Children: God's Gift, Our Responsibility

Text: Psalms 127:3-5; Luke 2: 39-40; 52

Summary
Children are God’s gift to us. It is our responsibility to ensure their healthy mental, physical, spiritual and social growth.

1. Introduction

I have been privileged to be working with children for more than 20 years of my professional life. I love children. Children are not easy to work with. They have ‘pee’ on me, ‘dodo’ on me, vomited on me, wiped their dirty hands on me and even bitten me. But somehow, they also like me. When they come to my clinic, they like to give me hugs and kisses, share the sweets in their mouth with me and one even offered me her baby brother. Children are a joy and a blessing. This evening, we shall consider children as God’s gift and our responsibility to this gift that God has given us.

2. Children: God’s Gift

Psalm 127
1 Unless the LORD builds the house,
its builders labour in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchmen stand guard in vain.
2 In vain you rise early
and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat—
for he grants sleep to those he loves.
3 Sons are a heritage from the LORD,
children a reward from him.
4 Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are sons born in one’s youth.
5 Blessed is the man
whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
when they contend with their enemies in the gate. (NIV)

3 Children are a gift from the Lord;
they are a reward from him.
4 Children born to a young man
are like sharp arrows in a warrior’s hands.
5 How happy is the man whose quiver is full of them!
He will not be put to shame when he confronts his accusers at the city gates. (NLT)

Don’t you see that children are God’s best gift?
the fruit of the womb his generous legacy?
Like a warrior’s fistful of arrows
are the children of a vigorous youth.
Oh, how blessed are you parents, with your quiver full of children!
Your enemies don’t stand a chance against you;
you’ll sweep them right off your doorstep. (The Message)

Contrary to popular belief, it is not easy to produce children. It is always a miracle when a child is born. From the time of conception when a sperm fertilised an ovum to the time when the fertilised ovum is implanted in the uterus to the development of a newborn, hundreds of things can go wrong. 60% of fertilised ovum are aborted spontaneously – due to abnormality of the fertilised egg, or failure to reach the uterus, failure to implant in the uterus and failure of the uterus to sustain growth. And during the process of growth in the uterus, the fetus is susceptible to infections, changes in the mother’s health, mother smoking or taking drugs, and maternal diseases like hypertension. Thus it is a miracle everything a baby is born. Life is so precious.

3. Children: Our Responsibility

39 When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. 40 And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.
52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. (NIV)

3.1 The Parents

3.1.1 Joseph
The foster-father of our Lord (Matt. 1:16; Luke 3:23). He lived at Nazareth in Galilee (Luke 2:4). He is called a “just man.” He was by trade a carpenter (Matt. 13:55). He is last mentioned in connection with the journey to Jerusalem, when Jesus was twelve years old. It is probable that he died before Jesus entered on his public ministry. This is concluded from the fact that Mary only was present at the marriage feast in Cana of Galilee. His name does not appear in connection with the scenes of the crucifixion along with that of Mary (q.v.), John 19:25.
At 5 years old, children began to learn the duties of life under the care of their fathers (Deu.6:20-25; 11:19). Joseph would have begun to teach Jesus at 5 years old.

3.1.2 Mary
Hebrew Miriam. The wife of Joseph, the mother of Jesus, called the “Virgin Mary,” though never so designated in Scripture (Matt. 2:11; Acts 1:14). Little is known of her personal history. Her genealogy is given in Luke 3. She was of the tribe of Judah and the lineage of David (Ps. 132:11; Luke 1:32). She was connected by marriage with Elisabeth, who was of the lineage of Aaron (Luke 1:36). While she resided at Nazareth with her parents, before she became the wife of Joseph, the angel Gabriel announced to her that she was to be the mother of the promised Messiah (Luke 1:35). After this she went to visit her cousin Elisabeth, who was living with her husband Zacharias (probably at Juttah, Josh. 15:55; 21:16, in the neighbourhood of Maon), at a considerable distance, about 100 miles, from Nazareth. Immediately on entering the house she was saluted by Elisabeth as the mother of her Lord, and then forthwith gave utterance to her hymn of thanksgiving (Luke 1:46–56; comp. 1 Sam. 2:1–10). After three months Mary returned to Nazareth to her own home. Joseph was supernaturally made aware (Matt. 1:18–25) of her condition, and took her to his own home. Soon after this the decree of Augustus (Luke 2:1) required that they should proceed to Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), some 80 or 90 miles from Nazareth; and while they were there they found shelter in the inn or khan provided for strangers (Luke 2:6, 7). But as the inn was crowded, Mary had to retire to a place among the cattle, and there she brought forth her son, who was called Jesus (Matt. 1:21), because he was to save his people from their sins. This was followed by the presentation in the temple, the flight into Egypt, and their return in the following year and residence at Nazareth (Matt. 2).

There for thirty years Mary, the wife of Joseph the carpenter, resides, filling her own humble sphere, and pondering over the strange things that had happened to her. During these years only one event in the history of Jesus is recorded, viz., his going up to Jerusalem when twelve years of age, and his being found among the doctors in the temple (Luke 2:41–52).

In the earliest times, mother do not wean their children until they were 30 months to 3 years old, and the day they were weaned was kept as a festival day (Gen. 21:8; Exo.2: 7,9)

Mary and Joseph are ordinary people living in extraordinary times.

3.1.3 Observance of the Law

They were devout Jews. They observed the Law, which is the greatest compliment anyone can give a Jews. They understand the role of the Messiah.

How do you bring up a child who is to be the Messiah of your people?
§ Premier school?
§ More tuition?
§ Special motivational courses?
§ Ballet, art and piano classes?

Deu.6:4-7
4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

(1) Start with you
(2) Teach your children – Role modeling. Total immersion in a lifestyle that shows what is confess is the same as what you confess.

3.2 Taking Care of God’s Gift: Our Responsibility (Luke 2:40; 52)

3.2.1 In Wisdom (Mental)

I always wonder why Luke lists wisdom before stature. Mental development before physical development. Now I realise what he has done. Brain development is always faster than physical development and is often not so apparent as physical development. As the brain grows, it acquires new knowledge, now experiences and new skills. It is interesting that Luke did not emphasis on knowledge but wisdom. We can have a lot of knowledge without being wise. And it is the most difficult part of parenting to teach our children to be wise. We can teach our babies flash cards, train them to recognise pictures and words early. Our school education system teaches our children to absorb knowledge like sponges and regurgitate it for the examinations.

3.2.2 In Stature (Physical)
As parents, most of us concentrate on meeting the physical needs of the child. That is important. The child needs food, shelter and good healthcare.

3.2.3 In Favor with God (Spiritual)
It is our responsibility to help our children grow spiritually. We need to teach them to pray, to read the bible and to attend children’s program in church.

3.2.4 In Favor with Man (Social)
The other area we need help our children develop social skills. The dangers we parents faces is either over-protectiveness or being too permissive. Being on the School Board of Hilltop for many years, I have seen many of both types of parents. One will turn up with a list of things the child cannot do – cannot run, cannot sit near the window, cannot go to play in the sand pit, etc. Others, when we told them that their child is spoilt or is bully other children will either get angry or say. “Tidak apa. Boys will boys”.

4. Lessons for us

4.1 Role Modeling

As our Prime Minister said, ‘Leadership by Example’. Children learn more by what they observe than by what we teach them verbally. How we behave in our personal life at home, how we behave to our spouse and how we deal with others in our work and our social lives are object lessons for our children. Most of us put up our mask and appear an angel outside but behave like a devil at home.

It saddens me greatly to when one parent attacks his or her spouse using the children. One person that I know complains continuously about her husband to her children; “Don’t be like your father. He is good for nothing. Cannot hold a good job. Cannot bring enough money home. I hate him. Don’t be like your father when you grow up. He doesn’t come to church. Now when you grow up, you must be a good Christian like me. Jesus said we must love one another as He has loved us.” What type of message do you think the mother is giving to the child? Do what I say, not what I do.

4.2 Teaching
We are to teach our children. It is important to realise that children are not miniature adults. That is where many of our teaching failed. I have seen mother trying to reason with a 3 years old child. “Now if you take this toy from the shop, it will be stealing. The Bible said stealing is bad.” The child has absolutely no idea what the mother is talking about.

Piaget has done a lot of work in understanding the mental development of the child.
(1) 0-2 years: The stage of sensorimotor intelligence.
During this stage, the child is primary sensory and motor. The child does not internally represent events and think conceptually, although cognitive development is seen as schemata are constructed.
(2) 2-7 years: The stage of preoperational thought.
This stage is characterised by the development of language. Reasoning during this stage is dominated by perception and thus prelogical or semilogical.
(3) 7-11 years: The stage of concrete operations.
During these years, the child develops the ability to apply logical thought to concrete problems in the present.
(4) 11-15 years and older: The stage of formal operations.
The child becomes capable of applying logical reasoning to all classes of problems.

