Matthew 4:1-11 When were you last tempted? How did it go? Did you give in, or did you stand firm? All of us struggle with temptation, and if we’re looking for help, this passage is an obvious place to go. And we’ll look at that, but ‘tips for facing temptation’ is not the main point. To find out what is, have a listen!
Matthew 3:1-17 Some people think that our world has no future. If they’re right, then nothing we do ultimately matters. But John the Baptist said that the future is the kingdom of heaven, and so what we do now matters hugely. We need to repent and come to Jesus.
Matthew 2:13-23 Fleeing to Egypt; narrowly escaping being killed in Bethlehem; returning to live in obscure Nazareth – it’s not an impressive start in life. But this was God’s plan for his Messiah. This is how God worked then, and still works today.
Matthew 2:1-12 On his recent royal tour of Australia, King Charles got a mixed reception. So did King Jesus from the moment he came into the world, but how we respond to him is a good deal more significant, given who he is. In this passage we encounter three responses. Which best represents our own?
Matthew 1:18-25 We’re born, we live, we die. We all conform to this universal pattern. If we’re going to get out of the hole we’re in, it’s going to have to be an outside job. We need someone who breaks the chain. Someone not ordinary but extra-ordinary. And that is what we find in Jesus – a unique birth producing a unique baby.
Matthew 1:1-17 ‘Go and tell everyone everywhere they need to become my disciples and start following and obeying me’. That’s where Matthew’s Gospel ends. An outrageous thing for anyone to say, never mind a carpenter from Nazareth. Why should we take him seriously? Who even is he? That’s where Matthew’s Gospel begins.
Psalm 19 If the atheist is right, then we live in a world with no ultimate meaning, no purpose, no hope. But the world of Psalm 19 is very different – and this is the real world – a world in which God is there and is not silent.
1 John 5:13-21 We live in an uncertain world, and so much in our lives is uncertain too. What do you really know for sure? These final verses of the letter give us five things we know for sure, if we trust in Christ – five certainties to celebrate.
1 John 5:1-12 There’s a lot of talk nowadays about ‘people of faith’, as if it doesn’t really matter what you believe. But this passage makes clear that our faith must be in Jesus Christ. Such faith is transformational, rational, and essential.
1 John 4:7-21 What does our world need most? Surely, love would be up there on
anyone’s wish list. But how’s that going to happen? Where’s that going to come from?
The Bible claims that Christianity has the answer.
