Who are you? What do you do?

Session 4, 10 Mar 2008 10 a.m.

Three days ago, Pastor Wang wa in an missionary meeting in Penang. The President of MBS, Dr John Ong talked about the church of China preparing itself to be used by God. There are now more people in China learning English than the people in the rest of the world. This English craze was thought to be due to the Beijing Olympics in 2008 or the World Fair in Shanghai in 2011. Dr Wang knew it started many years ago by the visit of President Nixon in 1972. For the longest time US has boycotted China. But the ping pong ball has broken ice.

Here we have the most powerful nation and the most populous nation. President Mao wanted to greet President Nixon in English. He practice hard on two sentences, how are you and how do you do. On the day, Nixon was ushered in to meet Mao who was old. He looked for Nixon's hand for a while and said, "who are you?" Being the revolutionary leader, he continued, "what do you do?"

Pastor Wang wanted to ask us the same two questions – who we are. We are the children and servants of God. Then what do we do? We are so used to go to church, sit in church and listen to the pastor. When he is finished, we shake his hand at the door and gave money.

We read about the 12, the 70 (or 72), the 120 and the 3000. The 12 still asked Jesus when he was going to establish his kingdom. They were thinking about their own interest, their fame or status. They didn't leave Jerusalem not because of obedience but because of fear. When they are together, they felt more comfortable. Once out Jerusalem, Peter went back to fishing. John and James wanted to follow Jesus wherever he went. They went fishing too. The Holy Spirit came with a bang. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit. They became different. They were filled fear before, not with faith. They were thinking about a lot of things, now they only thought about Jesus. They were disunited, not they were united. Peter used to put his foot in his mouth, now Peter preached.

There was no PA system then. But when he preached on that one day, 3000 born again.

"Who are you? What do you do?"

By they way we worship, we dance, we sing, we look like people filled with the Holy Spirit. We think once we are filled the Holy Spirit, we will speak in tongues, the service will be longer (because the Holy Spirit is long winded), the people will stand for a long time. Pastor Want doesn't think so. His test is simple. A person filled with the Holy Spirit is changed. It is not about speaking in tongues. Are we changed after speaking in tongues or jumped during worship? He doesn't care how high we jump, can we walk straight like Jesus when we land. It doesn't matter how many times we are slain. When we are back on our feet again, are we standing for Jesus?

That was the test for the 120. They are not just changed but transformed. From then on, being fruitful and multiply is no longer the sole responsibility of the pastor.

In Acts, we study the first early church. In Acts 2, we read about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. In vv 42-47, we see the baby church. It was so magnificent.

Act 2:47b … And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Now that we are filled with the Holy Spirit and changed, we need to do a physical check of out body. Do we have the 5 health factors? If we have the health factors of the early church, the church will naturally be fruitful and multiply.

Preaching

Act 2:42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

They obey the Preaching of the disciples. The responsibility is no longer on the pastor. We the congregation are the subject matter. We are impatient with long sermons. We become critics of the pastor. Do we live the sermon? We are to live out the logos shared from the pulpit.

Pastor Wang dedicated a church in Xin Jiang. He normally does not do that because there are too many of them. But he got interested when he heard the church send missionaries to Russia. He dedicated the church 3 times because there were too many people. The pastor who is a medical doctor had to ask people to go away. She wanted only the missionaries and fulltime workers to stay. The church was still full. She then told Pastor Wang he could start preaching but not too long. They people stay far away and there was no food. Pastor Wang asked how long could he preach. She said it was 11 in the morning. She said he could teach until 8 at night. There was no Bible. Pastor Wang taught from Ephesians which he memorized. As he ended, a young girl started singing about not listening to the preaching of man. Pastor Wang turned around in anger. Then she went into the chorus about going to the north, south, east and west to LIVE the WORD of God! They would go out to DIE for the WORD of God.

Don't JUST listen to the Word of God. We need to live it.

Pray

There were nothing left in the church except for prayers. Wang Ming Dao was put into solitary imprisonment for 27 years. Pastor Wang visited him after his release. He was weak, blind and deaf. He said the communist has taken everything from them including the pastors, the missionaries, the Bibles and the churches. He wiped his tears and said the communists could not take away one thing – prayers! In our church, no one has taken away anything from us. But we surrender and sacrifice our prayers. Our prayer meetings are the least attended. We who wanted to be fruitful and multiply must restore our prayer life.

Power

This is a fruit of the apostles. Henan is known as the Pentecostal province of China. 50% of the population is Christians because of many powerful signs and wonders. An Uncle Tian, who is a high ranking officer had terminal nose cancer. He retired to go home. He expected the wife and daughter to take care of him but they sneaked out every night. One day he followed them to a hut. He heard singing, Christian singing. He is angry. Being a communist officer he is used to arresting Christians and putting them into jail. He went home. The next night, he followed again. This night, he heard people crying and praying for him. The next morning, Beijing asked him to go to a hospital reserved for high ranking officers. He went and he was diagnosed to be clear of cancer. He came back. He had two medical reports, one declaring him with terminal cancer and the other one announced he had no cancer. He didn't go home. He went to the hut, knocked and went to cry like a baby. He became an evangelist. He was imprisoned for two years. Attempts to brainwash him failed. He said his work is easy. He would just show his two medical reports. The villagers were in awe and in fear and they came to know Jesus.

Signs and wonders follow us. They don't precede us. They follow us only when we go out, when we declare and when we decide to be fruitful and multiply.

Provide

Act 2:45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.

We need to give and to provide to the needies. The poorest people group in Malaysia is the Orang Asli. We need to ask ourselves who we are and what we did. The early church gave and they won the city. It was not easy because Jerusalem was the base of the Roman Empire colonist and full of gentiles. Yes, this little 'sect' flourished. Saul as a Sadducee persecuted them.

Are we popular? Are we loved? Who are we? What do we do?

Praise

Act 2:47a praising God and having favor with all the people.

What is real praise? When we have a well air-conditioned hall, a nice room and we could throw the towel anywhere and it will be normal on the following day, it is easy to praise God. Paul and Silas were in jail. They were singing and praising. The was an earthquake and the gates were open. When we are suffering and we still praise God, that is true praise.

Uncle Leong was the leader of the Pentecostal movement in Hunan. He was arrested before Christmas two years ago. He was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison. One day Pastor Wang would meet him. He could imagine how he would respond. Many years ago, they could not find him for 9 months. Eventually, they found out he was in jail. They paid the penalty to release him. He weighed 80 kg when he was arrested. He was only 45 kg upon release. He was cut in half literally. He could not even cross the street. He sat on the street. Pastor Wang was across the street because of the police. He decided he didn't care about the police anymore. He went across. They hugged and cried. He asked whether the police beat him or starve him or torture him. Uncle Leong would respond in Hallelujah. He knew there was no point asking. Uncle Leong kept praising God and revealed that 37 prisoners came to know Jesus.

When we suffer and sacrifice for Jesus and we still praise him, then only are we being fruitful and could multiply.

This passage no longer just talks about the pastors. It is about us – the congregations. The preaching, the provision, the prayer, the power and the praise are about who we are and what we do.