Title: The Tower of Babel
Speaker: Pastor John Van De Giessen
Date: 16th August 2026
Location: Adelaide, Australia

Summary

“Sometimes the problem isn’t what you’re building. The problem is the foundation you’re building it on.” The Tower of Babel is one of those Old Testament accounts that is easy to skim past, so this episode slows down and looks at what actually happened on the plain of Shinar. A group of people with one language, real skill and genuine unity set out to build a city and a tower. They made bricks from clay and used natural tar for mortar, and the engineering was remarkable for the time. The problem was never their ability. It was their intent, because they wanted to make a name for themselves.

From there the focus shifts closer to home. Life fills up fast with study, work, a mortgage and family, and it becomes easy to keep putting God off until things settle down. The caution is direct: the greatest tragedy is not building something that collapses, but building something that succeeds and discovering at the end that God was never in it.

The episode closes by setting Babel beside Pentecost. At Babel people built upward and were scattered. At Pentecost God came down, filled people with the Holy Spirit and gathered the nations back together.

Key Points

• One language and real engineering skill gave the people on the plain of Shinar genuine unity, but that unity was pointed away from God’s purpose.
• The tower was never really about height. It was about making a name for themselves, and the intent behind it is what God responded to.
• What you are building matters less than the foundation you are building it on.
• Busyness will always find you. Study, career, a house and a family can quietly become reasons to postpone God indefinitely.
• The greatest tragedy is not a project that collapses, but one that succeeds while God was never part of it.
• Checking in on one another is the brick and mortar of a church, and nobody needs to wait for someone in leadership to make the call or the visit.
• Babel and Pentecost mirror each other: people build upward and are scattered, God comes down and gathers the nations together.
• Anything built without God ends up a monument to itself rather than a testimony to him.

Reference Scriptures

• Genesis 11:1-4
• Genesis 11:6-9
• Psalm 127:1
• Acts 2:1-5

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Title: Seeing Things That Are Invisible
Speaker: Pastor David Kschammer
Date: 21st June 2026
Location: Adelaide, Australia

Summary:

“How can you take your eyes off something that you can’t see?” That question opens an episode built around a single line in 2 Corinthians 4: we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. Seeing things that are invisible sounds like a contradiction, and the episode sets out to show why it isn’t.

Much of the ground covered here is ordinary. People say seeing is believing, then trust a great deal they have never laid eyes on. Scientists depend on instruments, calibration and mathematics rather than direct sight. Atoms were accepted long before anyone could observe one. Thoughts, love, patience and, as the episode wryly points out, stupidity are all invisible and all plainly real, known by their effects rather than their appearance.

From there it turns to Hebrews 11 and Moses, who endured as seeing him who is invisible, and to Elisha at Dothan, surrounded by an enemy army yet completely calm because he was certain of horses and chariots of fire he may never have seen himself. The closing point is a practical one. Faith here is not blind. It is persuasion built on evidence: answered prayer, changed lives and what God has already shown.

Key Points:

• Looking at what cannot be seen is not a contradiction. The claim is that the unseen things are the lasting ones, and the visible ones are temporary.
• Seeing is often about perception rather than eyesight. When someone says they do not see it your way, they are describing a different starting point, not different eyes.
• Everyone already believes things they have never observed. Scientific work depends on trusting instruments, calibration and mathematics, and atoms were accepted long before anyone could look at one.
• Invisible things are known by their effects, the way the wind is known by what it moves. Thoughts, love, patience and their opposites are all real without being visible.
• Moses left Egypt without fear because he endured as seeing him who is invisible, and he was able to persuade others of something he alone could see.
• Elisha at Dothan was calm in front of an enemy army because he was sure of the protection around him, and he prayed for his servant’s eyes to be opened rather than for a bigger army.
• The protection that surrounded Elisha is described in the New Testament as being inside the believer instead.
• Faith here is persuasion, not guesswork. Jesus invited people to examine the works if they would not accept the words, and one day the seeing will not require faith at all.

