Stephen Tong's Sermons

Jesus' Last Words to the Jews (Jn. 12:34-50)

2012-01-21T23:09:00.002+11:00

This is my personal summary of Rev Dr Stephen Tong's sermon on 15 January 2012 in STEMI Expository Preaching at True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 12:34-50

“Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him.” (Jn. 12:37)

A preacher’s greatest sadness is that nobody wants to listen. But from God’s perspective this is the reverse. God is the sovereign one who gives opportunity to hear and hardens the heart. It is the Creator of all mankind who says this. As creatures made in the image of God, humans forget they have only the image and are not God.

Here is the conflict of sovereignty. We think we are sovereign we think we can choose God while actually it is God who choose. We live in a society that is man-centered. They think they have abandoned God but the Bible says that it is God that has abandoned them. They think they have the power to rebel against God but it is God who have left them to their own ways. Nothing happens outside of God’s will. He is the Lord of time and space, of humanity and nature, of history and geography. He declares that He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the One who started and finish His works. He is indeed the God of the universe. In His wrath He preserves some people. In His overwhelmeing love He rejects some people. This is frightening. Many people fall in the hands of the God of judgement but are not aware of how horrible that is. Who knows the power of His wrath? We ought to fear God and give glory to Him.

Often we only look at the exterior. We despise the uneducated and the poor. The Lord deliberately came poor and uneducated. The Jews could not recognise who Christ was. When they could not see the arm of the Lord, they could not see God’s message, they thought the work of God was hidden. However, Isaiah said it is in God’s sovereignty that these people did not believe and perish. There are a lot of opportunities for the Jews to listen to Jesus but they became more arrogant and resistant to Him.

Jesus was calm, He did not react but simply explained the truth to them. Jesus warned them, “Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me.” (Jn. 12:44-45)
The work of God is believing in the one He sent. The response to Christ is the greatest demand of God. The Jews did not realise the horrifying consequences of their unbelief.

Jesus said, “I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness. If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day. For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.” (Jn. 12:46-50)

Here Jesus addressed the Jews very clearly. This is the last preaching, the last opportunity, the last warning to the Jews. When men are ignorant of this, they think they abandon God but actually they abandon themselves. God removed the lampstand from Jerusalem and Athens, the two great cities at that time. Instead Galilee which was despised became the place where lasting influence came about. The disciples of Christ from Galiless have surpassed tje Greek philosophers. There are more people today with the names of Peter and John than those with the names of Aristotle and Plato.

True wisdom produces holiness, righteousness and is found in the salvation of God (1 Cor. 1:30). All true wisdom is found in the Word of God, which is fully revealed in Christ. Greek seek wisdom and Jews seek miracles but we preach Christ crucified. He was crucified because people judged Him based on what outward appearance. But this Nazarene has the greatest influence in the world. We must see the guidance of God with our eyes of faith.

This is the last time Jesus spoke to the Jews. There was no more opportunity after this. He spoke no more to them when He was on trial because their time was up. How many opportunities have we been given? We have to answer to all that on the last day.

The Glory of Christ (Jn. 12:20-28)

2011-12-11T17:23:00.001+11:00

This is my personal summary of Rev Dr Stephen Tong's sermon on 27 November 2011 in STEMI Expository Preaching at True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 12:20-28

Jesus said, “Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.” (Jn. 12:26) Only those who serve Jesus would be honoured by God. If you do not honour Jesus Christ, God would not honour you. Here is where true value lies. If you honour Christ, you honour the value system God has set.

This is the mystery of Christ. The glorification of Jesus Christ came through suffering. He suffered under the will of God and this is His glorious pathway. This is the greatest truth in humanity. Many people want to be honoured and be glorious but very few are willing to suffer. Glory without pain and sufferings are superficial. Isa. 53 portrays Jesus as the suffering son of man. He suffered the most and will be the most glorified. God created man with glory and honour but they are not superficial things men see with physical eyes.

Jesus Christ is the seed that fell to the ground and died. At this point, Jesus said, “Now my soul 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. Father, glorify your name!” (Jn. 12:27-28)

This prayer is related to existential consciousness. It is a reaction towards one’s existence. We often pray to God to deliver us from sickness, from sufferings and agony. We live in space and time and go through difficulties in life in time-space constraint.

Time and space are human life’s two great possesions. Our life is as long as our time. Jesus said by worrying we cannot increase our time by one moment. People tend to look at their possession in material terms and seldom look at it from the perspective of time and space. The Bible teaches that our consciousness of time and wisdom are linked. How we understand the limitation of our time relates to gaining wisdom. “Lord teach us to number our days aright that we might gain a heart of wisdom.” (Ps. 90:12). Much lost opportunity is lost time yet people tend to focus on their material possessions without realising this loss.

Jesus has a great consciousness of his own existence. Religiousity includes the understanding of eternity. We want to break free, we want to surpass. Jesus said, “Father save Me from this hour.” The existentialists use the term ‘anxiety’. It is not worry. Anxiety is more difficult to measure and more unfathomable. In German it is called angst.

Existentialists has angst because they are conscious they exist. They are conscious of their existence but do not understand the meaning of their existence because they see that inexistence will swallow them up. They cannot understand this chasm between existing and not existing.

One can only be swallowed by something greater. If existence is swallowed by non-existence, non-existence is greater than existence. How can that be? Existentialists therefore discuss nothingness as though it is something greater than existence. They discuss nothingness as though it is something concrete. Existentialism discusses how existence is swallowed into inexistence and studies inexistence as the greater existence. How great is that anxiety.

When Jesus prayed “Father save Me from this hour” He is acutely aware of His existence. Then Jesus said, “No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.” Christians should learn to understand that our time and existence are ordained by God. Jesus is conscious that He came to suffer.

Our existence is not merely related to other material things. We receive wisdom when we realise our relationship with God who created us. Jesus is the Word that came into time. The relationship between Jesus and His sufferings cannot be segregated. He came for that very hour. He said, Father glorify Your name.

“Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.” (Jn. 12:28-29)

Why are some prayers not answered? Why did Jesus receive immediate response from heaven? His prayer is true prayer, a prayer that is pleasing to God. How many people really pray for the glory of God? We often just pray for our own needs. Jesus pray for God’s glory. His prayer was answered because it went right into the heart of God.

What does it mean by God’s reply, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” This is the concept of “already and not yet”. God has glorified His name and that refers to Christ’s incarnation. God said He will glorify it again and that refers to Christ’s death. That is the other glory. This is very different from our concept of glory. How can a lowly birth and humiliating death be God’s glory?

When Jesus was born in the manger, the angels sang “Glory to God in the highest, peace of God to those on whom His favour rest.” What sort of glory is that? This is the paradox of the Bible. The mystery of God is hidden in this thing. The highest King has come to the lowest place. This is the most glorious thing.

And God’s name will be glorified again through Christ’s death on the Cross. In Luke 24 Jesus said the Son of God enter into glory through His sufferings. And He is our glory. Through His death we enter into glory. There is no price greater than the blood of Christ which redeems us from sin and gives us eternal life. The church which grows through suffering for Christ is a true church. May we become people who will glorify God.

The Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem (Jn. 12:12-26)

2011-11-20T21:02:00.002+11:00

This is my personal summary of Rev Dr Stephen Tong's sermon on 13 November 2011 in STEMI Expository Preaching at True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 12:12-26

God established David’s throne and promised that his kingdom would once more become glorious. Israel expected Messiah to come to recover the historical glory of Davidic kingdom. After the return from Babylon, Jewish scholars studied the Messiah and recognised the Messiah’s coming as a glorious one which would surely revive Israel. But this is a one-sided concept that is why the Jews could not recognise the true Messiah when He came. They looked down on Him because of His human background. They concluded nothing would come from Nazareth, from the son of a carpenter. It was a tragedy to measure value in this way.

Why did Jesus ride on a donkey and not a horse? Jesus was willing to ride on a donkey which nobody has ever ridden. He entered Jerusalem as the Prince of peace, not the King of war. People on the road welcomed Him and shouted hosanna (Jn. 12:12-13). From human perspective this was the greatest glory Jesus received on earth.

But unlike man’s concept of glory, Christ’s concept of glory Jesus is in suffering. The first step of His glorification on earth was His incarnation, God become flesh. The angels sang glory to God in the highest when He was born in the lowest place, the smelly manger.

The second step was the glory in His death. When people came by the masses to welcome Jesus, the Pharisees were displeased. Their words revealed their arrogance. They could not be happy when others are praised. They believe their religion is right and only they should get praises. Jerusalem was in a mess then. Some people wanted to kill Jesus, some wanted to praise God and some people were there for the passover. But Jesus knew He was the Lamb of the passover and the time was coming for Him to die.

This principle has never changed. Without the cross there is no resurrection. No life without death. No glory of God without suffering.

Many people from all over the world came to gather at Jerusalem for the passover, including the Greeks (Jn. 12:20). Why would the non-Jews obey the law of the Jews to come to Jerusalem for passover? These were non-Jews who were pious and God-fearing. Cornellius was such a person. He feared God. Peter said, “God accepts from every nation the one who fears Him and does what is right.” (Acts 10:35) This does not mean their good deeds save them. They still need the salvation of Jesus. The Bible said the entire world is under sin.

The Greeks discovered that their religion was not good so they looked for something different in the Jewish religion. 400 years before our Lord, the Greeks had 3 great philosophers, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. These three great philosophers were different, but they were common in one way. They recognise that truth must be consistent and true good must bring true happiness. True happiness consists in having wisdom which includes life ethics. In the past, they were seeking wisdom. Unfortunately our education system is more about academics, it is not about seeking wisdom.

Socrates had sparked the thought to seek the purpose of life in many Greeks who continued to learn for 400 years till Jesus came. 400 years before and 400 years after Christ are considered the golden age of philosophy. People seek to understand the purpose of existence. In western philosophy, the golden aim of existence is to be happy. One group says happiness comes from hedonistic lifestyle (Epicurian). Another group believes true happiness comes from true good (Stoics) which sets high standard for morality. And a third group doubts everything (Skeptics). This influences western though greatly, to seek the good, to seek joy and happiness and to doubt all things.

These highly learned and intelligent Greeks were looking for Jesus. They found that their false gods did not give any answer. They were looking for purpose of life. They found Phillip. Phillip found Andrew and both went to Jesus. When they met Jesus, Jesus said “the hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified.” (v.23) This refers to His death. He was not filled with anxiety. He was not interested in philosophy discourse. He knew He was called for the lost sheep of Israel.

So He said to the Greeks, “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” (Jn. 12:24) Here Jesus gave them the philosophy of life. There are two principles, anyone who loves their life will lose it, he who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life (Jn. 12:25). No religion or philosophy ever said this. Eventually every religion and philosophy of man is still man-centered. However, Jesus points away from man-centredness. He said lose your life and you will receive it.

When your time is up your money means nothing, your power means nothing. A person who live a life of decadence will one day has everything he has strived for taken away, like the rich man who hoarded wealth would lose his life the very night God wanted it.

Our Lord Jesus was born gloriously and died gloriously in God’s eyes. He went from glory to glory, the first glory in incarnation and the second glory in His death. This is very different from political leaders and sinners of the world.

Jesus was not interested in philosophical discourses. He came to die in order to give eternal life.

Preparing for His Death - Part 3 (Jn. 12:1-8)

2011-11-17T03:34:00.001+11:00

This is my personal summary of Rev Dr Stephen Tong's sermon on 6 November 2011 in STEMI Expository Preaching at True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 12:1-8

In the Bible, top 3 women whose words were recorded most in the Bible are:
1. Rahab
2. Queen of Sheba
3. Mary the mother of Jesus

A major utterance of Mary the mother of Jesus is the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55), where Mary said something that even the Roman Catholics could not deny - that she needed a saviour (Lk 1:47). Note that since long time ago the Roman Catholics believed that Mary was divine and had been debating whether she ascended into heaven and did not die, just like Enoch. This debate ended when in 1953, the pope at that time dogmatized that she ascended into heaven and did not die. The dogma next developed into a concept that stated that Mary is the co-redeemer besides Jesus: Jesus is a redeemer and Mary too is a redeemer (the Co-Redemptrix doctrine).

This is completely against the Bible. Firstly, in performing the miracles our Lord Jesus Christ did not need her at all. In John 2 at the wedding in Cana, when Mary asked Jesus to help with the wine shortage, Jesus replied, 'Woman, what does this have to do with me? ...' (or translated 'Woman, what have you got to do with me?') This is because just before performing miracles, Jesus exercised his divinity. Miracles can only be performed by God and man/woman has no part in them. Secondly, while Jesus was preaching and his mother and brothers were looking for him, Jesus answer was based on his divinity, 'Who is my mother? ...' Here Jesus clearly expressed his divine nature as above his mother who was just human. Thirdly, when Jesus was 12 and stayed behind at the temple, his answer reflected that his father was God the Father, even as he obeyed his earthly parents. Lastly, when Mary the mother of Jesus was last mentioned in the Bible (i.e. in Acts 1:14), she joined the disciples in praying before the Pantecost. This implied that she was just a human.

Feet are a man's dirtiest body part and hair is a woman's most glorious body part. But Mary from Bethany offered her hair (highest glory of man) for Jesus' feet (the lowliest part of man) in being used by God to anoint Jesus.

Another Mary used by God is Mary Magdalene. She was used by God to be the first person to tell the world that Jesus Christ had risen after his death.

Preparing for His Death - Part 2 (Jn. 12:1-8)

2011-11-06T21:51:00.000+11:00

This is my personal summary of Rev Dr Stephen Tong's sermon on 30 October 2011 in STEMI Expository Preaching at True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 12:1-8

To anoint Jesus, Mary bought a very expensive kind of pure nard, broke the bottle and used all of them on Jesus. As the fragrance filled the whole room, it symbolised how much she loved the Lord. It must have been the moment that Jesus most appreciated his whole life as he spent much of his time with the poor and smelly, ministering to them.

In the Bible there were many people used by God. Most of them were men, and a few were woman. Even though they were women, they were still used by God in very special ways. No other religion held women in such high esteem, granting them opportunity to serve God. Before God, man and woman are equal in status. However their roles are different: Man is the head of the woman. When brothers and sisters serve together in the ministry, the sisters do not need to compete to be leaders over the ministry; the former are to be submissive to the brothers. Reformed theology (归正神学) aims to follow this principle in the ministry too - there is a difference between the Reformed theology (归正神学) and [some] Presbyterian church (长老会): The former does not ordain female reverends but the latter has already permitted that.

Still, women were used in very special occasions by God. Among them is this Mary from Bethany. She was such a silent woman, she would listen to the Lord intently when he taught. In the whole Bible only one sentence of her is recorded, 'Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died' (John 11:32). However she was the one used to anoint Jesus.

From a person's words we can tell how a person is like. Rahab, even though she was a prostitute, spoke gracious words to the spies that sought refuge at her house. The Queen of Sheba who went to seek an audience with Solomon in search of wisdom spoke humbly too. Mary the mother of Jesus, praised God very wonderfully upon hearing the news that she will bear Jesus Christ in her womb (the Magnificat) even though it was a sacrifice on her part [of bearing the shame of bearing a baby as a virgin].

In contrast, Judas spoke words that destroyed the whole atmosphere that evening. Judas was quick to speak and did not take any action. But Mary kept quiet and let her actions speak instead. Very few Christians are like her today - quiet but full of actions. In the church today we seldom find people like her. Those who like to quarrel don't serve in any ministry but those who serve, would not quarrel.

I believe the words in v6 were added by John later on. This is because in chapter 13 we read that when Jesus said one of them would betray him, nobody knew it was going to be Judas. Only when Peter motioned to John to ask Jesus did Jesus reveal it to John.

Jesus' reply were greatly comforting words to Mary. The implication is that whatever sadness happens to us the true comfort will come from Jesus Christ. What she did was to anoint Jesus Christ.

When a person becomes a priest/prophet/king, he must be anointed. The Bible tells us only one occasion when a prophet was anointed - Elisha (by Elijah). This does not mean that prophets do not need to be anointed; it can only be concluded that only Elisha was anointed through a religious rite. In reality, a prophet does not need to be anointed by man because his anointing comes direcly from God. When a person was sent as a prophet, the Holy Spirit moved upon the person and that was his anointing. However priests and kings are different. A priest require another priest to anoint him. A king needs the high priest to anoint him. Now Jesus was all: a prophet, a priest and a king. As king, God himself has anointed him as no one in his era would have been qualified to anoint Jesus. This was recorded in the first messianic psalm - Psalm 2. As prophet, it was also God himself who anointed him as we can see from John 1:1-3 that the Word became flesh and the Word came from God and the Word was God. Prophet in Hebrews means God's spokeperson. Now Jesus himself is the Word that bsecame flesh and that he came from the Father. This will become clearer towards the end of John 12. As a priest, a priest represents two parties. Before man he represents God and before God he represents man. On behalf of God, he tells us God's grace, promises, and commands. On behalf of man he is a mediator between man and God. On one hand he represents God by preaching the Word of God, on the other hand he represents man and his sin. Jesus came to the world for his life so that he could die physically for man. Jesus also came to the world for his death so that man can be saved. From the third angle, Jesus came to the world through the virgin Mary, so that he could take our sins upon himself. Ps 45 and Heb10:7 tell us that when Christ came to the world, he thanked God for giving him the physical body so that he could take on the sins of man. Therefore his death was a priestly death, his burial was a burial of the final mediator, and his resurrection brought the end to the priest genealogy.

John recorded a few times that the Jews were asking if Jesus would like to die, because in their Christology the Messiah would not die. But if Jesus did not die, he would have not carried out his duty as a priest.

Mary's anointing of Jesus was not a simple outpouring of perfume unto Jesus; it was part of the priestly duty itself. She had a part in that. Mary knew her responsibility well. Hence Jesus told Judas to leave her alone while anointing Jesus.

John the Baptist was the only one in history ever moved by the Holy Spirit while still in the womb. We can see this when Mary the mother of Jesus went to meet Elisabeth the mother of John the Baptist. Elisabeth said, 'The mother of my Lord has come to meet me.' At that time, John the Baptist was moved by the Holy Spirit to jump in her womb. The implication is that the Gnostic were wrong - it was not that Jesus become divine only after the Holy Spirit came upon him (The Gnostic relied on Jesus's words on the cross, 'My Lord My Lord why do you forsake me?') Jesus was already divine even before birth as we see from Elisabeth's words.

God did not use Annas and Caiaphas to anoint Jesus because they were dishonest people and hated Jesus.

Preparing for His Death (Jn. 11:47-12:8)

2011-10-29T16:11:00.002+11:00

This is my personal summary of Rev Dr Stephen Tong's sermon on 23 October 2011 in STEMI Expository Preaching at True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 11:47 – 12:8

John said the law came from Moses but the grace of salvation came from Jesus Christ. One who could not understand the New Testament cannot really understand the Old Testament. Through Jesus Christ we understand God’s salvation in human history. We see this principle in Lu. 23:24. Jesus appeared before His disciples and explained the Psalms, the Prophets and the history books. The starting point in understanding the Old Testament is from the resurrection of Christ.

After He resurrected Lazarus, the Jews plotted to kill Him. At the end of John 11, He withdrew temporarily and was not easily found (Jn. 11:54). This is not a flight to safety. He would appear again before the Passover. This would be the forth time within 3.5 years of ministry. The first time He went to Jerusalem, He cleansed the temple. The forth time, He cleared the temple again. In His last visit He would be crucified.

Many people put their faith in Jesus because of Lazarus’ resurrection and many Jews also wanted to kill Jesus because of this. The Pharisees and priests had ordered that anyone who saw Jesus should report to them so that they might arrest Him (Jn. 11:57). They wanted to kill Him but because murder is against the law they used Pilate to kill Him instead. Pilate told the Pharisees to judge and punish Jesus themselves according to their own law and the Pharisees said according to their law they could not put Jesus to death.

Six days before the Passover, Jesus went to Bethany where Lazarus, Mary and Martha lived. Martha served and Mary prepared a perfume. Here Mary poured Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume. This is 6 days before Jesus’ death. This is the guidance of the Holy Spirit. She was very sensitive to God’s timing. The servant of God should do things according to God’s will and timing. Most people do not understand this and end up doing things in their lives out of line with God’s ways and timing.

The perfume was worth a year’s wages. Our her love for Jesus, she saved all her money and bought the expensive perfume to anoint Him for the death of Jesus. This true High Priest would be crucified soon for the sin of the world. Who would anoint Him? God has prepared this woman to anoint Him. No one else knew He was about to die.

Jesus was born from the womb of Mary who was submissive to God’s will. She was anointed for His death by another Mary who loved Jesus. And Mary Magdalene, the woman out of whom Jesus cast out 7 demons, was the first woman who saw the resurrection of Jesus. The most obedient and the most defiled were all used by God. These women were blessed indeed.

She broke the bottle. She did not want to leave anything behind as a memory for her contribution. The way Martha and Mary loved Jesus were different. Martha was always visibly the hardworking one who served. Mary was unreserved and quietly working hard and saving up to anoint Jesus with all she had. This sacrifice is very rare. Jesus said when the gospel was preached to the end world, what Mary had done will also be told in memory of her.

Judas protested, saying the perfume could have been sold and the money given to the poor. Judas himself did not help or care for the poor but he rebuked Mary for not using the money to give to the poor. John said Judas said that because Judas was the money keeper and often stole. Who realised Judas was the thief? Even on the day He was betrayed, His 11 disciples still did not know. They were simple-minded. But Jesus knew.

Jesus said, “Leave her alone, it was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.” (Jn. 12:7-7) The lesson here is we should seize the moment to serve God or we will lose the opportunities.

Jesus Resurrected Lazarus (part 3) (Jn. 11:11-46)

2011-10-23T11:28:00.002+11:00

This is my personal summary of Rev Dr Stephen Tong's sermon on 16 October 2011 in STEMI Expository Preaching at True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 11:44-53

Jesus calmed the sea, showing Himself to be the Lord of nature. He raised the dead, healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, made the lame walked, showing Himself to be the Lord of life. So His disciples believed Him to be the Son of God.

The biggest miracle happened in John 11 where He resurrected Lazarus who had been in the tomb for 4 days. After this, there were bipolar reactions. One side believed in Him and the other side determined to kill Him. His destiny has been set. Many people put their faith in Him but many wanted Him dead. They wanted to kill Lazarus too. Why did they react that way? On what basis did they oppose Him after such a miracle accomplisment?

From John 2 onwards there had been two reactions against Him, those who believed and those who opposed Him. However, even to those who believed, the Bible said Jesus did not give Himself over to men for He knew the hearts of all men (Jn 2). Again in John 3, when Nicodemus came to Him and said nobody could accomplish the miracles He did if he were not from God, far from being flattered Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, if you are not born again you cannot see the kingdom of God.” Self-righteous intellectuals will find it hard to humble themselves to learn the truth.

John 5-11 record many debates which are not recorded in the synoptic gospels. Jesus received stern response from the Jews. He was called demon-possessed, an illegitimate child, looked down upon as a Galilean where no prophet had ever come from. Judging Jesus from these human angles they never understood who Jesus is. Our Lord is patient and continued to discourse with the Jews. He challenged if any of them could convince Him of sin and nobody could. Finally in John 11, He performed the greatest miracle by raising Lazarus, and from then on they were determined to kill him.

Jesus healed a paralytic on Sabbath day in John 5. He healed a blind man on Sabbath in John 9. Far from breaking the Sabbath, Jesus brought people into true Sabbath. The greatest rest had occurred for these people who were never able to enjoy true Sabbath in the past. The Jews who plotted to kill Jesus were the ones who truly broke the Sabbath. Jesus said they saw the speck into their brother’s eye but could not see the plank in their own eye.

According to the Jews who opposed Him, Jesus broke the law by breaking Sabbath. As a result, they wanted to murder him. But paradoxically, their intent to murder was breaking the law too. They killed Jesus not because Jesus broke the law but because He was a threat to their culture.

After resurrecting Lazarus, many believed in Jesus. Since the creation of mankind nobody has done this so He must surely be the Son of God. But is this true faith? In the eyes of God this is not sufficient. Jesus said, “if you do not witness miracles you cannot believe.” This is not true faith. So although they believe, Jesus did not give Himself to them. In John 8, Jesus said to the Jews that their father is not Abraham but the devil. Jesus said this to the Jews who believed in Him too, not only those who opposed Him.

We ought to examine ourselves. One day when we come before the Lord, would we hear Him say, “depart from me I never knew you”?

Apostle Paul said we are to test ourselves to see if we are in the faith. If you think you belong to Christ, you need to search yourselves and think how you belong to Christ. If you only believe because you see miracle, there is no much value in such faith. We do not belong to Christ unless we have the spirit of Christ. Jesus said not all who called Him Lord would enter the Kingdom of God but those who do the will of His Father in heaven. This is not about salvation by works, but it implies that true faith results in obedience.

The Jews went to the Pharisees as they were concerned to see more and more people following Jesus. When the servant of God is not thinking about the glory of God but their own glory the church is headed for destruction. Many pastors are using the church as a means to make money. Who is willing to suffer for the Lord?

Caiaphas, the high priest of the year, said that it is better for one man to die for the people than the whole nation perish (Jn. 11:49-50). Caiaphas did not believe in Jesus and was speaking in nationalistic spirit to preserve Israel so they plotted to kill Jesus. But what he said indirectly prophesied Jesus’ death, which was God’s purpose so that His people might be saved from sin. Prior to His birth, it was already prophesied that Jesus would save His people from sin. John saw that Jesus would die not only for the Jews but also for the Gentiles.

The Jews wanted to kill him however because it is against the their law to kill, they get the Romans to kill him. This is the greatest political plot in history. Religion made use of politics to carry out the greatest injustice. It was religious leaders who killed Jesus, not the politicians, as Pilate himself acknowledged that he could not find any fault in Jesus and he washed his hands from that guilt. The Lord was calm under the judgement of the Jews. He would one day come back and be our Judge.

Jesus Resurrected Lazarus (part 2) (Jn. 11:11-46)

2011-10-15T13:38:00.002+11:00

This is my personal summary of Rev Dr Stephen Tong's sermon on 9 October 2011 in STEMI Expository Preaching at True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 11:11-46

Jesus deliberately waited four days after Lazarus died. Sometimes we ask the Lord where He is when we are suffering. Christ is Lord. We should not grumble. He will never make mistakes, never miss the time. We can hardly find people who are obedient in all circumstances. Human timing cannot change God’s timing. Our one-sided view cannot control the will of God. If we cannot understand this, we cannot properly call ourselves Christians.

What motivated this delay? Jesus said, “I do this for your good that the glory of God may be manifested.” This motivation is God-centred and the glory of God is the final goal and it is for our good. We often see things through our narrow-minded perspective. Martha, Mary and the Jews did the same mistake. They said that if Jesus came earlier Lazarus would not have died. Jesus performed 35 miracles and the greatest of them all is this one. This is what Elijah and Elisha could not do. In the New Testament, Paul and Peter resurrected one person. Jesus resurrected 3 people.

When Jesus arrived, Lazarus had been in the tomb for 4 days. It cannot be a fake death after 4 days. The Lord would demonstrate that He had the power to raise the dead. Jesus said to Martha, “Your brother will rise again.” (Jn. 11:23). However, Martha understood that resurrection will happen on the Last Day. She said, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” (v.24)

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die, and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (v.25-26)
If you believe you will see the glory of God. This is how faith works. We need to believe first then we will see. The world says seeing and experiencing is believing. But God says to believe first. The gospel of John is consistent with other gospels, the Acts and Hebrews 11.

After arriving at Lazarus’ tomb, Jesus’ first command was to take away the stone (v.39). His second command was, “Lazarus, come out!” (v.44) and His last command was, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” (v.45)

Lazarus’ resurrection teaches us that God’s timing is never wrong, that we should not judge God by our finite mind. Jesus’ 3 commands also teach us important spiritual principles. The first command indicates that we have to be prepared to work to see the glory of God. We need to roll away the stone of barrier that prevents people from hearing the gospel. The work of pre-evangelism is important, carried out through cultural mandate to remove barriers to the gospel.

The second commands show the dead will rise to life when hearing the voice of the Son of God. He is the Lord of life. He gives us life. When we preach the gospel, the Lord uses His Word to regenerate unbelievers. The spiritually dead will be born again.

The third command shows that after regeneration we need to be freed to live out your new life. After we are saved, it is not the end. We have a new life to live. Good tree will have good fruits.

Are we removing the stones? Are we preaching the gospel? Are we making disciples? This is the responsibility of the church. May the life of Christ come upon us.

Jesus Resurrected Lazarus (part 1) (Jn. 11:1-11)

2011-10-15T13:25:00.001+11:00

This is my personal summary of Rev Dr Stephen Tong's sermon on 2 October 2011 in STEMI Expository Preaching at True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 11:1-11

John 11 demonstrates the greatest miracle Jesus had performed, resurrecting Lazarus from the dead. In the Old Testament, Elijah resurrected one person. Elisha resurrected two persons. Elijah did 7 miracles. Elisha did 14 miracles. God answered Elisha’s great prayer in giving him a double portion of Elijah’s spirit. More than Elijah and Elisha, Jesus resurrected 3 persons.

The power of Jesus surpassed that of Elijah and Elisha. Elijah and Elisha would first call upon the Lord. But Jesus simply commanded the dead to come to life because He is God. The Father gives life and so the Son also gives life. The Father can resurrect the dead and the Son has the same power.

The first person Jesus resurrected from the dead is Jairus’ daughter, the second is a young man, the son of a widow about to be buried. Death came about because of sin. If you disobey the law you will die. Jesus’ power transcended the law and could raise the dead.

The third resurrection miracle performed by Jesus is in John 11. This incident is not found in 3 other synoptic gospels. This is most unique incident. The Scripture said Jesus loved Mary, Martha and Lazarus. Some day someone brought the news that “the one You love is sick”. Instead of saying Lazarus is sick, the person said “the one you love” is sick. This tells that they had a close relationship. Naturally if you were to hear this, you would immediately go to see the person you love, to comfort and serve him. But strangely, Jesus said, “This sickness is not unto death, but unto the glory of God.” Christ often sees the glory of God through the presence of sufferings. This is lacking in many Christians’ lives. So the sickness has a purpose, God will be glorified. The Son of God will be glorified. Jesus had no anxiety. How can you look at sickness as an opportunity to glorify God? When Jesus saw the man born blind, he said neither he nor his parents sinned, but he was born blind so that God might be glorified.

When Jesus heard Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days (Jn. 11:5-6). This seems very uncaring. But God has His own timing and we cannot impose our timing upon Him. He is our sovereign Lord. When His time has not come, when it is not yet the time for His grace to be displayed, we must wait, submit patiently and obey.

Jesus finally said to go to Judea (v.7). However that is a very dangerous place where many Jews wanted to stone him. Jesus said, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.” (v.9-10)

When God allows the sun to shine upon us, we should not be afraid of the coming darkness. When you are in the light, walk in the light. This is a very important statement. In 12 hours of day light, you see the light of the world and when you walk you will not stumble. Jesus is the Light of the world. If we walk with Him we will not stumble. But what has this got to do with Lazarus?

John speaks a lot about light, a theme not expounded in the synoptic gospels. The gospel of John was written 20 years after the death of Peter. Could it be because the time has changed? Peter and Paul died around AD 68. Peter was crucified upside down and Paul was beheaded. Romans crucified the Gentile but wouldn’t punish the Roman citizen (Paul) in the same way. In AD 90 the church was in a mess. All the leaders were gone. Paul and Peter had died. The church was facing great persecution. How can it continue in its great faith?

