URC Learning: Rev. John Sawtelle

Acts 2:14-36 | Peter’s Pentecost proclamation of the resurrected Christ

Rev. John Sawtelle — Fri, 01 May 2009 17:49:59 +0000

Peter confronts the Jews with the facts of Christ’s empty tomb and explains that the bodily resurrection of Christ and the bodily ascension of Christ is the explanation for what they now see and hear.

1 Corinthian 3:10-17 | Be careful how you build

Rev. John Sawtelle — Fri, 01 May 2009 17:48:50 +0000

Three reasons support Paul’s warning to pastors about how to build the church: the value of the church, the fact that God has prescribed how we are to build the church, and that ministerial labor will be either rewarded or judged according to the degree of their obedience to God’s rules for building His church.

1Corinthians 3:1-9 | God causes the increase

Rev. John Sawtelle — Fri, 01 May 2009 17:47:06 +0000

When it comes to salvation, human actors play a role in planting and irrigating, but ultimately, it is only by God’s sovereign grace that any sinner comes to Christ. Paul confronts the Corinthian failure to grasp that, which is manifested in their foolish and immature partisanship.

1 Corinthians 2:10-16 | Holy Scripture vs. Lessing’s ugly ditch

Rev. John Sawtelle — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 03:58:20 +0000

The contingency of history, and the Bible’s character as a historical document, makes it an unreliable source from which to form judgments about absolute religious truth, since such an enormous gulf exists between the temporal and the eternal. Paul argues that God Himself scaled Lessing’s ugly ditch by revealing redemptive, divine truth to his apostles and prophets, then God illumined that revelation to their minds, and finally God gave them the very words to communicate that truth.

1 Corinthians 2:6-9 | Wisdom out of this world

Rev. John Sawtelle — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 03:54:12 +0000

Does Paul preach “wisdom” after all? Well, not really. The “wisdom” Paul preaches a “wisdom” which is a mystery, hidden yet predestined before the world. He preaches the gospel, the kind of wisdom unknown to the rulers of this age.

1 Corinthians 1:26-31 | The Virus of Triumphalism

Rev. John Sawtelle — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 08:14:15 +0000

Paul critiques the divisions in Corinth from a new angle when he argues that they flow from an immoderate desire to “be somebody.” To show the church how foolish that motivation is, he reminds them of what they were not: wise, influential, or well bread. Then, he points out that it was by God’s grace alone, that they are in Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:17-25 | The Foolishness of the Cross vs. the Word of Wisdom

Rev. John Sawtelle — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 07:12:57 +0000

Paul argues that the divisions in Corinth reflect fallen human ideals of power and wisdom. The key to church unity is to embrace the ideology of the cross which is a stumbling-block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks.

1 Corinthians 1:10-16 | A Call to Unity

Rev. John Sawtelle — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 06:49:03 +0000

Paul admonishes the Corinthian church that unifying in doctrine and practice is an item of first importance.

1 Corinthians | An Overview: Closing the gap!

Rev. John Sawtelle — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 04:46:23 +0000

Luther described believers as people who are simul justus et peccator: simultaneously justified and sinners. What he meant was that there is a gap between our legal standing in Christ, and our lives in this world. Paul writes First Corinthians with a similar distinction in view, calling on these believers to close the gap between what they are in Christ, and how they are living in the world.

1 Peter 1:5 | Perseverance of the Saints

Rev. John Sawtelle — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 18:48:55 +0000