Gospel speech: now available as an ebook
Gospel Speech: a fresh look at the relationship between every Christian and evangelism is a short biblical exploration of the way the gospel shapes the speech of every Christian as they confess Jesus Christ with their mouth.
Written by ACL Council member Dr Lionel Windsor, the book is now available in electronic format.
Moore Graduates called to die to self
“This year’s 102 graduates from Moore Theological College have been called upon to “die to self” in their ministries, so that their work will produce more fruit for the gospel.
The address, focussing on John 12:24 and delivered by former Director of the UK Cornhill Training Course the Rev Christopher Ash, directed people to the pattern of Christ…”
– Story from SydneyAnglicans.net. Please be encouraged to pray for those who are now seeking to serve Christ in various spheres of ministry.
Back to Basics 3 — Fellowship
“Fellowship, or Communion, is a very precious gift of the gospel. The Lord Jesus laid down his life for his Church, his Bride. Christians are united to Christ for their salvation. Inevitably, then, we are united with one another. We are all one in Christ Jesus.
I have been trying to think through the implications of the January meeting of Primates for the Anglican Communion and for GAFCON.
The Communique and the story of the meeting certainly put a lot of store on fellowship and unity. The Primates, we are assured, were unanimous in their desire to walk together, difficult though it is…”
– Dr Peter Jensen, GAFCON General Secretary, writes the third of his reflections following the Primates Gathering in January 2016.
‘University of Sydney evangelical students vote to keep Jesus’
“An evangelical student group has refused to remove a vow to Jesus from its constitution despite being threatened with deregistration from the Sydney University student body.
The Sydney University Evangelical Union was issued an ultimatum by university’s student union last week to remove a requirement that new members sign ‘Jesus is Lord’ or be deregistered from the university…”
– Eryk Bashaw reports in The Sydney Morning Herald.
See also Enlightenment is just so yesterday at university by Brendan O’Neil, in The Australian –
“If there were a prize for the most Orwellian action of the year (there really should be), the USU would surely win.
The student union has given the EU until March 31 to overhaul its constitution. But the EU is fighting back: this week its members voted by a whopping 71 to 1 against changing its membership rules to suit the tastes of the interfering union.
… If ruling bodies, whether the state or a student union that wields power on campus, can use pressure or threats to make private associations rewrite their constitutions, which is the soul of all institutions, then we enter into very dark territory indeed.”
(Photo: Chappo – this photo of him was taken during the 1980 SUEU Mission – would be cheering the EU. Hear him speak at a 1979 SUEU lunchtime meeting on “Jesus claims to be the only way to God”.)
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the Reality of the Gospel
“The pattern of the Christian year is an exercise of the Church’s discipline. The annual celebrations of Christmas and Resurrection Day force the Church to ponder again the truths of Christ’s incarnation and resurrection.
Christians understand that every Lord’s Day is Resurrection Day, but this Sunday is the festival which draws all Christians face to face with the empty tomb and the truth of the resurrected Lord.
Resurrection Sunday is the central event in the church year–the climax of worship, expectation, and celebration. This celebration is also an acid test of the Church’s faithfulness and conviction…”
– Albert Mohler reminds Christians that we have a heavenly mandate to preach the Resurrection of Christ.
Archbishop Glenn Davies’ Easter Message 2016
Archbishop Glenn Davies has released his 2016 Easter message.
Watch the 90 second video on Vimeo.
And here is a story and summary from SydneyAnglicans.net –
The leader of Australia’s largest Anglican Diocese, the Archbishop of Sydney, Dr Glenn Davies, has spoken of the power of the Christian symbol, the cross, and the threat to religious freedom, in his Easter Message.
“The most universal symbol of all is the cross. Even that is being targeted now in China, where authorities are removing crosses from churches. In fact, religious freedom is under threat around the world.” Dr Davies said in his annual Easter message.
