AMC Sermon
1st April, 2012
Written By Rev Law Hui Seng
Posted By Teresa Han
Matthew 21:1-11 (Palm Sunday)
Main Idea: How much you know Jesus?
Objectives: (1) To challenge the congregation to know Jesus Christ personally.
(2) To teach the congregation to obey Jesus in their lives.
(3) To challenge the congregation to introduce Jesus to the lost.
A. Introduction
- In business, before you know who you are trading with, you want to know who are they. Who are the directors of the company you are trading with. When you ask the questions who are they or who is this person, you want to know the credibility of the persons whom you are trading with. Can this person be trusted? After the goods or service delivered, can he pay for the service or goods? Is his company registered? Or the person is a conman? The other company is not registered.
- You ask the question who is this, for a good purpose. It has to do with the characters of the persons. You want to know the good standing of the persons in the society. You do not know the person whom you are dealing with, naturally you ask who is this?
- In the days of Jesus, he was coming from Nazareth, he grew up as a boy at Nazareth; he was born at Bethlehem, near Jerusalem. He did not grow up at Jerusalem. He ministered more at the northern part; he performed many more miracles in the north than the south. Do you still remember what were the miracles he performed in the north near sea of Galilee?
- Anyway, my point is, as Jesus was not as well known in the south before the crucifixion, during the Roman Empire’s time. During His 3 years of ministry, he moved from the north to the south, he did not spend much time in the south, though he performed miracles like raising Lazarus from the dead.
- No wonder the writer Matthew, recorded that people asked, “Who is this?” when Jesus was heading for Jerusalem on a colt. Before I preach to you the significance of the question, “who is this?”, I like us to look at Matthew’ readership, and purpose, then, we may even better understand the significance of the question.
B. Readership, purpose and context
- The readers of the gospel must have been Jews. The author Matthew was very particular about the origin of Jesus – tracing of Jesus’ descendent from Abraham (Matt 1:1-17); the fulfilment of Old Testament; his reluctance to use the name God and used ‘kingdom of heaven’; his emphasis on Jesus as the son of David. Matthew may target his readers to be the Jews, as he try to convince them that Jesus is God, the Messiah, he also challenged them to reach out to the whole world by giving the commission at 28:18-20.
- Matthew’s purpose of writing to the Jews was to tell them Jesus is God, the Messiah, the Saviour. He tried to prove from the OT scriptures that Jesus’ life and ministry was the fulfilment. Like in today’s passage, verse 5 “Say to the daughter of Zion, See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Matthew quoted Zechariah 9:9 to hint that the Messiah was going to be sacrificed as foretold by the OT scriptures.
- Today’s passage is in the context of Jesus heading in the direction of Jerusalem, before Passover, where a few days later, the Messiah was going to be crucified. Jesus knew he was going to be killed and yet he went in the direction of Jerusalem. May be it is not fair for me to ask you this question because our context is different. Anyway, I still ask you the question to provoke you to do reflection in this Palm Sunday. The question is simply this: If you know you are going to be killed upon arrival at a place, do you still want to go ahead with the plan?
C. Explanation of the passage
- The world may think Jesus was so stupid to go ahead with His plan. But for Jesus, He had done His calculations of all aspects as He is God. I believe Jesus deep down in His heart, He believed it was worth the sacrifice of His life. Why? Can we imagine with Jesus for a moment? Why it is worth the sacrifice? What is the worthwhile purpose? Why not live longer? Why die at the age of 33? The disciples might need more time to be trained to become more matured. Why it had to be the cross? What about being killed by knife? Or stoned to death?
- Before I give my answer, please try give your answer? Christians down the centuries, disciples of Jesus throughout the ages can only give one purpose, one reason, one mission for Jesus’ willingness to go to the cross, that is for the purpose of redemption for the sin of mankind. That people come to know God, repent and be saved for eternally.
- Now to help us to do some soul searching at this season of Palm Sunday and the coming holy week. If you know you are going to be killed by your enemies, for what is the worthwhile purpose you are willing to die? For the Libyan rebel soldiers and even the courageous civilians who fought the Gaddafi soldiers, for them, they were to die in the war just to topple the regime and set up a government that cares for the people.
- I am asking this question so that we all are encouraged to make sacrifice for Jesus; or at least, in view of Jesus, the true God, our saviour, we respond to Him, and really believe what we do for Him is worth all our time, energy and money.
- Now, as Jesus was on the way to enter Jerusalem, note that He was fully aware of His crucifixion ahead. He did it with only one purpose and mission. He entered dramatically and he caught people’s attention. He did it purposely at the outskirt of Jerusalem, starting from Bethphage, on Mt Olives. Jesus sent for His disciples to go ahead of Him into a village to request for a donkey and her colt, when the owner asked who needed, the disciples just had to say the Lord needed it and the owner would give. It happened. The owner knew Jesus as the Lord.
- As Jesus entered Jerusalem on the colt, with the accompaniment of the donkey, (typical for mother donkey to remain close to the baby donkey) crowd shouted “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!’. These are quotes from Psalm 118: 25 and 26, where hosanna in Hebrew, it means save us now.
- Psalm 113 to Psalm 118 is a collection of praise psalms sung at the great Jewish feasts: feast of dedication, the feast of the new moons, and by families at the yearly observance of the Passover. At Passover 2 of the psalms were sung before the meal. Before Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion, He and His disciples gathered at the upper room for the Passover meal probably sung 2 psalms.
- Jesus entered Jerusalem during Passover week, thousands of lambs would be killed for the Passover and that lines of Psalm 118 were on people’s minds and they shouted the Hosanna lines. I believe Jesus chose the Passover to come into Jerusalem so that He was the lamb of God who came to be slaughtered by the Jews for the redemption of mankind’s sin.
- Did the people mean to say that Jesus, son of David come to save them from their sins as they shout Hosanna? Not at all, probably they misunderstood Jesus, as the triumphal political king, coming to save them from the rule of Roman Emperor.
- Only a few persons, including, Mary of Bethany (John 12:7) who knew Jesus purpose of death.
- They did not read the colt on which Jesus was riding, it was meant to bring peace; Jesus did not come on horse, which was meant for fighting.
- When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “who is this?” They did not know the real purpose of Jesus’ coming; and most did not know Jesus at all, of course, they asked “who is this?”
D. Explanation
- The crowd asked the question because: they did not know much about who was Jesus; the real purpose of His coming; they did not know Jesus was going to die for their sins; Jesus had no personal relationship with them.
- At the end of the day, only some know Him to be Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee. This was the best that some of them in Jerusalem knew about Jesus.
- Brothers and sisters, Jesus, then, was not crucified yet, therefore, a lot did not know him as saviour. Especially after resurrection, then, news spread, what Jesus claimed to do became important and His disciples preached about it and a lot of people repented from sins and became saved. You read about it in the book of Acts.
E. Applications
- Do you still ask who is this Jesus? You may still ask. I pray that you come to know Him as your personal saviour.
- (1) The more you ask about who is this Jesus, the more answers you get, should help you to build up a personal relationship with Jesus. Can we do an exercise here? Please give answers to this question: who is Jesus to you? Whatever knowledge you have about Jesus, should build up your closeness with Jesus. This is the greatest foundation stone of your faith. If not, all that you know about Jesus does not have anything to do with your life. At the end of the day, with or without Jesus, your life is the same.
- (2) That closeness with Jesus can only be developed through your obedience to His teachings. If you believe Jesus is your saviour, then, you must come to Him for forgiveness of your sins and repentance. If you believe He is the true God, then, you will practice what He is teaching you, your daily life will stand up for Jesus. You know how to do business in Jesus’ way. You know how to relate to your boss in Jesus’ way. You know how to treat your employees or those under you in Jesus’ way. The more you do unto Jesus, the closer you are with Him.
- (3) The more you come to know Jesus, you realize how good Jesus is to you, you will introduce Jesus to others who do not know Jesus; to those who asked: Who is this Jesus? Can your Christian life show to Christians and non-Christians alike, and cause them to ask in their heart: who is this Jesus that cause you to be so good?
E. Conclusion
- The question who is this Jesus, can be asked by anybody on earth. Christians can continue to ask; all of us who know Jesus more, should become the reason that causes people to ask who is this Jesus?
- You and I need to take up the challenge.
Small Group Discussion Questions
1. In view of Jesus Christ’s purpose of death, that is so worth of His self sacrifice, share your most important purpose to continue to live on earth.
2. If you are not a Christian today, what will you be like? Give thanks to Jesus for all the precious lessons He has taught you in life.
Through the Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ
AMC
4th March, 2012
Written By Rev Law Hui Seng
Posted By Teresa Han
Acts 15:6-22
Main Idea: Salvation by the grace of Jesus Christ
Objectives: a. To teach the doctrine of grace.
b. To correct the grave misunderstanding of grace.
c. To teach on how to experience the grace of Lord Jesus Christ.
A. Introduction
- Grace is word/ term which is greatly misunderstood by a lot of Christians. This misunderstanding has caused us very dearly.
- I attribute the misunderstanding to the church imbalanced teaching on grace.
- I shall preach to you the misunderstanding later on but for the early Christians in Acts, particularly, based on the passage today, many of them totally could not understand grace.
- Let us see how they miss the doctrine of grace.
B. The doctrine of Grace
- Some Pharisees who were converted to Christianity still held on very much to the Mosaic Law in terms of circumcision. In this very crucial meeting in Jerusalem which involved apostles, elders, and believers and even the whole church (verse 12), they had decided once and for all, that the Gentiles do not need to be circumcised in order to become Christians. What happened?
- In verse 1 of chapter 15 today, we are informed there were some men teaching salvation can only be obtained through circumcision. This put Apostle Paul and Barnabas into great disputes with them. You can imagine the heated argument that happened in that Jerusalem. The author Luke did not record all those angry debates.
- The author Luke only recorded the arguments for the Gentiles who were not required to be circumcised. A few groups of people spoke convincingly and in unity. They were all consistent with one another. Thank God for their great courage to believe in a new doctrine of grace. They even claim that God wanted it that way.
- First of all, in that crucial meeting, Apostle Peter stood up to speak. Some who insisted on circumcision might have expected him to speak for it. But, he did not. He gave his most crucial testimony of how God directed him to Cornelius and his household (chapter 10) and he preached to them and they believed; and bestowed them the Holy Spirit. God made no distinction in giving the Holy Spirit to both the Jews and the Gentiles (verse 8). God purified the gentiles’ heart by their faith (verse 9). If Jewish Christians insisted on circumcision, then, they were putting God to test (verse 10). Peter concluded his argument by saying both the Jews and the Gentiles were saved by the grace of Jesus Christ, our Lord, not at all by being obedient to the Mosaic Law.
