Pete's Blog

John Chrysostom was around at the turn of the 5th century AD, he  lived and died preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ. His preaching led to his posthumously assigned surname, Chrysostom: "golden mouth." The same preaching also exiled him twice, the second exile being three years under armed guard which would lead to his death.    He became known as "John the golden-mouthed" because of his anointed preaching. It was said that  Preaching improves me,” he once told his congregation. “When I begin to speak, weariness disappears; when I begin to teach, fatigue too disappears. Thus neither sickness itself nor indeed any other obstacle is able to separate me from your love... for just as you are hungry to listen to me, so too I am hungry to preach to you.” And people loved to hear him preach, historical records of his preaching say:  "As he advanced from exposition to illustration, from Scripture to practical appeals, his delivery became gradually more rapid, his...

The Good News at its heart is a declaration that Jesus Christ is in charge, he is Lord of all.  The resurrection of Jesus was a vindication of his claims to have "all authority" and that he had a special relationship to God the Father (I and the Father are one).  Jesus's death was in obedience to God the Father and in it he accomplished his great victor over sin and death.  The Good News is that Jesus in in charge, the Good News is also that Jesus in his death has wind for us the victory over sin and death.  This latter victory means that those who recognise him as Lord and choose to follow him get to receive the blessing of eternal life that he brings.  This receiving of eternal life as a free victory gift  from Jesus is also called being "born again".  This is all so well known even Wiki gets it right, as we discussed on The Good News Show recently.  But it needs to be appropriated personally to be effective, that is, each person needs to not o...