Thursday, August 26, 2010
Induction/welcome service
Who set the rules?
Luke 13:10-17
10On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, 11and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all.12When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, "Woman, you are set free from your infirmity." 13Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.
14Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said to the people, "There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath."
15The Lord answered him, "You hypocrites! Doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? 16Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?"
17When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.
Introduction
One day a little girl who’d returned from a Sunday school and exclaimed what she’d learned.
That Sunday, the teacher taught her about “Omni-presence”, part of the nature of God.
To make sure she heard the right thing, the little girl put her findings to her mum.
“Is God everywhere?” she asked.
Her mum said, “Yes! God is everywhere.”
“You mean God is in the sky at the same time here in this room being with us?” asked the girl.
“Yes indeed! God is.” The mum answered.
At the moment, the little girl was holding an empty bottle.
Without second thought she asked again, “You mean God is outside the garden at the same time in this bottle?”
A bit hesitate, the mum answered, “Em… Yes! Why not? God is Omni-presence. He is everywhere. He is in heaven, here on earth, of course He is also presence in the bottle!”
While thinking she has given her daughter a good answer, suddenly she saw her daughter covers the lid of the bottle tightly and exclaimed, “Hey! Now I have God in my bottle!”
This is a typical illustration of how people understand God and at the same time try to limit Him.
I remember many years ago, there was a popular Sunday school song called “I wish I have a little white box.”
Here is the lyrics:
I wish I had a little white box
To put my Jesus in
I'd take him out and kiss, kiss, kiss (put hand to mouth and act like you are giving Jesus a kiss)
And put Him back again. (OR And show him to my friends)
I wish I had a little black box
To put the devil in
I'd take him out and spank, spank, spank (clap hands together)
And put him back again.
You may think the song is funny but in fact it is quite misleading.
Whether God or the devil, they are spiritual beings supersede natural dimension.
We cannot put Jesus in a box and take him out as we wish.
Neither can we put the devil in and out of a box.
More so, we are warned not to slander the devil.
Jude 1:19 -- But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!"
Today, our focus is not on the devil.
1. Message Today
Today, our focus is not on the devil.
Our focus is on Jesus.
a. First of all, Jesus is the greatest Teacher ever.
He taught not only in synagogues but at opened places and homes.
Most importantly, he taught with authority.
A similar incident took place at Capernaum where Jesus was teaching at a synagogue on a Sabbath day and eventually set a person free from an evil spirit. (cf. Mark 1:21-27).
When the people hear what Jesus taught, they were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.
In Jesus’ time, the teachers of the law used to add their own interpretations and eventually caused confusions and burdens to the hearers.
The Lord Jesus once commented that these so called experts in the law loaded people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and they themselves would not lift one finger to help the people. (cf. Luke 11:46).
b. Jesus performs miracles.
Jesus did not just teach but also perform miraculous healing for those who were possessed or ill.
John acknowledged that Jesus was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1).
Jesus’ spoken word carries the creative power over all aspects of life physically and spiritually.
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. (John 1:3).
Under His command, winds and storms died down and calmed. (Mark 4:39).
Under His order, evil spirits were casted out and people were set free.
The lame walks, the blind sees.
c. Thirdly, Jesus has compassion on those who are under bondage.
The bible said when Jesus saw the woman who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years, he called her forward and said to her, "Woman, you are set free from your infirmity." (Luke 13:11-12).
Jesus took the initiation to heal this woman shows the passion he has.
Jesus did not want to see her continue to suffer and bound by Satan.
He wants his people free.
d. Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath.
Sabbath is set by God for his people to rest and worship God.
Nowhere in the bible mentioned that God forbids people from doing good on Sabbath.
The Lord said, “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.” (Hosea 6:6).
Most importantly, Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath. (Matthew 12:8).
When a priest serves in the temple on Sabbath, he is not considered breaking the law.
It has therefore nothing wrong with Jesus the Great High Priest of God to perform healing on Sabbath.
The only problem was they did not know Jesus is the Great High Priest of God.
2. What are the lessons?
a. First of all, we must listen to Jesus’ teaching which is authoritative.
Authority does not come from human traditions or philosophies.
Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” (Matt 24:35).
If you are honest, you must admit that many things we learned in the past are not always useful nowadays.
Some became irrelevant and some just untrue.
I remember when I was young, the elderly people used to tell us “Don’t run when a dog comes to you. Be calm. The dog won’t bite you.”
One day when I passed by a place with some other children, few dogs came to us.
All other children ran for their lives except me who naively believed those words of these so called wise elderly people of the village.