- Secondly, Barnabas and Paul claimed and gave testimonies in verse 12 that God used them to do miraculous signs and wonders among the Gentiles. If God rejected the Gentiles, why did He use Paul and Barnabas to perform miracles on them?
- Thirdly, James, the brother our Lord Jesus Christ affirmed the testimony of Simon Peter. Then, he went on to quote from the prophetic book of Amos that said it was the desire of God to rebuild David’s tent, the Jews, to bring them back to God; and also to call all the Gentiles back to Him (verses 16 to 18). He also concluded that the Gentiles must not be burdened with circumcision. But they need to live a holy life by abstaining from food offered to idols; from sexual morality; from eating meat of strangled animals and from blood (19 to 20) as a respect to Mosaic Law which still applied (verse 21). Then, the meeting concluded with the above decision and they asked Judas called Barsabas and Silas (who were leaders) to accompany Paul and Barnabas to go back to Antioch to report to the Gentile believers in a letter (verses 22).
- What is the doctrine of grace of Lord Jesus Christ? What is the meaning of saved by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ which Apostle Peter claimed so much? The basic idea behind this doctrine of grace is this: each human being, no matter who, he or she is entitled to salvation, forgiveness of sin, all on God’s term. A human being cannot do anything to earn that salvation. In the early Christian case, not even circumcision or being obedient to Mosaic. Apostle Peter and other apostles were united in teaching that the entrance qualification into the kingdom of God is the grace of Jesus Christ.
C. Grave misunderstanding of the doctrine of Grace
- I believe a lot of pastors (me included) of the Methodist of Sarawak and Sabah made this mistake of teaching like this. We have pushed the doctrine of grace to the extreme; and we have blown it out of proportion. We have done a lot of damage to the spiritual life; the personal relationship between Jesus Christ and His disciples in the Methodist Church. What do I mean?
- We often teach that Jesus saves us unconditionally; Jesus forgives our sin unconditionally. What a terrible mistake? A mistake that requires us to ask Jesus Christ for forgiveness. It is a terrible mistake, owing to this teaching, a lot of us begin to become very lenient and free in our life. It affects terribly because at the back of our mind now, we believe that we have all the freedom to sin and Jesus will forgive us anyway. Jesus Christ becomes our instrument to be manipulated. His teaching is no more the authority of our lives. He is no more our master or the Lord of life. In fact, when we misunderstand grace, we become our own master. Jesus is our servant.
- We ended up preaching the cheap grace, a grace that does not require any sacrifice of Jesus at all. Let me now say the opposite of the normal teaching. Jesus forgives sins on condition that He died a sacrificial death. He paid the great price of the crucifixion in order for your sins and my sins to be forgiven. Please take note of this expensive price before you ask Jesus to forgive your sins based on the ground of grace. Yes, He is most willing to forgive your sins, but, bear in mind, it is done not without a price!
- Therefore, this grace given to new believers and all of us is done with a great price. A lot of time, we neglect it, and as a result, we do not strive to live a life of holiness in our speech, thought, attitude, heart and a life of social concerns. We do not live a life of holiness, Jesus forgives our sins anywhere. We really need the season of Lent to remind us the suffering of Jesus and how He has done for us fon the cross.
D. How to experience the grace of Jesus Christ?
- I pray that what I preach here is not only for your information only; it is very much for your transformation. That means for your understanding and action.
- Please do not misunderstand me. I never preach to you today that you need to live a holy life in order to deserve salvation in future.
- Now that you have been saved, through the expensive grace of Jesus Christ offered to you and you accepted it, you can continue to enjoy that grace. How?
- Firstly, after you are saved, born again, you must continue to live a life of holiness in order to experience increasing grace of Jesus Christ. Take for instance, as you live a prayerful life, you hear Jesus more and more clearly; you will avoid more and more bad decision, attitudes, emotion. In doing so, you experience grace of Jesus Christ. The grace of Jesus here is you get to avoid bad decision or a sinful decision. Not the other way round, you took the liberty to commit a sin, you called on the grace of Jesus and ask for His forgiveness. Yes, there is grace of Jesus but have you counted the cost of the grace.
- Secondly, you experience grace of Jesus when upon conviction of your sin (whatever), you come to realize how wrong, how sorry, how regret; you are not only willing to confess to Jesus, you are also willing to say sorry to people; willing to repent. The forgiveness that comes from Jesus Christ out of His grace for you will be deep and powerful; life transforming. We Chinese need this grace very much because culturally we do not like to say we are wrong as we need to take care of our face. As a result we suffered spiritually. We are haunted by guilt and very much the accusation of our conscience. The devil also make use of our so called hidden sin to immobilize us and make us feel ashamed of ourselves so that we feel that we are not qualified to serve Him and make disciples of all nations. Will you say sorry to your husband, wife, children, parents, colleagues, and people whom you have offended? And repent? So that grace of Jesus’ forgiveness can come upon you. Your sorry is not a means to earn the grace of forgiveness. Somehow, spiritually, mysteriously, in the spiritual realm, when you say sorry, it breaks down the devil’s hold on you; it breaks the authority of the devil over your life. Jesus says let your yes be yes, your no be no, if you speak more than that, it comes from the devil (Mat 5:37). How you ward off the devil’s influence in your life, take a deep look at your inner life, is the devil holding you/ influencing you in anyway? Saying sorry really ensure the grace of Jesus coming upon you. You will not want to reject that grace, won’t you?
E. Conclusion
- I pray that you realize the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is not cheap, it is expensive.
- To enjoy, the way is not to sin as much as possible, but, to live a holy life. Holiness in living is not earning it but it is a channel of Christ’s grace.
F. Discussion Questions
1. After knowing Jesus had paid the highest cost for the forgiveness of your sins, how does it affect your life of holiness?
2. Share your experience of Christ’s grace in your life? You may like to email (lawhuiseng@yahoo.com) your answers to me so that I can respond to you.
4th March, 2012
Written By Rev Law Hui Seng
Posted By Teresa Han
Acts 15:6-22
Main Idea: Salvation by the grace of Jesus Christ
Objectives: a. To teach the doctrine of grace.
b. To correct the grave misunderstanding of grace.
c. To teach on how to experience the grace of Lord Jesus Christ.
A. Introduction
- Grace is word/ term which is greatly misunderstood by a lot of Christians. This misunderstanding has caused us very dearly.
- I attribute the misunderstanding to the church imbalanced teaching on grace.
- I shall preach to you the misunderstanding later on but for the early Christians in Acts, particularly, based on the passage today, many of them totally could not understand grace.
- Let us see how they miss the doctrine of grace.
B. The doctrine of Grace
- Some Pharisees who were converted to Christianity still held on very much to the Mosaic Law in terms of circumcision. In this very crucial meeting in Jerusalem which involved apostles, elders, and believers and even the whole church (verse 12), they had decided once and for all, that the Gentiles do not need to be circumcised in order to become Christians. What happened?
- In verse 1 of chapter 15 today, we are informed there were some men teaching salvation can only be obtained through circumcision. This put Apostle Paul and Barnabas into great disputes with them. You can imagine the heated argument that happened in that Jerusalem. The author Luke did not record all those angry debates.
- The author Luke only recorded the arguments for the Gentiles who were not required to be circumcised. A few groups of people spoke convincingly and in unity. They were all consistent with one another. Thank God for their great courage to believe in a new doctrine of grace. They even claim that God wanted it that way.
- First of all, in that crucial meeting, Apostle Peter stood up to speak. Some who insisted on circumcision might have expected him to speak for it. But, he did not. He gave his most crucial testimony of how God directed him to Cornelius and his household (chapter 10) and he preached to them and they believed; and bestowed them the Holy Spirit. God made no distinction in giving the Holy Spirit to both the Jews and the Gentiles (verse 8). God purified the gentiles’ heart by their faith (verse 9). If Jewish Christians insisted on circumcision, then, they were putting God to test (verse 10). Peter concluded his argument by saying both the Jews and the Gentiles were saved by the grace of Jesus Christ, our Lord, not at all by being obedient to the Mosaic Law.
- Secondly, Barnabas and Paul claimed and gave testimonies in verse 12 that God used them to do miraculous signs and wonders among the Gentiles. If God rejected the Gentiles, why did He use Paul and Barnabas to perform miracles on them?
- Thirdly, James, the brother our Lord Jesus Christ affirmed the testimony of Simon Peter. Then, he went on to quote from the prophetic book of Amos that said it was the desire of God to rebuild David’s tent, the Jews, to bring them back to God; and also to call all the Gentiles back to Him (verses 16 to 18). He also concluded that the Gentiles must not be burdened with circumcision. But they need to live a holy life by abstaining from food offered to idols; from sexual morality; from eating meat of strangled animals and from blood (19 to 20) as a respect to Mosaic Law which still applied (verse 21). Then, the meeting concluded with the above decision and they asked Judas called Barsabas and Silas (who were leaders) to accompany Paul and Barnabas to go back to Antioch to report to the Gentile believers in a letter (verses 22).
- What is the doctrine of grace of Lord Jesus Christ? What is the meaning of saved by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ which Apostle Peter claimed so much? The basic idea behind this doctrine of grace is this: each human being, no matter who, he or she is entitled to salvation, forgiveness of sin, all on God’s term. A human being cannot do anything to earn that salvation. In the early Christian case, not even circumcision or being obedient to Mosaic. Apostle Peter and other apostles were united in teaching that the entrance qualification into the kingdom of God is the grace of Jesus Christ.
C. Grave misunderstanding of the doctrine of Grace
- I believe a lot of pastors (me included) of the Methodist of Sarawak and Sabah made this mistake of teaching like this. We have pushed the doctrine of grace to the extreme; and we have blown it out of proportion. We have done a lot of damage to the spiritual life; the personal relationship between Jesus Christ and His disciples in the Methodist Church. What do I mean?
- We often teach that Jesus saves us unconditionally; Jesus forgives our sin unconditionally. What a terrible mistake? A mistake that requires us to ask Jesus Christ for forgiveness. It is a terrible mistake, owing to this teaching, a lot of us begin to become very lenient and free in our life. It affects terribly because at the back of our mind now, we believe that we have all the freedom to sin and Jesus will forgive us anyway. Jesus Christ becomes our instrument to be manipulated. His teaching is no more the authority of our lives. He is no more our master or the Lord of life. In fact, when we misunderstand grace, we become our own master. Jesus is our servant.
- We ended up preaching the cheap grace, a grace that does not require any sacrifice of Jesus at all. Let me now say the opposite of the normal teaching. Jesus forgives sins on condition that He died a sacrificial death. He paid the great price of the crucifixion in order for your sins and my sins to be forgiven. Please take note of this expensive price before you ask Jesus to forgive your sins based on the ground of grace. Yes, He is most willing to forgive your sins, but, bear in mind, it is done not without a price!
