Sunday Worship Service April 21, 2024
Prelude
Call to Worship 1 Corinthians 5:7
Hymn JBC # We have come into His house
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn JBC # 4 Come, Christians, join to sing
Offering
Scripture Exodus 12:1~13
Prayer
Sermon “The Passover of the Lord”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 102 Marvelous grace of our loving Lord
Doxology JBC # 671
Benediction
Postlude
Today the passage we have been given for our worship service is from the beginning of Exodus chapter 12 in the Old Testament.
This passage describes the origin of a feast called the “Passover”. Christianity historically was born from Judaism.
Even today the Passover Feast is an especially important festival for Judaism. Christians do not celebrate the Passover, but it is important for Christians too to understand about it.
This is because later, Jesus Christ died on the cross to atone for our sins, which has an important connection to Passover.
Let us listen together to God's message from today's scriptures, in which the Lord God communicated to the people of Israel His commandment about the Passover.
In today’s passage we see both Moses and Aaron. Moses was chosen by God for the role of leading (saving) the people of Israel (the Jews) out of Egypt after about 400 years of living in slavery.
As we have seen several times in messages up until now, when Moses was chosen, he first hesitated many times, saying he could not do it and asking God to choose someone else.
Despite this, God continued to speak patiently with Moses. God also showed Moses several miracles (signs) to let him know that God was indeed with Moses and that is God who would send him.
Then God sent Moses’ brother, Aaron, to speak God’s word for him, because Moses claimed he was not eloquent, and “slow of speech and tongue.”
Moses and Aaron together went to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. In Exodus 5 Moses and Aaron’s conversation with Pharaoh begins.
Moses and Aaron tell Pharaoh, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.’” (Exodus 5:1)
However, Pharaoh did not listen to what they said. And God had already explained to Moses and Aaron beforehand that Pharaoh would harden his heart to not listen to what Moses and Aaron were saying.
Then Moses and Aaron, obeying God’s orders, brought several plagues upon Egypt. The first plague is written about in Exodus 7, where the River Nile turned to blood.
After this (as Pharaoh still did not want to let the people of Israel go), a plague of frogs was brought up on Egypt, as well as a plague of gnats (small biting flies) and flies.
Next plagues of disease, then hail, then locusts, then the plague of darkness were all brought upon Egypt.
In the midst of this, Pharaoh would appear to want to listen to Moses and Aaron when a plague happened, but once the plague left, he would once again harden his heart and refuse to let the people of Israel leave Egypt.
Isn’t this Pharaoh’s attitude the same as our own? As we experience God’s forgiveness, grace and salvation over and over again, are there not times when we just forget about God’s grace after some time has passed?
Then without acknowledging the grace we are being given, we even go so far as to take God’s gracious gifts for granted, thinking them as our own legitimate rights and losing any thankfulness we had toward God.
I hope that we can constantly remind ourselves of, take joy in, and offer up our thanksgiving for the fact that through God’s grace our sins are forgiven, and we are able to live our daily lives.
Finally, the Lord God brought about a final plague upon Egypt. Passover is related to this final plague.
The final plague was the death of all the firstborn in Egypt (both people and livestock). And the Lord prevented this plague from coming upon the people of Israel.
Because the plague did not come upon Israel, in other words it passed over them, this event became known as the “Passover”.
God explains about the order of the Passover to Moses and Aaron in great detail in today’s passage.
The first thing that God told Moses and Aaron about the Passover was, “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.” (verse 2)
Until that point, the Jews marked the start of a new year in around the autumn (September). However, God ordered that their salvation out of Egypt mark the start of a new year in faith.
God ordered the people of Israel to, in memory of His saving works, start their new calendar year from that month (which is said to be March).
For us today, being saved by Jesus Christ and born again is the start of a new life. Christ’s salvation is the starting point of our new life.
We always want to remember the work of salvation by Jesus as the starting point of our faith (New Year) and wish to walk the calendar of faith (day by day).
The next thing God ordered people to do regarding the Passover was for each family to prepare a lamb (verse 3).
The Passover grace of the Lord was not directed toward individuals to enjoy it, but toward as a “family”.
It may be good to understand that family here refers to more than just blood relatives, but rather those who worshipped the same God as a family of faith.
Faith in the Bible is not something that individuals receive and do separately, but it is a faith that receive and share God’s grace amongst family.
Also, if the family was not able to eat the whole lamb, they were to share it with their nearest neighbor (verse 4).
I hope that we are able to receive faith and grace together as a family of faith, and joyfully share that abounding faith with other people.
I also hope that we are able to bring even one more person into our family of faith. That is how God has ordained that our faith is to be.
In this way the lamb was slaughtered and its blood was to be painted on the two side pillars and top of the home’s entrance doorframe.
Then in verse 13 God promised that when the final plague comes and nears a home where the lamb’s blood is painted on the entrance, the plague would pass over that home.
This is the origin of the Passover Feast. God ordered the people of Israel to continue this Passover to memorialize for generations that the Lord saved them from destruction in Egypt.
The Israelites continued to observe (celebrate) the Passover ever after Exodus, and even in Jesus’ time the Passover Feast was celebrated. (Even today, Jewish people observe the Passover Feast as one of their most important holidays.)
Now, those who believe in Jesus Christ do not observe the Passover. That is because Jesus completely changed the meaning of Passover.
That means Jesus himself became the Passover Lamb for the forgiveness of all our sins.
In the New Testament in the gospel of John chapter 1, John the Baptist sees Jesus coming toward him and says the following:
“Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)
Before Jesus was caught and crucified, the last supper that He had with His disciples was also the Passover Feast.
In Matthew 26, Jesus shares the final meal, the Passover Feast, with His disciples. This is also where Jesus commands His disciples to share “the Lord’s Supper (communion) in remembrance of Him (Matthew 26:26-30).
Today we continue to observe the Lord’s Supper. At our church we do so once per month, and observe it as Jesus ordered.
We eat bread and drink (grape wine) as symbols of Jesus’ body and blood to remind us of His body and blood that were offered in order to forgive our sins.
Here we can understand that the origin of the Passover in Exodus (said to have happened around 1400 BC) and Jesus’ ordained Lord’s Supper (about 2000 years ago) are deeply related in faith.
Now Christians have been observing the Lord’s Supper as an important ordinance or ritual after Jesus died, resurrected, and ascended into Heaven.
Now, the Lord’s Supper is chance for us to remember anew the sacrifice that Jesus paid to forgive our sins and give thanks.
It is good for us to understand that Jesus, as the sacrificial lamb for our sins, caused the Lord’s plague (punishment) to pass over us.
The reason that the Lord ordered the Israelites to continue to observe the Passover, and the reason why Jesus orders us to continue to observe the Lord’s Supper is so that we do not forget God’s saving grace.
And we prepare bread and grape wine (or juice) to eat and drink for the Lord’s Supper.
In doing so, we use our living bodies senses (not just our hearts) in order to partake in the supper that God ordered.
Through physically partaking of the Lord's Supper too, we are reaffirmed that we are, indeed, living in this world with our bodies and are forgiven to live.
In the Lord’s Supper, the bread and grape wine serve a symbolic role. However, the Passover, which serves as its foundation, and Jesus Christ’s death on the cross are events that certainly happened. It is a historical fact and a true thing for our faith.
Let us continue to hear the story of God's salvation as told through the Bible, the event of the Lord's Passover that saved the houses of the Israelites without any plagues falling on them, as our own salvation story.
Let us also renew our determination and thanks in faith in our daily lives whenever we take of the Lord’s Supper repeatedly, remembering that Jesus Christ took our sins upon Himself.
Saturday, April 13, 2024
Sunday Worship Service April 14, 2024
Prelude
Call to Worship Hebrews 11:8
Hymn JBC # 10 We have come into His house
The Lord’s Prayer
Offering
Hymn JBC # 124 This is my Father’s world
Offering
Scripture Genesis 12:1～7
Prayer
Sermon [Set out on a journey in obedience to the Lord’s Word]
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 327 Lead on, O King eternal
Doxology JBC # 671
Benediction
Postlude
We commence (begin) our walk of the new fiscal year 2024. This year, our church is trying to learn anew the bible from the beginning to the end over the course of a year in the worship service sermon.
Last week, we have heard the words of God’s creative work from His Word, the beginning of [Genesis] chapter 1 of the Old Testament which is the very beginning of the entire bible.
[In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth]. It is this word of God that made the whole world and is the power that moves our world even now.
We believe by faith that God’s word has all the power and the source of hope.
Today, let us listen together to God’s message from [Genesis] chapter 12 from the scene where Abraham who was commended and said to be “the father of faith” from the Israelites leaves his homeland in obedience to God’s word.
Let me read verses 1～3 of today’s passage once again.
1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
2 “I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
In here, a repeated word in what the Lord had spoken to Abraham is [blessing].
The Lord commands Abraham “Leave your homeland and go to the land that I will show you”. (In chapter 12, his name is still “Abram”. Later, he receives a new name “Abraham” from God. Today, he will be called “Abraham” for consistency)
Not being revealed where he was really going, his specified destination, the Lord at any rate commanded Abraham “Go to the land I will show you”.
To my idea, it was a severe order. I can picture in mind that to obey that command was never an easy decision to make even to Abraham.
It is because to stay in a familiar place (homeland) was more pleasant and safe. However, the Lord commanded Abraham to “go”.
And so even Abraham obeyed that Word of the Lord, left his homeland and went on a journey.
I believe that Abraham, not being revealed of his specific destination, still obeyed the Lord’s Word and went on a journey because he was confident of the “blessing” from the Lord God to him in His command.
To him, no matter how severe the journey, the path is, to live receiving the Lord’s grace with firm belief of His blessing which is the believer’s path of life, is better than safe, familiar, pleasant living.
