Making Disciples Among Children

Written By Rev. Law Hui Seng

Posted By Teresa Han

6^th April, 2009 (GB &BB)

Matthew 19:13-15

Main Idea: To teach the congregation how to make disciples among children.

Objectives: a. Teach ways to make disciples among children. b. know the children psychology.

1. Introduction.

- Under normal circumstance, we always give the best to our children. We may think, learn, and plan and do our best and give the best. After seeing what happens to so many other families out there, are you sure you are giving the best to your children?

- What is the best you can give to your own children and children who are under you?

- Let us see how Jesus treats children and from there we see what is the best thing to do for them. How do we make disciples among our children?

2. What does it mean to let the little children come to me…?

- Protestant like Methodist uses this passage to explain the need for infant and children baptism.

- According to verses 1 to 12 before today’s passage, you see how Jesus emphasize much about marriage and said in verses 4 to 6 when Jesus was asked by the Pharisees in verse 3, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?” Jesus said, “Haven’t you read,” He replied, “that at the beginning the Creator made male and female,” and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh?’ so they no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”

- Obviously, this passage is placed before the little children passage by the author because marriage gives rise to children.

- What does it mean when Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

- One thing clear is this: we are to bring the children to Christ and we must not stop them from coming to Him. The reason for doing so is Jesus will bless them and give them kingdom of heaven.

- Now, the question is how to bring children to Christ to be blessed? One concrete way our church believes is by infant and children baptism.

- In baptism the blessing received is the blessing of salvation.

- It is very difficult if not impossible for us to explain how the church of Christ will usher children into the kingdom of God if we do not baptize children.

- Also, it is very important to appreciate that when Jesus lays hand on anyone, when Jesus prays for anyone, more than temporal things happen. Today the Methodist church authorizes ordained ministers to do that job.

- Some Christians are opposed to infant and children baptism because they cannot believe. But that is adult understanding of belief and faith. Jesus can pour in faith when He prays and touches people. Jesus can give faith to infants.

- Infants trust their mothers from the earliest moments? Similarly, infants can trust God from the earliest stage of their lives.

C. How to let children come to Jesus? How to make disciples among children?

- 1. Children’s place in the kingdom of heaven.

- Obviously, you need to begin the process with baptism. Do not have the attitude that wait until they can understand. By doing so, you deny lots of grace upon them. For those of you who stop your infants and children being baptized, you literally stop them from coming to Jesus and you could deny them a place in the kingdom of God.

- You may not mean it because you are innocent. Today, you need to change your mindset. Once an infant or a child is baptized, that is the first step to give them a place in the kingdom of heaven.

- Then, you think of how to help them to follow Christ; they become a disciple of Christ even when they are young. As parents, you must take it upon yourself that your infants and children are your most natural disciples. Yes, Boys’ Brigade, Girls’ Brigade officers, the Sunday School teaches or youth fellowship advisors can disciple them to a certain extend, but parents spend the most hours of time with your children, you need to take up the responsibility to disciple them.

- 2. Offer Jesus to your children and other children.

- How do you disciple them? Offer Jesus to them. How? I think hard about this question and God bless me with this answer. If I give other answers, I believe they are not the best and this is the best. In view of what Jesus has done for you on the cross, you must offer godly characters to your children and other children. I strongly believe that at the end of the day, what sustains your children’s faith, your children’s relationship with God is characters. You do that wherever he or she goes, they will survive well and survive morally.

- How do you bring across your characters to them? How do you nurture them with godly characters? You got to do it through these 3 means of grace shown by Jesus. You see Jesus gives the children time by allowing them to come to Him; Jesus touches children and Jesus still uses your hands to touch his children; He blesses them by praying for them and you need to pray for your children. In bringing across godly characters you need to give your children time, touching, and prayer.

- The challenge is: Can your life offer Jesus? Offer godly characters to your children? Listen to this illustration of the character of love.

