Surveying the Cross: A Place of New Beginnings (John 12:24-26)

Snippet of Sermon by Rev Tan-Yeo Lay Suan

Men were still stirred by this amazing miracle that had happened just over the Mount of Olives, in the little village of Bethany, and they were talking about it everywhere. Evidently these Greeks, coming up to Jerusalem, did not merely want to see him as a kind of tourist attraction; they wanted conversation with him. They wanted an interview with Jesus. Philip and Andrew made a quick decision and brought their request to Jesus. When they reported the request of these Greeks, the Lord replies to them very strangely.

And Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified." (John 12:23 RSV)

This reply must have startled Philip and Andrew. For 3-1/2 years while they had been with Jesus they had heard him say over and over, "My hour has not yet come." You have the first account of it in the first miracle Jesus did, when his mother came to him and asked him to do something about the wine for the wedding feast. Jesus said to her, "Woman, what have I to do with you? My hour has not yet come," John 2:4). He did not mean by that that he would not do anything for her, because he did. He went on to change the water into wine. But he meant by it that it would not result in anything significant. There would be no display of his glory through it. No one would understand who he was, no one could see him for what he was, because of that miracle. And so it proved to be true.

Then in the seventh chapter of his Gospel, John tells us that Jesus told his brothers to go on up to the feast at Jerusalem but that he was not going up because "my hour has not yet come" John 7:6).And, in the eighth chapter, as he is speaking in Jerusalem and already the opposition against him is beginning to form, John says, "No man laid hands on him to arrest him, because his hour had not yet come," (John 8:20).Yet now, when a handful of strangers come and the report is carried to Jesus that a certain group of Greeks want to see him, suddenly, to his disciples' amazement, he seems greatly moved with emotion and says, "Now my hour has come. The time has come for me to be glorified." This first sentence excited their hearts. This event seems to be to Jesus like a great clock striking the hour, a momentous moment of his life when all that he had lived for shall now find its fulfillment.

SERMON PROPER

Here when the Gentiles and crowds press down on him, Jesus shared his hour had come to be glorified by God. Jesus came to the Jews then and to us today with a new view of life. God is going to give him more glory than he already has. But Jesus didn't mean the kind of glory they thought He meant. The Jews of Jesus’ day and most of mankind today look on glory as conquest, the acquisition of power, the right to rule. But every succeeding sentence after that, made them stagger. Jesus looked on glory as a cross. Using the analogy of the seed being planted in the soil, Jesus was speaking about his own death. Those who dreamt of a conquest, had their dreams turned into visions of a cross. It didn't make sense. He says in verse 24, "Very truly I keep on telling you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains, keeps on remaining only a single seed. But if it dies , it produces and keeps on producing many seeds.”

Every basic seed or grain of wheat has a covering on the outside. As long as that covering is on the outside, that grain cannot reproduce. It cannot grow. You remember the “Grow green bean in brand essence bottle?” experiments?  When that seed is put in the ground /cotton, the rot and decay sets into that outer part and as it decays and decomposes, the life that is inside springs out and then that seed begins to grow and produce fruit. And that's exactly what Jesus says.  

When Jesus became incarnate, like a pure corn of the finest wheat, he fell to the ground, and when at his death, "He made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death," he fell into the ground: and now what an abundant harvest of glory to God, and salvation to souls, hath that death, and grave of Jesus produced! Had Jesus never died, how would he have seen his seed, and the pleasure of the Lord prosper in his hand? Had Jesus not descended to the grave, how would he have been the life-giving, the soul-quickening root of all his church and people? But now, by this one precious corn of wheat falling into the ground, and dying, how hath the store of God been filled, and is now continually filling, with his seed!

‘As long as My body is alive, the life that is in Me cannot escape. It is when I go into the grave, the death of My body releases the power of life within My person.’ If Jesus doesn't die, then He remains alone. He doesn't produce life for anybody else because His life-giving power is like a seed, it's only good if it dies. And that's why the Bible says, are you ready for this? He can only put away sin by the sacrifice of...what?...of Himself. That's the only way. That's the only way. The way of the cross

Well, you can imagine their reaction. They were waiting for a King and He was talking about dying. Isn't it a marvelous thing that He was willing to die? We're the...we're the harvest, did you know that? We who love Jesus Christ, we're the harvest of His death, we're the fruit that sprang out of that seed that died. God brought something new, a new dramatic change the Blessed harvest...blessed harvest, through his willingness to undergo the process of decay and destruction.

And the history of Christianity is just this, is one long harvest yielded by the spiritual seed that was sown on Calvary's cross and that's the way that God has ordained that Jesus could receive the insuppressible, empowered life. He did not need to die. He was no martyr to a failing cause. He himself said that he did not need to die. "No man takes my life from me," he said, "I lay it down of myself, and I take it up again of myself," (John 10:18). This new beginning is made possible by the willingness of Jesus to go to the cross.