Influenced by Gnostism, many false gospels appeared. The enemies of the church falsified the gospels. John was the only apostle left. He was the most important witness left who was a disciple of Jesus, who walked with Jesus and witnessed all His works. The entire Christianity would collapse in that 30 years without him. Jesus had long prepared him for this day. He was the youngest disciple. When he was young, he was impulsive. He was fervent for God. Jesus picked him and especially loved him. He referred to himself as the one whom Jesus loved. Jesus placed him in the inner circles of his disciples, Peter, James and John.

Christianity faced great challenges in AD 90. When John was about to be persecuted, he was alone. He was about to be burned alive, but in the end he was exiled to the island of Patmos, all alone. In that island, on a Sunday, heavens opened and God revealed the book of Revelation to him. Without him we do not know how the world would end.

He wrote about Christ coming in the flesh, but not the Christmas story. He did not write about Jesus’ birth. This is an unusual gospel. He has great memory and write the teaching of Jesus. In the matter of Lazarus, he recorded the greatest miracle, something absent from other gospels.

The Shepherd, The Hired Hand, The Robber and Abundant Life (Jn. 10:7-15)

2011-09-25T16:06:00.000+10:00

This is my personal summary of Rev Dr Stephen Tong's sermon on 26 June 2011 in STEMI Expository Preaching at True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 10:7-15

At the last sermon we have studied that Jesus Christ described himself as the door and the good shepherd. Now in this passage his relationship with us as his sheep is explained: This relationship is an organic and living relationship. We are the flock with Jesus Christ as the great shepherd. Strangely, both Old Testament and New Testament refers to us as sheep. In Isaiah 53 we are described as 'like sheep we have gone astray,' about which 150 years ago Charles Spurgeon remarked, 'Why does the Bible use sheep [to describe man], not cats, dogs, or other animals?' It's because of all animals, sheep are the ones that are most likely to lose their way and yet, they are also the ones who could not find their own way home. The Bible does not say 'Like dogs we have gone astray,' because a dog that has gone astray could find its own way home. It likens us to sheep because we could not find our own way to God and therefore it teaches us that we need to depend on God to direct our lives onto the right path.

Jesus says we are his sheep among his flock and he is the good shepherd. The relationship between the sheep and the shepherd is that those sheep who belong to him will recognise his voice, then will follow him and so will love him. This is what Christians will do. The questions are then, are we listening carefully to recognise Jesus' voice? Are we obedient to him? Do we follow him? As Christians we ought to carefully think about these questions.

In verses 7-8 Jesus says, '... I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.' When God sent Jesus to come to the earth, He sent Him to come as the Messiah among His people.

The Messiah has been in the concept of Israelites since the Old Testament time. There are 3 main schools of thought in the era of Jesus Christ:
1. Among the Jews who returned from Babylon
2. Among the Jews who returned from Alexandria
3. Among the Jews diaspora in Greece and Rome

There are some common thoughts among them, but they came to different conclusions. Some thought that the Messiah would come as God, so he will not die. Some thought that he would come as a son of man, so in the end he will die. Some thought he would come as the Prince of Peace. But the common thread among them all is that he would come as a sort of hero/saviour of the people, from the lineage of King David, to reestablish the throne of David.

However among the Israelites at that time, the king of the Jews (Herod) was not a Jew, and certainly not THAT descendant of David (Note: The Bible used the singular term for this descendant when referring to the Messiah). Herod was a puppet king installed by the Roman empire, and the Jews definitely did not recognise him as a king of the Jews as the Bible had set out that the king must come from the Judah tribe and from the lineage of David. This was an important edict from the Bible and the Israelites will not anyhow carry out this order.

So the Israelites were still praying for the Messiah to come. However they were faced with the question of where to find this king. As such, they need to pray, but where to pray for him to come? The answer has to be at the temple and thus the Israelites found themselves in a state of contradiction: They gave thanks for such a magnificent temple but this temple was built by Herod, the king that they did not recognise as the Messiah. Yet the Jews still went there to worship because it was very grand and was built on the same site as Solomon's temple. As such, externally they appeared to worship at Herod's temple, but in their hearts they did not obey Herod as their king. Nonetheless, this thing that Herod did, together with the 180,000 Roman soldiers placed in Jerusalem helped the Roman empire in controlling the Jewish people from revolting.

Before Jesus's birth, it was politics making use of religion - Herod used the temple to control the Jews. After Jesus's birth, it was religion making use of politics - The religious leaders used Pontius Pilate to kill Jesus because their religion forbade them from killing anyone.

When Jesus came, although Jesus confessed that he was the good shepherd (i.e. the Messiah), many Jews denied that he was the Messiah. There are 2 reasons for this. One is the Jews had been persistently challenging the rule of the Roman empire and by the time Jesus started his ministry, they had also become very stubborn. Also, before Jesus came there were more than 200 people who claimed to be the Messiah. The Jews checked each of them against the description in the Scripture and found all of them to be false. Some of them ended up killed by the enemy.

These false messiahs were collectively referred to as the thief by Jesus in verse 8. Throughout history we could find this kind of people, who claimed to be so and so but turned out to be ordinary people. Many of them did it for wealth, power and fame. In contrast, Jesus is the real Messiah. He said, '... I am the door' (Note: the word 'door' is singular). He is the only gate to the Father through which the sheep will find pasture with enough grass to feed on, in the Father's kingdom.

Besides the shepherd and the robbers, Jesus also talked about the hired hand. There is a big difference between a shepherd and a hired hand. The hired hand are people who seem to take care of the sheep but actually have no heart for the sheep; they simply work for money. Anything they do, it's for the money. When the wolves come, they will run away. In contrast, Jesus Christ does not only say he is the only door but he is also the good shepherd, who cares for his sheep's needs and gives his life for them to give them eternal life.

These are also the 2 types of attitude with which people work. One is of the good shepherd. People with such an attitude care for the sheep deeply and protect them from the enemy. This attitude is truly great. The other is of the hired hand. People with this attitude work only if they are paid. If they are not paid, they will not do anything. If we want to serve God, we must not serve Him with the hired hand's attitude; we must serve Him with the good shepherd's attitude. We ought to be a small shepherd who truly loves his sheep, works responsibly for them and does not make decisions merely based on our selfish desires. To the hired hand it's all about the money, but to the good shepherd it is people's lives. This also applies to all other areas of society, e.g.: An air stewardess ought to serve passengers out of genuine care and not measured by the class of their seats, a doctor out to treat his patients' illnesses well, a husband ought to care for his wife well, and a storekeeper should go miles in serving his customers. A pastor should not just 'play safe' in serving his sheep.

As for the thief:
1. He will not tell his victims what he is going to do beforehand.
2. He will come when his victims are not aware. So if you are spiritually asleep, you should pray that God to awaken you. The Bible says that we ought to be careful and ready.
3. He comes to steal what he thinks as important, not what the victims think as important.
The thief has to be strong, otherwise he will not be able to steal and kill. He destroys, so that it will be easier for him to steal.

In verse 10 Jesus says, 'The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.' This is not an ordinary statement; it is what Christianity is all about. Religion talks about good and evil, science talks about truth and falsehood, philosophy talks about wisdom and foolishness. Not only that, the most important cultures, philosophy, and arts in the world talk about beauty and ugliness, and value. But Christianity does not treat these as the most important; there is only one thing that surpasses all of them: death and life. God's first command to Adam was 'You are not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for the day you eat of it, you will surely die.' Now in the garden of Eden there were many other trees, and another important tree among these trees is the tree of life. Figuratively speaking, there is a contrast here. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents all religions, but the tree of life represents salvation which is only found in Jesus Christ.

This is a very important contrast to know. The whole Bible tells us that we are fallen in matters of good and evil but saved in the matter of life. Its overarching theme is for man to return to life that is in relationship with God. Jesus says that we are to come to him so that we will have eternal life and not perish. This is what Christianity is all about.

Life alone is not enough; one must have an abundant life. These are 2 different lives. In the world, there are (only) 2 types of Christians: One has life, and the other one has abundant life. The former is saved, and is half alive and half dead, but you cannot say that he or she is dead - he survives. He IS a Christian, but cannot do anything: Cannot read the bible, cannot pray, cannot bear testimony for Christ, cannot lead others to Christ, cannot share the gospel to others, cannot bear fruit, cannot glorify God, cannot even go to church on Sundays on his own initiative but need others to bring him. He is saved, but weak in everything. But the other one has abundant life. Not only he has joy, he can do all those things and hence display abundant life. I realised this after 3 life-threatening accidents that I had gone through. In all those occasions I experienced concussions and had to lie in the hospital bed, depending on the nurse even for doing simple things like washing my face and brushing my teeth. This is what a merely surviving Christian is like.

Therefore we Christians ought to live an abundant life and express it in everyday life. An abundant life entails:
1. Abundance in faith
2. Abundance in truth and knowledge
3. Abundance in hope and God's love
Having these, your life will then be shared with others.

You believe and then you will know the truth. When you know the truth, you will believe even more. This is like what Augustine wrote 'Believe and know the truth, then understand in order to believe even more.' My faith and my knowledge is like the rings of a tree that year by year keeps growing and bearing fruit. May the Lord help us all, that we will be Christians that keeps growing and sharing our lives with others and bearing fruit forevermore.

Christ's Miracles Point to His Divinity (Jn. 10:31-39)

2011-09-06T22:09:00.001+10:00

This is a personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 28 August 2011 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 10:31-39

The Son of God came into the world. What He said and did brought unavoidable tension. The Jews felt that Jesus has insulted their God so they picked up the stones to stone Him. Religious zeal is often used as an excuse to persecute the children of God. The Jews in their religious zeal persecuted many Christians.

When they picked up the stones to stone Jesus, Jesus said, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” (Jn. 10:32) Jesus had done many miracles which are clear signs of His divinity. He made the blind see, the mute speak, the sick healed, the dead raised to life, the demon-possessed set free. All these brought great wonder and amazement. Eversince God created the world, they had not seen a man born blind healed. They had not seen the dead raised to life. Elijah did it once, Elisha did it once, but Jesus did it 3 times. This happened in their era, before their very eyes, how then should they react to Him? He stilled the wind and storm. And the disciples responded by kneeling down before Him and worshiping Him. This is the right attitude.

Here Jesus Christ reminded the Jews of all He had performed. They should have repented in tears and asked for forgiveness for all their wrong responses. But instead they were repugnant and used their mind to think of all possible wrongs against Christ. When they see good things, they only think about the bad possibilities. But these Jews already absolutised their thinking process so they have no heart to respond to whatever Jesus said.

“We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.” (Jn. 10:33)

This is a dichotomy response from the Jews. They viewed Christ’s deeds totally apart from His words. They did not see the need to consider His deeds and words together. However, we usually call a person a hypocrite if his words and deeds are not integrated. There are many people who can talk without doing. But when one’s deeds are consistent with what one’s preaching, the person is genuine. In Christ, we see such genuinity. Both His words and deeds point to His divinity. However, no religious leaders except Nicodemus properly acknowledged Jesus.

The Jews’ way of segregating Christ’s deeds from His words is incorrect. This is also where the liberals failed. They only want to accept Jesus’ morality, not His divinity. Like the Jews they accepted Jesus’ good works but not His divine claim. The liberals took Jesus as the best and highest example of humanity, but not God Him. They have abandoned the possibility of God become flesh. Yet if Jesus was not God He could not have done those miracles. Since He did those miracles, He must be God. When you truly obey God, if you are truly God’s sheep, you will be able to accept this.

“Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods”? 35 If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside—36 what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’?” (Jn. 10:34-36)

Jesus responded to the Jews’ protest that in the Scripture, the people who received and obeyed the word, not the Word Himself, who are made in God’s image, but not God Himself, are called ‘gods’, how then can Christ, the very Word sent by God, not be called God’s Son? This is the Word proclaimed in John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God.” This is the Word through whom all things were made. The Word who is distinct and separate from the created world. This Word became flesh and dwelt among men. How then can He not be called the Son of God? How then could they accuse Christ of blasphemy?

His miracles are divine indeed. His miracles demonstrates He is divine, He is God. His deeds show who He is. Yet the Jews accepted the miracles, but refused to acknowledge that the One who does the miracles is God. They reject the divinity of Christ. How foolish and stubborn. They cannot see their own ignorance. All that He has done clearly show He is who He claims to be. They think nothing is wrong with His miracles, but everything is wrong with what He says.

Jesus said, “Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.” (Jn. 10:37-38)

This is the best answer which cannot be improved. Christ did the works which only God can do. But the Jews still could not understand. They still wanted to stone Him. This is because they are not His sheep.

Many people listen to sermons over and over again without truly listening and receiving. The Scripture says faith comes from hearing the Word of God. If you do not listen, how can you believe? If we are not listening, we cannot understand. May we truly hear His Word and follow Him as His sheep.

My Sheep Hear My Voice (Jn. 10:19-30)

2011-08-27T21:24:00.001+10:00

This is a personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 21 August 2011 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 10:19-30

The Jews were divided into two groups when they heard Jesus’ words. One group said He was demon-possessed, the other group asked how He could open the eyes of the blind if He was demon-possessed. Nicodemus (in John 3) said to Jesus that nobody could perform the miracles He did if it were not from God. Thus Nicodemus is objective and honest unlike the other Jews who continued to hold a biased view against Jesus.

After this, the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem in winter arrived. This is the most crucial moment. Jesus appeared in the temple, walking in Solomon’s Collonade. The Jews were impatient and asked Him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” (Jn. 10:24)

They are now shifting responsibilities. They did not blame themselves for not listening and believing instead they blamed Jesus for not making Himself clear. Many Christians blame the preachers for not speaking plainly but never blame themselves. If students do not learn well, often the teachers are blamed for not teaching well. The fact is some students simply cannot be taught.

In the first few chapters of John, many things testified of Christ. The miracles were real. The prophecies were true. Jesus’ testimony was true. He had told them from the start but they were slow in learning.

Many people do not analyse what they have heard. They hear important sermons over and over again but their lives never change. The truth just slips past them. Many of us have not got hold of the truth. We have not been awakened. We do not thirst for it and we think we already know.

Jesus responded, “I did tell you, but you do not believe.” Unbelief is the worst response to the Son of God. The greatest sin of humanity is not murder or adultery or violence or drug addiction, it is unbelief in Jesus Christ, the only way to save mankind from sin.

Jn. 16:8-11 mentions that the Holy Spirit comes to convict the world of sin, judgement and righteousness, and in regard to sin because they do not believe in the Son of God. This is what sinners often commit. God has saved us and given us new life so that we can live a life of righteousness. But we are slow to listen and continue to live our old ways.

If we carefully analyse all we have heard in the past, we will realise how little we properly listen. We like to say we know about it and have heard about it. But do we really know? God has already told us the most important things in life. How could we not understood until today? That is because we have not listened.

If we do not listen intently to the gospel, we cannot preach the gospel. What we hear, what we see, that is what we can testify. If we properly listen we will be different. All of us are sinners. Some of us are not sensitive to sin therefore not sensitive of how much they have been forgiven. And many Christians do not listen carefully to discern between truth and falsehood.

Jesus said, “I have told you, you did not listen. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep.” (Jn. 10:26-27)
So who are God’s sheep? Jesus said, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” (Jn. 10:27) Those who listen to Christ’s teaching and follow Him are truly God’s sheep. This is the mark of belonging to God and being known by God.

“I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and My Father are one.” (Jn. 10:28-30)

In verse 28, Jesus said He gives eternal life to His sheep and His sheep are in His hand. In verse 29, He said His sheep are in His Father’s hand. Finally in v.30 He said He and His Father are one.

God’s sheep listen to Christ and follow Him. God gave His sheep eternal life. God personally preserve them so nobody can snacth them away. They belong to God forever and ever. God is their shepherd, the keeper of their soul.

The Father Loves the Son (Jn. 10:16-18)

2011-08-21T00:24:00.002+10:00

This is a personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 14 August 2011 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 10:16-18

In second century people began to study comparison between Jerusalem and Athen. Jerusalem was known as the central of faith, the place where there were many Scriptures scholars. Here people sought after after signs and wonder. Athen was the major city that observes and learn, where many philosophers sought after knowledge.

Paul writes the Jews seek after signs and the Greeks seek after knowledge but we preach Christ crucified. Jesus did not seek after signs in Jerusalem, nor knowledge in Greeks, but made disciples in Galilee. What happened to all these experts? These philosophers? In the end it is the Galileans who became the apostles and their influence were greater than the Jerusalem religious leaders and Athenian philosophers. The New Testament has brought the world culture and morality to its climax. In Galilee, not in Jerusalem and Athen, Jesus declared He is the way, the truth and the life.

Here Jesus said, “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.” (Jn. 10:16)

This is the beginning of new group of believers that would come about because of the work of the Holy Spirit. The church must have the concept that there are others outside the church who are also God’s sheep that need to be brought back, those who have never heard the gospel. When the church understand this, the church cannot fall asleep and ignore its mission. Many churches have long history but have not won many to the Lord. God said to Joshua that he was already very old but there are still many lands unconquered. In our company, our school and the neighbourhood where we live, many people do not know God, who will bring them to the Lord?

After this, Jesus said something unusual, “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again.” (Jn. 10:17). What kind of father’s love is this? If the Father loves Him, why He let His Son die instead of protecting Him? Islam believed Jesus a great prophet and man of God. They have the concept that God would not allow Jesus to die on the cross thus did not believe that Jesus actually died on the cross. But this verse on the contrary said, God loves His only Son because His Son gave His life. Why would the Father allow such sufferings on His Son in exchange of our lives which are of infinitely much less value? What sort of love is this? This is very paradoxical. It seems contradictory and inconsistent with a father’s love.

God allowed Jesus to die. This is the greatest paradox in the universe but it is the truth. If Jesus did not die we have no life. If Jesus was not cursed we will not receive blessings. If Jesus did not get rejected we do not get acceptance by God. This verse said God loves the Son because He lay down His life for us. This cannot be found in any ethics or religion. The Son of God loves us and is willing to die for us.

God commanded to Abraham to sacrifice his one and only son, Isaac, whom he loved, to God. This caused great tension and conflict of love. In this instance Abraham did not falter or hesitate. He did not ask why. He simply obeyed. Kierkegaard explained Abraham’s sacrifice as the leap of faith. It is directed to something which you cannot understand and you simply trust and obey the will of God.

But how can God’s command be so difficult? The moment Abraham was about to slay his son Isaac, suddenly God commanded him to stop and not to lay a hand on Isaac. Abraham looked and saw a lamb, which was sacrificed instead of Isaac. This lamb symbolises God’s one and only Son who would be sacrificed for us. Abraham felt the sacrifice of his only beloved son. In the New Testament we see God sacrificed His one and only Son Jesus Christ.

God allowed His Son to die so that you might be saved. May the Spirit of God move us and enable us to understand the heart of God that we would truly respond to God’s love.

The Good Shepherd Came to Give Life (Jn. 10:7-18)

2011-08-07T00:05:00.002+10:00

This is a personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 31 July 2011 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 10:7-18

John 10 portrays Christ’s relationship with His church as that of a shepherd with his sheep. Jesus said “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. I come that my sheep might have life abundantly.” (See Jn. 10:11-12)

Christianity is about life. Other religion focuses on morality, on good and evil. Science is about knowledge and ignorance. Philosophy is about wisdom and ignorance. Christianity is about life and death. While Christianity also concerns itself with morality, good and evil, knowledge and ignorance, the central theme is life and death.

The Scripture says, when the time comes, those who hear the voice of the Son we will be resurrected to life. The Bible talks about 3 kinds of deaths – the first is the decay of physical body, the second is the segregation of the spirit from the Source of life, God Himself. The third is eternal separation from God the Father, where the unrepentant are thrown to the lake of fire and suffer forever and ever. Most of us only understand the first kind of death. Science also only confines the concept of death to the first one.

God commanded Adam not to eat of the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and on the day he eat he will surely die. However when he ate, physically he did not die immediately but at that instant he did die spiritually. He was cut off from his relationship with God. This is the second type of death.

Christianity speaks of the One who came to give us life. He saved a people chosen from the foundation of the world. The angel said He is to be named Jesus as He will save His people from their sin. Jesus said He came that they may have life and have it to the full (Jn. 10:11). There are two kinds of Christian. The first group are those have been born again the second group are those who, after being born again, have life to the full. It is not enough just to have a new life, but Christians have it to the full.

We wonder why many Christians do not seem to grow, why after 10 years nothing has changed and the prayers remain the same. There does not seem to be evidende of abundant life and fruits of the Spirit. It appears that for many Christians, after salvation they are just waiting to go to heaven. We need to remember that the person God wants us to become is not the person we are now. We cannot be satisfied where we are. In the tension of two different states of our nature we need to find harmony. Instead of pursuing material things, we need to pursue life to the full spiritually.

Jesus teaches that the true shepherd will lay his life down to the sheep. The church need to build up true shepherds, not hirelings who do not care for the sheep (Jn. 10:13).

In this passage, Jesus also teaches another principle: “My sheep hear my voice and follow me” (Jn. 10:14). To hear is a very important verb in Hebrew culture. The God of the Hebrews is the God who wants His people to listen to His word, to believe and obey His word. Believing comes from hearing. Yet often times church pastors are the ones who cannot listen. They think they are the preachers so they do not need to listen and they are better than their congregation, not realising that their congregation might have been listening to a lot of better teaching elsewhere. Christians need to keep listening and learning.

Further Jesus said, “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.” (v. 17) This kind of love for lost sheep is the love of the shepherd. We need to have the heart to bring more lost souls to Christ. Many Christians have no interests and empathy towards non-Christians. But they too are made in God’s image and likeness. They too need the salvation of Christ. If we never love the gospel, we will never have fervency to preach. The church which only looks after the congregation within the four walls and are indifferent towards those outside is not in a right state. There are lost sheep outside the four walls of the church. We need to have the heart to reach out to them.

The True Shepherd and The Robber (Jn. 10:1-6)

2011-06-27T20:42:00.001+10:00

This is a personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 19 June 2011 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 10:1-6

It is an irony that while religious leaders were most knowledgeable in the Law of Moses, when the Messiah came they were the most resistant. The blind beggar was healed, physically and spiritually, but the Pharisees were learned in the law of God well was blind spiritually. Jesus said He came to the world so that the blind would see and those who see become blind. It a religious paradox. Those who think they know actually do not know, those who think they see actually do not see. The Pharisees despised the blind beggar as uneducated, poor and of low social status. We should not despise the poor and uneducated because some of them had treasures within them that influence many generations to come. We need to honour people of lowly social status. John 9 exposes human weakness and social ills in this respect. It has not changed much for 2000 years. Some Christians behave worse than non-Christians. Some pastors are more evil than those who do not have religious education.

John 10 speaks of Jesus as the good Shepherd and the gate to the sheep. It does not seem connected to the previous chapter. But the Bible was not revealed and arranged in a systematic manner. It is the word of life, the expression of the truth, not formed by systematic teaching, but by organic principles of life.

Systematic theology categorises everything in a logical manner. It is insufficient to teach the Bible. The methodology to put everything in a logical system comes from the Enlightenment Age. The word “systematic theology” is the literary product of the Enlightenment. It is good to study systematic theology as a start but we should not stop there. We need to go in depth to let our study form organic relationship with our life. We need to influence others with our life and character. The relationship between life and the word of God is organic. Three great theologians, Augustine, John Calvin and Karl Barth would not use the term systematic theology.

In John 10, the relationship between Jesus and His church is described as the Shepherd and the sheep. There are five illustrations of the relationship between Christ and His church. Firstly, it is like the relationship between husband and wife, bridegroom and bride. Christ love His church and give His life for His church like a husband loves his wife. The Church ought to submit to Christ as a wife submits to her husband. Secondly, Christ is the foundation and the Church is the house. The house dose not support the foundation, but is supported by the foundation. Christ is the foundation of our spirituality. That’s how the church can stand firm.

Thirdly, Jesus is the Head, the Church is His body. The body is directed by the head, not the other way round. The church needs to be submissive to her Head, Christ, just as Christ submits to God the Father. Here we see the hierarchy of power. Forthly, as illustrated in John 10, Christ is the Shepherd and and the Church is His flock and His sheep recognise his voice. Finally, Christ is the vine and we are the branches. Out of the 5 illustrations, only one relationship is not organic, i.e the house and its foundation. Other illustrations are life relationships or organic relationships.

How then is John 10 related to John 9? The Pharisees studied the Law so carefully but could not believe in Christ, so Jesus said they are not His sheep. The blind beggar was uneducated but believe in Christ, so he is His sheep.

“Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.” (Jn. 10:1-2)

Who is the robber and who is the shepherd? Some church leaders are robbers. A true shepherd will give of his life for his flock. He loves his flock and care about their safety. The thief and the robber does not care about the sheep and will instead takes away their peace and your possessions for himself.

There are two kinds of leaders and preachers in church. One is the true shepherd who is self-sacrificial and give his life to the flock of God. The other is the thief and robber who take advantage of the congregation and cheat their money. He uses church offerings to enrich himself and support his luxurious lifestyle.

These robbers did not come in by the door but climed in by an illegitimate way. They entered the church by the wrong way, not by the proper gate. They are false prophets and false apostles who cheat the church. A lot of people work hard and give their offerings to false prophets. False prophets speak things people like to hear and naïve Christians often believe.

Jesus said He is the gate. He is the good Shepherd. Why is Jesus so stern to refer to other religious leaders as robbers? He was not willing that people just follow anybody in confusion. We need to discern. Many people give offerings to the wrong place.

Jesus said He came to give life but the robber comes to take life away. His sheep hears His voice and follow Him. He said sheep will never follow a stranger for they do not recognise his voice. They could feel the love of the Shepherd. Many people leave churches because they cannot recognise a true shepherd hear in their pastors who act more like hired men. They are disappointed. The true shepherd sacrifices himself, loves the flock and never tries to get something from the flock. The sheep will recognise that this is God’s shepherd.

Yet some of us cannot recognise voices and follow the kidnappers. We need to be trained to recognise the voice of the Lord because His sheep hears His voice and follow Him.

Jesus and the Blind Man (Jn. 9:35-41)

2011-06-09T21:30:00.002+10:00

This is a personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 29 May 2011 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 9:35-41

It is not necessarily a blessing when we do not encounter much sufferings. Without sufferings we cannot empathise with other people. Why are some people born so poor and some so rich? Is there injustice or do people deserve what they get? Or could it be that our spirituality is too low such that God gives us an easier life with less sufferings? Some people are spiritually strong so they could live well in great sufferings. Because we cannot be tested much, God spares us. Thus we should not despise others if we have more material or physical blessings. We do not know why but eternity will reveal.

In John 9, we see the arrogant Pharisees, a man born blind and the Lord of justice doing difficult tasks on earth. The man born blind had a difficult life since birth, and after he was healed, he witnessed to the truth and was cast out by the society. The Jews said he was steeped in sin and was not qualified to lecture them. They were the experts of the law so nobody could teach them.

The Bible said the first person who sought him after he was cast out was the Lord Himself. When people despise you, the Lord does not despise you. When you are abandoned by others, the Lord will not abandon you. He sought you out. This is the true spirit of Christianity.

The Lord is the Good Shepherd. He never abandons those who are fading in their sufferings. When Jesus found him, Jesus wanted to build his life based on faith. The reformed evangelical movement will first attempt to establish true faith, then true works that come from true faith, the power needed to preach the gospel and the related culture to re-establish morality and influence the entire nation. In so doing we will take care of the poor.

Many people think they can solve people’s problem when they become a politician so they use deception to win votes, and they end up exploiting their country’s resources. The economy becomes worse. The fall of ethics starts from faith. To reorder the whole country, we must start from faith.

The principles of many churches are not based on the Bible but on the world. So the order of morality in the world is completely lost for they are not built upon the principles of truth.

When Jesus met this man, it is not that He did not care about his physical needs, but He wanted to build his faith first. The first question Jesus asked, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” (Jn. 9:35) What is the relationship between the Son of God and the Son of Man? If you believe in the Son of God, you also believe in God-Incarnate, the Son of Man, the Son of God in the faith. The focus is Christology. This Son of Man is singular, the true representation of Man.

Jesus found the person who sought after the truth. Jesus focused on the issue of faith to attract him. The man did not say the Son of Man had nothing to do with him and his sufferings, since everyone is the son of man. Instead he answered in an unusual way, “Who is he, sir? Tell me so that I may believe in him.” (v. 36) It is as though he is asking, “Lord, Who is the Lord? Tell me, Lord, that I might believe in the Lord.” We often behave this way too. This happened to Paul on his way to Damascus as well. When the light fell on him and Jesus spoke to him, he asked, “Who are you, Lord?” Paul already called Him “Lord” yet asked who He was. Jesus answered him, “I am Jesus, whom you persecuted.”

It is a great mystery that God should come in the flesh. True faith is Christological. But Judaism cannot accept it. Islam cannot accept it. Polytheism cannot accept it.

Jesus told Paul, “I am Jesus, whom you persecuted.” To this blind man He healed, Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, He is the one speaking with you.” (v. 37). He responded, “Lord I believe” and worshiped Him. Many of us could not believe that way. We use too much of our reasoning in the wrong way. This great faith expressed with immediate reaction, is most precious. Some people listen hundreds and thousands of times and still question. But one who listens once to true sermon and believe immediately will not waste a lot of time.

This is one of the best example in the Bible on the worshiping of Christ. When Jesus calmed the storm, the disciples worshiped. When people worship angels, angels stopped them. But Jesus accepted worship.

Not only the man and Jesus were there, the Pharisees witnessed it. There are 8 times Jesus declared his purpose of coming to earth: to seek the lost; to lead sinners to repentance; He came not to be served but to serve; He came to give life and give it abundantly; He came to do God’s will (Heb. 10:7); He came to fulfill the law (Matt.5:17) and He came to bear witness to the truth. In all those 7 instances, Christ’s purpose of coming to earth are active.

In this passage, the purpose is expressed in a passive tone. “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” (v.39) What kind of judgement? It is so that (1) the blind will see and (2) so that those who see will become blind.

Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?” (v.40) In His wisdom, He said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.” (v.41)

Jesus did not say they were blind in this passage. The chapter ends here but in other parts of the Scripture Jesus said “your eyes are the lamp of the body, if your eyes are good, your body will be full of light but if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If the light within you is darkness, how great is the darkness.” (Matt. 6:22-23) You can see physically but you are blind spiritually. This experience truly happen. The blind man sees but the Pharisees who see become blind. Paul could physically see but was blinded by the light of God. Afterwards he truly saw spiritually.

The Bible said that those who think they know somethin still do not know as much as they ought to know. Many are still blind when they think they see. Let us be like this blind man with the honesty and humility to come to God to open our eyes.

Lord, open our eyes so that we can see the wonders of Your works, the glory of the cross, the power of Your resurrection, from foolishness see Your greatest wisdom, from weakness see Your power.

Blind Man Healed Rejected by the Jews (Jn. 9:24-34)

2011-05-22T17:39:00.002+10:00

This is a personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 8 May 2011 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 9:24-34

Christ came to save His people, to call sinners to repentance, to give His life to redeem sinners, to fulfill the law, to do the will of the Father. The seventh declaration is He came to be King.

