Jesus the Vine

Welcome! This morning in a little while we will remember the Lord with the bread and the cup, continuing a practice that Jesus Himself taught His disciples shortly before He was crucified. There are almost countless names and titles for Jesus described in the Bible. Some of these were names He gave Himself. One of these is the Vine. This morning I would like us to spend a little time reflecting on what it means for Jesus to call Himself the vine.

As we have been going through characters of the Old Testament over the past months, I thought it would be appropriate to look at the symbolism of the vine in the Old Testament. These images and scriptural references would be immediately familiar to many of the Jews at the time of Jesus.

Many scriptures refer to the nation of Israel as a vine. One example is Psalm 80, a psalm of Asaph.

Broken Vessels: Prophets, Part III

Welcome! We are coming close to the end of our series entitled Broken Vessels, where we have looked at the lives of a number of Old Testament characters and seen how, far from perfect though they were, God used them to accomplish His purposes. We are in a series-within-a-series on prophets, focusing in on a period in Israel’s history where Elijah, Elisha, and other prophets tried to get wicked kings and people who had forsaken God to return to their Creator, to the One who wanted to be their Savior and Shepherd.

Last week we focused in on the latter half of Elijah’s life, and what we saw wasn’t very pretty. Something happened to Elijah after God’s fire miraculously consumed the altar and offering that he set out in the presence of false prophets and of the people, and after it miraculously began to rain again after more than 3 years of what appears to be total drought. I have two theories about what happened to Elijah – internally, in his head and heart. These are not mutually exclusive – it is possible that both were true, and indeed, this is what I think. It is also possible that neither were true, but I share them so you can consider them.

Broken Vessels: Prophets, Part I

Welcome as we continue in our series entitled Broken Vessels, where we have considered the good, the bad, and the ugly in the lives of people God used, willingly or unwillingly, to serve His purposes in the history of Israel. And the history of Israel is really the history of everyone, as it was through this line that Jesus, the savior of all nations, came into the world.

The titles of the messages for the last several weeks has been Kings, and we have started to progress through the history of the kings the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah. In Judah, there have been some good kings and some bad kings, but in Israel it has been all bad. Last week we talked about Asa, king of Judah, one of the relatively good kings, although he did not finish well, refusing to seek the Lord in sickness. Today we are going to look at Ahab, an especially rotten king in the line of rotten kings of Israel, and as our title says, we are going to look more deeply at the lives of prophets who lived during these kings. Today we are going to focus on the prophet Elijah. Let’s pick up the story with the introduction of King Ahab in I Kings 16.

Broken Vessels: Kings, Part II

Welcome! Today we continue our series called Broken Vessels, in which we have explored major characters from the Old Testament. The last time, which was two weeks ago, I gave you a handout on the kings of ancient Israel and Judah. We spent our time looking at the first kings of the divided kingdoms, Jeroboam and Rehoboam. Prior to these kings, Israel was a united kingdom under David and then Solomon.

When Solomon died, Rehoboam his son became king. Rehoboam was a weak leader, and the people were not unconditionally in support of him. Two weeks ago we learned how the people of Israel outside Judah demanded that Rehoboam treat them with a light hand. Rehoboam, rejecting the wise counsel of Solomon’s advisors, and instead consulted his own young foolish friends who said he should tell the people that he would be even harsher than his father, much harsher. Foolish Rehoboam took this advice, and the result was that Israel (except for Judah and the tribe of Benjamin) rejected him as king. Jeroboam, a man who was called by God by the prophet Ahijah much like how David was anointed during Saul’s reign, stepped into the power vacuum and became king of Israel, beginning the centuries-long division between Israel and Judah.