Untitled Sermon (5)

Good afternoon!

Welcome GB and BB, Principal (husband Zachary), teachers, parents, leaders to our Saturday service.

We gather for service because as Christians we worship a God who is great, who is loving, and who wants us to know Him.

We believe that God is a God Who speaks to us.

& We believe God speaks to us through the Bible.

The Bible tells us about Who God is, what He has done for us, and even speaks about life.

One of the things about life is that we look forward to Good News.

Who doesn’t look forward to Good News?

I’m sure we all like Good News.

What is Good News to you?

Maybe good news to you is when you receive your exam results, and you did as well as you hoped you would, or you did better than you expected.

Maybe good news to you is your favourite kpop group coming to Singapore.

Maybe good news to you is when exams are over, and you can rest the whole day! or go out with your friends!

Maybe good news to you is getting accepted into the school or course of your choice.

Maybe good news to you is finally getting a job after being unemployed for some time.

Maybe good news to you is receiving a call or a text or DM from someone you like.

Maybe good news to you is when your family member who has been suffering from an illness gets better, gets well.

We all look forward to Good News. 

But how would you respond to good news when you receive it? 

Would you do something, or would you do nothing?  

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All these examples of Good News demands a response.

If you got accepted into the school of your choice, or the job you’ve been waiting for, you need to respond to it. You either accept it or reject it.

If you receive a text or DM from someone you like, you will want to respond!

If the doctor gives your family member a positive report about their health, you will respond with joy!

Good news demands a response

The Bible is made up of 66 different books or letters. 

4 out of the 66 books were written directly about Jesus’ life. 

Like biographies of Jesus.

One of them is called the Gospel of Mark, because it was written by one of Jesus’ followers named Mark.

The word Gospel means Good News.

The Gospel of Mark begins with Good News.  

Good News that demands a response.

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But it is a very different kind of Good News.

It is infinitely better Good News.

What is this Good News?

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It is that Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, came into our world, to show us how to live, and to give His life for us on the cross, so that we may be saved from our sins.

You may ask, why do I need to be saved?

Well, let me ask us a few questions:

Do you find that it is easy to do the wrong thing, and hard to do the right thing?

Do you find yourself wanting to do or say things you know are not right?

Do you find it easy to think only for yourself, rather than to think for others?

The reason why all of us, myself included, may sometimes feel this way, is because of a 3 letter word called “sin”.

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What is sin? It is Knowing what is right to do, and then not doing it

(James 4:17)

Even by our own standards, we fail.

What more God’s standards.

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But the Good News is, that Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, came into our world, to show us how to live, and to give His life for us on the cross, so that we may be saved from our sins.

Preacher J John tells the story of a lady who faced a lot of struggles in her life. 

She went to see a counsellor, and the counsellor had a conversation with her to find out, “When did this lady’s problems all begin,” 

The lady eventually shared with the counsellor a memory of when she was quite young, in primary school, and for some reason, her teacher disliked her alot, and the teacher said to her, “Come to the front of the classroom, <click>

and write on the whiteboard, ‘I am a failure.’”

And then the teacher said to the rest of the class, 

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“I want you all one by one to come out here and write what you think of her,” and the counsellor said, 

“Well, how did you feel when that was happening?” She said, 

“Well, I- I- I- I couldn’t look at anybody, and- and- and I started to cry, and- and all I wanted to do was to d- die,”

And the counsellor says, “As a Christian, I know that something else happened that day. I’m so sorry you were not aware of it, but when everybody else had finished writing on that board, there was a man at the back called, “Jesus,” He got up from His desk, He walked to the front, He picked up an eraser, <click> 

He erased everything that was written on that whiteboard.

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And He wrote, “I love you and forgive you”..

The Good News of Jesus Christ, is that He loves us and forgives us.

But we need to respond to His love and forgiveness.

Good News demands a response.

How should we respond?

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FIRST, REPENT (JESUS’ GOOD NEWS GIVES ALL OF US A FRESH START)

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15 “The time promised by God has come at last!” he announced. “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!”

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Mark’s Gospel tells us about a man named John the Baptist. 

v2 & 3 tell us that John had one purpose in life. 

To prepare people to respond to Jesus Christ.

(“Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, and he will prepare your way.

3  He is a voice shouting in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord’s coming! Clear the road for him!’”)