Christ did not preserve His own life. When asked if He was the Son of God, He could say He was the Son of Man, and that was not wrong either. But in the face of the question which brought life danger, Jesus did not withdraw. He spoke the truth. He knew He must die. Christ died not because He did wrong, or said anything wrong, but because of His identity. Compared to the things we could have done and said, something more fundamentally more important is to know our status. If we understand our position, we can see our responsibilities and do what is right.

This blind man is no ordinary person. Although he was a beggar but he was of a great character. He was despised by society but was a bold witness in face of danger. After his parents’ response, the Pharisees asked the man to give glory to God but they contradicted themselves, not only they asked the man to give glory to God but also to acknowledge that Jesus was a sinner (Jn. 9:24). This is very scary. Religious leaders experience God’s grace on one hand, but did not believe in Him on the other hand.

But having experienced God’s grace, this man produced a very pure instinctive response. In many pulpits we hear both responsible and irresponsible sermons. It is the responsibility of the audience to differentiate what is true and what is false. If a preacher honestly preach the word, the listeners should accept humbly. But if a preacher preaches error and listeners just blindly accept, the future of the church will be dark. This blind man did not accept blindly what the Pharisee said about Jesus. He refused to say Jesus is a sinner. He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”

Then they asked again, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” (Jn. 9:26)

He started to become angry. He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?” (Jn. 9:27) A person of higher social status usually finds it very hard to listen to someone of lower position.

When the religious leaders heard these words of rebuke, they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.” (Jn. 9:28-29) They did not realise that Moses would worship Jesus Christ. They looked highly at Moses because Judaism began with Moses. The Panteteuch started from Moses. It is like the way Chinese look at Confucius.

The Jews think they have known what needs to be known. Since they do not know where Jesus came from, they assume He is not from God. Most people are trapped in history and past successes, which caused them huge losses in the future. We should consider potential future losses, not just the successes of the past.

Moses is from the past. Jesus is from eternity. If you do not know Jesus, you lose your eternity. Moses is not the highest. Before he died, he said God will raise a prophet from among them like himself, it is a prophecy of the coming Messiah. But the Jews took hold of Moses and neglected the Messiah. They were proud of what they know and not humble enough to learn what they do not know.

The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” (Jn. 9:30-33)

Clearly the man has not understood that Jesus Himself is God as yet, but based on his limited understanding he spoke simple some truth. The Jews were not aware of their blind spot. God used a beggar who was born blind to rebuke these people who were blind spiritually. Very few people are bold enough to do this. This man was bold, although his theology was only partially correct. He said God did not listen to sinners, but God would listen to sinners’ cry for repentance. He was also very confident that such a miracle as a man born blind was healed had never happened before. It is true that he had never heard of it, but it does not mean it never happen. So what he said did have some errors. The main issue with his statement is that it was not a conclusion based on research or study, but based on his own judgement.

The religious leaders were angry and replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out. (Jn. 9:34) They believed that the man of such low social status was unworthy and had no right to correct them. They chased him out of the synagoges.

From culture privileges, it is an unimaginable pain to be thrown out of the synagogues. It is a horrifying punishment, it is as though your citizenship and rights are taken away and considered a traitor. This is why the parents were afraid of the Jews. They played safe and escaped being chased away, but their son was thrown out.

This man’s system of thought ran against the Jewish system so he was considered a cult and was thrown out. He would have lost his social identity and human rights. His life would be lonely and full of suffering. And he did this because of faith in Jesus Christ who healed him.

A Blind Man Healed (Jn. 9:6-25)

2011-03-20T17:35:00.001+11:00

This is a personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 13 March 2011 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 9:6-25

After Jesus healed the blind, the whole town was astonished. They debated who Jesus was. Jesus did not withhold His grace from the poor. Many people will favour the rich first because of their money. But Jesus healed the poorest of the poor.

God breathed life into man when God created man. This time Jesus used His saliva upon the man’s eyes and asked him to wash. This is a lesson of obedience. We often question when asked to do what we consider to be lowly. In being disobedient we are very articulate. But in the heart of obedient believers there is no question why. Do we presume that an answer to our questions will make us understand the mystery of God? Does the wisdom of God have to be explained to us? God does all things according to His will and needs no counsellor. If we have a stubborn and rebellious attitude it is impossible to live a life of peace.

This blind man was completely obedient. He immediately responded when Jesus asked him to wash in the pool of Siloam, which was not an easy thing for a blind man to do. Each time he spoke he was honest, showing himself to be selfless and responsible.

When there was doubt regarding the miracle, he acknowledged that he is the man who was once blind. He did not want to escape the comments of the people to conclude the debate. When we bear witness we often speak well of our strengths and hide our weaknesses. It is not so with this blind man. After he confessed he was brought to the Pharisees. This is because a person who has been healed need to be brought to the priest and be declared clean to be accepted back into the society.

When asked how he was healed, he was very precise in his testimony. “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.” (Jn. 9:11)

From the Pharisees’ point of view, the person who healed was a sinner because he broke the Sabbath. Some think Jesus was from God because a blind man was healed. But some think He was not from God as He healed on Sabbath day. There was debate about Jesus. God often allowed conflicts and struggles to lead some people to the truth.

With the divided opinions, they turned to the healed man to give his stand about Jesus. He was most honest. He did not know where Jesus was. But as he had been healed by Jesus, he believed Jesus is a prophet.

After he said that, they still did not believe. They suspected he was not the blind man but was only pretending to be. They summoned his parents to confirm if this man was really their son who was born blind, and how is it that he could now see. His parents acknowledged that he was their son who was born blind. This proved that the healing was genuine. But his parents said they did not know how and who healed him, and that he was already an adult who could speak for himself so they should ask him.

The Scripture said, “His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue.” (Jn. 9:21-22). This is significant because being put out of synagogue means they were cast out of the Jewish society. Most people just play it safe by avoiding all troubles.

This man was a great man but his parents were very typical people with timid character. Like the healed blind man, we need to learn to boldly stand for the truth. May the Lord have mercy on us.

A Man Blind from Birth (Jn. 9:1-3)

2011-03-14T15:06:00.002+11:00

This is a personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 6 March 2011 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 9:1-3

Jesus saw the world differently from us. Sometimes we see actively and sometimes passively. When seeking after something, we see actively and selectively. In Jn. 9:1, Jesus was actively seeing but the disciples were passive. They just followed Jesus.

Jesus saw a man, blind from birth. He first saw that the person was made in the image of God, created by God’s word, exists to glorify God.

If we can see someone in this way first before looking at all his problems, we will treat the person differently. We cannot have good relationships because we do not see this. When we see a person with weaknesses, we need to first respect his humanity, then look at his weaknesses. If we look at the weakness first we start to despise the person. This is the difference between a good and bad minister, a good and bad teacher. We need to first recognise that every man is made in the image of God and not merely judge by appearance.

Any common man who saw this man will first see that he is blind. But Jesus first saw a man made in the image of God. Jesus Christ the Son of Man shows us how to live, how to look at a human being. He never rejects the greatest sinner and never accepts the tiniest sin. In His flesh, He demostrates His divine nature. He healed the most despicable man. When Jesus saw this man, He saw His humanity, the perfection in creation in this man who was born blind. God create us perfect, why do we then equate people with their weaknesses when we see them?

On one hand we need to acknowledge what is wrong but we also need to ask people to repent with the love of God. Francis Schaeffer opened the L’abri ministry to welcome anybody who had nowhere to go and wanted to find answers about life. It is a shelter for many intellectuals who had lost their faith to come with honest questions. His books, “The God who is there”, “Escape from Reason”, “He is there and He is not silent” and “How then shall we live” are targetted to address honest doubts about faith.

Schaeffer said that Christians should respond to this world, to give honest answers to honest questions. We should not reject people just because they do not believe or despise them because of their weaknesses. This will influence the way the church grows. When there is lack of respect and empathy and pastoral work, people will leave the church.

When seeing the blind man, Jesus’ disciples asked, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (Jn. 9:2) If it is the man himself who sinned, what sin did he commit and how did he commit it before he was born? Could it be his parents’ sins then? Humans like to ask this kind of curious questions. When reason observes things it cannot understand, it tries to compare and question.

We often try to find who is to be blamed for something that goes wrong. When we see problem, we cannot save and cannot comfort, and what we can do is to find who to blame for the problem. Most people do not contribute to the society. All they do is to look for scapegoat to blame. When we see problems in the society, we blame the government system, the media and everyone else. This is not the way to solve problem.

Jesus’ attitude was different. He answered: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” (Jn. 9:3). Jesus’ reply is philosophically significant. People tend to have either-or thinking which locks them into narrow answers, but Jesus’ answer is neither-nor. His paradigm is different because He is the Son of God. We are created, limited and polluted. We are not Creator, so we cannot be so right. We are so limited ourselves so we should not expect too much from others. We are polluted so there is no ground to be self-righteous.

Jesus Christ is indeed the truth. His response was not to play the blame game, but to accept reality and recognise God’s sovereignty. This is the best general direction to solve problems. Jesus said, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

We need to learn from Christ. Pray to God to enable us to recognise His works. What is God’s will and plan above all the sufferings and difficulties in life? The message of Christianity gives the answers.

John 8:37-47: Dispute Over Whose Children Jesus’ Opponents Are

2011-03-11T01:28:00.002+11:00

This is a personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 6 February 2011 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 8:37-47

Jesus said: “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” The freedom Jesus talked about is not constrained within the laws. He is talking about freedom within the truth. A person who truly enjoys freedom is one who is willing to be constrained by the truth. Only when you are ready to be in the truth are you able to have true freedom. But who is this truth and where does it come from? Jesus said he told people the truth and the truth would enter their heart. If they hear his word, they will come to him. “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”

Jesus talked about how some people are in the truth and some people are not in the truth. Those who are in the truth will come to know Jesus. Jesus said: “I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence”. Jesus said the Jews thought they were Abraham's descendants, but what they did was different from the truth. One has to be responsible for what one says he believes in. Jesus said if they were Abraham's descendants, why were they willing to kill him? There is only one real reason. It is because he has told them the truth. If a person does not seek after the truth, and you tell him the person the truth, he will hate you. We see that people go to school not to seek wisdom, but jobs. Many students choose the pragmatic sciences, but few choose humanities. Many people also appear to be religious, but how many people actually seek God through faith? They want peace, blessings, prosperity, everything to be fine and to have descendants. Although they call on God, they want something else in their heart. This is a cancer of human culture.

When Jesus exposed people, he did not conceal the truth. He exposed the truth, which is why they hated him. We see horrifying consequences when Jesus confronted fake religion. When he declared: “I know that you are Abraham's descendants”, based on tradition they were the orthodox people of God and on the surface, they were descendants of Abraham. But in their heart they hated the truth and wanted to kill Jesus. Abraham loved the truth and waited for the son of God to come, so how could the descendants hate the truth and want to kill the son of God? Did they hear his Word? Yes. Did they hear the wrong Word? No. Did they hear the most original and perfect Word? Yes, because God became flesh, lived among men and the word himself spoke. The words he had spoken were different from what the sinners thought. We trap ourselves within our own constraints and oppose the shining of the truth and the words of Christ.

Jesus said he was telling them what he sought in his Father's presence, but what they did was from their father. He was hinting that their father was not his Father. When the Jews heard this, they would have considered Jesus to have made a mistake. Jesus said what they had done and thought were hatred and murder, which are not from God the Father. Those who love God would love him who came from God.

As Abraham's descendants, they should do what he did. Abraham had no hatred in his heart and was non-confrontational. He raised his nephew Lot when his brother died. Not only did Lot not give thanks, but he even went after selfish gain and did not respect Abraham. When he was succeeding, he wanted his uncle out of the way. He found an excuse. He instigated their servants to fight. Abraham was most generous and mature. He believed that the servants were being instigated by someone backing them, which is why they were bold. It would be foolish of him to join in the fight. He said both him and Lot, and their servants, were not to fight. He gave way first. Why did Abraham give way? He knew Lot's spirituality was very low. If he had continued fighting Lot, he would have equated himself with Lot. He let Lot choose the land. But in the end God consumed Sodom and Gomorrah with fire. Our wisdom cannot compare with God's wisdom. Abraham was non-confrontational, but he was powerful. When he fought the battle with the kings, he was able to defeat them all. He was not a weakling. He was a great warrior but in spiritual matters he knew it does not matter how hard he fought. Abraham was wise. He gave way to Lot.

When Jesus said the he knew they were not Abraham's descendants and that they wanted to kill someone who told the truth, it smashed the whole of Israel. They were not like Abraham. For us, how much of God's word that we've heard has come into our hearts? Many of us make use of God. We listen to sermons to cover ourselves with the truth, but we do things that are completely different from the truth. Jesus was so clear. He wanted to change the whole culture of Israel and the entire religious faith. The things in the law are about the holiness, goodness and justice of God. But these people did things that were not good. On surface they looked like people of the law and were pious, but they wanted to kill the son of God. Jesus said their father was not Abraham because if they were his children they would do things that Abraham did. The things he did were not things of hatred or murder.

Jesus is saying that they have another father. They said they were not illegitimate children. They now recognise that Jesus was implying they were not the real descendants. The Jews pay great emphasis on geneaology, with clear records of every generation. This is the difference between Middle Eastern cultures and other cultures. They know the fathers of each generation. It was very insulting to be called illegitimate children. The Jews did not want to be considered alongside the Samaritans, who were not a pure race. The Israelites who returned from Babylon maintained a pure lineage, while the Samaritans lived among Assyrians and married them.

The Jews said they came directly from Abraham, but Jesus was not talking about physical lineage. He was talking about one's basic character. If they were Abraham's descendants they would do the things Abraham did. If they were his descendants, why would they murder people? This shows that the truth is not in their heart. Why is this so? Their heart had no room for the truth. The New Testament tells us that Abraham is the father of all who have faith. God can raise the children of Abraham from stones. The first preacher in the New Testament, John the Baptist, called the Jews “brood of vipers”, for being evil like vipers in wanting to kill the son of God. Physically they may be children of Abraham, but they were not so spiritually. One year after he preached, John the Baptist was imprisoned and later executed.

Jesus exposed it all. He said they were the children of the devil. Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say.” Here he gave the real reason. They cannot accept Jesus as God but as man. They said he was a man, with Mary as mother and Simon as father, and that he was from Nazareth. Hearing and hearing with understanding are different. It is one thing to hear and another thing to hear with understanding. Those who truly want to understand will leave room for God's truth. The next verse frightens us. He said their father was the devil. In the entire world only one person considered the Jewish faith to be of the devil. In the entire world, only one person considered those who believe in God to have the devil. He was most bold, and the terms he used, most rude. Would anyone dare say this to any religion? But Jesus said it: “Your father is the devil.” It's frightening. Think about it. Since the Jews were five, they went to the synagogue. They read and memorised the laws of Moses, worshipped and prayed fervently. And now Jesus said their father is the devil.

Why did Jesus speak in this manner? People will accuse him of being wrong. How could he treat the people of God as of the devil? One cannot be neutral in this case. One cannot bring peace. If Jesus came from God, the one who kills him must be from the devil. If the Jews came from God, Jesus cannot call their father the devil. These two things cannot be reconciled. How do we explain such a frightening conflict? Let us return to Jesus' principle. God created, sustained and built life. He does not murder life. God used the truth to inspire lives and would not destroy the truth. Jesus came to bring life, and abundant life, not to destroy life. He came to bring us the truth. Those who oppose the truth must be of the devil. You have to make a choice. There is no other possibility. Jesus came as God among men but why would they not accept him? Because they first assumed it was not possible for God to come as a man. Christ preached the truth, but they did not accept it because they considered their literal understanding of the law to be the truth and cannot be criticised.

We can see a relationship between God's truth and goodness. Evil, unholiness and unrighteousness come from the devil, as do lying, murder and rejection of the truth. Those who speak and love the truth must be from God. Implicitly, the way you act reflects what is in you. A good tree bears good fruit. A bad tree bears bad fruit. We can tell the tree from the fruit.

The Jews wanted to kill Jesus because they felt insulted. Did he really insult them or merely exposed their faults like an X-ray that exposed the cancer in their spirituality? Shouldn't one be more thankful to him for doing this? But they reacted with hatred for being told the truth. If Jesus continued to live, the Jewish culture would die. They had no option but to kill Jesus.

Jesus said: “He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” He is getting more serious. In the Reformation, we have “by his grace alone”. Everything is by grace. We ought to be destroyed. We belonged to the devil. We should have been dead. We are saved not by our works. It is not that we had done anything good. For us to be worthy to be saved, God's salvation will not be complete. But if it is completely by His grace, it means we have to acknowledge that nothing comes from us.

So why would God save us and not save others? People say God is not fair. This is how a sinner thinks. The Bible has no place for works. It is all by grace. Even faith comes from God. God says I will have mercy upon whom I choose. Grace is related to the sovereign will of God, not his justice. If we were to discuss God's justice, if we want justice, all of must go to hell. But not only is God just, he is also compassionate. By his sovereign will, he has mercy on some people. Other than giving thanks, you are not worthy to interfere with God's choice to give or not to give. God is the God who does great wonders by himself, and the God who covers his mercy with his mystery. If you deny that God has the right to do this and can choose to do what he pleases, you deny God. When a person cannot accept the sovereign grace of God, he first assumes that God must explain himself to people and have their permission. Then God would not be God. In the Counter-Reformation movement, the Roman Catholics said that by making such a case, the Reformers were considering God to be the source of evil. But the Reformers said God is not the creator or reason of evil based on what Jesus said in this verse about Satan: “When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” Satan is the source of sin, not God. Satan is the reason for sin, not God. You can blame only the evil one himself.

Jesus' True Disciples, Word, Truth, and True Freedom (John8:31-36)

2011-02-27T23:55:00.003+11:00

This is a personal summary of Rev Dr Stephen Tong's sermon on 30 January 2011 at STEMI Expository Preaching in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 8:31-36

'When the Son of Man is lifted up ...' (v28). Many people observed that these words were unique. They soon realised that there was no other way, that Jesus must be the Christ. This was a natural reaction. Nicodemus was the first to believe this way. He had considered all matters about Jesus with the knowledge of Jewish law and traditions that he had. Because he was curious, he went to look for Jesus. His first words were, '... for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him' (John 3:2b). In other words, Nicodemus was not a materialist. He was an idealist with observations drawn from fact. He drew his conclusions with a pure conscience and objective view. This is the first group of people, present in every generation.

There were also people who had seen for themselves what Jesus did (and they did not lie to their own conscience), but could not dispose their upbringing or did not put what they heard into use. That is why there are many people who have come and gone to sunday service for years but still have not believed. The seeds of the gospel sometimes take a long time to grow. The regret is these people, coming to believe in Christ in their old age, have lost much time to serve God. This is the second group of people.

Just before chapter 8, we see another group of people. These people saw that what Jesus said, no one ever said before. They were sensitive enough and actually, very intelligent because they were able to recognise that this was 'something new'. It's a pity that they were not the experts of the law, who sent to arrest Jesus. Even those who were ordered to arrest Jesus were part of this group, as we see them in obeying their conscience said, 'Never has a man spoken the way this man speaks (John 7:46).'

Now in v31, there was yet another group of people. This was the group of people who believed in Jesus. To them, Jesus said that if they held on to his word then they were truly his disciples. This means that to follow Jesus, a unilateral decision made by the followers does not suffice, but also entails an acknowledgement from Jesus. This can be seen in the examples of people who claimed to be students of great teachers or musicians but are not up to the standards of the latter. To guard the latter's reputation, an acknowledgement is required. People cannot simply say they are students of so and so but do not attain the standard of achievements of their teachers, let alone an acknowledgement.

Next Jesus declared that they need to know the truth, and the truth will then set them free. Various philosophers in history studied about freedom and made their own definitions. Out of all of them, one is particularly noteworthy: Immanuel Kant. He said that freedom was not being able to do what one wanted, but it is 'the power to prevent myself from doing something that I should not do.' [See The Honor of Humanity Part 4 – Freedom for a detailed explanation]

Kant's statement might seem profound and novel, however about 1800 years earlier, Jesus had already said this. Freedom comes from the truth and is not constrained by the truth. In summary, Jesus made 3 points:

If you follow my word, you really are my disciples,
from my word you will know the truth,
and the truth will set you free.

Sadly, those who heard this were not enlightened but hurt instead. The Jews were surprised and offended. They inaccurately answered that because they were sons of Abraham, they were never in slavery/bondage (In actual fact, they had been enslaved once in Egypt). The Jews' even had 3 thanksgiving prayers such as this:

Thank God I am born a man, not a woman.
Thank God I am born a master, not a slave.
Thank God I am born a Jew, not a pagan.

All these reflect the sheer arrogance of the Jews. However Jesus did not see the need to argue whether the Jews had always been free. He directly answered in v34 that true freedom is the freedom from sin, not anything else, not even freedom in the political sense that people tend to think about. And he continued in v36 that truly, only if the Son calls one free, then he/she will be free indeed. This is the only way out. He was willing to be constrained that we may be freed and he was willing to die that we may receive life.

Jesus' Discourse with the Jews on Law & Death (Jn. 8:48-59)

2011-02-27T11:58:00.003+11:00

This is a personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 20 February 2011 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 8:48-59

It is unavodable that there is bipolar reaction against Jesus. Either people love him or hate him. Those who could only see his humanity wonder why he said what he said but those who could see his divinity understand. The Jews could only accept him as a man, son of Joseph and Mary, born in Galilee, whose brothers they knew. Yet Jesus spoke as if he was of divine origin so they could not accept it and this sparked hatred among the Jews.

Jesus asked “which of you can convict me of sin?” It is not an easy sentence to say. When Jesus asked this question, the people who were with him day and night were present, and the people who constantly tried to find his fault were present too. If he had any fault, they could easily jump at the opportunity to expose Him. He dared to ask the question because He is indeed sinless and nobody could point out his errors. Since that is the case people should just kneel down and worship him. But that is not what happened.

They were jealous and hateful, instead they answered him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?” (Jn. 8:48). They accused that He was not a pure Jew therefore He could never be right. Samaritans were Jews who descended from mixed marriage after the Israelites were captured by Assyrians. The Jews despised Samaritans. The lineage of Jesus Christ could be traced to Abraham, showing that He is the true of Israelite – whether through the lineage of Joseph or Mary. But Jesus was not born out of Joseph’s relationship with Mary, therefore the Jews took this as an opportunity to insult him of having illegitimate birth.

“I am not possessed by a demon,” said Jesus, “but I honor my Father and you dishonor me. I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge.” He did not try to seek justice for Himself but submitted to God. When unjustly treated, most people immediately seek justice and take vengeance. A mature person does not care how people treat him, as long as God is pleased he is at peace.

Jesus continued, “Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death.” (Jn. 8:51). This declaration is very bold and amazed the Jews. Jesus meant to teach them that they had the law but had failed to obey it, and the wages of sin is death. But salvation came from Him who gave Himself as a ransom. The Old Testament introduced the law which proves we are sinful therefore deserving of death, but in the New Testament we have the ministry of grace which save us from sin and death. Because of their arrogance, they could not understand Jesus’ words.

Their reaction, “Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that whoever obeys your word will never taste death. Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?”

These are stern words. The patriach and the prophets are so great but they died, they were appalled how Jesus could make such declaration that those who obey Him would not see death. In the first place, they did not know who Jesus was and saw Him as an unimportant figure. But Jesus knew He was speaking the truth. God the Father sent Him to the world, Word become flesh, to become a man born under the law, and die under the curse of the law to save those under the law. God the Father promised inheritance to the Son, which is the redeemed people of God. They die under the law but have eternal life in Jesus Christ. True hope is not in the law, but in the salvation of Christ. The law came from Moses but grace comes from Jesus Christ.

The Jews waited for the Messiah. The prophets wrote that Messiah would never die. The prophets wrote and they died but one day they would be resurrected. So the Jews never really understood. The patriachs and prophets would be raised to life.

Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me.” The glory of Jesus is related to His resurrection. The Jews thought the death of Jesus is also the end of His story. But with Jesus’ resurrection He is glorified forevermore. Jesus said the Father whom they claimed to be their God is the one who glorified Him.

Jesus said, “Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and obey his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.” (Jn. 8:55-56) Jesus was just declaring the truth. Their father Abraham looked forward to His day. They were surprised, “You are not yet fifty years old, and you have seen Abraham!” Abraham died 2000 years ago, they wondered how Jesus could claim He had seen Abraham.

Jesus declared, “Very truly I tell you,before Abraham was born, I am!” At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds. (Jn. 8:57-59) Here Jesus revealed His divinity. When He declared, “I AM”, He meant He was before Abraham, extracted from Ex. 3:15 when Moses asked for God’s name, and God said, “I am who I AM.” He is not constrained by time. He is, He was and He is to come. He always IS. He never changes. So He is God. Jesus told them He transcends history thus they could not treat him as someone who is not yet 50 years old. Jesus left them after He said this. If the Jews recognised who Jesus is, they would have grabbed hold of Him. But they never recognised Him so all His words never entered their hearts. The eternal word of Jesus Christ transcends all the words of the passing world.

Jesus' Judgement on the Jews (Jn. 8:21-30)

2011-01-22T23:58:00.001+11:00

This is a personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 16 January 2011 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 8:21-30

Other than Nicodemus the gospels record no other Pharisees who seek the truth. Man is not what he thinks or what he eats, but man is what he reacts before God.

Jesus said three things to the Jews who rejected Him: He is going away, they will look for Him but they cannot find him, and they will die in their sins (Jn. 8:21). These are very stern statements of judgement.

They believed they were right because they had the law of Moses, they were the chosen race and they were the recipients of the tradition from the prophets who receive the revelation from God. If Jesus did not agree with them, it must be Jesus’ problem and not theirs. They had first assumed they were not at fault. Religions are most dangerous. An honest atheist is closer to God than a hypocritical religious leader.

The Jews could not understand Jesus’ words of judgement against them and thought they would seek Him and could not find Him because He would commit suicide. Jesus explained that they were from below but He is from above. They are from this world but He is not from this world (Jn. 8:23), and that they would die in their sin. What is of earth cannot understand heaven that is why they could not understand Him.

After Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, John said the one who comes from above is above all. The one who comes from heaven speaks from above. The one from below speak of the things on earth. This explains the qualitative difference between heaven and earth.

God create all things. He is above all things. All other people from the earth. But Christ is different. He came from above, full of grace and truth. From the beginning, John testified of Christ. The law was given through Moses. Salvation came from Jesus. The whole Old Testament is God’s covenant with Israel and it shows how sinful we are. The Old Testament judges our sin. The New Testament saves us from sin. Paul said in Rom. 6:23 that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. If you understand this, and understand the qualitative different between heavenly and earthly sources, you understand the general principle of the Bible.

Where is Jesus going? He is going to the Father. The Father is the Source of Life, the One who gives eternal life and salvation through Jesus Christ, and set us free from the curse of the law. Jesus came from the Father and was going back to the Father.

The Jews could not understand. Jesus said He had many things to say in judgement of them, and then added that the Father who sent Him is true (Jn. 8:26). The key point is that if they believe in the Father, they will believe He is the Christ, and immediately they will kneel in repentance in hearing the words of Christ. However the Jews did not believe and therefore could not accept Jesus’ words.

So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.” (Jn. 8:28)

This is the second time the phrase “lifted up the Son of Man” emerges in the gospel of John. The death of Jesus Christ is different from all other people’s death. We see a great man by how he dies. The moment of death is the the moment of great grief, and is a true introduction of his character.

But is that true when Jesus died the Jews knew He is the Christ. In Acts 2, Peter preached about Christ and Him crucified and the people were cut to the heart and asked what they should do to be saved. And Peter said to repent and be baptised and 3000 people believed in that day. The Jews recognised Him as Christ when He died.

The way Christ expressed Himself when he was dying is very different from a sinner. Compare the words He said when he was dying with all others and you will recognise Him as Christ. “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do.” “Truly I say to you, today you will be with Me in paradise.” “Mother behold your son.” “Behold your mother.” When Jesus died, He expressed the highest love, His divinity and humanity together. Hence Jesus said when you lifted up the Son of Man, you will know I am the Christ.

Then Jesus said: “The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.” Even as he spoke, many believed in him. (Jn. 8:29-30)

It is most blessed to lead people to Christ. John the Baptist did not perform a single miracle, people believe because whatever he testified of Christ is true. In John 8, Jesus said the Father is with Him because He always does what pleases the Father and because of that many people believed in Him.

People do not believe because we do not do things that please the Lord. If the things I do pleases God, people will believe. Many people preach one thing and live another way. If a preacher does what He preaches, what he does pleases the Lord and he will lead many to the Lord.

Unbelief of the Jewish leaders (John 7:45-8:11)

2011-01-15T17:07:00.002+11:00

This is a personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 12 December 2010 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 7:45-8:11

Some divisions arise because of Jesus. Jesus said: “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” (Matthew 10:34) He came to cause strife among you, in your family, between parents and children, and between daughters-in-law and mothers-in-law.

Disagreements occur because of the truth. When opinions are taken as absolute truth, they are used to substitute faith. These convictions become a religious dogma. When you make absolute your opinions that are relative, you will cause conflicts and have more prejudice against others. Those who have different opinions are considered heretics and are to be sidelined.

The Jews received the law of God. They thought they were the sole agent of God and sole representative of heaven. People whose opinions differed from them were considered heretics. They thought Jesus was a heretic. His views were completely different from the Jews’ understanding. They thought they could not be wrong because God loved them so much and gave them the law. They rejected the Son of God. His own people did not welcome him. They considered him a false prophet. They sent guards to arrest him. The guards were more objective and neutral when listening to Jesus. They came to a completely different conclusion from the Jews.

When the guards didn’t arrest Jesus, the Jews questioned their loyalty. The guards said they didn’t arrest him because no one ever spoke the way he did. This was a unique statement. They were good at listening. People who are not good at listening will think that everything that has been said is the same. When Jesus said certain words that no one had ever spoken, those who were familiar with the old words that had been spoken and who looked forward to the new words would acknowledge Jesus. They were responsible. They were able to make a judgment on history. They could acknowledge new things. They were intelligent. They told the Pharisees no one had spoken like him and they could not arrest him. Some people think if one is given money, one will do anything and become a pawn. But when they realise their limitations, they look for other ways to accomplish their aims.

Jesus was not arrested because his time had not yet come. The Bible recorded this many times. When your time has not yet come, you don’t have to fear death. When the time has come, you don’t need to run away because you need not fear death. Jesus came to the world to die. We want to escape to save our life and continue living in peace. Jesus was willing to die for us and leave his heavenly home.

How did the Pharisees respond? They cursed the guards for not understanding the Law. When people do not understand, you have to teach them. When parents see that children do not understand, they would not let them die. Teachers shouldn’t curse their students when they don’t understand. Officials shouldn’t despise the masses. The Pharisees were not only stubborn, but they also no longer respected human beings. Everyone wants his own authority to be the final one. One of their own, Nicodemus, who once went to see Jesus at night, recorded in John 3, was different from the Pharisees. He had his own thoughts. When everybody despised Jesus, he realised there was something about Jesus he could not achieve. He told Jesus, Rabbi, we know this, all the miracles you have done, if God was not with you, no one could have performed the miracles that you did. Nicodemus, like the soldiers, saw something new in Jesus, his fresh speech of his time. Without God, no one could perform these miracles.

