It’s important to realise that Christianity is not an abstract philosophy or collection of timeless truths. Christianity is built upon a claim verifiable in history.  It’s built on the witness of the first Christians who testified to the physical resurrection of Jesus from the grave.

This fact seems to be overlooked by so much of the literature associated with the ‘New Atheists’ and their movement.  They often equate all religious belief as mere superstition on the level of believing in Santa Claus and the tooth-fairy.  It may serve a usefulness for a time, but we ought to grow out of it as soon as possible.

It’s important therefore for Christians to put some time into these issues because unless they are absolutely convinced of the historicity of those events, then their witness will be blunted.

It’s interesting as we go through Luke’s gospel (here’s the latest talk) the number of times where Luke intersects with the verifiable events of history (we’ve looked recently at 1:1-4, 2:1-2 and shortly we’ll look at in church 3:1-4).

If you’re thinking through these things can I suggest three areas for testing:

1. The events themselves.
2. The documentary record of those events.
3. The transmission of those documents to us today.

James de Costobadie did a slot last night on the reliability of the New Testament documents which is a good start if you’re interested in that area.  You can download a copy of his talk here.  He also recommended a book by Dr Paul Barnett - Is the New Testament History? which you can get from our bookstall.  The revised edition has an interesting chapter on the comparative evidence for the Islamic claims to historicity.

Written by Kent Hughes

Sweat, sweat, sweat, and a little more sweat. This is the most basic message of ‘The Disciplines of a Godly Man’. R. Kent Hughes starts out with a few good examples of men who are very successful. He shows us Winston Churchill, Leonardo da Vinci, Ernest Hemmingway and Thomas Edison. They all had one thing in common – success. Below that, their greater commonality was how they achieved success in their chosen fields – discipline, hard work, sweat.

As Christian men, we are called to serve God, to labour in His harvest field, and as with any other man, success is almost invariably had where discipline and hard work is to be found. Read Proverbs, ‘The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.’ And Paul says ‘train yourselves for godliness’.

Why do they say this? Why does Hughes beat into the mind that without discipline in our relationships (both God and others), without disciplining ourselves to read the word and diligently pray, without discipline in our jobs and in working together for the Kingdom of God, we will invariably fall short. This is not to reject the idea that it is only grace that saves, but rather to say that, by grace we are able to grow into a greater likeness of Christ, and this through discipline.

In conclusion, if you are willing to be challenged, if you are willing to say no to laziness and instead to sweat for Christ and the expansion of His Kingdom, but don’t know where to start, this book is for you. I have had my life picked to shreds by it, and in the rebuilding I have grown much. I hope you appreciate it as much as I.

Reviewed by Alex Mead

One of the things I’ve been meaning to put together at some point is a list of online resources that I’d recommend.  Perhaps we can make it part of the Campus Church website.

For now there’s a couple of one’s that I’ve found helpful recently that I thought some people might be interested in.

We’ve been promoting Tim Keller’s ‘Reason For God’ as a helpful read for communicating the gospel effectively in a postmodern and secular context.  Our bookstall sold out recently and we ordered 5 more copies.  We’re also looking forward to the paperback version - expected in 5-7 weeks.  That will bring the price down from around $35 to a much more manageable $15-20.  With volume we’re hoping to get it down even lower than that.  What was great to see was Katherine Orr listening recently to the online mp3s related to the book and putting a copy on CD from some people from church.  That was really thoughtful!

If you are interested you can download them directly from here

For readers on the journal ‘The Briefing‘ you may be interested to know they’ve now got a blog called ‘The Sola Panel‘ - a collaborative blog by a bunch of friends who love the five ‘solas’ of the Reformation, and want to promote a Bible-driven passion for theology, holiness and gospel ministry.

I was interested to hear there’s a podcast associated with The Briefing as well - and that they recently interviewed Col Marshall.  Col has affected more people than most through his model of ministry at UNSW over 25 years.  The formalisation of that model in courses we run on UC campus like ‘Growth Groups’  and the widely known apprenticeship scheme MTS are examples of the kinds of things he’s had a hand in.  I haven’t listened to it yet, but am looking forward to it!

We’ll try and get some other recommendations together sometime soon!  Let me know what you think…

Dave Morgan is a friend who works in Armidale with a university congregation next to then University of New England.  He was mentioning that a number of their students run into troubles living in flats - mainly because they’ve never lived away from home before.

Their church put together a document full of ideas for flats to help prevent problems before they come up.

You can download it from here.

Thanks Dave!

