PASTORAL CHAT

My Dear Readers

Time flies! Do you realise that in another month we would have fulfilled two years coming to worship at RELC which will gather us to celebrate on Oct 2, 05, 12 pm at a subsidised Chinese Lunch. Be quick to register at only $15 for adults and $5 for children under 12.

On that Day, Pastor will baptise those who have been faithfully attending Dr Jeffrey Khoo’s Sunday School Class. Please don’t delay but rather rejoice you will be accepted for salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.

We remember Elder Mahadevan how he got ill on his way back from America after visiting his daughter. We pray and continue to pray for his soon recovery that he and Mrs Mahadevan might join us at the 2nd Anniversary Lunch.

Earthquakes are a reminder to us that Jesus’ Coming and end of the world is near and I have tried to turn your attention from the world. We had eight quakes in several months two months ago. But we have another two quakes the last two months. Let me remind you once again to labour not for ourselves on earth but for His Kingdom above. Let us do good to His Church, not letting opportunities escape us! The last two earthquakes occurred in Japan and at the first one some 60 people were hurt.

That which occurred on Boxing Day, Dec 26, 04 let loose the 1st Tsunami (undersea earthquake) which killed 300,000 in a grim reminder that this world is not our home. We’re just a passing through. You have been attending True Life Church, but again let me ask you, “Are you saved?” Or when Jesus comes and you are still alive, will you be changed and caught up to meet with him in heaven?

Your affectionate pastor
T. T.

 

THE GOSPEL OF LIFE: Chapter XIV

John 14:28
6. His subordination to the Father

“For my Father is greater than I” is one favourite sentence the Jehovah Witnesses have plucked Family Bible Study Fellowship Meeting, 27 Aug 2005 out of context that our Lord is a lesser God. The Jehovah Witnesses, like the Arians of the 4th Century, refute Christ’s equality with the Father in substance, or essence. While Jesus admits His subordination to the Father at this point, does He not elsewhere declare Himself equal to the Father? Remember how the Jews sought to kill our Lord “because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.” (Jn. 5:18). In John 10:33 Jesus declares, “I and the Father are one.” For which the Jews took up stones again to stone him, v. 33: “For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.” The classic passage on Jesus equality with the Father yet in subordination is penned by the apostle Paul in Phil 2:6-8, “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

What then does it mean when Jesus says, “My Father is greater than I?” Dr. Buswell says, “It is of the utmost importance that we distinguish between economic and functional subordination and essential equality. When Jesus said, “The  ather is greater than I” and “I can of my own self do nothing” (Jn. 5:30) we must understand these statements as referring to this economic subordination “in the days of his flesh.” Christ is like a crown prince who becomes a private in the army of which one day he will be Commander-in-chief. This he does on purpose to fulfill the requirement of national service.

Says Dr David Smith, “He was less than the Father in His state of humiliation, forasmuch as for us men and for our redemption, He had become man, laying aside his proper glory. . . .”

 

Chapter XV
To infuse us for more fruitful service, Jesus Christ is the Vine of Life

If you read again the last sentence of the last verse of the last chapter, it will give you the clue to the place and setting of this sermon. It is no more in the Passover chamber, but as suggested by Scofield, on the way to the Garden of Gethsemane –outside Jerusalem across the Cedron Valley, on the slopes of the Mount of Olives.

Jesus uses the figure of the vine to teach the vital relationship between Himself and the Church, inasmuch as the fruit of the vine, grape juice, was a little while ago used for the Lord’s Supper. The grape is one of the seven holy fruits (Deut. 8:8), a native of the Holy Land like the olive and the fig. These three fruits are used as symbols of Israel. Where are figures of the other two found? Israel is called the Lord’s vineyard and Judah (chief tribe of Israel from which came our Lord) is called the choicest vine (Isa. 5:1-7). Ps. 80 similarly likens God’s people of old to a vine brought out of Egypt. It is therefore most appropriate for our Lord to use the figure of the vine for Himself and the Christian Church in an extended sense.

Now, while the vine is a familiar figure to the Jews, to us who live in a land where rather the rambutan grows, it needs some explanation: The common grape vine, says the New Bible Dictionary, is a slender plant which trails on the ground or climbs supports by means of tendrils. When the fruit bearing branches develop they are raised above the ground on supports to a height not much higher than a man. Other Scriptures where the vine is mentioned are Lk 13:6-9; Mt 20:1-6; Mk 9:17; Mt 21:28-32;Mt 21:33;Mk 12:1-11; Lk 20:9-18.

John 15:1-8
The Church is a Fruitful Vine

Remember this chapter is one of the last sermons our Lord preached to the disciples before He was taken. Though He will be taken physically from earth, He must continue on earth through His Church. His Church must be established and spread to the ends of the earth.

His Father, Almighty God, is the husbandman, or farmer, of the vineyard, which is the world. Jesus is the vine planted of the Father. The true vine, because He is the perfect ideal, the spiritual vine that remains forever. We are His branches, His hands and feet on earth, while the Head is ascended to heaven, to carry out His mission. Our purpose while on earth is to be productive for Him, to bear much fruit, to increase His Church. This is illustrated by the heavy, drooping clusters of grapes, sparkling and luscious, ripening on the vine. And as you pluck them to eat, so juicy-sweet in the mouth, won’t you say thank you to your host who invites you to his garden? Bear much fruit, our Lord says, that my Father be glorified! Reader, you may have been saved for some years, for a decade, two decades, a lifetime that is about to end! Examine yourself. What fruit have you borne to Christ that has glorified the Father? Or no fruit, as is hinted by our Lord? Or sour fruit, a sour Christian life, whereby you are at odds with other Christians? Not only nonproductive, but counter-productive?

A withered branch, falling off painlessly, is taken away to burn. A Christian in name, not ever born again, drops out of Church with no regrets, and drifts back into the world. He fails to qualify in the eyes of the Heavenly Father. Such a person is not saved. How many a Christian in name ends miserably in hell, as John Sung says of the Rich Man in Luke 16. As the Church is afruitful vine, so may every member produce good fruit to His Lord.

 

John 15:2-10
The Process of Increasing Productivity

1. Keep close to the Lord. “He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.” Do you seek the Lord’s glory in all you do? Do you pray for His approval and guidance? Do you love Him with all your heart? Do you come to church service and prayer meeting and regularly partake of the Lord’s Supper? Are you even baptised? These are means of grace whereby we are helped to grow in the Lord Jesus Christ.

2. Allow His Word through daily Bible reading to purify your life. “Now ye are  clean through the word I have spoken unto you.” The Bible is likened by St. Paul to water with a cleansing power. He says, “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word” (Eph 5:26). Hence the great effort made in these RPG notes to stimulate Daily Bible reading for the health of your thought life.

3. Endure the corrective measures God has taken to shape your life. A dead branch is broken off without pain, because it has no feeling. A Christian in name leaves the Church without regrets for the world because he has never been a part of the Church. These facts were observed in the last lesson. But a true son and daughter of God must endure chastisement (Heb 12:6- 8). The persecutions that descended on the apostles in the beginning were permitted of God to strengthen the Church. The judgement on Ananias and Sapphira purged the early church of dishonesty and vain glory. When we get sick or sustain loss of property or meet with any kind of failure, remember these have come from our Father to draw us back to Himself. These are prunings for a more productive life.

And in all these developments in the process of increasing our productivity, the sustaining spirit must be love. We continue in His love, to keep His commandments, to be cleansed by His word, to be purged of the Father!