

Being a blogger is a lot like being a fisherman—lines in the water all over the place, always fishing for material to share.  I learn a lot.

One of the places I like to go fishing is in podcasts, listening to the likes of William Lane Craig, the scholars at Reasons To BelieveAndy Stanley, and Dick Woodward while commuting.  But this summer I agreed to read straight through the Old Testament, and that meant weeks of listening to the reading of all 39 books.  No podcasts—just reading through the Bible (an essential prerequisite for personal discipleship).

Finally, I reached the end of Malachi and the next day it was time for something new.  I really missed the podcasts, so I pulled out my iPhone and ran through some favorite podcast libraries, settling almost randomly on an Andy Stanley sermon entitled, “When Gracie Met Truthy.”  It’s a really powerful message on what it means to be a ‘Christian’, and I couldn’t wait to share it here on Veracity.

So here you go.  Click on the image below, then click on the video that appears and listen to some very fine homiletics.

When Gracie Met Truthy

Sometimes Less Is More

But…when I sat down to link everything up for this post, a simple Google search produced a lot more than I bargained for.  It turns out this is THE controversial sermon Andy Stanley preached on August 15th, 2012.  You know, the one where he made an illustration about a messy situation involving homosexuality and adultery.  The rocks started flying in the blogosphere, and even some big names weighed in on the attack. Continue reading


The Gospel Truth

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