This new beginning is the inheritance of everyone who believes in Jesus. I remembered immersing someone in the waters of baptism but the candidate would not have the waters cover all of him. It’s like I want the inheritance, the new beginning that God has procured for me on the cross, yet I will not completely die (be immersed). Jesus puts it to us plainly here, first, we must die if we are to live. What he has done will have no value for us, nothing of value can start till we have died to it. There is no spiritual life for you, for me, for any man, except by dying into it. When Semanie was in Kindergarten, her teacher was very exciting. She actually got in a box a few caterpillars and the children had the opportunity to feed it daily and watch it grow. Then came the day they turned into chrysalises. The outer layer turned darker and darker till it looked like some dried leave. Then the teacher opened one of them, the butterfly wasn’t ready… and it died without ever flying… the butterfly had to go through the entire process of dying to its life and existence as a caterpillar. Not one shred of caterpillar-ness must remain.

Some of us only have a little experience of the new beginning but it quickly disappears and revert back to the same people we were before we believed in Jesus. There appears to be little difference. Why? Because we were never resolute about not carrying any of what is previously within us. We think we have some good stuff inherent in us and we think God wouldn’t mind us keeping them. But we fail to realize that these “old things” will stifle us from allowing God’s life to re-make us. In fact if you remember, Paul, a righteous Pharisee according to their law faultless had this to say, "But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish [1) any refuse, as the excrement of animals, offscourings, rubbish, dregs a) of things worthless and detestable], that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.... 我 为 他 已 经 丢 弃 万 事 ， 看 作 粪 土 ， 为 要 得 着 基 督" Philippians 3:7-10. The Chinese translation of this word “rubbish” is nearer what it is supposed to mean. 粪土 Paul was saying that all his Jewish practices with the legal and moral laws, he considered them detestable as excrement of animals, to be discarded and gotten rid off as quickly as possible.

Reflection Questions:

1. Have you a fine-spun righteousness of your own? It must die. Have you any faith in yourself?
2. It must die. Count EVERYTHING as loss, EVERYTHING. The morality/goodness you felt inherent in you, put that away. It will keep you from desiring what the Spirit will work in you because it is easy to fall back on the familiar [the old nua nua T-shirts that Pastor Helen spoke about a few weeks ago]. 2. Does your Christian life lack vibrancy? 要死不死的样子。The newness is not there. “I ‘m still the same person before I believe in Jesus Christ.” God wants to make you alive with His transforming power.

He wants to make NEW everything in you. God has something infinitely more desirable than all that we can ask or imagine…  a life filled with His goodness… where the beatitudes will not sound hollow but be the norm that we will exhibit…

Next, we must surrender everything to keep it. " Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Those who love their lives dearly and has always lived that way, Jesus says, “Brother, you can never have spiritual life, hope, joy, peace, heaven, except by giving everything up into God's hands.”

Many of us spend our entire lives trying to figure out who and what we are. We spend so much time trying to live life OUR WAY, and in the end WE ARE NEVER EVER SATISFIED!!!  . We worry decades of our life away trying to hold on to this temporal existence, letting true life pass us by because we are too terribly consumed with OUR LIVES, to actually LIVE A LIFE WORTH LIVING!!! But Jesus Christ calls each of us not to Our life, but He calls us to be part of His life!!! 

John 10 v 10B “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

Matthew 16 v 25 “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.”

We fail to realize that our lives by themselves do not carry eternal value. That is why when it is stripped of all that is valuable to us, the worth of our lives hits rock bottom.  Many successful persons reach their old age and find no reason to live after retirement. Jesus speaks with warning: "Suppose a person lives for safety and security and for self; suppose WE gain the whole world; then suppose that WE find that life is not worth living, what can WE give to get life back again?" And the grim truth is that WE cannot get life back again (no take 2, ng in acting). In every decision of life WE are doing something to OURSELVES; we are making OURSELVES a certain kind of person; we are building up steadily and inevitably a certain kind of character; we are making OURSELVES able to do certain things and quite unable to do others. It is perfectly possible for a person to gain all the things they set their heart upon, and then to awaken one morning to find that they have missed the most important things of all. God, life, family, friends, and eternity…

Jesus said of the people who would be His disciples, "Let him deny himself." We will understand the meaning of this demand best if WE take it very simply and literally. "Let him say no to himself." If a person will follow Jesus Christ WE must ever say no to OURSELF and YES to Jesus Christ. WE must say NO to OUR OWN natural LOVE of ease and comfort, and personal self-satisfaction. WE must say NO to every course of action based on self-seeking and self-will and self-desire. WE must say NO to the instincts and the desires which prompt US to touch and taste and handle the forbidden things. WE must unhesitatingly say YES to the voice and the command of Jesus Christ.

Jesus invites us to begin to taste the life that he is giving to us. The eternal life. Our lives begin to become more and more priceless as it is joined to Christ. The value is not in its being an extraordinary long life. John shares with us about this eternal life 17:3 “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” It is rather a life of discovering and knowing God, understanding how our lives are purposeful as the Lord allows his power, his life to flow through us. And this new experience known as eternal life holds value and grows in value into eternity.

