Best POJ Podcasts (2024)

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[PASSION] 8. The Sighs of Jesus (POJ 5.4) 35:07

18d ago35:07

35:07

Paul, Robert, and Liz continue their conversation about Jesus in his passion, considering what his sighs teach us about being human. "A sigh says so much. We know from Romans 8 that the Spirit himself 'intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words' (Romans 8:26). A sigh, or a groan, expresses things that words can't quite capture. There are t…

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[SPECIAL] The First Nativity 41:31

7h ago41:31

41:31

Paul, Robert, and Liz take a break from their conversations around the passion of Jesus to reflect on Christmas, and in particular, the story of the first live nativity, created by Francis of Assisi. "Francis of Asissi was probably the first person in the church to be completely enamored with, very particularly, the person of Jesus. It just ignited…

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[PASSION] 7. Facing Death (POJ 5.3) 40:58

1M ago40:58

40:58

Paul, Robert, and Liz continue their conversation on Jesus' passion, looking at how Jesus begins to face his coming death. To celebrate the complete Person of Jesus series, we're offering $5 off of Unit 5: The Passion Leader's Manual (digital version) when you use promo code: POD5 "Paul's line on that from Romans 5 is actually a very stoic-like pas…

1
[PASSION] 6. Betrayed by a Friend 30:29

2M ago30:29

30:29

Paul, Robert, and Liz continue their conversation on Jesus' passion, turning their attention to Judas' betrayal. In this episode, Paul mentions a talk he gave on Judas several years ago, as part of an audio study called "The Love Course." You can listen to that talk here (or download it to listen to later, if you click on the triple dots.) "How do …

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[PASSION] 5. The Wailing Warrior (POJ 5.2) 33:24

2M ago33:24

33:24

Paul, Robert, and Liz continue their conversation about learning from Jesus in his passion. "Contrary to the typical pictures on a Sunday school wall, Jesus comes down the hill on Palm Sunday weeping – the word is actually closer to 'wailing.' In our experience of humanity, people who wail and warrior kings are never the same person, but Jesus is a…

1
[PASSION] 4. Jesus’ Sadness Helps Us See His Love (POJ 5.2) 25:40

2M ago25:40

25:40

Paul, Robert, and Liz continue their conversation about seeing Jesus in his passion, turning their attention to what we learn from his sadness and grief over the people’s rejection of him. "Jesus’ words are so tender, 'Your house is left desolate.' We get a picture of broken intimacy or intimacy that never happened. It’s paired with this really tru…

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[PASSION] 3. Taking the Lower Place: A Story (POJ 5.1) 29:12

3M ago29:12

29:12

Paul, Jon, and Liz continue their conversation about the humility Jesus calls us to, looking at what taking the lower place might look like in an everyday moment. "Humility is when your heart is humbled, it's a virtue, a character trait. Humiliation is when your circumstances are humble. It's helpful to distinguish between the two, but having exper…

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[PASSION] 2. Foot Washing (POJ 5.1) 29:25

3M ago29:25

29:25

Paul, Jon, and Liz continue their discussion of Jesus’ humility, looking at the foot washing scene in John 13. "This scene reads like a YouTube video. John gives us every move of Jesus, and the effect of it is riveting… especially since he does it all in silence. John's writing this probably 60, 50 years later, from what Eusebius tells us, and he r…

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[PASSION] 1. The Humility of Jesus (POJ 5.1) 33:38

4M ago33:38

33:38

Paul, Jon, and Liz start a new series, talking through the Passion unit of our Person of Jesus Study, which looks closely at how all the aspects of Jesus as a person that we've looked at before (his compassion, honesty, dependence on God, and faith) come together in the intense last few weeks of his life on earth. "Jealousy is a sin that is often h…

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[FAITH] 8. The Woman at the Well, Part 2 (POJ 4.5) 40:51

5M ago40:51

40:51

Paul, Liz, and Robert continue their conversation about the woman at the well, looking at the second half of their conversation. "Jesus has already said he has water. Now he says the character of the water is not just spring water. It’s not well water that's been sitting there forever. It's not spring water – it’s water that if you drink it, you'll…

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[FAITH] 7. The Woman at the Well, Part 1 (POJ 4.5) 37:50

