Tag: Love

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Philippians Sermon

Men Like These – Philippians 2:25-30

The passage we will look into today is Philippians 2:25-30

Before we begin, I want to ask a question. Can you name your favourite hero from the Bible whom you like & admire? And why?

Very often, when we think about our favourite heroes, we prefer the ones that are famous and the ones who are top leaders in their community. We usually have a perception that only a few men with exceptionally high qualities are great. The world looks up and appreciates men with exceptional attributes and looks down on the ones who are insignificant and small.

But in the bible, in Luke 9, an argument aroused among the disciples of Jesus as to which of them was the greatest and Jesus responded by saying “For he who is least among you all is the one who is great.” 

In today’s passage, we will read about one such hero. His name is Epaphroditus. 

Philippians 2:25-30:

25 I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need, 26 for he has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. 27 Indeed he was ill, near to death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. 28 I am the more eager to send him, therefore, that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious. 29 So receive him in the Lord with all joy, and honor such men, 30 for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me.

Honestly, I knew nothing about Epaphroditus until I read this passage and started investigating him. Could be because he wasn’t a famous hero like the other characters in the Bible who achieved great things for the Kingdom of God and there is also not much written about him to grab our attention.

But even though he wasn’t great like others, he was a special one. I won’t be surprised to hear that in heaven, he’s considered one of the greatest, greater than other folks, maybe even greater than King Solomon. 

In closing of this passage in verse 29 while talking about Epaphroditus, Paul writes to the Church of Philippi saying “receive him in the Lord with all joy, and honour such men”. And that is what we will discover in today’s sermon, what makes Epaphroditus so unique. I’ve made three observations that make men like Epaphroditus unique.

The first quality I see in men like him is that they…

Are fully transformed by the Gospel 

Interestingly, Epaphroditus’s name is of pagan origin. It means “belonging to Aphrodite”—the name of the goddess is incorporated into the name Epaphroditus.

I am assuming that when Epaphroditus heard & received the Gospel, it opened his eyes to the dead religion he was following, made him aware of the vanity of life, and set him free to serve the living God. The idol he worshipped had no claim on him, regardless of his name.

Brothers & Sisters, I hope you know that the life we live on this earth without God is a total lie. It is twisted and bathed in sin. The world we live in is not the world God created and intended it to be. When God created the world and human beings, he instructed us to walk in his precepts so we can enjoy it as God intended, but unfortunately the first man God created sinned against him by disobeying his commands. 

According to the law of God, even though the punishment for our sin was death, instead of killing us, God gave us a second chance, second chance not to try and make it right in our own efforts, which we will never accomplish. Second chance by giving us an opportunity to receive the gift of salvation through his son Jesus.

Externally, to accept this salvation, we repent of our sins and put our faith in Christ. But internally there is a miraculous transformation that happens in our heart when we receive Christ as our personal Lord and Saviour.

And the proof that we are truly believers and followers of Christ can’t be determined only by the mere external confessions, like repentance and saying it out loud to others that we believe in Jesus; it is the internal transformation that’s the proof of the pudding.

A portion of food placed on your table can look beautiful & pretty, but the real test is the taste when we put it in our mouth.

It is tough to know whether a person is a true believer in the first instance. It is only when we spend time with him/her and get to know that person better that we see the effects of the transformation evident in the person’s life.

Reading about Epaphroditus, looking at his life and reading Pauls words, we can surely confirm that his life was a fully transformed life. He was not someone who would say I love Jesus, but I also love goddess Aphrodite, both are same for me. In my house, I have Jesus’s picture and Aphrodite’s picture side by side, and they are both gods for me.

He was not someone who would say I love Jesus, but I also love the world and its pleasures. On Sunday I go to Church, sing songs and listen to whatever the preacher blabbers, on Friday I go to GC, and enjoy the party. But other days are for me, and I live it as I like. 

What makes Epaphaditus and men like him special is the fact that their repentance and faith in Jesus are genuine & true and it could be witnessed by their transformed lives. 

It doesn’t mean that they were perfect human beings but you can see the fire of the Gospel burning in their heart, transforming them into the image of Christ every single day.

If we had met Epaphraditus and asked him about his life, what is special about him and about his life, he would have definitely said: “Christ in me the hope of glory”.

The second quality that makes men like Epaphroditus special is that they…

Are committed to, loved & approved by the Church 

Paul was in prison, and the Church wanted to send him a care package. It was a risky operation, and they wanted a man who could be trusted, courageous, servant-hearted, humble – and Epaphroditus was chosen for it.

25 I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need

Epaphroditus was not chosen randomly but chosen with due diligence. Paul’s words in verse 26 “for he has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill” suggests that he had a deep and affectionate relationship with the Church in Philippi. When the Church needed help to deploy a risky operation, they found Epaphraditus worthy and ready for the task. 

After observing him for months and years, they knew there was no better person than Epaphraditus for the task. Under no circumstances will Epaphraditus abandon the mission. They knew he had a servant’s heart and will faithfully serve Paul with a genuinely loving heart. 

To be chosen by them for such a task, Epaphroditus must have walked faithfully while he was among them, fully committed to the Church.

Epaphroditus was a man of obvious devotion, faithfulness, and self-sacrifice. He put “the interests of others” before himself, and so modelled the mind of Christ.

Epaphroditus may not have been a very talented guy with extraordinary skills, but seems to me like a regular guy who served the Church with whatever capacity he had. He was in love with the Church, and the Church loved him, and when a need arose, he was chosen and approved. That makes him special.

