I've already described that the activities that we do on campus are kind of based around
small group meetings and faculties.
And every third week, the small group has to organise itself to do evangelism.
And this particular day, I was heading to the engineering faculty, pedalling my bicycle,
riding my bike between my place and the faculty.
And as I went, my phone started to buzz in my pocket.
And every buzz was another member of the group telling me that they couldn't make it that day.
It buzzed a fair bit.
And by the time I got to the faculty, the last message had arrived to confirm for me that
I was going to be alone that day.
No one was coming.
And it's not the first time that I've had to do things on my own, because we've understood,
we've realised that part of our job is the Lord sending us there to be an example of people
who will stand for Jesus and who will carry on.
And that day, sitting in the faculty, when the last message came through and I was alone,
I sat there kind of wrestling with God, angry again, that here I was, this Australian guy
who left a fantastic country to go to Italy.
And a lot of Italians, they say to us, you are nuts.
Why?
Whatever possessed you to think about leaving Australia to come to our country?
They say that all the time.
They just can't believe that we've done such a dumb thing.
And so I wrestled that day thinking, Lord, I've left a great country, Australia.
I've come to this country.
We've suffered a whole bunch of different things.
And here I am again, alone, seeking to tell about Jesus to Italians when all the Italians
can't turn up to do it.
And I was praying and thinking, Lord, what should I do?
Should I just go home?
I've got an extra hour and a half up my sleeve that I didn't think I had.
And then, once again, it became clear to me, no, that if the Lord Jesus is Lord of all life
in Australia, he certainly is Lord of all life in Italy.
And that means all the students that I can see walking to and fro in front of me while
I'm sitting on that bench in the engineering faculty in Florence, he's Lord of them as well.
So that means I have to speak.
So I said, all right, Lord, help me.
I will speak.
And I started praying for the guy who was sitting there next to me.
And I opened my mouth and introduced myself.
And I said that I was from the GBU.
And would he like to talk about Jesus?
And he said, yes.
And I'd love to say that after talking with that guy for an hour, he just was kneeling
on the floor, you know, waiting for me to help him pray the prayer and commit his life
to Jesus as his Lord and Savior.
He didn't do that.
In fact, he walked away fairly pumped up with his, I guess, his intelligence and his ability
to rebut some of the things that I said.
And in effect, I learned in that hour that he was his own God because he wasn't going
to let anyone else in to mess up the scheme that he had going on.
But the thing that moved me to speak and the thing that must move us to speak is the knowledge
and the belief, our trust in the fact that Jesus is Lord of all the universe, there, everywhere
and here.
Would you join me again as we pray and seek the Holy Spirit's intervention right now in
our minds and our hearts as we look at the word of God and we seek to really understand
that Jesus is this Lord and Savior and we can believe him, we need to believe him and we
need to speak that out.
Let's pray.
Father, thank you for this awesome opportunity to be together now.
We pray, Holy Spirit, that you would open our hearts and our minds to the truth that
is in this word, the truth about the Lord Jesus.
That he really is risen, that he reigns and he will return and that we need to speak that
out.
Help us to not only understand these things, but to do them.
And we pray it for your glory and the sake of the salvation of others.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
If you've got a handout, you can follow the outline that's printed there for you.
The talk is entitled Believe and Speak.
And we're looking just at these verses that have been read for us from 2 Corinthians 4,
verses 13 to 18.
And the big point, like I've already said, is that God has raised this Jesus from the dead
and he will raise those who trust in this risen Jesus.
That's what God is urging us to believe, because it's true, and speak out.
The first point there, as you can see, is why you would speak and what you would say.
And essentially, it's just saying again what I've already said, that God has the power to
protect and give life in Jesus Christ.
That's why you would believe and that's why you would speak.
It's interesting that Paul cites Psalm 116.
So he's drawing back into the Old Testament to find some connection point with what he's doing
and saying as he lives and as he writes to the Corinthians.
Please do turn with me to Psalm 116.
It's really important that we look at that together, because it helps us understand
that God is faithful even in the midst of trial and turmoil
that comes because of following him.
Please do turn with me to Psalm 116.
Where God tells us this through the psalmist.
I love the Lord, for he heard my voice.
He heard my cry for mercy.
Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live.
And it's in a tricky situation.
The cords of death entangled me.
The anguish of the grave came upon me.
I was overcome by trouble and sorrow.
Then I called on the name of the Lord.
O Lord, save me.
The Lord is gracious and righteous.
Our God is full of compassion.
The Lord protects the simple-hearted.
