On the 25th January, 1788 the first fleet sailed into Port Jackson. At 10am on Sunday 3rd February, Richard Johnson, Naval Chaplain, conducted a Christian Service. As far as we know this was the first Christian Service held on Australian soil.
For twelve years Richard Johnson worked and ministered in the colony. He engaged in regular ministrations in Sydney, Toongabbie and Parramatta as well as making a visit to Northfolk Island. I noted in one record dated 1792, that to that date there had been 226 baptisms, 220 marriages and 854 burials. Richard Johnson also took part in short exploring expeditions, was a successful market gardener and founded the first school in the nation.
Richard Johnson was a compassionate and devout servant of Jesus Christ and to all sections of the colony. He was loved and respected by many of the convicts and aboriginals to whom he ministered. At the first service he preached on the text from Psalm 116, what shall I render unto to the Lord for all his benefits to me? Regrettably we do not have a record of what he said. In fact none of his spoken sermons have survived.
Fortunately we do have an extended tract that he wrote in 1792. The number of settlers and spread nature of the colonial community made it impossible for him to personally minister to everyone. Richard Johnson was concerned that those in the colony know how to become
and live as Christians. So he wrote a message that could be read by all. The tract gives us an insight into the message and fervour with which he would have preached. I want to share a portion of the contents with you.
To all the Inhabitants, and especially the unhappy prisoners and convicts in the colonies established at Port Jackson and Northfolk, this affectionate address is dedicated and presented by their sincere and sympathizing friend, and faithful servant, in the Gospel of Christ, Richard Johnson.
I beseech you, brethren, suffer this word of exhortation.
Your souls are precious.
You are precious to the Lord Jesus Christ.
You are precious in my esteem.
O that you were equally sensible of their value.
We have now been here almost five years.
Some of you, I trust, have been convinced of your folly, sin and danger;
you have earnestly sought and happily found mercy with God through our Mediator,
Jesus Christ.
You can approach him as a God reconciled, merciful Father and Friend,
You are evidencing the reality of your conversion, by an upright life and conversation.
But I must express my fear, comparatively few of you are convinced of sin, converted to God, and reformed from your evil course.
I intreat you, brethren, to consider, that ere long, either, endless inconceivable
happiness will be our portion, or unutterable misery will be our doom.
Our glass of life is running away a pace.
Death is making sure and speedy strides towards us daily,
judgement is at hand and the Judge himself is at the door.
I can with a sincere conscience say, That I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.
The Gospel covers the whole revealed will of God recorded in the Bible.
The Bible is our only sure and reliable guide.
It was given by inspiration of God.
Only the Bible contains all that is needful to make us wise unto salvation.
All other books, however good and useful are but of human composition.
The Bible describes the original state of man, as a state of perfect purity and innocence.
He was made in the image of God.
Free from defilement, guilt or guile was his understanding, will, his affections and conscience, his body and soul.
And while he continued so, he was not liable to pain, misery or death.
But man did not continue in this state.
Our first parents disobeyed their Maker.
By sinning against their Maker they lost their original righteousness, and became earthly, sensual, devilish.
Such are we their posterity.
Man is now the reverse of what he was first created.
His understanding is darkened,
his will is at enmity with God;
his affections are no longer fixed upon God his Creator and Benefactor,
they are engrossed by the empty and perishable things in this world;
By sin, his body is become mortal; subject to pain, disease and death;
and his soul is exposed to the curse annexed to the transgressions of God's holy law " eternal death.
But, blessed be God, a door of hope is opened by the Gospel!
A gracious promise was given early, even to our first parents, immediately after the fall.
It is contained in God's statement to Adam, The seed of the woman shall break the serpents head.
The promised seed is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, in due time, was to appear in the
world, to be born of a woman, that by his life, sufferings, and obedience unto death,
he might recover man from the misery and ruin in which he was involved.
This is the Gospel which we are commanded to preach to sinners,
It proposes a free and gracious pardon to the guilty,
Cleansing to the sick,
Happiness to the miserable,
Light for those in darkness,
Strength for the weak,
Food for the hungry,
And even life from the dead.
All these inestimable blessings are the fruit and effect of the death and mediation of Jesus Christ.
His great design in coming into the world was to seek and save those who are lost;
He came from heaven, that he might raise us to those holy and happy mansions;
He endured the curse, that we might inherit the blessing;
He bore the cross, so we might wear the crown;
He died that we might live;
He died the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God.
These blessings become ours, only by believing.
Thus it is said, God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son "
For what purpose? Why, That whoseover believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life:
- he that believeth in him is not condemned;
- he that believeth in him, by faith is counted to God as righteousness.
My friends, search the Scriptures, and you will find that this is the tenor of the Bible:
I may add of the Church of England also, in the Articles and Homilies.
This believing is sometimes called coming to Christ,
A trusting Him,
A casting our burdens on him.
And remember, that until we do thus come to Christ, trust in him, cast our cares and burdens upon him,
We have no part or interest in what the gospel unfolds and offers.
The faith whereby a sinner receives Christ, and becomes a partaker of all the blessings of the Gospel, is the sole gift of God,
Wrought in the heart by the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit produces an inward change in the soul, called in Scripture, the new birth, regeneration, or conversion,
And thus enables a sinner convinced of his sin and misery to look to Jesus, and to believe on him.
I do not ask you, what religious persuasion or denomination you have espoused.
But I speak to you as men and women, as intelligent creatures, possessed of understanding and reason.
Seek now then, above all things, and interest in the blessings of the gospel.
Now is the time to obtain the blessings revealed in the gospel, and which are set before you when it is preached.
With this impassioned plea Richard Johnson finished the first part of the tract. He continues in a second part to provide his readers with guidance in living according to their Christian profession. Such guidance he writes," will both afford you present peace and secure future happiness."
He concludes the tract "
"This will be my daily prayer to God for you.
I shall pray for your eternal salvation, for your present welfare, for the preservation,
peace and prosperity of the colony:
and especially for the abundant and manifest success of the Redeemer's cause and
kingdom and for the effusion and outpouring of his Holy Spirit, not only here, but in every
part of the habitable globe.
Longing and hoping, waiting for the dawn of that happy day, when the heathen shall be
given to the Lord Jesus for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts for his possession:
when all the ends of the earth shall flee, believe, and rejoice in the salvation of God.
I am your affectionate Friend and Servant in the Gospel of Christ,
Richard Johnson."
May it be true of us in all our churches that we carry on in the Australian Christian way that began with Richard Johnson 218 years ago.
Bishop Ray Smith is the former Bishop of Liverpool, NSW