5M ago37:50

37:50

With the Discipleship series complete, we circle back to our Faith series (based on the Person of Jesus Faith Study) to cover a story we had not yet discussed: Jesus' conversation with the woman at the well. Paul Miller, Liz Voboril, and Robert Row look at how this story showcases Jesus' compassion, honesty, and dependence on the Father -- themes w…

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[DISCIPLESHIP] 7. The Dangers of Discipleship 30:48

6M ago30:48

30:48

Paul, Jon, and Liz continue their discussion of discipleship, talking about how the discipling process is a process of moving people out of lukewarm into hot or cold. "The discipling process is a process of moving people out of lukewarm into hot or cold, and that's a good process. You're calling them to greatness, and you want to move them to hot. …

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[DISCIPLESHIP] 6. The History of Discipleship 37:01

6M ago37:01

37:01

Paul, Jon, and Liz continue their discussion of discipleship, talking about the history of discipleship practices. "By about 200 AD, every person who wanted to become a Christian went through a year of discipleship. They did this through a form of catechism, or questions and answers, and then the graduation was on Easter. That's when you were bapti…

1
[DISCIPLESHIP] 5. Go Down, Go Low, Go Small 32:29

7M ago32:29

32:29

Paul, Jon, and Liz continue their conversation about discipleship. "At the heart of discipleship is not just seeing Jesus and becoming like him abstractly, but actually entering into the patterns of his life. One of the central principles of interpretation of the New Testament is that what happens to Jesus happens to us." "The goal of discipleship …

1
[DISCIPLESHIP] 4. Hunt for Teachability 28:52

7M ago28:52

28:52

Paul, Jon, and Liz continue their conversation about discipleship. "Two thousand years after Jesus’ death, the Church of Jesus Christ is absolutely massive—there are three billion confessing Christians. If you're going to start the world's biggest, most enduring organization, how would you go about it? It's striking that Jesus doesn't go to the rab…

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[DISCIPLESHIP] 3. Start with Friendship + Aim at a Telos 39:57

8M ago39:57

39:57

Paul, Jon, and Liz continue their conversation about discipleship. "One caution with a focus on discipleship practices is that it can be like making an amusement park about going on a ride. But you don't just go on a ride at Disney, you are immersed in an experience. Discipleship without an overall goal of growing in Christ-likeness is just getting…

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[DISCIPLESHIP] 2. The Medium is the Message 28:16

8M ago28:16

28:16

Paul, Jon, and Liz continue their conversation about discipleship, looking at active vs. passive posture in discipleship, and how Jesus discipled the 12. "Marshall McLuhan famously said, 'The medium is the message,' calling attention to the shaping power that our method of communicating has over the content of the message. If the sermon sits at the…

1
[DISCIPLESHIP] 1. Enlarging Our Imagination for Discipleship 33:33

9M ago33:33

33:33

Paul, Jon, and Liz start a new series looking at the topic of discipleship. "We are quite serious about what the Apostle Paul calls the mind of Christ. That's Philippians 2:5, where Paul said, 'Let this mind be in you which is also in Christ Jesus.' Paul then goes on to describe the story of Jesus' life: going down into death and up into resurrecti…

1
[FAITH] 6. Faith is a Habit of the Heart (POJ 4.4) 28:22

9M ago28:22

28:22

Paul, Jon, and Liz continue their conversation about faith with an episode that looks at faith as a habit of the heart that turns to Jesus. "This is a little bit of an inference on my part, but what I think Jesus is irritated about, here in Mark 8 with the disciples, is that when they come across a problem, they don’t turn to him. They turned inwar…

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[FAITH] 5. Faith Looks at Jesus (POJ 4.4) 32:59

10M ago32:59

32:59

Paul, Jon and Liz continue their conversation about faith, looking especially at how Jesus develops the disciples' faith. "Right after the feeding of the 5000, Jesus dismisses his disciples. It's the only time he does this, and it’s a situation where it would appear he could use their help. But when you put all three of the gospel accounts together…

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[FAITH] 4. Faith Surrenders (POJ 4.3) 37:29

10M ago37:29

37:29

Paul, Jon and Liz continue their conversation looking at the development of faith in Jesus' followers -- this episode looks at the story of Peter rebuking Jesus and at Jesus' words to the Rich Young Ruler. "What we're thinking about now is the object of our faith. The object of Peter's faith is a traditional first century off-the-shelf messiah who …