Thus our teaching must be appropriate to the learning level of the child. Must damage have been done, when our teaching is inappropriate to the child’s understanding level?

In the Disney’s movie, The Kid, starring Bruce Willis as a highly paid image consultant , Russ Duritz, who is approaching 40 years old. In his job, he is successful but his personal life is a mess. He cannot relate to people, is obsessive compulsion and has a nervous tic of his eyes. As the story develops, he met a younger version of himself 8 years old and he tried to help his younger version to deal with his problems so that he does not end up the way he is now. Initially they thought the problem was that he was bullied in school. In the end, the found that the mother was dying of cancer, the father was angry because he was so helpless. He was so angry that he said to the kid that you are causing your mother to be sick. Stop crying. The mother died a short while after that and the Russ grew up thinking that he has caused his mother’s death. He never cried since them. This is a powerful story about how as adults we have the potential to seriously damage our children’s lives.

4.3 Praying

We must be praying for our children. As Psalms 127 indicate, it is the Lord who helps our children to grow and is incharge. Do we have a prayer list for our children? What are the things we should pray for our children?

q That there will never be a time they don’t walk with You
q A saving faith (thanksgiving if already Christian)
q A growing faith
q An independent faith (as they grow up)
q Persevering faith
q To be strong and healthy in mind, body and spirit.
q A sense of destiny (purpose)
q A desire for integrity
q A call to excellence
q To understand their spiritual gifts
q To understand the ministry God has for them and their spiritual gifts
q Values and beliefs, a Christian worldview
q To tithe 10 percent and save 10 percent of all earnings
q To set and work towards realistic goals as revealed by the Lord
q That I will set aside times to spend with them
q To acquire wisdom
q Protection from drugs, alcohol, tobacco, premarital sex, violence, rape, and AIDS
q The mate God has for them (alive somewhere, needing prayer)
q To do daily devotions
q Forgiveness and to be filled with the Holy Spirit
q Glorify the Lord in everything

5. Concluding Remarks
Let me end with a story. One day, a time management consultant stood before a class of CEOs. He has a big jar on his desk. Beside his jar, he has a dozen fist sized rocks, a pile of gravel, a pile of sand and a pail of water. Then he told the students to fill the jar. One of the students poured in the gravel, then the sand and the water. Then he began to fill the jar with the dozen rocks but just cannot fit the rocks into the jar. The lecturer than took another set of jar, rocks, gravel, sand and water. First he carefully placed the rocks into the jar until it is filled. Then he put in the gravel and shook the jar until the gravel settled in between the rocks. Then he did the same with the sand. Finally he pours in the water and the jar was able to contain everything. The he asked the student, “You have the same jar as I have. Why does your jar not contain all the rocks, gravel, sand and water as I did?” The student answered, “I put in the rocks last’. The lecturer said, “That’s true. If you cannot put in the big rocks first, you’ll never get them in at all”.

What are the ‘big rocks’ in your life? Your children, your loved ones, teaching and mentoring others. Remember to put these ‘big rocks’ in first or you’ll never get them in at all. If you sweat the small stuff (the gravel, the sand), you’ll fill your life with little things about which it don’t really matter, and you’ll never have the quality time to spend on the big important stuff. So ask yourself, “What are the ‘big rocks’ in my life?” Then, put those in your jar first.

Soli Deo Gloria

Recommended Reading
Barry J. Wadsworth, Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive and Affective Development (White Plains, NY: Longman, 1996)
Patrick M. Morley, The Seven Seasons of a Man’s Life (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1995)

The Three Hardest Words to Use

The Three Hardest Words in the World to Use

Text: 1 John 3:16-18
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

Summary
The three hardest words in the world to use are “love one another”. To murder is to take away a life, to hate is to take from a life. To love is to add to a life. John teaches Christians to love one another not with words but with actions and in truth.

1. Introduction

What do you think the three hardest words in the world to use are?

I owe you (Ah Long)
Make my day (Clint Eastwood)
Can do lah (Ah Beng)… but never do anything
I am sorry
Greatest since creation

Let me suggest that the three hardest words to use in the word are “love one another”. I am not talking about romantic love here. The type of romantic love promoted by valentine day and Hollywood. Valentine day means red roses and dinner. The price of red roses goes sky high and the restaurants make a killing. Romantic love is mainly infatuation, day-dreaming and lust. Hollywood movies promote romantic love; “Love at first sight.”

Sleepless in Seattle (1993) starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks is a story about a boy calling the psychiatrist host of a radio talk show about his father's prolonged grief over the death of his wife. Hanks, the father, is conned into confessing his grief to the psychiatrist. The father was talking to the psychiatrist over the phone unaware that it is simultaneous being broadcasted by radio all over the States. He shared about how he missed his wife and how he first met her. It was love at first sight. He also shared how he did not think he will love again. The love he had with his wife is only once for each lifetime. The rating for the show shot sky high and the radio station was flooded by thousands of phone calls from women willing to marry him! It also set in motion a series of events by which he met Meg Ryan. And it was love at first sight again! This is the only romantic movie I know that the couple met at the end of the movie.

When I said the three hardest words in the world to use, I am not talking about romantic love. I am talking about Christians loving one another in a congregation. Do you think it is easy to love one another here? In this church? Really? Do you love me? Do you love me enough to give me 10,000 dollars when I ask you to?

John in his pastoral epistle 1, 2 & 3 John is writing to Christians. There was division in his church over some false teaching. In fact, some of the members have already left the church. I John was written as the letter to those who have left to remind them about the key points of being a Christian. One of the key points of being a Christian he wanted them to learn is to love one another. Not superficial, romantic love but really really love one another.

2. Exposition of Text

1 Jn 3:11-15. John here made it plain that his admonitions were directed to Christians.
This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous. Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.

But before telling his audience precisely what love is, he first told them what it is not. It is most certainly not the kind of action Cain exhibited toward his brother Abel. Cain murdered his brother (Gen. 4:8) and in that action he was influence by evil one. Hatred on the part of one Christian toward another is the first step towards murder. The non-righteous will always hate the righteous. Anyone who hates and murders does not love the one who hates and murder. Howard Marshall, professor of New Testament in the University of Aberdeen, writes, “Hatred is the wish that the other person is not there: it is the refusal to recognize his rights as a person, the longing that he might be dead.”

Love one another is then not murder but the opposite of murder. What is the opposite of murder? Giving or adding to a life. As murder is the taking away of a life from another, Christian love should be giving more of life to another. John explains what Christians loving one another is…

Murder and hatred is taking away a life or minus-ing a life of another. (Life minus)
Christian love is adding to a life of another (Life plus)

v. 16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

It is the giving more of life. We know what Christian love for one another is by observing Jesus Christ. Christ gives life.
Jn 15:13

v.17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?

How does the giving of life happens in Christian love for one another? In our material possessions! God shows His love for us by giving his only Son so that all who believes can have eternal life. Jn 3:16.

v.18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

How then can Christian love for one another be lived out in the church?
(a) not with words or tongues
(b) with actions
(c) in truth

Christians love one another not with words but with actions and in truth

3. Applications

a. Love one another not with words or tongues

James 3:5-6
Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

i. Saying kind things but is insincere

· “Let’s have a “win-win” situation”

· “Our God is great and He will send someone to help you”…why not you?

· “Brother, I will pray for you”…do you really intent to set time aside and pray?

· “Let us set up a committee to study it”…meaning you do not want to make a decision

· “Our Father is rich, ask Him to bless you”…meaning you will not be the one giving out of your pocket.


ii. Saying ‘kind things’ in an unkind way (gossip)

· “You know Sister so-and-so, she have this problem with her husband. Her husband beats her. I am telling you so that…..”

· “Brother so-and-so lost a few thousands dollars on the stock exchange. Christians should not speculate. I have always believe that. I am telling you so that….”

· “Brother so-and-so lost his job last month. So shameful lah. That’s why we have not seen them around church lately. I am telling you so…”

Meaning: It is good to let other Christians now what is happening to so-and-so.

Deeper meaning:
· Thank God it is not me

· Serve them right

· Yum, yum, nice juicy gossip

iii. Promising much but do not deliver

· “Brother, if you need money just let me know. I am always there for you. But at this moment, I have a cash flow problem…”

· “Sister, if you need to talk, call me anytime. Here is my handphone number. At night I switch my handphone off…”

· NATO (No Action Talk Only)


It is so easy with words. Many of us hide behind words. Many of us do not say what we think. If we are asked to do something and we do not want to do it, instead of saying no, we say something vague like, “I’ll pray about it” or “I’ll get back to you”. In the Bible, words are not a mark of Christian love. If you say “I love you”, the apostle John says “prove it!”

b. Love one another with actions

i. Respect one another

(1) Listen to one another. Wait until the other person stops talking before you open your mouth.

