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”?

GMC Sermon I Am the Bread of Life

18th November, 2012

Written By Rev Law Hui Seng

Posted By Teresa Han

John 6:25-40

Main Idea: Jesus is the bread of life.

Objectives: a. To explain why Jesus is the bread of life.

b. To teach how to bring the bread of life to others.

A. Introduction

- Why there are soldiers killing civilians (and vice-versa) in Syria? Why there are robberies and gun shots here and there in Sarawak? Why people resort to blackmail and killing? Why there are broken marriages? Why there corruptions are so rampant in our country? Why depression is such a phenomenon in our society? Why don’t people keep to moral standard ? Why don’t people keep to our behavioural boundary? Why don’t people keep to work ethics?

- It is as if people are looking for something and yet they do not really get it. They resort to cheating, blackmail, lying, threatening, killing, they thought they had got what they wanted, but they did not. For some who are not doing harmful things, thought they have found the peace and happiness, but they do not.

- I believe you will agree with me the answer lies with the sin of humanity of mankind. We desperately need a moral standard to follow; need to keep this standard. How to stop people from killing, hatred, divorce, depression, and greed? If people were to look into the Bible, they will find that the answer lies with Jesus, who has given humanity all the answers to our sinful problem. It is exactly because of our sin, He came to us.

- He claimed to be the bread of life. He claimed He could satisfy our life. He declared in John 6:35, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.” What does Jesus mean by, “I am the bread of life”?

B. I Am the Bread of Life

- To find out its meaning, we need to know the purposes of John writing this gospel and the context of the passage. One of his purposes is to challenge the Jewish and gentile readers to become disciples of Jesus; to follow Jesus. So, you will find that the writer wrote in such a way that Jesus challenged His audience to follow Him; come to Him; believe in Him.

- After Jesus and His disciples fed the 5,000, people even got into the boats and travel from Tiberias to Capernaum to search for Jesus (verse 24). Why do they search for Jesus? What was the purpose? In verse 25, we are told they asked Jesus when He arrived when they found Him.

- After feeding the 5,000, the crowd experienced a great miracle, in verses 14 and 15, we were told that they began to regard Him as the Prophet and Jesus sensed that they wanted to make Him king by force. So, they searched for Jesus with a wrong intention, or motive, which I preached to you in May this year. With this wrong intention, they asked Jesus in verse 25 when He arrived? He was very resourceful and He made full use of the wrong intention of the crowd to teach and challenge them and direct them to come to Him, the bread of life.

- Making full use of the wrong intention, from verses 26-27, Jesus pointed out that they looked for Him not because of the miraculous signs but because of the food. Since food has everything to do with the bread and butter issue of life; we need food for survival, Jesus used it to turn the whole thing around and direct people to what He had to offer and said, “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”

- To Jesus’ offer, they misunderstood that they had to work in order to get the food, so they answered in verse 29, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus corrected their misunderstanding by telling them what to do in verse 29, “The work of God is this to believe in the one he has sent.”

- The Jewish crowd still failed to understand Jesus, they even requested Jesus for more miracles so that they could believe in Him and they even compared the bread that Jesus gave to the manna that their forefathers received in the exodus desert for 40 years (miracle of 40 years) through Moses (verses 30-31).

- Now, Jesus linked directly the bread from heaven to His Father in verse 32 and said directly and most clearly in verse 33, “For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Notice the bread is for the world, the vision of Jesus and His Father. To this, Jesus had successful caused them to ask the bread, the bread that endures eternal life in verse 34.

- Next, Jesus grasped the moment, the most appropriate moment to declare His message, His intention (mission) of coming to the world, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.” (verse 35) The tangible image of bread of life is so crucial in bringing out a spiritual truth. Bread is something you need in life to survive as a person and Jesus used to it to say He is the bread of life. Jesus used an earthly image to say the divine person God, the God identity is now down on earth and become a human being. The divine identity is now joined with a earthly image. The audience now either takes it or leave it.

- Jesus really built on the idea of food that lasts, to the work of God, then to bread from heaven, and finally, He proclaimed, “I am the bread of life.” I am what you need to live towards eternal life. And from then on He challenged people, you and me and all people out there in the world to come to Him to believe Him, and not miss Him.

- And from verses 36-40, especially in verses 38-40, He promised people who come to Him He will never drive them away; when it comes to judgement in the last days He will resurrect them and grant them eternal life.

- Why Jesus promised that people who come to bread of life will never be hungry and thirsty? I believe it has to do with human needs of all kinds which can be met by Jesus. Hunger and thirst imagery has to do with food and drink that human need. But how can Jesus, God, make you full in your stomach; and how can make you not thirsty? I believe the food and drink here bring out human needs for a proper destiny and meaning of life on earth. Otherwise, you cannot explain why He says in verse 40, “…everyone who looks to the son, and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

- Today, this eternal destiny is offered to you, have you received it? Have you received Jesus into your life.

- But Jesus promises more than an eternal destiny because He says those who come to Him and believe in Him will never be hungry and thirsty. So, what needs do you have?

C. Bread of Life Applications

- Individually, you may be depressed about something, right? Being Christian, you still find life empty. Some of us still allow hurt, disappointment, sadness, pride, bad memory to rule you. You cannot change the reality, facts, something already happened, you still wish it should never happen; you still cannot go of the past, whether good or bad things, you want to be in control but you are not in control. I tell in the name of Jesus, this is the greatest reason why you are so depressed.

- A lot of people in the midst of struggles use alcohol, drug, cigarette, womanizing, karaoke, hang out late at night at pubs or somewhere, or watching countless videos, or spend much time at face book and websites, deliberately long hours or even watch pornography to search for a solution or some find meaning or solutions to our present life bad situation and issues. Issues of whatever kinds as long as you do not face the truth and deal with the truth, whatever you do otherwise, it will only make your situation worse.

- You need to come to Jesus, the truth, and seek Him and He will give the meanings and answers in life as He is the bread of life; He will make full and not thirsty.

- On the other hand, you are a disciple of Christ, how do you bring the bread of life to others, at your family, at your work place, to the government, the long houses, Tudan Ibans and indigenous people of Sarawak, the lost in Indonesia, Philippines, China, Africa or even in England as SCAC target these countries.

- Back home here in Miri and in your family, you need to live a life of testimony to prove that Jesus is your bread of life. When you meet with problems, you need to help them to find meanings in their struggles and problems. You need to help them to think in the positive light or better still in light of the word of God. You need to be empowered by Jesus’ resurrection power to do it.

D. Conclusion

- Jesus is the bread of life, what do you do with Him? Would you submit your life to Him and let Him rule you?