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When You Started Out (1 Thess 1:1-10)

Elder Stephen Choi, 20081207

Good works for Christian

· Remember where we were? Someone comes into your life and God convicted you. Any changes?

· Started out as Christian – what happened? Did you share Jesus with others?

· Continue grow in the Lord. Enthusiasm/Excitement? Continue to show gratitude to God for His work in our life. Has your love grown or faded?

1. Be Grateful to God

1Th 1:1-10 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace. (2) We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, (3) remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Three cardinals / virtues of a Christian are faith, hope and love. They are not an end in themselves.

What does faith produce? Paul said it produces work in the life of Christians. We are saved not by works but grace – by what Jesus did on the Cross. James said faith without work is dead. We can do work without faith perhaps due to humanitarian purposes. There are people who help others without knowing God. But faith cannot be without work. Work can be evangelistic, helping others or act of kindness.

Love if often linked with labour or the pain involved in the work. Love motivates Christians to work hard even when the work is difficult and tiring. The labour is prompted by love. This love itself is prompted by the love of God which is placed in our hearts (Rom 5:5). Because of the love of God in us, we are willing to walk the second mile. Love is long suffering and it involves a lot of self-sacrifices. If our labour in church is not prompted by love but by a desire to fulfill people’s expectations, one day we will burn out and wonder what we are doing. We need to check ourselves.

Endurance is inspired by hope which will see us through tough times. It is not the suffering or hardship that causes despair, it is when we lose hope that we fall into despair. When we study the book of Job, we find Job to be so enthusiastic in his worship of God and acknowledged that God gives and takes. In Job 30:10, we see Job in despair. When hope defers, the heart despairs. What is the basis of our hope? Is it our bank account? Our children who will take care of us? Our government? Our hope is based on Jesus Christ.

God deposited these three virtues in every Christian. Do we recognize them in our lives? Are they working in our lives? Recognize God’s work and value them. Paul wrote letters to express his appreciations to those who labour hard for God. Sometimes it can be discouraging. Shepherds and church workers should be thankful that God is working in our lives. People’s appreciation is a bonus.

2. Respond to the Spirit

1Th 1:4-6 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, (5) because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. (6) And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit,

God was talking about how when he preached it was with the power of the Holy Spirit. It may sound like boasting but it changed the lives of the Thessalonians. The Word of God has power to change lives. The Holy Spirit is behind of this power and the changing of lives takes place because they were receptive to the message. Paul being convicted in his message also helped. He preached as though the audience believed in him

When Paul went to Thessalonica, he preached the Gospel and many were saved and great things happened. The church was established in a short time (Act 17). The accomplishments brought persecution by the Jewish leaders. They went to Jason’s house in hope to catch Paul. Paul wasn’t there and he was told to flee. Those who want to preach the Gospel must pay the price. There may not be immediate blessings (“in much affliction” in v6.) Despite the suffering and persecution, they were open to God. The Joy of the Lord flooded their souls.

Life is not always smooth sailing. When we face difficulties, we may be tempted to go into self-pity. If we allow the Holy Spirit to work in our lives, we will receive the joy of the Lord. The world says when we have wealth and health, we will have happiness. Happiness in the world is not formed in suffering. But to the Christians, it is through pain that we find joy. It’s a paradox that the world cannot understand. We don’t invite pain. The pain and suffering refers to persecution due to our belief.

It is uncertain times now. Are we going to despair and fall into self-pity? If we are receptive to the Holy Spirit, it will see us through. We have received the Holy Spirit when we received the Lord, let’s continue to be receptive.

We sing the song “you give and take away” and “blessed be the name of the Lord” so easily. It came from the book of Job. Let’s hope we can overcome difficult situations with the joy of the Lord. “Blessed is the road marked with suffering.”

3. Influencing Others

1Th 1:7-10 so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. (8) For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. (9) For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, (10) and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

The lifestyle was already evangelistic. Their lifestyle shows their belief in God. We must believe in the Gospel ourselves. We must believe the Gospel can change our lives. The Gospel must be powerful enough in our lives to change us first. Our lifestyle must align with our word. Many don’t become Christians with the excuse of the bad testimonies they see in Christians.

People can see the process of changed lives and this itself is a powerful testimony.

1. We turn from something, e.g. idols.

2. We turn the true, living God. We turn to serve the true and living God.

3. We expect God to come again.

The way we show gratitude to God is to live the way God wants us to live and to influence others to do the same. The process of conversion must be evident in our lives. Are we still living with idols in our lives? Are we serving the living God? Do we live like people who have hope?

When we have hope that God will come again, we can endure difficulties in our lives.

