5 October 08. Reformed Evangelical Church Singapore (GRII). Sermon by Rev. Stephen Tong
Galilea is a simple province. Most of its inhabitant are fisherman, who are not intellectuals. Therefore, Galilea is not seen as a birthplace of great men. But the irony is Jesus Christ choose all twelve of His disciples from Galilea. Voltaire, the French philosopher once said 240 years ago, “Let that Jesus who created His religion with the twelves Galilean people establishes The Christianity, and let me, the only French would destroy them all from the history !.”
Can this happen?….had it happened?…Of course not. What Jesus did is not wrong, Jesus did not choose people like Nicodemus who are so academic. The question is why?….Why did Jesus choose Galilean people?…Did Jesus only choose un-academic people so that they can easily be conned by Him?…Was it because what Jesus did something who is un-academic?…
We know that God’s word cannot be understood by cognitive thinking. So it is not because Galilean people are stupid, and easily cheated. There are something that we need to take note: Those who are chosen by Jesus finally achieve more than even those people with the highest qualifications. Jesus choose people who can OBEY God’s word and has Heaven’s blessing so that they can accept and understand God’s will that come out from the mouth of Jesus.
We also need to think, why did Jesus choose John?…he is just a teenager, he is not matured, he is not highly educated. What’s the use of having John in Jesus’ disciples. The Holy Bible recorded that John is a disciples who most understand God’s will, more than Peter, etc. John is also the youngest disciples. When John wrote his books, Paul and Peter had died for about 22 years. Who can continue God’s work, Who can fight for truth?…At that time, early churches facing 4 big challenges. So only one man can answer that challenges: John, at a ripe age of 90. Why wait only at 90, then write biblical passage?…Isn’t Christianity more or less established everywhere?….Don’t forget that Christians’ enemy also occur everywhere.
Who were churches’ enemy?
1. Abuse from politics. When Jesus still alive, the people of Israel was allowed to call their God, God, and they will not be punished. Before Jesus was born, Rome was only a small country, not an empire. Romulus and Remus found Rome, and it became an empire few decades before Jesus was born. The first roman emperor is Augustus (which actually General Octavian). When he become the first emperor, he change Rome into empire, in this period, Jesus was born. Rome used the mindset: Attack first before attacked. Such mindset cause continuous expansion campaigns, and it also made Rome arrogant. Before long, Rome has build the greatest empire in the whole history of the world. But, Augustus found one nation that is very difficult to be conquered, that is the Jews. For the emperor Augustus, the whole Rome belongs to him; and all its citizen call him god. Only the jews who are not willing to call him god. The Jews said God is Jehovah, the creator of heaven and earth. And for the Jews, emperor Augustus was going to die several decades later, but the Jews’ God live forever. So the emperor decided to found 1 nation 2 system. Therefore, 1 nation 2 system was not invented by Deng Xiaoping, but from Rome.
All strong government is going to be weak. The main weakness is insecurity. When Romans felt insecure, Romans were anxious, and they strengthen their military. The irony is the stronger its military prowess, the more it felt anxious. This is military psychology, political psychology. In all Rome’s territory, the city of Jerusalem has the greatest number of Rome’s soldier (about 180,000 soldiers, especially when Easter). The Romans were afraid that the Jews revolt.
Why did the Romans who initially let the Jews worship their God, suddenly killed so many Christians? Because the Jews changed from calling their invisible god as God, to calling the visible Jesus of Nazaret as God. This is the start of abuse by the Romans. Especially when they found that Jesus died and rose on third day. Not only did He rose from the dead, His influence is getting bigger. The emperor had released a decree to capture and abuse Christians. If you have the opportunity to visit Rome, don’t forget to visit the Catacombs, which was underground shelter for Christians.
2. Academic World. Philosophers and intellectuals wrote article which insult, humiliate, abuse, and mock Christianity because Christians no longer pay respect to gods. The intellectuals do not believe that the dead can be revived, and the birth of Jesus through virgin Mary. To them, this fact was absurd and impossible.
3. Imposter who wrote gospels and using the disciples names. This is the most dangerous enemy, because they said they are Christians and they wrote the bible’s books. Some of them wrote Barnabas, Mary Magdalene, Judas gospels (many of them written by Gnostic, who didn’t understand God’s wisdom). In present day, this threat comes in the form of people who present themselves as priests, they build churches, they call themselves church of God, they preach, they accept tithe but for themselves. This is Churches’ latent enemy, the enemy seek to deceive Christians with little faith. Unfortunately when this form of enemy appear, Paul and Peter had died. At the closing of first century AD, it is not only the four bible passage that existed, but there are many passages, including false passages. There was only one disciple who still living: John. Therefore, he wrote his books.
4. Unsincere Christians. Their behavior did not reflect Christians faith, and they are hypocrites. John wrote his books also to address this matter.
In new testament, the first four books are as follows: (1)Matthew; (2)Mark; (3)Luke; and (4)John. The book of John was written last, and at that time the danger that threaten early churches already ubiquitous and scary. The fact that John can live that long is God’s will. John is exiled in Patmos island, and he patiently lived in that island. One day, John saw the gate of heaven open, and Jesus was present. The book of John makes the bible complete. The bible is the only book in the history of human beings, the only book above all human religions with the beginning we called it Creation of God and with the ending as the Revelation of God concerning the final days of universe.
What is the difference between the book of John with the previous three?…In school of theology, the first three gospels are called Synoptic gospels, which have similar characteristics. While the gospel of John is a very unique, different – the distinctive gospel. What so special about the gospel of John?…Gospel of Matthew, Mark, and Luke mostly recorded the live of Jesus day by day, and the gist of Jesus’ debate with the Pharisees academically & according to scripture. In addition, the three books cited many miracles performed by Jesus. The gospel of John recorded God’s promises, God’s thoughts, and the gist of Jesus’ words.
When Jesus was still alive, he performed 35 miracles. The gospel who record the least of such miracles is actually the gospel of John. It is not that John do not believe that Jesus can perform miracles. Example: The first miracle performed by Jesus, turning water to wine, was recorded by John. The main uniqueness of the gospel of John is that it tells us Jesus as Son of God.
The gospel of Matthew tells us Jesus is King, that is why it started with Jesus’ family tree. The gospel of Mark tells us Jesus is servant. While the gospel of Luke said that Jesus is True Man (Son of Man). However, as we have discussed above, the gospel of John said that Jesus is the Son of God, and He is God.