Reflection Question

Have you experienced this eternal life as a Christian all these years? This assurance and certainty that your life is fulfilling, priceless because of what the Lord has been doing in you? Are your hoarding your life? Reserving all for yourself?

Not once or twice but many times Jesus insisted that the man who hoarded his life must in the end lose it. , and the man who spent his life must in the end gain it. William Barclay made this observation, “No doubt we will exist longer if we take things easily, if we avoid all strain, if we sit at the fire and husband life, if we look after ourselves as a hypochondriac looks after his health. No doubt we will exist longer--but we will never live.” We will not truly lived to experience the radical joy, peace and freedom that comes from risking our lives for the sake of Christ.  What are some of these loves of ours that we are too engrossed and consumed with that we do not have any room left to enter into life eternal? Matthew chapter 10 records for us a powerful, powerful statement of Jesus. Verse 37, "Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me…” Did you get that? "… anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” ³⁸Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it. He that loseth his life for My sake shall find it."

You shall have everything in Christ when you are willing to have nothing of your own. A

full surrender of everything to God is the only way to keep it. Some of God's people find this literally true. I have known a mother keep back her child from God, and the child has died. Wealthy people have worshipped their wealth, and as they were God's people, he has broken their idols into shivers. You must love your all if you would keep it, and renounce your most precious thing if you would have it preserved to you. Living to serve self, living to get only what YOU want out of life, in the end only brings bitterness and eternal despair…But He who lives for God WILL GAIN ABUNDANTLY AND POSSESS ETERNAL LIFE!!!!!!!

This principle leads to verse 26. "If any man serves Me, let him follow Me. Whoever serves me must follow {habitually follow this command or call} me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me."

The Lord Jesus sets a criterion for those who would serve him. With his triumphant entry into Jerusalem, many people are excited to join his cause. They are thinking of the honors they will receive being in the service of the King-to-be candidate.  But Jesus plainly says that they must meet the criterion that he sets which is to follow him. To follow him in what sense you might ask? To follow him means to imitate him in what he does. And in this context, it means to follow him into death. If it's persecution, that's what it is.

With this statement, Jesus separated the crowd from the true disciples. We are not unlike the many people who crowded around Jesus for a place in his “cabinet”… and I must say that some of us have served Jesus without following him. Some serve:

·         Motivation: For earthly honors, to be seen by others how hard it is we’ve been serving, to impress people we want to know. We enjoy the ministry for our own sakes, not for Christ’s.  We may even enjoy ministry for it’s own sake. We like it for ourselves.

·         Means and methods: with earthly methods that go against everything that Jesus stands for…

and yet at the back of our minds, we want to end up

·         where Jesus would be i.e. exalted at the right hand of God.

·         Receiving honor from the Lord.

In Matt 7:22-23 “²² Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ”  It is in dying, when we are not afraid or sorry that we’re being poured out daily for the Lord that is to follow after Christ. Like Paul in Phil 2:17, “17 But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you.”  My brothers and sisters, let us not shrink from the exertion that would see us “buried, hidden and even dying” yet bearing fruit to the glory of the Lord. Let us raise the condition/degree of our consecration that we may be found more worthy of our Lord and of his glorious cause.

CONCLUSION

This simple parable talks about consequences, the consequences of trying to protect our lives is the loss of our lives. The consequence of spending our lives for God and His Kingdom is eternal life.

Picture in your minds the white thing thrusting up out of the earth into the sunlight and turns green, and becomes a blade. Then it grows into a long stem, and begins to form a head with new kernels of wheat, each like the original and yet each one different; no duplications, and yet the reproduction of one life. At last that grain of wheat finds itself fully developed, becoming what God intended it to be, because it consented to the process of dying.

Reflection Question:

• 1. Are  your living a shallow, mediocre, indeterminate Christian lives because you  have not yet discovered this divine Lordship at work?
• 2. What aspect in your dying are you afraid of? During this week of the Lent season, consider starting anew:

1.      We want to be resolute about one of our “old familiar things” that stifle us from allowing God’s life to re-make us.

2.      Identify one love of ours that we keep us too engrossed and consumed with that we do not have any room left to enter into life eternal and renounce it? Have you experienced this eternal life as a Christian all these years? This assurance and certainty that your life is fulfilling, priceless because of what the Lord has been doing in you.

3.      Following Jesus’ all the way to that great humbling experience to serve the Lord.

Surveying the Cross; A Place of Fear (1 Cor 1:18-25)

Snippet of Sermon by Nathaniel Goh

During the provocative passage in her concert in 1996, Madonna was shown on a mirrored cross wearing a crown of thorns. She has explained that it was meant to illustrate a theme of confession. Then Madonna pleaded with audience to see the world as a unified world. publicity stunt.

We need to care about what we see at the cross and what it should mean to Christians today. What does it mean for you today?