To Paul, he was a “brother” (belonging to the same family), a “co-worker” (labouring toward the same goal), and a “fellow soldier” (sharing the same trials). 

We can see the nature of Christ displayed in him, not just in his words but also in his actions towards one another. We can witness how much he has grown in his faith and is devoted to Christ, who is using him for his glory.

Last and the final observation about men like Epaphroditus was that they …

Are filled with zeal for the Kingdom of God 

Paul was a spiritual father to the Church of Philippi; in fact, he was the one who planted the Church. During that period, God was using Paul in unusual ways, whether he was free or in prison. He was an asset to the Kingdom of God. Paul’s ministry was quite a crucial one, and his survival was essential to the Church.

Just like many other churches, the Church of Philippi was indebted to Paul and his service to them. When they heard about Paul’s imprisonment, they knew he needed his family to stand by him, support him and encourage him so that he can continue doing ministry. And to do that they decided to send him a care package and lots of love through Epaphroditus.

I believe when Epapharaditus was chosen for the task, he knew what his actions would mean to the Church and Paul. He knew the significance of the moment and the impact his actions would make in the expansion of the Kingdom.

And even thought it was a risky operation where he could lose his life he still threw himself in it… because of his zeal for the Kingdom of God and for missions. In v30 Paul writes “for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me.”

He could have stayed back and decided to continue with whatever career or business he was pursuing, he could have stayed back to be with his family and look after them. But at the right time, when the Church called him out, he chose a more significant task.

Epaphroditus was not just fully transformed by the Gospel and served in the Church in big and small ways, he was zealous for the Kingdom of God, was aware of the lostness around him and knew that he had to play his role in supporting and serving Paul as he was reaching out to the gentiles with the Gospel of Christ.

As a Christians, the very reason for which Christ came to this earth, died for our sins, redeemed us from sin and satan is for Kingdom extension. So that through our transformed lives, He would continue to reach out to the lost in the world. 

He did not save us just to be good people who go to Church every Sunday, get filled with a head knowledge, get married, bring up children, make lots of money and accumulate wealth and possession. 

He called us out to be used for his glory and extension of his Kingdom. Epaphroditus knew that and had dedicated his life for the task and had given himself to Christ and his mission.

Brothers & sisters, we may not be like Paul, Peter and other disciples & leaders, we may not be a gifted evangelist or a preacher or a teacher, but we all can become men like Ephaphraditus, men who are fully transformed by the power of the Gospel, men who are in love with Jesus, men who are committed, loved and approved by other fellow believers and men who are zealous for the Kingdom of God. As we continue to yield to Christ, he will continue to grow us and use us in ways beyond our imagination. 

We may look like the lowliest of people doing the lowliest of jobs for the Kingdom, but it is the least among us who are considered as greatest in the Kingdom.

And as Paul mentioned, we ought to rejoice over such men and honour them for their love, commitment & service for the Kingdom.

Epaphroditus is a perfect example of what God can do in and through the lives of simple people like us. And that is why we celebrate the Gospel, celebrate what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross of Calvary.

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Ephesians Sermon Unity

United in Community (Session 2 – Ephesians 4:1-16

I want you to imagine a conversation between a news reporter and a Sunday churchgoer. Let’s call him Akash.

The interviewer asks Akash, “Why are you part of a local church?” Akash quickly answers “It’s because I love the fellowship. The people are very nice and friendly and I’m able to relate with them well”. The interviewer then asks him, ” Well, how is the church any different from any social group- like a football club, chess club, or really close family and friend circles? Isn’t that the same?”

Akash then says “no this is different because I get to sing these beautifully tuned worship songs and because there’s a pastor who teaches some really good and practical stuff for life”.  

The interviewer responds by asking him, ” See…Right now we are in a digital age – you can access all of these best Christian songs and listen to the best preachers from your home itself, why do you have to be a part of a church?”

By now Akash is a little irritated by the questions, “He says – what are you saying…every Sunday I have to go to church. I cannot imagine not going. I’ve been doing that for many years. Apart from this, there’s nothing else that I can do on Sunday”.

Now, this might seem like a silly imaginary conversation but I want all of us to think on why we invest so many hours each week in the weekend Gathering and community? Why don’t we do anything else during that time? And I want us to be challenged by this line of questioning. And how much should we invest in this? Is it just 2 hours a week or much more? Is it worth sacrificing your entire life for it?

The first thing I want us to grasp is that we are in a community not because of social reasons or because there’s nothing else to do but:

We are united by Truth (v4-6)

There are these amazing life-altering truths that joins us together.

A) One body – We are many members of Christ’s single body. We may look different, come from different backgrounds but through Christ, we are now members of one body. Glen and I once shared a shared rickshaw with an elderly couple. Saw a Bible in his hand and we started talking. He was a believer and even though he was 80 years old but also my brother and fellow member of Christ’s body.

B) One Spirit – It’s mindboggling to think that God’s own Spirit dwells in each of us believers. And also to realize that everyone shares the very same Spirit. No partiality. We know that as much as we yield to the Spirit, we are being controlled by Him but in giving us the Spirit God shows no partiality. 

C) One Hope – We will be resurrected. Not ashamed. Pronounced not guilty. Living as heirs in God’s kingdom with God even though we didn’t deserve to be there in the first place. 

