Toongabbie Anglican Church Blog

Weekly Blurb

Oh – what a night!

Sunday 31 August, 2008 · Posted by Raj Gupta

The last time the Sydney Entertainment Centre was full, in the name of evangelical Christianity, was the 1979 Billy Graham Crusade. At this time, the Gospel of Jesus death and resurrection was proclaimed. Christians around the city united.

Almost 30 years later, just last Wednesday night, once again the Sydney Entertainment Centre was packed. It was a sell out. This time, the Katoomba Christian Convention (KCC) was the banner under which many Christians around our great city united to hear our Lord Jesus proclaimed. Mark Driscoll, a man uniquely gifted by God spoke and challenged our city to burn the plastic Jesus we have made up, and return to the Jesus of the Bible.

It was incredible to sing with 10,000 others in such a venue. And God was at work incredibly through the teaching of His Word. To people who do not know Christ, he shared his experience in recent weeks where he could see that life in Sydney is so good. It is so good, he observed, that it can feel like a good enough heaven. His point is supported by statistics, which consistently rank Sydney as offering among the highest quality of life in the world.

However, Mark powerfully argued, this great city has also been infiltrated by several forms of a ‘plastic Jesus’ – the religious Jesus, the prosperity Jesus, the moral Jesus, the Aussie Jesus, the country Jesus, the spiritual Jesus and the ‘pensioner card’ Jesus. His challenge was to return to the Jesus of the Bible, who demands your life.

There was also a challenge to Christians to have a sense of urgency in taking the Gospel to this great city. It was a timely challenge, for living in Sydney can so easily mean we become complacent. We were reminded that Jesus is better and greater than ourselves, and we ought to make sure we serve him with our whole life. It was also exciting to Mark’s desire to come back in the future and run a conference for church planters.

Thank God that Mark Driscoll has been able to come to Sydney, and also for his continued ministry in the coming days. And also please pray that God’s work through him will not leave when Mark departs, but will be lasting as God works to transform our city to serve the Lord Jesus.

Raj

Post this to: Facebook · del.icio.us · google · · email
(suggest another share link)