Desire Living Water (73)

24th October, 2010

Written By Rev Law Hui Seng

Posted By Teresa Han

John 4:1-26

Main Idea: Only Jesus gives living water

Objectives: a. To teach the congregation to desire the living water as the Samaritan woman. b. To teach that the way to desire the living water is through worshipping Jesus in Spirit and truth.

A. Introduction

- Human beings are created by God with the potential to desire anything. God, the creator, gives us freewill to desire and do anything. God does not create us to be like a robot.

- What do you desire in life (in next 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years on earth)? Your desires in life will affect your life pursuit? It will decide how you spend your life, money, energy and time. If you desire something that is not godly (like pornography, hypocrite, greed), you will become one. You will do the things according to the pornography; you will be one kind in church and totally another different person out there; as desire greed, you will cheat all the way, you will overwork, etc.

- You need to set the boundary of your desires. As disciples of Jesus, you need to make sure you desire the right and godly thing.

- Today, I preach to you that you need to desire the living water given by Jesus. Do you desire the living water?

B. What is the Living Water of Jesus?

- Let us see the context of this living water given by Jesus. Jesus approached the Samaritan woman for water. The woman knew Jesus was a Jew and it was ceremonially unclean for a Jew to use a drinking vessel handled by a Samaritan (verse 9 ).

- Jesus ignored the unclean law and reached out the Samaritan woman by engaging her in a great conversation on living water. He offered her living water and challenged her to know him (verse 10).

- From the response of Samaritan woman, you know she did not understand Jesus’ meaning of living water. She thought it was still very much the physical water from the well (verse 11).

- Then, Jesus made himself very clear in verses 13 and 14, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The living water here is interpreted as the Holy Spirit as in chapter 7:38, 39.

- In verse 15, from the response of the Samaritan woman, we see she still misunderstood Jesus’ living water but this time, it created in her a desire to go for it. She requested Jesus for the living water.

- Jesus, being God also, of course knew why this woman needed the living water very much. In verses 16, 17 and 18, Jesus called for her husband to come and she confessed she had no husband and Jesus pointed her immorality.

- The woman discovered the great prophetic power of Jesus and regarded her as a prophet and she did not want to engage Jesus in a morality or immorality talk. Instead, she started to get religious and engaged Jesus in the venue of a religious worship.

- Could this be our tendency also? When we have sinned against God, when others pointed our sins, we do not to admit it and we switch to other spiritual topics. We pretend to be spiritual. We use something spiritual to cover our sin!

- But, Jesus made good the most ungoldly switch in verses 21 to 24. He took the golden opportunity (crucial moment, the kairos moment) to lead her to salvation in God the Father. Directing her on how to come to salvation in God the Father. The way is by worshipping the Father in spirit and truth for God is spirit in verses 23 and 24. And this is the kind of worshipper whom God is seeking for.

- To this, the Samaritan woman suddenly came to realize who was Jesus actually! She knew Jesus as the Messiah whom the Jews had been waiting for.

- As I reflected upon this great passage on the word of God, I asked myself why Jesus tried to link the immorality of the Samaritan woman to worship?

- I believe the answer has to be this: Jesus really saw the sinfulness (immorality of having 5 husbands) that deserved God’s intervention. Unless this woman came to God, otherwise, her soul would be lost for eternity in hell. She needed to come to terms with God by worshipping him in spirit and truth. Jesus really wanted to direct her desire for living water to desire to worship God.

- Brothers and sisters, do you see the same as Jesus? When you see the sinfulness of ourselves and society, do you feel the need of these people for salvation in Jesus? Do you see your own need for Jesus’ forgiveness of your sins?

C. Applications

- My first point of application now is the immorality that caused the Samaritan woman to desire the living water. Because of her immorality, she started to feel the need for God to forgive her sin. Eventually, in the later passages, you find that she must have really repented as she ashamedly announced the arrival of Messiah. In fact, in verse 39, we are told that many Samaritans believed Jesus because of her. Brothers and sisters, does your sinfulness get to desire God’s forgiveness like this woman? Church nowadays need this very much. We are not at all powerful disciples of Jesus because we are bonded by your sinfulness.

