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John Sermon

Loving Obedience – John 14:15

As a church, we’ve been going through a series titled “Gospel Renewal”. The topics that we’ve covered so for this series are as follows:

In fact, all of these topics are probably taught in our moral science classes & certainly in other religions. But what’s the difference here? While in all the other cases, people teach and talk about how we need to do so many things to achieve a prayerful life or a humble life or a satisfied life.

In contrast, what we’re saying is that the good news of Jesus in fact empowers & enables us to do all of these things!

And continuing in this series we have a wonderful theme this week called “Gospel Obedience”. I’m presuming that some of you as soon as you heard this…you were like “it’s going to be another sermon on how I need to do this and that and then by the end I realize how I fail to do all of those things”.

And I just want to let you know that I understand that sentiment. I remember a few years at a camp that I attended, the speaker spoke on obedience and the title of his message was “the thrill of obedience”.

And I remember being a little taken off guard by the title because I never thought obedience as something thrilling or enjoyable or something to look forward to. And that happens because of some baggage that we carry with us.

We view God as a Rule-book keeper

All of us have had a strict teacher at school or a headmaster or a parent or a pastor –  and we sometimes think of God as being like that – Like a very strict headmaster who is making a list of all our moments of obedience and disobedience and waiting to punish us for every mistake that we make.

And although God is Just and Righteous in everything, but He’s not like the Headmaster that we think He is.

We see ourselves fail to keep up with the rules

The other reason why a topic like obedience could be discouraging for us is because we know how we fail in our attempts to obey God’s Word. Some days might be good in our performance – I read the Bible today, I had no arguments with people today, I completed my daily work on time and I even managed to share the gospel with one person.

But then there are quite a few other days where we don’t do any of them and then suddenly, we realize that we cannot keep up with the performance.  We keep missing the mark. We keep falling and failing. And we keep looking up at the “headmaster” wondering how angry he is.

Has anyone ever been there? That’s why I think today’s sermon is going to be important because it’s going address our baggage that we’re carrying and also push us forward to gospel obedience.

Our main text passage is from John 14:15:

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

If you notice it doesn’t say – if you go to church, you will keep my commandments. Or if you read your Bible, you will keep my commandments.

What does it say? If you “LOVE” me, you will keep my commandments. Love for Jesus is the motivation for obedience!

We express our LOVE for Jesus by keeping His commands. So the real question is do we truly love Jesus? That’s the real question.

Let’s begin changing the way we ask ourselves questions about our obedience. Obedience is not about Do’s and Don’ts but it’s about loving Jesus. Do we love Him? What does it mean to love Jesus? How can I love Jesus?

1. Loving obedience is always a response to God’s love

19 We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19)

Our love for God is always a response to His love for us! When we obey God, it’s not to do Him a favor neither is it a way of us to receive favor from Him. Gospel obedience is the result of a deeply thankful heart for what Christ has done for us!

Tim Keller mentions there are two types of obedience:

Religious: I obey, therefore I am loved and accepted by God

Days when I read my Bible and I try to live a good, spiritual life and I’m active in the church and that’s why I think God loves and accepts me. Days when I’m not able to live a good, spiritual life – those days I’m fearful and insecure. My spiritual performance determines God’s relationship with me.

Gospel: I am loved and accepted by God in Jesus, therefore I obey

God has loved me infinitely through His Son Jesus and He accepts me wholly as His child. His love and acceptance doesn’t change based on my spiritual performance but on His Son’s perfect life.

Because God’s love and mercy is sooo great….because the worth of His sacrifice is immeasurable – I want to joyfully serve Him in obedience.

A few years back when I was in full time ministry, I remember getting really discouraged after doing 9 months of ministry. 3 times a week I would go to different business parks around Mumbai trying to share the gospel with different people.

And even though some people would initially show positive response but after 9 months no one believed and I found no seekers as well. Plus I would go for all these conferences where people would come and say that they planted many churches in year and I would think “it’ll be good if at least 1 or 2 people believed in my case”.

And I remember feeling very insecure because I wasn’t sure if God was pleased with my ministry. Maybe I was doing something wrong. And I was talking to this one pastor friend of mine who said this “There’s nothing more you can do for God to love you more, and there’s nothing less you can do for God to love you any less.

He loves & accepts you fully and completely in Christ Jesus”. And a weight of pressure and condemnation just left me. In fact that day…a new freeing joy entered my heart to share the gospel! Not because I wanted to gain acceptance from God but because I’m already accepted in Christ.

This is different from antinomianism which means “God loves and accepts me for who I am so it allows me to do whatever I want to do”. No, that’s heresy.

God’s love and His acceptance in Christ – humbles me and makes me want to joyfully, willingly obey Him. I hope you understand this very key point on obedience.

We obey from love not for love! We obey from acceptance not for acceptance!

Not only is Loving obedience a response to God’s love but

2. Loving obedience is always whole-hearted

 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. (Matt 22:37)

It’s not partial obedience like 50% or 80% or not even 90% but loving obedience toward God is 100%. It’s all or nothing. I’m sure some of us might be thinking “I’ve heard this verse numerous times but what does loving God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength actually mean?” I think it could mean two things:  

  • Delight in God:

Have you ever thought of delighting and enjoying God? For some of us it sounds like a strange thing because we think of God as the “rule book keeper” and we never think about God as someone we would be enthralled and delighted in! I remember when I was in my teens how me and one of my friends from school would end up watching full 5-day test matches.

Sometimes when these matches would be played in New Zealand and Australia, I would also wake up early in the morning to watch it. And this was during regular school days! Quite crazy but at that time I enjoyed watching cricket! It didn’t seem burdensome or tiring to me. 

And now when I think about this – it was for something of very little value (sports and entertainment)…how much more should I delight in the One who Created me and Redeemed me from my sin? He wants us to enjoy our relationship with Him.

As we grow in our understanding of what Jesus has done for us, as the beauty and radiance of Jesus becomes brighter to us, as we see God answering our prayers, as we see God use us to minister to our brothers and sisters, and as we see ourselves looking more and more like Jesus everyday – God’s desire is for that to thrill our hearts and our minds.

God’s desire is for us to be in awe – and realize that we are in a relationship with an amazing God! God doesn’t desire begrudging obedience – that doesn’t bring Him any glory…what He desires is delightful obedience.

  • Not Delayed

Have you ever thought of Delayed obedience as disobedience? I realized this some years back as I was having a conversation with my brother in Christ. At that point I was 8 years into the faith but still not baptized. This brother asked me what my thought was about baptism?

And I explained how I believed in believer’s baptism but wasn’t sure if the time was right. Maybe I would want to do it sometime in the future. That’s when he told me this – “Delayed obedience is disobedience” and it just made sense and convicted my heart immediately. Similarly, I want to challenge you which ever area God is calling you to right now in obedience, what would it mean for you to obey right now?

What would it mean for you to not delay? To not give this excuse or that reason but actually obey God. In some cases I know it might be painful or hard, but would you obey God no matter how difficult the cost?

Not only is loving obedience a response to God’s love & wholehearted but :

3.  Loving obedience is always self-sacrificial

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments (1 John 5:2)

For me this was a little strange verse initially because I kept thinking what’s the relationship between loving the children of God and my obedience? The two things seem separate and contrasting.

How is my obedience or disobedience related to loving someone else? Well, that’s the biggest myth we need to put out. Our personal obedience is not just between us and God. Our obedience/disobedience is always affecting other people- our families, our church and the people we interact with on a daily basis.

Let’s say for example I’m harboring unforgiveness against someone else. I know I need to repent & reconcile but I’m disobedient, what happens? I’ll keep a distance from the church. I’ll try to be isolated. But am I truly being loving?

No, I’m actually withholding the church members from receiving my gifts, my encouragement, my comfort and service that God has given me. So my disobedience is actually not just grieving the heart of God, and affecting the other person but also the whole church. This is just one example.

Similarly, what the area in your life where God is calling you to obey Him self-sacrificially? You know that your disobedience is not just affecting your relationship with God but also the other people that are doing life with you.

In the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating the fruit – with that one act of disobedience idolatry, adultery, immorality, murder, theft, lies and every other kind of sin and wickedness flowed into their hearts.

And with that the guilt and shame associated with disobedience.  And we all were born with that very same nature of disobedience. But when Jesus Christ the Son of God came to the earth, unlike us he did not have that nature and lived a perfect life of obedience.

And through His death and resurrection – he paid for our lifetime of disobedience once for all and not just that but reversed and began the restoration process for us who believe so that one day when He returns we will be like Him perfectly obedient to God – not out of our will or efforts but totally by the grace of God. So let that encourage our hearts today – if we have repented of our sins & truly trusted in the finished work of Jesus, then where we are today is not where we will be when He returns.

He will fully and completely finish the work of reversal and restoration that He began at the cross. Let that be our hope. Amen!

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Matthew Sermon

Finding True Satisfaction – Matthew 13:44-46

Today’s sermon is part of a series called ‘Gospel Renewal’. Through these sermon series, we are discovering how to consistently live all of life under the influence of the gospel.

So far, we’ve covered topics on Prayer, Humility, Repentance & Dependence. Today we will look into the topic of ‘Gospel Satisfaction’ – In this broken world, how can we live a truly satisfied Life. And our passage for today is Matt 13:44-46.

To begin with, let’s ask ourselves “How many of us don’t want to live a satisfied life?” – None, right. Which means every one of us wants to live a satisfied life.

Last week as I was thinking about our topic today on ‘Satisfaction’, I asked a couple of people at my home and office from different age groups “What is it that you expect to happen in your life that you think will give you ultimate satisfaction?”

