Senadin Methodist Campus Gospel Centre
27th May, 2012.
Written By Rev Law Hui Seng
Posted By Teresa Han
John 14:15-28 (Pentecost Sunday)
Main Idea: Jesus is in you
Objectives: a. To teach the roles played by the Holy Spirit in our lives
b. To raise awareness of the Holy Spirit inside us
c. To challenge the congregation to obey the Holy Spirit inside us
A. Introduction
- Praise the Lord we are always reminded by the annual Pentecost Sunday on the mighty works of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is also called the Spirit of Jesus Christ by Apostle Paul in the letters to the Philippians. So, each time you think of Holy Spirit, you must relate it to the Spirit of Jesus Christ. You are very sure it is the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and not any other spirits. Apart from the Spirit of Jesus Christ, all other spirits will destroy you. Philippians 1:19, “for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance.”
- The doctrine of the Holy Spirit is a belief that the Church of God cannot do without. A wrong understanding of the doctrine, ignorance of it, lack of understanding of it, misunderstanding of it and weak awareness of it, will result in the church becoming powerless and cause us Christians and disciples of Jesus like soldiers going to the war to fight the enemies without weapons.
- I am much convicted to preach to you as a lot of Methodists (Christians) are unaware of the presence of the Holy Spirit inside us. This is the promise of Jesus for us in the gospel and yet we live as if there is no Holy Spirit in our lives, and we live a defeated Christian life.
- Jesus says in John 14:16,17, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth…”
- For us Methodist Christians and disciples of Jesus, we believe especially upon baptism, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit. As Jesus promised, we receive the Holy Spirit at the point of baptism. So, the Holy Spirit of Jesus is living inside us, in our body. Apostle Paul in Ephesians 1:13,14, says “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of his glory.”
B. Holy Spirit promised by Jesus Christ
- I do not simply tell you that the Spirit of Jesus is living inside you. Whatever I say here at the pulpit must not carry any weight, any authority at all. If I say it, it is only a human being who says. Human sayings can be a flaw; not the truth. What I say is just quoting what Jesus says in the passage today. You must believe what Jesus says when He says in today’s passage verse 20, “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” Hence, my sermon title, ‘I am in you.’ Jesus says, “I am in you.” That is why I say Jesus is living inside you. Do you believe? Are you aware or not. There are serious implications to this believe.
- This promise of the Holy Spirit is Jesus’ way of preparing the disciples before He is crucified and ascended to sit on the right hand of His Father in heaven. The preparation is needed so that the disciples can still continue to be empowered by Him to carry on His work after He left them. That promise of the Holy Spirit was materialized in the history of the church recorded in details in the book of Acts when the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples as promised by Jesus (during Pentecost) and they were empowered by Holy Spirit to do mission and make disciples of all nations.
- The passage before this is about Philip asking Jesus where He was going; he and the other disciples did not know where Jesus was going. And Jesus answers in verse 6, 7 “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well…” And then, Philip requested in verse 8, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” And Jesus goes on to elaborate He is in the Father, and the Father is in Him in verse 11. And in verse 12 He tells the disciples that anyone who has faith in Him will do even greater things than Him because He is going to the Father. Unless we believe in the Holy Spirit sent by Jesus; and believe in the power of Holy Spirit, otherwise, how can we explain about 2 billion (out of 7 billion of world population) who are Christians.
- See what Jesus will do in your life as He is living in you. I pray that you become very conscious of Jesus who lives inside you after the sermon today, if you are not so conscious yet.
- This is a very rich passage on the roles of Holy Spirit in your life. I pray that you are excited about it and live according to the teaching of Jesus on His Spirit.
C. Roles of Holy Spirit and Applications
- What is the Holy Spirit doing in your life according to John 14:15-31?
- Firstly, in verse 16 Jesus asks the Father to give another counsellor (parakletos in Greek) to be with the disciples forever. Other translations for parakletos are helper, advocate, and comforter. It is a legal term which means counsel for the defence. It refers to any person who helps someone in trouble with the law. The Holy Spirit, who is the counsellor / advocate, is also ever ready to help Christians who are in trouble. The counsellor stands by Christ’s people.
- Secondly, in verse 17, the Holy Spirit is described as the Spirit of truth. The verse says this Spirit of truth lives with disciples and He will be with the disciples. This Holy Spirit is characterized by truth. He brings people into the truth, you see. You and I need to be aware of this and realize the powerful Holy Spirit will lead us into all the truths. Therefore, anything that happens, in sickness, in decision making, making a choice, in accepting advice of people, and in deciding the next cause of action, we are all the time asking and praying for the truths. Make sure whatever we think, do, and say is based on the truth. And you go to the Holy Spirit to listen and receive the truth. The Holy Spirit is the still small voice inside you all the time telling you the truth. You always need to be quiet before Him to hear the voice of the truth. You need to spend time before Him to find out the truth. If you are too busy you cannot hear the truth. Ask Jesus what is the truth and He will tell as He is the Spirit of Truth. How do you know somebody is lying or not, confirm it with the Holy Spirit inside you.