When I was in great need, he saved me.
Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the Lord has been good to you.
For you, O Lord, have delivered my soul from death,
my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling,
that I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living.
I believed.
And this is the sentence that Paul quotes.
And you might have a footnote similar to mine.
It says,
It's an awful moment in the psalmist's life.
How can I repay the Lord for all his goodness to me?
I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.
I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.
O Lord, truly I am your servant.
I am your servant, the son of your maidservant.
You have freed me from my chains.
I will sacrifice a thank-offering to you and call on the name of the Lord.
I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people,
in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Praise the Lord.
The psalmist is in the midst of trouble and difficulty.
And what does he do?
He cries out to this God that he knows,
who is powerful and faithful,
to sustain him.
Why would you speak and what would you say?
Well, you would tell about this great God,
this great powerful God.
And we see the reason that Paul gives in verse 14.
But I wanted to ask someone who has a loud voice
to read out for us, please, verses 13 and 14.
Preferably from an English Bible.
Because otherwise I won't understand it.
Or you could read Italian.
Someone, 13 and 14?
I will.
Great.
Loud voice, please.
That's all right?
Forgive you.
We have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written.
I believe and so I spoke.
We also believe and we also speak.
Knowing that he who reigns the Lord Jesus
will raise us also with Jesus
and bring us with you into his presence.
Excellent.
My version has in verse 14 because,
I think Nick's version was,
knowing that.
But he says,
we believe and we speak
because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus
from the dead will also raise us with Jesus
and present you with us
in his presence.
So what they're banking on is this.
God has showed that he is powerful
because he's raised Jesus from the dead.
And on the strength of that,
they put all they have on Jesus
knowing that he is powerful enough,
or the one who's raised Jesus is powerful enough
to raise them
who've trusted the one who raised Jesus
and he is powerful enough
to raise those who trust in the message
that they are proclaiming.
I've already mentioned it,
but it's a Colum Buchanan line that I'm stealing.
I'll put all I have on Jesus.
I will put all I have on Jesus.
That's what Paul's saying.
He is convinced that Jesus is risen from the dead
and it's not only powerful enough for them,
but it's powerful enough for everyone who trusts him.
I just want to pause for a second here
and make a brief observation
about what this tells us regarding Jesus himself
and why Jesus is so trustworthy,
why Nick's song and the chorus is so cool,
why Jesus is it.
Because Jesus' resurrection actually confirms
Jesus' identity as the eternal king,
the king that God promised to David
on the eternal throne of his people.
If you want to in your own time,
you can have a look at Matthew 28,
verses 18 to 20,
and Jesus says there in verse 18,
all power, and it's arisen Jesus talking,
all power in heaven and earth has been given to me.
He's not saying it before his resurrection,
he's saying it after.
Jesus' resurrection confirms God's power
to raise believers.
It confirms Jesus to be true
because if Jesus had not been raised,
he would have been a liar.
So it confirms actually Jesus' power,
the power of Jesus' own words,
his own resurrection,
confirms that he should be believed.
Jesus is trustworthy
and the risen God.
Close the bracket.
Now, listen carefully to this.
Without the resurrection,
there is nothing to believe.
Without the resurrection of Jesus,
there is no Christianity.
Without the resurrection of Jesus,
Jesus is a liar.
On campus,
when I'm talking with people,
I get to a certain point in the conversation
and I say something like this.
I just want to be really transparent with you
and I want you to understand who we are
so that you're not feeling fooled
and so that you can know
if you want to take this conversation further,
you can or not.
We're from the Gruppi Biblici Universitari,
the university Bible groups.
Our motto is sharing Jesus
from student to student.
So Jesus is at the center of everything we do.
We're not trying to build a new church.
We're not trying to create a new institution.
We don't want to establish
a new student group on campus
and really,
we don't care about the GBU.
What we want to talk to you about
is Jesus
and we want to talk to you about
one thing about Jesus.
Do you think he's alive?
Do you think he's risen?
And because I'm a foreigner
and I've had to learn
the Italian language,
I kind of muck around a bit saying,
I'm using the conditional language here, right?
I'm using the conditional tense.
If Jesus is alive,
then it changes everything.
If Jesus is alive,
then he has the solution
to our common problem.
He's overcome death.
But if Jesus is not alive,
then
I'd be happy to go back to Australia yesterday
and stay there
and live there
and die there.
But if Jesus really is alive,
I will go wherever God wants me to go
because if it's good for me
and it really is true,
then it's good for you
and it's good for everybody.
