On November 8, 15, and 22, the three Sundays between All Saints’ Day and the First Sunday in Advent, the Gospel readings from the three-year lectionary cover the entirety of Matthew 25. This chapter is about the return of Jesus and the end of the world. In a way, these three Sundays serve as a sort of pre-Advent season that focuses (much like Advent) on the hope and expectation of Jesus’ return.
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Let the kingdom of heaven be proclaimed! Jesus has chosen the Twelve, and their instructions are clear: Preach and heal so that the world knows the Kingdom has come. The proclamation of...
This blog post is adapted from Lutheran Bible Companion Volume 2: Intertestamental Era, New Testament, and Bible Dictionary. Paul, on his way to Macedonia, has left Timothy at Ephesus...
This blog post is excerpted from The Christian Faith: A Lutheran Exposition, second edition, by Theodore J. Hopkins and Robert Kolb. God used the many and varied voices of the prophets...
This blog is excerpted from an article by Rev. Carl C. Fickenscher II that was published in a previous edition of Concordia Pulpit Resources. So much has been written on the dynamics of...
The city of Thessalonica, named after a sister of Alexander the Great, was built within sight of one of the great religious landmarks of ancient Greece. Southward, across the Thermaikos...
The other day I was listening to a pastor speak about the priority of prayer. He said the following: Scripture records the disciples asking Jesus to teach them one thing: how to pray...
This blog post is adapted from From Abraham to Paul: A Biblical Chronology, Second Edition. Select in-text citations and original Hebrew have been omitted...
Founded in 316 BC, Thessalonica became an important harbor and leading city in the region. When the Romans built the Egnatian Way to connect Rome to its eastern interests, Thessalonica...
During my ministry as a missionary, schoolteacher, and pastor, I have learned that children respond differently when told what they must or must not do. Some are naturally obedient and...
If you only know a few Bible passages, Matthew 28:19 is probably one of them: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations ….” It’s an easy passage for the Christian heart to embrace.
I’ve learned a lot in the forty-plus years I have spent as a parish pastor and Christian husband. Inspired by my recent work in my Bible study Reclaiming the Heart of Marriage, I’ve...
The day I was baptized was a cold day in December. It was five days before Christmas and nearly 17.75 years after my earthly entrance. My pastor helped me to keep the Fourth Commandment...
Travelers from the west coast of Asia Minor would walk up the Maeander River Valley on their journeys east. If they continued passed Laodicea, along the Lycos River, they would reach the...
This blog is excerpted from an article by Rev. Dr. David R. Schmitt that was published in a previous edition of Concordia Pulpit Resources.
The bodily resurrection of Jesus is central to the understanding of the Gospel of John. The comfort that Jesus offers twenty-first-century Christians is rooted in His first-century words...
On the edge of the Datos plain, about six miles from the Aegean Sea, Greek colonists founded the city of Philippi in 356 BC. Philip II of Macedon soon took the city and named it after...
The mountain chains of western Asia Minor reach for the Aegean Sea. Where the Ayden range points finger-like toward the island of Samos and the Cayster River flows into the Sea, Ionian...
This blog post is adapted from Life Under the Cross: A Biography of the Reformer Matthias Flacius Illyricus.
No matter what time in your church’s fiscal year it is, if you’re a pastor, office manager, or treasurer looking for effective church budgeting tips, you’ve come to the right place. We’ll...
The Taurus Mountains of south central Asia Minor form the southern rim of a great basin in which one finds the central Anatolian steppe. Grass, shrubs, and salty lakes fill this dry,...