- In China, a young couple married. The wife is called Ruth. The mother-in-law is called Naomi. Their relationship was never good. Ruth hated the mother-in-law for asking her to do so much house chores. Ruth could not stand the pressure anymore and she planned to kill the mother-in-law. She wanted to do it slowly so that nobody noticed so that people thought she died of natural death. She went to the herbal store and consulted a Chinese sin she how to kill her using herbs. The sin seh said that he needed to think of it and withdrew from the counter and went in to prescribe the herbs. Then, he came up and told her the prescription and dosage. And with only one condition, that was, in order to deceive her to drink the soup with the herbs which was supposed to slowly poison her to death, everyday Ruth must show actions of love towards her. She must praise her; encourage her; tell stories to her; listen to her; hug her; serve her, etc. Ruth happily agreed to do all that in order to slowly kill her. As time passed, Ruth did exactly as required. She was happy every day as she would get rid of her. At the same time, as she willingly loved Naomi, the mother-in-law also loved her. She in fact also helped in the house chores and even cooked for her. After a while, Ruth began to worry because she felt so loved by Naomi that now she did not want her to die anymore. She regretted her move to use herbs to slowly kill the mother-in-law. Then, with regrets, she quickly rushed to the sin seh to find a solution to detoxify, to neutralize the poison. The sin seh with a big smile on his face and said, “Do not worry, woman, I only prescribe vitamin to boost your mother-in-law’s health.” She was so happy and from then, she went home and loved the mother-in-law and they lived happily together.

- You see how you should nurture the godly character of love in your family; in GB, BB, Sunday School, youth fellowship, small group, etc?

D. Know your children psychology.

- One other point I find we must learn in discipling our children is this: we need to know our children psychology at different age. I am very much learning in this case.

- Very often, we impose our adult psychology upon our children and they could not understand us and we could not understand them. As a results, we face lots of frustrations and conflicts. In fact, we try to love them but the love cannot get through. The reason is because we have not got the psychology right according to their age.

- Now, take for instance, for primary one, for them to go to school on the first day could be a scary experience especially your child depend so much on you and now you have to let go of him for 5 hours in school. If he cries, you can understand why and you will not get frustrated and you just have to bear with it.

- Now, take another example, for the youths, as they try to enter adulthood, they are trying to leave childhood. They need to let go of the dependence on adults. This psychology of leaving childhood causes conflicts with parents on the one hand. And for the parents, their responsibility is to control them and not let go. Actually, the youths try to leave the parental control and at the same time try to leave the psychology and psychical body of the childhood. Knowing all these psychology will help reduce the frustrations and conflicts to the minimum.

- Hopefully, then, you can better disciple them. You can bring up your children to be god fearing and they own a strong faith in Christ.

4. Conclusion.

- I pray that you are helping your children to own a faith in Christ which will bless him for the rest of his life.

Jesus is Real

Written By Rev. Law Hui Seng
Posted By Teresa Han
12th April, 2009 (Easter

Luke 24:36-49
Main Idea: To preach the reality of Jesus as living God.
Objective: To help the congregation to see that Jesus is so real that we can experience Him.

A. Introduction
- After being a pastor for 15 years, one of the toughest challenges is still how to help children of God and disciples of Jesus to experience Him personally.
- Let me very honestly say to you this morning, very often when problems, whatever they may be, no matter how big they are, I always ask myself this question, is it worth it? When I ask a question like, I always tend to find an answer against some bottom lines. I must say one bottom line is always to do with the purpose behind everything.
- Especially, when I am pushed to a corner, and I have to examine my ultimate purpose; and yet I have very few alternatives or solutions, or worst still, there is no alternative or solution left, I still hand on as long as my faith is concerned.
- Why? This is simply because this God whom I believe, in the person of Jesus, is real.
- This God, in the person of Jesus, whom I believe, may not even answer my prayers according to the deepest needs of mankind, yet, I believe He is real.
- Yet this is not blind faith. This is not something I made it up. It is not something like I think like that, therefore, I brainwash myself into it.
- At the end of the day, I always have to answer the question: What do I get out of brainwashing myself it? If it is something not there, if Jesus is not real at all or He is not there at all, and I pretend He is real, how long can I pretend?
- How long can a disciple of Jesus pretend that Jesus is real in His life?
- Everything I do and we do in the church, we do it in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Why? Because Jesus is real. Jesus is true.
- Today, in this Easter, let us challenge our faith by asking ourselves, how real is Jesus to you? (Say to someone beside you)