Reference Scriptures:

• 2 Corinthians 4:18
• Mark 16:16
• Hebrews 11:1
• Hebrews 11:3
• Hebrews 11:13
• Hebrews 11:24-27
• Deuteronomy 18:18
• Exodus 14:13
• 2 Corinthians 5:7
• John 3:8
• Romans 1:20
• Galatians 5:22-23
• 2 Kings 6:8-17
• 1 John 3:24
• 1 John 4:4-6
• 1 John 4:13-14
• 1 John 5:19-20
• Romans 8:16
• 2 Corinthians 5:1
• 2 Timothy 1:12
• 2 Timothy 1:14
• Mark 16:15-20
• Revelation 1:7
• John 6:63
• John 10:37-38

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Title: Comfortably Numb: Waking Up from Lukewarm Christianity
Speaker: Pastor Ben Smith
Date: 14th January 2026
Location: Vancouver, Canada

Summary

“We don’t want to be a people who are comfortably numb.” A Pink Floyd lyric turns up in an unlikely place here, and it lands. The subject is lukewarm Christianity, approached through two passages: Jesus warning that love would grow cold as lawlessness increased, and his blunt verdict on the church at Laodicea, a fellowship so comfortable it had decided it was doing just fine.

The name Laodicea means power of the people, and that is offered as the clue to what went wrong. A group can end up led by the mood of the room rather than by God’s word and still feel entirely settled about it. The answer sits in the next verse: the one who endures to the end will be saved. Endurance does not earn salvation, but it is what faithfulness looks like stretched over years, and it is thin on the ground in a throwaway culture where marriages and commitments get dropped faster than they get repaired.

Hebrews adds the practical edge: give earnest heed, so that what you have heard does not quietly slip away. That turns into a question worth asking often. Am I more zealous than I used to be, or less? Zeal and repentance are where revival has always started, ground also covered in Enduring to the end.

Key Points

• Jesus listed increasing lawlessness and love growing cold among the signs that would mark the time before his return.
• The church at Laodicea was judged lukewarm, and comfort was the likely cause. A settled socioeconomic climate led them to conclude they were fine when they were not.
• Laodicea means power of the people, a fellowship steered by the general mood rather than by God’s word.
• Endurance does not earn salvation. If it did, salvation could be worked for. Endurance is what faithfulness looks like over the long haul.
• Commitment is getting harder in a throwaway culture, and people walk away from marriages and fellowships rather than resolve what needs resolving.
• The warnings against slackening off were written into the early letters, which suggests the concern was live even then.
• Letting things slip is discouraging well beyond the person it happens to, and holding steady has the opposite effect.
• Repentance and zeal are the conditions revival has always come out of, and comfort is what dulls both.

Reference Scriptures

• Matthew 24:12-13
• Revelation 3:14-22
• John 14:15
• John 13:34-35
• Hebrews 2:1-3
• Hebrews 10:25-26
• 1 Corinthians 10:12
• Hebrews 12:1

The post Comfortably Numb appeared first on Podcast Revival.

Title: No Relationship Beyond Repair
Speaker: Pastor Bill Allen
Date: 26th January 2026
Location: Gold Coast, Australia

Summary:

“There’s no such thing as an irrevocably damaged relationship for those that look to the Lord and love the Lord.” Episode 836 opens with a question most of us have asked at some point. Have you ever wrecked something so badly, a marriage, a friendship, a working relationship, that you assumed there was no way back?

The episode works through John chapter twenty one, the last chapter of John’s Gospel. The disciples are unsettled after the resurrection, so Peter does the one thing he knows how to do and goes fishing. Jesus meets them on the shore with a fire already burning and breakfast already cooking. Then comes the conversation Peter has probably been dreading, three questions that mirror the three denials by the fire only weeks before.