Do we really need reasons? It’s currently popular to say people aren’t interested in hearing arguments for Christianity, and that relationship is the key. Just show people that Christianity works, we’re told, and post-moderns will come to faith. But as Tim Keller points out elsewhere, this approach to truth is itself part of the non-Christian worldview which declares the ’self’ as sovereign, rather than Christ. We must experience a ‘worldview’ shift. The gospel must challenge our presuppositions. 

This is what Keller seeks to do in his New York Times best seller, The Reason for God. The book tackles common doubts about Christianity he has encountered frequently in his ministry among urban professionals at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. The material is the fruit from many years of engaging with sceptics, and this adds much to the book’s clarity and credibility. It is particularly impressive how well he has understood the objections that he explores. He shows familiarity with scholarship on issues of philosophy, history, sociology, literary criticism, and more. But far from being dry and academic, there is a warmth and surprisingly personal tone to the book. 

The first half of the book deals with seven objections, including the exclusive nature of truth, the problem of suffering, and the injustice carried out by Christians in history. The chapters seek to show that behind each of the doubts or objections, there is an unchallenged ‘belief’ which under closer inspection are less credible that originally assumed. In an artful way, Keller often turns the objection around, and shows that the Christian message actually provides a more satisfying solution to the problem raised than other solutions. The second half of the book deals with the positive reasons for faith, including evidence for God, and the consistency of the gospel message. Keller is at his best when describing the shape of Christian theology in creative and relevant language. Many have described him as a modern day C.S. Lewis, and it’s a good comparison. 

The Reason for God is a great resource for both believers and sceptics. It invites the reader to think further, to doubt their doubts, and to at the very least come to a better understanding of Christian faith. Although the book’s Northern American context is evident in a few places, it is a good fit for our highly postmodern and agnostic kiwi culture. Keller’s book has the potential to unsettle many from their comfortable apathy towards spiritual things.

Scott and I recently flew over to the might city of Sydney for TWIST 08, which stands for ‘The word in song together’.  TWIST is held annually, and over the last six years has become one of the premier music ministry training events in Australia.  With a focus on quality bible teaching and practical application, TWIST seeks to challenge church musicians to grow theologically and practically in their ministries.  So then, what did we learn?

Well, I’d like to share with you guys a few thoughts on the theology of singing, and three possible reasons why people don’t sing in church.

Singing is, and has always been, an important way for God’s people to respond to His character and acts.

“Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord: “I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.  The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.” (Exodus 15:1-2)

“Oh sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth! Sing to the LORD, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day.  Declare his glory among all the nations, his marvellous works among all his peoples! For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, he is to be feared above all gods.” (Psalm 96 1-4)

And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant… He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.” (Luke 1:46-8, 54-5)

And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people for nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5:9-10)

Singing edifies and encourages.

“What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation.  Let all things be done for building up.” (1 Corinthians 14:26)

Singing helps express emotion.

“Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise” (James 5:13b)

Singing can evangelise.

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.” (Acts 16:25)

Music ministry is a Word ministry!

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.  And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (Colossians 3:16-17)

Now I’d like to share with you three possible reasons why people don’t sing in church:

(1) Songs are chosen that are too hard for either to band to play or the congregation to sing.

(2) The song leaders/singers aren’t doing their job properly. In other words, they are inadequate at leading the congregation to sing along with them, especially if a new song is being introduced.

(3) The church is struggling with a spiritual issue, by which I mean the people don’t know how to respond or might not want to respond to God in praise, thanksgiving or adoration.  This reason had never occurred to me before, and would probably be the most challenging for everyone!

Church music has got to be one of the most contentious topics around, so if anyone has questions or comments, please holla back…

Peace.

Matthias Loong

Last night’s sermon was entitled ‘Resting’. Nick Duke took up the ambitious task of giving an overview on what the bible has to say about work and rest, through both the Old Testament and the New Testament. It was a long sermon (approx. 45 minutes), but knowing Nick, he could have easily talked for half an hour on any one of the many passages he covered!

Unfortunately, the MP3 recorder ran out of disk space part way through, so we only recorded 13 minutes of it - which included the reading and then the introduction. It turns out that just assuming that there will be enough memory remaining (and not actually checking) is a bad thing. Below is what we do have of the talk, if you’re interested.

What follows are Nick’s rough notes from the talk on Sunday. We hope they are of some value for those who want to think further about the topic. Nick would be happy to hear any feedback or discussion about how that applies to us. He didn’t get much time to think about applying the principle of living for God’s rest. Hopefully that will continue in conversations.

