Christianity Explained came out of an Australian study in the early 80’s that recognised there had been a decline of understanding about Jesus, the Bible and the Gospel in Australia. In New Zealand the decline in church attendance has been even greater.
In fact church attendance was at its highest in the 1890’s when it was sitting around 30% compared to between 5% and 10% today.
My family arrived in November of 1974 and Mhairi’s family in 1975. I remember with rose tinted glasses admittedly, that all of Papatoetoe’s churches were pretty full on a Sunday back then and so we would have been sitting close to the national average of around 20%.
For a number of reasons since then, the demographic has shifted and church attendance in Papatoetoe is well below the average now at an estimated 2.8%. The reality is that we are living in a godless zone.
If we drill into the census from 2006 - 2018, we see a dramatic shift in the religious affiliation in Papatoetoe in just 12 years. Remember, this is only affiliation, the number in Church on a Sunday is a lot lower.
- We see that Christian affiliation decreased from just over 50% in 2006 to just over 30% by 2018.
- This was offset by an increase in Hinduism from 10% of the population to 20%
- An increase in other beliefs from 5% to just over 15% (note this is not Buddhism, Islam, New age or Judaism so these other beliefs maybe people who say they have their own religion)
- Islam is only around 5%, this is actually a relief and I’ll tell you why.
This is from a Muslim Q+A website
Is Jesus the Son of God?
- Saying that ‘Isa is the son of God is a monstrous saying and a great evil.
- Whereby the heavens are almost torn, and the earth is split asunder, and the mountains fall in ruins,
- But it is not suitable for (the Majesty of) the Most Gracious (Allah) that He should beget a son (or offspring or children).
Is Jesus God?
- Whoever says that the Messiah is the son of God or the third of three is also a disbeliever:
- And if they cease not from what they say, verily, a painful torment will befall on the disbelievers among them” [al-Maidah 5:73]
Papatoetoe is at a Crossroads.
The situation is that there is a lot of work to do for Christianity to regain ground. We have to go back to the beginning, till the ground as in the winter, remove any rocks, prepare the soil, plant the seed in early Spring, add some fertiliser, water the soil when it doesn’t rain, tend to the weeds and wait for the harvest to finally come on Summer and then bring in the crop!
Christianity Explained is designed for the person who knows nothing about Jesus or his Gospel. Could you or I explain to the nearly 98% non-Christians in Papatoetoe the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a way that helped them believe that Jesus is the Son of God and gave them reason to change what they do on a Sunday morning? This course will equip you for the task.
In summary of last week we remembered that belief that Jesus is the Son of God is one of the 3 essential foundations to being a Christian. Knowing Jesus is the Son of God is life changing;
1. Jesus’ has great authority as God’s Son. He is the supreme Master in God’s world.
2. The claim that Jesus has all authority as a teacher, over sickness, over nature, over evil spirits, over death and to forgive sins which only God can do is a claim that He is divine.
3. He also has authority over you and me and will decide our eternal future. This means we need to come to a decision about him.
CS Lewis famously said;
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
With the Papatoetoe census in mind, I found a 7 minute testimony of how a Hindu woman called Deepa Srinivas became a Christian. This is the first of other testimonies we will hear of people from different religions who became Christians. You need to work with the soil that you’ve been given. Listen very carefully to the things that attracted this Hindu woman to Christ. For other religions it may not be the same things.
Could you answer the Hindu woman’s questions;
- Why do Christians worship God alone and believe that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God?
- Can God speak to you?
- Will God curse you if you do not perform religious rituals?
- Does God love us and give us things if we don’t do these rituals?
- Does Jesus have authority over all other gods and demons?
- Can God by my father, does he love me?
We are going to break into small groups for about 30 mins. Paul, Matthew and I will lead the groups. You had some homework this week from Mark 1-5. Whatever you didn’t finish last week you can finish this week before our next study. Put yourself in the position of having to explain to a Hindu Man or Woman the answers to these 6 frequently asked questions questions.
