Over the next 4 weeks at St Martin’s Community Church in Collingwood, John Smith will be presenting a series on each of the 4 Gospels. While time restricts even John from going through the Gospels from start to finish, his presentation will look at some of the following issues:
- Why do we have the current 4 Gospels?
- What about all the other ‘Gospels’?
- What about the apparent contradictions between the Gospels that we have?
- The context in which the 4 Gospels were written
- The intended audience of the Gospels
John is one of Australia’s foremost preachers, and some years ago completed his doctoral dissertation on church revitalisation movements at Asbury in the United States. Over the last 40 years, John has been known for his gift of making the Gospel come alive and reveal its relevance for living today. John was the first preacher I ever heard who preached the Gospel in a way that made sense for how I should live, not just for giving me assurance that I was going to heaven.
During his studies, John had the privilege of being taught by Ben Witherington III, a noted New Testament scholar, and author of the widely acclaimed ‘The Gospel Code’. For those not in Melbourne, I would recommend this book for an excellent analysis of the questions above. It was originally written as a response to the claims of Dan Brown in The Da Vinci Code.
For those of you in Melbourne though, come along over the next 4 Sundays to hear John talk about the Gospels. The service starts at around 10am.
