Preaching Colossians
In the latest Preaching Matters video from St. Helen’s Bishopsgate in London, Charlie Skrine talks about preaching through Colossians – and the normal Christian life. Watch it here.
The Empty Tomb and the Risen Christ — The Centrality of the Resurrection to the Christian Faith
“The pattern of the Christian year is an exercise of the Church’s annual remembrance and proclamation of the Gospel. The annual celebrations of Christmas and Resurrection Day help the Church to ponder again the truths of Christ’s incarnation and resurrection from the dead.
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…”
– Albert Mohler reminds us that “Christianity stands or falls with the empty grave”.
Jesus Christ and the Revolution of Destiny
“In this series of three lectures, we will be exploring the identity of an individual: an individual who lived and wrote almost 2,000 years ago, but whose writings still challenge and convict countless millions today.
That individual is the apostle Paul, and his writings are in the pages of the Bible, in the New Testament.”
– Holiday reading in the form of a lecture given by ACL Council member Dr. Lionel Windsor.
Archbishop of Sydney’s Easter message 2015
“It is a measure of our society’s fast pace (or perhaps commercialism) that this year, hot cross buns came on sale just after New Year’s Day.
By now, three months later, we have become so used to them that we forget they are marked with a cross.
The speed of our lives leaves us little time to reflect on the timeless truth of this symbol.
You may eat and enjoy your hot cross buns without ever noticing. But if you stop and think about it, the cross is out of place on such a treat.
Because the cross is an instrument of torture. The cross means pain. The cross means death. So why was Jesus, God’s righteous son, on a cross at all?
The Bible tells us that on the cross, Jesus took the judgment that we deserve. He died, was buried and three days later, rose again.
What does the cross mean to you?
For followers of Jesus, the cross is now empty because Jesus has risen from the dead and offers us new life.
This Easter, the mark of the cross can mark a new beginning for you, too.”
Dr Glenn N Davies
Archbishop of Sydney
Easter 2015 AD.
Watch the video from Anglican Media Sydney.
Read the text (PDF will download to your device).
And the story from SydneyAnglicans.net.And here’s a version formatted as two to an A5 page, suitable for printing to insert in your church newsletter this weekend. (115kb PDF.)
Why the Creeds are good
“To too many the creeds are a dusty vestige of a happily distant past. They were written centuries ago, born out of abstract battles whose players we can’t even name. Isn’t it just better to love each other and not get caught up in all those silly questions?…”
– In an age where creeds play little part in many church gatherings, R.C. Sproul Jr says that creeds are good guards of the faith. (h/t Gary Ware.)
When to make a stand
“Three great ‘stands’ in the history of the church:
- the stand of Athanasius over the person of Christ;
- the stand of Martin Luther over the authority of Scripture and justification by faith alone;
- the stand of the GAFCON Primates over the priority of Christ and his mission, the authority of Scripture over denominational processes, revisionist theology, and ethical practice. …
Being prepared to make a stand has characterised genuine Christian leadership throughout the last two thousand years. But why? And when? And how?”
– Moore College Principal Dr Mark Thompson gave this talk at a seminar during the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans Conference in Melbourne last week.
Very helpful. Download it here as a PDF file.
(Picture: Detail from ‘Luther at the Diet of Worms’, by Anton von Werner, 1877.)
The visible Church of God — Article 19
In his latest video on The Thirty Nine Articles, for the American Anglican Council, Canon Phil Ashey looks at Article 19 and the Visible Church of God.
Wesley Hill at Moore College
While in Australia recently for Liberty Christian Ministries, Dr Wesley Hill (Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pennsylvania) visited Moore College.
He spoke with the Faculty, addressed the students, and also sat down for a guest interview with Archie Poulos.
Watch the interview (9 minutes).
Watch his lecture and Q&A session (52 minutes).
Good resources for pastoral ministry.
‘The Presbyterian Church (USA)’s long and boring shuffle out of Christendom’
“The drift from biblical orthodoxy to spiritualized leftism has profound real-world consequences. The church isn’t just shuffling out of Christianity, it’s shuffling out of existence. The church has lost 37 percent of its members since 1992, and the trend is accelerating.”
– National Review. Photo: PCUSA.
