Australia’s first minister and chaplain Reverend Richard Johnson arrived with the First Fleet 238 years ago on the 20th January 1788.
Then on the 3rd February he held the first formal Christian service in Australia which is being remembered across the nation on National Christian Heritage Sunday this weekend.
There was no church building; just the shade of a few large trees a stone’s throw from the waterline of Sydney Harbour.
The entire population of those who had arrived for the colony assembled — more than 1300 people.
Governor Arthur Phillip was there as were the 550 crew and officers of the First Fleet and their families, and 750 convicts including children.
THE FIRST SERMON
Reverend Johnson took Psalm 116:12-13 as his text for the first sermon delivered in this country.
What shall I render unto the Lord
for all his benefits towards me?
I will take the cup of salvation,
and call upon the name of the Lord.
Dr Mark Thompson, principal of Moore Theological College in Sydney is one of Australia’s leading evangelical scholars and an expert on Chaplain Richard Johnson’s life and ministry.
He pointed out to Vision Radio: “There’s actually a monument, a little pillar in Angel Place in Sydney, which marks the spot where the first sermon was preached.”
WHO WAS REVEREND RICHARD JOHNSON?
“Richard Johnson came as a missionary, he saw himself as a missionary,” explained Dr Thompson.
“He’d been headhunted by people like abolitionists John Newton and William Wilberforce who wanted an evangelical Christian to go with the fleet of soldiers and convicts and settlers to what was then known as New Holland.”
“He was very much commissioned to be a missionary, but that’s not how the governor saw him.”
“The governor just wanted a man to preach morality and keep the people under control and tell them to live a good life.”
“Richard Johnson came wanting to share the Gospel of Jesus with people.”
FIRST MINISTER HAD ONLY THREE YEARS EXPERIENCE
“He was only 34 years of age. He’d only been married for not even a year and he had three years of ministry experience before he came,” Dr. Thompson continued.
“He was a very young man with a young wife who was heavily pregnant.” (She lost the baby).
“They had to live on the boat they came out in because there was no place for them to to sleep on land.”
“The services had to be in the open air. And not all the convicts were really enamoured with the idea of being there for a Christian service. So it was rough, rough stuff.”
“A MAN WHO UNDERSTOOD GRACE AND GOD’S GIFTS TO HIM”
“But Richard Johnson was a man who understood grace, and God’s great gifts to him.”
“He had travelled for 30 odd weeks from England in horrendous conditions.”
“They almost lost the boat he was in once.”
“He was constantly tossed out of bed by waves.”
“His wife Mary was pregnant and she was very unwell and we almost lost her on the trip as well.”
“HE ALSO UNDERSTOOD SALVATION AND LIFE WITH GOD”
“Johnson understood salvation. He understood life with God made possible by Jesus,” Dr. Thompson discovered.
“He wanted those soldiers and those convicts and those settlers to all understand that grace.”
“That’s why he preached that text from Psalms in the first Australian sermon.”
JOHNSON WAS TREATED BADLY, BUT PERSEVERED
“He was treated badly,” Dr. Thompson revealed to Vision Radio.
“The church that eventually he had to build with his own hands because the governor wouldn’t allow resources to be provided for him, got burnt down.”
“A whole range of things happened to him, but he persevered and loved the people that he was sent there to serve.”
In 1793, Richard Johnson opened Australia’s first school in his Sydney church.
He and his wife taught between 150-200 children.
REVEREND’S LOVE FOR AUSTRALIA’S INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
“What’s actually remarkable is that he loved the indigenous people of the land as well.”
“He gave his daughter an indigenous name of the Aurora Nation of people.”
“He set a pattern of actually seeing these people who were here before us as those who needed to hear the Gospel of Jesus.”
“He did not see them as people who were lesser humans or anything like that.”
RICHARD JOHNSON’S LEGACY
Richard Johnson left Australia in 1800, but he had set foundations in place.
“His significance for us is very marked because what he set in place would determine much of the history of Christianity in Australia for the next 100 years or so or more,” observed Dr. Thompson.
“He was resolute, he was single-minded and he was gentle, gracious, godly and humble with the people he dealt with whatever station they were in.”
“He was a very fine leader. He didn’t have it all his own way. Governors wrote reports suggesting that he was a troublemaker.”
“People like William Wilberforce had to step in and describe him as a gentleman, a gracious and godly person, one of the best men to to draw breath.”
John Newton dubbed Richard Johnson the “First Apostle to the South Seas”.
National Christian Heritage Sunday will be celebrated for the 13th time on Sunday, the 1st February, marking the arrival of the Gospel in Australia.
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