B. How real was Jesus to His disciples
- Naturally, the basis of this question must come from gospel of Matthew, Mark and Luke. They are the authority of God’s word in the Bible.
- The reality of resurrection of Jesus is found in all the 3 gospels. Thank God for the permanent record in the Bible.
- Let us examine how real the resurrected Jesus to His disciples was.
- If Jesus was not real to His disciples, how could He be real to us? If Jesus was not real to His disciples then, how could their faith in Jesus be passed down to us today? If you take the trouble to read the book of Acts in one go, you would find how real was Jesus to His disciples after Jesus died, buried and resurrected. It was because Jesus was so real as Son of God that, even the apostles like Peter, Paul and many others were willing to face the risk of death in spreading the love of Jesus for mankind all over the place.
- Let us honestly face the passage today to examine how real the resurrected Jesus to His disciples was.
- Firstly, after resurrection, Jesus appeared in person to his disciples. In verse 36, it says that when the disciples who gathered were talking among themselves, He appeared as a physical person, a solid person; and He could even greet them, “Peace be with you.” The disciples were so scared that they thought they had seen a ghost. Then from verse 37 onwards till verse 49, it is a lot of exchange of words, real conversation. If you were there, were you find Jesus real?
- Secondly, after resurrection, Jesus even helped His disciples to recognize the reality of Himself by appealing to our human faculties of touch, seeing and eating to prove that He was real to His disciples. He was the resurrected Christ. In verses 38 to 40, He challenged them to see His hands and feet and asked them to touch Him. Even then, Jesus being so understood our human limitations so much so that He wanted to demonstrate to them in front of their eyes that He could eat in verse 41. Jesus knew that there was such a thing called being overwhelmed by joy and amazement, they could not believe He was real by seeing the hands and the feet. So, He had to ask His disciples for a piece of broiled fish to eat in their presence. Only then, His reality became known to His disciples. This is because verse 45 says Jesus opened their minds to realize what was prophesied in the Old Testament about Him was true. About the Messiah who need to suffer and rise from the dead on the third day.
- I strongly believe that Jesus disciples must have that kind of real encounter with Jesus in person, only then, they could take Jesus far; only then, their ministry, that is preaching repentance and forgiveness of sins to all nations, beginning with Jerusalem could go on and on.

C. Applications.

a. How Jesus gets real to you?
How Jesus is so real to you. I believe your wisdom tell you that after resurrection, Jesus took the initiative to see the disciples. Yes, on the one hand, after the death of Jesus, the women took spices to go to the tomb where was buried and looked for His body and they could not find the body. Instead, they were informed by the 2 angels that Jesus had resurrected.

The women’s information about our resurrected Lord was something the apostles (Luke 24:11) could not believe. Then, when apostle and the other disciple while traveling to a village called Emmaus, Jesus took the initiative to appear to them. In verse 15, it says, “As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus him came up and walked along with them…” They did not discover it was Jesus then. You see how Jesus took initiative to appear to them. And in today’s passage, especially in verse 36, Jesus deliberately took initiative to appear to the apostles again. This time, they recognized Him.

I strongly believe that Jesus is all the time try to get real to us just like the way He tried to appear to His apostles. We may not have the privilege to see Jesus in person but by faith we believe He is there. He is the Holy Spirit who is inside us.
He is all the real in us. He always takes initiative to call us to repent and obey His word. The problem with us is we always miss him. We always miss Christ’s presence, or His speaking to us. I called this the missing art in Church. Let me give you some examples of Christ’s initiative of getting real with you. Do you at times felt called by a voice to forgive, to show love for someone in need, to show understanding, to keep going back to a long house, etc? It is Jesus getting real to real.

b. How do you get real with Jesus?
You cannot get real with Jesus unless you come to a personal faith with Him. You have to be convinced that Jesus is your savior and your Lord, your master. If you desire to get real with Jesus, you need to acknowledge your total corruption of yourself, you have to acknowledge that without God, you always cannot do good and overcome your own sinfulness.

The best way, the quickest way, the most way for you to distant yourself from God is to claim that “I am capable to be good, I can do all things without Jesus. I am in control of my life. I have the final say about how I should use my life. My sins are justifiable.” The more you emphasize yourself, your own good, your own power, cleverness, the more you cannot real with Jesus. The more Jesus is not real to you.

c. How do you get personal with Jesus?
If there is anything that demands the most of your attention today in this sermon today is this. If as a result of this sermon, the word of God, you get real with Jesus by being personal with Jesus, Jesus will be most happy. If Jesus is so real, if God is still living in the person of Christ, how do your get personal with Him?

If Jesus is really, the Son of God, the living God, then, He demands your personal attention.