Intro - Different Approaches to Work.

Some cool bumper sticker views of work…

• ‘Hard work may not kill me but why take a chance?’
• ‘Work fascinates me - I can sit and watch it for hours!’

What views of work are commonly held by our generation?

1. Work is a necessary evil
   Seen on the back of a truck in the USA - ‘I owe, I owe, so off to work I go!’. But the Bible says plenty of good things about work.
2. Leisure is a necessary evil
   We’re finite, we recognise we need rest, but we go for the minimum amount of rest so we can throw ourselves into making a name for ourselves in our achievements. But the Bible has good things to say about rest - about recreation.

How you answer that question says a lot about who you are; it says a lot about what you live for. Do you live for leisure? Do you live for work?

Some people recognise the value of both and so try and express a ‘work-rest balance’. Many would see that balance in Exodus 20:8-11. A cosmic cycle of work and rest that we need to keep: six days of work and one day of rest.

I am going to suggest that, wise as it is to work hard and rest well, there is something bigger going on in the Bible with the question of the Sabbath and the Christian.

Raises the question - how does Old Testament rules apply to the Christian?

1. They don’t - new covenant, new law; Jesus fulfilled the law - doesn’t apply to me….
   BUT…Jesus on the Sermon on the Mount suggests that the law is not removed - in fact those who remove even the least of it are the least in the Kingdom of Heaven.
2. They do, in exactly the same way…
   Take for example the Seventh Day Adventist view of the Sabbath.
   Gets something right, but something quite wrong. Selective application…
   It doesn’t understand how Jesus changes the way we apply the law to Christians today….he doesn’t just uphold it…he fulfils the law…what does that mean?

1. Exodus 20:8-11

Remember
Command to remember: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”

• Keep it holy - holy means to keep separate. e.g. Holy Bible - a book that is special, separate. The word ‘holiday’ came from ‘holy day’, meaning special day.
• v9 shows what that looked like for the Israelites.
• I think this the emphasis is on rest - do all your work in the six days.
• Interestingly, doesn’t even mention church or gathering. Good thing - but not here commanded.

Key question - Why were they to rest?

• Answered in v11 - God created in 6 days and rested. Remember something about creation.
• SEEMS to be saying - a cycle of work and rest.

Interestingly the Deuteronomy 5 account of the same command is slightly different.

• Has a different reason for the Sabbath….v15
• Remember that God took you out of a land of work…and into a land of rest.
• The thing we need to unravel here is why these two reasons are given.

A common view is that there are two different reasons given for the Sabbath:

• Exodus 20 - Remembering God’s work and rest model in creation (therefore applying to all creation)
• Deuteronomy 5 - Remembering God’s rescue / redemption of His people.

I actually think they are not two reasons, but two aspects of the one reason. The view above is missing something important about the Genesis creation account. Got to remember that the law takes Sabbath breaking VERY seriously. It carries the death penalty. It does seem odd that the Bible takes Sabbath breaking so seriously - if it is simply a matter of remembering to have your day off.

I think one clue is in Exodus 31 - where it describes the Sabbath as a sign and a symbol of something. Think of a wedding ring - what would it communicate to lose it? Think of a flag - what would it communicate to burn it? I’m arguing it’s a sign of something that really matters - but we’ve got to look at Genesis 2 to work out the details of what exactly was symbolised.

2. Genesis 2:1-3

Rest
I’d like to give you a couple of questions I think are raised by the text:

a) What does it mean for God to rest?
It does sound strange - does God get exhausted by the work of creation?
Think of Psalm 121:

“He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.”

Can’t mean that he is exhausted. Hold that question for a moment. It will tell us something important about God.

b) What’s the significance of the seventh day?

Seventh Day Adventist might say it shows us an eternal principle of a work and rest cycle. That we join with God in resting on the seventh day (Fri sundown to Saturday sundown). Others might say - forget which day you take it - here’s a model of a cycle of work and rest from the Bible. The argument for both would be that to have something other than a 7 day cycle would work against the way God has made us. Stories about 8 and 10 day week trials… And I believe that it’s good wisdom to have a rhythm of work and rest (I take 1 day off in seven), but is that what is mean by the 7 days of creation.

But is there another way of viewing the seventh day? Here’s four clues that persuade me that both the above views are not getting to the bottom of the issue:

Four Clues

Clue 1: The seventh day is not called the Sabbath - even though the term was known to the writer.
That’s something that came later in Exodus 16 to the Israelites - after they’ve been rescued from Egypt. Here it is simply called - the seventh day. I think we will see later that the Sabbath is only one example of a large theme of this idea of the seventh day rest.