- When I counsel people face to face or over the phone every now and then, I always ask the Spirit of truth to help me. As I counsel and talk, deep down in my heart, I turn to Jesus to depend on Him. Therefore, helps in terms of truth always come to me. Recently, Jesus helped me to save one sister’s life. She wants to end her life in that critical moment. She asked for the reasons why she should continue to live. Deep in my heart, I asked Jesus for a quick answer right there and then. I know all the theological answers will not do the job. I was amazed how Jesus immediately told me to tell her relevant things in her life; truths that are important for her to know and things that are dear to her life. I told her if she died her husband will be the most guilty person throughout his remaining life as he would blame himself for not taking care of her; and her youngest child who is still dependent on the mother would suffer very much without the mother figure around. Eventually she thanked me for saving her life! Coincidentally, when she needed to talk to me I was available. Therefore, when people are depressed, they may ask what the purpose of life is. Be sensitive to the prompting of the Spirit of Truth to help them. Your friends who face failures in the examination; have nervous breakdown; suffered broken relationship; suffered from sickness or in the depressed condition, be there to give them meaning of life.
- Do practise this godly habit as I always try to do it. Live your life everyday expecting Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the counsellor, and the Spirit of Truth to help you any time you need help and you need to know the truth.
- Jesus kept reassuring the disciples that He would send them the Holy Spirit as the disciples might be fearful without Jesus around. That is why Jesus kept saying in verses 18, 19, 20, 21 that “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you; on that you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you; whoever loves me I will love him too and show myself to him”
- And when Judas asked Jesus why did He show to the disciples only and not to the world, Jesus answered in verse 23, if anyone who loves Him and obeys His teaching, His Father will love him; and they will come to Him and make their home with him. What a great promise, Jesus and His Father make their home inside the disciples’ life!
- Thirdly, in verse 25, Jesus says His Father will send the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ name, He will teach the disciples all things and will remind them of everything Jesus taught. Can we be sure that we are reminded by the Holy Spirit, the counsellor about the teachings of Jesus in the gospel; including the meanings of Jesus’ teachings? For this reason, I urge you to spend time and understand God’s word not only on your own but also study it with others especially through the different levels of 9 month discipleship course. While you are students here for few years, grasp the opportunity to be familiar with God’s word and Jesus’ teaching to equip yourself and make disciples of all nations and face the whole world. God’s word answers all your questions in life. You do not have the confidence in God’s word; you easily fall and overcome by temptations.
- Jesus knows He has left the most precious words with the disciples and the disciples need the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth to understand them. And He continued to reassure them in verse 27 not to be troubled and afraid after He left as He has given them peace.
- He kept reassuring them and now in verse 28, He says He would come back. Still, He has to leave them and the prince of the world (Satan) cannot stop His mission on earth as commanded by His Father (verse 31).
D. Conclusion
- Holy Spirit, counsellor, Spirit of Truth, is living inside us. That is the truth. Failure to realize or be aware of it, you are so powerless. You will be afraid of ghosts; worry a lot; living in fear of failures, disappointments, sadness and depression; overcome by sins and temptations; living a defeated life and there is no joy. As you obey the Holy Spirit and loves Jesus, you have all the resources available to live a victorious Christian life. That Holy Spirit inside you, have you turned it on?
Your intention matters before God
GMC Sermon Your Intention (79) 20th May, 2012
Written By Rev Law Hui Seng
Posted By Teresa Han
John 6:1-15
Objectives: a. To teach the congregation to come before Jesus with the right intention.
b. To teach the right intention (motive) will result in worship of God.
A. Introduction
- Do you still remember what I preach to you last year 29th May? It is about one year later, I now ask you this question. My sermon then was, ‘Can your life testify for Christ?’ based on John 5:31-47. Today, I am going to continue from there. I pray that every time I come back as your former pastor, I shall be able to preach and continue from where I stop. I pray that through the gospel of John, Jesus will transform you to be like Him.
- Let us see what Jesus has to offer you today. At the end of the day, I pray that you will at least remember one point that strikes you. And the next time I ask you the same question (what was my last sermon about?) again, because you have practised what has been preached, you will be able to tell me the answer.