- Therefore, this grace given to new believers and all of us is done with a great price. A lot of time, we neglect it, and as a result, we do not strive to live a life of holiness in our speech, thought, attitude, heart and a life of social concerns. We do not live a life of holiness, Jesus forgives our sins anywhere. We really need the season of Lent to remind us the suffering of Jesus and how He has done for us fon the cross.
D. How to experience the grace of Jesus Christ?
- I pray that what I preach here is not only for your information only; it is very much for your transformation. That means for your understanding and action.
- Please do not misunderstand me. I never preach to you today that you need to live a holy life in order to deserve salvation in future.
- Now that you have been saved, through the expensive grace of Jesus Christ offered to you and you accepted it, you can continue to enjoy that grace. How?
- Firstly, after you are saved, born again, you must continue to live a life of holiness in order to experience increasing grace of Jesus Christ. Take for instance, as you live a prayerful life, you hear Jesus more and more clearly; you will avoid more and more bad decision, attitudes, emotion. In doing so, you experience grace of Jesus Christ. The grace of Jesus here is you get to avoid bad decision or a sinful decision. Not the other way round, you took the liberty to commit a sin, you called on the grace of Jesus and ask for His forgiveness. Yes, there is grace of Jesus but have you counted the cost of the grace.
- Secondly, you experience grace of Jesus when upon conviction of your sin (whatever), you come to realize how wrong, how sorry, how regret; you are not only willing to confess to Jesus, you are also willing to say sorry to people; willing to repent. The forgiveness that comes from Jesus Christ out of His grace for you will be deep and powerful; life transforming. We Chinese need this grace very much because culturally we do not like to say we are wrong as we need to take care of our face. As a result we suffered spiritually. We are haunted by guilt and very much the accusation of our conscience. The devil also make use of our so called hidden sin to immobilize us and make us feel ashamed of ourselves so that we feel that we are not qualified to serve Him and make disciples of all nations. Will you say sorry to your husband, wife, children, parents, colleagues, and people whom you have offended? And repent? So that grace of Jesus’ forgiveness can come upon you. Your sorry is not a means to earn the grace of forgiveness. Somehow, spiritually, mysteriously, in the spiritual realm, when you say sorry, it breaks down the devil’s hold on you; it breaks the authority of the devil over your life. Jesus says let your yes be yes, your no be no, if you speak more than that, it comes from the devil (Mat 5:37). How you ward off the devil’s influence in your life, take a deep look at your inner life, is the devil holding you/ influencing you in anyway? Saying sorry really ensure the grace of Jesus coming upon you. You will not want to reject that grace, won’t you?
E. Conclusion
- I pray that you realize the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is not cheap, it is expensive.
- To enjoy, the way is not to sin as much as possible, but, to live a holy life. Holiness in living is not earning it but it is a channel of Christ’s grace.
F. Discussion Questions
1. After knowing Jesus had paid the highest cost for the forgiveness of your sins, how does it affect your life of holiness?
2. Share your experience of Christ’s grace in your life? You may like to email (lawhuiseng@yahoo.com) your answers to me so that I can respond to you.
Speaking Boldly For the Lord
5th Feb, 2012
Written By Rev Law Hui Seng
Posted By Teresa Han
Acts 14:1-7
Main idea: Speak boldly for the Lord
Objective: To teach the congregation to depend on the Holy Spirit to speak boldly for Jesus.
A. Introduction
- Total population of Sabah, according to 2010 Malaysia Census, 3.2 million.
- Bumiputera (indigenous people) and citizens – 2.3 million; foreigners – 0.9 million
- Religions: Islam – 2.1 million; Christianity – 0.85 million; Buddhism – 0.2 million
- Let us see the breakdown: Malays – Islam – 0.18 millions
- Kadazans/ Dusuns, 0.57 million: Christians – 0.43 millions; Islam – 013 million
- Bajaus, 0.45 million: Islam – 0.43; Christianity – 0.02.
- Muruts, 0.1 million: Islam – 0.02 million; Christianity – 0.08 million
- Chinese, 0.3 million: Islam – 0.01 million; Christianity – 0.1 million; Buddhism – 0.2 million.
- Other bumiputera, 0.66 million: Islam - 0.53 million; Christianity – 0.12 million
- Foreigners, 0.9 million: Islam – 0.75 million; Christianity – 0.12 million
- I want to give you an overall picture of the Sabah population in terms of her religious beliefs, so that you know the target groups you need to reach out and speak boldly for Jesus in an Islamic environment like this. You also find that about 60% of Chinese have not come to be saved yet. So, your decision to start the Mandarin service is a very good move.
B. Speaking boldly for the Lord
- One way to help people or to draw people to the Lord or to the mandarin service, is to speak boldly for Jesus. If people do not know Jesus can save them from their sins and hell, how can they believe, repent and live a holy life. An information on the salvation in Christ and Christ alone must naturally come from disciples of Jesus like you and me.
- This was very much in the mind and practice of apostles of Paul and Barnabas in chapter 14 of Acts today. Take note, they were still continuing their first missionary journey, and persevere, continuing the preaching of gospel despite opposition and persecution at the end of last chapter, in Pisidian Antioch.
- This is a great mission point for me to learn as a disciple of Jesus, I learn from apostle Paul, when people reject the good news of Christ’s salvation, I must not give up preaching to them or some other people. If Jesus is the true saviour, why should I give up preaching Him? Because I truly believe in a true Saviour, I am never tired of preaching Christ. I shall never be tired of pursuing something is the truth!
- In verse 1 of chapter 14, Luke said Paul and Barnabas went as usual preaching the gospel in the synagogue at Iconium, and they were so effective that a great number of Jews and Gentiles believed.
- But then, the scenario changed in verse 2 because those Jews who refused to believe the gospel stirred up the Gentiles to go against the apostles. We can understand why as the apostles were pulling away the Judaism believers and exerting influence of Christianity and establishing Christianity. Being threatened, and of course, to the zealous Judaism Jews, it was a battle of truth. Was Jesus the messiah? Was Jesus God?
- Despite the opposition, in verse 3, Luke still recorded they spent considerable time at Iconium, speaking boldly for the Lord (my emphasis today), the gospel of salvation, and Jesus confirmed their message of the gospel by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders. Can we expect Jesus to do the same with us when we preach the gospel like Paul and Barnabas? Biblically, signs and wonders follow those who preach the gospel. Therefore, grasp every opportunity to pray for the sick, for the most difficult problem to be overcome, for the impossible to happen; so that it enhances the spread of the gospel, Jesus is glorified. Will you exercise your faith like this?
- How the apostles could be so bold in speaking the message of the gospel in view of the possible persecution of death? In verse 5, we were informed that there was a plan to stone them. It was a threat of death!
- May I ask you why the apostles were so brave in speaking the message despite the threat of death? I believe you know the answer. I pray that you are able to experience it as you obey Jesus to preach the gospel. The answer is none other than the empowerment by the Holy Spirit.
- Before chapter 14 today, at the end of chapter 13, we were told in verse 52, the disciples were filled by the Holy Spirit in the midst of preaching the gospel and facing persecution.
- In fact, apostle Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians said it so well, in chapter 2 verses 4 and 5, “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.”
- I strongly believe that it was not Paul’s spirit of timidity that caused them to flee Iconium when they discovered the plot to kill them. I believe that with their close relationship with Jesus, they knew it was not the time, the kairos, to die as martyrs yet, for Jesus still desired them to preach the good news at Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe and the surrounding country in verses 6 and 7.
- My prayer to Jesus is this, the day He thinks that I have no more use to Him on earth, He should just take my life. If I am living, there must be a godly purpose for me to fulfil on earth every day. Will you pray the same prayer with me? Our attitude on earth should be as long as we live, Jesus desires us to preach the gospel to the lost and unsaved.
- Therefore, while you are on earth, can you make full use of your life to speak boldly for Jesus?
C. Applications
- I have preached to you that you have the Holy Spirit but many of us are not filled the spirit. You need to pray to be filled by the Spirit to be bold to do Jesus’ job.
- If you are giving yourself all the excuses like you have no time; you are scared to tell people about Jesus; people will not want to believe or come to church; faith in Jesus is a personal matter; it is not the time yet; you do not know how to preach the gospel, you dare not invite, etc, I would really say it from my heart that you have not ask the Holy Spirit to fill you to preach the gospel yet.
- I pray that you will repent from it. My appeal to you today is simply this: ask the Holy Spirit to fill you and empower you to speak boldly your testimony of how good is Jesus to you; and you invite them to come to faith in Jesus.
- Can you bear testimony of how good is Jesus to you? How real is Jesus to you? How Jesus bless you in your business? As a mother? As a father? In your career? Protect you?
- Share your testimony and keep inviting them to your small group our church activity our Sunday services.
- As Jesus has paid the penalty for your sins and give you eternal hope of salvation, will you now obey Him and present Him to others who are so lost and who are on the way to hell?
D. Conclusion
- It will be an irony, if we have the Holy Spirit and not be filled to speak boldly for Jesus.
- It will be a greater irony, if Jesus is so good to us, and yet, we behave as if Jesus has never blessed us at all.
- If others do not get to hear our testimonies, how do they know Jesus and be saved and become His disciples.
E. Questions for Discussion
- (1). Discuss some opportunities we can grasp to share our testimonies with backslide Christians and non-Christians.
- (2). Spell out some names whom we want to reach out and help them to know Jesus and pray for them in the small group.
Written By Rev Law Hui Seng
Posted By Teresa Han
Acts 14:1-7
Main idea: Speak boldly for the Lord
Objective: To teach the congregation to depend on the Holy Spirit to speak boldly for Jesus.
A. Introduction
- Total population of Sabah, according to 2010 Malaysia Census, 3.2 million.
- Bumiputera (indigenous people) and citizens – 2.3 million; foreigners – 0.9 million
- Religions: Islam – 2.1 million; Christianity – 0.85 million; Buddhism – 0.2 million
- Let us see the breakdown: Malays – Islam – 0.18 millions
- Kadazans/ Dusuns, 0.57 million: Christians – 0.43 millions; Islam – 013 million
- Bajaus, 0.45 million: Islam – 0.43; Christianity – 0.02.
- Muruts, 0.1 million: Islam – 0.02 million; Christianity – 0.08 million
- Chinese, 0.3 million: Islam – 0.01 million; Christianity – 0.1 million; Buddhism – 0.2 million.
- Other bumiputera, 0.66 million: Islam - 0.53 million; Christianity – 0.12 million
- Foreigners, 0.9 million: Islam – 0.75 million; Christianity – 0.12 million
- I want to give you an overall picture of the Sabah population in terms of her religious beliefs, so that you know the target groups you need to reach out and speak boldly for Jesus in an Islamic environment like this. You also find that about 60% of Chinese have not come to be saved yet. So, your decision to start the Mandarin service is a very good move.
