Brunei Sermon Apostle’s Creed (4)

17th November, 2013 Written by Rev Law Hui Seng Posted by Teresa Han Main Idea: Holy Spirit and the Universal Church Objectives: a. To teach the roles of the Holy Spirit and the Universal Church. b. To challenge the congregation to be empowered by the Holy Spirit to serve Christ in the church. A. Introduction - This is the last part of my four parts sermon on Apostle’s Creed. I pray that as you recite the Apostle’s Creed every Sunday, you now become more aware of the meaning of it and you become very sure of your faith. - This part is concerning : I believe in the Holy Spirit; the holy catholic church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life ever-lasting. B. I Believe in the Holy Spirit - Most Christians do not understand the doctrine of the Holy Spirit well. It is an irony because the most powerful Spirit of Christ in the universe in inside us and yet, owing to our lack of understanding of the Holy Spirit, we fail to be empowered by the Spirit. I believe the most fundamental reason for the lack of empowerment is due to lack of knowledge of the Spirit. It happens because we do not read the bible thorough enough to have the overall or holistic picture of the Holy Spirit. - In this sermon, I cannot preach much about the doctrine because of the time limitation. I can only preach on 3general roles of the Holy Spirit. - God the Father is concerning His creation of the new world; God the Son is about how He gave new life and its substance and possibility; and God the Spirit is about a new relationship. Through God the Spirit, we believers can build up our new relationship with God the Father and the Son. - One non-Christian has criticized Christianity that if there is only one God, then, this God is a lonely God. He could not accept this God. You see how he developed his human concept of God. To help him to understand more about our one God concept, I explain to him the relationship of the Trinitarian God. How they know one another and relate to one another; how God sent Jesus and how Jesus sent the Spirit; how only God the Father knows the timing of Jesus second coming and Jesus does not know; how Jesus was bearing the burden of sin and how on the cross at that dark moment, God the Father cut off His relationship with Jesus. And at the end of the day, I still told him, there is only one God. He seemed to nod his head slightly. I simply told him our God, Trinitarian, is in fellowship. - In the New Testament, we can understand the Holy Spirit in terms of the gospel, book of Acts and the apostolic letters. After Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit came upon Him. Then, the Holy Spirit and the acts and words of Jesus were inseparable. However, Jesus only mentioned two times in the gospel of Mark, one time when He taught that blaspheming against the Holy Spirit is an eternal sin (Mark 3:29) and the other time was when the disciples were witnessing for Him (Mark 13:11). Scholars believed that it has to do with Jesus’ initial reluctance to reveal His Messiah identity. Let us now take a look at 3 roles of the Holy Spirit. (1). The Holy Spirit empowers us to relate to God. - Apostle Paul taught that Jews and Gentiles were united in Christ to enter into personal relationship with God. Together they were the dwelling place for the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 2:22). - Apostle John in the Gospel of John 3:5 quotes Jesus in saying only those who are born of water and the Spirit can enter the kingdom of heaven. Through the work of the Holy Spirit a person enters into a close relationship with God. (2) The Holy Spirit empowers us to witness. - Take for example, in the 16th century, the Roman Catholic monks, formed Jesuit Order, and observed 4 vows, celibacy, poverty, evangelism (to the Muslims) and obedience to Christ. Their great sacrifice has advanced the mission of Christ in terms of education, medical care, helping the poor and winning many to Christ. - These institutions are made possible as the Holy Spirit empowers the disciples of Jesus to bear godly characters. With these godly characters (e.g., love and faithfulness), they persevere despite the odds. Galatians 5:22,23 ‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control…’ - In modern days, Churches are taking up the challenge to enter the society to serve the society as individual Christians and as churches or denomination, by setting up institutions like school, orphanage home, care for the poor and needy, mentally challenge children, kidney dialysis centre, counseling centre, giving tuition to the poor students, home for the aged, etc. (3) The Holy Spirit empowers us to do signs and wonders. - Denominational churches tend to have rigid liturgy, Christians who are secularized, hearts of believers grow cold, we need the Holy Spirit to empower us to worship Him in Spirit and truth. Our lives are empowered by the Holy Spirit to do signs and wonders. Believers are challenged to wake up to obey God’s call to make a difference for Jesus, both as individuals and as a church. - Like what Apostle Paul prayed for the Ephesians in1:18-21, ‘I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly realms, far above the rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.’ - The power that resurrected Jesus from the death is also inside us, so, the Holy Spirit is able to empower us to do signs and wonders. No wonder, after ascension of Jesus to heaven, for example, Apostle Peter being empowered by the Holy Spirit to heal a crippled beggar. Acts 3:6-8, ‘Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazereth, walk. Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and naturally the man’s jumped to his feet and began to walk..” - Apostle and disciples were indeed empowered by the Holy Spirit as taught by Jesus in Acts 1:8,9, ‘But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ - Are you convinced to do that we as disciples of Jesus are called to do signs and wonders because we empowered by the Holy Spirit? I pray that you do. C. The holy catholic Church - In the New Testament original Greek, the word for church is ekklesia, it is formed by 2 words, ek, which means ‘out’, klesis, which means ‘called’. Therefore, the word ekklesia means the community that is called out. The word is used in Mathew 16:18 when Jesus said, ‘And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church,…’ Mathew 18:17 when Jesus said, ‘If he refuses to listen to listen to them, tell it to the church…’ - Today, the meanings of the church is coming from the writings of Apostle Paul on metaphors of the church, the major ones are God’s people, body of Christ, communion and the spirit. - As God’s people, Christians’ most important responsibility is to proclaim the achievement of Christ on the cross. It says in 2Corinthians 5:19, ‘that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.’ Therefore, Christians gather and meet as a church is not only for fellowship purpose, but it is also for the purpose of going out to spread the gospel of kingdom. - As a body of Christ, she has her visible sign of mission, that is to love one another as commanded by Jesus. This is the centre of church life and it is also the whole purpose of fellowship. 1Corinthians 11:29 ‘For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.’ Colossians 1:13’For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.’ The fellowship of here is not because of the Christians’ nature which love it but it is because we belong to the same body whose head is the Christ. And Christ died a sacrificial death to for His body of followers. - This is the foundation for church existence. How can we believers be faithful to this foundation? This involves the recreation power of the Holy Spirit. The fellowship community involves the power of Holy Spirit who dwells in the body of believers. Apostle Paul talked about believers, ‘…bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of Spirit through the bond of peace.’ (Ephesians 4;3,4) This is the meaning of fellowship of the Holy Spirit. - The church is capable of mission, love and fellowship not because she is morally right or clean or perfect, because Trinitarian God is holy and living among the believers. - The church is catholic because throughout history we believe in the same doctrine. D. The communion of saints - This is about the relationship among all believers; believers and believers – the saints. Believers are called saints by Apostle Paul, John and Peter. 1Corinthians 1:2 , John 10:36 and 1Peter 1:2, the apostles addressed believers as saints. The common justification for the address is because the believers are made holy or sanctified (hoi hagioi) by the redemption of Christ, not because we are now morally right. We are now saints because Christ died a redemptive death, which results in the forgiveness of our sins. This can be done all because of the work of the Holy Spirit in the believers. This is why the communion of the saints has to be after the belief in the Holy Spirit. 1Corinthians 6:11 ‘…you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our Lord.’ - The communion of all the saints throughout the world is marked at least by freedom, equality and love. Communion of saints is marked by freedom. Apostle Peter said in Acts 15:10 ‘…why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear?’ This is a concept that tolerates the freedom of choice. - If we want the saints to serve Christ, we need to remove our control over them, otherwise, they will serve human beings and not Christ/God. Unless we are freed from fear, we cannot have love, we also cannot have real ministry. If we fear punishment, death, guilt, losing position or interests, we will be enslaved by punishment, death, guilt, gaining and losing. And we are no more living as saints. - Communion of saints is marked by equality. Those who went to Antioch from Judea had gone against the principle of the Holy Spirit and did not treat all believers equally. Apostle Peter said in Acts 15:8,9 ‘God who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He make no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.’ - Recognizing the rights of others does not mean you forgo your own rights or opinions. Therefore, there can be differences in equality. It does not matter whether these differences are cultural, racial, because of skin, sex, or opinions or coming from different angles. To the Jerusalem believers, they see the gentile church this way because this is how God treats them. - Communion of saints is marked by love. Only after we can treat one another with freedom and equality, only then, we treat one another as brothers and sisters with love. E. The forgiveness of sins - We are in the church because of one reality, that is, our sins are forgiven by Jesus. Because our sins are forgiven, we become new people and we are united in Spirit. We need to remind ourselves of the forgiveness so that we do not yield to the temptations of all kinds. - Forgive in Greek is aphiemi, it is used 142 times in the New Testament. The central message of New Testament is Christ used His own life to exchange for the freedom of man, so that man do not need to be enslaved by sin. His preaching and actions show His willingness to forgive sinners. His forgiveness of man’s sins is not only reflected in His preaching but very much shown by His acceptance of sinners. His acceptance of sinners even costs His life. - In view of Christ’s forgiveness, we must forgive and accept ourselves, others and fear God more than anything else. F. The resurrection of the body - As Christians look forward, we see resurrection, and we see the hope of resurrection with Christ, new life in Christ. There are only 2 key passages in the New Testament: Mark 12:18-27; 1Corinthians 15 bout resurrection of Christ. - Concerning Mark 12, Jesus is answering the Sadducees who do not believe in the resurrection of the dead because they could not find the record of it in Mosaic Law. Jesus pointed out that resurrection is due to the power of God. Our body will be the glorified body, completely changed body. This body and this person will not continue the earthly relationships like husband and wife. - Concerning 1Corinthians 15, Apostle Paul addressed Christians who believed in resurrection of the soul and spirit of believers but not with their changed physical body. This was because of the influence of the Greek philosophy on the Christians. Apostle Paul emphasized that Christ’s resurrection was not His soul and spirit leaving the physical body, but His resurrected body is both soul and spirit and physical body altogether which is transformed into glorified body. He has defeated the power of sin, He is no more escaping from the body, but owning the victorious body, transformed body. This is the kind of body which we are going to acquire. G. And life everlasting - Eternal life is a life maintaining close relationship with God. This is why John said in 1John 5:12, ‘He who has the Son has life, he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.’ - Eternal life emphasizes the importance of present life. We treasure all the present opportunities because we who have eternal life live in the kingdom of God, live in the space of God. H. Conclusion - I pray that every time you recite the Apostles’ Creed you will do it with understanding and it strengthens your relationship with Jesus. Rev Law Hui Seng

