Anniversary Service
Rom 1: 11 – 17
Rev. Peter R Green, Sunday morning, 2 Aug, 2003

Anniversaries are times of reflection. You think about the time past, of the time ahead. You express hope, and you express — I hope — sorrow for the past. It’s a time to face reality.
  This the 116th anniversary of Marrickville Baptist Church and the fourth anniversary of Silver Street Mission. This is the story. 116 years ago, a Baptist church was established in Marrickville. We chose the name, Marrickville Baptist Church, to express the fact. It was a gathering point for many of the Baptists living in the southern part of what we know as the Marrickville Local Government Area.

  A bit over four years ago, we faced a crisis. We were out of funds, we were out of members, we were out of ideas. So we decided to regroup and reorganise. Part of that was that eventually I became a voluntary pastor here, and another part was that we set ourselves up as Silver Street Mission, to remind ourselves that we are here for the purpose of mission in Marrickville. Our primary aim is not to be a club for Baptists in Marrickville, but to be agents of change in our society.

  The first thing we should ask ourselves is, “To what extent have we fulfilled that aim?”
  But I am not here today to criticise or to condemn. Satan is very able to condemn us without my help, so I’ll leave that to him.

  I do want to present three glimpses of what we are here for, and suggest how we might put it into practice in our situation. There will be three mini–sermons wrapped up in an overall theme. The Germans have a good word, Rahmenerzählung, for a collection of stories within a story. Sometimes we translate that as "frame–story”. This is a frame –sermon.

A GOSPEL–ORIENTED CHURCH
  The first part is found in Romans 1: 16 —

  Everyone understands that we are here to worship God. But, when we think about how to begin living out our faith, that starts with proclaiming the gospel.
  Paul sets it out in Romans. The Gospel is God’s power for salvation.

  I want us to know what this salvation is.

  Is salvation about feeling better, about having a purpose in life, about self–actualisation, living the kind of life that truly expresses who you are?
  Psychology is right to say that we all need to express our true selves. Abraham Maslow pointed out that this is our goal in life, to be able to achieve what we were created for.
  That is good psychology, and it reflects many things important Bible teachings.
  And I imagine that many of us, maybe all of us, have sometimes felt that our lives have very little purpose apart from their purpose in the gospel of Christ. The gospel does give us a purpose.
  But if you restrict salvation to this interpretation, you will totally misunderstand what the gospel is about.
  After all, many people find their purpose in birdwatching or mountain climbing or writing.
  The gospel is not just one among many paths to a life of ease. It is the one thing that turns life around.

  Again, we can’t restrict the idea of salvation to assurance of life beyond the grave.
  As my father was dying, it gave me great comfort to think that one day we will all meet in heaven. What a day of rejoicing that will be!
  It was a great relief to me to know that, in his last days, he declared himself on the side of Jesus from the bottom of his heart. Because, apart from Jesus, there is no salvation. He is the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by him.
  But I can’t show you that life to come, much as I believe in it. Paul himself spoke of departing and being with Christ, and said that, for him, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Yet the world sneers and says, “Pie in the sky when you die!”

  But there is one sense of salvation you can’t escape. In John 3: 16, we read,

  Apart from Christ, we perish.
  Salvation halts the perishing process.

  The Greek word means, "to become unfit for the original purpose.”

  In a world where technological progress has been so rapid that no one could keep up with it anymore, we are further from solving life's basic problems than ever.
  In a world where we understand the human psyche better than ever, we are more warlike, less loving than we ever were.
  Look around! We can’t live the way we were created to live. We were created for community, and we hate each other for our skin colour. We kill each other in the name of God. We rip babies untimely from their mother’s womb. We are implacable, unloving, slanderers, murderers. And that’s just the good guys!
  No matter how hard we try to convince ourselves that we are not to blame, no matter how much we protest, we have to admit that we are, at very least, accessories. We permit evil to flourish, if only because we think it is too vast a problem to tackle.
  Humanity is perishing, and the gospel offers an antidote. It says it is possible to choose a path that opposes the broad path down which the world rushes to destruction. It is possible to repent and turn back. It is possible to survive the inevitable collision, because Christ died, but Christ rose again!

  Here is a convincing reason to preach the gospel: there is no other solution to the radical self-interest that infects our nation and that infects each one of us as individuals. We need Christ... and our world needs Christ, too!

A CHURCH IN COMMUNITY

  The Bible is about communities. Paul uses metaphors like, "body", "family" and "army" to try to explain the unity and diversity of a true Christian church. If we belong to Christ, we might have different roles and functions, but we make up one body, one family, one army of God. Yet it is precisely here that the churches fail. There was a popular parody some years ago, with the words,

  For Jesus, it was so important that we should be in community with each other that he prayed that we should all be one, in the same way as he and the Father are one.
  He even went further, and said that, if the world sees our oneness with each other, it will be convinced that God the Father sent Jesus into the world.

