The Continuation of Christ at the Autumn 2021 University Conference in Shropshire

Posted on by

Two weeks ago was the first in-person University Conference since November 2019! I was going to just post pictures on my social media as normal, but then the little write up I did ended up being so long, I realised it was time to make a new blog post. And of course, that means I wrote a bit more ?

The last two years

When the pandemic struck in 2020, it was just a few weeks before we were due to go to The Netherlands for the Spring Uni Conference. We launched straight into having that conference online (VEUC 2020) which was a very special time as suddenly it could be even more international than before. Following that, UKUW hosted two more conferences online, as well as weekly Question and Response (Q&R) fellowships, Truth Series, Dive Sessions, an online University Training in 2020, and in August this year there were in-person University Trainings in a few countries in Europe, although I didn’t attend.

The online meetings in the past two years made it possible for Christian students and young adults in Europe (and beyond) to gather together regardless of geography. For example, it was enjoyable to “get to know” (or at least recognise) saints from as far away as South Africa, or as near as Leeds, in the Zoom meetings, I didn’t stay up for it, but I heard that in that first online conference, a number stayed up to watch the sun rise in Israel.

Another indirect benefit of the online meetings that pretty much all the meetings have been recorded and the videos have been released on the unistudents.eu YouTube channel. The Q&R videos were even made into a searchable database of questions. What a marvellous resource!

November 2021

But having said all that, nothing beats being able to be together in person, and so twenty of us (including children) from Cambridge seized the opportunity to go to the conference together. The singing times, especially, were wonderful. As one brother pointed out, singing behind a camera on Zoom, at home (where I am overly conscious of making too much noise for my neighbours), is sooo different to being able to sing out and make a joyful noise to the Lord!

There were around 190 registrants, and we did daily LFT tests before breakfast, which gave good peace of mind. It was weird knowing I hadn’t seen many saints in person for two years, and yet at the same time when seeing one another again, it was as if no time had passed!

And the good news for everyone is that the meetings were still recorded, and not only are there audio recordings, but this time there were also video recordings, and don’t forget the colourful conference handbook! Even the Special Fellowship was recording, and that was a real treat, well recommended 🙂

You can pause here and go and listen to the messages yourself, or if you’d like to hear a few points I enjoyed from the messages, then keep reading below.

Acts–The Continuation of Christ, at the AUC 2021 in Shropshire

The conference topic was on “Acts–the Continuation of Christ.” This is a book about living witnesses – those who had seen and heard Christ, and who testified of what they had seen and heard. They were able to do this because not only did they see and hear Him in an outward way, but they received Him and had the life of Christ. They were witnesses of Christ’s resurrection, and they had the resurrection life within them.

But not all the witnesses of Christ started out in that way.

A vanquishing vision

Saul’s whole being was to stop the Jesus-followers, thinking that He was serving the God of the Old Testament. He was breathing threatening and murder, furious that these followers of “the Way” were “blaspheming” God.

But Saul saw a vanquishing vision on his way to Damascus, and this completely revolutionised him.

3 And as he went, he drew near to Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.
4 And he fell on the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?
5 And he said, Who are You, Lord? And He said, I am Jesus, whom you persecute.
6 But rise up and enter into the city, and it will be told to you what you must do.
7 And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one.
8 And Saul rose from the ground; and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing. And they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.
9 And he was three days without seeing, and he neither ate nor drank.
10 And there was a certain disciple in Damascus named Ananias; and the Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord.
11 And the Lord said to him, Rise up and go to the lane called Straight, and seek in the house of Judas a man from Tarsus named Saul; for behold, he is praying;
12 And he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in and laying his hands on him so that he may receive his sight.
13 But Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard from many concerning this man, how many evil things he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem;
14 And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call upon Your name.
15 But the Lord said to him, Go, for this man is a chosen vessel to Me, to bear My name before both the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel;
16 For I will show him how many things he must suffer on behalf of My name.