Apostle’s Creed (3)

BruneiSermon 25th August, 2013 Written By Rev Law Hui Seng Posted By Teresa Han Main Idea: Jesus’ resurrection, coming back and judgment. Objectives: 1. To understand the significance of Jesus’ suffering, crucifixion, death and burial in relationship to our life. 2. To understand the meanings of His resurrection; sitting at the right hand of God; His coming back; and the judgment of the quick and the dead. A. Introduction - In my last sermon on the Apostle’s creed, I preached to you on how God is Almighty; how we Christians believe in the person of Jesus; and His conception by the Holy Spirit. - Today’s sermon will focus on Jesus’ suffering, crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection, sitting at the right hand of God, and His coming to judge the quick and the dead - “suffered under Pontius Pilate,was crucified, dead, and buried; - He descended into hell. - The third day He arose again from the dead; - He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.” - I pray the works of Jesus will inspire you and challenge each of you to be His great disciples. B. Suffered under Pontius Pilate - Why the name Pontius Pilate is so significant in the Apostle’s Creed? What is the importance of Jesus’ suffering in the creed? What is the purpose of suffering of Jesus for our faith? - Nobody can deny the historical facts of the creed. - Pontius Pilate is a historical person who existed. - Jesus was crucified under his hand; He suffered, died and buried under his political rule. - To all us Christians throughout the centuries, ‘suffered under Pontius Pilate’ means the Son of God for the purpose of redeeming us, He entered history. He suffered and died under Pontius Pilate, a real human. Nobody can deny it. It happened in time and space. It was not made up story. It did not happen in some imagination or through some psychological effects. - Therefore, Jesus Himself embraced the world by becoming a human being. As He went through the motion of a human being and even suffered, we will be ever to find the meaning of our earthly suffering and a way out of it. This is the meaning of suffered under Pontius Pilate. - Jesus is word of God became flesh 2,000 years ago at Bethlehem, doing preaching, healing and deliverance all over the places at Galilee and Jerusalem. - At the age of 33, he suffered under Pontius Pilate. What He did can be seen, touched and measured. No wonder John said in 1John 1:1 ‘That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched – this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.’ - The suffering of Jesus. - If Christians/ disciples of Jesus like you and me can understand Jesus suffering, then, one can practice his or her faith in our life and society. It can help those who face trials and suffering in life. - Normally we understand Jesus’ 33 years of life on earth by focusing on his miraculous birth and His great suffering. We do this at the expense of not relating His process of life to His works of salvation. - As a result, because we focus on the supernatural and so we neglect His ordinary life and we do not relate His ordinary life to our ordinary life. For example, how we do not ask Jesus to empower us to forgive others or ourselves. - We always find it hard to relate His life long teaching to our lives. For most Christians, we do not dialogue with Jesus 33 years of life. - So we need to put Jesus life into its proper perspective. His whole life is very much linked and it is an integrated whole. We need to do this correction. - When we do that, for example, to understand the concept of forgiveness on the sermon of the mount, our method will not be to ask: How to love our enemies? Taking Jesus life as a whole, we should ask who is this person who teaches us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us? The standard answer of course is the Jesus who died for us sinners. - The bottom line then is not whether I can forgive or not; or the heart of the matter is not whether I have the ability to forgive or not. The heart of the matter is what Jesus has achieved for all sinners, including our enemies or those who persecute us. Then loving our enemies become no big deal. - What has this kind of approach of understanding Jesus to do with the suffering of Jesus? There are 3 aspects of Jesus’ suffering. - Firstly, as long as we do not compartmentalize Jesus life, His whole life is a definition of suffering. For example, how He was denied a proper birth place; His nature of call or mission was not understood by His parents; when He was tempted in the wilderness, He was alone; living among the sinners, He experienced how sin brought about rejection; while healing the sick, He empathize with them; in His last days, He was rejected by different levels of leaders; and eventually He died a sacrificial death. In His last few days of earthly life, He was rejected by Judas, Peter and even God the Father on the cross. - Secondly, Jesus suffering is for a great purpose. He died for the great purpose of redemption. - Thirdly, as we understand Jesus’ birth till His death as suffering, we can see how He identifies with those who suffered in life. - Let us see how Jesus’ suffering is related to us. - Suffering and Christians. - Suffering does not only inflict on our body but very much on our inner hurts. Things like I do not deserve this. It causes people to be bitter, doubting our own values, self-condemnation, self denial is the climax of suffering. A lot of us because we have not overcome our inner hurts, we become more and more self-centered. In other words, bitterness appears in other forms. It is sin in every form; it is sin who causes us to distance ourselves from Him. - Good news today for you all, the suffering of Jesus ministers to our suffering. - Jesus’ suffering is for our deepest sins and inner hurts. He understands our deepest hurts because He has gone through it. C. Was Crucified - It was such a shameful thing for Jesus to be regarded as a criminal though He was without sin, but still sentenced to death. The punishment on the cross on those days was the most humiliating instrument of punishment .- Today, we use the cross as a symbol, the church uses it as a design, some hang it on our necklace, we sing about the cross, etc. Is there anything good about the cross? - In fact, His crucifixion was foretold in the Old Testament. In Luke 24: 26, 27, Jesus said, ‘Did not Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scripture concerning himself.’ - When Jesus was tried, He did not answer much but whatever He answered, it had to do with His identity. His answers caused Him death. And Jesus, for the purpose of mankind, He knew the consequence of His identity answers. - Mark 14:61, 62, ‘…the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?” “I am,” said Jesus, “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” - Jesus’ death was the triumphant of the power of darkness but it is the turning point for mankind’s destiny. Now, people of all kinds have a hope of salvation. D. Dead, and buried; He descended into hell. - The consequence of crucifixion is dead, burial and descending to hell. It is an absolute consequence of all human death and now Jesus has successful redeemed it for us.- From God’s perspective, no matter how human beings try to go to God, it is absolutely no way because Christ has to do it for human beings. - It shows that the created human beings have no way to save ourselves. - Is dead the end of everything? To people who do not believe it, they say it is. But the Bible says otherwise. - The term hell here is not referred to as a place of punishment, it is equal to the Greek term Hades or the Hebrew term Sheol. It means a place of stay for the dead. - 1Peter 3:19 (Jesus preached to the spirits in the prison); 4:6 (gospel was preached to those who were dead). - Those who choose Jesus can be assured that we will not go there. For us we go to paradise.- All the more the next phrase of the creed talks about resurrection. E. The third day He arose again from the dead - 1Corinthians 15:4, says ‘that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.’- The creed has singled out a belief, which is real and a fact. - If it is a fact, then, it has these significance: 1. The date of its happening was the third day after the crucifixion; 2. The resurrection is proven by evidence, i.e., people saw Jesus who was alive, also the empty tomb; 3. The resurrection actually caused the formation of the church by first century Christians. - Jesus lived with disciples for 40 days. This gave them hope. In fact, before this, the disciples had gone back to their own profession and buried their faith behind their mind. - Acts 2:36, ‘…let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this, Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord, and Christ.’ - This is where we Christians believe we will resurrect like Jesus because He has the power to resurrect us. 1Corinthians 15:20 ‘But Christ has indeed raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.’ F. He ascended into heaven - How do we understand ascension? The resurrection of Jesus, does it refer to His bodily resurrection? How His physical body who lived with the disciples for 40 days disappeared?- Acts 1:9 says, ‘After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.’ - New Testament does not emphasize the resurrected body like it emphasizes the birth and death. - John 20:17, Jesus said to Mary, ‘Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father…’ And then in verse 27, Jesus said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, see my hands, Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” - How then Jesus ascended to heaven ?- Luke clearly recorded the independent incident of Jesus ascension. Luke 24:50-51, ‘When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven.’ - It was a real event which happened in time and space and full of miracle and mystery. Mind you, when you read books by theologians like Macquarrie, Moltman, Kung, Barth and Tillich, you have to be careful as they do not believe in ascension of Jesus. This is because they do not believe in miracle. - Now, how does ascension relate to our life today? - Firstly, ascension is the pivotal point between word becomes flesh and Christ coming back again. We need to be accountable to Him for what we do on earth. - Secondly, it singles the end of a time period. It marks the beginning of another period, a time of faith. - Thirdly, it marks the beginning of a new relationship, where the relationship between human being and God is no more limited by time and space. G. And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty - An important reference that supports this part of the creed is Psalms 110:1, ‘The Lord says to my Lord:”Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your heart.” Jesus used this verse to answer the question of the great high priest about His identity. He said in Mark 14:62, ‘… “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” This is the famous Messianic text and because of this confession, He was sentenced to death. - Jesus’ disciples also a verse like to prove that He is the Messiah.- With that Messianic identity being proven from the Old and New Testaments, now let us move on to the meanings of sitting on the right hand of God. - Sitting on the right hand of God means the King who will judge the quick and the dead. He holds all the authority in heaven and earth. - It also means He is now the priest, interceding for us, redeeming our sin, representing God in pronouncing forgiveness of our sins and His acceptance of us. H. from thence he shall come - The past of Christ, His present work and future work all cannot be separated. - His coming back gives hope of salvation and eternal life; and we need to watch out for His coming back (like a thief) and be prepared to give an account for our life on earth. - This makes whatever He taught to the disciples meaningful. He can check on us every now and then whether we obey His word. Confuscious or Buddha cannot do it. I. To judge the quick and the dead - His coming back is to judge the world. Does this make us fear Him? His judgment is about eternal death in and eternal life in heaven. - The judgment is not the same meaning as the present court judgment according to the law of a country. - The standard used is the justice of God. It is not only a future event but it is also something immediate. Meaning to say after ascension, Jesus continue to judge us every now and then. - How? By whether we respond to His salvation or not. Whether we repent or not. By our conscience and the Holy Spirit who convicts us of our sins. J. Conclusion - Can you now explain your faith more clearly as you get to understand more of the Apostle’s Creed? - I pray that it will not be a mere knowledge to you but it is something that empowers your Christian life and holiness on earth.

