G‘day! Partakers Christian podcasts of Bible Teaching, Bible Readings, Worship, Prayer and Church History on Podbean to help enable and encourage you! Come listen and interact.
Episodes
Thursday Dec 28, 2023
Thursday Dec 28, 2023
A Christians' Commitment
Matthew 7:21-29
Matthew 7:21-29 Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,' will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will tell me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name, in your name cast out demons, and in your name do many mighty works?' Then I will tell them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work iniquity.' Everyone therefore who hears these words of mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man, who built his house on a rock. The rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it didn't fall, for it was founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of mine, and doesn't do them will be like a foolish man, who built his house on the sand. The rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it fell-and great was its fall." It happened, when Jesus had finished saying these things, that the multitudes were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them with authority, and not like the scribes.
A Radical Choice
1. The danger of a merely spoken profession (v21-23)
2. The danger of a merely intellectual knowledge (v 24-27)
3. What is our response?
4. Jesus the Great Teacher
Go and be different from those around you
The claims of Jesus were spoken so naturally, modestly and indirectly that many people never even notice them. But they are there, and we cannot ignore them. Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, we have seen the Jesus is teacher, the Christ, the Lord, the Saviour, the Judge, the Son of God and also God.. Either all these things are true, or he was a power seeking maniac suffering with insanity. But the Sermon on the Mount could never be the product of someone who was either insane or a seeker of power, because it would go against what was taught in the Sermon on the Mount. Our only alternative then, is to take Jesus at his word, and his claims for all that they are worth. The Sermon on the Mount contains the picture for God's alternative society, with the standards, values and priorities of the kingdom of God, not the kingdom of man. Too often throughout history, the church has conformed to the pattern set by the world, and ignored the pattern required by God and by Jesus. Sometimes, there is no difference, with the Church having lost its saltiness, and its light put out. It is only as we the church, live the truths in the Sermon of the Mount that a true Christian community will be attractive to those outside in the world, and let God be glorified. Jesus therefore, when he calls us, calls us to be the unique Christian culture in a world full of lost culture.
So here is a challenge for you. Are you, as a Christian heeding Jesus' words and being obedient to them and therefore living a life worthy of being called Christian? Are you being salt and light amidst those who are in darkness and in a lost culture?
Finally, if you would not call yourself a Christian today, and this Jesus appeals to you, this Jesus who speaks with authority, and you want to become a Christian there are three simple steps to follow. Firstly, admit that you have done wrong against God and His ways. Secondly, believe and trust in Jesus. Call on Him, receive, trust, obey and worship Him, recognizing Him for who He is and what He has done. Lastly, confess Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. Once sin has been confessed, and Jesus is believed in and trusted as Saviour, then you are a Christian. Now you are ready as Peter writes in the Bible, "to grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18). Welcome to the family of God. God has chosen you; Jesus has paid for you and has put His mark within you through His Spirit (Ephesians 1:1-13).
Right mouse click or tap here to save this Podcast as a MP3.
Wednesday Dec 27, 2023
Wednesday Dec 27, 2023
Why I am a Christian!
"We accept man's testimony, but God's testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life." 1 John 5:9-12
Today I share the reasons I am a Christian, a follower of Christ. Come and hear my story!
Right mouse click to save/download this testimony as a MP3 file
Tuesday Dec 26, 2023
Tuesday Dec 26, 2023
PulpTheology Book
"God Gets His Hands Dirty: The Story of Christmas"
Free on Kindle until end of Wednesday 27th December 2023. Click or tap here!
G’day! The book this week is "God Gets His Hands Dirty: The Story of Christmas". Inside this little book, there is something for you to learn afresh or be reminded about, regardless of who you are.
Ahhh Christmas. When people around the world remember that moment in time when God Himself, got his hands dirty and entered our world. Christmas is the most wonderful time of year! Christmas, where the birth of Jesus Christ is celebrated around the world - by Christians and others of all faiths and none. That is how God got his hands dirty. These celebrations are diverse and transcend cultures, peoples and languages.
Of course, most people stop with Jesus being a baby and continue no further with Him. Christians believe that Jesus’ birth was the culmination of thousands of years of God telling the world that He was coming and coming to show that God gets his hands dirty - transcending time and space.