The Lord promises Abraham to bless him. The Lord Himself blesses Abraham, and before long he becomes a source of blessing, is a Word of hope beyond compare that was given to Abraham by the Lord.
“Blessing” means that God walks with us and He himself considers our life, our existence so significant.
We can receive God’s blessing through His Word (the Scriptures). It is the confidence and joy that “God the Creator of heavens and earth considers “this existence of mine” so significant.
There is the “benediction (a prayer of blessing)” at the end of our worship service. “Benediction” is where the sermon speaker as a representative of everyone proclaims that there is God’s blessing.
After the worship service, each one of us receive God’s blessing, blessed by God, and as we firmly believe that “God will walk with me also this week and that He considers me important”, we can leave the church filled with joy.
Why does the Lord God bless Abraham so much and us now as well? Why does God give us much importance?
Later, the Israelites who were people of the bible came to believe that they were of special existence and the only ones chosen by God.
If we read the story of the Old Testament, God surely chooses the nation of Israel, reveals them Himself and His Name, and leads them.
However, the nation of Israel was chosen by God not because they were special and excellent.
And even us Christians now, we were chosen by Christ and made to be believers who believe Jesus Christ not because we were superior or of excellent personality.
It’s a little long though but let me quote below Old Testament’s [Deuteronomy] chapter 7 verses 6～8.
6 For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.
7 The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
God clearly states that He had chosen the Israelites NOT because they were more numerous than other people, which means that they were stronger than other people, superior and with excellent talent.
It was “just” because the Lord loved you. It is because God who created the heavens and the earth, and who created us just loved us one-sidedly.
That hope and promise was confirmed to us even more through the One called Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ was crucified, forgave our sins, had given us salvation and eternal life not because we were excellent.
It relies on the Lord God’s unconditional and limitless love for us. God has forgiven our sins that we cannot wipe away by ourselves through Jesus Christ.
Sin also includes being immersed in a sense of superiority with the thought “I am excellent more than others”. Conversely, by comparison with people, one cannot acknowledge his own preciousness that God has loved, and being fixated on feeling of inferiority as well is included.
However, your worth is in one thing, that Jesus Christ the Son of God died on the cross and has given up everything even His own glory for you.
We can live in the hope that “even us sinners are forgiven of sins through Jesus and can partake of God’s blessing”. Could there be any greater blessing and joy as this?
Let us rejoice together for God’s blessing, the unlimited blessing given through Jesus Christ.
I have mentioned earlier that to Abraham, to leave a homeland where he got used to live, and that to set off on a journey not knowing specific destination was not an easy decision to make.
We are taught that in obedience to God’s Word, at times we are asked to go to a place that God reveals and leave that place that to us is comfortable and safe.
At that time, we must trust in God’s Word and blessing, and move ahead.
There are those of us who live in the area where they were born and raised till the end of their life, moreover, someone leaves the place where he/she was born and raised and live somewhere till life ends.
However, to obey the Word of the Lord is, for everyone, to leave the place where we are now, and the decision and act to go a different place goes along.
That just doesn’t refer to go to a truly distant place. It means that when we hear the voice of God and make a new act, leave your present self, grow beyond who you are now and live in obedience to what the Lord reveals.
When we renew the decision to stand on the Word of God, listen and live by it, we are going to carry out a spiritual set off on that journey even if it’s not the anytime literal trip.
So, beyond that journey where we make a step, a blessing that the Lord has prepared waits for us. With such hope, we can walk each day and go on a journey.
And one more thing that we are to keep in mind, is that the walk to set off on a journey in obedience to God’s Word will never be a path of loneliness.
Abraham made the decision to set off on a journey in response to the Lord who firstly spoke to him directly, but there were people that set off with him.
Sarai, wife of Abraham, Lot his nephew, also [those that joined them in Haran] found in verse 5.
As to Lot, Abraham’s nephew, it is written in the passage prior to chapter 12 that Abraham’s father, Terah had 3 sons.
Chapter 11:26 [When Terah had lived seventy years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran]. Verses 27～28 […Haran was the father of Lot. Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans]
If verse 27 was written as in order, Abraham was the eldest son, Nahor the second son and Haran the third son. Since Lot is Haran’s son, then Lot to Abraham is the son of his youngest brother, meaning his nephew.
To Abraham, his (Lot’s) existence was like his own son, and so as the eldest brother he must have had the duty to raise Lot.
Abraham set off on a journey with his nephew Lot, his wife Sarah and the people that joined them in Haran.
Which means that Abraham who went on a journey with his family and kinsmen had their cooperation and support during the journey as well.
This group of families, Abraham’s kinsmen must have certainly prayed together, set off from Haran and continued their journey supporting one another.
Even us the church’s walk that is trying to put the teachings of Jesus into practice, to believe Jesus Christ as Lord, listening together to the words of the bible and obey it, we are God’s family that were called by the Lord that we should walk the journey of faith “together” and not to walk separately one by one.
We stand on the Word of the Lord and set off on a journey by His Word. That walk is not a lonesome one, but it’s a walk together with fellow believers who look up to Jesus Christ as the Savior.
Though we usually live in different places, let us never stop gathering at church every week on the Lord’s Day, to offer worship service together, to worship God together and let us keep on praising the Lord.
The Lord God promises to give us great blessing through His Word. Let us walk together the new fiscal year of hope believing that promise.
Prelude
Call to Worship Hebrews 11:8
Hymn JBC # 10 We have come into His house
The Lord’s Prayer
Offering
Hymn JBC # 124 This is my Father’s world
Offering
Scripture Genesis 12:1～7
Prayer
Sermon [Set out on a journey in obedience to the Lord’s Word]
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 327 Lead on, O King eternal
Doxology JBC # 671
Benediction
Postlude
We commence (begin) our walk of the new fiscal year 2024. This year, our church is trying to learn anew the bible from the beginning to the end over the course of a year in the worship service sermon.
Last week, we have heard the words of God’s creative work from His Word, the beginning of [Genesis] chapter 1 of the Old Testament which is the very beginning of the entire bible.
[In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth]. It is this word of God that made the whole world and is the power that moves our world even now.
We believe by faith that God’s word has all the power and the source of hope.
Today, let us listen together to God’s message from [Genesis] chapter 12 from the scene where Abraham who was commended and said to be “the father of faith” from the Israelites leaves his homeland in obedience to God’s word.
Let me read verses 1～3 of today’s passage once again.
1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
2 “I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
In here, a repeated word in what the Lord had spoken to Abraham is [blessing].
The Lord commands Abraham “Leave your homeland and go to the land that I will show you”. (In chapter 12, his name is still “Abram”. Later, he receives a new name “Abraham” from God. Today, he will be called “Abraham” for consistency)
Not being revealed where he was really going, his specified destination, the Lord at any rate commanded Abraham “Go to the land I will show you”.
To my idea, it was a severe order. I can picture in mind that to obey that command was never an easy decision to make even to Abraham.
It is because to stay in a familiar place (homeland) was more pleasant and safe. However, the Lord commanded Abraham to “go”.
And so even Abraham obeyed that Word of the Lord, left his homeland and went on a journey.
I believe that Abraham, not being revealed of his specific destination, still obeyed the Lord’s Word and went on a journey because he was confident of the “blessing” from the Lord God to him in His command.
To him, no matter how severe the journey, the path is, to live receiving the Lord’s grace with firm belief of His blessing which is the believer’s path of life, is better than safe, familiar, pleasant living.
The Lord promises Abraham to bless him. The Lord Himself blesses Abraham, and before long he becomes a source of blessing, is a Word of hope beyond compare that was given to Abraham by the Lord.
“Blessing” means that God walks with us and He himself considers our life, our existence so significant.
We can receive God’s blessing through His Word (the Scriptures). It is the confidence and joy that “God the Creator of heavens and earth considers “this existence of mine” so significant.
There is the “benediction (a prayer of blessing)” at the end of our worship service. “Benediction” is where the sermon speaker as a representative of everyone proclaims that there is God’s blessing.
After the worship service, each one of us receive God’s blessing, blessed by God, and as we firmly believe that “God will walk with me also this week and that He considers me important”, we can leave the church filled with joy.
Why does the Lord God bless Abraham so much and us now as well? Why does God give us much importance?
Later, the Israelites who were people of the bible came to believe that they were of special existence and the only ones chosen by God.
If we read the story of the Old Testament, God surely chooses the nation of Israel, reveals them Himself and His Name, and leads them.
However, the nation of Israel was chosen by God not because they were special and excellent.
And even us Christians now, we were chosen by Christ and made to be believers who believe Jesus Christ not because we were superior or of excellent personality.
It’s a little long though but let me quote below Old Testament’s [Deuteronomy] chapter 7 verses 6～8.
6 For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.
7 The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
God clearly states that He had chosen the Israelites NOT because they were more numerous than other people, which means that they were stronger than other people, superior and with excellent talent.
It was “just” because the Lord loved you. It is because God who created the heavens and the earth, and who created us just loved us one-sidedly.
That hope and promise was confirmed to us even more through the One called Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ was crucified, forgave our sins, had given us salvation and eternal life not because we were excellent.
It relies on the Lord God’s unconditional and limitless love for us. God has forgiven our sins that we cannot wipe away by ourselves through Jesus Christ.
Sin also includes being immersed in a sense of superiority with the thought “I am excellent more than others”. Conversely, by comparison with people, one cannot acknowledge his own preciousness that God has loved, and being fixated on feeling of inferiority as well is included.
However, your worth is in one thing, that Jesus Christ the Son of God died on the cross and has given up everything even His own glory for you.
We can live in the hope that “even us sinners are forgiven of sins through Jesus and can partake of God’s blessing”. Could there be any greater blessing and joy as this?
Let us rejoice together for God’s blessing, the unlimited blessing given through Jesus Christ.