- After reading and studying the great miracle of Jesus on feeding 5,000, I decide to focus on verse 15, “Jesus, knowing they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.” I used to focus my interpretation of this passage on the provision of God. This time, I notice something very special about the comment that John made about Jesus after feeding the 5,000. I begin to ask why John commented that ‘Jesus, knowing they intended…’ I discover the key word here is intention. Hence, I entitle my sermon, ‘Your intention.’
B. The Context of Intention
- John must have sensed the purpose of Jesus’ action for him to write a statement like that.
- It was such a great miracle that Jesus did, why did He not stay around to perform more miracles to convince people that He is the most powerful on earth? Why did He not prove that He was God who became a man right there?
- A great clue to the answer is found in verse 14, “After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, ‘Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”
- These people whose stomach were full and amazed by the miracle of Jesus, they were familiar with Deuteronomy 18:15,18, they thought about Moses said about God raising prophet like Moses; and through Moses, God had provided food and water for the Israelites in the desert in the old days. This is how they see Jesus – a prophet who had come to provide for their food.
- Through the feeding of 5,000, Jesus is directing people to Him as the Son of Man who provide of eternal life. That is why He says in verses 26 and 27, “…I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do now work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
- Jesus claims Himself to be the Son of Man who offers eternal life but He read that these people only come for food and regarding Him as a prophet only. They want also to eventually make Him as a political who could save them from Roman ruler. It was a great honour, right? It was a position with great authority and power. If Jesus became a king, the whole race of Israelites and Jews would be at His command. Peoples’ surface interpretation of Jesus’ power in performing the feeding of 5,000 with 5 barley loaves and 2 small fish was mere prophet. They could not see how Jesus was offering eternal life.
- The interpretation of the miracle and the way they see Jesus were totally out of God’s plan for Jesus. Jesus knew their intention of coming to Him was all wrong. It is not in line with God’s intention/ mission for Him in this world.
- The original Greek word for knowing is ginosko; a few other versions of the Bible translated it as perceiving. NIV translates it as knowing their intention. In normal Greek, it means absolute knowledge.
- Jesus has the ability to discern the wrong intention, ginosko. When knowledge of the intention of people is wrong Jesus knows. Jesus did not buy into the prophet position and kingship though both these two bring great honour and status. He had the courage not to buy into it; not to say yes to it; not to identify with it; not to agree with it; to resist the wrong mission/ intention. I pray that you will have that Holy Spirit given courage also when you are tempted to do something that is not of God’s will. A lot of Christians do not ‘switch on’ this courage given by Holy Spirit when they are tempted and so they sin and suffer the consequences of it.
- How could Jesus resist such huge temptation of honour, status, position of power and authority? Of course it comes along with lots of money and all kinds of rewards being King and prophet.
- As a result of my meditation of the move of Jesus not to buy into kingship and prophet position, I strongly believe that Jesus holds on very tightly to His mission purpose on earth. What was He coming to the world for? Was it to become a political king as the Jews very much expected Him to be? So, what is His mission purpose on earth? To pay with His life, to die a sacrificial death, redeeming death, in exchange for penalty of our sin, that is eternal death and punishment in hell. He held it dear to His heart. He did not compromise on it. He did not allow earthly political kingship to distract Him. He was very focused on His mission on the cross. Actually, nowadays, we are faced with the same test. Regardless of what happens in life (sickness; disappointments in ministry and with people; discouragements experienced because there is lack of support from the church and from your own family members), can you still stick to; persevere to bring the message of the cross? Can you still focus on the cross; the crucified Christ?
- When your focus is the mission of the cross, then, you will be very strong, the spirit of Jesus (the Holy Spirit) will produce the great character of humility in you. Jesus focuses very much on the mission of the cross and therefore, He could humble Himself and resist the temptation of the kingship; instead, He chooses the path of suffering and death.
- I want to put it in a very simple manner, only if your focus in life is the mission of the cross or Jesus Himself or His teachings, then, you can humble yourself to do God’s will on earth. Now, let us apply these 2 points into our lives.
C. Application
- Brothers and sisters, with all conviction, I speak to you Jesus knows our every thought (this is always in my thinking), therefore, you do not think He does not know your intentions. I dare to say the same for non-Christians, He created them, of course, He knows their intentions also. Jesus who is living in your heart knows your ginosko. For this reason, I always practise honesty with Jesus, people and myself; for this reason, I always tell myself to be able to face Jesus who is God; be able to face people (my wife and 4 children, my loved ones and my relatives, my fellow pastors and SCAC top leaders, my neighbours, government servants, private sectors, top politicians both from Barisan National and Pakatan Rakyat, and everyone out there) – and I always learn to see them as Jesus sees them; they need God in their lives; and be able to face myself as I am own greatest enemy.