Clue 2: The emphasis is not on a cycle but on completion. Read 2:1-3

Clue 3: It’s clear that God doesn’t rest entirely on the 7th day.

• The significance of the 7th isn’t simply recovering your breath…He keeps on sustaining the universe. If he were to stop for just a moment the universe would implode. The text emphasises that he has stopped from the creating work of days 1 to 6. Uses a special word to describe that creation work as opposed to the work of sustaining the world since then.
• I think that’s what Jesus is talking about in John 5:17 when accused of breaking the Sabbath - “My father is working until now - and I am working” - if you think the Sabbath is purely about labour law - then you’ve missed the point of it. The Sabbath is pointing to something much bigger than that.

Clue 4: There is no suggestion that the day ends..

• Every other day ends with…”and there was evening and there was morning…the xth day…”. That’s missing from the 7th day account.
• A number of places in Scripture that suggest God remains in that state of rest….he doesn’t move out of it on the 8th day. For example, Hebrews 4 - suggests that God is still at rest - and so the opportunity for us to enter that rest still stands.

What do you make of all that?

Here’s my suggestion:
The seventh day is when God moves from creating to enjoying creation. It’s as if he’s an worker who finally steps back from his work and enjoys it. The 7th day is the climax day of creation - it reveals the goal to which creation is moving and intended for - rest. The 6th day shows humanity as the pinnacle of created things, but the 7th shows the purpose of creation. It shows where it is going.

What does it say? There is more to life than working. The goal of creation is rest with God. That’s not stopping working - that’s a picture of relationship with him, with each other and with the world.

It’s like the word ‘peace’ or shalom in the OT. More than just a absence of war. Peace or Shalom is not just lack of enemies, but the presence of relationship and plenty. The seventh day is a blessed day. I think that’s what’s being pictured in the blessed state of things in the Garden of Eden.

Now read that understanding forward through the Old Testament. Where do we see Old Testament echoes of these themes?

1. The promised land is seen as a land of REST. They are taken out of a land of labour / slavery and placed in a land of REST. It becomes a picture of the rest that will come to all of us in heaven.
2. Weekly Sabbaths (Exodus 20, Deut 5)
   • a weekly reminder that God made us for rest - for relationship and blessing. Don’t forget that….
   • That makes sense of Deut 5 - remember how God took you from a land of work and put you into a land of rest….
   • not that they would never do any work in the promised land - but it pictures something very important.
3. Land Sabbath (Lev 25) - the year has a year off every seven.
4. The Year of Jubilee (Lev 25) - after seven sevens of years, on the fiftieth year, land was returned, slaves were released..And in Luke 4, Jesus quotes Isaiah 61:1-2 which talks in Jubilee terms of the coming Messiah. He says he brings in that time. ‘Today this is fulfilled in your hearing’

3. The Christian and the Sabbath.

What’s it got to do with us? The 4th commandment just as important as any other. Shouldn’t it be just as important for us? In some way or another!

One of the surprises is that this one and only this one is not reiterated. And there is no word against any Christian who fails to keep the Sabbath.

On the contrary:

1. Romans 14:4-5
   If you want to treat one day as special - that’s ok. If not - that’s ok.
   How can Paul say that?
2. Colossians 2:16-17
   Don’t let anyone judge you re the Sabbath day FOR these are a shadow of the things that were to come. The important thing is understanding why you are not to let others judge you. It is because the reality is found in Christ. The shadows have given way to the reality. The symbol to the symbolised. The signpost to the destination.
3. Matthew 11:28-30
   Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden - and I will give you rest.
   Don’t psychologise the text! It’s laden with theological significance in the light of the Old Testament. Jesus is promising to fulfill all the OT expectations of rest. It comes sandwiched between one allusion to the Jubilee ‘rest’ (11:4-6) and two explicit discussions about the meaning of the Sabbath (12:1-14).
4. Hebrews 4:1-14
   We enter the rest by belief. The Sabbath of v9 is not a weekly sabbath - but the reality to which that symbol points. Rest is the goal of life, not a day off.

4. Working on your rest.

Does the 4th commandment apply to me? Absolutely! But it’s not about your day off - it’s so much bigger than that. It’s asking the question - what’s your goal in life?

A helpful thing might be a day off a week to REMEMBER. But the real question is are you living for God’s rest?