I have mentioned earlier that to Abraham, to leave a homeland where he got used to live, and that to set off on a journey not knowing specific destination was not an easy decision to make.
We are taught that in obedience to God’s Word, at times we are asked to go to a place that God reveals and leave that place that to us is comfortable and safe.
At that time, we must trust in God’s Word and blessing, and move ahead.
There are those of us who live in the area where they were born and raised till the end of their life, moreover, someone leaves the place where he/she was born and raised and live somewhere till life ends.
However, to obey the Word of the Lord is, for everyone, to leave the place where we are now, and the decision and act to go a different place goes along.
That just doesn’t refer to go to a truly distant place. It means that when we hear the voice of God and make a new act, leave your present self, grow beyond who you are now and live in obedience to what the Lord reveals.
When we renew the decision to stand on the Word of God, listen and live by it, we are going to carry out a spiritual set off on that journey even if it’s not the anytime literal trip.
So, beyond that journey where we make a step, a blessing that the Lord has prepared waits for us. With such hope, we can walk each day and go on a journey.
And one more thing that we are to keep in mind, is that the walk to set off on a journey in obedience to God’s Word will never be a path of loneliness.
Abraham made the decision to set off on a journey in response to the Lord who firstly spoke to him directly, but there were people that set off with him.
Sarai, wife of Abraham, Lot his nephew, also [those that joined them in Haran] found in verse 5.
As to Lot, Abraham’s nephew, it is written in the passage prior to chapter 12 that Abraham’s father, Terah had 3 sons.
Chapter 11:26 [When Terah had lived seventy years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran]. Verses 27～28 […Haran was the father of Lot. Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans]
If verse 27 was written as in order, Abraham was the eldest son, Nahor the second son and Haran the third son. Since Lot is Haran’s son, then Lot to Abraham is the son of his youngest brother, meaning his nephew.
To Abraham, his (Lot’s) existence was like his own son, and so as the eldest brother he must have had the duty to raise Lot.
Abraham set off on a journey with his nephew Lot, his wife Sarah and the people that joined them in Haran.
Which means that Abraham who went on a journey with his family and kinsmen had their cooperation and support during the journey as well.
This group of families, Abraham’s kinsmen must have certainly prayed together, set off from Haran and continued their journey supporting one another.
Even us the church’s walk that is trying to put the teachings of Jesus into practice, to believe Jesus Christ as Lord, listening together to the words of the bible and obey it, we are God’s family that were called by the Lord that we should walk the journey of faith “together” and not to walk separately one by one.
We stand on the Word of the Lord and set off on a journey by His Word. That walk is not a lonesome one, but it’s a walk together with fellow believers who look up to Jesus Christ as the Savior.
Though we usually live in different places, let us never stop gathering at church every week on the Lord’s Day, to offer worship service together, to worship God together and let us keep on praising the Lord.
The Lord God promises to give us great blessing through His Word. Let us walk together the new fiscal year of hope believing that promise.
Saturday, April 6, 2024
Sunday Worship Service April 7, 2024
Prelude
Call to Worship Hebrews 11:3
Hymn JBC # 10 We have come into His house
The Prayer Time
The Lord’s Supper
Hymn JBC # 125 All creatures of our God and King
Offering
Scripture Genesis 1:1~5
Prayer
Sermon “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 121 I sing the mighty pow’r of God
Doxology JBC # 671
Benediction
Postlude
Today we are offering the first Sunday worship service of the fiscal year 2024. In Japan, a new fiscal year generally begins in April.
I imagine that some of you students have moved on to a new school or went up to a new grade. I pray that your new school year will be fruitful and blessed by God.
Our church will also begin a new fiscal year in April, and this year we will walk together in our church life with our annual motto, "Standing on the Word of the Lord".
A Christian is a person who believes that Jesus Christ is God (God who became man, who is both man and God at the same time) and has made a decision to live his/her life following Christ as their Lord.
Last Sunday, March 31, we offered an Easter service to commemorate and celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, who died on the cross and risen on the third day.
The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and His appearing to His disciples and many others confirmed that He was indeed the Son of God, and that His words and deeds were the very words and deeds of God Himself.
The resurrected Jesus returned to heaven. Now, God's appearance, Jesus's appearance are invisible to us. However, God has left us the words of the Bible as His Word.
Therefore, we can still hear God's voice and know His will through the words of the Bible.
However, if you read the Bible alone, you run the risk of reading it in a way that suits you and your own preferences. Above all, there are many passages in the Bible that cannot be understood when read alone.
Originally, the words of the Bible were put together for people to hear and share the words as they were read aloud.
Therefore, it is important to read the Bible alone, but it is also important to read and share the words of the Bible with other believers, and to listen to the Word of God together in church services.
By doing so, we can come find out many other interpretations of the Word of God that we would never have known if we had read it alone.
In this way, it is our hope that this year we will be Word-centered and build up our faith in walking with the Word as our foundation.
Over the course of this year, we will cover the entire Bible from the Old Testament to the New Testament in our worship messages.
Today, the first Sunday service of the new fiscal year, we will focus on the words of the Lord from the beginning of the first book of the Old Testament, "Genesis," chapter 1, verses 1 through 5.
The statement in verse 1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," begins the book of Genesis and the entire Bible. From the very beginning, the Bible clearly declares that God is the Maker of heaven and earth.
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." This is a very simple and clear statement. And it seems to me that nothing could be more powerful, more beautiful, or more overwhelming than this very sentence.
For those who already believe in Jesus Christ and confess their faith in Him, this sentence reminds them that the God they believe in is the very Creator who made heaven and earth (and all things).
Even for those who are not yet familiar with the Bible, this sentence at the beginning of Genesis tells the truth: "There is indeed one God who created everything in the world, the heavens and the earth, including the universe."
If we read (or listen to) this sentence repeatedly and meditate on it in our hearts, it becomes clear that it is not the product of human thoughts and feelings.
This first sentence in Genesis also teaches us that "through the Bible we hear and experience the story (truth) of God's creation.
Some people may be confused when they suddenly hear that God created the heavens and the earth, not knowing how to take it in.
"What kind of being is this God who created the heavens and the earth?" The answer to that question is provided throughout the Bible, especially in the New Testament books known as the Gospels.
Therefore, when we read the Bible (or hear the words of the Bible), it is also a process of repetition and learning about “who God is”.
As we seek to live by the words of the Bible, the words of the Lord God, what is required of us is that we open our hearts.
As we go through life's experiences, we gradually acquire our own experiences and ideas, as well as our own abilities and capabilities.
At times, what the Bible says may be at odds with our own thoughts, experiences, and perceptions.
At such times, I believe that instead of closing our minds, we should have the attitude of keeping the door of our hearts open and asking God honestly, saying, "What does this word mean and what does it have to do with me?" and also asking other believers.
Ultimately, belief in God and in His work of creation is given to us by faith.
And faith will be given to us when we do not cling to our own thoughts and ideas, but in a sense when we abandon ourselves, open our hearts, and accept God into our hearts.
In the New Testament book of ‘Hebrews’, chapter 11, verse 3, it is written:
Hebrew 11:3
By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
By faith we believe in God's work of creation, and let us share in the wonder and joy of being alive in this world that God has created.
In today's passage, the beginning of the Book of Genesis, we find the first words of God. The memorable first words of God (first words in the sense that they are communicated to us human beings) were "Let there be light."
Verse 3 “let there be light”
The light appeared by the Word of God. The absence of God's light is described in verse 2.
Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
The state without God's light is a chaos (formlessness, emptiness, and lack of order) and darkness. But God has allowed His light to shine in this world.
In chaos and darkness we cannot live. We do not know where to go in the darkness without order.
But God created light so that we can follow His light and walk in it.
In the New Testament, there is a passage that says the following about this light
2 Corinthians 4:6
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.
Light, that is, the light of Jesus Christ, the light of His glory (the glory of God), they say.
God has created a world where there is light, not chaos and darkness. And God created each of us to live in that light, the light of Jesus Christ, in our hearts.
The light of Jesus Christ goes before us and shows us where to go and how to live.
We read the Word of the Bible and pray so that we can see the path shown to us by Christ.
Through prayer and the Word of God, let us choose the path that is illuminated by the light of God, or Christ, and let us walk in that path together.
Today's passage is from Genesis 1:1-5, and this entire chapter describes how God created everything in the world, even living things, including human beings, according to the order God had determined.
The first half of verse 31 of chapter 1 reads as follows
God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.
Prelude
Call to Worship Hebrews 11:3
Hymn JBC # 10 We have come into His house
The Prayer Time
The Lord’s Supper
Hymn JBC # 125 All creatures of our God and King
Offering
Scripture Genesis 1:1~5
Prayer
Sermon “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 121 I sing the mighty pow’r of God
Doxology JBC # 671
Benediction
Postlude
Today we are offering the first Sunday worship service of the fiscal year 2024. In Japan, a new fiscal year generally begins in April.
I imagine that some of you students have moved on to a new school or went up to a new grade. I pray that your new school year will be fruitful and blessed by God.
Our church will also begin a new fiscal year in April, and this year we will walk together in our church life with our annual motto, "Standing on the Word of the Lord".
A Christian is a person who believes that Jesus Christ is God (God who became man, who is both man and God at the same time) and has made a decision to live his/her life following Christ as their Lord.
Last Sunday, March 31, we offered an Easter service to commemorate and celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, who died on the cross and risen on the third day.
The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and His appearing to His disciples and many others confirmed that He was indeed the Son of God, and that His words and deeds were the very words and deeds of God Himself.
The resurrected Jesus returned to heaven. Now, God's appearance, Jesus's appearance are invisible to us. However, God has left us the words of the Bible as His Word.
Therefore, we can still hear God's voice and know His will through the words of the Bible.