Let me show some guidance to you on how to come to Jesus personally.
1. Think of how you relate to your father and mother in person. How they matter to you so much. If Jesus is the master of your life, ask yourself He matters to you or not?
2. Those of you who are husband and wife, can you recall all the intimate talk and only 2 of you can know them. There are talks only your life partner and Jesus know. The rest of the world do not know.
3. Do you have things that is so confidential that nobody in this world should know, only Jesus know it.
4. Do you know what it means to have heart to heart between any 2 persons. You do that to Jesus, then, you are in a personal relationship.

I am so particular as your pastor about building a personal relationship with the living Jesus because it where love, joy, peace, faith, forgiveness, strength, wisdom and all the needs you need in life come from. You miss the personal relationship with Jesus, you miss everything in life.

5. Conclusion.
- I pray God’s word today has convicted of the need to work on your personal relationship with Jesus
- I pray that you always find Jesus real in your life.
- Jesus must be very real in your life.

Why Has Jesus Died On the Cross

Written By Rev. Law Hui Seng
Posted By Teresa Han
10th April, 2009 (Good Friday)

Luke 23:26-56
Main Idea: To explain the reasons for Jesus’ death on the cross.
Objectives: a. To produce a need for the congregation to get personal with Jesus. b. To help the congregation to realize how much do we need Jesus forgiveness?

A. Introduction
- Why Jesus must die on the cross? I pray that this is not just a usual question that demands a rational answer and that is it. I pray that the answers I give and preach to you today will empower you to build a more personal relationship with Jesus, the Christ.
- My challenge to you is not to take the crucifixion of Jesus as just head knowledge. Rather, know the reasons of crucifixion; allow all these reasons sink into the deepest part of your conscience, emotion, thought, and your whole being. I pray that you own the crucifixion. If possible, allow yourself to be crucified on the cross and do that in your mental picture.
- The following reasons are the results of my reflections and I hold them dear to my heart. I pray that they will impact your lives this Good Friday.

B. The most important reason is because of man’s sin.
- No matter how non-Christians and those who do not believe in Jesus as the Savior of the world deny the purpose of Jesus’ coming to the world, this reason of sinfulness of mankind is the most important reason and purpose of His coming.
- This is what he claims, if not, he would not be insulted by the thief on the cross like this in verse 39, “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!” And also in verse 35, where it says, “The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the chosen one.”
- Jesus himself knew His great purpose of coming to the earth and why He had to suffer on the cross. Even at that moment of great suffering, you know, if I were there on the cross, if I had not committed any offense that deserved a shameful, humiliated death, I would be full of anger, hatred, bitterness, I would surely not control myself and did a last minute cursing before I died.
- But Jesus, out of love and great humility, he said in verse 4, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
- Brothers and sisters, as I reflect on the crucifixion, it is literally, the sin of mankind that caused Jesus to be crucified. To the Jewish people, Jesus had committed the greatest sin of blasphemy because He claimed to be the Son of God and Messiah. Even then, the ordinary people, rulers and emperor at that time could not find any wrong with him in the eye of their laws.
- But why should Jesus allow himself to be crucified. If not because of our sin, the sin of mankind, he would not go through the shameful and humiliating process.
- Can you think of Jesus’ death and suffering each time you recognize your own sin and the sin of others?
- This will help us to realize we need Jesus very much.

C. The second reason for Christ’s crucifixion is the need for Him to be identified with the suffering and death of mankind.
- You see mankind is so limited in our understanding about God and life after death. We are not able to know much about it. How God helps us to know Him and know life after death? When it comes to life after death, take for instance, we Chinese are very naïve and imagine as if life after death is exactly the same as life on earth. And therefore, we burn paper money, Mercedes car, etc.
- God knows, it is hard for limited human beings to figure out who is he and how He loves human so much. He thinks of the best way to communicate with human beings.
- You know all the ants are heading for the fire and there will be total destruction. A big human being saw it and no matter how he tried to communicate, the ants could not understand. Finally, the human being realized it and he changed into an ant, only then, he communicated with the ants and save them.
- The best way for God to show Himself to the mankind is by becoming a human being so that He can understand our suffering and death and show us who He is.
- The most hopeless and helpless problem of human beings is to do with suffering and death. There is no way for us to overcome them.
- Jesus, being human, not only he successfully shows us He is God by His miracles and resurrection, He also shows us He understand our suffering and death and He has the solution to our 2 greatest problems. The solution is not so much of taking away our suffering and death, which comes about as a result of our sins, the solution is this, the forgiveness of our sins and eternal life with Him in heaven in the future.