John is abit like the recce scout, who surveys the landscape, and prepares it so that the main army force can come in.

If you’re planning for a big event, or gathering, like a wedding, or Church camp (coming up!), John is like the Recce team who goes to the event venue ahead of time, to check if its suitable, to prepare it, so that the event can proceed smoothly.

How does John prepare the people to respond to Jesus?<click>

v4 “He.. preached that people should be baptized to show that they had repented of their sins and turned to God to be forgiven.” 

You may wonder, what does being baptised mean?

For Christians, baptism is a ritual you go through to show that you really want to live your life for Jesus. 

And here the Bible tells us that baptism also shows that we have repented of our sins.

Well, what is repentance?

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Imagine you are going on a hike or a navigation exercise, where you find your way not with google maps, but with the old fashioned physical map and compass. (BB and GB, do you go through navigation exercises?). 

You start off and walk through the forest, with a sense of adventure.  

You carry on walking, thinking you are going in the right direction.

After some time, deep in the forest, you realise you’re going the wrong way. 

You look at the map, you realise that to get on the right path, you need to make a u turn, and backtrack all the way in the opposite direction.

At that point, you have two options. 

Option 1. You can deny that you’re going the wrong way, and carry on, hoping that you will find some shortcut that is not on the map. But we know that we will never get to our destination.

OR

Option 2. You can admit that you’re going the wrong way, and go back in the opposite direction.

Repentance is abit like that. 

Admitting that we are going the wrong way, turning back to go the right way.

The Good News is, when we realise we’re wrong, and we turn to God, He forgives us of all our sin. He erases everything on the whiteboard of our lives.

That is repentance.

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For those of us who are already following Jesus, we must know that

Repentance is not a one-time response.

Repentance is a lifelong posture.

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Martin Luther, a German priest in the 16th century who brought many reforms to the church that continue to impact church life today, said: 

“Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when He said "Repent", willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance.”

What did Martin Luther mean here?

Repentance is not a one-off response when we put our faith in Jesus Christ.

Repentance is meant to be the lifelong attitude of our hearts. 

Everyday, we face struggles and temptations in life.

Everyday, we seek God for His forgiveness, that He will give us because Jesus died on the cross for our sins.

Everyday, God’’s mercies are new.

Everyday, as we repent, God gives us a fresh start.

Maybe we hurt a friend with our words, 

Maybe we discouraged fellow church members who are serving with the things we say.

Maybe we ….

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The Good News of Jesus Christ, is that He always offers us a fresh start when we turn to Him in repentance. 

Whether we already know Jesus or not.

A fresh start from repentance, is like reformatting our smart phones or laptops. It erases everything on it, resets your smart phone, and allows it to function like new.

To reformat and reset your phone, you need to be willing to give up every photo, every message, every piece of data inside.

To truly repent, we must be willing to give up our sinful ways, our negative attitudes etc.

If we confess our sins to (God), he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. (1 John 1:9)

Allowing us to function like new.

Have you ever needed a fresh start in life? 

Do you need a fresh start now?

Maybe you’ve made mistakes.

Maybe you’ve hurt someone, 

Maybe you felt lost. 

The good news of Jesus is that no matter who you are or what you've done, you can have a fresh start.  

But the Good News demands a response: 

Repent. Turn away from our sins, and turn (back) to God. This may mean we have to swallow our pride and apologise to someone, to admit we were wrong, and ask for forgiveness.

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SECOND, REST IN KNOWING THAT WE ARE NEVER ALONE

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V9 One day Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and John baptized him in the Jordan River. 

10 As Jesus came up out of the water, he saw the heavens splitting apart and the Holy Spirit descending on him like a dove. 

11 And a voice from heaven said, “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.”

Why would Jesus need to be baptised, if He was perfect, and if He was God?

Jesus is baptised, not because He needed forgiveness, <click>

Jesus was baptised to identify with us, our struggles, our weaknesses, our pain etc

Years ago, I attended the funeral of a friend’s father who passed away from an accident. At the funeral my friend shared an eulogy of her father. 

She shared various loving memories of her father. 

One memory she shared stuck with me. 

It was of a time when she was very young. She was playing in the house, and she somehow picked up a tube of liquid glue. Being very curious like all children, she opened the tube of glue, squeezed some glue on her hand. 

