Paw Paw Bible Church

Jesus empathizes with us in our feelings of badness. Jesus knows what it is like to feel bad. In this sermon, we will explore how he experienced this emotion in the gospels without sinning. We then take courage, for Christ Jesus is with us in our emotions, giving us the empathy and strength to process…

Jesus empathizes with us in our feelings of surprise. We are going to take several weeks and explore the mystery of God in the flesh, experiencing emotions so that he can empathize with us and thus save us. The exploration of this mystery is informed by many passages of Scripture. We will look at three…

This is the third weekend of the month when we answer questions from the question box. The question for this month is: “When is it appropriate for Christians to sue other Christians and also unbelievers?” This is a two-part question about bringing lawsuits. The first is: When is it appropriate to bring…

Engaging God with All of You. What are emotions? Dorner defines emotions as “a compound of feeling and impulse. They belong to the natural constitution of man, and are distinguished from both intelligence and moral volition.” (A. Dorner, “Emotions,” in Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics, ed. James Hastings,…

Every story has two sides to it, and the story of Peter's denial of Jesus is no different. Jesus tells Peter that he will deny Him three times before the rooster crows. And of course, Peter boldly refuses to believe Jesus; in fact, he argues the opposite, saying that he (Peter) would never do such a…

Every story has two sides to it, and the story of Peter's denial of Jesus is no different. Jesus tells Peter that he will deny Him three times before the rooster crows. And of course, Peter boldly refuses to believe Jesus; in fact, he argues the opposite, saying that he (Peter) would never do such a…

What is happening in this passage? God tells us how it will end: He wins. (v. 3, 5) His people share his victory. (v. 3) God’s people have vindication. (v. 4) What is happening in this passage? 2. A ruler is described: a. He is cruel. (v. 5-6) b. He is prideful. (v. 12-14) c. He is powerful. (v. 8, 16-17)…

1 You will say in that day: “I will give thanks to you, O Lord , for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me. 2 “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.” 3…

Isaiah 12:1-6 As we look at this passage of scripture together, we will see a theme of praising God. We can notice a few different things as we read. The first is that this echoes the book of Psalms in language, in the sense of the praise and poetic theme. The second pays homage to the book of Exodus…

He reigns in righteousness and faithfulness Last week, we covered the light of Yahweh’s reign. We continue with the theme of his reign as the Righteous Branch from the stump / the root of Jesse. We want to continue to ponder God’s reign in our hearts . We want to continue to ponder how we engage with…

Last week, we spoke about how Matthew saw and recognized that Jesus was the foretold person that Isaiah was prophesying about. And that Jesus was the long-awaited messiah, the one who had come to set God’s people free. We also spoke about the attributes that were listed in the prophecy, for example,…

We live in a world full of gloom and doom. Yet there is good news because the Light has come, shining into our darkness. We yearn for the day when Jesus, the Light of the World, removes every shadow from our lives and we will fully know ourselves, even as we are known by our Saviour ( 1 Corinthians 12:12…

How is your family living on mission? This sermon will explore three principles from Isaiah’s family for living on mission as a family. See if you can pick them out as I read Isaiah 7:3 and Isaiah 8 . And the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub your son, at the end of the…

What do we do with the Sabbath? This week is Question Sunday. There were six questions on the Sabbath in the question box. I will try to provide answers to each of these questions. I will not be able to answer them exhaustively, but I am more than happy to discuss them with you in the coming weeks. The…

In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah the king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it. When the house of David was told, “Syria is in league with Ephraim,”…

(Verse 1-10) Background information The main theme: Trust in God because God is with you. The Kings of Syria and Israel (Rezin and Pekah) went up to wage war against Jerusalem. Think of this like a show of force. When King Ahaz heard this news, his heart shook with fear ( Isaiah 7:2 ). v4 Then in the…

Isaiah 6:8 . And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” The usage of “us” has two possible meanings. For Isaiah and his audience, it was God using the “royal we”. He was speaking as kings did when addressing their subjects.…

The passage for this session is Malachi 3:6-15. Let’s review the three Worlds of Context. There is the World of the Text. There is the World Behind the Text. There is the World in Front of the Text. What is the first context we deal with? The first context we deal with is the World of the Text. Read…

Who wants to experience the presence of Yahweh? We all do. We sing songs about it. Song lyrics like, “This is the air I breathe—your holy presence living in me.” How do you see Yahweh? Isaiah 6:1 . 1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train…

The passage for this session is Malachi 2:17-3:5 . Let’s review the three Worlds of Context. There is the World of the Text. There is the World Behind the Text. There is the World in Front of the Text. The first context we deal with is the World of the Text. Read Malachi 2:17-3:5 and make observations…