B. Speaking boldly for the Lord
- One way to help people or to draw people to the Lord or to the mandarin service, is to speak boldly for Jesus. If people do not know Jesus can save them from their sins and hell, how can they believe, repent and live a holy life. An information on the salvation in Christ and Christ alone must naturally come from disciples of Jesus like you and me.
- This was very much in the mind and practice of apostles of Paul and Barnabas in chapter 14 of Acts today. Take note, they were still continuing their first missionary journey, and persevere, continuing the preaching of gospel despite opposition and persecution at the end of last chapter, in Pisidian Antioch.
- This is a great mission point for me to learn as a disciple of Jesus, I learn from apostle Paul, when people reject the good news of Christ’s salvation, I must not give up preaching to them or some other people. If Jesus is the true saviour, why should I give up preaching Him? Because I truly believe in a true Saviour, I am never tired of preaching Christ. I shall never be tired of pursuing something is the truth!
- In verse 1 of chapter 14, Luke said Paul and Barnabas went as usual preaching the gospel in the synagogue at Iconium, and they were so effective that a great number of Jews and Gentiles believed.
- But then, the scenario changed in verse 2 because those Jews who refused to believe the gospel stirred up the Gentiles to go against the apostles. We can understand why as the apostles were pulling away the Judaism believers and exerting influence of Christianity and establishing Christianity. Being threatened, and of course, to the zealous Judaism Jews, it was a battle of truth. Was Jesus the messiah? Was Jesus God?
- Despite the opposition, in verse 3, Luke still recorded they spent considerable time at Iconium, speaking boldly for the Lord (my emphasis today), the gospel of salvation, and Jesus confirmed their message of the gospel by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders. Can we expect Jesus to do the same with us when we preach the gospel like Paul and Barnabas? Biblically, signs and wonders follow those who preach the gospel. Therefore, grasp every opportunity to pray for the sick, for the most difficult problem to be overcome, for the impossible to happen; so that it enhances the spread of the gospel, Jesus is glorified. Will you exercise your faith like this?
- How the apostles could be so bold in speaking the message of the gospel in view of the possible persecution of death? In verse 5, we were informed that there was a plan to stone them. It was a threat of death!
- May I ask you why the apostles were so brave in speaking the message despite the threat of death? I believe you know the answer. I pray that you are able to experience it as you obey Jesus to preach the gospel. The answer is none other than the empowerment by the Holy Spirit.
- Before chapter 14 today, at the end of chapter 13, we were told in verse 52, the disciples were filled by the Holy Spirit in the midst of preaching the gospel and facing persecution.
- In fact, apostle Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians said it so well, in chapter 2 verses 4 and 5, “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.”
- I strongly believe that it was not Paul’s spirit of timidity that caused them to flee Iconium when they discovered the plot to kill them. I believe that with their close relationship with Jesus, they knew it was not the time, the kairos, to die as martyrs yet, for Jesus still desired them to preach the good news at Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe and the surrounding country in verses 6 and 7.
- My prayer to Jesus is this, the day He thinks that I have no more use to Him on earth, He should just take my life. If I am living, there must be a godly purpose for me to fulfil on earth every day. Will you pray the same prayer with me? Our attitude on earth should be as long as we live, Jesus desires us to preach the gospel to the lost and unsaved.
- Therefore, while you are on earth, can you make full use of your life to speak boldly for Jesus?
C. Applications
- I have preached to you that you have the Holy Spirit but many of us are not filled the spirit. You need to pray to be filled by the Spirit to be bold to do Jesus’ job.
- If you are giving yourself all the excuses like you have no time; you are scared to tell people about Jesus; people will not want to believe or come to church; faith in Jesus is a personal matter; it is not the time yet; you do not know how to preach the gospel, you dare not invite, etc, I would really say it from my heart that you have not ask the Holy Spirit to fill you to preach the gospel yet.
- I pray that you will repent from it. My appeal to you today is simply this: ask the Holy Spirit to fill you and empower you to speak boldly your testimony of how good is Jesus to you; and you invite them to come to faith in Jesus.
- Can you bear testimony of how good is Jesus to you? How real is Jesus to you? How Jesus bless you in your business? As a mother? As a father? In your career? Protect you?
- Share your testimony and keep inviting them to your small group our church activity our Sunday services.
- As Jesus has paid the penalty for your sins and give you eternal hope of salvation, will you now obey Him and present Him to others who are so lost and who are on the way to hell?
D. Conclusion
- It will be an irony, if we have the Holy Spirit and not be filled to speak boldly for Jesus.
- It will be a greater irony, if Jesus is so good to us, and yet, we behave as if Jesus has never blessed us at all.
- If others do not get to hear our testimonies, how do they know Jesus and be saved and become His disciples.
E. Questions for Discussion
- (1). Discuss some opportunities we can grasp to share our testimonies with backslide Christians and non-Christians.
- (2). Spell out some names whom we want to reach out and help them to know Jesus and pray for them in the small group.
My 2012 New Year Resolutions
Dear brothers and sisters,
Praise the Lord for 2012.
I look forward to writing my pastoral thesis proposal and its completion by this year. Thanks very much for your prayer support and words of encouragement I received in face book and emails. My face book account name is Hui Seng Law. I have successfully completed 9 subjects which help my thesis writing very much. I have also completed my 2 Master of Theology examinations and I am waiting for my results. I have set my thesis proposal to be on 3rd February, 2012.
Do remember me again in your prayers. Praise the Lord and thank Him for sustaining my wife who coped with all the stress of taking care of 4 children without me in Miri, despite her heart valve leakage condition. Please pray that Jesus will continue to sustain her, and the children are understanding and be obedient to help out in the house chores. Pray for me that I am able to organize all the relevant information from the 8 subjects which I have put in lots of effort, to write a thesis on developing a BM speaking pastoral model among Iban Christians in Sarawak Chinese Annual Conference.
My new year resolutions continue to be the same as last year, except I will be more focused on reaching out to mother side relative, the Chieng’s family. Firstly, I shall continue to read the word of God and write reflection, from the book of Ruth onwards. Secondly, I shall evangelize the Chieng’s family with the help of Agape Methodist Church Mandarin service. Thirdly, I shall continue to read on how to bring up boys and girls in God’s way. Fourthly, I shall continue to encourage 2 persons a day.
Together, may we persevere to fear and love Jesus in 2012, by going out to make disciples of all nations.
A Faithful disciple of Jesus,
Pastor Law Hui Seng
(9th Jan, 2012. STS KK)
Posted By Teresa Han
Praise the Lord for 2012.
I look forward to writing my pastoral thesis proposal and its completion by this year. Thanks very much for your prayer support and words of encouragement I received in face book and emails. My face book account name is Hui Seng Law. I have successfully completed 9 subjects which help my thesis writing very much. I have also completed my 2 Master of Theology examinations and I am waiting for my results. I have set my thesis proposal to be on 3rd February, 2012.
Do remember me again in your prayers. Praise the Lord and thank Him for sustaining my wife who coped with all the stress of taking care of 4 children without me in Miri, despite her heart valve leakage condition. Please pray that Jesus will continue to sustain her, and the children are understanding and be obedient to help out in the house chores. Pray for me that I am able to organize all the relevant information from the 8 subjects which I have put in lots of effort, to write a thesis on developing a BM speaking pastoral model among Iban Christians in Sarawak Chinese Annual Conference.
My new year resolutions continue to be the same as last year, except I will be more focused on reaching out to mother side relative, the Chieng’s family. Firstly, I shall continue to read the word of God and write reflection, from the book of Ruth onwards. Secondly, I shall evangelize the Chieng’s family with the help of Agape Methodist Church Mandarin service. Thirdly, I shall continue to read on how to bring up boys and girls in God’s way. Fourthly, I shall continue to encourage 2 persons a day.
Together, may we persevere to fear and love Jesus in 2012, by going out to make disciples of all nations.
A Faithful disciple of Jesus,
Pastor Law Hui Seng
(9th Jan, 2012. STS KK)
Posted By Teresa Han
Filled with Holy Spirit
Written By Rev Law Hui Seng
Posted By Teresa Han
AMC Sermon Filled with Holy Spirit 8th Jan, 2012
Acts 13:4-13
Main Idea: Be filled with Holy Spirit to serve Jesus Christ
Objectives:
A. Teach the congregation to be filled with Holy Spirit to serve Jesus.
B. The congregation to learn the effects of being filled with Holy Spirit.
A. Introduction
- Too many disciples of Jesus Christ in the Methodist churches in Sabah and Sarawak have not discovered the powerful impacts of being filled with Holy Spirit.
- I pray that today’s passage will inspire you to desire to be filled with Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, to serve Jesus in the church and out there in the world to make disciples of all nations.
- All the more now, you have the afternoon Mandarin service, you have made a historical decision, that will cause many people to come to this (Agape Methodist church) and be saved and become disciples of Jesus, not just believers and Christians. You must desire to be filled with the Holy Spirit to go out there to touch people’s life and invite them into the kingdom.
- Let us see how Apostle Paul was so filled with Holy Spirit to serve the cause of Jesus.
- Before that, let us turn to the Jerusalem map at the back of the bible to see Apostle Paul first missionary route so that you can imagine the hard efforts involved by him.
- You see to the north of Jerusalem, there is a place called Antioch, from here, you go south-west, you see a place called, Seleucia, the sea port of Antioch. It is from here that apostle Paul, Barnabas and John (a cousin of Barnabas, a helper) departed went on sea journey to a big island called Cyprus. Many Jews lived there. Gospel had been preached there by disciples who were persecuted in connection to the martyrdom of Stephen in Acts 11:19. May be the team was asked to follow up on the converts. May be they had to travel for months before they reached Salamis, on the eastern side of the island Cyprus. As they arrived Salamis, verse 6, they travelled through the whole island, and we can assume they preached the gospel along the way. Then, finally, they reached Paphos, on the western side of the island. We are going to look at what happened there later on. But, for now, I want point out that, from this town, the team continued their first missionary to Perga in Pamphylia, at the mainland, where John left them and returned to Jerusalem in verse 13. From there, you will notice, Paul and the team continued their maiden missionary trip.
- What happened at Paphos before they left for Perga? Along the whole journey from Salamis to Paphos there must be a lot of stops, rest and preaching of the word of God, but Luke, the author kept no records of the events. May be no significant events worth the mention, but when it comes to Paphos, Luke highligted this encounter of Paul with Elymas.
B. Paul’s encounter with Elymas
- It is very interesting to take note that Paul from this passage onwards, he is playing key mission roles in the book of Acts. It is here in this passage (verse 9) his name was changed from Saul (a Hebrew name which means asked of God) to Paul (Hellenistic name which means little). It could mean that from now on, he would reach out to the Gentiles as he was called by Jesus to do it in Chapter 9:15. Jesus chosen instrument to make disciples among the Gentiles was in action now. But for this passage, it was his encounter with a Jew, before he encountered the Gentiles in his other parts of mission.
