Great time was had at BBTB10… plans are already pressing ahead for next year… speakers already confirmed: Archbishop Greg Venables and Kent & Barbara Hughes…
Archive for May, 2010
One Minute Sermon
This is pretty special. Cultural engagement at its best!
Tales of the Unexpected
There’s a great new resource come out from the Good Book Company, a four-week evangelistic course on a DVD, featuring Pete Woodcock and Lizzie Smallwood. It’s based around 4 stories that Jesus tells in Luke’s Gospel – The Rich Fool, The Two Lost Sons, The Pharisee and the Tax Collector… Each episode is based around 3 5-minute teaching clips and one testimony. Here’s 5 reasons why I think it’s great:
- 4 Weeks seems like a good length for a short course… some people might be put off by a 10 week course
- You don’t need a really good speaker… they’re there on the DVD
- You can choose to have a bloke or a lady speaking, depending on your context
- It’s really simple, short and down to earth
- Each episode finishes with a helpful testimony
Here’s what a lady involved in a Mums and Toddlers group at my church thought:
I thought it was really good for anybody that it would be totally new to the idea of reading or doing a study/course. Very accessible and the testimonies were brilliant. The stories were well chosen to build up the picture of Jesus. I think it would provide an excellent step on from ‘Tiddlywinks’ and youth groups for people who are interested in finding out more about Jesus but Christianity Explained may bo too soon/too much. The people doing were generally very good, but sometimes a little cheesy! But certainly better than many I have seen on DVD format. Still think first hand person is probably best way to hear things, but think its generally a good resource.
You can buy the starter pack for just £16 – including DVD and 3 study guides
Michael Baughen – The Compulsion of the Cross
Sad times… it’s the final afternoon celebration at Bible by the Beach… where we welcome Michael Baughen, formerly Rector of All Souls, Langham Place, and Bishop of Chester.
2 Corinthians 5:9 – 6:2
At the end of a conference… there must be a commissioning message… sent out theologically fatter, and evangelically fitter!
The Corinthians wanted a ‘comfortable Christianity’… they had a ‘get get get’ attitude! We need a ‘give give give’ attitude!
The commitment to our crucified Lord – Whether home or away (5:9)
The compulsion of the cross – a controlling love (5:14)
The cross needs to be a the centre of all life – the the horizon on a plane… the message of the cross, his person and work brings reconciliation – a message our nation needs so desperately! We preach Jesus Christ AND Him Crucified!
May we lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim, till all the world adore, his sacred name!
You can buy this talk online at the Bible by the Beach shop.
Alistair Begg – In the Cross of Christ I Glory
The final Bible reading from Alistair Begg at Bible by the Beach…
Pastoral ministry – a ministry of reminding, reminding of the Gospel essentials
Paul says remember 3 things…. how I came, what I said, why I said it…
- Came in weakness, in fear, in trembling… it’s gonna be a miracle if anyone believes this guy – Exactly!
- Called to be a herald first, communicator second.
- Preached Christ and him crucified
- A weak message… but demonstrated in power by the work of the Spirit
“The cross has less than it’s proper place in teaching and theology” – James Denney
- So that… your faith my rest on God’s power… not man’s wisdom!
“Telling people the need for the gospel, both their felt need and real need, is plainly important, but it is not the gospel itself. Whenever people’s sense of assurance of salvation is expressed in the first person, something is amiss. When the question ‘How do you know God will accept you?’ is answered by I have Jesus in my heart, I asked Jesus into my life, The Holy Spirit is in me, and so on, the real gospel basis for assurance needs to be reviewed. We rejoice when the answer comes in the third person: God gave his only Son to die on the cross for me, Jesus died, rose, and is in heaven for me. When the focus is on the finished and perfect work of Christ, rather than on the yet unfinished work of the Spirit in me, the grounds for assurance are in place.” – Graeme Goldsworthy
We’re saved as a result of something done for us!
“To preach salvation by good works is to flatter people and so avoid opposition. This may seem to some to pose the alternative too starkly. But I do not think so. All Christian preachers have to face this issue. Either we preach that human beings are rebels against God, under his just judgment and (if left to themselves) lost, and that Christ crucified who bore their sin and curse is the only available Saviour. Or we emphasize human potential and human ability, with Christ brought in only to boost them, and with no necessity for the cross except to exhibit God’s love and so inspire us to greater endeavour.The former is the way to be faithful, the latter the way to be popular. It is not possible to be faithful and popular simultaneously.” – Cross of Christ, John Stott
Wallace Benn – The Power of the Cross
The Sunday night celebration at Bible by the Beach was packed out as the doors were opened for all who would come, to come for free… simultaneously there was a free youth event called Curious? with music from Simon Brading and Andrew Wilson speaking.
The Congress theatre was packed, apparently the last complete sell out event was ‘Hank Marvin and the Shadows’… maybe next year will be a complete sell out!
The Sunday night event always has a strong mission focus… last year we heard from Ben Kwashi, Archbishop of Jos (Northern Nigeria), this year we heard a video report from him, praising God for his faithfulness in the midst of great persecution. We also heard from Ray of Hope Amazon, a charity working to support the practical and spiritual needs of 80,000 untouched villages along the Amazon river.