- Jesus knows whether your intentions is greedy or not, self-centred or not, lying or not, self-pity or not, pride or not, lustful or not, stubborn or not, love Him or not, serve Him or not, worship Him or not, love your wife or husband or children or not, take revenge or not, hate or not, angry or not, you witness or not, you do mission or not, you let Him down or not… Therefore, do not think that things you do in secret as long as people do not know, nobody knows; but Jesus knows will tell your husband, wife, children, parents, your colleagues, your bosses, your relatives…
- Here comes the most powerful application in your life and my life: If Jesus minds about your intention of doing things, then, He must be the master of our lives; your intention must be godly; based on the word of God; your intention must be submitted to Jesus; your intention must be right, only then, Jesus can bless you and empower you to do His will. Jesus wants to have a say about how you live your life every day (not just Sunday) with yourself, people and God.
- The first point of application, as Jesus knows your intention likes He knows the intention of the crowd to make Him as the King, your intention must pass His test. Why your intention matters so much to Jesus? Your intentions are very much coming from your heart and let us hear what Jesus has to say about the heart.
Matthew 5:8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”
Matthew 5:28 “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
Matthew 6:21 “For where treasure your is, there your heart will be also.”
Matthew 15:18.19 “But the things that come out of the mouth comes from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’ For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.
Matthew 22:37 “…Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
- This last verse is the greatest foundation stone of my intentions before; all my the practice of my loving God and man (including myself) hang on this verse. This verse guides my intention very much because if my intention is not loving Jesus, the Holy Spirit will tell me in a still small voice.
- The second point of application is this: Jesus will only bless the right and godly intention. Do you agree with me? Do you say amen to it? I strongly believe in it. When your intention is right, Jesus is with you to make sure your intention is carried out for His glory; He is with you’re and give you all the resources to materialize it. Therefore, whatever this church needs or you as individual disciple of Jesus need as your intention is to serve Christ’s purpose or the message of the cross, you can trust Jesus to provide. I experience this in my thesis writings. The books I need I get them in time; ideas just flow and flow; there are connections from ideas to ideas. God uses the church and His disciples to provide for our needs.
- A very important word for those of you who are doing mission as you make the sacrifice; leave your comfort zone to do mission both locally and overseas, mission is always a spiritual warfare. In the spiritual realm, the evil spirits are all the time trying to stop mission. Therefore, as your intention is to serve Jesus’ purpose; the message of the cross, you need to always go to Jesus for protection from accidents, diseases and attack of the devils. You need to be filled/ empowered to pray for the sick for healing; to ask Jesus for whatever you need in the mission field.
- The third point of application is this: as Jesus humbles Himself and let go of the kingship, you need to humble yourself to let go of all honour and status. If there are any conversions, transformation of lives and baptism as you serve in Sunday Schools, i-youth, BB and GB, young adults fellowship, small groups, discipleship course, visitation, LCEC, worship and music team, prayer ministry, prison ministry, outreach and in your personal evangelism and discipleship effort, by all means humble yourself to attribute all the success, breakthrough and growth to Jesus. He is the one and only who transforms life! We can give testimonies as instructed by Christ and give glory to Him. When you are able to focus on Christ and His humility, no matter who is the pastor here, you will serve well; who are in LCEC; who encourages you to serve and make disciples, you will do for Jesus.
- At the end of the day, through you and GMC, mission of Christ in making disciples continue.
D. Conclusion
- In my conclusion, I pray that you will not underestimate/ ignore/ push aside, what the word of says. That is when you serve Jesus with godly intention, whatever it may be, you have the divine power to overcome all challenges. The power which raises Jesus from death is available to you as by taught by Apostle Paul to the Ephesian Christians. You tell me what problems you have that Jesus cannot overcome. Do you have such faith to believe that Jesus gives you all you need to serve Him.
- As your intention is to serve Christ, I pray that Apostle Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:17-20 will be materialized in your life. I pray as Apostle Paul prayed that Jesus will give you spirit of wisdom, and revelation so that you may know Jesus better; I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know the hope in the rich glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe - the power which raises Jesus from death, to be available to you.
Written By Rev Law Hui Seng
Posted By Teresa Han
John 6:1-15
Objectives: a. To teach the congregation to come before Jesus with the right intention.
b. To teach the right intention (motive) will result in worship of God.
A. Introduction
- Do you still remember what I preach to you last year 29th May? It is about one year later, I now ask you this question. My sermon then was, ‘Can your life testify for Christ?’ based on John 5:31-47. Today, I am going to continue from there. I pray that every time I come back as your former pastor, I shall be able to preach and continue from where I stop. I pray that through the gospel of John, Jesus will transform you to be like Him.
