The people of Judah face a number of crises from within (their own sin) and without (the alliance of Israel and Syria, the power of Assyria). Who will they trust to rescue them? Themselves? Foreign Nations? or God Almighty?
In this sermon, Ken Noakes shows us how God’s punishes and saves Jerusalem – bringing them back to himself through the bread of adversity and water of affliction. This might not be the meal the people of Israel want, but it’s what they need. And even when his people are unfaithful, he is faithful. God will use both the good and the bad to bring about his plans, so we should trust God, even when things don’t seem good.
Forget crowns and castles! What does it REALLY mean to be a king? This Easter, it’s time to rethink everything you thought you knew about power, sacrifice, and the true King who changed the world forever. We are “RethinKING Easter.”
We can define a king as one with the power to raise an army yet Jesus defies this kind of kingship because he comes as one who is “gentle and riding on a donkey”. The kingship that he brings is one of peace in the face of war. We need not be threatened by Jesus but welcome him with praise.
In this talk Ken Noakes helps us to see the long-term fulfillment of what was long proclaimed about God’s King – and story that spanned 500 years from prophecy to fulfillment.
We can define a King as one who people serve, yet Jesus defies this kind of kingship by being the one who came to serve, laying down his life for his friends.
In this talk, Gary Haddon helps us to see in Jesus a sovereign King who suffered and a king who suffered in order to save.
A way to define kingship by succession – yet we still recognize that for every king, no matter his power, or influence, or riches – they will one day die. Yet Jesus defies kingship in almost every way – not least of all in his death and then resurrection. A king, who in death gave his riches as an internal inheritance for all who trust in him. That is Easter.
In this talk Neil Atwood will help us consider the significance of Jesus’ resurrection as a certain indicator of Jesus’ true kingship over all of life.
Any teaching that wants to suggest that Christians need Jesus PLUS … (anything else) to be a Christian or to live as a Christian is guilty of contradicting the supremacy of Christ. Being told we need more than him (either for salvation or to live as a Christian) means that we are being taught that what he has done is not enough. We need to stand firm in our faith in Jesus as all we need for this life and the next.
In this sermon, Gary Haddon helps us understand that growing in Christ doesn’t happen without effort on our part. It must be pursued, and there will be struggle, but we can encourage each other as we contend for Christ together.
It has been a long time in coming, but finally we hear the voice of God. In Job 38, God speaks from the midst of a storm (or whirlwind). It is not surprising that God speaks from a storm, but it is surprising that it isn’t the storm of judgement, but of wisdom. Two chapters of God describing the extent of his sovereignty conclude in 40:1. And Job’s response? Despite all that he had previously thought he would say if he could enter God’s presence, he is speechless. He recognizes his insignificance before God and keeps listening to what God has to say and stays attentive to what God will show him – God is not only sovereign, but just.
God has not given Job the answers he was looking for, but Job has seen him in a way that is clearer than ever, and without asking for any more answers, he trusts in God’s sovereignty, even though his circumstances still have not changed. It isn’t until we get to the New Testament that we can begin to understand what it cost Him to win the battle over evil and death on our behalf.
In this talk Ken Noakes helps us to understand the importance of living under the sovereignty of God – and that wisdom, even blessing can be found in suffering.
We meet Job’s younger friend Elihu. He has been patiently listening to all that has so far been said and finally he breaks his silence and implores Job to listen (33:1-2). He wants Job to trust his words for he is – sincere (33:3), compassionate (33:6-7) and he speaks with the spirit of God (33:4-5).
His argument: Job is not suffering because he has sinned, but he cautions Job not to sin in his suffering.
Gary Haddon helps the listener consider how we react when suffering – do we look up and down? The ‘why’ of suffering is not the question, but who we are trusting for salvation.
Job’s ‘comforters’ have become more like his ‘accusers’. Chapter 28 acts as an interlude where all are invited to lift their eyes from Job’s problems and the arguments which have bogged them down. The cost of the search for the most valuable things is worth it. Yet, Wisdom is the most valuable thing and the most difficult to find. God is the only source of true wisdom.
In this Bible Talk, Ken Noakes helps us to unlock the wisdom of the Book of Job. And in doing so helps the listener to lift their gaze from suffering and trying to figure things out for themselves to understanding that answers can only be found in God.
We have met the upright and blameless Job, and seen the tragedy and suffering which fell upon him. In the chapters that follow (Job 3-27), Job responds to the “comfort” (?) of his friends with words full of agony and pain. Job looks to his only hope: a sovereign and perfect God who cannot allow injustice. In spite of his circumstances and feelings, the small glimmer of hope from 9:33-34 which became a faint trickle of hope in 14:14-15 and 16:19-21, has become much more certain, to the point where declares “I know that my redeemer lives!”(19:25). This yet again reveals that the deepest desire of his heart is to be in the presence of the God he loves (19:27). In spite of what his friends have said, Job doesn’t fear death because he is sure that he will see the Lord face to face, and that there is the hope of a resurrection (19:26).
With suffering wherever you look around the world, we being to ask many questions… Where is God? Why does he allow this? How can God be good when things are not? In the book of Job, we see these questions. We follow his struggle to understand what was happening to him. And yet we also see the development and growth in his understanding of God, and the kind of Saviour we all need.
In this Bible Talk, Gary Haddon introduces this book of wisdom and we look at the upright man named Job – a man who fears God and shuns evil. This man who experiences some extraordinary trials which shape argument of the Book of Job.
For the fifth and last time in Matthew’s Gospel Jesus speaks of what ‘little faith’ might look like – and he offers yet another description of what will happen to him as he heads into Jerusalem where he will be delivered into the hands of opposing men, killed, and then on the third day rise.
In these Bible talks both John Lavender and Ken Noakes look at what faith in the life of a believer might look like – it is not about the quantity of faith (as if that could be measured), but about the genuineness of faith in Jesus.
What does it mean to live a gospel life? The Apostle Paul encourages his younger disciple Timothy to stand firm in the truth of the gospel knowing that suffering will come. Timothy is reminded not to be distracted because the reward of life in Christ is worth persevering for today. Erin Lidgerwood, Sarah McConville, Dani Holmes and Tamara Lindeback, teaching from the letter of 2 Timothy, help us to consider what this gospel life might look like for women at each stage of life.
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