Here are some of the answers I received:

I will be fully satisfied in life…

• When all my debt is clear
• When I get my dream job
• When the conflicts in my home will be fully resolved
• When I get a dog (answer by a 10-year-old)
• When I am healed of my sickness
• When I have a good enough bank balance

Here are a couple of things I learnt when I heard these answers

  • We all tend to look for satisfaction in the fleeting pleasures and things of this world.
  • At different junctures in life, these desires keep changing. It never ends.
  • If we genuinely evaluate, there is nothing of this world that can give permanent satisfaction in life, even on our death bed, we will be discontent with something we never got to enjoy.
  • The sad reality – Unknowingly, we are spending all our lives wasting our energy chasing after things that were never meant to give us true satisfaction.

If these things are not meant to give us true satisfaction, what is it that gives us true satisfaction? To discover that, let’s look at our passage today and find the answer – Matt 13:44-46

“The Kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

First of all, we have to note that the passage is a parable and not a direct command. And therefore, we have to understand the principle behind the parable and not to take it literally.

Jesus is telling us the parable about a man who finds such satisfaction in what he found, that he went and sold everything he had to own it.

True satisfaction in life comes when we find and chase after the one thing that’s of great value.

What is that one thing that the man in this parable finds of great value? – The Kingdom of God.

In Matthew 6:33, Jesus said “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you”

Jesus is saying, instead of running after all these things in life that you think will give you real satisfaction. I’m saying first seek the Kingdom, and all other things shall be added unto you.

To chase after the Kingdom of God should be of primary importance, then chasing after the things of the world. 1 John 2:17 says “the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” Isn’t it true?

The picture painted in the parable is of a man who is running after the right thing and is fully satisfied.

Now, what is the Kingdom of God?

The Kingdom of God is God’s redemptive work through his son Jesus Christ in the world, resulting in people being in right relationship with himself. The Kingdom of God is the big picture of what God is doing in this world.

Which means to seek and chase after the Kingdom of God, is to walk in right relationship with God and to participate in God’s glorious work in this world.

If you are someone who’s hearing such a message for the first time, having a troubled life, without peace, without joy… You need to know that unless we walk into a right relationship with our creator God, we will never find true satisfaction. What you need right now is not a temporary solution to your temporary problem but a permanent solution that will set you free forever.

The answer to all our temporary problems is one permanent solution – Restored relationship with our creator God.

Bible says, Our sins have separated us from God, the reason the world is dark, broken, lost is because we are separated from God who created us for this glory. Instead of worshipping and adoring him, we end up worshipping the created things of this world. Idols, money, fame, pleasures.

And none of them is capable of giving us the true satisfaction our soul is seeking.

Money is not the solution to our problem. If it was money, then all the rich people in this world should have been the happiest people in the world, and that is absolutely not true.

Yes, money can give temporary relief, but it will never satisfy our souls, that craves for love and acceptance.

No matter how hard we try to mend the broken relationship with our creator God on our own, we will never be able to accomplish it on our own. Unless we are purified of our sins, we will never be able to relate with God, unless we’ve paid the penalty of our sins that satisfies God’s Holy wrath and anger on us we will never be able to mend the broken relationship.

And our human efforts can never satisfy God’s Holy anger.

The beautiful thing is, more than our cravings for a relationship with God, God craves, even more, to be with us.

The Bible says that God himself sent His son Jesus for us, to live the perfect life we were supposed to live, offered himself as a perfect sacrifice for the atonement of our sins, pay for our mistakes, die on the cross and satisfy God’s wrath on our behalf, to kill the power of sin in our lives. And rose again from the dead, seated in heaven, praying for us.

And so as we repent of our sins and receive Jesus as our Lord, believe in his name, he gives the right to become children of God.

True satisfaction comes when we realize how precious is this gift from God, and therefore, willing to give away anything that holds us back from receiving this gift.

“the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

Brother & sisters, it is not easy to go against the world when they say money is the answer to all problems, it not easy to go against the world when they say following family traditions and values is important, and that we have to follow them without questioning blindly.

It is not easy to drop all our idols, let go of all our dreams, count the things of the world rubbish and follow the footsteps of Jesus. Jesus said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” – In other words, we cannot fully receive the Kingdom of God unless we are willing to pay the price.

The man in the parable, when he finds the Kingdom, he hides it back realizing how precious it is, goes back and sells everything he has, pays the price, and buys the land – and is fully satisfied in doing so.

To those who’ve received the Kingdom of God in their hearts. Here are two things I want to say, to help us treasure what we’ve received and to continue finding your satisfaction in it.

1. We have to order our lives around the Kingdom of God

Even after receiving the Kingdom of God in our hearts, as we continue to live in this world, among all the dark forces, the result-oriented bosses at work, the nagging family members at home, still seeking specific answers to our prayer. It is so easy for us to slip away and go back to find our satisfaction in the world.

To order our lives around the Kingdom of God is to make ‘Intimacy with Jesus’ the ultimate goal of our lives. Which means we should always be willing to let go of anyone or anything so that you grow in intimacy with Jesus.

  • Whether its an ungodly relationship that takes all our energy away and weakens us from enjoying intimacy with Jesus.
  • Whether it’s our job that doesn’t allow us time to enjoy intimacy with Jesus.
  • Whether a business that takes most of our focus away from enjoying intimacy with Jesus.
  • Whether the wealth that is stopping us from enjoying intimacy with Jesus.

Like the rich young ruler who wanted to know how to inherit eternal life. When Jesus knowing his heart idols, asked him to go and sell all that he has, give to the poor and follow him. Was unwilling to do so and went back sorrowful.

Jesus said, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”

The key to continuing living a satisfied life for all those who believe, is to order our life around the Kingdom of God, to find our satisfaction in our relationship with Christ.

2. Dedicate all of life for the expansion of the Kingdom of God

As we enjoy our relationship with Christ, fully satisfied in Him. He then calls us to participate with Him in his Kingdom work.

It’s a privilege for us to be called to participate in His work. By serving God and his people, we’re not doing a favour on God. But, in fact, God is doing a favour on us.

By allowing us to participate in his Kingdom work, he is giving us more opportunities to be satisfied in life.

Personally, as a family, to be serving God and to serve you with our time, energy and efforts, even thought it gets tiring, and exhaustive. By the end of the day when we sit down and reflect on all that God is doing in and through our lives, there is such joy and satisfaction in our hearts. I sometimes cry.

Yes, we have to look after our families, work hard to survive, but unless our primary pursuit in life is to participate in the expansion of the Kingdom of God, we are still lacking sometimes precious in life.

As I conclude, let us all first seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness that comes through repentance and belief in Jesus, and He will surely satisfy our soul with all good things in life, that is meant to bring true joy and happiness.

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Genesis Sermon

Gospel Dependence – Genesis 15

As a church, we’ve been going through a series called “Gospel Renewal”. Our conviction is that unless the gospel changes our hearts, we will never be able to produce true and lasting fruit –be it in prayer, humility, repentance – all our efforts will render meaningless unless it’s fueled by the love of God. 

This week’s theme is “Gospel Dependence” or “Gospel trust”! What does it mean to depend on God? Can we trust God apart from the gospel? These are some of the questions we will look to answer as we look at Genesis 15.

The background of this story is that God has called a man called Abram out of his land, his extended family and commanded him to go to a place called Canaan and promised him that many nations would come through him, and all the families of the earth would be blessed through him and this place called Canaan would become an inheritance for him and his descendants! Wow.

That’s such a wonderful promise. However, there is one problem – he & his wife are well aged in years and they don’t have any children. Can this promise be fulfilled? Let’s read in Genesis 15. (read here)

Trust No one! That’s one recurring theme I’ve noticed people say a lot in this city. People find it hard to trust others.

Be it with the rickshaw driver, or vegetable vendor or anyone who provides some kind of service to you, or even the people who work with you – people don’t trust each other quickly and they always feel like that everyone’s out to cheat them.

Somehow I feel that this issue of trust also flows into our relationship with God. Often we ask “How can I trust God in my struggles, my pain and my circumstances? How do I know He is really concerned? How do I know that His plans are for my good?”

Even though we know these are easier topics to talk about on Sunday…deep down we know how we struggle to depend on God during the week. So what encouragement is offered to us from this passage?

I think it tells us of two things:

1.Gospel dependence is always rooted in God’s Word (v5-6)

5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

This passage starts off with God telling Abram that God is His shield and that His reward will be very great! This time Abram responds by telling God – sort of like complaining “God what will you give me, for I continue to be childless”.

What we need to understand is that in the ancient world barrenness was considered to be a curse or a punishment from God.  On top of that, there was the shame in society that families felt from others when they were barren.

You can imagine the emotional pressure that Abram felt at that point. And we can see at least 3 barriers that Abram had to overcome in order to depend on God:

  1. Physical barrier: Both he and Sarah were well advanced in their age. Probably around 80 at this point of time. We know how it’s physically impossible to give birth at such an old age.
  3. Rational barrier: Because they didn’t have any children, the only logical heir he could have is his servant Eliezer – probably a faithful servant in his household. In Abram’s mind he probably was thinking – if God wants to fulfill that promise of bringing out nations, it will now need to happen through Eliezer.
  4. Time barrier: Already enough and more time has passed. He was growing impatient probably saying “how long, Lord”? “God, please answer now….I’ve waited for a long time”.

If Abram considered all of these barriers, it would’ve made it really difficult for him to trust and depend on God. But what does God do? God tells him that Eliezer won’t be the heir…his own offspring would the heir.

God brings him outside and shows him the stars in the sky and asks them if he’s able to count them. And God says that many descendants will come from him. And then in v6 it says “Abram believed the Lord”. What? That’s it? God said this and Abram believed? How?

