What a Blessed Weekend!

Praise the Lord for a blessed weekend of worship and fellowship on Good Friday and Easter Sunday when we remembered the Lord Jesus Christ and what He had done for us 1,981 years ago.

What a lonely road our Saviour walked to the cross (Matt 26:36-27:46)—(1) how He had to pray alone in the Garden of Gethsemane without any support from His sleepy disciples, (2) how He was betrayed by Judas, and forsaken by all His disciples when He was arrested, (3) how Peter denied knowing Him thrice, (4) how He found no justice from Pilate who bowed to the pressure of the Jewish Sanhedrin to have Him crucified, (5) how He was tortured and humiliated by the Roman soldiers, (6) how on the cross He was reviled by the thieves who were crucified beside Him and by those who watched from below, and (7) how He had to bear the sins of the world all by Himself without any help from God the Father. Those were the seven lonely steps our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, had to take to the cross—the Via Dolorosa according to the Scriptures.

Those lonely steps of Jesus were steps of victory. The cross was not a defeat but victory for Christ and for all who believe on Him. Good Friday is good because of Easter Sunday. “He is not here, but is risen” (Luke 24:6). If Christ did not rise from the dead, “then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. … If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” (1 Cor 15:14, 19). Yes, Christ truly died on the cross, but He is very much alive today for He was raised from the dead by the power of God, “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept” (1 Cor 15:20).

The resurrection of Christ is a fact of prophecy and history. It was prophesied by Isaiah that Christ would come as a Suffering Servant to die on the cross as the Sacrificial Lamb of God for our sins (Isa 53). Psalm 16:10 predicted His resurrection, “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.”

The truth of the resurrection is seen in the transformed lives of Jesus’ disciples for after He appeared to them in His resurrected and glorified body, they became powerful witnesses of His death, burial and resurrection according to the Scriptures. The Apostle Peter for instance who denied the Lord thrice became a fearless preacher and defender of the faith (Acts 4:8-21). Peter finally died a martyr, crucified for preaching the gospel, but on an upside down cross for he did not feel he was worthy to die the same way his Lord and Saviour died. Another example would be the Apostle Paul who was at first a fierce persecutor of the Church, but after the Lord appeared to him on the Damascus Road, He was wonderfully converted to become the greatest missionary of the Church (Acts 8-9). Have you not also experienced the truth and power of the resurrection of Christ since you believed?

Thank God for the good weather on Easter morning. How good it was to worship the Lord early in the morning, with the woods behind and the sea in front, and with the sun and its rays emerging from the canopy of trees just in time for our closing hymn:

“Welcome, happy morning!”
age to age shall say:
“Hell today is vanquished!
Heaven is won today!”

 

Lo! The dead is living, God forevermore, Him, their true Creator, all His works adore.

Praise the Lord for the 29 who confessed their faith in Christ publicly by baptism and reaffirmation of faith and transfer of membership. Praise the Lord for the faith of parents who brought their infants (all boys this time) to be baptised believing in the promise of God, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” (Acts 16:31). May all Christian parents be mindful to bring up their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. Parents, remember your sacred duty to your children: read the Bible to them, sing to them the gospel hymns and choruses, pray for them, bring them to God’s house. As we conscientiously fulfil our responsibilities as parents, we trust the Lord in His own good time to quicken our children and save them by His Gospel and His Spirit.

The 400th Anniversary of the King James Bible

In commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the KJV, the Far Eastern Bible College will conduct a series of lectures on “The History and Legacy of the King James Bible”, from Monday to Friday, May 2nd to 6th. Dr Jeffrey Khoo will kick off the series on Monday by addressing the question of which Bible is precisely the Bible of the Bible-Presbyterian Church. Dr Paul Ferguson is the main lecturer for the whole series. One credit for those who pass the exam on Saturday. Do not miss this opportunity to learn more about the history of our beloved English Bible. Here is Dr Ferguson’s introduction to the course:

“2011 marks one of the greatest anniversaries in the history of Christendom. It was in 1611 that a Sovereign God providentially directed the translation of what became known as the King James Version (KJV) or Authorised Version. It has had the single greatest influence of any book ever published in any language. More than five billion copies have been sold in the last 400 years.

“The KJV has been attacked and ridiculed by critics from inside and outside the Church. Today, while many of its most vitriolic opponents are in the grave, and the volumes written to discredit it and to overthrow its influence, are forgotten, this Bible translation stands unsurpassed by any rival. It was the Bible of the Reformation and the Bible of every revival since the seventeenth century in the English-speaking world.

“The fact that the KJV (and its underlying texts) has survived so many centuries, notwithstanding such unparalleled efforts to destroy it by Rome as well as apostate textual criticism, is strong evidence that God Almighty has stamped His providential seal of preservation upon its underlying texts.

“Despite modern attempts by many scholars, even within so-called Biblical Fundamentalism, to do away with the KJV we believe the arguments for retaining this providentially blessed translation are still just as valid.

“In this course we will look at the Bible of the Bible-Presbyterian Church, the history of the text before 1611, the translators and translation techniques of the KJV, the ancient and modern attacks on the KJV, and finally the impact of the KJV. A special video lecture by Dr Phil Stringer to the University of Michigan will also be screened.

“God promised to preserve all His words in every generation (Ps 12:6-7; Isa 59:21; Matt 4:4; 5:18). Our Confessions attest that God preserved each word, “by His singular care and providence kept pure in all ages.” We believe that He did and we say to all that dare question His promises, ‘God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.’ (Rom 3:4).”

Stop Press: Mr D P Rowland, General Secretary of the Trinitarian Bible Society (UK), will lecture on Wednesday May 4th on the history of the TBS and its work in promoting the KJV.