But unfortunately, she rubbed her eyes, and before long, her eyelids were stuck because of the glue… Feeling helpless, she was crying and crying… 

She then shared how her father rushed over to comfort her, got down on his knees to hug her, to say “it’s okay, papa is here”, 

and he proceeded to do something that she never forgot. 

He took the same tube of glue, dabbed some on his own eye, just so that he could feel what his daughter was feeling, and show her that he fully identified with her…

Some of you may think that he didn’t need to do it… that it was quite ridiculous.. why did he need to do that??

Whatever the case, what is very clear, is his love for his daughter

I recall this story, because it is a little bit like why Jesus chose to be baptised.

He really didn’t need to do it.

But He did so, to identify with us.

To identify with our needs, our struggles, our weaknesses, our pain…

Jesus identifies with us, to assure us that we are never alone.

Jesus is not a God Who tells us what to do from afar

No. He comes near to us, He identifies with us, He goes through what we have to go through

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In v12 we read of how the Spirit then compelled Jesus to go into the wilderness, 13 where he was tempted by Satan for forty days. He was out among the wild animals, and angels took care of him.

Why did Jesus have to go through the wilderness, to face hunger, struggles and temptations.

Again, to identify with us.

He went through the same struggles and temptations that you and I face.

So He understands our struggles in life.

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Even if you think nobody understands what you are going through, Jesus does.

The Good News of Jesus Christ is that we are never alone when we trust Him.

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THIRD, RELY ON JESUS

15 “The time promised by God has come at last!” he announced. “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!”

In the Bible, the word believe, also means to trust, to rely on someone.

Relying on Jesus will change our lives, the way we live.

If I say that I trust that this chair is stable, but I don’t want to sit on it, you will think that I don’t really believe in what I’m saying 

If I say I trust the lift or elevator, but I don’t want to take the lift (and not because I want to exercise by taking the stairs), you will think that I don’t really believe in what I’m saying

If I take the lift or elevator, I am relying on the working parts of the lift (the steel cable, the levers, etc). By taking the lift, I am making a commitment based on my trust in the lift working well. If the lift doesn’t work well, I could be stuck in the lift.

If I say I trust your driving skills, but I don’t want to sit in your car, you will think that I don’t really believe in what I’m saying.

If I say I trust in Jesus Christ, believe His Good News, but I don’t want to live my life accordingly, I don’t want to extend forgiveness, I don’t want to share my life with others, I don’t want to pray with others, I don’t want to take part in a church wide activity simply because it doesn’t meet my personal preferences, I don’t want to serve, you will think that I don’t really believe in what I’m saying.

Do we truly rely on Jesus Christ in our lives?

If we truly trust in the Good News, if we have experienced God’s love and forgiveness in our lives, we will want to show that love and forgiveness to others. We will want to serve others and show others the Good News.

But we need to rely on Jesus in doing so. 

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How do we rely on Jesus?

Ask for the filling of the Holy Spirit.

John describes Jesus as the One who will give us the Holy Spirit in v8 (8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit!”)

The Holy Spirit is God’s Spirit dwelling in us who believe in Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit helps us know that God is real, and that God loves us.

The Holy Spirit reminds us of Jesus’ death on the cross for us.

The Holy Spirit gently guides us to turn back to God, when we are going the wrong way.

The Holy Spirit helps us to love other people in our lives, even those who may be hard to love.

The Holy Spirit

I want to invite those of us who do not yet know Jesus..

To pray to receive Jesus into your life. To receive the Holy Spirit

Dear Lord Jesus,

Thank you for giving your life for me.

Thank you for loving me.

I’m sorry for the ways I may have hurt you or others, through how I live my life.

Forgive me Lord. 

I believe in you Jesus. I believe that you gave your life so that I may have life in you.

I desire to be filled with your holy Spirit, so that I can show Your love to others. 

In Jesus Name I pray, Amen

(you may speak with your BB or GB captain, or myself …)

Lord I pray for the rest of us as well.

Thank You for Your Good News.

When we’ve been in church for many years, it’s easy to take the Gospel for granted. Dangerously and unfortunately, sometimes it just becomes part of the background.

Forgive us when we have taken Your Good News for granted.

Help us to walk each day in repentance, in rest, and in reliance on You.

For Lord, you said, in repentance and rest is our salvation.

Fill us afresh with Your Holy Spirit, so that we may move according to Your leading, toward those Who need Your love and forgiveness.