(2) Be punctual. When you are late you are making the other person wait. You are making the other person waste his or her time.

(3) Don’t be rude. Wait until the church service and announcement is over before you leave the hall.

(4) Agree to disagree. You do not need to win every argument. You do not need to have the last words.

ii. Care for one another

(1) Is everyone in your small group okay? Does anyone need help?

(2) Do something nice for someone in the congregation this week.

(3) Offer to baby sit so that young couples with young children can have an evening off for a valentine dinner.

(4) Mothers carpool so that you can have time for yourself.

(5) Hospitality. Open your home to one another. To visitors.

(6) Visit the sick. Bring a small gift. Keep them company.

(7) Offer to help in spring cleaning and painting a church member’s house as Chinese New Year is coming.

(8) Buy your Christian brothers and sisters a dinner.

iii. Give to one another

(1) Is another in financial need? Maybe, if you can afford it, offer an interest free loan.

(2) Give some money without expecting anything in return.

(3) Be a mentor to the younger Christians

(4) Give your old clothes, furniture, books, crockery to the Salvation Army, Old Folks Home, Orphanage

(5) Support financially Malaysian Care

iv. Pray for one another

c. Love one another in truth

i. Be honest with one another

(1) Speak the truth with love

(2) Tell it as it is

(3) Let your yes be yes and no be no

ii. Confess to one another
James 5:16
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

(1) Confess your sin only to people you trusts.

(2) Confession is good for your soul

(3) Confession is important for spiritual growth

iii. Rebuke and Restore one another

(1) Rebuking and restoring is a sign of love
Luke 17:3
So watch yourselves. "If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.

(2) “It’s none of my business” is not love.

(3) Reconcile if anyone has offend you.
Matt 5:22
"Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you; leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.”


4. Conclusion
1JN 3:16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

The three hardest words in the world to use are “love one another”. To murder is to take away a life, to hate is to take from a life. To love is to add to a life. John teaches Christians to love one another not with words but with actions and in truth.

Soli Deo Gloria

A Cycle of Light, A Cycle of Life

A Cycle of Light, A Cycle of Life: The Christian Calendar

Summary
We all mark time in various ways: birthdays, anniversaries or cultural festivals. The Old Testament Israelites have their religious festivals. Christians too have a way to mark time: the Christian calendar. We should return to our roots and use the Christian calendar to mark time with Jesus.

1. Introduction: Marking Time
Do you get the feeling that time is moving faster and faster? Didn’t we just finish Christmas? And now it is coming to the end of January. How do we mark time? We all mark time with the minutes and hours by our watch, and the days by our calendars. Our calendars show us the months. We used to have paper calendars but now they are electronic on our PDA and computers. They even beep to remind us of important appointments. What other ways do we mark time?
• Birthdays
• Anniversaries
• School days and school holidays especially the exam period
• Festivals: Chinese New Year
• Payday
• Annual and performance bonus days
• Family events: birth, death, children graduating
• Vacation time
We often mark time in relation to what is important to us. How many days to our payday? How many days until school ends and the holidays begin? How many days to the examinations? We normally mark time to something that is coming than time for something happening. If we examine the way we mark time we will discover what is really important to us (not what we say is important) and what our lives revolve around.

2. The Jewish Way of Keeping Time: Religious Festivals

God knows how important marking time is. So he gave the Old Testament Israelites a way to mark time – religious festivals. These religious festivals were related to Temple worship. And temple worship reminded the people of Yahweh, their God. Hence their whole year revolved round their religious festivals. There were daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly festivals, and great stress was laid on the regular observance of them in every particular one. During three major festivals or feasts, every male in the family have to go to Jerusalem. This meant planning for the journey. So the ancient Israelites mark time by remembering how many days to the Feast of the Tabernacles or how long were after Pentecost.


(1.) The regular festivals were,
(a) The weekly Sabbath (Lev. 23:1–3; Ex. 16:23–29; 20:8–11; 31:12, etc.).
(b) The seventh new moon, or the feast of Trumpets (Num. 28:11–15; 29:1–6).
(c) The Sabbatical year (Ex. 23:10, 11; Lev. 25:2–7).
(d) The year of jubilee (Lev. 25:8–16; 27:16–25).

(2.) The great feasts were,
(a) The Passover.
(b) The feast of Pentecost (of weeks).
(c) The feast of Tabernacles (of ingathering).

On each of these occasions every male Israelite was commanded “to appear before the Lord” (Deut. 27:7; Neh. 8:9–12). The promise that God would protect their homes (Ex. 34:23, 24) while all the males were absent in Jerusalem at these feasts was always fulfilled.
“During the whole period between Moses and Christ we never read of an enemy invading the land at the time of the three festivals. The first instance on record is thirty-three years after they had withdrawn from themselves the divine protection by imbruing their hands in the Saviour’s blood, when Cestius, the Roman general, slew fifty of the people of Lydda while all the rest had gone up to the feast of Tabernacles, A.D. 66.”

These festivals, besides their religious purpose, had an important bearing on the maintenance among the people of the feeling of a national unity. The times fixed for their observance were arranged so as to interfere as little as possible with the industry of the people.
(a)The Passover was kept just before the harvest commenced,
(b)Pentecost at the conclusion of the corn harvest and before the vintage,
(c)the feast of Tabernacles after all the fruits of the ground had been gathered in.

(3.) The Day of Atonement
The tenth day of the seventh month (Lev. 16:1, 34; 23:26–32; Num. 29:7–11). The great annual day of humiliation and expiation for the sins of the nation, “the fast” (Acts 27:9), and the only one commanded in the law of Moses. It was kept on the tenth day of the month Tisri, i.e., five days before the feast of Tabernacles, and lasted from sunset to sunset.

In the Old Testament, the concept of sacred time became a vehicle for teaching the faith (for example, Exodus 12-13).

3. The Christian Way of Keeping Time: The Christian Calendar

When we think of the Christian church year, most of us think only of Christmas and Easter. We joke about some Christians as CEO Christians. They attend church on Christmas and Easter Only. The observance of the seasons of the church year has a long history in the life of the Christian Faith. When most of the people in the church were poor and had no access to education, the church festivals and the cycle of the church year provided a vehicle for teaching the story of God and his actions in human history. Planned and purposeful observance of the Christian seasons and festivals can become an important tool for education and discipleship in the Faith, as well as a vehicle for spiritual growth and vitality. Now, before you shut your mind and think of the Christian calendar as only a Catholic calendar, let me introduce you to some protestant churches that follow the calendar:
• Anglican/Episcopal
• Lutheran
• Methodism
• Anabaptism
• Presbyterians

As a congregation moves through the church calendar, they are presented in an organized way with the opportunity to talk about, reflect upon, and respond to the entire range of faith confessions that lie at the heart of the Christian Faith. This is important, not only for the vitality of the whole community, but especially for children to become aware in the context of community celebration those things that are important to their Faith (Deut 6:20-25).

The Christian calendar is organized around two major centers of Sacred Time: A cycle of Light: Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany; and a cycle of life: Lent, Holy Week, and Easter, concluding at Pentecost. The rest of the year following Pentecost is known as Ordinary Time, from the word "ordinal," which simply means counted time (First Sunday after Pentecost, etc.). Ordinary Time is used to focus on various aspects of the Faith, especially the mission of the church in the world.

(1) A Cycle of Light (Advent, Christmas, Epiphany)


Season of Advent (Dec 3 - Dec 24, 2006)

Advent (coming) 4 Sundays. Christ's first and second coming- thanksgiving and anticipation.

[Repent and be ready for the second coming of the Lord. Allow for the Messiah to be birthed in your heart.]

Season of Christmas (Dec 25, 2006 - Jan 5, 2007)
Nativity of the Lord

Christmas day 25th December
The Twelve Days of Christmas (Dec 25, 2006 - Jan 5, 2007) Celebration of Christ's birth
The Incarnation
[Embrace the incarnation. Let Christ be born within you in a new way]


The Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates Epiphany on January 6th rather than Christmas. Historically, the celebration of Christ's birth on December 25th started after the conversion of the Roman emperor Constantine at the beginning of the 4th century AD. During his reign, the traditional pagan festival which took place at the winter equinox in celebration of the sun god was replaced by the commemoration of the birth of Christ. Christmas is not a pagan festival but the Christian festival that replaced it. It is unlikely that December 25th accurately reflects the birth of Christ which is generally thought to be around springtime in the Western hemisphere (March-April). Practically it would be difficult to celebrate both Christ's birth and death at the same time.