- Let us see what Jesus has to offer you today. At the end of the day, I pray that you will at least remember one point that strikes you. And the next time I ask you the same question (what was my last sermon about?) again, because you have practised what has been preached, you will be able to tell me the answer.
- After reading and studying the great miracle of Jesus on feeding 5,000, I decide to focus on verse 15, “Jesus, knowing they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.” I used to focus my interpretation of this passage on the provision of God. This time, I notice something very special about the comment that John made about Jesus after feeding the 5,000. I begin to ask why John commented that ‘Jesus, knowing they intended…’ I discover the key word here is intention. Hence, I entitle my sermon, ‘Your intention.’
B. The Context of Intention
- John must have sensed the purpose of Jesus’ action for him to write a statement like that.
- It was such a great miracle that Jesus did, why did He not stay around to perform more miracles to convince people that He is the most powerful on earth? Why did He not prove that He was God who became a man right there?
- A great clue to the answer is found in verse 14, “After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, ‘Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”
- These people whose stomach were full and amazed by the miracle of Jesus, they were familiar with Deuteronomy 18:15,18, they thought about Moses said about God raising prophet like Moses; and through Moses, God had provided food and water for the Israelites in the desert in the old days. This is how they see Jesus – a prophet who had come to provide for their food.
- Through the feeding of 5,000, Jesus is directing people to Him as the Son of Man who provide of eternal life. That is why He says in verses 26 and 27, “…I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do now work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
- Jesus claims Himself to be the Son of Man who offers eternal life but He read that these people only come for food and regarding Him as a prophet only. They want also to eventually make Him as a political who could save them from Roman ruler. It was a great honour, right? It was a position with great authority and power. If Jesus became a king, the whole race of Israelites and Jews would be at His command. Peoples’ surface interpretation of Jesus’ power in performing the feeding of 5,000 with 5 barley loaves and 2 small fish was mere prophet. They could not see how Jesus was offering eternal life.
- The interpretation of the miracle and the way they see Jesus were totally out of God’s plan for Jesus. Jesus knew their intention of coming to Him was all wrong. It is not in line with God’s intention/ mission for Him in this world.
- The original Greek word for knowing is ginosko; a few other versions of the Bible translated it as perceiving. NIV translates it as knowing their intention. In normal Greek, it means absolute knowledge.
- Jesus has the ability to discern the wrong intention, ginosko. When knowledge of the intention of people is wrong Jesus knows. Jesus did not buy into the prophet position and kingship though both these two bring great honour and status. He had the courage not to buy into it; not to say yes to it; not to identify with it; not to agree with it; to resist the wrong mission/ intention. I pray that you will have that Holy Spirit given courage also when you are tempted to do something that is not of God’s will. A lot of Christians do not ‘switch on’ this courage given by Holy Spirit when they are tempted and so they sin and suffer the consequences of it.
- How could Jesus resist such huge temptation of honour, status, position of power and authority? Of course it comes along with lots of money and all kinds of rewards being King and prophet.
- As a result of my meditation of the move of Jesus not to buy into kingship and prophet position, I strongly believe that Jesus holds on very tightly to His mission purpose on earth. What was He coming to the world for? Was it to become a political king as the Jews very much expected Him to be? So, what is His mission purpose on earth? To pay with His life, to die a sacrificial death, redeeming death, in exchange for penalty of our sin, that is eternal death and punishment in hell. He held it dear to His heart. He did not compromise on it. He did not allow earthly political kingship to distract Him. He was very focused on His mission on the cross. Actually, nowadays, we are faced with the same test. Regardless of what happens in life (sickness; disappointments in ministry and with people; discouragements experienced because there is lack of support from the church and from your own family members), can you still stick to; persevere to bring the message of the cross? Can you still focus on the cross; the crucified Christ?
- When your focus is the mission of the cross, then, you will be very strong, the spirit of Jesus (the Holy Spirit) will produce the great character of humility in you. Jesus focuses very much on the mission of the cross and therefore, He could humble Himself and resist the temptation of the kingship; instead, He chooses the path of suffering and death.
- I want to put it in a very simple manner, only if your focus in life is the mission of the cross or Jesus Himself or His teachings, then, you can humble yourself to do God’s will on earth. Now, let us apply these 2 points into our lives.
C. Application
- Brothers and sisters, with all conviction, I speak to you Jesus knows our every thought (this is always in my thinking), therefore, you do not think He does not know your intentions. I dare to say the same for non-Christians, He created them, of course, He knows their intentions also. Jesus who is living in your heart knows your ginosko. For this reason, I always practise honesty with Jesus, people and myself; for this reason, I always tell myself to be able to face Jesus who is God; be able to face people (my wife and 4 children, my loved ones and my relatives, my fellow pastors and SCAC top leaders, my neighbours, government servants, private sectors, top politicians both from Barisan National and Pakatan Rakyat, and everyone out there) – and I always learn to see them as Jesus sees them; they need God in their lives; and be able to face myself as I am own greatest enemy.