Make A Right Judgement

GMC Sermon
14th July, 2013

Written By Rev Law Hui Seng
Posted By Teresa Han


John 7:1-24

Main Idea: Make judgement based on the word of God/truth.

Objectives: To challenge the congreation to make judgement based on the word of God/truth.

A. Introduction

- We all make judgements everyday. Sometimes we even make judgements about peoples’ character and personality. We say so and so is selfish, greedy, bias, telling lie, and proud. So and so is honest, can be trusted, hardworking, responsible and wise. These are negative and positive judgements we make about peoples’ character. We say so and so tend to be negative, boastful, and neglect details and careless. So and so tend to be a very positive person; very detailed person and hardly make mistakes in giving information and calculation; tend to be objective in his/her outlook. This is making judgements about someone’s personality. Do you agree?

- Judges in the court make judgements about who is guilty after both the acussed and the prosecutor submitted their facts that counter one another. Sometimes the judgements delivered according to the law of the country can result in fine, jail sentences, canning, confinement to a locality, and even death sentence. Judges make judgements and the guilty party will be punished.

- All of us who make judgements will have consequences also. Whatever the judgement you make, wrong or right judgement, there are implications. Therefore, we need to consider very carefully, before we make any judgement that has implications on ourselves, family, neighour, colleagues, relatives, and even the whole society.

- As disciples of Jesus, by all means we make judgements which bless as people as possible.

- In Jesus’ time, He challenged people to make right judgement about who He was. He was very frustrated with the fellow Jews who judged Him wrongly about His identity. That was why He said in verse 24, “Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgement.”

- I strongly believe Jesus is still teaching us and challenging us to make a right judgement about Him and about the truth today? Let us see the context of His challenge.

B. The Context of His challenge to make a right judgement

- The Gospel of John is written with the purpose to challenge readers to become disciples of Jesus, that is to choose to follow Jesus as Messiah or Saviour. So, you see the Jews, all the Jewish religious leaders and the Pharisees in the background actually either agree with Jesus about His messiahship or disagree with it. Jesus challenged them to switch over to His side and follow Him as messiah.

- As a result, there was great tension between Jesus and all the Jewish religious groups who could not agree with Him. You should sense this dangerous tension as you read the gosple of John. I say it was a dangerous tension because the opposing Jews actually plot to kill Him for they could not agree that He was the Messiah sent by God. They even accused Jesus of blaspheming God for His claim as Messiah.

- John 5:18, it says the Jews plot to kill Him because He made Himself equal with God. They mooted the idea to kill Jesus after He commanded the invalid to take the mat and walk. He did it and he was healed. Jesus broke the law of Sabbath because He asked someone to the mat and walked. The Jews were very angry with Him and wanted to to kill Him.

- And obviously, there were Jews, even including Pharisees who believe Jesus as the one sent by God. The famous example is Nicodemus. John 3 talked about Nicodemus who was a Pharisee who belonged to Jewish ruling council came to meet Jesus secretly at night and asked about how to enter kingdom of God. Jesus answered that a person must be born again by water and spirit.

- And in John 9:22, the author of the gospel of John quoted the parents whose son was healed by Jesus of his born blindness and was investigated by the Pharisees; the parents were of the Jews because they had decided that anyone who acknowleged Jesus as the Christ/Messiah would be excommunicated from the Synagogue. This shows that there were Jews who switched to Jesus secretly. All these show that some Jews were influenced by Jesus deeds and teaching.

- In the face of such tension Jesus’ life was endangered. In verse 1, it said so. Verse 13 says that nobody \dared to say anything public about Jesus for fear of the Jews who would excommunicate them from the synagogue. At the same time, there were Jews who could only whispered that Jesus was a good man (verse 12). Others said He deceived people (verse 12).

- Half way through the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacle (Jews commerating how God provided for them in wilderness when they managed to build shelter in the 40 years of wilderness life), Jesus decided to go to Jerusalem temple courts secretly and taught (verse 14). His teaching actually by any standard amazed people though He did not receive from any recognized Jewish authority (verse 15).

- Jesus was not lying when He secretly went to the Feast of Tabernacle though He did not go as invited by His brothers. He said the right time (kairos) had not come. For His brothers, they wanted Him to go to the feast to perform miracles to gain honor for Himself. But for Jesus, it was not the right time (moment) to do it. Instead, He went just to teach in the temple courts; no miracle was performed because the moment, the kairos to do it had not yet come. Therefore, there was no contradiction with His brothers.

- In response to peoples’ amazement, Jesus claimed only those who did the will of the Father would understand His teaching was coming from the one who sent Him (verses 16-18). Especially in verse 18, Jesus said, “He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth, there is nothing false about him. And He openly challenged the Jews in verse 19, “Has not Moses keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?’