It's important in Italy
that we talk about
the resurrection of Jesus
because otherwise
Jesus is just left
as one of
a hundred,
if not a thousand,
other gods and saints
and lesser deities.
He's someone who got close.
But who knows
if he got close enough?
Good guy.
Top guy.
But
is he the risen Lord
of all the earth
in the mind of the average Italian?
No.
He's not.
So he doesn't have the power
to save if he's not risen.
He can't be saved
if he's not Lord.
It's important in Italy.
It's important here too
where you live.
The guy who dropped off the car
that we're currently using,
we got talking
and it turns out
that he grew up
in country Australia
having a Roman Catholic experience.
as he grew.
Convinced that God was there
but doesn't really know
how going to Mass
makes him any closer
to that God
that he knows is there
but can't really be sure
how to connect with.
And I said to him,
of course it came out
that we were in Italy.
He was doing a favor
for my brother-in-law
giving us this car
so that he didn't really
know much about us.
And I said,
we're missionaries in Italy.
He said,
wow.
And in the course
of conversation
I said,
you know what the really
big deal is
for me being a missionary
or being a Christian?
He said,
no, what's that?
Well,
the kicker for me
is that Jesus is risen.
Because if he's not,
then I'd love to forget it
because it makes my life
a great deal more difficult
being a missionary in Italy.
But if he's alive,
that changes everything.
And this guy said to me,
yeah,
you know,
I've never thought about it
like that before.
Start thinking about it.
But what about you?
What about you?
Because often we can be confused
as Christians.
And we might not be super clear
about what the centre
of Christianity is.
And this is what I meant.
There was a meeting
that I had one time
with a key student
as part of the GBU group.
And the lights were starting
to come on for me
about what I should be doing
and what should be
some of the key things
that I should be doing
with students.
And I said to him,
look,
if I give you two minutes
to share the central message
of Christianity with me,
what are you going to say?
And what are you going to say
with your friends?
And I said,
would you mind doing that
just as a bit of an exercise?
It's not a test.
He said, yep, yep.
I said, right,
time starts now.
Stop.
I said, thanks.
Can I just reflect
something back to you?
I said, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I said, you didn't mention Jesus.
He's like,
oh, yeah, right.
But not only did he not
mention Jesus,
the resurrection
was nowhere in sight.
Paul's big point here,
resurrection,
game on.
No resurrection.
Forget it.
If I can borrow something
from the circus in Rome.
What about you?
What do you say
when you've got two minutes
to share the message
of Christianity
with people you know?
And I'm challenging about this
because it's become obvious
to me that we need
to really understand
that the resurrection of Jesus
changes everything.
And you need to understand
that too,
and we'll see why.
Because without this difference,
without the resurrection
of Jesus,
Christianity is just like
any other religion.
Just a set of rules,
kind of some good examples,
but it goes nowhere
in the end
because it has no eternal value.
There's no guarantee
that by doing Christian stuff,
you're going to actually
overcome death
and have eternal life.
Without the resurrection,
Christianity is just like
any other religion,
but because of the resurrection,
there is believing hope.
It changes everything.
And in keeping with
the title of this talk,
Believe and Speak,
it means not only
is it something worth believing,
but it's worth speaking about.
That's why you would speak
and that's what you would say.
You would talk about
Jesus' resurrection
and it's no mistake
that Paul talks about that here.
I'd invite you to study
the book of Acts again
in your own time
and just see how much
they talk about the resurrection.
They don't talk a whole bunch
about the crucifixion.
They talk much more
about the resurrection
because that's the thing
that confirms that Jesus
really should be listened to
and that his death
actually did what
it should have done.
And Paul goes on,
the goal of what he's doing
is also to bless others
and glorify God.
This is the second point.
We've already looked at,
haven't we,
that we've established
that he refers to the psalmist
in Psalm 116
because it really sums up
what they are experiencing.
When you read from
the start of chapter 4,
you see he's talking about
trials and suffering
and being perplexed,
being crushed.
And this is because
of following Jesus.
But he wants to keep
on telling others
about Jesus
for their sake
that they might be blessed
and for the glory of God.
Can someone read up
verse 15 please?
It doesn't matter
what version it is.
Verse 15 please.
Thank you.
So he says,
we're going to keep
doing this
and as we do it,
it's for your benefit
because as they keep
preaching Christ,
the grace of God,
the news of God's
unmerited favor,
the news of God's
mercy goes out
and the people
who hear it
and they believe it,
they're brought in.
And the effect
in their life
is one of being
overjoyed
at being released
from the uncertainty
of death
and the fear of death.
