Bendigo Presbyterian Church

After dealing with the varied responses that came Jesus’ way in Luke chapter 12, we find that in Luke 13;1-9, Jesus was confronted with the reality of the question of tragedy and what His response to it would be. Rather than seeking to give a classic excplanation of the cause of human tragedy, or even […]

In this message, Ryan Smith take us to Hebrews 10:24-25, pointing out that the Christian life is not an individual thing, it’s a communal thing. God is calling a people who are His. A people who don’t give up meeting together, but rather gather, in order to encourage one another and spur one another on […]

In this message, Ryan Smith points us to Hebrews 10:19-23 as a clear explanation of the gospel – the good news of what Jesus has achieved for us, specifically how because of his death and resurrection, we now have access to God and confidence to enter into his presence. We should do that by drawing […]

Still speaking to the crowds about the dangers of living lives where money is the only object, Jesus warned his listeners about the dangers of being unprepared for His coming and the dangers of overlooking the signs of the times. In Luke 12:49-59, He points out that his first coming was not necessarily for the […]

When asked to intervene in a family dispute over an inheritance, Jesus, rightly and carefully explained that ‘a man’s life does not consist of the things he owns’. A far cry from ‘he who dies with the most toys wins’!! To make his point, in Luke 12:13-34, we find that Jesus not only told the […]

Sometimes things in life are black and white. Other times things are grey. The Bible calls us to love God and to love our neighbour, yet it is not always clear what that looks like. 1 Corinthians 10:14-11:1 reveals that in first century Corinth, idol worship was prominent and posed a bit of a conundrum […]

Followeing on from the things Jesus concluded in Luke 11:29-54, He had mre to say about hypocrisy as :Luke reciords in Luke 12:1-12. The whole section can be understood as awarning about the ‘leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy’ (Luke 12:1-2), as Jersus gives some reasons why hypocrisy is to be avoided. The truth […]

When Jesus spoke out in judgement on the Pharisees in Luke 11:29-54, He did not mince his words or hold back. If there was anyone that made Jesus angry, it was the self-righteous, hypocritical religious leaders who did everthing they could to advance themselves in the eyes of the people, but failed to live honestly […]

When Jesus chose to heal a man from demon possession in Luke 11:14-28, he got much more than he was expecting in terms of opposition to his miracle. Those who observed the miraculous deliverance of the man, could only reach a conclsuion that was opposite to what might have been made by those with ‘two […]

After Jesus had left the home of Marth a and Mary, the dfisciples observed Him (as was His usual custom) praying. They aked Him therefore to teach them to pray. In Luke 11;1-13, we find the respoonse Jesus gave them in which he laid down for them a pattern for prayer, encouraged them to be […]

When Jesus invited his hearers to ‘Come to Him and find rest’ in Matthew 11:28-30, his words have long stood out like a beacon on a dark night. We live in a world where there are so many demands on us – in terms of time, responsibility and commitment – at work, school, family and […]

When Peter got up to preach at Pentecost, it was his first time ever! Luke records a summary of his sermon in Acts 2:14-41 which only takes up about 7 minutes, and yet it is chock full of Old Testament quotes that had found their fulfillment in Pentecost’s events. The sermon is also clearly Christ-centred, […]

Many people can tell you what the Parable of the Good Samaritan is all about and what Jesus was teaching by it. However, many people can also take the parable in a rather simplistic fashion which makes it all sound ‘nice’, even sort of ‘ a good thing to do’. But Jesus meant so much […]

The whole chapter of Luke 9 seems to be about discipleship and this is confirmed by the finanl paragraph of the chapter, Luke 9:57-62. here, Jesus meets people who ‘would-be’ His disciples – people He asked to come and follow Him, and those who were ‘wannabe’ disciples – those who came up to Him and […]

The 12 disciples of Jesus were certainly a mixed bag – hot one day (think Peter saying ‘You are the Christ) and cold the next (think their argument on the road to the cross as to which of them was the greatest!). In Luke 9:46-56 it seems that some pettiness in their minds and hearts […]

When Jesus went up high on the mountain in Luke 9:28-36, the disciples saw His glory revealed to them by God the Father. But when Jesus came down the mountain into the valley in Luke 9:37-45, He immediately encountered the impotence of the disciples to deal with the situation at hand. Once he has dealt […]

The account of Israel’s crossing through the Red Sea is quite stunning. Stuck on the western side of the Sea, crying out to God in anguish and despair, the people of Israel were in desperate straits. Pharoah and his armies had pursued them and all looked bleak…except for God. He had to act and He […]

In Exodus 14:1-14, the people of Israel who have just departed from Egypt, find themselves in a very, very tricky situation. With Pharaoh and his armies in pursuit of them and impassable mountains to the left and the right, the people (who had been led clearly by God through pillar of cloud and fire) were […]

When the Lord God led His people Israel out of Egypt, there was an ongoing need for the people to be led the right way. They did not necessarily know the way that God was taking them nor was it explained to them. All they knew what that God had a plan for them, and […]

In Exodus 13:1-16, the drama of chapters 7 to 12 of Exodus have passed by. The people of Israel are now free from the clutches of Pharaoh. Not yet completely free to ‘do their own thing’, but free to serve the Lord their God who led them out of Egypt into the desert regions in […]

In this message, Ryan Smith (AFES worker at La Trobe Uni, Bendigo) shares how as the people of God, believers should expect to be hated by the world… because the world hates Jesus. It’s hate by association. Jesus tells his disciples this in John 15:18-16:4 and he does this ahead of time so that those […]

Exodus 11:1-12:51 details for us the tenth and last of the plagues that came upon Egypt. Of all the plagues this was the one that would really break Pharaoh’s stubborn will and also his father’s heart. The death of the first-born sons all throughout Egypt was a most dramatic event that the people of Israel […]

In Exodus 7:8-10:29, the showdown that had been threatening took place. Pharaoh, in his stubborn unbelief and refusal to let the people of Israel go, could only sit back and watch his nation and land be devastated by plague after plague – all designed to show him that he was not calling the shots. While […]

When the women went to the tomb early on the Sunday morning after the death of Jesus, they never expected to find that the tomb would be empty. The fact that the tomb was empty is recorded by all the gospel writers, even Luke in Luke 24:1-12. Perhaps there has never been a more important […]

When God revealed something of a glimpse of the future to the prophet Isaiah who lived 700 years before the birth of Jesus, the prophet saw the person who was to come, the ‘Servant of the Lord’, the Saviour and Redeemer of God’s people. The 53rd chapter of his prophecy is well-known for the way […]