Guess what?
I’d got a bite!
b. Secondly, have faith in the Lord Jesus who performs miracles and heals.
Many a times we concentrate too much on our difficulties and lose heart on the Lord.
We become problem orientated and not Christ centred.
Many years ago I was invited to a parish to conduct a healing and evangelistic meeting.
At the altar call, a parishioner came up asking for a healing prayer.
I did not know her exact illness but just commenced her to the Lord’s care.
Months later, her priest called and thanked me on behalf of the lady.
She was having a cancerous lump at the neck.
After the prayer, she went back home and found the lump burst.
Her doctor was amazed to find no trace of cancerous cells there.
I can give you many accounts on how people’s problems being solved by leaning on Jesus and have faith in Him alone.
c. Thirdly, don’t set rules and regulations that stop God’s blessing channelling through us.
What is tradition?
Tradition is doing something on and on and eventually lost trace of why we are doing it?
Don’t be tradition orientated because there are so many varieties.
Be it racial traditions.
Be it cultural differences.
Be it personal or family backgrounds.
All these will eventually make us suspicious to each other.
We love each other because we are one in the body of Christ.
We respect each other because we are all created in the image of God.
Let us talk more about Christ’s embracing love and not our differences.
Conclusion
In closing, I would to read “The prayer of St. Francis” to you.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Be Watchful (Lk 12:32-40)
Luke 12:32-40
32"Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
35"Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 36like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. 37It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. 38It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night. 39But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him."
Introduction
There was a story about a man who was worried that the sky would one day collapse.
He had no joy at all.
After some counselling from his friends he became happier, but it wasn’t long before he started worrying about the earth.
He worried that one day the earth would sink.
Though this story sounds ridiculous, but the fact is many of us are bound to worry about certain things.
Some could be worrying about their jobs, some about their families or their health.
One day a church minister called up a parishioner because he has not attended church for long.
He became ill because of overworking.
The minister asked why he was overworked.
The answer he gave was that he has two jobs.
When asked why he needs two jobs, he said because he need more money for his mortgages and many luxurious entertainment appliances bought on credit.
The minister further asked him why, he told the minister he wanted all these appliances for relaxation.
He said every now and then he would sit on the lounge and so called enjoy his music and movies.
In order to make this man realise his situation, the minister continues to press on him and ask, “Why do you need these so called relaxations?”
Guess what’s the answer?
“I need these relaxations so that I can be relaxed and gain more strength for more work and more jobs.”
Do you see the point?
This man has fell into a vicious cycle: more jobs for more money and so became more tired and need more relaxations so he buys more entertaining stuffs and therefore need more jobs for more money!
Don’t be surprised.
I have seen many of such people in the church and everywhere.
Many parishioners came to me and said, “I wish I could have spent more time with my wife, my children.
I wish I could have spent more time equipping myself in the word of God and reaching out to friends and relatives who need words of comfort.”
Believe me. I have never heard someone telling me, “I wish I have spent more time in my work.” Nor “I wish I have spent more time on this or that TV program.”
1. The background
The Gospel passages we have just read (Luke 12:32-40) are part of the words of Christ in preparing his followers for God’s kingdom.
On their way to Jerusalem, the Lord Jesus was preparing his followers to understand the meaning of following Christ.
Last Sunday, we talked about the rich fool who invested his whole life on worldly possessions and ended up losing his soul.
Mark 8:36 reminded us, “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?”
At the end of my sermon, I mentioned about investment on the Words of God and human beings.
These are two investments with eternal values.
Again, in Luke 12:32-34, Jesus urged his followers to do the right investment, “Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted…”
More so, Jesus’ followers were challenged to be on guard by having their lamps burning while waiting for the coming of His glory.
Jesus said, “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him.” (Luke 12:35-36)
Jesus meant to remind them to press on witnessing for him until the day comes.
In the New Testament reading from Hebrews 11, we learned from the servants of God who set their hearts on above.
By faith they invested their lives, believing and trusting the Creator God who promises and provides, for the things in the world to come.
Abraham, for instance, did not see things happened during his life time.
The writer of Hebrews described, “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance.” (Heb 11:13)
Abraham’s descendents received the Promised Land only after about 700 years later.
According to writer of this New Testament Epistle, the actual Promised Land is yet to come for “they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one.” (Heb 11:16).
2. What are the lessons?
If we put the above passages together, we could figure out what Paul had to say in 1 Corinthians 13:13, “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
a. Firstly, let us look at “faith”
Based on Jesus’ terminology “Faith” means “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32)
Faith is initiated by God the Father granted to those who believed and received Jesus.