D) One Lord – All of us who believe in Jesus have one Master and one Savior. There was only one person who lived the life we could never imagine living – holiness example – walking on puddles. Yet He was willing to take on the punishment that we deserved and give us His righteousness. Exchanging His robe for ours. And His sacrifice transforms our lives once for all. Can anyone else be our Master? He is a Faithful Lord.

E) One Faith – Trusting in Christ’s work to bring us to God. Example: A man drowning in the sea and holding onto a rope. 

F) One Baptism – Declaration of our fellowship with Christ and the church. Doesn’t matter if you’ve been baptized in an interior village of India or at the Omkar pool. It’s a sign of your commitment and God looks at all of it as obedience. 

G) One God the Father – In a country where we boast of 330 million gods, the Bible says there’s only one God – He rules over everything, He is powerful to work through everything so that ultimately everything displays His greatness. 

Secondly, the reason why the church can’t be a disconnected affair where we can be virtually connected through Livestream is because:

We are united for Strength (v7-16) 

We need each other to grow stronger in the Lord. 

I) God giving gifts to each individual believer (v7) 

*  Spiritual Gifts – ” Grace” – undeserving gift of God according to Christ’s measure. There is a purpose to God giving you a gift.

II) Wonderful purpose of spiritual gifts

    * Church leaders are God’s gift to the church to equip (perfect, complete furnishing) the saints for the work of ministry. Servants of the Lord & the church – Church leaders are like joints – binding the skeleton together, giving structure and allowing muscles to move bones to perform different activities. Our job as church leaders is to bring people together, give direction (casting vision) and allow people to use their gifts to do the work of ministry. Coach the church so that everyone is active in body building. (V11, 12) 

    * Unity and Maturity – When will we be fully united? when we become like Christ. When will we be fully mature? When we become like Christ. The goal is to attain the measure of the full stature of the fullness of Christ – Christ likeness is not going to happen alone. It’s going to happen with the church. (V13, 14) 

    * Growth is going to happen when each part of the body is working properly. (V15, 16) 

United in love (v1-3)

Even though we have been given “grace” yet we experience issues within the church – making it more difficult to attain unity. “Sin” and “Strangeness”. What should we do? 

Should we quit? What does Scripture call us to do?  Loving each other through humility and gentleness. Patiently bearing with each other in love. Ensuring with one another. 

If we all are honest, we’ll admit that this is very difficult and impossible to bring about this type of unity by our own efforts. So what’s the solution? 

This is only possible through the Gospel. Only knowing Christ and experiencing His grace can allow us to extend that outwards to each other. 

Questions for discussion:

1. In your experience in the past, what have you perceived the purpose of spiritual gifts to be? 

2. What kind of barriers can stop a church from experiencing unity and maturity in the faith? 

3. Based on today’s passage, what are some things that God is calling you to do in a church which can promote unity and maturity? 

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Philippians Sermon

The Substance of Joy filled Prayer – Philippians 1:9-11

A few weeks back, we began a series titled “Joy-filled life” as we’ve been reading through the letter to the Philippians. Paul, who is the writer of this letter, emphasizes the importance of prayer right at the start itself. It’s a fantastic thing to study about and navigate through as a church.

A couple of weeks back, we tried to answer the “HOW” question of prayer as we went through the five ingredients of joy-filled prayer. Last week we learnt about the “WHY” of Joy filled prayer – what motivates to pray with joy and today we’ll try to understand the “WHAT” of Joy filled prayer – what’s the content of joy-filled prayer – what’s the substance of Joy filled prayer. Turn with me to Philippians 1:9-11: 

9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

If you were to pray about only one thing – just one thing for a person who is dear to you – it can be a family member or a friend or a co-worker, what would you end up praying for? I want us to think about what our honest answers would be.

  • Probably better job opportunities to be provided for that person.
  • Probably some healing if that person has an illness.
  • Probably that the person gets more engaged in church ministry.
  • Probably marriage if that person is looking out to get married.

The options are many and let me say there’s nothing wrong in praying and asking for God’s wisdom and help in any of these. But if you were only given a single point to pray for – what would be of highest priority? Think about it.

Here’s what the biblical text says is the main thing: “LOVE” – Love for God!

Out of all the things that Paul could pray for the Philippian church, he prayed intensely and earnestly that they would love God. The word prayer out here means supplication (Yachana) – which means begging and sincerely asking someone to do something for them. That’s the intensity with which Paul is making this prayer. And what does he pray for?

1. Abounding Love

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment (v9)

So it’s not just love mentioned here – but abounding love – increasing love for God.

Why is that important?

Because love is what compels (Majboor) us to joyfully obey God, love drives us to radical obedience. Jesus says “If you love me, you will obey my commands” (John 14:15) God receives no glory and no honour if we obey him reluctantly and ritualistically.

Truly delighting and loving our Creator & Redeemer is what honours Him! And that’s why he prays that their love abounds more and more.

But one question here: how does our love for God abound more and more? How does it increase?  The answer is in the same verse… by knowledge and discernment

a) Knowledge: Knowledge is knowing God through His Word. Knowing God is much different from just knowing about God. For example, I can say I know a lot about the Prime Minister, but that isn’t same as knowing him personally. I can read a lot of information about the PM online but still not know him. Similarly, “knowledge” in the Bible always implies knowledge that comes through personal fellowship.

In another prayer that Paul makes to the Ephesians, he puts it in this way:

17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit[f] of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. (Eph 1:17 – NIV)

Now we may think what the connection between knowing God and loving God is? Because the more we “know God” through His Word, the more we’ll grow in our love and appreciation for Him!