This thanksgiving
at knowing
that there is a God
and that God
loves them
and they can know
that God
and they can be
connected to that God
forever.
and the joy
that they experience
and the release,
the freedom from sin
and the liberation
from this uncertainty
and God's judgment
wells up in them
as thanksgiving.
But that's pretty good.
That's a personal effect
for the people
who are receiving
Jesus Christ as Lord
but what it does
is glorify God.
So what happens
when a person
is actually hearing
about Jesus
being the risen Lord
of the universe
and accepting that
they are being brought
into a worship
of God
and it works like this.
As Christ is proclaimed
his truthfulness
which shows itself
in actually being raised again
it points to the fact
that there is a God
and that God is true
and he's eternal
and he's loving.
He cares about right and wrong
and he cares about you.
And in all that process
God goes
that's right.
That's what I'm like.
And it's only right
that you should understand me
as that right,
loving,
holy God
who's shown himself
in the Lord Jesus
and I want to bring you in.
Come in.
God is glorified
and Paul is,
he wants to be on that train.
He wants to be with it.
He wants to be on that program.
He wants to keep that happening
and he will not take a backward step.
Cherie is a woman
that Sarah has been meeting with
over the last couple of years now
and Sarah shared a little bit
of that story this morning.
Cherie is someone
who has struggled
with depression
and great uncertainty
relating to
life after death,
judgment.
But as Sarah
has been able to sit
and be very patient with her
opening the scriptures
and studying Jesus together,
getting to know Jesus together,
Cherie has been liberated.
And it's a beautiful thing
to see in the life
of a person
when they really do understand
how God has made peace
through the blood of Jesus
and how that's been confirmed
by his resurrection.
And the joy comes out.
The freedom is there.
The clarity of mind
actually occurs
and it's like,
whoa,
I'm seeing now.
And this has been,
we've been watching this
and praying for this
in Cherie's life.
A brother in our,
in my Bible study group,
church Bible study group
in Florence,
I think summed it up
really well
when we were studying Acts
one night
and he said,
you know,
it really seems to me
that evangelism
is much more
like giving a gift.
Telling Jesus
is much more
about giving a gift
rather than some crazy thing
that we really feel
burdened by
and we can never
really get to doing.
And I think he's right
because we're seeing it in Paul.
He won't take a backward step.
He will keep going
because he wants
to give that gift.
That gift has come to him
and he didn't deserve it.
He wasn't looking for it.
He didn't want to take it.
God said,
here it is.
Jesus says it to him
on the road.
He receives it
and he knows
he can never give it away.
He's not going to lose it
but he wants to give it.
He wants to make sure
that other people
get it as well.
Italy is a place
that needs that gift.
And I think Australia
is not far behind it.
We've got 0.2%
of people
who are non-Roman Catholic
Christians in Italy.
Australia,
I don't know,
5, 6%
that might kind of
fall into that category.
believers
who are in churches.
But there's this
great confusion
in Italy
because Jesus
is not Lord.
He's not presented
as who he actually is
and people are left
in their confusion,
in their fear.
But it's a question
for us,
isn't it?
Are we speaking it out?
Are we being led
to the same thing
that filled Paul's heart
and his life
as he kind of captures it
in verse 15?
He's not going to stop it.
Or this is for your benefit.
And the final point
I've got
is the reason
to keep believing
and speaking
is because this is
an eternal reality.
Look down again
with me please
at the passage
from verses 16 to 18
and I'll read this time.
I think this is a really
awesome reality check
for two reasons.
When we look at the contrasts
in these verses
we see on the one hand
a whole bunch
of difficult stuff.
He talks about losing heart.
He says we do not lose heart
but he's talking about that
because it's pretty easy
to start thinking
oh I'm just not sure.
I don't know if I can keep going.
I'm taking the knocks.
He talks about wasting away.
It's kind of the opposite
of all the advertising
you see around.
It strikes us really
in a big way
when we come back to Australia
and then when we return
to Italy.
The Italians are really
into well-being.
Skin, appearance, beauty.
Being thin.
Not being too fat.
And they talk about it
all the time.
Come back to Australia
and it's kind of like
whoa it seems like
Australia's kind of
going down the Italian path.
Paul's not talking about
going to the gym
and he's not talking
about his own well-being.
He's not talking about
the tablets that he can take
to pump himself up.
He's actually talking
about the fact that
they are wasting away
outwardly.
And he talks about
troubles.
That's on one side.