Because it was not an ordinary person’s word but God’s Word! It wasn’t just someone’s optimistic encouragement but God’s Word.

  1. He had to trust in the truthfulness of God’s Word – God who never lies (Titus 1:2)
  2. He had to trust in the ability of God to do what He said –

He believed God who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.  (Rom 4:17)

20 No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.”  (Rom 4:20-22)

God’s Word is synonymous with His character. God’s Word is a means of grace given to us so that we can trust God. (Faith comes by hearing, hearing the word of God [Rom 10:17])

In all this what I’m trying to say is that the word of God is so very essential for us to depend on God. You cannot depend on God apart from God’s Word. Why? Because God’s Word reveals God’s truthfulness and His ability to do what He has promised.

Sometimes when we are struggling with habitual sin, or when we’ve been praying to God for a specific issue – it could be physical healing or godly spouse or a job and haven’t received an answer yet – because I know my own heart I know others can have the same tendency – we tend to go into a shell and stay away from God’s Word.

We want to stay away from reading the Bible. We want to stay away from the church. We want to stay away from the preaching of God’s Word. We just want our space.

And even though all our feelings tell us that’s what we need to do, I just want to encourage you all and remind you that what you need the most is God’s Word. You need to know that God is truthful and that He doesn’t lie.

You need to know that God is more powerful than the circumstance or the sin that you’re going through. 

  • Gospel Dependence is held by God’s faithfulness (v18-21)

It’s not enough to know that God’s Word is true and that He is able to do what He said, but also to know that He is faithful no matter what. 

Right after Abram believes the Lord’s Word, God tells him that the land of Canaan will be given to Abram to possess. Abram asks God “how can he know that he’ll possess it”?

God tells him to get some animals and cut them in half and some birds. Abram did that and then fell into a deep sleep where he sees a vision. In that vision, God tells him that his descendants would be slaves in a foreign country for 400 years and after that God will bring them back to this Promise Land.

And God sends down fire and that passes between the animal pieces symbolizing His covenant with Abram.

What’s important to know is God is absolutely serious about keeping His commitment. God didn’t say – “okay, it’s going to take 400 years…Abram won’t be alive until then so it doesn’t matter”.

Neither did God think “the Israelites in 400 years are going to be extremely rebellious and sinful, they don’t deserve my commitment”. In fact, this was an unconditional covenant with Abram.

God made this covenant and He did it by passing through the pieces which meant that if God didn’t keep His commitment, then what happened to the cut animals will happen to Him! Wow! Our faith is held by God’s faithfulness.

God’s faithfulness was perfectly displayed on the cross. The willingness of our loving Savior Jesus to take on the punishment for our sins and absorb the wrath of God on our behalf – and go through with it is mind-blowing!

Because that was the only way we could have a relationship with God. He didn’t bail on us and neither did He leave us to die. He came after us even if it costed Him His life. Our faith is held by God’s faithfulness.

When we waver in our dependence on God when we fail in our personal holiness – what’s our hope? Is it to do better next time? Is it to manufacture new faith?

No! It’s God’s faithfulness toward us. I’m not saying that God’s faithfulness should be used as an excuse for sin. But I’m saying if you’ve truly understood God’s faithfulness, that will cause you to turn away from sin and turn towards God.

I remember brother Saju once shared a story with me about a pastor of a church. This pastor had a wayward daughter and even though he was a pastor of the church for many years, he thought it was proper for him to step down from his role for some time and focus on his family.

Every night his daughter would come back late after parties, and this pastor would wait up for her – look at her and say that he loves her. Every night. Finally one day this daughter repented and came to know the Lord.

And in her testimony, she said that it was actually the faithfulness of her father despite all the things she did wrong that helped her understand the gospel and come to know Christ.

When I fail in my faith, I need to know that God’s faithfulness holds me. I need to know 1 John 1:9 – if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us from all unrighteousness. I need to know that God’s faithfulness will come through for me.

Lastly, I just want to mention one thing before we close – if today a prosperity preacher would preach this passage, he would say that God’s faithfulness means giving me everything that I want.

If you don’t have everything you want in health and wealth – then you probably don’t have enough faith yet. We know that’s not the teaching of Scripture but how are we to respond to God biblically on issues that we’ve been praying for a long period of time?

Yes, we persistently pray about this and come back to God again and again. We tell God how what we’re asking isn’t coming from selfish motives to spend on ourselves. But then we also surrender the answer and trust that if God by withholding this answer from us it bring Him more glory, then we want to submit to His will.

Because our lives are about Him and His glory and not ours. God can use our strength and our weakness. God can use our plenty and our lack. And that’s also gospel dependence – trusting God to do what is best for His glory!

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1 John Sermon

Gospel Repentance – 1 John 1:5-10

Today’s sermon is part of a series called ‘Gospel Renewal’. Last two Sundays we covered topics on Prayer & Humility. And today we’re going to talk about Repentance.

Through these sermon series, I believe we are discovering how to consistently live all of life under the influence of the gospel. And as we do that one of our greatest needs in gospel-centered living is to understand repentance accurately and biblically.

Firstly, I want to begin by defining the word Repentance, because it seems many of us have a different understanding of the word.

The word Repentance in Greek is the word ‘metanoia’, and ‘metanoia’ essentially means ‘change in mind’.

The full biblical definition of repentance is a change of mind that results in a change of action.

It’s like leaving your home to go to the market, instead on the way, you change your mind and decide to walk towards the mall.

It is impossible to truly change your mind without that causing a change in action.

That is why John the Baptist called people to “produce fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matthew 3:8).

A person who has truly repented of his sin and exercised faith in Christ will give evidence of a changed life .

The passage I want us all to look at today is 1 John 1:5-10

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

First of all, remember, John is writing this letter to the believers in Ephesus. What John is saying is that when you talk about having fellowship with God & practicing the truth, you need a ‘change of mind’. You need to Repent.

Here’s what he is saying…

If we say we have fellowship with God while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

As we hear these words of John, and think about the application in our lives, let me give you a mental image of where our Christian is with regards to this particular situation that John is talking about.

When we were born in this world, we were born sinful and wicked. And no matter how cute and pretty the new born babies look, the truth is, their heart is disconnected from God.

The reason we are born sinful is because as humans, when we were first created by God in His image to worship Him – We were given the freedom to choose the right thing, we misused our freedom and willfully chose what was against God.

Our disobedience not only disconnected us from having a healthy relationship with God, but it also invited his wrath and anger. And since we were all born out of the first humans Adam and Eve, we all inherit their sinful nature, and a broken relationship with our creator God & are worthy of his wrath and anger.

Romans 3:23 – For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Romans 6:23 – For the wages of sin is death – which is what we deserved

John 3:16 – But God so loved the us that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Romans 3:24 – all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

Romans 6:24 – but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jesus came to earth and lived the perfect life in our place, took the penalty of our sins and paid the price on the cross, and in return gave his righteousness to us.

He took our dirty unrighteous garments and gave us his righteous garments.

Now when God looks at us, he is looking through the filter of His son, claims us back from the world, embraces us and calls us his own.

Brother & sisters, when we are confronted with this truth, there is a transformation that happens in our heart. For the first time we truly repent of our sins, believe in the gospel & eventually make a public declaration of our faith through Baptism.

Do not be mistaken – When this happens, God forgives all our past, present & future sins. We stand justified before him forever.

He says nothing can separate us from his love – neither physical death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, [39] Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 8:38-39

But, a lot of people think that we only repent of our sins & believe in the gospel once for all and there is no need to repent & believe again and again.

People who think that way forget that even thought our soul is set free from eternal condemnation, we still continue to live in our flesh and in this corrupt world. Our bodies are trapped here until we die or until Jesus returns.

We also forget that as we continue to grow in our faith, there are two things happens in our heart & mind. We grow in the awareness of God’s holiness and we grow in the awareness of our sinfulness.

And if we don’t walk in daily repentance, we can go into two different directions. Let me explain.

When we focus only on the Holiness of God, we easily get into a performance mode. And when we only grow in realization of our sinfulness, we get into a pretending mode. And both these places are harmful for us.

They stop us from experiencing a spirit filled Christian life.

In our passage today, John is talking to believers who are bent towards the pretending mode. People who are pretending to have fellowship with God and walking in the light but are in darkness and unwilling to admit that they are drowning in sin.

Listen carefully as I read the passage again.

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 

And here’s the solutions John offers

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

To bridge the gap between God’s holiness and Our sinfulness, the only way we can do it is when we live a lifestyle of repentance by confessing our sins to God & believing in the Gospel.

Here’s what happens when we do that daily. We grow in appreciation of what Christ has done for us on the cross. Our heart grows bigger and bigger each day.

God performs chemotherapy on us, killing the bad cells of our sinful nature and producing new ones. Changing our stony heart into a heart of flesh.

Biblical repentance frees us from our own devices and makes a way for the power of the gospel to bear fruit in our lives.

We never stop needing to repent and believe.

And as we do that, there are two reasons they happen. The first is, we express the genuineness of their faith. The second reason is, we maintain a close relationship with the Father in heaven.

Amen

Finally, as I close, let me highlight three things about repentance one gain.

  1. As Christians, we don’t repent daily because we fall off and become unbeliever again as we sin. The first time when we truly repented of our sins, he fully accepted and has given the entry pass to his Kingdom.
  2. As Christians, we repent so that we daily grow in appreciation of what Christ has done for us on the cross.
  3. We repent and confess our sins because we have the confidence that God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Categories
Philippians Sermon

Gospel Humility – Philippians 2:3-11

Good morning church! We started a new series last weekend titled “Gospel Renewal” and we’ll be covering different topics over the next 2 months like prayer, humility, repentance but explaining how all of these fruits can only come about through the gospel.

