Dr Paul Allen

The apostolic sermons recorded by Luke in Acts demonstrate how the apostles preached the gospel from the Old Testament . The development of the New Testament canon begins with the writings of the apostles. Did the apostles understand they were writing Scripture? Two texts are helpful in determining that the apostles understood they were writing authoritative, Godinspired Scripture. 2 Peter 3:15-16—“And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.” Peter acknowledges Paul’s writings and calls them “Scripture.” Grudem notes: “The word translated ‘scriptures’ here is graphe, a word that occurs fiftyone times in the New Testament and that refers to the Old Testament Scriptu...

The Bible does indeed teach us to strive for eternal rewards and that we are clearly encouraged to expect greater privilege and responsibility, which may also involve more interaction with (or reporting to, or consulting with) the Lord, as we rule and reign alongside him in varying spheres of responsibility and diverse capacities of service. How do we live in the light of the teaching about eternal rewards? You might think, “I don’t care about receiving a special reward from God —I would serve him for free; salvation is all the glory I need and way more than I deserve.” That sounds noble enough. But ponder this: if God tells you there are rewards for faithful service, and you live your life as if there aren’t, are you really living a life of faith? Faith is believing in and acting on what God says. A life of faith is one that takes God at his word and then acts on it in a way that reflects that trust in his promises. I once saw a t-shirt in a music store that decl...

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven” ( Matthew 6:19–20 ). In Matthew 6:19–34, Jesus discusses the orientation toward life that is to characterize the family of God . We need to bear in mind that Jesus is providing us with aphorisms that address our attitudes. He is not contradicting other passages of His Word where we are told to be careful in our use of possessions. He says that treasures laid up on earth do not last. Precious garments of wool can be destroyed by moths, and implements of iron can rust. It makes no sense to invest our love and attention on such things, though we may enjoy them and make use of them. We must focus our attention on good works that please God, “for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (v. 21). He goes on to say that we cannot serve two masters. Certainly we can serve two people, indeed many people, but ...

With the exception of Christ Himself, there is probably more material on John the Baptist in the Gospels than any other individual. What are the roots of such a man? What are some of the things that pushed into his life and caused him to go out into the world and proclaim the coming of Christ? I believe that the greatness of a soul, the greatness of a man begins with a godly family. John’s parents, Zechariah and Elizabeth , were heaven’s agents to touch an entire generation. They lived during the time of Herod—a cruel, sadistic king. There was oppression, injustice, death, and murder, yet Zechariah and Elizabeth were both in tune with the voice of God . They were the son and daughter of other priests down through the generations. They were righteous before God and lived lives marked by absolute religious integrity. In Luke 1:8 an angel visits Zechariah and tells him that his son will be great before the Lord; that he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s ...

We cannot enjoy God apart from glorifying Him. And the Westminster Shorter Catechism wisely goes on to ask, “What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him?” But notice that Scripture contains the “rule” for enjoying God as well as glorifying Him. We know it abounds in instructions for glorifying Him, but how does it instruct us to “enjoy him”? Enjoying God is a command, not an optional extra : “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice” (Phil. 4:4). But how? We cannot “rejoice to order,” can we? True. Yet, Scripture shows that well-instructed believers develop a determination to rejoice. They will rejoice in the Lord. Habakkuk exemplified this in difficult days (see Hab. 3:17–18). He exercised what our forefathers called “acting faith”—a vigorous determination to experience whatever the Lord commands, including joy, and to use the God-given means to do so. Here are four of these means—in which, it should be noted, we also glorify God. Joy in Sa...

“Unto the church of God which is at Corinth , to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus , called to be saints , with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both their’s and our’s.” ( 1 Corinthians 1:2 ) This salutation to those “called saints” at Corinth (the words “to be” are not in the original) makes it clear that all who “in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord” are the saints of God. The word “saint” means “one who is sanctified” or “set apart,” having been called to serve the Lord. That service is varied, and many striking figures of speech are used in the Bible to describe it. In the first place, the saints are “witnesses unto me” ( Acts 1:8 ) and, therefore, “ambassadors for Christ” ( 2 Corinthians5:20 ). The words and deeds of believers are to serve as an actual Bible to those who may not read God’s Word. “Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but w...

We could take a look at the prohibition Paul issues to the church of God in 2 Corinthians   6:14 . He uses the agricultural image of animals being yoked together to pull a plow in order to illustrate the fundamental incompatibility between believers and unbelievers. His point, particularly, is that just as yoking together two fundamentally different kinds of animals will result in incongruity and discord, so also are believers and unbelievers two fundamentally different “breeds.” And any  intimate association  or spiritual partnership between them will eventually only result in  dissonance and difficulty . To partner them together and expect them to plow in the same direction is foolish, and will only end in spiritual disaster. After laying out this principled prohibition, Paul further illustrates the diametrical opposition and essential incongruity between genuine believers and unbelievers by means of five rhetorical questions—each of which inquire of com...

One of our first thoughts, when we hear someone claim to have witnessed a miracle, is that there might be some sort of natural explanation - because miracles are not the norm in nature. In the Gospels , we are told there was a similar response relating to Christ’s resurrection. When the Jewish priests were told the report of the empty tomb, they spread the tale that Jesus’ disciples had stolen His body (Mt 28:12–15). Even believers reacted this way . When Mary Magdalene initially saw Jesus , she made a natural assumption, supposing He was the gardener ( Jn 20:10 –15). When the disciples heard the report of the women who had gone to Jesus’ tomb, they thought the women were spreading rumors or false tales (Lk 24:11). Later, when they saw the risen Jesus, these same followers thought they were seeing a ghost or hallucination (Lk 24:36–43). Throughout history many have had similar responses regarding Jesus’ resurrection, attempting to come up with naturalistic theories to explain away...

Sometimes when a New Testament writer quotes the Old Testament, the two passages do not match precisely. Is the New Testament writer misquoting the Old Testament? Or is there another explanation? Luke records that when Jesus began His ministry, He went to the synagogue in Nazareth on the Sabbath day . When He stood up to read the Scriptures, “The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him” ( Luke 4:17 ). Jesus read the description of a climactic arrival of the anointed one from Isaiah 61:1-2 , excluding the last half of verse two.  The passage Christ read was Is. 61:1, 2. He stopped in the middle of v. 2. The rest of the verse prophesies judgment in the day of God’s vengeance. Since that part of the verse pertains to the second advent, He did not read it . That omission is understandable, but if you look at Luke 4:18-19 and Isaiah 61:1-2 side-by-side, several dissimilarities in what Jesus read are readily apparent. Luke 4:18-19 The Spirit of the Lord is on me,...