Episodes

How are we to reach a world that insists there are no absolutes? In his recently released, Christians: The Urgent Case for Jesus in Our World, Dr. Greg Sheridan comments, ‘Popular culture has turned against God, especially against the Christian churches, and pretty often against Christians themselves, over the last 50 years’ (p.171). In Ephesians, chapter 5 verse 15, Paul the Apostle says to every generation of God’s people: Be careful how you live, not as unwise but as wise,… Commenting on the...

In his recently released, Christians: The Urgent Case for Jesus in Our World, widely respected Australian journalist, Dr Greg Sheridan writes: ‘In the West… religious belief has been in serious decline in recent years. The loss of faith is part of a broad movement in the culture. It is also partly, … related to a shocking loss of knowledge’ (p.40). ‘The West,’ he continues, ‘is a culture willing itself into amnesia and ignorance, like a patient carefully requesting their medical records and the...

A question sometimes put to me is this: ‘Why are many non-churchgoers nicer than some who say they’re Christians?’ Shouldn’t we expect God’s people to be living lives reflecting Jesus’ teaching? Certainly Paul the Apostle expects this. In Ephesians chapter 4, verse 1 he says: I therefore, a prisoner of the Lord, urge you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called… His exhortation is more far-reaching than a specific set of rules, for it applies to areas of life that migh...

As I write just under 200 million people throughout the world have been infected by Covid-19 and over 4 million have died. Yet in the midst of this pandemic some who claim to be Christian insist that God will look after them – they don’t need to wear a mask, let alone be vaccinated. Rightly, we pray for ourselves and for the millions whose health and welfare is at stake, and for the millions who grieve. What expectations can we have when we pray? In Ephesians chapter 3, verses 14 through 21 we...

Most people sense that beyond the visible and material world another world exists. The attraction of Star Wars and the level of interest in Harry Potter, especially amongst the young, are indicators that the notion of the supernatural abounds. Despite what cultural voices and social media insist, there are a significant number of research scientists and mathematicians who believe in the existence of a supreme being, a creator God. Dr. John Lennox, Professor of Mathematics (Emeritus), University...

Alienation is a word often used to describe our human plight. Everywhere relationships are broken. While people may speak of ‘the power of love’, there is often no substance to it, for love is subjectively defined. It has more to do with your love for me – whoever and whatever I choose to be. It is a love that has little or no interest in or compassion for others, let alone serving them. There is no place for apology or forgiveness. A worldview that some hold follows the French philosopher, Rou...

Everyone loves a story. Stories grab our attention and draw us in. Some stories don’t satisfy – perhaps because there’s no conclusion, or injustice and evil succeed. Great epics, such as Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings stir our imagination and touch our inner longings for a better world. We don’t want epics like this to end: we become involved with the characters and the plot. But they do end, and we have to come back to earth. Significantly, in a world that is crying out for identity, there’s a ve...

What on earth does God promise us? Health, wealth, success? Confusion often arises amongst God’s people, as well as in the wider community, because many of us think we have a right to expect to be healed and blessed with material riches and success. And there are preachers who reinforce this idea. Paul the Apostle experienced an affliction that in 2 Corinthians 12:7 he speaks of as a thorn in the flesh. To understand why Paul writes about this, we need to consider how some of the Corinthians ...

Helpless. Over the last seventeen months millions have watched helplessly as loved ones have died from Covid-19. For many there has been no comfort or hope. In recent times our culture has made a habit of setting aside the wisdom of the past, and especially the wisdom of the Bible. But, as we touched on last week, when we are facing catastrophe and are confronted with the realities of the human experience, the words of the Bible come through with immense power and wisdom, truth and compassion. ...

There are times in life when we feel utterly helpless. The morning of September 11, 2001 in Downtown New York City close to the twin towers, was one such moment for me. You may have experienced such a moment in your own life – a moment when you felt alone and helpless. Come with me to a scene in the Gospel of St Mark, chapter 4, verses 35 through 41: On that day, when evening had come, Jesus (he) said to his disciples (them), “Let us go across to the other side” (of the lake). And leaving the c...

Personal identity is the subject of much robust discussion today. Is our identity defined by what we feel about our color or gender or something else? There are white people who say they ‘feel’ black. And I recently heard of someone who didn’t ‘feel’ their legs were theirs. The capacity for choice is one of the most exciting and yet most frightening things about our humanity. For with the power to choose there is the moral responsibility to choose well. If we were robots, we could say our decis...

As we start a new season we will be addressing contemporary questions in the light of the life and work of Jesus of Nazareth. In recent decades the uncertainty of postmodernism has echoed throughout the West – in academia, the media, the school classroom and in the political arena. Because we are here by chance, we’re told, there is no God and no external objective truth. Your truth is just as valid as my truth. Increasingly political correctness, framed by our feelings, informs our decisions a...