Related: How to tell the difference between The PCA and PCUSA – Joe Carter.
Is there a Future for Confessional Anglicanism? — conference audio
On Saturday 21st March 2015, the Anglican Church League held the “Is there a Future for Confessional Anglicanism?” conference in the Chapter House of St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney.
Those present considered our Anglican inheritance, our current challenges and our potential future under God.
Glenn Davies, Archbishop of Sydney; Ashley Null, authority on Archbishop Thomas Cranmer and the English Reformation; and Mark Thompson, Principal of Moore Theological College, were the speakers.
Listen to the talks via these links:
Archbishop Dr. Glenn Davies:
The State of Play in the Anglican Church of Australia.
27MB mp3 file and 100kb PDF file outline.
“The ACL’s role in Sydney is to keep the Diocese evangelical. That’s our role. Our role is to be ever vigilant … What one generation fights for, the next generation accepts and the third one forgets. … The stronger ACL is, the stronger the Diocese of Sydney is; the stronger the Diocese of Sydney is, the better the national church will be.”
Dr. Ashley Null:
Our Inheritance.
“The very heart of Cranmer’s understanding of the mission of the church is to proclaim the gospel … to renew the hearts and minds and lives of the English people.”
Dr. Mark D. Thompson:
Where next for confessional Anglicanism?
17MB mp3 file or 160kb PDF file.
“I am an Anglican – not just by historical accident but by conviction. I am convinced that here is a good – more than good, something that has proven to be powerfully effective over almost five hundred years — expression of gospel principles and gospel priorities … Yet to be true to that heritage I must be a gospel man first.”
Photo by Scott Blackwell.
Will I know my loved ones on the other side?
“Every pastor has been asked “will I know my loved ones on the other side?”
The intermediate state is the time between our death and the day when Jesus Christ returns and we receive our new body. In that time we are disembodied souls, will we be able to recognise loved ones?…”
– David Cook writes to encourage.
Confident: Why we can trust the Bible
“Last February and on into March, Mike Ovey and I each wrote a number of little blog posts responding to Steve Chalke’s article, ‘Restoring Confidence in the Bible’. We’ve reworked those posts, added some more material and discussion questions, and the result is a new little book published by Christian Focus and called, Confident: Why we can trust the Bible.
It’s not a finger-pointing, hand-wringing book (Steve Chalke isn’t mentioned at all). Rather it’s a book to encourage and equip Christians…”
– from Dan Strange at Oak Hill College in London. (Availability.)
Professor Edwin Judge — Engaging Rome and Jerusalem — book launch
On March 11th 2015, Bishop Paul Barnett gave this address at the launch of a collection of essays by Professor Edwin Judge. Very encouraging:
(Update: See also Assoc. Prof. Stuart Piggin’s remarks, and ordering details for the book.)
Book Launch – Text of Bishop Paul Barnett’s remarks:
E.A. Judge, Engaging Rome and Jerusalem,
(ed. S. Piggin; North Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2014).
In 1966 E.A. Judge, Reader in History at the University of Sydney had a small third year Roman History class of which I was a member, along with a younger Tom Hillard.
Tom has gone on to great things as a Roman historian and I have pursued the study of Christian origins within the canon of Jewish, Roman and early Christian texts. Another in the class, Judith Nicholls, now a senior mature age student, is researching her PhD on Jerome.
Edwin Judge’s office is lined with the higher degree theses of his dozens of supervised students. These volumes are silent tribute to a master teacher’s scholarship but equally to his generosity. Read more
How can we pray for terrorists?
Canon Phil Ashey of the American Anglican Council writes to encourage Christians to pray for those involved in terrorism.
‘Submission’ to my husband allows us both to flourish in our marriage
“Recent articles in this newspaper about evangelical churches’ “oppressive” doctrine of male headship reveal a complete failure to understand the Christian psyche…
Some see inconsistency between the Bible’s teaching of “Christian freedom” on the one hand, and female submission on the other.
However, it is precisely the Bible’s teaching on freedom which so transforms a person’s thinking once they become a Christian that they are ready to submit to others.”
– Sarah Colyer writes this helpful opinion-piece in The Sydney Morning Herald.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…