He longed after Jesus and sought after him. But Jesus did not say he did not expect a Pharisee to be so good as to give such an answer. Jesus told him: “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” Nicodemus was intelligent yet he did not understand what Jesus said. So he asked how could he be born again. He asked according to natural laws. Jesus talked about supernatural things. He asked about biological matters. Jesus talked about spiritual life. He talked about earthly things. Jesus talked about heavenly things. People from the earth speak earthly words. He who comes from heaven speaks about heavenly matters because God has given him the Holy Spirit without limit.

Nicodemus was once influenced by Jesus. He knew it would be rash and shallow to simply judge Jesus as guilty. In honour and respect to Jesus, he stood up amid all the public criticisms and examined himself. A person’s dignity does not lie in wearing jewellery, but in one’s ability to examine himself. He said he was a Pharisee and studied the law as they did. He asked whether Moses’ law allowed people to condemn someone without first hearing him out? He pointed out the error in Jewish culture. Before condemning him, Jesus must be summoned to be heard. Nicodemus was an honest, sincere and humble person seeking after the truth.

But the Jews treated him as they did to the masses. The Pharisees couldn’t accept their own Pharisee. They said he was also deceived. “Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.” They said words with authority and an absolute spirit. They said Jesus was a Galilean, he was from Nazareth, so he could not be from Judah, from Jerusalem, and he could not be a prophet. Is it true that if no prophet has come from Galilee, then none can ever come from it? The Pharisees made a mistake in deduction. They made absolute the historical records.

The second mistake is that they thought Jesus was a Galilean. He belonged to the tribe of Judah, the offspring of David. Mark and John did not record any historical detail. But Matthew and Luke did. Matthew gave a detailed genealogy from Abraham to Moses to David to Jesus. Why start from Abraham? Because God said the descendant of Abraham would be a blessing to all nations. The descendant of David and the seed of Abraham were singular terms, not plural. Not all descendants will be like Jesus. Only one. A few hundred years before Jesus’ era, a few hundred Jews claimed they were the Messiah. God said no, the Messiah was the only descendant of Abraham, the only one. Luke recorded that although Jesus was a Nazarene, he was not born in Nazareth, but in Bethlehem.

The Jews didn’t get their facts right, made the wrong conclusions and stuck to their own prejudices. Their views became absolute religious convictions and they rejected everything else. Nicodemus just sat down and did not debate with the rash young Pharisees. A historical fact does not change regardless of one’s opinion. Nicodemus knew the Pharisees were influenced by their tradition, so he would not debate with them. These Jews were narrow-minded and stubborn.

In John 8, the Pharisees came to arrest Jesus and attack his weakness. They had a strategy. They caught some people in adultery and captured this woman. Why did they not take the man there? Because the woman is the weaker sex and the man is stronger. They asked Jesus about stoning the adulteress. They would broadcast his reply. What did Jesus say? If he said no, they would say he was going against the law of Moses. If he said yes, they would stone her to death and then he would go against himself because Jesus said he came not to judge people for their sins, but that they may be justified by faith. He came to save and to forgive, not to cause people to perish.

Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. What was Jesus writing? The Bible doesn’t tell us so we don’t need to speculate.

Was Jesus afraid of the challenge of giving the answer? No. He straightened up and said: “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” They were not able to respond to Jesus. His words were filled with power. Jesus did not want the Pharisees to treat this woman in this way. They had revealed their own sins. They had caught her in an adulterous act that she could not deny. But they dealt only with the woman and not the man. The woman was easy for them to bully. These people were dishonest. These people despised women and were afraid of the stronger men. They attacked the weaker sex. What they did displayed their own unrighteousness.

Jesus straightened up and said: “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” He did not say they could not stone her. As Jesus said these words, the power of forgiveness was with him. One by one these people could see their own sin. They would start to reflect on their own lives. They would tremble. Their stone would drop on the floor. Today, it is not a matter of whether one has sinned or not, but whether one is discovered after having sinned and whether one has a way to hide one’s sin. Many women get pregnant from pre-marital sex and secretly go to the doctor to have an abortion, killing a life created in the image of God. You are not afraid that you have offended God. You are afraid of being ridiculed. This is sin upon sin. Today you hide your own sin. What makes you think you have the authority to hold on to someone else’s sin and condemn him? When Jesus said these words, he was stern, wise and full of authority. “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” On hearing these words, the Bible says from the oldest to the youngest, one by one they left. No one could escape the authority of Christ. He rebuked with his divine authority. No one could escape from his responsibilities. One by one left, feeling ashamed. Who can awake us to sin? Only the love and the authority of our great Lord. Why did the oldest leave first? Because older people have accumulated more sin.

The Bible says everyone has committed sins. Men, women, elderly and young people; from the oldest to the youngest. Jesus said to the woman: “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” The woman was shocked. She said: “No one, sir.” Then Jesus Christ said: “Then neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin.” You have to imagine this woman was an adulteress, naked with a man. Suddenly men barged in with poles and ropes. The man ran away quickly. Is that love? Why would he allow her to be arrested? Lust is to enjoy oneself, but love is to deny oneself. Lust is driven by desire and gain, but love is driven by self-sacrifice. If someone leaves you and escapes in the middle of crisis, he does not really love you. The woman did not have time to wear her clothes. These men would arrest her and bring her before the Pharisess, priests and the religious court. She may be stoned to death. She started to imagine big pieces of rocks falling on her. Another stone would hit her teeth and another, her lungs. She would not be able to resist them. Imagine her imagining the horrifying scenario.

Everyone asked Jesus for his opinion on stoning her to death. Jesus did not say yes but asked who was without sin. She would think: Why did Jesus forgive me? Why did he not allow people to stone me? I have many prejudices against Jesus, but now I thank him and reassess my opinion towards him. She would witness people leaving one by one. Her predicament was resolved. Her adversaries were scattered. The worst scenario did not come true. Jesus came to her, saying: Where are they? Has no one condemned you? Listen to this. “Neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave you life of sin.” There are no records of what happened to the woman. Did she move to another place, never to stay in the city to avoid people from recognising her? Did she go into a convent and repent of her ways? Did she go into a proper marriage? But Jesus said three things. “Has no one condemned you?... Neither do I condemn you.” Secondly, “Go now.” You have regained your freedom. You don’t need to be judged any more. Under my grace you can now carry on with your life. “Leave your life of sin.”

Why did Jesus say sin no more? Did Jesus punish her? Why must we be punished because of sin? The truth is that all legal systems have not reduced crime. People go to jail for their crimes, but don’t change their ways when they come out. Why do we punish? What is the advantage of punishment? What can be gained by those who have been punished? 2,400 years ago, Plato asked this question and Aristotle discussed it with him. Do we punish because people have committed sin and deserve punishment, or is it because people will be deterred from committing the same thing? Can we have capital punishment? We will discuss this issue more the next time.

Jesus the Light of the World (Jn. 8:1-20)

2011-01-14T23:25:00.001+11:00

This is a personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 9 January 2011 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 8:1-20

In this passage, Jesus was asked if this woman who committed should be stoned to death based on the law of Moses. The law of Moses would require that both the man and woman who committed adultery but the Pharisees brought only the woman to Jesus. This is very unjust. They looked for righteous punishment with unrighteous attitude. They were self-serving and not truly looking for God’s righteousness.

If Jesus said the woman should be stoned, it would with His mission to save sinners. If He said the woman should not be stoned, it would be contradicting the law of God. Instead, Jesus said that the one who had never sinned should be the first to cast the stone. It was gentle but stern statement. All of them realised they were unworthy to judge others so they left, from the oldest to the youngest. We often defend ourselves with the love of God but judge others with the righteousness of God. This is very unjust.

After everyone left Jesus asked had nobody condemned her. On one hand she was shameful, on the other hand grateful. Philosophers have discoursed on the purpose of punishment, whether it is to execute justice, to deter or to reform. Is it concerned for the past or the future?

The answer is in the words of Jesus which put everything in balance. He said, “neither do I condemn you, go and leave your life of sin.” More punishment does not mean the person will change. There is power in the words of Jesus which convicts the woman not to commit the sin anymore. This is the greatest lesson she learnt.

When Jesus spoke again to the people, He said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (Jn. 8:12)

People do not understand His words because it sounds so simple yet nobody has ever spoken like that before, it is actually too profound and difficult to understand. No wise teacher ever declared himself to be the light of the world, not Plato nor Socrates. How can a Galilean declare He is the light of the entire world?

The Westminster Confession acknowledges that there is the light of nature but it is not sufficient. The Scriptures give the answers that philosophers are seeking after.

Jesus also said that whoever follows Him will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life. What does it mean to walk in darkness? It is something frightening. Even a sprinter cannot move confidently in darkness. If people who heard truly understood this would kneel down before Him in worship. But they did not understand hence they accused Him of making invalid testimony as He spoke of Himself. The Pharisees hated Jesus, no matter what Jesus said and did, they could not see the hand of God.

“Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going. You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one. But if I do judge, my decisions are true, because I am not alone. I stand with the Father, who sent me. In your own Law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true. I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who sent me.””

In that reply, Jesus gave three principles. The first principle is the Source. Jesus said even if He testified of His own it is still valid as He knew where He came from and where He is going. He came from the Source therefore all He said is true. But His audience did not know where He came from and where He was going, therefore they accused Him. There is a relationship between the source of the truth and the validity of one’s testimony.

The second is the reference. Jesus said His Father is with Him. Rejecting Jesus is rejecting His Father.

The third principle is multiple witnesses. Jesus said He is not the only witness. In Chapter 5, Jesus said His works, the Holy Spirit, His disciples, His Father, and the Scriptures all testify of Him.

From the book of Moses to the New Testament, there is never a singular witness. In the New Testament, there are four gospels instead of one. God honor His own principle. Other religions are established on the foundation of singular witness, like Jehovah’s witnesses (only Charles Taze Russell), Seventh Day adventist (only Helen White), Mormon (only Joseph Smith), Buddhism (only Sakyamuni), Islam (only Mohamed), etc.

Singular witness cannot be the truth. It is necessary to have two or three witnesses. This is the principle from God. May we learn to establish the foundation of our faith.

The People Debate Jesus Christ's Identity (Jn 7:25-36)

2010-12-18T11:35:00.000+11:00

This is a personal summary of Rev Dr Stephen Tong's sermons on 14 and 28 November 2010 at the STEMI expository preaching held in True Way Presbyterian Church, Singapore. The sermons were preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 7:25-36

Jesus went to Jerusalem after his brothers had left. He did not go up with them but went after they had left because he knew God's appointed time for him very well. He was courageous, since he still went to the feast despite the opposition. Furthermore, he travelled to the feast on his own. Once he reached Jerusalem, he immediately went to teach in the temple.

People who heard him teaching then asked, 'Who is Christ really? Where did he come from?' Jesus then took this opportunity to tell them where he came from. While telling them, Jesus had no slightest hint of fear. Those who listened to him were then amazed, why in such danger Jesus still boldly appeared and taught in the temple.

Let's think about this. We all know how to play with our words according to our safety. For example, when we say, 'Be wise, be wise,' we are likely to say it when we are in fear. But if this is 'wisdom', then Jesus was very unwise, because he was in danger of being caught when he preached to the people. Yet he preached boldly, and this meant he was not afraid. He knew he was surrounded by danger, yet he would rather place emphasis on his Father's will than on his own safety.

Now when the public saw that Jesus was speaking boldly, they were astonished and tried to explain it in their own way: Perhaps the authorities had already known that Jesus was the Christ, so they let him preach in the open (v26). But this kind of explanation is totally wrong, because those who are stubborn in religion will not change their mind easily; they will use all kinds of methods to enforce their religion. This is the result of 'absolute' attitude in religion, brought about because religions deal with the absolutes. God is the absolute in a religion, and people will find it difficult to believe if they were told that they have believed in the wrong absolute for a long time. Moreover, those who insist that their absolute is true would have ensured that everybody else is excluded, because they have believed in the absolute. And the biggest problem comes if one trades the absolutes for the relatives.

This is what we see happening here. People were not sure if this person was the Christ, so they asked if this was really so. We can tell here that new believers are still quite immature in their spirit and faith. They have always believed that people can change, but they didn't realise that religious leaders are the hardest of all people to change their minds. If errors had been treated as absolutes, then they would hold on to them until the very end, to the extent of killing the person who told them that they were wrong.

So they were not sure if the authorities had concluded that Jesus was indeed the Christ. If this was really the case, they found it strange that they knew where Christ came from. They had always believed that when Christ came, nobody would know where he came from; if anyone knew where Christ came from, that person would not be Christ. This concept came from OT: 'The desired of all nation would suddenly appear in the synagogue,' i.e. nobody would have the opportunity to investigate his background. But Jesus did not appear suddenly. He appeared at the temple before, and they have researched his background. They knew his family, who they were, what they do for a living, and the region where he grew up. 'How can then this person be the Christ?' they wondered.*

And now they thought further: If this person was not the Christ, then who was he? This is a good challenge to everyone. CS Lewis once gave this kind of challenge to the entire world: 'If Jesus is not God, then who is he?' There are some categories that has to be considered. One is that he is a mentally unsound man, and another is that he is a conman and his disciples are people who have been deceived by him. However he did not show the signs of a mentally unsound person, and every time he said 'Truly truly I say to you ...' he did not deceive his listeners. And thus CS Lewis concluded that he is God because there is no other way to explain all that Jesus said and did.

This sort of apologetics is unique to CS Lewis - it is not defensive apologetics, but offensive apologetics. Many people today preach the gospel in a manner which causes it to be accepted readily by those who are weak and in need, but easily rejected by the intellectuals who like to think about challenging issues. In hierarchy:

We believe because what Christianity teaches is true.
However to those intellectuals who reject Christ we need to challenge them, 'Why do they not believe in Jesus Christ even though they agree that Christianity was true?'
CS Lewis goes one step higher by asking his reader, 'Since you do not believe Jesus is God, then who is he?'

Nevertheless, 2000 years before CS Lewis went this way in apologetics, the Bible had already used it. We know this from v31 that says those who believed said, 'When the Christ comes, can he do more miracles than this person?' In other words, they challenged those who did not believe, 'You surely have not known this person called Jesus!' They came to this conclusion by first postulating that Christ had indeed come. Then they discussed the topic. They put aside all the facts on Jesus' background but considered his divine appearance and miraculous acts in the highest priority. Thus they concluded that Jesus was the Christ.

The miracles performed by Jesus was the key consideration for these people who had believed. They considered them carefully because if the real Christ were to come later, surely he could not perform more miracles than Jesus; Jesus had performed the most miracles among all religious leaders in history. This [heavy consideration on miracles] is due to the fact that the Jews have true miracles (Other religions/people group do have strange phenomena, but they are not miracles). When Moses performed the miracle of turning Aaron's staff into a serpent in front of Pharaoh, Pharaoh's magicians responded by doing the same thing, but Aaron's staff swallowed their staffs. This showed that only Moses' miracles were the true miracles, because his serpent's life could swallow death.

Miracles are not just strange phenomena; they are marks revealed by the God of life, they are the signs of God. The Jews remembered the fact that their ancestors saw many miracles performed by the prophets in OT: Moses, Joshua, the judges, Elijah (7 miracles), Elisha (14 miracles), etc. All these proved that God is real. But all these people's miracles combined do not exceed Jesus' miracles, a fact that have been analysed by many serious academia at that time (Note: The 4 books of the gospel combined recorded at least 35 miracles performed by Jesus). So those who believed thought, there was no need to wait anymore for the Messiah. Jesus must be the Messiah.

To the contrary, the Pharisees were blinded. They were like a man in his own blind spot, unable to see the light but his own shadow. They first considered Jesus' background and then, thinking they knew where he came from, brushed aside his divinity and miracles. This kind of narrow-minded thinking with an absolutist attitude was the reason why they were trapped in their old understanding.

As such, they decided to go to arrest Jesus. However no one could do so even though their decree/command was clear, support for their decision had been secured (even through bribes), and manpower was enough. This was so because Jesus' time had not come. In the same way, we too need not fear persecutions because if the time has not come, we will not die. There is no need for anxiety, fear, worry or even anger. However, this verse does not say that Jesus will not be captured or he will not die. It simply tells us that nobody captured Jesus because back then his time had not yet come. This time/hour, is an hour that God the Father has set, and is the only hour that has been set by Him; there is no other day that has been set by God for His Son to be sacrificed for the sins of mankind.

Jesus also said some other important statements, 'I came from my Father,' 'You don't know me so you don't know my Father,' and 'Whatever I said to you came from the Father.' Although most of the people knew whom he was born to (Joseph and Mary), this was the wrong thing to know; they had misunderstood the point - Jesus was referring to his home in heaven when he said these statements. Now when he was talking about his going, he was talking about this same place. John 16:28 said it very clearly, 'I came from the Father into the earth, and I will leave the earth to go to the Father.'

In contrast, none of other religious leaders could accomplish this kind of 'bidirectional declaration [of origin and destination]:'

Confucius wanted to bring us to a great place, but where that great place was, he did not know. He said ' 未知生，焉知死。'(I don't know about birth, how do i know about death?) He could only tell us how to lead our life on earth, nothing more. He did not know where he came from and where he was going to.

Sakyamuni wanted to bring us to the western Nirvana. But if you asked him, 'Have you been there?' his answer would be 'No I have not. Let's go there together then we'll know. ' He could tell us how it would be like. But that knowledge did not come from being at Nirvana, it came from his enlightenment. So Sakyamuni taught from his enlightenment, but did not say its source and where he came from.

Mohammed promised he would bring us to a good place next to the Lord God. But he himself had not been there before and he had never told us where he came from.

Neither could Zoroaster [tell us where he came from].

So all of them made declarations that are one-sided. Regarding their origin, at the most those leaders said that they were born of their parents. But Jesus never said that he was born of his parents. When Jesus spoke of Mary (his mother) he said 2 things which are uniquely-Jesus:

'Woman, what have I got to do with this?' (At the wedding in Cana – John 2:4)
'Who are my mother and my brothers? ... Whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother' (When his mother and his brothers came while he was teaching the crowd – Mark 3:33-35)

From the human perspective, when he was young, Jesus obeyed his parents at home in Nazareth. With regards to his human responsibility, he fulfilled his responsibility by asking the apostle John to take care of Mary when he was going to die on the cross. From the divine perspective, Mary was a being created in the image of God but Jesus was the only son of God, the Creator of all beings.

In summary, none of the religious leaders declared where they came from and where they were going to. Only Jesus Christ proclaimed both his origin ('I came from the Father') and his destination ('I will ... to go to the Father.'). He was the only one who told us clearly where he came from and where he was going to, i.e. Jesus declared both. John 3 has also told us that who is from above speaks of things above, and who is from the earth, speaks of things on earth. Therefore there is a qualitative difference between Jesus and all other religious leaders.

So the people started to mutter all those things about Jesus. He knew about it too. This is analogous to us today, as we tend to depend on what others said about somebody. However, the best source of knowledge is the first source. Therefore do not depend on what others said about something/somebody, make sure you also study him/her/it from his/her/itself on your own.

Jesus next said that his time was short and he was going away, and where he went people could not come. This is very mysterious, and the Jews must have thought, 'Why are you so arrogant? We cannot go to where you go?! He is already in danger, yet he is still boasting! What kind of place is that, he will go to and we cannot go? The Greeks say very difficult things to understand, just like what this guy said. Can it be that he is going to where the Jews are scattered among the Greeks and teach them?' The Jews really could not accept what Jesus said. They had never realised that Jesus respected the Jewish law too. However they also acknowledged that what Jesus said was really of some substance, not just an empty talk. So they assumed that Jesus understood nobody here would accept what he said, and therefore would like to go to the Dispersion** to find people who would believe what he said.

There is a reason why we need the gospel of Luke. English has 16 tenses, Chinese only has 1, but Greek has 64 tenses. This shows that the Greek are much more sensitive to time and order than other people groups. The Jews too are not sensitive enough to time and order. So God chose Luke, a Gentile, to reveal the specific details regarding Jesus' birth. Luke recorded the latter in chronological order, something that the other 3 books of the gospel did not. The former also recorded something that latter missed out: the birthplace of Jesus Christ. Luke did so very clearly that we may know for sure that Jesus was indeed born in Betlehem (Judea), not Nazareth (Galilee).

This helps us see that the Jews were wrong when we read John 7:40-52.

Dispersion: Places where after the exile the Jews were scattered and settled down.

***

Note that Jesus ever said something very important, 'I came not to bring peace, but to bring divisions' (Luke 12:51). Even though Jesus is called the 'Prince of Peace' (Isa 9:6), Jesus came not to bring peace, but division. This division can also be seen when we share the gospel. A family may have a member embracing the gospel and persecuted by his own family as a result (but later on the whole family may believe too). In the general populace too, some will accept the gospel and some will reject it. Otherwise, if peace continues then everybody will go to hell.

The Promise of the Holy Spirit (Jn. 7:37-44)

2010-12-12T18:07:00.001+11:00

This is a personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 5 December 2010 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 7:37-44

On the last day of the festival, Jesus stood at the synagogue and spoke in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” (v.37-38). This is abundant life. As Christians we should be full of vitality like the living water – constantly overflowing. Dead water is stagnant and does not flow. When we come to church every Sunday to hear the Word of God, when we give our testimony, is it fresh like the living water?

This verse is one of the most important words of Jesus which relates to the giving of the Holy Spirit. God’s greatest gift to the world is the gift of His one and only Son. And the Son’s greatest gift to His church is the Holy Spirit. As the next verse (v.39) explains, Jesus was talking about the Spirit, whom Jesus would give after he resurrected from the dead. This is the first instance He gave the promise of the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus resurrected from the dead, He breathed into His disciples and said “Receive the Holy Spirit.” This is the prelude before the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentacost. Jeesus said before that unless He went away the Holy Spirit could not come down. The Holy Spirit is a distinct Person from the Son. Jesus clearly stated that He would send “Another” Counselor, which means another distinct Person. The Son went back to the Father, and together the Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentacost, which became the birthday of the Church.

Jesuss resurrection from the dead confirms that He is the Son of God. His ascension to heaven confirms His glory. Thus we see both the humiliation and the glory of Christ. The Holy Spirit was not given earlier because Jesus had not yet been glorified (v.40). Before His ascension, He told His disciples not to leave Jerusalem despite having given them the Great Commission to go to the end of the world. This seems contradictory but the key is to wait for the Holy Spirit to come upon them (Acts 1:8) so that they were empowered to preach the Word.

There is a wrong teaching that teaches that the Spirit is Jesus Himself, thus Trinity only exists after incarnation. In that sense, God Himself went through change of His being. However, in Acts 2, after the Pentacost Peter preached and spoke about receiving the promise of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit descended to work in hearts and open their eyes to see that Jesus is Lord. It was not talking about the Spirit that did not exist earlier, but the promise God gave some time ago.

On hearing Jesus’ words about the living water, there were various responses. The first response was that Jesus is the Prophet (v.42). Jesus is not just a prophet, but THE prophet. He is the prophet spoken by Moses that God would raise a prophet like him from among the people (Deu. 18:15). However, Jesus is the Prophet like no other as He is the only Son of God who came to accomplish the salvation of mankind. There are two kinds that are sent by God. One is plural, the other is singular. The only singular one is Jesus Christ, the only Son of God. All the others are created ones and we do not worship them, including the angels. But we worship Christ.

The second response from the people is that He is the Christ. The last response is one of doubt. People questioned how Christ could be from Galilee. They were confused. Jesus was not bothered and did not explain either. A wise person would only deal with matter of wisdom. People started arguing with one another and Jesus let them debate.

In another passage, Jesus said He did not come to bring peace but division, such that people’s enemies will be from his own households. Faith can cause division and tension in the closest relationships. Often God allows people to come to the understanding of the truth through differing opinions. But God promises that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who were called according to His purpose.

Jesus Teaches at the Feast (Jn 7:10-24)

2010-11-10T02:36:00.005+11:00

This is a personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 17 October 2010 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 7:10-24

After Jesus’ brothers left for Judea, Jesus also left. Why did Jesus say he was not going and that his time was not up yet, but he went later? Jesus was so sensitive to the timing of God that he would not even deviate from it by 10 minutes. If you go into action before the timing is up, you will violate the teaching of Jesus. But when the timing of God is up and you still tarry for another 10 minutes, you will be behind his will. People concluded that Jesus was a coward and would move only when guaranteed safety. This is a great damage to the reputation of Jesus. If Jesus was really a coward, he could have just stayed behind. But the fact is that after they left, Jesus also went. The Bible said that when Jesus reached there, he went up to the temple courts to teach. He was not afraid. He was not lying. He was not a coward. He was doing what God wanted him to do at the right time and at the right place.

When he was teaching in the temple courts, he did not just teach a selected group of people and avoided the officials. The Bible says once Jesus taught, the Pharisees immediately reacted by looking down on him, saying: “How did this man get such learning without having studied?” This is a mistake that many academics make. Da Vinci influenced the modern world but he was not formally trained. In Jesus’ time, there were people who were very learned in the law of Moses and the Scriptures. But none other could bring greater inspiration and challenges to the world than Jesus. Jesus’ teaching was not recognised by the academics, but the things he inspired far surpassed them. On the surface he seemed unworthy to speak, but in reality many people listened to him and their lives were transformed.

Intellectuals like to gather together and are afraid of outsiders with greater influence. This is so in the world of art, music, literature and philosophy. People with unique and unusual thoughts can influence many to come. Jesus must have taught things that all Old Testament prophets could not express but which climaxed only in the New Testament. Such a person would be lonely in his time because he would not follow the traditions of the past and he would also not be made obsolete by generations to come. In his teaching Jesus had the essence of eternity. Many things cannot be taught by academics, but by a genius. People like Socrates and Confucius came out from nowhere. They not only learnt from the ancients, but they could also identify and correct the mistakes of the ancients. They are original and creative, and cannot have a place in their generation, but the next generation cannot get rid of them as well. Sakyamuni, Muhammad and Beethoven were such people. Before Sakyamuni there was no Buddhism. His teaching was completely different from Hinduism. He created a universal religion that is much more open than Hinduism. The existence of such people would greatly inspire the generations to come, but they would shame and challenge the scholars of their generation.

How did this person get such learning without having studied? People were despising Jesus, but they would not have imagined 2000 years later we would not be discussing about them but we would all be discussing about Jesus Christ and his status. He is far above the experts of the law. They studied the law from Moses, but Moses received the law from Christ. As the Son of Man, he was the Word of God. The Word itself is greater than anyone who has been sent to preach the Word. The Word is God. The Word is divine. The Word has eternal value. The eternal Son of God is the true Word itself. When he came to the world to teach, his word was superior than that written by Moses. God through the angels gave Moses the law, and through Moses gave the law to the Israelites. All Moses did was to receive the words that the angels brought and the angels are not higher than God, with the exception of the single messenger of God. Christ is the only Angel sent by God, different from the many angels. All the angels are creatures, only Christ is the Creator. John 1 started by saying: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The second person is the Word of God and is God. When God through the angels gave us his word, the people who received the Word were creatures and the Word they received was brought by angels. But the only Angel is God. The Angel who gave the Word to Moses is God himself. He is God so he is eternal and greater than the written word itself. This transcendence is most important. We need to understand the Bible has this transcendence. Because of faith, we discover that there is a leap of faith found in the Bible.

In the eternal will of God, I am a child of God because before the creation of the world God already elected me and not man. This is a Biblical faith. Paul said those who say only by circumcision can one be saved might as well go all the way and be emasculated. In Romans, he said Abraham was justified by faith, not by circumcision or by the law. When he was justified, the law did not exist. The law and the commandment of circumcision came after he was justified. Circumcision is not necessary for justification and following the law is not a pre-requisite. Circumcision was granted not long after justification. The law was given 430 years after justification by faith. Before circumcision we are already justified. Without the law we can be justified. We see the leap of faith. We see this is the principle of the Bible. Many of us are constrained by doctrines, by dogmas, by what we can see, by phenomenon. We believe in many wrong things, so we find it difficult to believe in the truth. We believe based on the authority of others. When Jesus taught, the people tried to trap him with common principles. Do you have a degree, authority or academic qualifications? They want to take away his authority in teaching. How did Jesus react to this? He did not quite care about what people said or what people would judge. As the Word, he is able to teach the truth to created people. Steadily he answered: “My Father has sent me. My Father has given me the truth. I taught you based on what he has taught me. I know where I come from and where I am going, but you would not know this.” When Jesus talked about where he came from, he was clear that God revealed himself to him. In Christ this is absolutely right.

The problem is that many false prophets also say: “God spoke to me and told me the truth, so believe in what I say.” One can believe in Jesus, but not necessarily them. Christ is the Son of God, the Word in itself, but they are not. One needs to be cautious and fight boldly. When such thinking and attitude are displayed from those who are not from God, they would be powerful and attract a lot of people to them, and we would be most confused and follow them. Jesus did not learn formally and he taught, but that does not mean that anyone who has not learnt can teach. For Jesus it was because he was the Word. But people who have not learnt, who think they need not learn and who just teach, are falling into the trap of Satan. Jesus is the Word. He came in the flesh and spoke of His word, completely based on what God has told him. No one else is like him. Be cautious and flee from Charismatic leaders that claim God has spoken to them. Don’t be naïve and think they are like Apostle Paul. What Apostle Paul received became our Bible. These people presume that God has given them new revelation and they have confused the entire Christian world.

When Jesus Christ taught, people criticised him and said he is not learned. Jesus answered: “My teaching is not my own. It comes from my Father who has sent me. I have taught what comes from God and you accept what I have taught.” When Jesus taught, he mentioned a principle: He does not seek his own glory. He who works for his own honour is not true. The most important word in the Hebrew culture is the word “truth”. We are to worship the true God, preach the true sermon and truthfully we are to seek the will of God. The truthfulness of God gave us his promises and so truthfully we want to glorify God and be beneficial to others. Jesus said here that whoever seeks his own glory, he is not true. The one who seeks the glory of God is indeed true. He has truth in his heart. We find an important clue: If a person is speaking for the glory of God and by the truth that God has given to us, then he is true.

When they spoke to Jesus in this manner, he said Moses has given them the law, but not one keeps the law. This was mentioned twice, by Jesus and by Peter. All the Jews from the time of Moses went against the law. What is the purpose of giving the law? Watchman Nee said God gave us the law to break it. I cannot accept it. This statement places God as a source of an evil trap. We cannot doubt the motive of God, that he could give us the law so that we would sin. The fact is that Jesus said: “Not one of you keeps the law”, which is different from purposely breaking the law. Not being able to keep the law means you are limited, not that you are purposely breaking it. You cannot do what you will in your heart. You may hope for the best but you will fail.

