Read the text – Matthew 11:1-19
In this talk, Dave Swan reacquaints us with the gospel of Matthew as a historical and reliable source of knowing Jesus. And we, along with John the Baptist we ask the question: ‘Are you [Jesus] the one who is to come to save us?’
Read the text – 1 John 3:11-24 & 1 John 4:7-21
Love that is Christian, is a love for others that is both pleasing and acceptable to God before it is to the world. This is a huge topic and so contested today. For today, love is often determined by popular opinion or consensus – and as directed by the loudest voices. In this talk, Ken Noakes looks at the importance of understanding Love in the context of truth and obedience. God indeed wants Christians to be loving – love that is truthful, sacrificial, obedient even if different to the way the world looks for love.
Read the text – 1 Corinthians 11:17-34
In the letter of 1 Corinthians the Apostle Paul has been addressing numerous matters to help the Christians in Corinth consider how they live for Christ – both before the world, and within the church family.
In this talk Ken Noakes looks at the rebuke that is written to the church of Corinth because of their selfishness has hurt their fellowship. He focuses on the way that they share in the Lord’s Supper. There are lessons for the church today. The Lord’s Supper should humble us as we remember Christ’s death and proclaim his coming again. When you remember Christ’s death, and where he is taking us, there is no room for a pecking order, or being concerned with social status, or competing with each other. As a result, we must examine ourselves (11:28) and wait for one another (11:34).
This talk will also help us thing about how we deal with division within the church family.
This post, we offer two different (yet complementary) sermons on the same passage – 1 Corinthians 11:2-16…
Read the text – 1 Corinthians 11:2-16
In the letter of 1 Corinthians the Apostle Paul has been addressing numerous matters to help the Christians in Corinth consider how they live for Christ – both before the world, and within the church family.
Previously in this series we have considered what Paul has said about Christian freedoms as taught in chapters 8-10. In this talk we turn our attention to how Christians should live together as a church family – and there are several matters which will be addressed from Chapters 11 through to 14 which all relate to what happening in a specific church gathering. We start with the first half of chapter 11 which speaks in particular to those who are married within a church family.
Read the text – Matthew 8:1-17
Jesus is confounding. Reading through the Gospel of Matthew, we see Jesus do some extraordinary things and the result is that some follow and some turn their backs on him. That is not so different from today. We often expect the extraordinary before we allow ourselves to believe something. As such we settle for the normal and mundane, all the while wishing for the extraordinary. Jesus came into the normal and mundane, but he did that which was extraordinary. He does what we hope by doing what we find hard to believe! How confounding.
In this Bible Talk, Dave Swan looks at the unparalleled authority which Jesus demonstrated – his ability to heal a man with leprosy, the servant of the a Roman centurion, Peter’s mother-in-law, those who were demon possessed – all people who suffered because of their circumstance, but also because of there status as outcasts under Jewish law. He heals, and in doing so he fulfils what the prophet Isaiah said the Messiah would do.
This should encourage us to examine our faith in Jesus, by looking at how an encounter with Jesus shaped the belief of others.
Read the text – Zephaniah 3:9-20; 2 Peter 3:14-18
After two and bit chapters of rebuke and judgement, Zephaniah shifts to focus on a fully fledged future hope. The flipside of God’s terrible wrath is his unmerited and complete mercy where he shows his remnant people a perfect fellowship in mutual love which comes on the Day of the Lord.
In this Bible Talk, Ken Noakes addresses a specific events surrounding the newly appointed CEO of the Essendon Football Club. Hours after his appointment, issue was raised because of his association with his church (an evangelical church in Victoria) whose statements of beliefs are biblically shaped and consistent with traditional Christian doctrines. He was forced to choose between his church or his football club. He choose his church.
Read the text – Zephaniah 2:4-3:8
The Day of the Lord is a universal eschatological disaster. Yet God’s judgement is tantalisingly mingled with hope of restoration and his character of righteousness. All humanity is clearly at his mercy. In this talk Ken Noakes helps us to see that God not only holds all nations to account, but he hold his own people to account. It all hinges on how God can be righteous and just, and at the same time merciful and forgiving.
Read the texts – Zephaniah 1:1-2:3
In this series we look at the book of Zephaniah and see the hope of grace in the shadow of God’s promised universal judgement and wrath. The focus of the book is on the nature of the day of the Lord. In wrath, God will reverse his blessings, yet also in mercy, he will reverse his curse for those who turn to him in repentance and faith.
In this talk, Andrew Cox helps us to understand how Hebrew Prophecy works to shape our understand of how God deals so justly and completely with sin (in Zephaniah’s time, concerning the people of Judah and in our time, us). And yet, how he does that with and eternal hope for those in faith.
Read the texts – Isaiah 25:6-9; Ephesians 3:1-21
The final talk in this Apostles’ Creed series and we consider the final lines which help us to recognise that the Christian Life (life in the Spirit) is the best life now and forever. Why?
Nick Lindeback helps us to see the importance of the forgiveness of sin, the comfort of the Christian community, and the hope that is eternal.
Read the texts – Ezekiel 36:22-30; Romans 8:1-17
In this talk we look at the third ‘I believe’ statement in the Apostles’ Creed. Glen Connor, looking at Romans 8:1-17 shows us five aspects of how the Holy Spirit works in the life of a believer: to free us from sin and death, change our mindset towards God, to guarantee our resurrection, to bring holiness in the life of the believer, and makes us God’s children.
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