- The crowd who might be made up of other Jews did not know of the plot against Jesus, and out of their ignorance, they reacted by suggesting that Jesus was demon possessed, paranoid, delusion.

- Jesus now tried to recall how the other Jews first became angry towards Him for healing the invalid on Sabbath day and broke the Mosaic law. Jesus argued back and said the Jews had also broken the Sabbath law by circumcising a child on Sabbath day, it was work and not rest. Circumcision was done to mark the Jewish covenant with God that they are His children in Old Testament.

- Jesus was going for the spirit and not the letter of the law by healing the sick, doing what was needed to help humanity, that was to heal the whole person on the Sabbath (verse 23). This provoked a conspiracy among the general Jews (John 5:1-18).

- It is in this great context, Jesus said in verse 24, “Stop judging by mere appearance, and make a right judgement.” Judging by appearance might be focusing on the letter of the law. Jesus challenged them to think, “Was He wrong by meeting the human need of healing the sick? Was He wrong by going after the spirit of the law?”

- Apostle wrote something very powerful to the Corinthians in 2Cor 3:6, “He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant – not of the letter, but of the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” Focusing on the letter is to follow word by word which makes things legalistic; focusing on the

Spirit is to see the overall purpose of the law.

- The greek work krino which NIV translated as judge means to distinguish, decide (mentally or judicially). It means by implication, to try, condemn, punish. It is equal to avenge, conclude, damn, decree, determine, go to law, call in question, sentence to.

- In view of the great context, Jesus said, “Make a right judgement.” And I entitled my sermon, “Make a right judgement.” Of course we need to make the right judgement as taught by Jesus. For Jesus, He challenged the Jews to make a right judgement in view of the will of God about Jesus Himself.

- Unfortunately, the Jews made a wrong judgement about the person of Jesus, they judged Him as blaspheming God, disobeying the Sabbath law, and eventually pressurized the government of the day to put Him to death on the cross.

- As I said earlier, all our judgements have consequences.

C. Applications on making judgement.

- Brothers and sisters, for Jesus He made judgement based on the will of the Father; for the Jews they made a judgement based on the letter of the Mosaic Law. For us Christians, what should be the basis of our judgement? It must be the word of God, the whole bible. Do you agree? Therefore, your whole life has to learn and study the bible.

- I always teach that when you face life, you need to face 3 persons: Jesus Christ, others and yourself. Whatever you do, you need to go through 3 persons. You make judgement about anything, you need to ask these 3 persons. And the bottom line of measure of right or wrong, ethical or not, moral or not, valuable or not, worth it or not, will the consequences be positive or not, building up people or not, will it hurt or not, wise or not, are the long term consequences good, must the word of God.

- One guy (a Christian) in his late 20s decided to buy a luxurious car (that was his initial decision and judgement) and he did not have the money to do it. He was persuaded by his friend to approach the power of darkness (to worship certain powerful) to pray to strike lottery tickets. He made a decision and judgement to worship the false god. Then, he really gained stakes of money as this god had blessed him by striking the 4 digit lotter ticket. You see how the devil uses our greed to tempt us. Praise the Lord, the word of God came to him and he realized he was compromising on his faith; he was selling away his life to the devil by worshipping the false God. Upon reflection on the word of God that says “Thou shall not worship the idols.”, he made a decision and the right judgement, then, he burnt all the money. I pray that you see the power of God’s word in making your right judgemnet.

- Let us apply what Jesus is teaching us into the issue of corruption. Corruption is wrong, do you agree? Why? Can anyone here explain why it is wrong in view of the word of God? It is wrong because it encourages both the giver and the receiver to be greedy. It is wrong because it involves abuse of power even to do bad things like denying others a fair chance of competion; concentrating too much wealth in a few hands in a country. When you bribe, you get your license of trading easily; the rakyat have to face the high prices of instructure and even cost of living. At the end of the day, the poor gets poorer, the rich gets richer all the time.

- Let us apply Jesus’ teaching today into finding a life partner today. Make your judgement about what kind of man or lady do you want. Can you make a judgement to choose someone who put greatest priority in obeying Jesus, serving Him and fearing Him with all the godly charaters? Can you not be carried away by his or her ‘thick’ wallet, good career, good look, sweet talk, and all the external appearance that Jesus teaches us?

- Let us apply the teaching today into how you use your time. Do you spend your time for godly purpose? Do you give priority to coming to small group, prayer meeting, spending time with your family members and friends and colleagues who give you positive influence? Can you make a right judgement about who you mix with? I do prison ministry, I find that all prisoners ended up there because they mix with wrong companies?

D. Conclusion

- Can you see why we have to make a right judgement in view of God’s word? When you do so, I believe your whole life from beginning to the end will not be a regret.

- Be humble to do it.

Making Disciples Among Indigenous People in Postmodernism

Introduction

One of the key philosophies of postmodernism is there is no absolute truth. Everything can be subjective and relative. What you think is the truth, it is the truth? Under this philosophy, an individual opinion can become a truth. Whoever is championing the so called ‘truth’ after a while, his idea may be accepted as the truth. You can imagine how dangerous is the thinking. In the midst of it, how do should SCAC train the indigenous Christians to be disciples of Jesus? How do you shepherd them in a circumstance where they are hit by postmodernism.

If the Iban Christians believe that miring, mimpi (dream), manang (bomoh/witch doctor), antu (hantu/ghost) is as good as Jesus, and azimat (tallisman) is as effective as Jesus, how do we help them to realize that these traditional beliefs are not the truths. They worship these beliefs and also, at the same time, worship Jesus as God, it is called syncretism. It erodes their pure faith in Jesus. I pray that a simple summary of the outcome of my research will empower those of us who shepherd the indigenous Christians.

A Biblical Response to the Traditional Beliefs

While each of the above requires a biblical response, but in this small article, I just give a general response to the root of the traditional beliefs. I believe that if the root or the foundation of their old beliefs is addressed, I have addressed the issue quite sufficiently. When I tackle the root problem, all the other surface problems will be taken care of.

The root of their traditional beliefs has to do with their old worldview. Their old worldview is daulistic. Victor T. King says Dayaks (including Iban) have a dualistic view of the cosmos. It is the union of the two deities; one representing the heavens, skies or the upper world, the other, the earth or the underworld. This duality is represented by bird symbols like the hornbill or hawk in the upper world; and in the underworld by the serpent or mythical dragon. The dual conception of the cosmos is also expressed by the association of the skies with maleness and head hunting, and the underworld is associated with femaleness and agriculture. Both the head hunting rites and agriculture ceremonies are central parts of a religion directed towards acquiring and increasing fertility.

Who are the deities in this dualistic cosmos? Iban can use the term ‘petara’ both in the singular and plural sense to represent their deities (gods). However, Petara is commonly used in the plural sense to represent deities of spirits; and the most important spirits with generic titles are the Salampandai, Sengalang Burung, and Pulang Gana. These three deities have important functions in the cosmos: Salampandai is the female spirit and the maker of man; Sengalang Burung (the Bird-chief) is the Iban God of war and the guarding spirit of brave men; and Pulang Gana the deity of the soil, the spirit which presides over the farm work.

Iban Christians cannot worship Jesus with the above dualistic worldview in their mind. Apostle Paul in his letter to the Colossians actually addressed the same syncretism issue experienced. Take for instance, in Colossians 2:8-23, ‘See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ…do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day…Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his spiritual mind puffs him up with idle notion…Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules. Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!...and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.’ Colossian Christians still practice hollow and deceptive philosophy, New Moon celebration, worship of angels and being harsh to their body. They were converted to Christ and yet they still held on to their old worldview of old religion. They practiced syncretism.

How did Apostle Paul responded to the syncretism issue of Colossian Christian? He countered the old worldview by emphasizing on by emphasizing on Christian identity and supremacy of Christ.

By emphasizing on their Christian identity, Apostle Paul is teaching the Colossian Christians that they were believing in doctrines which are different from their old traditional beliefs. They should leave the old beliefs; they should not mix the old and their new beliefs in Christ. Apostle Paul teaches Colossian Christians that they have not only died (Col 3:3) and been buried with Christ in baptism (Col 2:12), but have already been raised with Him to a new heavenly life (Col 2:12-13; 3:1). Paul strongly emphasized the Colossian Christians’ identity in Christ. By participating with Christ in his resurrection, they share in the fullness of resurrection life: Christ delivers the Colossians from the tyranny of the unseen powers. As Iban Christians are firm about their own Christian identity in Christ, hopefully, they will leave their former gods and spirits. This implies that our BM pastors need to teach to strengthen their identity in Christ. With much teaching and training of their minds, their old worldview may be transformed to a new Christian worldview.

