Believers and the Church

5 November, 2025

THE NATURE OF THE CHURCH

There has been a gradual loss of the deeper sense and role of the body of Christ in recent years; there needs to be a rebuilding and re-opening of the highway to the nature and purpose of the Church.
The spiritual life was never meant to be lived alone but in a context of community with like-minded believers. Without the encouragement, support, teaching, love, exhortation, and prayers of other members of the body of Christ, we would be unable to grow in the faith and embrace values that are different from and opposed to our culture.
James, in 1:26-27,teaches us that “pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father” is not a compartmentalised, private matter. Instead, a growing vertical relationship with Christ is meant to spill over into every facet of our lives and have an effect on each one of our horizontal relationships. Christian maturity does not spring out of isolation but is nourished through involvement and edification of one another.
I feel sad to interact with many so-called believers who feel that they can do without the church, given the many ‘complaints’, dissatisfaction they encountered in the past; and they are comfortable to carry on as individual believers, not knowing that they are missing the true nature and purpose of the church of God and their place in it.

The New Testament metaphors for the church include the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27; Ephesians 5:29-30; Colossians 1:18), the bride of Christ (2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:23-32; Revelation 19:7), the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 316-17; Ephesians 219-22; 1 Peter 25, members of God’s family (Ephesians 2:19), and a people for God’s own possession (1 Peter 2:9). The church is an ‘organism’ rather than an organisation – an organisation is more tangible, measurable, and controllable than an organism. The church is spoken of as an ekklesia, an assembly, congregation, or community. The church is a spiritual family of brothers and sisters whose personal and corporate identity is rooted and grounded in the love of Christ (Ephesians 317. When the church meets together as a family, the members minister to one another through teaching, koinonia (fellowship), sharing, prayer (Acts 2:42), mutual service and encouragement Hebrews 10:23-25), exercise of spiritual gifts (Romans 12; 1 Corinthians 12-14; Ephesians 4), the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:17-30), and giving of thanks and worship (Ephesians 519-21; Colossians 3:16).

The organic image in Ephesians 4:16 of a body that is “being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part” shows that the church is a corporate reality rather than a collection of separate individuals. For the church to thrive, the cells must work together to create tissues, the tissues must function together to form organs, the organs must function together to create systems, and the systems must operate in synchrony through the directives of the brain. Just as the cells serve the body, so the body through its vascular capillary system nourishes and sustains the cells. The church is a dynamic and synergistic community in which the total is greater than the sum of its parts.
The church is a family of people whose real citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20) and whose earthly sojourn as pilgrims, strangers, and exiles (Hebrews 1113; 1 Peter 2:11) should be marked by longing for home, a nostalgia for heaven, since “the end of all things is near” (1 Peter 4:7). This familial community is called to be salt and light in the world at large. It is a community of people who are connected through their solitude with Christ and who are also connected through their suffering and through their celebration of the triune Godhead.

Unfortunately, the biblical vision of the body of Christ as a communal organism has been distorted through the centuries by the human agenda of grasping for power, control, and wealth. The disease of institutionalism has ossified the organism to the degree that the church has become identical with the buildings rather than a living body of believers. Another distortion in recent years is the proliferation of pastors whose churches are extensions of their identities and whose “edifice complexes” are driven by a quest for significance. All these led to the organism serving the organisation rather than the organisation serving the organism. When community is reduced to places, programs, and performances, corporate vitality becomes a thin veneer.
The rise of post-Enlightenment liberalism and, in recent years, the rise of postmodernism in various denominations and local churches have distorted the biblical vision for the body of Christ. When religious leaders repackage cultural agendas in spiritual language, parishioners no longer receive the milk and meat of the Word and become spiritually and morally emaciated on the husks of the world. The church should be situated in God’s narrative rather than personality or local culture.

Christians, and those in leadership, should honestly evaluate their understanding and appreciation of the nature of the church; in particular, this understanding should lead to the outworking of the church as an organism, a godly loving community, a people of God, as pilgrims travelling together to the city of their citizenship; but also a body of Christ, a holy temple, and a beacon of light to the world of darkness, functioning as salt and light, drawing those who are without, within, to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and to the grace and mercy of God in His Son.

LIFE IN THE SPIRIT

The Christian life is the life of Christ in us. Without a moment by moment reliance on the Holy Spirit, this level of living is not possible.
Sanctification is both a state and a process; when we come to Jesus, we are set apart to God by the Spirit’s application of the work of Christ in our lives. We are called to realise this state of sanctification (God’s working [Philippians 2:13]) in a progressive way by obedient conformity to the character of the indwelling Christ (our outworking [Philippians 2:12]). This is accomplished as we keep in step with the Spirit; if we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25). To be sanctified is to be controlled by God’s Spirit, to respond to his transforming purposes in obedient faith, to bear the fruit of the Spirit by abiding in Christ (Galatians 5:22-23), and to pursue the process of maturation in holiness in our relationship with God, his people, and the people of the world.

Spiritual maturity is directly proportional to Christ-centeredness. To be more preoccupied with the subjective benefits of the faith than with the person and pleasure of Christ is a mark of immaturity. The Spirit bears witness to and glorifies Jesus Christ; spiritual experiences, whether personal or corporate, should center on Christ and not ourselves. The tendency of some people and movements to glorify the gifts of the Giver more than the Giver of the gifts is incompatible with the biblical portrait of the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

However, on the other hand, many believers attempt to live the Christian life in their own power instead of the power of the Spirit. Even among diligent students of the Word there is a temptation to depend more on human initiative and effort than on the power of the indwelling Spirit of God. It is easy to reduce God to a set of biblical theological conclusions rather than a living person who cannot be boxed in, controlled, or manipulated by our agendas.
Although the church began and moved in the power of the Spirit, many in the church today are conditioned to think in terms of their experiences rather than the experiences of God’s people in Scripture. The church is not primarily a socioeconomic institution but a spiritual organism that must depend on personal and collective visitations of the Holy Spirit for its continued vitality. Unless congregations call upon the Lord persistently, their store of spiritual power will dissipate with time.

We need both the fire of the Spirit and the light of the Word, but many believers and churches have made this an either-or rather than a both-and by tending to be either Spirit-centered or Word-centered. Power without sound teaching is vulnerable to shallowness and lack of discernment; doctrine without power is vulnerable to dryness and spiritual stupor. But when power and truth, deed and word, experience and explanation, manifestation and maturity, are combined in our personal and corporate lives, the Spirit is welcomed and Christ is glorified.

When we love God with our minds and with our hearts, faith and feeling unite and reinforce each other (see 1 Peter 1:8-9). The coldness and brutality of truth without love and the sentimentality and sloppiness of love without truth fall short of Paul’s vision in Ephesians 415: “But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into HIm who is the head, even Christ.” An adequate theology of grace encompasses cultivation of the mind and the formation of the heart.

WHAT AND WHO DEFINE YOU AS FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST?

We are generally inclined to let the world, instead of God, define us, because it is so easy to do, and it is what some term as ‘natural’ to shape our self-image by the attitudes and opinions of others, whether it be our peer groups, our society, or even those close to us like family.
In the secular world, and even in some apparent Christian circles, self-love is advocated – this is associated with performance-based acceptance, and on the other extreme the conclusion that we are worthless and must try to earn acceptance from others; there is the call to look within ourselves to discover the ‘potentials’ within.
But Scriptures exhort us to look to Christ, not to self, to discover the answers to our problems and the solutions we so greatly need. The biblical view of self-love is loving ourselves correctly; that is seeing ourselves as God sees us. To discover the reality of who we have become as a result of our faith in Christ requires discipline and exposure to the Word of God. It also requires a context of fellowship and encouragement in a community of like-minded believers.

What does it mean to see ourselves as God sees us? The biblical doctrine of grace humbles us without degrading us and elevates us without inflating us. It tells us that apart from Christ, we have nothing and can do nothing of eternal value.
We are spiritually impotent and inadequate without Christ, and we must not put our confidence in the flesh (Philippians 3:3). Grace also tells us that we have become new creations in Christ, having been transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of his light, life, and love (2 Corinthians 5:17-18). In Christ, we now enjoy complete forgiveness from sins and limitless privileges as unconditionally accepted members of God’s family. Our past has been changed because of our new heredity in Christ and our future is secure because of our new destiny as members of Christ’s body.
Grace teaches us that the most important thing about us is not what we do but who and whose we are in Christ. In the BIble, doing (our actions) should flow out of being (our identity); the better we grasp our identity in Christ, the more our actions would reflect Christlike character.

This will lead us to our choices and works of love; the more we love God, the more we will express his transcendent love in others-centered deeds of kindness and goodness (1 John 4:7-11). We need to look to Christ and his example as we renew our minds with the spiritual truth of the Scriptures into thinking into alignment with the reality of who we are in Christ.

John 13 records a visual parable that communicated clearly that the disciples were fighting for a prominent place; none of them would volunteer to be the servant of all and thereby be others-centered. The embarrassment became acute when Jesus rose from supper, laid aside his garments, tied a towel around himself, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and wie them with the towel. His lesson was evident; if their Teacher and Lord became their servant, they should also serve one another (John 13:13-15).
The key to Christ’s willingness to serve others in place of being served by them is found in the crucial truth that Jesus knew who he was, where he came from and where he was going (John 13:3). He knew his dignity and power (“the Father had given all things into his hands”), he knew his significance and identity (“and that He had come forth from God”), and he knew his security and destiny (“and was going back to God”). Jesus derived his identity from his relationship with his Father and not from the opinions of his family and peers. Jesus was criticised, rejected, slandered, misunderstood, plotted against, betrayed, denied, and abused by his family and friends, his disciples , the Jewish religious leaders, and the Romans. As his ministry progressed, our Lord faced increasing levels of hostility and opposition. In spite of all this, he knew who and whose he was, and his relationship with the Father gave him the power and security to love and serve others, and to be others-centered. All who put their trust in him should know the same. Like Christ, we have dignity and power; every spiritual blessing has been given into our hands (Ephesians 1:3,19; 3:16, 20-21). We also have significance and identity; we have become the children of God (Romans 8:18, 35-39). These limitless resources meet our deepest needs and overcome the human dilemma of loneliness, insignificance, and meaninglessness.
When these truths begin to define our self-image, they make us secure enough to love and serve others without seeking our interests first. Because of our security and significance in Christ, we do not need to be controlled by the opinions and responses of others. We have nothing to prove because we know who and whose we are. Rather than trying to impress and manipulate people, we can do our work with excellence as unto the Lord (Colossians 3:23). The more we are concerned with what God thinks of us, the less we will be worried about what others think of us. And when we are no longer enslaved to people’s opinion of us, we are free to love and serve others as Christ loves us, with no strings attached. The servanthood of Jesus is a model for the mindset that we as his servants should embrace in our service to others and to be others-centered instead of focusing on ourselves and being self-centered.

We need to recall that God looks at the heart and not at the outward appearance. Some years back, there was much ‘buzz’ about ‘positive thinking’ and developing ‘techniques’ to win friends and influence people in the secular world; the focus was to communicate with others and to interact with them such that they are thought to be important and thereby open the ways to befriend them and to subsequently influence them for your companies, your enterprise. Outwardly, those who apply these techniques give the impression that they are others-centered; after all, they say all the nice and kind words, greet others enthusiastically, show a lot of interest in others. But the truth is: it is all outward techniques and ‘training’ that projects the sense of being others-centered when in fact, it is self-centered, seeking to project ourselves as those who care for others and their interests so that we can gain their confidence and clientele.
This is not truly loving others and being others-centered in the Scriptural sense. When Biblical truths begin to define our self-image, they make us secure enough to love and serve others without seeking our interests first. Because of our security and significance in Christ, we do not need to be controlled by the opinions and responses of others. We have nothing to prove because we know who and whose we are. Then the following verse in Philippians 2 become a reality in our lives: “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death on a cross (vv3-8).

THE WONDERS OF GOD’S ETERNAL SALVATION PLAN

Have you ever wondered at the wonders of God’s eternal salvation plan?
Jesus’ agony on the cross, vicariously enduring Godforsakenness so that sinners like me would never have to endure it; the permanently transforming bodily resurrection of Jesus and also the permanently transforming heart regeneration of everyone who is saved – these are just two demonstrations of power, wholly inexplicable in terms of the created forces that operate in our world.
But the plan did not stop here; it reaches into the future, promising everyone a new, undying body. In addition, it promises saved sinners like me a new heaven and new earth, a vast perfected community and society with the visible presence of Jesus to enjoy through that new body eternally.

