Sunday Talks

There is an extraordinary sense of commencement as Peter stands up before the crowd in Acts 2. Peter courageously and comprehensively tells the crowd that this is a new epoch and it is all about Jesus Christ. Listen in.

This part of the Bible is like an instruction over the speakers of your life. It is urging you to consider something very important that needs to be crosschecked.

Acts 2 describes a day in Jerusalem when everything changed. The coming of the Holy Spirit had meant the equipping of Jesus' followers in their commission to take the Gospel to the world. Listen in.

After the Resurrection, Luke describes what happened next. Will things be different?

As Luke records three final episodes, he indirectly suggests at least three responses from those who hear about the resurrection. Let's consider them.

You don't need me to tell you that the device in your pocket is changing the way you think. Here we consider how to use our phones as we live the real Christian life.

You won't have been a Christian for very long before you realised that you need to belong to a church. And yet you won't have been part of that church for very long before you realised that it can be quite tough being properly a part of it. So why bother with the local church?

What is worship? For Christians, worship is a proper, whole-life response to what God has done in sending Jesus Christ. Listen in.

Here's someone who is reflecting on their life. They see something amazing that is directly linked to their commitment to God's word. Listen in.

Let's allow the Lord's firm Word to give us an extraordinary ballast. Like it does every time we stop, open it, actually listen to what it says. Here in this part of Psalm 119, there are two stabilising song-stanzas, each beginning with the word forever.

The bible is showing us that those who'll follow the Lord can keep their fingers tightly pressed onto God's word, even in the darkest of times. Listen in to this message from Psalm 119:81-88.

The songwriter gives us a surprising insight here in this part of Psalm 119: affliction may actually serve a good purpose in the lives of God's people. Listen in.

The writer of this song describes what he has learnt from his lived experience. He describes it in two instalments. What has he learned? What is the good life all about?

Christians underestimate their vulnerability to being scammed. What's so life-changing about the gospel that makes the scam so disastrous? Listen as this message from the entire letter to the Galatians compels us to live and share the life-changing gospel.

There is one life-defining event that must mark our lives. The cross of Christ.

Getting the gospel right will transform our relationships with each other.

Christians who make up local churches need to take steps towards one another.

Listen closely to the second song Luke records in his opening chapter. Listen to how it meets us in our universal desperate longing for a saviour.

This is a moment when a Christmas song might move you. This one (by Mary) was included as part of Luke's project to give us certainty about Jesus. Listen in and consider your response.

How will you respond to the arrival of another Christmas? You'll hear lots of different calls. Luke's is different; the real call of Christmas is to accept the salvation that Jesus the Saviour offers to you.

John describes the wonder of the Incarnation pointing to the the birth of Jesus as a light shining in the darkness. Remarkably, Jesus' birth offers the gift of a new birth to everyone else. Listen to this Christmas message as you reflect on your own response.

If you are in any way intrigued by Jesus and the radical impact some people seem to testify about, listen carefully to what Jesus said to Nicodemus.

You will see that this is a very practical part of the Bible here in Galatians 5:13-26. One that answers the question: How should we live? How should we live as followers of Christ?

Will you trust in Christ alone for your salvation? Or will you trust something else?

This message from the Bible is for you if you wish you knew how it would feel to be free. As we come to one of the most famous lines in the letter, listen to how Galatians explains and declares that Jesus Christ sets free all those who come to trust in him.

The emotion in the Apostle Paul's voice in this paragraph drives you and me to ask the kind of questions every Christian needs to be asking. Listen in to this message from Galatians 4:12-20.

Studying this letter must raise an awareness of what it means to come to liberating faith in Christ and at the same time warn Christians about the dreadful possibility of turning back to a life of slavery.

Paul explains that everyone who has faith in Jesus Christ alone gets the inheritance God first promised to Abraham. And to prove it, he sets out what is really a short course in biblical history. Listen in.

The questions in Galatians 3 are Paul's way of shocking his deluded friends back to reality. Who or what has bewitched you? Reading Galatians, take the opportunity to move away from any distortions of the gospel that could have some kind a hold on you – and then move back towards the cross of Jesus Christ.

The Gospel is momentous. Like the original recipients, we need to listen as Paul warns against the watering-down of the gospel and highlights the truth of the gospel. That's where we are headed. A warning and a highlight. Listen in.

