Spirited Word

Adrian Kitson

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By God's Word proclaimed, the Holy Spirit works faith in God's grace in Jesus, when and where he pleases. Sermons by Pastor Adrian Kitson, Lutheran Church of Australia. St Petri Lutheran Church, Nuriootpa, Barossa Valley, South Australia. www.stpetri.org.au

1 day ago

Holy Trinity

Send us Fan Mail Sunday 31 May 2026 “To Whom Will You Compare Me? Who Is My Equal?” That’s the question God asked his people in Isaiah 46. He had cared for them before they were born and had promised to care for them “until your hair is white with age”. And the people had seen God’s power at work countless times in their history. They survived in the land of heathen people only because the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, loved and cared for them, no matter how many times they rebelled against him. But they constantly turned to gods of stone and wood – to the man-made gods of the nations around them. WHY? There are many reasons, but I think one of the main ones is that the Israelites wanted a god they could understand - and manipulate. The gods were made in their own image, and so the character of each idol was similar to their own. These false gods could be bribed and they operated by set, strict rules – all determined by humans of course. And they could be seen, touched and kept close. Archaeology has found thousands of these idols to prove this point. By contrast the people could not see God or get close to him. He remained a complete mystery and could not be cajoled or bribed to do anyone’s will. Even though God remained faithful and served the people with grace and justice, they wanted something concrete to hang on to. Today we still have a mystery about God that only became a little clearer in the New Testament. God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Bible never uses the word TRINITY but it’s the only word we humans can find to even begin to explain God. But that brings us to the same temptation as the Israelites. We want to see, touch, smell, and know God. We find it so hard to embrace mystery – to accept that God has revealed all we need to know about him in the person of Jesus. “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you?” (John 14:9). So how might our awesome, mysterious, all-knowing, all-powerful, ever-present, three-Persons-in-One God want us to respond today to his questions above? Pastor Robert Voigt

26 min
27 May

Pentecost Sunday - Grace Gifts

Send us Fan Mail 24 May 2026 It is Pentecost Sunday. We remember that first astonishing coming of the Spirit that set in motion a vast global and timeless new creation community, of which we are a part. This is the victorious King Jesus now ascended to his throne of grace sharing the spoils of his victory. Praise the Lord! It is not always easy to rejoice in other people’s giftedness. The temptation is to get ahead by being super-competitive, or opt out and miss out on or feel inferior even though you do have your own gifts. How can we freely accept and enjoy other people’s gifts and not dismiss our own, but thank God for them all? Paul speaks into that today. We are back in that rather interesting Christian community in Corinth as we hear Paul responding to their questions, and their troubles with the many spiritual gifts they seem to have received. They don’t seem to be doing a good job on handling these gifts. There is that old human problem of comparison, competition and therefore, conflict leading to faction within the Body. Never good. We will hear some home truths about who we are and who God is and what those gifts he gives actually are – all grace. We might also ponder how we are going when it comes to feeling inferior or superior in terms of gifts. Paul is pretty clear that the main thing about any spiritual gift is not so much the gift itself, but what the gift proclaims about the Giver of those gifts. Pastor Adrian

28 min
19 May

Ascending To Heaven?

Send us Fan Mail We draw to the close of these 50 days of Easter as we witness that rather changing moment of Jesus’ ascension. It is hard for us to know what to do with this account Luke gives us – not just once but twice. We don’t treat it anything like Christmas or Easter. And yet, it must be pretty important for it to end Luke’s account of Jesus and begin Luke’s account of how the church began in his Book of Acts. I wonder if we downplay this part of Jesus’ mission because we struggle to make sense of it. Does Jesus go somewhere else or stay right here? How does he stay here? Where is heaven and why are the disciples told to not worry about looking for Jesus in the clouds but head back to their life in the city and wait? It seems that our culture and maybe our own view of heaven is laced with ancient Greek thought – that heaven is some far off other-worldly place to which Jesus went. The only way we get to bridge that vast chasm when we die is with our so called ‘eternal soul’. When we die our soul flies away (with Jesus?) and finds its home in some cloudy space… This is not Luke’s truth. This is not Christian belief through the centuries. This ascension is all about the still human Jesus ascending, but not some far off world of floating souls, but rising to take up his rule here with us! May you know his presence and his rule in your life and work with us to keep fulfilling his purpose for us to bear witness to him everywhere. Pastor Adrian