After Jesus was resurrected and ascended to heaven, the apostles went to preach the gospel everywhere. Some Jewish Christians found that the Gentiles were saved without circumcision. Paul said there was no need for circumcision because if believing in Jesus still required circumcision, it would mean Jesus’ salvation was not good enough. Peter said since our fathers until now, no one has been able to observe the law. Paul added that those who fail in the law find righteousness in Christ. This has appeared twice in the Bible. Firstly, Jesus said Moses gave us the law but no one keeps it. Secondly, Peter said since our fathers until now, people cannot fulfill the law. Whether it is Jesus or Peter, both were clear that we cannot fulfill the law. As we cannot keep the law, it is impossible to be saved through the law. Righteousness comes about only from faith in Christ. Jesus was saying to them: “None of you has kept the law, so why do you have circumcision on the Sabbath? You say you want to follow the law. But you cannot be saved by circumcision. To be saved, you have to take on the punishment of sin, to be chastised by the Father and be delivered from sin. Why do you think I broke the law when I healed someone on the Sabbath day? You have performed circumcision on Sabbath and you think you have honoured the law, but you do not fulfill the law. But why do you judge me when I heal someone on the Sabbath?” The comparison shows us how confused they were, but they did not want to follow the truth. So they considered Jesus’ healing on the Sabbath to be against the law. The true meaning of the Sabbath is that people may be saved and enjoy the true rest of the Sabbath. The man who was bound by sickness and sin, was without peace for 38 years. When Jesus healed him, he truly was healed. It means that salvation far surpasses the law. The law judges our sin, but salvation forgives our sin. The law brings curses, but salvation brings grace and blessing. Not only did they not understand what Jesus Christ did, but they also thought he was against the law. Jesus said he healed the whole man completely on the Sabbath. A doctor cannot heal a person completely from all medical conditions. Different doctors are needed for different medical conditions. They did not know how large a miracle Jesus had done. They were focused only on the fact that he healed on the Sabbath. So Jesus said: “Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment.”

In Accordance to God's Timing (Jn. 7:1-9)

2010-10-17T16:45:00.002+11:00

This is my personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 10 October 2010 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 7:1-9

In Chapter 5, the Jews wanted to kill Jesus as He had offended them. Firstly He disobeyed the Sabbath Law. Secondly He equated Himself as God. Thirdly, He called God His Father, something the Jews would never do. In Chapter 6, Jesus disregarded whatever the Jews was plotting and He continued His ministry and fed the multitude.

In Chapter 7, Jesus wanted to filter the people who came to Him. He did not want to have too many people. The Church is the Body of Christ, holy and bought by Christ’s precious blood. Jesus’ teaching became difficult at the end of Chapter 6. He spoke about how eternal life came from eating His flesh and drinking His blood. Those looking for miracles and food left Him. Jesus wanted them to leave and even asked His 12 disciples to leave as well. But Peter said, “You have the word of eternal life, to whom shall we go?”

The church is full of selfish people who only want the loaves and fishes. Many preachers preach not the word of God, but preach with haphazard attitude. They do not correct unbiblical content only want quantitative increase. If the lifestyle of Christians is not superior to the world, how can we be light and salt? Therefore filtering is necessary. However, today if the church tries to implement church discipline, people will leave, as though only the Lord can discipline His people.

Thus was the situation with the Israelites. Who would correct the religious leaders of the day? When God sent the prophets, they killed them. God then allowed foreigners like King Herod and Pontius Pilate to rule over the Israelites. Through the prophet Isaiah God said He was sick of their sacrifices. They praised with their lips but their hearts were far away. In the same way, Jesus wanted to test His disciples. Jesus told them to go. In the Twelve, there was a betrayer.

In Chapter 7, Jesus purposely stayed away from Galilee because the Jews wanted to kill Him. It is not because He was afraid of death. If He was, He would not have come in the flesh. He came precisely to die on the cross. Jesus told His brothers that they could go at any time but His time had not yet come. There was another occasion Jesus spoke about time in this manner. When the perfume of myrrh was poured upon Him and people complained of the waste, Jesus said they could do good to the poor any time, but they did not always Him. “For you any time is right, but not for Me. You need to treasure the time when I am still with you.”

He told His brothers His time has not come. He stayed in Galilee after saying that. Yet His time came not a few days or hours later, it was only a few minutes later. Once His brothers left, He also went to Jerusalem. Jesus saw time precisely to the last moment. When the time has not come, He did not move. Once His time arrived, He proceeded. He did not hide but entered to temple court to preach. Jesus was obedient to God the Father in the midst of all difficulties and was very sensitive to God’s timing.

If God’s guidance came and we do not move, we will miss the opportunities. Do not fall behind the plan and timetable of God. We may fall behind other things but should not fall behind God’s timetable. We need to learn to walk in accordance to the Holy Spirit’s guidance. True revival is when we walk in sync with the Holy Spirit. Let us move steadily in line with the Spirit.

Jesus the Bread of Life Part 5 (John 6:66-71)

2010-10-14T01:44:00.004+11:00

This is my personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 3 October 2010 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 6:66-71

John 6 can be divided into 2 parts:

The 1st part-Jesus provides men's physical food. Man does not live by bread alone. Man's mouth needs to eat food.

The 2nd part (completely turned around)-Jesus does not provide men's physical food anymore but spiritual food. Man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Man's ears need to listen to God's word.

Which one do we need more? Many times what we need are not what we think we need. Many times, we don't think that we need the things that we really need. Who among men would think that they need God's word? Confucius, the most famous Chinese thinker taught the Chinese 'real man seek the truth.' But ironically, most Chinese sought physical food everywhere instead of the truth.

Towards the end of John 6 we see that Jesus' teaching becomes more and more difficult to understand. To make it worse, he talked about things that were not practical. Many people, judged Christ's words by the surface and therefore started leaving him. In John 6:6 there were as many as 12000 people. By the time we reach John 6:67, there were only 12 left-the Twelve. This stands in contrast with today's church growth theology. This is church decline, to be accurate.

What was Jesus' reaction?

Far from being afraid that nobody will follow him anymore, he actually asked the Twelve (v67), 'Why don't you leave me and go with them too?' (this is a more accurate translation from the original text in Greek, which could be found in the Indonesian translation of the Bible). Jesus was not afraid that men will leave him but he was asking why they were still with him there.

Jesus' purpose in asking this question is to make them ask themselves, 'Why am I still here?' Everybody may change, even though he may not realise that. Therefore it is meaningful to ask this question. Peter's answer was very magnificent:

'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God (John 6:68).'

In the Bible, there are only 2 times when a person is told to go away. One is in this story, part of the New Testament. Another one is in the Old Testament, in the book of Ruth. In the story, Naomi told her daughter-in-laws Orpah and Ruth (both were Moabites) to go back to their own land, Moab, instead of following Naomi to return to Israel (since his husband and his 2 sons all died). After much persuasion Orpah relented and went back to Moab, but the next moment we read the greatest answer from the greatest daughter-in-law in history:

'Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the LORD do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me.' (Ruth 1:16-17)

In other words, Ruth took Naomi's God as her God, Naomi's religion as her religion, Naomi's nation as her nation, and Naomi's faith as her faith. Ruth declared that she would never leave Naomi. Ruth took this decision despite the likely rejection from the Israelites of her and difficulty in adjusting into the Israelites' culture. Naomi must have felt very touched.

In this New Testament text of John 6:68, Peter answered on behalf of all generations in the Church. Peter's answer was the true answer that Jesus wanted to hear. And this is also the answer that Christ wants to hear from us today. Why are you here today? Why do you listen to the sermon? To copy sermons and preach them elsewhere? To look for a girlfriend? To find out business opportunities? Can you answer like the Apostle Peter, 'You have words of eternal life ?'

What was the motive of the people following Jesus? Some came for seeing miracles, some for food, some to follow Jesus, some to listen to good sermons [but not to do anything about what they hear], some for the benefits, and some to satisfy their curiosity. When everybody else has left and the Twelve were asked this question, Peter is effectively asking back, 'Why are you chasing us away? You have words of eternal life. Who else can we go to?' I believe when Jesus heard this, he heard it in the same way Naomi heard the words of Ruth.

Not only that, Peter added, 'We have believed' and '(We) have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.' The phrase 'Holy One of God' is always used in a specialised way. Isa 40-66 often used this phrase to indicate that this 'Holy One of God' is the only One who would be sent by God, i.e. there is only one who is sent by God. So it is important to understand Christology in Isaiah. However, in NT there was one angel who said this i.e. Gabriel, who declared to Maria that the baby she was going to bear will be called the Son of God(singular)/the Holy One of God. The angel Gabriel is speaking of the fulfillment of Isaiah here. There is one and the only one, the Holy One, who will be sent by God.

In hearing Peter's great reply, Jesus did not feel comforted. He declared that he had chosen the 12, yet 1 of them is a devil. It was as if Jesus was saying, 'Just because you are part of the Twelve, you feel very great? Let me tell you, one of you is a devil.' Among the chosen people, in the best church, there are bound to have some spies from the devil and in the worst church, there are bound to have true followers of Jesus Christ. Jesus was not overjoyed, and he said this to mean that Judas Iscariot would be the one to betray him.

Jesus the Bread of Life Part 4 (Jn. 6:52-65)

2010-09-11T23:00:00.001+10:00

This is my personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 5 September 2010 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 6:52-65

Jesus warned the people that if they did not eat His flesh and drink His blood they would have no life. So many people said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” (Jn. 6:60). It seemed reasonable that they could not understand, since it seems to mean going against the law of Moses which forbade drinking blood.

It appears that Jesus jumped too fast in the way He communicated the truth, making people confused and unwilling to listen further. However in the first place, these people went to Jesus not to seek the truth, but because of the food they ate.

Is it true we need to preach simply because people want to hear simple things? This approach is very market-oriented. Jesus never did that. God never opposes big gathering, however, is not pleased if we compromise fundamental principles in order to attract the crowd.

Jesus on earth was the only time in history that Word of God became flesh. If you believe that you live by every word that comes from the mouth of God, then you should come to Jesus. All the wisdom of God is in Jesus Christ. God in the flesh is a great mystery. It is the greatest work the Holy Spirit has done. It is the greatest gift of God to the world.

The greatest gift of God to the Church is the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit bring Christ - the Word of God – down to earth because God wants us to live by His word. We are not to live by physical sustainance. The Old Testament declares that the word of God is not far but it is in your mouth and in your hearts. And the Apostle Paul said to confess with your mouth and believe in your hearts that Jesus is Lord and you will be saved. It means you must live by your confession and your faith.

The word of God dwells in our heart to sustain us and maintain a holy lifestyle. The Holy Spirit is the breath of God. The Spirit brings the truth to the prophets. Thus the Scriptures are written through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit brings Christ – the Living Word – to be conceived in Mary’s womb. Without the Holy Spirit, the word of God will not be in the world. The Son of God will not come to earth. The Holy Spirit transformed the word of God into the Bible and brought forth the Son of God in the flesh.

Without the Holy Spirit nobody will come to Jesus Christ. Without Jesus Christ, nobody can go to the Father. The Holy Spirit glorifies the Son. Through inspiration of Holy Spirit we have the Bible. The Spirit renews us by the word of God. We cannot understand the Bible without the Holy Spirit.

Receiving Christ’s flesh and blood is to receive the holy covenant. God has temporal covenant which used the blood of animals. Through the blood of Christ, we have eternal covenant with God. In receiving Him we confess His death and resurrection. Eating of his flesh and blood implies our confession and receiving of His benefits.

The Jews could not understand this and grumbled. Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before!” (Jn. 6:61-62)

They did not know His original state and His glory. If they knew then they would understand why He spoke the way He did and would be astonished at how much He sacrificed Himself. Jesus said to the Samaritan woman a similar thing, “If you knew whom you are speaking to, you would have asked Him and He would have given you the living water.” He asked the woman for water, and yet He is the Living Water.

Jesus said the spirit gives life and the flesh counts for nothing (Jn. 6:63). It means that it is the spirit that quickens one to life, not flesh.

Many people misunderstood this and think Christianity despise the flesh. This is not true. The Bible say our body is the temple of God so we are to glorify God with our body. We are to avoid sexual immorality and adultery. If we misuse this function it is the work of Satan. We need to enjoy it in proper manner which glorify God. Paul said to offer our bodies as living sacrifice.

But what does it mean flesh counts for nothing? In the matter where we get life, flesh counts for nothing. Flesh does not give life. It needs to be given life in order to have any function at all. The flesh needs external nourishment from food. Without food our body will die. Likewise, the spirit needs external nourishment from the word of God. If we eat the word of God we will live forever. So Jesus said to eat His flesh and drink His blood, as He is the Word in the flesh. Then we will not die.
Salvation comes when we believe in the death and resurrection of Christ. His blood cleanses us from sin. The Apostle Paul said to pastor the sheep of God whom He bought with His own blood. This is the only time the Scripture equates the blood of Christ with God’s blood. Christ came in the flesh so that He could die to give us life.

Jesus the Bread of Life Part 3 (Jn. 6:41-59)

2010-08-21T20:46:00.003+10:00

This is my personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 15 August 2010 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 6:41-59

When Jesus said He is the bread that comes from heaven, people began to question it. His father was Joseph and His mother was Mary, and His siblings were with them, so what could He mean by saying He was from heaven. The Jews thought He was deceiving the masses so they asked some soldiers to come and capture Him. The soldiers in the end did not capture Him as they said, “Nobody spoke like this man.”

Jesus was not talking about things of the earth, but things of heaven which would last to all eternity. His existence far transcended our lives. For listeners who were so narrow-minded, how could they understand what He meant? The Word of God transcends space, time, culture and eras. Human natural response is to criticise when they cannot understand the truth. So the religious leaders criticised Jesus for His teaching.

Jesus used words that are quite obscure and very hard for people to understand. He would have mercy on whom He will have mercy. He will have compassion on whom He will have compassion. This is His sovereignty. When you cannot understand the truth, it is not that He failed to convert you but because He has not enlightened you.

Moses led the Israelites for 40 years in the desert and they experienced the miracle of the manna during the period. On the day they entered the Promised Land the miracle of the manna stopped. But manna is a representation of a greater reality, not the reality itself. Jews thought they were superior to all the other races because their ancestors received manna from heaven. But Jesus said He was the bread of life and reminded the Jews that their ancestors ate manna and died.

Likewise Jesus told the Samaritan woman that her ancestors drank from Jacob’s well and thirst again, but those who drink from His living water will never thirst anymore.

Jesus now compared the manna to His own body. If you eat His flesh you will never die. What does it mean? He brought them out of the boundaries of their limited understanding, their focus on the material and visible, into the spiritual and invisible. Jesus wants to elevate our mind so that we can break through our limitedness. But we tend to focus on material things and despise things spiritual.

When they could not understand, Jesus said to them not to grumble as nobody came to Him unless the Father drew him. He wanted to bring them into eternal, uncorruptible realm. Most of us are very satisfied with the material world and uninterested in the spiritual. Because they knew Jesus in the flesh, they had distorted understanding of Him. When you go to the wrong seminary, it is very hard for you to unlearn the wrong thing than to learn the right thing. You become very stubborn because you think you already know.

Jesus taught that material food cannot bring eternal life. Thus man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out from the mouth of God. All other religions paint men as the seekers of the truth. But when Jesus said He is the Bread from heaven, it is profound statement that the Eternal One is the Initiator who came down to earth to give life to men. It is not men seeking after God.

Jesus said three times that He will raise up at the last day those who believe in Him. This means that is that life comes from Him. He is the True Manna from heaven. The manna in the Old Testament is temporal, it is a shadow of what is to come. The Old Testament prepares the way for the New Testament. The Word of God Himself (Christ) is the manifestation of what is foreshadowed in the Old Testament. You are to receive this Word become flesh to gain eternal life. Thus Christ said they are to eat His flesh. People think he is crazy.

Many people who do not know Jesus Christ judge Him by outward appearances. He did not have comely outward appearance. He was despised and rejected, and died crucified. But He never retaliated.

Jesus is the word of God. He is the Truth Himself. Other religions seek truth from their own perspective. The Bible shows that the truth is life itself. Truth is combined with the word. Truth linked to way and life.

Jesus also said to drink his blood (Jn. 6:54). This appears to contradict the Old Testament command which forbids drinking blood. In Acts 15:28 there was a command to abstain from blood for the Gentile believers. Why then did Jesus say to drink his blood? Deuteronomy said the life of all living creatures is in the blood. Moses was saying the mystery of life lies in the blood therefore we are commanded not to eat blood. Jesus says to drink His blood so that you can gain His life. Both imply that life is in the blood, so there is no contradiction between the Old Testament and Jesus' statement. We need to partake in Christ in order to have life.

It is a great invitation by the Son of God to drink His blood so that we can receive the life of God. Those who receive life from Christ are new creation. Without the shedding of blood sin cannot be forgiven. Jesus is God become flesh. As human being, He has flesh and blood. The life of Christ is in His blood. The precious blood of Christ contains the eternal life of God.

Jesus the Bread of Life Part 2 (Jn. 6:34-51)

2010-08-15T12:19:00.001+10:00

This is my personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 8 August 2010 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 6:34-51

Other than physical body, we also have a spirit. When we truly understand this, we will not only seek physical desires and temporal needs. True value is not in the temporal, but in the eternal.

Jesus fed the five thousand with material food, but He emphasised the spiritual meaning of the miracle. He said, “I am the bread of life.” Eternal truth is not the product of our reasoning, but is alive and living among us. The words of Christ seem simple but the meaning is deeper than all philosophy. Pharisees became more confused as they listened to Jesus and despised Him more. God revealed Himself to the Hebrews. Yet the Hebrew culture became the greatest enemy to the New Testament. The Pharisees’ attitude was very different from Nicodemus’ attitude.

The emphasis of Jesus was that He was the food that came from heaven. You need earthly food when you are on the earth. But man not only needs food, but also the Word that come from the mouth of God, His eternal word that gives life. Where is this eternal truth? Where is this word of God? The Pharisees believed they already have it, i.e. the Old Testaament. But Jesus demonstrated that the Old Testament is just the shadow of the real object. Why would they reject the real object for the shadow? That is the failure of Hebrew culture. The Old Testament is pointing towards Jesus Christ. Yet when Jesus appeared the Jews held fast to the shadow.

“At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." They said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I came down from heaven'?"” (Jn. 6:41-42)

In their wrong understanding of Jesus, they fell into a terrible trap. They thought Jesus must be mad, boastful or demon-possessed. They thought His mother was an adulteress since His natural father was not known. He was from Galilee which was uneducated unlike Jerusalem. Therefore He must be most arrogant for calling Himself the bread of life.

Jesus became a stumbling stone for those who reject Him and the capstone for those who believe. The Word became flesh, the Eternal One entered into the temporal world. Can you recognise him? If you judge him by mere physical criteria, you will treat him like another human being. But internally He is the Eternal One. When you only use only the physical eyes to judge, you cannot recognise the real person and you are the one at a loss. The Bible teaches an important principle, that is not judge a person by mere appearances.

Jesus came in loneliness and had no comely appearance. He was like a shoot in a dry land and He was despised. Yet He never reacted to insults. When he suffered, He never threatened. These are most difficult things to for humans to do.

The Scripture said God the Father gave the flock to God the Son and through His resurrection, He gave eternal life to the flock God has given to Him.

When we come to Jesus, we need to listen to His word, like Mary who sat at His feet. Faith comes through hearing the Word of God. Therefore, if you do not hear how can you believe? But many who hear never believe. That means they are not the flock of Christ. Jesus said His sheep hear His voice and follow Him.

So Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (Jn. 6:44) And secondly, of those who came to Him, none will be lost. Put together, this establishes the reformed theology of salvation. People welcome the message on the second part, i.e. if they come to Him they will be saved. But people do not like to hear the first part which emphasises God’s sovereignty in drawing people unto Himself.

Jesus said that He will raise those who believe in Him on the last day. So this establishes the doctrine of election and the last days. So there are those who belong to Christ’s flock and those who do not.

If the Jews truly heard the word of God in the Old Testament, they would honour Christ, the Word become flesh. The true test of whether they have heard God’s word came when Jesus appeared. And the Jews failed the test.

Paul, as a Pharisee himself from Jerusalem, academically trained in the law, expounded most clearly in his epistles the doctrine of salvation from the angle of the Jews. What he wrote is consistent with what Jesus said as recorded by John. Paul confessed there is only one God and one Mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ. And he preached that he knew nothing except Christ and Him crucified.

Jesus the Bread of Life (Jn. 6:30-40)

2010-07-30T21:31:00.001+10:00

This is my personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 25 July 2010 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 6:30-40

The people asked Jesus what miraculous sign would He show so that they could believe. They talked about the manna Moses gave their forefathers to eat in the desert as the sign. Actually this is not the most important thing. What is more important is the meaning symbolised by that even, that is that the Word of God that has been sent to them. The material will decay but God’s Word will stand forever.

The Father has sent Christ as the Bread of Life. He is the Bread that was sent from heaven. The Jews could not understand because they were not interested in the truth but only in food. They used their religious faith to seek temporal things of the world. This is what frequently happen in religious temples.

Religiosity is something unique in human beings which is not found in animals. Animals do not pray. They do not have the concept of eternal life. They cannot seek the truth. They are stuck in material world. But human beings can connect to spiritual things. So man has dual needs, material and spiritual. The fervency of faith and religiousity are great but ironically humans tend to use such great functions to pursue temporal things. Do you need to use religious spirit and energy to seek after temporal things?

The crowd went after Jesus for material food. Jesus exposed their motive immediately. God used manna as an illustration. What God truly wants to give is the eternal word, not the material food.

The manna was material and temporal. Their ancestors ate manna and died. But what God wanted to give ultimately is the true bread from heaven, Christ, the Word become flesh. So the Word of God is not subjective imagination. It is Jesus Christ who came from heaven, sent by God that the world might have life. He is the Son of God. He is the true bread of life. Jesus declared that He is the Bread of life, that if you eat him, you will never go hungry and thirsty. So believers partake of the Word. This is hard to accept because it is against our fallen reason.

After hearing this, they could not accept it and wanted to leave Him. Here Jesus made it clear that nobody could come to the Him unless the Father enabled him. In another passage, Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice and follow Me. The reason you cannot hear Me is because you do not belong to Me.” He is the bread that comes from heaven and yet they do not receive, not because it is not true, but because they do not belong to Him.

Jesus said if not for His Father, nobody would come to Him, and of all that the Father give He shall lose none. This is the reformed doctrine of predestination. People came to Christ because of the will of the Father. For those who come, none shall be lost.

This is difficult to accept because men like to hear that the freedom of choice lies with them. They like to hear that it is in their power to choose to become believers. But the truth is, if not for the sovereign will of God, man cannot believe. It is the will of God that of those God cause to believe in Christ, none will be lost.

Consumerism, Pragmatism, and a Christian's Status

2010-07-28T23:39:00.005+10:00

This is my (not Mejlina's) personal notes of Elder Yong Teck Meng's sermon in True Way Presbyterian Church on 23 May 2010, when Rev Tong was unable to preach. It was preached in Chinese with English translation. The above-mentioned disclaimer applies to this post similarly.

We are the people that experience the era with a speed of changes that is the fastest ever. Especially those at my age. For example, you and I are those who see the birth of the television. From an era without TV to an era with TV. That's a big change. What is the underlying power behind these changes?

One of the main things that causes them is technology. Have you ever observed how it changes our lives, including our philosophies? There was once an article (published in China) that said 'We should not underestimate Americans' creativity. They are a people with very creative culture. Take for example the iPhone.' The writer of this article went on to assert that one's life is not worth living if he has not had an iPhone. Socrates stated that an unexamined life is not worth living, but this writer dared say one's life without an iPhone is not worth living!

Technology and its hardware truly have influenced our lives.

As a testimony to that, let me tell you something. Some time ago one of my relative related a story to me of how amazed he was when he saw an iPad in an Apple store in the US. He said, 'This is something you must have. Otherwise, I don't know how you can live. It is like, "Magic."'

I fully understand how he felt, as I used to work in a technology company like Apple. This kind of amazement comes about because people have come to the stage where it is possible to transform a piece of hardware into an experience that could be enjoyed, something that is 'metaphysical'. When you use that piece of hardware, it is able to shape the way you think and live.

We really have underestimated the influence from science and technology on our faith and our perspective on enjoyment. It has directed us towards certain philosophies in life that we could not detect. The most important of these indistinguishable philosophies is consumerism (消费者本主义). Through the selling and buying of these technology devices, the whole world is walking down the way of consumerism.

Even those deepest beliefs that we held on dearly while we were young are now no longer found. Even including communism, how many people today are willing to sacrifice their lives for their belief? We can find none today.

In Taiwan, one prominent person once mentioned that what people want today is gao qing (高清 - High Definition Television / HDTV), not qing gao (清高 - lofty ideals). This TV is so highly defined that it can show a picture so sharply as if it is real or three-dimensional. It makes people want to touch the object that it shows. Here we can see that technologically advanced devices are able to arouse people to desire an enjoyment rather than pursue high lofty ideals.

So today, people are no longer concerned about high or noble ideas or faith, they say that these things are no longer relevant in life. The worst is, not only have these devices brought us along the way of consumerism, they have also led us into pragmatism. We can see this from sayings like 'It doesn't matter whether the cat is black or white, as long as it can catch a mouse, it is a cat.'

Take for example gambling. Those of us the older generation used to be punished if our fathers knew we played a game of tikam (a sort of lottery game played in provision shops). My father would tell me, 'All sins start from gambling'. But now people are saying that gambling is sinful, but it is good - and this is because it creates jobs ?!

I had even seen an essay written by a primary 4 student at a famous school on why the casinos were good for the country, with one of the reasons was that they created jobs for his parents. After I wrote an email to the Minister of Education, the essay was pulled down. So you see my point, pragmatism has also influenced our education system.

Not only our education system has been influenced, our Christian faith too has been influenced. Christian leaders often exhort their church members to be reformed, to preach the gospel, etc but many people would respond, 'See whether I like it or not' or 'Hmmm, it doesn't seem to be beneficial to me.' Is this how a church is supposed to go about doing things? Based on the principles of consumerism?

Take another example - you and I know that we have never 'welcomed' newcomers to our (expository preaching) sessions [Note: 'to welcome' here means to ask newcomers to stand and get everybody present to clap hands]. But many churches do so. Some even present gifts to the guests. There are also guests who would not be embarrassed even if they were to come to the gathering asking for door gifts! Ought we not to come to church without the expectation to be greeted by hand clappings and presented with goodies? After all, we are sinners who are supposed to come to church!

I'm not saying that it is absolutely wrong to present door gifts to newcomers. But here we see how the way we think, the way we do things, and our view towards faith have been deeply influenced by consumerism. This is definitely not a biblical teaching.

Once when God's servant (Rev Tong) taught us Reformed Evangelical (归正福音) theology, one of the points were so that we would go from darkness to light. It is not something that can be said simply. In the reformed understanding, in Ephesians 1 the Bible says that before the creation of this world, God had already chosen all of us. This is unlike consumerist practices where people often think, 'I am the one who chooses you.'

Some people often accept invitations to church because there are so and so goodies during traditional Chinese celebrations in church (i.e. they choose to go after analysing the benefits that they would receive). Or they believe because they say I have been pestering them, and after so doing ask me not to pester them anymore. This is how we often think.

This is one reason that when it comes our Reformed Evangelical movement's teachings like 'we have to be reformed' or 'we have to preach', we often think that it is one of many choices-it is something for me to choose. In the society, people often said, 'So long you like it, it's good for you.' Many people also like to think that values in life is relative. 'If you believe, they are good for you. No need to talk about lofty ideals.' Just last week, there were many people who attended the Pink Dot Event (a homosexuals' gathering), implicitly declaring that their way of life is their choice (not to be subjected to others' point of view) and that they do not recognise absolute moral standard.

Therefore unless we truly understand the true essence of our faith, we would be easily swayed by the patterns of this world. We would be looking passively from the side, with a consumeristic point of view at God's servant (Rev Tong) preaching all over the world: 'You go, go and preach, we will always support you. We will pray for you from the side, but you must also remember to pray for us before we pray for you.' Right from the time we believed in God we thought it was our choice to believe. This is not a biblical teaching.

Things are surely not that simple. In the reformed understanding, Jesus Christ preached not only about salvation but also the kingdom. For those of us who belong to him, our identity has been totally transformed. We now belong to God's kingdom. So when we consider our responsibilities, we should do so not based on the choices that we have but based on our identity as citizens of God's kingdom. We do not belong to the world, we only live temporarily in the world. There are many teachings in the Bible that are consistent with this, for instance, the teaching that says we only temporarily live in this world.

If life is smooth sailing for you so far, then something is very wrong. Sundar Singh once mentioned that once when he went to a village to preach, all the dogs there went to bark at him upon seeing his arrival. Why did the dogs bark? Because he did not belong there. The dogs are protecting their territory in this way. It's the same with us today. Dear brothers and sisters, are you feeling comfortable in your place today, because no worldly dogs are barking at you, although you supposedly belong to the kingdom of God? Consider our identity carefully.

In this area, our understanding towards our faith is really far from our Creator's Word. Rev Tong often remarked that the more he preached, the more he felt he had not understood the Bible. Many times we look at the teachings of the Bible, we look at them from the consumeristic point of view. We can see this from our questions such as 'Do I want to believe this?'

Yesterday I went to preach at a church and heard this song. I really wonder, why today many people are so pessimistic, that they compose a song like this:

I am not a perfect person.

I am not special at all, make me more special.

Oh God, make me better to be able to go to the world.

The fact is, among billions of people in the world, God has elected you and you are saying that you are not special at all?

In China I like to stand in the busy streets. Many of them look like me and can easily be my brothers. I will then wonder why out of so many of these people, God called me? John 10 clearly said 'The shepherd calls his own sheep by name.' Among the billions of people, God called, 'Yong Teck Meng, come out.' I just listened to His voice and came out. How can this be? I do not know. I can only accept this by faith.

Only when we understand our faith in this way then we can understand why Rev Tong is so fervent. Because this is not a choice, it is about the transformation of our life/awakening of your mission in life, from darkness to light. This is what being reformed truly is. It involves repentance, it involves returning back to God.

When we are involved in a ministry like this, it cannot be something hypocritical. Because it is not based on consumerism. We can see that Rev Tong is not too concerned about organisation structure because he will move according to the direction determined by the Holy Spirit.

If we serve God recognising that our status has been transformed in Christ, you will realise that many things will fall into place based on the biblical teaching, just as many things cannot be faked. That's why in Mat 9:36, we see Lord Jesus, upon seeing many people, he had compassion on them-it is a sense of grief that cannot be faked. The Lord also said that we are to enter the kingdom of God like little children-such innocence cannot be faked either.

In USA, John Piper wrote a book, 'Brothers, We Are Not Professionals.' In many things we cannot claim to be professional. E.g true love, in our fervency in serving God. It is something that comes from the inside of our heart. Just like what we see in Mat 9:36, that kind of compassion naturally flows out from Jesus' heart.

Dear brothers and sisters, this is what it means to be salt and light of the world. Our Lord did not say that we need to be changed into salt and light, he said, 'You are the salt of the earth. ... You are the light of the world.' Your status has been truly transformed. You are no longer sons of darkness, you are now sons of light. We cannot look at the world from the consumeristic point of view.

I am not saying that our thinking would be transformed overnight. We may take a long time to grow as Christians, but we must never see things from the perspective of consumerism.

Bearing this in mind, let's now examine Matthew 9:35-38. Faced with the overwhelming amount of work to be done, it tells us 'Ask the Lord of harvest to send workers', not to find co-workers or new methods. This stands in great contrast to how we see prayers today. We tend to see it a formula. Is this how the Bible looks at this matter? No, absolutely not.

Nowadays as I pastor the English congregation in RECS, I am often asked 2 main questions by Rev Tong:

1. 'Do you pray fervently for your congregation?' (not 'Do you use this or that method?')

Prayer is very important. Everywhere in the Bible we are told to pray. A person that prays much will be lead by the Holy Spirit to do much spiritual work. But often we treat prayer like a shopping list.