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[FAITH] 3. Be Careful Getting into a Boat with Jesus (POJ 4.2) 33:53

11M ago33:53

33:53

Paul, Jon, and Liz continue their conversation about faith by looking at how the disciples learned about faith in the context of two boating adventures with Jesus. "To understand God, as Calvin says, you can either begin with yourself or with God. Because a true knowledge of yourself will lead to a true knowledge of God, and a true knowledge of God…

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[FAITH] 2. 24 Hrs with Jesus: Faith Empowers Love (POJ 4.1) 42:23

11M ago42:23

42:23

Paul, Jon, and Liz continue their conversation about Jesus' faith, looking at how he loves the disciples and the crowds over the course of a 24-hour period in his ministry. "This pattern of Jesus is all through the gospels: he sees a large crowd, has compassion on them because they're like sheep without a shepherd, and then he begins teaching and h…

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[FAITH] 1. The Love of God in Our Hearts (POJ 4, intro) 33:34

12M ago33:34

33:34

Jon, Paul and Liz begin a new series looking the central role faith plays -- in Jesus, in the disciples, and in us. These conversations will be framed around lessons in The Person of Jesus Study, Unit 4, Faith. "Jesus has a lot of conversations about the disciples' faith, and there are many fascinating nuances to it. But what you hardly ever hear a…

1
[SPECIAL] Mangers Aren't Clean: Jesus Comes in the Midst of Manure - with Jill Miller 29:25

1y ago29:25

29:25

Jill Miller joins Paul, Jon and Liz for this conversation about what we can learn from the barnyard about how Christmas lands among everyday saints. "The ministry of the church happens through the hands and feet of everyday saints. So as we turn to Christmas, we thought it would be fun to both think about the Christmas story and also this idea of t…

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[RUNS ON PRAYER] 4. We Are a Resurrection People 33:31

1y ago33:31

33:31

Paul and Liz are joined by Colin Millar, seeJesus's European Coordinator, to talk about how the Spirit and Jesus work together, and how that working union energizes faith and prayer. "The post-resurrection incarnate person of Jesus walks into that room with the disciples and he says ,'Peace be with you.' He breathes on them, and says, 'Receive the …

1
[RUNS ON PRAYER] 3. Powered by the Spirit 35:15

1y ago35:15

35:15

In this episode, Paul and Liz talk with Kieran Carr, pastor at St. Philips Anglican Church near Perth, Australia about how prayer connects us and our churches to the Spirit's power. "The power shortage in the church is evident. We don’t usually think of it in those raw terms. We maybe spiritualized that a little bit. But certainly the evangelical c…

1
[RUNS ON PRAYER] 2. Into a World of Surprise 35:59

1y ago35:59

35:59

In this series, the team works through some central themes that have emerged as we've been talking with leaders about A Praying Church, elaborating on material Paul recently shared at an event at the The Gospel Coalition conference. "When the Spirit does things, you can't go backwards and figure out how it happened. If you do, you'll go into doubt,…

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[RUNS ON PRAYER] 1. How the Engine Starts 36:25

1y ago36:25

36:25

In this new series, the team works through some central themes that have emerged as we've been talking with leaders about A Praying Church, elaborating on material Paul recently shared at an event at the The Gospel Coalition conference. "I tell the story at the beginning of the A Praying Church book and seminar. My dad, Jack Miller, had just starte…

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[JESUS & DEPENDENCE] 14. The Range of Love (POJ 3.10) 40:55

1+ y ago40:55

40:55

Robert, Paul and Liz wrap up this series by stepping back and looking at Jesus' range of love. You can download a one-page tool that summarizes these 4 ways of loving, along with the questions and prayers the team shares in this episode here. "Jesus is really hard to put in a box. We've talked a lot about how you just cannot predict him. You know i…

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[JESUS & DEPENDENCE] 13. Selfless Openness (POJ 3.9) 33:45

1+ y ago33:45

33:45

Jon, Paul and Liz continue their conversations on how Jesus' love is shaped by his dependence on his Father. "Selfless openness is a willingness to let other people intrude into your life. If there's any form of love that our modern culture is allergic to, it's this one. Particularly as wealth grows, your time becomes your most valuable asset. So w…