Conclusion:

When we started out as Christians, God entered our lives. Let’s continue to be receptive of Him and respond to the Holy Spirit. Let’s be a good and positive influence to others.

Evangelism in the Gospel

Pastor Ronnie Teoh

Luk 13:18-21 He said therefore, "What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? (19) It is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches." (20) And again he said, "To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? (21) It is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened."

3 levels of learning

1. Cognitive learning – lowest level
   
2. Affective learning – touches the emotions and the truth touches us in a special way
   
3. Psychomotor – e.g. playing tennis, etc.
   

We want to invite the Holy Spirit to open His truth to us (at the 2^nd level of learning.)

Pastor Teoh participated in a 3-day pastors and leaders national prayer. Their counterpart in England did the same and saw a vision of Malaysia.

1. These two parables indirectly answer the question – Why is revival not happening
   

The context

Jesus had just healed a woman who had a bent spinal column (possibly calcification) in the synagogue on a Sabbath. This was prohibited by the religious leaders. The synagogue rulers openly opposed Him.

Jesus explained through the Parable of the Mustard Seed that His Gospel cannot be confined by Jewish restrictions because it is universal in character.

Birds nesting on a tree was a familiar symbolism for the gathering of the nations of the world. Birds observed no boundaries. The parable explains the universal scope of the Gospel, it is not just for the Jews but for the whole world. The Jews could not understand this and no wonder they opposed Him.

By the Parable of the Yeast, Jesus explained how the Gospel would spread to the whole world through its transforming power.

Thumb drives and hydrogen fuel are inventions of Malaysia. We have the ideas but we may not have the capability to develop and manufacture the product. The idea of the thumb drive was sold to Koreans who popularized and commoditize it.

By this parable, Jesus was illustrating the most basic method of evangelism.

EEIII (Evangelism Explosion III) works well in the Philippines because most of the people there have a Judea-Christian understanding.

Yeast in the Biblical concept is almost always used as a negative symbolism. The Israelites' offering to God never contained yeast. Yeast represented the evil influence of the Egyptians. In NT, Jesus warned about the yeast – the hypocrisy of the Jews and their negative influence.

1Co 5:1-6 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife. (2) And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. (3) For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. (4) When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, (5) you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. (6) Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

Jesus must have very good reasons to use yeast to represent the dynamism and the work of the Kingdom of God.

The principle to observe about a parable is that it usually carries one central idea. We should not be creative and spiritualize the parables. It's "and earthly story with a heavenly meaning." We don't have the liberty to interpret parables. We just need to focus on the central truth. Once we identify the central truth, we can attempt to amplify it.

1. There are two things we can learn here
   
   1. The Parable of the Yeast demonstrates how the Gospel transforms human society.
      

Yeast does its work of transforming dough through direct contact. Yeast it mix together with flour before it's kneaded. A little yeast affects the whole lump of dough. The Jews then were familiar with this. The total character of the lump of dough is changed by the yeast.

Jesus was not interested in the commercial potential of yeast, rather He was using it to communicate a powerful message of the Gospel's ability to transform minds. When this powerful Gospel is deposited in our society and then it will do its work.

Jesus brought the Gospel to the planet earth. He came to earth and walked the earth. He lived a perfect life and die for our sins and rose again. It is now our task to take the Gospel out into our society.

1. Yeast is effective in doing its work because although it started out as dough, it had now been transformed by the power of fermentation.
   

When we received the Gospel, we went through the powerful transformation in our lives. We can bring this transformation into our society.

1. Let us draw three application points that speak to us today
   
   1. Understand the primacy of GO Evengelism taught by Jesus in the Parable of the Yeast.
      

All evangelism methods are either go or come Evangelism. Statistics show that 90% of Christians DO NOT REGULARLY ARTICULATING the Gospel to others.

Haggai Institute in Hawaii published a startling statistic which suggests 75% Christians never bring someone to Christ in their lifetime. If we are a fermented people, we should go to share the Gospel.

Billy Graham once told a story about a middle age man in small town America. He didn't think he needed to become a Christian even though he knew many Christians. He admired his boss. He thought that if he could become more like his boss it would be ok. His Christian colleagues invited him to a church service and to his surprise, his boss was a leader in the church and yet he never once shared the Gospel with him!

We are comfortable with COME evangelism. We'd invite people to come for services and meetings. We hope by attending the event, our friends will receive Jesus.

A lot of Christians cannot even invite friends to evangelistic events because they have never been doing the groundwork.