Season of Epiphany (Ordinary Time) (Jan 6 - Feb 20, 2007)

Epiphany of the Lord (Jan 6, 2007)

After Epiphany (Jan 7- Feb 20)
About 8 weeks God manifest in Christ. The manifestation of Christ as a savior, not only to the Jews but to all of mankind.
[make commitment for Christ to be manifested in your life]
Baptism of the Lord
Signs and wonders
Transfiguration: The glory of the Lord revealed.
Christ in his ministry as he manifest to all that he is the Son of God.
[learn to manifest Christ through the witness of life and deeds]


(2) A Cycle of Life (Lent, Holy Week, Easter, Pentecost)

Season of Lent (Feb 21 - April 7, 2007)
Lent (spring)

Ash Wednesday
Passion Week/Holy Week
Palm Sunday
Maundy Thursday
Good Friday
A time to travel with Jesus toward his death. Although under constant attacks, he ministers to the crowd.
[Time for Repentance]
The suffering of Christ
[Lent is a time for repentance through self-examination and renewal through identification with the journey of Jesus. A time for prayer, fasting and almsgiving]
Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem
The Last Supper, Gethsemane, betrayal, arrest and trial
The Crucifixion-death of Christ

Season of Easter (April 9-May 27, 2007)
Easter Virgil
Easter Day
Ascension Day
Day of Pentecost (April 8, 2007)


Season After Pentecost (Ordinary Times) (May 28 - December 1, 2007)
After Pentecost
Trinity Sunday
Reign of Christ or Christ the King About 25 weeks

The importance of the Church calendar is that it provides a coherent way of telling the Christian story throughout the year in a way that reinforces what we believes and provides opportunity to proclaiming these truths to others.

4. Lessons for us
(1) Remembering the Life of Christ our Lord

Col. 2:6
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

How do we know God?

• Creation
• Word
• Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ is the incarnate God. What this means is that God became a human being. We cannot see God who is spirit and invisible. We can see his handiwork which is creation. For God himself, we can look at Jesus and see him. That is why the gospels are so precious because the gospels gave us a lot of details about the life of Jesus Christ. As we study the life of Christ, we come to know God himself. And what is more wonderful is that as we immerse ourselves in the life of Christ, we become one with him, being given a taste of his divine name.

Have you ever being so engrossed in a movie, so identified with the main character that you flinch when he or she get hurt and feel pain when his or her heart was broken?

That is what entering into the life of Christ entails. It is being identified with Christ in his life and death.

Martin Luther wrote,
“In his life Christ is an example, showing us how to live;
In his death he is sacrifice, satisfying our sins;
In his resurrection, a conqueror;
In his ascension, a king;
In his intercession, a high priest.”

The Christian calendar takes us through the life of Christ once a year. You know what they say about acquiring a skill? Repetition, repetition, repetition. So being repetitively involved in the life of Christ makes us Christlike.

(2) Refocusing on the Work of Christ our Lord (The Eighth Day)

How many days are there in a week? 7 days or 8 days? God created the work in six days and he rested on the seventh. Then on Sunday, on the eighth day, Jesus was resurrected and God began his work of re-creation. So there are 8 days in a week and we are in the 8th day. The Christian calendar reminds us that we are working together with God in a mission to redeem creation. That is our calling and purpose. There is a six month period after Pentecost called ordinary times. This is the period to remind us of the work of the church. This is the period of our work with God.

2 Cor. 4: 4-6
The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

Being focused on the life reminds us of his mission. Christ is here on the eighth day to redeem a fallen creation. There is a new word being used nowadays- MISSIONAL. What is means is to align your mind, your heart and your life to God’s purpose. God’s purpose is to redeem his fallen creation. The word comes out of the emergent/emerging church movement. This is a group of Christians who is reexamining how to ‘do church’ and ‘be church’ in the 21st century in the midst of iPod, Internet, mp3, post modern and interconnected digital world.

(3) Recentering the Worship of Christ our Lord
Phil 3:8-11
What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

We need to be reminded again and again that Christ is our center. Christ is our center because he is the fulfillment of all the promises made to us by God. He is the head of the church. Another metaphor is that the church is the body of Christ. As such, we need to continually refocus on him who deserves to be worshipped. We have a tendency to stray, to follow after false gods.

Conclusion
We all mark time in various ways: birthdays, anniversaries or cultural festivals. The Old Testament Israelites have their religious festivals. Christians too have a way to mark time: the Christian calendar. We should return to our roots and use the Christian calendar to mark time with Jesus. This will continuously help us to
• Remember the Life of Christ our Lord
• Refocus on the Work of Christ our Lord
• Recenter our Worship of Christ our Lord

Soli Deo Gloria

Claiming the Promises of God

Text: 2 Peter 1:3-4
2PE 1:3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. (NIV)

Summary
God’s divine power enables us to know Him. Knowledge of God means knowledge of His promises given to us. By claiming these promises, we are led into the path of Godliness and better able to withstand the temptations of the world and of our own sinful nature.

I. Introduction
Jesus told Peter that he would make Peter, the fisherman, a “fisher of man”. That he did. In Acts 2, when Peter preached 3,000 people accepted Christ. In Acts 4, when Peter preached 5,000 people believed. Jesus always keep His promise.

There had been a remarkable transformation in Peter. From a brash young man, we followed his character transformation in the gospels, the Acts of the Apostles and later in the epistles. 1 Peter and 2 Peter are often attributed to him. These two epistles revealed the pastoral heart of Peter-how he cared for his flocks or people under his care. However, unlike the epistles written by Paul, Peter’s epistles are not so well organized and logical in its structure. Nevertheless, it revealed the spiritual wisdom Peter has acquired in his long life. Like Paul, Peter acknowledges the spiritual life as consisting of two parts: Knowing God and Becoming like God.

II. Knowledge of God
a. Given by divine power (v.3a)
Eph. 1: 18-21
18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20 which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come

The knowledge of God is not something we can study for. There is not a course in any school or seminary that will help you to know God. These courses can help you to know about God. We can only know God if God reveals Himself to us by His divine power. Otherwise it is all head knowledge. The divine power is the power that raised Jesus from the dead and in time will redeem the whole of creation.

b. Everything we need for life and godliness (v.3b)

This knowledge of God will give us everything we need for life and godliness. In the Christian faith, we start with knowledge, then experience. That is why the Paul taught us to renew our minds in Rom 2:28 first before we renew our spiritual life. It is dangerous to start with experiences, especially spiritual experiences. Experiences are subjective and are often vulnerable to manipulation.

We should always test our spiritual experiences by the Word of God and not the Word of God by our experiences.

c. To those who are called by His own glory and goodness (v.3c)

True knowledge of God is only available to those who are called by God. Only those who are called by God will be able to know Him. Why? That is because he or she will have the Holy Spirit to guide and teach.

What is more important is that knowledge of God will reveal the promises of God in the Bible. Without the knowledge of God, you will not know about the very great and precious promises God has given us and is waiting for us to claim.

III. Promises of God
a. Very great and precious promises (v.4a)
What are some of the very great and precious promises that God has given us?

i. Jesus Christ
1 Cor.1:20
20 For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God.

All of God’s promises can be summarized in one Person- Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the fulfilled of all the promises God has made in the Old and New Testament. We are currently in the Christian calendar of Advent. Advent is the time when we look forward to the first and second coming of Jesus Christ. It is in these two comings that all God’s promises to us are and will be fulfilled. God promised that He will become man-an incarnation. An obscure event when God came as a helpless baby boy. That is the first coming that happened two thousand years ago. The second coming is yet to be. This time, Jesus will come in power and glory and all the world will know.

ii. Forgiveness
Heb. 10:15-17
HEB 10:15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:
HEB 10:16 "This is the covenant I will make with them
after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds."
HEB 10:17 Then he adds:
"Their sins and lawless acts
I will remember no more."

Another promise we can claim is forgiveness from God. As the Holy Spirit has testified, God has forgiven us and will remember our sins no more. This is true forgiveness.

iii. Become children of God

Gal. 3:22
22 But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.

This promise of God is a wonderful promise. Not only do God love us but also he wants to adopt us! He wants us to be His sons and daughters. It is common in many cultures to have godchildren. These means we accept these children into our families. Yet, they do not enjoy the same status as our own children. Here God adopt us as His children. This means we are all co-heirs of His kingdom.

iv. Gift of the Holy Spirit
Gal.3:14
14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

Eph.1 13
13 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, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession--to the praise of his glory.

