Partakers Christian Podcasts

Study 24 - Luke 19:28–48 The Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem   Jesus cannot complete his mission without entering Jerusalem and confronting the authorities there. This he does, first with actions and then with words Please read Luke 19: 28-38. It seems likely that Jesus had made some arrangements the twelve knew nothing about. Perhaps he had 2 sets of supporters: the apostles in spiritual matters and a group of organisers or deacons.) Question 1: What makes that a reasonable thing to say? Are there any alternative explanations? There is something a bit mysterious about the account of Jesus sending two disciples to get the colt. It is hard to be sure but there does seem to have been a prior arrangement made by Jesus that the two disciples did not know the details of. To think that Jesus knew through his divine powers that the colt would be there is probably to over-emphasize the divine in Jesus and forget that he was also human. The account of the way Jesus entered Jerusalem is full of hints of

The Centrepiece of Joy Leviticus 16:1-10 & Hebrews 10:1-10 Introduction Today, we dip into Leviticus 16, which I think is the centre and pinnacle of this magnificent book of joy.   The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron who died when they approached the Lord. 2 The Lord said to Moses: ‘Tell your brother Aaron that he is not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die. For I will appear in the cloud over the atonement cover. (Leviticus 16:1-2)   5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: ‘Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; 6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. 7 Then I said, “Here I am – it is written about me in the scroll – I have come to do your will, my God.”’ 8 First he said, ‘Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them’– though they were of

Study 23- Luke 18:31–19:27 Seeing and trusting There are 4 sections in this study all of which have something to do with seeing and not seeing, understanding and not understanding or just plain hidden. The first section, Luke 18: 31–34 serves as a summary of what is to follow. Do read Luke 18:31-34. The disciples had a reasonable excuse for not understanding. What Jesus was saying was so strange and unexpected they could be forgiven for not understanding. But we, in all probability, have some knowledge of how things turned out so we do not have that excuse. v 34 provides a challenge to us, the readers or hearers: will we be blind or deaf, will we see or hear and understand? Blindness and sight are metaphors for no faith and faith. Have you moved from blindness to sight? Remind yourself what the effect of your blindness was and how you first knew that you were seeing or, if you are in a group, share together your journey from blindness to sight, darkness to light. Question 1: What is the sign

Colossians 3v1-4 “Remember Who You Are!” Today, our Bible thought comes from Paul's letter to the city of Colossae! It has relevance to us today and our Christian lives. If then you were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, our life, is revealed, then you will also be revealed with him in glory. (Colossians 3:1-4) Click or Tap here to listen to or save this as an audio mp3 file

Study 22 - Luke 18:9–30 The Way of the Kingdom We now come to two very significant parables either side of a short and rather surprising paragraph. I think we should start off with some explanations. The first parable is not about ways to pray but about righteousness (Luke 18:9). Righteousness is a very important, but very tricky, word in the Bible. Our English word has been used to translate a word in the Greek, which does not quite mean what our word means! In fact the Biblical word carries with it a whole set of meanings that no single word in English can possibly include. Our word has as its primary meaning ‘being right’, in the sense of being morally and ethically right in the scale of good and bad. But the Greek word in the NT is used to translate an OT word, which is primarily about being accepted, about being in relationship with someone. Our word is an accountant’s word; the OT word is a social word. Of course, in the OT one can only be accepted by a Holy God if one is rig

Saturday Story People meeting Jesus  The story of Adele from Australia... We continue apace into the twentieth century and hear the story of a friend of mine. Her name is Adele and she is from my home country, Australia. Come on in, and listen to her story about her own Christian journey and the relevancy of Jesus Christ to her life! Come and listen to her story of faith... Click or Tap here to listen to or save this as an audio mp3 file~ You can now purchase our Partakers books! Please do click or tap here to visit our Amazon site! Click or tap on the appropriate link below to subscribe, share or download our iPhone App!

Study 21 - Luke 17:1-18:8 Faith and its consequences. This next section of the Gospel contains a collection of small episodes mainly about faith and its consequences. We read about having to be careful not to hurt anyone else, being prepared to serve in any capacity, giving thanks and praising the Lord, looking forward and behaving in the light of the coming kingdom and being persistent in prayer. Please do read 17:1 – 10 The 'little ones' (v2) are not defined but we probably will not be far wrong if we take them to be any Christians young in faith. 'to sin' (NIV) is more literally 'to stumble'. Question 1: Is the advice of 17:4 realistic? Can we sensibly forgive someone seven times if they keep on repeating the same thing for which we need to forgive them? Compare 1 Cor 5:1, 3b-5. What is the significant difference between these two situations? Perhaps we should not forgive anyone 7 times if, by so doing, we encourage the persistence of the problem. There has to be a difference in our reactions