FGBF in Alor Setar organized a grand dinner and invited all their friends and associates. 400 were invited. That's a big number in Alor Setar. The guests expected this to be a normal Christmas function with dinner and presents. It was then announced that a speaker would share the message of Christmas. Pastor Teoh had 40 minutes to lead the people who knew nothing about Christianity to accept Jesus. The Gospel can transform lives. But the primary method of evangelism taught by Jesus is GO Evangelism. We are fermented and so we should go and deposit into the lives of people.

Organizations all over the world have a tagline. CNN's is Be the First to Know. HSBC calls themselves the World's Local Bank. Pastor Ronnie's tagline is 'Deposit the Gospel As You Deem Best and Let The Holy Spirit Do the Rest.'

We cannot squeeze someone by the neck until they are blue to make them believe in Jesus.

Pastor Ronnie published a booklet entitled 'Are All Religions the Same?' This is the number one religious concept in Asia. The booklet starts with a no and explains why. It also contains a persuasion part. He is going to publish another booklet called 'What is the Meaning of Life?'

1. Effective personal evangelism is the result of a transformed life.
   

If you are still just a lump of a dough with the label Christian on you, you are not much good to the Kingdom of God.

Communism is a second class call. They bring to it the first class commitment. Communism is such a threat because of its ability to influence. Christianity is the first class call. There is nothing that compares to the call to share the Gospel. But we bring to it a second class commitment.

1. God can bring about revival but each of us must obediently bring the Gospel into contact with people
   

Ps Reynold said the 3-month prayer journey must culminate in evangelism, something that connects to people. Revival and evangelism always work hand in hand.

Pastor Ronnie once took a flight from LA back to KL. He took a Korean Airline flight. He chose the cheapest seats. It was a 7-hours flight and they stop over in Korea. He was promised a tour. He went to a place called Nam San (literally southern city.) It was cold so before long, Pastor Ronnie wanted to run back to the bus which was heated. Before he reached the bus, an elderly lady passed him a tract. She probably targeted foreign tourist in Nam San in her distribution of English tracts. It was a cold night,

Korea is seen as a revival country. Amazing amount of evangelism is going on there.

Many years ago, Pastor Ronnie and wife went to the SS2 Pasar Malam around 5:00 p.m. Stall owners were setting up. One was a stall selling idols. The owner was eating noodles when a woman came to rebuke the idols loudly. The man put down his bowl of noodles and told the woman if there was a problem they can discuss. He didn't understand English. The woman continued.

This is not the way to share the Gospel. Ps Ronnie has given us tips for evangelism with his tagline. When there is no personal revival in the Christians there will be no results. Christians need to be stirred up so they will go to the LORD and let the LORD transform them.

We judge who, what, how, etc. in evangelism. One way or another, some way or other, we find some way to deposit the Gospel into the lives of the non-believers. The Holy Spirit is the One who convicts. It is our part that we have failed.

How do we go about doing it?

1. Use common factor / interest – tennis, tour, bakery, etc.
   
2. Once we established a friendship, we must direct / steer relationship without condemnation. A non-Christian has a different value system and operate in a different way. We introduce spiritual truth. Share our testimonies. We must have the agenda that we want to do something, that is to share the Gospel with our friends.
   
3. Grab opportunities – neighbours ask why we go to church every week instead of every month, friends asking us why we give 10% of our income to God, etc. Acknowledge they have legitimate questions and tell them it's hard to explain everything. Offer the booklet ('Are All Religions the Same?') Once the Gospel enters their lives, we let the Holy Spirit do His work.
   
4. Create opportunities – organize parenting seminar. This allows the Christians to connect to non-Christians. We then find an opportunity to share the Gospel. We partner with the Holy Spirit.
   

Ps Ronnie was the first pastor in Malaysia to pick up EEIII. He went to Ft Lauderdale twice.

Question 1: When we tell others the Bible is the truth, how to we respond to doubts? (Kevin Suit)

Don't give theological answers. Determine if our friends are genuinely looking for an answer. Explain how the Bible was written. Talk to pastors, teachers and get them books.

Question 2: What to do with someone who knows about Jesus but could not love his father? (Ong)

Show the stories from the Bible that shows a father's love, e.g. the Prodigal Son, John 3:16, etc.

There are supposed to be 99 names of a god but none of them is love. The God is the Bible is love.

Question 3: Is believing in Jesus enough to go to heaven? (Ong)

We are in a consumerism era where we can choose the best things we want. Many people believe in Jesus in that way. They have minimal involvement with the Body. That's not Biblical Christianity. This is substandard Christianity. (Ps Ronnie just wrote this down in his notebook today in preparation for his preaching tomorrow.) This is a major problem for the church today. People pick and choose what they want from the Bible.