My daughter has a friend who would pray before her meals, 'Same as yesterday. Thank you. Amen.' This is definitely not how we should pray. The Bible tells us in many places that were told pray fervently, not just repeating 'Same as yesterday.'

There are many things that we have to do. We are told to pray. From the pragmatic and consumeristic point of view, prayer does not seem to be efficient use of time. But the Bible tells us to do so, because this is the work of the Holy Spirit.

We also need to pray because it leads us to go out and do something for our society. Jesus at his preaching in a synagogue (in Nazareth) said, '... the opposed will be liberated ...' This tells us that as Christians, there is a need to do something with social influence! It's important to do relief work to the poor. It's one of the marks of a real Christian.

By praying, we will also be led to be sensitive towards godlessness and evil. For example the casino. We should be concerned that the casino is now standing on our country's soil.

There is a Christian farmer in Henan that I once met. He loves the poor so much, that he will take any poor man that he can find and put them in his house. His wife and him will care for them by selling their possessions and using the money buy daily provisions for those they take in. This they do, without external support! I think seeing this man's work was a rebuke sent by God to me, that in comparison to this man I was really, arrogant.

Dear brothers and sisters, if we just keep listening to sermons passively, study the Bible but we ourselves are not transformed, do not act upon our faith, and do not pray and grow, we are really far from the truth. Because this world is indeed full of darkness and a great number of people need the gospel of Jesus Christ and our care. We should kneel down and pray that God will send us, as true prayer will compel us to act upon our faith.

2. "Do you have joy?"

Many people have the perceptions that as reformed Christians, we must look sombre with long faces. This picture probably comes from pictures of John Calvin looking sombre or the word 'elders'. But this is not what the Bible teaches.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-17 says, 'Rejoice always, pray without ceasing,...' Joy in the spirit is very important. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, joy, and peace. This is the mark of the Holy Spirit.

If we are truly God's children, joy will overflow our hearts. This kind of joy is different from the consumerist's joy. Like in 1 Peter 3:15, people will be amazed and ask, 'How can you be so joyful?' All kinds of joy in the world cannot be compared to the joy that comes from the Lord. This joy will be very apparent as a result of walking in the path of the Lord.

Realising that our status has been changed, that we have been called by God, now the question we need to ask is, 'O Lord, what do you want me to do?' We need to kneel down and ask this in prayer. Just like when I met that Christian farmer in Henan, I just couldn't ignore what I had seen, I had to kneel down and ask God what He wanted me to do.

Struggle with this question in your 'wrestle' with God. That at the end of our lives we would not return to God empty-handed. The Bible is very strict on this. The letter to the church in Laodicea in the Book of Revelation tells us that our Lord Jesus would 'spit out' this church because it was neither hot nor cold. It would be with such disgust that our Lord would look at those who did not fervently work and bring glory to God. May we not be one of those that our Lord would spit out.

Food that Endures to Eternal Life (Jn. 6:16-27)

2010-07-22T21:24:00.001+10:00

This is my personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 18 July 2010 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 6:16-27

Often times people do not learn what they need to learn from an experience. After witnessing Jesus feeding 5000 people, instead of seeing His power as Creator, the people learnt that He should be made king because they imagined that under His leadership they would prosper. They missed the power of God and was only concered about the food that made them full.

When the evening came, Jesus’ disciples were in the boat at the lake. There was a strong wind and they were helpless. Jesus came and once again demonstrated to the disciples that He was Lord over nature. The disciples were afraid when they saw Him. They had followed Jesus for quite some time but they were still afraid of ghost. Jesus had to remind them, “It is I, don’t be afraid.” (Jn. 6:20). When Christ is present, we should not be afraid. The Scripture teaches us not to forsake the heart of boldness, not to lose our courage. But many people’s faith are not stable.

The next day the crowd looked for Jesus, not for His word but for material food. People usually have all kinds of excuses for not having time to hear God’s Word but always seem to have time to respond to material things. They looked for him and called him Rabbi with respect. Jesus immediately responded to them, “I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.” (Jn. 6:26) These people’s courtesy and respect towards Jesus was not sincere, but was based on the benefit they could get from Him. Jesus did not like this and did not hesitate to frankly tell them their motives. Courtesy and niceness does not equal goodness. But most people judge goodness based on how other people treat them. In contrast, Jesus knew the hearts of all men and would not be deceived by their hypocrisy.

Jesus said, “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” (Jn. 6:27) John 6 not only tells us God is Creator, but also that God is Saviour. After Christ fed thousands, He taught them about the food that endures to eternal life. Jesus said their ancestors died after eating manna that came from heaven so they need to eat the flesh of Jesus, the Word of God. In John 4 He told the Samaritan woman that their forefather still thirst after drinking from the well. If we drink of the living water, we will never thirst. If we eat the flesh of the Son of Man, you will never die. Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes out from the mouth of God.

All the four gospels recorded this miracle of feeding the five thousands, but only the gospel of John explained the significance of the incident. That is Christ’s teaching that we should not look for food that spoils. The Jews asked Jesus how they could do the works of God. Jesus’ reply was that the work of God is to believe in the One He has sent. It seems that the sentences do not quite link. But faith is essential, as Christ rejected people who did not come to Him by faith for eternal life. He teaches us not to work for food that spoils but to seek to understand eternal things.

So we should deal with absolute things with an absolute spirit, and deal with relative things relatively. Those who seek after God earnestly will be blessed indeed.

Feeding the Five Thousand Part 2 (Jn. 6:10-15)

2010-07-16T22:00:00.001+10:00

This is my personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 11 July 2010 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 6:10-15

Phillip represents people like us who are without faith. Often our prayers are expression of our anxiety and it shows our lack of faith. Phillip failed. Andrew failed in that he did not think that the child’s offerings would make a difference.

When Jesus acted, God’s providence came. The food get distributed and is more than enough to feed everyone. After everyone had their fill, Jesus asked to pick all the leftovers. He taught an important principle that even in abundance, nothing should be wasted (Jn. 6:12).

In this miracle, once again we see God’s creative power. Jesus demonstrated His power as the Creator who turned energy into matter. God create the world perfectly but as fallen sinners we destroy the world with our scientific advancement. God brings life but sinners kill and destroy.

After being fed, the crowd wanted to crown Jesus as king. Here religion turned into politics. They forgot the important lesson of the miracle, i.e. Jesus is God the Creator. They only cared about one thing, that is, if Jesus became king, all poverty would be solved. They wanted Him to be king not because they love Him, but because their stomach is full.

Jesus’ response was to leave them and and He went up to the mountain by Himself to pray. He came not become king by people’s desire but to die on the cross for our sin. Many leaders would falter under such temptation to gain power. But Jesus withdrew while He could be king. Instead He went to the cross. He is our example.

Feeding the Five Thousand (Jn. 6:1-10)

2010-07-13T21:44:00.001+10:00

This is my personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 4 July 2010 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 6:1-10

Jesus returned to Galilee his hometown. Jesus said the prophet is not welcome in his hometown but in this chapter, Jesus was welcome. But did they really love Jesus? Did they really follow Him? They actually had other motives. There was great crowd because they saw and heard the miraculous signs performed by Jesus in Jerusalem.

As Jesus went up the mountain, the crowd followed Him. There were at least 5,000 men, so with women and children there would be around 12,000 people. Jesus looked at them and thought for their needs after walking with him for a day. The Bible mentions many times that Jesus had compassion on the crowd. This time He saw that they had no food and as the leader He knew what to do. Leadership is not focused on own needs but others. Jesus Christ teaches that if you want to be the greatest you have to be the servant of all.

The Old Testament writes about David’s strong leadership. When he was thirsty, he said he wished to quench his tongue from the water in the enemy’s land. His soldiers risked their lives to bring the water to him. They loved David so much that they were willing to die for him. David was moved by their loyalty and instead of drinking the water, he poured it to the ground as he felt that he could not drink the water which the men had risked their lives to get for him. He was not willing that the soldiers should die for him. This is the heard of a leader. As for Jesus, when He was crucified, except John all his disciples ran away.

In this instance, how did His disciples understand His thoughts and how would they solve the problem of the food? He summoned Phillip, “Where do we buy food for these people?” He knew what to do but he wanted to test his disciples and train them to be leaders. Phillip’s replied, “Eight months wages would not be enough to buy bread for each to have a bite.” (Jn. 6:7)

This is the sort of response that most churches have. The first question is to ask if the church has money. Financial difficulty is an excuse not to do anything. Some churches have money and still do not do anything. They find security in money. However Christ taught differently. He asked the disciples to feed the 5000 people without giving them a single dollar. He commanded the disciples to preach the gospel to the whole world but never gave any financial resources.

Jesus asked Phillip not because He did not know. But when Phillip had no answer on how to feed these people, it reveals the condition of his heart. It reveals his method. Phillip’s method is bounded by financial constraint. There is no way to feed this people unless there is money. Phillip’s answer was secular and logical.

The second method was from Andrew. He brought a child who had five loaves of small bread and two small fish and commented that it is not enough to share among so many (Jn. 6:8-9). Jesus honoured this method. A miracle was done because of the heart of this child. The first method was based on human reasoning and resources. The second was based on the faith of a child who wanted to sacrifice what he has for others as he believed in the power of God.

Jesus asked to have the people sit down (Jn. 6:10). They must have faith in God that after they sat down, providence will arrive. The Word of God is the faithful testimony. Jesus is the Great Shepherd. But the disciples have no faith.

The governance and businesses of the world is sustained by money, but the house of God is sustained by the heart of a child and in the Old Testament, on one instance, by the faith of the widow.

God asked Moses to take two million Israelites out of Egypt. How would Moses feed them in the desert? God rained manna from heaven. There are three principles we need to remember: First, do the work of God with your heart. Secondly, give God what you have. Thirdly, do not look to the rich and do not despise the lowly and humble.

“For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have.” (2 Cor. 8:12). Jesus does not want what you do not have, He only wants what you have. If Christians understand this principle, the church can accomplish great tasks.

The Scripture Testifies of Christ (Jn.5:39-47)

2010-07-04T17:52:00.001+10:00

This is my personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 27 June 2010 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 5:39-47

Jesus said, “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me to have life.” (Jn. 5:39)

One of the greatest blessings on earth is to be able to hear the truth. It does not come all the time and to everyone. Jesus, the Word become flesh, is a significant moment in history and the Jews had the opportunity to listen to Him directly. Christ said that of those born of women there is none greater than John the Baptist because all the prophets did not have the chance to witness Christ in the flesh. John the Baptist saw Jesus Christ and prepared the way for Him. All the Old Testament prophets did not have the opportunity although they longed for it.

The Jews who saw Jesus directly also missed the opportunity because of their unbelief. They see and hear but never understand and perceive. Christ cannot be separated from the Bible. The Jews heard the prophecies but rejected the Messiah. Christ came in the name of the Father and the Jews rejected Him but if someone else came in his own name, they would accept him because they sought to glorify one another. But if they truly want to know the truth, they will find that Jesus is true.

Jesus said, “Do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set.” (Jn. 5:45). Moses wrote about Christ. But they have treated the shadow as more important than reality. They want the word of Moses but they rejected the Messiah, whom Moses testified. They thought Moses would stand with them but instead one day they would find that Moses would accuse them.

Jesus taught that the Old and New Testament could not be separated. The Old Testament contains New Testament. The New Testament fulfils the Old Testament. We need to understand the integrativeness of the entire Bible. There is an organic relationship between books of the Bible. We will tend to build partial understanding when systems are studied in isolation.

The Jews' Response to Christ's Testimony (Jn. 5:30-47)

2010-06-20T22:23:00.001+10:00

This is my personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 13 June 2010 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 5:30-47

Hardened hearts cannot see the glory of God. Jesus healed a man who was paralysed for 38 years. Instead of seeing the glory of God, this incident marked the beginning of the Jews’ plot to kill Him. All they knew was that Jesus violated the Sabbath law. They could not see the power of God. The miracle did not bring about faith. Instead, because they have no faith they could not see God’s glory.

The true emphasis on the Sabbath is not the “day” but the “rest”. God said the Israelites tested Him for 40 years, so He swore they would never enter into His rest. Through the prophet Isaiah, God revealed that He was sick of their Sabbath observations. They offered a lot of sacrifices but God was not pleased.

The wrong tradition lasted until the day of Jesus. Jesus purposefully healed on the Sabbath to expose the error of the Jews. He would eventually be killed by them. But His death and resurrection is God’s eternal plan.

Christ gave us an important principle about how truth is verified. The central focus of entire Hebrew culture is truth. It is about the true God who reveal the truth so that the people can have the true faith and truly return to Him in repentance. When truth departs from Jewish culture, the entire religious rituals become meaningless. In such falsehood God cannot be found. God hates hypocrisy. Jesus condemned all the hypocritical religious leaders. They do not understand the true meaning of Sabbath so they have not in truth observed the Sabbath.

In the fallen world, the court which is supposed to establish justice, is the place where the most injustice happens. Many governments make use of the court system to find ‘legitimate’ ways to fix those who rebel against them. The church is supposed to preach the truth and become the conscience of the society. In the past the sinners seek absolution from the Church. Now the church is seeking absolution from the public. The power to rebuke is gone because the church has done many unrighteous things. The pulpit ministry loses its power.

The living God has the authority to judge and has given the authority to the Son of Man. In the most corrupt times, Jesus came. The Son of Man who is supposed to judge the entire world came and was judged by sinners. When God wants to reject man, He will allow us to think it is us who reject Him. Sinners do not think they are in pathetic state. When grace comes upon you, it is the wisdom of God. When grace does not come to you, it is also the wisdom of God. God is always the Active One.

Truth is not dependent on people’s reaction and will not change with time. Falsehood cannot stand the test of time. God’s existence is not dependent on our belief. Often we think God can change because we ourselves are changeable.

Christianity denies sole testimony. When God wants to give us the truth, the truth will prove itself by all kinds of tests. The truth will come by multiple witnesses. It cannot stand on just a single testimony.

Yet millions of people listen to people who come in singular testimony, like Sakyamuni. But Jesus said if I testify of Myself, My testimony is not valid. Although Jesus did testify of Himself, His testimony is confirmed by multiple witnesses. This is the foundation of the completeness of Christianity. John the Baptist testified of Jesus Christ (Jn 5:32), His own works testified of Him (Jn. 5:36), God the Father who sent Him testified of Him (Jn. 5:37) and the written Scripture bears testimony of Christ (Jn. 5:39).

The Jews still did not accept Jesus despite all these testimonies. Apologetics do not bring people to Christ. Jesus said to the Jews, “You diligently search the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me to have life” (Jn. 5:39-40). This is most horrifying. Some people study all the time without wanting to know the truth.

Jesus said they do not have the love of God in their hearts. He came in His Father’s name and they did not accept Him but they accepted many who came in their own name. They are blinded by the concepts in their hearts so they would not come to Christ despite all the evidences. Because they do not have the word of God in their hearts, so when the true Word come, you could not receive Him.

If you have the love of God in your heart, you will love Christ as He is sent by God. If you have the truth in your heart you will come to Christ as He is the Truth. Jesus is the stumbling stone. How do you know this man without a comely appearance is really the Son of God? People with true authority often do not have that appearance. Some people deceive others by having that appearance of authority but not truly have it.

The Jews rejected Jesus. How do you respond to Jesus?

The Validity of Jesus' Testimony (Jn. 5:26-36)

2010-06-13T23:11:00.002+10:00

This is my personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 6 June 2010 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 5:26-36

If Jesus was not God, He cannot give life and cannot judge. Yet the Bible says God gives Him the authority to judge ecause He was the Son of Man. Since only God has the authority to judge, why was the authority given to the Son of Man? This Son of Man is God in the flesh. He was unjustly treated when He came on earth. The most ironical thing about the court system on earth is that Christ in the flesh was judged by sinners who thought of themselves as righteous and treated the Righteous One as the sinner. The sinners were so bold that they judged the One who will one day judge the world.

Religion not only talks about morality, but also about afterlife and worship, or relationship with the Creator. Religion is a system of morality and worship. A religious system without one of these is incomplete. Confucius and Sakyamuni taught about morality but did nnot teach how to worship God. As a result, many people worship Confucius and Sakyamuni instead. Sakyamuni’s teaching is higher than Confucianism because Buddhism teaches about afterlife. Confucianism only teaches about this life.

Every religion takes some relative things and make them absolute truth. In all their claims, they lack the proper methodology. They never tell us how they arrive at the truth.

Jesus said, “If testify about Myself, My testimony is not valid.” Jesus implicitly meant that we can choose not to believe Him if his testimony is not valid, but if it is truth we have no excuse but to believe. Other than the truthfulness, the Bible also tell about what is valid with regard to testimony.

If you ask Socrates where he gets the truth, he would say it is universal. It means it is self-evident and everyone should know. In saying this, he separates himself from with subjective ideas who are self-absorbed and rely on their feelings.

Is the truth subjective or objective? Is it absolute or relative? Is it for one generation or for eternity? Will truth change because of cultural differences? If there are subjective things that cannot pass test of time and are produced by one culture but not other civilisation, it cannot be the truth.

If you ask Sakyamuni where he gets his teaching from, he will say he found it myself. He achieved enlightenment when meditating under the Bodhi tree. This implies that if I achieve a different enlightenment then I will be of a different camp. This cannot explain truth.

Confucius will say he does not know where truth comes from but he only passed down the wisdom from the ancients who are all dead. He genuinely seek the wisdom of the wise. He admitted he obtained his understanding from the ancient sages. He acknowledged his sources.

Socrates said it is self-evident. Plato said it is the result of one’s thinking. But we cannot just accept something as truth without knowing the source.

If you ask Mohamed, he will say that his teaching comes from revelation. This is similar to the Hebrew religion. This is where prophets are different from the religious leaders. There are over 4800 references in the Bible “Thus saith the Lord,…”. The prophets are not the truth, but they receive revelation from God. The content of their message is the truth and their method is by revelation. They speak because because they receive it from God. This is different from Plato (he thinks it out himself), or Laozi (he figures out Dao by himself). The things written by the prophets are all revelation from God.

You must know why you believe in Jesus. The Bible is built on revelation. The God of truth reveal the truth to men, therefore it stands the test of time and will not be afraid of philosophies of the world because they are the words of truth from God itself.

What about Quran? Mohamed said he received it through the angel Gabriel. This is different from the Old Testament. God use sinners to bear witness, not angel. Angels minister to Jesus but never preach the gospel. In the Old Testament God spoke directly to the prophets. Moses said, “Thus saith the Lord…”.

If you ask Jesus Christ where the truth comes from, He said if He testifies of Himself, His testimony is not valid. Christianity will not accept sole testimony. The Bible say not to entertain an accusation against an elder without testimony of two or three witnesses. From this angle you can see that all the cults come from singular testimony. All the founders are the sole testifiers. The Bible denies this method. God Himself never uses only one witness. He used four gospels, not one. The Son of God was not even an exception. As an example, He taught us not to accept a sole declaration.

His method was unusual. He declared that if He testified of Himself it is not valid. He did testify of Himself, but there are many other testimonies, and they are consistent with his testimony. So it has strong foundation.

He followed by saying there is another who testify of Him, John the Baptist. He did not preach arrogantly as a singular testimony. Since God denied the validity of one witness, even God’s Son would not use this method. There is one man who bear testimony of the light, he is not the light himself, but came to bear testimony of the truth. He was filled with the spirit of God in the womb. Apart from Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, he is the only one in the history of mankind filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb to death. John was a witness sent by God.

With what authority did Jesus tell the truth? He is the Truth in person. Christ is the God of truth appearing on earth, living among us, the Creator entering His created world to dwell with us. This paradoxical Jesus living on earth is a stumbling block to many, despised by many.

Jesus said he has testimony weightier than John’s. He said His works testified of Him. It is not just about saying it. Many people can only criticise others’ works but cannot do it themselves. However great a person is, is not dependent on what he says, but what he has done.

There are still more testimonies of Jesus Christ in the Scripture. In fact, there are 7 of them. Everyone testifies of themselves, whether cults or other religions. Only Jesus Christ did not testify of Himself alone. Here we can see the difference between singular and multiple testimonies.

The Judge of the Whole World (Jn. 5:19-30)

2010-06-05T21:57:00.001+10:00

This is my personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 30 May 2010 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 5:19-30

Jesus received the special status to be the Judge of the world. Here we see the completeness and uniqueness of Christ that cannot be seen from other religions. Nobody and none of the great teachers ever declared to be the judge of the world. No great teach has ever demanded worship. But we see the uniqueness of Christ in His divinity. He accepts human worship. He is clear that He is God in the flesh. He is also clear that He is God in human form. He could feel tired as a human being but He has the power over nature. As a human being, He executed the power from God. He is the Son of God and the Son of Man.

He is the God that has given us life. He declares Himself to be the life and the resurrection. He said the Father has given him the authority to judge because He is the Son of Man (Jn. 5:27). Those who hear the voice of the Son of God will live (Jn. 5:26). All who are in the graves will hear his voice and come out to be judged (Jn. 5:28). It is the work of God to resurrect all to face judgement. Yet Christ is given the authority to judge because He is the Son of Man (v.27) – rather than the Son of God. This sounds very paradoxical.

Those who have done good will rise to live and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned. The purpose of resurrection is for judgement and God has given the authority to Jesus. (v.28-29). This is sure to happen. All wrongs will be fixed. This Jesus who resurrects everyone is also the One who will judge. When the Son of God calls out His voice, everyone will be resurrected. The Judge will be Jesus the Son of Man.

This is because as the Son of Man, He once received the most unjust judgement. So in the future He will be the just Judge. He was unjustly treated, but now He will solve the injustice of the whole world. God give the authority to Him because He is the Son of Man. What does it mean the Son of Man and the authority to judge? If Jesus was not judged before, He does not have the privilege to judge the world. God exalts Him because He humbled Himself. The difference between Satan and Jesus is that Satan is not God but wanted to be God. As creature he wanted the status of the Creator. But Christ is God and He humbled Himself by becoming a man. When we sing we want to be like the Lord, it is not to be God, but to be like our Lord who humbled Himself and was obedient unto death on the cross. He was the Creator when the world was created but He was willing to come into the world He had created. This is the key of spirituality.

God the Father saw how He was unjustly treated and gave Him the highest authority to judge the world. Many people who know theology are not spiritual. Many intellectuals have an empty heart. Few are willing to sacrifice themselves to preach the gospel. Being an evangelical is not just an intellectual pursuit but it is a lifestyle. Many Christians know this but they are just not willing to obey. They do not want to be disciples and follow Christ’s footsteps.

When Jesus was judged and punished, he kept quiet. He did not retaliate. Like a lamb to be slaughtered, He prayed, “Father forgive them for they do not know what they do.” When God say, “rise and be judged!” we will be resurrected for judgement, but behold, we will see that it is not God, but it is the Son of Man, a man, who will judge us by the authority God gives Him.

At the height of His trial, Christ remembered His noble status. He told Pilate that without power from above Pilate had no power over him. He was silent before Caiaphas the high priest. (Matt 26:63-64) Eventually Caiaphas asked one question, “Are you the Son of God?” This question is not to understand the truth but to trap Jesus because Caiaphas already made up his mind in unbelief. Jesus affirmed He was the Son of God and was accused of blasphemy. But immediately after that Jesus said, “In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coinging on the clouds of heaven” (Matt. 26:64). He said “the Son of Man” because they did not believe the Son of Man is the son of God. How could the One coming from heaven be the son of man, not the son of God? But indeed they will see that this Son of Man they did not believe in and judged unjustly, will one day judge them.

When God is judged and condemned by sinners, God is silent. The moment God keeps silent is very frightening. Jesus was silent. Why is it that Caiaphas and Pilate are not afraid? Because they are most arrogant. They are judging the Judge of the world. But Jesus told Pilate that without the power from above, he would have no power over Him. The person who was being judged now challenged the judge. He will one day judge all the judges in the world.

Christ's Resurrection Power (Jn. 5:19-24)

2010-05-16T23:59:00.001+10:00

This is my personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 9 May 2010 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 5:19-24

The Jews condemned Jesus as a law breaker. Yet as the Apostle Peter said in the book of Acts, none of their ancestors had ever fulfilled the law. The Apostle James made it even clearer by saying that once we break one law, whether big or small, we have become law breakers.

In God’s eyes we are all law breakers. Many religious people turn out to be the greatest law breakers. Christ was not killed by the atheists. He was killed by people who thought they fervently worshiped God. Jesus said “Because I tell you the truth you want to kill Me.” This is the situation in chapter 5. They went after Jesus for the breaking of the Sabbath, for calling God His Father and equating Himself with God.

The day is not important, but the meaning is important. The days are relative. Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Therefore people who take the Sabbath day as more important than man has made the relative absolute. Many religious people appear holy in their religious appearance, but deep within they are against God. Experts of the law who knew the law “thou shalt not kill” are those that wanted to kill Jesus most.

A mother does not stop working after giving birth. She rests from giving birth, but it is the beginning of nurturing. After God completes His work of creation, He starts His work of sustainance. Sabbath does not mean God stopped working all together.

Jesus continued to explain His relationship with the Father. The Son cannot do anything by Himself. He does what He sees the Father does. From the entire principle of the Bible, we see the intimate unity between the Son and the Father. When you see the Son, you see the Father. When you believe the Son, you believe the Father. “I and My Father are one.” This is great sharing but the Jews saw this as blasphemy because they were bound by their tradition.

The Father does the works of God. How can the Son do the same works by just looking at the Father? The Father has given the Son the authority. Should you then kill Him just because you do not think a human being should manifest the power of God? God has blessed Him. The power of the Son all came from the Father.

The angels see God at work but they do not do the works of God because they are not God. They can observe God’s works but they cannot do the same work. Only God can do what God does. When Jesus explained this they should have realised that Jesus is God. On the contrary they considered Jesus unrepentant.

There are 5 major works that are considered God’s works: creation, salvation (resurrection from the dead), revelation of truth and guidance into the truth, judgement and fulfilling the eternal will of God. Besides God there is no Creator, no Redeemer, no Revealer, no Judge of heaven and earth, no Fulfiller of the eternal will of God. Apart from Jesus, nobody can do that.

Jesus prayed, “Father, glorify Me with the glory I had with You before the world began.” He took part in the work of creation. For all that has been created through Him, and nothing has been created without Him. Christ is Creator, Savior, Revealer, Judge, and Fulfiller of the will of God. That is why He is God. Through Christ, God is willing to reveal the truth to us. Christ had victory over death, give us life and judge us. These are the marks of God. Those who are wise will be able to see the marks of God in Christ.

It is one thing to just take away a life, it is quite another to kill the Lord of life. The greatest courage of man is not to send man to moon, but to kill the Lord of life. Christ must be resurrected to show that He is the source of life and the power of death is subject to the power of His resurrection.

The Father loves the Son and shows Him what He does. He will show Him even greater works. The greater works is the fact that the Jews will kill Him and He will be resurrected.

All dictators in the world could only pronounce death on the living to show their power. But Jesus pronounced life on the dead. By His own will He can make people live. By His own will, He gave up His life. Jesus said many things that are never said by any other people in history. He did things no one else could do. The most special of all things is He died and rose again. This shows His eternity, magnamity and completeness. No one replace Christ.

The Father raises the dead by His own will, so the Son raises whom He wills to. Emperors can kill whom they wish. But the Son of God can resurrect the dead. The power of humanity is the power of destruction, not the power of salvation. What is so great about killing? It is the most shameful thing but humans always boast about this power of destruction. Kierkegaard said that men are born in sin, so the only power we have is the power to kill. They are all power to destroy, not power to build. So there is nothing to be proud of.

Among all Scriptures of religions of the world, only the Bible has record of resurrection from the dead. The true concept of resurrection in the Scripture started from Abraham. The reason Abraham is called the father of faith is that he lived before God by faith. He witnessed how Sarah had stopped menstruation for decades and still gave birth to Isaac as God promised. In this, Abraham had the experience of seeing God who create something out of nothing. There will be no existence without God’s creation from nothingness. The existence of God is self-existent everlasting life. All other existence came about because of God’s creation. Apart from God’s existence, all other existence are contingent.

Using His life force, God can resurrect the dead. The concept of creation and resurrection come from the Bible. The birth of Isaac testified of God’s creative power. Then God said to sacrifice Isaac. The existing life will now be dead. God already told Abraham that his descendants will come from Isaac. Before Isaac grew up, he was to be sacrificed already. But why would Abraham obey and sacrifice Isaac? Because he believed that if God could create something out of nothing, surely God could raise the dead. His faith tell him that God will raise Isaac again. If he never killed him, he would never see the resurrection power of God. But since Abraham had seen it in faith, he did not need to sacrifice Isaac. Abraham knew God would resurrect Isaac. And there is a lamb that was sacrificed in place of Isaac.

In 2000 years, from the day Isaac was offered as a sacrifice to the time Jesus was resurrected from the dead, there were three records of resurrection in the Old Testament. Two miracles were performed by by Elijah and Elisha. But they did not resurrect by their own will and power. The third incident happened to a corpse that touched the bones of Elisha and the dead man was resurrected.

After Christ ascended to heaven, there were two other incidents of resurrection recorded in the New Testament. The first one was Dorcas who was resurrected by Peter’s prayer, and Eutychus by Paul’s prayer. In all these instances, the dead were resurrected by the power of God.

Jesus Himself resurrected three persons, Lazarus, a little girl and the boy of a widow. While the prophets and apostles only resurrected one person each, Jesus resurrected three people. This is the mark of God. Also, while the prophets and apostles prayed to God, Jesus did not need to pray but simply commanded the dead to come back to life. By His own will, He resurrected. His power of resurrection come forth from His Word because He is God.

True Meaning of Sabbath (Jn. 5:17-18)

2010-05-09T22:07:00.001+10:00

This is my personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 2 May 2010 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 5:17-18

The Jews found three faults with Jesus: He broke the Sabbath, He called God His Father, and equated Himself with God. To them, He was guilty of blasphemy, He had trampled the Jewish tradition and despised the law of Moses.

The first mistake of the Jews was to assume the Son of God was a normal human being. The second was to assume the position of a judge in place of God. This is what religious leaders often do. In order to judge another person, they have absolutised themselves and have made themselves like God. They do not recognise that they are mere human beings. They hated Jesuss and wanted to kill Him.

People go against those they hate in three ways, i.e. using political power, judicial power and religious power. The strongest is religious power. Our fear towards others are dependent on the powers they have. Generally people will withdraw if they are weaker. Fervency for truth can give tremendous courage for one to stand up. Hence if faith is not based on truth revealed by God, religious zeal can be the most horrifying. In trying to defend religious zeal or supervision, religious people are the most daring murderers as they act based on conviction.

Jesus wanted to use the situation to correct the Jews’ wrong understanding of the Sabbath. They believed that Sabbath means God has stopped working. For thousands of years, they never understand what Sabbath truly means. They think it means to idle for 24 hours. Jesus answered, “My Father is always at work to this day, so I too, am working.” When religion makes relative things absolute, the wrong concepts will take over the place of the truth of God. In wrong concepts we will bind ourselves in a state where we cannot accept the truth. This is the situation of the Jews when Jesus was with them. Jesus knew He would eventually be killed by the Jews. He showed the hypocricy of the Jews who would rescue their camel which fell into the pit on Sabbath day instead of waiting another day.