- Jesus knows whether your intentions is greedy or not, self-centred or not, lying or not, self-pity or not, pride or not, lustful or not, stubborn or not, love Him or not, serve Him or not, worship Him or not, love your wife or husband or children or not, take revenge or not, hate or not, angry or not, you witness or not, you do mission or not, you let Him down or not… Therefore, do not think that things you do in secret as long as people do not know, nobody knows; but Jesus knows will tell your husband, wife, children, parents, your colleagues, your bosses, your relatives…
- Here comes the most powerful application in your life and my life: If Jesus minds about your intention of doing things, then, He must be the master of our lives; your intention must be godly; based on the word of God; your intention must be submitted to Jesus; your intention must be right, only then, Jesus can bless you and empower you to do His will. Jesus wants to have a say about how you live your life every day (not just Sunday) with yourself, people and God.
- The first point of application, as Jesus knows your intention likes He knows the intention of the crowd to make Him as the King, your intention must pass His test. Why your intention matters so much to Jesus? Your intentions are very much coming from your heart and let us hear what Jesus has to say about the heart.
Matthew 5:8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”
Matthew 5:28 “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
Matthew 6:21 “For where treasure your is, there your heart will be also.”
Matthew 15:18.19 “But the things that come out of the mouth comes from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’ For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.
Matthew 22:37 “…Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
- This last verse is the greatest foundation stone of my intentions before; all my the practice of my loving God and man (including myself) hang on this verse. This verse guides my intention very much because if my intention is not loving Jesus, the Holy Spirit will tell me in a still small voice.
- The second point of application is this: Jesus will only bless the right and godly intention. Do you agree with me? Do you say amen to it? I strongly believe in it. When your intention is right, Jesus is with you to make sure your intention is carried out for His glory; He is with you’re and give you all the resources to materialize it. Therefore, whatever this church needs or you as individual disciple of Jesus need as your intention is to serve Christ’s purpose or the message of the cross, you can trust Jesus to provide. I experience this in my thesis writings. The books I need I get them in time; ideas just flow and flow; there are connections from ideas to ideas. God uses the church and His disciples to provide for our needs.
- A very important word for those of you who are doing mission as you make the sacrifice; leave your comfort zone to do mission both locally and overseas, mission is always a spiritual warfare. In the spiritual realm, the evil spirits are all the time trying to stop mission. Therefore, as your intention is to serve Jesus’ purpose; the message of the cross, you need to always go to Jesus for protection from accidents, diseases and attack of the devils. You need to be filled/ empowered to pray for the sick for healing; to ask Jesus for whatever you need in the mission field.
- The third point of application is this: as Jesus humbles Himself and let go of the kingship, you need to humble yourself to let go of all honour and status. If there are any conversions, transformation of lives and baptism as you serve in Sunday Schools, i-youth, BB and GB, young adults fellowship, small groups, discipleship course, visitation, LCEC, worship and music team, prayer ministry, prison ministry, outreach and in your personal evangelism and discipleship effort, by all means humble yourself to attribute all the success, breakthrough and growth to Jesus. He is the one and only who transforms life! We can give testimonies as instructed by Christ and give glory to Him. When you are able to focus on Christ and His humility, no matter who is the pastor here, you will serve well; who are in LCEC; who encourages you to serve and make disciples, you will do for Jesus.
- At the end of the day, through you and GMC, mission of Christ in making disciples continue.
D. Conclusion
- In my conclusion, I pray that you will not underestimate/ ignore/ push aside, what the word of says. That is when you serve Jesus with godly intention, whatever it may be, you have the divine power to overcome all challenges. The power which raises Jesus from death is available to you as by taught by Apostle Paul to the Ephesian Christians. You tell me what problems you have that Jesus cannot overcome. Do you have such faith to believe that Jesus gives you all you need to serve Him.
- As your intention is to serve Christ, I pray that Apostle Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:17-20 will be materialized in your life. I pray as Apostle Paul prayed that Jesus will give you spirit of wisdom, and revelation so that you may know Jesus better; I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know the hope in the rich glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe - the power which raises Jesus from death, to be available to you.
AMC Sermon What is Salvation?
6th May, 2012
Written by Rev Law Hui Seng
Posted by Teresa Han
Acts 16:25-40
Main Idea: Meanings of salvation
Objectives:
a. To explain the meanings of salvation
b. The change in life that salvation brings.
c. To teach to use life circumstances to preach the gospel.