Crucifixion is for state criminals meant for the lower classes. It was to be so harsh so as to be a deterrent. The public display sought to utterly humiliate the victim who would be left to feed the birds. With grim humiliation, ignobility, abject shame, deepest pain,  suffering and torture, the family would have to bear the emotional anguish of watching the entire execution. The cross is representative of what one could fear in life. Paul says that the message of the cross is a stumbling block to the Jews. Foolishness: madness and insanity. There are other religions that believe in dying gods, e.g. Egyptian God but they are mostly free from the shame of the cross.

Deeply perplexing, the Gnostics, could not fathom how could the designer of of the Cosmos could subject his people to the madness of the cross. So they would prefer to think of it as but an appearance only. In Deut 21:23 to be hung is to be under God's curse. The Apostle Paul started out persecuting believers because he could not accept the cursed one as the Messiah. Greeksthink it is sheer insanity to believe in a savior on the cross because it is for the weak and vulnerable. In Mark 8:24, Rev Wilfred Ho shared that we who come and follow Jesus have all custom made crosses to carry: to symbolize the cross of being alone, the cross is your anger with yourself, boss, government, with your lot in life. It could be a cross of despair, of cancer, of family members having delivered a still born. It is not uncommon for us to question the power and existence of God.

In the midst of it all, you hear comments, what good is God and Jesus? The Apostle Paul understood the dilemma and contradition: He could not separate Jesus from his death. Surely the cross must have the last word or else God is dead. Here is his confidence from God that in Christ, He has redeemed the weakness of this world. That same power that oppressed others have been subverted. The Corinthian church was looking for a way to water down the humility of the cross and the crucified Christ... Are we any different today? We claim Jesus as Lord but sometimes our lives show that the cross is useless, we rather put our trust in other things and persons. To counter our fear, anger, abuse from our subordinate, we need to encounter the cross, this place of fear and allow it to be transformed by a fact: the damnable cross is transformed into an object that absorbed all the pain and Jesus became a curse for our sakes. He forgave us all our sins, canceled it away by nailing it t the cross, he made a public spectacle of them. The cross became the place of victorious freedom rather than fear. It is difficult to carry the cross for crosses remind us that life will pose difficult questions at us. It could be a deliitating sickness, real crosses, pain and fears, but our solidarity in the cross will bear fruit in Christ.

The God who Hung on the Cross Story gospel came to Cambodia 1999: most villages were steeped in  Buddhism and spiritism. But in one small village they warmly received the gospel for they have been waiting for him for 20 years.

"For 20 years, the inhabitants of a Cambodian village worshipped 'The God who hung on a cross' - without knowing Jesus," reports pastor David Em. The village in Khampong Thom province was controlled by the Khmer Rouge, but the people have since readily accepted the gospel, almost as though they had been waiting for it. An old woman told Em that God protected the people from being massacred with 1.7 million others in the 1970's. They were forced to dig their own graves while soldiers prepared to execute them. Desperate, they called on all the gods which came to mind to help them. Some prayed to Buddha, some to other gods, and the old woman prayed to 'the God who hung on a cross'. As they cowered on the ground, waiting for the shots, they saw a vision of the cross, then heard a voice telling them that they would be saved: 'None but I can save you,' it said. When they opened their eyes, the soldiers had vanished. Since that time, they have prayed to the God who rescued them, but they knew nothing about Christ until Em preached to them. "They now know Jesus by name and have started a church. The old woman is so happy; she had waited for this day for 20 years."

We are not called to suffer in silence, to distract ourselves from fear, we are asked to look to Jesus the one who faced shame and death and came through victorious. If we cling to the oldrugged  cross, circumstances will not improve right away. In those times remember Jesus who hung on the cross. We may still feel alone at times, things may not have changed dramatically, but bear in mind that it was a place of real fear but for all who will trust in Him, He will exchange your cross for a crown.

Reflection Questions:
1. Name your fears in the presence of God. Surrender them one by one.
2. Let the words, "None but I can save you", be your meditation as your go through the roughest time of your life.

The Church & I: Conclusion (Eph 3: 14-21)

Snippet of Sermon by Rev Tan-Yeo Lay Suan

SERMON PROPER

John Stott summarized Paul's letter to the young church at Ephesus like this, “It portrays a new society of Christ's making that stands out in bright relief against our colourless world of oppression, heartache, separation and division. Paul's letter, with its exultant vision of a renewed human community.” 

FROM SELF TO COMMUNITY

I remembered that in the early years of my Christian life, I was very much aware only of myself and that I have become a Christian, How did I know? Well, my participation in worship, obedience and ministry had taken on a more serious note. Yet, on hindsight, I would say that my Christian life then was centered around myself. It looked to me that I was living for the transcendent glories of the kingdom of God when in fact I was but living for myself. Daily I was bowing before the throne of self, driven by anxiety-bound needs. A self-preoccupied Christian life: How God would meet MY needs… how God would show ME his will… how God would save me from MY difficulties and MY fears… It was all in earnest but that wasn’t what God had intended when he received me into his Kingdom.