Besides, Apostle Paul also emphasized on the supremacy of Christ to teach the Colossian Christians not to be fearful of the spirits of their worldview; just as the Iban Christians are fearful of the spirits of the old worldview which may harm them. Apostle Paul emphasized on the highest power of Christ in 1:15-20. He taught that Christ is the first born of all creation; things visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things were created by Him and for Him; He is the head of the Church; He is the beginning and firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy; and through Him everything is reconciled with Him. If Iban Christians who are trained in their minds that Jesus is so supreme, I believe they will be courageous and not be scared of the spirits which haunted them in their old beliefs.

In view of their former worldview, besides empowering them in Christian identity and supremacy of Christ, BM pastors also need to train ourselves and our BM congregations to do spiritual warfare. The element of attacks by evil spirits is something very real. If this is not addressed, we may not be able to show them that Jesus is supreme and most powerful.

The Iban Christians whom SCAC BM pastors ministered now do not only have the above syncretism problem only. Many of them are educationally, socially, economically and politically weak. If these issues and needs are not addressed, then, we do not train them to be balanced, holistic and matured Christians. Take for instance, if the education of their children is not looked into, they may continue to be syncretistic. With a better education, they can understand the bible better and they may leave syncretism and embrace a pure faith in Jesus. All these also have very serious implications for BM pastoral ministry.

Proposing a BM Pastoral Disciple Making Model

With the above biblical, theological, educational, social, economic and political considerations, my research propose a BM pastoral disciple making model that should include the following principles.

A. Teaching the Iban Christians on their Christian identity and supremacy of Christ.

B. Equipping BM pastors and Iban Christians on doing spiritual warfare.

C. Doing social concerns to overcome their poverty, educational, social and political problems.

D. Training more Chinese theological students and indigenous Christians to be BM pastors.

Conclusion

I pray that the whole of SCAC, especially all pastors will pay attention to our BM ministry. Do mobilize your church to each out to the Iban and indigenous people of Sarawak by using BM. Many of them who are Christians may be syncretistic in this postmodern age, this challenge should become our opportunity to look into our resources like a great God in the person of Jesus, our connectionalism, financial strength, a great pool of younger generation who is well versed in BM, and the well furnished church buildings to train them to be powerful and matured Christians for Christ. I pray that through our efforts, we will produce the most powerful politicians which can become the chief minister of Sarawak and even the prime minister of Malaysian, the best doctors, engineers, accountants, teachers, and other professionals; and producing the most God fearing disciples of Jesus, indigenous men and women who will impact Sarawak and even Malaysia for Christ. Can you begin to pray more for them and reach out to them?

Written By Rev Law Hui Seng (Miri, 26th May, 2013)

Posted By Teresa Han

Brunei Sermon Apostle’s Creed 2

14th April, 2013

Bethel Church

Written By Rev Lau Hui Seng

Posted By Teresa Han

Main Idea: Who is this mighty God?

Objectives : a. To explain the reality of almighty God.

b. To explain the person of Jesus Christ.

c. To explain the role of the Holy Spirit in conception.

A. Introduction

- In my last sermon I had explained to you what is a creed, reasons for the Apostle Creed. I also explained to you just one phrase, ‘I believe in God’.

- In this sermon, I will explain to you the meaning of ‘Father Almighty, Creator of heavens and the earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, given birth through Virgin Mary.’

- For the rest of the Apostle Creed, I will come back 2 times in later half of the year.

- I pray that this sermon will help you to have a clearer picture of this almighty God whom we believe, and how through the person of Jesus, you will find that this God is very real in our life.

1. 我信上帝，全能的父， 创造天地的主。

　　I believe in God, Father Almighty, Creator of heavens and the earth.

　　2. 我信我主耶稣基督，上帝的独生子；

　　I believe in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord,

　　3. 因着圣灵感孕，由童贞女玛利亚所生；

　　conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, given birth through Virgin Mary,

　　

- Do you how our God is so almighty? Do you understand His almightiness in terms of His power only?

B. Father Almighty

- This almighty God was revealed to us human beings through Old Testament record and Israel history. He did not just suddenly appeared. He is a person, full of emotion, and working in the universe. How do I know this almighty God?

- If I want to know the teachings of Mother Teresa I need to know her living background, and place of her work. So, also, we need to know the work of God.

- Very often we called our almighty God as omnipotence. We always understand it as God is so powerful that He can do whatever He wants. This is actually not the original meaning of the Hebrew word for almighty. It is not as understood by the Bible.

- If we understand God almighty to be so powerful that He can do whatever He wants, then, we subject ourselves to answer 2 stupid questions: a. If God is omnipotent, can He create a stone so huge that He could not carry? b. If God is omnipotent, how can allow suffering? If He cannot do it, then, He is not omnipotent, He is not God of love! If so, the conclusion is He is not God at all. You see how we created our own problem.

- All this is because we miss the original meaning of almightiness.

- Some people likened God’s almighty power to His power that is millions of times more powerful that atomic power. This is a wrong comparison. The focus is on the so called power in terms of human understanding. It is wrong theologically.

- Atomic power is destructive, that change something to nothing. Power of God almighty is the power of the cross, that bring order in chaos, that caused nothing to become something, that caused hatred to become love.

- In the Old Testament, God’s almighty has 3 shapes of meaning: a. Yahweh saved the Israelites from the hand of the enemy (Exodus 15). b. it is concerning our belief that creation is linked with God’s salvation for mankind (Isaiah 42:10-17). C. Almightiness of God is used in the ritual of worship of Israelites, here, almightiness refers to the glory of God (Psalm 69:14; 91:1; 132:2)

- when it comes to the New Testament, the 3 meanings combined to show the rule of God, the authority of God. For example in Rev 19:6, ‘For our almighty reign.’

- the creed does not say, almighty God, it says almighty father. It means this God is not a theory of the universe. He is working in the universe, He is our heavenly father who works in our place. We are all His children.

C. Creator of heavens and earth

- this is the foundation of Christianity.

- theology of creation according to the bible gives us 3 very important meanings concerning our lives: a. theology of creation is not for the purpose of defending against theory of evolution; b. it is linking with our belief and life; c. creation tells us that all the creation needs to depend on God to maintain and exist.

- All these 3 meanings tell us we are just stewards of God’s creation. a. It is our belief, it role is not to debate with science and history. B. no matter how impact is our experience of the world, our creator always affirm His own creation; c. our creator is working and He invites us to work with Him.

 

D. I believe in Jesus Christ

- This is the second statement of the creed. It is linked with the first one on the father. Now, it is the son. This second statement helps us to understand the first statement about God the Father, and the third statement, God the Spirit. It helps to solidify the first and the third statement.

- I believe in Jesus Christ His only begotten Son brings out the idea of God’s work and identity, from here, it brings out the relationship between believer and God.

- This ‘I believe’ is related to the ‘I believe’ in the first statement. It gives meaning to the first I believe. The second I believe solidify the first I believe.

- If I say I believe in Confucious, I only trust in his teaching. He does not know me. I do not have any relationship with him.

- If I say I believe in Jesus Christ is totally a different story. Why? I believe in Jesus who knows me, who works in me and reveals Himself to me.

- Who is He? He is hundred percent man and God. If He is just man, then, everything will remain as morality only. If He is God only, then, He has nothing to do with us.

- He is God incarnated, a mystery, God became man. Only when He is a real man and a real God, then, we can relate to Him, man and God can be reconciled.

- Also, Christ is the title that means God’s anointed one, the hope for everything.

 

E. His only begotten Son

- One and only case. The sonship brings out the need for us to build a special personal relationship. Son here does not mean God has sex with a lady and gives birth to a human being. It challenges the world, all people either to accept or reject Him. There I no other choice. Because of this, (one and only choice), we have to do mission.

F. Our Lord

- the title Lord refers to the Christ who holds authority that is above everything.

- Secondly, this Lord is the only God who forgives our sin.

- Thirdly, in future, this Lord is going to reveal Himself totally.

 

G. Conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, given birth through Virgin Mary

- This third statement shows the channel where God became man.

- It shows the almighty power of God the creator, it is not as a result of human effort but it is all God’s initiative.

- Virgin Mary is a real person in history, not just some folks story, created by man.