- Secondly, will you desire the living water like the Samaritan woman? I believe, in the face of Jesus, she felt she was completely morally bankrupt; she needed God’s forgiveness very much. Do you have that kind of desire?

- Thirdly, the way to desire the living water is through worshipping Jesus in spirit and truth. You have to come before God with your inner your spirit with all honesty.

D. Conclusion

- The water can become living because Jesus is living God. Desire Jesus the living water more than anything in life.

He must become greater; I must become less

17th October, 2010

Written By Rev Law Hui Seng

Posted By Teresa Han

John 3:22-36

Main Idea: To show Jesus must become greater in our lives and we must become less.

Objectives: a. To show human tendency to become greater b. To show that we as disciples of Jesus must become less and He must become greater in our lives.

A. Introduction

- When you are sinful, you are so proud of yourself, Jesus becomes less in you. When you are sinful, (fill with pride because you are right all the time, the others are wrong; not willing to let go of your wrong mindset; you are lying and keep lying; there is unforgiveness, hatred, etc), you will like to have the final say about your lives, you ignore all the truths, all that Jesus requires you, you compromise on the word of God, of course Jesus has less and less say in your lives, Jesus becomes less in your lives.

- Sin put you yourself at the centre of your life and it means self-centeredness and pride taking over your life.

- You face all the consequences of self-centeredness and pride.

- Study the Chinese character of smelly. The word self is above the word big and with a dot in the middle, it means smelly. When you are big, you are smelly!

- We desperately need to learn from John the Baptist to allow Jesus to become greater in our lives.

B. Mentality of John the Baptists’ disciples.

- Now, we understand from the context that John the Baptist and Jesus and their disciples were doing ministry and baptism at the same time. John’s disciples developed an argument with a Jew on the ceremonial washing and they consulted him. They pointed out that Jesus was also baptizing like him and everyone is going to Jesus to receive baptism in verse 26.

- As disciples of John, it is very natural to develop the sin of jealousy towards Jesus because those who received baptism by their teachers were getting less and less. Or, even nobody came to John for baptism. Their teacher was becoming less important now! Their teacher could even be replaced by Jesus!

- Praise the Lord John the Baptist knew very well his own identity and his mission was to prepare the way for Jesus. He was not at all threatened by the presence of Jesus.

C. John the Baptist’s attitude towards Jesus.

- Let us see the attitude of John towards Jesus in verses 27 to 36. His attitude toward Jesus is the title of this sermon, in verse 30, “He must become greater; I must become less.”

- How John can develop such attitude towards Jesus? The skill behind it is like this: John, right from the beginning of his ministry knew that his mission from God was to prepare for the coming of Jesus. But most important of all, he was willing to do the God given mission for Jesus because he knew thoroughly who was Jesus. His knowledge of Jesus allows to develop the godly attitude of “He must become greater; I must become less.”

- In verse 27, John recognized that Jesus was mandated by the heaven to do what need to be done. Verse 27 John replied, “A man can receive only what is given him from heaven.”

- From verse 28, John also recognized he was the Christ but he just sent ahead of Jesus. In verse 29, he likened himself to be the friend to the bridegroom (Jesus), so, when he heard that Jesus was coming, he was overjoyed and he felt his job was complete when he was able to prepare the way for Jesus.

- You see how well he knew Jesus from verses 31 to 36: in verse 31, Jesus is the one from above is above all; in verse 32, Jesus has personal experience that is coming from God; in verse 33, the people also accepted Jesus as coming from God and it was for the purpose of salvation; in verse 34, Jesus spoke the word of God and the Holy Spirit empowered Him to do so; in verse 35, God the Father loves Jesus, the Son, and God has put everything in His hands; and in verse 36, John recognized Jesus as eternal life giver, as Savior.

