Sunday Talks

A Christmas Day message from Blackrock Community Church - Happy Christmas!

There’s no better time than Christmas Eve to think about your Christmas Reception. In fact, as Matthew describes two receptions from the first Christmas – one in Jerusalem and one in Bethlehem - he’s at the same time getting us to consider our own reception of Jesus.

In December you might well have gone to one of the traditional Christmas 9 Lessons and 9 Carols services. Here are 9 lessons from John 1. Each with the call to believe, and each with the subsequent call to have life in his name .

Lots of Christmases and you'd have no bother telling the story. But why was the baby born?

You might find that your pre-Christmas state of mind provides a really good opportunity to reflect on difference it makes that Almighty God sent Jesus Christ to be born as a man. This remarkable little prayer, Psalm 130, reflects the journey of the writer from despair to new-found freedom. It could even form the basis of your own journey as you take the same route. Have a listen.

We are constantly defined by what we have done and haven’t done. In some ways, it is being do-ers and haven’t doners that is humanity’s greatest problem. Into that mess, the Bible has something extraordinary to say about what God has done. Listen in.

Matthew moves his gospel account into a new section at the end of Chapter 9. As he does so, he underlines that Jesus is fulfilling God’s plan to provide a New Shepherd for his people. You have an opportunity as you read Matthew to be reminded of (or introduced to) Jesus’ deep compassion for people just like us. Though this reminder, before very long, issues in a challenge. Listen in.

How does Matthew’s descriptions of Jesus’ interactions with people help me understand who he is? Help me decide how I’ll respond to him? Help reframe my current circumstances? Ask those questions as you listen in and read Matthew 9.

Jesus’ radical mission wasn’t about fitting into religion or even inventing a whole new one. An accusation against Jesus’ followers becomes the opportunity for him to declare the extraordinary way that he himself came to redefine and fulfil religion and to do something remarkably NEW.

There are countless debates about Jesus' mission just as there are disagreements about the fundamental human problem. A lot of times many people attempt to fit Jesus into their own scheme of things. Yet the Bible explains that Jesus came to forgive sin and transform sinners. That was his radical mission.

Do you like confrontation? For Matthew, getting at and showing who the real Jesus is will be the way to get at your response to him. What sort of man is this? And how should we deal with his confrontation? Listen in.

With just one simple touch – quite suddenly, I’m a follower! What sort of follower are you where Jesus is concerned? It is no exaggeration to say that Jesus is confronting us with the kind of following he is after. Listen to what he says in Matthew 8:18-22.

Is it possible that your impression of Jesus is just not quite right? As Matthew’s gospel account moves into new territory here in chapter 8-10, he’s going to demonstrate that Jesus’ powerful teaching is matched by his powerful action. Listen in.

"One small change" thinking works with something like healthy eating – switch out white bread for wholegrain. Jesus is saying something a lot more radical; not one small change, instead, he's describing a two-ways choice for those who follow him.

Imagine a scenario where you having been following Jesus, but then suddenly go off-grid. You start to live, not with a dependency on his directions, but with an attitude of rogue self-direction. Could you be vulnerable to that kind of Christianity? Jesus appears to think so as he warns his follows of two dangers before gently urging them to restore their lines of dependency on him.

If you are a follower of Christ, you have a radical calling to reach out to the world with the message of new life in Christ! It’s time, Paul says. Allow the fact that Christ is Lord and Christ is your life to reshape all the relationships with other Christians and in the family… but don’t stop there… reach out to the people around you with the message of this new life in Christ!

Paul explains that relationships in the family and beyond it are to be transformed when people become Christ followers: Christ is your life. Christ is your Lord. The instructions he gives are framed by the overlay: You are serving the Lord Christ . So what does this mean? Find out in this next message in the Colossians series.

If you are a Christian, did you know that - just like the Christians in the fledgling church at Colossae - you have landed at an extraordinary new destination? One that’s radically different from your old one. Find out the implications of this as you listen to this message from Colossians 3.

Location matters! Whatever it was like to live in their location, at Colossae , the people Paul was writing to were faithful Christians. So they were located in Christ (1v2). That meant that whatever their circumstances, they had already been powerfully relocated somewhere of incalculable privilege. Paul wanted them to truly get to grips with their transformation and transfer as Christians. Listen...

This chapter in God’s Word is about dealing comprehensively with sin. It is a sobering prompt to respond to the seriousness of faithlessness. Still, Ezra, at the end of this book, leaves us wondering if there’s a better solution, a more comprehensive answer to sin that people seem so doomed to repeat. Watch as he points us in that stunning direction.

Can you remember a time when studying the bible provoked you? Less than half a year in, we read that reform was stirring in the leaders as Ezra redirected them to God's laws. Central to this reform was understanding sin's destructiveness and God's character. Will we learn about sin and respond to God's gracious move towards us? Listen in!

In this message, tracing the good hand of God on his people as Ezra led his reform movement, we must let ourselves comprehend the bonanza of the good hand of God on us through Jesus Christ! And listen out for the way in which Ezra seeks after God. His approach to God says a lot.

How will all this work of restoration get done? Listen to how this second part of the book of Ezra (from Chapter 7) repeats God’s definitive answer to this question in Ezra’s day.

As we explore the context of Ezra’s life and work among the people of God, and importantly the way he foreshadows Christ, there is a very direct challenge being issued to us too. Listen in.

Listen to this song from the book of Psalms. A cry to the Lord leads to an amazing gift of redemption.