26 min
12 May

Everybody Needs Somebody

Send us Fan Mail Sunday 10 May 2026 As this 50 days of Easter celebration winds to its conclusion, it might be easy to think that the best part of the church year and our life together is over and things will become a bit ‘ho-hum’. How would it have been for those close to Jesus when he started talking very directly and pointedly about his imminent departure via suffering, cross and death! Surely a bit more serious than just worrying about things becoming ‘ho-hum! How on earth would they cope? How on earth would they know what to do? Who would stick up for them, guide them, show them what to say and do, teach them so much more than they already knew? In these questions and in this fear, Jesus does two things. He says that life will not go ‘down-hill’ after he goes and that if they just do what they saw him do, they will get through. Jesus sems to know that everybody needs somebody sometimes and says we have that Someone all the time. In all we face, we have this Advocate, this assistant, this Spirit of Jesus guiding, empowering, teaching, leading, protecting. We also have clear direction on how to go about it: Love as we have been loved and leave the rest to the Spirit! Praying that you don’t live like an orphan, thinking you have got to make all this work out and make sense of everything. Praying that you find great encouragement and strength for all you are facing in this ‘Paraclete’; this Advocate whom you have received in your baptism already. Pastor Adrian

22 min
5 May

Stop Running

Send us Fan Mail Sunday 03 May 2026 Stop Running - Coming to God, not running away. There is so much that we don’t understand about our relationship with God. For example, I will never fully comprehend the extent of God’s grace. And I’m sure it’s the same with you. We know the Bible tells us that Jesus has paid the full price for our sin (rebellion). We know that since we believe in Jesus as our Saviour we are now in a new relationship with God. In fact we are new creations! But we’re still sinful. We still disobey God. And when we become aware of our sin, we feel guilt and sorrow - which are not bad things. But then we are tempted to wonder if God will go on forgiving us. After all, we find it really hard to go on forgiving others for the same thing every time. And the moment we doubt God’s mercy and grace is the moment that we turn away from the cross and rely on our good works instead. We think, ‘If we read the Bible more, spend more time praying, get more involved in the work of our congregation, be more loving, be nicer, go to church, we will be more worthy of God’s love and forgiveness.’ But that’s our sinful nature and the Tempter talking. That is not how God’s plan of salvation works. Even if we have only a mustard-seed size faith, we are safe and secure in the grace of God. We don’t have to run away from God in fear. God calls us his children and that is what we are!! He says we are chosen, holy, authorised to come before his throne of grace every day (priests of the King) - and he calls us his special possession. So we can come to him without fear, knowing that Jesus paid the sacrifice for sin once for all – for all past, present and future sins! And that’s not meant to encourage us to take sin for granted. The story of humanity is one of running away from God – chasing other gods. But now the new life of the Spirit we have in Jesus is to be the motivation to declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Pastor Robert Voigt

25 min
28 Apr

Solid Chaos

Send us Fan Mail Sunday 26 April 2026 Jesus said he was the Good Shepherd before he was raised. He remains the same now that he is raised. It is Good Shepherd Sunday. The Shepherd said he would lead his sheep into green pastures and living springs of water in this new creation. Today we catch a glimpse of what that green pasture and living water created in the hearts and minds of those gathered on that first Pentecost day when the church was born. We catch a glimpse of a wonderful community of Word, prayer, eating and Lord’s Supper and sharing life together at all levels. It seems idyllic, but I am not sure it would have been. There were people there from all over the world, all with their own stories and cultural differences, language boundaries, political views... It seems that right from the beginning the church was solidly founded on the everlasting promises of God that Jesus delivered in full and yet, living in quite some chaos as new people join in, new hope springs up, new challenges of practical matters within and threats from outside would come. The church seems to be solid and yet chaotic. At our best, are we always meant to be both – ‘solid chaos’? Pastor Adrian