The subject of faith is all about the kingdom of heaven and not the things of the world.
To some people, faith is one of the world's great evils, the surrender of the mind, it's the surrender of reason, an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable….
But for the people of God, faith is the foundation of our trust in God.
It is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report.
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. (Heb 11:1-3)
b. Secondly, hope is a quality of our hearts that generates strength that overcomes fears and helplessness.
In Jesus’ time, the real worries and fears have yet to take place in the hearts of his followers.
Jesus preached on this subject to prepare his followers in facing difficulties and persecution in the future.
After Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension, in the course of the early church history, the body of Christ faced strong and severe persecution.
Stephen became the first martyr.
James the brother of John became the first apostle died under the sword of Herod.
Hope is something they needed to hold on to.
This hope is based on the resurrection of Jesus.
In 1 Cor 15, Paul clearly pointed out, “And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead.
c. The last but not the least is Love.
In fact Paul said that love is the greatest among the three.
The greatest commandment given by our Lord Jesus is “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.” (Matt 22:37-39)
This is summed up from Deuteronomy 6:5 (Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength) and Leviticus 19:18 (Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the LORD).
Look at the sign of a cross.
There are a vertical piece of wood and the other a horizontal.
The vertical one symbolises the love of God coming down from heaven through our Lord Jesus.
It also reminds us of our devotion and love towards God.
Christ made the communications between God and men possible.
The horizontal piece symbolises the expansion of God’s love embracing those who seek rest and come to him.
Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matt 11:28)
This horizontal stretching sign of a cross also reminds us the love we stretch out to others.
We are to become witnesses of God’s love.
Conclusion
The Gospel passage for today reminds us to love our neighbours and being watchful for the coming of the Master.
To be effective, we need to be God-centred and then people-centred
The similarities between people who worry and are anxious are their selfishness and self-centredness.
We need to trust God the Lord of providence.
We need to be watchful and not to fall into worldly temptations.
We need to have a heavenward faith like the saints who sing “this world is not my home!”, “We’re Marching to Zion”….
I would like to close this sermon with the hymn of Isaac Watts “We're Marching to Zion” (Music by Robert Lowry 1705) which is based on Jeremiah 31:6 “For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the LORD our God.”
1. Come, we that love the Lord,
And let our joys be known;
Join in a song with sweet accord,
And thus surround the throne.
Refrain:
We’re marching to Zion,
Beautiful, beautiful Zion;
We’re marching upward to Zion,
The beautiful city of God.
2. The sorrows of the mind
Be banished from the place;
Religion never was designed
To make our pleasures less.
3. Let those refuse to sing,
Who never knew our God;
But children of the heav’nly King
May speak their joys abroad.
4. The men of grace have found
Glory begun below;
Celestial fruits on earthly ground
From faith and hope may grow.
5. The hill of Zion yields
A thousand sacred sweets
Before we reach the heav’nly fields,
Or walk the golden streets.
6. Then let our songs abound,
And every tear be dry;
We’re marching through Immanuel’s ground
To fairer worlds on high.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Ladies Evening Fellowship
Wednesday Noontide Holy Communion
Saturday, July 31, 2010
The Parable of the Rich Fool
Luke 12:13-21
The Parable of the Rich Fool
13Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me."
14Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?" 15Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."
16And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.'
18"Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." '
20"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'
21"This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."
Introduction
I believe many of you have heard stories of people hiding their money under pillows, within old news papers, inside reams of window curtains, or even underneath flower pots.
One of my missionary friends told me a real story that happened to a lady from her English as Second Language classes many years ago.
The lady kept $7000 buds in her pyjamas to avoid being stolen just in case a break in took place.
One day, she decided to clear some of her old clothes by putting them into those charity bins (not sure Anglicare or Vinnies’ bin).
Only months later this lady recalled the incident, but too late, her $7000 is gone with the pyjamas and had no way to trace.
Another story was told of a rich man who was walking alone at a market.
When he saw people were enjoying food and conversation, he felt even lonelier.
He has a 7 en-suite bedroom bungalow with gold plated taps in every bath.
He has huge garden, backyard, garages and of course few luxury cars.
Yet there is always lack of genuine trust and love within the members of his family.
Another story happened in the State.
One day an ordinary man became a millionaire by luck.
Many people started to befriend him because they coveted his money.
Tiring with entertaining these people, he sighed and said that it would be better if the clock could turn back and regain his normal life as an ordinary man.
The story does not stop there.
