This sermon was preached at Woori Yallock Presbyterian church. The advantage of this sermon to “The New Birth in Exile” series is that we have a chance to see how Arminian theology interacts with Reformed doctrines. The sermon contains warm evangelical Christian material, but as an Easter Sunday sermon its doctrinal architecture is blurred. The chief problem is not that resurrection, ascension, Pentecost, repentance, and new life are unrelated; they are deeply related. The problem is that the sermon fuses them in a way that weakens the hearer’s sense of his absolute need to be born again in Christ.
First, the sermon begins with the resurrection as essential, citing Paul’s argument that if Christ is not raised, Christian life and hope collapse. That is a strong Easter opening. Yet almost immediately the sermon relocates its centre of gravity to Acts 2, Pentecost, the first church service, tongues, and the formation of the church. The resurrection is therefore not developed as the controlling Easter doctrine: Christ’s victory over death, the Father’s vindication of the Son, the pledge of justification, and the ground of the believer’s future resurrection. Instead, resurrection becomes the entry point into a broader narrative about Pentecost and Christian witness.
Second, the sermon functionally conflates resurrection and ascension. The preacher says that the central fact of Christian hope is that “Jesus is risen,” but then quickly moves to “what happened next”: Jesus’ exaltation, ascension, reception of the Spirit from the Father, and outpouring of the Spirit on his people.
The sermon does verbally acknowledge the ascension, but in the preaching movement the resurrection, ascension, Christ’s heavenly reign at the Father’s right hand , and Pentecost are treated as one generalized triumph. That loses doctrinal sharpness. Easter requires sustained attention to the resurrection itself; Ascension and Pentecost have their own redemptive-historical significance.
The preacher gives us glimpses of Arminian theology at many points. Repentance, obedience, reorientation, and witness are presented chiefly as human responses to be undertaken, rather than as fruits of the Spirit’s regenerating work and union with the risen Christ. The sermon tells sinners what to do, but does not sufficiently tell them what they are by nature: dead in sin, under wrath, unable to come unless made alive. Nor does it clearly say what God must do: give the new birth, renew the will, grant repentance, and unite the sinner to Christ.
All this matters because “joined with Christ” remains too vague. It gestures toward union with Christ, but does not explain it. Reformed preaching should say clearly that sinners are united to Christ by the Spirit through faith, so that his death counts as their death and his resurrection life becomes theirs. Without that precision, “new life” can sound like a general religious renewal rather than resurrection life flowing from saving union with Christ.
The sermon is not merely weak on the new birth; it is also anthropocentric in its practical centre of gravity. It speaks about Christ’s resurrection, ascension, and the Spirit, but the sermon’s controlling movement increasingly becomes: what this means for us, what we must do, how we must respond, how our lives should change, and how we should witness. Missing is that the Father raised and vindicated His Son. The Son bore wrath, conquered death, secured justification, and rose as firstfruits of the new creation. The Spirit gives life, unites sinners to Christ, grants faith and repentance, and will raise the elect on the last day.
>These omissions becomes especially serious in the closing appeal. The preacher says he was thankful that someone “told me what I could do,” then says, “Here’s what to do,” before citing Peter’s command to repent and be baptized. He then explains repentance as acting on regret and radically reorienting one’s life around Christ. Those phrases can be defended if surrounded by strong doctrines of regeneration and effectual calling. But without those doctrines, the appeal risks sounding decisionalist: the sinner is emotionally moved, informed of the required act, and urged to reorient himself.
The sermon fails to press the necessity and urgency of being born again because its doctrines are blurred and underdeveloped. Resurrection is folded into ascension and Pentecost; “new life” is mentioned but not grounded in regeneration and union with Christ; repentance is urged but not shown as the fruit of the Spirit’s sovereign work; and sin is reduced to guilt and regret rather than spiritual death under wrath. The result is an Easter sermon that is broadly evangelical with distinctly Reformed elements surgically removed.
A copy of the full sermon is available atThe Reformed Pastor's YouTube channel.
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