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

The whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation is God’s love story for a people that were broken and lost.

When we see biblical narrative: We see God who is Holy, full of wisdom, Powerful – created the entire universe with His command – He spoke and came to be.

Out of the overflow of His joy and purpose, He created man and woman in His image. His intention for them was that they would love, obey and trust Him because He created them.

But quickly into that storyline, we see the first man and woman decide to rebel against God. They wanted to be their own God. They wanted to decide what was right and wrong for themselves.

Guess what that sounds like all of us in our thoughts and actions. And they went ahead and rebelled against God and threw themselves & all of humanity into brokenness and corruption.

From that moment on, humans were born in sin and fully saturated with sin. The immense brokenness that we experience in our hearts, actions and the world around us is a consequence of a separated life from God.

And we all stand guilty to face God’s wrath and judgment. This could’ve been the end of the story but “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved” – (Eph 2:4,5)

When we were dead in our sins and unable to respond to God. Unable to reach out to God. He reached out to us. He came after us. And He stood in our place to face the penalty and the punishment that was directed toward us.

He died for us. Buried in a tomb and three days later rose again victoriously so that if we turned away from our sins and trust in the loving sacrifice and life of our Master and Redeemer, we would be saved! We would be made free! We would be declared not guilty! Most importantly, we would know God!

We would know the One who created us. We would see the One for whom we needed to live. We have a living hope that we look forward to! And when we read and think and pray and talk and believe these truths from Scripture, it fills our heart with love for God!

While on the one hand, knowledge is Knowing God through Scripture,  

b) Discernment: Discernment is knowing God’s will for us through Scripture – What does God call me to do? What does God expect from me?  

And this also enables us to love God more. Now we might wonder how does that happen?

Many times when we think about commandments, we think about it as a task-list to be accomplished or rules that curb our freedom but what if we looked at God’s commandments as the safe paths that our Father has laid out for us to protect and provide for us?

What if we saw it as loving instructions from our Creator who knows what’s best for His creation? What if we saw it as commands that will help us understand the character of our Father better? So discernment is knowing God’s will for us! Both Knowledge and Discernment help us to abound in love for God.

But not only is the prayer for abounding love, but it also mentions:

2. Sincere love

“so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,”

When I love God by knowing who He is and Knowing His will for me, it should now lead me to approve and examine all the decisions and choices in my life.

The word approve means “scrutiny and examination”. We live in a time when reflective thinking isn’t encouraged. We keep ourselves occupied in so many things, including our phones, that it doesn’t give us any time to evaluate our choices and decisions in our lives.

Every single day we are making hundreds and millions of choices that all have implications with our hearts and responses to God’s will. To

give a few examples:

  • How should I respond to my parents?
  • What should I say in this situation or that?
  • How should I respond to my boss?
  • How must I deal with my sinful temptations?
  • Whom should I marry?
  • Which job should I take?
  • What should I watch on TV or the internet?

And these choices are not to be thought as of having any lesser spiritual value.

Let me take the job question, for example. Now when we usually think about another job – we often only think about if it’s paying more and if it’s more convenient.

But as a believer, we need to be asking some more questions to understand our heart motivation:

  • Will this job hurt or help my witness for Christ?
  • Am I finding my identity rooted in this job?
  • Am I seeking the approval of man by taking/not taking this job?

So, a lot of our decisions and choices daily have moral implications. God’s desire for us that we would examine these decisions and choices and lovingly obey Him.

But why is it that we find ourselves in many occasions and situations choosing ourselves and our sins instead of God? It’s because we love our sin more.

But, instead, in all our choices, the real question we need to ask ourselves honestly is “Do I love God more” or “Do I love this sin more?” That’s the real question we need to ask.

And as big and weighty is this question, we are hit with a more substantial question “how can someone like me in my frailty and weakness in sin be PURE and BLAMELESS on the day of Christ?”

I think the answer is found in the next verse which is why it’s not just abounding love and sincere love but it also the Exalting love.

3. Exalting love

“filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”

It’s God who takes it upon Himself to assure and establish us.

V11 says on the day of Christ believers who have fully trusted in Him will be filled with the fruit of righteousness! Now, this is not self-righteousness – it’s not talking about our good works or self-efforts or accomplishments in our flesh – those all are “filthy rags”. It’s talking about the righteousness of Christ that we receive by faith.

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Cor 5:21)

There was a great exchange that happened on that cross because of which sinners like you and me have hope by trusting in God.

We receive the righteousness of Christ! His robe…completely by His grace!

Not just Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice but we have His own Spirit that’s being placed within us that “the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4)

And also with that, we have the promise of God’s faithfulness in holding us till the end: My Father, who has given them to me,[a] is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. (John 10:29)

And what does all of this do in our hearts? When we see our Lord laying down His life for us to give us His righteousness, when we see the Spirit working in us, when we see our Father holding onto us – this love produces great hope which makes us want to repent and rely on Him. How can we run away from our God?

Therefore, like Paul, let us also pray over us and over others that, more than all the needs and necessities, that we grow in his love. His abounding love, His Sincere Love, His Exalting Love.

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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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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

What Stops us from Offering our Best to God ? – Mark – 14:1-11

Our passage for today is from Mark 14:1-11 [READ]

If we stay alert and pay close attention to our passage today, I believe it reveals some of the heart idols that prevent us from experiencing the joy of living out a fulfilling Christian life.