One of the incredible promises of God is that the Holy Spirit is given to us. He indwells us. Imagine God Himself coming to stay in your body! I remember when I was young; my mother will spend a lot of time cleaning up the room whenever any of my relatives will come for a visit. When I was young, my family was very poor so the whole family will stay in a rented room on top of a shop house in Brickfield, KL. Yet, whenever we have visitors, my mother will spend hours cleaning up the small room. God promise that He will come and stay with us. I wonder whether we can really understand such a privilege.

v. Guidance of the Holy Spirit
John 14:26
26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

If we are ever worried about living a Christian life, don’t. God’s promise of the Holy Spirit who is also a mentor to us. He will lead us into a life of godliness.

vi. Power of the Holy Spirit
Acts 1:8
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

The Holy Spirit will empower us. He will also give us spiritual gifts. These spiritual gifts are to help us in our own internal growth and to build up the body of Christ or the church. God promised us power. It is up to us to claim this power.

vii. The Blessed Hope
Heb. 9:15
HEB 9:15 For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance--now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

The Blessed Hope is that we shall all enjoy eternal life in New Jerusalem in the new heaven and earth.

This is not a comprehensive list and there are more in the Bible. This list highlights the important promises of God.

b. Participation in divine nature (v.4b)

The very great and precious promises of God will help us to participate in the divine nature. Participation in the divine nature does not mean we become gods. What it means is that we become like God or like Christ. We do not become the fourth member of the Trinity. It means we become godly, restoring the original image of God that we have inside of us.

c. Escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires (v.4c)

2 Cor. 7:1
2CO 7:1 Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.

This promises also help us to resist the temptations of the world and to fight our old nature that tempts us to sin.

IV. Claiming the Promises of God

These promises are given to us and we have a right to claim them. Claiming these promises is easy. Just pray to God and say, “Thank you, Lord. I claim these promises you made given me.” That’s all. There are no ritual formula words that you have to day. No special deeds you must perform to prove yourself worthy.

However, there are a few comments I want to make about claiming promises.

a. Claim only promises made to you

This may sound funny but sometimes it may cause confusion in a church.
Judges 6:36-40
JDG 6:36 Gideon said to God, "If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised-- 37 look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said." 38 And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew--a bowlful of water.

JDG 6:39 Then Gideon said to God, "Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew." 40 That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.

Is this promise made to Gideon or to all of us? Yet how many of us use this method for decision-making? Anyone for drawing lots to select elders?

b. Claim to get what is already here and not those whose time is not yet
Heb. 11:13
HEB 11:13 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. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.

What the writer of Hebrews is saying is that some of God promises have already being fulfilled but some is yet to be. Hence, when we claim God’s promises, God will not give us what is yet to be fulfilled. Hence, you cannot claim to be in be in New Jerusalem now, even though God has promised it to you.

A Sunday school teacher was teaching her children about heaven. “How do you get to heaven?” she asked. “By bus?” “No!” the children shouted. “By train?” “No!”. Expecting the answer, “Jesus’, she asked a young boy. “How do you get to heaven?” “You have to die first,” came a quiet reply.

c. Claim only what God has promised

We can only claim what God has promised, not what He has not promised. Hence, no matter how much we want to, Jesus Christ remains the only way between man and God. We cannot claim the love of love and say that everyone will be saved.

d. Follow God

Heb 10:36
36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.

One of the most important preconditions of claiming God’s promise is that you must be a child of God. And then these promises will help you to grow in your spiritual life.

V. Lessons for us: Promises and Requests

God have given us these promises and He will not take it back. God is fully able to honor His promises. This is where the Knowledge of God and the knowledge of the Bible come in. Study the Bible to discover the promises made to you. Then claim it, it is yours.

However, what about these areas, which He did not cover in His promises, like our health, work, family or church. This is where prayers come in. Where God does not promise, He leaves it to us to request and ask Him. Hence we can ask Him for healing of our sicknesses, our family problems, our workplace problems, our financial problems and even our lack of faith.

For what He has promised, there is not need to ask. For what He has not promised, we are to ask. And I believe, He wants us to ask. When Jesus was asked to teach people how to pray, He taught them to ask, “…give us this day our daily bread..” And God does answer prayers.

VI. Conclusion

God’s divine power enables us to know Him. Knowledge of God means knowledge of His promises given to us. By claiming these promises, we are led into the path of Godliness and better able to withstand the temptations of the world and of our own sinful nature.

Soli Deo Gloria

Does God Want You to be Healthy, Wealthy and Wise

A. Introduction: The Word-Faith Movement
Recently TIME magazine Sep.18, 2006 in the United States ran an article, Does God Want You to Be Rich? Subtitled: A growing number of Protestant evangelists raise a joyful Yes! But the idea is poison to other, more mainstream pastors. The picture on the front cover shows a Rolls Royce with a cross on it! Health and wealth are two major concerns of many people. Therefore anyone who offers a guaranteed package of health and wealth will attract many people. Three of the four megachurches in the United States belong to the Word-Faith movement. These churches are Osteen’s Lakewood in Houston, Creflo’s Dollar World Changers near Atlanta and T.D.Jakes’ Potter House in south Dallas. Prosperity gospel also known as the Word-Faith movement. It is also called the Positive Confession movement because of the importance it placed on the spoken Word of God and God Faith. Others call it the “Name It and Claim It” movement or Health and Wealth theology. It came into being about the time that the Pentecostal movement became a worldwide phenomenon but it is not associated with the Pentecostals.

Nevertheless many proponents of the Word-Faith movement such as Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland and Benny Hinn had some Pentecostal or Charismatic background. What was impressive is the tremendous growth in their ministries.

B. Roots of the Word-Faith Movement

a. Kenneth Hagin (1917-2003)
Kenneth Hagin is considered by some as the one who started the Word-Faith movement. However that are some who considered E.W. Kenyon as founder and that Hagin has copied most of the teaching from him.

Hagin was born premature and has a deformed heart. He was sickly when he was young and became an invalid when he was 15 years old. He said that his heart stopped three times during a 10 minute period and each time he saw the horrors of hell. This resulted in his conversion in 1933 and he went into ministry as a lay preacher for the Southern Baptists in Texas. In 1937 he received Baptism of the Holy Spirit and because a Pentecostal pastor. Hagin became an evangelist in 1949 and in the 14 years period after Hagin reported he had a series of eight visions of Jesus Christ. As a result of his last vision, he set up his own ministry in 1963 which in 1978 became the Rhema Bible Church aka Kenneth Hagin Ministries in Broken Arrow, Tulsa, Oklahoma. He started Rhema Bible Training Center in 1974, a syndicated radio show, Faith Seminar of the Air which is carried by about 250 radio stations; his own magazine, The Word of Faith and is authors of more than 125 books and pamphlets.

Kenneth Hagin’s theological roots seem to come from his personal spiritual experiences and from his Baptist and the Pentecostal background. He did not receive any formal theological training. Though he was a prolific writer and speaker, he did not acknowledge the work of E.W. Kenyon from whom some scholars suspected he plagiarized his writings.

Kenneth Hagin writes "I am fully convinced - I would die saying it is so - that it is the plan of Our Father God, in His great love and in His great mercy, that no believer should ever be sick; that every believer should live his full life span down here on this earth; and that every believer should finally just fall asleep in Jesus" ( Seven Things You Should Know about Divine Healing, p. 21).

b. E.W. Kenyon (1860-1948)
Born in 1860, E. W. Kenyon is generally recognised by some as the real founding father of the modern Word-Faith Movement. Beginning as a Methodist, he became quite ecumenical, associating with the Baptists. Some of his work even resulted in the founding of a few Primitive Baptist Churches. Late in life, Kenyon moved into Pentecostalism. At the same time, he combined elements of the metaphysic cults, such as Christian Science, New Thought theology, and Unity School of Christianity. New Thought theology can be traced to Phineas Quimby (1802-1866). Quimby studied spiritism, occultism, witchcraft and many other aspects of parapsychology. He tried to make witchcraft credible by using scientific language. It was Quimby who influenced Mary Baker Patterson Eddy who went on to found Christian Science, a cult. Quimby also had a profound influence on Kenyon who borrowed heavily from his work.