- This thorough knowledge concerning the real person and God in Jesus of John allowed him to develop the humble attitude of Jesus must increase in his life and he himself must decrease. This must be our attitude towards Jesus.

D. Applications.

- How do you allow Jesus to be greater inside you?

- First and foremost, you need to realize who Jesus Christ is, as John the Baptist realizes who Jesus Christ is.

- To do that you need to enter into a personal relationship with Jesus. Most of the times, we only have head knowledge of Jesus. We may know and believe in a superficial manner how good, powerful, merciful, gracious, all knowing, is He, etc. But we never allow Him to have a final say about how we should live our lives (if He says, we lie anywhere and even allows the devil to have the final say in our lives; we allow devil to work more than Jesus work in our lives). So, since our lives are not transformed, we do not find Jesus real in our lives.

- How do we transfer the head knowledge of Jesus and allow it to touch our hearts, move our hands and legs to obey Him? Not to be so self-centered? Allowed Jesus greater space in our lives?

- For a lot of people, because God disciplines His children, God has to use crisis to break down our pride, self-centeredness, to hit us, to wake us up so that we obey Him.

- Can we do without this alternative as it is too painful?

- Can we use a more gentle path of reasoning with God’s word? Can we do lots of dialogue with God? Why I still have this sin, weakness, struggles, pride, pain, etc? What are the consequences for my disobedience? What can Jesus do to me if I obey Him? How much do I want to suffer before I let go and let God, in the person of Jesus to have the final say in my life?

- As you dialogue with Jesus, may be you will give up the greater financial gain in order to deal with greed in your life; give up your face in order to deal with your pride in your lives; give up the woman in order to experience joy in marriage; give the man in order to experience joy in marriage; give up hatred, bitterness and unforgivenss in order to be reconciled with people around you, etc.

- When you give up the rubbish, the sins in your life, Jesus will become greater in your life. If not, in your bondage to sin, do you think, do you expect to be greater in your life?

- Secondly, then, we need to realize how much we need Jesus in our lives. Most of the times, we do not feel the need for Jesus because we do not regard Jesus the master of our life; as our God who has the final say about how we make decision; as a result, we do not fill the need for him.

- Personally, as I stay close to Jesus because of the authority of God, everyday, I find that I face temptation to lie, to be pride, to condemn and not love, to gossip, to pull down others and show people how great I am, I feel that I need Jesus very much. I always go him and have dialogue with him. If I leave anything godly behind, after my 9 years in GMC, it is this one precious thing, the art of doing dialogue with Jesus. Do that, you will find that your live will allow greater space for Jesus. Jesus will become greater in you.

E. Conclusion.

- If Jesus is not becoming greater inside you then you are growing “Bigger” inside. Then, you miss Jesus totally. One great consequence is there will be no joy in your life. You are just living a sinful life.

Repentance (Social Concerns 5)

3rd October, 2010

Written By Rev Law Hui Seng

Posted By Teresa Han

Luke 23:26-42

Main Idea: The need for human kind to repent

Objectives: a. To teach the meaning of repentance so that we all repent from our unholiness. b. To help the congregation to see the repentant and unrepentant people from Jesus’ perspective.

A. Introduction

- Today we will read the last 2 social principles of the Methodist Book of Discipline, Peace and World Order; and Political Life.

- May we read it with a mission to transform our society with scriptural holiness? I shall focus on the criminal and restorative justice but I will not be that specific as it is.

- On the criminal and restorative justice, the book of Discipline says, “In the love of Christ, who came to save those who are lost and vulnerable, we urge the creation of a genuinely new system for the care of restoration of victims, offenders, criminal justice officials, and the community as a whole. Restoration justice grows out of biblical authority, which emphasizes a right relationship with God, self, and community. When such relationships are violated or broken through crime, opportunities are created to make things right.”