Context:
This event takes place two days before the Passover & the feast of unleavened bread. The chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest Jesus and kill him.

While Jesus was in a place called Bethany in the house of Simon, the leper, reclining at the table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and broke the container and poured it over Jesus’s head.

Pure nard is also known as ‘Jatamansi oil’, only found in the Himalaya mountain in India, extracted from the root of a tree, is one of the most effective essential oils for supporting a calm mind and balanced body. Jatamansi oil is one of the most important herbal medicines for dealing with grief after losing a loved one. It can also be used to anoint those who are transitioning from life to death.

The ointment the woman poured on Jesus’s head was one of the rarest and best in those days. The woman spent around 2 months of wages to purchase it, probably for a special occasion in her life, or as an investment for the future.

The same ointment is also mentioned in the Songs of Solomon 1:12 where the bride says “While the king was at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance.”

The perfume mentioned in this verse is the same ointment the woman poured on Jesus. Probably she brought and saved it to please and attract her future husband.

In today’s context, it’s almost like our saving accounts, a fixed deposit, or a gold deposit that we set apart either for a special occasion, like marriage, children’s education, children’s wedding etc.  or as security for future.

Seeing what the woman did with that expensive ointment, some of the people gathered there scolded the woman and did not appreciate it.

According to them, it was a stupid thing to do; instead, they said the ointment should have been sold and the money given to the poor.

Jesus, instead, turns to those guys and tells them to leave her alone and says something remarkable about the woman. He says “She has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”

I want us to pause here for a moment and understand why it was such a significant act for Jesus.

1.    The woman knew something that others didn’t

The woman’s act showed that she learned something about Jesus that others didn’t. She recognised who Jesus really is. Just like Simeon, the man who saw baby Jesus in the temple brought for dedication and instantly recognised him as Lord, like the Shepherds who saw Jesus in the manger and was filled with Awe.

She knew she was in the presence of her true Lord and King. The one who has come to give abundant life, a peace that passes all understanding, joy unending, life eternal. One who is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

Just like when we first heard the Gospel and heard the story of Jesus, the veils from our eyes fell and hearts responded in faith.

2.    The woman responded in Worship.

When she recognised who Jesus was her natural response was adoration & worship.

3.    The woman offered the best Sacrifice

Like Abel who brought the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions to offer at the altar of God, she brought the best she had.

I could imagine this woman when she heard Jesus was in the town. She must have run into her home, looking around and thinking what the best gift she has in her house that she can offer to her Lord and Savior. And her eye fell on the Alabaster flask of pure nard that she had saved for her future. And immediately without a second thought, grabs the flask and runs towards Jesus.

The price didn’t matter to her, the people didn’t matter to her, the occasion didn’t matter to her, the place didn’t matter, her dignity didn’t matter.

All that mattered was the Jesus.

4.    The woman expressed Passionate Love.

She didn’t do it just to merely impress Jesus or show off to the people how wealthy she is. She didn’t do it because she wanted her name printed on the wall saying “Donated by Miss”.

She did it purely out of passionate love for Christ.

It was clearly seen through her act of worship.

5.    The woman Empathized with Jesus.

Imagine, Jesus as he was reclining on the table, he is dealing with the pain and agony his body is going to suffer. He could feel the weight of the sins of the whole World upon him. He is dealing with the pain of separation from this Father.

We could see a glimpse of his pain in the garden of Gethsamani when he is crying out to his Father saying “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”

And there as he is dealing with all this in his mind, this woman breaks the alabaster flask with pure nard. The ointment that is meant to ease the grief of a suffering man who is transitioning from life to death.

They say the texture & aroma of the ointment is so strong that it sticks to the hair and keeps throwing out the fragrance for almost a week. Probably, when Jesus was taking all the painful lashes, beatings and piercing, he might have smelled the aroma of the ointment that woman poured on his head.

All these reasons make the moment very significant, and only Jesus could understand it.

Immediately after this event, we read about a person who is exactly opposite to the woman. He goes to the chief priests to betray Jesus for the sake of money, for his own selfish gain.

He failed to recognise Jesus as his true saviour and master. Instead, he was so corrupt in his mind that he sold himself to the high priests.

Now, as a Christian, we are called to be like the woman in faith, in action, in thought.

James 4:8 says “Draw near to God as He will draw near to you, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Romans 12:1 Paul writes “I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God–this is your true and proper worship.”

2 Timothy 2:8 says “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to the gospel”

And, even though we ought to live in this manner, we still fail to give our best to Jesus in our practical lives. I believe one of the reasons why we fail to experience the joy of living out a fulfilling Christian life is because we fail to offer our best to God like the woman with alabaster oil.

– It doesn’t mean that if we don’t offer our best God will not love us.
– We don’t do it to win his favour and approval.
– God has already approved us in his son Jesus, the day we repented of our sins and put our faith in Him.

But consider the words of James 2:14-17

What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Matthew 25:35-36 & 40
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

Whatever you do for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

Hebrews 13:15-16
Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

Sadly, we all fail to do this in some measure or the other.

As an application point, I want to share from our passage what are the reasons some of us fail to offer our best to God.

I believe the three characters represented in this passage reveal three reasons why some of us fail to offer our best to God.

Woman

The first reason we fail to offer our best to Jesus is when we fail to see our sinful state, especially our ungodly attachments with the world and the things of this world.

When we look at the woman, the first thing that stands out is that she didn’t care about the value of the ointment, she apparently comes out as a person who has no attachments to the things of the world and second, she was desperate to be with Jesus.