- Let us see what happened at the mission field, at Paphos, where it was so significant that Luke wrote it down. In encountering Elymas, Paul was filled by the Holy Spirit (verse 9), the verse where I get my sermon title from. I regard this verse as the key verse as it is the verse where everything falls into place. Without being filled with the Holy Spirit, Paul would not be able to do mission with the proconsul, may be the governor of Cyprus. Anyway, right from verse 4, Luke says Pauls and Barnabas were sent by Holy Spirit to go for the mission. In verses 2 and 3, they say that, the commissioning of the 2 was as a result of Holy Spirit’s instruction, which happened during worshipping the Lord and fasting. For this matter, I strongly believe that when we worship Jesus on a Sunday service like this, we must expect the Holy Spirit to speak to us also. Do you say Amen to this? I start to reach out to my mother side uncle’s children (who are my cousins) and their children after I heard the Holy Spirit used a still small voice in my heart to tell me to invite them for last year moon cake evangelistic meeting during a service here at Agape Methodist.
- Now, why Paul was so harsh on Elymas, pronouncing something like a curse on him? In verses 10 and 11, it says, “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery...Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind, and for a time you will be unable to see the light of the sun.” What was at stake that caused Paul to be so daring to pronounce such punishment on Elymas?
- I can understand why, and what is at stake. The proconsul, the governor, Sergius Paulus, he could be the most powerful person in the political position under the Roman empire at Cyprus, and he showed interest in the word of God. In verse 7, it says, he sent for Paul and Barnabas because he wanted to hear the word of God. What an opportunity to grasp! If the Chief Minister of Sabah, Musa comes to you and expresses interest in the gospel, as you do mission, what do you do? I am sure you will by all means help him to know Jesus personally.
- However, in this case, there was another, very influential person called Elymas, Jewish the sorcerer, in verse 8, we are told that he tried to pull away the proconsul from coming to the faith of Jesus. Before this, the proconsul must have mixed with Elymas who could do some supernatural power, and satisfied the interests of proconsul. Directly, Elymas gained some economic interest from the proconsul also. Elymas knew very well, the influence of God’s word on him would cause the loss of economic support for him. Therefore, he tried hard to prevent Paul and Barnabas influence on him.
- At the same time, Paul, who was directed by God to do mission knew the spiritual warfare involved. Based on the pronouncement of the punishment, you can see that Paul had discerned the devil at work behind Elymas if not, he would not call Elymas, a child of the devil, an enemy of everything that is right, full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. You think Paul and Barnabas were able to counter Elymas who empowered by the devil, with their human flesh wisdom, strength and might?
- How could Paul know the devil behind Elymas? Unless God helped him to discern. How could Paul be so courageous to pronounce a punishment on Elymas? He had no authority to do it. Unless God gave him the courage. At this critical moment, this is where in verse 9, Paul was filled by the Holy Spirit to do pronouncement. Take note of the supernatural power that Paul received after being filled with the Holy Spirit, receiving discernment and courage. The effects of being filled with Holy Spirit were Paul was blessed with courage and discernment. I believe, as you serve Christ, as you learn to love others and reach out to others for Christ’s sake, it does not matter who are they, Jesus Christ will be there to fill you with the Holy Spirit and give you courage and discernment. Do you say amen to that? You got to believe it and ask for it.
- I always get courage to pray spiritual warfare prayer and fight the devil head on in praying for the sick, in Iban and Penan long houses, in removing charms of all kinds and burning them. I always experience Jesus’ protection in terms of journey mercy, good health and wisdom to minister on mission trip. One of the questions that the Holy Spirit always remind me to ask when I pray for the sick and the troubled is always, what sin have you committed. If the person is not able to tell me, as the Holy Spirit leads me, I ask about, what wrong one has done, any conflicts with people, any enemy, any hatred, any greed, any pride, etc. I strongly believe that as I apply the teachings of James 5, as people confess their sins, Jesus will heal them; and the devil will not have any foothold to attack us. As we confess our sins and repent, Jesus forgives and heals. If their sickness continues after I pray, I always remind them to consult a doctor as not all sicknesses are due to our sins or the devil.
- Now, we know the immediate effect of the pronouncement of the punishment. In verses 11b, it says, “Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand.” It was an evidence of the Holy Spirit at work so mightily.
- Now, what is the ultimate result of Paul being filled with the Holy Spirit? The answer is found in verse 12, “When the proconsul saw what happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord.” You see the powerful role of the Holy Spirit in converting an intelligent and powerful like Sergius Paulus?
- I pray that the sermon today on being filled with Holy Spirit is not for information and knowledge, it is for practice.
C. Applications
- On the practice of being filled with Holy Spirit, I think you want to know whether the Holy Spirit fills every Christian or not? My answer is very simple and I always emphasize this. As you come to know Christ, your life is transformed, you are born again, the Holy Spirit lives in you. Then, as you serve the purpose of Christ, you ask for the Holy Spirit to fill you, He will fill you and empower you to do his work. Luke 11:11-13 Jesus teaches us, “which of your fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”
- One application you can do with this verse is that our heavenly father will fill us with the Holy Spirit as we ask Him.
- The trouble with a lot of us is we do not even ask. Now, why? May I ask you now, why? If you are ignorant of the teaching, after today, you should just ask as Jesus leads you.
- But, a lot of us do not ask because we feel we are not up to the mark to the mission of Jesus yet. This is a wrong thinking, and sometimes it is an excuse. Jesus can use any child of Him to accomplish His purpose. You need to exercise your faith to step forward and answer the call of Jesus, like Paul and Barnabas.
- Some of us are just to preoccupied with worldly things that we are all the time distracted from drawing near to Jesus and how can we even think of praying for Jesus to fill us with Holy Spirit to do His mission?
- Some of us under certain bondage of a sin, which you have not let go and allow Jesus to forgive you and you repent, and the devil always get you. To this group of children of God, I urge you, all the more, you must ask Jesus to fill you with His Spirit to overcome the evil power?
D. Conclusion and action
- Can you now humble yourself, take a step of faith, and fill free to follow me in a prayer which asks Jesus to fill you to serve Him? If after listening to the sermon, you have heard the Holy Spirit telling you in your heart to be filled with the Holy Spirit to reach out to others, to solve your problems and to repent from your sins, please follow me in prayers.
- Lord Jesus Christ, I hear your calling to ask you to fill me with your Holy Spirit, the spirit who filled apostle Paul to also fill me. I sincerely desire you to give me courage to open my mouth to give testimony about how you have blessed and invite them to come for small groups, fellowship and the Sunday services. I sincerely desire you to empower me to solve all my personal problems. I sincerely desire you to forgive me from all my sins and I repent from them. In Christ’s most powerful name I pray, Amen.”
Questions for discussion
1. Share some other effects of being filled with the Holy Spirit.
2. Share your experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit.
3. Share the verses from Acts 1 to 12 that touch on the doctrine of being filled with Holy Spirit.
By Rev Law Hui Seng
Posted By Teresa Han
AMC Sermon Filled with Holy Spirit 8th Jan, 2012
Acts 13:4-13
Main Idea: Be filled with Holy Spirit to serve Jesus Christ
Objectives:
A. Teach the congregation to be filled with Holy Spirit to serve Jesus.
B. The congregation to learn the effects of being filled with Holy Spirit.
A. Introduction
- Too many disciples of Jesus Christ in the Methodist churches in Sabah and Sarawak have not discovered the powerful impacts of being filled with Holy Spirit.
- I pray that today’s passage will inspire you to desire to be filled with Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, to serve Jesus in the church and out there in the world to make disciples of all nations.
- All the more now, you have the afternoon Mandarin service, you have made a historical decision, that will cause many people to come to this (Agape Methodist church) and be saved and become disciples of Jesus, not just believers and Christians. You must desire to be filled with the Holy Spirit to go out there to touch people’s life and invite them into the kingdom.
- Let us see how Apostle Paul was so filled with Holy Spirit to serve the cause of Jesus.
- Before that, let us turn to the Jerusalem map at the back of the bible to see Apostle Paul first missionary route so that you can imagine the hard efforts involved by him.
- You see to the north of Jerusalem, there is a place called Antioch, from here, you go south-west, you see a place called, Seleucia, the sea port of Antioch. It is from here that apostle Paul, Barnabas and John (a cousin of Barnabas, a helper) departed went on sea journey to a big island called Cyprus. Many Jews lived there. Gospel had been preached there by disciples who were persecuted in connection to the martyrdom of Stephen in Acts 11:19. May be the team was asked to follow up on the converts. May be they had to travel for months before they reached Salamis, on the eastern side of the island Cyprus. As they arrived Salamis, verse 6, they travelled through the whole island, and we can assume they preached the gospel along the way. Then, finally, they reached Paphos, on the western side of the island. We are going to look at what happened there later on. But, for now, I want point out that, from this town, the team continued their first missionary to Perga in Pamphylia, at the mainland, where John left them and returned to Jerusalem in verse 13. From there, you will notice, Paul and the team continued their maiden missionary trip.
- What happened at Paphos before they left for Perga? Along the whole journey from Salamis to Paphos there must be a lot of stops, rest and preaching of the word of God, but Luke, the author kept no records of the events. May be no significant events worth the mention, but when it comes to Paphos, Luke highligted this encounter of Paul with Elymas.
B. Paul’s encounter with Elymas
- It is very interesting to take note that Paul from this passage onwards, he is playing key mission roles in the book of Acts. It is here in this passage (verse 9) his name was changed from Saul (a Hebrew name which means asked of God) to Paul (Hellenistic name which means little). It could mean that from now on, he would reach out to the Gentiles as he was called by Jesus to do it in Chapter 9:15. Jesus chosen instrument to make disciples among the Gentiles was in action now. But for this passage, it was his encounter with a Jew, before he encountered the Gentiles in his other parts of mission.
- Let us see what happened at the mission field, at Paphos, where it was so significant that Luke wrote it down. In encountering Elymas, Paul was filled by the Holy Spirit (verse 9), the verse where I get my sermon title from. I regard this verse as the key verse as it is the verse where everything falls into place. Without being filled with the Holy Spirit, Paul would not be able to do mission with the proconsul, may be the governor of Cyprus. Anyway, right from verse 4, Luke says Pauls and Barnabas were sent by Holy Spirit to go for the mission. In verses 2 and 3, they say that, the commissioning of the 2 was as a result of Holy Spirit’s instruction, which happened during worshipping the Lord and fasting. For this matter, I strongly believe that when we worship Jesus on a Sunday service like this, we must expect the Holy Spirit to speak to us also. Do you say Amen to this? I start to reach out to my mother side uncle’s children (who are my cousins) and their children after I heard the Holy Spirit used a still small voice in my heart to tell me to invite them for last year moon cake evangelistic meeting during a service here at Agape Methodist.