However, if you read the Bible alone, you run the risk of reading it in a way that suits you and your own preferences. Above all, there are many passages in the Bible that cannot be understood when read alone.
Originally, the words of the Bible were put together for people to hear and share the words as they were read aloud.
Therefore, it is important to read the Bible alone, but it is also important to read and share the words of the Bible with other believers, and to listen to the Word of God together in church services.
By doing so, we can come find out many other interpretations of the Word of God that we would never have known if we had read it alone.
In this way, it is our hope that this year we will be Word-centered and build up our faith in walking with the Word as our foundation.
Over the course of this year, we will cover the entire Bible from the Old Testament to the New Testament in our worship messages.
Today, the first Sunday service of the new fiscal year, we will focus on the words of the Lord from the beginning of the first book of the Old Testament, "Genesis," chapter 1, verses 1 through 5.
The statement in verse 1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," begins the book of Genesis and the entire Bible. From the very beginning, the Bible clearly declares that God is the Maker of heaven and earth.
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." This is a very simple and clear statement. And it seems to me that nothing could be more powerful, more beautiful, or more overwhelming than this very sentence.
For those who already believe in Jesus Christ and confess their faith in Him, this sentence reminds them that the God they believe in is the very Creator who made heaven and earth (and all things).
Even for those who are not yet familiar with the Bible, this sentence at the beginning of Genesis tells the truth: "There is indeed one God who created everything in the world, the heavens and the earth, including the universe."
If we read (or listen to) this sentence repeatedly and meditate on it in our hearts, it becomes clear that it is not the product of human thoughts and feelings.
This first sentence in Genesis also teaches us that "through the Bible we hear and experience the story (truth) of God's creation.
Some people may be confused when they suddenly hear that God created the heavens and the earth, not knowing how to take it in.
"What kind of being is this God who created the heavens and the earth?" The answer to that question is provided throughout the Bible, especially in the New Testament books known as the Gospels.
Therefore, when we read the Bible (or hear the words of the Bible), it is also a process of repetition and learning about “who God is”.
As we seek to live by the words of the Bible, the words of the Lord God, what is required of us is that we open our hearts.
As we go through life's experiences, we gradually acquire our own experiences and ideas, as well as our own abilities and capabilities.
At times, what the Bible says may be at odds with our own thoughts, experiences, and perceptions.
At such times, I believe that instead of closing our minds, we should have the attitude of keeping the door of our hearts open and asking God honestly, saying, "What does this word mean and what does it have to do with me?" and also asking other believers.
Ultimately, belief in God and in His work of creation is given to us by faith.
And faith will be given to us when we do not cling to our own thoughts and ideas, but in a sense when we abandon ourselves, open our hearts, and accept God into our hearts.
In the New Testament book of ‘Hebrews’, chapter 11, verse 3, it is written:
Hebrew 11:3
By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
By faith we believe in God's work of creation, and let us share in the wonder and joy of being alive in this world that God has created.
In today's passage, the beginning of the Book of Genesis, we find the first words of God. The memorable first words of God (first words in the sense that they are communicated to us human beings) were "Let there be light."
Verse 3 “let there be light”
The light appeared by the Word of God. The absence of God's light is described in verse 2.
Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
The state without God's light is a chaos (formlessness, emptiness, and lack of order) and darkness. But God has allowed His light to shine in this world.
In chaos and darkness we cannot live. We do not know where to go in the darkness without order.
But God created light so that we can follow His light and walk in it.
In the New Testament, there is a passage that says the following about this light
2 Corinthians 4:6
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.
Light, that is, the light of Jesus Christ, the light of His glory (the glory of God), they say.
God has created a world where there is light, not chaos and darkness. And God created each of us to live in that light, the light of Jesus Christ, in our hearts.
The light of Jesus Christ goes before us and shows us where to go and how to live.
We read the Word of the Bible and pray so that we can see the path shown to us by Christ.
Through prayer and the Word of God, let us choose the path that is illuminated by the light of God, or Christ, and let us walk in that path together.
Today's passage is from Genesis 1:1-5, and this entire chapter describes how God created everything in the world, even living things, including human beings, according to the order God had determined.
The first half of verse 31 of chapter 1 reads as follows
God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.
Thus, the Bible says that God made everything in the world, and that from God's point of view, it was all "very good."
God made this world and everything in it and that lives in it, and all of it is "very good" in God's eyes.
In our eyes, there are many things about our society and the world we live in, and the things that happen in it, that can’t be taken as good things.
Especially when we look at the reality that there are tragic wars going on all over the world, where people are fighting each other, or countries and organizations are fighting each other, it is hard to believe that such a world can be good.
Let us listen to the words of Psalm 19:8~9 (7~8 NIV), the motto of our church for this year and its related scriptures.
Stand on the Word of the Lord.
Psalm 19:7~8 (NIV)
The law of the Lord is perfect,
refreshing the soul.
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
In this section of Psalm 19,”the law, statues, precepts, and commands of the Lord” are the Word of the Lord.
Where is the light of God? Where is God's light and hope in a world that seems to our eyes to be full of tragic and cruel realities?
It is when we see the world through the Word of the Lord (the Word of the Bible), and not through our own thoughts and what we see, that we can recognize the light and hope of God.
When we depend on and receive the Word of the Lord, we can recognize that God's light is indeed shining in the world and that God's work of creation is "very good.
Each time we are able to recognize each good work of God's creation by faith, God's peace, not chaos, will be created all around us.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”. These words are truth and hope.
The heavens and the earth, the world that God created, is "very good." Through the light of the Word of God, let us always abound in the joy of living in the world God has created.
God made this world and everything in it and that lives in it, and all of it is "very good" in God's eyes.
In our eyes, there are many things about our society and the world we live in, and the things that happen in it, that can’t be taken as good things.
Especially when we look at the reality that there are tragic wars going on all over the world, where people are fighting each other, or countries and organizations are fighting each other, it is hard to believe that such a world can be good.
Let us listen to the words of Psalm 19:8~9 (7~8 NIV), the motto of our church for this year and its related scriptures.
Stand on the Word of the Lord.
Psalm 19:7~8 (NIV)
The law of the Lord is perfect,
refreshing the soul.
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
In this section of Psalm 19,”the law, statues, precepts, and commands of the Lord” are the Word of the Lord.
Where is the light of God? Where is God's light and hope in a world that seems to our eyes to be full of tragic and cruel realities?
It is when we see the world through the Word of the Lord (the Word of the Bible), and not through our own thoughts and what we see, that we can recognize the light and hope of God.
When we depend on and receive the Word of the Lord, we can recognize that God's light is indeed shining in the world and that God's work of creation is "very good.
Each time we are able to recognize each good work of God's creation by faith, God's peace, not chaos, will be created all around us.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”. These words are truth and hope.
The heavens and the earth, the world that God created, is "very good." Through the light of the Word of God, let us always abound in the joy of living in the world God has created.
Saturday, March 30, 2024
Sunday (Easter) Worship Service March 31, 2024
Prelude
Call to Worship Genesis 2:7
Hymn JBC # 232 On the cross of Calvary
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn JBC # 240
Offering
Scripture John 20:19~23
Prayer
Sermon “Receive the Holy Spirit”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 241 The day of resurrection!
Doxology JBC # 674
Benediction
Postlude
Today we dedicate this Easter service to commemorate and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Jesus bore the sins of mankind and died on the cross to forgive them.
This was very severe and painful for the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
Some say, “Since Jesus was the Son of God and He knew He would die and be resurrected, He didn’t need to be afraid of being crucified.”
But I do not see it that way. Certainly, Jesus foretold to His disciples that He would be arrested, crucified, die, and that He would then be resurrected.
Even so, Jesus prayed desperately in the place called Gethsemane before He was taken captive. As depicted in Mark 14:32-42, Jesus prays the following:
“Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” (Mark 14:36)
Jesus is God who became human. Jesus was God, but He also became fully human. This is a mysterious event that we humans cannot fully understand, but it is true.
As such, since Jesus was both God and fully man, His task to bear the sins of all people (a pure person with no sin experiencing the burden of sin) must have been an experience more difficult, painful, sad, and heavy than we can imagine.
Jesus fulfilled that task assigned to Him, and on the cross He breathed His last, saying, “It is finished (NIV).” (John 19:30)
The Bible clearly tells us about the event of Jesus being cruelly killed on the cross. The Christian church, right up to the present day, has always held up the cross as an expression of our faith.
This is so that we may always remember our faith, that through the work of redemption and forgiveness of our sins that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross, we have been forgiven and made alive.
Jesus was crucified on Friday. Three days later on Sunday morning, the Lord Jesus was resurrected.
Today we remember the resurrection of Jesus in our hearts, and by the power and hope of the resurrection, we hope to receive the experience of being made newly alive.
Today's passage was about the evening of the third day after Jesus’ death on the cross. It says that the disciples were afraid of the Jewish leaders, so they stayed inside and locked the doors.
They were afraid of the Jewish leaders because Jesus, whom they had followed as their teacher, had been executed by crucifixion. They were probably in fear that they would be caught too.
How afraid were they? They were in fear that their very lives might be taken away.
They were also in shock of having everything they had believed in be completely shattered. Physical death is terrible, but I believe that the death of a cherished belief or ideal is also a terrible thing.
They believed in Jesus’ teachings, and they put everything (including their lives) on the line for what He would eventually bring them (and what they believed in so).
And what they believed was that Jesus would eventually use His overwhelming power to overthrow the Roman Empire that ruled over the Jewish people and establish the Kingdom of God, and that at that time, those who had followed Him would be raised to high positions.
But all that they had believed had been shattered, and there was no longer any hope left for them.
“What in the world have we been believing in all this time? What are we going to do now?” At a loss, they gathered together, locked their doors, and probably could do nothing but stay inside their houses in fear.