Let me highlight some ways in which we attach ourselves to the things of this world that stops us from offering our best to God?

–    Our attachment with money & possessions – “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”
–    Our attachment with ungodly people – “Are we unequally yoked with unbelivers & ungodly people”
–    Our attachment with habitual / unrepented sins.
–    Our attachment with fame and prosperous lifestyle.
–    Our attachment to self.

Romans 12:2 – We ought not to be confirmed to the patterns of the world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind. – Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.

The People

The second reason some of us fail to offer our best to Jesus is like the people who scolded the woman and was unable to see and understand what was going to happen to Jesus in a couple of days, we also fail to see what Christ has accomplished for us by His death on the cross.

The people failed to understand Jesus even though he told time and again that he will be handed over to the chief priests and will be killed. They expected that Jesus will defeat the Romans, establish his Kingdom & become their King. But what Jesus was about to accomplish through his death on the cross was far greater that what they imagined

The second reason we fail to offer our best to Jesus is because we fail to value and understand what it means to be forgiven of our sins and what it means to be adopted in the family of God for eternity.

And that is why we keep reminding ourselves daily the Gospel.

Judas Iscariot

The third reason some of you fail to offer your best to Jesus is because, like Judas you have stooped so low that for your selfish gains you have sold yourselves to the devil.

The reason you come to church and fellowship with people is to betray Christ and betray his people. You have become wolves in sheep’s clothing in the hands of the devil, to turn away the minds and hearts of the people, from God.

The purpose of your lives has become to cheat and destroys one another for your own selfish purpose of gaining wealth & possession.

We have become deceivers and lairs.

To those who are in this position, I want to warn and encourage you that it is still not late for you to turn back, repent of your wrongdoings to God and his people.

Don’t end up like Judas who couldn’t gather the courage to come back to Jesus and ask for forgiveness. I’m 100% sure that Jesus would have invited him with open arms.

Finally, as I end, I hope this passage has convicted your hearts just as it has convicted mine.

Our response shouldn’t be to hide our faces and run away from God and his people, rather it should be to go to God in repentance and faith, and confess our sins to one another so that we are restored back to God.

Let’s pray.

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Mark Sermon

The Return of the King – Mark 13:28-37

Good morning church! We are currently in Mark 13.
Let’s get right into the text that we’re going to look at this morning Mark 13:28-37
[Read]

 “I’m here only…just wait up for me”. How many of us have ever said that to our parent when we were getting back home late? Even when we said this, we were probably aware that it would take us a minimum of 1 hour to get back. But things change remarkably when Christ says the same words to us : “I am near” and “Stay awake”. Automatically we can feel the weight of those words.

It’s meaning is much more pointed because as Christians – the return of our Savior and Lord is the basis of our faith. If we remove Christ’s second coming from our gospel, our gospel will not stand. There is no good news without the reality of Christ coming to take us to our true home. It’s what our lives are banking on! Therefore, I would invite you into a study of those two phrases: “Jesus is near” and “Stay awake” because not only our future is dependent on this but it radically changes the way we live in the present.

Jesus is Near (v28-31)

Yes, what we’ve read so far haven’t been the most pleasant of experiences. We read about false Christs coming to lead people astray, we read about massive calamities and wars causing severe destruction and intense persecution from powerful people, religious people and sometimes our own family. On top of that we heard about the “abomination of desolation” last week. If we all wrote down our new year’s resolution, I’m pretty sure nobody had these things written down as things to do in the year. But what today’s passage is telling us is that when all these events take place, it actually serves as an indicator or like bright neon lights telling us believers that our Lord is here only. He is near. He is at the gate.

Because as believers that is our hope…that:

  • One day everything in us and in creation that is sinful & broken will be restored and repaired (Rom 8:18-25)
  • One day all wickedness will be judged & Justice will prevail (Acts 17:30-31)
  • One day all the “righteous in Christ” will receive a new body and a new home with Christ forever. (1 Thess 4:16-18)

Therefore, these events are not meant to discourage us or leave us hopeless. These events as painful and hard as they may be will actually indicate to us that Christ is very near. And that’s going to fill our hearts with more longing and more expectation.

But someone might ask, “how do I actually know if these things will happen on not?” Let’s look at v30 & 31.

Now v30 is one of those difficult to understand verses because what does Jesus mean by “this generation”? There are multiple interpretations to this verse but my understanding of “this generation” refers to all disciples or followers of Jesus till he returns back again. Just like “last days” in NT was inaugurated by Jesus’ first coming. But what Jesus was emphasizing on was v31 where he says “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”

  • Jesus’ words are eternal – Everything else in all of creation can/will be replaced except for Christ’s words which reflects his character which is without falsehood. Jesus is God who does not lie. Jesus does is not like us where we at different points say “I take back my words” or where we change our decisions on different things. He is unchanging – He and His words remain the same yesterday, today and forevermore.
  • Jesus’ word is authoritative –All of us have an understanding of authority at least at some level. If we’re having issues with someone in our family and no matter how much we try if it’s not getting resolved, what do we usually do? We end up going to someone senior in the family who we see as an authority. Why? Because we know that this authority has the influence to make things works exactly how he/wants it. When Jesus says “heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away”, he was not making a suggestion or being hopeful about what would take place. He is the Sovereign Lord who knows everything and controls the start, the middle and the end of everything according to His marvelous purposes. When Jesus says something, it happens exactly the way He says it will happen!  