What works did God do after the Sabbath day? Did not the Bible say God rested on the Sabbath? On the seventh day, God stopped His work of creation. But He began His work of sustainance and providence. He also began His work of salvation when men fell into sin to restore men into a right relationship with Himself. Why did Jesus heal on the Sabbath? Because the person needed help. Sabbath is about recovery and resurrection.

True Sabbath is reconciliation with God, the rest that comes from being at peace with God. So Sabbath is not resting from all work. God said to the Israelites, “For 40 years they tempted Me, so I swear, they will never enter My rest.” It means they will never enjoy the peace with God. The true Sabbath is salvation where we are made right to be at peace with God once more. Isaiah said God said the Israelites did not understand the Sabbath, but arrogantly think they are better than anybody else.

God sent His Son who healed on Sabbath day, to show His work of salvation, His reconcilitation to bring His creation into the true Sabbath. The person was sick 38 years so he had observed Sabbath ritually but never had rest. The true Sabbath concept is not literal concept of rest which binds the Jews. It is the concept that will liberate people from bondage.

Jesus did not retreat His words, but spoke even more boldly. He said the Son did what the Father has asked Him to do. He reminded the Jews that they need to know the source of the command before judging. Jesus said the Son sees what the Father does and does what the Father does, and the Father will show Him even greater things. The Jews were still hardened. What does the “greater things” refer to? It refers to Christ’s power to judge the world. This is the task that not one of the descendant of Adam can do. God give greater tasks to Jesus than anyone in the history of mankind.

Having blaming Jesus for what He did on that Sabbath day, what would the Jews think if He did greater things? We need to understand God’s revelation to us in Christ. The Father judges nobody but entrusts all judgement to the Son. This is a mystery. The power to judge is linked with the resurrection. Why?

To be continued…

Breaking the Sabbath (Jn. 5:16-18)

2010-04-04T00:20:00.000+11:00

This is my personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 28 March 2010 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 5:16-18

Why did Jesus heal on the Sabbath day? Why did He not wait for another day? Jesus did it on purpose in order to correct the error in the Jews’ understanding of the Sabbath, which they have absolutised.

In the first place, regardless which day Jesus healed the man, it should be taken as a shocking miracle since the person was paralysed for 38 years. But the Jews did not look at it that way. They cannot see the glory of God in that miracle. All they were interested in was that Jesus healed on the Sabbath day and that was against the law and He ought to be cursed.

God gave the law to show men their sin but the Jews made it their basis for arrogance. Instead of seeing their own sin, they were arrogant. Not only did they judge other people using the law, they used the law to judge the Son of God. They used the law to condemn the Law Giver.

The Jews figured that since God commanded His people to rest on Sabbath day, God could not have broken the Sabbath Himself. So they must be right and Jesus must wrong. If the law was true, obedience to the law was right. Why should they follow Jesus rather than God?

When the man who was healed was rebuked by the Jews for breaking the Sabbath, he immediately put the blame to Jesus. This spirit of shifting blame began with Adam. He wanted to defend himself so he said he was commanded by someone else to carry his mat. The Jews became angry that there was actually a man who commanded people to break the Sabbath. They wanted to know who this person was, but the man did not know Jesus’ name.

Later on, Jesus found him again and said, “Now you are well. Stop sinning or something worse might happen to you.” He should be thankful that Jesus had cared for his soul but instead, he went away to report to the Jews that he had found the man who healed him. This is a man without conscience. Why did Jesus heal him? Was it because of his faith? Not in this case. When Jesus asked if he wanted to be healed, he did not even say yes. This person is like you and I. We want to make use of God. He did not give thanks to God. He received the grace of healing freely and his response was to accuse Jesus of causing him to break the Sabbath.

He was happy to experience the blessing of healing but he did not give thanks and was not interested in Jesus’ warning. When he reported to the Jews, they came to persecute Jesus.

Healing someone is a good work but they could not identify the goodness and the power of God. They felt Jesus had sinned in saving a life because He broke the Sabbath so they felt killing him was a right thing to do. Killing is breaking the 6th commandment but they felt they were right in killing Jesus because He broke the 4th commandment, which is to keep the Sabbath holy. Their confusion reflects the evil of fallen humanity. They are preoccupied with the external and were impeding the internal spirit of the law.

When accused of breaking the Sabbath, Jesus’ replied, “My Father has been working to this day, so am I.” The Jews saw Jesus heaping sin upon sin as they thought Jesus now called God His Father, and further claiming to be doing what God was doing so making Himself to be God.

But what did Jesus mean? Was He implying that God did not observe the Sabbath? Why then di the Bible say God rested on the seventh day? Jesus healed on the Sabbath day to correct this understanding. He wanted the people to know that God still works on Sabbath day.

He gave us a correct interpretation of the Sabbath day. He explained that God never stopped working to this day. On the Sabbath God rested from His work of creation, and after that He began His work of sustaining His creation. So the Jews could not constrain Him from His redemptive works just because God rested from His work of creation. The work of sustenance and salvation are still ongoing.

Jesus gave two principles regarding the Sabbath. Men are not made for the Sabbath, but Sabbath for men. Do you think you love God by sending people to hell? Many churches will follow all rules and do not care if people do not come. Some will accommodate based on grace. Grace is not to go against the law but to surpass the law. The importance of men surpasses whether they follow the law or not. We need more love and grace since we ourselves also fail. Often times people use the law as a yoke. But by the power of love we can surpass the law. The sufferings of Christ deliver us from the power of the law.

God works to sustain all creation. After the 6th day God no longer create. He sewed garments of skin and gave to Adam and Eve after their fall. That is work too, which symbolised God’s work of salvation. The Jews never enter into Sabbath rest because they never understand.

Healing at the Pool (Jn. 5:1-18)

2010-03-14T01:00:00.001+11:00

This is my personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 7 March 2010 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 5:1-18

When Jesus went to Jerusalem He did not go to the rich but He went to the poorest. He saw a man who was sick for 38 years. His family would not want him anymore because he had been sick for too long and become a burden. This is very normal human reaction. When a loved one is sick for too long, love and filial piety wear thin. Human life is very paradoxical. We cannot predict many problems in life.

This person laying by the pool because his family is no longer taking care of him. His relatives would have dumped him there. Jesus came to find this person to heal him. This is a great spirit. Jesus came to comfort and strengthen those who are weak. He sought out those who were sick and healed them.

This person did not expect to see Jesus. Jesus knew he was sick for a long time and Jesus was the one who approached him and spoke to him first. In the case of Nicodemus, Nicodemus spoke first. In the case of the Roman official likewise, the Roman official approached Jesus first. But to the Samaritan woman and to this sick man, Jesus was the one who spoke first. We see that in the Bible Jesus never initiated going to the rich and powerful, but always went to the poor and forsaken.

The love fo God comes down from above. We love because He first loved us. When we were still sinners, Christ died for our sins.

This person did not have faith and did not ask for healing, but it was Jesus who initiated to heal him. This is very different from the signs and wonders in charismatic faith where it is the sick who are asked to have faith as the means to be healed. The Bible teaches that God will have grace on whom He will have grace. He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy. It is not ultimately dependent on man’s faith. The fact is many people believe not because they choose to but because God’s grace comes to them. This person did not say anything and Jesus went to him directly.

Jesus asked him a simple question, ‘Do you want to get well?’. This question seemed redundant since the answer must be yes. But Jesus asked this to reveal his attitude. The man did not say yes or no to whether he wanted healing, but elaborated why he had not been healed after so long, that is, that he was slower than others, so someone always got ahead of him to the pool when the angel came and he never had a chance to be healed. So he believed in healing and was prepared to be healed, but there were reasons he was not yet healed. He gave an excuse why he was not yet healed.

Like this man, many people are only giving excuses and not giving solutions. He was emphasising the he is not able to jump into the pool so forever he would not have a chance to be healed. But why should there be only one answer? Humans are trapped by tradition. We cannot break through beyond our own boundaries. From His question, Jesus drew out the main problem of the man. The man only saw one solution. In other passages, Jesus said new wine cannot go into old wineskin as the old wineskin will burst and the new wine spoilt. Likewise a new cloth cannot be sewed into an old clothing.

Jesus simply said, “Get up, take up your mat and walk.” The man never thought of this possibility. Jesus is not interested in his excuse and simply commanded him to stand up and walk. He immediately got up and walked, and he was healed immediately.

Later on the Pharisee saw and rebuked the man for taking up his mat on a Sabbath day. Instead of praising God that he had been healed, he pushed the blame to Jesus who asked him to carry his mat and thus breaking the Sabbath. There was no gratitude in his heart.

Jesus found him again later on and warned him to stop sinning or something worse would happen to him. This statement tells us that some illnesses (but not all illnesses) come as a result of sin. This person was suffering because he deserved it.

The Jews later on accused him of healing the man on the Sabbath. Jesus always expressed the truth instead of quarrelling with them. Jesus said, “My Father is always at work to this day, so I too am working.”

Why did Jesus heal the man? This is recorded in the Bible and Jesus wanted to release us from the constraints of our errors. Jesus said, “My Father works unto this day,” implying that God does not stop working on that Sabbath day. So Jesus is also working as His Father is working. By accusing Jesus of breaking the Sabbath, the Jews had in fact accused God of the same thing, because God works on the Sabbath day.

Then what is the Sabbath? Does that mean God has no Sabbath? What sort of example did God set for us? What about the passage in Genesis which recorded that God rested on Sabbath after His works of creation?

To be continued…

Jesus Healed the Official's Son (Jn. 4:46-54)

2010-03-07T00:42:00.002+11:00

This is my personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 28 February 2010 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 4:46-54

When Jesus entered Cana in Galilee, a Roman official came and begged Him to go to his house to heal his son who was about to die. The fact that he went to Jesus instead of to a doctor, despite his high status, indicated that he believed in Jesus. In non-believers’ circle, there are still people who have faith in God.

The Lord Jesus’ life was clearly guided by God. He was very sensitive to the guidance of God. The gospel of Matthew and Luke recorded that it was the Holy Spirit who led Jesus to the desert to be tempted by the devil. Did the Holy Spirit guide people to the devil? But the Bible recorded so. In typical Chinese concept, God will always guide to better and richer places. But this is not true according to biblical principles.

Many western missionaries left the best and most advanced culture to the most backward places. But Chinese often only consider the guidance of God in reverse direction. May God recover us from this illness.

Jesus Christ went wherever He was guided by the Spirit. He was obedient to the guidance of God. When led to the desert to be tempted by the devil, He went. When led to Samaria to preach to the Samaritan woman, He went. When led to Galilee, He went. When not led to the house of the Roman official, He would not go. Do not think that Jesus would definitely come if invited.

Jesus rebuked the official first, saying they would never believe if they do not see miraculous signs. It is addressed not only to unbelievers, but to the Jews as well. He was exposing the common error of the generation. Jesus asked the official to go back as the son was now healed. In this, Christ showed that He is the Lord that transcends time and space.

This official was a believer because he came to Jesus for help. He was not angry when Jesus asked him to go back and refused to go to his house. In contrast many of us today constrain God by our so-called faith. We claim to believe in God’s sovereign will but our action betrays us. Most of us just learn academically and do not obey God in practice.

Jesus used His sovereignty to heal the son but not using the method the man expected. On his way back, the servant reported the son was healed. When he asked for the time his son was healed, he found out that it was exactly at the hour Jesus spoke. Instead of just assuming the son got well naturally, he wanted to check when the son was healed to see if Jesus was right. This Gentile is closer to God than many Israelites. He met Jesus the day before when the son recovered. It means he had to travel a long way to see Jesus. The son’s recovery brought him and his household to believe in Jesus. Jesus transcends social status, boundaries of space and time. He performed miracles for both Jews and Romans. He can heal when you are near and when you are far away. The divinity of Jesus transcends all boundaries.

Some people would only visit the rich, not the poor. A lot of churches have gone astray in this way. They are controlled by the rich and are afraid to offend them. The servants of God should not bow down to the rich. It is most difficult to transform the entire generation from this trap of love of wealth.

The last verse says this was the second miraculous sign Jesus performed in Galilee. The first was turning water into wine in a wedding. The second one is a miracle of resurrection. The Lord placed emphasis on good marital relationship and is willing to give life to a person who is dying.

In chapter 5, Jesus started to talk about His death. It is the beginning of His journey to Golgotha. We will learn to see how Christ is obedient to God step by step to the cross.

Prophet without Honour (Jn. 4:43-45)

2010-02-28T00:12:00.004+11:00

This is my personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 21 February 2010 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 4:43-45

Many people made the wrong mistakes like the Samaritan woman. She lived the wrong way until Jesus came to save her. Likewise we all need the transforming power of Christ. If we rely on our wisdom, follow our desires and have our own selfish plans, in the end we will waste our entire life and accomplish nothing. We need to call upon the Lord to enter into our lives.

Jesus would have delayed His trip to Galilee a few days because of His trip to Samaria. It seemed like a waste a time but the purpose Christ came to earth is to lead the lost sheep back. It is a necessity that Christ went to Samaria, not because Christ needed it, but because the Samaritan woman needed Him. Without God, we will be moving around in circles, without goal and direction in life. Since Jesus entered into her life, this decadent woman became a blessing to the town.

In John 4:44 spoke about Jesus as the prophet without honour in his own hometown.

We need to respect ourselves before we can expect others to respect us. When others respect us, we also find it easier to respect ourselves. This is a moving force in the society. But there is one element we do not discover because of our sin, that is, we often judge others unjustly. We all want to be honoured by others but we do not want to honour others.

When you try to defend your own existence, indirectly you despise others you should not. Many religions teach how to treat yourself and others. Confucius teaches that what you do not want, we should do not do it to others. Jesus says to do to others what we want others to do to us. If we are not the one to make the first move, we are not worthy to enjoy the honour that come from others. This becomes the golden rule of the Bible which surpasses the rule of all other books.

The difference between Confucius and the saying of Jesus is that Confucius is passive while Jesus is active. The words of Jesus Christ is more profound. You should treat others the way you want others to treat you. This is the way to treat others and it is often difficult. Jesus Himself has pointed out something, the prophet has no honour in his own country. Jesus came as a human and lived among us and tasted human relationships. The people who are close to us might not know us that well and often do not respect us as much as others do.

The world was created by Him but the world knew Him not. Isaiah declared that the sheep and cattle knew its master, but God’s people did not know Him. God said His people did not honour Him. The greatest disrespect came in the way we treated Jesus when He came.

Christ said a prophet is without honour in his own country. If the foreign prophets are treated as prophets, should not the local prophets be treated as prophets too? Why are they not honoured as prophets? Elijah and Moses who appeared in the transfiguration are the two greatest representative figures of the Old Testament. Moses represents the Law and Elijah represents the prophets. But they both came from humble places.

Jesus went to Galilee, His own town where He was not honoured initially (Jn. 4:43-44). Jesus was raised in Galilee. Because no prophet came from Nazareth before, people assumed it would never happen. It was a horrifying self-constrained to think that the future must be like the past. We apply the unchangeability that belongs to God alone to everything else. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. There is no shadow of change with God. So when we say people cannot change we think they are the same yesterday today and forever. This is a faulty thinking.

One fault is being constrained by past concept, which is tradition. The second one is to draw conclusion without checking the facts. The Jews said there is no prophet from Galilee and they considered Jesus a Galilean. Actually Jesus was not a Galilean. He was from the tribe of Judah, a descendant of David. He is not related to Galilee but they were not willing to find out the truth. From their false knowledge they simply refused Him. He was born in Bethlehem and grew up in Nazareth.

When people dishonour Jesus, He did not retaliate but responded by winning the people in His own country. Some of the people from His town saw the things He did in Jerusalem, respected Him quietly and then brought that back to their own country. When He finally returned to Galilee, they welcome Him because they had seen all He did in Jerusalem. (John 4:45).

What did Jesus do in Jerusalem? He cleansed the temple and chased away all the money changers. As the Lord of the temple He cleansed His own temple. This is done with full confidence. So He won the honour of others.

Do not feel inferior when people disrespect you. Strive hard until you win their honour one day. Do not be a hero within your own room. Find and win a pasture so that your countrymen might honour you when they see what you have achieved. When the whole world respects you, the people in your home country cannot but honour you. Jesus had the most influence in the entire world but He had never left Judea.

We must work hard, strive, do our best, be able to take sufferings and fight to the end. Do not be a Christian who just to reaps the harvest and make use of the promises of God as if He is your servant. In every prayer we should seek God’s glory. Our Lord deserves to be honoured. We need to fight for our own dignity that people who look down on us will also honour us, that eventually the Lord’s name might be honoured because of us.

The Living Water Part 4 (Jn. 4:27-45)

2010-02-20T23:31:00.001+11:00

This is my personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 7 February 2010 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 4:27-45

Your life will not be a waste if you realise the potential God has given you. The Samaritan woman married the wrong man and did the wrong job. Her potential did not match what she was doing.

When we preach the gospel, often instead of convincing people we are convinced by them. Instead of using God’s Word to reveal their sin, they reveal the sin of the churches. We give up too fast.

In contrast, the Samaritan was honest to confess that Jesus Christ revealed all her sins. Although her life was in a mess, she had religious hope and was waiting for the Messiah. She is a very unique person. In the Bible there were three prophets who turned the masses towards God, they are Elijah, Jonah and John the Baptist. This woman is the forth one that the brought the masses to Christ with her powerful testimony.

When Jesus went to the town the people wanted Him to stay with them. He stayed there for two days. In these two days, Jesus did all He was supposed to do. It was hard for the disciples to understand Christ’s decision in talking with a Samaritan woman and then stayed in Samaria which had cultural and religious conflict with the Jews. But this is a necessary event in history. After this incident, Jesus never went back to Samaria again. This is the only moment, an important historic moment for the Samaritans. His conversation with the Samaritan woman was something that has to happen.

We need to learn to discern important moments like that and not waste our time. We need to postpone other things and know how to sacrifice when an important moment comes.

In the whole gospel, there are a few instances Jesus praised Samaritans as being better than the Jews. When the ten lepers were healed, only one came back to give thanks to God and he was a Samaritan. So Jesus asked where the other nine were. Then Jesus also told the parable of the good Samaritan, who was merciful and willing to give compared to the priest and the Levite who simply passed by. Jesus demonstrated that not only God’s chosen nation Israel need the gospel but one day all nations shall be blessed by the gospel.

Jesus was willing to stay where the Gentiles are. What is your attitude towards the Gentiles?

The Living Water Part 3 (Jn. 4:19-34)

2010-02-03T21:00:00.002+11:00

This is my personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 31 January 2010 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 4:19-34

The woman knew Jesus was no ordinary man when He told her the detail of her life. She tried to divert the conversation but Jesus brought always brought the conversation back to the root issue. She diverted again to their religious differences when Jesus exposed her personal life. She indicated that the Samaritans had their own views and likewise Jewish had their own beliefs. you Jews have your own beliefs. Jews believed they must worship in Jerusalem but the Samaritans worshiped on the mountains.

Jesus answered her in a very different way. Samaritan woman’s view is dualistic, it is ‘either-or’. When coming to the crossroad, we tend to have an either-or mentality. To the Samaritan woman, either they followed the Jewish way or just did it their own way. Prophet Elijah had never been to Jerusalem but God listened to his prayer. Isn’t that the arrogance of the Jews to insist that worship must be in Jerusalem? In the Old Testament, Moses represented the law and Elijah represented the prophets. Isaiah and Jeremiah wrote so much yet Elijah as the representation of the prophets never wrote a single book. Elijah had never been to Jerusalem, and he lived where the Samaritans were worshiping. So are the Samaritans wrong?

Jesus’ reply to the woman was not ‘either-or’, but ‘neither-nor’. Jesus replied that the time is coming come and has come when the worshipers of God will neither worship in mountain nor in Jerusalem, but they will worship in spirit and in truth (Jn. 4:21-23). This worship transcends the boundary of space and time. In matter of worship, we should not confuse with tradition and human boundaries. Further, true religion must be based on the truth, not just sincerity. Sincerity does not represent the truth. Many people are faithful to what they consider the truth which is actually not the truth.

Apart from ‘neither-nor’ concept, Jesus also spoke about ‘already and not yet’ concept. He said the time is coming and has now come. Jesus has come the first time, so the kingdom of God has indeed come. And Jesus has not come the second time, so the kingdom of God is yet to come. Between first and second coming is the ‘now and not yet’ realm in which we are now living. The kingdom indeed has come but has not yet reached its fullness. Why did explain such profound concept to this woman despised by the society? Her problem was not so much her understanding as it was her flesh.

On one hand, Jesus gave her the most important truth, on the other hand He exposed her decadent life. Jesus did not despise her just because of her low social status. In the prostitute Jesus saw His grace and gave her hope. He waited personally for her and led her towards the truth.

After Jesus explained this, she diverted the topic again. Whenever she was about to understand, she always changed the topic. Jesus would corner her and brought her back to the topic.

A paradox we often neglect is that we always thinks of ideal and looks towards the future but on the other hand we forget that this future is really coming to pass and in our waiting process we reveal our laziness and skepticism. We preserve our lofty ideals but think it is so far away, so time passes by and we accomplish nothing. Do we really believe? We wait and we do not think it will be today so we do nothing. For example, we believe that one day we will die and face the judgement of God, but we just do not think it will happen today. Somehow we subconsciously think tomorrow will come tomorrow but tomorrow will never become today. If we truly believe that tomorrow will one day become today, we will live with deep consciousness of the future and live circumspectly today in view of what we believe tomorrow will be.

Christian religion is realised within the domain of space and time which is verifiable in history, unlike myths with its unverifiable ‘once upon a time’. Jesus is God and eternal but He became incarnate and was born within time and space. But when we worship God in spirit and in truth and accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, our worship and acceptance of Him transcends time and space. This worship has eternal value. With eternal faith, we accept the historical facts of Christ which happened within time and space. So Jesus explained that God is Spirit, not confined withint time and space, hence we have to worship Him in spirit and in truth (Jn. 4:24).

When woman heard that, for the very last time she tried to divert the conversation again. Jesus would not let her go. She said, “I know that the Messiah is coming and when He come He will explain everything to us.” (Jn. 4;25) She meant that there was no point debating. She had her own culture and the Jews had theirs, so just wait for the Messiah to come and let the debate finish there and then. But when would the Messiah come? She could not tell. So it was one way to escape the conversation.

Jesus declared to her, “I who speak to you am He.” (Jn. 4:26). Are we really looking for the Messiah or are we just trying to excuse ourselves? But Jesus made that last statement to challenge her. The visit of Christ terminates all religious searches.

At that moment she pondered. If He was not the Messiah, how could He know about her past? She thought the Messiah had not come, but He declared He was already here speaking to her. When she heard this, she left behind her water jar. It indicates a change of mind where she no longer cares as much about her physical needs because all her spiritual filth had been discovered.

The disciples came back and wondered why He was talking to a woman. They did not dare to ask him. Neither do they dare to ask what they spoke in broad day light. The disciples were puzzled because they were asked to go and buy food whilst He spoke to a woman, and now He was not eating. Jesus replied, “my food is to do the will of Him who sent me and finish His work.” (Jn. 4:34) Physical food is not the most important but to fulfil the will of heaven is the most important food.

All the tactics of this intelligent woman did not work because Jesus could scan through her heart. There is penetrating power in the gospel. Only then you can lead a person to the gospel.

Upon repentance, the woman immediately evangelised. She did not wait and understood the significance of that existential moment. The time is now. She immediately went and preached. The woman ran back and called out to the people in town, “There is a man who tells me all my past deeds. Could he be the Christ?” (Jn. 4:29). Whit that simple sentence, all the people in the town came forward to meet Jesus. Why did these people come forward? It was because there was honest repentance and she declared to everyone how she lived, encouraged people to become curious about Jesus. This is the right way to evangelise. Many people who preach want people to see how great they are and cover all their sins. On the other hand the Samaritan spoke as a sinner and urged others to come and see Christ for who He is. There is honesty, courage, sincerity and power in her preaching.

After this conversation with Jesus, her entire life has been transformed. She was once a prostitute, now a preacher focused on God’s kingdom. We certainly should not despise those who are rejected by society or those who seem to have no achievement. Whatever men see as useless, God can use mightily.

The Living Water Part 2 (Jn. 4:1-18)

2010-01-31T20:45:00.000+11:00

This is my personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 24 January 2010 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 4:1-18

From Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman, we see the deceit in human heart and the Lord’s wisdom. We see how personal ministry should be done in showing the grace of God and the needs of men.

That Christ came to earth is God’s greatest gift to humanity. In the conversation, the Samaritan woman had not discovered that Jesus is the gift of God. She did not realise how important that moment was. Other than this incident, she never met Jesus anymore. Apart from God’s grace, she would not have the opportunity to share a moment with Christ. Are we aware of the opportunities in our lives where we listen to the word of God?

Jesus said, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink,…” (Jn.4:10) is very important reminder that we rely on God’s grace to live. We live our every single moment by the grace of God. Between life and death, there is only one line. It is not for us to decide when we live and when we die.

The Samaritan woman began to think after hearing this. Before that what was in her mind was that Jesus was a Jewish man and she was a Samaritan woman and they should not converse. Each time we try to share the gospel there will be conflict of concepts, cultures and dignity. It would seem that Jesus was at the losing end since He was thirsty and in need of water. But it is not Jesus who needed her, she needed Jesus. So often people think that the church need them and their money to build the church and increase the numbers. A sinner always reasons with his fallen mind that God needs him. But God is self-sufficient, self-existing, self-everlasting, and there is nothing we can add on to Him.

The question is who needs who. If we need God, we should come before Him and seek Him. But why is it that it is God’s Son who came to earth and went to Samaria, sat under the hot sun to wait for the Samaritan woman? This is the paradox of love. If Jesus did not convert the Samaritan woman, He had no loss. But if the Samaritan woman never met Jesus, her loss is great indeed. We need God forever. Even the air we breathe and the very function of our body is by His grace of sustainance. We receive His grace because of His love to us. Jesus came because the woman needed Him. He waited for her first under the hot sun.

When preaching the gospel, on surface it seems that you need the person we preach to since we seek him, but in reality it is the person who needs the gospel. When a person does not feel his need of salvation, he live passively.

Jesus continued, “… you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” (Jn. 4:10) Here Jesus turned from being passive into active. When He asked for water He was passive. When He offered the living water He was active. When the Samaritan woman came around every day to draw water she was passive. When she started to ask for living water she was active. But she was still controlled by her own understanding.

She said, “You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?” (Jn. 4:11-12)

In other words, she was skeptical of Jesus’ claim to give living water when just a while ago He was the one asking for a drink. The well is a special well. It is their cultural heritage since Jacob’s time. Even Jacob and his family was dependent on that well for a living. So Jesus’ offer of something greater, the living water, sounds unbelievable and she challenged if Jesus was greater than Jacob.

So here she was living a decadent life, but she could still talk loudly and criticise others and suppress others as she hid her sins. Often we are like that. Secretly we live a sinful life and we still criticise others.

When we try to minister to others and people trap us with their words, most of us just feel defeated and cannot minister further. Just because you have the heart and you like to preach the gospel does not mean you can preach well.

The Samaritan woman talked pragmatically. She had the rope and she could draw water and she doubted Jesus for talking about abstract thing like living water. Often Christians are criticised this way. They are criticised for talking about vague and abstract things in the sky while people have to face practical issues in life, they have to eat and work.

But Jesus’ answer to her is very unique. "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (Jn. 4:13-14) No other answer is better than His answer.

The woman started to think and asked for the living water. If you are able to draw out the need from the depths of heart, the person will become active.

When Jesus said to the Samaritan woman that grace must come after she saw the problem of sin. Jesus was most upright and a great gentleman. Everything He said was of the truth. And he speaks the truth in love. He asked, “go and call your husband and come back.” (Jn. 4:16) Here we see Jesus speaking to a woman and at a critical point He asked the woman to get the husband to participate the discussion. On one hand Jesus wanted to remind her of her problem.

The woman was very smart, she was able to have many husbands before. Now she was with the sixth one who was not her husband. Jesus did not say, “Call all your husbands.” But just say ‘call your husband’ and let her figure out which one. She replied, “I have no husband.”

Many people deceive the servants of God this way. Before God’s servant say they have no husband but they have a lot of affairs at the back. We often present half-truth, that is, just the good part of ourselves. And many preachers simply compromise. They do not care about congregation’s personal lives and morality as long as they still come to church.

Jesus then said the most important thing. He did not humiliate her. Church leaders and those who want to share the gospel often scare people away. We are not willing to be patient and as a result we mess up the whole thing. When we treat relative things with an absolute spirit, it can be destructive. We need wisdom and power to preach the word of God with love and patience. Jesus knew everything about the woman but He was very patient.

Jesus said, “You are right when you say you have no husband.” That is comforting. But He continued, “The fact is you had five husbands and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” She had been exposed completely. She must acknowledge that He knew everything about her. Here she concluded that Christ must be a prophet. When people are awakened that way, then revival is possible.

When people find that you cannot be deceived, they will begin to listen to you. If your wisdom is not greater than the person you preach to, it is hard to succeed.

John 3 and 4 present two most important examples of personal evangelism.

To be continued…

The Living Water (Jn 4:1-14)

2010-01-24T00:02:00.000+11:00

This is my personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 17 January 2010 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 4:1-14

In Jn 3, Jesus spoke to an educated, cultured and well-respected religious leader. In Jn 4, Jesus spoke to an immoral prostitute who is rejected by the society. Jesus debated with Nicodemus at night time instead of in the day time, and talked to the woman in broad day light rather than at night. In the Lord’s life, we see the greatest wisdom displayed in every detail of life.

In Jn 3, the religious leader approached Jesus and initiated a conversation. In Jn 4, Jesus approached the woman and initiated a conversation. In Jn 3, Nicodemus went home confused and did not understand. In Jn 4, the Samaritan woman not only understood but also brought the town to believe in Him. In Jn 3, Jesus was passive in that He was visited by Nicodemus. In Jn 4, Jesus was proactive, He went out to seek the lost.

The contrast of both situation shows that Christ met the need of all kinds of people. He not was able to meet the need of the intellectual and the well-respected but He could also reach out to the uneducated and the despised. He preached to the masses as well as ministered to individuals. He did not call His disciples from the masses, but called them individually one by one.

In Jn 4, Jesus went through Samaria although there was another way because He had a divine purpose. The disciples did not ask and just followed Him. Later on He just asked His disciples to go and buy food while He rested beside the well. At noon time, a woman came to the well. She would have been upset that there was a man sitting there. She did not come in the morning because there would be many other women. She tried to avoid the crowd because of her lifestyle and social status. She was a person everyone gossipped about.

This time she saw a Jewish man. A Jew would not talk to a Samaritan. So there was a tension. When the she came, she did not say a word. It was Jesus who first spoke. When we served in ministry, sometimes we cannot wait for others to come to us. Sometimes we have to go and reach out proactively. Jesus knew everything about this woman. Yet Jesus started the conversation in the wisest way, “Please give me some water to drink.” There is no better sentence than this. Jesus expressed that He honored her dignity and demonstrated that she still had something she could help others with. She had the rope and the bucket to lift the water to clench the thirsty.

If you despise the person you are preaching to, it would never work. The first strategy is to respect the person we are preaching to. All of us are worthless and full of sin before God. We are not worthy of His grace. But the gracious God sent us Jesus Christ, not born in a palace but humbly in a manger, full of empathy to our sufferings. Jesus laid His hands on the lepers and on the coffin of the dead. He got close to them, honoured them and recognised what they could contribute.
Chinese are quite stingy when it comes to honouring others. But Jesus respected the woman. There are many possible responses the woman could give, such as, “Are you really thirsty?” or “Get lost” or “Wait till I get back again.” But the response of this woman immediately brought to surface the conflicts of race and religion. She was very intelligent. She asked how could a man ask help from a woman, how could a Jew talk to a Samaritan.