“It is strange that the cross should be feared for its power, because in Jesus’ time a cross meant execution – it meant failure and death. But the great power in the symbol of the cross for us is that is is empty. Yes, Jesus died on the cross but he was raised from the dead.”
Archbishop Davies will preach at the Cathedral on Easter Day (Sunday).
In his Easter Message, Archbishop Davies stressed the resurrection of Jesus which he said “was not merely a resuscitation, because he rose not to die again but to inaugurate a new era beyond this age of death, disease and decay.”
“The resurrection of Jesus means a second chance for all of us, if we will accept it — a chance for new life, eternal life, as our sins are nailed to the cross so that we too shall rise with him.”
Dr Davies also commented on plans for a fixed date for Easter. Dr Davies spoke with the Coptic Pope, Tawadros II, about the issue in Cairo last year. Anglican Primates are close to agreeing on a fixed Sunday for Easter. Dr Davies said “I believe it will be of significant witness to the world if all Christians could unite together with a common date to celebrate this ‘empty’ cross and the inauguration of the new aeon when Jesus rose from the dead and defeated death once and for all.”
That’s Easter — Videos from St. Helen’s
A few years ago, St. Helen’s Bishopsgate in London produced some thought-provoking videos for Easter and Christmas.
You may like to consider how you could use these two Easter videos –
Forward them to a friend. Watch them together on your phone. Show them in church!
Easter messages 2016
Easter is a wonderful opportunity to speak with clarity about the meaning of the Lord Jesus’ death, and the implications of his Resurrection.
Please pray that church leaders will communicate that message as they should, that Christ will be honoured, and that men and women will turn to him in repentance and faith.
Here are some of the messages we’ve spotted so far.
Will our messages to the world this Easter be as simple and clear as the sign in the photo? –
Diocese of the Northern Territory, Bishop Greg Anderson –
“Political commentator Mungo MacCallum recently described Malcolm Turnbull’s performance in the top job as ‘a hugely disappointing resurrection’.
Maybe it is good that the word resurrection still has some place in today’s media. But the first resurrection sets the benchmark. All other so-called resurrections, including the PM’s, are inevitably hugely disappointing. They all, in the end, run out…”
Diocese of Armidale, Bishop Rick Lewers –
“What is surprising about Easter is that the death of Jesus on the cross is all about clemency. Not His, but ours. It is where God would take upon himself the sins of the whole world, accepting the blame for what we have done in preference to leaving us stranded in our blameworthiness with no hope of forgiveness…”
Presbyterian Moderator-General David Cook –
“Toplady’s hymn expresses it well:
‘Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to thy cross I cling;
Naked turn to you for dress;
Helpless look to you for grace;
Foul I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Saviour, or I die.’
By dying on that cross, Jesus won our salvation…”
Diocese of Melbourne, Archbishop Philip Freier –
“What is the resurrection promise of Easter Day? – God’s love will endure and continue, no matter what. Christians look to Jesus’ rising from the dead as not just an historic action but as the promise of his presence with us today – even in the worst of circumstances…”
Australian Baptist Ministries, National Ministries Director Keith Jobberns –
“The Easter celebration is a reminder that humans have been given a second chance. The Easter narrative records that in Jesus, and through relationship with Him we can find freedom from the shackles of fear, acceptance despite our faults and the opportunity to begin anew with God and our fellow humans…”
Diocese of North Queensland, Bishop Bill Ray (PDF)–
“Yes, Christians believe that ‘on the third day Jesus rose from the dead’, but Christianity is more than just believing, it is living this new life in Christ and bringing it to others…”
(Photo: Bicycle bearing a gospel message, in Federation Square, Melbourne, with St. Paul’s Anglican Cathedral in the background, 19th March 2016.)
‘University of Sydney’s Evangelical Union shouldn’t have to give up its faith in fight against discrimation’
“Here is the new rule for student groups on campus at one of our leading universities: you can have any faith you like, as long as it’s not any faith in particular.