A. Introduction
- Today we are dealing with a central doctrine of Christianity. A doctrine we cannot miss in our lives. It is one of the very fundamental doctrines of Christianity. Some of us can be very familiar with it and yet we may not fully appreciate the importance of it in our daily living.
- To a non-Christian, the term or the concept may be a totally new idea to them. So, you need to explain to them its meaning and relevance for their lives. For the non-Christians, we are actually offering them a totally different worldview. When you talk to them about salvation, their response may be why do they need to be saved. To many of them, if they first hear about the word salvation, and you talk about Jesus saving them from their sins and gives them eternal life, they may be wondering what you are talking about because they are doing well in life; happy and satisfied with life.
- They may ask what salvation is.
- How do I arrive at the topic today? What is salvation?
- It all starts with the jailer’s question of, “What must I do to be saved?” Have you ever asked the question? It was a most genuine question in the jailer context.
B. What must I do to be saved?
- Let us take a close look at how the jailer arrives at the question. See the process involved.
- Paul and Silas were jailed in the dark prison at Philippi for delivering a slave girl from spirit possession. It caused her owners to lose a lucrative income for she was no more capable of fortune telling. (If you are imprisoned in jail because of preaching to the Muslims, what do you do in jail?)
- Before the great encounter of the jailer, we were told (verse 24) the jailer exercised his full authority to put them in the darkest inner jail (you can imagine without light; smelly, warm, stuffy and horrible atmosphere) and fasten Paul and Silas’ feet to the stocks.
- Though the jailer was just following the order, he was harsh and cruel to them. Paul and Silas might have been badly injured by the attack of the crowd; and ordered to be beaten and flogged severely; and let us imagine they must be bleeding and experiencing exhaustion, feeling great pain, the jailer was so merciless, he still treated them like that! May be he was very proud to carry out the order also. And it was at night, he felt so secured that he went to sleep. In his mind it was possible for them to struggle and let loose the stocks and chains.
- On the other hand, the spirit of Paul and Silas were not dampened (depressed) at all. Only the presence of the Spirit of Jesus and empowerment by Jesus could explain this behaviour of joy. (Can your faith in Jesus/ relationship with Jesus produce such calmness, peace and hope? We need to work towards this kind of faith. Especially when you are sick, so disappointed with people and your failures, can you still persevere with great trust in Jesus to bring you out of the bad circumstance. Or, you give out on Jesus totally) They must have caught the rest of the prisoners by a great surprise! In great injury and physically weak, they still had the spirit and mood, and the energy to pray and sing and the other prisoners listened to them in verse 25.
- Either it was coincidence of an earthquake or it was a powerful genuine act of God that caused huge shake. All prison doors flew open and everybody’s chains came loose (verses 26). If you were Paul and Silas, what would you do?
- The proud jailer was so depressed that he wanted to suicide ( verse 27). He had better killed himself, rather than been put to shame and executed for the escape of prisoners. In the case of Peter’s escape from the prison in Acts 12:19, Herod killed all the security guards who allowed Peter to escape. So, you can imagine the great stress, hopelessness and shame the jailer faced that caused him to be so depressed to suicide.
- At that crucial moment, I believe the divine moment, where Paul and Silas, with all the opportunity to escape they could grasp, they decided to stay back to do evangelism. They ceased the divine moment to save the jailer and direct him to Jesus. (This is a great learning point for us in evangelism. Do you sense the divine moment that Jesus has provided for you in your life circumstances?)
- They shouted to the jailer at the top of their voice so that in the midst of chaos, jailer could hear clearly and saved himself, “Don’t harm yourself, we are all here!” (verse 28)
- I strongly believe that this daring move of Paul and Silas to stay behind was a step of faith; and it caused a paradigm shift/ a change in worldview for the jailer, and coming to know Jesus and be saved.
- The jailer was so surprised to see Paul and Silas and other prisoners who were still around and not escape. He must have sensed that it was an act of God they stayed back. He must felt these 2 persons were truly sent by God. This explained why he fell trembling before them. May be by now, in his mind, he flushed back about what he heard in verse 17, when the girl who was spirit possessed who shouted crazily, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.”
- It was because of the deliverance of the girl that caused the duo to be imprisoned. Right at that moment, he must have linked all these events together, and he out of reverence towards the duo for saving his but also he truly believed in the message of the girl and also the gospel message spread by the duo, he asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (verse 20)
- The duo gave what is the most needed by the world today, and it was recorded in verse 21, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household.” Their preaching did not end there, this jailer must have ignored all the prison rules and brought the duo into his house and allowed them to explain further the word of the Lord (verse 32) and eventually it led to the baptism of the whole household (verse 33). Methodists use one of the many verses like this to support our argument that there were children in the family who were baptised by the duo.