THE GREATNESS AND AWESOMENESS OF GOD

God’s plan of salvation includes his call to holiness by telling me to dwell on these great and awesome realities until I find myself truly awestruck at the greatness of my God, who is making it all happen.
Indeed, the Triune God of the plan is great – transcendent and immutable in his omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. He is eternal in his truthfulness and faithfulness, wisdom and justice, severity and goodness – and he is to be praised, adored as such, and all glory and honour are his – even those in the spiritual realm are taken aback by his wondrous wisdom and power that can make wretched sinners like me to be saved, adopted as his children, and transformed into the image of Christ and to share in his glorification and glory in the new heaven and new earth. At Christmas, all praise and glory to the new born King! At Easter, all worship and honour to the One raised, ascended to the right hand of God the Father!

CERTAIN DIVISIONS ARE INESCAPABLE

Division, although undesirable, is inescapable among Christians and ministry. It is often thought to be a stumbling block to non-believers; the call is often reconciliation whatever it takes; unity must take first place whatever the issues and matters of differences. But is that the best thing, although a sad thing?

Pause: there are invariably divisions about beliefs and doctrines – the authentic church differentiates itself from what is really the non-church (as in 1 John 2:18-19). This sort of division identifies the body rather than divides it; it can clear the air in a helpful way.
There are occasions when the faithful church withdraws from the scandalous church (as in the historical Reformation). There are divisions when a forthright church withdraws from a fuzzy church, where faithful believers have tried but failed to maintain a clear witness to God’s grace according to the Scriptures.
It may be a matter of withdrawing from a particular denomination, or withdrawing from a local congregation; there are divisions over church order because of incompatible views on how the church should order its life.

We must reject, however, divisions over such nontheological factors as the personalities of leader, like the division described in 1 Corinthians 1. We may have our favourite preachers or leaders but that is no reason for dividing the local congregation; we must guard against quenching the Holy Spirit and dishonour the Saviour to be part of a division that is not centered on essential authentic theological matters which would distort and destroy the church of God, and compromise the moral values and distinctions which characterise the true church of God.

In the New Testament, we read of a sharp division between Paul and Barnabas over John Mark. Paul refused to bring Mark on a subsequent mission trip because he ‘abandoned’ them in a previous one; Barnabas, on the other hand, wanted to give Mark a second chance – the disagreement was such that they both departed and went their own ways in the mission ministry.
Years later, Paul recognised the usefulness of Mark and ‘welcomed’ him back to the ministry. It is to be noted that Barnabas took the initiative to bring Paul into the ministry years back even though many withdrew from him, knowing him to be a persecutor of the church. Paul, on the other hand, when looking at the issue regarding Mark, must have put unwavering commitment to the Lord and ministry as non-negotiable.
So who is right? Before answering, let us recall the situation where Peter withdrew from having a meal with the Gentile Christians with the arrival of some Judaistic Christians although Peter knew that there is only one church, and that in Christ there is no slave or master, Jew or Gentile, male or female.
In that context, Paul stood up and corrected Peter publicly; it must have been an embarrassing incident in Peter’s life and ministry, but years later, Peter commended Paul for his writings to the church which some find difficult to understand but are nevertheless precious and very sound. Again, who made the right decision? Should Paul have corrected Peter in private? Paul must have felt that the issue is so important that it has to be corrected publicly, especially when the person involved was a person of authority and a prominent leader of the early church.

We have shared previously the importance of the heart and that God looks at the heart rather than the outward appearance, and judgement by God would be based on the motivations and desires of the heart that result in outward actions.
The BIblical view is that the heart is nothing less than the taproot of the self, the deep source of our character and purposes, of our attitudes and responses, of our self-image and self-projection, in short, of the total human being that each of us is. God looks at us from a unitary perspective, and we are, according to the God’s-eye view of us, good or bad according to our heart quality. Jesus says, “What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart” (Matthew 15:18). A bad-hearted person is like a bad tree producing bad fruit (12:33-35).
We today assess people from the outside in grading them mainly by their skills, and we label them good people, despite their moral lapses, as long they use their skills to do what we recognise as a good job. God, however, assesses everyone from the inside out, measuring us entirely by the state of our hearts.

It is with God’s method of assessment that we need to come to terms with. That means spiritual discernment and understanding of what God desires and prioritises; divisions may be right when assessed from this angle. However, divisions may be very wrong when the motives are self-centered and personal reputation becomes a priority for the parties concerned.
It is our close walk with God and our keeping in step with the Spirit which determine whether the decisions and choices we make honour and glorify God or cause others to stumble. It is certainly not a superficial simple matter.

REPENTANCE, CONSECRATION VERSUS APATHY, IMPENITENCE

We sometimes miss the point that consecration and repentance are one. Repentance refers to a change of mind resulting in a change of life. Atheism, which disregards God, is natural to fallen human beings; but godliness has to be founded on repentance from the start.
We begin our Christian life with repentance, which means a right about turn and a quick march in a direction opposite to that we were going before (the soldier would surely understand this); the original direction was the path of self-service, treating ourselves as God, and pursuing self-gratification and self-centeredness.

The new direction is a matter of putting all that behind and away, and embracing the service of God instead. Repentance is in fact consecration begun; consecration is repentance renewed and sustained throughout our Christian living.
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God…Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God” (Romans 12:1-2).
In the first eleven chapters of Romans, Paul has shown that the gospel he preaches has the power to transfer Christians from the realm of sin and death, into the realms of righteousness and life. This transfer, however, does not excuse or absolve the Christian from the responsibility to live out the righteousness so graciously granted in the gospel.
God is working to transform us into the image of Christ (Rom.8:29), but we are to take part in this process as we work to make the transformation real in our daily lives (regeneration is all the work of God by grace but sanctification requires our work, in dependence on the Spirit of God, to make this transformation a reality, day by day). Romans 12:1-2 captures the heart of what it means to be a Christian: it is HOLY WORSHIP of God day by day in the progressive transformation of life (which involves daily repentance and consecration, not conforming to the world and her values, but focusing on the renewal of our mind in Christ Jesus).
The opposite is impenitence and unconsecration; those who claim to be Christians in this state are out of line already in regard to the imperatives of daily Christian living and they are certainly out of earshot when God calls them or speaks to them from the Scriptures and from the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Apathy and sluggishness with regard to obedience to God on a daily basis spell serious consequences for such ones (and they need to evaluate whether they are really true believers). It is in the ‘small things’ and ‘unnoticeable but consistent acts of service’ carried out in faithfulness and obedience to God that point to true consecration and repentance, not only in the ‘big things’ and prominent acts ; it is in the willingness to put others above ourselves in terms of Christian love and seeking the good of the others that characterise genuine Christian love for the neighbour.
It is with these in mind that Paul went on, in the following verses of Romans 12, to focus on the outworking of Christian lives in terms of relationships with one another and also with non-believers. Desiring the ultimate good for others in Christian love may include, at times, the correction of others in love, for the ‘good’ that is in focus is to be moulded into the image of our Lord Jesus and to be ready, as a bride collectively, for the bridegroom (the Lord Jesus) in the wondrous wedding in the new heaven and new earth.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ESSENTIALS AND NON-ESSENTIALS

I have shared previously that “Certain divisions are inescapable”. I mentioned, among other cases, the division in the Reformation of the faithful church from the scandalous church as one significant example.
The difference between essentials and non-essentials in Christian doctrines and practice is a major factor that results in such divisions. In fundamentals, faith is primary, and Christians may not appeal to love as an excuse to deny essential faith. In non-fundamentals, however, love is primary, and we may not appeal to zeal for the faith as an excuse for failure in love. Faith instructs our own conscience; love respects the conscience of others. Faith gives liberty; love limits its exercise.
In Romans 14 and 15, Paul dealt with the weak and the strong believers. Here, in non-essentials, like the question of which food is suitable, and the sacredness of certain days, the strong must accept those whose faith is weak and not put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of the weaker brother or sister; instead the stronger brethren ought to make every effort to do what leads to peace and mutual edification by bearing the failings of the weak and not to please themselves.
The first is the principle of faith; everything must be done ‘from faith’ (Romans 14:23). We need to educate our consciences by the Word of God, so that we become strong in faith, growing in settled convictions and so in Christian liberty.
The second is the principle of love; everything must be done according to love (Romans 14:15). We need therefore to remember who our fellow Christians are, especially that they are our brethren for whom Christ died, so that we honour, not despise them; serve, not harm them; and especially respect their consciences.
The church ought to hold the fundamentals of the faith (i.e. the essentials), and at the same time allow for differences of opinions and interpretation in secondary matters (i.e. non-essentials).
This is summarised in the following manner:
“In essential unity; in non-essentials liberty; in all things charity(love)”

So the call to accept one another applies particularly to areas of non-essentials.
We must not overlook other passages in Scriptures which throw more light on this area of accepting one another (as interpreted as unconditional by certain quarters):
“Take special note of those who do not obey our instruction in this letter. Do not associate with them, in order that they may feel ashamed. Yet do not regard them as enemies, but warn them as fellow-believers” (2 Thessalonians 3:14-15).

“But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with any who claim to be fellow-believers but are sexually immoral or greedy, idolaters or slanderers, drunkards or swindlers. With suh people do not even eat.” ((1 Corinthians 5:11)

“Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in this teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them. Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work” (2 John 9-11).
What is clear is that there are certain situations where it is appropriate not to associate with certain fellow-believers (i.e. not to accept them). This has to do with essentials of the faith, and violations of these essentials in belief and behaviour are not acceptable for genuine fellowship in the Lord.

We certainly need much wisdom and discernment to distinguish the essentials from the non-essentials, and also not to violate the principle of faith and the principle of love (and cause them to ‘contradict’ each other).

THE LAST DAYS: CHARACTERISED BY DECEPTION AND TRIBULATION

There is no doubt that we are living in the last days – the time between the first and second coming of the Lord Jesus. And Paul wrote to Timothy and told him that there would be difficult times in the last days. The Lord Jesus himself said in Matthew 24: “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” (vv 9-14 ESV)

What characterise the last days and the close of the Age are tribulations and deceptions. Already, many Christians from various parts of the world are undergoing persecutions – some very intense which involve imprisonment and even physical death. The book of Revelation recorded the words of the martyrs who were martyred during the great tribulation and they asked the Lord God when He would avenge their blood. The Lord told them to wait until the full number of martyrs is in before He takes action and executes judgment and retribution.

Also, in these last days before the close of the Age, deceptions by the evil one, false prophets, even false Christs will be prominent. Deceptions often take place with claims of healing, ‘miracles’ and ‘prosperity’ by those who are manipulated by the evil one to even deceive the elect.

In that light, the following comments on the emphasis and focus of the work of the Holy Spirit are helpful:
The Spirit’s New Covenant role is to shine the floodlight on the Saviour Jesus Christ. The Spirit’s message to us is never “Look at me, listen to me, come to me, get to know me” but always “Look at him (Jesus), and see his glory, listen to him, and hear his word; go to him, and have life; get to know him, and taste his gift of joy and peace.”
The Holy Spirit, we might say, is the matchmaker, the celestial marriage broker, whose role is to bring us and Christ together and ensure that we stay together.

But if we look at the scenario today, what do we see? Various individuals claiming to be spiritual healers, miracle-workers, all focusing the floodlights on themselves and their ministry and ‘boasting’ of the power of the Spirit enabling them to do all these so-called deeds and highlighting the gifts of the Spirit in their lives rather than the fruit of the Spirit, and the focus and floodlight on the Son of God.
This is the ‘red light’, warning us that the work is not that of the Holy Spirit. But Christians, particularly vulnerable Christians, can be deceived and deceived thoroughly such that they are in ‘bondage’ and look to such individuals as spiritual leaders, and look to the evil powers as the power of the living God.

Besides tribulation and persecution, deception will be the issue of the day in the last days. Ignoring the Scriptures, wrongful interpretation of Scriptures in preaching, teaching and ministry in the church would be the delight of the evil one. Causing Christians to be oblivious of the dangers they are in; deceiving them into thinking that all is well – these are the specialities of the enemy.
It is no wonder that the Lord Jesus said that many will fall away and the love of many will grow cold. Will we be among them??

FOCUSING ON THE PERSON AND WORK OF JESUS CHRIST

Christians believe and are taught that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man; Jesus Christ the God-man is one person. He has all the qualities that make God God. He also has a true, fully human nature – all the qualities that make man man. But at the same time, he has one distinct personality.
Jesus had two distinct natures ‘inseparably joined together in one person”.