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[JESUS & DEPENDENCE] 12. Love Draws Near (POJ 3.8) 21:36

1+ y ago21:36

21:36

Paul, Jon and Liz look at how Jesus' pattern of loving by way of "gentle intrusion" includes drawing near physically and touching people. "Jesus shows us again and again that love moves towards people. That one idea is so clarifying! It gives me a direction and a thing to do -- even though I have no idea exactly where things will go. I move out of …

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[JESUS & DEPENDENCE] 10. Gentle Intrusion (POJ 3.7) 36:25

1+ y ago36:25

36:25

Oops! We released Part 2 of our Zacchaeus podcast before we released Part 1. We have changed and reordered them on our hosting service, and if you refresh, you should see the two episodes in the right order. Our apologies! The podcast team continues their series looking at Jesus and how his dependence on the Father shapes his love. This is the firs…

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[JESUS & DEPENDENCE] 11. Gentle Intrusion, Part 2 (POJ 3.7) 24:01

1+ y ago24:01

24:01

Oops! We released Part 2 of our Zacchaeus podcast before we released Part 1. Part 1 will be released on August 2. Our apologies! Jon, Robert, Paul and Liz continue their conversation about how Jesus intrudes into Zacchaeus’s life. "The second half of the Zacchaeus story is just delightful, but it’s easy to miss. I find most Christians are unaware o…

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[JESUS & DEPENDENCE] 9. Satan Returns (POJ 3.6) 32:52

1+ y ago32:52

32:52

The series continues by looking at how Jesus handles temptation when Satan returns. "One of the principal patterns across all the gospels is the demand for a sign that comes from the Jews. It’s a little out of our cultural world, and let me just explain. You’ll see examples in the Talmud about great rabbis doing a sign, and what it is is a miracle …

1
[JESUS & DEPENDENCE] 8. Saying Yes and Saying No 33:13

1+ y ago33:13

33:13

In this episode, the team reflects a bit on where we are in our Jesus & Dependence series and what we’ll be moving into in our next few episodes. "If you’ve been listening to our recent podcasts and that was your only window to Jesus, you would probably say he’s kind of a negative person. He says no to everybody; he said no to his mother, no to his…

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[JESUS & DEPENDENCE] 7. Jesus Under Temptation (POJ 3.5) 34:36

1+ y ago34:36

34:36

Paul, Robert and Liz continue their conversation about Satan’s temptation of Jesus. "We tend to be independent of God in our strengths. When we know we’re weak, we pray. That’s why most of our sins tend to clump around our areas of strength." "Satan is inviting Jesus to be a celebrity, and Jesus is just disgusted at the idea." "Put your heavenly Fa…

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[JESUS & DEPENDENCE] 6. Jesus Says No to Making Bread (POJ 3.5) 35:32

1+ y ago35:32

35:32

Paul, Robert and Liz look at how Jesus says no to the first of Satan's three temptations. "Jesus is saying no to immediate gratification, and he's saying yes, in this case, to hard work. He's not escaping the incarnation that he's in. He's staying within the garden that his Father has given him; he's not trying to get out of that garden." "We are m…

1
[JESUS & DEPENDENCE] 5. Jesus and His Mother - Mary at the Cross 23:43

1+ y ago23:43

23:43

Paul, Robert and Liz take one last look at how we see Jesus as he relates to his mother, Mary, at the end of his life and in the last glimpses we get of Mary in Scripture. "This scene here in John 19 is quite something. If you think of the last 3 vignettes where we’ve seen Mary at work, the biggest difference between this one and those other scenes…

1
[JESUS & DEPENDENCE] 4. Jesus and His Mother - Family Intervention (POJ 3.4) 35:00

1+ y ago35:00

35:00

Paul, Robert and Liz continue their discussion of Jesus’ dependence on the Father, as we see it at play in his relationship with his mother, Mary. “Jesus and the disciples have become so busy, and Mary thinks his life is out of balance… the whole family does. They’ve come to this conclusion that he’s out of his mind to put food as a secondary prior…

