Dave McDonald, who spoke at Gordon Cheng’s memorial service, remembered a guy who followed the same path: studied at UNSW and New College, married a Fiona, did MTS (a ministry apprenticeship), and worked for the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students. “We both did student ministry. We both did church ministry. Then in recent years, I got stage four cancer, and then Gordon got stage four cancer. We shared that journey together in different ways…”
“Maybe you’ve read his books or his articles. You’ve heard him preaching. He’s sought to persuade you. He’s bribed you to read the Bible. Most of you, I imagine, if you are on social media, would have read Gordo’s posts. He would post the Bible regularly. In fact, when he was forbidden from posting it, he would put the Bible reading in the first comment and continue to do it.
He could find a way around it. You see, the Bible was, as we’ve heard already, absolutely central to Gordon’s beliefs, and at the heart of the message of the Bible is what we see on the first Good Friday. We look back to that very first Easter; we look to the death, the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. As it says in one Corinthians chapter 15, this is of first importance: that Christ died for our sins, that he was buried. As we look to the cross, as we look to Jesus hanging there, dying there, we need to recognise its meaning and significance because there’s an exchange taking place. Jesus is taking the judgment of God instead of me, instead of Gordo, instead of you. Jesus is dying for you, for me, for Gordo, that we might not. He’s taking the judgment of God so that we can enjoy the mercy of God.”
These words in one Peter, and I’m going to go to the next chapter, chapter two, summarise this. “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness by his wounds you’ve been healed. “A little later in chapter three, verse 18,” For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous to bring you to God. “Gordo knew this. He believed this, not just in his head, but in his heart. He put his trust in this reality and in trusting in the death of Jesus in his place, he is perfected in Christ. He’s forgiven in Christ. He’s adopted and born again in Christ. He enters into a new life in Jesus Christ. Do you know Gordo’s beliefs?
“I want to also reflect on Gordo’s experience because Gordo is one who lived out what he believed, and he had a sharp mind. He was a serious thinker. He spent four years studying what he believed, what we call Bible college or theological training, with a Bible open and many, many questions and thoughts. Gordon studied, and he grounded himself in this word of God, the Bible. He studied, and he kept on studying. He researched, and he kept on researching. He wrote, and he kept on writing; he spoke, and he kept on speaking. And for Gordo, it wasn’t theory; it was lived out. It was putting into practice what he believed decisions were made in the light of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Messages focused on the death and the resurrection of Jesus. Relationships were formed and shaped and influenced by the death and the resurrection of Jesus.
Gordo lived in a way that pointed us to God and what God has done for us. In the passage that was read to us by Danny in one Peter chapter one, it’s there inside your handouts. In verse six, it says this, “In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials, but these have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.” In so many ways, there is a picture of Gordon’s life. You can see his experience in these words. Gordon’s life was not always easy. We might think it’s easy to be a Christian when you’re at Bible college, when you’re in Christian ministry, when you work in a church, perhaps when you’re surrounded by Christian friends, when life is cruisy and comfortable, when there’s prosperity and when there’s success.”
“Life is easy to be Christian when you enjoy good health and a long future ahead.
“But Gordo had a faith in God that remained strong and proved genuine through many trials. As he heard the news of his cancer, he trusted in God through the weeks and the months that he suffered through treatment and the impact of the cancer, and in his world, it is often more harsh to have treatment than it is to endure the disease. He didn’t waver in his faith in God. And when he dared to believe maybe that he’d been healed and the cancer journey was finished, that he could rebuild and that he could move on only to receive the devastating news that the cancer was still there, that it was growing, that it was spreading, that it may take his life, Gordo learned to keep his trust in God.
“Even when prayers seemed to go unanswered, he trusted in his God and father. Friends, it’s so tempting to blame God when things go wrong. God, what are you doing? Why me? Where are you? Don’t you care? And yet through all these struggles, I believe we saw in Gordo a genuine faith, one who was willing to trust God with what he was going through. And I think if we could speak with Gordo about this today and ask him the question, was the pain, the suffering, the struggle, was it all worth it? Was it worth maintaining your trust in God? Would you do it again? With a massive smile, he would say, “Yes. Yes, it is worth it.” For he knew the reality of Romans eight, and it’s so wonderful that Danny was able to read that to us and to him. In Romans chapter eight and verse 18, we read these words, ‘I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.'”
The recorded livestream of Gordon Cheng’s memorial service is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ADQfiByQ5Y