That's the reality check
of the effect
of following Jesus
and the effect
of being involved
in the ministry
of telling out Jesus.
The other side
he says,
have a look again.
Verse 16.
We're wasting away
outwardly yet inwardly
we're being renewed
day by day.
We have light
and momentary troubles
but they're achieving
for us an eternal glory
that far outweighs them all.
So what do we do?
We don't get weighed down
by thinking about
all the temporary things
but we look for
what is unseen,
what is eternal.
That is the risen Jesus
and what he promises.
The great powerful God
who could raise
this Jesus from the dead
and who will raise
from the dead
those who believe
in this risen Jesus.
In the six weeks
that we've been back
in Australia,
so far I've attended
two funerals.
I've been quite,
two very different funerals.
The first,
the wife of Richard Chin
who is the AFES
national director,
Bronwyn.
She died about
three or four weeks ago
and then most recently
a family friend.
He died at the age
of about 72
and sitting in those funerals
it was a massive
reality check.
It's pretty simple
isn't it?
The message of a funeral
often is that
this life is nothing.
We can't hang on
to these things
to make us live forever.
It doesn't work that way.
Like Ecclesiastes said,
a funeral is a good place
to hang out
because it's a really
good wake-up call.
It's a very good
wake-up call.
And Paul is saying
in the midst of
all this stuff,
all this trouble,
all this body
wasting away,
it's a reminder
he's drawn back
to ask why
and he's pointed
back to the risen Jesus.
And he must
be involved
in this news
going out.
I want to just
leave you with
this one last challenge
and you can pray
it for me as well.
My challenge is this.
There's a danger
for us
if we're already
following this risen Jesus,
the longer we wait
to speak out
what we believe
and what we know
about him,
the further away
our opportunities
will be
to tell others
about him.
I've seen this
in Italy
and I know it
to be true here
because I've
experienced it myself.
This is what
I'm talking about.
For evangelical
Christians in Italy,
like I've already said,
it can be very difficult
to actually live
in this massive
great ocean
of people
who don't understand
who you are
and they don't really
care for who you are.
And the church,
as much as it's
God's blessing,
can become a place
where people really
take very severe,
deep refuge.
It's kind of like
the lifeboat.
They've been hauled
into it
and the last place
they want to go
back into
is the water
that they've just
been rescued from.
But the challenge
with that is
they forget
why they're there
and they just
become a club.
They enjoy
all the benefits
of that club
but they forget
about the founder
and that it's
up to him.
And I think
people can be left
doing this.
They sit around
thinking
about what
they think
other people
think.
It's a bit
tricky that.
Sitting around
thinking about
what they think
other people
think.
And this is how
it goes.
Ah, they hate
Christians.
They don't want
to know.
They're not
interested.
They're going
to kill me.
And in my
experience
that's not
true.
They just
don't know
Christians.
They don't
know Jesus.
They really
want to
understand.
But the
longer we
wait, the
bigger the
wall and
the less
ready we
are to
speak.
And I
think Paul's
encouragement to
us, to you
tonight, to me
tonight, to our
evangelical brothers
and sisters in
Italy, is to
speak it out.
Is to get back
to the fact that
Jesus really is
risen and that
there's much more
going on than
meets the eye in
being a Christian.
It can look pretty
poor on the
outside, but the
eternal reality is
astounding.
Where are you at
with Jesus?
Where am I at
with Jesus?
Are you really
convinced that he's
risen?
What's going to
keep you going as a
Christian, but what's
going to move you to
come and be in
Italy with us?
when you're on
your own?
The Italians
aren't there, but
Jesus is there, and
you're there.
That's enough.
Speak it out.
If we believe it,
we'll speak it out.
And I want to
encourage you to
think about how you
might do that this
week and talk to
each other about how
that's going.
Let's pray.
Hallelujah, Father,
thank you so much
for the chance
once again to look
into the reality
of the Lord Jesus.
Thank you, Father
God, for calling
your servant Paul.
Thank you, Lord
Jesus, for calling
him, for filling
him with the Holy
Spirit and testifying
and giving him such
a great understanding
that, Lord Jesus,
you really are
risen, that he was
never going to take
a backward step.
Please help us to
examine our hearts
and our minds and
understand whether we
really believe that
you are risen, Lord
Jesus, or whether
we've got doubts, and
please help us deal
with those doubts.
And we pray that you
would help us to speak
out the truth about
you, Lord Jesus.
And I pray for your
Italian people, that
they would do the
same thing and help
us to be in it
together, we ask in
Jesus' name.
Amen.