Robert Letham in The Holy Trinity (2004) commented on the impact of postmodernism on society: ‘In terms of instability and diversity, he said, ‘the postmodern world of constant flux is seeing insecurity, breakdown, and the rise of various forms of terrorism… As diversity rules, subgroups are divided against each other… A cult of the victim develops, and responsibility declines. This is a recipe for social breakdown, instability, and the unravelling of any cohesion that once existed’, he said (p....

Is there anything that can really make us different, that can shake us out of our apathy and anxieties? That can inject enthusiasm and joy, confidence and courage into our lives? Come with me to the events of Pentecost that we read about in Acts chapter 2. It was six-weeks after Jesus’ resurrection. Three questions emerge. What happened? When the day of Pentecost came, the disciples were together in an upper room in Jerusalem. ‘Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came… Divided ...

Welcome to this Word on Wednesday for Ascension Day. It is great to have you with us. In his article in The Spectator (UK), ‘The China model: Why is the West imitating Beijing?’ (May 8, 2021), Niall Ferguson writes: ‘In a revealing essay published last year, the Chinese political theorist Jiang Shi-gong, a professor at Peking University Law School, spelled out the corollary of American decline. ‘The history of humanity is surely the history of competition for imperial hegemony,’ Jiang wrote, ‘w...

Being Mother’s Day this Sunday (May 9), let me highlight little-known or oft-forgotten words to men in their relationship with women. It’s most important that we keep before us biblical principles in our relationships. In setting out features of the marriage relationship in 1 Peter chapter 3, Peter has some challenging words for believing husbands in verse 7: … In the same way be considerate as you live with your wives…, he says. To first century ears these words were revolutionary. The idea t...

Fruitful outcomes are something we normally expect from worthwhile endeavors. So, we look for measures of productivity in the corporate world – a measure of life and growth. Why then do we often overlook the fact that Jesus is concerned with productivity? He lived in an agrarian culture and on one occasion used grape-growing as a metaphor for the productivity to which he is committed. Vineyard owners work hard to develop the quality and the output of each vine. They know that to get maximum ou...

Elections and the resulting political discourse remind us how much most people long for a leader who will bring us justice and peace, protection and prosperity. However, on every occasion our aspirations are dashed as leaders reveal their flaws and failures and self-interest. No one proves to be the ideal leader. Let me suggest the one exception: Jesus who said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). Many today view shepherds through rose-tin...

I’m told that the golden arches of McDonald’s and the swirling script of Coca Cola’s logo are more widely recognized throughout the world today than the Christian cross. Millions around the world have never heard of Jesus Christ. Is the cancel culture that is keen to silence any talk of Jesus, succeeding? Indeed, there seems to a lack of urgency amongst God’s people about reaching others with God’s gospel. If they do speak up, they fear what others will think. They also fear they won’t have the...

Writing in The Weekend Australian (April 3-4, 2021), John Carroll, emeritus professor of sociology at La Trobe University, Australia, comments ‘Immortality has become the great question mark… For the secular modern age, belief in any form of life after death is in doubt … Most no longer believe in a supernatural being – whether providential, guiding, punishing, or forgiving. God has become a figment of the archaic imagination…’ What then does life have to offer? The sub-text of today’s elites a...

No one likes failure. You may not have experienced it, but it happens, even to the smartest of people. We can experience failure when we let others down or when we fail to meet our own expectations. It can happen in unexpected moments when we like to feel we are in control. In whatever form it takes, none of us likes to feel a failure. We are embarrassed and it can wound us deeply. Departure. Come with me to the scene that John records of Jesus’ closing hours with his disciples on the eve of hi...

Towards the end of his finest book, The Cross of Christ, John Stott draws from the playlet, ‘The Long Silence’. At the end of time billions of people are found in the presence of God’s throne. While the majority stand back against the brilliant light, various groups at the front are listing their complaints against God. ‘How can God judge us?’ they ask. ‘How can he know about suffering?’ Having assembled their complaint, representatives of the various groups meet – someone from Auschwitz, an Af...

In today’s world, God is not so much dead. He is cancelled. He is not to be spoken about. If he is, there’s nothing good to say about him: ‘he is uncaring and grim’. How different this is from what the Bible actually says about God. Consider the most well- known words in the Bible: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). For God so loved the world… God… Yes, he does exist. At the recent Angl...

In his book, God and Stephen Hawking, Dr. John Lennox notes a current objection to miracles that says: ‘Now we know the laws of nature, miracles are impossible’. To which Dr. Lennox responds: ‘From a theistic perspective, the laws of nature predict what is bound to happen if God does not intervene… To argue that the laws of nature make it impossible for us to believe in the existence of God and the likelihood of his intervention in the universe is plainly false’. God’s people understand that ‘t...