Tom Wright

Christian Suffering is God’s Discipline Hebrews 12.4-11 Western society is in a turmoil these days about discipline. We have become very aware of the dangers of physical violence at every level. What happens when a child grows up knowing only that authority belongs to the person …

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Hebrews for Everyone - Looking to Jesus

by SPCK - N T Wright

Looking to Jesus Hebrews 12.1-3 I went to a school that prided itself on its outdoor pursuits. Set high in the Yorkshire Dales in north-west England, it celebrated its location in several ways, the annual climax being a ten-mile cross-country race over steep, difficult ground. Of…

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Hebrews for Everyone - Faith and the Future: The Great Crowd

by SPCK - N T Wright

Faith and the Future: The Great Crowd Hebrews 11.32-40 It is said that on one occasion the sixteenth-century Spanish mystic Teresa of Avila confronted God about her own suffering, and received the response: ‘This is how I deal with my friends.’ ‘Well,’ she replied sharply, ‘in th…

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Hebrews for Everyone - Faith and the Future: Moses and the Exodus

by SPCK - N T Wright

Faith and the Future: Moses and the Exodus Hebrews 11.23-32 ‘The young man came from a wealthy family. His father was a well-respected figure in the community. Everyone expected the son to follow him in his profession and, like him, attain wealth and noble standing. But the young…

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Hebrews for Everyone - Faith that Looks Beyond Death

by SPCK - N T Wright

Faith that Looks Beyond Death Hebrews 11.13-22 ‘Dad, will you walk on ahead just a bit?’ They were going into the middle of town on a Saturday morning. Why would his 14-year-old daughter ask him to walk ahead, rather than beside her as he had been doing? He meekly obeyed. (Always…

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Hebrews for Everyone - Faith and the Future: Noah, Abraham, Sarah

by SPCK - N T Wright

Faith and the Future: Noah, Abraham, Sarah Hebrews 11.7-12 ‘The starry heaven above us’ was one of the two central facts upon which the great philosopher Immanuel Kant based his view of God. (The other was ‘the moral law within us’.) From the earliest recorded times, humans have …

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Hebrews for Everyone - Suffering in Hope

by SPCK - N T Wright

Suffering in Hope Hebrews 10.32-39 He had watched and prayed and warned the people of what would happen if they didn’t turn away from their evil ways. He had hoped that some at least would listen, and that the nation as a whole would gradually be brought round to hear and obey. H…

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Hebrews for Everyone - Warning of Judgement

by SPCK - N T Wright

Warning of Judgment Hebrews 10.26-31 It was said of the Roman emperor Gaius Caligula, who went mad and did all sorts of bizarre things, that he took to inventing new laws, and having them carved in small letters on tablets and then placed high up on walls, too high for people to …

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Hebrews for Everyone - So - Come to Worship

by SPCK - N T Wright

So- Come to Worship! Hebrews 10.19-25 I watched as my mother came in from shopping, carrying several bulging bags. She called me to help get the rest from the car. I couldn’t think why she’d bought so much food, but I fetched and carried and unloaded as best I could. Then I remem…

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Hebrews for Everyone - The Finished Achievement of the Messiah

by SPCK - N T Wright

The Finished Achievement of the Messiah Hebrews 10.11-18 Many of us in the modern world do our work sitting down. I’m sitting at a desk as I write this; I’m aware that my posture isn’t perfect, that I’m in danger of getting stiff shoulders, and that if I took more time to walk ar…

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Hebrews for Everyone - The Stopping of the Sacrifices

by SPCK - N T Wright

The Stopping of the Sacrifices Hebrews 10.1-10 Last year we had one vacation inside another one. We had gone off for three weeks to a quiet, peaceful spot to recover after several months of hectic and unrelenting work and activity. But while we were there the opportunity came for…

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Hebrews for Everyone - What Faith Really Means

by SPCK - N T Wright

What Faith Really Means Hebrews 11.1-6 I had thought we were alone on the hillside. It had been misty for some of our walk, and at other times sharp little squalls of rain had spat in our faces. But we had kept going, knowing there would be some difficult climbing later on (a roc…

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Hebrews for Everyone - The Messiah's Work in the Heavenly Sanctuary

by SPCK - N T Wright

The Messiah’s Work in the Heavenly Sanctuary Hebrews 9.23-28 ‘It was such a great day,’ she said. ‘I’d really like to do it all over again!’ We were looking at the photographs two weeks after the wedding. All their friends and relatives had been there. The sun had shone. The musi…

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Hebrews for Everyone - The Purpose of the Blood

by SPCK - N T Wright

The Purpose of the Blood Hebrews 9.15-22 To some, this passage is one of the most central in scripture; to others, it’s one of the most shocking. After the twentieth century, in which more human blood was spilled through war, torture and miscellaneous violence than in all previou…

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Hebrews for Everyone - The Sacrifice of the Messiah

by SPCK - N T Wright

The Sacrifice of the Messiah Hebrews 9.11-14 The first time we moved house we could hardly believe our luck. We went from a basement flat to a house above ground. The flat had been damp, even to the point of growing fungus on the walls; the house was warm and snug. We had had no …

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Hebrews for Everyone - Tho Old Tebernacle Points Forward to the New

by SPCK - N T Wright

The Old Tabernacle Points Forward to the New Hebrews 9.1-10 The taxi driver was resigned to things being this way for a long time. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘we’ve just got to put up with it. Boston will be a great city if they ever get it finished.’ We were stuck in what seemed like an im…

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Hebrews for Everyone - The Promise of a New Covenant

by SPCK - N T Wright

The Promise of a New Covenant Hebrews 8.7-13 One of my favourite rivers is the Coquet, which rises in the heart of my native part of England, and runs down into the North Sea about fifty miles south of the border with Scotland. It isn’t a long river, even by national standards, l…

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Hebrews for Everyone - Better Ministry, Better Covenant

by SPCK - N T Wright

Better Ministry, Better Covenant Hebrews 8.1-6 When my sons were little, we gave them a game they could play at home. It was a type of football; except that you played it on a table top, with plastic figures an inch or two high. You had to flick them with your finger, so that the…

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