Church Camp Message 3 - The Doctrine of Christ

Matthew 7:14- 29

The right doctrine will yield the right fruits. Without the right doctrine, the heart is not right and the works will not be acceptable. It must be God's doctrine and not the doctrine of man with an idea of Christ that is different from God. 

The fear of God makes us walk carefully less we offend Him. First and foremost - we need to confess that Jesus is God himself. John 1:1, 14. Rev 1:8 - the Almighty God. Rev 1:18 - "I am he that liveth." Only Jesus Christ has liveth. He is described as the Almighty, the one and only God. 

Jesus is also 100% man. Col 2:9 - he dwelleth in the fullness of the Godhead bodily. - manifest in the flesh. There is no salvation if we believe only in one but not another. I John 4:3 - the spirit of the antichrist would not confess that God is fully man. 

God called us to be perfect as He is perfect. However, we cannot be perfect even from birth. As such Jesus needs to be our representative to die for our sins (passive obedience) and kept the law (active obedience) perfectly so that he being perfect, can make us perfect through His sacrifice for us. Jesus has done everything for us, we just need to believe Him. 

What kind of believer should we be? Be a believer with gratitude, and be thankful for all the He has done for us. We express our gratitude by worshipping the Lord. We fulfil all righteousness and be obedient to His teachings. Have we demonstrated such qualities in our lives?

Who is this?

Palm Sunday, we celebrate the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem, the week before his death and resurrection. Could we imagine the agony of our Lord, knowing what lies ahead and yet willingly followed what was needed to be done.

What a sight to see! Our humble Lord on a colt, walking through the gate of Jerusalem and people waving palms to welcome him. His colt trotted on palm leaves, while His heart pained to see the very people that welcomed him would also crucify him 5 days later. And yet, with all the sins and transgressions in the evil hears of men, He still willingly and lovingly die on the cross for our salvation. On the third day, He conquered death and resurrected, securing our own resurrection from our own sin and death, so long as we believed in him.

May we always remember what our Lord has done and always cherish our salvation by following our Lord Jesus Christ till the end of our days.

 

Matthew 21:1-11

21 And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples,

² Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me.
³ And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them.
⁴ All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying,
⁵ Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.
⁶ And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them,
⁷ And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon.
⁸ And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way.
⁹ And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.
¹⁰ And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this?
¹¹ And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.


"Ride on, ride on in majesty!
In lowly pomp ride on to die;
O Christ, thy triumphs now begin
O'er captive death and conquered sin" - Henry Hart Milman

When Jesus Comes to Dinner

 This story comes through an email, a very good illustration of God's teaching -" Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Matthew 24:40.

Ruth looked at the envelope again. There was no stamp, no postmark, only her name and address. She read the letter one more time...

Dear Ruth,

I'm going to be in your neighborhood Saturday afternoon and I'd like to stop by for a visit.

Love Always,

Jesus

Her hands were shaking as she placed the letter on the table. "Why would the Lord want to visit me? I'm nobody special. I don't have anything to offer."

With that thought, Ruth remembered her empty kitchen cabinets. "Oh my goodness, I really don't have anything to offer. I'll have to run down to the store and buy something for dinner."

She reached for her purse and counted out its contents. Seven dollars and forty cents. "Well, I can get some bread and cold cuts, at least." She threw on her coat and hurried out the door.

A loaf of french bread, a half-pound of sliced turkey, and a carton of milk...leaving Ruth with a grand total of twelve cents to last her until Monday. Nonetheless, she felt satisfied as she headed home, her meager offerings tucked under her arm.

"Hey lady, can you help us, lady?" Ruth had been so absorbed in her dinner plans, she hadn't even noticed two figures huddled in the alleyway. A man and a woman, both of them dressed in little more than rags.

"Look lady, I ain't got a job, ya know, and my wife and I have been living out here on the street, and, well, now it's getting cold and we're getting kinda hungry and, well, if you could help us, lady, we'd really appreciate it."

Ruth looked at them both. They were dirty, they smelled bad and, frankly, she was certain that they could get some kind of work if they really wanted to. "Sir, I'd like to help you, but I'm a poor woman myself. All I have is a few cold cuts and some bread, and I'm having an important guest for dinner tonight and I was planning on serving that to Him."

"Yeah, well, OK lady, I understand. Thanks anyway." The man put his arm around the woman's shoulders, turned and headed back into the alley.

As she watched them leave, Ruth felt a familiar twinge in her heart. "Sir, wait!" The couple stopped and turned as she ran down the alley after them. "Look, why don't you take this food. I'll figure out something else to serve my guest." She handed the man her grocery bag.

"Thank you lady. Thank you very much!" "Yes, thank you!" It was the man's wife, and Ruth could see now that she was shivering.

"You know, I've got another coat at home. Here, why don't you take this one." Ruth unbuttoned her jacket and slipped it over the woman's shoulders. Then smiling, she turned and walked back to the street . . .without her coat and with nothing to serve her guest. "Thank you lady! Thank you very much!"

Ruth was chilled by the time she reached her front door, and worried too. The Lord was coming to visit and she didn't have anything to offer Him. She fumbled through her purse for the door key. But as she did, she noticed another envelope in her mailbox. "That's odd. The mailman doesn't usually come twice in one day." She took the envelope out of the box and opened it.

Dear Ruth,

It was so good to see you again. Thank you for the lovely meal. And thank you too, for the beautiful coat.

Love Always,

Jesus

The air was still cold, but even without her coat, Ruth no longer noticed.