In the Bible, the whole Old Testament is a united story which speaks about this event - the coming of the baby we know today as Jesus Christ. Written in short chapters and accessible language, we inspect together Christmas future through the eyes of Isaiah and Zechariah, before going on to look at Christmas past and Christmas present. Come inside to either learn afresh or be reminded of the people and events of the Christmas story - the why, how and who.
Whether you have not started the Christian journey yet, you are just starting your journey as a Christian, or have been a Christian for a while, you can either learn afresh or be reminded about the Church. Come on in!
"God Gets His Hands Dirty: The Story of Christmas" available on Amazon in paperback or Kindle with ISBN: 978-1506104348
Click or Tap here to listen to or save this as an audio mp3 file
Tuesday Dec 26, 2023
Tuesday Dec 26, 2023
The Humanity of Jesus Christ
Hebrews 2:5-18 (NIV)
5 It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. 6 But there is a place where someone has testified:
‘What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him?
7 You made them a little lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honour
8 and put everything under their feet.’
In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them. 9 But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honour because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
10 In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. 11 Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. 12 He says,
‘I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters;
in the assembly I will sing your praises.’
13 And again,
‘I will put my trust in him.’
And again he says,
‘Here am I, and the children God has given me.’
14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. 17 For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
1. Jesus made fully human
- Be focussed only upon Him
2. Humanity of Jesus Christ
- Jesus the man
- Major Errors Concerning
- Jesus’ Humanity
- Why would Jesus become a man?
Conclusion
As Christians, because of God the Son becoming a human, in the man we know as Jesus Christ:
- we were bought at a price
- we have a new position before God
- we were bought out of slavery to sin, into being servants to, of and for God the Son, Jesus Christ alone
- we are Jesus’ personal possession and family
- we are in an amazingly intimate and dynamic relationship with God.
Let’s go tell and show others about this Jesus and how he can help people – just as he has helped you and I and countless others today and down through history. Will there be one other person in heaven because of you and what you have said or done?
If you are not a Christian yet, and you want to hear more about becoming a follower of this Jesus, do ask somebody here to help you. Jesus is calling you by name to be in a loving, dynamic and intimate relationship with God. Jesus died so that you could be. Jesus, the ideal man, the God-man says: “Come and follow me.” Will you start following him, even from right now?"
To discover what more is said, please do download the audio to hear this #Podcast... Thank you!
Right Mouse click or tap here to save this as an audio mp3 file
Monday Dec 25, 2023
Monday Dec 25, 2023
The birth of Jesus – Partakers Christmas Bible Thought
Merry Christmas to you and to your family and friends where ever you are in this world! This is Christ’s Mass. Christmas is about God sending ‘his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.’ ‘The Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world.’ (1 John 4:9, 14). Christmas is about incarnation. We will look further at what that word means after some readings from the Bible.
1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register.
4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. (Luke 2:1-7)
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-14)
That Jesus was a human male is not really disputable with much archaeological and historical evidence about Him. There is more evidence for Jesus than there is for Julius Caesar. The birth of Jesus is extraordinary at every level. Come and listen to find our more!
Right Mouse click or tap here to save this as an audio mp3 file
Sunday Dec 24, 2023
Sunday Dec 24, 2023
A Christmas Prayer Service
Today as part of our Christmas series, we have a prayer service where we offer to our God, prayers of the Church from history. Come, Church! Let's pray together!
1. Nativity Prayer of St. Bernard of Clairvaux
2. Nativity Prayer from the Orthodox Liturgy Feast of the Nativity
3. An advent prayer dating from the 10th century...
4. Christ, Redeemer of All
5. A Nativity Prayer of St. Augustine
That is all for today! Come back tomorrow for more in our Christmas series!
Right Mouse click or tap here to save this as an audio mp3 file
Friday Dec 22, 2023
Friday Dec 22, 2023
A Christmas sermon of Martin Luther (1483 – 1546)
A Christmas sermon of Martin Luther.
the angel said to the shepherds, “Don't be afraid! I am here with good news for you, which will bring great joy to all the people. This very day in David's town your Saviour was born—Christ the Lord! And this is what will prove it to you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
Suddenly a great army of heaven's angels appeared with the angel, singing praises to God:
“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:10-14 Good News Translation)
You have heard today the story from the Gospel of St. Luke 2:10-14 of how it came to pass that our Lord Christ was born and then also the message of the angel, who announced who the boy was who was born. Now we shall go on and take up the message of the angel. So for today you have heard only that the child was born and that he is the Lord and Saviour. Thus we spoke of the story, how it unfolded, and who the persons in it were.