D. The Third reason for Christ’s death on the cross is from me as a pastor who tries all the time to you to build a personal relationship.- I pray that you appreciate it as much as I do. I have been telling people every now and then, and all the more in baptism class.
- Why Jesus cannot just disappear? Why Jesus cannot just come down from the Cross? Why Jesus need to die a death shameful, most humiliating death?
- Please listen to my personal reason and pastoral reason for you.
- I want to show you human beings are so forgetful, ungrateful towards God; how human beings reject God; how human beings do not want to believe there is life after death; how human beings do not want to believe in hell and heaven, etc.
- How do you get the attention of human beings? How your dying parents get your attention?
- It is through death, horrible death, shameful death, the most humiliating death, the most unworthy death. The death of Jesus strikes us and the whole world and caught our attention. And it challenges us to consider Him as your Savior or not.
- Jesus must die on the cross in order to catch the attention of the world that He is very concern about our destiny and He has the answer to our unanswered question of life after death. That whoever believes in Him and repents and lives a righteous life, he will be promised the great salvation

E.Conclusion

Are you convinced that Jesus dies for mankind and He is the Savior of mankind?

This is my body given for you…This cup is the new covenant in my blood….

Written By Rev. Law Hui Seng
Posted By Teresa Han
9th April (Maundy Thursday)

Luke 22:1-38

Main idea: Jesus prepared His disciples to pay the price to be his disciples.
Objectives: a. To show how we must model after Jesus in ministry.

A. Introduction

-Jesus said, “This is my body given for you…This cup is the new covenant in my blood….”
-What a statement to make. It is a statement nobody dares to make. He wants to give His blood and body away. It means He needs to die. I believe if were there at the Passover, you would be puzzled to hear Jesus’ statement even though you have hear Jesus telling you about it in his ministry before that. I think you cannot accept it and you are not ready for it though Jesus had prepared you for it.
-Anyway, for Jesus, the time had come for Him to face a tragic death.
-Even then, He made full use of the last Passover meal, which He instituted as Holy Communion for us today to prepare His disciples to pay the price on earth to serve Him.
-Now, let us see how Jesus prepared His disciples to serve Him in the event he was no more on earth.
-Personally as I reflect on the statements, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me…This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” The meaning is very deep, inspiring and challenging to me.
-It is very deep because God in the person of Jesus can give his life (body and blood, that is everything) to me. His life is in me. Is Christ’s life in you?
-It is very inspiring to me because the last supper or the last Passover meal turned up to be something that Christians must practice non-stop for the rest of our lives. No what happens, we must do it. It reminds me of how forgetful we human beings and as disciples of Jesus. It is something very practical that Jesus instituted in order to help us to focus our lives in Him
-It is very challenging because by saying so, He expects Christians and His disciples throughout the ages to sacrifice our lives for Him. And this is the first point of my sermon.

B. We need to prepare to sacrifice in order to serve.
-By the 2 statements He really told the disciples then, he was going to die for the sake of man’s sin and for the purpose of salvation. Otherwise, he will not say things like this, in verse 16, “ For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.” and then in verse 18, “For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
-He told His disciples at the last Passover meal that he was going to suffer in verse 15.
-His willingness to sacrifice his life is really a great model for us to follow. Especially, as we all know, if we do not go beyond ourselves and go the extra mile to do something for others, we will not make a difference for Jesus. It is very much so in mission, in visiting the sick, in prison ministry, in BB and GB ministries, in Sunday School ministries, etc.
-If you are not ready to sacrifice, then, you will go far; you will not persevere; you will not make disciples; you will easily say you have done a lot and nobody appreciates you.
-He further encouraged the disciples in verses 25 to 27 to say that the greatest is the one who serves.

C. Jesus prepared His disciples to serve Him by allowing them the space to make mistakes.
-Jesus at the Passover meal, He prepared His disciples not to be discouraged in the event he was betrayed and killed.
-So, he said in verse 21 “But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table.”
-It is with certainty that he would be betrayed and that was why he said in verse 22, “The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed, but woe to that man who betrays him.”
-It looks like Jesus is giving himself as an example to show us that He had to face betrayal in ministry and; also we need to allow people to make mistakes in the process of doing ministry.