And the way they had locked their doors I believe also represents the closed state of their hearts.
The doors of their hearts were completely closed with such thoughts as, “I can't believe in anything anymore,” or “I don't want to believe in anything.”
How about us now? Are our hearts open as we gather here in the church? Are our hearts open to the Lord and to each other as we gather together?
It is our hope that that is the case. How can we open our hearts to God and to others?
It is possible by believing in the Risen Lord Jesus Christ and welcoming Him into our midst. How will we welcome Jesus?
In today's scripture verses, Jesus came and stood in the middle of the disciples who had closed the doors.
The doors were closed, but after His resurrection, Jesus would have been able to act without being limited by the physical obstacles of this world because He had been resurrected to an entirely new body.
Jesus stood in the middle of them. God does not force His way into our hearts to urge us to believe and have faith.
In Revelation 3:20, we read about how Jesus is standing at the door and knocking.
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
Jesus stands at the door of our hearts, knocking on the door, waiting for us to open it from the inside. He does not force His way into our hearts.
It is up to us to choose whether to live believing that Christ died for us or to live rejecting that truth. God does not force us to make that choice.
However, on the evening of the day of His resurrection, Jesus forcibly, so to speak, passed through the door that the disciples had locked and appeared in front of them in His resurrected form.
It was to clearly show that the Lord's resurrection was by God's design, totally beyond the imagination of the disciples and people.
Jesus appeared to the disciples, passed a closed door, to show them that something completely new begins with the resurrection of the Lord and that it begins by God's initiative.
Standing in the middle of the disciples, Jesus said, “Peace be with you!” Jesus’ resurrection was to give peace to His disciples and to us.
Peace means that broken relationships are restored (repaired). It means we are welcomed back into a rich relationship, where hearts are joined together in a strong bond.
The Bible tells us that man was separated from God because of the sin committed by the first humans, Adam and Eve. We all carry that sin, which is called the original sin.
However, God did not want people to live carrying the original sin, always being separated from Him.
God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to save us, even at the cost of His Son's life.
That is something I will have to keep telling you over and over again, as a pastor and a Christian, for the rest of my life.
And it is my hope that even I, weak and lacking as I am, will strive to do so, so that I can live in response to God's incredible love, even if only in a small way. I am sure that all of you who are Christians share this desire.
And we hope that those who do not yet believe in Jesus as Lord will eventually be led to a confession of faith in Him, and to the belief, “I have the life I have today because Jesus died on the cross for me.”
The resurrected Jesus has given us peace. The peace of entering once again into a relationship with God who we were separated (broken away) from.
Another thing the resurrected Jesus has given us is joy.
Jesus showed His disciples His hands and side. There must have been painful scars from the nails and spear. By those scars, the disciples knew that He was indeed their Lord.
The disciples were convinced by the fresh wounds on His hands and side that the Lord, who had died (been killed) cruelly on the cross, had indeed risen in the flesh.
The disciples were shown by this that, although people killed Jesus (including themselves), no one can truly take His life!
From there great and true joy was given to the disciples. They were filled with joy because no one could take the life of the Lord, and no one could take the life of those who believe in the Lord.
We can share in that joy today through faith.
Jesus breathed on His disciples and said:
“Receive the Holy Spirit.”
Jesus breathed on them, indicating that new life had been breathed into them.
When man was first created by God in Genesis, he became a living being when God breathed His breath on him. (Genesis 2:7)
The resurrected Jesus also gave the disciples the breath of life, the Holy Spirit, giving them new life.
We, too, can always receive the Holy Spirit, the breath of God and the breath of life, through faith with the Lord Jesus Christ in the center.
The Lord has risen. And those who live believing in His resurrection will eventually be resurrected with Him.
This is not just an unattainable dream, but based on that hope, we have the power that allows us to live the raw reality, the harsh reality of our lives here on earth now, to the fullest.
The Lord Jesus Christ has risen. No amount of evil thoughts or evil power of man could completely eliminate the Lord.
We worship every Sunday, the Sunday of the Lord's resurrection. Today is a special Easter service, but every Sunday of every week is a special time when we can share in the resurrection of the Lord.
Through our worship together, we hope to open our hearts to the Lord and also to our family of faith and to our neighbors.
Let us believe in the Risen Lord and always welcome the Risen Lord Jesus Christ into our hearts and into the midst of this worship service.
And let us believe that the words Jesus gave to His disciples, “Peace be with you,” are also directed to us today. Let us pray and ask that the peace of the Lord be realized among us and in our society and world.
Jesus did not abandon the truly weak and cowardly disciples who had once completely betrayed Him, but appeared to them again, gave them the Holy Spirit to make them alive again, and made them His messengers to announce His forgiveness.
We, too, are called and sent as modern-day messengers to proclaim the Lord's work of forgiveness and the resurrection of Jesus Christ to the world. Let us respond to that calling with joy.
Happy Easter! Thank you, Jesus!
Prelude
Call to Worship Genesis 2:7
Hymn JBC # 232 On the cross of Calvary
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn JBC # 240
Offering
Scripture John 20:19~23
Prayer
Sermon “Receive the Holy Spirit”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 241 The day of resurrection!
Doxology JBC # 674
Benediction
Postlude
Today we dedicate this Easter service to commemorate and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Jesus bore the sins of mankind and died on the cross to forgive them.
This was very severe and painful for the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
Some say, “Since Jesus was the Son of God and He knew He would die and be resurrected, He didn’t need to be afraid of being crucified.”
But I do not see it that way. Certainly, Jesus foretold to His disciples that He would be arrested, crucified, die, and that He would then be resurrected.
Even so, Jesus prayed desperately in the place called Gethsemane before He was taken captive. As depicted in Mark 14:32-42, Jesus prays the following:
“Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” (Mark 14:36)
Jesus is God who became human. Jesus was God, but He also became fully human. This is a mysterious event that we humans cannot fully understand, but it is true.
As such, since Jesus was both God and fully man, His task to bear the sins of all people (a pure person with no sin experiencing the burden of sin) must have been an experience more difficult, painful, sad, and heavy than we can imagine.
Jesus fulfilled that task assigned to Him, and on the cross He breathed His last, saying, “It is finished (NIV).” (John 19:30)
The Bible clearly tells us about the event of Jesus being cruelly killed on the cross. The Christian church, right up to the present day, has always held up the cross as an expression of our faith.
This is so that we may always remember our faith, that through the work of redemption and forgiveness of our sins that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross, we have been forgiven and made alive.
Jesus was crucified on Friday. Three days later on Sunday morning, the Lord Jesus was resurrected.
Today we remember the resurrection of Jesus in our hearts, and by the power and hope of the resurrection, we hope to receive the experience of being made newly alive.
Today's passage was about the evening of the third day after Jesus’ death on the cross. It says that the disciples were afraid of the Jewish leaders, so they stayed inside and locked the doors.
They were afraid of the Jewish leaders because Jesus, whom they had followed as their teacher, had been executed by crucifixion. They were probably in fear that they would be caught too.
How afraid were they? They were in fear that their very lives might be taken away.
They were also in shock of having everything they had believed in be completely shattered. Physical death is terrible, but I believe that the death of a cherished belief or ideal is also a terrible thing.
They believed in Jesus’ teachings, and they put everything (including their lives) on the line for what He would eventually bring them (and what they believed in so).
And what they believed was that Jesus would eventually use His overwhelming power to overthrow the Roman Empire that ruled over the Jewish people and establish the Kingdom of God, and that at that time, those who had followed Him would be raised to high positions.
But all that they had believed had been shattered, and there was no longer any hope left for them.
“What in the world have we been believing in all this time? What are we going to do now?” At a loss, they gathered together, locked their doors, and probably could do nothing but stay inside their houses in fear.
And the way they had locked their doors I believe also represents the closed state of their hearts.
The doors of their hearts were completely closed with such thoughts as, “I can't believe in anything anymore,” or “I don't want to believe in anything.”
How about us now? Are our hearts open as we gather here in the church? Are our hearts open to the Lord and to each other as we gather together?
It is our hope that that is the case. How can we open our hearts to God and to others?
It is possible by believing in the Risen Lord Jesus Christ and welcoming Him into our midst. How will we welcome Jesus?
In today's scripture verses, Jesus came and stood in the middle of the disciples who had closed the doors.
The doors were closed, but after His resurrection, Jesus would have been able to act without being limited by the physical obstacles of this world because He had been resurrected to an entirely new body.
Jesus stood in the middle of them. God does not force His way into our hearts to urge us to believe and have faith.
In Revelation 3:20, we read about how Jesus is standing at the door and knocking.
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
Jesus stands at the door of our hearts, knocking on the door, waiting for us to open it from the inside. He does not force His way into our hearts.
It is up to us to choose whether to live believing that Christ died for us or to live rejecting that truth. God does not force us to make that choice.
However, on the evening of the day of His resurrection, Jesus forcibly, so to speak, passed through the door that the disciples had locked and appeared in front of them in His resurrected form.
It was to clearly show that the Lord's resurrection was by God's design, totally beyond the imagination of the disciples and people.
Jesus appeared to the disciples, passed a closed door, to show them that something completely new begins with the resurrection of the Lord and that it begins by God's initiative.
Standing in the middle of the disciples, Jesus said, “Peace be with you!” Jesus’ resurrection was to give peace to His disciples and to us.
Peace means that broken relationships are restored (repaired). It means we are welcomed back into a rich relationship, where hearts are joined together in a strong bond.
The Bible tells us that man was separated from God because of the sin committed by the first humans, Adam and Eve. We all carry that sin, which is called the original sin.
However, God did not want people to live carrying the original sin, always being separated from Him.
God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to save us, even at the cost of His Son's life.
That is something I will have to keep telling you over and over again, as a pastor and a Christian, for the rest of my life.
