The last two April’s I have attended New Word Alive 09 and New Word Alive 08, I have enjoyed both weeks, and there is much you can read about on my blog from those times.

The New Word Alive Media has now made the audio available online. Hugh Palmer’s interview of Don Carson is particularly worthy of a listen, but you can get a whole lot of other talks.

Information is also available already about next year (bookings open later this month) and there is a professionally done promotional video on that site you can watch. If you want to get a flavor of New Word Alive some of my less professional video much of which is taken at the event is available below:

This is a collection of short interviews I did with people who attended and served at the recent New Word Alive event. Unfortunately, I was still only learning how to use the camera, so it is also a study in how “not” to use the camera! I have shadows in the wrong place, I focus on a bottle instead of the person, and there are a bunch of other mistakes. But despite all of that, the enthusiasm of people about this great conference is obvious.

New Word Alive Reports from Adrian Warnock on Vimeo

Richard Cunningham at New Word Alive from Adrian Warnock on Vimeo.

I interviewed my old friend, Richard, who is one of the main forces behind the event. We spoke about the vision for this conference, and he also revealed that next year Wayne Grudem will be one of the speakers.

Rob Horner on NWA Youth from Adrian Warnock on Vimeo.

Rob Horner serves in Vaughan Roberts’ church in Oxford. He has a “proper” job as well. At New Word Alive he was in charge of the youth.

Vicky Lavy – International Ministries Head for CMF from Adrian Warnock on Vimeo.

Yesterday I shared an interview with Peter Saunders of the Christian Medical Fellowship. Today, hear VIcky Lavy speak about how Christian doctors and other health professionals are still needed to work as missionaries short or long-term.

Peter Saunders of the Christian Medical Fellowship from Adrian Warnock on Vimeo.

I first met Peter many years ago when I was editor of the CMF student journal. CMF works hard to advance the gospel in the medical sphere, and to work on important policy and ethical issues.

Kids Work At New Word Alive from Adrian Warnock on Vimeo.

When you are an adult at a conference like New Word Alive, it is easy to forget that there are several other programs going on in parallel. This video begins with some footage of the children having fun (filmed with parental permission) and continues with an interview with one of the leaders who was working with the 5′s to 8′s.

Interview with Vaughan Roberts from Adrian Warnock on Vimeo.

Vaughan has been rector at St. Ebbes, Oxford since 1998. We spoke about how a few years ago it would have been surprising to see the heads of the Proclamation Trust and Newfrontiers together. He described meeting Terry Virgo and discovering that they both liked the same books. He spoke about how we all do need to learn from each other since the caricatures we have are not entirely without a grain of truth.

We then spoke about the parasitical nature of liberalism. A liberal gospel never converts anyone. People are saved into a context that is serious about what the Bible says, but then they sometimes drift into liberalism. He said he is looking for those who value the authority of the Bible over system and human reason. For some people within the evangelical tradition, the Bible doesn’t drive their ministry.

Vaughan said that whilst a new believer might not fully appreciate how the cross saves us, when someone has looked into it and is saying “I do not accept penal substitutionary atonement,” he believes they are departing from Scripture. Vaughan argues that this skews the gospel at so many levels. We have a problem, sin which leads to the wrath of God. The solution must match that. There is a simplicity and depth to the classic explanation of the gospel.

Sunrise Over Welsh Mountains from Adrian Warnock on Vimeo.

Filmed at New Word Alive, I find this video very relaxing when I watch it. The heavens truly display the glory of God.

I can exclusively announce that the all-new and FREE Gospel Coalition Network website opened just a few minutes ago. The kind people running it have offered blog readers like you the chance to be first in line to join.

If you already know what this is all about, then feel free to just follow one of the links below depending on which continent you’re on, since this genuinely is a global offer. Don’t worry, you will have access to the whole community no matter where you live. Then, do feel free to mention this on your own blog, or view my profile and add me to your contacts to follow my updates. You can also join a group to discuss the resurrection and help me choose my book cover!