Obviously Kenyon had his theological roots both from his Christian background and from the occult. It is significant that Hagin borrowed “heavily” from his writings. Kenyon’s writing also influenced the “Oneness” Pentecostals.

c. Kenneth Copeland
Copeland has a similar history as Hagin. He is not as prolific a writer as Hagin. Most of the information about his teachings comes from his seminars, cassette recordings and radio/television telecasts. He is a televangelist and faith healer. Copeland is also heavily influenced by Kenyon’s teaching.

d. Benny Hinn
Benny Hinn was often put forward as a successor for Kenneth Hagin for the Word-Faith movement. The other contender was Kenneth Copeland. Unlike Hagin and Copeland, Hinn came from an Anglican background. However he was strongly influenced by the faith healing ministry of Kathryn Kullman. After she died, he worked with her ministry for 5 years. Then he started his own healing ministry based on Kullman’s style of ministry. Benny Hinn is famous for ‘slaining people in the Spirit” by a wave of his coat or his hands. He was the pastor of Orlando Christian Center in Orlando, Florida. In the 1980s, he was influenced by the Word-Faith teachings of Hagin and Copeland. However, he was challenged by two Christian cult watch group, Christian Research Institute and the Watchman Fellowship which were unhappy with his Word-Faith theology and his healing practices. In 1993, Hinn renounced Word-Faith theology and became affiliated with the Assemblies of God (Pentecostal). Presently he resides in Dallas and runs World Outreach Center Benny Hinn Ministries which include a Signs and Wonder Bible School. He reaches the world through his evangelistic rallies, television shows and books. His main ministry is miracle and faith healing. It is interesting to note that even though Benny Hinn has distanced himself from the Word-Faith movement, the movement still regards him as one of their own.

e. Paul/David Cho Yonggi
David Cho Yonggi is the pastor of Full Gospel Yoido Church in Seoul, Korea. He was Paul Cho Yonggi until recently when he said Jesus said he has died and am now raised as David Cho Yonggi. He declared that he received his power from a demon in the fourth dimension. The first three dimensions are physical and are controlled by the spiritual which is the fourth dimension. He taught this concept as the “Fourth Dimension”. If a person (Christian or non-Christian) follow the formula of positive confession (more about this later), visualization, they “incubate” and eventually give rise to their desires. Cho Yonggi is aware that these are occultic methods but believe that Christians are allowed to use occultic methods to achieve their ends.

The proponents of the Word-Faith movement have colorful and interesting life experiences. However, it is obvious from this brief review is that we can trace their teaching back through Copeland and Hagin to Kenyon. And from Kenyon to Quimby who was involved with the occult and metaphysics. David Cho seems to be the exception in that he approaches the occult directly. However, it must be said that not all followers of Hagin, Copeland or Hinn buy totally into the theology of Word-Faith.

C. Five Doctrines of Health and Wealth

a. The Power of Positive Confession
This is the most well known distinctive of the Word-Faith theology. Proponents recognize that words are important, so important that coupled with faith it can create. This means if we confess or proclaim positive things, it will be created for us. The reverse is also true. If we proclaim in faith negative things, these negative things will be created for us. That is why Word-Faith theology is also known as “Name it and Claim it” theology. This doctrine is based on the teaching that God has faith, a sort of God-faith. God used His faith to create the universe. God has to speak His word to create. Kenyon wrote, “Faith is the creative force in man. Faith is the creative force in the Creator. God simply said, ‘Let there be.’” Hagin continued, “The God kind of faith…is the kind of faith that spoke the world into existence…God created the universe with words. Words filled with faith are the most powerful things in all the world.” And Copeland adds, “God is a faith being…God does not do anything outside of faith.”

God faith is a creative force. Anyone can use this force if he or she has this God faith. By speaking out using this God faith, we can claim anything we want.

The basis for this doctrine is based on Mark 11:22 and Hebrews 11:3

Mark 11:22
MK 11:22 "Have faith in God," Jesus answered. 23 "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, `Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.

Teachers of Word-Faith theology interpreted Jesus’ saying “Have faith in God” to mean “Have the God type of faith”. This is based on the grammatical distinctive of the Greek text echet pistin theou. This was taken to mean that (1) God has faith (God faith), (2) it is possible for us to have God faith, and (3) we can use the God faith to move mountains. So the question we need to ask is, “Does God has faith?” The answer is no. Faith is to believe in someone or something. God does not have to believe because He knows! God does not have to believe in Himself. This will throw into doubt the existence of such a force as God faith.

Hebrews 11:3
HEB 11:3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

Kenyon and the Word-Faith teachers interpret this to mean that God created the universe by speaking the word in faith. Again it is playing with the Greek syntax. In Greek, the sentence reads as
Pistei nooumen katērthisthai tous aiōnas rhēmati theou
(by) faith we understand were made worlds (by) word of God

Traditional interpretation will be:
we understand (by faith) were made worlds (by the word of God)

Word-Faith teaches
we understand were made worlds (by faith, by the word of God)
Hence the interpretation becomes God made the worlds by the word of God faith.

Hagin's theme, as found in his booklet How to Write Your Own Ticket with God, can be summarized as follows (Christianity in Crisis, pp. 74-75): The formula is simply: "Say it, Do it, Receive it, and Tell it."
1. Step number one is "Say it." "Positive or negative, it is up to the individual. According to what the individual says, that shall he receive."
2. Step number two is "Do it." "Your action defeats you or puts you over. According to your action, you receive or you are kept from receiving."
3. Step number three is "Receive it." We are to plug into the "powerhouse of heaven." "Faith is the plug, praise God! Just plug in."
4. Step number four is "Tell it so others may believe." This final step might be considered the Faith movement's outreach program.

b. The Lifting of the Curse
One of the persuasive arguments of the word-faith proponents is that Jesus has lifted the curse of the law from us.

Kenneth Hagin writes,
What is the curse of the law? The only way to find out is to go back to the law. The expression “the law” as found in the New Testament usually refers to the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. As we go back to these books-or the law- we find that the curse, or punishment, for breaking God’s laws is threefold: poverty, sickness, and spiritual death.

What follows from this argument is that since the curse have been lifted from us, poverty, sickness and spiritual death has also been lifted from us. The primary text is Deuteronomy 28.

Kenneth Copeland said,
Remember what was listed under the curse in Deuteronomy 28? Poverty of every kind, political failure, drought, war, every calamity known to mankind; and Jesus has redeemed us from it all. ALL sickness and ALL disease, even those not mentioned here, come under the curse. Therefore, we are redeemed from all sickness and all disease. You need to fight the temptation to be sick just as you would fight the temptation to lie or steal.

Deuteronomy 28 was directed to the covenant nation of Israelite. God covenant to bless the Israelites with good health, wealth and safety if they will forsake all gods, worship Him and be His people (Deu. 28:1-14). If they fail and follow other gods, then God will punish them. However, there are no indications that Deuteronomy 28 apply to us who are not of the nation God made the covenant with. We cannot appropriate or individualise promises that are not made to us.

Aside from Deuteronomy 28, there are other Scriptures used to support their teachings.


c. Healing in the Atonement
Most word-faith proponents will focus on health with regards to the atonement though some will also include wealth.

Benny Hinn in explaining about healing as part of the atonement writes in his book, Rise and Be Healed, writes, "The Bible declares that the work was done 2,000 years ago. God is not going to heal you now -- he healed you 2,000 years ago. All you have to do today is receive your healing by faith".

The inference that Hinn have drawn is that healing has already occurred. It is now up to us whether we claim it or not. Scriptures commonly used in support are:

Isaiah 53:4, 5

ISA 53:4 Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.

ISA 53:5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
(emphasis added)

If we are to read Isaiah 53 in context, it is about a suffering servant who was ugly and sick. It is a poem and so must be interpreted as such. Any reader of Isaiah at that time will begin to think, “What has this man done to deserve such punishment from God?” In that time, diseases/infirmities are often regarded as punishment from God. Verse 4a has the synonyms “infirmities” and “sorrows” and v.4b “stricken” and “afflicted”. Here the reader was brought to the realization that this man was actually suffering for them when all along they thought he was being punished by God for his own sin. In v.5a, there is a pair of synonyms, “transgressions” and “iniquities”. In the next part there is another pair “peace/shalom” and “healed”. If we taken into the genre of the passage which is prophetic poetry, then it is possible to understand v.4 being used to contrast with v.5: which is about the deliverance from sin. Oswalt notes that this passage make us ask the question, “Here God has made this person suffer for the iniquity of “all of us”. Who can this person be?” Hence the passage does not deal specifically with physical healing.

d. The King’s Kids Rule
As we are God’s “sons and daughters”, we should act accordingly. According to word-faith teaching, we were under Satan’s domain that is why we were poor and sick. That is no longer the case. Jesus has set us free by His death on the cross. Hence, we are no longer the ruled but the ruler of Satan’s domain. This means we should now be rich and healthy.

Kenneth Copeland writes in Healed ? to Be or Not to Be:

"The first step to spiritual maturity is to realize your position before God. You are a child of God and a joint-heir with Jesus. Consequently, you are entitled to all the rights and privileges in the kingdom of God, and one of their rights is health and healing" (p. 25).

