1788 Part 2.

The Gospel message arrives in Australia.

Richard Johnson had studied at Cambridge from 1780 and he was ordained in 1783, after coming under the teaching of sound evangelical preachers. He was appointed to a rural parish in Hampshire – and the next we know of him is his appointment as the Chaplain to the first fleet. We also know that he had spent some time in farming – and this was to prove very useful when he came to New South Wales.

He was married to Mary Burton a month after his appointment and just five months before the First Fleet sailed from Portsmouth.

Before he sailed, members of the Eclectic Society introduced him to two societies that had been formed earlier in the century – The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and The Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge. They provided him with Bibles and Christian books. (The Church Missionary Society wasn’t yet in existence – it wasn’t started for another 12 years!)

The Fleet left in May 1787, with Richard and Mary Johnson on board the ship The Golden Grove. The convicts had already been aboard the ships for 4 months or more even before they sailed.

On The Golden Grove he was able to conduct a service each Sunday, and to read prayers every evening. When the Fleet reached Rio de Janeiro, he visited the other ships to minister to those on board, marines and convicts alike.

Richard Johnson was a man with a mission. Not for him any pious platitudes… he was concerned vitally about the souls of men and women.

After their arrival at Port Jackson, Johnson was as busy as anyone in the new colony. It took five months before he was able to house his wife in a little cottage built from cabbage tree palms and thatched rushes – and by the end of 1788, he was growing enough vegetables for his own needs. He soon became known as the best farmer in Sydney Town.

In three years, he and Mary and their new born daughter moved into a new brick house in Bridge Street, not far from the Tank Stream… and a son was born a year later.

But much more importantly than those housekeeping matters, was Richard Johnson’s burning desire to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to see men and women won to him. He saw the need around him every day. He baptised, he married, he buried. It was his task to be present with those who were to be executed and he prayed with them on the scaffold.

He held services of worship every Sunday in the open air or sometimes in a large store. By the end of 1790, he had begun to hold regular services for the settlers at Parramatta – and the following year he also began travelling to minister to the convict community at Toongabbie.

Richard Johnson was an evangelical minister. He was a man who was convinced that the Bible is the true Word of God, and that repentance and trust in Jesus Christ are the only way to be saved. His concern was to accurately teach God’s Word. So, with great love and affection – as well as with great urgency, he called on men and women, marines and convicts alike, to turn to Christ.

In 1792, he wrote to the inhabitants of the Colony. It was a booklet he had published because the population of the Colony was increasing, and there was no way he could see everyone… so he wrote this booklet to set forth the gospel and to call upon men and women to repent. This is a part of what he wrote, and it gives us a good insight into what Johnson saw was his task and his message…

“I have told you again and again, that Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, and that there is no coming to God with comfort, either in this world, or in that which is to come, but by him. He has told you so himself. And the apostle assures you, that there is no other name under heaven, given unto men, whereby they can be saved. Look unto him, and you shall be saved; if not, you must be damned. This is the plain truth, the express declaration of the Bible. Life and death are set before you.

Permit me then, as your minister, your friend, and a well-wisher to your souls, to press these serious and weighty considerations home upon your consciences once more. I hope and believe that I have asserted nothing, but what can be proved by the highest authority, the word of the living God.

They certainly deserve your closest and most careful attention, since it is plain beyond a doubt. that upon your knowledge or ignorance, your acceptance or rejection of this gospel, your everlasting happiness or misery must depend.”

Yes, Richard Johnson was a man of the gospel – but there are two other men of whom we should take note –

There’s a danger, when we consider how much Richard Johnson did during his 12 years in the Colony, that we might think of him as a mighty welfare worker… but that would be to miss the point. The reason he did what he did was the gospel.

How would he want us to remember him? As I mentioned before, in 1792 he wrote a booklet, sent it to England to be printed and then sent back to be distributed here.

It is is a wonderfully clear statement of the gospel.

Johnson was a man who knew the the Lord Jesus Christ and who loved him and loved his gospel. And as a result, he worked tirelessly to do all within his power to present the news of Jesus to every man, woman and child.

We know that there are people who think they don’t need the gospel – and there are others who are openly hostile. But, because of what the Lord has done for us, how can we be silent?

Let us close with words from that first Chaplain to New South Wales, from the booklet he wrote to the people of our land.

“This will be my daily prayer to God for you. I shall pray for your eternal salvation, for your present welfare, for the preservation, peace, and prosperity of this colony: and especially for the more abundant and manifest success of the Redeemer’s cause and kingdom, and for the effusion and out-pouring of his Holy Spirit, not only here, but in every part of the habitable globe.

Longing, hoping, and waiting for the dawn of that happy day, when the heathen shall be given to the Lord Jesus for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession: and when all the ends of the earth shall see, believe, and rejoice in the salvation of God (Ps. ii. 8 & xciii.3).

I am your affectionate Friend and Servant in the Gospel of Christ,

Richard Johnson”

So, next time you are in the city, take the time to seek out Richard Johnson Square – on the corner of Bligh and Hunter Streets – and thank God for Richard Johnson – man of the gospel.