- I will imply from that point and emphasize on the scriptural holiness of repentance, something the whole society, including you and me need so much.

- Today, if you think you do not need repentance in your life right now, you are wrong and I am sorry to say to you your life will not get better. If you have sin in your life and not repent, how can God bless you and you get better.

- I pray that you will not think that only the criminals need to repent and you do not need to repent. I pray that at the end of my sermon, everyone of us will feel the need to repent from something that is not right in the eye of God, or according to the word of God, the bible.

- I pray that Jesus uses me to enlighten you on the subject. The passage that God impresses on my heart is Luke 23:26-42. May this passage inspire you to go for repentance and help you to help people to repent?

B. What is the difference between the two criminals?

- As we face the great passage of Jesus’ conversation with the criminals, we must thank God for it inspires us to see the criminals and all who those evil or sinful people in a very different light. How do you see the criminals in our society?

- Most of us see them as people who have broken the laws and deserve punishment? Some of us who are more compassionate will see them as victims of modernization and environment. Some see them as they deserve many more times of punishment. Some even see them as hopeless cases. I do not blame you for all such perceptions. We may have been trained to perceive them like this.

- Jesus’ experience today at the cross must challenge us to change our perceptions about the criminals. I have done the reflection and meditation from verse 26 till verse 46. I thank God for the great the communication between me and Jesus in this valuable passage. Only Luke recorded the conversation between Jesus and the 2 criminals; Matthew only mentioned there were 2 robbers crucified with Jesus. Thank God for the precious record in Luke.

- I asked the question in meditation, “What is the difference between the two criminals?

- You see the difference in these 3 verses, 39,40 and 41. The one in verse 39 says, “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!? You can see even in hour of death, he was full of pride and unbelief. He still believed he was in control of the situation. Out of pride, he challenged Christ to come down from the cross like others. He insulted Jesus.

- The other criminal in verse 40 says, “Don’t you fear God … since you under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” You see the difference. This man on the cross before he died, he repented. He confessed his wrong, his sin. He feared God. He was remorseful; felt regret about the crimes he committed. He even urged his fellow criminals to do likewise. The first criminal was unrepentant and the later criminal repented!

- No wonder Jesus gathered all His strength in the dying moment, to declare and respond to the 2 criminals, and (especially to the second one) who might have committed the same crime and sin in verse 43, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” You see how Jesus forgives the criminal and accepted him into the paradise.

- Our God accepted repentant people into paradise and of course, heaven eventually. Theologically, paradise is believed to be a temporary place where all those who repented and saved in the arm of Jesus will end up there first before the great judgment by Jesus when He comes the second time.

- Now let us see how Jesus further sees the sinners of this world in verse 34 in his dying hour, suffering hour in great pain. Those are His most powerful words, precious and valuable words, words worth our attention; words that must transform our lives; words that must shape our perception of the criminals and sinners like you and me and all others out there.

- Jesus says in verse 34, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” This is most inspiring for personal relationship with God. It teaches me and I pray that it also teaches you on how we must see the sinners in us and all others.

- The great implication is this, no matter how evil and sinful we are, God is all the time forgiving towards us. Can you see the criminals and sinners in this light? Then, it will help you to do a lot of evangelism and missions. When you see people as those who are qualified to be forgiven by God, you will be so powerful for Jesus, you will Christ disciples to help them to know God and become Jesus’ disciples.

C. Applications

- We need to repent from our unholiness, e.g., unwillingness to recognize our sinfulness like pride, greed, self-centeredness, etc. The way to do it is to do self examination of everything you say and do. Watch out for your own attitudes, hearts, mindset, perceptions, personality, and character. See if there is any flaws, come to Jesus and repent.

- How Jesus sees a criminal should help us to minister to both the repentant and unrepentant people. You will love everybody, even your enemies if you obey Jesus’ teaching.

D. Conclusion May Jesus help you to repent from our unholiness. Only then, we can help others to repent.