Tanglewood Church of Christ

 As we continue our study of Jeremiah, today we look at the man himself. His book gives us many details about his personality and his background which aid in our understanding and appreciation of him. His hometown was Anathoth, just a few miles northeast of Jerusalem. He was of the Levite tribe, the son of a priest. Such a family background meant he would be well-schooled in God’s law and Jewish history. To hear the rest of this lesson, click on the blue button. (The painting is of Jeremiah, as painted by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel in Rome.)

 
The book of Jeremiah in the Old Testament is a mystery to most Christians – just like most of the other prophetic books. Except for occasional references to prophecies about Jesus found in Bible classes or sermons, we feel at a loss to recall much that we know about these men and their work on God’s behalf. This is going to be a short series of messages providing an overview of Jeremiah the man, his book and his work. We begin today by looking at his calling and assignment as found in chapter 1 of his book. Click the blue button to listen.

 In this final lesson in our series, Twelve Who Dared, we look at what followed the Day of Pentecost. Acts 2 was only the beginning of the apostles’ obedience to the Great Commission. Click the blue button to listen.

 As Jesus prepared to return to heaven after His resurrection, he met with His apostles several times to both strengthen their faith in His resurrection and to teach them in preparation for their mission. Several times He charged them with the "Great Commission." This and next week’s lessons will focus on how well they accomplished their appointed task. Herbert Lockyer in his book, All the Apostles of the Bible, notes that "A fact we cannot deny is that no body of men, few or many, has ever exercised so vast an influence on the world…" But then he observes that "no mission seemed more hopeless!" Click the blue button to hear the rest of the story.
Image is part of the painting "The Apostles Depart to Preach," by Charles Gleyre.

 Judas’ father was someone named Simon (John 13:2), and he was "the man from Kerioth," a small town in the far south of Judea. Judas was, as far as we know, the only apostle not from Galilee. But, like all the others, he was specifically chosen by Jesus to be one of his "apostles" (representative, spokesman). While he is villified today and even his name is almost a byword, to the other eleven he was just like them. None except Jesus had any inkling of what he would do. Did he have to betray Jesus? At what point did he turn against the Lord? These and more questions we will try to answer in this lesson. Click the blue button to listen.

John MacArthur in his book, Twelve Ordinary Men, makes note that Jesus chose his twelve, at least in part because they were ordinary! Their eventual impact on the world would result from their message and faith, not their extraordinary abilities or charisma. The same will be true of us as well. Today we look at the final two of the "little known" apostles. And next week we will look at the most disturbing of the twelve, Judas Iscariot. What do we know from the Scriptures of Thaddeus and Simon Zelotes? Click on the blue button to hear more. You may be surprised at what we learn.

Thomas. . . Matthew. . . James the Less – three apostles of Jesus about whom we know little. In today’s message to look at what we can know, and what we might reasonably conclude, concerning these three men whom Jesus loved! We will discover today that these three may have all been brothers! That is at least one reasonable possibility based on the evidence in Scripture. Hear what else we might know by clicking on the blue button to listen.

Though they were carefully chosen by Jesus, spent three years being trained by him, and were sent out to preach the good news about Him to the whole world, we have very little detail about 9 of the 12 He called apostles. Today we look at what we can of three of the 9 – Andrew, Philip and Nathanael. Andrew was the brother of Simon Peter, Philip was from the same hometown as Andrew, and Nathanael a close friend of Philip. We quickly see that Jesus was picking his disciples from the same social group, each known to one or more of the others. To hear more of what the Scriptures say of these three apostles, click the blue button to listen.

On this 234th birthday of our nation, we are reminded that "freedom is not free," either in a political or a spiritual sense. We all recognize many "hymns" of our nation which reflect the spiritual faith of our forefathers – such as "God Bless America" and "America the Beautiful." However, none is more "biblical" in its sentiments than the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." Written in the early days of the American Civil War by Julia Ward Howe, it looks beyond the war itself and professes firm faith in the work and purpose of God in our world. To hear more, click the blue button to listen. To learn more about the song itself, click to read this article in the Wikipedia.

Jesus designated two of His disciples as the "Sons of Thunder." In fact, they were more commonly known as the sons of Zebedee. Some of the questions we consider today include: Why did Jesus call them Sons of Thunder? Who was their father, Zebedee? Was their mother the sister of Jesus’ mother? Why was James martyred by Herod in AD 44, becoming the first of the apostles to die? Click the blue button to listen as we hear what the New Testament says about these two apostles.