We insist and believe that the Saviour is one person with two distinct natures; this established the truth that the Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ, was one person acting on behalf of the people given to him (even before the creation of the world) and that everything done by him was both human and divine.
The Mediator, the Saviour of sinners, had to be a man. Men sinned, and so their substitute must be a man. He must give human obedience, and he must suffer human punishment. On the other hand, if he were merely a man, it would be impossible for him to satisfy an eternal debt. He could not, in a few hours on the cross, satisfy the infinite eternal debt of sin. But because he is God, his divine nature gave eternal efficacy to everything he did. Therefore, it is important that we maintain that he is one person, possessing two distinct natures, human and divine. All that the human nature did was done by one person; all that the divine nature did was done by the one person.

Furthermore, we can delight in the knowledge that our Saviour continues to this day and through all eternity to be the eternal God-man – the one person. In a most remarkable manner, having joined our nature to his, he has exalted our nature in the unity of his person and bestowed upon it the glory that is rightfully his as divine.
Therefore, as the God-man, he is to be worshiped as the eternal Son of God. The exaltation of his human nature is the guarantee to us that our human natures shall one day be lifted up in glory. He wears our human nature as the pledge that one day we shall be like him.

The divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ is a golden thread woven through both Old and New Testaments. Moses teaches in Genesis that God created all things. John the apostle tells us that Jesus Christ, the Word, is Creator (John 1:3). The writer of Hebrews claims that Jesus Christ, who made all things, holds them together by his powerful word (Hebrews 1:3). In our study of the Gospels, Jesus not only claims authority to forgive sin but also authority over demons, illnesses, nature eg. storms, and also reveals that he has the right of divine judgment. (John 5:22,27). Jesus also claims the authority both to raise the dead on the last day, and to exercise his rights as the supreme judge over them. In the Gospel, Jesus also claims to be God’s eternal Son; he claims to share equal knowledge and glory with the heavenly Father.

The Son of God however took on a human nature in order to become the servant of God and the servant of God’s people (Philippians 2:6-8). How could God come and live among men? If God showed himself to us as he is in his essential glory, such a revelation would destroy us. (Exodus 33:20). God is an infinite, holy, consuming fire. His glory would destroy us in our sin. Thus if God were to come as redeemer, he needed to reveal himself in a way that would not consume us. In the Old Testament the Messiah is the Branch of David; he is a man – a descendant of David. His family tree goes back to Adam and Eve. The Messiah is true God and true man in one person. The first Adam acted for the entire human race; he plunged the race into the despair, bondage, and corruption of sin and brought all under the wrath of God. Jesus, as a true human being, was the last Adam, the second covenant head. He did for the elect race what Adam had failed to do; he obeyed the law perfectly, and he did this on behalf of his people. It took a man to meet the stipulation of covenant obedience. If there were to be atonement for men’s sins, a man had to accomplish it; in order to meet all the demands of God and to save us from our sins, the Saviour had to be a man.

Jesus’ humanity allows him to understand and help us in our pain and sorrow; he is able to sympathise with us. And through the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus sends to be with us, he ministers to our real human needs. As the Word made flesh, Jesus both reveals the perfection of God’s attributes and personifies human holiness. He is what Adam would have become had he not sinned.Thus Jesus is to the pattern to which our lives must conform. In his delight to do God’s will, in his careful obedience to the law of God, in his willingness to trust God in and for all things, Christ is the benchmark – he is the goal of our lives; he is the mold that shapes our humanity in its sanctification.
Jesus is everything that we need. We who are sinners need a Saviour, a perfect man who can fulfill for us the demands of God and also atone for the sins we have committed. Jesus, the last Adam, rendered perfect obedience for us, and then offered his life as the sacrifice for our sins. We are weak and we need one who can come alongside us to u[hold us and strengthen us. Jesus is more than sufficient to meet this need.
We need also an example. Christ says to us, “Look at me. Do you want to be holy? Follow my example. As I obeyed the law of God willingly, you obey. As I loved God and men, you love. As I humbled myself,you humble yourself.” Jesus is everything you need. Do you know him as your Saviour and helper and guide?

When Christians observe ‘Christmas’, it is a reminder of the person and work of Christ. He came to do the will of the Father and to die as a substitute for us. In his incarnation, he took on ‘flesh’ (born of a virgin) and became the God-man. In Matthew 22:41-46, Jesus stumped the Jews by saying, ” If the Messiah is the son of David, why does David address him as Lord?” Here Jesus was referring to his humanity and divinity in his one person. On another occasion, he told the Jews that before Abraham was, “I am”, implying that he was before Abraham because he is eternal and the term “I am” was used by God to Moses when He commissioned Moses to deliver the Israellites from Egypt. Jesus’ use of this term which was associated with the person of God Himself indicated that he is divine. To his disciple Philip, he declared that whoever has seen him has seen the heavenly Father; it points to the fact that Jesus is God in the flesh. Paul, writing to the Colossians wrote: “He(Jesus) is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”(1:18b-20 ESV).

After his ascension to the right hand of the Father, Jesus continues to minister to his people and the church; he intercedes for them, he comes to them by the Holy Spirit and continues to do his ministry through his people from his supreme seat at God’s right hand by the Spirit. So Jesus came from eternity as the ‘root’ and ‘branch’ of Abraham and David to be born of a virgin as the Messiah, to fulfil God’s mission to bring His people back to the fold, not by physical conquest, but through suffering and death on the cross. His burial, resurrection and ascension completed his earthly ministry but he continues to minister from his spiritually exalted position in and through the church by the Holy Spirit. And this ministry includes bringing in the rest of the elect (through the gospel) and the preparation of his people and church for the new heaven and new earth (through molding them into his image in sanctification). The life of Christians here on earth is a preparation for the celestial city; Christians ‘travel’ as pilgrims on earth towards the consummation of God’s eternal plan when Christ comes again.
But the believers have to encounter the enemy and his minions in spiritual warfare along their journey to their eternal city and home.
A dear classmate of mine from the 1973 medical class asked, “what does it actually mean in our daily lives? Is it a study of the bible and a mental exercise? These questions were asked in response to my sharings about Jesus’ disappointment with those who continue not to believe in him even though he has demonstrated who he really is.
I trust that when we understand why Jesus came, what his mission was and is still ongoing, to ‘recreate’ a new humanity as the last Adam and the second man, and to inaugurate a new era, by bringing the remaining of his people back to him, and transforming those who are his to be a holy loving people, from their relationship with him and the Father, then we would realise the meaning of what it is in daily living – it is a growing relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and a growing loving relationship with all his people; it is also doing what John wrote in 1 John: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life (Jesus Christ) – the life was made manifest and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with theFather and was made manifest to us – that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.” (vv1-3)

For those who have yet to know this life and this fellowship, we proclaim the gospel to you; for those who have received the life and the light, we exhort you to grow deeper and richer in this fellowship with the Father and the Son and with all the brethren in Christ. This is truly the meaning of CHRISTmas!

WHAT DOES A TRUE BELIEVER DO WITH HIS LIFE ON EARTH?

This is the question my dear classmate asked after the sharing of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a great question that many seek to answer; but perhaps we can only try to crystallise certain matters to give an inkling to the answer sought by many on earth.

I remember studying Macbeth in my literature subject years ago and the quotation in this writing continues to echo in my mind:
“Tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace to the last syllable of recorded time….Life is but a fleeting shadow, a poor player who struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is no more….It is a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”
This expresses the meaningless of life many encountered, particularly at the end of their life on earth – there is no satisfying answer to the meaning of life – mostly, many ended up in frustration and despair – there seems to be nothing to look forward to after death.
Even king Solomon, sometimes referred to as the wisest man on earth, recorded the following in the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible.
As a rich king, he tried to find satisfaction in pleasure, in wealth, in all possible endeavours and he ended up saying,
“Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun (2:11)
“For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool! So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind” (2:16-17).

Even a religious Jew like Nicodemus, as recorded in John chapter 3, a teacher of the law (Torah) came to Jesus at night and asked how he could enter the kingdom of God. He could not find the answer in religion, even in the religion of Judaism; Jesus told him that he must be born again. The Lord was not referring to physical rebirth but was pointing to being spiritually reborn – to be forgiven by God, to be reconciled to him and to have a place in His family and community that transcends time and space. This can only happen if Nicodemus repented and believed (by faith) and be regenerated by the Holy Spirit of God (just like the thief who was crucified next to Jesus on the cross).

A true believer is one who finds his way back to God: Jesus said, ” I am the way, the truth, and the life…No man comes to the Father (God) except through me”….”I am the door; the sheep enter in through this door..I am the good shepherd..” (John 10; 14:6).
Coming back to God, to be forgiven, to be reconciled with Him, begins the true journey of the true believer. Even C.S. Lewis, the famous writer of the Chronicles of Narnia and other literature, wrote that he was reluctantly dragged to become a Christian. All his early life was plagued with the longing to find the meaning of his life and to fill up the ’emptiness’; he finally found it and could not escape from the calling of Jesus.

What a true believer do with his life after he is converted? He would know that he became the human God designed and created him to be. He would learn to know and love God and his fellowmen in a relationship filled with joy, peace, meaning. Jesus said, “I have come to give you life and life abundantly”. In me, you shall have peace, joy and the freedom to live the life God intended for you. The details cannot be answered – it may take a lifetime and beyond. Suffice to say, a true believer would be guided and taught by God’s Spirit to live the life that is most meaningful for him and for others before the consummation in the new heaven and new earth, where he would live eternally with God and his brethren forever and ever in bliss and full satisfaction.

WHAT DOES A TRUE BELIEVER DO WITH HIS LIFE ON EARTH (B)

THE CENTRALITY OF LOVE

The love of Christ in the gospel is in fact the love of the triune God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). Divine love experienced by the believer has to become divine love expressed. As apostle John puts it, “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers….let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:16, 18b)….”Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7).
Perhaps the best known of all apostle Paul’s texts is his meditation on love in 1 Corinthians 13. Paul proclaims the necessity of love (vv. 1-3) character (vv 4-7), and endurance of love (vv8-13). In this chapter, in addressing the diversity of spiritual gifts to believers and their exercise, love is set forth as the modus operandi for the use of all gifts – hence the exercise is to edify the brethren, and is others-centered, and certainly not to inflate one’s own reputation, status and gifts. Also, Paul addresses issues arising from the lack of godly love – division, pride, selfishness and related ills and problems – love is held up as the appropriate mode of existence for all of life and certainly in the life beyond in the new heaven and new earth. Our life on earth is a “dressing room” and preparation for the life hereafter in eternity – hence God uses circumstances, trials and the like (even in the midst of spiritual warfare) to mould our characters to be like that of Christ – and certainly love is at the centre of Godly character.

Love, then, is at the core of the experience of individuals and communities in Christ. It is the defining characteristic of the individual Christian and the Christian communities as it puts faith, one’s fundamental posture toward God, into action toward others. Love is not just focused on the members of the community – it is not limited to fellow-believers but it is for all (1 Thess. 3:12).

In fact, Paul went on to write “Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another fulfilled the law (includes the10 commandments, Rom. 13:8) – “for the whole law is summed up or fulfilled in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (Gal. 5:14).

Apostle John even wrote that “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him” (1 John 3:14-15).
Love is essential for it fulfills the will of God expressed in the Law and love is embodied in Christ. Christians are united with Christ (Christ is the head and the church is the body expressed in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12) and it is unthinkable that for Christians, union with Christ is not expressed in godly love.

In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul also wrote that love does not rejoice in wrong- doing (unrighteousness) but rejoices in the truth (righteousness). The love described is holy love, godly love. For those who continue in sin (eg. adultery) and claim that they are doing it because of love, it is a mockery and a distortion of the love that God commands for believers.
But true love also corrects (we see Jesus rebuking those who are rebellious and proud in their sin) and love seeks and longs for the ultimate good of others. You may not realise it – but my persistence to share with you the gospel (what you term as ‘preaching to you’) is an expression of my love for you. God, in his grace and love, has given me the privilege to know him and to love him. I cannot keep this love solely for myself; and all believers desire the best and the ultimate good for their fellow-men and friends – that would mean sharing the gospel to those who have yet to believe, and giving our lives to edify and build other believers in the Christian community.

Love, then, is the evidence and implication of the presence of Christ by his Spirit in a person or community. Without it, spiritual gifts (such as speaking in tongues, prophecy etc.) and even faith itself, are without value! We can conclude that if such a love is absent in an individual and a community that claims to belong to Jesus, what is the implication and what is the judgment that God would pronounce on them on judgment day!

