Published by Alistair Begg
Enjoy the newest sermons from Truth For Life - Alistair Begg in Cleveland, Ohio via our podcast feed.
Listen on Apple Podcasts37 min
Biblical worship is far more than music or personal expression; it is God's people responding rightly to who He is and what He has done. Examining Jesus' teaching in John 4 alongside the Hundredth Psalm and the devotion of the woman at Bethany, Alistair Begg explains what it means to worship God in spirit and truth with joyful, heartfelt, and sacrificial devotion. True worship, he reminds us, is centered on God's glory, shaped by His Word, and made possible through the work of Christ and the Holy Spirit.
34 min
When the apostles Peter and John were released from custody after being arrested for proclaiming the Gospel, their fellow believers responded in prayer. Acts 4 records this prayer, which provides Christians of any era with a pattern for how to pray. In this message, Alistair Begg unpacks the early believers' prayer, demonstrating how it was communal, theological, scriptural, and purposeful—and challenges believers today to rely on prayer and the Holy Spirit as they live faithfully in a culture increasingly resistant to the Gospel.
38 min
Jesus performed many miracles, from casting out demons to healing various diseases and cleansing leprous men. So why, then, did He first tell a paralytic with an obvious need for physical healing that his sins were forgiven? Alistair Begg helps us to understand that the physical dimension of what Jesus did in people's lives was not His most significant work; rather, it was what He did at the heart level that met their greatest need—just as it does ours.
52 min
After learning of the sorry state of Jerusalem's walls, Nehemiah responded with prayerful dependence, careful preparation, and quiet assessment before calling others to act. As Alistair Begg points out, his leadership combined trust in God's sovereignty with practical wisdom and courage in the face of opposition. Through Nehemiah's example, we're reminded that God's work advances through ordinary people who rely on Him, persevere through discouragement, and unite around a shared, God-given purpose.
56 min
While all Scripture is inspired, not all Scripture is equally inspiring. When we read the long list of names in Nehemiah 3, we might be prone to wonder at its purpose. As Alistair Begg reminds us, though, God's work requires the unified, active participation of those whose names will largely be forgotten, each contributing their part within a larger purpose. And as chapter 4 makes plain, while opposition to such work is inevitable, leaders must commit to meeting it with prayer, vigilance, and trust in God.
48 min
After overseeing the reconstruction of Jerusalem's walls and the restoration of the people's right worship, Nehemiah returned to Susa. When he later came back to Jerusalem, what he found was distressing: The people had embraced unhelpful associations, unfulfilled commitments, unkept promises, and unholy marriages. Alistair Begg walks us through each of these issues in turn, helping us to see why they mattered, how Nehemiah confronted them, and how they are mirrored in the problems confronting today's church and its leaders.
31 min
The opening verses of Romans 12 point to the fact that discerning God's good, pleasing, and perfect will begins with wholehearted surrender to Him. Alistair Begg explains that as believers grounded in God's mercy, we are called to offer ourselves as living sacrifices, resist conformity to the spirit of the age, and pursue inward transformation through the Holy Spirit's renewing work. The Christian life, he reminds us, is a journey of lasting obedience, built on the trust that God's purpose is to make His people increasingly like Christ.
37 min
Psalm 126, one of the Psalms of Ascent, traces the pilgrim song of God's people through three movements: going up, looking back, and keeping on. Reflecting on Israel's restoration from exile, Alistair Begg shows how joyful remembrance of God's past faithfulness fuels present perseverance and future hope. The psalm's tension between remembered blessing and ongoing need points ultimately to Christ, who satisfies the soul's deepest thirst and leads His people onward toward the new Jerusalem, where God's presence will dwell fully with His redeemed people.
39 min
The first five verses of 2 Timothy 4 encapsulate Paul's concern for the ongoing ministry of the Gospel. At this point in his letter, Paul has reminded Timothy that he must continue in the Gospel himself and that the Scriptures are divinely inspired. Now, as Alistair Begg explains, Paul turns Timothy's attention to the solemn charge, stirring challenge, and straightforward and vitally important commitment that are intrinsic to his ministry—and to the ministries of all who follow in Timothy's line.
42 min
While an approach to Christianity that treats it as a soft option may sound attractive, it's certainly not scriptural. Truly biblical discipleship is muscular, demanding, and thoughtful. The apostle Paul made this clear to Timothy as he urged him to proclaim the Gospel boldly and to suffer for it bravely. In this conference message, Alistair Begg examines the three word pictures Paul used to clarify the believer's daily need for devotion, discipline, and diligence in the Christian life.
