The story of Jonah’s reluctant mission to Ninevah intrigues and illuminates because it foreshadows, centuries in advance, key elements of the Christian gospel. That Jesus refers to it in Matthew and Luke underscores its importance. Why then is it so significant, especially to ‘this wicked generation’?

Psalms are for singing and for preaching; they are simultaneously cries to God and a revelation from God. Psalm 14’s bald uncovering of human depravity is sobering because sin still penetrates the church. The preacher is a doctor for bruised souls. What live-giving remedy does Psalm 14 add to the medicine chest?

The Christian must live by faith in one world while belonging to another. Hebrews warns repeatedly of the dangers facing the believer. These are summarised starkly in 10:29, the prelude to 11:1–7. How can those seven ancient verses (and the much older heroes they cite) help the Christian survive today?

Layers of tradition have both elevated Mary in an unscriptural way and partly obscured the New Testament picture of her. In this series from 1981, Dick seeks to restore the original painting by removing those layers and examining the biblical record in Luke's Gospel. In so doing, he discovers something more wonderful still, transcending even the loftiest of traditions.

The first two chapters of Hebrews introduce key themes of the letter: the final word of God and the finished work of Christ. The knowledge of God has been mediated through human writers and language; angels have also played their part. Finally, God has spoken and acted through his Son. What then is required of us now?

In this extended lecture given to the St Helen’s staff team, Dick approaches one simple question from several different angles. Why did Paul write to the Colossians? Why is his letter in the New Testament? And what is its message to us today?

Dick’s purpose in this talk series is to discover the structure of John’s Gospel and how it carries the message of the book. Aimed in the first instance at the Bible teacher, it lays out foundations on which a sermon series can be built, starting with the towering Christ of the prologue.

Jeremiah 2:1–19 laments the spiritual decline in Israel following the brief high point of Josiah's reforms. In this short series, Dick explores the contemporary application of the passage to us today. As knowledge of the real God gives way to empty religion and worldly ideology, how can the decline be reversed?

Why were the Pharisees so opposed to Jesus? Mark 7 reveals that the answer lies deep in Jesus' diagnosis of the human condition, a state so dire that only the costliest action could cure it. Religion was impotent and hostile to God’s word. But how is that ancient conflict relevant today?