What we mean by that is – in every other religion and moral science class – people unanimously agree that prayer, humility, repentance are good things to cultivate through self-effort.

However, the Bible stands in stark contrast to all of these – through Scripture we understand that all these things can only be truly produced by trusting on the grace of God through Jesus Christ. That’s why we call it Gospel Renewal. And after last week’s theme on Gospel centred prayer, today we will look at Gospel Humility from Philippians 2.

As we are turning to today’s passage, let me just highlight a few reasons why “Humility” is an absolute need for all of us. For that we need to consider the opposite of humility which is “Pride”.

Now usually when we think about pride – we usually imagine someone who says “I’m awesome, I’m great and I do all things well”. Although this is one-way pride expresses itself, however I just want to mention a few more subtle ways in which pride manifests itself in our hearts.

  1. Being over-critical about others: We’ve taken it upon ourselves to points out the theological errors or sin struggles in other people. As believers do we need to correct people? Yes, but if we see a pattern where we are always the ones correcting others or if we are more concerned about the sin and issues in other people rather than our own, it’s pride.
  2. Prayerlessness: Prayerlessness ultimately arises out of pride which makes us feel like we don’t need God as much. We can figure things out and fix ourselves using self-effort.
  3. Not confessing sins: Our pride often prevents us from admitting that we have messed up and sinned against God. We usually end up minimizing the sin or getting defensive or innovating new ways to fix our sin problems apart from God.
  4. Not asking others for help: Even though we might be struggling in our faith, we’ll never ask our brothers and sisters to help us. We’ll never reach out to them or even if someone offers to help us, we’ll not take it seriously because in our pride we wouldn’t want to be perceived as helpless and weak.

And I want to be the first to admit that I’m prideful and God has been working on my heart over the last so many years humbling. I hope we realize that in many ways like this we all struggle with pride and we need the gospel to help us and change us to produce true humility.

3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,[a] 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,[b] 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,[c] being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (v3-11)

We see in verses 3-4 how Paul instructs the Philippian church in humility to count others more significant than themselves and look to the interests of others and not just our own.

But he knows that all of these instructions will be empty and futile apart from the gospel…apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. In a sense he was saying – unless you immerse yourself in the gospel, you will not be able to produce humility. And he mention 3 ways does that:

1.Looking up to Christ (v5-7)

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,[a] 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,[b] 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,[c] being born in the likeness of men.

I remember while I was growing up – I somehow got very simplistic answers like “The best way to live your life is to be like Jesus”. Pretty quickly I realized how impossible it was to live like Jesus.

In fact I found following the model of Jesus to be very intimidating because with every passing year I realized how further away I went from becoming like Jesus. But all of that changed when I became a believer.

Reading the Bible, I realized that the secret of the Christian life is that Jesus is now united with us in a relationship so deep and intimate that now He lives His life in and through us!

Jesus isn’t just a model but the motivation for our lives! Jesus isn’t just the inspiration but the enabler for our lives!

And so when we read the word “have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus” – realize that it’s not as though we are forced to follow someone else’s philosophy but rather as believer we earnestly desire to have the mind of Christ.

To look at the world in the way He does. To imitate Him. Because He is a part of us and we are a part of Him! What is the mindset of Christ? Let’s read v6-7. Its astonishing if we have to read it carefully.

Jesus Has the same nature and image of God –

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.  (Heb 1:3)

And yet He did not consider equality with God as something to be seized or something to be held to for advantage. In a world where people fight for position and status – unwilling to give up their position of power…this seems to be unbelievable!!!

Paul takes it one step further when he says 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,[c] being born in the likeness of men.

The idea of emptied himself means “willing to come down to no reputation”. Jesus didn’t lose His divinity (He didn’t stop being God). Jesus didn’t lose His purity.

But He did empty Himself of aspects of the richness of His glory and majesty to become like us. He took the form of weakness by putting on our flesh. Jesus is the Creator God becoming like a creature.

The word “servant” is Greek is the word “doulos” which means bondservant or slave. Here the Master of the entire universe took on the form of a slave – one of subservience.

The Son of Man came not be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many (Matt 20:28)

In another place in Galatians it says that Jesus was born under the law. Think about it – Jesus gave the command of circumcision to Abraham in Genesis and centuries later Jesus Himself got circumcised on the eighth day.

Jesus Himself gave the law and commands to Moses and centuries later He lived in obedience to that same law. It’s humiliating when you think about it.

He was willing to lay down and give away His reputation to be with us. He’s not disconnected from us and our issues. Here is our God who identifies with us by emptying Himself and taking our form and living in the very same broken world that we live in.

You feel pain and hurt? Jesus fully understands. Do you experience temptation? Jesus knows exactly what that feels like. If this doesn’t humble us, nothing else will. The God of the universe becoming like us! Amazing! 

2. Looking at the Cross

8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

When we think about the cross nowadays – it’s placed above church buildings signifying that it’s a church building. In the early 2000s wearing a cross used to be also a style statement.

And I was a new believer in those days and I also starting wearing a cross. One uncle from church who used to take bible studies for us once asked me a question: he asked me if the cross is a faith statement or a style statement?

For the first time, I began to question why I wore the cross because deep down I knew it was a fashion statement. So even though nowadays the meaning of the cross is quite different from what it was in NT times.

When Paul wrote this letter to Philippians, they knew what the cross meant. It was capital punishment in the Roman empire.

Only the guiltiest criminals, the worst of the lot, people who would cause violent uprisings against the Roman government – only they would receive this punishment. Not only was it the cruellest way of killing criminals and but it was extremely humiliating because it was done publicly.

And we see our Saviour Jesus Christ – even though he was innocent and sinless – willingly giving up Himself on a cross. Why? Let’s remember that we deserved to be on that cross – not Jesus because of our sins.

The horror of the cross is a reminder of how serious the charge and penalty that was levelled against us. But at the same time, the cross is a declaration of God’s love and mercy toward us.

Jesus Christ was willing to be humiliated by even dying on the cross – if that is what it meant to save us from the wrath and punishment for our sins! Here is our God who protects us by laying down His life! He loves us so much that He takes our punishment upon Himself so that we can eternally live in a relationship with Him! It’s mind-blowing!

Did we earn this favour? No! Did we deserve this? Absolutely not! And that’s what humbles our hearts. When we realize that we were once condemned prisoners who have been set free by the sacrifice of our Saviour!

3. Kneeling before Christ

9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (v9-11)

Imagine you were invited to meet the President of a country. In that place where you are going to meet him, there’s a gathering of the entire army of the country, the officials and governors.

And when you attend the meeting, you won’t go and announce “I’m so and so and I’ve done all these things in my life”. Instead, you’ll be humbled at the sight of the President and everyone else gathered there.

John Piper says something like when you go to the Grand Canyon…you don’t go there and think of how great you are or how good you look…why? You’ll be blown away by the breath-taking beauty of your view! You’ll be humbled at the creation of an amazing God!

Similarly, these verses tell us that the name that has been given to Jesus is so honourable and so great – that at that name every knee will bow down in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord! Wow!

I think what it means is that when Jesus Christ returns and King and Judge in His glory – every person on the earth – believers and even unbelievers will kneel and acknowledge Jesus Christ when they see Him!

What does that mean for us as believers now – is that We’ll never know what humility is unless we’ve learnt to humble ourselves before Christ!

Humility comes from an awareness of who Jesus Christ is and who we are in relation to Him. Humility involves surrendering to the will of Jesus Christ! 

In my experience, I’ve seen how God had used the gospel to humble my heart while listening to the Gospel being preached or when a brother has applied the Gospel to my life situation or when my heart melts with the Gospel during my Bible readings.

It doesn’t happen through self-effort or self-improvement. It happens when we look up to Christ, look at the cross and kneel before Christ!

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1 John Sermon

Gospel-centred Prayer – 1 John 5:14-15

After doing a year of expository preaching on the Gospel of Mark, we will now be focusing on a series of topical preaching called ‘Gospel Renewal’. What I mean by the word Gospel is the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the redemption of mankind.

We’re using the word Renewal because even though we hear and use the word Gospel often times in our verbiage we still fail to understand the depth of it and for the most part we don’t know how to apply the Gospel in our daily life and live for the Gospel.

Therefore, the aim of this series is to learn how the Gospel changes and impacts everything we do, that anything and everything we do is only a response to God’s love and grace that He has shown us in Christ. The ultimate goal is to glorify God.

Today’s topic is going to be on the subject of GOSPEL PRAYER. The passage I chose to study and preach is 1 John 5:14-15.

To give you a bit of a context, John is writing this letter to the believers in the Church of Ephesus.

After giving a long list of instruction to the church on the doctrine of Christ, Obedient living & Devotion, John is almost concluding his talk, and in chapter 5:14-15 he says

14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

Last Sunday Jeff reminded us that our primary call is to be with Jesus. That, before we are called to do anything for Jesus, we are called to be with Him and abide in Him.

And it is through prayer and devotion that we get  to be with Christ and to enjoy Intimacy with Him.

Brothers & sisters, Prayer is the most important spiritual discipline for every Christian.

But, have you wondered why our Prayer life becomes the most neglected spiritual discipline of all? That’s because, our prayer life is the prime target of the enemy and he will do anything to distract us from approaching God in prayer.

Last week while Jeff and I were in Taiwan going through the City to city Church planter intensive training, one of the topic that really blessed me was the topic on prayer by a pastor called Jon Hori.

One of his statement that stood out for me was when he said “I’m not worried when I hear that the church isn’t growing even though the people are genuinely praying, I’m worried when I hear that the church is rapidly growing but people aren’t praying”

This is what it implies – Any growth in our lives, whether in church, at work, in college, in finances that isn’t grounded in prayer is a dangerous endeavour.

