Resources by Jeremy Bacon:
Jeremy Bacon
Jeremy is a divorced single dad who lives in Illinois with his three amazing children. He has a bachelors and masters in theology, which is not always super-useful at the retail job he's worked since 2006.
Sermon on the Mount: Treasure in Heaven
In English, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt. 6:21), almost sounds redundant. We use the word “treasure” to mean something we care about (e.g., “Those kids are my treasure”). But talking about our “heart” also points to things we care about. So Jesus would be saying, “The things you care...
Jeremy Bacon
Lord’s Prayer: Deliver Us From Evil
Seriously? The last word in the Lord’s Prayer is “evil”? That’s a terrible ending (Matt. 6:13). An early Christian community couldn’t handle it, so they decided to come up with some nice little flourish they could say that would end the prayer on a positive note. “Maybe something about God’s kingdom and glory or something.”...
Jeremy Bacon
Lord’s Prayer: As We Forgive Our Debtors
We live in between the old and the new. The Kingdom is “now,” but it is also “not yet.” So if forgiveness is the bridge between the two, and we live in between the two, that means we need to live in forgiveness. As someone once put it, forgiveness is the very atmosphere of the...
Jeremy Bacon
Lord’s Prayer: Forgive Us Our Debts
The Lord’s Prayer is short. That’s kind of the point (Matt. 6:7-8). If you’re going to whittle things down and say no more than what absolutely needs to be said, this is what needs to be said. The prayer only has four movements, and one of them is about forgiveness. “And forgive us our debts...
Jeremy Bacon
Lord’s Prayer: How Can We Pray for Our Daily Bread?
If you’re looking for general advice on prayer, the first thing the Lord’s Prayer says is to center yourself on eternity. Paradoxically, the second thing it says is that the small stuff matters. I guess that’s one advantage of being an infinite being—nothing is too big for God, but nothing is too small for him,...
Jeremy Bacon
Lord’s Prayer: Your Kingdom Come
What did Jesus mean we told us to pray, “Your kingdom come”? It’s worthwhile to pause and ask how this core concern ought to shape our prayers. Jesus’ discussion of the “hypocrites” (Matt. 6:1-6, 16-18) has an obviously tight structure. Right in the middle, he breaks that structure for a rather important tangent on prayer...
Jeremy Bacon
Sermon on the Mount: Why Philanthropy & Prayer in Secret?
Why would Jesus tell us to practice our righteous acts such as giving and prayer in secret? It’s a crucial test of the heart. “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.” (Matt. 6:1...
Jeremy Bacon
Sermon on the Mount: What Is Love in Christianity?
What is love in Christianity? In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches us the love God has for us and we are called to have for each other. If you made a list of “The Top 10 Greek Words Normal Churchgoers Know,” agape would be on that list. It’s the word Jesus uses for...
Jeremy Bacon
Sermon on the Mount: Love Your Enemy and Pray for Those Who Persecute You
You’ve heard Jesus’ command to love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you. What happens if you don’t take this command seriously? In the last paragraph of Matthew 5, Jesus says to “pray for those persecuting you” (Matt. 5:44). What, exactly, counts as “persecution”? The New Testament uses the word “persecution” without ever...
Jeremy Bacon
Sermon on the Mount: An Eye for an Eye, Tooth for a Tooth
What are we to make of Jesus’ take on “An eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth”? Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount explains that there’s a better way forward than seeking retaliation in our relationships. It’s a familiar script. Let’s say I wrong you somehow. You can respond in one of two...
Jeremy Bacon
Sermon on the Mount: Manipulator Defined
“But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all…” (Matt. 5:34) In the second half of Matthew 5, Jesus repeatedly says, “You have heard it said . . .” (Matt. 5:21-48). He never actually says that he’s quoting Scripture. He’s quoting popular proverbs that have been floating around since the time of “the...
Jeremy Bacon
Sermon on the Mount: How to Cut Off Your Hand
The problem with most Christian discussions of sexual ethics is that they’re usually heavy on the “why” and light on the “how to.” But in Matthew 5:29-30, Jesus is pretty serious about the importance of doing something. Objectification is not okay. We get that. But quite a bit of my unredeemed body doesn’t care. So...
Jeremy Bacon
Sermon on the Mount: Lust and Objectification
In our culture, sexual morality hinges entirely on consent. If you don’t have it, sex is bad. If you do have it, anything goes. Biblically, sexual morality hinges on whether the relationship mirrors God’s relationship with his people (Eph. 5:25-32). (This is not surprising since we’ve been emphasizing that biblical morality, in general, is about...
Jeremy Bacon
Sermon on the Mount: Contempt
As of Matthew 5:21, we are officially past the introductory parts of the Sermon on the Mount. The meat of the sermon is framed by two statements about fulfilling the law and the prophets (5:17-20; 7:12). On this theme, Jesus will spend the rest of Matthew 5 exposing ways that people keep the letter of...
Jeremy Bacon
Sermon on the Mount: Fulfilling the Law
In the second century, some of the early church fathers thought the Old Testament was weird, kinda pointless, and should be cut out of the Bible entirely. (To be fair, some of them were, like many Romans, horribly anti-Semitic.) Nowadays, we realize that’s going way too far. Instead, some of us accomplish the same thing...
Jeremy Bacon