Acts 9:3-16

This heavenly vision contained three items: “Me,” “Jesus,” and, “chosen vessel.”

During the three days of Saul’s physical blindness, he would have been praying and asking the Lord what this meant. He thought that he was serving God by persecuting the Christians, and yet the voice from heaven has said that he was persecuting “Me” and that this Me was “Jesus.”

This was the revelation that Jesus was the incarnated, crucified, resurrected and ascended God, and that He had produced the church, the Body of Christ. The Christians that Saul had been persecuting where not merely people following Jesus in an outward way, but they were regenerated believers organically united with Christ.

Not only that, Saul was told that he was a chosen vessel – no more and no less – to contain and be filled up with Christ for the corporate expression of Christ. God got into Saul to be his contents, and to be expressed through him!

This same vision must be seen by us and renewed in us day by day. We can pray:

“Lord, show me this vision! Lord, may this vision be fresh in me!”

Where were the thousands?

During the three and a half years of His ministry, Jesus had spoken to thousands of people, and they had seen Him perform many miracles in front of the crowds. But where were they? How were they responding?

Once we see this vision, this vision needs our action. Yet our first action is to pray. Prayer stops us. It means not I, but Christ. Prayer allows the Lord to lead us inwardly, so we are not controlled or subdued by the outward environment. Prayer is to behold the Lord, and prayer is to enquire of the Lord, not just to tell Him. Prayer is to give God the way to move.

After the Lord’s ascension, there were only 120 paying the price to be in the upper room to pray.

Where are YOU? Are you out there among the crowds or are you in the upper room?

We can pray:

“Lord, here I am, what do you need? Lord, I am willing!”

And we can even pray:

“Lord, make me willing to be willing!”

There is no need to pretend or put on a show. We can pray genuine prayers to the Lord. Maybe we would pray:

“Lord, I don’t know how to pray!”

And this could be our first genuine prayer!

One brother shared about those who were following David while Saul was still the king. Outwardly, Saul was the king, but those who chose to follow David were living in the reality of David’s kingdom. We are living in the world, but we are in God’s kingdom. This is not just something for the future, but for today.

What we have today, our most precious commodity, is time. We have the opportunity, today, to cooperate with the Lord in our prayer, to live in the reality of God’s kingdom, and to be the living witnesses to what we have seen and heard.

Taking action!

So now we may have seen a heavenly vision, we may be motivated to rise up and take action, and yet we need to recognise that within us there is the tendency to try to find to find our own way to do things. However, God has already given us His way, and we don’t want to swerve from that to follow our own ideas and opinions.

God’s way is prayer, the Spirit, and the Word, with the help of the homes.

A few practical points were:

  1. Pray and decide to give the Lord a regular time every day.
  2. Pray for some companions with whom you can pray together for your campus, your neighbourhood, your city, your country.
  3. Schedule a time to read the Word.
  4. Pray for a home where you can be joined to, and to bring others to!

I won’t go into more detail here, but you can listen to message 4 of the conference (again: audio, video, and handbook). Thank You Lord, we have the way!

Continuing steadfastly

We don’t want to be in this conference and hear these things and then afterwards to go downhill. Rather, we want to leave and be in Acts 1.14 – continuing steadfastly.

Please pray for all the conference attendees and for all those who will hear these messages – that God’s word would dwell in us richly, that we would be obedient to the heavenly vision, and that so many students and saints would be living witnesses of this wonderful Christ on their campuses, in their cities, and in so many countries.

“And he fell on the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? And he said, Who are You, Lord? And He [said,] I am Jesus, whom you persecute.”

Acts 9:4-5

“Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.”

Acts 26:19

May we keep writing the book of Acts!

PS: I enjoyed the weekend very much – actually my first getaway since the pandemic started – and it really was refreshing to get away for a few days. That didn’t hit me till Lord’s day when we were driving back into the familiar streets of Cambridge and I realised I’d need to start thinking about my project work again ?