To join, simply follow the links:

Interview With Liam Goligher from Adrian Warnock on Vimeo.

One of my favorite memories from this year’s New Word Alive is meeting Liam Goligher. If you only want to watch one video from the event, watch this one. I am thrilled that this is the post I am sharing with you on my sixth blog anniversary (it was the 16th April 2003 when this journey began!)

Liam and I have spoken on the phone before, and from the first call I immediately knew that he was a real defender of the gospel. I heard him preach at NWA, and I was blown away. He has the full package: a thoughtful intelligent approach to the text, relevance, humor with biting illustrations, passion, and a big dose of that hard to measure thing called “anointing.” His preaching brought the tangible presence of God and conviction. To be honest, and this is not an exaggeration, I think he is something of a British John Piper.

But it was only in meeting him face-to-face that I realized how much fun he is. We laughed a lot, as well as speaking about many important subjects. This included the need for preachers to let their sermon grip them personally and to pray for the work of the Holy Spirit, which must empower preaching. We also spoke about aspects of the gospel which are under attack and must be vigorously defended.

Liam also spoke about the need to remember to emphasize important aspects like the resurrection, which might not be under attack in the same way. We spoke about my book, and at one point he ribbed me mercilessly, but then was very kind about his own reaction to reading it.

Liam Goligher is the senior pastor of Duke Street Church, Richmond London, which is growing rapidly and currently has around 600 people who attend on a Sunday. Liam is on the committee which organizes New Word Alive, as well as being a regular conference speaker at other events. His preaching is available to listen to free online or to purchase on CD. He is currently preaching on Isaiah in the mornings and Revelation in the evenings.

Keith Getty – Writer of In Christ Alone from Adrian Warnock on Vimeo.

Keith and I spoke about music styles, working with Stuart Townend, with whom he wrote “In Christ Alone,” and the role of worship songs in teaching theology, among other things.

The battle lines continue to be clearly drawn despite the best efforts to be “charitable” to both sides by those who try to occupy the middle ground. In an outrageous newspaper article which only cites one Bible verse and even that out of context, Giles Fraser declares “What vicious God would demand Jesus sacrificed for our sins? We should ditch this view of Easter”

I am not surprised by the strong language used by the opponents of the view of the cross generally called “penal substitutionary atonement” but understood by millions of children simply as “Jesus died to be punished for our sin.” If millions of Christians are as wrong as Fraser believes then no wonder he would speak the way he does.

Fraser does not grapple with the issues of the seriousness of sin, of the hundreds of mentions of the wrath of God in Scripture, or of the just requirement that sin should be punished. In short the gospel is removed. As usual the alternative explanation of what happened on the cross is not at all clear. These vague descriptions attempt to remove the very offence of the cross which Paul describes as “Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles” (1 Corinthians 1:18)

To be honest this Easter I am not angry at Fraser, nor am I angry with Steve Chalke (see my posts on the Atonement Debate). At least these people are clear about what they believe and understand. No, the people I am angry with this year are the ones in the Evangelical hierarchy who want to brush these debates to one side in the name of “unity.” There can be no real unity between those who believe that to declare Jesus was punished for us is “cosmic child abuse” and those who believe it is the most precious truth of the Bible. One side of this debate has to be wrong, and badly wrong. They cannot both be right; even N.T. Wright cannot perform such theological magic! The minute anyone tries to make this truth a debatable matter over which evangelicals can legitimately disagree is the moment they lose the right to call themselves evangelical at all in my opinion.

One of the joys of last weeks New Word Alive event was that this debate was totally unnecessary there. The main thing that held the speakers together was that they all believed this was the essential center of the gospel. You can read more about this in my Atonement series.

Where do YOU stand?

Raised With Christ and Lifted – Two Books On The Resurrection from Adrian Warnock on Vimeo.