KNOWING CLEARLY THE ESSENCE OF THE ATONEMENT

During the season of Christmas, churches which observe Christmas use this opportunity to share the gospel in choir presentation, the sharing and preaching of the gospel, and friendship evangelism. Many believers are familiar with the nativity scene, the little baby Jesus lying in the manger, but perhaps what is sorely missing in the minds of some believers is the complete meaning of Christmas for the world. Here we are referring to the purpose of the incarnation and the sacrificial death of Jesus in the accomplishment of God’s salvation plan. God became man in Jesus, grew up as the God-man, and fulfilled his mission at the cross, and now continues to carry out his mission following his death, resurrection and ascension, by his people through the Spirit.

What we want to focus on now is how did Christ’s sacrificial death actually save us who believe from jeopardy and ruin? By redeeming us, effecting our transfer from a state of bondage without hope to a state of freedom with a future, by paying the price that the transfer required (Romans 3:24; Gal. 3:13; 4:5; Ephesians 1:7).

The cross actually redeem us through Jesus’ death by reconciling us to God, ending the alienation and estrangement that were previously there, linking God and us together in new harmony, replacing enmity between us with friendship and peace, by means of the putting away of our sins (Romans 5:11; Col. 1:19-22).
The cross actually reconcile us to God, and God to us by being a propitiation, ending God’s judicial wrath against us (Romans 3:25).
The cross actually propitiate God by being an event of substitution, whereby at the Father’s will the sinless Son bore the retribution due to us guilty ones (2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13; Col. 2:14).

This substitution Christ bearing our penalty in our place, is the essence of the atonement. Certainly we celebrate the cross a a victory over the forces of evil on our behalf (Col. 2:15) and as a motivating revelation of the God’s love toward us (2 Corinthians 5:14-15), but it would not have either of these had it not been an event of penal substitution; Jesus reveals divine love to us by giving himself to die on the cross in order to save us.
Why the details on the atonement? God became man in Christ not just to be a good example for the world; he came to fulfil God’s eternal plan of salvation. To do this, he had to suffer and die and take our place on the cross; he had to drink the cup of God’s wrath on our behalf; he had to endure God-forsakenness, so that we can be reconciled to God; be forgiven and become God’s people and God’s children.
In the history of the church, sadly, some or all of these were not understood, thereby giving rise to heresies, wrong theology and perverted teachings which damage God’s communities. Even some well known church leaders did not subscribe to penal substitution, missing the essence of the atonement.
One unfortunate consequence: in our evangelistic presentations Christ appears not as the center of attention and himself the key to life’s meaning, but as a figure – sometimes a very smudgy figure – brought in us as the answer to some present egocentric questions of our own. Eg.- how may I find peace of conscience; peace of heart and mind under pressure; happiness? joy?; power for living?
The necessity of faithful discipleship to Jesus, and the demands of it, are not stressed and emphasised, and so the cost of following Jesus is not counted. As a consequence, our evangelism reaps large crops of still unconverted individuals who think they can call him and make use of him as Saviour and Helper, while declining to have him as Lord.
The nurture that leaves Christians with false expectations of that kind and with no resources save the stiff upper lip for coping when trouble strikes, is defective to the point of cruelty.
When Christians observe Christmas, and seek to communicate the gospel, it would be most tragic when they, and the gospel they presented, end up with them feeling all ‘warm and sentimental’ at the thought of the cute baby Jesus in the manger, and with many so-called conversions who become deadwood in our churches or those who drift away eventually and entirely.
How do these happen, we may ask? It seems clear that the saleman-like man-centerednees of so much of our evangelism, cracking up the benefits and minimizing the burdens of the Christian life, is one root cause.

And the preaching ministry of not too few churches compounds the problem. When preaching at the pulpit is not undertaken with the consciousness that the preacher is speaking on behalf of God, with wholesome hermeneutics and interpretation of Scripture, bolstered by the conviction of the authority of God’s revelation in Scripture as well as with the call for applications and obedience to what is preached, then we can expect the deterioration of the spiritual health of believers as well as the furtherance of the devil’s deceptions and distortions of the truth.
When preaching takes the form of anecdotes, quips (often entertaining to the average listener) without exposition of the Bible and proper exegesis and application, the congregation goes away feeling ‘good’ and ‘well-entertained’ without much growth and maturation in the beings.
Indeed churches like this are in a precarious state; when it comes to accountability before God, the exhortations to ‘repent’ directed at the seven churches in Asia minor in the book of Revelation continue to be relevant today!!

UNCOVERING THE MYSTERY OF THE PARABLES

“Then the disciples came and said to him, ‘Why do you speak to them in parables?’ And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand” (Matthew 13:10-13).

The parables are not intended to teach general lessons and morals without any coherent, consistent focus. Jesus taught in parables in order to reveal the kingdom of God. So many of his parables begin, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like….” (Matt. 13:24,31,33, 44, 45, 47). In our past sharing, we noted that the kingdom of God (heaven) refers to the gracious reign of God in the hearts of His people by faith in His Son, the king of the kingdom. This kingdom is invisible to the human eye (hidden in some sense), but it operates in hearts throughout the world and is moving to a final culmination at the second coming of Christ. We will recall Jesus saying, “My kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” (Luke 18:36)

This saying of the Lord helps us to see that the focus of believers should be on the kingdom of God; we are to receive teachings about the kingdom, assimilate them and focus on building the kingdom of God, with Christ as the King and our brethren as His subjects. We should not be overly distracted by the kingdom of this world; we ought not to be sidetracked in pursuing a political agenda, being advocates of social justice (although the gospel has social implications); involved in a call to cultural transformation, and so on. Our focus is on the kingdom of God and the redemptive work of Jesus, along with the summons to repent and believe. It was when people, especially the leaders, began to reject Him and His teaching that Christ began using parables. They unveil the truth of the kingdom to believers but veil and therefore hide it from unbelievers. The parables read our hearts. For instance, Christ speaks in the parable of the sower of the stony ground. He is exposing the hardheartedness that is so common among hearers of the word. Think how the parable of the rich fool exposes our greeiness and selfish spirits, as we think we have our lives all in order, with many goods laid up for years. Think of how the parable of the good Samaritan indicts us for our coldness in the name of religion and our mercilessness to those in need of mercy. In all these, Christ is pointing out the need for our hearts to be changed.

Often the parables challenge us in a way that requires a response. They give directions, encouragements, or warnings. Think of the parable of the friend at midnight, which ends with these words , “Ask, and it will be given to you, seek, and you will find, knock and it will given to you. For everyone who asks receives and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened”. (Luke11:9)

It is interesting to note that when we study the parables in order as accurately as we can reconstruct that order, we see a pattern emerging. At first, Christ dealt largely with the idea of the coming of the kingdom in parables about such things as the sower sowing, the strong man bound, and the seed growing secretly in the earth. The gospel writer Matthew has recorded most of these parables for us. Next, Christ spoke more in depth of the grace of the kingdom. Think of the parables of the good Samaritan, the great supper, and the prodigal son. The gospel writer Luke has recorded most of these parables for us. Finally, as Christ approached Jerusalem the focus of the parables shifted again – this time toward Christ’s return, an event that would mark a radical division in the kingdom. Think of the parable of the man without the wedding garment (Matt. 22:1-14), the parable of the ten virgins (Matt. 35:1-13), and the parable of the sheep and the goats (Matt. 25:31-46).

We have studied the parable of the sower in our study of Luke gospel. This parable is recorded in three gospels – Matthew 13:1-8; Mark 4:1-8; Luke 8:5-8).

What is surprising is that the sower in this parable sows on four soils, with only one of them producing fruit. Christ clearly was intending to highlight the fact that the word of God does not have the same effect everywhere it is sown. Not all gospel preaching yields gospel fruits. The Lord is showing how the restoration He brings does not have saving effect wherever it comes, yet in the end it will most certainly produce fruit. This parable builds upon and fits with the prophecy in Isaiah 55:10-11.
The ministry of the word will prove which hearts are receptive to the word, and which are not. His all-seeing eye scrutinizes more deeply into human hearts than anyone else ever could; no one knows the heart of an like He. Only one-quarter of the ground into which the seed falls is fruitful ground. Three of the four soils prove ultimately unreceptive to the word.
I am sharing on this parable first because it is related to what is shared previously: the preaching of the gospel in evangelism, and the preaching of sermons from the pulpit.
First, we see the wayside hearers. The seed stays on the surface rather than penetrating, and the devil simply takes the word away “out of their hearts” (Luke 8:12). Consider this: how many times, after hearing a sermon or reading the Bible has this happened in our hearts. The word seems to have evaporated as quickly as we heard it.
Next, the rocky soil. In this case, hardness of hearts might not be visible on the surface, but it is only an inch or two below the surface.There may be some evidence of new life after the word is preached. However, there was no root in themselves (Mark 4:17). It is “themselves’ who are to blame, for there is no root in them; the fault lies in the hearers.
The third soil: the young shoots in the soil are surrounded by thorns and briers. The Lord points to the thorns and identifies them for us: “cares of this world,and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things” *Mark 4:19). Who never feels the sting of cares, the lure of riches, and the quills of harmful desires? Who has not been guilty of choking the word by allowing other things to take priority.
Thankfully, there is also good ground into which the word falls. The good ground speaks of the honest and good heart, having the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15). There is truth in the inward parts; there is a reception to the word to the point that, through the blessing of the Lord, it is kept and the fruit grows (Mark 4:20). This is the only ground that yields a harvest; those who have been regenerated by the Spirit of God hear the Word of God, embrace it, and bring forth fruit.
Even after grace believers struggle with sin and unbelief as it is pictured for us in the first three soils. The ultimate question is this: what do we do after Christ’s glorious omniscience exposes our unreceptive heart, or unreceptive tendencies in our hearts for what they are? It takes time for the shoot to grow and eventually produce fruit. The fourth soil also points to the fact that it is the continual response of repentance and growth in maturation that would end up with the appearance of fruit ultimately.

This parable of the sower ‘occupies’ a prominent place in the record of Christ’s ministry. It points to the fact that only a minority would respond positively to produce lasting fruit when the word is taught or preached to them. There is much opposition from the enemy, from an unresponsive heart that responds superficially, from a heart that is ‘choked’ and ‘strangled’ by the lure and deceitfulness of riches, pleasure, and lust.
Certainly, there are many who have heard the gospel many times but there is no definite and positive response. There are those who are regular in listening to sermons, in studying the word, and in reading the Bible, but the warnings in this parable should stir such ones to hearken and to evaluate seriously on the outcome of all these in their lives.

AWAKENING TO THE REALITY OF THE GLORY OF THE LORD

According to Scripture, glory is the splendour that flows from a person’s authority. In Hebrew, the word we translate as glory literally means “weight”. It is what you would feel if a king or a president or other important person were in your presence. You would feel small in comparison with the person’s importance, similar to how you might feel when you see the splendour of creation in the brilliant light of the sun or the ‘northern lights’ or the multitude of stars seen on a dark clear night. If we sense this feeling with some great person here on earth or in creation around us, how much more we feel this with regard to God Himself,who has made all of creation and is greater than all.

One of the main reasons many who handle Scripture do not see its profound, life-altering glory is that they do not submit to it as God’s Word; the Word of God has been reduced to merely human words. Thus the glory is gone, at least from the minds and experience of the readers of Scripture; our natural minds are blind to the weight of the glory of Scripture.
We need to recognise, register, and respond inwardly to the glory that Scriptures possess as the Word of God. Many imagine that hearing a voice from heaven would be a wonderful experience – that would be glorious, they think, for surpassing anything we have in the Scriptures. But the apostle Peter writes, “We have also a more sure word of prophecy” than a voice from heaven (2 Peter 1:19), This “more sure word” refers to the Scriptures; in other words, for Peter, if there is a choice between a voice from heaven or the written Word of God, he would have decidedly chosen the latter (remembering that Peter was among those who witnessed the transfiguration and heard a voice from heaven).

