Will Vaus

Today in our journey through the 66 books of the Bible we are starting into the 27 books of the New Testament, beginning with the Gospel of Matthew.   Matthew’s Gospel appears first in the New Testament, not because it was written first, but rather because it was the most popular Gospel in the Early Church.    In fact, the earliest book of the New Testament is not a Gospel at all. The earliest book is Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians.   At first, all the stories about Jesus circulated orally. It wasn’t until the first eyewitnesses began to die off that the Early Church thought about writing down more detailed accounts of Jesus’ life, ministry, his death, and resurrection.   Another thing to keep in mind is that none of the Gospels originally had titles. The titles came later. So, you might reasonably ask, where did the titles come from, these titles that suggest Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were the authors of the four Gospels we have in our Bibles? ...

When I was in high school, my parents encouraged me to get involved in various activities at school, in the church, in the community in order to discover my interests and perhaps a life direction. Thus, one day I tried out for a high school play and, without any previous experience, I landed the lead role. That was the first of many productions I got involved in, and in college, I consequently became a drama major. People have debated for centuries what is most important in a play. Is it plot or character? For my money, I would bet on the characters being the most important element in a play. After all, it is the characters and their motivations that drive the plot. Thus, I would suggest to you that the power of the play is in the characters, and as we come to our text in the Gospel of John today, we approach what William Barclay has called “the most dramatic account of the trial of Jesus in the New Testament”. You may wonder why we are looking at this text today that focuse...

"The Light of the World" by William Holman Hunt As we saw yesterday, when in the second article of The Apostles' Creed we call Jesus the "Christ," we are calling him the anointed one, our great prophet, priest, and king.  I want to take a few moments today to focus on Jesus' kingship. When Jesus was on trial under Pontius Pilate, Jesus confessed to him: "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me." (John 18:33b-37) In this confession before Pilate Jesus made it clear that he came not as a worldly king to rule over a political kingdom, but he came as a spiritual king to rule in and through the hearts of his people. I remember when I was ten years old and I was taken by my parents to see the crown jewels in the well-guarded Crown Room of the Tower of London. There I saw all the diadems of the British monarc...

King Uzziah of Judah stricken with Leprosy by Rembrandt van Rijn The Chronicler continues to follow his pattern of giving at least a chapter of commentary on each king of Judah. He mentions which kings were good and which ones were evil just as Kings does, but as we have seen before, he continues to give a fuller picture of each king’s reign. For example, the Chronicler mentions that King Amaziah did what was right in the sight of the Lord, yet not with a true heart. The Chronicler adds that Amaziah hired troops from Israel, something that Kings does not tell us. However, when a man of God warns him that this is wrong, Amaziah backs off his plan, and the Lord gives him victory against the men of Seir despite his diminished troops. Amaziah does not appear to be grateful to the Lord for this victory. Instead, he sets up the gods of Seir as his own to worship. The Lord sends a prophet to warn Amaziah but the king refuses to listen. Therefore, the Lord hands Amaz...

The Chonicler here continues his positive, Judah-focused assessment of the history of God’s people. His assessment of Abijah, son of Rehoboam and King of Judah, is strikingly different than that of the author of Kings. In 1 Kings 15:1 ff. we read…. Now in the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam son of Nebat, Abijam began to reign over Judah. He reigned for three years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Maacah daughter of Abishalom. He committed all the sins that his father did before him; his heart was not true to the Lord his God, like the heart of his father David. By contrast, the Chronicler tells us nothing whatsoever negative about Abijam, whom he calls Abijah. The King of Judah argues against King Jeroboam of Israel for the superiority of Judah as the ancient seat of King David with the proper Levitical priesthood. When Abijah goes to battle against Jeroboam, Abijah’s forces are victorious because they cry out to the Lord in the midst of the battle. (See 2 ...

No sooner is Saul installed as the king of Israel, than he begins his descent from power. Saul commits a series of disastrous errors. First, he fails to wait for Samuel at Gilgal to perform the sacrifice before his army goes to war against the Philistines. Saul arrogantly assumes to himself the right to offer a sacrifice to God. Thus, Samuel, who soon shows up on the scene, says to Saul… You have done foolishly; you have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which he commanded you. The Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever, but now your kingdom will not continue; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart; and the Lord has appointed him to be ruler over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you. (1 Samuel 13:13-14) One interesting thing to note about this is that Samuel is no more of a Levitical priest than Saul. According to the instructions in the Torah, neither one of them has the right to offer ...