Paul describes three stages of his personal testimony in this autobiographical part of the letter. He wants the Christians in Galatia to know that what they had responded to was God's Gospel. Any distortion of this would have tragic consequences.

What has in any way convinced you to drop back or drop out in your Christian living? There are so many different feels-like-gospels calling on you, so which ones are you in-conversation with? Just asking that question underscores the relevance of this NT letter for Christians. Listen here.

Can you see that here in 1 Timothy 4 we have a message to a Christian leader that really sets out a vision for all Christians in our local churches?

The Christians at Ephesus needed to buckle-in. Paul instructs Timothy (1:3) to stay onboard and make some corrective manoeuvres. Listen in as Paul outlines 3 necessary realignments for churches then and now.

In every generation, for every local church committed to proclaiming the good news about Jesus Christ – there's the danger of obscuring the light of the gospel from view. Listen to this first message from 1 Timothy.

The dramatic scene in Exodus 24 brings this section of the book to a climax. Reading the description is like watching back the video of a great and historic ceremony. Here God confirms or ratifies his covenant with his people. We are going to get insight into the relationship between God and his people before reflecting on what this means for us.

This part of Exodus in not just dull case law. Nor is it a set of shockingly controversial rules. The Book of the Covenant was designed to show God's holy rescued people how to live out their relationships with him and each other and that all of their lives should come under his sovereign rule. How does it apply to Christians? Listen in to find out more.

Why don't you park some of your own ideas about what God is like as you read the 10 Commandments today. Ask the question that this part of the Bible is posing: What is God like?

Why don't you listen to these messages from Exodus and read it with revelation and relationship in mind? To find out what God is like and how he has revealed himself and how to relate to him. Here we will see the God who reveals himself.

When life has its not-quite-rightness, the writers of the Bible don't just describe it, they profoundly diagnose it. Rather than just accepting our problems as the norm, they go on to describe a remarkable way out. This is a message that reads differently.

You might have noticed that John, one of the key eyewitnesses of the resurrection, is very clear where he wants us to land. Unapologetically John is presenting his compilation of the events of Jesus' life and death, including his account of the resurrection, so that people like us will believe. Believe and have life in his name. Listen to how he describes the events of the first Easter Sunday morning.

In this final instalment of his letter, Peter launches two countermeasures to help Christians to thwart a potentially devastating campaign. It is a call to: Think clearly – with a profound reliance on God's Word; Remember that the Lord will keep his Word; Live for Christ now.

The Bible shows us that there will be a calculatedness to the efforts of false teachers among communities of faithful Christians. Carefully considering Peter's analysis of malicious insider antics will provide training for genuine, growing and stable Christians.

Big companies talk about the phenomena of Insider Threats. One of these comes in the form of malicious insiders - people who maliciously sabotage systems because they have grievances, and who decide to expose sensitive data out of revenge. They can do a lot of damage, especially if they go undetected. Peter warns the Christians about this kind of threat in the churches here in 2 Peter 2. Listen in.

Peter realises that those uprooted and carried away as Christians are people who have stopped growing and who have lost confidence in God's Word. His efforts are about rebuilding a robust confidence in that Word of God.

Can you lose your stability as a Christian? Yes, you can. Writing his last letter to the churches, Peter's aim is about preventing faithful Christians from losing their stability. Listen in.

The Bible raises our awareness of the sly, deadly, and life-breaking nature of adultery. Proverbs 5 serves as a warning. Listen in.

Repetition is needed because people like us are so easily deviated. In Proverbs 4, there are some messages that repeat what we have already been encountering in this book so far. As you listen to what the Bible says again and again, you'll see that you have at least 3 decisions to make.

What is your most valuable possession? God's word is telling us about the value of God's wisdom: urging us to find it, to value it, to keep our eyes on it, and apply it. The writer of Proverbs presents us with 4 calls to action here. Listen in.

Trust in the Lord. That's the central message of this text, this book. The Bible itself. The writer begins this chapter with a START HERE! instruction, followed by a call to nurture a life of commitment to the Lord.

Today at the start of a new year, and the start of the next 5 years, God's Word sits each one of us down for a serious chat. As we are in the Proverbs, you could probably sum up the message of this serious chat proverbially… a bit like this: Start a search, find a fear, live the rescue!