PASTORAL CHAT
My dear Readers
Please read Zechariah Chapter 8:20–23 as follows:
Thus saith the LORD of hosts; It shall yet come to pass, that there shall come people, and the inhabitants of many cities: And the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the LORD, and to seek the LORD of hosts: I will go also. Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the LORD. Thus saith the LORD of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you.
Do you know that we Pilgrims to Jerusalem are mentioned by the Prophet Zechariah? And Ps. 122:6 blesses those who pray for the peace of Jerusalem! No wonder every one of our Pilgrimages to Jerusalem, eleven and this one the twelfth has been mightily blessed. O Lord, be merciful unto us!
Do you know the 47 Pilgrims, including two children are leaving for Jerusalem in a matter of a month spending 15 days from Mar 9 – 23, 2006? Last Friday an Israeli lady officer came to RELC to welcome us to Israel with maps and other literature to brighten our way!
Included in the Pilgrimage will be 12 FEBC students who are helped to come along. Theirs is a study tour whereby they can earn two credits by making a report on this trip.
Our going is timed for March so you will enjoy the coolness of the journey. So be sure you are warmly clad even with a shawl and woollens.
Please observe all rules. I understand we are flying early in the morning (6.35 am) by Qatar Airlines one of the up and coming airlines originating from the Middle East and our first destination is Amman and first visit is Petra. We shall see Edom before climbing Mt. Nebo where Moses climbed but because of one mistake he made he could only see the Promised Land. He had to die there and be buried without a trace. As the Dead Sea water is cleaner on Jordan’s side we should be swimming on Jordan’s side.
As the Baraka Conference Centre is offered for sale we will not stay with Miss Davenport. This time we are staying in hotels and in Jerusalem we shall stay on the Mt. of Olives overlooking the Wailing Wall, Jewish most sacred site. The uppermost thought in our mind is your safety to and from the Holy Land these 15 days.
“Do good to someone everyday wherever you go!”
Shalom.
Your affectionate pastor
T. T.
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THE GOSPEL OF LIFE: Chapter XVIII
John 18
To desperate disciples who defend Him, Jesus Christ remains their Shield of Life.
Did you notice that between Jn. 14:31 and Jn. 18:1, between leaving the Passover chamber (in Jerusalem city) and entering the Garden of Gethsemane (outside the city) there is a long interlude of three chapters of sermon and prayer? What towering luxuriance of the Word of Life that dwarfs the scanty sayings of Confucius to his disciples! Why don’t students of philosophy read the Words of Jesus, for then they must say, the tastings from the Vine of Life are sweeter! And, where are Mao’s sayings?
At last, zero hour strikes. John leaves the Gethsemane agony of His Master to the other Evangelists. He tells his story rather abruptly with Traitor Judas and the Jewish Gestapo bursting upon the scene. As abruptly, the Master repelled the assailants with a stentorian “I AM”. At that, the strong ones “fell to the ground” (v. 6). And did He not do this, like a mother lion defending her whelps, for the safe-keeping of the disciples? “If therefore ye seek me, let these go their way.” How our Lord cares for His own! Do you know He is watching over you even now, every hour, every minute, to keep you from every evil?
Peter the impulsive, with a swish, sliced off Malchus’ ear! But Jesus restrained him from further action of his fleshly arm. Jesus, knowing that the hour had arrived, yielded to brute force.
Now the Roman Government had given certain religious freedom to the Jews so that they had their own courts, as the British allowed Muslims in Malaysia to have theirs to determine religious issues. That is why we see Jesus taken not by Roman police but by Jewish Gestapo. It was during our Lord’s arraignment before the high priest that Peter, shadowing nervously “outside the palace,” denied Him thrice, “and immediately the cock crowed”. John, who most probably was with Peter, noted this cockrow, which the Master had earlier predicted. Even a cock can keep time for the Lord!
From Jewish Sandhedrin to the Roman Governor, but our Saviour was sentenced to death by the kangaroo court of the shouting crowds.
O, the terror of mob psychology! Beware lest you join a crowd to do evil, not knowing the evil you are in!
John 18:2-11
He Who is Prepared to Die is Not Afraid of Death
We have noted earlier that he who is afraid to die has died a hundred deaths. Conversely, he who is prepared for it is not afraid. Our Lord who wills to permit Himself to be betrayed can never die! The disciples had not learned to steel themselves to this will power yet, but they did when they followed in the Master’s footsteps at the end of their lives. Read the parting words of Peter and of Paul! Legend tells us that all the Apostles suffered martyrdom, save John.
Imprisonment and martyrdom have overtaken the Chinese Church. Watchman Nee, on the eve of his release, died, after nearly twenty years spent behind bars. Wang Ming-tao having survived numerous tortures, is now released, a living witness in his eighties. Going through Gethsemane with our Lord, let us of the young generations pray we may stand loyal for His Cause to the end.
What are the verses that tell of our Lord’s self-preparation? V. 4 says, “Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon Him, went forth . . .” He did not run but rather met His captors eyeball to eyeball. Can you stand erect in the face of overpowering odds? Cultivate moral power! Sir Gallahad said, “My strength is as the strength of ten, because my heart is pure.” Daniel could stand up to the Lions because he was prepared in his conscience to face his foes. It has been noted that a mouse could have killed him were he of less purity of heart.
The story is told of how Chiang Kai-shek was ambushed by Rebel Chang Hsueh-liang. The unbending moral power of the Generalissimo repelled his captor. Now Chiang Kai-shek was a devout Christian and Madam Chiang also who was with him. “With Christ in the vessel we can smile at the storm.”
Were not the disciples relieved by the forceful character of their Saviour? They went away from the arrest untouched. “That the saying might be fulfilled, which He spake, ‘Of them which Thou gavest me have I lost none.’ ” (cf. John 17:12).
Memorise: “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it” (Matt. 16:25).
John 18:10-11 (Matt. 26:47-56;Mark 14:43-50; Luke 22:47-53)
“The Arm of Flesh Will Fail You”
What would we have done the night of the Arrest? You and I would have slunked away in the face of overwhelming odds. So did all the disciples (Matt. 26:56; Mark 14:50) except Peter.
Peter is the only one to stand up for his Lord. It was he who tried to defend Jesus, the stalwart in loyalty and impulsive in action. With a swish, he sliced off the high priest’s servant, Malchus’ ear. Mr. Loyalty, Sir Bravery! Surely our Lord had appreciated Peter’s dash of devotion. Note that nowhere did our Lord chide Peter for his zeal. Peter had acted within the limits of righteous self-defence.
There was a case reported in London of a small Chinese boy who stabbed a big, fat bully of an English classmate in self-defence. When it was proved that this little fellow was intimidated on numerous occasions before this fated stabbing, the jury acquitted him. It is for the reason of self-protection that Jesus before Gethsemane had said to the disciples, “He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one” (Luke 22:36). And when they found two, He remarked, “It is enough.”
While Peter had acted in loyal devotion, there is that characteristic of over impulsiveness in him that must be curbed. Hence the injunction in Matthew 26:52, “Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.”
There is a place for righteous self-defence in a Christian’s life, but the sword he should wield always is rather the sword of the Spirit. When the Pilgrim Fathers first arrived in America they had to carry guns to defend themselves against marauding Indians. Ultimately, it was the Gospel that won the natives over.
The internecine strife between Arab and Jew in the Middle East confirms the truth of Jesus’ statement. While self-defence might require us to carry a sword, let us not trust in the arm of flesh.
Church Choir singing Psalm 150 at Chinese New Year’s Worship Service, Jan 29, 06
