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Notes on Genesis 2:4-17

0 CommentsMonday • August 9, 2010 • by Brian

In my message yesterday on Genesis 2:4-17, I referenced a video about attention that you can see here:

I made a few mistakes, though, in my description of this video. One, I forgot that the viewer is only to count the passes made by the people wearing white shirts. Two, I said that they made 30 passes, but it was actually 15. Three, I said that the gorilla waved, but actually he beats his chest. These are minor errors, but I’m embarrassed about them. My preparation on that part of the message was sloppy.

Notes on Genesis 1:26-27

2 CommentsTuesday • July 27, 2010 • by Brian

Last Sunday (July 25, 2010) my message discussed the meaning, implications, and importance of the phrase “God created man in his own image” from Genesis 1:27-27. The audio for that message is available here and here (on iTunes).

I read a number of things that helped me understand this phrase, but one of the most helpful articles I read is called “Men and Women in the Image of God” by John Frame. This article was a chapter in Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. Frame’s article especially helped me understand how the human body images God which is by function, not by form, since God is pure spirit and does not have a physical form. Although I read Frame’s writing on this in the book, the same article appears to be available online here. I recommend it for more information on the image of God in humanity.

Notes on Ephesians 6:5-9

1 CommentTuesday • May 4, 2010 • by Brian

Sunday I preached on Ephesians 6:5-9, continuing our series on the book of Ephesians. As I mentioned in my introduction, I intentionally skipped over Ephesians 6:1-4 because Mother’s Day is coming next Sunday and that passage serves up a nice Mother’s Day message.

Because Bible study is important to us here at Calvary, I want to give you a little more information about why I think it was OK for me to preach Ephesians 6:5-9 BEFORE I preached Ephesians 6:1-4. Context is crucial to correct Bible interpretation, so normally it would not be OK to take something out of order this way. But in this instance, the context functions in a slightly different way than normal. Key phrase in context that conditions Ephesians 6:5-9 is Ephesians 5:21: “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” This is the controlling statement and the next three paragraphs after it (5:22-33; 6:1-4; 6:5-9) all give applications of that statement. Here’s a pretty little picture that visualizes what I mean. Click on it to make it bigger:

Now, don’t misunderstand me: I don’t think Paul’s order for submission: wives/husbands, children/parents, slaves/masters was arbitrary. Clearly he was working his way through the household addressing people in order, so that the slave/master relationship follows the child/parent relationship logically and in priority. In that way, then, preaching on the slave/master relationship ahead of the child/parent relationship disrupts the logic of Paul’s application of Ephesians 5:21. But nothing that is said about slaves/masters in 6:5-9 is dependent on what is said about children/parents in 6:1-4. As long as you understand that children have higher rank and priority over slaves, there is nothing lost by studying 6:5-9 (slave/masters) before 6:1-4 (children/parents).