Isaiah 5
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
The Song of the Vineyard audio (5MB)
I grew up in the 60’s listening to the Beatles. If you know anything about their music you’ll know that most of it was love songs: ‘I want to hold your hand’, ‘She loves you’, ‘From me to you’. And it was a winner because everyone loves a love song and everyone can relate to them. Of course not every love song is a happy one. Sometimes they’re more like a lament. That boy took my love away but this boy, wants you back again. She’s ignoring him, he comes to her door and there’s No Reply. I can’t sleep at night since you’ve been gone, ... I call your name.
Well Isaiah gathers the people of Jerusalem together and sings them a love song which turns out to be a parable. It starts out very happy like a good love song
The Hope of a Harvest
You can imagine the people settling down to hear this song of love and devotion. “My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. 2He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it.” If you’ve been out along the Yarra Valley lately you can imagine the scene. Rolling hills, green fields, rows of vines lining the road as you pass by. A stone farmhouse in the middle. It’s an idyllic description isn’t it? The watchtower indicates that he’s here for the long haul. And he’s dug a wine vat to store the wine so he must expect a great harvest. Everything that could be done for the vineyard has been done. The best position, the best soil, the choicest vines.
But then like every good parable we come to the sting in the tail.
Series: 23: Isaiah
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
Isaiah
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A King Forgotten and Foretold |
Is 1:1-7; 2:1-5; 2:6-11 |
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The Song of the Vineyard |
Is 5:1-7; 5:8-17 |
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Isaiah’s Commission |
Is 6:1-5; 6-13 |
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Light in the Darkness when a King is Born |
Is 8:19-9:1; 9:2-7 |
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Executing Judgment on the Executioner |
Is 10:5-19 |
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Devastation and Restoration |
Is 24:1-8; 24:14-16 |
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One King Mocks while another Prays |
Is 36:1-15; 37:14-20 |
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See Your King is Coming |
Is 40:1-11 |
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Fear Not for I have Redeemed You |
Is 43:1-13 |
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False God and True |
Is 46:1-13 |
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Life for all who come to the Lord |
Is 55:1-13 |
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Arise, Shine for your light has come |
Is 60:1-12; 61:1-3 |
Isaiah 1-2
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
A King Forgotten and Foretold audio (5MB)
A King Forgotten
It’s a tragic story isn’t it? A nation chosen, indeed created, by God to be his special possession. A nation nurtured and helped along at every point. Rescued from captivity in Egypt, given the law to direct their daily lives, given priests and kings to guide them; and it’s all been for nothing. They’ve failed so badly that it seems there’s no longer any help for them. In a mere 400 years they’ve gone from being a flourishing nation to being under siege, about to be abandoned by God.
Or is it the other way around? Has God abandoned them or have they abandoned God? You see this book isn’t primarily about Israel. It’s really a book about God. And the problem with Israel is that they’ve forgotten who God really is.
John 9:1-46
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
A Man Born Blind audio (5MB)
Blindness is a terrible thing isn’t it? We rely on our eyes so much for experiencing the world, for enjoying life, for perceiving reality. If your eyes are failing or you know someone with poor eyesight you’ll know what a loss it is, how many restrictions it puts on your life.
But you know, there are different forms of blindness. There’s physical blindness, and there’s spiritual blindness. In the story we’re looking at today, we see Jesus healing a man’s physical blindness, and in the process we discover the spiritual blindness of some of those looking on.
Jesus Walks on Water ... So What? (Mark 6.45-56)
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- Written by: Adam Cetrangelo
audio (6MB)
For the past few months we have taken a closer look at Jesus, the miracle worker. Like the first disciples who traveled with Jesus, we’ve revisited all these miracle stories in a succession almost as if we were there. We’ve seen blind people receiving their sight, lame people walking, demons being cast out of people, lepers cleansed, a multitude of people fed, even a raising from the dead. We get it … right? Jesus is pretty amazing, he can do all sorts of things and now this? Jesus walking on water … I mean … what’s the point of that? So what? It’s a little bit showy isn’t it? I mean healing someone who is suffering or feeding a hungry crowd is one thing but what benefit does walking on the water actually have? The Sea of Galilee was pretty small, surely Jesus could have seen the boat in trouble and just calmed the sea from the land … why this flashy display? … Had he run out of cool tricks?
I wonder … perhaps … if today’s miracle story kind of brings us to the heart of what this whole series is about – why did Jesus perform miracles? Jesus was not the only character in the bible who performed miracles. There were miracles in the OT. There are recorded miracles that the apostles performed in the Acts of the Apostles in the NT. Other Jewish and Greek literature of the first century was also rich with miracle-stories. Yet by far the highest concentration of miracle stories in the Bible is found in the Gospels! So clearly this is a significant aspect of WHAT JESUS DID throughout his earthly ministry.
So I put this question to you: Why?
Luke 17:11-19
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
Ten Lepers audio (5MB)
Today I want to talk about faith. It’s one of those words that we use a lot as Christians but I’m not sure we’re always completely clear on what we mean by it. In particular I want to think abut the connection between faith and the work of God.
How much faith do you need to see God answer your prayers? And can you expect God to answer your prayers if you don’t acknowledge him when he does?
These are the sorts of questions thrown up by this story today. Here we see 10 people who are healed by Jesus, yet only one who appears to show any response to him.
I Talk Back to the Devil: Concealing the Smiling Face of God
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- Written by: Garrett Edwards
audio (6MB)
Song: David Crowder Band – How He Loves
I really want to do 2 things in my sermon today, while looking at our need to continue growing in our maturity with Christ.
The first is more of a reminder. I’d like to remind us to hold to what is true: To hold to the truth of our salvation and have confidence in it when we confess that Jesus is Lord, and encourage us in the fact that God loves us and he loves us forever!
I think all of us can relate to feeling distant from God, or like we may not have that relationship anymore and I want to confront this, I want to deny this. Not belittle or flippantly cast these feelings aside, just refute it and encourage us on.
The second thing is a challenge as well as a reminder: That we need to continually surrender to His will. Continually give our lives up to him if we are to mature in our faith.
Tozer asks in his book that inspires this series, ‘Why do we not capture the divine illumination of Jesus Christ in our souls?’ And he answers himself,
‘Because there is a cloud of concealment between us and the smiling face of God!’
Read more: I Talk Back to the Devil: Concealing the Smiling Face of God
