Go share the Gospel!

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed (Jn 8:36)
Brother Tony Anthony, 09/05/2010 (Sun)
The text is taken from John 8:31-36.

Joh 8:31-36  So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,  (32)  and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."  (33)  They answered him, "We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, 'You will become free'?"  (34)  Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.  (35)  The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever.  (36)  So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

(Wow! We are treated with 2 song presentations from the Canticle Singers! Joy! This Little Light of Mine and Joyful, Joyful, Lord We Adore Thee.)

Pastor Daniel shared about the passion, prayer, pursuit and purpose of the Christians in Moscow. Tuition fees for 6 years medicine study in Moscow is RM180k. And the medical science there is top notch. The Moscow Medicine Academy and Moscow State University are both focused on medicine. There are more than 1,000 Malaysian students there, half Malay, sponsored by the government. More than 200 of the remaining 500 non-Malays are Christians. This year, more than 250 are going to medical mission trips in 11 nations.
Tony Anthony was the world martial arts champion for three consecutive years. He became the bodyguard for rich and powerful people. God saved him and he is now staying in UK with his family.
(An introductory video clip of Brother Tony Anthony was played but Dew Crew didn’t bother to transmit to the LCD TV outside. We could only hear the song. Oh Well.)
(Pastor Daniel prayed for the mothers in conjunction of Mother’s Day.)



Brother Tony Anthony was invited to the stage at 1113. He is half Chinese and half Italian.
He was in South Africa. There was a story of two naughty boys who stole food from the pantry and ran to the graveyard to share. They dropped two oranges when they climbed the gate. A drunk men heard them dividing the oranges, “one for you, one for me.” The drunk quickly got the priest and they heard the two voices continued to divide the oranges, “one for you and one for me … and what do we do about the two at the gate.” The priest ran.

His dad was Italian. His dad had multiple sclerosis. His mother took care of both of them. He was sent to China to let his grandparents take care of him. He was raised as a Buddhist. He was treated like an animal and he was very violent. He later trained in Europe and took part in competitions. From 1987 to 1989 he was the world champion. He became bodyguard and met many interesting people. He met a Swiss girl who died in a car crash. He turned very violent and made many wrong decisions and hurt many people while collecting debts. In the line of duty, he killed some people and got into burglary. He was arrested in Cyprus. He was charges with things he didn’t commit. He was put in a prison in Nicosia. The inmates were treated badly.
He knew who his real friends were then. He was cut off all contacts. He received a letter from a complete stranger, Mr. Michael Wright from Ireland. He saw his name in the newspaper and decided to wrote to him. He granted Mr. Wright a visiting order so he could get a drink of Coca-cola. Mr. Wright visited him every Thursday for three years and treated him as equal, like his son. He didn’t question his past but shared the Gospel.

Jesus became to change him. He stopped being stupid and violent. He knew he could not do anything to be good enough for God. He knew Jesus came to the world to die on the Cross to pay the price for every wrong thing he ever did. He knew 2 things – he had to be WILLING to turn from the wrong things from his life, God will help him; he also SURRENDERED his life to God. It was harder. God was interesting in his life. It was not about singing in church, it was about living it, the decisions we make and the small things people don’t see but God can see.

He was the 1st out of 10 in the motley crew to became a Christian, which consist of Buddhists, Hindu, Muslim, etc.

Brother Tony said beneath his nice suit is a terrible and sinister sinner but a sinner forgiven by Jesus Christ.
What happens when a student passes an exam, would he keep it to yourself? No, he would tell his parents and friends. We announce it when we have a children. We tell people good news, don’t we? Why is it that the arguably the best news of not going to hell we don’t tell others? Why is it that we have a fear factor? Why do we want to leave it to the ministers and preacher? Why do we think of all the stupid excuses? There is something stopping us.
What is the priority of the church? Our diaries are full but sometimes we need to stop and consider carefully whether we are doing what we are doing what we should be doing? Why are not we sharing our faith? we are at war, a spiritual war!

God is described as a man of war, there is a battle scene, we are described as soldiers. We are also told in Eph 6 that our struggles are against principalities. We need to resist the devil and he will flee. Eph 6 tells us the armour of God.

One one side,  have Satan and his principalities and on the other side we have the God of the church.
William Wilberforce fought for abolishment of slavery. But today, there are still people still enslaved. We fight to help AIDS patients (3500 died in Africa every week!),  the homeless. We are fighting against abuse, diseases, the effects of alcohols against our bodies. We are warring against the conditions of the mind, including depression and loneliness.

