As we look at the last part of Jesus’ life, we come to this scene: his arrest. In it, Jesus makes a big deal about them coming for him with swords and clubs. What we have here is a clash between two kingdoms, two administrations of reality, two sets...
If you read the rest of the life of Jesus, he’s totally unflappable, but in the garden of Gethsemane, as he faces his imminent death, it says he’s astonished and overcome with horror. The fact that Jesus struggles with his death is not only unique in...
In this special episode, Susan Nacorda Stang interviews Tim about his book, Hope in Times of Fear. The interview was recorded prior to the book's release in March 2021.
Confucius, Muhammad, Buddha, Moses—they all died in old age, in comfort and blessedness, triumphant over their opponents. Of all the founders of major religions, Jesus alone died alone, young, stripped naked, stared at, mocked, while he died by inche...
In Mark 14, Jesus predicts his betrayal by one disciple, and he predicts the defection and the failure of all the disciples. So what are we supposed to learn from this? Even though it will be relevant to everybody, this passage is particularly meant...
It’s very clear what Jesus Christ came to do. He came to die. That sets him apart from the founders of every other major religion. They came to live and be an example. He came to die. Most of the people in the world fall into one of two categories wi...
We’re looking at a very famous passage about Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and the cleansing of the temple. And in the midst of this passage, there’s the curious incident of the fig tree. In this we can see 1) the character Jesus has, 2) the...
Jesus tells the disciples that Jerusalem and the temple, at some future time, are going to be destroyed by the Romans. And Jesus says this is a foreshadowing of the end of the world, of judgment day, of his second coming to earth. Jesus then tells hi...
The first three chapters of Ephesians has a lot of heavy theology about what it means to be a Christian and who we are in Christ. Then, it suddenly gets incredibly practical—and it’s not actually a different subject. All of the theology has an effec...
Isaiah 60 describes the new heavens and the new earth. It’s looking to the end of time when God makes everything right—paradise restored. And in this passage, all the nations of the world are bringing their work products. What is gold and silver? Wh...
What does it mean to follow Jesus and apply the gospel to every single area of life? In Luke 6, we look to an area of life that’s covered in the fourth commandment: sabbath rest. We all have somewhat different relationships to work. There are people,...
The gospel affects how you do your work, how you do your job, and how you pursue your vocation. How does that affect your work? If we’re going to understand what Paul says in this passage, we need to look at 1) some background work and historical co...
In the Bible there’s a view of work that’s revolutionary. It’s so revolutionary that Dorothy Sayers writes that society as a whole, and individuals in particular, are dying for the lack of it—that individuals are hurting because we don’t have it. Unl...
How does the gospel give us hope? And how does that hope shape our public life? We’re looking at how hope shapes the way in which we live our lives—not just in giving us inner peace and not just in our family life, but in our public life out in the w...
The night before Jesus is going to die, he’s trying to get his disciples ready to be sent out into the world to represent him. And what does he do? He washes their dirty feet. We’re meditating on the fact that he washed their dirty feet. Only when y...