It’s a dangerous endeavour because it will damage our faith and (leads us into misery / leave us feeling hopeless and miserable). Without prayer, we will drift away from God’s plan and purpose and end up in a place where we were never intended to be.

It will damage our faith because when we apply worldly wisdom to achieve things on our own strength, we will end up disregarding God and take pride in our own achievements and abilities instead of giving glory to God. We will stop believing in the Gospel and lose faith in Christ.

If you are convinced that prayer is most important to us, let us now look at how we need to prayer. As we look into today’s passage, I want to talk about the essentials (Saar) of prayer and the methods of praying.

In the passage as John is encouraging the people to pray he is saying two things that I believe is most essential when we think about prayer.

14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

1. Our prayer needs to be rooted in Christ, with confidence in Him and His finished work on the cross.

What I mean by that is when we go to God in prayer we don’t go with a self-righteous and prideful heart like the Pharisee in Luke 18 who goes to the temple and prays ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

Have you noticed, often times we fail to go to God in prayer because we think we’ve failed to live a perfect and obedient life, one that is pleasing to God, and that God is not interested in me or in my prayer unless I do it right.

Brothers & sisters, God knows our heart, he knows our struggles, he knows our failures, he knows our short comings, he knows the repetitive sinful tendencies we struggle with. And yet he does not expect us to fix all that and then approach Him in prayer.

Rather, he desires that we go to Him as we are, sinful & broken like the Tax collector who stood at a distance, with His eyes on the ground, beating his breast and praying, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

What Jesus accomplished for us on the cross is far greater than what we can ever imagine.

In 1 John chapter 1, John writes

8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we go to God in prayer with the attitude of ‘I am right & have no sin, therefore God hears me’ then we deceive ourselves. No matter how hard we try, we can never match up to the standard of God’s holiness.

Rather when we go to God in prayer and confess our sins, then he is faithful to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Let’s not forget brothers and sisters that once we were alienated from God, we were his enemies because of our evil behaviour. But Christ came to this world, lived among us, lived the righteous life we were supposed to live, and through his death on the cross he absorbed the wrath of God that was upon us and presented us holy in God’s sight, without blemish and free from accusation.

This is our identity in Christ, and this is the confidence in which we approach God in prayer.

2. The second thing we learn about prayer from this passage is that we ask according to his will and not ours.

Often times, this aspect of prayer messes up with our pride, our self-gratifying nature & our dreams & desires, Isn’t it?

The reason it messes up is because often times we think we know what is better for us. But in doing so we fail to realise the ultimate goal of God in this universe He created us for himself and for His pleasure. We forget that ultimately He is in control  of everything and calls the shots on us.

No matter how many dreams and desires you have for yourself. If they are not as per God’s will for your life and it they don’t serve his ultimate goal, then what you are chasing after will never satisfy you.

And therefore, to be in the perfect will of God should be the ultimate goal of our life. Nothing else in life can satisfy our inmost cravings and longings – not wealth, pleasure, comfort or people.

Even Jesus, while teaching about prayer in Matthew 6 teaches us to primarily pray for God’s kingdom and Gods will to be done in our lives.

What John is saying is that whatever you ask, if it is the will of God for your life, He will provide.

So, how do we pray in a way that we seek His will.

James 4:13-15:

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

Seeking for God’s will as we pray is the right thing to do.

I hope I’ve initiated a spark in to your heart to revive your prayer life. Please don’t let it go off, rather flame it to fire and live for God.

The other thing I wanted to share is our prayer postures. Often times we think of only one or two ways in which to approach God in prayer. But let me conclude by suggesting a couple of more prayer postures or methods that has personally benefited me.

Prayer Postures:

  • Quite time behind the doors
  • Prayer Journalizing Eg. King David
  • Prayer Cards
  • Walk & Talk
  • Family devotions
  • Community prayer

“Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble. But since the power of prayer is in the one who hears it and not in the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference.” – Max Lucado

Categories
Mark Sermon

Responding to the call of Jesus

Good morning Gathering! It’s a joy & a privilege to be with you this morning as we open the Scriptures together. I just returned from Taiwan where I, along with Saju and about 150 other pastors and leaders, explored what church planting looks like in the Asia Pacific. It was such a good reminder for me that God is doing the same work throughout the world. He is filling the earth with His glory here in Mumbai, in all of India, in South Asia and to the ends of the earth. And the beautiful thing is that he’s doing it through you, the church. He has chosen to use His church to accomplish His purposes!

I was also reminded this week of how much of a sacred thing this is. We have the unbelievable privilege to come to God, as people who have been redeemed by Him. As people who have been brought back from the dead. We get to gather in His presence and experience the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, as His Word performs surgery on hearts. And that is certainly my prayer for us this morning. That God would transform us for His glory. That we would be changed, not just for our sake, but with the goal that the whole earth would be filled with the glory of God through us.

So, I’m going to pray for us to that end. As I begin to pray for us, I’d invite you to turn to Mark chapter 3 in your Bibles. That’s where we’ll be this morning; Mark chapter 3. Let’s pray together.

Now, you might be wondering, “Why on earth are we going to Mark chapter 3” given the fact that we just wrapped up a series in The Gospel of Mark that has spanned a year and a half. That’s a great question! And the answer is that I want for us to consider our response to The Gospel of Mark. We mentioned throughout this journey the fact that Mark was driving us to respond to the coming of God’s Kingdom. He’s driving us toward a response to the call of Jesus in our lives. That’s the consistent message of Mark; that God is doing something new, something glorious, something that He has purposed to do from before the foundation of the world. And then he calls people to respond. So, if we’re not thinking toward a response to the coming of God’s Kingdom, then we’re sort of missing the point.

So, I want us to consider that by looking at three successive interactions that Jesus has in Mark chapter 3, verses 1-15. As we read this, I want for you to ask yourself this question: “How do I respond to the call of Jesus in my life?” I want you to have that question on the forefront of your minds and your hearts as we read this together.

Because this is the primary question in your life; it’s what is most important. If you’ve been around the Gathering for any length of time, you’ve heard me say this time and time again. There is nothing more important in your life than the issue of what you do with Jesus. How you answer this question is more important than your family and your job. It’s more important than anything else because it determines your eternal destination. So, let’s be thinking of that question as we read;

“How do I respond to the call of Jesus in my life?”

“Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him. Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him. And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him, for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him. And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” And he strictly ordered them not to make him known. And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons.”

We see 3 responses to Jesus in this text, and they aren’t very different from the responses that we see to Jesus in our culture today. So, for the sake of clarity, I want to break these responses down into 3 categories. I’ll give you these up front in case you are taking notes:

  1. FOE
  2. FAN
  3. FOLLOWER

FOE

Let’s start with the FOES of Jesus. I don’t think we need to spend too much time on this one because it’s pretty straightforward. But, I do want to say a couple of important things. The religious leaders, who have set themselves up as foes in response to the revelation of Jesus Christ, are people who are spiritually blind. Yes, they oppose the Kingdom of God. But it’s because they cannot see the truth. Yes, they miss who Jesus is. But it’s because they lack an understanding that God is doing something new, something beautiful & something different.

I think there’s a lot that I could say about this, but I believe what’s most important for us to recognize is this: We were all, at one time, enemies of God. I don’t care what your spiritual condition is right now. I don’t care how long you’ve been walking with The Lord and how much intimacy you have with Him right now. You were at one time His enemy.

Colossians 1:21 — “We were all once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds…”

Romans 5:10 — “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”

There are many other verses that point out this truth. Our natural spiritual condition (because of the fall) is one of enmity with God. Our natural posture toward God is us running as far away from Him, as fast as we can. And that’s true of every single one of us at one time in our lives.

We were defined by pride, self-righteousness and rebellion. The same things that defined the religious leaders who were continuously opposing Jesus. Those things defined us at one point in our lives.

Now listen, some of you might fit into that category right now. You are standing opposed to the things of God because you have been blinded to the truth of who He is and how He loves you. You might think you know Him. You might think you’re following Him, but you’re really worshipping some version of Jesus and following some version of Christianity that you’ve invented.

Can I tell you something beautiful this morning? You’re not here on accident. God purposed, from before the foundation of the world, that you would be here and you would hear the truth that:

You can spend a lifetime trying to figure out how to find peace, and joy, and satisfaction and fulfilment. But, all you’re really searching for is how to be reconciled to the God who created you and who loves you. And the world & your flesh would have you believe that you can find what you’re searching for in any number of other things. But it’s a lie! The only way to be reconciled to God; to be made right with Him; to have peace with Him, is to embrace the Kingdom of God by submitting your life to the One who died in your place. His name is Jesus!

He died, taking on the sin of the world (taking on your sin), and offers you His righteousness — His right standing with God — in return. That’s the truth of the gospel. It’s the truth that you don’t have to be an enemy of God anymore. You don’t have to oppose Him. You don’t have to run from Him. You don’t have to try to earn or find things that you can never earn or find apart from Jesus Christ. The good news of the gospel is that, where there was separation, now there can be reconciliation by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

So, that’s the first type of reaction we see to Jesus. It’s people who oppose Him. They are His foes. The next type of response to Jesus isn’t quite as clear, and I think we have to dig a little bit to uncover it.

FAN

This is what I would call fans of Jesus — the crowd that followed Him. I want you to think about what’s happening here.

As Jesus removes Himself from this conflict with the religious leaders, a mass of people followed after Him. And it’s not just Jews from the region that were following Jesus. This was a mixture of Jews & Gentiles, and they were coming from all over. They were coming from places like Tyre & Sidon, way in the North of the region. They were coming from Idumea, way down in the South by the Dead Sea. They were coming from the Decapolis, across the Jordan in the East. And from the Western shores of the Mediterranean. People were coming from all over the place because they had heard what Jesus could do. They had heard stories about Him.

