SPCK - N T Wright
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - The Judgement of Jesus
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - The Judgement of Jesus
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Judgement of Jesus Acts 15.12-21 One of the difficulties about living in the new European Union (I realize that this remark may be out of date as soon as it’s written, since new proposals come forward every few weeks, but the general truth still stands) is that there are at l…
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 2 - Opening the door of Faith
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Opening the door of Faith
by SPCK - N T Wright
Opening the Door of Faith Acts 14.21-28 I stood at the back of the exhibition, and chatted with the artist. He was a local man, and we were glad to support him. We had even bought one of his paintings, a marvellous study of a bird in flight. ‘What does it feel like,’ I asked, ‘se…
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Confusion in Lystra
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Confusion in Lystra
by SPCK - N T Wright
Confusion in LystraActs 14. 8-20 I have a sneaking sympathy for the medical profession. Two or three generations ago, everybody knew that there were all kinds of diseases that the doctors couldn’t cure. They would do their best with what was available. They would offer sympathy…
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Iconium
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Iconium
by SPCK - N T Wright
Iconium Acts 14. 1-7 I once knew a young man who suffered seriously from depression. He was grappling with all kinds of issues, memories, buried fears, imagined guilt (and some real guilt, too).He had, on my recommendation, been to see one or two doctors, because his condition wa…
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - A Light to the Gentiles
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - A Light to the Gentiles
by SPCK - N T Wright
A Light to the Gentiles Acts 13.44-52 Everyone who works with words – the poet, the journalist, the philosopher, the translator, the theologian – knows it all too well. We use a word one day and it seems perfectly all right. It does the job. The next day we are told it now means …
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - The Messianic Challenge
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - The Messianic Challenge
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Messianic Challenge Acts 13.26-43 At the time I am writing this there is a massive global debate taking place. Led by senior figures in science and government, people everywhere are asking whether the world and its atmosphere are really warming up at the alarming rate that th…
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Address in Antioch
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Address in Antioch
by SPCK - N T Wright
Address in Antioch Acts 13.13-25 I sat in the small meeting room, intrigued at what I was hearing. I had been invited to a presentation organized by local councillors and businessmen in a particular area. They had a project, and they wanted support for it. There was an old factor…
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Mission and Magic
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Mission and Magic
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mission and Magic Acts 13.1-12 Jim was full of enthusiasm when he left college. From his earliest memories he had been passionate about justice, about fairness, about people respecting one another and being able to live together in harmony. He had always admired the police (in En…
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Herod's vanity and Death
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Herod's vanity and Death
by SPCK - N T Wright
Herod’s Vanity and Death Acts 12.20-25 Whether or not Luke was aware of the comic value of the previous interlude, he was certainly aware of the powerful impact of the story with which he now closes the first half of his book. The official king of the Jews plays at being a pagan …
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Peter's Rescue and Rhoda's Mistake
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Peter's Rescue and Rhoda's Mistake
by SPCK - N T Wright
Peter’s Rescue and Rhoda’s Mistake Acts 12.6-19 One of the sure touches of a master writer is knowing how to create a seriously funny scene in the middle of an extremely serious one. Think of Shakespeare’s subplots, with the gravedigger scene in Hamlet providing dark humour when …
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Herod Kills James
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Herod Kills James
by SPCK - N T Wright
Herod Kills James Acts 12.1-5 What makes a monarch act violently towards his subjects? That question presses upon us at this point in Acts, because up to now we have heard nothing of Herod in this book. Parallels from other places, and other periods of history, may or may not be …
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Taking Root- and a Name!- in Antioch
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Taking Root- and a Name!- in Antioch
by SPCK - N T Wright
Taking Root - and a Name! - in Antioch Acts 1.19-30 The other day I had to go to Cambridge once more, just for a few hours. Looking for a particular shop, I walked up King’s Parade, and was reminded of someone once saying that if there’s anybody in the world you want to meet, you…
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Controversy and Vindication
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Controversy and Vindication
by SPCK - N T Wright
Controversy and Vindication Acts 1.1-18 By common consent (even among those who disagreed with him), John Henry Newman was one of the finest minds of the nineteenth century. Having spent his young adult years as an Anglican priest, he famously converted to Roman Catholicism, and …
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Telling the Gentiles about Jesus
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Telling the Gentiles about Jesus
by SPCK - N T Wright
Telling the Gentiles about Jesus Acts 10.34-48 Acts for Everyone Part 1 34Peter took a deep breath and began. ‘It’s become clear to me’, he said, ‘that God really does show no favouritism. 35No: in every race, people who fear him and do what is right are acceptable to him. 36He s…
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Peter Goes to Cornelius