Live Blog Day 3 Capetown 2010
We kick off with some singing – Blessed be your name – people really getting into it. It does sound a little like a male voice choir – but we are giving some “welly” as we say in England.
Now As the Deer Pants for the water – the violinist is doing a good job this morning – that 40 piece orchestra from the opening night is no longer about. An Indian lady in a punjabi suit sings a solo in Hindi I think. Some of us try to sing a long – but its seems better just to let her sing words we know in another tongue – now a lady in a dress with a zebra pattern on sings in Afrikaans. We watch. Now a man in a diamond cardigan sings to us in Korean. A Japanese lady with a pink jumper and a large flower brooch sings to us.
I like the idea of singing in another language – its great to celebrate the diversity, and to make sure that English isn’t the only language we hear. Its interesting that we are hearing a Graham Kendrick song from the 1980s in lots of different languages. What does it tell us about the worship music industry – the new commercial colonialism? The 1980s gave us the “charismatification of worship” but possibly a new wave of western colonialism after the waves of the book of common prayer and the hymns of Wesley. The expansion of
Now an American man with a denim shirt and a 1980s hair cut reads to us the Bible passage Ephesians 3 in the ESV translation. He’s reading well – but to me it underlies the “unreadability” as Don Carson puts it, of the translation. Shame we couldn’t get someone to memorise the passage. No drama today – yet. He’s reading very clearly though.
Up comes David Oginde from Kenya wearing a traditional African costume. He reads
“I suppose I knew the Bible, reading piecemeal, hit or miss, now a bit of jonah matthew, now genesis, now certain pslams the 23, first of romans, I thought I knew the word, but I found the systematic reading opened another world… you would treat the crown of writings as you would no other book.”
As you read today – remember Ephesians 3 was heard as one complete letter without the chapters and verses.
Now we have a little discussion about the passage:
John Piper
Dr Piper comes up to speak. (Piper is on a year out of ministry to work on his heart and family). He tells us he is preaching the message to us twice. The big picture first in 8 minutes. Three big pictures
SCENE ONE: The Great Cosmic Purpose of God is to make know the glory of his wisdom to the demonic powers of the universe v.8.9 and 10.
Paul must preach the unsearchable riches of Christ . v.8
Paul must preach must make known the mystery hid before the ages .v9
Why? So that “through the church” the manifold wisdom of God may be made known – to the rulers and authorities so we know this means demons from chapter 6 (guess he doesn’t like Walter Wink’s work on the powers …)
GOD IS NOT A TRIBAL DEITY.
If there had been other Christians in other galaxies they would have been invited to Lausanne. We are not about global manifestation of the cosmic purposes of God
SCENE TWO: God gathers a people from the nations through the suffering of the missionaries.
v.1 for this reason I, Paul a prisoner of Christ
v.13 I ask you not to lose heart as to what I am suffering for you
Paul draws attention to his suffering for pity, he wants us to see that his suffering is for our glory. (v.13)
God’s design is that the church will be drawn into the glory of the unsearchable riches of Christ through the suffering of her missionaries and ministers. (wow he speaks in long sentences sorry if I don’t capture them all.).
God gathers a people from the nations through the suffering of the missionaries. Why would God glorify his church this way? God displays his infinite wisdom in doing it this way? (Piper is preaching with his eyes closed now.)
Scene 3 “God has chosen that the supernatural power required to see the glory of his wisdom and to suffer for his name come to us through earnest prayer” v.14-21
Paul prays that his preaching will come to pass. He is taking the ideas of chapters 1 and 2 and prays that it will come to pass. Paul wants us to see and enjoy the unsearchable riches of Christ, the mystery hidden before the ages.
Paul prays for this to happen, because no human being can grasp the height or depth of his love… unless divine supernatural omnipotent power comes into our lives. It comes into our lives through prayer.
Now John Piper wants to goes back and look again.
Scene 1:
- the wisdom of God manifest to the powers – demons and satan himself
- the riches of the glory of christ v.8
- revelation of the mystery of the ages
What is the relationship between these three parts. The clue as to how they relate is found in the meaning of mystery. v.6 gives us the meaning. The mystery is that the gentiles and nations are now fellow heirs (members of the same body) partakers of the promise through the gospel.
How does unsearchable riches, participated by all the nations – how is that made known to the demons. It is made known through the gospel – the clearest most concise expression of the gospel 1 cor 15:1-4 “that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures that he was buried and raised on the third day according to the scriptures”
We are streaming into the unsearchable riches of the Messiah we get that through christ’s dying for us – it happens through the cross.
How does the Cross relate to the wisdom of God made known to the devil. 1 Corinthians 1: “jews demand signs and greeks demand wisdom but we preach christ and him crucified” he gets a big clap.
Looks like John Piper had an agenda here – how to get to Penal substitution from Ephesians 3. The link is wisdom – the cross is the power and wisdom of God. Ruth wanted to get women in leadership in and Ajith wanted to get proclamation evangelism in.
(He preaches at a good pace for people to follow – with lots of gesticulation – but in pretty long sentences. There’s lots of passion here and lots of claps.)