- Now, why Paul was so harsh on Elymas, pronouncing something like a curse on him? In verses 10 and 11, it says, “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery...Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind, and for a time you will be unable to see the light of the sun.” What was at stake that caused Paul to be so daring to pronounce such punishment on Elymas?
- I can understand why, and what is at stake. The proconsul, the governor, Sergius Paulus, he could be the most powerful person in the political position under the Roman empire at Cyprus, and he showed interest in the word of God. In verse 7, it says, he sent for Paul and Barnabas because he wanted to hear the word of God. What an opportunity to grasp! If the Chief Minister of Sabah, Musa comes to you and expresses interest in the gospel, as you do mission, what do you do? I am sure you will by all means help him to know Jesus personally.
- However, in this case, there was another, very influential person called Elymas, Jewish the sorcerer, in verse 8, we are told that he tried to pull away the proconsul from coming to the faith of Jesus. Before this, the proconsul must have mixed with Elymas who could do some supernatural power, and satisfied the interests of proconsul. Directly, Elymas gained some economic interest from the proconsul also. Elymas knew very well, the influence of God’s word on him would cause the loss of economic support for him. Therefore, he tried hard to prevent Paul and Barnabas influence on him.
- At the same time, Paul, who was directed by God to do mission knew the spiritual warfare involved. Based on the pronouncement of the punishment, you can see that Paul had discerned the devil at work behind Elymas if not, he would not call Elymas, a child of the devil, an enemy of everything that is right, full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. You think Paul and Barnabas were able to counter Elymas who empowered by the devil, with their human flesh wisdom, strength and might?
- How could Paul know the devil behind Elymas? Unless God helped him to discern. How could Paul be so courageous to pronounce a punishment on Elymas? He had no authority to do it. Unless God gave him the courage. At this critical moment, this is where in verse 9, Paul was filled by the Holy Spirit to do pronouncement. Take note of the supernatural power that Paul received after being filled with the Holy Spirit, receiving discernment and courage. The effects of being filled with Holy Spirit were Paul was blessed with courage and discernment. I believe, as you serve Christ, as you learn to love others and reach out to others for Christ’s sake, it does not matter who are they, Jesus Christ will be there to fill you with the Holy Spirit and give you courage and discernment. Do you say amen to that? You got to believe it and ask for it.
- I always get courage to pray spiritual warfare prayer and fight the devil head on in praying for the sick, in Iban and Penan long houses, in removing charms of all kinds and burning them. I always experience Jesus’ protection in terms of journey mercy, good health and wisdom to minister on mission trip. One of the questions that the Holy Spirit always remind me to ask when I pray for the sick and the troubled is always, what sin have you committed. If the person is not able to tell me, as the Holy Spirit leads me, I ask about, what wrong one has done, any conflicts with people, any enemy, any hatred, any greed, any pride, etc. I strongly believe that as I apply the teachings of James 5, as people confess their sins, Jesus will heal them; and the devil will not have any foothold to attack us. As we confess our sins and repent, Jesus forgives and heals. If their sickness continues after I pray, I always remind them to consult a doctor as not all sicknesses are due to our sins or the devil.
- Now, we know the immediate effect of the pronouncement of the punishment. In verses 11b, it says, “Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand.” It was an evidence of the Holy Spirit at work so mightily.
- Now, what is the ultimate result of Paul being filled with the Holy Spirit? The answer is found in verse 12, “When the proconsul saw what happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord.” You see the powerful role of the Holy Spirit in converting an intelligent and powerful like Sergius Paulus?
- I pray that the sermon today on being filled with Holy Spirit is not for information and knowledge, it is for practice.
C. Applications
- On the practice of being filled with Holy Spirit, I think you want to know whether the Holy Spirit fills every Christian or not? My answer is very simple and I always emphasize this. As you come to know Christ, your life is transformed, you are born again, the Holy Spirit lives in you. Then, as you serve the purpose of Christ, you ask for the Holy Spirit to fill you, He will fill you and empower you to do his work. Luke 11:11-13 Jesus teaches us, “which of your fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”
- One application you can do with this verse is that our heavenly father will fill us with the Holy Spirit as we ask Him.
- The trouble with a lot of us is we do not even ask. Now, why? May I ask you now, why? If you are ignorant of the teaching, after today, you should just ask as Jesus leads you.
- But, a lot of us do not ask because we feel we are not up to the mark to the mission of Jesus yet. This is a wrong thinking, and sometimes it is an excuse. Jesus can use any child of Him to accomplish His purpose. You need to exercise your faith to step forward and answer the call of Jesus, like Paul and Barnabas.
- Some of us are just to preoccupied with worldly things that we are all the time distracted from drawing near to Jesus and how can we even think of praying for Jesus to fill us with Holy Spirit to do His mission?
- Some of us under certain bondage of a sin, which you have not let go and allow Jesus to forgive you and you repent, and the devil always get you. To this group of children of God, I urge you, all the more, you must ask Jesus to fill you with His Spirit to overcome the evil power?
D. Conclusion and action
- Can you now humble yourself, take a step of faith, and fill free to follow me in a prayer which asks Jesus to fill you to serve Him? If after listening to the sermon, you have heard the Holy Spirit telling you in your heart to be filled with the Holy Spirit to reach out to others, to solve your problems and to repent from your sins, please follow me in prayers.
- Lord Jesus Christ, I hear your calling to ask you to fill me with your Holy Spirit, the spirit who filled apostle Paul to also fill me. I sincerely desire you to give me courage to open my mouth to give testimony about how you have blessed and invite them to come for small groups, fellowship and the Sunday services. I sincerely desire you to empower me to solve all my personal problems. I sincerely desire you to forgive me from all my sins and I repent from them. In Christ’s most powerful name I pray, Amen.”
Questions for discussion
1. Share some other effects of being filled with the Holy Spirit.
2. Share your experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit.
3. Share the verses from Acts 1 to 12 that touch on the doctrine of being filled with Holy Spirit.
By Rev Law Hui Seng
Praying for the Sick
Monday, 3 October, 2011
AMC Praying for the Sick
Kota Kinabalu
Written By Rev Law Hui Seng
Posted By Teresa Han
Acts 9:36-43; James 5:13-16
Main Idea: Pray for the Sick
Objectives: a. To exercise faith to pray for healing of the sick.
A. Introduction
- What is the first thing you do when you get sick?
- Some of us may go to Jesus to ask for healing and get healed. Sister Lisa did it and she got healed from heart problem and thyroid.
- Some of us did not pray at all when get sick and you to see a doctor straight away.
- I hope that after the sermon today, you will change the order. The first thing you do is to pray for healing first. With all due respect, to doctors who are present here, God also uses medicine to heal or to bring about recovery in health.
- The bible, especially the New Testament talks about praying for the sick, healing the sick and raising the dead.
- Let us study the 2 passages today to learn more about praying for the sick. At the end of the day, after the sermon, I pray that you will love to pray for the sick.
B. Peter Raised the Dead
- Acts 9:36-43, the main event was about apostle Peter raising the dead woman called Tabitha (or Dorcas). She was probably one fruit of Philip in chapter 8:26-40 (after the persecution of Christians in Jerusalem where they scattered) to preach the gospel all over the towns. You still remember, after Philip baptized the Ethiopian, he was taken away by the Holy Spirit. Then he appeared again in Azotus, 8:40, says, he travelled about preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.
- I believe Philip preached at Joppa, one of the towns, on his way to Caesarea up North.
- His preaching was very powerful and it resulted in conversion of a group of people, including Dorcas.
- After conversion, she was zealously serving Christ by doing good and helping the poor.
- In verse 37, we are told she became sick and died, and fellow disciples who might have been converted the effort of Philip quickly sent for apostle Peter who was at the nearby town of Lydda. Her body was delayed for burial for the purpose of prayer of Peter.
- Immediately before the paragraph today, we read that Peter healed Aeneas who bed-ridden miraculously. The news of the great work of Jesus through Peter must have spread to Joppa which was just a few miles away from Lydda.
- I believe Peter was told by these 2 disciples of great faith that Dorcs was dead and needed to be prayed for. By faith, Peter responded to the urgent to pray despite the death! Take note, it was out of faith, Peter went. Otherwise, there was no need to go as Dorcas was dead!
- The widows showed Peter the clothing and robes, probably she had made for the poor. These widows who were crying probably were ministered by Dorcas before.
- Peter, an apostle of great faith, now, faced with the impossible task of raising the dead.
- When Peter was with Jesus, probably he had witnessed how Jesus raised the deads. (Matthew 9:24-25, Jesus raised the dead daughter of a ruler. Jesus said, "The girl is not dead but asleep." After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up; Luke 7:11-17 is about raising the dead son of a widow - Jesus simply commanded, "Young man, I say to you, get up!"; John 11:1-44, Lazarus was dead for 4 days, Jesus commanded, "Lazarus come out!"
- Peter exercised his faith according to pattern of Jesus raising the dead. He sent the crowd out of the room as he learnt from Jesus, he just commanded like Jesus, "Tabitha, get up." And miracle happened.
- In verse 42, it said the miracle caused many people to believe in Jesus. Notice the purpose of raising the dead is to cause people to come to Jesus in faith.
- Then, in verse 43, it was specifically mentioned Peter stayed with an unclean man Simon, a tanner, treating animal skins for sale; it showed Peter's (a Jew) willingness to mix with the unclean as Simon treated unclean animal skin. He was prepared for the vision of eating the unclean animal in the next chapter.
- I want you to especially take note of the faith that Peter exercise to raise the dead. I am not preaching to you to raise the dead, but I am preaching to you to at least exercise your faith to pray for the sick and heal them.
- You may not have Peter's faith of raising the dead. But you are all challenged to exercise your faith to pray for healing of the sick.
C. How to pray for the sick by Faith
- It was something practiced in the early church.
- James 5:13-16, a passage that is very dear to my hear. I have been using it minister the sick and pray according for at least 10 years now.
- James is a letter written by the oldest brother of Jesus, a leader of the important council of Jerusalem (Acts 15:13).
- The instruction by James to the sick, was to call the elders of the church to pray and anoint him in the name of the Lord. Today, in our church, we have church leaders (Local Church Executive Committee) and they are equivalent to church elders.
- The promise is this, in verse 15, it says the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.
- What preparation we have to do before we pray for the sick? James says in verse 16, elders and the sick need to confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful an effective.
- Take note of the faith and holiness involved in praying for the sick.
- Now, I want to ask question why is it that the sick person and even the elders have to confess our sins?
- I believe it has to do with the holiness needed to usher in the healing power of God.