- It was the message of salvation that Paul and Silas preached that caused them to end up in jail. What is this salvation that is so precious that caused life transformation and change of worldview?
- Take note of the change in attitude after the conversion of the jailer. The jailer was so daring to break prison rules to bring the duo home; the jailer treated their wound (verse 33); he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God (whole family); asked them to leave in peace.
- But Paul, for the sake of well being of the fellow converts and believers in Philippi, he ‘jual mahal’, he brought the magistrates’ officer to the attention of their identity as Roman citizen which they were not supposed to beat without a trial. They wanted the authority to treat the future Christians according to law. They did not want to leave secretly but wanted an escort to show that things were done legally. Then, they proceeded to Lydia’s house.
C. Applications on the salvation
(1) What is the salvation? Saved from what?
- Most of us will give a standard answer of we are saved with eternal life. That means our soul will be saved in heaven with Jesus. This is evangelical right answer but it is a very simplistic answer that will not help us to commit to grow as disciple of Christ. Basically, the answer only tells us to wait on earth and live until we see Jesus and to be with Him.
- That is why a lot Christians stop to grow into Christian maturity. We have no problem in accepting Jesus as saviour. We also believe that Jesus has forgiven our past, present and future sins. Some Christians as result can take the liberty to sin. May be he or she can end up even worse after accepting Christ. Some have this idea that since Jesus is always forgiving me and he has guaranteed me an eternal life, I have all the freedom to sin and ask for forgiveness. I am a married person, at my convenience, I can see prostitutes, practice one night stay, after all Jesus forgives my sin. I am a pastor and I know Jesus forgives my sin, I can take my liberty to tell lies to gain personal interests. I want to seriously ask myself has Christ saved me from the sin or the power of sin? Is Christ my saviour?
- Brothers and sisters, we are saved from what? We are saved from sins that lead to the eternal destruction in hell. If we say that Jesus is my saviour or my salvation, it means also mean that Jesus has empowered us to overcome sins of all kind. That was what happened to the jailer, his life changed after he was saved. His attitude changed; his worldview changed. There must be some changes from sinfulness to holiness all the time, between now on earth and the day we Jesus.
- An important point I want to preach to you today is you are saved from your sin. Yes, you may sin but Jesus who is your saviour will empower you to overcome your sin. You will love to repent and admit you are wrong; you feel sorrowful about your sin; you will hate sin; you are sensitive to sin; you want to distance yourself from any temptation to sin.
- A rich man interviewed 3 prospective drivers. Which one you think he will employ. The first one says, “I have the best skill in the world, I can drive you to the cliff and I make sure the car is one meter away from the cliff and we will be in a safe position.” The second one wants to beat the first one, “I will drive you so near the cliff until the tyre is only one centimetre away from the cliff.” The third is most humble, he says, “I will make sure the car is as far away from the cliff as possible. I expose you to no danger.” At the end of the day, which driver will be employed? Of course, the third one.
- If you claim you are saved from sin, this should be your attitude towards sin. You want to be as far away from it as possible.
(2) If one claims that he or she is saved, you must expect that that person is all the time desiring changes in his or her life towards Christ-likeness.
- Every now and then, he or she may fall; he may be imperfect, but he or she will always become like Christ.
- Following Christ is the goal and top priority in his or her life. Apostle Paul in 1Corinthians 11:1 exalted the Corinthians to follow his example, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.”
- Brothers and sisters, you have the whole life to do it. To help yourself on that journey, you need the word of God or teachings of Jesus to lead you.
(3) As Paul and Silas grasped the divine moment in the jail to preach the gospel to the jailer and resulting his whole turning to Jesus and be saved, we need to sense the divine moment that Jesus provides for us in our daily circumstances for us to help people to come to know Jesus and be saved.
- I just want suggest some divine moments for you to consider: when people experience emptiness in life (a good sign to watch is when they ask you what the meaning of life is); when someone is seriously sick; when people experience failures of all kinds; depressed people; people experience crisis in life (marriage, finance, etc)…
D. Conclusion
- Christianity is most powerful because of the saving power of Jesus over sin. However, if we as disciples of Him do not want to turn on that power; exercise that Jesus power within us, we need to ask ourselves, are we saved or not?
E. Small Group Discussion Questions
1. Discuss the meanings of salvation.
2. Discuss the some divine moments that Jesus may be calling you to share your testimonies (or preach the gospel or render help in any way you can) with others.
3. Share with one another what Jesus is doing in your life so much that you feel others can be encouraged by your sharing.
Who Is This?
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.
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
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