In fact, so many people followed Jesus that He had His disciples set up an escape boat so that, if things got too crazy, they could just jump in the boat and not be pressed into the sea by the crowd.

Here’s the thing about these crowds. They didn’t really care about being with Jesus. They cared about what Jesus could do for them. They cared about what they could get from Him. We know that for several reasons, I’ll just give you one. There are many times in the gospels where Jesus would say a really hard thing and everyone in the crowd would leave except His actual followers. The best example of this is probably in John chapter 6 when people were following Jesus because they wanted food from Him. They had heard what Jesus had done to feed the multitudes and now they are looking for food from Jesus. But Jesus tells them, “if you want to follow me, you have to eat my flesh and drink my blood.” And, after He said that, everyone left Him except His true followers.

You see, these fans of Jesus wanted things from Him, just as long as it didn’t cost them too much! Do you know what the definition of that is? That’s consumerism. Getting maximum return with minimum investment is the definition of consumerism.

And that’s where much of the world who says they follow Jesus actually lives. They live in nominalism, easy beliefism, luke-warm attempts at Christianity. Like, “I’m good with Jesus, as long as He can do things for me.” “But, if things get difficult, or weird, or are going to cost me too much, I’m out!”

Much of what we see in the modern day church has produced a lot of fans of Jesus. It’s produced a lot of people who claim Jesus with their lips, but not with their lives. And, if you really want to evaluate if you fit into this category, just think about how you relate to the church. How we relate to one another in the church is a direct reflection of how we relate to Jesus. You can’t get around it because He’s the head of the church & the church is His bride. If you take a consumeristic posture with your church, I’ll guarantee you, you have a consumeristic posture toward Jesus.

I have to tell you this morning, that must change. We must repent where that’s happening, because Jesus hasn’t called us to be His fans; He’s called us to follow Him. In our text, we see Jesus retreat from the crowd. He retreats from the masses, from the people who want things from Him. He retreats from His fans to do what? To call and to charge His followers. That’s our 3rd category;

FOLLOWER

I want you to listen closely to what He says to His followers, because this is the call to His followers today. Listen closely to this, because if you are here and actually want to Follow Jesus. If you don’t want to settle for some luke-warm, comfortable, consumeristic version of Christianity (which isn’t Christianity at all). If you want what’s real. If you want Jesus, because you know that He made it all, He paid for it all, He claims it all & He rules over it all. If that’s what you want, then hear His call this morning. Let me read it again; it’s verses 13 & 14:


“And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach”

Mark 3: 13-14

He says, “Be with me and preach my gospel.” That’s the charge that Jesus gives His followers then, and it’s the call that He lays before His followers this morning. Just think about these things for a moment. “Be with me.” Isn’t that incredible? We get to be with Jesus? As in, be in His presence. As in, have a relationship with Him. We don’t deserve that! We deserve separation. We deserve death. We deserve His wrath. But, because of the substitutionary work of Christ for us, we get to be with God again.

We can finally have that thing that has been echoing in our souls since the garden when we were separated from Him. And it’s all because of His goodness & His loving-kindness toward us in Christ.

When is the last time you just sat still for a little while and pondered the fact that you get to be with God? You know what weeds out the fans? This is that John 6 passage that I referenced earlier. Is your goal really just to be with Jesus, and you don’t care about anything else?

The second thing that Jesus says is “Join me in the work.” Which is equally incredible! Listen, God does not need us to accomplish His mission. He chooses to use us because He loves us. And, because being with Him will necessarily mean that we’re on mission with Him because He is a God of mission.

We get to walk in joyful obedience and follow closely behind the One who died for us. We get to be with the One who bought us back from Satan, sin & death. We get to follow Him and be with Him as He leads us. Church, I promise you, there is no better place to be. Let’s not be a group of fans. Let’s not just be interested spectators as God works to redeem and restore a broken world. Let’s be obedient followers as He calls us into that work.

Let me close by saying this:  Your inclusion in the Kingdom of God means participation in the kingdom of God. Jesus is calling you to be with Him & to be about His work, no matter the cost. The question is:  “How do you respond to that call?”

If you’re here this morning and this is new for you. You don’t know Jesus like this, or you don’t know if you know Jesus like this. Every word in Scripture is meant to drive you to this one overarching truth:  Jesus Christ is your righteousness! Please don’t miss that. Because, ultimately, that’s the call this morning. JESUS CHRIST IS YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS! He is the door. He is the path. He is your all-in-all. He is life itself. He is the only way for you to be reconciled to God. No amount of good behavior, or religious activity or anything else will give you right standing with God. The only one who can save you, redeem you, restore you, and make you righteous is Jesus Christ Himself. And we only experience that by grace (which is a gift) and through faith in Him.

If you’re here this morning and you are a Christian. Let this fall fresh on your heart this morning. Your primarily calling is to be with Jesus. That, before you are called to do anything for Jesus, you are called to be with Him and abide in Him.

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Mark Sermon

Gracious Giving

Good morning church! We will be finishing our preaching series on the gospel of Mark today. It’s taken us a year and a half to complete the entire gospel and I know that the Spirit has enabled us to grow in our love and obedience to Christ as we’ve studied these passages.

We will end our series with a passage that we couldn’t cover earlier from Mark 12:41-44. It is a familiar passage on the story of the poor widow who gave two copper coins. We are going to learn about “Gracious Giving” as we look through this passage.

Should we talk about Finances at our church? That was the question that both Saju and I have contemplated for a while. Both Saju and I have seen a lot of abuse in our church experiences over money and finances. We’ve seen how churches have asked for money and donations so that they could spend it on beautifying their own church buildings and also seen church leaders use offerings to spend it on their own luxurious lifestyles.

We really didn’t want this to describe our church and our ministry and that’s why at this present time we both are bi-vocational and don’t take a salary from the church. That’s also probably one of the reasons why we’ve not preached a sermon on “finances or giving” in the last 4 years. However, as we thought about this and read it God’s Word & had conversations with other brothers, we were reminded again how God is deeply concerned about our hearts in relation to money.

What’s astonishing is that Jesus has spoken more number of times about money in the gospels than the subject of hell! If it is important to God, then we ought to preach and talk about this. We’ll today try to understand what “Gracious Giving” looks like and why does it need to be emphasized in the lives of believers through the story of the poor widow.

I believe this passage tells us 3 things about Gracious Giving:

  • Gracious giving is Hidden

It needs to go unnoticed. Right before this passage in v38-40, Jesus condemns the actions of the scribes. They are the super-religious guys who love to show off, receive greetings from people in the marketplace, at the synagogues they have the best seats of honor and make long prayers to show that they are super-spiritual and religious. Not only was this bad enough, they also exploited widows who were one of the most weak and helpless people in the social structure of that time.

What we need to realize is that in biblical times, widows were in a very difficult position. Financially many of them would end up being in poverty in indebtedness because their husband who was the main source of economic support passed away. They had very little or no inheritance rights and after the death of their husband, the relationship between the husband’s family and the widow would be very shaky. They were so isolated and underprivileged in society that the early church actually had laid a special emphasis on helping and ministering to widows.

James 1:27 says Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

And we know from the Bible how God is a defender of the weak and the powerless. Right across the whole bible we’ll always see how widows have a special place in God’s heart.

Now where I’m I getting to. Think about this whole scenario of Jesus sitting in front of the treasury seeing people put their offerings in the collection box. The God of the whole universe is watching people “give” their offerings to Him. Rich people are putting large sums of money…others are giving their offerings but Jesus notices the poor widow who nobody noticed. She was poor, helpless and weak but she found her audience in the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! What a wonderful thing.

Now compare that with the religious folk who gave more than this lady. They were the ones who argued with Jesus, tried to trap Jesus, wanted to arrest him and even kill him. Right there we understand the truth that God is more interested in what goes on in your heart as you give. It’s not merely the “amount” or the “giving” but the motivation of your heart that matters to God.

I believe that’s the crux of the issue when Jesus says in Matt 6: 2 “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

And if you think about it – it’s countercultural in the world and also sometimes in churches. Some places they honor and give out mementos to people who are like the top “donors” when in fact Christ actually tells us to give in private. It’s in the secrecy and the hiddenness of giving that pleases God. It’s not for the people around you to notice or to commend you for the amount that you’ve put in. Gracious giving is in fact hidden from other people. Gracious giving goes unnoticed in public. Gracious giving won’t receive any applause or praises from people but it pleases the heart of God.

But not only is gracious giving Hidden, but

  • Gracious giving is also Sacrificial

You can imagine the jaws of the disciples drop when Jesus tells them that this poor widow put in more than all the other people. They were probably quite confused because if we compare the amounts, this widow had actually put in much lesser than all the others. The value of the two copper coins actually amounted to 1/64 of a denarii.

A denarii was the daily wage for a labor worker. What she put in was 1/64th the amount of that. Then Jesus explains to them that all the others contributed out of their abundance but she had contributed out of her poverty.

For the others it was merely a contribution, for her it was a sacrifice. It was going to cost her not just something but everything. It was going to seriously affect her livelihood. Now I don’t think we should oversimplify the application to be – the poor widow put in all her money in the offering box so all of us need to put in all our money in the offering box.

But I think what it is telling us is this: God sees and views our giving not on the basis of what we don’t have but on the basis of what we have! Which means that God is not comparing the amounts of our giving against each other but God desires us to sacrificially give on the basis of what He has given to us individually at this present time.