D. Jesus prepared His disciples to serve by showing them the ugly human condition.
-Beside the betrayals and mistakes made in the process of ministry, Jesus also said to the rest of His disciples that He closest disciples can deny Him.
-He demonstrate to them that in ministry you need to learn to accept the fact your closest co-workers can deny you and abandon you in the most crucial moment.
-And so in verse 34 He warned that Peter would deny him 3 times before the rooster crowed. You see the ugly human condition of Peter. Not only Peter did it but also did it so many times. But then, Jesus was so assuring and He really assured the disciples by saying that He would be praying for them, especially Peter in verse 31 as he was subjected to all the temptations of Satan.

E. Jesus prepared His disciples to defend themselves and to be prepared for persecutions.
-This is very clearly stated in verses 35 to 38, where the disciples were told they need to get ready their personal belongings and even weapons to defend themselves in the event they were attacked.
-This is definitely to help them to face the reality of ministry after He left them.
-Today, it is the same.

F. Conclusion.
-Are you all ready and get prepared to serve Jesus and be His disciples?

Faith and Deeds

Written By Rev. Law Hui Seng
Posted By Teresa Han
5th April, 2009

James 2:14-26
Main Idea: To emphasize that faith must be exercised with actions.
Objectives: a. To teach that faith must be exercised based on the over all word of God. b. To teach that faith is trusting God for the impossible but it must be exercised in the context of godly characters.

A. Introduction.
- Many years ago it was decided to put a suspension bridge across a wide gorge. How could they build a bridge across such a wide space? In fact, how could they even start? They shot an arrow from one side to the other. The arrow carried across the gulf a tiny thread, and thus the connection was established. By and by the thread was used to draw a piece of twine across: the twine carried after it a small rope; the rope soon carried a cable across – and in good time came the iron chains the bridge was to hang from.
- Although often weak in its beginnings stage, a seemingly small faith can draw us to a stronger and stronger faith that will accomplish greater and greater things.
- George Muller, a great man of faith, once said, “God delights increase faith of His children. We ought, instead of wanting no trials before victory, no exercise for patience, to be willing to take them from God’s hand as a means. I say – and it deliberately – trials, obstacles, difficulties, and sometimes defeats, are the very food for faith.
- I pray that you see the connections between the exercise of faith and actions.
- Christians, children of God and disciples of Jesus, if we were to claim as such, we must be very down to earth people; and exercised faith with action.
- This is the great message of the passage of today’s passage.

B. Explanation of Today’s Passage
a. The importance of faith with deeds (verse 14)
- In the midst of great trials and persecutions of their faith, James really taught the Jewish Christians that they stand up for their faith. How they were to do it? Faith must be done side by side with deeds.
- That is why the great statement: verse 14 says, “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith such him?
- What James is asking is whether a certain faith will help a person in the final judgment. The implied answer is no.
- He even links faith with the final judgment. That means faith with deeds is so crucial in deciding whether one is saved or not. It is not salvation by works but the faith that saves us from evil, sins and gives us eternal life is faith with deeds. James emphasized.
- Works or deeds are not an “added extra” to faith, but they are essential in expressing faith. Take for instance, even in Judaism, the Jews believe that deeds of love must practiced side by side with faith.

Practical daily life examples to show faith must be accompanied by action (verses 15-19)
- James went on to elaborate his point about exercising faith with action. In verse 15, he gave a very practical example of in our daily life. He emphasize that we just cannot provide lip service and wished a person who is poor well and do nothing.
- He further emphasized the importance of faith with deeds by teaching that faith without actions is dead.
- He even argued with those who believed that faith and deeds can be separated. He simply cannot accept faith without deeds and went on to say that if faith and deeds can be separated, then, even demons believe in God, in verse 19.
- Faith and actions or deeds are inseparable just like body and spirit (verse 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead) Body will be useless with out the spirit and vice-versa. So, faith without deeds is useless.

Historical examples to show faith must be accompanied by action, verses 20-25.
- James even supported his argument for the doctrine of faith with action by using historical examples.
- He used the examples of the fore father, Abraham and Rahab (the prostitute). This is really convincing.