- The other reason could be the connection between sin and sickness. Your anger, unforgiveness, bitterness, hatred, your worries, your sin of gluttony (of which I used to commit as I overeat), you smoke cigarette, you drink too much alcohol, you do not rest well, you commit adultery and get all the sexual diseases; our sins cause our body immunity system to go down and subject ourselves to all the attack of virus and germs.
- We do not take care of our body, which is the temple of the Holy Spirit, we sin against God.
- We repent from our sins, God will heal.
- As I pray for the sick, I always ask God for the forgiveness of my own sins first and I command the sickness or certain spirit (e.g., hatred, anger, lie, lust, jealousy, unforgiveness) to leave.
- On top of healing, then, I pray for Jesus to fill the person with love, faith, joy, etc.
- In all these, you got to believe Jesus heals.
- Personally, as I pray for the sick, as far as possible I lay hands on their forehead as I anoint them with olive oil.
- In some cases, I even lay hands on the affected partis as it is more personal to do so.
D. Applications
- (1) You really need to believe that Jesus heals. You must have the faith before you can pray for the sick. After your prayers, after the patient gets well or nor, we leave it to Jesus. Your role is to exercise your faith. Start to pray for healing for yourself when you are sick; then, your family members; then, come in person to pray for the sick.
- (2) When there is a healing, you can give a testimony of God's healing. Remember you are just an instrument, you are not a healer, Jesus is the healer.
- (3) There are people who are gifted to heal. If Jesus has given the gift of healing to you by all means, use it. 1Cor 12:9, specifically mentions gifts of healing. As there are so many kinds of sickness, Jesus distributes each gift of healing to a particular person whom he choose to use. Matthew 10:1 talks about Jesus giving authority to His 12 disciples to drive out evil spirits and to heal the sickness and every disease. I believe we are all authorize to pray for the sick to heal! Do you?
E. Conclusion
- Sickness and diseases will remind us of our mortality, weakness and fragility of life and physical body.
- When we are willing to exercise our faith to pray for the sick and healings happen, it helps people to come to know Jesus and be saved eternally and become His disciples.
- Those who are Christians who healed, we become more committted to serve Jesus.
AMC Praying for the Sick
Kota Kinabalu
Written By Rev Law Hui Seng
Posted By Teresa Han
Acts 9:36-43; James 5:13-16
Main Idea: Pray for the Sick
Objectives: a. To exercise faith to pray for healing of the sick.
A. Introduction
- What is the first thing you do when you get sick?
- Some of us may go to Jesus to ask for healing and get healed. Sister Lisa did it and she got healed from heart problem and thyroid.
- Some of us did not pray at all when get sick and you to see a doctor straight away.
- I hope that after the sermon today, you will change the order. The first thing you do is to pray for healing first. With all due respect, to doctors who are present here, God also uses medicine to heal or to bring about recovery in health.
- The bible, especially the New Testament talks about praying for the sick, healing the sick and raising the dead.
- Let us study the 2 passages today to learn more about praying for the sick. At the end of the day, after the sermon, I pray that you will love to pray for the sick.
B. Peter Raised the Dead
- Acts 9:36-43, the main event was about apostle Peter raising the dead woman called Tabitha (or Dorcas). She was probably one fruit of Philip in chapter 8:26-40 (after the persecution of Christians in Jerusalem where they scattered) to preach the gospel all over the towns. You still remember, after Philip baptized the Ethiopian, he was taken away by the Holy Spirit. Then he appeared again in Azotus, 8:40, says, he travelled about preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.
- I believe Philip preached at Joppa, one of the towns, on his way to Caesarea up North.
- His preaching was very powerful and it resulted in conversion of a group of people, including Dorcas.
- After conversion, she was zealously serving Christ by doing good and helping the poor.
- In verse 37, we are told she became sick and died, and fellow disciples who might have been converted the effort of Philip quickly sent for apostle Peter who was at the nearby town of Lydda. Her body was delayed for burial for the purpose of prayer of Peter.
- Immediately before the paragraph today, we read that Peter healed Aeneas who bed-ridden miraculously. The news of the great work of Jesus through Peter must have spread to Joppa which was just a few miles away from Lydda.
- I believe Peter was told by these 2 disciples of great faith that Dorcs was dead and needed to be prayed for. By faith, Peter responded to the urgent to pray despite the death! Take note, it was out of faith, Peter went. Otherwise, there was no need to go as Dorcas was dead!
- The widows showed Peter the clothing and robes, probably she had made for the poor. These widows who were crying probably were ministered by Dorcas before.
- Peter, an apostle of great faith, now, faced with the impossible task of raising the dead.
- When Peter was with Jesus, probably he had witnessed how Jesus raised the deads. (Matthew 9:24-25, Jesus raised the dead daughter of a ruler. Jesus said, "The girl is not dead but asleep." After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up; Luke 7:11-17 is about raising the dead son of a widow - Jesus simply commanded, "Young man, I say to you, get up!"; John 11:1-44, Lazarus was dead for 4 days, Jesus commanded, "Lazarus come out!"
- Peter exercised his faith according to pattern of Jesus raising the dead. He sent the crowd out of the room as he learnt from Jesus, he just commanded like Jesus, "Tabitha, get up." And miracle happened.
- In verse 42, it said the miracle caused many people to believe in Jesus. Notice the purpose of raising the dead is to cause people to come to Jesus in faith.
- Then, in verse 43, it was specifically mentioned Peter stayed with an unclean man Simon, a tanner, treating animal skins for sale; it showed Peter's (a Jew) willingness to mix with the unclean as Simon treated unclean animal skin. He was prepared for the vision of eating the unclean animal in the next chapter.
- I want you to especially take note of the faith that Peter exercise to raise the dead. I am not preaching to you to raise the dead, but I am preaching to you to at least exercise your faith to pray for the sick and heal them.
- You may not have Peter's faith of raising the dead. But you are all challenged to exercise your faith to pray for healing of the sick.
C. How to pray for the sick by Faith
- It was something practiced in the early church.
- James 5:13-16, a passage that is very dear to my hear. I have been using it minister the sick and pray according for at least 10 years now.
- James is a letter written by the oldest brother of Jesus, a leader of the important council of Jerusalem (Acts 15:13).
- The instruction by James to the sick, was to call the elders of the church to pray and anoint him in the name of the Lord. Today, in our church, we have church leaders (Local Church Executive Committee) and they are equivalent to church elders.
- The promise is this, in verse 15, it says the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.
- What preparation we have to do before we pray for the sick? James says in verse 16, elders and the sick need to confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful an effective.
- Take note of the faith and holiness involved in praying for the sick.
- Now, I want to ask question why is it that the sick person and even the elders have to confess our sins?
- I believe it has to do with the holiness needed to usher in the healing power of God.
- The other reason could be the connection between sin and sickness. Your anger, unforgiveness, bitterness, hatred, your worries, your sin of gluttony (of which I used to commit as I overeat), you smoke cigarette, you drink too much alcohol, you do not rest well, you commit adultery and get all the sexual diseases; our sins cause our body immunity system to go down and subject ourselves to all the attack of virus and germs.
- We do not take care of our body, which is the temple of the Holy Spirit, we sin against God.
- We repent from our sins, God will heal.
- As I pray for the sick, I always ask God for the forgiveness of my own sins first and I command the sickness or certain spirit (e.g., hatred, anger, lie, lust, jealousy, unforgiveness) to leave.
- On top of healing, then, I pray for Jesus to fill the person with love, faith, joy, etc.
- In all these, you got to believe Jesus heals.
- Personally, as I pray for the sick, as far as possible I lay hands on their forehead as I anoint them with olive oil.
- In some cases, I even lay hands on the affected partis as it is more personal to do so.
D. Applications
- (1) You really need to believe that Jesus heals. You must have the faith before you can pray for the sick. After your prayers, after the patient gets well or nor, we leave it to Jesus. Your role is to exercise your faith. Start to pray for healing for yourself when you are sick; then, your family members; then, come in person to pray for the sick.
- (2) When there is a healing, you can give a testimony of God's healing. Remember you are just an instrument, you are not a healer, Jesus is the healer.
- (3) There are people who are gifted to heal. If Jesus has given the gift of healing to you by all means, use it. 1Cor 12:9, specifically mentions gifts of healing. As there are so many kinds of sickness, Jesus distributes each gift of healing to a particular person whom he choose to use. Matthew 10:1 talks about Jesus giving authority to His 12 disciples to drive out evil spirits and to heal the sickness and every disease. I believe we are all authorize to pray for the sick to heal! Do you?
E. Conclusion
- Sickness and diseases will remind us of our mortality, weakness and fragility of life and physical body.
- When we are willing to exercise our faith to pray for the sick and healings happen, it helps people to come to know Jesus and be saved eternally and become His disciples.
- Those who are Christians who healed, we become more committted to serve Jesus.
Living in the Fear of God
AMC
18th Sept, 2011
Written By Rev Law Hui Seng
Posted By Teresa Han
Acts 9:31 Main Idea: Fear of God
Objectives:
a. To challenge the congregation to fear God more than anything else.
b. To teach the congregation how to fear God - Christ.
A. Introduction
- Fear of death, dog bite, pain, height, snake, business failure, loss of job, conflicts with people, etc. I guarantee you all these fears will drain away your energy.
- Most probably, all these fears lead to other negative effects like shock, being immobilized, feeling that you don’t what to do with yourself, scared, and felt cold.
- There is another kind of fear which the whole bible is talking about, that is very different in its meaning and effects on human beings, i.e., the fear of God.
- It is something Christians throughout all generations must practice as a way of life.
- That is the main idea of the verse today. Acts 9:31 “Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened, encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of God.”
- Let us study the context of this fear of God. How this fear of God came about among the early disciples?
B. The context of fear of God among the early disciples
- This one verse is full of meaning and significance.
- The word ‘Then’ tells us that this statement is a development of the previous events.
- It could be events from chapters 1 to 9, coming down of Holy Spirit; conversion of 3,000 after preaching of Peter; continuous preaching of gospel by apostles and disciples; persecutions of Christians; the scatter of Christians; conversion of Saul and his aggressive preaching in Jerusalem and other places.
- You can imagine the impacts of the gospel as a result of Holy Spirit work, preaching of the gospel by the disciples in the church throughout Judae, Galilee, and Samaria. The term here is ‘church’ in singular. It is the church in unity. There were several new congregations spreading out in those 3 different places but there was one church only; other than congregations in Jerusalem and Antioch and other places.
- Luke summarized that Christianity had spread to Judea, Galilee and Samaria, where traditionally, people there were not in good terms with the Jews.
- It was expected by Jesus as the disciples and apostles were given the Holy Spirit in Acts 1:8, they were empowered to be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, ...
- For a period of time, the church enjoyed peace, we don’t know for how long?