Sometimes we hear people say things like “If God were to give me more money, then I’ll be able to give more to the church and to the poor”. Not necessarily. We know that with more money there’s in fact greater temptation to spend more on ourselves. That’s why God isn’t asking you to give on the basis of what you will have a few years later. He desires our obedience on the basis of what He has given right now. 

The important key here is the word sacrifice! The word by definition implies a cost & surrender– it’s going to cost us something & we’ll need to surrender something. Now when was the last time we gave an offering where it actually costed us something? When was the last time we had to surrender something in order to give an offering?

Now I know that not all generous people in the world are believers. But shouldn’t all true followers of Christ be generous? Because we have understood God’s mercy and sacrifice firsthand! We were “impoverished” in our sin. We were helpless and wretched and broken in our sinful state. But God being “rich in mercy” sent His one and only Son Jesus Christ to “empty” Himself by taking the form of man and then dying for you and for me.

He rose again on the third Day defeating sin, Satan and death so that we can receive the richness and wealth and privilege of a close intimate relationship with God. (2 Cor 8:9) God wasn’t stingy when it came to showing you grace. Shouldn’t people who have experienced this amazing eternal grace of God be overflowing with generosity?

Brothers and sisters, my aim is not to guilt people but rather to challenge us to think differently about giving. Sometimes we view giving as comfortable contributions but gracious giving involves sacrifice and generosity. Please don’t get me wrong…I’m not saying that we should never spend a penny on ourselves.

But what I’m saying that as believers we should be defined not by our spending but our giving. What’s the world’s notion on money and salary? Spend it within the first week of receiving it and then live as a miser till the end of the month. As believers the gospel changes the way we utilize our money. We give radically so that the gospel advances in places where there’s no gospel presence. We give radically to empower the weakest and poorest in the community around us and when they ask us why we do it – we point them back to Jesus who is the source of grace!

  • Gracious giving is Willing

The poor widow delighted the heart of Jesus because she willingly put everything that she had to live on! Not reluctantly but willingly she gave everything. The passage doesn’t give too much of a description about this widow but her actions certainly tell a lot about her faith.

  1. She believed that God owns everything in her life so he deserves everything as well. By her one action she displayed whole-hearted surrender.
  2. She also trusted God to sustain her even though she gave everything that she had to live on.

I really believe these two things impact the willingness to give to the Lord.

  1. Ownership: Do we believe that God is truly the Giver, Owner and Master of our whole lives including our money? Or do we think we are the owners of our own lives?
  2. Security: Do we trust God enough to know that He will continue to provide for all our needs even if we give sacrificially? Or do we think that our giving will ultimately result in us being needy all the time?

I hope we don’t miss the point how our “giving” goes much deeper than just an external act of obedience. Our giving actually points to who sits on the throne seat of our hearts! Our giving actually tells a lot about who we believe is our Provider. In whom we believe keeps us secure! Is it Jesus Christ or is it us?

2 Corinthian 8 tells us of a wonderful story about gracious giving. Paul and his companions were raising funds to help the poor & suffering believers in the Jerusalem church.  Paul informed all the churches in his network about this need. Now the churches in Macedonia actually had their own set of problems – it says they were going through severe test of affliction and extreme poverty. But the moment they heard this need, they begged earnestly telling that they really wanted to join in to help the saints. And they went over and above their means to help out. (v1-5)

This is how 2 Cor 8:5 puts it: 5 And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us.

Their commitment to God overflowed in an expression of giving willingly! One tough question I had to ask myself is that when needs come up suddenly, do I get impatient & frustrated? Or do I eagerly and willingly desire to help in whichever way I can? Is it reluctance or eagerness?

7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Cor 9:7) I might be giving “sacrificially” but if it is done in reluctance then it doesn’t honor God. We might as well not give it than to dishonor God by giving our offerings unwillingly. It doesn’t show God to be most valuable. He is not seen as worthy of glory!

Brothers and sisters, if we are truly honest, I think we would admit that we would need to grow in these areas of gracious giving – be it hidden, sacrificial and willingness. What I hope we’ve realized that our giving is not just tied to our pockets but our hearts in a way that’s much deeper than what we think. We need renewal and we need God’s grace.

It’s a question of Ownership and Security. If God has convicted our hearts, we must turn away from all those areas where we see clear patterns of sin and greed and convenience. Let’s turn back to Jesus Christ who is our Owner and our Provider and ask him to change our hearts and our lives so that we can be “Gracious Givers” just like Him. 

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Mark Sermon

Faith in Missions – Mark 16:9-20

Good morning church! We have reached the last passage in the gospel of Mark. We do have one more passage which we skipped earlier that we will study next week but we are almost at the end. And I was looking at some of the timelines and I think we started studying this in late 2017, so it’s been almost 1.5 years and God’s been faithful in revealing Jesus Christ in much more deeper ways to our hearts.

So as we are looking at Mark 16:9-20 – In most of our bibles it’ll have something mentioned in brackets saying that these verses don’t appear in the earliest manuscripts of Mark. The most likely explanation for that is that it was added later on.

So how do we interpret this passage as a church? I think it’s best to see this as true events which we’ll see are mentioned in all the other gospel accounts but was added later on to Mark. However, I don’t want us this morning to focus on the controversy but rather the message (main point) which is our call to take the gospel to all the world!

Now this passage like the passage in Matt 28 is a very familiar one I’m sure. Many of us have probably heard many messages on the Great Commission but before I get to the commission I want us to ask ourselves this question: We all know what Christ has commanded us to do, but what stops us from doing what He has commanded us to do? And I’m not preaching from a place where I’ve figured this out or I’m acing this but I’m also learning and growing in this. So the question to me and all of us today is:

1. What stops us from doing what Christ has commanded us to do?

The answer is UNBELIEF.

In this passage right before the great commission we see the disciples also struggling with unbelief. They should’ve been out rejoicing and declaring the gospel but instead we see them in disbelief. We see Mary Magdelene meeting Jesus and going back and telling the 11 disciples but “they would not believe”.

 Later that day two other disciples met Jesus on the road and they went back and reported this to the 11 disciples but “they didn’t believe”. And this is not simply unbelief due to ignorance, this is staunch, stubborn unbelief. That’s why when Jesus meets the disciples, it says that he rebuked them for the unbelief and hard heartedness.

Was Jesus being too hard on them for their unbelief. What did they fail to believe regarding Jesus Christ which made Jesus rebuke them?

  • Words: In the gospel of Mark we’ve seen how Jesus in very clear terms told his disciples about what would happen to him. He did this not once, not twice but three times at least.

And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. (Mark 8:31) So they clearly didn’t believe in Jesus’ words and prophecy about His resurrection.

  • Works : Jesus had performed unbelievable unimaginable miracles right in front of his disciples. He cast out demons from people. He healed those that were blind, deaf and mute instantly. He healed those that were isolated from society like lepers with skin diseases and a woman who had a severe bleeding problem. He miraculously provided a full meal for 5000 men (probably 10K + people) and 4000 people with a few loaves and fish in a desert. He made the wind and the waves obey Him. And He even raised up Jairus’ daughter from the dead! So it’s not like Jesus was an ordinary person who said these things. He did things that only God could do because He is the Son of God. And yet they didn’t believe in his power or nature.
  • Witnesses of the risen Christ : Finally we also see 3-4 different people saying that they personally met and encountered the risen Christ and still the disciples (the close ones of Jesus) disbelieve. In fact in Luke 24:11 it describes that when they were told about the risen Christ, it only seemed to them like an idle tale.

Okay, I know in what all they failed to believe about the risen Christ but if we have to go one step deeper, why do you think that’s the case? Why is it that the closest ones to Jesus Christ who followed Him up close didn’t believe?

  • Pride: They trusted their own intellect, their own rational mind and their senses – they were probably like “we saw Jesus dying on the cross and then buried in a tomb. There’s no way in which a man who died like that can come back to life”. Their pride stopped them from believing what God was able to do by raising Jesus from the dead.  
  • Insecurity: Now this is a big reason that we tend to miss out on. If they actually believed in Jesus Christ rising from the dead, then that would change their lives forever. They weren’t prepared to face the reality of the risen Christ. So they would rather be in denial and unbelief rather than surrender their lives completely to the risen Christ.

So what I want us to recognize is that just like the disciples – in our hearts we also struggle with unbelief and hard-heartedness. And that’s what prevents us from being on mission and doing what God has called us to do.

In our pride and insecurity, we fail to believe either the words of Christ (Great Commission) or the power of Christ (that Jesus can actually save and transform people through the gospel) or we fail to believe the witnesses of Christ (testimonies in Scripture and from people that we know). Unbelief is a problem of heart which needs RENEWAL.

2. How can we be renewed?

Romans 10:17 says “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ”.

It’s telling us that faith cannot be manufactured but comes when we hear the word of Christ! What does that mean? It means filling our hearts with the truth about who Jesus is – His power, His glory, His majesty, His wisdom beyond comprehension, His personal understanding of our hearts and our circumstances.

His mercy and compassion. His humility. And all of these characteristics are brilliantly echoed in the redemptive work of Jesus. All of history has been centred around & defined by what Christ accomplished through His finished work on the cross. Everything in history is reliant on the person and work of Jesus. And whenever we hear intently and see Jesus in Scripture, it builds and grows our faith. That’s why we need to continue to encourage each other to have time in the Scripture every single day. Because we cannot manufacture faith by ourselves – it comes by hearing the word of Christ!

But sometimes we can mistakenly think that “hearing the word of Christ” means knowledge only. Someone might say “I listen to 3 sermons every single day and so my faith is being built”. Not necessarily. In fact the Scripture tells us that knowledge apart from love puffs us up and makes us prideful nullifying the effect of the knowledge we’ve acquired. So here’s what I want us to learn and understand – faith is knowing Christ firsthand through the Word.