C. Applications.
Faith must be exercised based on the overall word of God, not just a portion of it.
- Thank God and praise Him for the bible. Because the overall word of God is all in there. When we believe and practice it, we cannot just believe in one sentence and forget about the rest. Take for instance, we cannot believe in the sentence that says, “Believe and be baptized, you will be saved.” We must believe in the passage today also and both places of scripture must be considered together at the same time. Not separately.
- If you only one portion and not read or believe other portions, your belief could be wrong or, it may bring you extremism. Your belief may not be balanced.
- For this matter, the 9 month disciple course is useful. It gives you an overall picture of the bible. the overall expectation of God for your life is all there.

Faith is trusting God for the impossible on the one hand but on the other hand, faith must be exercised in the context of godly characters.
- I strongly believe that God cannot accept a person as godly, who, for example, exercise so called great faith in prayer for healing and he does not bear good testimony at home. Like he cursed and womanizing.

D. Conclusion.
- A bold unbeliever was lecturing on the foolishness of religious faith in general and the Christian faith in particular. He requested people to ask questions.
- A drunkard in the town was converted to Christ. I front of him, he peeled an orange and ate.
- Speaker, asked any question. Was the orange I just ate sweet or sour? Respond: How can I know whether it was sweet or not when I never tasted it?
- The former drunkard replied, “ And how can you know anything about Christ if you have not tried Him?”

John the Baptist

Written By Rev. Law Hui Seng
Posted By Teresa Han
29th March, 2009

John 1:19-28 .
Main Idea: To drive home the point that faith must accompanied by actions.
Objectives: a) At the end of the day we realize the importance of our identity in Christ. b) This will lead to our need for Jesus. c) Then, we need to use our lives to do mission.

A. Introduction.
- Have you come across people who cannot remember their names? People who lost their memory and how they behaved? They cannot recognize their loved ones. They have forgotten about their past and everything seems to be a blank. For this kind of people, life is really meaningless, you may say. You feel sorry for them
- These are all the questions to do with one’s identity. In life, knowing who you are is so important. It defines your identity; it defines your meaning in life. It shows you how to live a life.
- When a person identifies himself or herself as prostitutes that is it. He or she will behave like one; think like one. Of course, he or she will suffer the negative consequences of it.
- When a person identifies himself as a liar, he will behave like one. He will lie all the way. Of course, he or she will suffer the negative consequences of it.
- When a person identifies himself or herself as a pornographer, he or she behaves like. And he tends to commit adultery and he or she sees only sex when he or she sees human being.
- On the other hand, when a person identifies him as husband to so and so, he will take care of the wife, he will not secretly take care of other ladies and keep mistress. The moment he does that, his identity changes to be an adulterer.
- Once a person is baptized and he or she takes up a new identity, a Christian or a disciple of Jesus, he will live like one and he is required to obey whatever Jesus teaches in the 4 gospels. However, the moment this Christian starts to seek help from mediums, spiritists, fortune tellers, then he becomes and idol worshippers. As he sins against God, he will not have peace and he will be full of insecurity.
- Do you know who you are? This is a great question which everybody on earth must answer. The answer to this question will determine everything in your life.
- As you can see from my illustrations just now, it affects your values, character, faith, behavior, etc.
- Some of us may have a vague idea of who you are. Some of us, no what, you may be very sure of who you as a person. But my question is, do you know who you are in Christ?
- I strongly believe that lots Christians are confused Christians because we either do not know our identity or we are not sure of our identity in Christ.
- I pray that as you learn from John the Baptist, you will be enlightened and realize your precious identity in Christ, and you will take step to know and experience Jesus and obey Him in missions.