- But we know it is definitely owing to the work of the Holy Spirit as Luke says, ‘the church was strengthened and encouraged by the Holy Spirit.’
- Take note of how Luke attributed the church growth to the work of Holy Spirit.
- Then the verse, further says, ‘...grow in numbers...’
- I believe that the early church as they experience conversion because of the work of the Holy Spirit, people of all kinds of languages, races and nationalities were involved; otherwise, the verse will not say. ‘...throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria...’
- And then, the verse ends with, ‘...living in the fear of God’; what is the meaning of fear of God?
C. Meaning of fear of God
- With all the personal encounter of the apostles and disciples with Jesus when He was physically present with the apostles; experience of the power of Holy Spirit in converting 3,000 through Peter’s preaching; healing of crippled beggar by Peter, the punishing death sentence on Ananias and Sapphira by the Holy Spirit; the great personal encounter of Saul with Jesus, all these lead to one thing – the reality of Jesus Christ.
- Disciples, apostles, new converts, and even non-Christians were awe-stricken, amazed; Luke cannot help but conclude at this stage, the church was living in fear of God. What is the meaning of living in fear of God?
- It is simply this: the church which made of disciples of Jesus submitting their lordship to Christ. That is to say walking a path, a life by submitting our lives to Christ; allowing Jesus to be our masters. We allow Jesus to have the final say about how we use our lives.
- To put it very simply living in fear of God is to obey Christ and Christ alone.
D. Applications and Challenge
- The process of living in fear of God, can only begin after conversion to Christ; if you have not personally known Christ, you will not be convinced to fear Him.
- A lot of people out there give these common complaints for being unwilling to become Christians: freedom will be limited (e.g., no gambling, no drunkenness, no corruption, no cheating and dishonesty, no practice of adultery, etc).
- They have not tested the goodness of Christ; joy of obeying Christ; freedom from sin; power over the devil; not scare of death, etc.
- Now, with all my knowledge of reading the bible; experience in answered prayers; my personal experience with Christ and my personal relationship with Christ, I preach to you that if you are to live a life of fearing God in the person of Christ, you got to be convinced that Jesus Christ is God, the master, the Lord, the King of Kings of your life.
-Notice I do not use the word ‘believe’ because you may believe Jesus is your Lord, with knowledge, but you may not be convinced, you will not see the reasons why you need to do it.
- Let me help you here, if Jesus is not the master of your life, a Christian can sing, pray, and can shout the loudest the name of Jesus, and he still goes out of the church and do all the illegal business; involved in unholy relationships; enjoy the lust of the eyes and the flesh. There is no obedience to Jesus at all in his life; no fear of Christ at all.
- My son Elliot, a dyslexia, now Primary 6, more than 2 years ago, when asked by me why he did not steal in a stationery shop as I let him to go freely shopping around; he said the temptation was there but he did not do it because God was not please with it. That is fear God!
- I fear Christ more than anything else because I am convinced he has forgiven my sins and loved me as an imperfect disciple, husband, father and a pastor, He accepts me just as I am. He is truly God; the resurrected Christ, who proved to be Almighty, who gives me eternal life.
- Allow me to humbly tell you how I fear Christ; I accept people who are in troubles; sinners, as they are. I never give up on them as they seek my counsel. I do it because Jesus Christ has not given up on any sinner. Can I be an example to you in this area of my life?
- As I get older, I tend to be more and more forgetful, I told Jesus, anything I remember to do; anything I am reminded to do, it is His call for me to do it.
- Another way I fear Christ is this, any sin (e.g., pride, selfishness, jealousy, unclean thoughts, ange) that comes to me in thoughts, attitudes, and actions that Jesus alerts me, I will confess immediately and ask Jesus for forgiveness. As a result, I confess, I admit my wrongs, I say sorry to people, I allow others to correct me without being offended. Will you join me in doing it for Jesus?
- You can guess what are the outcomes of a life living in fear of God? Please give me some answers.
- Personally, I experience joy, peace in my hearts and mind, harmonious relationships with people and most important of all, as I fear Christ, I am prepared to die anytime. I told Jesus about it.
- My commitment to Jesus at the ordination as an elder 11 years ago, was, if my life is of no more use to Him, He can just take me home.
- Can you do the same with me?
E. Conclusion
- Brothers and sisters, when you fear Christ, when Jesus is your Lord, your master, you have everything, you are most powerful for Christ.
- When you miss Christ, you miss everything, you will struggle with your sins, and you are not powerful for Christ.
18th Sept, 2011
Written By Rev Law Hui Seng
Posted By Teresa Han
Acts 9:31 Main Idea: Fear of God
Objectives:
a. To challenge the congregation to fear God more than anything else.
b. To teach the congregation how to fear God - Christ.
A. Introduction
- Fear of death, dog bite, pain, height, snake, business failure, loss of job, conflicts with people, etc. I guarantee you all these fears will drain away your energy.
- Most probably, all these fears lead to other negative effects like shock, being immobilized, feeling that you don’t what to do with yourself, scared, and felt cold.
- There is another kind of fear which the whole bible is talking about, that is very different in its meaning and effects on human beings, i.e., the fear of God.
- It is something Christians throughout all generations must practice as a way of life.
- That is the main idea of the verse today. Acts 9:31 “Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened, encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of God.”
- Let us study the context of this fear of God. How this fear of God came about among the early disciples?
B. The context of fear of God among the early disciples
- This one verse is full of meaning and significance.
- The word ‘Then’ tells us that this statement is a development of the previous events.
- It could be events from chapters 1 to 9, coming down of Holy Spirit; conversion of 3,000 after preaching of Peter; continuous preaching of gospel by apostles and disciples; persecutions of Christians; the scatter of Christians; conversion of Saul and his aggressive preaching in Jerusalem and other places.
- You can imagine the impacts of the gospel as a result of Holy Spirit work, preaching of the gospel by the disciples in the church throughout Judae, Galilee, and Samaria. The term here is ‘church’ in singular. It is the church in unity. There were several new congregations spreading out in those 3 different places but there was one church only; other than congregations in Jerusalem and Antioch and other places.
- Luke summarized that Christianity had spread to Judea, Galilee and Samaria, where traditionally, people there were not in good terms with the Jews.
- It was expected by Jesus as the disciples and apostles were given the Holy Spirit in Acts 1:8, they were empowered to be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, ...
- For a period of time, the church enjoyed peace, we don’t know for how long?
- But we know it is definitely owing to the work of the Holy Spirit as Luke says, ‘the church was strengthened and encouraged by the Holy Spirit.’
- Take note of how Luke attributed the church growth to the work of Holy Spirit.
- Then the verse, further says, ‘...grow in numbers...’
- I believe that the early church as they experience conversion because of the work of the Holy Spirit, people of all kinds of languages, races and nationalities were involved; otherwise, the verse will not say. ‘...throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria...’
- And then, the verse ends with, ‘...living in the fear of God’; what is the meaning of fear of God?
C. Meaning of fear of God
- With all the personal encounter of the apostles and disciples with Jesus when He was physically present with the apostles; experience of the power of Holy Spirit in converting 3,000 through Peter’s preaching; healing of crippled beggar by Peter, the punishing death sentence on Ananias and Sapphira by the Holy Spirit; the great personal encounter of Saul with Jesus, all these lead to one thing – the reality of Jesus Christ.
- Disciples, apostles, new converts, and even non-Christians were awe-stricken, amazed; Luke cannot help but conclude at this stage, the church was living in fear of God. What is the meaning of living in fear of God?
- It is simply this: the church which made of disciples of Jesus submitting their lordship to Christ. That is to say walking a path, a life by submitting our lives to Christ; allowing Jesus to be our masters. We allow Jesus to have the final say about how we use our lives.
- To put it very simply living in fear of God is to obey Christ and Christ alone.
D. Applications and Challenge
- The process of living in fear of God, can only begin after conversion to Christ; if you have not personally known Christ, you will not be convinced to fear Him.
- A lot of people out there give these common complaints for being unwilling to become Christians: freedom will be limited (e.g., no gambling, no drunkenness, no corruption, no cheating and dishonesty, no practice of adultery, etc).
- They have not tested the goodness of Christ; joy of obeying Christ; freedom from sin; power over the devil; not scare of death, etc.
- Now, with all my knowledge of reading the bible; experience in answered prayers; my personal experience with Christ and my personal relationship with Christ, I preach to you that if you are to live a life of fearing God in the person of Christ, you got to be convinced that Jesus Christ is God, the master, the Lord, the King of Kings of your life.
-Notice I do not use the word ‘believe’ because you may believe Jesus is your Lord, with knowledge, but you may not be convinced, you will not see the reasons why you need to do it.
- Let me help you here, if Jesus is not the master of your life, a Christian can sing, pray, and can shout the loudest the name of Jesus, and he still goes out of the church and do all the illegal business; involved in unholy relationships; enjoy the lust of the eyes and the flesh. There is no obedience to Jesus at all in his life; no fear of Christ at all.
- My son Elliot, a dyslexia, now Primary 6, more than 2 years ago, when asked by me why he did not steal in a stationery shop as I let him to go freely shopping around; he said the temptation was there but he did not do it because God was not please with it. That is fear God!
- I fear Christ more than anything else because I am convinced he has forgiven my sins and loved me as an imperfect disciple, husband, father and a pastor, He accepts me just as I am. He is truly God; the resurrected Christ, who proved to be Almighty, who gives me eternal life.
- Allow me to humbly tell you how I fear Christ; I accept people who are in troubles; sinners, as they are. I never give up on them as they seek my counsel. I do it because Jesus Christ has not given up on any sinner. Can I be an example to you in this area of my life?
- As I get older, I tend to be more and more forgetful, I told Jesus, anything I remember to do; anything I am reminded to do, it is His call for me to do it.
- Another way I fear Christ is this, any sin (e.g., pride, selfishness, jealousy, unclean thoughts, ange) that comes to me in thoughts, attitudes, and actions that Jesus alerts me, I will confess immediately and ask Jesus for forgiveness. As a result, I confess, I admit my wrongs, I say sorry to people, I allow others to correct me without being offended. Will you join me in doing it for Jesus?
- You can guess what are the outcomes of a life living in fear of God? Please give me some answers.
- Personally, I experience joy, peace in my hearts and mind, harmonious relationships with people and most important of all, as I fear Christ, I am prepared to die anytime. I told Jesus about it.
- My commitment to Jesus at the ordination as an elder 11 years ago, was, if my life is of no more use to Him, He can just take me home.
- Can you do the same with me?
E. Conclusion
- Brothers and sisters, when you fear Christ, when Jesus is your Lord, your master, you have everything, you are most powerful for Christ.
- When you miss Christ, you miss everything, you will struggle with your sins, and you are not powerful for Christ.
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