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Revelation for Everyone - The Letter to Thyatira
Revelation for Everyone - The Letter to Thyatira
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Letter to Thyatira Revelation 2.18-29 Some cities are known by their industrial products. The city near where I grew up, Newcastle in the north-east of England, was famous for two hundred years as one of the chief suppliers of coal to the country, and to many places abroad. T…
Luke for Everyone - Jesus' Authoritative Healings
Luke for Everyone - Jesus' Authoritative Healings
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus’ Authoritative Healings Luke 4.31-44 Last time I went to Capernaum you could hardly move because of the people. There were coaches full of pilgrims coming and going, parties of tourists with guides talking in several different languages, people taking photographs, people tr…
Luke for Everyone - The Distress of Jerusalem Predicted
Luke for Everyone - The Distress of Jerusalem Predicted
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Distress of Jerusalem Predicted Luke 21.20-33 At school we were sometimes made to write stories which included several very different characters and objects. ‘Write a story,’ the teacher might say, ‘including a rabbit, a telescope, a cathedral and a man with a wooden leg.’ Of…
MARK THE PEOPLE’S BIBLE COMMENTARY - The Poll Tax
MARK THE PEOPLE’S BIBLE COMMENTARY - The Poll Tax
by BRF - Dick France
The POLL TAX MARK 12: 13-17 A loaded question When the Romans deposed Archelaus, the son of Herod, from his kingship in Judea and imposed direct rule from Rome, one of the most resented by-products was the imposition of a poll tax on all adult Jewish males, to be paid to the Roma…
Luke for Everyone - The Birth of Jesus
Luke for Everyone - The Birth of Jesus
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Birth of Jesus Luke 2.1-20 If you try to point out something to a dog, the dog will often look at your finger instead of at the object you’re trying to point to. This is frustrating, but it illustrates a natural mistake we all make from time to time. It’s the mistake many peo…
John for Everyone part 2 - No King but Caesar
John for Everyone part 2 - No King but Caesar
by SPCK - N T Wright
No King but Caesar John 19.8-16a From our seats, high in the stands, we watched as the football match swung this way and that. Our team was doing well and scored a couple of early goals. We were delighted; surely they could hang on to a lead like that? When the opposition scored …
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Sunday Next Before Lent Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Sunday Next Before Lent Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Sunday next before Lent Mark 9.2-9 Consider next what God tells us. First, that Jesus is indeed his Son and we must worship him as such. And second, that this means we must obey him, for what is the point of listening if we do not learn? Our faith must be strong enough to f…
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - The Great Commandments, and David's Master
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - The Great Commandments, and David's Master
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Great Commandment, and David’s Master Matthew 22.34-46 I watched on television a tennis match between two of the game’s finest players. Both had been playing well, but towards the end one of them seemed to rise to new heights. The match ended with two stunning games, when the…
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - The Death of God's Son
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - The Death of God's Son
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Death of God’s Son Matthew 27.45-56 In many Christian bookshops around the world today you can buy posters to hang on the wall which remind you of some aspect of the Christian faith and life. Often they have biblical texts, set against a background of glorious scenery. Someti…
Mark for Everyone - The Death of Jesus
Mark for Everyone - The Death of Jesus
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 15.33–39 The Death of Jesus... ...There are times when I envy musical composers, and this is one of them. If I were capable of setting this brief but shocking story to music, I know how I would start. Darkness at noon: low chords on the heavy brass, a brood…
Mark for Everyone - The Transfiguration
Mark for Everyone - The Transfiguration
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 9.2–13 The Transfiguration... ...Science teachers never tire, so I’m told, of the moment when a child first looks into a microscope. What up until then had seemed a boring little speck of dirt can suddenly become full of pattern, colour and interest. The ch…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 2 - United Praise under the Messiah's Universal Role
Paul for Everyone Romans part 2 - United Praise under the Messiah's Universal Role
by SPCK - N T Wright
United Praise under the Messiah’s Universal Rule ROMANS 15.7-13 The great Finnish composer Jean Sibelius brought the art of writing symphonies to a new glory. His first six were each splendid in their own way, developing the form which previous composers had used and flooding it …
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The First Sunday of Epiphany Isaiah 43.1–7 Acts 8.14–17 Luke 3.15–17, 21–2 The first three Gospels all have the story of Jesus’ baptism by John in very similar words. John’s version of events, as so often, is slightly different – you might like to go and have a look at it in John…
Four Gospels, One Jesus - In at the kill
Four Gospels, One Jesus - In at the kill
by SPCK - Richard A Burridge
In at the kill The Passion, Mark 14—15 At last we come to the ending – the Markan Passion, a dark scene to which the whole gospel has been leading. Jesus has made his way to Jerusalem, and this geographical concentration has brought the conflict into focus: a lion’s story should …
Four Gospels, One Jesus - The identity of Jesus
Four Gospels, One Jesus - The identity of Jesus
by SPCK - Richard A Burridge
The identity of Jesus As well as showing how Jesus fulfils the law and prophets, Matthew also comments that ‘something greater than the temple is here’ (Matt. 12.6). Jesus’ identity runs through the opening chapters as the fulfilment of the Jewish hopes – a new Abraham to bless t…
Four Gospels, One Jesus - Where is he who is born King of the Jews?