The reading offered here is that Jesus is not reopening a wound. He is doing the opposite. By pointing Peter forward to a job that needs doing, feed my lambs, shepherd my sheep, feed my sheep, Jesus lifts him out of guilt and back into purpose. There is also a look at the friendship between Peter and John, why John is the one who recognises Jesus first and who he chooses to tell, and why the net breaking in Luke chapter five but holding here might be the whole point.

Key Points:

• Peter carried weeks of guilt after the denials, and the shoreline meeting is most likely the first one to one conversation between him and Jesus since that night.
• The three questions match the three denials, but the purpose is restoration rather than punishment. The cure for condemnation is being given something to do.
• In Luke chapter five the net broke when the disciples worked in their own strength. Here the catch is bigger, the work is harder, and the net holds.
• John recognises Jesus first and tells Peter, not the others, which shows a friendship untouched by what Peter had done. John had already moved past it.
• When Peter asks what will happen to John, the answer is direct. That is not your concern, follow me.
• The first two questions use agape, the love of God. The third uses phileo, the love of a brother, an invitation into a personal, walking alongside relationship.
• Her sins were forgiven because she loved much. The questions that matter are whether we love the Lord, and whether we love the people around us.
• A person cannot be truly strong until they confront their own weakness. Peter was brittle before Pentecost and a tower of strength afterwards.

Reference Scriptures:

• John 21:1-25
• John 21:15-17
• John 21:25
• Luke 5:1-11
• John 14:13
• John 17
• John 19:26-27
• Luke 22:61-62
• Isaiah 42:3
• 1 Corinthians 12:12-21
• Matthew 4:19
• Jeremiah 31:34
• Luke 7:36-50
• John 12:1-8
• Romans 3:23

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Title: Trusting God’s Goodness
Speaker: David Rocchi
Date: 5th April 2026
Location: Dunedin, New Zealand

Summary:
“God is not looking for excuses to be bad to us. He is looking for excuses to be good to us.”

This episode works through Psalm 34:8 and its invitation to taste and see that the Lord is good. The idea is simple but easy to lose hold of: God is good, and he wants to be good to you personally. Most of us can agree that God has been good to others while quietly assuming we are the exception. This teaching sets out to remove that doubt for good.

Building from Romans 5 and Ephesians 2, the case is made that the clearest evidence of God’s goodness is already settled. Christ died for us while we were still opposed to God, which means the goodness was never earned and never can be. It is given freely. From there the episode moves through Psalm 139, Jeremiah 29 and Isaiah 46 to show how constantly God thinks about us and how he intends to carry us from beginning to end, through every stage and every kind of trouble.

The closing section is practical. Mistakes and failures do not cancel God’s goodness, and the way back is repentance, not self punishment. The response God asks for is thanks and praise, poured out in prayer and shared openly with others. Confidence in God’s goodness makes the whole walk lighter, calmer and far more free from worry.

Key Points:

• God’s goodness is not a general idea about the world. It is his settled intention toward you personally, and you are not the exception.
• The death of Christ is the proof. It happened while we were still sinners, so God’s favour was never earned and cannot be lost through failure.
• Assurance of God’s goodness changes how we face trouble. Trials can be met with confidence rather than dread when we trust the outcome is in good hands.
• The Holy Spirit is what makes this real to us. We do not reason our way into it. It is revealed in prayer and settled in the heart.
• Mistakes are not the end of the matter. Confess, turn around, come back, and stop punishing yourself where God has already forgiven.
• The right response is thanks and praise, offered daily in private prayer and spoken openly to others.

Reference Scriptures:

• Psalm 34:8
• Romans 5:1-5
• Romans 5:8
• Ephesians 2:4-7
• Exodus 33-34
• 1 Corinthians 2:9-10
• Psalm 139:17-18
• Jeremiah 29:11
• Isaiah 46:3-4
• Isaiah 44:21-22
• 1 John 1:9
• Psalm 107:1, 8, 15, 21, 31
• Psalm 31:19
• Psalm 27:13-14

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