We were encouraged to give generously to support these two projects and the on going work of Bible by the Beach – if you’d like to donate you can give online. Stuart Townend and Phatfish lead us in joyful praise to God.
Wallace Benn, Bishop of Lewes, and chairman of Bible by the Beach took us to John 18… the Garden of Gethsemane… showing us how John explains what the cross is all about… The King crossing the Kidron Valley, a scene in a garden, the cup… Wallace pointed us to the Biblical allusions, to the true meaning of the cross… loving explaining the doctrine of penal substitution.
This evening was head informing, heart warming and will changing… a great night celebrating the cross of Christ and his call to take the gospel to all nations.
You’ll be able to buy this talk in the Bible by the Beach shop.
Alistair Begg – The Weakness of the Cross
Some thoughts from Alistair Begg…
Gideon – you have too many men to defeat Midian… cut down to 300! So that Israel may not boast in their own victory… Pride is a killer!
The wise and the powerful were notable by their absence from the church in Corinth… why? Because the message that Paul proclaimed was foolish! Surely the church needs to win these people to attract people to the gospel? So often we go after the rich, the powerful, the beautiful… don’t forget the words of James 2 about favouritism!
If dependence on God was the objective… wouldn’t weakness be an advantage?
The church is weak, because God designed it that way v.27-28 – “God chose”
Conversation between a fireman and a surgeon… very different in the eyes of the world… nothing in common… but, in Christ… everything in common!
There’s something powerful about seeing the insignificance of ourselves… but seeing to how God works in and through insignificant people, with great intention! - 2 Kings 5… the unnamed slave girl, the unnamed servants… working for God!
Let the one who boasts… boast only in Jesus!
You’ll be able to buy this talk at the Bible by the Beach online store
Joel Virgo – Psalm 42-43
2nd night at Bible by the Beach 2010…
3 things that help us to understand his situation:
- Lost his sense of God (v.2) - feels abandoned by God
‘If our deepest desires cannot be satisfied in this world, then we must have been made for another world’ – C.S. Lewis
- Lost his sense of community – you were made for communion with a relational God – v.4 used to be part of the community! – v.10 his community now mocks… “Where is your God?!”
- Lost his sense of purpose – a Son of Korah… used to have a job of leading God’s people
3 things he does to respond:
- Pours out his soul – 43:2 “Why have you rejected me?!”
- Preaches to himself – v.11 “Why are you downcast O my soul… Hope in God, I shall again praise him”
- Considers his hope – the root issue is misplaced hope… “hope deferred makes the heart sick” (Proverbs 13:12)
Jesus is the basis of our hope… he can help us when we feel abandoned… he was the only one who was truly abandoned by God! “Why have you forsaken me?!”
If you know Jesus… you will never be abandoned by God… because he was!
You’ll be able to purchase this talk at the Bible by the Beach online shop soon…
Alistair Begg – The Wisdom of the Cross
Last night we met Alistair Begg, speaking at the main Bible readings and and all the way from Ohio, USA. We found out about his love of Manchester United (he hates Chelsea) and a secret passion for the TV drama Foyles War. This morning he began the first of 3 Bible Readings, looking today at ‘The Wisdom of the Cross’.
Alistair took us to 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5, reminding us first and foremost that the gospel is not the ABC, but the A-Z of the Christian Life. Here are some thoughts and quotes that Alistair brought to us…
“There is nothing in us or done by us, at any stage of our earthly development, because of which we are acceptable to God.We must always be accepted for Christ’s sake, or we cannot ever be accepted at all. This is not true of us only when we believe. It is just as true after we have believed. It will continue to be trust as long as we live. Our need of Christ does not cease with our believing; nor does the nature of our relation to Him or to God through Him ever alter, no matter what our attainments in Christian graces or our achievements in behavior may be. It is always on His blood and righteousness alone that we can rest.” – B.B. Warfield
The message of the cross has two big effects:
- Those who are perishing… think it’s foolish
- Those who are being saved… think it’s wise
“To convert one sinner from his way is an event of greater importance than the deliverance of an entire kingdom from temporal evil.” – Doctrine of the Atonement by Smeaton
“…only a person can substitute for a person; only a consenting will can substitute for a rebellious will.” – Alec Motyer
The Gospel is not something we do, it’s something Christ has done! If we exhort, without the gospel then we become legalistic! The Gospel is Historical, it’s rational, and it’s experiential… we couldn’t create it or think it up by our own wisdom… but, v.24 God Calls!
Lady Macbeth, with stained hands… “canst thou not minister to a mind diseas’d?”… Jesus can!
“There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins; and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.”
“Jesus, keep me near the cross, There a precious fountain, Free to all, a healing stream, Flows from Calvary’s mountain.”
No other story, no other Saviour – Jesus the only one qualified!
You’ll be able to get DVDs, CDs and MP3 downloads of this talk after the event in the online shop
Hugh: AJW... I agree. Although I'm not sure Welsh counts as a real language!...
AJW Smith: It is important to realise that BSL is as real a language as English o...
Tom B: Hey Hugh,
You may well have seen this already but I found this article...
Maxime Soumagnas: By the way, I'm pretty sure we'll speak French in heaven, so your bett...