There’s a reason why in the Bible and in the New Testament, believers were constantly…again and again reminded about the coming of our Savior. Let’s look at one such passage from 1 Thess 4:16-18

It’s not to give them some kind of false hope or some type of optimism. They were reminded about this truth so that they would be encouraged during their severe trials and tests. I think that’s what some of us today need to hear. Some of us are experiencing suffering because of our faith in our families – Hang in there. I want you know that Christ is nearer than you think. Some of us are experiencing some really difficult circumstances where all you are thinking is “how long Lord…how long?” – Hang in there. Christ is nearer than you think. Some of us we are probably wondering how long will the fight with sin continue? When will we be finally freed of the presence of sin? Hang in there. Christ is nearer than you think.

But someone might say “but none of these things have fully taken place, so there is sometime before Christ comes. So let me relax until then”. Guess how Jesus addresses that question?

Stay Awake

The main point of this story is that Christ is going to come suddenly when you least expect. I feel the impact of this point has made a lot more sense through my current job. My boss operates out of the US most of the year. He makes 2-3 trips a year and whenever he does come down, he tries to be a little secretive about the dates so people at the office are constantly guessing to figure when that is.

He never mentions why he does that but it’s probably to see if people are working when he’s away as well. Now this doesn’t usually bother me because I share a good rapport with my boss but I kept thinking in the lines of today’s passage…why would a servant be sleeping when the master gets back? Why wouldn’t he be awake instead doing what the master told him to do? I’m saying these things in the context of the story that Jesus illustrated. And I wrote down three reasons that come to mind:

  • Honor: If the servant truly honors and respects his master, then he would want to faithfully steward his responsibilities. However, if the servant dishonors his master and considers him to be not important, then that would make him to be lazy and irresponsible at work.
  • Love: If the servant loved his master and had a relationship with him, then he would eagerly wait for him. Not only would he work hard and take care of the house well, but he would long to meet his master again. He longs to spend time with him once he is back. However, if the servant didn’t love his master, he wouldn’t really look forward to meeting his master. He probably would’ve hoped that his master didn’t return in that case.
  • Gratitude: If the servant was grateful for the opportunity and the responsibility given to him, he would fulfill his responsibilities with joy. However, if the servant wasn’t grateful for the opportunity then he would take it for granted and sleep in instead of staying awake and working.

If you noticed, we didn’t start from behavior changes – “Christ is coming soon, so you need to do this and that and this.” We started from the attitudes of the heart. Why? Because out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. (Luke 6:45) If we don’t honor Jesus, don’t love Jesus and aren’t grateful for what Jesus has done for us….we obviously aren’t going to look forward to Him coming back. We won’t be living a life looking forward to Him coming back.  

A few days before Angie and I got married, we decided to challenge each other with this question…if Jesus came back before we got married, would we feel like we missed out on something? At first it seemed like a funny question to ask a couple that was just going to get married, but then it challenged and convicted our hearts to see if we really honored, loved and were grateful to Jesus more than anyone else…more than each other.  

  • Similarly we should ask ourselves this question, we when look at our conversations with the world – do we see them reflecting our love, honor and gratitude toward Jesus?
  • Do our private moments reflect the love, honor and gratitude toward Jesus?
  • Some of us are married and so the question is…is our married life reflecting the love we have for Jesus, honor for him and gratefulness for all that he has done for us?
  • Many of us are single preparing to get married…are our choices of a spouse reflecting the love, honor and gratitude we have toward Jesus? And all of this can be applied in so many other aspects of life.

A person can maybe alter his behavior but how does a person change his love? How does a person suddenly honor someone? How is a person’s heart filled with gratitude for someone? It can’t be manufactured, right? Honor begins when we realize who the other person is and who we are in response to that person. When we see Jesus Christ as revealed in the Bible – Glorious, Pre-existent, Powerful in creating everything that is created – visible and invisible, Holy, Wise, Omnipresent.

On the other hand, we see ourselves as created beings who are weak and marred with sin. Oh it’s humbling. Like Isaiah says “Woe to me…I am lost. I am a man of unclean lips dwelling among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts”. What about love? We can only understand love and respond to love because Christ loved us first. We are weak and extremely sinful but the Bible tells us while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He took our penalty, our punishment, the anger directed toward us was poured out on Jesus. He willingly sacrificed His life for us.

On the third day He rose again victoriously defeating Satan, sin and death so that we can also benefit from this victory – we can also experience the blessing of being set free from Satan, sin and death. This leads us to immense gratitude where we first surrender ourselves to Jesus – no more our way but His way forever. And also immense joy and happiness because we realize what has been done for us by Christ. If we’ve seen something else or someone else competing with Christ, let’s repent of that and trust in the finished and full work of Christ on the cross. Jesus is near and He tells us to Stay Awake. Let’s not turn away.

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Mark Sermon

Love is the Commandment – Mark 12:28-34

Good Morning!

Let’s turn and read our passage from Mark 12:28-34.

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If you’re tracking with us as we’ve been preaching through the Gospel of Mark, you will remember that we are in that part of the story where Jesus is in Jerusalem, the very place where He will be hanged on the cross for the sake of OUR SINS.

If you are new here, you must be wondering how Jesus was supposed to be hanged on the cross more than 2000 years ago for OUR SIN? So let me clarify that and give you the context before I move ahead into this passage.