Now we are back in Ephesians – we don’t just see the wisdom of God in christ and his work but also through the church – the manifold wisdom of God is known through the church. Piper mentions the lake of fire arguing that the demons will be forced to confess
John Piper rewrote this last night – (I thought people had to submit a script? And that everyone had to prepare in community as well? This feels like Dr Piper is shortcircuiting a process in order to get his particular views on eternal conscious punishment into the conference.)
Why does it take cross; the price? Ephesians 2:3. Piper argues that we must get the gospel right. We must get this right. “we were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind” All human beings are children of wrath. Christ didn’t have to die because I am a sinner, but because we are all children of anger. This is the greatest problem for mankind in the universe, there isn’t anything that comes close to the problem of being under the wrath of God. If God hadn’t put christ in the way of the wrath of God – Galatians 3; if God had not done this then all people would be under the wrath of God.
He’s running short on time now to get through Ephesians 3. Piper begs God that we would go with him here. There are two truths that are in tension in the global church –
1. “when the gospel takes grip of our souls it works with us to work against injustice in our world”
2. “when the gospel takes grip in our souls it awakens us to the eternal suffering of lost souls in hell. It impels us to cry “flee the wrath to come” because christ has died to absorb the wrath of God.”
Some love the one truth preeminently others the other. Could Lausanne say , could the global church :
“for Christ’s sake we Christians care about all suffering especially eternal suffering” (long pregnant pause).
Then.. we don’t have to chose, Christ is calling us to pull this together. Piper makes a bid for us – we either have a defective view of hell or a defective heart.
(Lets reflect a little on this sentence– it sounds pretty orthodox – it is arguing for both social responsibility and evangelism – which is what the first Lausanne convention asked for. So nothing new here. But by mentioning eternal suffering – Piper is deliberately trying to challenge John Stott – one of Lausanne 1’s founders, view of annhiliationism.)
Now Piper turns to scenes 2 and 3 (he’s got 3 mins left)
When Paul was going to prison for the gospel – he showed the nations the Christ is more precious than freedom.
When Paul was willing to suffer for Christ – he showes the nations that christ is more precious than prosperity – we are not after prosperity we are after christ.
Nobody can see the breadth and depth of the love of Christ – nobody says with the apostle Paul “I count everything as loss except for Christ” unless God’s power has broken into our lives and unless that is through prayer.
Piper gets a big clap.
(He spoke with passion and energy. Not sure he really captured the heart of the passage – felt like he turned it into a systematic theology getting on to his hot button issues of Penal Substitution and Eternal condemnation. Wish he spent more time in the passage – he was getting some really interesting ideas in scenes 2 and 3 – particularly the idea of God being glorified through suffering rather through prosperity – talking with some African pastors here – they are wrestling with the challenge of prosperity teaching. That would have been helpful – I think the best part of his sermon.)
Libby Little an american lady is telling us about 10 US missionaries who were murdered in Afghanistan in 2010. She reads the name out slowly and lastly mentions “my husband Dan little” They were returning from a 3 week medical missionary trip and driving home – they were pulled out of their cars and then murdered. She speaks very quietly and yet there is a rapt attention.
We do not know who killed these 10 people, we do not know why they were killed, but we do know this all encompassing reason why they were there. My husband had 30 years experience of living in Afghanistan it is where we raised our family.
She has her husband’s journal in her hand. She has his sermon notes which are blotted with blood – Ephesians 2:8-10 and ephesians 5:2. She tells us the Nurostari Cheese story – alluded to her husband’s last semon notes. On a windy day you can smell Nurostari cheese for miles – some find it offensive, horrible. It takes some getting used to – one has to develop a taste and then you are hooked – you can’t wait for more.
She reads from a John Piper poem.
Sadly we are over time so no time to discuss…
Plenary Sesion: Jesus and other faiths
Bishop Ben Kwashi from Nigeria is speaking. He is sharing testimony about the persecution he has experienced because of preaching the gospel. He talked about the almost unspeakable abuse his wife suffered when men came looking to kill him, she was beaten nearly to death and left blind. By the grace of God she recovered from her ordeal. But a year later Ben was confronted by 30 men that had come to kill him, they said they were going to kill him outside, he asked for time to pray and when he had finished his son came to him and said that the men had gone. Ben speaks with passion and authority. He says I don’t know how I will die, but until the day I die – “I have a gospel worth living for and I have a gospel worth dying for.” Ben’s testimony is incredibly stirring and there is rapturous applause.
Now a monologue drama from an American girl with a blue top and a red scarf– nice to be using drama – but after hearing from the sheer power of Ben’s talk it feels tame. She is speaking out the story of Rahab – nice touch to have the red scarf . Again the background graphics are amazing – well done team.
