SPCK - N T Wright
Simply Jesus - At the heart of the storm
Simply Jesus - At the heart of the storm
by SPCK - N T Wright
At the heart of the storm With all of this now on the table, we return to the perfect storm: to the build-up of pressure from the Roman Empire in one direction, the thousand-year hope of Israel from another direction, and the cyclone itself, the strange and powerful purposes of G…
Simply Jesus - Space, time and matter
Simply Jesus - Space, time and matter
by SPCK - N T Wright
Space, time and matter The one thing we can be sure of is that inhabitants of first-century Palestine didn’t think of space, time and matter in quite the way that we do. If we’re going to understand Jesus, it’s vital to grasp the difference between his world and ours...
Simply Jesus - Battle and Temple
Simply Jesus - Battle and Temple
by SPCK - N T Wright
Battle and Temple First, the battle. Whether we look at the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5—7 or the Nazareth Manifesto in Luke 4; whether we look at the strange language about ‘binding the strong man’ in Matthew 12 or the even stranger language about the ‘coming of the son of m…
Simply Jesus - The Kingdom Present and Future
Simply Jesus - The Kingdom Present and Future
by SPCK - N T Wright
The kingdom present and future When Jesus healed people, when he celebrated parties with all and sundry, when he offered forgiveness freely to people as if he were replacing the Temple itself with his own work – in all these ways it was clear, and he intended it to be clear, th…
Simply Jesus - Stories that explain and a message that transforms
Simply Jesus - Stories that explain and a message that transforms
by SPCK - N T Wright
Stories that explain and a message that transforms Jesus, as we saw, had one particular method of explaining what was going on. As part of his campaign, he told stories. Not just any old stories. These stories were, for the most part, not ‘illustrations’, preachers’ tricks to dec…
Simply Jesus - The Campaign Starts here
Simply Jesus - The Campaign Starts here
by SPCK - N T Wright
The campaign starts here Keep these spectacles on, then, as we come back to Jesus and to what he was saying about God – about Israel’s God. Jesus was going about declaring, after the manner of someone issuing a public proclamation, that Israel’s God was at last becoming king. ‘Th…
Simply Jesus - God's in charge now
Simply Jesus - God's in charge now
by SPCK - N T Wright
God’s in charge now The reason there were crowds with Jesus that day as he rode into Jerusalem is that there were always crowds around Jesus, from the beginning. He attracted them. The first thing most people knew about Jesus was that when he arrived in the village there was a pa…
Simply Jesus - The Hurricane
Simply Jesus - The Hurricane
by SPCK - N T Wright
The hurricane The gale of Rome and the high-pressure system of Jewish hopes. It takes one more wind to make the perfect storm. And, as in the original Massachusetts disaster, this one was of a different order altogether. To understand this great cyclone, this tropical hurricane, …
Simply Jesus - The Making of a First-Century Storm
Simply Jesus - The Making of a First-Century Storm
by SPCK - N T Wright
The making of a first-century storm A really good metaphor deserves more than one outing – as Jesus himself seems to have found, using and reusing ideas and scenes in his kaleidoscopic display of parables. Let’s have another go at the perfect storm, then, but now set in the first…
Simply Jesus - The Perfect Storm
Simply Jesus - The Perfect Storm
by SPCK - N T Wright
The perfect storm It was late October 1991. The crew of the fishing boat Andrea Gail, out of Gloucester, Massachusetts, had taken the vessel five hundred miles out into the Atlantic. A cold front moving along the Canadian border sent a strong disturbance through New England, whil…
Simply Jesus - The three puzzles
Simply Jesus - The three puzzles
by SPCK - N T Wright
The three puzzles Jesus of Nazareth, then, stands out in the middle of history. Tens of millions call him ‘Lord’ and do their best to follow him. Countless others, including some who try to ignore him, find that he pops up all over the place – a line in a song, an image in a film…
Simply Jesus - A very odd sort of king
Simply Jesus - A very odd sort of king
by SPCK - N T Wright
A very odd sort of king ‘As Jesus was going along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. When he came to the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began to celebrate and praise God at the tops of their voices’ (Luke 19.36 –37). The crowd went wild…
Simply Jesus - Preface
Simply Jesus - Preface
by SPCK - N T Wright
Preface Jesus of Nazareth poses a question and a challenge two thousand years after his lifetime. The question is fairly simple: who exactly was he? This includes the questions, What did he think he was up to? What did he do and say, why was he killed, and did he rise from the de…
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…
Scripture and the Authority of God - Word of God and Scripture in the Apostolic Church
Scripture and the Authority of God - Word of God and Scripture in the Apostolic Church
by SPCK - N T Wright
“Word of God” and Scripture in the Apostolic Church Apostolic Preaching of ‘the Word’: the Jesus-Story Fulfils the (OT) Scripture-Story The earliest apostolic preaching was neither a standard Jewish message with Jesus added on at the end, nor a free-standing announcement of a new…
Scripture and the Authority of God - Authority of Scripture as Part of a Larger Whole
Scripture and the Authority of God - Authority of Scripture as Part of a Larger Whole
by SPCK - N T Wright
“Authority of Scripture” as Part of a Larger Whole ‘Authority of Scripture’ is a Shorthand for God’s Authority Exercised through Scripture We now arrive at the central claim of this book: that the phrase ‘authority of scripture’ can only make Christian sense if it is a shorthand …
Scripture and the Authority of God - Appendix
Scripture and the Authority of God - Appendix
by SPCK - N T Wright
Appendix Getting Started on Bible Study Those who want to get into the study of scripture for themselves – and studying scripture is, in the end, far more profitable than theorizing about it – will find a wealth of material to help them. What follows is only a small selection, wh…
Scripture and the Authority of God - How to Get Back on Track