The veiling of Christ’s glory began already when He became incarnate of the Virgin Mary. Think of how He was conceived and born in relative obscurity. He grew up and reached adulthood, still hidden from the public eye. Not until He was thirty years old did He begin HIs public ministry. Truly, He was laying aside His glory in these things. Even as He began HIs work in public, He concealed HIs glory from the multitudes, though from time to time He would unveil something of it in HIs teaching and miracles.
Even HIs disciples did not understand the full meaning of many things that Christ was teaching. It was as if the truths about which He spoke were hidden, or veiled. Strangely, Christ ultimately would prove Himself more glorious by first hiding that glory.
When we observe Christmas, let us remember that the glory of the Lord Jesus is often hidden from us when we just concentrate on the nativity scene, his growing up as a carpenter, in a humble family home. He was born in a manger, not in a palace; he was ridiculed when the Jews queried whether any one great could come from Nazareth; He Himself told would-be disciples that although foxes have holes and birds have nests, the Son of man had no way to lay His head. In HIs ministry, He was supported by many women and many questioned His identity and some even branded Him as doing HIs miracles by the power of evil. But the voice from heaven, the voice of His Father, revealed His glory on several occasions when it declared, “This is my Son in whom I am well pleased”.
In the parables Christ is veiling His glory to conceal it from some, although He is ultimately revealing it to others. In one sense, the parables “wrap” the glory of Christ, somewhat like a gift that is wrapped. Those who are spiritually blind – and thus are without humble, teachable faith – are blind to this glory. They see only the plain ‘wrapping,’ and because there is no true faith, they never receive what is inside. Those who believe, on the other hand, are shown something of this King and kingdom in the parables. In using the parables, Christ was, as it were, taking His disciples by the hand and leading them through the everyday things and situations of life into the message of the kingdom.

In order to see the glory that Christ has concealed in the parables and throughout the Scriptures, we need to have our spiritual eyes opened. By the work of the Holy Spirit, the Lord needs to make us humble and teachable. We need faith to believe what we cannot understand with our fallen minds. We need the hindrances in our hearts and lives exposed and broken down.
Ultimately, this change is the work of the Holy Spirit (John 16:13-15). May He work so that when we read the parables, they indeed read and take control of our awakening to the reality of God’s glory and kingdom. May He search our hearts as we search the Scriptures and thus may they have thoroughgoing effect on our heart, soul, and might (Deut. 6:5); when God’s Word impacts us experimentally, it effects a change “from glory to glory” (2Corin. 3:18).

THE SPIRIT AND THE WORD

We have often related the Spirit of God with the Word of God. It may be helpful to look deeper into this; for this has a great deal to do with the growth and function of the church of God and the believers.
Firstly, we need to reiterate that the Holy Spirit is a living person, not a mere force; the power and ministry exercised by the Spirit is personal. He relates personally to those in whose lives he works. The images in the New Testament which speak of the Spirit in impersonal images like, wind,fire and water, are used dynamically to sh0w that they are pointing to one who has the will and the power to control us rather than to something we ourselves can control.
The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force at our disposal or harnessed to our will; rather the Spirit is a sovereign person with his own will, which is also the will of the Father and the Son (hence the importance of knowing and appreciating the Trinity and relating with the Triune God). Realise how ridiculous it is for various individuals who claim to be ‘anointed’ behaving and ministering as if they can ‘control’ the Spirit and bid him to do what they desire at an instance.

The Spirit operates in and through our thinking (he convinces us of God’s truth, our decision-making and our affections; all responding to the realities of the gospel. Believers who do not recognise the place of our mind and thinking in knowing God and his will and desires are in danger of being deluded by the enemy and in making decisions based on the impulses they receive and the sudden thoughts which come to their minds, very often engendered by the devil, who can dress as ‘an angel of light’ (this is in contrast to Rom. 12:2).The Spirit’s
blessing on the BIble we read, and on the Christian instruction we receive, persuades us of the truth of Christianity (as contrasted to claims that Christianity is a mindless leap of faith). He shows us how God’s promises and demands bear on our lives, and changes and energises us that we do in fact obey the truth.

Note: those who do not in humility and self-distrust allow the Bible to teach them its message about God and grace will never have their false notions of God corrected, nor see the light of saving truth, but will walk in darkness forever, only those who become pupils of Scripture will find the true God and eternal life! (Notice the firm assertions of these statements – apart from receiving the teachings of the BIble about God and His eternal plan of salvation – there is no hope of eternal light and life!)
This is bound up with another point: the clear understanding of the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the grasping of the nature and power of the Spirit’s ministry sprang straight from the Scriptures. We are to read and study the Scriptures not just as scholars but as Christians, conscious of the darkness of our own minds and praying for light (this is in contrast to referring to many books and commentaries, although there is a place for this, and looking up many illustrations and quotations {sometimes from those who have been shown to be inaccurate and also those who have proven to be unfaithful to God].

The wide range of the Spirit’s ministry in connection with Scripture is not always appreciated, but we abuse our minds and miss the truth if we overlook it. The lordship of the Spirit was exercised in the whole process of producing the Bible and setting it before us,and that same lordship is exercised as the Spirit moves us to receive, revere, and study the Scriptures and to discern their divine message to us.
Apart from the Spirit, there is no true learning of divine things from Scripture, and supposedly “spiritual” thoughts not founded on the Word are godless flights of fancy. So those who would live under the authority of the Spirit must bow before the Word as the Spirit’s textbook while those who would live under the authority of Scripture must seek the Spirit as ists interpreter. Negligence of one-sidedness either way could be ruinous, and since a proper balance as this as in other matters comes naturally to none of us, we do well to be on our guard.

LIVE BY THE SPIRIT AND DO NOT GRATIFY THE DESIRES OF THE FLESH

“For the sinful nature (the flesh) desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want” (Galatians 5:17).

One of the ways the sinful nature operates is the impulse to trust and follow the leading of human reason in religion, rather than be content simply to take God’s word for things? To doubt the revelation of God (primarily from Scripture) in favour of a private hunch was the sin into which Satan led Eve, and Eve’s children have been doing that ever since. The devil said to Eve, “Did God actually say…? (Genesis 5:2)
The impulse to believe something other than what God has said is an expression of the desire to be independent of God – and this is the essence of sin. Intellectual pride prompts fallen mankind to go about, not merely to establish their own righteousness, but also to manufacture their own wisdom. In the realm of knowledge and reasoning, fallen men want to be intellectually autonomous, intellectually self-made people.

The gospel is a message that tells us that it is useless to seek for truth about God by speculation, truth comes to us as we put faith in what God has said, simply on the ground that the God of truth has said it. The gospel, in other words, repudiates the authority of human reason and demands subjection to the revealed truth of God; it tells us we cannot save ourselves; it tells us we cannot contribute to our salvation. That is one primary reason man finds it hard to receive the gospel – he refuses to accept that he is completely unable to make himself acceptable to God, and that he is heading to condemnation and damnation if he continues not to repent and accept God’s offer of salvation in Christ.

But even after we have become Christians, the inward battle of the flesh versus the Spirit continues – hence the exhortation of Paul in Galatians 5 to live by the Spirit and not to gratify the desires of the flesh.
When the Holy Spirit changes and renews the heart by instilling in us a recognition of Christ’s reality and by uniting us to him in his risen life, our way of thinking is at once altered. Instead of active alienation from and defiance of God, what comes from our hearts is grateful love to God and a desire to praise and please him. Yet the sinful dynamics of our fallen makeup still operate within us, and incessantly pull against the God-trusting, God-loving, God-serving disposition and motivation that the Spirit has implanted (Gal. 5:17).
At times our knowledge of what we should do is overwhelmed by the desire to do something else that is contrary to God’s desire (and this can be brought about by thoughts sent insidiously by the devil, and heightened by the operation of the flesh [the indwelling sin], as well as the negative pull and attractions of the fallen world). Notice the three enemies – the devil, the indwelling sin, and the fallen world).

The down-drag of sin in our system can swamp the godly motivation in us (this is the flesh being gratified and our failure to live by the Spirit). We need therefore to constantly ask God to enable us to do the right things in the right way (with love and hope and zeal for God,) and only the Holy Spirit who indwells us can bring this about).
And the Holy Spirit does that by sustaining in us a personal understanding of gospel truth; maintaining the consciousness of our fellowship with the Father and the Son; reshaping us into the image of Christ; equipping us with the abilities loving personal worship of God in praise and prayer and personal ministry to other; making us realise our present moral weakness and inadequacy; instilling us the longing and hope for the future life of bodily resurrection and renewal. The Spirit’s ministry to us is the firstfruits and the initial installment, guaranteeing the rest to come.
The Spirit operates intellectually, by imparting understanding of Christ and of all the Scriptures as witness to him, and motivationally, by engendering trust in Christ, and sustaining within is a purpose of cleaving to revealed truths; and in addition behaviourally by inducing the Christlike pattern of action that flows from this state of the soul.

TWO WORLDS, TWO LIVES, TWO KINGDOMS

In the previous sharing on “Christ Jesus is our hope”, we share that often believers forget that there are two worlds, two lives and in fact two kingdoms. Not understanding this may result in Christians not appreciating how their faith has to do with their job, schoolwork, political views, the books they read, and movies they see, and how they are to confront the problem of Christianity and culture.
By ‘culture’ we refer to all of the various human activities and their products, as well as the way in which we interpret them and the language we use to describe them. Here ‘culture’ is not referred to in a precise and technical way; but rather to the broad range of activities – scientific, artistic, economic etc. in which human beings engage in.

The issue of Christianity and culture is one of immense significance and relevance. Developing a coherent view of Christianity and culture demands wrestling with some of the most fundamental truths of the Christian faith; my plea is that although some of the following discussions may sound rather theological but they are important practical issues for the believers in their way they live out their lives here with a proper biblical view of creation, providence, the image of God, sin, the work of Christ, salvation, the church, and eschatology.

There is a multitude of voices contributing to the contemporary conversations on the above topic of Christianity and culture; many of these are right on target and important for a sound view of Christianity and culture but some others present a distorted view of Christian cultural engagement and its relationships to the the church and to the hope of the new heaven and new earth.

First, the views which many contemporary voices get right:
Many such voices emphasise that God is the Creator of all things, including material and physical things. God is king and ruler of all areas of life, and human beings are accountable to him in everything they do. They also remind us that it is good for believers to be involved in a variety of cultural pursuits. Christians should not withdraw from the broader culture but should take up cultural tasks with joy and express their Christian faith through them. Every lawful occupation is honourable. They also acknowledge that the effects of sin penetrate all aspects of life; therefore Chriswtians must be careful and vigilant in their cultural pursuits, perceiving and rejecting the sinful patterns in cultural life and striving after obedience to God’s will in everything. Finally, many contemporary voies stress that the true Christian hope is not for a disembodied life a a soul in heaven but for the resurrection and new heaven and new earth. All of these affirmations are helpful and true.
Unfortunately, other themes popular in the contemporary conversations are problematic. For example, many contemporary voices assert that God is redeeming all legitimate cultural activities and institutions and that Christians are therefore called to transform them accordingly and to build the kingdom of God through this work; on the contrary, Christians should in fact transform culture in the sense that they seek to have a beneficial influence on this world as they perform cultural activities with excellence and interpret them rightly.These contemporary voices instead claim that redemption is God’s work of restoration, empowering human being to pick up again the task of the first human beings, Adam and Eve, and to develop human culture as they were originally called to do. This redemptive transformation of present human culture begins a process that will culminate in the new creation (so they claim) – the new heaven and new earth. According to their vision, cultural engagement, our cultural products will adorn the eternal city.
Such views are not true to Scripture. The two worlds and two kingdoms doctrine affirms that God has made all things, that sin corrupts all aspects of life, that Christians should be active in human culture, that all lawful cultural vocations are honorable, that all people are accountable to God in every activity, and that Christians should seek to live out the implications of their faith in their daily vocations. A Christian, however, does not have to adopt a redemptive vision of culture in order to affirm these important truths. God in reality is not redeeming the cultural activities and institutions of this world, but is preserving them through the covenant he made with all living creatures through Noah in Genesis 8:20-9:17 – God makes its institutions and activities honorable, though only for temporary and provisional purposes.
God is redeeming a people for himself, by virtue of the covenant made with Abraham and brought to glorious fulfillment in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who has completed Adam’s original task once and for all.. These redeemed people are citizens of the “redemptive kingdom,” whom God is gathering now in the church and will welcome into the new heaven and new earth at Christ’s glorious return. Until that day, Christians live as members of both kingdoms, discharging their proper duties in each. They rejoice to be citizens of heaven through membership in the church, but also recognise that for the time being, they are living in Babylon, striving for justice and excellence in their cultural labors, out of love for Christ and their neighbour, as sojourners and exiles in a land that is not their lasting home. The “two-kingdoms” doctrine stands in the line of Christian thinking famously articulated by Augustine in the The City of God, developed in the Lutheran and Calvinist Reformations, and brought to greater maturity in the post-Reformation Reformed tradition; this two-kingdoms approach is thoroughly grounded in the story of Scripture and biblical doctrine. It embraces the heritage of Augustine and the Reformation and seeks to develop and strengthen it further. This doctrine strongly affirms that God has made all things, that sin corrupts all aspects of life, that Christians should be active in human culture, that all lawful cultural vocations are honorable, that all people are accountable to God in every activity, and that Christians should seek to live out the implications of their faith in their daily vocations. A Christian, however, does not have to adopt a redemptive vision of culture in order to affirm these important truths.

