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Having chosen twelve of his many disciples to become his ‘apostles’, Jesus gathers them together to teach them intensively about the attitudes, lifestyle, ethics and principles of his new discipleship community – which would later become the church. This vital teaching is recorded primarily in Matthew and Luke and is the focus of this series. The apostles will be the first leaders and founders of the church in the future. Jesus is shaping their understanding of the characteristics of the nature of discipleship.

There is a dramatic change in the life of Jesus as this point. He takes his disciples away for a private time together which leads to the amazing event of the Transfiguration. This is a turning point. The Galilean ministry is at an end. Jesus is going to leave Galilee and head south towards Jerusalem for the final and much shorter part of his ministry which will lead ultimately to his death and resurrection.

This series starts with the ascension of Jesus to heaven and describes the rapid growth and miraculous life of the early church in the city of Jerusalem under Peter’s leadership following the dramatic events of the day of Pentecost.

The remarkable conversion of Cornelius and his household is the key event which opens the door to further expansion of the church as the Gospel is preached to Gentiles and the church spreads further away from Jerusalem.

The final series describes Paul’s long, dangerous and eventful journey from Ephesus via Jerusalem to Rome. During this journey he spends a long time in prison and undergoes a stormy voyage by sea. Acts ends with Paul preaching in Rome. The gospel has reached the centre of the Roman Empire.

The focus of the story now shifts to Paul the apostle as he is called to spearhead the Gentile mission by launching a church planting mission from Antioch to Asia Minor (modern day Turkey). Paul and Barnabas travel widely and plant several churches

This series opens with the dramatic martyrdom of Stephen which is the trigger for the first wave of persecution against the church. We discover how the church multiples in nearby regions after the believers are scattered from Jerusalem.

In this series we discover the remarkable way the gospel first came to Europe. Paul has a surprising vision which convinces him to move on from Asia Minor to Macedonia and Greece. In this way churches are planted for the first time in Europe.

For most of his public ministry Jesus was based in his home district of Galilee, in northern Israel. This series describes the opening phase of that ministry which was characterised by powerful preaching, dramatic miracles and huge crowds gathering. Jesus made a sensational impact. From his new base in Capernaum Jesus began to travel around the district in his first tour and he started to gather followers, or disciples.

Jesus enters Jerusalem amidst huge popular support on ‘Palm Sunday’. All the Gospels devote much space to describing the events of the next week which lead to and include Jesus’ death and resurrection. In this series we see the deep hostility to Jesus from the religious authorities and the challenge Jesus is to them by his disruption the Temple trading area. Hostile trick questions are put to Jesus in the vain hope of trapping him into saying something unwise and providing a basis for arresting him. In the end, Jesus denounces the religious authorities.

After delivering the Sermon on the Mount Jesus embarks on another tour of Galilee. He returns to places he has been before as well as going to new places. This time the key factor is that he is accompanied by his twelve key disciples (the apostles). This is a vital time of training of them as they watch Jesus teach, perform miracles and deal with the needs and demands of the crowds. Jesus also starts to teach in parables. Significant opposition from the religious authorities based in Jerusalem appears at this time.

This series starts with sudden appearance and work of John the Baptist leading to the dramatic baptism of Jesus. Then follows the forty days Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness area. After this his public ministry starts and we trace some of the earliest events of that ministry as recorded by John.

Jesus now moves through Samaria to the southern part of Israel – to Judea. A significant group of followers travel with him. Luke and John provide us with the material for this series. The key factor is that Jesus appoints seventy-two disciples to travel around this part of the country bringing his message to as many people as possible. Meanwhile Jesus continues to teach, perform miracles and explain the nature of the life of discipleship.

This series starts with Jesus’ important prophetic teaching and prediction about the future starting with forthcoming judgement on Israel for rejecting him as Messiah. There are also longer-term predictions about the challenges and opportunities for his followers throughout the era of the church. Jesus then predicts his ‘Second Coming’. The series ends with a description of the ‘Last Supper’ that Jesus shared with his disciples the evening before his death.

In this series we trace Jesus’ life from his miraculous birth in Bethlehem, his family’s escape to Egypt, through to his life as a growing boy in his home village of Nazareth in Galilee. Matthew and Luke focus on this period of Jesus’ life and provide us with almost all of our material in this series.

This series describes the arrest, trial and death of Jesus. Events move very fast and there are many participants in the hurried and illegal trial of Jesus by the religious authorities. Then they hand Jesus over to the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate, who reluctantly sentences Jesus to execution by crucifixion. Jesus’ words from the cross are carefully recorded by the gospel writers. Jesus is buried in a tomb before sunset. All these events take place within 24 hours between late Thursday evening and Friday sunset.

This series links together the remarkable story of Jesus’ resurrection appearances over about six weeks from Easter Sunday as told by the four gospels. Several appearances took place quickly on Easter Sunday and then there were a number of others spread over the next few weeks. Then our story concludes with the account of the ascension of Jesus back to heaven as recorded by Luke in his gospel and in Acts 1.

The third tour of Galilee is different from the previous two tours because Jesus commissions and sends the twelve disciples to travel around in pairs preaching and performing miracles just as they had seen him do previously. The training of the second tour was to be put into practice. Meanwhile Jesus also continued to travel around and preach. During this tour we can see that opposition to Jesus is beginning to grow amongst some people.

After spending some time in Judea Jesus is now preparing to enter the city of Jerusalem where he knows there will be strong opposition from the religious authorities. He has visited Jerusalem a few times before, but only briefly. This series focuses on important teaching and parables. A few significant events are also described. Jesus passes through Jericho as the final stop on his way to nearby Jerusalem.

This series is mostly focused on Jesus’ teaching about discipleship and the telling  of important parables. Luke provides this material. Jesus is moving gradually towards Jerusalem. The series ends with John’s account of the dramatic raising of Lazarus from the dead which takes place very close to Jerusalem and is a dramatic indicator of Jesus’ power and identity as the Messiah.