As of November last year, the bolshie student politicians running the University of Sydney student union have voted to stop clubs and societies from defining themselves by reference to a particular creed. Because, er, discrimination, or something.
And the union’s board has inaugurated this new reign of tolerance by deciding to kick one of its oldest and largest interdenominational faith based groups off campus. The Evangelical Union has been around doing its thing since the 1930s – my grandma was on the committee…”
– Andrew Judd has this sensible opinion-piece in The Sydney Morning Herald.
(This copy of the USU’s The Daily Bull is a snapshot of student activity at the university in July 1977. The SUEU had been active on campus for decades before most of the other societies mentioned.)
Peter Adam to Bishop Richard Condie — ‘A Bishop without a Bible is no Bishop at all’
“Your special robes, your Pastoral staff and a cross, they are reminders to you, and to us, of your weighty responsibilities.
But the Bible is your instrument of ministry, the powerful means God has provided for you to preach the gospel and train people in God’s service. It is given to you: use it!…”
– Dr Peter Adam preached at the Installation of Richard Condie as Bishop of Tasmania on Saturday.
Peter’s sermon has now been published on the Diocese of Tasmania website (PDF file). Take the time to read it – and take these words to heart. (h/t David Ould.)
A conversation, not a recitation
“I have argued in past pieces of the inestimable value of learning a gospel outline. However, a gospel outline is not like a script that we learn off by heart and then recite to a captive audience…”
– At GoThereFor, Stephen Liggins reminds us of the need to actually have a real conversation with another person when we want to share the gospel.
Good reading of the Good Book
“To assess the implications of the Primates’ gathering in January and what we have seen subsequently, I am suggesting that we go back to basics. The first point was the authority of the Bible over our consciences and over the churches. It is God’s word written.
But there is a hot contest over the interpretation of the Bible, especially when it comes to God’s expectations about sexual behaviour. What can we say about how we read the Bible?”
— Dr Peter Jensen writes the second of his Back to Basics series for GAFCON.
Religious Ethos and Open Membership at Sydney University
“A report in the student newspaper from the University of Sydney (Honi Soit, March 13, 2016) records that
‘The University of Sydney Union (USU) has threatened to deregister the Sydney University Evangelical Union (EU) from the Clubs & Societies program over the latter’s requirement that all members must make a declaration of faith in Jesus Christ.’
In other words, a student religious group is being told that they may no longer be registered to use University facilities or receive the financial support other groups receive, because they make it a requirement of membership that someone support that religion. This is a very disturbing development for religious freedom at the University of Sydney, and especially if it presages similar developments around Australia. What is going on here? And is this move lawful, or not?…”
– Neil Foster at Law and Religion Australia takes a look.
The Withering of Vice and the Sexual Revolution
“As already noted, the sexual revolution did not emerge in a vacuum. Modern societies created a context for moral revolution that had never been available in intellectual terms before. In other words, certain cultural conditions had to prevail in order for the revolution to get the traction it needed to succeed. One of the things we need to note is that we are looking at an explicitly cosmopolitan revolution…”
– Albert Mohler has posted the last in his four-part series on Secularisation and the Sexual Revolution.
Seven Rules for Online Engagement
“Christians have had their share of social media successes in over the past few years, many of them related to identifying theological error and defending theological truth. This work has been carried on through blogs, of course, but also through Facebook and YouTube and other forms of digital communication.
But for all of the success, there have also been a lot of failures. Many of the most egregious failures have been in discussing or debating controversial topics.
As we learn to engage controversy using these new platforms, we do well to consider how to we can speak with equal parts truth and love—love that is strengthened by truth and truth that is softened by love…”
– Tim Challies distils some very helpful and godly counsel on ‘gospel polemics’ published by Tim Keller.
Related: Learning to Speak Christian in an Online World at Moore College, 17th March.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…