It is to be noted that the distorted contemporary views of Christianity and culture are held, in varying degrees, by Contemporary Neo-Calvinism, N.T. Wright and the New Perspective on Paul, and the movement called the “emergent or emerging church”. Such proponents are critical of traditional forms of Christianity and have special dislike for the doctrine that proclaims that this sinful world is going to be destroyed and that salvation consists in rescuing “souls” who “escapeL from this world and from eternal punishment and are taken to “heaven.”
The “emergent church” particularly advocates a vision which inspires our imaginations with hope about what our world can actually become (i.e. it is about our work of transforming the world toward peace and justice and the New Jerusalem through this process.
Calvin, Augustin, and Luther – to name a few – respected earthly vocations and affirmed the resurrection of the dead. But they also made very clear that the Christian’s cultural activities have to be carefully distinguished from the coming of the kingdom and the hope of the new creation. Such distinctions, they believed, were crucial to Christian faith and life.
The kingdom of God proclaimed by the Lord Jesus Christ is not built through politics, commerce, music, or sports.
Redemption does not consist of restoring people to fulfill Adam’s original task, but consists in the Lord Jesus Christ himself fulfilling Adam’s original task once and for all, on our behalf. Thus redemption is not “creation regained” but “re-creation gained.” Scripture’s teaching is that the affairs of human culture are temporary, provisional, and bound to pass away. But the redeeming work of Jesus Christ is perfect, and his eternal kingdom – a kingdom advancing now through the ministry and life of the church would be revealed in consummate glory apart from any work of our own human culture.

We need to see these distinctions clearly; otherwise we would give our lives to build what we think are important in ushering the new heaven and new earth and end up completely disillusioned and disappointed to find all that is in human culture and achievements is temporary and would pass away. Only what Jesus Christ ushered in, in the kingdom of God, would last eternally and be consummated in the glorious new heaven and new heaven where God’s people would live in bliss, and share in God’s glorious rule/

TWO WORLDS, TWO KINGDOMS: JESUS CHRIST THE LAST ADAM

In Genesis 315, God announces that what Adam failed to do would be accomplished by one of Eve’s own offspring. This offspring would assert authority over the enemy and vanquish him, inflicting not a minor blow but a mortal wound to the head. This is the original gospel message: a Son of Adam will do what Adam should have don in the first place, A second and last Adam is coming – the rest of the Old Testament unfolds this theme until the New Testament proclaims that the second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, has arrived (this in the Christmas message and good news).
In Romans 5:12-19 and 1 Corinthians 15 Paul explicitly points to these two Adams as the hinges upon which all of history turns, and he teaches that the second Adam is also the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45). Before the second Adam no one accomplished the task of the first Adam, and after the second Adam no one needs to accomplish it. The last Adam has completed it once and for all. Christians will attain the original destiny of life in the world-to-come, but we do so not by picking up the task where Adam left off but by resting entirely on the work of Jesus Christ, the last Adam who accomplished the task perfectly.
Like the first Adam, the Lord Jesus was confronted by the devil who tried to entice Christ to obey him, and King Jesus resisted the devil and conquered him (Matt. 4:1-11; Col.2:15; Heb, 2:14). Like the first Adam (who was to keep the garden of Eden holy as ‘God’s temple’), the Lord Jesus was called to priestly service, and Christ the Great HIgh Priest purified God’s holy dwelling and opened the way for human beings back into his presence (Heb.9:11-28; 10:19-22). Like the first Adam, the Lord Jesus was to enter God’s royal rest in the world to come upon finishing his work perfectly, and this is precisely what Christ did, entering into heaven itself, taking his seat at God’s right hand, ministering in the heavenly tabernacle, and securing our place in the world to come (Heb. 1:3; 4:14-16; 7:23-28).

If Christ is the last Adam, then we are not new Adams. To understand our own cultural work as picking up and finishing Adam’s original task is, however unwittingly, to compromise the sufficiency of Christ’s work. Christ perfectly atoned for all our sins, and hence we have no sins left to atone personally. Likewise, Christ perfectly sustained a time of testing similar to Adam’s; he achieved the new creation through his flawless obedience in this world. He has left nothing yet to be accomplished. God indeed calls Christians to suffer and to pursue cultural tasks obediently through our lives. But to think that our sufferings contribute to atoning for sin or that our cultural obedience contributes to building the new creation is to compromise the all sufficient work of Christ.
Through Christ’s work God not only forgives the sins of believers but also reckons them as those who have perfectly completed the first Adam’s task. They are united with Christ (Note UNION WITH CHRIST), claim his victory as their own, and become citizens of heaven, the world-to-come.
In the climatic event of the second coming, Christ will bring the present world and all of its cultural activities to a sudden and decisive end. Yet even as he sends the fire of judgment upon this world, he will call the new heaven and new earth, the New Jerusalem, “down out of heaven” (Rev. 21:1-2), and his people will become more than just citizens of the world to come – they will become residents too.

IMPLICATIONS FOR CHRISTIANS LIVING IN TWO WORLDS, TWO KINGDOMS

We have spent some time to focus on the relationship between Christianity and culture and we noted that Christians should be active in human culture, that all lawful cultural vocations are honorable, that all people are accountable to God in every activity, and that Christians should live out the implications of their faith in their daily vocations. A Christian, however, does not have to adopt a redemptive vision of culture in order to affirm these truths.
We indicate, to some extent, the implications on how Christians should live in the two worlds and two kingdoms.
It is now helpful to elaborate, in more detail, the important implications for Christians as they live in the present world with their vision and hope in the world to come.
We will recall that when the Messiah, Jesus, appeared on the scene, he said, “Repent, the kingdom of God is at hand; and John the Baptist who came to herald the coming of the Messiah, also declared the same thing and even pointed to Jesus as the “Lamb of God” who takes away the sins of the world.
Redemption does not consist of restoring people to fulfil Adam’s original task (as propounded by the distorted teaching of some) but consists in the Lord Jesus Christi himself fulfilling Adam’s original task once and for all on our behalf and he did it as the God-man. Redemption is not “creation regained” (where some consider culture like work, politics, s0cial concerns, as redeemed in the same sense that believers are redeemed). Redemption is in effect “re-creation gained”. As shared before, Scripture’s teaching is that the affairs of human culture are temporary, provisional, and bound to pass away; but the redeeming work of Jesus Christ is perfect, and his eternal kingdom and life of the church would be revealed in consummate glory apart from any work of our own human culture.

ELABORATION ON THE IMPLICATIONS FROM SCRIPTURE

From the epistle, the book of Ephesians:
In this epistle, apostle Paul surveys the purpose of God from eternity to eternity; it leads us to look behind before creation and beyond into the infinite and the eternal. The epistle focuses on God’s eternal purpose to create through Jesus Christ a new society and humanity; one characterised by life in place of death; unity and reconciliation instead of division and alienation; righteousness in place of corruption and wickedness; peace and love in place of strife and hatred; and by a continual conflict with evil and the evil one instead of a weak compromise with him and with evil.
Man has striven through the years to form a new society; politicians with the ideology of ‘the new man and society’ have campaigned for such a vision and dedicated themselves to its realisation of a classless society. However, it is still not feasible, given people’s selfish desires and corruption of the hearts of men. Some pursue such a vision with a determined effort to achieve this with the solution in economic terms; others have called for revolution in society, whether it be a call for more democracy or more freedom or improved international relations, but all these are to no avail.
The human predicament is even deeper than the injustice in the world and the lack of equality and opportunities among various peoples. Ephesians provides a greater vision and a more radical solution: a new creation!
Through Jesus Christ God is recreating men and women ‘for good works’, creating a single humanity in place of the old disastrous Jewish-Gentile division, including the present world with its decaying values and impending disaster, and recreating us in His own image “In true righteousness and holiness. The new man and the new society are God’s creative work; it is beyond the capacity of human power and ingenuity (it is through the mission of the Lord Jesus and the Gospel, it is through the last Adam who alone perfectly atoned for all our sins, and achieved the new creation through his flawless obedience in this world).

The role of Christ takes on a cosmic dimension with the sphere of interest in the heavenly realms in which the principalities and powers operate. The epistel tells us how Christ shed His blood in a sacrificial death for sin, and then raised from death (Easter) by the power of God and has been exalted above all to the supreme place in both the universe and the Church. We, the believers, who are in Christ, organically united to Him by faith, have ourselves shared in these great events. We have been raised from spiritual death, exalted to heaven and seated with Him there. We have also been reconciled to God and to each other through Christ and in Him. We are nothing less than God’s new society, the single new humanity which He is creating. Hence, we are to live in a manner worthy of this new calling, demonstrating unity and diversity in our common life, purity and love in our new behaviour, mutual submissiveness and care in the fight against the principalities and powers of evil. In the fullness of time, God’s purpose of unification and consummation will be brought to completion under the headship of Christ, and God will be all in all!!
God willing, we shall look at the implications in the book of Revelation subsequently.

TWO WORLDS, TWO KINGDOMS – IMPLICATIONS (B)

LOOKING AT THE BOOK ‘REVELATION’:

Revelation reminds believers that although all the circumstances in the last days seem to point to the preponderance of evil and the rise of ungodliness and worldliness, God is transcendent and He is sitting on the throne as the ruler of the universe. The Lord Jesus has won the war although the battles are still going on and the evil one is aware that his days are numbered and he is doing his utmost to cause as much damage as possible.
Revelation reminds believers to endure and persevere; although many so-called believers and churches will succumb to immorality, compromise, lukewarm responses and spiritual adultery. The tares will be shown not to be the wheat and the goats will be distinguished from the sheep.
The book gives us a glimpse of our glorious hope and future – the new Jerusalem (in the new heaven and new earth) and the wedding of the bride (the church) with the bridegroom (the Lord Jesus). There will no longer be pain, sickness, suffering or death. In the midst of pain, persecution, and suffering, Christians are not to lose heart for the end is near and the end is a new and glorious beginning!
A day will come when God’s wrath will be poured out, when sins will have to be accounted for, when the fate of every individual will depend on whether his name or her name is “written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
What determines whether our names will be written in the book of life? The Bible recorded the conversation between a rich young man and Jesus. The young man wanted to know how he could enter the kingdom of God (i.e. to have his name on the book of life). The Lord Jesus discerned that this young man’s idol was his riches and wealth; and although he claimed to have kept the 10 commandments (although only one man, Jesus, has kept them perfectly), the Lord told him to sell all he had and to follow Him.Jesus had declared that “He is the way, the truth, and the life” and surely following Jesus would be the way to eternal life and the eternal kingdom. The young man hesitated, and left, for he loved his riches too much to give them up, even for what is eternal and glorious.
So many today in this world and kingdom pursued many cultural activities – these include wealth, prestige, social concerns, political ambition, education, achievements in science, music and the arts – and these may be legitimate, but they can also prevent them from committing themselves to Jesus, the One who ushered in the new era, the new humanity, and the only One who now only can do it but has already done it. All that is required is to repent, and to receive what the Lord Jesus Christ offers, by faith. Do not imagine that our exploits and achievements in many cultural activities and many areas of human achievement can qualify us to have our names written in the book of life.

We have shared before that in John 3, Nicodemus, a teacher of the Law and a well respected member of the Sanhedrin, came to Jesus by night and asked how he could enter the kingdom of God (i.e. to have his name written on the book of life and a place in God’s new heaven and earth). Jesus told him that he had to be born again (i.e. born of the Spirit of God, a spiritual birth which only takes place when one comes to Jesus in repentance and faith). Here we see that even the high achievement of Nicodemus in the spiritual religious institution of the day did not qualify him to be listed among those in the book of life. Religion, which is perhaps one of the most esteemed activities among many, does not contribute to us being accepted into God’s kingdom. It has to be through Jesus, the way, and the reception of the spiritual life from Him, based on the revelation of the truth from God and Scripture.
For those who belong to Jesus, the apostle Paul wrote:
“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your life in him, rooted and built up in him strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness”(Colossians 2:8).
“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ , set your hearts on things above (i.e.the things in the new kingdom of God), where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Col. 3:1-4).
The above, in a nutshell, spells out the implication and application of our lives in Christ as His followers and disciples – pilgrims on the way to the celestial city, the new kingdom of God, which would be dwelt by those who belong to Him. In the meantime, we are to live in two kingdoms, two worlds, always conscious where our final destiny would be.