Paul reminds us, “Be aware of our tendency to start our thinking with ourselves, our experience of God.” That’s exactly what happened to the Jews. Because they begin thinking with themselves, their vision about their role in God’s world became narrowed. Their vision was not large enough or broad enough to handle all the facts about God’s covenant with them. Consequently, they get twisted and deformed ideas about themselves and cling on only to a partial view of the truth. 

What is the truth? In the verses that follow, we are going to list down those blessings that have become ours because of what God has done in Jesus Christ. Notice that:

·         …he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. (Ephesians 1:4 RSV) We need to go back before the beginning of time, before the foundation of the universe, God had been at work.

·         He destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. (Ephesians 1:5-6 RSV)

PRIOR to our coming to receive Jesus, God had a plan all rolled out, to bring Gentiles into his family. In the past, only Jews were members of his family. He had a plan to adopt us as his sons through Jesus Christ, which we may become members of his family, partakers of his nature.

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace which he lavishes upon us. (Ephesians 1:7-8 RSV)

We were adopted through the redemptive price of the life of Jesus Christ. The barrier of our sin and guilt had been removed, utterly taken away…

For he has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. (Ephesians 1:9-10 RSV)

God has also taken us into his secret council and unfolded to us what he has planned to do, what he is going to accomplish in the future: to gather all things, those in heaven and on earth, together.

In him, according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will, we who first hoped in Christ have been destined and appointed to live for the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:11-12 RSV)

We have come into this state of blessedness, having been appointed to live for the praise of his glory. This appointment does not begin only when we go to heaven. In fact Paul says that we are involved with the “heavenlies” right now. These heavenlies, which occur throughout this letter and in other parts of Scripture, really refer to the realm of invisible reality, of things which are true about life in the world, in the cosmos, but which we can’t see or touch right now. And yet they are very real, and they play an important part in our lives now. Therefore, if we want to endure, if we want to live above the plodding, puny circumstances of our own present experience to the greatness of what God is doing, we must give our attention to these great thoughts —

· planned before the foundation of the world,

· begun even before there was an earth,

· we were designed to reveal the greatness of God’s grace, his compassion, his tenderhearted love, his forgiving ability, his power to restore,

· all these have been made available through the one Person who in all the scope of history is able to accomplish what no other man could do, Jesus Christ himself, and

· resulting at last in the healing of all division and the breaking down of every barrier.

We all have the tendency to think of ourselves as somewhat remote from the Church. Every now and then someone will come to me and say, "The Church ought to do so-and-so." Those who believe in the truth about the church will reply, "Well, you are the Church; go to it." The fact that they are the Church seems to strike them with a degree of amazement. Someone said to me not long ago, "The Church ought to be more friendly." I said, "All right, you and I are the Church, let's be more friendly."

The Church is the people within it. Every believer is a member of the Body of Christ---the Church. We cannot forget:

1. The invisible reality is continually affected by our responses. We contribute to the state of things which are true about life in the world, in the cosmos, but which we can’t see or touch right now.
2. God’s unfolding plan, Project “Restore” involves all of us. He planned it like that so that we can grow in our understanding of His grace and mercies and incredible power.

As we mature in Christ, He needs to increase and our own agendas and plans need to decrease. We move from thinking just our personal Christian lives and experiences to thinking corporate. We begin to avail ourselves to the service of the larger community and grow to be absorbed in the successful unfolding of the plan of God in this world. An isolated Christian life is missing out on the cosmic reality that God is working out his good and perfect plan in our world. Our sense of God’s reality is compromised when we adamantly refuse participation in the body, the church.

Reflection question: Are you a part of this scheme? Are you part of this family? Have you joined the family of God through Jesus Christ our Lord?

· New Humanity: We are so aware of division within our homes, our work environment, places where people are divided into cliques and camps and nations, all against one another, with all the consequent hurt and injury and malice and hate and prejudice. God’s great movement in our lives, as individuals, and in history at large, is to heal and make whole, to bring together all things in Christ, to restore harmony once again in his universe. God is at work to remedy that. He is healing it. He has already begun. He is breaking down the barriers, removing the hate and enmity, restoring and bringing together.

The exciting thing about that, according to this letter to the Ephesians, is that it has begun already. We, the church, have felt the force of this great movement of God in breaking down barriers and healing divisions. And the more visible it is, the more the world will see God at work. That is what this letter is all about — how to allow this healing flow from the great God behind all things, through his Son Jesus Christ, to touch our individual lives and heal us of all our illness and injury.

Reflection question: Are you on the Lord’s side? You can tell whose side you are on by the effect of your life. Are you gathering, or scattering? Are you healing, or hurting? Are you bringing together, or breaking up? Pen down the names of those who’s friendship and kinship in Christ you have buried, those whose friendships you have placed on hold, frozen in time because you’ve experienced something negative? Do you believe that God is an expert in reconciliation? Would you be willing to put yourself out on a limb to initiate friendship or rekindle a broken one?