And it is my hope that even I, weak and lacking as I am, will strive to do so, so that I can live in response to God's incredible love, even if only in a small way. I am sure that all of you who are Christians share this desire.
And we hope that those who do not yet believe in Jesus as Lord will eventually be led to a confession of faith in Him, and to the belief, “I have the life I have today because Jesus died on the cross for me.”
The resurrected Jesus has given us peace. The peace of entering once again into a relationship with God who we were separated (broken away) from.
Another thing the resurrected Jesus has given us is joy.
Jesus showed His disciples His hands and side. There must have been painful scars from the nails and spear. By those scars, the disciples knew that He was indeed their Lord.
The disciples were convinced by the fresh wounds on His hands and side that the Lord, who had died (been killed) cruelly on the cross, had indeed risen in the flesh.
The disciples were shown by this that, although people killed Jesus (including themselves), no one can truly take His life!
From there great and true joy was given to the disciples. They were filled with joy because no one could take the life of the Lord, and no one could take the life of those who believe in the Lord.
We can share in that joy today through faith.
Jesus breathed on His disciples and said:
“Receive the Holy Spirit.”
Jesus breathed on them, indicating that new life had been breathed into them.
When man was first created by God in Genesis, he became a living being when God breathed His breath on him. (Genesis 2:7)
The resurrected Jesus also gave the disciples the breath of life, the Holy Spirit, giving them new life.
We, too, can always receive the Holy Spirit, the breath of God and the breath of life, through faith with the Lord Jesus Christ in the center.
The Lord has risen. And those who live believing in His resurrection will eventually be resurrected with Him.
This is not just an unattainable dream, but based on that hope, we have the power that allows us to live the raw reality, the harsh reality of our lives here on earth now, to the fullest.
The Lord Jesus Christ has risen. No amount of evil thoughts or evil power of man could completely eliminate the Lord.
We worship every Sunday, the Sunday of the Lord's resurrection. Today is a special Easter service, but every Sunday of every week is a special time when we can share in the resurrection of the Lord.
Through our worship together, we hope to open our hearts to the Lord and also to our family of faith and to our neighbors.
Let us believe in the Risen Lord and always welcome the Risen Lord Jesus Christ into our hearts and into the midst of this worship service.
And let us believe that the words Jesus gave to His disciples, “Peace be with you,” are also directed to us today. Let us pray and ask that the peace of the Lord be realized among us and in our society and world.
Jesus did not abandon the truly weak and cowardly disciples who had once completely betrayed Him, but appeared to them again, gave them the Holy Spirit to make them alive again, and made them His messengers to announce His forgiveness.
We, too, are called and sent as modern-day messengers to proclaim the Lord's work of forgiveness and the resurrection of Jesus Christ to the world. Let us respond to that calling with joy.
Happy Easter! Thank you, Jesus!
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Saturday, March 23, 2024
March 24, 2024 Sunday Worship Service
Call to Worship Isaiah 53:5
Hymn JBC # 232 Come, Thou Fount of ev’ry blessing
The Lord’s Prayer
The Lord’s Supper
Hymn JBC # 236 When can wash away my sin?
Offering
Scripture John 11:17~27
Prayer
Sermon “I am the Resurrection and the Life”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 321 Years I spent in vanity and pride
Doxology JBC # 674
Benediction
Postlude
This week is known as "Passion Week" in Christianity. It is a week for remembering Jesus Christ's death on the cross, particularly for Christians.
It is also a time we remember the path that Jesus took to Golgotha Hill (the site of his execution) in order to be crucified.
Christianity began with the resurrection of our Lord, when Jesus Christ rose from the dead. The resurrection showed us that death is not the end of everything, but rather the beginning.
The idea that "death is the end of everything" has been overturned by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and those who believe in His resurrection can now live in the hope that death is a new beginning.
Easter, which commemorates and celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is next Sunday, March 31st this year.
The resurrection was preceded by the event of Jesus carrying the cross and being crucified on what was known as the Hill of Golgotha.
Today, as Passion Week begins, let us once again reflect on the Passion of Jesus Christ and His Resurrection, and lend an ear to the words of the Bible.
Jesus knew that He would eventually be crucified on the cross as He preached the Kingdom of God, healed the sick, and drove demons out of people.
In the Gospels, we find that Jesus foretold His death on the cross and subsequent resurrection mainly to His disciples when He was alive.
In the Gospels, it is written that Jesus told His disciples three times that He would be crucified, die, and be resurrected.
In Mark 10:32-34, the scene where Jesus foretold His death and resurrection for the third time is described as follows.
32 They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. Again he took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him. 33 “We are going up to Jerusalem,” he said, “and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, 34 who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.”
Jesus couldn't have been any clearer. After all, being handed over to the Jewish authorities, the chief priests and the scribes, being insulted, flogged, and killed (by the Roman authorities), and then resurrected was a mission from God the Heavenly Father that had been assigned to Him.
But the Bible also says that the disciples did not understand what that meant, or were afraid to accept it, and that Peter opposed Jesus, saying "Lord, this shall never happen to you!”
It is not normal for God and the Savior of the world to be killed by the hands of man. Why should God be killed by human hands?
But this was part of God's plan for forgiving our sins and saving us from destruction.
Jesus did actually foretell of his resurrection to someone besides the disciples once. This is the scene in today's scripture, John 11, where a man named Lazarus died.
Here, Jesus clearly states that He is the resurrection and the life.
The man who died here was Lazarus. Lazarus had two sisters, Martha and Mary.
Jesus seems to have been especially close to Lazarus and his sisters, for in chapter 11:5, we read "Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus."
At the beginning of chapter 11, we see that this Lazarus was sick, and very seriously at that. And a message about this was sent to Jesus, who was in another town.
However, when Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick, He did not immediately go to Bethany where Lazarus was.
As today's passage states, Jesus came to Lazarus when he had been dead for four days.
At that time, it was believed that during a three-day period after death, there was a possibility that a person who had died (or was thought to have died) could come back to life (or be resuscitated).
However, the fact that Lazarus had been dead for four days meant that people had already established that he was dead.
Verse 19 says that many people came to Martha and Mary, Lazarus' sisters, to comfort them.
Many people came to Martha and Mary to be with them in their grief over the loss of their beloved brother and to ease their suffering.
We are fortunate to be able to comfort and be there for each other in times of sadness and pain.
The grief of losing a family member is not so easily healed, but words of heartfelt comfort from friends and acquaintances can certainly heal our hearts.
It is my hope that we, the church flock, be close to each other in our grief and suffering like a true family of faith.
When the sister Martha heard that Jesus had come, she went to meet him and said
“if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
Martha had people go to Jesus first and tell Him that her brother Lazarus was sick. Martha (and her sister Mary) would have expected Jesus to come immediately.
But Jesus did not come immediately. Martha probably couldn't come to terms with why Jesus did not come immediately to heal Lazarus' illness.
So Martha could not hide her criticism of the Lord Jesus, saying, "If You had been here, my brother would not have died.”
There are many times when we ask God to help us right now, or to solve our problems or troubles right this moment, but God's help does not come.
At such times, like Martha, we may be tempted to criticize God a little.
But God has His time and His ways. The Bible teaches that God has a plan that is beyond our comprehension.
Even when it seems that God is slow in coming, that He is slow in helping, let us trust that God will help at the best timing in the best possible way according to His plan.
Jesus answered Martha.
“Your brother will rise again.” (v.23)
Martha answered Jesus.
“I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” (v.24)
Among Jews (though not all) they believed in the resurrection. Jesus also said the following earlier in John 5:28-29.
28 “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.
Martha had heard of such a resurrection and knew about it. Whether she “believed in” it or not, we do not know.
She only says, "I know....” Martha had knowledge of the resurrection, but did not truly believe, and she did not know about the grace of the resurrection.
No matter how much knowledge we have of the Bible, if the meaning is not revealed to us through the Holy Spirit and the power of the Word of God bring us to life, it is not faith.
Let us hear the powerful words of the Bible and store them in our hearts so that they can truly sustain, comfort, and encourage us. In this way, our faith will continue to grow through the Word.
Let's see how Jesus responded to Martha. (vv. 25-26)
25 “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
Jesus is not saying here, "I will resurrect” or "I will live again.”
Jesus says, "I am the resurrection and the life.” What is resurrection and what is life? The answer is that it is Himself.
Jesus Himself is resurrection and life itself. It is Jesus Christ who has the power to breathe new life into something that was once dead and thought to be gone.
Therefore, whoever lives and believes in Christ will never die. To “believe” here means to “live in Christ".
We are truly alive when the words of the Bible are not just mere knowledge, but when they feed our very souls.
We live in Christ when we are transformed from a self-centered way of life to a Christ-centered way of life. To live in Christ also means to be partakers of His resurrection.
Jesus asked Martha and is asking every one of use today, “Do you believe this?”
Let us answer "Yes, I believe”with renewed faith every day.
This Passion Week, let us spend each day remembering the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross to atone for our sins, so that we may not die and perish, but live to eternal life.
Call to Worship Isaiah 53:5
Hymn JBC # 232 Come, Thou Fount of ev’ry blessing
The Lord’s Prayer
The Lord’s Supper
Hymn JBC # 236 When can wash away my sin?
Offering
Scripture John 11:17~27
Prayer
Sermon “I am the Resurrection and the Life”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 321 Years I spent in vanity and pride
Doxology JBC # 674
Benediction
Postlude
This week is known as "Passion Week" in Christianity. It is a week for remembering Jesus Christ's death on the cross, particularly for Christians.
It is also a time we remember the path that Jesus took to Golgotha Hill (the site of his execution) in order to be crucified.
Christianity began with the resurrection of our Lord, when Jesus Christ rose from the dead. The resurrection showed us that death is not the end of everything, but rather the beginning.