Now an Indian lady wearing a turquoise sari speaks about her conversion from Islam and how in 1978 Jesus entered her life to being a daughter of Ishmael to become a child of God. For 10 years after that she struggled to keep her faith. But somehow her orthodox Muslim husband also came to God. She talks about her ministry around the world helping to reach out to scores of Muslim women. Till 2003 she was one of the pastors of New Life church in Hydrobad. Through a vision and prophecy she felt the call to work training up believers to understand muslims, love muslims and then witness to muslims. God spoke to her through the book of Esther “for such a time as this…” She has been working with a US church to help train up believers all around the world, particularly trying to plant house churches. They are planting a contextual services – they do not have a pastor but a Christian imam. They meet in an Islamic format– “you’ll need a paradigm shift to even think of such a church” (cheers). Though the church is Islamic in format it is thoroughly Christian in its format – it’s a pentecostal spirit filled church. “Some people came to church thinking it was a mosque – the good news is they stayed!” My brother Ali has baptised 25 Muslim men, and I have baptised 12 muslim women all in 7 years. (cheers and claps) She did great. Really good to see another woman giving a good chunk of time and also to see more Pentecostals upfront.
Now a video montage –
Ram Gidoomal explains how he came to faith and particularly the challenge of communicating the faith in language and concepts that Hindus can understand.
Michael Ramsden is going to give the next talk.
He quotes Acts 20 – “I am innocent of the blood of all men”
He is speaking clearly, deliberately and urgently.
Ramsden says he feels inadequate to the task of talking about bearing witness to christ, like a lion in a room of Daniels ( David Bosch said the same thing in Fuller Seminary !). Paul’s gospel is not a gospel of pompous self righteousness – he is full of the holy spirit not full of himself. Paul knows he is going to die. It is a sad reflection that we look for models of evangelism that cost nothing. We have the money and export them around the world, the gospel must be lived, it must change our live, we have no option, we cannot simply be silent, even though it will cost us our lives, are you willing to lay down our lives for the gospel? Are we doing whatever we need to do to make Christ glorified.
Someone said to Michael “If I found from my doctor that I had cancer and only had a few months to live, I would get on a plane and go to Saudia Arabia to preach the gospel there.” It doesn’t seem to fit with what Paul said. Why do we need to wait until we get cancer before we go and share the gospel in Saudi Arabia.
“There are no closed countries to the gospel, there are only places where Christians are too afraid to stand up.”
What are we waiting for?
A short while ago I was in a setting that I cannot name, I tried to explain the gospel as best I could. The final question was asked by a man who had a long beard and was training to be an imam.
You Christians said Christ had to die for us to be forgiven? What does this mean?
I was praying this question would come up. I had said to my friend “Please be clear in your answers, I don’t want to get shot for a bad answer, its one thing to die for the gospel, its another thing to be shot for a bad answer.”
Michael outlines the gospel: propitiation of God’s wrath and the need for personal repentance
It was a pleasure to pray with the man that asked the question
Do we love the gospel, do we love Christ more than life itself?
Michael alludes to those yesterday who talked about campaigning and working for justice, he critiques those that do this kind of work to make a name for themselves “we do not preach the gospel for Christ not us” (Michael works for Ravi Zacharias International Ministries RZIM).
Michael tells the story of a couple who were giving the Bible away in an unamed country. How they smuggled Bibles in and prayed who to give it away to. The husband went to buy water from a shop and prayed and decided not to give it to the shopkeeper. His wife prays to God and says “on the day of judgment may the blood of this man not be on my head but my husbands” they spend the whole days arguing about this and then the husband finally goes and gives the man a Bible. He says “I received a dream from God to wait for someone to bring me the book of life I have been waiting for 5 days”
Make sure whatever we do we do with humility and with love knowing that “our life is not worth preserving but the gospel is worth proclaiming” – great closing line from Michael.
Ziya Meyral from Turkey is up front – a former London School of Theology student.
He talks about the fact that he was attracted to the Christianity not for any supernatural reason but because of a newspaper article that said there was a local church that offered $100 to those that attended, eligible young women and visas to the america. He went to the church because of this but only found elderly people, no visas and you had to put money in the collection plate not take it out!
Ziya critiques the gospel we have been presenting – as individualistic, cliché formulation of the gospel, hero bible smugglers, reductionistic formulations of the gospel,
Techne and theo are confused – technique rather than the God.
Most publishers only want to hear about miraculous one off conversions not the long term discipleship of Muslim believers.
60% of new followers of Muslims give up Christianity after 3 years. The church does not always grow under persecution – in some places the church is being wiped away.
(Ziya’s talk challenges some of the previous talks that we have heard today. I am not sure if Ziya had had sight of Michael Ramsden’s talk or John Piper’s before the event. Michael offered quite a individualistic model of the gospel – not mentioning the church but personal faith in propitiation and personal repentance and a miraculous bible smuggling story. Not sure if Ziya had Michael in mind when he gave his talk or John Piper who talk a passage which was predominantly about ecclesiology into a talk about personal faith in propitiation.)
We talked around our table about the session – one question that came up was where Michael Ramsden lives. I had to confess he lives in Oxford. Someone asked me why Michael didn’t move to Saudi Arabia? It was discussed that it would have been easier to take if Ben Kwashi had called us all to be willing to die for our faith, but the Bishop had humbly just said what he was willing to do not what we all should do.
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