TWO WORLDS, TWO KINGDOMS: THE CHURCH

We have established the fact that Christians are living in the context of two kingdoms – they are to fulfil their roles in this earthly kingdom as God’s people and also be focusing on their citizenships in heaven.
In that light, believers are to regard the church as the one and only earthly institution that can claim the promises of Abrahamic covenant of grace and can identify itself with the redemptive kingdom, the kingdom of heaven proclaimed by Christ.
All institutions generally serve good and honorable purposes at present, but they await termination at the day of Christ’s return. The church, however, awaits Christ’s return as a day of consummation, when the bride of Christ will take her place at the wedding banquet of the Lamb (Eph. 5:22-32; Rev. 19:9-10).

The church is primary for the Christian life. Every other institution – the family, the school, the business corporation, the state – is secondary in the practice of Christianity. The church is where the chief action of the Christian life takes place.
The life and ministry of the church are not means to an end. They do not exist to recharge our ‘batteries’ or to give us a strategy for facing the week ahead. The church’s worship and fellowship are ends in themselves. Nothing that we do in this world is more important than participating in these activities. Participation in the life of the church, not participation in the cultural activities of the broader world, is central for the Christian life.
The church is the only earthly institution that can identify itself with the redemptive kingdom. To have fellowship with the church is to have fellowship with the kingdom of heaven that Jesus proclaimed. The Christian’s “life” is in heaven, hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:1-4), and the Christian’s true “citizenship” is in heaven, from where Christ will return again (Phil. 3:20-21). If the life of the world-to-come defines who we really and truly are, then the earthly community that opens the gates to this kingdom and bestows its fellowship upon us has pride of place over those that do not. The family, the state, the school, and the workplace are all honorable and useful communities, and we should strive to participate in them in ways worthy of our heavenly citizenship. But none of them is the kingdom of heaven on earth. The church ought to be central to the Christian life because the church is the special community that manifests the redemptive kingdom and grants us the fellowship of our true home, the world-to-come.
[Note: we are referring to the true church of born-again believers, the people of God; it is not any institution which claims to be the church of God. Individuals who claim to be Christians, and that they can function without the church are in fact claiming to belong to God’s people, and yet are outside the redemptive community of heaven. Christian societies, groups with special emphasis, and the like, may be functioning with God’s approval, but they do not constitute the church. Members in such groups should also be participating in the church and have fellowship with the redemptive community).

The church is the special community that renders worship to God. We may not know all about our future lives in heaven but what we do know is that the world-to-come will be a place saturated with worship of the Triune God (Rev. 15:1-4; Rev. 22:3). The church is first and foremost a community of worship.
Some believers assert that all of life should be worship to God, and that is true; but we are referring to what Scripture affirms that there is that special activity that is more properly deemed “worship.” Such worship consists essentially in God speaking to us (through the reading and preaching of his Word and the administration of sacraments as his visible word) and his people speaking back to him (through prayer and song). Such worship is an activity of the redemptive kingdom alone.

There are distinctive characteristics about the church of God and it will not be feasible to cover them comprehensively in this sharing. By God’s grace, these are shared in the book “The Pertinent Message to the Church in the Last Days” – this is available on the website http://www.livinginthe last days.com; on Amazon kindle (e-book) and in some limited printed copies.

At this juncture, we need to acknowledge that the church is not a natural institution – its authority structures could not emerge organically from natural relationships. Neither could the nature of its officers’ authority be logically derived from necessities. The church was specially and supernaturally established by Christ (Matt. 16:17-19). Only Christ, therefore, by his own words and the words of his inspired apostles, could establish the authority structures in the church and the scope of church officers’ authority. Chris has in fact done exactly this by appointing the offices of pastor, elder, and deacon and defining the qualifications and responsibilites for holding these offices (eg. Acts 6:1-6; 14:23; 20:17-35; Eph. 4:11-12; 1 Tim. 3:1-13; 4:6-16; 4:17-22; 2 Tim. 2:1-7, 14-16, 22-26; 4:1-5; Titus 1:5-9; 2:1-15). The offices come from Christ as made known in the New TestaTestament.
When church officers seek to do things or to impose doctrine or practices that Scripture does not authorise, they usurp authority rather than exercise the authority that Christ has given. Jesus warned against religious leaders who teach “as doctrines the commandments of men” (Matt. 15:9), and Paul warned against those who who impart “human precepts and teachings” which have “an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion… (Col. 2:22-23).

IMPLICATIONS IN LIVING IN TWO KINGDOMS (D)
We have pondered over the meaning of the arrival of the Messiah (into human history); we noted that the last Adam (the Lord Jesus [God becoming man] ) came to undo what the first Adam did. As Christians observe Christmas, we celebrate the remembrance of the coming of the Lord Jesus and the dawning of a new era, with the ‘re-creation’ of a new humanity and society in Him. Of course, we need to remember that Jesus was born in a manger, not in a palace; He grew up, not in a rich wealthy context; He was rejected by His own people and He continued with the steadfastness to go to Jerusalem where He knew that death awaits Him. He came, proclaiming to the people to repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand; He said, before His crucifixion, that His kingdom is not of this world, otherwise, His people would fight; and He was fully conscious of the agony(not just physical, but also the prospect of carrying the sins of the world throughout all generations and receiving the wrath of God on our behalf) that He had to undergo – but even in the garden of Gethsemane, in facing all these, He concluded to His Father with the words, “Not my will, but your will be done” and He went forward to fulfil His mission to save the world. The Son of God was mocked, stripped naked, beaten, and crucified; and He could have called for angels to rescue Him, but He remained on the cross until “it is finished’ for our sake and for the salvation plan of the loving, merciful, and gracious Triune God (who determined to save those who are His people, even before the creation of the world).

Jesus did all these so that those who believe in Him by faith and repented become citizens of heaven (God’s kingdom); yet they still live in this earthly kingdom in the meantime until Christ comes again to bring in the fullness of God’s kingdom – hence the meaning of living in two worlds, two kingdoms, with two lives, for those who become citizens of God’s kingdom.

At this juncture, we focus on the calling to continue in the faith with courage and fortitude, as we live here on earth as pilgrims, on the way to our eternal home:
“Continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard” (Colossians 1:23).
As we remember our Master, in the face of rejection, ‘poverty’, persecution, and death, continuing with courage and endurance to fulfil His mission because of love, let us also continue in faith under pressure, with the one desire to uphold God’s honour and glory as His people.
But remember that this desire is advanced by the experience of suffering as believers grow in the awareness that the life of God is leading them on their way to the celestial city where they would share the eternal life and glory of God.

Christians know with great clarity of mind that a close walk with the Father and the Son, leaning hard on them and drawing strength from them through the Holy Spirit, is both what they need and what they truly want.
Consider the following verses:
“Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word” (Psalm 119:67).
Rough experiences and suffering challenge us to repent of past thoughtlessness and carelessness and to become more conscientious in doing our Father’s will.
“It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes” (vs 71).
It is as if only when trouble comes to us that we see clearly what has actually gone wrong in our walk with God and our behaviour as Christians.
But this is when God afflicts us and disciplines us in His love for us.
However, troubles and pain can come to us from the attacks of the evil one and from individuals and people of the world (manipulated by the devil) just as the Messiah had to go through on earth some 2000 years ago.

But whatever it is, and whatever God allows, we need to remember that God’s faithfulness in keeping His promises remains steadfast and true. He is unwilling that His children should lose any of the depths of fellowship with Himself that He has in store for them. So He afflicts us to make us lean harder on Him, that His purpose of drawing us into closest fellowship with HImself may be fulfilled; also He allows us to be trained in spiritual warfare such that we may have lasting courage and fortitude to live worthy of our high calling and to prepare us for the new heaven and new earth.
Fortitude is a compound of courage and endurance. It lasts. Faith fosters fortitude by inducing purity of heart in those who are under pressure and suffering distress; and fortitude in turn produces character, and character hope which does not disappoint us, for the One who establishes this hope is the unchanging, faithful, loving, gracious, transcendent God!

SOME SOBER REFLECTIONS AND EVALUATION

Text: 1 Corinthians 9:24-10:13
Whenever I come to reading the above text, especially at the end of a year and a beginning of another, it causes me to reflect soberly, and to evaluate honestly how I have been faring as a child of God, and what needs to be emphasised and corrected in the coming year, and years to come (God willing).

The passage first reveals the sincere sharing of Paul’s own life and ministry; then it goes on to warnings from Israel’s history.
Paul first deals with the issue of the dangers of sexual misconduct and setting our hearts on evil things. He refers to the example of athletes competing in a race to stress the need for discipline, self-control to run and finish a race; there ought to be the same level of determination, discipline and dedication at the heart of the believer’s spiritual life and race. The prize for finishing the Christian race is not just something perishable but an eternal prize; and the winner is not just one individual; all faithful servants of Christ will receive this prize.
Paul knew that the whole course had to be completed until the finishing line. He was aware that he himself (an apostle) could be disqualified if he did not exercise self-discipline even though he had preached to others. He had to keep the goal and finishing line in mind; Paul was conscious that the opponent was his own body and its appetites and he knew he had to subdue his appetites, lest he be disqualified after teaching others regarding the faith.
These were a constant problem in the church at Corinth and also a danger among God’s servants and Christian leaders today’s church. There is the danger of stumbling by not laying aside sinful conduct and losing vigilance, and also becoming complacent and indifferent in our life and ministry.

We must pay heed to the warning to believers and churches not to be ill-disciplined spiritually and just to drift along without any gospel urgency and radical discipleship.
The words of the late J.I. Packer in “Seeing God in the Dark” are so helpful and relevant:
“A mistake is to suppose that growth in grace is automatic; to suppose that it is something you need not bother about because it will look after itself,something which is guaranteed, particularly if you are a professional minister, missionary or church officer. The enemy wants to encourage all who seek to serve God to take it for granted that as we do our job we shall automatically grow and mature in Christ and therefore need not bother about sanctification at all. He wants to encourage us to think this way because, if we are not striving to grow, we are actually in danger of doing the very opposite, namely, shrinking as a person behind the role we play.”
Note that we need to be striving to grow. Paul speaks of discipline, self-control, wholeheartedly running the race, bringing our lazy, self-indulgent bodies and our proud, selfish spirits under the daily challenge of Christ’s authority. But we need to know that it is by God’s enabling through His Holy Spirit. This does not preclude daily discipling, self-control and the partaking of the disciplines of grace, offered to us through the study of the Bible, Christian fellowship, community worship, communion and the other graces.

Paul went on to share about how God was displeased with most of the Israelites in the wilderness after the exodus from Egypt.Take note that the Israelites had experienced the clear guiding hand of God and witnessed the miraculous deliverance through the sea (Ex. 13:21; 14:22). They entered into the experience of Moses as the agent of Israel’s deliverance, and in the same way Christians enter into the experience of Christ as their deliverer. They were nourished by the same spiritual food and sustained by spiritual drink from the rock, which was Christ meeting their needs in the same way he completely meets the needs of the Corinthians. The One who was there at the beginning and was the agent of creation and who upholds all things, was actively involved in the life of God’s people in OT times just as he is involved in the lives of Christians today.
Despite the privileges the Israelites enjoyed from God, their responses were repulsive and many of them died in the wilderness without entering the promised land. We see the dangers of taking our privileges for granted and becoming presumptuous in our Christian walk as we learn from the negative example of the Israelites. Privileges from God do not guarantee that in the end we will not incur God’s displeasure. External identification with God’s work and involvement in Christian activities, meetings and even listening to God’s Word preached and taught do not guarantee that we will be acceptable to God in the end.
When we become presumptuous and careless in our responses to God, assuming that our privileges and activities provide immunity for us in our spiritual lives, let us not be surprised when God decides to lay His chastening hand upon us. Let us not forget that privileges and grace from God require responses of gratefulness, perseverance and faithfulness in fulfilling our spiritual obligations sincerely before Him.