H. Conclusion

- I pray that as you worship the Trinitarian God, you will be very clear in your mind, who is this almighty whom you worship.

- As you are clear of Him, in your mind, then, you can relate to Him personally.

Many of Jesus’ disciples…no longer followed Him

GMC

17th February, 2013

Written By Rev Law Hui Seng

Posted By Teresa Han

John 6:41-71

Main Idea: Follow Jesus all the way

Objectives: a. To challenge the congregation to be a disciple of Jesus and follow Him every day.

b. To teach the congregation to follow Jesus in every detail of our life.

A. Introduction

- The more I understand the word of God, the teaching of Jesus, the more I want to follow Him all the way. The more needs and problems I see in my family, church members’ families, society, Malaysia and in the world, the more I see the urgency of helping people to follow Jesus. I see a lot of Christians do not have joy, under bondages of pride, anger, unforgiveness, bitterness, selfishness, superstition; immobilized by bad health and remained defeated and sad. I see how our society is so corrupted, unjust, the poor getting poorer and the richer getting richer and how we become richer at the expense of the poor. I see how people in Vietnam, in some parts of Africa who die of hunger that are not reported. I see how at the international stage big powers are bullying the small countries; how civil wars, political differences resulted in killing hundreds and thousands of innocent people.

- As you see the sin in yourself, in others, in the society and in the world, do you see the urgency for ourselves and as many people in this world to follow; to overcome our problems and to meet the needs by following Jesus?

- The more we are not following Jesus, the more the Church needs to do mission.

- What is at stake for you and me as disciples of Jesus is really, are we following Jesus or not?

- In verse 66 today, the writer John, wrote, “From this many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.”

B. Following Jesus

- The Greek word for ‘followed’ is peripateo, it means to walk at large (especially as proof of ability); figuratively, to live, deport oneself, follow as a companion or votary (a regular worshipper of a particular god, holy person or religion). In the context of verse 66, it means no longer walking after, no longer worship Jesus; no longer a companion of Jesus.

- Verse 66 says many of Jesus’ disciples turned back and no longer followed him. The disciples in Greek is mathetes, a learner, pupil. The Greek for ‘turned’ is aperchomai, it means to go off (i.e., depart); figuratively, come, depart, go (aside, away, back out), pass away, be past. These pupils of Jesus who followed (peripateo) Him for some time, now, they decided to aperchomai (back out). They worshipped Jesus for a while and they backed out, probably, they never come back anymore.

- Why many of Jesus’disciples aperchomai (back out) and not peripateo (followed) Him anymore? It has to do with the dispute about Jesus’ claim of His divinity.

- In my last preaching I emphasize Jesus as the bread of life, and in verse 40, Jesus says, “For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” Anyone who believes in Him has eternal life and Jesus has the power to raise people from death. Jesus claimed that He was sent by God and He was divine, God.

- The writer John is portraying Jesus as the one sent by God and all this readers (especially the Jews) are challenged to make up their mind whether to follow Jesus or not; whether they wanted to follow Jesus or not. Many of Jesus disputed about His divinity, about Him to be the bread of life coming down from heaven. They could not accept Jesus as bread of heaven. They could not accept the divinity of Jesus as He was.

-In verses 42, They said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, "I came down from heaven'?" And then, in verse 52, they said again, “ Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"

- This was especially so after Jesus taught in verse 51 He was the flesh which He gave for the life of the world.

- In the whole passage Jesus claimed His divinity as the bread of life; He could give eternal life; His relationship with God the Father.

- In verses 41 and 48, He highlighted again He is the bread of life. In verse 44, He claimed that people who came to Him were actually drawn by His Father who sent Him and He had the power to raise them from death in the last day, end time. He also claimed in verse 46, He has seen the Father. Take of His intimate relationship with His Father. In verse 47, He claims that those who believe Him have everlasting life. In verses 53 and 54, He claimed that only those who eat His flesh and drink His blood have eternal life and He will raise them up in the last day. And He went on to keep emphasizing on the need to eat His flesh and drink His blood.

- Jesus even asked in verse 61 if His such teaching offended His disciples. And He said in verses 63 and 64 there were disciples who did not believe though His words are spirit and life. And Jesus foresaw in verse 64 there would be disciples who would betray Him.

- Eventually, Jesus confronted His most inner circle disciples, the Twelve, if they wanted to leave Him or not in verse 67. In verses 68 and 69, Simon Peter, answered on behalf of the Twelve, recognizing Jesus to be the words of eternal life and He is the Holy One of God, affirming the divinity of Jesus. To this, in verse 70, Jesus still insisted one them would betray Him and He is the devil.

- Brothers and sisters, with all honesty, as we face Jesus; and Jesus knew all His disciples then, their HEART, inside out; which disciple would back out, aperchomai and not peripateo (followed) Him; and it is the same for today, He knows us inside out, He knows which one of us would back out and not follow Him.

C. Applications on Following Jesus

- Some of us may not turn away from Jesus not in the sense of the totally disappearing from sight of Jesus like some of Jesus’ disciples in verse 66. We may not turn away from Jesus because of Jesus’ divinity issue.

- In my own experience with myself, with other fellow disciples of Jesus, we back out, aperchomai and not peripateo (followed) Him because of pride. With all my personal relationship with Jesus, the Spirit of Jesus, the word of God, let me define pride to you. It is the greatest sin of mankind, it is the devil inside us which we have to deal with all the time. It comes out every now and then to cause havoc in our life.

- What is pride actually? It is the putting yourself in the highest position in your life, it is the ego I who submits his willpower to himself and follow what is not true. A person who has pride in his or her life, he or she is blind to the truths or the word of God; or he or she may be having half truth. One of the most clear sign of a proud person is this: I am right, you are wrong. He himself or she herself could actually be wrong, but he or she could not see it. Today, in the name of Jesus I want to teach it and preach it, to help you to discern how you know you have been proud. How you sense it in your life? How you realize you have the sin of pride.

- The answer lies with the word joy. With all honesty, you know the word of God is the joy of the Lord is my strength, right? When you have pride, you are not more doing or serving Jesus’ will, God’s will, obeying Jesus’ teaching, YOUR SERVE YOUR OWN WILL, there is no more God’s will in your life, you suffer the consequences of your sin of pride, you only get frustration, anger, condemnation, complaint, unforgivenss, bitterness, and confusion.

- When you have pride, there is no more word of God in your life, no wonder you do not follow Christ at that moment.

- The moment you realize your pride, you repent, you submit yourself to Yesus, your will to Jesus, you say I choose to forgive, to tell the truth, to love, to be considerate, to be honest, to respect others, to be responsible for my sin of anger and awaiting God’s discipline, to be responsible for my wrong, for my carelessness, for my mistakes, you emphasize God’s word, His truth, Jesus’ teaching, Jesus takes over your will power, you will have peace and joy.

- When you choose to follow Jesus’ word, joy comes. Do you have joy now?

- When I participated in a recent deliverance I see clearly with my own eyes, how a Christian who is well versed with the word of God and not submit His life to Jesus but he submitted his will and life to the demons, how he was demon possessed.

- We have to encourage him to proclaim to the demons inside him that he belongs to Jesus and submit His life/ will to Jesus, and he did it and we see with our eyes, how demon left him one by one. He submit his life/ will to the demons by singing the unknown anti-Christ songs in foreign languages, spending lots of time on computer and internet games and video shows that are violent and demonic.

D. Conclusion

- Will you submit your life/ will to Jesus and obey His teaching and do His will, and experience joy and peace? And follow Jesus and not back out.

Overcoming Racial Barrier in Worship

FMC

Overcoming Racial Barrier in Worship

27th Jan, 2013

Written By Rev Law Hui Seng

Posted By Teresa Han

John 4:1-26

Main Idea: Jesus overcomes racial barrier

Objectives: a. To empower disciples of Jesus to overcome racial barrier to reach out to the indigenous people of Sarawak.

b. To teach the significance of worship.

A. Introduction

- The book of Revelation has great teaching about how we should do mission. It is a book which we Christians believe about eschatology, how our future will turn out to be. It is a beautiful picture of the future of God’s people. Therefore, when we live our lives on earth, we want to do mission, we need to bear that end picture in mind. This end picture or final picture must affect how we do mission on earth.

- Therefore, if you are expecting to see only Chinese when we see Christ in judgement or in heaven, we really miss the end/ final picture in Revelation. Revelation15:4 “Who will not fear you, O Lord, and bring glory to your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.” All nations will worship God. The Greek word for nation here is ‘ethnos’, it is also race or tribe. So, the final picture of people worshipping God in heaven is made up of different races.

