Douglas Jacoby Podcast

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. Here's a guest podcast, The Leper , by Kevin Agot, who lives in the Washington DC area. I hope you enjoy it!

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. Introduction Our text is Mark 1:40-45. A different version of the story has come down to us in Matt 8:1-4. This man will be the first leper healed in the NT. Scriptural study: Mark 1:40-45 Unsure whether Jesus is willing? Kneeling, imploring... The Lord is willing! Believe that when we pray. Believe it when we ask him to remove our sin...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. Introduction Healing lepers was an important part of Jesus’ ministry: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them” (Matt 11:4-5). His healing of lepers confirmed that Jesus was Me...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. Introduction Previous studies in Section II (Leprosy) have studied four individual lepers. Today we will consider the lives of four lepers all together. Although these men are not healed of their leprosy, they end up in a positive, victorious place nonetheless. Scriptural study: 2 Kings 6:24-31; 7:3-5, 8-10. Siege conditions in Samaria...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. Scriptural study: 2 Chron 26:15b-21a   The highly successful king lets success go to his head (vs.15-16). Pride goes before a fall. Prov 16:18. Deut 8:11-20 (please read Deut 8 if this is unfamiliar to you). The king becomes overconfident. His specific sin: He disobeyed the law of priesthood (he is not a priest, as a king of Judah). He...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. Introduction Gehazi is the third leper in the Bible. He appears in 2 Kings 4, 5, 8. Chapter 4 gives us insight into the kind of person Gehazi was: not as spiritually aware as Naaman. Scriptural study: 2 Kings 5:15-27 Elisha will not be enriched by a Gentile (although now Naaman is within the covenant). Similar to Abraham’s stance in Ge...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. Scriptural study: 2 Kings 5:1-19 Note: Naaman is also mentioned in the NT (Luke 4:27). Syria = Aram = Syria, not Assyria His qualities: Leadership Courage And the flaw of leprosy (both visible and humiliating). Physical and  spiritual health are found in the land of Israel (not Syria, where false gods are worshipped). See how God works...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. Introduction 19 lepers are healed in the Bible, several in the OT and even more in the NT (though there's no healing of lepers in John and Acts). Leprosy (Hansen's Disease) can be cured, with multi-drug therapy -- and cheaply! The first leper in the Bible was Moses’s sister, though you could also argue it was Moses himself (Exod 4:6)....

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. Introduction OT: Purity and cleansing are more about forgiveness than about transformation. Yet, for fairness and balance, holiness was the goal, and then as now involved a quest, a process... E.g, Exodus: facilitation of forgiveness and holiness: laws, priesthood, tabernacle; Leviticus: atonement and holiness; Numbers: the journey of...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. Introduction Reminder: purity is a broad concept. Narrowing the definition to a single sin lets us off the hook! How are you doing this year (so far) with purity of thought, speech, and lifestyle? How's your focus? Just as in OT so in NT... Scriptural study James 1:27 The pollution of the world makes us apathetic and self-absorbed Sodo...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. Pray for purity & cleansing (all four levels): Actions Words Thoughts Heart / conscience / motives Scriptures (Jesus) Matt 6:19-24 Matt 5:8 Scriptures (Paul) 2 Cor 6:5-7 2 Cor 11:2-3 Phil 1:10 Phil 4:8 1 Tim 4:12 1 Tim 5:2 2 Tim 2:22 Titus 1:15 Titus 2:5 Challenge Thought question: How do we spend our time ? That tells us a lot more ab...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. God calls us to be pure on 4 levels: Actions Words Thoughts Heart / Conscience / Motives Scripture Biblically speaking, purity is a broad subject. Impurity isn't just sexual (as in Gal 5:19). Prov 15:26 [2,3]; 16:2 [1]; 20:9 [4]; 20:11 [1]; 21:8 [1]; 22:11 [2,4]; 4:23 [4]. These proverbs speak of purity at the designated levels [-]. Is...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. Series Outline:  Intro (1 lesson, "Podcast 0") Purity & Cleansing (5 lessons) Leprosy (7 lessons) Exorcism (7 lessons) Reanimation (10 lessons) Holiness: It's a Decision! (2 lessons) God calls us to be pure on 4 levels: Actions Words Thoughts Conscience / Heart / Motives Scripture Like Paul in 2 Tim 2:19-22, Jesus too spoke of the clea...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. The Problem Too many Christians are defeated by: the uncleanness of materialism the pollution of sexual temptation a general lack of holiness & fire for the things of the Lord It's normal to feel unclean  in the presence of God. But once we're cleansed, we should be ready for service (Isa 6:1-9; 2 Tim 2:19-22). Yet at times we all come...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. Atheists Wrong thinking They will say that Jesus was a man of his time (yet he was counter cultural!). A recycling of ancient myths. But there was no ancient dying / rising god before the time of Jesus. If there was “borrowing,” it took place in the opposite direction! Remember the bad of Christian history, but nearly none of the good....