B. An Explanation of the text.
- From the encounter between John the Baptist and the Jewish priests Levites, you see three great lessons you can learn from him.
- The gospel of John was written to reach out to the Jews so that they come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.
- So, it is in context that John the Baptist answered all the questions of the Jewish priests and Levites. Today, we are blessed by the answers.
- (1) The first great lesson we can learn from John the Baptist is that He knows his own identity. How do we know? Look at how he answered when was asked who he was. He said he was not the Christ; not Elijah; not the prophet (verses 20 and 21). When he was asked the final question about his identity, he did not hide and he did not hesitate to reveal in verse 23, “I am the voice of one calling in the desert, ‘ Make straight the way for the Lord.’ When he was further pressed with the question, “Why then do you baptize if you are the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” He was very sure of his own identity and never took over the place of Christ. On the other hand, he grasped the opportunity to honor and glorify Christ. Look at verses 26 and 27, when he replies, “I baptize with water,” “But among you stands one you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”
- John the Baptist is very sure of his own identity and so he feels secure about himself and he had very healthy self-esteem. He can give honor to Christ.
- (2). The second great lesson we can learn from John the Baptist is that he knows mission/ his own role. This is actually very much related to his identity. You see, when you know your own identity at any one time, you know what to do with your life. When he knew he was not the Christ, he knew God called him to make straight the way for the Lord. He knew the exact mission on earth that God gave him. He fulfilled the mission, then, he was beheaded by King Herod (Mat 14:3-12).
- (3). The third great lesson we can learn from John the Baptist is that he know Jesus Christ. From the way that he honored Jesus, you know he knows Jesus. He said in verse 27, “He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals am not worthy to untie.” If he did not know Jesus, he would not say that and he would not serve Jesus. He would not speak for Jesus.
- The inspiration is this, once John the Baptist knows who exactly is Jesus, he has no reservation in serving Jesus, in making the way for Jesus.
- Similarly, in our case, in real life, when you know who is your boss, you will build up a relationship with him and serve him. Therefore, if you desire to serve Jesus Christ whom you regard as Lord, you to know him as much as you can. If not, what you do is only for your own sack and purpose. You do not know him, so, you will have no personal relationship with him and you will do the ministry for purpose other than Jesus, our Master.

C. Applications
- I pray that the passage has been a great inspiration to you and let us now apply it in our lives.
- (1). As John the Baptist knows who he is, you must know who you are in Christ. Get this right, then, it determines your how you want to use your life. God gives this vision which I must pass on to you. You see or not, only when you know exactly in Christ, only you can see beyond yourself. If you do not see exactly who you are in Christ, you will only see your present self and you do not go beyond yourself. So, you see your earthly identities only: a father, a mother, a wife, a husband, a son, a daughter, a student, a teacher, an engineer, a doctor, a pastor, a clerk, a manager, a director, a boss, etc. That is all.
- Once you know your sins are forgiven and now in everywhere, you are qualified to build a personal relationship with Jesus; you know you are a child of God, you can become so personal with Jesus; you know you are a disciple of Jesus, you must make disciples of all nations; you know you have eternal life, you will build up everything on earth towards the direction of being with Jesus in heaven; you are baptized, you know in every area of your life, you must be like Christ and reflect Jesus. You see, once you know your identity in Christ, you will go beyond yourself; you will do something outside yourself; you will love others. You will define yourself in terms of Christ and Him crucified. You will honor God in your life; you will not waste your life.
- Illustration of a girl of one of the royal families in Europe She had a big, bulbous nose. Operated and it was beautiful but she insisted the operation fail and she was not beautiful. It took her 6 months before she could accept the fact that she was indeed an attractive person. It was not until she accepted the fact that her self-image and behavior began to change accordingly. So, it is with those who are in Christ. We must accept our new identity before we can change.
- (2). As John the Baptist knows his mission on earth, you must know your mission on earth. Once you know your strong identity in Christ, you will naturally, automatically, feel the need to do exactly what God desires you to do on earth. You know you are not living for the worldly pursuit. You know you do not live for the sake of your family only, for the sake of a good career only, for material things only, for studies only, etc, you will live to do God’s mission on earth. What is God’s mission for you? Have you asked God about this. For John the Baptist, it is to prepare the way for Jesus’ coming, then, he was beheaded.
- Personally, I know my very strong identity in Christ. I know that Jesus uses his life to purchase me and grant me a place to be with him. Jesus paid the highest price for me and how can I not serve his missions? With this strong identity, I am in everywhere driven to make disciples of all nations. More than 2 years, God gave me a vision of the need to train lots of BM speaking pastors as we make disciples of the indigenous people in Sarawak.
- (3). As John the Baptist knows Jesus Christ, you must know who is Jesus Christ. It is not good enough to know Jesus Christ to be Son of God, died for your sins, He loves you, etc. I call this knowing Jesus from a distance. It is all head knowledge. Do you know Him personally? Do you know in such a way your life is transformed by Him. Do you know till the extend that He is very real to you and you experience Him personally?

D. Conclusion
- Now that you understand your own identity in Christ and your mission on earth, how do you use your life from now onwards?