Jesus is the Son of God. His answer is the best, “If you knew the gift of God and who is it that is asking you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you the living water.” It is a very gentle, firm and polite response. His words meant that He was the greatest gift from God. It is different from the water she could give. Even then whatever she could give is from God.

Although surprised by the answer, she had not changed her arrogant attitude by this time. She turned towards a psychological response. She demonstrated that she doubted His words, for He just asked for water earlier and now He claimed to be able to give the living water. She said He had nothing to draw from and the well was so deep. She also took pride in the fact that the well had historical value for it was the well their great ancestor Jacob himself drew from and relied on for living 1900 years back. She challenged if He was greater than Jacob and openly showed her scepticism of His credibility in saying He could give the livingi water.

Jesus’ answer was most excellent. Jesus’ response indicated that she might honour the 2000-year old well, but those that drink water from the well would be thirsty again, however those who drink the water He gives would never be thirsty again, for the water He gives will spring into eternal life. He did not indulge in foolish debate, but bring back to the root issue. Nothing Jesus said was wrong. But the woman had said nothing right so far.

At this point the woman was reminded of her problem because every day she needed to come to the well. Now she began to realise that it was not Jesus who needed her but she was the one who needed Jesus. So great was His message that it surpassed all human debate and wisdom. The woman recognised a need in her heart at this point.

This passage allows us to appreciate how the situation turned around. The woman now responded, “Give me the living water so that I don’t have to keep coming here to draw water.” Once she recognised her need, Jesus said the most important sentence, “Call your husband and come back here.” When she heard that she was shocked, she said, “I have no husband.”

To be continued…

Eternal Life in the Son (Jn. 3:31-36)

2010-01-16T21:28:00.002+11:00

This is my personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 10 January 2010 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 3:31-36

The last part of chapter 3 of John tells us that the words from heaven are different from the words from the earth. The words Jesus spoke to Nicodemus are not what a religious leader wants to hear. But Nicodemus was humble to learn from Jesus. Surely he would have left in shame but Jesus would not speak things that are pleasing to human ears.

“The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God givves the Spirit without limit.” (Jn. 3:31,34) This is a unique passage in the Bible. We see a lot of precious gems. He is above all things. He came from above. He see things in eternity and bear witness in the temporal world. This is the highest status and surpasses all manner of description. But suddenly the passage said people would not accept His testimony (Jn. 3:32). Is the problem with Him or His listeners? The passsage tells us how ignorant, arrogant and self-centered we are as sinners. We often respond wrongly to God’s revelation.

Just because we do not accept His testimony does not mean that His testimony is not the truth. His existence is independent of whether you believe Him or not. Whether you accept or reject Him does not affect His testimony. When we do not know Him, that is our own problem. When we know Him, it comes about because of His power to change us. We are changeable, how can we change the Unchangeable One? Only the Unchangeable has the power to change us. Atheists never recognise themselves as finite in the process of change. They never understand God as the Eternal One above all.

The man who accepted His testimony certify that God is truth (Jn. 3:33). This tells us that when Christians believe they are certified with the testimony of God. This is valuable. All other values come from people who do not have the foundation of value in the first place. They think that just because they assume things have value they will automatically have value. They think that just because they believe God did not exist, God would automatically not exist. But in the end they will find that all they hang on to is emptiness.

Those who receive the testimony of Jesus also receives the enlightenment of the Spirit, the affirmation of God, the illumination of the truth. It is sad indeed when a person rejects the testimony of God. They assume their own existence is real and God’s existence is not real. But this is not true. The last part of passage (Jn. 3:35-36) tells us that those who reject Him do not have the Son and the Father. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life for God’s wrath remains on him.

We should think in such a way that as sinners, we are already destined for hell, therefore we need to believe in Jesus so that we can be saved. It is not the other way round that we are threatened to hell because we do not believe. This is likened to the situation where we are sick and we need medicine to be healed. It is not that we are forced to take the medicine of we will be threatened with death. Similarly, the gospel does not threaten us with death. We are perishing because of our sin. The wages of sin is death. And the gospel offers us the way of salvation. It is not so much about giving you a freedom of choice or a threat but just displaying the fact and giving you the solution.

Because of God’s compassion, He sent His Son to die for our sin. He intervened in history, demonstrated His supernatural grace in natural world, and this not a neutral choice for your wrong response will determine your eternal destiny.

The most frightening thing is not to be unaware of how frightening you are. The most dangerous situation is living in danger and not being aware of that. Those who live under God’s grace know that they live under grace. But the self-righteous living under the wrath of God are not aware of it until the terror of the great Judgement comes. Only when the Holy Spirit revives one’s fallen conscience could a sinner repent and turn to God. It is not so much his freedom of choice.

The masterkey is in one Person, the Son of God. He is the key to eternity. When you reject His witness and redemptive power, you are walking towards death. When you accept His witness, His truth and His salvation, you will move from living under the wrath of God to living under the grace of God.

Do we think it does not matter if we are not awakened year after year? We are numb and miscalculate the tolerance of God. Sometimes we think our achievements are our own. And because God is patient and we often consider His tolerance something to be taken advantage of so we do all kinds of evil things. But in fact we can only say that we are not able to take the judgement of God and God is gracious to give us time to repent. Only in this way could our lives be lifted up to greater honor. We are simply saving up the wrath of God if we continue to make light of His tolerance. Who can stand before Him when He judges some day?

The most important human response is that towards Christ. God sent Him from heaven and give Him the Spirit without limit. If we believe in Him we have eternal life, else God’s wrath remains on us. When we understand the qualitative and quantitative difference between what is of heaven and of the earth, we will find the masterkey for chapter 4. Christ is the masterkey. Because we do not understand the value of Jesus Christ, we crucified Him. Yet through this God accomplished His salvation.

The Words of Heaven and Earth (Jn. 3:31-36)

2009-12-19T23:11:00.002+11:00

This is my personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 13th December 2009 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation. (Note that this is the last session on the book of John for 2009).

Passage: John 3:31-36

John’s entire purpose in life was to bear witness for the Light and to lead people into the true light of Christ. He was very focused on the object of his worship. He did not have any personal ambition and did not try to please men. God prepared him for 30 years but he only testified for Christ for a year. It seemed like a waste but the value of life is not determined by others’ acceptance or rejection or by length of ministry, but by God. If a person is filled with the word of God, his life is full indeed. John the Baptist died after one year of ministry and Christ was crucified after 3.5 years of ministry. But the foundation they laid down is everlasting.

We need to discern the words from heaven and words from the earth. People who cannot discern will all religions and cultures to be the same. Christians who cannot discern will consider all systems and theology to be the same. It is not pleasing to God to just preach the gospel without any care to ground ourselves solidly in His word. We understand the word of God only through orthodox understanding, which is based on general principles of the Scriptures. This is important because humans are no longer neutral after the Fall. We cannot interpret with unaided mind. There is profound truth in the Bible. We need a master key to understand how different parts of the Bible fits together. It takes time to understand the big picture.

Wisdom is a lot more important than knowledge. If you are wise, you will have knowledge and discernment. But a person without wisdom does not have the principle to discern.

What is the master key? What principles determine the master key? How did John come to understand the principles? John found the master key from the conversation of Jesus with Nicodemus. The dialogue between Jesus and Nicodemus and the dialogue between Jesus and Pontius Pilate is representative of dialogue between the word of God and human religion and politics.

In the dialogue with Nicodemus, Jesus talked about being born spiritually and Nicodemus thought about physical birth. The greatest religious leader was still trapped by things on earth. In the dialogue with Pilate, Jesus confessed He was the king of the Jews when Pilage asked Him. This statement seemed to be a threat to the Roman empire. But Jesus said He was born to be King and to testify of the truth and added that His kingdom is not of this world. So Pilate was limited by the concept of politics and kingdom on earth, but Jesus was talking about the kingdom of heaven. In these two dialogues, there is a sharp contrast between heaven and earth.

The book of John gives us master key to discern what is of heaven and what is of the earth. As we read the rest of the chapters we will indeed see the difference between heaven and earth.

The source is different and the quality is different. An intelligent person can tell the difference in essence. We are often deceived by superficial similarities, like similar nationalities or education background, and treat them all the same way.

Words from heaven are different from words from earth. Words from our mouth are important as they come from our heart and express the content of our soul.

The Apostle John said the one who comes from above is above all. What does it mean by above all? When we have a true understanding of the word of Christ as above all, we will know that nothing can be compared to it. Things of the earth can always be compared no matter how high they are. But Christ is above all, and His words are not something that can be compared within creation. Whatever that is on earth still belongs to earth. The one that comes from heaven give us the word of God.

Who is higher above all? Who is from the earth? That is the first principle. The one from above will have preaching that is pure, has eternal value and causes spiritual growth. The second principle is that the words from above come with pure motive. Whatever he has seen and heard he will bear witness. He affirms the truth with truthfulness. This is unlike those who affirm lies to make it sound truthful.

Hence the principle is firstly to set the source and secondly to affirm the value based on pure motive. This is similar to Confucius’ principle but the difference is that Confucius is a seeker of ancient truth and the prophets received revelation from God. And Jesus Christ transcends the prophets in that He testified of what He Himself experienced in heaven. This is called subjective truth. It is not the result of Him being told. And furthermore, He Himself is the Truth.

He is above all and He manifested the truth. Verse 32-33 records that nobody accepts Him, but those who accept Him has certified that God is truth. It sounds paradoxical to say nobody accepts Him and then declares about those who accept Him. It means that by ourselves we will never be able to accept Him. But by the inspiration of God we can believe. If you genuinely seeks, you will accept His word as truth. Jesus is the Truth and the witness to the truth. He proclaimed the eternal words of heaven to the earth. He is the way, the truth and the life. The Truth Himself introduced the truth to us. Thus He is most trustworthy. If we do not trust him, who then can we trust?

John 3:34 writes that God give Him the spirit without limit. Heb. 9:14 writes that Christ through the eternal Spirit offered Himself to God. Christ preached the truth with the Spirit. The words of heaven is of the spirit. This is the third principle.

The last principle is in John 3:35, i.e. the one who believes in Him have eternal life and God’s wrath remains in those who do note believe. There is a relationship between this principle of life and the word of God. In John 6:63, Jesus said, “the words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.” This is absent from the other three gospels. The words of Christ are spirit and life. No other human words have spirit and give life. Peter understood this and said, “To whom shall we go, you have the words of eternal life.”

So from the book of John we see that the words from heaven are the word of God, the word of Creator, they are spirit and they are life. When we accept the word of God, we affirm that God is true. It is a certification of God in our heart. And the Holy Spirit will be sealed in the hearts of those who believe.

The last part of John 3:35 writes that God’s wrath remains on him who does not believe in Christ. He might not know it but it is horrifying. On the other hand, the acceptance, belief and obedience to the word of God will bring joy. His word is truth and the truth will make you free. This joy cannot be bought with anything else.

The Spirit of True Ministry (Jn.3:29-36)

2009-12-13T17:21:00.002+11:00

This is my personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 6th December 2009 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 3:29-36

Jesus said that of all those born of women there had not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist. If Jesus had not mentioned this, we would not realise how great John is. But Christ also said that he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he (John the Baptist). This is because John the Baptist ended the Old Testament era and prepared the people for the coming of Christ which started the a new era in history. John was later beheaded and Christ was crucified. The New Testament started this way.

John was very clear of his calling from the very beginning. To the one who told him that his ministry was threatened because Jesus was attracting more disciples than him, he replied:

“A man can receive only what is given him from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said, “I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of Him” The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less.” (Jn. 3:27-30)

This tells us the energy necessary to serve in ministry. The kind of words that were told to John could often cause conflicts among co-workers. But John was clear of his position and could calmly respond to that. This passage also teaches us how we should respond to other people’s successes.

When one realises that his existence is threatened and someone succeeds not according to his expectation, one can easily become a judge. But who are we to judge? John’s statement “A man can receive only what is given him from heaven” teaches us that everything we have is from God and we are not worthy to receive anything. But it is easy to fall into the trap where we subconsciously credit all we have as something we deserve.

Among church leaders, the level of politics are often not that different from secular world. On one hand, they appear humble and on the other hand they steal glory from God and declare themselves as great. They are willing to go up but not willing to step down. They want to continue in their own pleasure and cannot be displeased. They think it is not right for their position in ministry to go downhill. They do all they can to prevent perceived competitors. When this kind of unnecessary pain clouds your ministry, your ministry has lost its meaning because gradually you fail to glorify God and edify men.

John’s ministry is based on pure motives. When someone told him these words, he said if it is not from heaven no one can receive anything. Hence whatever he had is according to God’s will and his ambition is irrelevant. When God takes back what He has given us, we need to submit in thanksgiving. This is how Job’s attitude was different from his wife when they lost all their children and possessions.

Many people do not see God’s glory but boast of what they have. That is not true ministry. True ministry is taking God as God and men as men. It is only by His grace that we have impacted lives and produced results. We will be accountable for our errors and sins. But we give thanks to God for all the good that has happened. We are just His vessels. When we offer everything to God, we need to realise that we are not worthy to offer anything and everything we could offer belongs to Him in the first place.

John said to the man who spoke to him that he could bear testimony that John himself told him from the start that he was not the Christ. He had a pure motive from the very beginning. He understood his position in the big picture and his mission in history.

When God uses you, we need to serve faithfully. When his time comes for us to step down we should do so. So we need to be faithful to our service and know when to step down. Often people just know how to step up but not step down.

John said Jesus is the true bridegroom and he is a friend of the bridegroom. He did not take the glory from Christ and rejoiced when Christ was glorified. The epistle of Paul also depicts the relationship between Christ and the Church as that of a husband and wife. When everyone was turning their attention to Jesus, John said that his joy was now complete. He was indeed great.

Ministry is not about displaying your talents. The simplest definition is whether by life or by death, Christ be magnified in our life. John the Baptist truly lived this way. This is the last recorded verse. Apart from the occasion when he asked his disciples to go to Jesus and asked if he was the Messiah, there was no more record of John’s words. His words of doubt shows us that even the greatest man of God had his time of weakness.

But God would not break the bruised reed. Jesus said to John’s disciples to go back and tell John that “the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the ppor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of Me” (Matt. 11:5-6). Even Mother Theresa admitted in one of her writing that she had doubted the existence of God before. This becomes words of comfort for the rest of us who struggle in our journey of faith.

The last portion of John’s words, “He must become greater; I must become less.” But why is it a must? Why must John become smaller? Why must Christ become greater? Eventually, John would be imprisoned and beheaded. He did become smaller and Christ became greater. It was something he was prepared to face. He went downhill willingly. And Christ was lifted up.

When we become less and insignificant, do not despair because it is according to God’s will. We should not boast because we have a share in ministry, it is because God gives us opportunity to serve. The same thing will happen with or without our contribution. We should not take credit. We need to know our position and know when to go up and to come down. In this way our ministry will be blessed in God’s eyes.

Christmas Gospel Rally 2009 (Indonesian)

2009-12-03T21:25:00.003+11:00

Christmas Gospel Rally 2009 (Mandarin)

2009-12-03T21:10:00.003+11:00

Light Enters into Darkness (Jn. 3:19-21)

2009-11-28T22:18:00.002+11:00

This is my personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 22nd November 2009 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 3:19-21

In this age Christianity face challenges from many fronts which were not existent during the Reformation, e.g. evolution, deism, existentialism, logical positivism and postmodernism. We need to recognise the tricks of the enemy in this age to appreciate the difficulties the church is facing. And we need to find the truth implicit in the Bible as the weapon sufficient to meet the challenges of the age.

John faced the challenges of his era alone when he was old. Back then there were four main challenges. The first one is political persecution.

During the Roman occupation only the Jews stubbornly would not call Caesar lord. They had very strong nationalism which could not be subdued by the Romans. In the end the Romans compromised and allowed Jews to be the only people who were exempted from calling Caesar Lord. The Jews were allowed religious freedom. They called Jehovah Lord. The Roman empire was not interested because Jehovah was invisible. But when the Christian Jews started to call Jesus Lord, it became an issue and Christians were persecuted.

The second challenge was philosophy. Roman empire was influenced by Greek philosophy. The intellectuals despised the Christians. Thirdly, the church also faced deception from false religion. The gnostics presented false gospels and used many prominent Christian names as the title of their gospels. They started before Paul was dead which Paul had denounced in his epistles. But they continued to spread their teaching after Paul’s death. John was one person fighting for the truth in his old age. Hence many terms in the gospel he wrote were absent from the rest. He wrote about love, life, light, Son of God which the other three gospels seldom mentioned. His writings were significant in bringing the church into deeper and fuller understanding.

Christians believe in one God, the eternal, victorious, good God, who is full of light. This view is unlike the gnostics who believe in a dualistic universe where light and darkness takes one equal status.

We do not have the capacity to understand everything our Lord has taught. But when challenges come, we ask what the Lord has taught about this to enable us to have victory over the challenges. And we are reminded of His teaching. Hence we are to hold on fast to the truth that has been passed on to us. The Word of God is so profound that it is sufficient to answer our questions. It is the masterkey that enables us to face challenges that we cannot face with our own strength. Therefore it is very critical to hold on to the Scripture as the truth and revelation from God. The last challenge of extra-biblical revelation is therefore the most dangerous as it destroys the foundation on which we stand.

John did not compromise and was very stern towards the heretics. After v.18, John placed focus on light and darkness which is different from the Gnostic view.

“This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God." (Jn. 3:19-21)

He tells us about the monotheistic Light. It is active and dynamic. It has influence. It invades. Light enters into darkness. Darkness does not enter into light. After 400 years, Augustine gave us an important teaching. Light exists and darkness is the absence of light. Righteousness is an object but unrighteousness is the absence of righteousness. In dualistic view, both light and darkness have the same status. But in Augustine’s view, they do not have the same status. Sin is the falling short of glory of God. It is the situation when glory is absent.

John 3:19 implies that the world has no light therefore it needs the light to shine into it. When the light shines, it comes to influence, illuminate and change the world. When Jesus proclaims we are the light of the world, implicitly there are three principles: (1) the world is dark so our existence has value because we are the light of the world, (2) Christians need to live dynamic not passive life to influence instead of constantly being influenced by the world and (3) we need to be self-sacrificing moment by moment to bless others. When the candle is burning giving light it is actually burning itself.

What does it mean when the Bible say God is light? It says the light will go into darkness and influence all that is dark. It will never be influenced by darkness. Light can chase away darkness.

What is the relationship between light and darkness?

There are a few possibilities: (1) Light chase darkness so darkness runs away, (2) darkness hides because it is afraid of the light, (3) darkness is destoyed by the light.

If darkness escapes when light comes, is it escaping at the same speed of light? If light is faster than darkness, what is the space of light and darkness interaction? If darkness is faster than light, what is the gap between the light and darkness? If they are the same speed, then wherever light comes darknes disappears at the same time. This is closer to Augustine’s view. He believed that darkness is the absence of light. Hence sin is where the glory of God is absent. Sin cannot then be considered as an object.

If darkness hides when light comes, where does it hide? If darkness is destroyed, then does darkness exist in the first place? Where is its existence?
It is similar to the concept of life and death. Isa. 25:8 writes that death is swallowed up by life. Life will swallow up death. In the same way darkness has been swallowed by light. There is no turning around when life swallows up death. We know what kind of resurrected body we will have when we witness the resurrected body of Christ.

Because the deeds of men are evil they love darkness rather than light. It is unnatural for darkness to reject light. In nature, wherever there is light darkness would surrender. But spiritually, Jesus (the Light) was rejected by men who lived in darkness because the deeds of men were evil. When shines light upon the hearts of those who are doing evil, they would hate the light. Will we escape when light shines upon us?

Those who do good deeds would come to the light so that it may be plainly seen that what they do have been done through God. In the end Jesus, the Light of men, was crucified. But darkness could not overcome light. He was resurrected on the third day. On the Last Judgement, the light of God will swallow up darkness. All unrighteousness would be corrected.

The Reason God Sent His Son (Jn. 3:17)

2009-11-11T22:25:00.001+11:00

This is my personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 1st November 2009 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 3:17

Moses lifted up the bronze snake in the desert and all the victims of snake bites would be healed by looking at that snake. This became a representation of how Jesus would die for us as a sinless person. The Jews never understood the message of salvation in this event. Jesus used this example to parallel how the Son of Man must be lifted up to bring the saving grace leading to eternal life. Those who believe in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

These are the last words of Jesus to Nicodemus. Verse 16 onwards was written by John.

John 3:17 records that God had sent His Son into the world not to condemn the world but to save the world through Him. Between God and man there is an Intermediary. It was man’s initiative to go against the commandment of God by eating the forbiden fruit, hence death is the doing of man. But it was God who initiated the reconciliation. God did not forsake man. It is man who forsakes God. If God does not rebuild this relationship, we can never return to God. He sent His only Son into the world. This is a very important verse in the doctrine of salvation. God wants to save us, not to judge us.

The Old Testament reveals the covenant of judgement and the New Testament the covenant of grace. God sent His Son not to condemn the world but to save the world through Him. From the context of this verse, we see the true motive of morality. It is to do the will of God with great conscience. It is not just a matter of behavior, but of motives. The state of your heart is more important than what you have actually done. If you do good but your heart is evil God will not be pleased. God wants our heart because all our actions come from our heart. In this verse, we also see the motive of God. We see the heart of God. He is always actively good. With the most holy and pure motive He gave us His Son. When we understand this, we will realise how evil we have been in our motives. The appearance of Christ in history demonstrates the goodness of God. Christ had come not to criticise, not to judge, but to save.

There are people who are always criticising and finding fault with others. By pinpointing others’ errors, people want to establish their self-righteousness. There are many capable people in the world but very few great ones. Many can identify errors, but find it difficult to tolerate. It is easy tell others what is wrong but it is hard to bring those in error back to the truth. This is not only about the doctrine of salvation, it is an important reminder for us to become like Jesus. How would you respond to a church or a pastor or a congregation that is not good? Why do you say it is not good? Inwardly you already have a standard by which you measure. But is your standard valid? Is this standard borrowed from others or you figure it out yourself?

We need to learn so that wherever we are we can contribute instead of criticise, we can sacrifice rather than demand. When a person has more demand than sacrifice, he will be arrogant. When a person sacrifices more than he criticises he will be considered a great person full of love. Nowadays many people simply go around judging others but forgeting that they themselves are part of the problem too. For example, people who complain of unclean environment but are also contributing to pollution. So they are not worthy to judge.

Jesus left His throne in heaven above and was born in a manger. He did not contribute to any problem. He did not by His coming make the world worse. He is sinless. But despite that He did not come to judge either. Instead, He came to save the world.

The world needs peace, love, goodness, mercy and compassion. Your arrogant judgement and criticism do not help. Men’s weaknesses do not need your judgement. When you look around the world and you understand why your Lord has come, you will change. People are bitter because they have no love. And Jesus is worthy to judge, and yet He did not judge, instead He came to save.

All of us make the same mistake. We have greater power to judge than to contribute. A person that criticise others for being dump usually are guilty of the same mistakes. Remember that when you oppose God, His solution is to send His Son to die for you so that you can be reconciled to Him. Today which of us will sacrifice our son so that our enemies will be reconciled to God? We can see how unwilling we are to sacrifice ourselves.

What is the point of simply judging? The world will not become better by simply listening to our judgement. How much have you contributed to your own family? What have you done to your community? What have you done for your church? If you only seek to be served, you are like the devil, and yet you expect people to serve like Christ. God did not send His son to condemn the world but to save the world through Him. Are you willing to follow the example of Jesus wherever you are? Sacrifice yourself that others might be blessed because of you.

The Summary of the Gospel (Jn. 3:13-16)

2009-10-19T22:55:00.001+11:00

This is my personal summary of the preaching of Rev Dr Stephen Tong on 4th October 2009 in True Way Presbyterian Church. It was preached in Chinese with English translation.

Passage: John 3:13-16

John 3:16 is the summary of the gospel. Salvation does not come from the law but from the gospel. The verse was not spoken by Jesus Christ but was summarised by the Apostle John following his record on Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus. Jesus represented the coming of the new era. Nicodemus ended the old era.

God had made preparation in the Old Testament so that we can understand the completion in the New Testament but often times we cannot see the true meaning. All the Jews had studied in the Old Testament did not enable them to see the true mystery.

Nobody will receive eternal life by following the law. The purpose of the law is to judge, not to forgive. God has given us the law not for us to obey or disobey, the true motive is as to remind us that we fall so short we can never fulfil God’s standard. The more we study the law, the more we understand the perfection of God. It is like looking at the mirror and seeing our flaws. It is frightening that having the law for such a long time the Jews turned arrogant instead of feeling humbled.

Implicit in the New Testament is the fulfilment of the promises in the Old Testament but the Jews were ignorant of this. So they felt threatened when Jesus Christ came. They decided that John the Baptist must die and Jesus must die too. To them, the Old and New Testament were in conflict. But the method relating to salvation is implicit in the Law. If we read carefully, the method of looking at the snake is looking up to the Lord to be saved. But the Jews never understood.

Jesus said just as Moses lifted up the snake, so the Son of God must be lifted up too. Moses lifted up a material snake which was a symbol and the people were healed when looking at that symbol. But Jesus was the sinless holy One who was lifted up for our sin. People could try to follow the law but once bitten by the snake they will die. Looking at the snake is not related to good works. Solution to sin is not through good works. We see how the judgement of the Old Testament is related to the forgiveness of the New Testament.

In another instance, by the command of God Moses threw his staff and it became a snake. The Egyptian magicians did the same thing. So there are good and bad snakes. What is the difference since they performed the same thing? Moses’ snake could devour all the other snakes. Falsehood would be devoured by the truth. This is a mark whereby death was swallowed up in victory when Jesus defeated death. Through death He defeated Satan. So we see both snake that represented Satan as well as the snake that represented Christ.

In the event where the snake was lifted up in the desert, the meaning is that life had victory over death and that is the promise of God. But Israelites were so engrossed with trying to follow the Law they could not understand this mystery. No matter how obedient you are, if you are bitten by a snake you will die. The solution is to look upon the sinless Christ. The Jews never understood such an important revelation. The experts of the law were only interested in the narrow field of study and they were lost the deeper they digged in. They studied so much but they were constrained. They needed a paradigm shift. Whenever there is historical change it is because of paradigm shift.

The Jews only had two choices, to abandon their culture or to kill Jesus Christ. The price they paid for absolutising the non-absolute when meeting with the Absolute. The True Word of God had become physical. “You think you have the Scripture. But this Scripture bear testimony of Me and you are not willing to come to Me. You think you are one with Logos but I am the Son of Man, the Word become flesh. Because you see Me as the Son of Man you cannot see Me as the Son of God.”

After the conversation with Nicodemus, the Apostle John summarised the Old and New Testament in v.16. “For God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son so that those who believe in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” God has given us the Law to reveal that we are sinful, that we cannot fulfil His standard, so that we submit to God’s judgement. These are the passive role of the Law (Rom. 3:19-20). But the dynamic action of the Law is more important. It gives us understanding about God. Through the Law, we will recognise that the attributes of God are different from all other pagan gods. God is just, holy and good. These are the things all the other pagans’ gods do not have.

People who worship idols do not believe because the gods are just or holy. Why do they pray to those gods? It is not about truth and justice but about profit and loss. The Chinese worship the god of heaven to the god of the earth, from the god of the door to the god of the kitchen. The purpose is to have good journeys, to be blessed, to have a lot of descendants and prosperity. These have nothing to do with holiness, righteousness and justice. The Law reminds us that we are far away from God and we need to repent. From the Law we see how decadent we are. So it brings us to understand grace. The source of all grace is Jesus Christ. The Law is like a teacher that brings us to Christ. Suddenly we realise what we need is not just action but salvation. Our hope not in academics, but in Christ who took away our sin, righteous for the unrighteous, so we need to turn our eyes upon Him.

John 3:16 says God gave His only begotten Son. How do we know Jesus is God? How could God give us God? How can we understand God sending God? Does that mean there are two Gods? God gave us His only begotten Son. When we look upon Jesus, we are not looking upon man. We are looking at the begotten Son of God.

Who is Jesus Christ? He is the Son of God. “So who is the Mother?” This is what happen when creature thinks the Creator must be like him. God is the One who created the principles governing the world. We cannot turn it around and expect the Creator to follow us. The principle of reproduction between man and woman is created by God. There are also other kinds of reproduction in other living things. We cannot demand Creator God to be like us.

The most important thing is to understand from this term “Son of God” is that He has the same essence and life as God. As the begotten Son, He has the essence of life of the Father. But what does that mean that God sent God? How many Gods are there? We need to refer back to general principles of the Bible.

The very first time Jesus opened the Scripture to read, “The Spirit of God is upon Me, …” the concept of the Triune God is already mentioned, the Spirit, God and Christ. His mandate to His disciples before He was taken up to heaven, “… and baptise them in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Again we see the Triune God. One Name, but three Persons. The Father is not the Son. Son is not the Holy Spirit. The Father is God. The Son is God. The Holy Spirit is God. But there is only one God and there are three persons. The Son of God has the essence of God. So He is God.

The other word is “Begotten”. It tells us He is not created. He is begotten, not created. His relationship with the Father is that of life relationship, not of creation. Life that came from Life, not life that came from creation. John 1 says that nothing was created without Him, implying that He himself was not created.

When we take a lighted candle to light another candle, we see two candlelights but the light comes from the first light. While it seems the second light comes from the first, but actually the second light already exists in the first light. The Son came from the Father, but from the beginning the Son was already in the Father. We cannot say that the Father existed before the Son. If the Father has only one Begotten Son, then before the Son was begotten, was the Father still the Father? Whose Father is He then? Without the Son, He cannot be the Father. Relative to the Father’s existence, there is the Son. The Son is called the Son because relative to Him is the Father. So the Son is Begotten eternally, not at a certain moment in time. The term “Only” means there is no another one like Him, the Only Begotten Son. He is uncreated and begotten from all eternity.

What about the Holy Spirit? Is the Holy Spirit the power of God? Is the Holy Spirit just the inspiration of God? If Holy Spirit does not exist as a Person, is it just a power as it moves? It seems to be the best explanation to reconcile the doctrine that Jesus is the Only Son who is uncreated since everything else must be created. Is the Holy Spirit created? From the Bible teaching and Athanasian creed, we see that Holy Spirit is neither created nor begotten. Jesus was begotten of the Father, but the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, not created, not begotten. The unitarians do not believe in the Triune God hence they consider Holy Spirit as the representation and power of God.

The Holy Spirit is another Person that came forth from God. The whole Bible shows the personhood of God is confined in 3 Persons. In Gen. 1:1-3, we can see the Triune God in creation. “In the beginning God created heaven and earth.” (v.1), then “the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” (v.2) and finally “God said, Let there be light.” (v.3). So God, the Holy Spirit, and the Word of God were present in creation. Creation is the work of the Triune God.

John 3:16 is the verse of the verses. It is the summary of God’s promise in Jesus Christ. It is the will of God. Verse 17 onwards speaks of the response towards the Gospel and its consequences. (To be continued… )