Books on the resurrection are a little like buses. Wait ages for any to show up and all of a sudden two turn up at the same time. Here Sam Allberry and I speak about our books on the resurrection, and why we both agree this is such an important subject. If you are interested in more information on the resurrection this Easter, The Evangelical Alliance Slipstream site have some great podcasts on the evidence for the resurrection and are planning on publishing links to a number of blog posts on today on the subject. Sam Alberry’s blog has the imaginative title “Shibboleth” which he tells me is named after a West Wing episode.

Stuart Townend Interview from Adrian Warnock on Vimeo.

Filmed at New Word Alive 2009, this is an interview with leading song writer Stuart Townend, who is one half of the team that composed “In Christ Alone”. Stuart and I had a lot of fun, and spoke a bit about what its like for us being at an event like this. We also spoke about worship, and music styles. He explained his interest in folk music, talking about how the melody is much more prominent than in other styles.

There are two miracles. One is God using Jonah. The second is God working in the city. Jonah has already seen God at work in saving himself, and the sailors have also been saved. Tomorrow we will see him at work in Jonah himself.

There is a “giant test motive” everything in this book is on a grand scale. Huge task. The fear was great. The storm was overwelming and the city was humungous. The repentance was total. Its beyond our comprehension. It communicates that our sin is big, God’s mercy is big and the mission is huge! We will look at the surprising mercy of God that he should choose Jonah, use Jonah, and save Ninevah.

God choose Jonah
Word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time. It’s a remarkable reminder of the surprising grace of God that takes the initiative in reaching out to broken people. We live in a dysfunctional world, and we are all dysfunctional in some way. Sin means we are all right at one level, but other layers that you are only beginning to quarry. God gives a second chance. Not too many chances in the secular world. A whole career can end on one mistake. This is not the way God deals with us. Instead the steadfast love of the lord never comes to an end. When we are faithless, he is faithful. Even if you have stumbled and fallen in a major way and you cannot enjoy the presence of God, the word of God is coming to you a second, third, forth, ninety ninth time. God wants to come to you again with a refreshing embrace of God. We are to live for him and enjoy him forever. He stoops to those who have rejected him. Undeserved acceptance given to an unworthy person. Jesus tells us “I died that you may live” There is a second look from the savior to rebels. It is surprising that God would choose someone like Jonah and someone like you and me. God had not spoken to Jonah since that first time.

God chose to use Jonah
He still has a task for him to do. The message is the same as the first time, “arise, go!” There is a history of God using people who don’t follow God perfectly – Abraham who lies, Moses who kills, David who commits adultery and murder, Peter who denies the Lord repeatedly with curses.

He discovered three principles – rebellion led to chastisement, to brokeness, but then rehabilitation into God’s service. The Word reveals our rebellion against God. God does not show us all of our sin all at once. God never gives up on us.

God saved Ninevah
It was great to God. Its significance and importance was more than its political, social and cultural significance. God cared about it. Its an evil city, and its surely the last place you would expect to see an outbreak of God’s grace. There is no apparent consolation or comfort in Jonah’s message. He may have said more than this. Jonah may have just been going through the routine. It may have been that he spoke about his own experience. The people of Ninevah are described as receiving the sign of Jonah. Where would they have heard that Jonah had experienced what he did except from Jonah? Through the proclamation of Jonah the light goes on in their head. The people of Ninevah believed God.

How did this miracle happen? It is the Word of God that is driving this story. God does things through words. God spoke to the fish and Jonah was vomitted to the land. God’s word accomplishes power. It brings forth. We must set forth the Word of God and proclaim it but that Word is full of his power. It is Spirit and life. When in Acts we hear of the church growing, it is said that the Word spread. Life is found in God, located in Christ and mediated by his Word. It is powerful in its effects.

Faith comes by hearing. God uses the breath of a human being as they speak his Word to create life in the hearts of men and women. God has shone in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. God has power to accomplish his will. It was always God’s plan to bring revival to Ninevah, and he uses Jonah as the vehicle to do this. Calvin speaks about “verbum externum” the word of God comes from outside of us, has to be given to us. But also the word has a power in it.