Remember what Jesus said: “All those who are with me gather, and all those who are against me scatter,” (Matthew 12:30, Luke 11:23). We are not to think safety or self-preservation, but to stick in the community, in the thick of all that misunderstanding, all that hurt… and work towards a true reconciliation, sticking around for opportunities to know the truth about someone, to imitate Jesus’ accepting love, to forgive and start again. Self-preservation often dictates our decision to move away from Church: because my children will be or not be affected in this manner, for their preservation (and we are not talking about their Christian life and journey… but the preservation of their grades etc.), for the preservation of my marketing hours, for the preservation of my easy access to my car etc.

· New Morality: The life of members must be ONE with Christ, distinct, different, whole, belonging to God and, therefore, living differently. Holy is the description in the New Testament. They are not plaster like — so beatific, so holier-than-we, so unlike ordinary human beings. God expects us to approach and respond to our difficulties and challenges in a different way. Many of us cannot stop ourselves from quibbling with the thought of having to be with others in the church in order to grow in this new morality. Why? The church is imperfect and it may be better for me, for my children, to stay away from bad company, from all these insincere hypocrites. But surprisingly, God has assigned the Church as the primary place for imbibing God’s law and learning from brothers and sisters who obey the Lord, making decisions that at times, put them in a bad spot. In the church community, nobody has arrived… the inner moral changes take place over time as we stay in the same community…don’t run away at the first sight of someone who failed in obeying the Lord. To stay, is to trust the resurrection power of the Lord which alone makes possible the new life, new goals, new motivations… until we can will ONE will i.e. Christ’s. Old Hymn: Breathe on me Breath of God

1. Breathe on me, Breath of God, fill me with life anew, that I may love what thou dost love, and do what thou wouldst do.	2. Breathe on me, Breath of God, until my heart is pure, until with thee I will one will, to do and to endure.
3. Breathe on me, Breath of God, till I am wholly thine, till all this earthly part of me glows with thy fire divine.

· New Relationships: We submit ourselves to each other because of our identity in Christ. Our human insecurities experienced in the company of others cause us to resist being dominated by another. We press for our rights for fear that we would be short-changed. Yet, the way in which we are called to love is not the capricious, self-serving love of our time. The standard by which Christian love is shaped and energized is the self-giving love of Christ on the cross. So Paul is not talking about improving the way we tolerate these people in relationship with us. Rather he wants us to be rooted and established in love… to be filled to the measure of the fullness of God, to grasp how much we are loved by Christ, “you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” This is not going to happen in a closet but in the church.

Someone says, "Where? I don't see him. What's he doing? Where do you see Jesus Christ at work in our society today? What kind of work is he doing?" The answer is, "He is doing exactly what he did in the days of his flesh." The only difference is that he is no longer doing it through one solitary, earthly, physical body. He is doing it now through a corporate, complex body known as the church, which exists around the world and permeates and penetrates every level of society. But it is the same exact ministry -- to the same race, under the same conditions, facing the same attitudes and the same problems as when he was here in the flesh. Now he does it through a different kind of body. We need badly to understand that concept, for that is the church.

· New Empowerment: Yes, we can stand firm immovable when we allow ourselves to be immersed in the Holy Spirit. "You don't make a pickle by taking a cucumber and sprinkling a little vinegar over it. You immerse it." --Harold J. Seymour. It is God that will make us one with Christ, to imbibe his values, to desire his goodness.

Let me finish by a picture, which will show you what I mean by whole-heartedness. I have seen boys bathing in a river in the morning. One of them has just dipped his toes in the water, and he cries out, as he shivers, "Oh, it's so cold!" Another has gone in up to his ankles, and he also declares that it is fearfully chilly. But see! another runs to the bank, and takes a header. He rises all in a glow. All his blood is circulating, and he cries "Delicious! What a beautiful morning! I am all in a glow. The water is splendid!" That is the boy for enjoying a bath!

Let’s desire to move away from jsut paddling about in the shallows of religion, and just dipping our toes into it—we will stand shivering in the cold air of the world which we are afraid to leave. We must plunge into the river of life! How it would brace us! Be a Christian, out and out. Give yourself wholly to him who bought you with his blood. Plunge into the sacred flood by grace, and you will exclaim—

Oh, this is life! Oh, this is joy,
My God, to find thee so!
Thy face to see, thy voice to hear,
And all thy love to know."

May we thus walk in newness of life!

The Church & I: New Morality (Eph 4:17-5:20)

Snippet of Sermon by Rev Helen Hoe

1) Its the thoughts that count

With Verse 17, Paul turns to the Christian in relationship to an unbelieving world that we live in.

This reference to the distinction between Jews and Gentiles, it refers to anyone who is outside of Christ. Paul is saying that "You Christians must no longer live as they do in the futility of their minds." The place to start in living as a Christian is to recognize that you must think differently than the world does.

Notice that Paul does not start with actions. He is not like the Pharisees who moves in and picks on the outward. He starts with the fundamental: our thought-life, the mind.