Question 4: How to we handle non-Christians who have been hurt by Christians, perhaps by their lifestyles or cheated by Christians? (Joshua Chan)

It's difficult. Believers are still imperfect. Do not let believers who are imperfect prevent you from knowing the perfect love of God. Don't share testimonies because they already have bad experiences with Christians. We encourage them to look to God and not men.

Question 5: Some people think they already belong to a certain god. How do we share with them? (Jen Leong)

We have to show the idea of science. If we look at this world, we can tell there is a Creator. Friendship is important as it enables us to have heart to heart talk with our friends. There are many evidences. The Big Bang Theory (the expanding universe) supports the idea of a Creator. If we read the Bible, we find that the Big Bang Theory is consistent with the Creation of God.

Truth

Before I begin this blog entry, I have to comment on the lack of comments in the recent posts. Have you read it and have no comments? Do let me know. Bloggers thrive and live on responses from readers. No, I am not an egomaniac. But knowing someone read the posts will encourage me very much.

What is truth? Some people say truth is relative and there is no absolute truth. Some say perception is truth.

The Bible says when we find truth the truth will set us free. That means we are no longer trapped by deceptions.

What do you believe? I just read a column in a local Chinese daily that suggested Ahmad Said is a power hungry individual who crave the MBship despite having no support.

If I am as gullible as the editor thinks, then I may give it some consideration. Unfortunately, my mind is already 'poisoned' by the other blogs like Malaysian Today. I believe in YM Raja Petra Kamarudin. I'd take his words over mainstream media any day of the week.

Why you ask? He has been detained under draconian law. He has been summoned to give his statements in police station. Surely, you cannot believe what he says / blogs?

Au contraire, YM backs up his words every time. This is what I observed. He talked about the wrong doing of a certain individual. The certain individual sent his lawyers threatening lawsuit. YM asked the certain individual to go to hell (literally) and brought up proofs. In other words, he has the evidence. What he says holds waters.

On the other hand, there are those who chose to believe in stories. Case in point is a female person in the church who claims that it's usual for more people to die during certain times in a year, like the Chinese ghost festival or even Cheng Beng (that's Hokkien, in Chinese it's "Qing Ming", pronounced as "Ching Ming"). She even quoted Mary Baxter to support her point, "Mary Baxter also said that."

For starters, there is a gross misunderstanding of the significance of Qing Ming (清明). It is one of the 24 solar terms in the Chinese calendar. The ancient Chinese who are very agricultural-based follow these 24 solar times in planting, harvesting, etc. Qing means clear while Ming means bright

Qing Ming Festival is a time of remembrance. Chinese will go to sweep the graves of the ancestors. The more superstitious ones will even burn things believing the ancestors will receive them. The paper stuff are getting more advanced. Jesse noticed the new shop that took over the sundry shop near our church offers Astro satelite (they renamed so as not to get into trouble) and notebooks. I go to visit the graves of my grandparents and my auntie during Qing Ming too. I don't offer joss sticks. I just help to clean up the graves. I think it is good for us to remember our forefathers.

Qing Ming Festival is NOT a time where the 'ghosts' are given temporary freedom to roam the eath, as popularly believed during the Chinese Chost Month (the 7th month in the Chinese calendar, which climaxed on the 14 of the 7th month) and the western Halloween.

An even during Haloween or the Ghost month, there is NO statistics to show there are more deaths. But the old ladies with their grandmother stories will point at each death during the Ghost month and claimed there are more deaths during that time "because the ghost are free."

It is so easy to debunk this myth. But the old lady would not have any of it because you see, even Mary Baxter also said that.

*** Warning, a can of worm will be opened. Read on only when you are ready. ***

In case you are fortunate enough not to know about Mary Baxter, she is one woman who received revelation from Jesus to write about her visits to heaven and hell. The books contain so many errors and fallacies that I will not bother to list here. Suffice to say the books fail the Bible test miserably.

I have met a lady in an online forum. She would preach from the book (the one on hell, not the heaven.) She had no doubt God intended the book for those who are unrepentant. She even went as far as to suggest that those who didn't believe the book would not go to heaven "because it was the truth."

So, if you meet someone who swears by the books of Mary Baxter, what do you do? Allow me to rephrase the question. How would you take someone who put a story book on par with the Bible?

Unfortunately, such people do exist. They themselves are not totally liberated by the truth of God. And they seek to bound others with their own entrapment.

Do you see the importance of sound doctrine now? Do you now understand why we need Project Timothy? And do you now know why some people DO NOT want to join Project Timothy when there are so many who want to take part?