God uses the speaking of his Word to accomplish great things. They heard Jonah, but they believed God. They received his words as the Word of God. There was a surprising work of God. Even the King removed his robe. There was a genuine sorrow. They seek the pardoning grace of God. Who knows, they say, maybe God might be merciful to us. God relented of the disaster that he was going to do. God pardoned them freely. He did not do what he said what he would do. Does this make God arbitrary and indecisive? How can he relent and still expect us to think he is unchanging? This whole question has led to the idea of the “openness of God” they argue that God does not know the future, is acting without a script, that he has no purpose, that he changes his mind in response to surprising events. They argue that his is waiting for us to act. But the Bible teaches us that he is unchanging in his being. He is changeless in his essential nature.

God is dependable, and can be relied on. There is a mystery though, as he does change in response to God’s people. In 1st Samuel 15:11 God says “I regret…” in verse 29 he says “I will not lie or have regret” These two things are put together. There is always an emotional aspect to the word – sorrow or regret. We can only know God as he reveals himself to us. He uses language that we understand. When God pronounced his judgment it was a wicked city. When God refused to judge Ninevah it was a changed city. They had changed. For God to be consistent to his own character, he had to keep his word. Jeremiah tells us that if people repent, God will refrain from judgment. If God was always planning to judge Nineveh, then why did he bother to call Jonah? It was all so unnecessary. God only sent Jonah because he intended to use him as a vehicle through which people would hear, respond and believe. This is not God changing in the way the Open Theists say, it is God being true to his character. We have changed. We are no alive to God, and our relationship with him has changed. God calls us to repentance and the judgement will not come if we will hear his voice and repent.

The message to the Christian is to get the word out. Get on with the work of sharing the gospel. The fallen Christian can hear the word of God a second time. Take the mercy of God you are offered. God is sincere and offers to an unbelieving world that his wrath is coming, but he says “turn to me and be saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God there is none other”

A few things happened before we get to our passage. First Jesus heals someone with dropsy on the Sabbath, no less. Later, someone speaks to Jesus, and he just blanked him. Jesus sees to the heart. The message is that you accept a general invitation but when the specific invite comes you treat it with contempt.

The master sends out for the poor, blind and lame. He is angry. They had said yes, but it was all a lie. Get out to the people who wouldn’t normally be invited. Make them come in. They are sent outside the city. They would not have been expecting an invitation. It wasn’t beat them with as stick so they would come! It means that people who say “don’t be so ridiculous, how could I be invited” you had to persuade them that it was genuine.

Are you so sure that you are coming to the banquet? The religious leaders who were making platitudes would not come. You must accept the specific invitation from the Messiah. When that call came, the Jews weren’t having any of it. Being an insider in the Christian culture is no certainty whatsoever of a place at the banqueting table of the kingdom of God. Where is your heart tonight? Does it revolve around your possessions? The banquet is free but its not cheap. It cost everything. God’s own son hung on a cross so that those who believed in Jesus’ substitutionary death would be saved. Even being a leader in the church isn’t enough. You have to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. The way in is through Christ and him alone. The religiously complacent will not be saved.

Not everyone feels religious complacency. Many people know the gospel message and know they are rebels, but they feel so inferior that they can’t come back in. Who will go for them? What about those who just don’t have a clue. Go beyond the people who know the gospel to find people who don’t know a thing about the gospel. Who is going to go for them? Some of them will say, “no, you have come to the wrong place, it couldn’t possibly be true for me” Somebody told you. Who are you going to tell? V23 so my house will be FULL. There will be no empty seat. God knows them all.

At the beginning of his talk Liam confessed to his love of 24, which I share. At risk of making him as pleased as punch, I can report that people twittering from the event reckon he actually looks a bit like Jack Bauer! As soon as Jonah hit the water, the storm ended, and the sailors were safe. His God must be powerful, so they worshipped him. We see God’s salvation in operation in action in Jonah’s life.