To the workaholic - repent; you’re living for your achievements.

To the leisure seeker - repent; true rest is only found in Jesus, don’t get distracted by the trinkets and the sideshows.

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

–
Note on sources: I found Andrew Shead’s article on Sabbath in the New Dictionary of Biblical Theology very helpful and am largely following his argument. The structure of the talk (Ex 20 -> Gen 2 -> OT -> NT) reflects an unpublished sermon a college lecturer gave on the topic of Sabbath in 1995.

Last night at Campus Church I reviewed a new book on our bookstall about faith.

“Faith - It’s Always Been A Matter of Trust” by Bryson Smith…($12)

I know I get excited about books generally, but it’s fantastic to spend an hour and half reading a book from cover to cover and walking away feeling encouraged and sharpened on such a key topic.

I really want to create a culture in Campus Church of reading and giving books away. Wouldn’t it fantastic to have members constantly reading new books - then going the next step of asking the question - who really needs to hear this message? How can I get this material to them?

Here’s my three reasons why I think it’s worth reading and then giving away (and sorry - you can’t get a copy from our bookstall anymore - we sold all our copies by the end of the night! We’ll try and make another order very soon).

1. It’s short

This is no magnum opus - this is a short punchy summary of a key Christian topic. It’s 6 chapters - each of which can be read in under 15 minutes. So it’s great for the bus or for a quick study break during exam time.

2. It’s Clear

Bryson is a pastor of a church in country NSW. You get the feel that this material arises from serious study of the Bible in the context of real world struggles and the normal kinds of misunderstandings about faith I hear so often.

Bryson has spoken in Christchurch before - I think at our Men’s Convention - he writes clearly and the tone is pretty conversational throughout the book. It feels like it has been refined over several presentations in preaching or other contexts.

…oh and if you’re into studying books together - there’s a few page discussion guide in the back that might help you think further about it and apply it in your lives. I think that can be a helpful think if you’re looking for a way of structuring a catchup with a Christian friend.

3. It’s Faithful

The book is deceptively simple - in 100 pages you feel like you’ve just started - but when I thought back over the material it was obvious that he’d done the hard work with the Bible. As I think over the New Testament teaching on faith, it felt like the balance of the book was well represented and all the key passages looked at throughout the text. He didn’t even feel afraid to reproduce the whole of Hebrews 11 as part of the text!

It also presents a view of faith that arises from the Bible itself, and from that critiques the most common distortions of that we see around today.

• Faith as mere positive thinking is critiqued by reconnecting faith to the promises of God in Scripture. Faith is shown to be trusting the promises that God has made and believing that is both willing and able to keep his promises. Demanding God keep promises he hasn’t made is shown to be what it is - lesser, not greater faith.
• Faith as believing in things for which there is no proof is critiqued in the light of Romans 4:21 - “being fully convinced that God is able to do what he has promised” and passages like Luke 1:1-4 which stress the certainty we can have as believers.
• Faith that is merely intellectual is critiqued as not measuring up to biblical faith which always results in changed lives - active obedience. I really liked the explanation of key passages here like James 2:14ff.

There are chapters on the power and consequences of faith (forgiveness and assurance), the purpose of faith (to bring glory to God), the life of faith (talking about faith and obedience), the enemies of faith (both sin and mere distractions from the main game) and Jesus - the founder and perfecter of faith.

I think the thing that excited me about it was that I could here echoes of many conversations over the years where alternative views of faith were being promoted. It’s great to be able to have a simple and short book to be able to put in people’s hands and say - take and read!

In the New Zealand church scene there is a lot of talk about key Christian words like faith, but not a lot of clarity or precision on what we actually mean by them. It would be great for this book to get a hearing in churches across this country!

Any thoughts?

Nick

For the next four weeks we’re running a talk series at church thinking about four foundational areas for living effective Christian lives.

They’re areas that we often make mistakes with and hear lots of different opinions on.  Why not bring some friends along to hear what God has to say in the Bible?

Giving (15 June) - how does grace shape the way we give generously of ourselves and the things we have?

Resting (22 June)- how does the command in the Bible for a day of rest apply today?

Praying (29 June) - if prayer is trust expressed in words, how does that affect our prayer life?

Listening (6 July) - how should we expect God to guide our lives today?

For those who use Facebook, we have both a Campus Church group and a Campus Church application. The application adds an audio player to your profile page which will play the latest sermon from Campus Church.

Our app is fairly simple, and could do with feature improvements. If you have any suggestions, let us know!