Three problem areas were highlighted by Paul: idolatry, sexual immorality and grumbling. All of these were seen in the lives of the Israelitles in the wilderness. Although Israel was guilty of worshipping the golden calf when Moses went up the mountain, we must remember that anything or anyone that occupies the centre of our lives, in pace of, or alongside God is an idol. What is it that we cannot live without? What takes first place in our choices when it comes to the bottom line? These questions help us determine whether anything or anyone matters more to us than God.
In the matter of sexual immorality, self-gratification and sexual pleasure at the expense of holiness to God is tantamount to self-worship. This is the root of sexual immorality and we see it exposed in the church of Corinth.
The people of Israel tested God’s patience and grumbled against God again and again. They even rebelled against Moses and the leaders, longing to go back to Egypt, the place of bondage.
Idolatry, immorality, and grumbling (murmuring) are endemic in the human heart. If we do not appreciate the ugliness of sin and do not appreciate the good news in Jesus, then these sins easily surface in our lives. Only deep gratitude to God and deep love for God and His ways will keep us away from presumptuous and careless living. There should be no compromise when it comes to honouring and glorifying God!
Paul, in verses 11-12, makes it clear that the warnings are for those on whom the culmination of the ages has come; in other words, these warnings are for us as well. If we think we are standing firm, be careful that we do not fall! It is easy to think, as we read this passage, to conclude that the warnings should apply specifically to so-and-so in the church, in the Christian circle, but conveniently forget that God might be speaking to us specifically. Let us come before Him with hearts that are tender and open to His warnings and corrections.

SOME SOBER REFLECTIONS AND EVALUATIONS (B)

As we approach the end of the year and the beginning of another year, and as we remember the coming of God into human history in Jesus Christ our Lord, I ponder over why our Lord chose to come to us, not in a way many human beings would consider as appropriate for a king, and more so, for the king of kings.
And ironically, where the world detects the most obvious example of weakness – the cross – God triumphs over sin and death at the cross – just where the highest and holiest victim of truly undeserved suffering cries out, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” victory over sin and death is taking place. This is the foolishness and weakness that trump the wisdom and power of the ages.
Consider Jesus, the One who already had everything voluntarily, freely, without any external constraint, give it up in order to live for others. There is the power here that makes man’s will to pursue power seem petty and trivial by comparison; from the moment of the acceptance of the Father’s electing decree, the Son actively pursued the weakness of the incarnation suffering, shame, and death on the cross. He died, not as a heroic demonstration of power, but as a humble acceptance of the just sentence we deserved.

And that brings me to 2 Corinthians 12:
“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2Cor. 12:9-10)
In the above passage, the apostle Paul shared the spiritual truth that our weaknesses really are an opportunity for God to show his strength. Paul not only learned this in his own life and ministry, but he also pointed to the fact that if we desire to follow our Lord and Master in our life and service, this is an important and essential truth to know and to experience; and perhaps the manner of the life and ministry the Lord Jesus adopted when He came into human history demonstrates what this truth really means – God’s power is demonstrated and made perfect in weakness -not that the Lord has any weakness in himself, but that the way of the cross demonstrates ‘strength out of weakness’, ‘suffering leading to glory’, and ‘death leading to life’.

Scripture treats our sharing in Christ’s sufferings as the prerequisite for our sharing in His glory (Romans 8:17; 2 Cor. 1:5; Philippians129; 1 Peter 4:13). The cross is Christ’s cross, which no one else is able to bear. That cross alone brings forgiveness of sins and peace and reconciliation with God. His suffering was redemptive, whereas ours is a participation in the already-accomplished victory. But our cross-bearing is still real. It is not another cross that we bear for our sin and guilt, but a sharing in His humiliation and shame as those who belong to Him.
The goal of life for the Christian is not to be happy, but to be holy; not to make ourselves acceptable to ourselves and others, but to be made acceptable to God by God; not to be gathered together with all of the successful people in the prime of our life, but to be gathered with our fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters in the faith.
There is no place for suffering in a life whose goals are determined by a hedonistic culture, but our chief end is “glorify God and to enjoy him forever”, and our lives are to be read in the light of the broader script of creation, fall and redemption. Then suffering is the way to ultimate glory, not a resignation to meaningless tragedy.
In 2 Corinthians 12, we learn that the grace of God is not only for the beginning of the Christian life; it is for the beginning, the middle and the end (and I am closer to the end than I have ever been before). Through the pain of the ‘thorn’, Paul was to learn that we get no lasting glory here, least of all through dramatic religious experiences, though they appear glorious and laden with power. There is a ‘power’ which brings elation but it the power of the flesh, not the power of Christ.
The power of Christ is rather power-in-weakness, for his grace is apprehended only in the awareness of our weakness – it is at the very heart of the gospel.Paul’s ministry, which was marked by much pain, was possible only through the power of God. THE GRACE AND POWER OF GOD INTERLOCK WITH HUMAN LIVES AT THE POINT OF MORAL WEAKNESS – this is what Paul learned, and this is what we need to learn, not just intellectually, but in experience.
And it is certainly not easy to learn. As I approach the age of 80 years old rather soon, and after being a Christian for some 57 years, and given the privilege to serve God and His people, I am still learning this, often in the midst of discouragement and spiritual setbacks, not just for own life and service, but also as I empathise with many of the brethren who are going through such difficult circumstances.
In this present world, there are injustice and inequality, and frequently we are helpless to remedy the evil effects of these in our own lives. In our present experience, we suffer from disorders within our personalities, and through prayer and counselling may minimise them but they are not always removed. In our present lives, many suffer from ill-health, mental illness and disease that neither intercession nor medication overomes. What is the Christian to do in these circumstances of pain and suffering? He or she is to pray that the Lord will deliver him/her, as Paul did. It may be that God will deliver the person, as He is continuously doing (1:10; 4:7-10), mindful that all such deliverances are partial. But if not, what then? It is all too easy to allow these things to eat away at our lives until we become embittered and self-pitying. Alternatively, it sometimes happens that suffering Christians turn in desperation to those whose teaching on healing fails to acknowledge that we still live in God’s world, and the promise of the future kingdom and world is still to acome (where there will be no more suffering, sickness, and death).
Rather, the Christian is to allow those ‘thorns’ to pin him or her closer to Christ who imparts grace to the sufferer both to bear the pain and also to develop qualities of endurance and patience.
In some mysterious way it is within God’s plan that our present existence is marked by pain and suffering. From one point of view God hates these things and will one day overthrow them. And yet is it not through the awareness of our sins that the grace of God holds us near Christ for forgiveness right through our lives? And is it not, also, in the pain of the suffering of both body and mind, that the same grace pins us closer to Christ, who says to us “My power is made perfect in weakness”?
Paul’s weakness is that of a servant of God weary in bone and limb from serving others in the gospel of Christ; the ‘thorn’ is the reality of his human mortality and weakness despite his extraordinary revelations from God. The ‘thorn’ also kept him pinned close to the Lord, in trust and confidence.
There is great glory for the faithful servant of God, but it is not yet. It will be revealed at the end, our afflictions having drawn us closer and closer, throughout our lives, to the grace of Christ.
In the meantime, we need to be reminded daily that only God’s strength can sustain and empower us for service; weakness in this world and culture is hidden, denied, rejected, and avoided at all costs but admitting it and walking in it are indispensable to biblical faith. The world sells us self-reliance; God says, “Rely on me!”
The truth is that in many respects, and certainly in spiritual matters, we are all weak and inadequate, and we need to face it. Sin, which disrupts all relationships, has disabled us all across the board. We need to be aware of our limitations and to let this awareness work in us humility and self-distrust, and a realisation of our helplessness on our own.Then we may learn to depend on Christ, our Saviour and Lord in every turn of the road, to practice that dependence as one of the constant habits of our heart, and thereby to discover what Paul discovered before us: “When I am weak, then I am strong”:(2 Cor. 12:10).

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE: From Luke 11:1; specifically from vs 29 onwards

Our congregation continues from January 11th January 26 to study Luke 11:29 onwards in our sermons series, and bible study at DG level.

As we have paused in the study of Luke for some while, it may be helpful to review what has been communicated by Luke thus far, as well as what comes after.
The first part of Luke Gospel has to do with Jesus’ identity and mission, and the second with His journey to Jerusalem, His death and resurrection.
The first 4 chapters record the supernatural birth of Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah, as well as the birth of John the Baptist. Chapters 4:14 to 6:49 may be seen as a section containing the public ministry of Jesus.
Luke 7:1-8:56 centres on the account of the sinful woman and is all about the salvation that Jesus has accomplished.
Luke 9:1-50 is concerned with the identity of Jesus being recognised by His disciples and confirmed by His heavenly Father. It also deals with Jesus’ summons to discipleship (23-27). From verse 51, Luke records Jesus’ decision to journey to Jerusalem, and from here to Luke 24:53, Luke records His teaching on His journey, His death and His resurrection, and the risen Jesus’ explanation from the Law and the Prophets of what He had accomplished
At this point of our study, we are at chapter 11.

The above review, incidentally, outlines the approach in preaching that is expository, and also focuses on bible study that takes into account the text, in its context, and its place in what comes before and after in the whole book as well as the whole sweep of salvation history or biblical theology.It is to allow the Bible to dictate the content of the sermon and the study.
An expository ministry will over time produce a Bible-loving, Bible-reading and, with prayer, a Bible-obeying church.
The golden key is context. In the particular text chosen for preaching or teaching, there is the immediate literary context of what precedes and what follows the unit under consideration. Next, there is a wider context of the book, which explores what the major themes of the book a whole are and how this unit and text connects to them. Then it raises the question of the book’s purpose.

If the whole Bible is God preaching and teaching God to us, what is He saying about Himself in this context and what was that designed to achieve from the original recipients of the text? If we discover why this inspired word was given to ‘them then’, that will be of great help in building the ‘bridge to us’ now. In other words, how do we apply what was communicated then to our current context as God’s people? Context gives application. The Word does the work. It has a power that is located nowhere else, simply because it is God’s Word.

Before we look at 11:29-36, let us refresh what we learn from verses 14 to 28, and it will help us to appreciate more specifically verses 29-36.
In the previous study, the Lord Jesus was accused by the Jewish leaders that He cast out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons. There were some who were non-committal while some others who exhibited passive admiration.
People have always looked for alternative explanations to Jesus’ authority over their lives; some say He was a great teacher; others said He was another great religious leader. No matter how illogical or inconsistent these attitudes may be, people prefer to ignore the evidence rather than allow themselves to feel the weight and truth of Jesus’ words. If what the Lord says is true, and the evidence clearly points that way, we cannot ignore Him and hope to get away with it.

At that time, many Jewish exorcists were operating and the Jewish leaders recognised this; but when Jesus healed a dumb individual, they obviously knew that there was a greater force at work in Jesus, and they were no match for it, but they preferred to ignore the evidence rather than allow themselves to feel the weight and truth of what Jesus said and did.
Jesus used the healing to show the reality of the cosmic power struggle in which He was engaged.
Non-committal responses to Jesus will not do; there is no neutral ground. “Whoever is not with me is against me,’ Jesus said. The Lord warned against superficial spiritual experiences that were not accompanied by any real deep change.
A sentimental response to Jesus and His healing of the dumbed man does not impress the Lord – He is content with nothing less than total surrender of our lives and total commitment to Him. We are either filled with the Spirit of God or the spirit of the enemy.
And this passage of 11:14-28 lays down the groundwork for a deeper appreciation of 11:29-36 subsequently. At this juncture, we need to evaluate how we respond to the Person, Words, and mission of Jesus. Do we belong to those who rejected Him? Are we among those who are non-committal, or we just passive admirers? All three responses are ultimately unacceptable, for we are dealing with the gift of the Son of God who, out of love, mercy, and grace, chose voluntarily to carry out the wondrous plan of salvation for fallen mankind. Either He is the Lord or He is not. The wrong response, as we shall see in the subsequent study, would incur the judgment of God and the consequence can be truly disastrous eternally.

EXEGESIS AND SPIRITUALITY

Why so much emphasis on exegesis and theology? It is because the proper aim of all true theology is doxology. Theology that does not begin and end in worship of the triune God is not biblical at all.
The final objective of all true exegesis is spirituality; in some form or another. Only when exegesis is so understood has the exegetical task been done in a way that is faithful to the intent of the text itself. So for ministers preaching the Word of God and leaders leading and teaching in Bible study, this is so very essential to remember and to practice.

Spirituality, as noted in the New Testament, is defined altogether in terms of the Spirit of God (or Christ). One is spiritual to the degree that one lives in and walks by the Spirit.
The aim of exegesis to produce in our lives and the lives of others true spirituality, in which God’s people live in fellowship with the eternal and living God, and thus in keeping with God’s own purpose in the world, and in line with the role and mission of the church.
True spirituality must precede exegesis as well as flow from it. However, if those who teach and preach God’s Word, while preaching and teaching, must be based on solid exegesis of the text. Also they must live constantly in God’s presence, hunger and thirst after God – then can they possibly bring off the ultimate goal of exegesis, to help to fashion God’s people into genuine Spirituality. Without the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, all else is mere exercise. Hence the One who teaches and preaches must know the fullness of the Spirit!