For months, his family did not see him thinking that he might have gone for a holiday. But one day the police came to inform them of the bad news.
He was murdered by a couple who transferred his money into their bank account, knocked him down and buried his body under the floor of their house.
I can keep on telling you stories after stories about how evil can do to a person or a family if we do not know how to deal with it.
Money is not evil. But as 1Timothy 6:10 says, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many grieves.”
1. The background
Luke 12:13-21 marks one of the important teachings and warnings of Christ for his followers on His journey towards Jerusalem, fulfilling God’s plan to save mankind through His death on the cross.
Jesus warned them not to be entangled with the worries of worldly possession but rather be on their guard against all kinds of greed.
To illustrate this, Jesus told them a parable of the rich fool who had gathered so many crops eventually he demolished the old ones and built new barns to store them.
Satisfying with what he has, he said to himself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” (Luke 12:19)
But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' (Luke 12:20)
After the telling the parable, Jesus continued to challenge his followers--
"This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God." (Luke 12:21)
2. What does it mean to store up things for himself?
‘To store up things’ has to do with the purpose and meaning of life.
We need to ask ourselves who do we live for?
What is the purpose of our lives?
Will we take life easy, eat, drink and be merry?
The author of Ecclesiastes has described human life as nothing new under the sun.
Everything seems meaningless and vain.
That is the phenomenon of life away from the eternal God.
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), a French mathematician, physicist and theologian once described that there is a vacuum liked space deep down in our hearts. Nothing in this world is able to fill up this emptiness except by an infinite and immutable object, in other words by God himself.
Ernest Hemingway, a well known mid 20th century Noble Prize winner writer.
In his book ‘The Old Man and The Sea’, he described life as full of struggles and toils which ends up helpless.
In 1959 Hemingway moved from Cuba to Ketchum, Idaho, where he committed suicide in the summer of 1961, ended his life that at one time full of glory and fame, at the other time ill with turmoil and frustrations.
No wonder Paul urged the people in Colossi to set their hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. (Col 3:1).
To be specific, what are the things of this world?
The following words of Paul to the Colossians might give us some clues about the things of this world.
Paul said, “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” (Col 3:5-10)
It is worth to note that Paul described evil desires and greed is idolatry.
The term ‘evil desires’ in Greek is πλεονεξία (pleonexia) means covetousness, wanting to have more or the will to have more (for example a larger portion, advantage, superiority).
Its plural sense includes covetous thoughts, plans of fraud and extortion.
In other words, πλεονεξία (pleonexia) means a desire of having more, more than God in his providence has allotted us.
It was not a lawful desire of getting his own, but a sinful desire of getting more than his own.
3. What are the lessons?
Here we could learn at least two lessons:
a. Invest your treasures in heaven.
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Mat 6:19-21)
b. Be contented what you have.
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” (Mat 6:25-27)
Conclusion
When I think of eternity, I think of what would we see in heaven.
The children may say, “Oh yes, we will see all the rabbits and roses!”
Some may say, “May be we will see the dinosaurs!”
Whatever it will be, we will see two eternal ‘items’ in heaven:
a. The first one is ‘human beings’.
Human beings are temporal in the world but for those who are in Christ will live eternally in heaven.
If you invest your possessions, be it money or talents, and bring a single soul to Christ, that is eternal investment.
In an interview, Rick Warren, the author of “Purpose driven life”, described life is preparation for eternity.
He said, “We were not made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.
One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body-- but not the end of me.
I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity.
This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal.
God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity.
We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense….”
He continued, “The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort;
God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.
We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life.
The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness….”
Dealing with his more than 15 million copies of “Purpose Driven Life” sold and the money coming in,
Rick Warren had this to say, “I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease.
So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence.
He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.
First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit..
We made no major purchases.
Second, about midway through last year (2006?), I stopped taking a salary from the church.
Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation.
Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free….”
What an amazing life investment.
b. The second eternal object in heaven is the ‘Word of God’.
Similarly, if you invest in the study of God’s Word, it is an eternal investment because the word of God will never cease.
Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” (Mat 24:35).
We need to start memorising God’s Word and mediated over them.
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2Tim 3:16-17)
The Psalmist said, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” (Psalm 119:105).
Without the Word of God, we will fail to see the direction.
Without the Word of God, we will not have absolute truth for our judgement.
The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good. (Psalm 14:1)
Do not be a fool.
Read the Word of God.
I thank God for being able to serve at Granville for the past month.
I see so many talented people offering their time, Money and effort in building this body of Christ.
May I congratulate you for all these.