Let's Major In The Minors

By Teddy A. Jones

Teddy Jones offers us a trenchant analysis from God's word spoken to the prophet Obadiah and through the New Testament books of Philemon, II John, III John and Jude

Pastor, Lecturer, Mentor and Theologian, Teddy A. Jones shows how inaccurate this perception is by pointing out in this exposition series, that although these books are very brief, their content was not only vitally important to their original audience, but they raise very major issues that are absolutely relevant to Believers today.  

Let's Major in The Minors focuses on injustice, pride, unfaithfulness, hypocrisy, corruption, the dismantling of slavery, hospitality, and arrogance. This work on the books of Obadiah, Philemon, Second and Third John and Jude represents a most important choice of subject from the rarely preached on sections of the Old and New Testament.

Let's Major in The Minors offers readers the following benefits:

• It is an excellent personal and corporate Bible Study Guide.
• It is ideal for use as a textbook
• It adds qualitatively to serious Christian thinking and application.
• It offers us no respite from dealing with injustice and other evils
• It confronts and challenges us, as God would, to treat with the issues of our times as He would. It focuses on the sin of pride in all the ways in which it presents itself in the life of persons including God's people.
• It warns of the dangers and deadly venom of pride.
• It talks about relationships and an antidote to social sicknesses as it explores Philemon and the Johannine corpus and Jude

• Language: English
• Publisher: TLZ Publishing
• Release date: Jul 25, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393086727

Book preview

Introduction

I have come to realize that there is something ultra-intriguing about the less beaten path, the road less travelled. It may have been just that or it may have been my long held ‘beef’ against the persons responsible for popularizing the phrase ‘minor prophet.’ Whatever their intent, it is unmistakeable that many persons seem to unconsciously easily dismiss readings from the less renowned Biblical prophets. Indeed entire books in that section of the Bible are summarily skipped over, set aside. It appears the same is true of the books of the Bible which contain only one chapter.

I absolutely cannot recall ever hearing a sermon or a Bible Study from the prophet Obadiah, the only book in the Old Testament with one chapter. The remaining one chapter books bring the Biblical total to five (5). If one were to nonchalantly juxtapose any of these five books against the Psalms for example the chapter count would be 1:150.

Obadiah, Philemon, II John, III John and Jude are the five one chapter books of the Bible. Upon closer examination of their content one can’t help but notice that they are equally potent. They are packed with the same major clues into the nature of God’s essential character. They echo the same kinds of warnings that the companion books with considerably more chapters declare. Their brevity should never be mistaken for superficiality. This is the thought process behind the twisted title, Let’s Major in the Minors. We need a major study of and a major commitment to the apprehension and application of the truths contained in these minor books.

This is a work which has been adapted from a sermon series on the One Chapter Books of the Bible for the radio programme, The Grace Hour in mid 2014. These sermons were to be no longer than 11 minutes, hence the short chapters of this book. It is my earnest desire to see us become better humans by taking on board the major messages contained in these short books. May we henceforth decide that in these major matters we will major even though they are contained in a minor medium. So then, Let’s Major in the Minors… shall we…

1.

Justice Still Demanded

Among the many interesting facts about the Bible is the observation that there are five books which contain only one chapter‒Obadiah in the Old Testament, Jude, Philemon and 2nd and 3rd John in the New Testament. This sermon series will take an expository look at these five books. We begin with the Prophet Obadiah. Our interest lies primarily in the critical issue of justice, the enormity of human sin, God’s sovereignty over the workings of humanity and the folly of pride. Listen to the prophecy of Obadiah:

11. The vision of Obadiah. This is what the Sovereign Lord says about Edom—We have heard a message from the Lord: An envoy was sent to the nations to say, Rise, let us go against her for battle—

12. "See, I will make you small among the nations; you will be utterly despised.

13. The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks[a] and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself, ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’

14. Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down," declares the Lord.

15. "If thieves came to you, if robbers in the night—oh, what a disaster awaits you!‒would they not steal only as much as they wanted? If grape pickers came to you, would they not leave a few grapes?

16. But how Esau will be ransacked, his hidden treasures pillaged!

17. All your allies will force you to the border; your friends will deceive and overpower you; those who eat your bread will set a trap for you, [b] but you will not detect it.

18. In that day, declares the Lord, "will I not destroy the wise men of Edom, those of understanding in the mountains of Esau?

19. Your warriors, Teman, will be terrified, and everyone in Esau’s mountains will be cut down in the slaughter.

20. Because of the violence against your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame; you will be destroyed forever.

21. On the day you stood aloof while strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them.

22. You should not gloat over your brother in the day of his misfortune, nor rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor boast so much in the day of their trouble.

23. You should not march through the gates of my people in the day of their disaster, nor gloat over them in their calamity in the day of their disaster, nor seize their wealth in the day of their disaster.

24. You should not wait at the crossroads to cut down their fugitives, nor hand over their survivors in the day of their trouble.

25. "The day of the Lord is near for all nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; your deeds will return upon your own head.

26. Just as you drank on my holy hill, so all the nations will drink continually; they will drink and drink and be as if they had never