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. Introduction: 1 Corinthians 1:18-24 Greeks: Christ is foolishness to polytheists, and to intellectuals who embrace philosophy over religion Jews:  He is also unacceptable to the Jews (generally speaking). The Muslim view of Christ is similar to the Jewish view. Jews Jesus was a failed Messiah, or rabbi whose claims were exaggerated. Ea...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. The final three podcasts in  Christ Through the Ages  explore how Christ has been refracted through human thinking. We begin with the polytheists (think Hindu); next time we will discuss monotheists (think Muslims); in the last lesson we will consider the atheists. There are many differing refractions / reflections of Christ in man-mad...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. In this final lesson in the sub-series on Christ as understood through the course of the history of the church, we will focus on the period  from the Reformation onward. Listen to  500 Years of Alternative Christs (25 minutes). Christ as depicted in theology, practice, and art Theology -- often tends to follow practice (trends) Action...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. Doctrinal development and changing views of Christ Changes occur slowly, accumulating incrementally. Probably most people never even noticed. But in the 4th century the church rockets into worldliness. Majority authentic disciples -> only the minority (Matthew 7). At odds with the world -> friends with the world (James 4). Apostolic me...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. The 25th podcast in this series (21 minutes) is entitled Christ in Church History: The Early Middle Ages . We will also discuss some misunderstandings of Christ in the two centuries leading up to the Middle Ages (2nd-4th centuries). Some academic considerations Though we could track the changes in how Christ is understood, and proclaim...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. Early sources Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John Acts Letters Apocalypse Found also in early documents like 1 Clement, the letters of Ignatius, etc. Apostolic emphases illustrated in evangelistic speeches: Acts 2:14-36 Jesus was a real person -- he was from Nazareth (v.22). The scriptures (Old Testament) bear witness to Christ (vv.16...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. Today's lesson is from the Apocalypse. Revelation depicts our Lord in a majestic, awesome way, and serves as a much-needed reminder not to trivialize Christ or to forget his role as both Savior and Judge. "King of Kings" in Scripture Ezra 7:12 -- claim of ancient kings Ezekiel 26:7 -- frightful context Daniel 2:37 -- refers to sovereig...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. Insights about Christ from the epistle of Jude We are kept by Christ (v.1) Yet there is a threat: godless men have infiltrated the church (v.4). They go beyond the faith that has been delivered to the saints (v.3), otherwise Jude would not have felt compelled to modify his agenda. There are Old Testament and other Jewish precedents for...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. Senses of anti in Greek against in place of (2 Cor 11) Occurrences of "antichrist(s)" in Bible Not in Revelation! Only in the letters of John 1 John 2:18, 4:3 2 John 7 Who were the antichrist? They are people , not a person. They'd left the church. Yet not all who wander are the antichrist! They denied the incarnation. Probably these p...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. Introduction Like all the letters, 1-2 Peter are intended to help us to grow, to continue to live as disciples of Christ to the very end. 2 Peter – growth through knowledge 1 Peter – growth hrough suffering The translations relied on in this lesson are the NIV and that of biblical scholar J. Ramsey Michaels. The theme of suffering in 1...