Peter, Do You Love Me?

This sermon by Rev. Gilbert Jansen focuses on John's account of the events surrounding the disciples waiting at Galilee, after the resurrection, to meet the Lord Jesus, and of the famous post-breakfast questions of Jesus, "Peter, do you love me?"

The texts for this sermon were:

• John 21:1-17 (main sermon text)
• Mark 16:5-7
• Psalm 138

Some points of interest from the sermon:

• The differentiation between agape and phileo love is discussed extensively (trust me: it's not boring).
• Pointing out that John 21:5 is better-translated in the NIV.
• Quote: "I phileo my wife, alright!"

There were many memories evoked for me in the rest of this service, too.  I can hear my brother Peter coming over the top in the choir, and what I presume to be his six-week old son Danny crying throughout.  In the pastoral prayer, Dad prays for Dorothea Meyer and Jean and Jimmy Goodsell.

The apology about the problems with the delivery of the hymn books made me smile, and helped me date the sermon - Dad only labelled the tape "10/4", so the hymn books reference helped me be certain it was 1988.

I also felt, more than ever, the truth of these words for my Dad as I heard him sing them again:

I’ll praise my Maker while I’ve breath,

And when my voice is lost in death,

Praise shall employ my nobler pow’rs;

My days of praise shall ne’er be past,

While life and thought and being last,

Or immortality endures.

Links:

• The Sermon Only
• The Entire Recording

What are you doing here?

Our family arrived in Rockhampton in late 1985, just in time for me to finish grade two in a third school. Dad started leading the church services and preaching at St Stephen's immediately, as a "licentiate".  That basically means that he had completed theological training at "The Hall", but that he hadn't yet been ordained or "called".

Sunday 30 March 1986 was Dad's first Easter as minister of St Stephen's.  The church was packed.  Some ministers would have been glad, or flattered, or impressed.  Some.

After this sermon, most of the Christmas-and-Easter crowd refused to come back to hear the "crazy Dutchman" again, but some came back the very next week, and stayed.

The texts for the service were:

• Mark 16:1-13 (sermon text)
• Luke 24:13-27 (sermon text)
• Psalm 16 (not on the recording, but referred to)

Links:

• The Sermon Only
• The Entire Recording

The Word of God is Sufficient

This sermon by Rev. Gilbert Jansen is about the parable of "The Rich Man & Lazarus", based on the following texts:

• Luke 16:19-31
• Psalm 26

The service was held on 16 March 1997.

The files are in mp3 format, shared as links from my Dropbox account.  The links below take you to a Dropbox page, where you get the option to play or download the file.

The second recording is of everything that was on the tape, which is basically everything after the sermon.  There was a lot of noise on this tape, which I was able to edit out for the sermon; however, the filter I used caused a lot of additional distortion to the singing.  Therefore, the section after the sermon is not edited.  There is still a lot of distortion because the tape record level was too high.

And... it was me that recorded it.  You can see a picture of the tape in this post.  That's my hand-writing for sure.  I was just starting my second year of university...

Links:

• The Sermon Only
• The Entire Recording

Isolation: The Suffering of Christ

This recording is from the church service held at St Stephen's Presbyterian Church, North Rockhampton, on Palm Sunday, 23 March 1986.

The texts for this sermon are the parallel accounts of the betrayal, arrest, denial and trial of Jesus as recorded in:

• Luke 22:39-65
• John 18:1-28

This sermon describes the sufferings of Christ: focusing on his isolation throughout his life, culminating in his betrayal and farcical, illegal trial.

This recording includes the final hymn of the service, introduced in Dad's typical style.

In the cross of Christ I glory,
towering o'er the wrecks of time;
all the light of sacred story
gathers round its head sublime.

The file is in mp3 format, shared as a link to my Dropbox account.  The link below takes you to a Dropbox page, where you get the option to play or download the file.

Link:

• Sermon & Final Hymn

Let us Run the Race With Endurance

The first sermon of my father, Rev. Gilbert Jansen, that I digitised was very well received, so I've moved quickly to complete the second.  I can't promise to keep that rate up!

This church service was held on Sunday 30 August 1987.  As with the last one, the selection was fairly random.  The scripture readings were:

• Matthew 10:27-42
• Hebrews 12:1-11 (key sermon text)

I've titled this post "Let us Run the Race With Endurance", because blog posts really need titles.  But as far as a know, Dad never gave even one of his sermons a title.  I think he felt that was a bit modern. If anyone can remember his reasons, let me know!

You may notice that Dad refers to the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews as the Apostle Paul, without explanation.  I know that he had little doubt that this was the case, despite my best efforts to argue with him about it.  He probably explained his views on its authorship at the start of this series.

The files are in mp3 format, shared as links from my Dropbox account.  The links below take you to a Dropbox page, where you get the option to play or download the file.

The second recording is of the entire service: everything that was on the tape, including hymns, prayers and bible readings.

Links:

• The Sermon Only
• The Entire Service

Rev. Gilbert Jansen on Romans 12

Here is the first of the old cassette tapes of sermons of the Rev. Gilbert Jansen that I've digitised. This post, and future similar posts will have the label "Rev. Gilbert Jansen" attached, to make it easier to find (or avoid) similar content. I may create an index post later, if things get that far.

This church service was held on Sunday 25 October 1987. The texts were:

• Deuteronomy 13:1-5, 18:15-22
• Romans 12:1-8

The message is about the various gifts that all people in the church have, and how important it is that they use them, as functioning members of the body.

The selection of this particular tape as the first to digitise was random; however, this sermon is a great example of my Dad's (in?)famous style of preaching.  For those that didn't know him, he wasn't as angry as he sounded.  That's passion you hear, forced through a second language, in a thick accent.

The files are in mp3 format, shared as links from my Dropbox account.  The links below take you toa Dropbox page, where you get the option to play the file, or download the file.

The second recording of the entire service is just that: everything that was on the tape, including hymns, prayers and bible readings.

Links:

• Click here to listen or download just the sermon as an mp3 file.
• Click here to listen or download the entire service as an mp3 file

Please feel free to offer any feedback or other comments in the comments section below.