Sunday Sermon - Fulfilling All Righteousness

Matthew 3:13-17

Jesus went through baptism, but he has no sin and did not need to be baptized. Why would Jesus want to go through baptism? Even John the Baptist refused to baptize Jesus, for he was in need of being baptized himself by Jesus. John saw his Saviour and immediately humbled himself. We need to learn this humility. Do we come to churn each Sunday thinking that God needs us or do we realized that we needed God instead? Each week we come bringing our burdens and sin that we committed in the week, and we come to seek God's mercy and grace. We come to seek spiritual wisdom to lead a life humbly and worshipfully everyday.

Jesus went through the baptism to fulfill all righteousness. For we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Therefore Jesus has to go through the waters of baptism for our sake. There is the judicial, the moral and the ceremonial laws under the Jews requirements. Jesus kept all these law for our sake, and earned all the righteousness that will allow us to go to heaven. Galatians 4:4.

The significance of the baptism is that Jesus is identifying himself with man. Jesus was 100% man, he shall be man's representation and substitute. He will save mankind of their sin. Jesus also went through the baptism to obey God the Father's commandment. Verse 17 - God said "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." God is acknowledging Jesus' obedience to the Father. Throughout Jesus' life he worked hard to be perfectly obedient for our sake. So we need to now work hard for him. There are so many things to do and commandments to keep in our lives. We need to press on, looking forward to the time when our Lord will say "Well done my child."

Are we thankful for what the Lord had done? Instead are we ashamed of being a Christian? Is it because we live a different life outside church? Do we hide the facts of our Christian life from our friends? Are we being thankful to God by behaving this way?

Baptism is an outward confession of our faith, telling the rest that we are not ashamed of being a Christian. Baptism is both a commandment and a blessing from God. Such a blessing is special only to us. We can only live a victorious Christian life by partaking in this means of grace. Similar to the Lord's Supper, a means of grace for us where we receive spiritual forgiveness and strength to continue our lives.

Preserve and fulfill all righteousness in our life so that we can run the race and complete the course in perfection, to receive the crowd of life at the end.

Sunday Sermon - Overcoming Temptation

Luke 4:1-13, Matthew 4:1-11

Why must Jesus go through these temptation? It is to fulfill all requirement. He needed to overcome sin for us. The representative principle applies here. Adam the first man failed and sinned. By him all man sinned against God. Jesus, the 100% man needed to overcome sin as mankind's representative. He must prove perfect obedience to God's law so that he might earn the righteousness for us.

The lust of the flesh - turn stone into bread. Jesus was 40 days in the wilderness, he needed food. Adam was also tempted as he saw that the apple was good as food. Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy 8 to resist this temptation.

The lust of the eye - the power and glory of the world. Jesus will have all these so long as he bow to Satan. Likewise, Adam saw how pleasing the apple was to him. Again Jesus quote from Deuteronomy 6:8 to repeal the devil.

The pride of life - to jump down so that the angle will protect him as promised by God. Adam was tempted with the knowledge that he will get by eating the apple. Yet again Jesus quoted the law against this temptation.

For all three temptations Adam failed miserably. Jesus overcomes all of them by being faithful to God. Jesus used the law to prove that he come to fulfill the law. He did not sin, and he did it for all man. Jesus even went through greater temptation than Adam. He was driven in the wilderness while Adam was in the garden of Eden. During the 40 days in the wilderness, he was repeatedly tempted over and over again. Yet Jesus overcome all for our sake.

Jesus was our representative, and he set an example for us to resist the same type of temptations that we face today. The lust of the flesh - the love of money. We need to replace this love with the love of God's words. The list of the eyes - the outward beauty of people. The roving eyes of man that caused us to be unfaithful to our spouse. We need to resist such immorality by avoiding such temptations. The pride of life - the power we thought we had. Our pride and self- esteem caused us to think that he can do things ourselves and forget the only God makes all things possible.

Christmas Day Service Sermon - Be Wise to Christ

Matthew 2:1-12

How to be wise in and to Christ?

Seek the Lord - The wise men came to seek Christ. They were likely Persians wise men, scientists and philosophers. At that time the Persian was one of the Superpower of the World. The people forgot how God had delivered them out of Egypt and so God gave them to other Kings as chastisement. In the end, God also allowed the King of Persia to let the people go and rebuild the land. At the time of Christ's birth, how did the wise men know of this? Those remnant Jews that remained in the foreign land continue to testify for God. Therefore the wise men heard and sought the Lord. We need to seek God and He will provide so long as we seek Him. The Jews asked the right question and they got their request granted. Have we done the same? Seek God and study his words to better understand our God. Study it systematically and we will be sanctified by it.

Worship Him - fall on our knees and worship whole-heartedly! For all those who come and worship the Lord they will receive a gift, the gift of salvation. Don't let pride get in the way like King Herod who came to destroy Jesus. This is self- destruction to want to destroy Jesus. Herod was judged by God and died within the year. Don't play afoot with God. Know Him and bow in humility. The wisest men came seeking Jesus with gifts, carrying gold, the symbol of royalty and only fit for a King. If God is the King of the world, do you come to church offering gold too? Or do you only offer Him grass? The other gifts that the wise men brought - Frankisence - pure incense. Myrrh - something to preserve the body after. This speaks of Christ's sacrifice to us so that we can have life.

Obey him - the wise men was told to leave without telling King Herod. This obedience is expected from us too. The wise men were rewarded by being led to baby Jesus.

Learn from the wise men and do wise things. This year has passed, learn from our mistakes and walk in the ways of the Lord in this new year. Seek the Lord and you shall be rewarded.