Hagin and other teachers of word-faith understand Paul in Romans 5:17 as saying that Christians are to “reign” in life now. After all, Christians are free from Satan’s domain.

17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

It must be pointed out that Paul is saying, we “will reign”, not we “are reigning” in this life. Later in the letter Paul instructed the Christians not to let sin reign in our bodies, a warning he would not have given if we are already reigning over sin.

e. Health and Wealth as God’s Will
One of the attractions of the faith-word teaching is that God wants us to be healthy and wealthy. Who can resist such a statement!

Gloria Copeland (Kenneth's wife) in her book God's Will Is Prosperity: "Give $10 and receive $1000; Give $1000 and receive $100,000? give one house and receive one hundred houses or a house worth one hundred times as much. Give one airplane and receive one hundred times the value of the airplane. ? In short, Mark 10:30 is a very good deal" (p. 54).

Mark 10:29-30
MK 10:29 "I tell you the truth," Jesus replied, "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields--and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life.

This text is often used by word-faith teachers to teach that if you give, God will bless you in return a hundred times. So, one ringgit becomes 100 ringgit. If you take the verse literally, you will be receiving a hundred homes, a hundred brothers, a hundred sisters, a hundred mothers, a hundred children, a hundred fields and a hundred persecutions! What Jesus really meant what that if it become necessary for you to leave your immediate family for His sake; you will become part of a bigger family (which is the church) and in the future eternal life.


We have seen how the doctrines about health and wealth of the Word-Faith movement come from erroneous hermeneutics. Sentences are either taken out of context or misinterpreted so as to lead to faulty reasoning and conclusions. What they have to offer are attractive: positive confession using God faith to get what we want; the lifting of the curse guarantee us health, wealth and eternal life; we are the King’s kids so we should act accordingly; there is complete healing in the atonement; and God wants us to be healthy and wealthy. What’s not to like? Now that we have examined the beautiful furnishing of the mansion, let us go down to the basement and look at the foundation.

D. The Underlying Theology of the Word-Faith Movement
What is not obvious to many people who are attracted by goodness of the Word-Faith movement is their foundational theological construct.

a. God and Faith
As we have discussed, God does not have faith. And there is no such force as God faith. There are no grounds in Reformed/Presbyterian theology to even consider God faith. God is the creator. Our faith is in Him. God is God and we do not have the God power to create no matter how much faith we have. It is good to have positive thoughts and that is healthy for the body. However, there is no theological basis for positive confession. We can ask God in faith, trusting in His goodness but we cannot force God.

b. Adam, Satan and Dominion
Adam did not have a nature when God created him. According to Word-Faith theology, God created Adam to be the god of this world. When Adam was tempted by Satan, he gave up his godhood to Satan and took on Satan’s nature. Satan became the owner of this creation. Apparently there was a “lease” and God is powerless to take the creation back from Satan.

This is in direct contradiction to Reformed/Presbyterian theology. The Bible taught that Adam was created in the image of God. Hence he has a nature, a perfect human nature. He was tempted by Satan and sinned by disobeying God. Adam was banished from the Garden of Eden because of this sin. Adam was never a god and Satan did not become a god of this world. Though Adam has fallen, he never took on Satan’s nature. He retains a distorted image of God which Paul called our old man or old nature. God is always more powerful than Satan and there is no grounds to assume that God is powerless before Satan. God has a plan for the redemption of man and of this creation but God’s plan depends on the partnership of man. That is why He sent His Son, Jesus Christ to earth.

c. Atonement

There are a few points here about Word-Faith theology atonement we must take note:

· Jesus came to save mankind. To do that, He became fully human and left His divine self behind
· To atone for Adam’s sin, Jesus has to die twice: one spiritually and one physically
· Jesus died spiritually (first death- but not specific when he died spiritually. Some taught at the Garden of Gethsemane and some taught on the cross).
· Jesus when he died took on Satan’s nature
· Jesus died on the cross after being crucified (second death-physical death)
· Jesus was brought down to hell and was tortured by Satan and his demons
· After 3 days, Jesus found a way to be born again (Jesus was innocent and Satan had wrongly imprisoned an innocent man. God has tricked Satan)
· Jesus was resurrected with God’s nature
· Because of the atonement of Jesus, we Christians have God’s nature
· We are equal with Jesus

"Do you think that the punishment for our sin was to die on a cross? If that were the case, the two thieves could have paid our price. No, the punishment was to go into hell itself and to serve time in hell separated from God" (Frederick K.C. Price, Ever Increasing Faith Messenger, June 1990, p. 7).

There is no support in the Bible that Jesus left his divine self behind (where?). Jesus has always been fully God and fully human at all times. He may put aside his divine attributes but he was never separated from them. Jesus died for our sin but Jesus did not become sin. Jesus never put on the nature of Satan. And Jesus was not tortured in hell. In 1 Peter 3:19, Jesus descended to “prison” often translated as Hades or hell. Some commentator said Jesus went to hell to preach to the dead and offer them a second chance for salvation. However the textual support for this is weak. The textual support is stronger that Jesus went to hell to proclaim His victory over death. There were never any indications that Jesus was captured or tortured by Satan.

The idea may have been derived from the “ransom” theory of atonement where 1 Tim 2:6 is taken literally and Jesus Christ had to pay a ransom to the Satan for the release of mankind. This was strongly held by an early church father, Gregory of Nyssa. However, it was later abandoned because it did not fully explain the complexity of the atonement. Lim liken the ransom theory to Aslan dying for Edmund in the C. S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia series.

d. Born Again Jesus

In Word-Faith theology, Jesus has to die and be born again. That is why, they taught, that Paul considers Jesus the second Adam. Again this does not fit into Reformed/Presbyterian theology as Jesus could never be born again. Born again is a term applied to sinful man who is redeemed by Jesus’ atonement. Being born again means getting a new human nature and the Holy Spirit. Jesus does not need both of this. Jesus died for our sin, a penal substitution death to satisfy the justice of God. He did not acquire a human fallen nature. He also does not need to receive the Holy Spirit because He and the Holy Spirit are one in the Trinity. Hence we who are born again are not equal to Jesus. Though in God’s grace, He allows us to partake of the divine nature but that does not make us gods. There is only one God. We are not little gods and never will be. The Word-Faith theology makes Jesus so human that we become more powerful than Him!


E. Perspective from Reformed/Presbyterian Theology
I believe this balanced view to be a Reformed/Presbyterian theological viewpoint.

Formalism
No healing in the atonement
God wants Christians to be poor
God does not do miracles today
Sickness has no relation to sin or unbelief

Balance Theological View
(Reformed/Presbyterian)
Healing in the atonement realized in part now, in full in the resurrection
God wants Christians to be faithful; in some cases this means rich, in some cases poor
God does miracles today, but they cannot be predicted and should not be expected.
Some sickness is related to sin or unbelief

Word-Faith Theology
Healing in full now guaranteed by the atonement
God wants Christians to be rich
Miracles should be a regular part of the Christian experience today
All sickness is related to sin and unbelief.

An important point Word-Faith teachers tend to miss is the “already and not yet” concept of Jesus and Paul. Their eschatology is immediate while Jesus and Paul teach an eschatology that has been fulfilled and yet still awaits fulfillment. This is where the confusion arises. God does want us to be healed but our complete healing will only come when we received our imperishable bodies during the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Until then, we are still subject to the normal wear and tear of living in the natural world.

Reformed/Presbyterian theology has always been faithful to the Word of God. Though challenged from time to time, it has always been able to weather the challenges and become stronger as a result. As we have examined earlier, the whole theology of Word-Faith teaching is incompatible with Reformed/Presbyterian theology. The theology of Word-Faith teaching is also incompatible with Pentecostalism and the Assemblies of God have taken steps to distant themselves from it.

Reformed/Presbyterian theology has always upheld God as a supreme being and that Jesus’ death on the cross as complete and total for our salvation. It teaches that Satan is a fallen angel, therefore less than God the creator. Reformed/Presbyterian theology also have a correct view of man who are not “little gods”. It has room for a theology of suffering and of redemption.

F. Conclusion
We have seen how the major Word-Faith teachers derived their theology from Quimby who is known to be involved in New Thought metaphysics and occultism. The roots of these teachings have reached upwards into the Word-Faith theology to humanized God and Jesus Christ and deitified man. The five prominent doctrines with regards to Word-Faith were found to be based on faulty hermeneutics or interpretation of the Bible. We have also seen how the foundational theology of Word-Faith is incompatible with Reformed/Presbyterian theology.