22 min
22 Apr

Thankful One

Send us Fan Mail 19 April 2026 - Harvest Thanksgiving Returning to Jesus and worshipping him is what that one out of ten healed people do the day that Jesus healed them all. We hear of that account today – the healing of the ten lepers. It is Thanksgiving Sunday. Our lovely display of gifts to be given to others in need shows this. Jesus healed a lot of people. Many things were said as he did those healing gifts. Today he uses this wonderful gift of healing. He gifts a return to a full life lived among family and friends for ten people healed. This brings something home to us about what his healing power and love can create in us – deep thankfulness and worship. That is what the guy who came back to Jesus does. He thanks Jesus for the new life and worships him as Saviour. There is no doubt that this is what Jesus’ hopes for in a response from people he has touched, saved, healed and called to be with him. That is us. We are the ‘one’s’ who came back. We are here giving thanks to Jesus and worshipping him as our Saviour this very day. I am thankful today. I may not always be thankful, but I am today, both for the new life Jesus gave me long ago and has sustained me in up to this day. I am thankful for where he did this and where he has sustained the purpose and hope and joy of his healing love and life in me – among you! Among his church. And here at St Petri. I am thankful for this church. I will share some reason for that and hope to inspire you to be thankful and worship Jesus yourself, like the one leper who came back. Because from there comes; generosity of spirit, willingness to pay the price of telling of Jesus in our lives, courage to make changes to look out, reach out, go out and be instruments of God, calling people home to this healing grace of this resurrected Servant King. Pastor Adrian

26 min
16 Apr

He Meets Us Where We Are

Send us Fan Mail 12 April 2026 We often give Thomas a hard time. “Doubting Thomas,” we say - as though he alone missed the memo. But it’s worth noticing: Thomas isn’t alone in doubting. He’s just the only one honest enough to say it out loud. No-one expected the resurrection. No matter how many times Jesus had spoken about his death and his resurrection to follow, no one heard him. They may have heard his words, but none believed them. The women went there to complete the burial. The disciples were hunkered down without even checking whether Jesus might have possibly spoken truly. Everyone in the accounts is puzzled, mystified, and confused. They remained spiritually blind to what had happened. Now place Thomas (as the representative of us all) alongside another man in John’s Gospel — the man born blind in John 9. We heard about him only a few weeks back, on March 15th. Here are two men: one cannot see, the other can. Yet strangely, it’s the blind man who comes to see clearly, and the sighted man who acts as though he’s blind. The blind man begins in darkness, but when Jesus meets him, his sight unfolds step by step. First, “the man called Jesus,” then “a prophet,” and finally, “Lord”—and he worships. His eyes are opened, but more importantly, so is his faith. Thomas, on the other hand, begins with sight. He has seen Jesus, walked with him, heard him. But after the cross, his world collapses. Sight isn’t enough. He wants evidence—“Unless I see… unless I touch…” You can almost hear him: “I’m not falling for wishful thinking.” In these actions he’s acting like a blind man, who must touch and feel his way through the world. And here’s the grace: Jesus meets both men exactly where they are. He doesn’t leave them where they are, but he meets them where they are. So also, with us. Jesus meets us where we are to take us to where he is. He’s not interested in leaving us unchanged. So also, for the two men: mud, spit and water for one; wounds and words for the other. No scolding. No dismissal. Just his transforming presence. Because in the end, both men arrive at the same place: not merely seeing… but believing. Perhaps the real question is not whether we see or don’t see - but whether we know that we are seen by Christ. If we know that, everything changes. Dr Noel Due

37 min

By God's Word proclaimed, the Holy Spirit works faith in God's grace in Jesus, when and where he pleases. Sermons by Pastor Adrian Kitson, Lutheran Church of Australia. St Petri Lutheran Church, Nuriootpa, Barossa Valley, South Australia. www.stpetri.org.au

Creator

Adrian Kitson
Years Active

2020 - 2026
Episodes

203
Rating

Clean
Copyright

© 2026 Spirited Word
Show Website

Spirited Word