Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Humble Shepherds
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Humble Shepherds
by SPCK - N T Wright
Humble Shepherds 1 Peter 5.1-7 From time to time the television or the newspapers tell us that there is a crisis of ‘leadership’. What that means, often enough, is that the media disapprove of the actual political leaders we happen to have at the moment, but even without that rat…
Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - How Salvation is Worked Out
Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - How Salvation is Worked Out
by SPCK - N T Wright
How Salvation is Worked Out Philippians 2.12-18 It was an ugly city. The fine old buildings had been pulled down over the years, and they had been replaced by huge square concrete monstrosities. They were designed for function, not good looks – though by the time I went there the…
Mark for Everyone - Jairus’s Daughter and the Woman with Chronic Bleeding
Mark for Everyone - Jairus’s Daughter and the Woman with Chronic Bleeding
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 5.21–34 Jairus’s Daughter and the Woman with Chronic Bleeding... ...We really should take this passage with the next one, since in Mark’s mind they are all part of the same story. But both are so full of interest that it’s worth holding them apart for the m…
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Is Circumcision Necessary
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Is Circumcision Necessary
by SPCK - N T Wright
Is Circumcision Necessary Acts 15.1-11 ‘I thought we’d settled this!’ Dennis was furious. Halfway through the second week of term and it had happened again. They had sat around the kitchen table, the five of them, in the old house they had rented for their second year at college.…
Acts for Everyone part 1 - It's All coming True at Last!
Acts for Everyone part 1 - It's All coming True at Last!
by SPCK - N T Wright
It’s All Coming True at Last! Acts 2. 14-21 We don’t always plan our holidays very carefully, but on this occasion we had. We had read the brochures. We had worked through the alternative places to stay. We had looked at the special things we could do when we got there. And, in p…
New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - It's Easy To Get Lost
New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - It's Easy To Get Lost
by SPCK - N T Wright
4 THE PATH OF THE DISCIPLE IT’S EASY TO GET LOST 2 Peter 2: 1-10a ‘I told you it was easy to get lost.’ Our host stood on the doorstep with a wry smile on his face. We had assumed we more or less knew the way. We have a good sense of direction. We had even been there before; sure…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 2 - Israel, the Nations and the Messiah
Paul for Everyone Romans part 2 - Israel, the Nations and the Messiah
by SPCK - N T Wright
Israel, the Nations and the Messiah ROMANS 9.30-10.4 One of the things I have to do in my job is to encourage people who are building new churches or other premises for worship, outreach, child care and so on. Often this involves being there when the first bit of the building is …
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Instructions on Holy Living
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Instructions on Holy Living
by SPCK - N T Wright
Instructions on Holy Living Thessalonians 4.1-8 St Francis, famously, referred to his own body as ‘brother donkey’. It was a beloved part of himself, and yet it often seemed to have a mind of its own. It needed taming, bringing into obedience, as one would teach a large and heads…
John for Everyone Part 1 - Is Jesus from God?
John for Everyone Part 1 - Is Jesus from God?
by SPCK - N T Wright
Is Jesus from God? John 9.24-34 One of the most depressing things about war is the way in which both sides routinely invoke God on their side. People now joke about the First World War, in which British army chaplains were praying to God for victory while a few hundred yards away…
Luke for Everyone - Jairus's Daughter and the Woman with Chronic Bleeding
Luke for Everyone - Jairus's Daughter and the Woman with Chronic Bleeding
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jairus’s Daughter and the Woman with Chronic Bleeding Luke 8.40-56 We don’t know for sure that Luke was a doctor, though there are several things in his work that make it likely, as well as Paul’s mention of him as ‘Luke, the beloved doctor’ (Colossians 4.14). But if he was, ther…
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Introduction
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Introduction
by SPCK - N T Wright
INTRODUCTION On the very first occasion when someone stood up in public to tell people about Jesus, he made it very clear: this message is for everyone. It was a great day – sometimes called the birthday of the church. The great wind of God’s spirit had swept through Jesus’ follo…
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - Jesus Before Caiaphas
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - Jesus Before Caiaphas
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus Before Caiaphas Matthew 26.57-68 Have you ever watched two people speaking to each other in different languages, neither understanding the other? Sometimes it’s funny, and effective. I remember watching with surprise and delight as my daughter, aged about five, played on ho…
John for Everyone part 2 - Jesus and the Disciples
John for Everyone part 2 - Jesus and the Disciples
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus and the Disciples John 20.19-23 ‘I couldn’t possibly do that!’ He stood staring at the committee. They had just offered him, not the job he had applied for, but the one above it. The senior position in the whole division. He would be running an entire department. A huge bud…
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - Jesus Arrested
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - Jesus Arrested
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus is Arrested Matthew 26.47-56 A radio station telephoned me, and before I knew what was happening I found myself talking, live, to a large and invisible audience. A leading Muslim writer in Britain had been urging the Government to tighten up the blasphemy laws – the laws th…
John for Everyone Part 1 - Jesus and the Woman
John for Everyone Part 1 - Jesus and the Woman
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus and the Woman John 4.16-26 A friend of mine described the reaction when he went home, as a young teenager, and announced to his mother that he’d become a Christian. Alarmed, she thought he’d joined some kind of cult. ‘They’ve brainwashed you!’ she said. He was ready with th…
John for Everyone part 2 - Jesus and Thomas
John for Everyone part 2 - Jesus and Thomas
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus and Thomas John 20.24-31 Out of my window I can see a clock. A large and famous clock, on a great public building. It’s lit up at night, and you can see it from many parts of the city. As I write this, it has just struck the hour. Consider the journey that the clock makes f…
Hebrews for Everyone - Jesus as the Truly Human Being
Hebrews for Everyone - Jesus as the Truly Human Being
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus as the Truly Human Being HEBREWS 2.5-9 One of the most dramatic stories in the Old Testament concerns the royal succession. King David was very old, and everybody knew he couldn’t last much longer. He had a great many sons and daughters. One of his sons, Adonijah, got toget…
John for Everyone part 2 - Jesus and Peter