For a more complete review please read my position paper, Examining the Theology of the Word-Faith Movement at www.kairos2.com/word-faith.htm


Soli Deo Gloria

Discovering Christ and Assurance of Salvation

Introduction:

Who is Christ?


Jesus is a Teacher
Most if not all people regard Jesus as a great teacher. Mahatma Gandhi regards Jesus as one of the greatest teacher who ever lived and the Sermon on the Mount as the greatest sermon ever preached. He studied the New Testament in South Africa and when he went back to India to lead the Indian Independence movement. Unfortunately, he was unable to see Jesus as more than a man.

Teaches about God (John 14:6,7)
JN 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."

If you read through the Gospel accounts, you will notice that Jesus has always been teaching the people about God. He understands that it is difficult for people to relate to a God who is invisible. That is why He often points to Himself as the incarnation of an invisible God.

Teaches about God’s love (John 3:16)
JN 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

The other emphasis about Jesus’ teaching about a God is who is not only our creator but a God who loves us, His creation. God loves us so much that He is willing to sacrifice His only Son for us. That is another difficult lesson to learn. For example, you have a really good friend. So good that you love each other very much. Then one day, you discovered that you have cystic fibrosis. This is a disease that eats up and destroys your lung tissues. The doctors tell you that the only way you will survive is if you receive a heart-lung transplant. And your friend came up to you and said, “Here take the lungs and heart of my only son so that you can live, the son I love very much.” I know it is not a likely scenario but that is what the love of God can be compared to in our present setting.

Teaches about God’s plan of Redemption (2 Cor. 5:18,91)
2 Cor 5:18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

This world is not what God made it to be. God created a perfect world which He said was good. This world is broken. God wants to fix this world, this creation that He has made. Therefore He has a plan which involves His Son. Jesus coming to this world is part of this plan. The other part of the plan is what Jesus has been teaching: calling people to turn back to worship God and training the disciples to be the people of God-the Church.


Jesus is a Man

The Gnostics do not believe that Jesus is a man. If you have read the book or watch the movie, The Da Vinci Code, you would have been exposed to some of the Gnostic gospels; the Gospel of Barnabas; Gospel of Mary etc. Some Gnostic teaches that Jesus is not a man but something that looks like a man. Others teach that Jesus was the first created creature of God. The biblical accounts was very clear that Jesus is a flesh and blood man.

He is the son of Joseph and Mary (Matt 13:35)
MT 13:55 "Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary, and aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas?

Even though He was conceived by the Holy Spirit while Mary is still a virgin, yet He was born normally like any other child. He has a childhood and was accepted by other children as one of them. In fact, he was accepted by his community as one of them. That is why they were so surprised to find Him different. Isn’t he so and so’s son? Even though Jesus has a divine nature and a human nature, His human nature was so prominent during His time on earth that He was accepted as one of the community.

He struggled with decision making (John 12:27,28)
JN 12:27 "Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? `Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name!"
If Jesus is purely God, then there is not need to struggle. After all, God is omniscience and omnipotence. The fact that Jesus struggled with His decision making indicates that He is like us. He is a human male. For his time on earth, He has put aside His divine nature so that he is human. Like us, he felt stress, pain and the uncertainty of decision making.

He was thirsty (John 19:28)
JN 19:28 Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty."
For me, this is the strongest proof that He was human as He hung on the cross. It was midday, the sun was beating down mercilessly and He felt thirsty. God does not feel thirsty. A human being does.

Jesus is God

Jesus is a great teacher and a man. If that is what He is, then He would have just started an effective philosophical school and we are still in our sins. Jesus is fully man. He is also fully God. That is what is so amazing about Jesus.

He is called by Divine Names (Rev.22:12,13)
REV 22:12 "Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

Names are very important. It is not just a label to identity you but denotes who you are. Those of you who have children will be aware of how difficult it is to find names for your children. Will they grow into their names? In Revelations, Jesus is uses a name the Alpha and the Omega. Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet and omega, the last. It means completeness or perfection. The only one who can bear such a name is God. Jesus uses names reserved for God such as the “I am”. That is why the Jewish people wanted to kill Him. He was using the name of God and to them that is taboo; taking the name of God in vain.

He is called by Thomas his God (John 20:28)
JN 20:28 Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"

The apostle Thomas, often called Doubting Thomas because he said he would only believe if he can see and touch the risen Christ. Actually I would consider him an empirical scientist because he wants to be sure in his own belief. Jesus knew that. That’s why He allowed Thomas to touch His wounds. Thomas burst out in amazement acknowledging that He is God. Legend has it that Thomas traveled to southern India. Here he came into contact with an ancient civilization and Hinduism. That he was able to have converts and started the Mar Thomas Church was an indication of how strong was his conviction that Jesus Christ is God.

He is referred to as God (Heb.1:8)
HEB 1:8 But about the Son he says, "Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom.

God Himself referred to Jesus as God. We believe that God is Trinity: God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son and the Holy Spirit. We do not have three Gods. We have one God who is three. Hence the doctrine of the Trinity. God is omnipresent. When Jesus was on earth, His divine essence is still part of the Trinity. One must not have the misconception that when Jesus was walking the earth, there is only two of the Godhead up there. There are always three who are one.

Jesus is Savior

Savior because of His completed work on the cross (Col 1:20)
19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

When Jesus died on the cross, it was all part of God’s plan of redemption. The world was broken. It was corrupted by human sin. Sin is defined as disobedience to God. The punishment for sin is death. That is justice. Since we have all sinned, we can die only for our own sin. We need someone who does not have sin to die for us. Then we can be free. This person is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ being God is sinless. Hence He can die for our sin. Thus justice is fulfilled. The theological term for this is penal substitution atonement.

Savior that brings the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38)
AC 2:38 Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off--for all whom the Lord our God will call."

We receive this justice when we believe that Jesus die on the cross for our sins. We have received the forgiveness of sin because of what Christ has done. And what is more, God gives us a sign of our forgiveness. He gives us the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is given to us when we accept Jesus Christ’s completed work on the cross.

Savior bringing eternal life and assurance of salvation (John 10:28-30)
28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. 30 I and the Father are one."

God has given us his assurance that what He has given us is eternal. God however respects our freedom. We are all given the freedom to accept or reject Him. That is the wonder of God. Only a loving and supreme God will allow His creature to choose to accept Him or reject Him. If we accept Him, we move from the kingdom of this broken world to the kingdom of God. Once we are there, as long as we remain faithful, we will never fall out of the grace of His Hands.

Conclusion: Making Friends with Jesus (John 15: 5-8)
JN 15:5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8 This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

If Jesus is who He is: fully God and fully man, then what He has done on the cross are true and we have been freed from our sins. He has taken our sins upon Him. We have received forgiveness. All that He has taught us about God is true. God loves us and wants us to be part of His plan for the redemption of this creation. No only people but the environment as well. Jesus Christ is God incarnate. He is the invisible God making Himself visible. So our role now is to follow Jesus Christ.

Soli Deo Gloria




Sermon Handout
Discovering Christ and Assurance

Introduction: Who is Christ?


Jesus is a Teacher
Teaches ___________________________________(John 14:6,7)
JN 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."

Teaches ___________________________________ (John 3:16)
JN 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Teaches ___________________________________ (2 Cor. 5:18,91)
2 Cor 5:18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

Jesus is a Man
He _____________________________________________(Matt 13:35)
MT 13:55 "Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary, and aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas?

He ___________________________________________ (John 12:27,28)
JN 12:27 "Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? `Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name!"

He ___________________________________________ (John 19:28)
JN 19:28 Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty."


Jesus is God
He is _______________________________________ (Rev.22:12,13)
REV 22:12 "Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

He is _______________________________________ (John 20:28)
JN 20:28 Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"

He is _______________________________________ (Heb.1:8)
HEB 1:8 But about the Son he says, "Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom.

Jesus is Savior
Savior _________________________________________ (Col 1:20)
19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Savior _________________________________________ (Acts 2:38)
AC 2:38 Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off--for all whom the Lord our God will call."

Savior ________________________________________(John 10:28-30)
28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. 30 I and the Father are one."



Conclusion: Making _____________________________________Jesus (John 15: 5-8)
JN 15:5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8 This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.



Discovering Christ and Assurance
Bible Study


Why do you think most people regards Jesus as a great teacher?



What does Jesus teach about God’s Plan of Redemption?



Do you think Jesus Christ is a human person like us? If yes, why? If no, why?



Why do you think it is important that Jesus be human?



Do you think Jesus Christ is God? If yes, why? If no, why?



How does Jesus Christ being fully God, fully human helps us?



What did Jesus Christ achieved by dying on the cross?



Can we lose our salvation?



Discuss some of the ways we can get to know Jesus Christ better.



Write down 3 applications from this study that you will apply this week.