FAQ from Mark 1-5
1. What are demons, or evil spirits? Mark 1 v 23-27
The Bible takes seriously the reality of an unseen spiritual world. This spiritual world has both a good side and an evil or malignant side. The devil, or Satan, is not just some impersonal evil force at work in the world. The Bible depicts Satan as personal and powerful. His work is totally opposed to God and directed against God’s people. Evil spirits and demons mentioned in the Gospels are the devil’s agents in this work. Although Satan and his angels are immensely powerful, the New Testament shows Jesus to be Lord over Satan, and to have defeated him through his death and resurrection.
2. Why did Jesus tell healed people not to tell anyone? Mark 1 v 34; 7 v 36
Jesus did not want to become like a side show with people coming just to see signs and wonders. He rejected such people (Mark 8 v 11-13, John 4 v 48). If people would not respond to the preaching of the kingdom of God calling for repentance and faith (Mark 1 v 15), miracles alone would not convince them. Miracles attract people, and it is possible that Jesus saw that the curious crowds would hamper his ministry, which is just what happened (Mark 1 v 45).
3. Why did Jesus call himself the Son of Man? Mark 2 v 10
Jesus wanted to identify with mankind, so he preferred to be called Son of Man rather than being called Son of God. Son of Man is a Jewish term meaning simply “a man”. The prophet Ezekiel was often called “son of man” in this sense (Ezekiel 33 v 1). Son of Man is also a well known title used in the Old Testament for the Messiah. See Daniel 7 v 13-14. In this vision Daniel saw “one like a son of man” (ie: like a human being). God then gives to this son of man an eternal kingship over all the nations of the earth. The religious leaders in Jesus’ day would have interpreted Jesus’ use of Son of Man as a veiled claim to be the coming Messiah, the fulfilment of Daniel’s prophecy.
4. New cloth, old coat; new wine, old skins. Mark 2 v 21-22
People were complaining that Jesus was not observing the religious rules and traditions of his day (Mark 2 v 18). The Pharisees had literally thousands of laws and religious regulations, and they taught that a person had to observe these rigorously in order to please God. Jesus was saying that the faith he had come to bring was totally incompatible with the Pharisees’ system. Jesus could not be “fit ted into” their legalistic religion. He came to bring a living relationship with God, not rules; grace, love and peace, not religious formulas. Christianity is not a religion. “Religion” is from the Latin word meaning “rules”. Chris tianity is not a set of rules, but a personal relationship with the living God.
5. What is the “eternal sin”? Mark 3 v 29
The context here is the key. The religious leaders had observed Jesus’ miracles and heard his teaching at first hand. However, their assessment of Jesus was: “He is possessed by Beelzebub” (Mark 3 v 22) – an old name for the devil. They had hardened their hearts against the work of God’s Spirit through the ministry of Jesus. This unrepentant, continuous attitude is the “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit” (Mark 3 v 29). This has nothing to do with swearing at the Holy Spirit – in simple terms it means to continuously reject Jesus’ claim upon a person’s heart and life. For this there can be no forgiveness, for they have refused the only way of forgiveness that God has provided. Of course, it is only unforgivable for as long as a person goes on doing it. Many of the religious leaders did repent later on, and so were forgiven (Acts 6 v 7). This is a vital personal concept. If I reject Jesus, I can never be forgiven!
6. Why did Jesus teach in parables? Mark 4 v 10-12
Many people have trouble with this passage. On the surface it sounds as if Jesus taught in parables so that people would not understand, which would be very strange indeed. However, we need to see that there are two groups mentioned here: the disciples and “those on the outside”. The disciples were spiritually intrigued by the parables and drawn nearer to Jesus to hear the explanation. There is a spiritual principle here – “to everyone who has more will be given”. However, to “those outside” the band of disciples, the parables just remained baffling stories. Their spiritual interest was not aroused. They “hear, but do not understand”. 64 All people are either like moths or bats. They are either attracted to the light of Jesus’ teaching, or repelled by it. Jesus’ words, including his parables, always act in this two fold way. See also Mark 4 v 33-34.
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