Not knowledge about Christ. It’s experiential knowledge. Think about it in terms of a close friendship. How does a friendship mature into a close friendship? Just by being bombarded with facts and more knowledge about the other person? No! The close friendship develops by spending time with that person, understanding the other person, opening up your life to the other person, enjoying your time with the other person and sacrificing your needs for the well-being of the other person.

What would pride and insecurity do in that relationship? Mess it up. All of us would agree that these are things absolutely essential in any close friendship. This is so much more true in our relationship with Jesus Christ.

When it comes to dealing with our unbelief in God’s mission and what He calls us to do, the answer is in a growing relationship with Jesus Christ through the Bible. The more we see Jesus and beauty and His power and His grace in the Bible “firsthand” through a real intimate relationship, the more faith will be built up in our hearts to pursue God’s mission.

The more organic and natural will witnessing be to us. I still remember meeting an elderly uncle called MC John a few years back in Kerala. Someone told me about him and I went to him for some advice in ministry. I was astonished to see his knowledge of Scripture by memory and yet he had a very humble spirit in him. For every advice he gave me, he quoted a scripture from the Bible. I spent probably 30mins with this uncle and I left his home rejoicing in the Lord.

He was 77 years old when I met him but he had a passion like a 20 year old. I wish God can enable me to have his kind of joy and excitement when I’m in my older years. Did he know the Lord? Yes, quite personally. Did someone need to force him to witness for Jesus? No. It came out so naturally because he couldn’t separate the Lord Jesus from his life.  

3. How does this push us forward into mission?

Now that Jesus Christ has been sacrificed, and sin and its effects have been destroyed, V15-16 talks about this idea of “Going” or “travelling” to meet and engage with all the inhabitants in this world. It’s no longer one type of people – no longer just Jews or nominal Christians – but everyone. And we are “heralds” – people sent as an official spokespersons bringing the good news of God to people. And that’s the reason why we began the neighbourhood GCs – it’s not because we didn’t have anything else to plan for this year.

Rather we see this as an application of the command to “Go” to people who you would normally not find in and around a church setting.   My challenge to everyone who is either leading a neighbourhood GC or part of a local GC in your area…is pick out a day in the week to just meet for prayer regularly and ask God to stir up your hearts in such a way where your answer to God would be like Isaiah after he saw the vision of the Lord – “Here I am…Send me”.

Finally v17-18 talks about God’s power and His protection to be with His heralds or spokespersons. I know we are just a day away from voting. We should vote wisely but let’s remember that ultimately no matter who is in the government and who is ruling, our call to “Go and proclaim the gospel to everyone” does not change. Rather what we need and what God has promised is His power and His protection to go with us as we are on mission. And Jesus has promised that!

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Mark Sermon

Here’s what the Resurrection of Christ mean to us – Mark 16:1-8

Our passage today is Mark 16:1-8.

If you’re like me, you probably had a rough last couple of days. It could be because of frustration and stress at work, or because of a rough patch in a relationship, a sickness in the family, failure in your studies, a sadness due to unanswered prayers, or you’ve been cheated by someone, or you are struggling with sin that you’re not able to get rid of.

And you are here this morning, all dressed up for the Resurrection Sunday, with smiles on your faces, joy in your demeanour and a twinkle in your eye. But inside, you are broken, joyless, you’re in despair, in pain, feel hopeless, feel lonely, feel hurt & angry.

If you are in this state of mind this morning, then I want to talk about what does the Resurrection of Jesus mean to us in our present situation and how should we respond so we can enjoy the full benefits of what Christ has achieved for us on the Cross of Calvary.

We are in Mark 16 where Jesus is dead and buried, and there is a sadness in the air. If you’ve ever experienced a sudden death of a loved one in your family, you know what that feeling is.

Everything around us moves in slow motion, we go through a period of disbelief, we question the meaning of life, everything we do seems meaningless and less important, we lose all our energy crying, and there is no more joy left in us. We wish this world would end soon.

I assume that is the exact feeling all the disciples and followers of Jesus were going through at this moment.

And then Mark tells us that after the Sabbath, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome, along with other women brings spices to anoint the body of Jesus.

As they are walking towards the tomb, they are worried about how to roll away the stone from the entrance of the tomb, but when the women reach the tomb, they see the stone has already been rolled back.

And entering the tomb they find a man sitting on the right side, the other gospel writers mention it was an angel who met them at the tomb. The angel gives them the news that the Jesus they buried is not here; He has Risen.

The angel tells them to go and say the news to the disciples, but instead, Mark says they were afraid and did not speak a word.

When we read the account of the Resurrection of Jesus, even within the four Gospels, we see a lot is happening there, and the account of each of the Gospel writers seems to contradict each other. The sceptics often use these contradictions to the point that Jesus’s Resurrection, it never happened.

But as I read, studied & investigated these accounts I did find the answer to the contradictions and was able to rest my heart.

But my goal today is not to clear the doubt surrounding the contradictions but to highlight and speak about the main event that happened, which is “Jesus had Risen from the Dead.”

Jesus’s resurrection was an unlikely event that happened, most people in that time never experienced or heard news like that. None of them even expected such a thing to happen.

It is crucial for us to know that what was happening there was a fulfilment of a prophecy that was made many years ago which appeared in the book of Isaiah written in the 8th century BCE.

Isiah writes, God himself, left his heavenly throne, lived among us, bore our griefs, carried our sorrows, pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, offered himself to die on our behalf as a sacrifice for our sins, to reconcile us back to Him.

When God made the world, a beautiful and perfect one beyond our imagination, the 9 to 10 thousand species of birds, 1.2 million species of animals, 34,000 recognised species of fish, the trees, the mountains.

The bible says he also made man in His own image, with around 78 organs in one single body, the most dominant, complex and powerful species that live on earth.

He created us like Him to commune with Him on his level, we were just like Him and enjoyed the most beautiful relationship that ever existed. But the whole idea was to live on Gods terms, under His rule and dominion, but what did we do?

We rejected His rule by disobeying His commands and devaluing His authority.

And according to God’s law, the penalty of disobedience is death. Just like it is when we break the rules that govern a country.

The only entity that could pardon our sins and save us from death was God himself. And that is why Jesus, the beloved Son of God, who was God himself came down to earth, lived a perfect life in the sight of God on our behalf and took the penalty of our Sins and died on our behalf.

But sadly, for most of the people in this world, the story of Jesus ends right there. And why not, isn’t that the image of Christ we often portray to the world. The image of Jesus hung on the cross, helpless, dead, displayed in churches, carried by Christians…. But isn’t that just a half-told story.

What the world often fails to recognise and believe is the fact that Jesus didn’t just die but also he also defeated Sin and satan, and on the third day he rose again.

Without the Resurrection of Jesus, our story is incomplete.

In this context, here’s why Jesus’s resurrection is essential and what should mean to us.

1. The Resurrection affirms our death to Sin

When we were not in Christ we were slaves to Sin, Sin ruled in our mortal bodies. Knowingly, unknowingly we lived a life of disobedience to God. But the day we heard about our saviour Jesus, and our hearts responded with repentance and faith, we also proclaimed to the world through the waters of baptism.

Romans 6:4 says “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

Romans 6:8 – “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.”

Romans 6:10-11 “For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

To those who’ve been struggling with sin in the last few days, filled with guilt and shame, unable to walk in the light, holding yourself back from fellowshipping with other believers, holding yourself back from confessing your sin to God, to one another asking for forgiveness.

My encouragement to you is to remember that you are no more slave to the sin you are struggling with, in Christ you are a new creation. Do not let the devil trick you from believing that God will not accept you.

Take courage like the prodigal son and return to the Father who loves you and will embrace you if you genuinely repent and is willing to put your faith in his son Jesus.

2. The Resurrection gives hope for the future

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Brothers & sisters, you may be going through a tough circumstance, one that you think is beyond your capacity to handle. But remember, we are not a people without hope. Through the Resurrection power of Jesus, we have been born to a living hope.

We can call unto him for help, and he will answer us from His Holy Hill. His promised that he will never leave us and never forsake us. Even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, he is with us. His rod and his staff, they comfort us.

Do not put your hope in man.

And even if we die on this earth, our life story will not end. We will spend eternity in heaven with Christ, in his glory.

Therefore, my encouragement to you is to always lift up your eyes unto the Lord, from whom our help comes. Set our minds on the heavenly things and not on the earthly pain.

And remind yourself of the glorious future we have in the heavenly Kingdom of God. We don’t need a passport or a visa to enter his Kingdom, the blood of Christ on us is the proof that we belong. No guard or security can stop us.

Because of the Resurrection of Christ, we are people of hope.

3. The Resurrection strength our witness in Christ

1 Cor 15:17 – 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins.

The fact that Jesus indeed rose from death is the evidence of our faith. The Gospel is incomplete without Resurrection. The world needs to know that Jesus isn’t always hanging on the cross, but that he has risen from the dead and is seated on the right hand of the God the Father, interceding from you and me.

The story of Resurrection ought to be told to every man and women because if they don’t hear the complete full story, they will never respond, they will leave the earth and end up in hell without knowing that there was a way for them to save themselves from hell.

Along with redemption from sin, and eternal hope, we are also called to be ambassadors of this good news. The day we received Christ in our hearts and was adopted into the family of God, we also took up the responsibility to join the Fathers business which is to preach the good news to the ends of the earth.

Let us not be like the women who were afraid and didn’t go out to tell the news to others.

The Bible says as children of God we are co-heirs with Christ, and there is a reward waiting for us in heaven.

Remember, as we share this good news with others, don’t forget to tell the Resurrection story, because without the Resurrection of Jesus our faith is futile, our story is incomplete.

Let’s pray!