Salvation of Jonah
Introduction of the big fish, and mentioned in the conclusion. In between there is a theological reflection: salvation belongs to the Lord. Jonah had no hand in it. Salvation is always a sovereign act of God. It is God who appointed the fish. God is in control of the whole of creation, see for example Psalm 147 where it is the stars God appoints. God is over all in creation and in redemption. Nothing that happens is outside of the control of God. Whatever comes to pass is in his hands. We could spend a lot of time looking at the arguments how people could be swallowed by a fish. For example people have been swallowed by a sperm whale. Word fish is a general word for any aquatic beast. Jesus uses a word of an indefinite but huge sea creature. Jonah did not know that there was going to be any rescue. He has no guarantee. He is disobedience to God. The storm demonstrates God is chasing him. He surrenders to the judgment he so richly deserves. But God is not finished with him. We should have no problem believing this if we believe in the God of the Bible. God wanted to underline that salvation is all of God.

Song of Jonah
The water is the fear of death. The fish is the place of refuge. The prayer is the plea for help. By verse 9 he is still not safe. He is thanking God even though the odds might seem that he would live in the belly of the fish for the rest of his life. He knows that God still loves him. He bursts into a new song. The Bible has lots of new songs. The new songs always describe the salvation of God.

There is genuine thanksgiving. Something is happening in the heart of the prophet. He describes the act of drowning. Suddenly he is able to breathe. In his desperation and distress he realizes the fish has been provided by God. He knows he didn’t deserve to be answered by God. His freedom has gone. God is in the driving seat. He could contribute nothing to his saving. Has God hemmed you in and stopped you in your tracks. Has something happened to you that has made you cry out “where is God in this?” Having heard the voice of God we can respond in different ways. The central feature of the Christian life is that the heart of our Christian lives is a relationship rather than merely an experience. God reveals himself to us in Christ and by his word. We hear God speaking to us by the word, and respond to him in prayer, shaped by the Word. Bible prayers are shaped by the language of the Bible. We should pray the Bible, sing the Bible because it is God’s voice. He takes the initiative. God was demolishing all his props and comforts.

God is the one who takes the initiative. There is something else in this prayer. There is an undercurrent of self-righteousness. There is quite a lot of “I” there. Then says those who cling to idols, forsake the hope of steadfast love. Jonah dislikes pagan sailors and Ninevites. Verse 8 There is no “we” there. There is no recognition of his need full repentance. It is a theologically correct statement, but is not applying it to himself. He didn’t pray for the salvation of the sailors, or the Ninevites. If I fear lonliness, I worship relationships. If I fear not fitting in, I worship others approval. If you want to know what is your idol, ask what it is that if it was taken away it would be the end of life for you. In chapter 4 he wants to die because something was taken away. Its to do with his attitude to people outside the covenant of God. He is eager to underline the difference between a pagan and a believer. He doesn’t realise the sailors have already repented. We are curved in on ourselves. We cannot see beyond ourselves. God is dealing with him.

Sign of Jonah
We must look at the New Testament input into our understanding of this book. Jesus uses this as an analogy of his own death and resurrection. In God’s name the gentiles will hope is the background to Jesus saying that the sign of Jonah was coming. The symbolic death of Jonah points to the real death of Jesus. The virtual resurrection of Jonah points to the real resurrection of Jesus. We need to move from a knowledge of the truth to a knowledge of the power of the truth. What I need is God to do something that is a God thing. I need God to be active in my life, and he is because he is the King. The King is coming. He is not safe. But salvation is from him.

Nathan and Lou Fellingham of Phatfish from Adrian Warnock on Vimeo.

This is an interview with Nathan and Lou Fellingham of Phatfish filmed at New Word Alive 2009. Louise was in a cheeky mood and we had a good time talking about their forthcoming albumn, what its like to be a mum and a member of a band, and how they both found New Word Alive. For more information about this wonderful family band, see the Phatfish website where you can buy CDs of their music or my interview with Nathan from last year.