Disciples Church Sermons

Why on earth is Genesis chapter 34 in the Bible? It's just one horrible act after another, with no (it seems) redeeming features at all. Jacob's daughter Dinah is raped by one of the Shechem locals, and then his sons kill all the men in the village in a deceitful, vicious act of revenge. And that's it. But, it's chapters like this that demonstrate that the Bible doesn't gloss over the reality of s...

Finally, the big moment arrives when Jacob encounters Esau (and his army of 400 men). Is it a blood-bath? Not at all. Jacob's acts of repentance see the brothers embrace in a sign of reconciliation. Once again God proves Himself faithful to Jacob. And once again, we see Jacob still has lessons to learn.

Before Jacob encounters his brother Esau on his way back to Canaan, he must first encounter the Lord. While Jacob has learnt many lessons about walking by faith, he is yet to fully surrender his self-sufficiency to trust God completely. Jacob emerges from this experience physically weaker, but spiritually stronger. And with a new name!

Having now dealt with his father-in-law, Jacob now re-enters the land of Canaan and faces the prospect of meeting his (slightly) older brother, Esau. The reason Jacob left Canaan was that Esau was threatening to kill him. But God has now told Jacob to go back, and has promised to protect him. So, how does he go at believing God's promises and walking by faith?

Callum Mansfield is stepping up this Sunday to bring us another in our series from the book of Psalms. And its a cracker! He'll be preaching from Psalm 96 where it encourages us to ascribe greatness to our God.

We saw last week how Jacob and his entire family (and all his flocks and herds) left Paddan-aram and headed back to Canaan. He went in response to God's command, but he went without telling his father-in-law, Laban. So, Laban chases him down for an awkward confrontation, but not before God intervenes and warns Laban to leave Jacob alone.

After around 20 years living in Paddan-aram, Jacob finally heads for home. But he is leaving with a lot more than he arrived with. By God's grace, Jacob has acquired a big family and much wealth. As a result, his departure would not be celebrated, so he leaves unannounced.

This Sunday, we return to our study of the life of Jacob from the book of Genesis in the Old Testament. Despite all Jacob's faults and failings, we see God keeping His promise to bless him. In fact, God ensures that Jacob becomes a wealthy man. But not before there is some more scheming from his shifty Uncle Laban.

After considering the Lamb of God on Good Friday, on Easter Sunday we look at the Lion of "the tribe of Judah." You might recall from our study of Revelation last year that when the elders surround the throne of God and lament that no-one is worthy to open the scroll held by the Lord, that it was the Lion - the heir to David's throne - one who looked like a lamb that had been slaughtered - who was...

As followers of Jesus, we are participants in the missio dei - the mission of God to bring salvation to the world. Since the time of Abraham, God has been about using his chosen people so that they would be a blessing to the nations. We the church are “sent” into the world to live “on mission” in all aspects of life. When we obey and do this well, we sound like a beautiful piece of music that God...

You've heard of the 12 tribes of Israel? Well, these tribes came from the sons of Jacob. This Sunday we will be digging into the pro-creative side of Jacob's life, as we look at the children who are born to him by what ends up being his four wives.

Jacob leaves Canaan and arrives in Paddan-Aram, connecting with his mother's older brother Laban. And scheming seems to run in the family! Jacob's desire to marry one of his cousins (which was not as problematic back then as it is now) all of a sudden ends up with him wedded to two women. Sounds like quite a drama, and it is. And God will use it to do the work of refinement in Jacob's life that he...

Leaving with his parent's blessing, Jacob now sets out on a mission to find a wife. But it's a journey that not only takes much much longer than he was anticipating, it is also fraught with many life lessons that God will use to refine his character. It begins with God restating the promises that He made to Jacob's grandfather Abraham, and his father Isaac.

This is the Psalm that David wrote after he was confronted about his adultery with Bathsheba. It is an honest confession of his sin, and a cry out to God for forgiveness. A cry like this can only be made when you have confidence that God is merciful and gracious!

Every other book in the Bible is God speaking to us. The book of Psalms is different. It is us speaking to God. Sometimes this is vocalising praise, other times it is lamenting or crying out in pain for vengeance. The psalms give us insight into the human condition, and show us that God wants to hear from us, whatever we are going through.

Having successfully deceived his father and stolen the blessing of the first-born son, Jacob now takes his mother's advice and runs, fearing that his brother will take revenge and kill him. What he doesn't yet know is that he is running head-long into trials that God will use to change his heart!

It was cultural in the time of Jacob for the eldest son to receive the "blessing" of being the family patriarch. This blessing should have gone to Esau. But Jacob and his mother hatch a cunning plan to steal to blessing from Esau, further inflaming the relationship between the two brothers.

Reading chapter 26 of Genesis is a little bit like reading chapter 20. So many similarities between what happened to Isaac and what happened to his father, Abraham. And while there are a couple of key differences, God is still the hero of the story, just like He's the hero of our story.

This Sunday we continue with the second sermon in our new series from Genesis focussing on the life of Jacob. We see the struggle between Esau and Jacob reach its first crucial juncture as the rights of the firstborn son are impatiently traded for a bowl of stew!

This Sunday we start our new sermon series, which is focussed on the life of Jacob - from Genesis - the first book of the Bible. While the narrative centres on Jacob, the value of this series will be in the things we learn about God. And right from the start we see that He is relentlessly persistent in following through with His grand redemptive plan for humanity.

In the concluding part of Malachi, we see answers to many of the questions that Israel have raised against the Lord throughout the book. Thing is, God knows the actions of the wicked and that they will experience the punishment they are due on the day judgement comes. But, those who honour and fear Him - they are dearly treasured by the Lord. They will find freedom and victory in Him, and they wil...

The disputes between God and His people continues into chapter 3, but here their hope for redemption increases. There is an opportunity for renewal if they turn back to God in repentance. This way is made possible by the Messenger who can once again return them to state of purity and allow worship to be restored to how it should be.

In chapter two we see unfaithfulness challenged in two specific contexts: the priests' lack of faithfulness to the covenant, and the peoples' lack of faithfulness with regard to marriage. We clearly see the Lord's frustration at their sinful actions, and His harsh warnings calling them to repentance. We have the benefit of the bigger picture! We understand God's faithfulness is not dependant upon...