The idea that "death is the end of everything" has been overturned by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and those who believe in His resurrection can now live in the hope that death is a new beginning.
Easter, which commemorates and celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is next Sunday, March 31st this year.
The resurrection was preceded by the event of Jesus carrying the cross and being crucified on what was known as the Hill of Golgotha.
Today, as Passion Week begins, let us once again reflect on the Passion of Jesus Christ and His Resurrection, and lend an ear to the words of the Bible.
Jesus knew that He would eventually be crucified on the cross as He preached the Kingdom of God, healed the sick, and drove demons out of people.
In the Gospels, we find that Jesus foretold His death on the cross and subsequent resurrection mainly to His disciples when He was alive.
In the Gospels, it is written that Jesus told His disciples three times that He would be crucified, die, and be resurrected.
In Mark 10:32-34, the scene where Jesus foretold His death and resurrection for the third time is described as follows.
32 They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. Again he took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him. 33 “We are going up to Jerusalem,” he said, “and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, 34 who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.”
Jesus couldn't have been any clearer. After all, being handed over to the Jewish authorities, the chief priests and the scribes, being insulted, flogged, and killed (by the Roman authorities), and then resurrected was a mission from God the Heavenly Father that had been assigned to Him.
But the Bible also says that the disciples did not understand what that meant, or were afraid to accept it, and that Peter opposed Jesus, saying "Lord, this shall never happen to you!”
It is not normal for God and the Savior of the world to be killed by the hands of man. Why should God be killed by human hands?
But this was part of God's plan for forgiving our sins and saving us from destruction.
Jesus did actually foretell of his resurrection to someone besides the disciples once. This is the scene in today's scripture, John 11, where a man named Lazarus died.
Here, Jesus clearly states that He is the resurrection and the life.
The man who died here was Lazarus. Lazarus had two sisters, Martha and Mary.
Jesus seems to have been especially close to Lazarus and his sisters, for in chapter 11:5, we read "Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus."
At the beginning of chapter 11, we see that this Lazarus was sick, and very seriously at that. And a message about this was sent to Jesus, who was in another town.
However, when Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick, He did not immediately go to Bethany where Lazarus was.
As today's passage states, Jesus came to Lazarus when he had been dead for four days.
At that time, it was believed that during a three-day period after death, there was a possibility that a person who had died (or was thought to have died) could come back to life (or be resuscitated).
However, the fact that Lazarus had been dead for four days meant that people had already established that he was dead.
Verse 19 says that many people came to Martha and Mary, Lazarus' sisters, to comfort them.
Many people came to Martha and Mary to be with them in their grief over the loss of their beloved brother and to ease their suffering.
We are fortunate to be able to comfort and be there for each other in times of sadness and pain.
The grief of losing a family member is not so easily healed, but words of heartfelt comfort from friends and acquaintances can certainly heal our hearts.
It is my hope that we, the church flock, be close to each other in our grief and suffering like a true family of faith.
When the sister Martha heard that Jesus had come, she went to meet him and said
“if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
Martha had people go to Jesus first and tell Him that her brother Lazarus was sick. Martha (and her sister Mary) would have expected Jesus to come immediately.
But Jesus did not come immediately. Martha probably couldn't come to terms with why Jesus did not come immediately to heal Lazarus' illness.
So Martha could not hide her criticism of the Lord Jesus, saying, "If You had been here, my brother would not have died.”
There are many times when we ask God to help us right now, or to solve our problems or troubles right this moment, but God's help does not come.
At such times, like Martha, we may be tempted to criticize God a little.
But God has His time and His ways. The Bible teaches that God has a plan that is beyond our comprehension.
Even when it seems that God is slow in coming, that He is slow in helping, let us trust that God will help at the best timing in the best possible way according to His plan.
Jesus answered Martha.
“Your brother will rise again.” (v.23)
Martha answered Jesus.
“I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” (v.24)
Among Jews (though not all) they believed in the resurrection. Jesus also said the following earlier in John 5:28-29.
28 “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.
Martha had heard of such a resurrection and knew about it. Whether she “believed in” it or not, we do not know.
She only says, "I know....” Martha had knowledge of the resurrection, but did not truly believe, and she did not know about the grace of the resurrection.
No matter how much knowledge we have of the Bible, if the meaning is not revealed to us through the Holy Spirit and the power of the Word of God bring us to life, it is not faith.
Let us hear the powerful words of the Bible and store them in our hearts so that they can truly sustain, comfort, and encourage us. In this way, our faith will continue to grow through the Word.
Let's see how Jesus responded to Martha. (vv. 25-26)
25 “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
Jesus is not saying here, "I will resurrect” or "I will live again.”
Jesus says, "I am the resurrection and the life.” What is resurrection and what is life? The answer is that it is Himself.
Jesus Himself is resurrection and life itself. It is Jesus Christ who has the power to breathe new life into something that was once dead and thought to be gone.
Therefore, whoever lives and believes in Christ will never die. To “believe” here means to “live in Christ".
We are truly alive when the words of the Bible are not just mere knowledge, but when they feed our very souls.
We live in Christ when we are transformed from a self-centered way of life to a Christ-centered way of life. To live in Christ also means to be partakers of His resurrection.
Jesus asked Martha and is asking every one of use today, “Do you believe this?”
Let us answer "Yes, I believe”with renewed faith every day.
This Passion Week, let us spend each day remembering the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross to atone for our sins, so that we may not die and perish, but live to eternal life.
Saturday, March 16, 2024
Sunday Worship Service March 17, 2024
Call to Worship Hosea 6:6
Hymn JBC # 232 On the cross of Calvary
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn JBC # 227 Up Calv’ry’s mountain
Offering
Scripture Luke 6:1~11
Prayer
Sermon “What is unlawful on the Sabbath”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 230 On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross
Doxology JBC # 674
Benediction
Postlude
In today's Bible passage, Jesus and his disciples go through a grain (wheat) field on the Sabbath (Jewish Sabbath: Saturday).
There the disciples, probably hungry, picked ears of wheat, rubbed them with their hands, and ate them. (Perhaps Jesus ate them too.)
The wheat field surely belonged to someone else. However, Jesus' disciples plucked the ears of wheat, rubbed them, and ate them.
It was permitted by the Biblical law. The Old Testament book of ‘Deuteronomy’, chapter 23, verses 25~26 (24~25 NIV), states the following.
24 If you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat all the grapes you want, but do not put any in your basket. 25 If you enter your neighbor’s grainfield, you may pick kernels (*edible parts) with your hands, but you must not put a sickle (*a farming tool to cut the grain effectively) to their standing grain.
This is the commandment that when one is truly hungry, he may take the produce of another's (neighbor's) field and eat it. This is God's commandment that the owner of the field must also be willing to help his hungry neighbor.
However, that commandment in Deuteronomy forbids taking the crop beyond truly satisfying the hunger, saying, "You shall not put it in a basket (to store it) " and "You shall not use a sickle (to cut it more than needed quantity)”.
The commandment reminds us that we are all guilty of covetousness (greedy, excessive desire), of wanting more than we need, and that we are all capable of the sin of "coveting" more than we need.
Having said that, God has decreed that none of us should be short of the food we really need, the food we need to live, and that it is the duty of the community to strive to prevent that from happening.
However, there were some people who saw Jesus' disciples passing through the wheat field and taking wheat and eating it. And they condemned the disciples and questioned them.
The Pharisees, who were strictly interpreting the biblical law, asked Jesus' disciples, who were taking wheat and eating it, "Why do you do what you should not do on the Sabbath?"
That day was the Sabbath. The Sabbath was a commandment established by God and strictly enjoined (ordered) by Him to be kept by the Israelites from generation to generation.
In the Old Testament book of ‘Exodus’, God tells Moses the words of the Ten Commandments. In the Ten Commandments, the law about the Sabbath is recorded as follows.
(Exodus 20:8~11)
8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Among the Ten Commandments, the commandment concerning the Sabbath is relatively large in quantity and detailed as so described.
Those called the Pharisees and the teachers of the laws, in order to strictly observe the commandment, defined what (what kind of action) constituted "labor".
It is said the rules also included a "distance allowed to be walked in a day”. It is said that the distance was about one kilometer, and any distance beyond that was considered "labor”.
The act of plucking the ears of wheat and rubbing them to extract the berries was also considered a labor as "harvesting work".
The Pharisees asked, " Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?"
They said, "You are violating the law by not keeping the Sabbath!" and thus they accused Jesus and His disciples.
What is happening here? What is happening here, it seems to me, is a lack of empathy for the other person.
Jesus' disciples should have been familiar with the Sabbath commandment. Jesus had already taught the Word of God to many, and his reputation as a teacher (and healer of the sick) was widely known.
There is no way that Jesus and his disciples could have been unaware of the important Sabbath commandment and the interpretation of its application. Jesus and his disciples must have known that the normal "harvest" was a labor which the Sabbath forbids.
If so, the fact that Jesus' disciples still took the wheat and ate it there means that they were so seriously hungry.
The Pharisees needed to see Jesus' disciples and their hunger and feel compassion (empathy) for them before they accused them asking "Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?"
I often judge people based on their appearance, on the surface, and often judge them in my mind.
Not trying to understand the person's situation, but instead I just dismiss him or her as "they are different from me" only on the surface.
Letter to the Hebrews Ch.13 verse 3 says as follows.
Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.
We would never know what it is like to be “in prison” or "mistreated" unless we also have truly experienced such a thing.
Still, we should be able to use our imagination to wonder what would happen to people if they were placed in such an environment.
It is my hope that by exercising our imagination with compassion, we will not make sin that is to judge other people so easily.
I hope and pray that we will not judge a person only by surface, and that we will try to put ourselves in his or her shoes as much as possible, without losing the heart (that God has given to us) of caring for others.