1
[JESUS & DEPENDENCE] 3. Jesus in His Father’s House (POJ 3.3) 30:30

1+ y ago30:30

30:30

Paul, Robert and Liz continue their series on Jesus’ dependence on his heavenly Father, looking at how Jesus gets separated from his family and winds up in the Temple when he is 12 years old. "This is the last glimpse we get of Jesus in his childhood. He would have been considered a man at age 13. It’s a wonderful glimpse of their nuclear family. W…

1
[JESUS & DEPENDENCE] 2. Designed for Divine Words (POJ 3.2) 31:28

1+ y ago31:28

31:28

Paul, Robert and Liz continue this series on learning dependence from Jesus, focusing specifically on the role that Scripture plays in helping us discern God’s will. “'You are my beloved son' – because you are in Christ, and that is the real you. You’ve been imprinted with the image of Jesus at the core of your being. That frees you to say, 'Oh hon…

1
[JESUS & DEPENDENCE] 1. The Secret to Love (POJ 3.1) 37:44

2y ago37:44

37:44

Robert Row joins Paul Miller and Liz Voboril in this new series looking at how, paradoxically, dependence on the Father frees Jesus to love. “Jesus’ brothers look a lot freer than Jesus. They don’t have this dependence on the Father the way he does. So they can go to the Feast. He says go, he’s not stopping them. He just says you guys have a freedo…

1
[JESUS & HONESTY] 11. Prudence (POJ 2.9) 27:20

2y ago27:20

27:20

Paul, Jon and Liz wrap up this series with an episode on prudence. “What’s fascinating is the difference between Jewish prudence and Greek prudence. The words have almost an entirely different sense. Both have this sense of standing down, but their motive is entirely different. For the Greek mind, particularly the stoic mind which dominated Greek t…

1
[JESUS & HONESTY] 10. Love Your Enemies (POJ 2.8) 32:50

2y ago32:50

32:50

Paul, Jon and Liz continue their conversation about Jesus’ honesty. “People cancel one another very easily and shut down with the other person. But Jesus says we can’t do that. We need to move towards our enemies, and you need to do it thoughtfully thinking, 'How can I care for them? What needs does this enemy have?'” “You cannot be passive with ev…

1
[JESUS & HONESTY] 9. Reconciliation (POJ 2.7) 37:18

2y ago37:18

37:18

Paul, Jon and Liz continue their conversation about Jesus’ honesty. “Jesus is actually being a little on the funny side when he says, ‘First take the plank out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.’ There’s this trace kind of light humor through the Sermon on the Mount. You know, ‘if your eye off…

1
[JESUS & HONESTY] 8. Forgiveness & Forbearance (POJ 2.4, 2.5) 39:51

2y ago39:51

39:51

“Peter is insisting that he's not going to betray Jesus. We know from the parallel passages that Peter keeps on insisting. The next thing Jesus says, after ‘Will you really lay down your life for me?’, is, ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me.’ We have a chapter break there, and we often assume that that chapter break…

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[JESUS & HONESTY] 7. Good Jealousy (POJ 2.3) 37:31

2y ago37:31

37:31

Paul, Jon and Liz continue their conversation about Jesus’ honesty. "The phrase 'speaking truth to power' is often shared as kind of almost glib kind of thing. But speaking truth to power is really at the heart of the prophetic tradition that we see in the hebrew prophets, and all through Scripture. It's permeated civilizations that have really emb…

1
[JESUS & HONESTY] 6. A Time to Shut Up (POJ 2.4) 30:15

2y ago30:15

30:15

"Sometimes we’re strangely surprised when we've given someone an honest word and they don’t say ‘Oh, thank you for that rebuke. I have felt pride welling up in my heart all morning and I've just been waiting to be humbled. Thank you, you've really blessed me.’” “Peter keeps on insisting, but Jesus is quiet. What you're looking at there is Jesus’ de…

1
[JESUS & HONESTY) 5. Good Irritation (POJ 2.4) 29:22

2y ago29:22

29:22

"In almost every case, Jesus’ anger is focused on 1 or 2 things – a blocking of love or a blocking of faith. It's striking. And these two are Paul's primary criteria metrics for every church. Almost all of the epistles begin with Paul’s mentioning ‘I've heard of your faith’ or ‘I've heard of your love.’” “It's just lovely to see Jesus irritated.” "…

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