  Several years ago, there was something like revival at one of the outer suburban Baptist Churches. One man decided to attend and see what was happening. He caught a taxi from the nearest major railway station, and found that the driver was a Muslim.
  The driver was interested: what was happening at this church, that had people coming out at night during the week?
  He asked if he could come in and look, just from the back of the church, so that he could see for himself what was happening. He was due for a break.
  What he saw impressed him so much that he came back the next night. And then he came back the next night again. After a while, he was coming right inside, and after a little longer, he was converted to faith in Christ.
  They asked him what had made the difference. He said, "I saw God truly at work among you, and I saw that you loved one another. I had never seen anything like it before.”

  Until a church is able to develop real love and community, it cannot be revived. But, when it begins to develop that love and unity, it becomes attractive to the whole world. They don’t see that very often.

A CHURCH IN BATTLE
  The third thing I want us to think about is being in the fight.

  If you’ve been following this Bali bombing case in Indonesia, you’ll have seen how the alleged bomber, Amrozi, has been declaring his delight to be facing martyrdom. He hopes that many more like him will rise up to harm the

according to one line in a song he wrote.
  I was thinking about what is happening here.
  There is something here like in Revelation. Unclean spirits pouring over the land, a repository of evil breaking open and releasing the evil pent up inside. I was thinking about what it means for us believers.

  A pastor I know says that the biggest problem facing the church today is demonic religion, religion which looks, on the surface, to be real, but, inside, is controlled by demonic forces.
  It’s not just a church problem, but it’s also a world problem. If what they say about Amrozi is true, it is clear that here is a victim of unclean spirits.
  If what has been revealed lately about the strength of JI in Australia is true, it is clear that these unclean spirits also have a powerful stronghold in Australia.
  But don’t imagine that the phenomenon is limited to Muslims. There are Muslims who have little evidence of demonisation, and there are deeply demonised believers in the churches. What I’m saying is that demonic religion is rife across the world, and especially powerful among some religious groups where Christ’s power is strenuously denied.

  What I want to say is that we are called and appointed to fight against principalities and powers and forces of spiritual wickedness in heavenly realms. We are called to confront not only worldly wickedness, but also spiritual powers in all the places where they are found.
  We are not just called, we are empowered. If we are believers in Jesus, his mighty power is in us, and it’s the same power which raised Jesus from the dead and the same power with which he drives out demons even today.

  If we fail in this confrontation, Satan wins the round, and the Kingdom of God suffers a setback. We can’t afford to stand back and weakly resign to the evils we deplore. We are a mighty army, because the lord himself heads us. Let’s tackle the enemy head on!

SUMMARY
  I’ve outlined three essentials for our coming year. These are
    A gospel orientation
    A community lifestyle
    A commitment to the battle.
  If we are to be effective, it will take effort, and that is something we often lack.
  We need to recommit ourselves to the gospel. But we don't need a recommitment in theory. We need to be recommitted in practice. Last year, Paul, Beatriz, Andros, John and I were meeting to plan outreach, and we did a little. It was a good idea. But we don't have a committee anymore. We need to plan how to put the gospel into effect in our community. People need to connect the gospel and the Baptist people in Silver Street. When that begins happening, then our name change will really mean something.

  Second, we have to take community really seriously. I have to confess that I am one who has been acting in an anti-community way. I have had my reasons, but I want to try to find ways to change. You understand the pressures of the past few years, but I also know that there have been times when I could have been more involved.
  But I'm not just talking about involvement. We need to find ways to bring ourselves closer to each other. How can we really build a team with the gospel at its sharp end? A team representing different ages, different sexes, different backgrounds, but united in one Lord, one faith, one baptism?

  Third, as a team, we need to begin taking a very firm and definite approach to the anti-Christ powers in our own vicinity, to confront them and to overcome them by the power of the gospel.
  These things can be done, and they will, by God’s grace, be done.
  May it be so — soon!

  Right now I want to call on us all to make a decision.
  If you are a Christian believer who has let his or her relationship with the Lord lapse or become barren and dry, today is a time to turn back in repentance and faith.
  And, if you are someone who has not yet come to a personal faith in Jesus, though he died for you and returned to life on the third day, now is a time to turn to Him in repentant faith also.
  I encourage you, as we sing and pray, to come forward and to declare that decision for Christ before us all, so that it no longer becomes a private secret that touches nothing, but becomes the property of the entire community here, and touches every heart.