This article is so high that even today it is believed by only a few. Nevertheless, God has preserved it even through those who have not believed it. For at all times in the monasteries and universities there have been disputations and lectures which dealt with the fact that Christ the Lord, born of Mary, is true man and God.
Come on in! Download the mp3 using the link below to hear more from this giant of Church history enthusing about the Christ child.
Click or Tap here to listen to or save this as an audio mp3 file
Thursday Dec 21, 2023
Thursday Dec 21, 2023
Psalm 21
(as read by Richard A)
For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David.
1 The king rejoices in your strength, Yahweh! How greatly he rejoices in your salvation!
2 You have given him his heart’s desire, and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah.
3 For you meet him with the blessings of goodness. You set a crown of fine gold on his head.
4 He asked life of you, you gave it to him, even length of days forever and ever.
5 His glory is great in your salvation. You lay honor and majesty on him.
6 For you make him most blessed forever. You make him glad with joy in your presence.
7 For the king trusts in Yahweh. Through the loving kindness of the Most High, he shall not be moved.
8 Your hand will find out all of your enemies. Your right hand will find out those who hate you.
9 You will make them as a fiery furnace in the time of your anger. Yahweh will swallow them up in his wrath. The fire shall devour them.
10 You will destroy their descendants from the earth, their posterity from among the children of men.
11 For they intended evil against you. They plotted evil against you which cannot succeed.
12 For you will make them turn their back, when you aim drawn bows at their face.
13 Be exalted, Yahweh, in your strength, so we will sing and praise your power.
Click or Tap here to listen to or save this as an audio mp3 file
Wednesday Dec 20, 2023
Wednesday Dec 20, 2023
Psalm 50
A Psalm by Asaph.
50:1 The Mighty One, God, Yahweh, speaks, and calls the earth from sunrise to sunset.
50:2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.
50:3 Our God comes, and does not keep silent. A fire devours before him. It is very stormy around him.
50:4 He calls to the heavens above, to the earth, that he may judge his people:
50:5 “Gather my saints together to me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”
50:6 The heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge.
Selah.
50:7 “Hear, my people, and I will speak; Israel, and I will testify against you. I am God, your God.
50:8 I don’t rebuke you for your sacrifices. Your burnt offerings are continually before me.
50:9 I have no need for a bull from your stall, nor male goats from your pens.
50:10 For every animal of the forest is mine, and the livestock on a thousand hills.
50:11 I know all the birds of the mountains. The wild animals of the field are mine.
50:12 If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.
50:13 Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?
50:14 Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Pay your vows to the Most High.
50:15 Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”
50:16 But to the wicked God says, “What right do you have to declare my statutes, that you have taken my covenant on your lips,
50:17 since you hate instruction, and throw my words behind you?
50:18 When you saw a thief, you consented with him, and have participated with adulterers.
50:19 “You give your mouth to evil. Your tongue frames deceit.
50:20 You sit and speak against your brother. You slander your own mother’s son.
50:21 You have done these things, and I kept silent. You thought that I was just like you. I will rebuke you, and accuse you in front of your eyes.
50:22 “Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you into pieces, and there be none to deliver.
50:23 Whoever offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me, and prepares his way so that I will show God’s salvation to him.”
Click or Tap here to listen to or save this as an audio mp3 file
Wednesday Dec 20, 2023
Wednesday Dec 20, 2023
Prophecies Fulfilled 4 – Who would this Messiah be?
In the part of the Bible which is called the Old Testament, there are over 300 predictions down through history which look forward to the coming of a Messiah or Saviour. That Messiah or Saviour we Christians believe, was the man, the historical figure of Jesus Christ. Let’s continue our adventure! Are you ready?
There are over 300 predictions in the Old Testament look to the coming of a Messiah. That man we Christians believe was Jesus Christ. We continue today by looking at some of the global predications about who this Messiah would be
15 Predicted: This Messiah would be a prophet.
Prediction: Deuteronomy 18:15
Fulfilled: Acts 3:17-24
16 Predicted: This Messiah would be preceded by Elijah.
Prediction: Malachi 4:5-6
Fulfilled: Matthew 11:11-14
17 Predicted: This Messiah would be declared the Son of God.
Prediction: Psalm 2:7
Fulfilled: Matthew 3:16-17