West Church's Podcasts

Pastor Hanli speaks on God's deliverance of Israel out of slavery through the momentous occasion of the passover. Through the passover, we see that God promises salvation to every Israelite who obeys his commands; sacrificing the passover lamb and putting the blood upon their doorposts. Only those who believe and obey these commands are saved from the destroyer. 1 Corinthians 5:7 tells us dir...

As we close our time together in the gospel of John, we read of the final conversation recorded of Jesus with Peter and John. In these words, we see the resurrected Lord's emphasis on his disciples following him faithfully for the rest of their lives. Perhaps this is a surprise as we consider the fact that He has been raised from death and is now seated at the throne of glory on high! How are...

Dwayne reflects on Good Friday from Romans 3:26. 

Hanli Liu considers Good Friday from 2 Corinthians 8:9.

Stephen Turner reflects on Good Friday from Isaiah 53:4-5

Pastor Hanli considers how Jesus reveals himself to the disciples in this passage. The Lord reveals himself to be the all-sufficient, caring, and servant-hearted Lord who takes care of his disciples. What glorious encouragement to the church!  Yet we also see that to have a mere intellectual understanding of this should not be sufficient for us, we must long for that intimate and personal revelati...

Hanli speaks on Jesus' appearing to the disciple Thomas, who did not believe until he saw the risen Lord for himself. This seems to be such a special privilege that we could never share, yet the Lord says in v29 that "those who have not seen and yet believe" are blessed, the same as the original disciples. What is this perfect blessedness? Thomas exemplifies it perfectly in v28: Jes...

Hanli Liu explains through this passage recording Jesus' resurrection appearance to the disciples. The disciples were afraid for their lives, locked up in a room - yet with the arrival of Jesus' resurrected presence, they received peace and were glad. This shows us that Jesus himself must be our peace and gladness, not our circumstances or any other thing. What a relevant call for each p...

Hanli speaks on the parables in Luke 15 of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost sons. The Lord Jesus himself teaches that the lostness of humanity can show through in radically different ways. Whether we are religious or not - our fundamental lostness is shown by the fact that we do not truly love God himself. The wonderful news is that God in his infinite compassion seeks and saves such lo...

Hanli Liu speaks on the startling and wondrous resurrection of the Lord Jesus from this passage. What we see so clearly through John's eye-witness testimony is that Jesus was truly dead and buried after his resurrection. All of the disciples knew this - none of them expected Jesus to return from the dead. This was true of the very first witness - Mary Magdalene - who mistook the risen Jesus f...

Hanli Liu meditates on the final momentous saying of Jesus Christ as he died on the cross: "It is finished". What does this refer to? What is the significance of such a statement? What does this mean for us now in the 21st century? The death of Christ on the cross changed the course of human history - it is absolutely critical for us all to have an accurate understanding of why Jesus wen...

In this passage, we read of Pontius Pilate interviewing the Lord Jesus Christ who has been bound by the Jewish leaders who opposed him. Pilate is the Roman governor with the power to execute or free Jesus and he thus interrogates him and what he has done to so anger his opponents. Jesus declares that his kingdom is not of this world - this is part of the truth that he has come into the world to re...

Stephen Turner speaks on John 18:1-27, where the disciple Peter denies his Lord three times the night Jesus was betrayed. When we considers this shocking betrayal with the fact that Peter was the unspoken leader of the 12 disciples closest to Jesus, we are left wondering how he fell to such lows.  Pastor Steve highlights that Peter was ashamed of Christ that night because of one core reason: he di...

Hanli Liu speaks on the parable of the sower in Luke 8:4-15, explaining the different responses to the word of God. Jesus gives these various descriptions to help us examine our hearts and see how we have received God's word. In the end, there are only two types of soil: unfruitful or fruitful. Only the soil which produces fruit has truly received God's word and so will enter into eterna...

This week Pastor Hanli speaks on the wonderful relationship between Jesus Christ and his people from a little-known book in the Old Testament, the Song of Solomon. This book outlines in beautiful poetic form the ideal marital relationship between a man and a woman. As Ephesians 5:32 makes clear, God's intention for marriage is to ultimately point everyone towards the relationship between Jesu...

In this message, Hanli speaks on the parable of the Great Banquet recorded in Luke 14:15-24. The Lord Jesus uses this simple yet profound parable or story to teach us about the blessed truths regarding the Kingdom of God.  The initial guests described in this story refused their invitation and therefore did not have even one taste of the feast. In contrast, the unworthy were compelled to enter in...

This week we have a special recording of West Church's Christmas service! In this recording, Dwayne Tongamohenoa firstly speaks briefly on 1 Timothy 5:15, explaining that the true meaning of Christmas is to remember and celebrate Jesus Christ coming into this world to save sinners. Only Jesus, the Son of God can save sinners! After this, Cathy Turner took 5 minutes to congratulate and give pr...

Stephen Turner speaks on John 17:20-26 and observes two great truths which cannot be seen by our human eyes.  The first is that God the Father has given the Lord Jesus Christ a people made from every tongue, tribe and nation out of the world. This great yet unseen truth is the root and ground and base of the entire gospel story. The second truth is that God has decided to use those whom he has sav...

Hanli continues to look at the High Priestly Prayer of the Lord Jesus in John 17:6-19 this Sunday. The Lord here prays not for the world in general, but specifically for the people of God. In his prayer, we see that God's people ultimately have their origin from the divine sovereignty of God in choosing them out of the world. It is ultimately to this chosen people that Jesus reveals God in hi...

Hanli draws out two crucial truths in this initial part of the 'High Priestly Prayer' where Jesus is praying to his Father.  Firstly the Lord prays that God would glorify the Son, so that the Son might glorify the Father, because the hour has come. This hour refers singularly in John's gospel to Christ's crucifixion. How could this terrible hour, the most humiliating moment of...

This week we had the blessing of Isaac Jones from Trinity Reformed Baptist Church in Hamilton bringing to us God's word. Isaac spoke from 1 Kings 18: 20-40. Here, he spoke on how the Israelites were confronted of their idol worship of Baal. Today, idol worship can be applied to not merely physical idols, but also any other thing that takes precedence to worshipping God (money, pleasure, succe...

Hanli speaks from Romans 5:6-11 and observes three key truths. Firstly, that all are in need of God's salvation because we are universally "weak, ungodly, sinners, enemies of God". Second, that God provides perfect and full salvation in Jesus Christ crucified and risen for all who believe in him. Lastly, the end goal of this salvation is to be fully reconciled to God with a right re...

Hanli speaks on John 14:1-7 and discusses what Jesus means when he states that he is "the way, the truth, and the life". Not only is it important to understand what he means, we must also know the context of this statement. All of this will help us to understand the full purpose of why Jesus makes this amazing statement in verse 6. May God bless his word to all of you. 

How can we take heart in light of the bleak situation: because God loves us and takes care of us and that He is sovereign over everything. Have you experienced the sovereign love of God?