Paul declares that the world's thinking is futile, i.e., empty. This is the vital appeal that he makes to Christians, "You must not adopt the world's philosophy of living, or follow the world's systems of value." Why? "Because people of the world lives in futility. "

The word for futility, in the original Greek, means "void of purpose or appropriateness," i.e., pointless. J.B Philips, in his modern paraphrase puts it accurately: "Do not live as the gentiles live. For they live blindfold in a world of illusion," (Ephesians 4:17b-18a J. B. Philips).

Again this relates to a truth that we find widespread throughout the Scriptures: Man is ignorant because there is a part of his being that does not function. It is his spiritual life. His spirit is blank, darkened, obscured. As a result, all his knowledge is broken, unrelated, incomplete.

In other words, you must not live like the Gentiles because you need not. In Christ, you have a different principle of living, a different way of thinking.

The Apostle Paul here uses a very helpful figure in these two phrases, "put off" and "put on." If you have a soiled garment, you put it off and put on something new. He is using that to illustrate what we must do in the realm of thought, and attitudes of life.

Also include in the putting away are "deceitful desires." It does not mean only sexual desire, although it does include that. We will get closer to the essential meaning of this word if we use the term urge. These deceitful urges are constantly coming to us as we react to various situations in which we find ourselves.

For instance there is the urge to fulfill yourself by indulging in retail therapy, that’s the urge to make yourself happy by owning things. Such an urge is deceitful, as the Word of God tells us, for man was never made to be satisfied with owning things. Yet who of us does not daily experience this kind of an urge? We flip through the pages of a magazine and see the beautiful gadgets and remarkable gimmicks, and we feel an urge, don’t we. That’s why my sister said she has stopped buying Her World already.

Each day we are faced a decision, how then should we live?

Illustration

A pastor shared a conversation he had with a church member. The church member came to his office to talk about a problem. He was a Christian man and his problem was this: He had gone into business with some other Christian men and the business, through circumstances that were not wholly his own fault, had failed and he had to go into bankruptcy. Now he was facing the urge within to accept a position that he had before the law, that is write off his debts and let his creditors suffer the loss. He was facing the urge to take advantage of that. All his friends were telling him it was the thing to do and even his wife agreed to this. But his heart was troubled. He wondered if he had the moral right, as a Christian, to do this and to ask his creditors to bear the loss. 2 of them prayed and went through the Scriptures together. It became clear that he did not have that right. The Word of God says, "Owe no man anything, but to love one another" (Romans 13:8 KJV), and "Prove things honest in the sight of all men," (Romans 12:17 KJV). As he faced that he was confronted with a definite choice -- to put off the urge to take the apparently easy way out at the price of the peace of God within the heart. As we talked, he made that choice. He said, "I see what I need to do. I will accept this obligation to pay back those men. Not one of them will lose a dime over this business. It will take me some time, but I am going to pay them back." At that his face brightened and he looked at me and said, "What a load has been lifted from my life. I know this is going to be hard to do, and even my wife is not going to accept this, but already I have a sense of peace over this whole matter, and that's worth it all."

The Christian is called to live on a different basis. The decision you made depends very much on your thought life. Paul says in 2 Cor 2:5 “we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”---- to align our thoughts to that of what God approves. When we do that, we will discover there is an adequacy from God that sustains the inner life, in the midst of the problems and pressures and demands that are made upon us.

“To put off the old and put on the new”---seems easy, like changing clothes. Not exactly…

2) So what if I like the old garments

Illustration

A newly wed couple just tossed and turned during the wedding night. Finally they made a decision. They got up to change, they took off the new silky PJs that they bought for honeymoon and changed into those old nua nua tee shirt, wow so nice & comfy. Old clothes are super comfortable. We may think its so easy, and felt bad that we are still stuck with the old ways. The reality is this:…

a) First, recognize that there will be the pull of the old life on the Christian.

An article in the ST yesterday contains an interview with David Milch, the producer of a new HBO movie “Horse Play”, a drama on horse racing.  He used to be degenerate gambler, just like the character of the show and he honestly admits that the “itch” to do it will forever haunt him.  

Similarly, that old thought pattern, old lifestyle, you may be so used to it, and even quite like it. Know that you are not abnormal or a defeated Christian. Paul mentioned in 1:13 that we are sealed with the Holy Spirit with a view to our final salvation. So take heart, as we work out our salvation, we will arrive by God’s grace.  

b) Ya I not mature lor, so?

There is a whole list of behaviors mentioned in this part of the scripture: In your anger do not sin; Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you; Among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed…

The list goes on. If we understand these behaviors or exhortations as just a set of impersonal rules that we can keep or break with no consequences other than what happen to us, then we are oblivious to the fact that there are deep personal consequences in our relation with God.

Why should our sin grieve the HS? Because we worship a relational God.  The word “grieve” is a personal and relational verb. You can only grieve a close friend or a loved one. You can’t grieve a stranger you meet on the street. You can irritate a stranger and you can offend a casual acquaintance, but you can only grieve someone very close to you.