- As I serve in the area of indigenous people evangelism and mission in Sarawak, as Board of Evangelism put in efforts to mobilize SCAC churches to do mission among local indigenous people, I find all kinds of excuses, prejudices, lacking in vision, and reasons for Chinese Christians reluctance, indifference, and inaction not to make disciples among the indigenous people of Sarawak. Some of us felt it is the ministry of Sarawak Iban Annual Conference because of Iban language; some feel it is difficult to do because of language and cultural barrier; some even feel they cannot be helped as it is very difficult to transform them; some say there is no manpower to reach out; some say they do not know how to preach to them; some honestly say they do not have the burden to reach out to them.

- Could all these excuses or reasons be due to our Chinese superiority mindset and our clannish identity? We subconsciously look down on other races or the indigenous people.

- I look to the Bible to find answers to answer all these challenges. In light of the word of God, all these so called reasons cannot justify their claims.

- So, here locally, in Sarawak, if we do outreach, evangelism and mission, we only focus on Chinese, we have totally missed the big end picture of nations, and we get our Missiology wrong. Jesus has a very teaching about overcoming racial barrier in evangelism. It is a very direct passage urging us to reach out to people of other tribes and races in John 4:1-26. Can you and I follow His example?

- Let us examine the context of the passage to bring out a message today for you. I entitle my sermon/message today as ‘Overcoming racial barrier in worship’.

B. Context and Brief Exegesis

- Traditionally for many centuries, Jewish Judeans of the south were in enmity with the Samaritans in the north. The Samaritans are the descendants of a mixture of two groups. (1) The remnants of the Israelites who were not deported at the fall of the Northern Kingdom in 772 BC. (2) Foreign colonists brought in from Babylonia and Media by the Assyrian conquerors of Samaria (2Kings 17:24ff). The Samaritans (northerners) and the Jews (southerners) were in theological conflict because the Samaritan refused to worship at Jerusalem. After the Babylonian exile, the Samaritan blocked the Jewish restoration of Jerusalem. In 2nd century BC, the Samaritans helped Syrian monarchs to war against the Jews. In 128 BC, the Jewish high priest burned the Samaritan temple on Gerizim.

- Jesus was aware of such hostile background and He went to the North to engage in this powerful conversation with the Samaritan woman. Jesus rested at Sychar, Samaria (verse 5). He was tired after the journey, sat down by Jacob’s well when it was very hot, at the sixth hour, midday (verse 6). Into such conditions, the Samaritan woman came to draw water. Her arrival at this unsociable hour (because of the hot sun), tends to lead to the suspicion that she was an outcast. What caused her to be an outcast? Suspicion she has earned, for drawing water under the hot midday sun was not a consequence of her personal sin (sexual or otherwise) but of racism, that had isolated her and her people (of whom she was a representative) from their rightful place at God’s messianic banquet.

- Jesus totally disregarded the woman’s protest at the impropriety of the situation. He offered her a role reversal: if only she knew who she spoke to, she would ask Him for living water. From then on, Jesus tried to direct her to understand who God is. Jesus used the metaphor of living water to direct her to a knowledge of God. In verse 10, Jesus responded to her protest, “…If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” At this pivotal point, Jesus turned His request for a drink into an offer of living water for her. He engaged her in very deep theological talk, along the lines of living water. She did not understand the metaphor of the living water, as she was still stuck thinking of ‘physical living water’ in verses 11 and 12.

- To help the Samaritan woman to realize what the living water was, Jesus explained that He is the source of living water and a receiver of it would never thirst again. This living water would lead a person to eternal life (verses 13 and 14). Jesus had successfully stirred her to desire this living water so that she answered Jesus in verse 15, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” This positive response to Jesus also reflected her willingness to disregard cultural codes regarding men and women; and Jesus’ success in drawing her closer to God. Jesus was in the midst of His mission to reconcile both the Judeans (Jews) and Samaritans, and direct both ethnic groups towards God, through Himself.

- How did Jesus do it? He boldly created new systems, to break down cultural codes that limited opportunities for the sharing of resources between different groups of people. The new systems here referred to is the open interaction between men (it started with Jesus Himself) and women in a conservative society; and the metaphor of living water which leads to eternal life.

- How did Jesus try to reconcile Judeans and Samaritans? He did not do it directly. The answer probably lies with “Jesus’ Johannine mission: to call people away from commitments to man-made systems of identity and into rebirth as children of God.”

- On the surface, Jesus and the Samaritan woman may have shifted from one subject to another subject such as from the well and water to husbands, prophets, places of worship and the Messiah but below the surface of this narrative, lies a consistent thread: Jesus the ‘prophet’ knew the underlying Samaritan history of hostility with Judean Jews (cf. 2Kings 17:24-41; Ezra 4). Jesus’ mission in going to Samaria (John 4:4) was to offer an alternative to both Judeans and Samaritans to end their endless struggle over ethnic identity. In His effort to draw them to rebirth as God’s children, He urged them to disregard the racial barrier (man-made identity).

- He subtly broke down this great barrier of ethnicity by answering the woman’s question of dispute on the presence of God, in the choice of place of worship (this mountain or Jerusalem). He answered, “neither place”, in verse 21, “…Believe me, woman, a time is coming, when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.” God is present where worshippers worship in spirit and truth (verses 23 and 24). Jesus told the woman that God is not concerned with which race worships where, but He is concerned about all worshippers (all ethnic groups) worshipping Him in truth and spirit.

- The build up of insights from the metaphor of living water to the Messiah had enlightenedthe woman’s spiritual blindness, overcoming racial hostility and boundaries. The woman (regardless of the shame of living with a man and not being married) responded by being the first ‘apostle’ (in the sense of being sent forth), rushing back to her people and becoming a messenger for the Messiah, causing many people to drop what they were doing and follow her to see Jesus (verses 28-30). As the woman shared her testimony with her own people, many of them believed in Jesus (verse 39). Jesus had successfully reconciled some Samaritans with Judean Jews (starting with Himself). SCAC churches need to follow Jesus’ example, in regard to the Iban, and start with themselves. This Samaritan woman belonged to another race and another identity. She was a woman difficult to transform.

-The Samaritan woman belonged to a different race from Jesus, and was thus a social outcast. The Iban belong to another race, and some are marginalized economically. If Jesus, a Jew bridged the racial barrier to reach out to a Samaritan woman from another race, and a social outcast, He has set a precedent for SCAC Chinese (a race) Christians to do likewise to the Iban.

- The story of the Samaritan woman is used only to serve as a biblical response to the SCAC Chinese Christians mindset and identity barrier, the main reason being that through this story Jesus calls His disciples in SCAC to move away from a commitment to man-made racial identity and turn to help another race, such as the Iban to be reborn as children of God. A secondary reason is that though the woman was an outcast and marginalized, Jesus disregarded her status and still reached out to her. This should challenge SCAC to reach out to marginalizedIban who are weak socially and economically.

-Biblically, according to the Apostle Paul’s teaching, SCAC Chinese Christians need to be like Christ. In Christ-likeness, we need to be like Him in bridging racial barriers.

- Jesus, out of compassion for the lost, in His mission to direct other race, the marginalized and the social outcast to the kingdom of God, reached out to the Samaritan woman. Jesus rejected any excuse to avoid her. This move of Jesus must challenge SCAC Chinese Christians to change their superiority mindset towards the Iban. All races are equally accepted by Jesus Christ: He loved the world (John 3:16).

C. Applications

-Firstly, one fundamental implication of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman is that SCAC Chinese Christians can no longer say that the socially and economically marginalized and outcast Iban are not related to them.

- Secondly, SCAC needs to change its clannish mindset to teach Iban the word of God; and accept them despite their race and economic and social status. SCAC cannot make excuses such as ‘the Iban are difficult to transform’, ignore the need to reach them, or leave the ministry to SIAC.

- Thirdly, since the Iban are another race, SCAC needs to overcome cultural barriers to bring the gospel to them in terms they can understand and accept; if they do, the Iban will own it.

D. Conclusion

- 1st January, 2011, I joined a brother in sending a piece of furniture to a poor Iban family. In fact, the next day, 2nd January, I flew to KK for 2 years of theological studies. We were faced with a self-accident Iban with his motor bike lying on the road. We stopped our pick up and upon examination, we found it must be drunk driving as smelt alcohol. He was unconscious and his skull had a hole bleeding profusely. I thought to myself if I did not save him he would die of blood loss as I learnt in first aid. I quickly press my palm on this small size Iban guy and we carried him up and put him at the back of the pick up with me holding him and put my on my 2 thighs, while I sat.

