SPCK - N T Wright
John for Everyone part 2 - My Kingdom Is Not From This World
John for Everyone part 2 - My Kingdom Is Not From This World
by SPCK - N T Wright
My Kingdom Is Not from This World John 18.33-40 The ancient world knew more about kings than we moderns do. Where kings and queens still exist today, they mostly live and work within a carefully constructed framework. They are not ‘absolute’ monarchs, but ‘constitutional’ ones. T…
John for Everyone part 2 - Pilate and the Judaeans
John for Everyone part 2 - Pilate and the Judaeans
by SPCK - N T Wright
Pilate and the Judaeans John 18.28-32 I watched today as the television interviewer fired questions at a man whose main aim seemed to be to answer them all at great length without saying anything at all. On and on the interviewer went, trying angle after angle; but the man stood …
John for Everyone part 2 - Peter Denies Jesus
John for Everyone part 2 - Peter Denies Jesus
by SPCK - N T Wright
Peter Denies Jesus John 18.15-27 There is a part of the human brain which seems to be closed off for much of the time, but which can be reached at once through the sense of smell. You can be walking down the street, thinking of something completely different, when a single sniff …
John for Everyone part 2 - The Arrest of Jesus
John for Everyone part 2 - The Arrest of Jesus
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Arrest of Jesus John 18.1-14 He came, looking for someone. He came on the evening breeze, came as he had always come. Came because they knew each other, and used to spend time together. Came to the garden, because that’s where they always met. That’s where he was at home. And…
John for Everyone part 2 - That They May Be One
John for Everyone part 2 - That They May Be One
by SPCK - N T Wright
That They May Be One John 17.20-26 This afternoon I looked on the Internet for a website about an electric appliance that’s gone wrong. I’ve lost the instruction booklet and was hoping to find relevant information through the Web. I found the website of the company that makes the…
John for Everyone part 2 - Jesus Prays for His People
John for Everyone part 2 - Jesus Prays for His People
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus Prays for His People John 17.9-19 In the newspapers recently a mother was punished by the courts. She had left her two young children entirely by themselves, while she went off for a foreign holiday with her new boyfriend. (The father, it seems, was nowhere to be found.) It…
John for Everyone part 2 - Glorify the Son
John for Everyone part 2 - Glorify the Son
by SPCK - N T Wright
Glorify the Son John 17.1-8 Shakespeare’s play Hamlet is full of action. Ghosts, murders, love scenes, plots, accidental killings, betrayals, recriminations and more plots. The play highlights the indecision of the hero when faced with huge problems, and this results in pauses he…
John for Everyone part 2 - Ask, and You Will Receive
John for Everyone part 2 - Ask, and You Will Receive
by SPCK - N T Wright
Ask, and You Will Receive John 16.23-33 In the world of business you can often tell how important someone is by finding out how many people you have to ‘go through’, as we say, in order to speak to them. You telephone, hoping for a word with the chairman of the company. You get t…
John for Everyone part 2 - Your Heart Will Rejoice
John for Everyone part 2 - Your Heart Will Rejoice
by SPCK - N T Wright
Your Hearts Will Rejoice John 16.12-22 How do you talk about things that are not just out of the ordinary but that take you into a whole new world? One way of doing it is through music. That’s why some of the greatest songs are love poems. Faced with the glory and thrill of human…
John for Everyone part 2 - The Spirit and the World
John for Everyone part 2 - The Spirit and the World
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Spirit and the World John 16.1-11 I once saw a film based on one of Charles Dickens’s novels. The film was about poverty and the degrading effect it has on people. One of the most depressing scenes was in a lawyer’s office, as the relatives of a man imprisoned for debt were d…
John for Everyone part 2 - If the World Hates You
John for Everyone part 2 - If the World Hates You
by SPCK - N T Wright
If the World Hates You John 15.18-27 We are all amateur psychiatrists now. Our modern culture has learnt enough from the founders of modern psychology and psychiatry for people to toss bits and pieces of it into ordinary conversations, articles in popular newspapers and televisio…
John for Everyone part 2 - Obeying and Loving
John for Everyone part 2 - Obeying and Loving
by SPCK - N T Wright
Obeying and Loving John 15.9-17 John for Everyone Part 2 Like an innocent child wandering by itself into a kitchen and pressing the switches that will set the house on fire, some biblical texts have been taken out of their original setting and used in ways that would have horrifi…
John for Everyone part 2 - The True Vine
John for Everyone part 2 - The True Vine
by SPCK - N T Wright
The True Vine John 15.1-8 One of many areas in which I possess near-total incompetence is gardening. We have moved house so many times that I have never had the chance to develop an instinct for which plants do well where and in what kind of soil and light. Once or twice I have p…
John for Everyone part 2 - My Peace I Give to You
John for Everyone part 2 - My Peace I Give to You
by SPCK - N T Wright
My Peace I Give to You John 14.22-31 ‘I’m going to tell the whole world about it!’ She had just got engaged. This was the moment she’d dreamed about. The happiest day of her life. She wanted everyone to know. But what did she mean by ‘the world’? We found out quite quickly. It me…
John for Everyone part 2 - Another Helper
John for Everyone part 2 - Another Helper
by SPCK - N T Wright
Another Helper John 14.12-21 ‘If only we’d been there when Jesus was around!’ people often say. ‘It would have been so much easier. He would have explained everything to us, and told us what to do. And he’d have been such an encouragement. Whatever we were doing, he’d be positive…
John for Everyone part 2 - The Way, the Truth, the Life
John for Everyone part 2 - The Way, the Truth, the Life
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Way, the Truth, the Life John 14.1-11 ‘Are you sure there’ll be room for us all?’ We were on our way back to a friend’s house. There were two carloads of us, relaxed and happy after a football match which we’d won. The match had been at another school several miles away, and …
John for Everyone part 2 - Love One Another
John for Everyone part 2 - Love One Another
by SPCK - N T Wright
Love One Another John 13.31-38 The question from the Greeks at the feast told Jesus that his time had come (12.23). In the same way, the disappearance of Judas, going out into the night, tells Jesus that his time, his great moment, is rushing upon him like a tidal wave. As the do…
John for Everyone part 2 - Judas Goes Out