44 min
As Christopher Ash writes, "The word of God is the driving force that shapes authentic church life." If in our churches we wish to see discipleship in the pews, we have to have discipleship in the pulpit. With this conviction in view, Alistair Begg guides us through Paul's stirring words in 2 Timothy 4:1–8, examining the charge Paul gave to his pastoral protégé, the challenge Timothy faced, and the commitment the apostle urged upon him.
38 min
According to one Barna study, the average pastor lasts only five years at a given church—often leaving just when, statistically speaking, he would be approaching his greatest period of usefulness. In a world of such short pastoral tenures, what does it look like to minister in the same place for not just years but decades? In this informal talk to pastors, Alistair Begg reflects on his forty-two years of pastoral ministry at Cleveland's Parkside Church, sharing lessons learned about both the dangers and the delights of what D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones called "the most glorious calling to which anyone can ever be called."
25 min
"What's it like to work just one day a week?" While many pastors find themselves on the receiving end of such questions, the reality is that as Gospel workers, pastors know their jobs are never really finished. As Alistair Begg notes, Paul's instructions to his protégé Timothy make clear that the church is always in need of pastors who will study God's Word diligently so they can remind their congregations of the essentials of the faith and present themselves to God as ones approved.
40 min
One of the evidences of our having been adopted into God's family is that we pray. But what are we to actually pray about, and how? In Ephesians 3, Paul reveals his prayers for the Ephesian believers, providing a pattern for prayer that both encourages and challenges believers in all times. In this message, Alistair Begg examines Paul's entreaty, the generosity upon which it's based, and the glorious end toward which the apostle prays: that God will get all the glory He deserves.
47 min
As he reached the end of Romans 8, Paul presented a triumphant closing argument, grounding Christian assurance in God's decisive action in Christ. Because God did not spare His own Son, believers can be confident that nothing essential will be withheld from them. Every charge is silenced by Christ's death, resurrection, reign, and intercession, Alistair Begg explains. Though suffering and opposition remain real, they cannot sever believers from Christ's love. In all circumstances, Christians are "more than conquerors," fully secure in God's unbreakable redeeming love in Christ Jesus.
32 min
In Mark 14, we read that as the time for Jesus' crucifixion drew near, a woman came to Him and anointed His head with an alabaster flask of precious oil. While this heartfelt act of worship provoked the disciples' disapproval, Jesus celebrated her for doing "a beautiful thing." Alistair Begg surveys the woman's action, the disciples' reaction, and Jesus' commendation, helping us to see that the only true pathway to lasting honor is to honor Christ.
39 min
Writing to the Christians of first-century Rome, the apostle Paul acknowledged that creation, believers, and even the Spirit Himself groan in hopeful anticipation of final renewal. Present suffering is real, Scripture affirms—but it is eclipsed by the promised glory to come. Alistair Begg traces the inseparable link between suffering and glory in God's redemptive purpose, reminding us that the Spirit sustains believers in weakness and that God is at work in all things for our ultimate good.
39 min
Genuine Christianity is not just a new set of beliefs or even a new pattern of behavior; it's a matter of new belonging. After declaring the glorious truth that there is "now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus," the apostle Paul called his Roman readers to live "not in the flesh but in the Spirit." In this message, Alistair Begg examines the reality and results of the Spirit's presence in the life of the believer as well as the responsibility that falls to those who are in Christ.
43 min
The seventeenth-century minister Thomas Jacomb once wrote of Romans 8, "From first to last, it is high gospel." Beginning with "no condemnation" and ending with the assurance that nothing can separate us from God's love, it is one of the most magisterial and encouraging chapters in all of Scripture. In this message, Alistair Begg begins a short tour through its profound depths, helping us to grasp the solution to the predicament of sin, the necessity of being "in Christ," the relationship between freedom and the law, and the call to walk in newness of life by God's Spirit.
28 min
On the verge of the release of his new book The Man on the Middle Cross, Alistair Begg sat down with Jonathan Carswell, CEO of publisher 10ofThose, to talk about the viral sermon clip that inspired it and how he hopes it can help the church evangelize the lost. Join Alistair and Jonathan as they cover where the book's central illustration came from, why it focuses on the biblical stories it does, and Alistair's hopes for how God might use it.