The story goes like this – When God created the heaven, earth, animals, birds, fishes and trees he also created us and unlike other animals and birds he created us uniquely. The Bible tells us that God created us in his image and likeness, and he gave us a free will so that we willingly offer ourselves to him and enjoy the relationship.

But there was one condition,and the condition was that we live under his authority and his dominion because he made us he had all the right to demand that from us. But instead of living in a loving relationship with God, the first man and women, Adam and Eve,disobeyed God’s Holy laws and failed to live under His authority. They Sinned,and their relationship with God was broken.

Since then everyone born on this earth is born sinful, no one teaches us to cheat, bite, lie and rebel, we are born with those qualities. Why? Because we are born sinful.

The reason our world is corrupt is because we are corrupt. We live in brokenness because our relationship with our creator God is broken and no matter how hard man tries to please God, he never succeeds.

But the Bible tells us that God so loved us that he sent his Son Jesus to live an obedient life and SINLESS life on our behalf, take all the penalty of our Sin on himself and die a terrible death on our behalf so that we can be forgiven, and our relationship with God can be restored back by doing two things – Repenting and Believing in his son Jesus.

Jesus died and was buried for three days, after which he rose again from the dead, defeated sin and death and giving us an abundant life. A life full of joy, peace and satisfaction.

The passage we are looking at today are the last days of Jesus on the earth. His mission on earth is almost coming to an end, and very soon he will be handed over to the Roman authorities to be punished, tortured and killed. 

He was not punished because of any crime he did, but because he claimed to be the Son of God and he spoke against the hypocrisy of the so-called religious leaders, which they did not like it.

As Jesus is about to depart the Earth, instead of a send-off party, the end days of his time on earth seems to be filled with more conflicts and unpleasant confrontations with the religious folks who should have understood him and his words better than others. Pharisees, Sadducees and the Scribes who were considered to be scholars of scriptures. They should have known the numerous prophecies in the scriptures that indicated the coming of the Son of God and his death.

But as Jinson pointed outlast Sunday these men knew the Scriptures very well but failed to understand God – They failed to receive the Truth of God and failed to believe in the Power of God. But the greatest loss I think was that they failed to enjoy the moment of standing right before the Son the God, the only one who had the power to redeem their souls from eternal death, they missed the opportunity of worshiping their saviour face to face.

In today’s passage, a teacher of the law asks Jesus a question to test him.       
“Which commandment is the most important of all?” he asked.

And Jesus replies “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

I like how Jesus uses every opportunity to give them and us a glimpse of His Kingdom, and in doing so, he also informs us how as children we need to conduct our lives on this earth that reflects His Kingdom.

Once we’re joined back into a loving relationship with God when we repent of our sins and believe in his son Jesus, he calls us to live a Kingdom-minded life.

And it firstly begins by loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. And secondly by loving our neighbour as ourselves.

Love is the greatest commandment of all.

In man-made religions, people are called to offer sacrifices and do good works so they can please their earthly god. Have you noticed that none of the religions in this world approaches or refers their god with a loving relationship?

In all other religion, God is portrayed as someone who is sitting at the top of the mountain, and people are asked to find their way to reach him. – Which is absolutely impossible, because no matter how hard we try, forsake family and the world, live alone in the forest, we will never be able to reach God.

It is only the Bible that tells us that God came down for us in the form of a human and lived among us so that we can know him, relate with him and eventually love him.

After all that he has done for us, our true and living God desires that we love Him with everything we have.

To love with all our heart means to love from within, from the bottom of our heart. Not a superficial love but a real and genuine Love. 

To love with all our soul means to love with our whole being, our words, our actions, our act of worship.

To love with all our strength means to love him with all that we possess.

But why is loving God important?

1. Because when we love God we enjoy His sustaining favor

Deut 7:9 – Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,

Even though we are forgiven,loved and bound together in a relationship with God we still continue to live in our mortal bodies. There will be a battle within us all the time to sin and give ourselves to our fleshly desires. The Bible calls it a spiritual warfare.

Here’s how Apostle Paul describes it in Romans 7:18-25

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right,but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

At work, the office, in our neighbourhood, through phone, through television – we are constantly bombarded with lustful thoughts and our flesh always pushing us into that direction all the time.

The only way we can fight these thoughts, desires, habits is by constantly loving God with all our heart,mind, soul and strength, by doing that he pours out his sustaining grace and favour to protect our hearts from giving into fleshly desires.

2. The second reason why loving God is important is because when we love him we enjoy His goodness.

Romans 8:28 – And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

The Christian walk is not an easy one. Following Jesus will call for many troubles in our lives. Suffering will be a constant companion in our lives. It may come to you in the form of persecution from our family and friends, or it may come to you in the form of sickness and other health issues.

Matt 10:22 – You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

Matt 5:11-12 – Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

When we go through sufferings for the sake of Christ the only thing that will give us relief is His goodness cover our lives. And we enjoy his Goodness only when we love him with all our heart, sound, mind & strength.

3. When we love God the most,we love others the best

I realised that in fulling the first command which is to love God, we automatically place ourselves in a position where all the other commandments become easy.

When we experience God’s love and forgiveness, it overflows from our lives, in such a way that it reaches out to others.

If loving God is the most  important command, and if by loving God we experience his sustaining grace and favour, his goodness and a motivation to obey all other commandments. What is it that stops us from doing so?

Laziness? Pride? Time?Distractions?

Let’s humble ourselves before God and allow his Spirit to reveal the areas in our lives that stop us from loving him with all our heart, mind, soul an strength.