Jesus responds to the Pharisees' question by referring to an event concerning David as depicted in the Old Testament book of ‘Samuel’ 21.
David had been chosen by the prophet Samuel to be the next king after Saul. However, David was envied by Saul and even had his life threatened by Saul, so David fled.
Then David goes to a priest named Ahimelech and asks Ahimelech to give him food.
There was only consecrated (specially portioned) bread. Consecrated bread was something that only the priests were allowed to eat.
However, David even lied that he had been sent by the king and he obtained the bread, which in principle only the priests were allowed to eat.
The Bible does not encourage lying. But David was in a life-or-death situation, and the rule that only priests are allowed to eat consecrated bread loses its validity before the life of one man, David.
Today's story from verse 6 also concerns what is and is not allowed on the Sabbath. Jesus was teaching in a synagogue. There was one man whose right hand was shriveled, meaning his right hand was paralyzed from some cause.
The person's right hand paralyzed was not a condition where his life was in danger if it were not treated right away. Therefore, healing the person on the Sabbath was considered a non-emergency medical procedure, a kind of "labor.
There, the teachers of the laws and Pharisees were waiting intently to see if Jesus would heal the man with the shriveled right hand.
If Jesus healed the man, they were going to accuse him, saying, "You are performing a labor of a non-urgent act of healing on the Sabbath, a violation of the law!" and they would accuse him.
Indeed, on the face of it, the person's symptoms may not have been life-threatening if not fixed now.
But what were the thoughts of the person whose right hand was shriveled, and how was he feeling at that time? How much suffering had he had to go through before that moment?
Jesus still urges us through the Bible to try to imagine those things and try to sympathize with them.
Jesus saw the man's suffering and thought that the man had to be healed right away at that time, and so Jesus, the Son of God, healed him there.
Let’s confirm the words of Jesus in verses 5 and 9.
“The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
“I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?”
“What is lawful or unlawful on the Sabbath?"~ when the only thing that matter is whether or not religious rules are observed, the original grace and joy of the Sabbath will be lost from it
Today's passage’s theme is about "commandments" or “religious rules”, and what is it to keep those.
The common image people have of religion may be "a life bound by various rules”.
“You have to go to worship services every week”, “you have to give offering”, “you have to read the Bible”, etc., etc., etc.
However, the believer who is connected to Jesus Christ can live a life of freedom based on the joy of being made a child of God through Christ, rather than a life of "I have to this or that".
We can say that a believer in Christ is one who can live in free in anything. Let us remember again how fortunate we are as believers who have received freedom in Christ and can live in it.
Both the Sabbath and God's other various blessings are for us to obtain through them God's love, mercy, and salvation of life.
We desire to live out our faith in the grace of Sabbath we receive from God, and we desire to live and enjoy the grace of the true Sabbath from God.
Call to Worship Hosea 6:6
Hymn JBC # 232 On the cross of Calvary
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn JBC # 227 Up Calv’ry’s mountain
Offering
Scripture Luke 6:1~11
Prayer
Sermon “What is unlawful on the Sabbath”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 230 On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross
Doxology JBC # 674
Benediction
Postlude
In today's Bible passage, Jesus and his disciples go through a grain (wheat) field on the Sabbath (Jewish Sabbath: Saturday).
There the disciples, probably hungry, picked ears of wheat, rubbed them with their hands, and ate them. (Perhaps Jesus ate them too.)
The wheat field surely belonged to someone else. However, Jesus' disciples plucked the ears of wheat, rubbed them, and ate them.
It was permitted by the Biblical law. The Old Testament book of ‘Deuteronomy’, chapter 23, verses 25~26 (24~25 NIV), states the following.
24 If you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat all the grapes you want, but do not put any in your basket. 25 If you enter your neighbor’s grainfield, you may pick kernels (*edible parts) with your hands, but you must not put a sickle (*a farming tool to cut the grain effectively) to their standing grain.
This is the commandment that when one is truly hungry, he may take the produce of another's (neighbor's) field and eat it. This is God's commandment that the owner of the field must also be willing to help his hungry neighbor.
However, that commandment in Deuteronomy forbids taking the crop beyond truly satisfying the hunger, saying, "You shall not put it in a basket (to store it) " and "You shall not use a sickle (to cut it more than needed quantity)”.
The commandment reminds us that we are all guilty of covetousness (greedy, excessive desire), of wanting more than we need, and that we are all capable of the sin of "coveting" more than we need.
Having said that, God has decreed that none of us should be short of the food we really need, the food we need to live, and that it is the duty of the community to strive to prevent that from happening.
However, there were some people who saw Jesus' disciples passing through the wheat field and taking wheat and eating it. And they condemned the disciples and questioned them.
The Pharisees, who were strictly interpreting the biblical law, asked Jesus' disciples, who were taking wheat and eating it, "Why do you do what you should not do on the Sabbath?"
That day was the Sabbath. The Sabbath was a commandment established by God and strictly enjoined (ordered) by Him to be kept by the Israelites from generation to generation.
In the Old Testament book of ‘Exodus’, God tells Moses the words of the Ten Commandments. In the Ten Commandments, the law about the Sabbath is recorded as follows.
(Exodus 20:8~11)
8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Among the Ten Commandments, the commandment concerning the Sabbath is relatively large in quantity and detailed as so described.
Those called the Pharisees and the teachers of the laws, in order to strictly observe the commandment, defined what (what kind of action) constituted "labor".
It is said the rules also included a "distance allowed to be walked in a day”. It is said that the distance was about one kilometer, and any distance beyond that was considered "labor”.
The act of plucking the ears of wheat and rubbing them to extract the berries was also considered a labor as "harvesting work".
The Pharisees asked, " Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?"
They said, "You are violating the law by not keeping the Sabbath!" and thus they accused Jesus and His disciples.
What is happening here? What is happening here, it seems to me, is a lack of empathy for the other person.
Jesus' disciples should have been familiar with the Sabbath commandment. Jesus had already taught the Word of God to many, and his reputation as a teacher (and healer of the sick) was widely known.
There is no way that Jesus and his disciples could have been unaware of the important Sabbath commandment and the interpretation of its application. Jesus and his disciples must have known that the normal "harvest" was a labor which the Sabbath forbids.
If so, the fact that Jesus' disciples still took the wheat and ate it there means that they were so seriously hungry.
The Pharisees needed to see Jesus' disciples and their hunger and feel compassion (empathy) for them before they accused them asking "Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?"
I often judge people based on their appearance, on the surface, and often judge them in my mind.
Not trying to understand the person's situation, but instead I just dismiss him or her as "they are different from me" only on the surface.
Letter to the Hebrews Ch.13 verse 3 says as follows.
Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.
We would never know what it is like to be “in prison” or "mistreated" unless we also have truly experienced such a thing.
Still, we should be able to use our imagination to wonder what would happen to people if they were placed in such an environment.
It is my hope that by exercising our imagination with compassion, we will not make sin that is to judge other people so easily.
I hope and pray that we will not judge a person only by surface, and that we will try to put ourselves in his or her shoes as much as possible, without losing the heart (that God has given to us) of caring for others.
Jesus responds to the Pharisees' question by referring to an event concerning David as depicted in the Old Testament book of ‘Samuel’ 21.
David had been chosen by the prophet Samuel to be the next king after Saul. However, David was envied by Saul and even had his life threatened by Saul, so David fled.
Then David goes to a priest named Ahimelech and asks Ahimelech to give him food.
There was only consecrated (specially portioned) bread. Consecrated bread was something that only the priests were allowed to eat.
However, David even lied that he had been sent by the king and he obtained the bread, which in principle only the priests were allowed to eat.
The Bible does not encourage lying. But David was in a life-or-death situation, and the rule that only priests are allowed to eat consecrated bread loses its validity before the life of one man, David.
Today's story from verse 6 also concerns what is and is not allowed on the Sabbath. Jesus was teaching in a synagogue. There was one man whose right hand was shriveled, meaning his right hand was paralyzed from some cause.
The person's right hand paralyzed was not a condition where his life was in danger if it were not treated right away. Therefore, healing the person on the Sabbath was considered a non-emergency medical procedure, a kind of "labor.
There, the teachers of the laws and Pharisees were waiting intently to see if Jesus would heal the man with the shriveled right hand.
If Jesus healed the man, they were going to accuse him, saying, "You are performing a labor of a non-urgent act of healing on the Sabbath, a violation of the law!" and they would accuse him.
Indeed, on the face of it, the person's symptoms may not have been life-threatening if not fixed now.
But what were the thoughts of the person whose right hand was shriveled, and how was he feeling at that time? How much suffering had he had to go through before that moment?
Jesus still urges us through the Bible to try to imagine those things and try to sympathize with them.
Jesus saw the man's suffering and thought that the man had to be healed right away at that time, and so Jesus, the Son of God, healed him there.
Let’s confirm the words of Jesus in verses 5 and 9.
“The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
“I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?”
“What is lawful or unlawful on the Sabbath?"~ when the only thing that matter is whether or not religious rules are observed, the original grace and joy of the Sabbath will be lost from it
Today's passage’s theme is about "commandments" or “religious rules”, and what is it to keep those.
The common image people have of religion may be "a life bound by various rules”.
“You have to go to worship services every week”, “you have to give offering”, “you have to read the Bible”, etc., etc., etc.
However, the believer who is connected to Jesus Christ can live a life of freedom based on the joy of being made a child of God through Christ, rather than a life of "I have to this or that".
We can say that a believer in Christ is one who can live in free in anything. Let us remember again how fortunate we are as believers who have received freedom in Christ and can live in it.
Both the Sabbath and God's other various blessings are for us to obtain through them God's love, mercy, and salvation of life.
We desire to live out our faith in the grace of Sabbath we receive from God, and we desire to live and enjoy the grace of the true Sabbath from God.
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