Bendigo Presbyterian Church

When Luke records how Jesus faced temptation in the desert in Luke 4:1-13, it’s clear that he wants us to compare Jesus with Adam. Given that Luke had just traced the genealogy of Jesus back to Adam, it is logical that Luke wanted his readers to understand that Jesus hadf to be tempted just as […]

Of the 4 gospels about the life and death and resurrection of Jesus, Luke has his own themes unique to his writing style and presentation of Jesus. And while his gospel does not begin at chapter 3, at the very least Luke 3:1-20 marks a signficant moment in Jesus’ ministry, when John appeared preaching repentance […]

Romans 15:1-13 is the end part of a very long dissertation from the pen of the Apostle Paul. It brings to an end the section of Romans 12:1-15:13 that we have been following, but also concludes his series of applications in relation to love as the response believers should have to the overwhelming grace of […]

Not all of us agree on everything. You may not even agree with your closest family member or spouse on some matters. But when Christians disagree, then what do we do? In Romans 14:1-23, Paul adressess what was a major source of disagreement in a church where two main cultural groups (Jews and Gentiles) had […]

What is the most surprising thing? That Nineveh repented at Jonah’s message from God? Or, as we read in Jonah 4:1-4, that Jonah is angry that the message was heeded and God spared the people – after he was spared himself! Do we forget God’s promises? Are we surprised by God’s mercy? Do we doubt […]

While Paul speaks about love being the mark of the Christian and his/her resp;onsibility to extend it to all men, he is also aware that there are times and circumstances that make ‘loving others’ difficult. In Romans 13;11-14, he outlines some of these difficulties while also calling believers to see ‘how’ love can flourish – […]

In Romans 13:8-10, Paul spoeaks again about love, but this time in the context of the Law of God. The Old and New Testaments are not enemies but friends, and love is a dominant theme of both the Old and the New Testaments, even though some would say otherwise. In presenting this call to love […]

In Mark 1:21-45, we see Jesus demonstrate authority in teaching, over unclean spirits, and in healing the sick. As amazing as Jesus’ authority is (the spirits are terrified and fear Jesus destroying them) we also see what is important to Jesus and what he has come to do with this authority: He cares about relationship […]

In Romans 13:1-7, Paul continues along in the same train of thought, but with a different application – that of how believers ought to relate to those who are in positions of authority over them. How should believers live as those wanting to give themselves as ‘living sacrifices’ to the God who showed us such […]

In Romans 12;17-21, Paul sets out the way in which the believer should respond to those who hate and mistreat them. Jesus promised that His followers would face persecution for His sake and this is certainly borne out in practise. Believers all around the world are mistreated in major ways, but also, many of us […]

In Romans 12:14-16, Paul continues to explore the applications of what it means to be transformed from within by the Spirit of God. Having addressed the way we are to relate to each other within the body of Christ, his concern now is to apply some more principles in relating to others who are ‘outside’ […]

In this message by Rev Peter Phillips on Jonah 3:3-10, we read how by repentance, Jonah was delivered from the sea and from the fish. By repentance, Jonah obeyed the Lord, went to Nineveh and proclaimed the judgment of God. By repentance, the people of Nineveh caused the Lord to relent so that he did […]

The story of the resurrection of Jesus isn’t just a made up story to make us feel good about death or to give Jesus some more status that wasn’t meant for him. In Matthew 28:1-10, the facts are laid out for all to see and they must be wrestled with! For, if God did really […]

When the gospel writer, Matthew, recorded the fact that Mrs Pilate (Claudia Procla) told her husband, Pontius Pilate, about her dream and her ill-feeling towards the situation her husband would soon be in, sentencing the Lord Jesus, we could ask the question, why? Why did Matthew record that incident? There might well be some suggestions […]

Having laid the foundation of love as being the key character trait of the believer, in Romans 12:11-13, Paul adds more to the picture of what it means to live the Christian life. In these verses, Paul gives a set of commands that believers are to follow, not as a way of ‘putting on’ Christianity […]

The world often throws up the line or the comeback that ‘love is love’. Well, it is, and it isn’t. In Romans 12:9-10, the Apostle Paul, gives us some clear instructions as to how God’s people should ensure that ‘love’ is the key to the way we function as a church. He speaks of love, […]

After estabslising what believers should do in response to God’s grace with their lives (Romans 12:1) and their minds (Romans 12:2), Paul progresses the way that this response to grace should affect the way we treat each other in the body of Christ (Romans 12:3-8). Here, Paul points out that we are one body with […]

In Romans 12:2, Paul continues the theme of how we ought to live in response to the wonder of God’s grace given to His people. After telling us that nothing less than offering ourselves as ‘living sacrifices’ to God will do in verse 1, he then rounds out the picture by telling us the ‘how […]

It’s kind of unusual to start a series on the book of Romans at chapter 12, three-quarters of the way through the book! But in an attempt to cover the more ‘practical’ aspects of the Christian life, and to follow on from the series on Malachi, Romans 12 is a great place to start – […]

The final words of Malachi’s book, found in Malachi 3:13-4:6 are also the final words of the Old Testament. While the Old Testament begins with God’s creative work in Genesis 1:1, it ends with God’s promise of a destructive work in Malachi 4:6. This is helpful, because it reminds us that while God’s people in […]

When our thinking about God is wrong, so too everything else will be wrong. In Malachi 2:17-3:15, the people of Judah’s thinking about God was way off. They thought that He had changed to the extent that He no longer cared about punishing sin or evil, and that He actually approved of sin and evil. […]

it has been noted that ‘the fish rots from the head down’. Given that the Lord God had already shown through the prophet Malachi that the priests (the leaders of the religious aspect of God’s people) were corrupt and spiritually poor, then it is little surprise that the people also began to disregard the word […]

You may have heard the expression, ‘the fish rots from the head down’. As with that proverbial fish, so with God’s people. In Malachi 2:1-9, we find that the cause of the spiritual decay that had set in among the people of Judah, was found in the priests of the day who were unfaithful and […]

We have a saying in Australia that goes, ‘things are crook in Tallarook’. Maybe they aren’t always, Tallarook is quite a pretty place. But things were certainly ‘crook’ in Judah when Malachi declared God’s word in Malachi 1:6-14. The people had settled back into Jerusalem after the exile, but the worship had been turned upside […]

The book of Malachi is the last of the books of the Old Testament, written about 450 years before the appearing of John the Baptist. In it, Lord addressed His people through the prophet Malachi, calling them to wake up to themselves. Their spiritual condition was poor. And so in Malachi 1:1-5, it’s surprising to […]