The Importance and Cost of Victory – GAFCON 2018 Day 5 (final day)

The final day of GAFCON 2018 is bound to go down in history.

I have labelled it as the Importance and Cost of Victory, for it began with a fine Bible talk about the ascension of Jesus. The death of Jesus came before the resurrection of Jesus. But after that came Jesus’ ascension. It is a topic that it easy not to think about too much in its own right. And yet, it is breathtaking to and joyful to ponder the consequences of Jesus ascending into glory – where he continues to reign as the exalted Lord of the world.

Jesus has taken this journey on our behalf, as a forerunner to us taking the same journey when he returns. His victory is important because it reminds us that we too will be victorious.

And with this is a challenge – to always put the exalted Lord first. His ultimate plan is indeed to unite all things, and future victory has consequences for the present world. We were urged not to be disheartened when the forces of this world appear to be victorious, for we know that the plan of God is for Jesus to have the ultimate victory.

There may be short-term costs to live according to God’s future victory. We have heard of many stories all through the week of faithful brothers and sisters who have endured persecution from outside of and inside of “the church”. And GAFCON has come together as a movement of faithful Anglican Christians who desire to preach Christ faithfully to the nations, no matter what the cost.

The final day of GAFCON will be remembered for many things: the GAFCON 2018 Conference Statement, done as a letter to the churches; the changing leadership of the movement, to prepare for the future; and the memorable thanks and farewell to Peter Jensen, as the General Secretary.

All of these things, and more, are true. However, I will leave Jerusalem remember the Importance and Cost of Faithfulness (Day 1), Repentance (Day 2), Mission (Day 3), Discipleship (Day 4), and even Victory (Day 5).

We must please the Lord not men, and this means preaching Christ faithfully to the nations, whatever the cost may be. Thank you to all of the organisers, for a week that I will never forget.

This is the last in this special series to reflect on each day of GAFCON 2018. When I return from 5 weeks of leave, this blog will return to topics to assist the local church preach Christ faithfully to the nations. Subscribe here.