We tend to talk a lot about interpersonal problems, as if the greatest issue in life is how we relate to other people. But verse 30 reminds us that our primary relationship is always with God. And it is possible to grieve God’s Holy Spirit. On one hand, don’t feel defeated or that you are alone, press on. On the other hand, know that when you take sin lightly, when you live as though that was a matter of indifference, it is to wound God deeply. It’s not just rules.  

3) Choose the way you walk

Besides the phrase putting off and putting on, Paul used another word in the section 5:1-20 to signify our resolution to live differently---Walk.

Paul uses the word “walk” 6 times in this section of his letter. Everyone knows that a walk consists of two steps repeated over and over again. You never take more than two steps in walking, one leg forward then the other leg. But do that again and again and you are walking. This is an apt simile for how to live the Christian life. We are to be continually putting off the old and putting on the new. That is what Christian living is all about.

Look through many commentaries, they would divide this section into 3 parts:

a)      walk in love

b)      walk in the light

c)      walk with wisdom

Afraid I do not have enough time to unpack this, You may go through some of these commentaries to see what it entails. 

How do you put off the old life? How do you walk in love, walk in the light, walk with wisdom?

1 leg forward that you can take is a step in confession. Confession is to bring it up out of the subconscious into the conscious and look at it and name it. If you don't name it, just quietly acknowledge that you are such, it has a strange power over you; it can go on forever. But if you look at it and verbalize it, you can put it away. That is why the Scriptures say, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness," (1 John 1:9).

Be filled with the holy spirit

A German pastor shared this illustration. He says that Christians are like a pond in the woods on which the leaves are constantly falling. These leaves fall one at a time, quietly, almost silently, upon the surface of the pond. The leaves are the manifestation of the old life. A little vanity, a little envy, a bit of prideful ambition, some unkindness, a sharp unlovely word spoken to another, a lie, some impurity, a bit of egotism; these are constantly falling upon the pond of our life. We don't think they are very important. We think they are trivialities, mere passing things. They sink to the bottom and are forgotten, but they are still there. That is the problem. They are still there. There they lie and rot, and soon, in the deep subconscious part of our life, there is a foulness, a rottenness that stops the flow of the water and stagnates the pool.

When a pool of water is quiet, though the bottom is very dirty and foul, it isn't very apparent. But let something agitate the water, let something bother us, some circumstance irritate us, and the water of our lives is troubled and the dirt at the bottom whirls up and clouds our minds, and confuses us, and we react in anxiety. But the Holy Spirit of God brings to our attention the things he is lifting up out of the bottom of our lives, dredging out the foulness. One by one these things are brought to our attention, and, if we name them, if we say, "Yes Lord, that is what I have done, that is what I do. Thank you for showing it to me," then we can put it away. Bit by bit it keeps coming up, all this foulness, until gradually the pool becomes clear again, sunlit, sparkling, and open. We have nothing left to hide. We don't try to cover over and pretend that we are something else. Then that pool, that pond that has been lying stagnant becomes a trickle of living water growing into a river at last that flows out in blessing to others.

Conclusion

The scripture text for this morning signifies Paul’s transition into the practical section of the letter. However in approaching this section of the letter (4:17-5:20), we must not, cannot forget the first 3 chapters, where Paul reminded us of the spiritual blessing we have in Christ, how we come alive in Him.

If we do not read this letter in totality, we end up seeing the Christian faith as a lot of rules & regulations, a lot of should’s and ought’s, but little joy.  The living and doing of the gospel is a command but it is also an invitation from the Father: You are a child of God, now take my hand and grow up as my child; You are a new person in Christ, come on, take steps of faith and blossom into that new person.

And the role of the HS is to open your eyes to hear God’s heart. The Holy Spirit is God’s empowering presence; He treats us with dignity and respects our freedom. There is no coercion or manipulation but instead God relates to us, offering us His grace.  

The result of that encounter is a life of love and deliberate intention to be and do all God requires.

Christian living cannot stem from trying to meet standards but responding to God’s grace in our obedience.

In his book “Practise Resurrection”,  Eugene Peterson mentioned Bernard of Clairvaux, a 12^th century Christian who wrote a paper called “On Loving God”.  In it, he described the 4 degrees of love.

1.      In the 1st degree, “loving one’s self for one’s own sake”; we try to handle things on our own. But life gets too complicated and throws too much at us that we do not know what to do with. So we sooner or later find ourselves out of our depth. We turn to God for help.

2.      This brings us to a 2nd degree: “Loving God for one’s sake”. We turn to God for what God can do for us. We pray, we search the scriptures. This stage can last a long time. But gradually as we get acquainted with the ways of God, our immature self-centered pre-occupation recedes and we begin to recognize and understand God as he is, not as we imagined him to be, and we are attracted to what we are finding: God’s essential goodness.

3.      We are now well on our way into the 3rd stage “the love of God for God’s sake”. We love not what we can get out of God but for who God is. It is Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus; It is Isaiah in the temple saying, ‘here am I. Send me’.

4.      The 4^th stage is now only a few steps away: “loving one’s self for God’s sake”. God’s love makes more of us, and we find our own human wholeness affirmed in the love of God.