- I kept my palm at the bleeding skull with much blood on my shorts, shirt and hands. Jesus spoke to me in a very deep manner in this encounter. As I looked at the blood on the head, it doomed on me that every human blood is red in color. My mind at the time thought of the white and black skin people (especially African), their skin can of different color but there is all red. Chinese blood is read, Iban blood is red, Penan blood is red. All the human beings are red. The powerful conviction comes when God told me as long as we are human being with red blood we deserve to be saved by Jesus. Jesus shed blood for all the human beings with red blood.

- Therefore, by no means practicing the bad theology of allowing racial barrier to prevent us from preaching the gospel to the indigenous people.

Apostle’s Creed

Brunei Sermon Apostle’s Creed 13th January, 2013

Bethel Church

Written By Rev Law Hui Seng

Posted By Teresa Han

Main Idea: I believe in God

Objectives: a. To relate the Apostle’s creed to our Christians’ life.

b. To teach the doctrines of God, creator and Christ the Son of God.

A. Introduction

- You may have been reciting the traditional Apostle’s Creed Sunday in and Sunday out, but you do not much about its meaning and how it is related to your spiritual life or daily life. I pray that as I preach and teach you its meaning and background, you will appreciate it and each time you recite it, it will strengthen your faith in Christ.

1. 我信上帝，全能的父， 创造天地的主。

　　I believe in God, Father Almighty, Creator of heavens and the earth.

　　2. 我信我主耶稣基督，上帝的独生子；

　　I believe in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord,

　　3. 因着圣灵感孕，由童贞女玛利亚所生；

　　conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, given birth through Virgin Mary,

　　4. 在本丢•彼拉多手下受难，被钉在十字架上，受死，埋葬；

　　suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and buried,

　　5. 降在阴间；第三日从死里复活；

　　was descended into the Death, and the third day risen from the dead;

　　6. 他升天，坐在全能父上帝的右边；

　　He ascended into the Heaven, seated at the right hand of Father Almighty,

　　7. 将来必从那里降临，审判活人，死人。

　　and will come back from there to judge the living and the dead.

　　8. 我信圣灵，

　　I believe in the Holy Spirit,

　　9. 我信圣而大公之教会、圣徒相通，

　　I believe in the holy universal Church, the communion of the saints,

　　10. 我信罪得赦免，

　　I believe in the forgiveness of sins,

　　11. 我信身体复活；

　　I believe in the resurrection of the body,

　　12. 我信永生。阿们！

　　I believe in everlasting life Amen!

- I will begin with what is a creed, a simple historical background and the reasons to use it for the universal Christian church. Then, an explanation of its meaning and how it relates to our Christian life through a series of sermons.

B. What is a Creed?

- The word creed in English is coming from the first Latin word of the Apostle’s Creed, ‘credo’, I believe.

- There are 2 meanings in reciting the Apostle’s Creed. Firstly, it is an individual’s believe in the Trinitarian God, therefore, out of the 12 statements, every statement begins with the phrase ‘I believe’. Secondly, it is a demonstration of the whole congregation’s faith origin and worshipping the true God.

- Historically, there are other 3 creeds: Nicean Creed; Chalcedonian Creed; and Athanasian Creed.

- Apostle’s Creed is among the simplest creed, it was formed out of early believers’ faith development.

- A creed is simple, short and precise for the purpose of memorizing.

C. A Simple Historical Background

- A creed was formed out of the problems faced by the early church believers. It was used for personal devotion, public worship, dealing with cults and persecutions.

- There are quite a lot of creedal formulas in the New Testament. They became the backbone of the later creeds. For examples, popular ones are ‘...if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’. And believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.’ (Rom 10:9); the shortest ones are ‘Jesus is Lord’ or ‘Jesus is Messiah’.

- In the days of apostle, they used scripture as their creeds. Then, in the later days, it was not suitable. On the one hand, one or two verses cannot include the whole faith of Christianity. On the other hand, the challenges faced by the church were very different. For examples, to counter the cultic teachings, the church cannot just respond with one or two verses as the cults also used the scripture as their basis. The challenges had been thrown to Christians by the Ebionites, they made Christianity to be Judaism; Gnostics, they tried to Hellenize Christianity.

- Apostle’s Creed was slowly formed in the midst of all these struggles. It was not written by the apostles but by the early believers through a long process of debates in the first few centuries

D. Reasons to use Apostle’s Creed

- Firstly, the apostles of the early Christian churches always repeated their important content in their preaching. And this method could have been learnt from Jesus, for example in preaching sermon on the Mount. Apostle Creed could be formed out of the need for preaching.

- Secondly, the young churches were newly formed, they needed established liturgy like the Holy Communion and baptism for public worships. An example is in Philippians 2:5-11. The declaration of their faith in their worships in the midst of persecution and cultic teachings had several functions: teaching, comfort, encouragement and expressing Christian stand with Jesus, therefore, confronting the evil power.

- Thirdly, the early church did not have a pure mentality as we assume, before Emperor Constantine made Christianity the national religion, different churches had their own separate individual explanation for their belief. There was no systematic teaching on their belief. The animistic believers of the Gentiles who converted had difficulty grasping their Christian belief. This called for the need of Apostle’s Creed.

- Fourthly, the cultic teachings had caused the formation of the creed. The creed would tell the believers what to believe and at the same time, pointing out the wrong teachings of the cults.

E. I Believe

- When a person has a blur understanding of his belief, his object of belief will disappear, he will be disappointed with his past, he will have no hope toward himself now, and he has no expectation for his future.

- He does not feel important of himself, he has given up on himself, and now, anything can own him or her.

- Let us now examine our Christian understanding of ‘believe’. It has 2 parts, i.e., (1) the object of belief and (2) the response produced because of the belief, the meaning of belief.

- Christian believes in God, the object of our belief is God. We believe God in Christ who accomplished all the things for us. Because we have understood what He had done for us, we responded to Him in Christ, we commit to Him, love Him and obey Him.

- Therefore, the more you know the object of belief, the more you will respond to Him.

- The first part of belief is knowing and the second part is action. Knowing is knowing the object of belief; and action is actually the emotional response towards the object of belief. The 2 actually happened at the same time. After you know what you believe, then, you have a response. This process involves a relationship.

- So, the more you know this God whom you believe, the more personal in relationship you will have with this God. If not, you will not have a personal relationship with Him.

- It is very crucial for us Christians to understand our object of belief, God.

F. I believe in God

- What do you mean when you declare ‘I believe in God’? It means I do not believe in a God who is defined by someone else; not believe in a God defined by myself because God is God on His own, He acted and spoke and reveal Himself throughout history.

- He entered time and space, and through His work on earth, we know Him.

- He is given to us; He presented Himself to us.

- Therefore, when you declare ‘I believe in God’ you believe in God who reveal Himself to you. You are not believing in a God whom people voted as God with such a definition.

- When you let this God be God on His own in your life, you have a relationship with Him. He definitely wants to know you and vice-versa.

- It becomes like a boy-girl relationship. In such a relationship, you want to know a guy better, you need to allow that person to ‘reveal’ himself or herself to you.

- You cannot imposed your own understanding about him or her on him or her.

- Similarly, when anybody wants to know God, it cannot be depending on his/her effort only. There must be initiative coming from God, revelation coming from Him, and words coming from Him. It must be the participation of both sides. In knowing God, there must be a dialogue. Otherwise, God is just what we made Him to be, our narrow view of God.

- God’s revelation to us through His creation, salvation and end time theology (eschatology), all are deeds of God which we can know in the bible.

- Through the deeds of God, we come to know Him in our inner life, so, in the process, if there is any mismatch, contradiction, etc, e.g., in view of God’s revelation of Himself to us, our own wrong understanding of him must be corrected in order to allow God to be God in our life. We cannot change him to match our understanding of Him.

- Take for instance, for many years, I assume that God does not love Muslims. This is my own understanding of God which is wrong in view of the Bible, where Jesus said, “For God so loved the world” and also Jesus commanded us to make disciples of all nations.

- So, when you said I believe in God, you mean, “I believe in God who has spoken, acted. He is not a dumb God.

G. Conclusion

- Do you mean what you declare as you say, “I believe in God”?