Ultimately, we are fighting for the souls for the glory of God! The ultimate battle is for souls. Lk 19:10. Jesus came to save the lost. In Mk 8:36 we see the value of souls.

William Booth, the founder of Salvation Army once held audience with the King. His ambitions is the souls of man. This doesn’t come normal. The passion comes from God because he first loves us.

Mar 16:15  And he said to them, "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.
Every ministry may have equal value but they may not have equal priorities.

Take for example when we visit a person on his deathbed in the hospital, we could raise funds for him, get him water or a pillow or pray. But the more urgent task is to tell him about Jesus.

The priority of Jesus Christ is to share the Gospel.

Dr. John Stott said our first duty is to share the Gospel. Mt 28:19, Act 1:8 both pointed out the significance and urgency of evangelism. Dr. Derek Prince described evangelism as a supreme task of the church. Mr. Michael Green thought proclaiming the Gospel is the first priority. Ray Comfort from Living Waters Ministry said Jesus made clearly the supreme responsibility of evangelism. Charles Spurgeon said the Apostle Paul’s great ministry in life is not to comfort but to save. There is no excuse!

In 1988, the Anglican reached a resolution to make evangelism a priority. William Booth said we could takea man from a slump, dress him up and find him a home and let him die and go to hell. There is no point!
The single most important reform that we can bring to Asia is proclaiming the Gospel! We often try to fight spiritual problem with weapons of the flesh. We need to realize hungry, poverty, injustice are spiritual issues. Our money is not enough! We need to restore the balance between evangelism and discipleship.
A sacred cow could walk around eating all it could while people are starving. People ask if God is loving God, how could he allow people to be hungry? People who believed in incarnation don’t kill rats because it could be an ancestors. Rats destroyed 20% of the wheat in India. Indira Gandhi once said the problem will not be solved until the religion is changed. 26.8 millions of grains lost because of rats can fill up 5000 km  of trains lined up. Why did God not provide food? He did, it was in the train.

Tony didn’t say we preach the Gospel and then feed them. No, do it together. Poverty, hunger and injustice are symptoms of spiritual problems. We need spiritual weapons to address spiritual problems. The Lord never said go to the world and pray / set up social programs, etc. even though we need to pray and set up social programs. He told us to go into the world and spread the Gospel.

If we need to change Malaysia, we need to change the people that make up the nation. If we need to change the people that make up the nation, we need to change their hearts. If we want to change their hearts, we need to plant the incorruptible seed of the Gospel.

Evangelism ought to be our supreme priority. What is our supreme purpose? What is the purpose of the church? God made us to love him. The purpose of church, of Christians, of us is to love God, to worship God and to honour Him. We need to obey him. Our priority is to evangelize. The enemy manipulated us to set wrong priorities. Satan knows the Bible. He knows the indication of the end of days. He knows where he is going to end in. He knows it’s true. The end will come when the Gospel is shared to all the earth. Whenever a Christian shares the Gospel, he is bringing Satan nearer to his end.

If we are really Christians, we are family. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. Our nationality is Christians. We may not know each other very well but we have all eternity to get to know each other. Proclaiming the Gospel is fighting for lives.

Mar 8:35  For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.

If we give money and worship in church, we are just doing half the verse. The early Christians found life and full life when they proclaimed the Gospel. They were prepare to be martyrs. They found something amazing. They cling on to proclaiming of the Gospel.

Consider two taps, one is turned on once every year and the other is turned on all the time. We would want to drink from the 2nd tap because the water is full of live. It is not stagnant.

Start sharing the Gospel at least once a day and witness the change in our lives. We will get this fire burning in us. Nothing will stop us. There will be difficulty. God promised to be with us until the very end. We don’t know what we are missing if we don’t share the Gospel. When we share the Gospel, we are the benefactor. The enemy doesn’t want us to know there is a connection between the sharing of Gospel with a full life.

Joh 1:4  In him was life (ζωή, zoe true, full life), and the life was the light of men.

A baby drinks milk, wears diapers and sleeps. Some Christians go to church, worship and sleep! It that the sort of life we want?

Please share the Gospel. Please share the Gospel. Please share the Gospel!

20 years ago, someone came to visit Tony in prison and helped him know Jesus. Today, he is going to honour God, he is going to honour that man. He is going to share the Gospel until he dies.
Phm 1:6  and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.