Friday Prayers Order of Service! Opening prayer Praise time Prayers for those grieving and lonely Prayers for justice and peace Prayers for those facing challenging situations Prayers for churches and Christians worldwide Prayers for healing Time of silence for your own prayers Benediction   Click or Tap here to listen to or save this as an audio mp3 file

Study 20 - Luke 16:1-31 The Problem of Riches This chapter, which is difficult all the way through, gives us one of the most puzzling of all the parables, as, if it is misread, Jesus appears to commend dishonesty. The story is about a landlord’s estate-manager or steward who was sacked for inefficiency in an unusual way: there is no lengthy argument or plea for reinstatement as you would have expected in that culture; the steward ceases immediately to be the approved agent but the rent books are not taken from him. Please read Luke 16:1-8 The estate-manager was able to reduce the rents and get the tenants to note the changes (v 6b, 7b), probably with the promise to share the reductions with him quietly afterwards. Because of the tenants writing on the documents the landlord cannot reinstate the changes without losing face and honour. Clever! Right mouse click or tap here  to save/download this as a MP3 audio file Of course the chapter division was not in the original documents so this story fo

Thursday with Tabitha 1. Jonah  by Tabitha Smith Hello, and welcome to the first episode in our series about the Minor Prophets. We're starting our series in the book of Jonah. Of all the books of the Minor Prophets Jonah is perhaps the one that people are most familiar with, or at least they think they are familiar with the story line. Many people will have heard about Jonah and the giant fish. But there is a lot more to the book of Jonah than this! We going to look at some historical background to the book, the type of writing it is, the details of the plot, the major themes of the book and how we might apply these to our own lives today. Jonah prophesied during the reign of King Jeroboam II, who ruled between 782 and 753 BC. Jonah is unusual amongst the Old Testament prophets in that his primary audience was a pagan nation, not the people of Israel or Judah. People have debated about whether the story of Jonah is actually a historical tale or whether it might be a kind of parable or allegory. Some

  Study 19 - Luke 15:1-32 The Joy of Recovery   This chapter contains two marvellous double parables. The first is that of the lost sheep and the lost coin; the second that of the prodigal son, the loving father and the unhappy elder brother. Please do read Luke 15: 1 - 10.   There is one obvious problem with the story of the lost sheep: would a shepherd really leave 99 sheep in wild country? Probably not. But a flock of that many sheep would need more than one shepherd so he would not be leaving them alone. It is important to note that the one who went searching was the owner and therefore comparatively rich.   Question 1: Sheep are smelly animals. What is suggested by the carrying on the shoulders? And by taking it home and not back to the flock?   As so often Jesus is emphasising that he is interested not just in the smug posh people who thought they alone mattered but the ordinary people, the country people, the working people. He is taking the sheep home to show that everybody

  Study 18 - Luke 13: 10 – 14:35 The Great Reversals We read Luke 13:10–17. Question 1: In these verses how do the Lord, and Luke, heighten the contrast between the woman before and after? By emphasising the ‘bent’ and the ‘straight’, we may well be meant to see these as metaphors for sin and righteousness. We read Luke 13:18–21. Question 2: The two small parables about the mustard seed and the yeast) say something obvious about size. What else do they say? Growth is a major factor in both little parables. And the fact that birds could perch in the tree suggests there will be unclean – non-Jewish people - in the Kingdom. What sort of tree Jesus had in mind is not clear; mustard seeds do not normally grow into a tree. Was Jesus, with his great sense of humour, deliberately suggesting that the impossible would happen? Yeast too is unclean, with the same suggestion. We read Luke 13:22–35. Isaiah 25 & 60 provide the background for

Study 16 - Luke 12:13 – 13:9 Priorities in life There are at least 12 different parables or sayings in this section. The theme is how we should set our goals and live our lives in view of the uncertainty of this life and the promise of the life to come. We read 12: 13 - 21. Question 1:    Why exactly was the rich man such a fool? (You should get at least 4 different ways in which he was stupid.) Here is the story again. The 4 things I can see in this passage are: He assumed he would still be alive to enjoy the produce from his crops. He ignored the concerns of other people. He assumed that "eat, drink ... " would lead to joyful merriment. He ignored the claims of God on his life. Question 2:    Isn't having big enough barns for your crops common sense? Isn't it what this world runs on?   Yes! It is what this world runs on. It is all a question of motives - good or bad. The teaching of the parable is summarized in the final phrase:  he worked for himself and was n

A Prayer of Anger - Psalm 94 Right mouse click or Tap Here to save this Podcast as a MP3. I believe that I would be right in saying that most of us here have prayed. Whether in joy and happiness; or in sadness and grief; in need or in want; in praise or in worship or in confessing sin, or in other ways we have prayed. But how many of us have prayed in anger, following the example of the writer of Psalm 94. Have any of us prayed out of anger to a God who is a judge? Have we cried out in anger to a God who punishes evil? By anger I do not mean that short burst of temper when something happens to us against our will. The kind of anger that rises when somebody does something against you, and you retaliate against them. No, the type of anger I am talking about is the anger we should feel inside us that occurs when we see injustice being done; when we see sin being done to assist in the systematic abuse of other people. The sort of anger that the church should have felt in Germany during the 2nd World War when t

