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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 …
Hebrews for Everyone - Hold on Tight!
Hebrews for Everyone - Hold on Tight!
by SPCK - N T Wright
Hold on Tight! HEBREWS 3.14-19 Nobody wants to fall asleep while driving a car. But a remarkable number of people do it. In the UK at least, there are now signs on the major roads that warn motorists of the danger of sleepy driving. ‘Tiredness can kill,’ they say. You’d think it …
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Humans Reject God and Embrace Corruption
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Humans Reject God and Embrace Corruption
by SPCK - N T Wright
Humans Reject God and Embrace Corruption ROMANS 1.18-23 I have just watched a large copper beech tree being felled. It was a difficult and dangerous job for those engaged in it, and I was fascinated to see how they went about their work, with ropes and other climbing equipment as…
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Humanity and Faith
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Humanity and Faith
by SPCK - N T Wright
Humanity and Faith James 4.1-10 Schoolchildren of a certain age form exclusive friendships. Great human dramas are played out on a small scale when your daughter comes home in tears because her ‘best friend’ has declared she isn’t her best friend any more, but has taken up with s…
The Pastoral Letters - Human Families and God's Family
The Pastoral Letters - Human Families and God's Family
by SPCK - N T Wright
Human Families and God’s Family 1Timothy 5.1-8 I know a wonderful couple who have 11 children. Mind you, they didn’t have 11 together. His first wife died; her first husband died; they then met and married; and when they put his six and her five together, lo and behold, they had …
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…
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…
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…
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…
Luke for Everyone - Jesus Anointed by a Sinful Woman
Luke for Everyone - Jesus Anointed by a Sinful Woman
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus Anointed by a Sinful Woman Luke 7.36-50 When you look at a painting, what do you look for first? Some people stand well back and let the full sweep of it wash over them: the glorious colours, the contrasts, the light and shade. Some people focus at once on the characters, t…
Luke for Everyone - Jesus Grieves Over Jerusalem
Luke for Everyone - Jesus Grieves Over Jerusalem
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus Grieves Over Jerusalem Luke 13.31-35 The house I live in was built after the Second World War. It replaced the much older one that stood here before, which was burnt to ashes one night in 1941, after a fire-bomb, dropped by an enemy aircraft, landed right on it. The people …
John for Everyone part 2 - Jesus Enters Jerusalem