Study 16 - Luke 11:14 – 12:12 Controversies As they moved towards Jerusalem antagonism to all that Jesus represented grew. There is no clear pattern in this passage. Problem piled on problem; attack followed attack. Question 1: According to the experts those of us who live in the Western world live in a Christianised, but now post-Christian society and therefore in a situation much less clearly defined than it was in New Testament days. Then they knew who the enemy was. We can be much less sure. Apathy, rather than antagonism is our main enemy. Do you agree? If so, give examples of where this can be seen. Our world is clearly Christianized by its historical background. But there is a steady movement to a more secularized society in most of the Western world, showing in slightly different ways in different countries. In the UK this shows in strong arguments in the media that ‘religion’ is to have no role at all in politics or civic life. The adviser to one former Prime Minister announced

Study 15 - Luke 11:1-13 Praying to the Father A disciple asks a question about prayer and although he gets a model prayer he also gets much more. First the prayer. We read 11: 1 – 4. This is a shorter version of the prayer than Matthew’s. Matthew starts off with ‘our Father in heaven’ instead of just ‘Father’. Matthew introduces the prayer after warning his disciples against showing off in praying, long words and many words. I doubt whether he would want us to keep on repeating this particular set of words either. He wants honest heart prayers in our ordinary every day language. One good idea is to pray along the pattern he has given us but rewording it as we go. So we might start off: ‘Dear Lord and Father I am so amazed that you have asked me to address you like this’ or ‘may I call you Father this morning even if you seem rather far away just at the moment’ or ‘ you are in heaven and I am stuck here on earth but please hear what I have t

Saturday Story People meeting Jesus  The story of John We continue apace into the twentieth century and hear the story of a friend of mine. His name is John and he is from Hampshire in the United Kingdom! Come on in, and listen to his story about his own Christian journey and the relevancy of Jesus Christ to his life. Click or Tap here to listen to or save this as an audio mp3 file~

Study 14 - Luke 10:25-42 Loving God and Neighbour The parable of the Good Samaritan is usually considered by itself. It should not be! It is part of a pair with the story of Mary and Martha. The two go together because in the original Greek the stories are about 'a certain lawyer' (v 25) and 'a certain woman' (v 38). The two sayings of Jesus that conclude the stories are: in 37b 'Go and do likewise' and in 42b 'Mary has chosen what is better'.   Question 1.  Which saying is the more important in popular thinking and preaching? Which does the words Jesus used suggest is the more important? There is a great deal more interest in the story of the good Samaritan because of its simple brilliance as a story and the way it can be taken as an example by anybody, Christian or not. Everybody recognizes that they should help other people; not everybody is prepared to listen to Jesus as Mary did. Yet the words that Jesus used strongly suggest that the latter is the more important. Before we read the verses l

Study 13 - Luke 9:51 – 10:24 Mission! From Luke 9:51–19:27, Luke has Jesus on the road to Jerusalem. Luke has put together many incidents within this journey story because after 8 chapters, at 17: 11, they are only just leaving Galilee! There is no clearly discernable structure to this part of the gospel. It contains some 8 major parables and many minor ones, most of them only found in this gospel. Please read 9:51–55. James and John got it badly wrong in this first story from Samaria. People are always tempted to use strong-arm methods. They may be violent, use their superior status, use financial pressures, try psychology, and so on. James and John reckon Jesus has power. The people in the village are not friendly so they think he should zap them. Question 1: Which strong arm method are we most likely to be tempted to use when the gospel is rejected? Jesus totally repudiates using any such. How can we counter the tendency in ourselves? Your answer will depend very much on where

Thursday with Tabitha Introduction by Tabitha Smith   I met Jesus when I was 11-years-old. God had blessed me with a believing family and I sung in church choirs from the time I could read. But I didn't have a personal relationship with Jesus until a certain day in 1990. I'd gone to a violin exam, which was being held in a local church. Waiting nervously for my turn to perform for the examiners, I picked up some leaflets that were sitting on a table in the church foyer. I read one of these leaflets on my own later that day. The message of Jesus dying and rising again for the sins of all people was not brand new to me, as I'd heard it many times before, but at that moment, it was like I heard it and understood it for the first time. I cried my 11-year-old eyes out and then asked my mum if I could get my own Bible. Of course, she agreed! I’ve always identified very strongly with the words in Amazing Grace, “I once was lost but now I’m found, was blind but now I see”, because that’s exactly what it felt like.