Sunday Worship Service March 10, 2024
Prelude
Call to Worship 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Hymn JBC # 232 On the cross of Calvary
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn JBC # 105 There is sunshine in my soul today
Offering
Scripture Exodus 4:18~31
Prayer
Sermon “Moses returns to Egypt”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 255 Face to face with Christ, my Saviour
Doxology JBC # 674
Benediction
Postlude
God appeared to Moses and commanded him to lead his fellow Israelites out of Egypt where they were suffering in slavery.
At that time, Moses was living as a shepherd in a region called Midian. For about 40 years, Moses lived as a shepherd in the Midian region and was now 80 years old.
Moses hesitated to obey God’s commands several times, but God provided him with various signs (miracles) so that the Israelites and Egyptians would believe him.
And Moses finally accepted what God said and decided to go to Egypt and serve in God’s plan to rescue the Israelites.
The first thing Moses did after making this decision is recorded in today’s Bible passage (Exodus 4:18 – 31).
Moses first told Jethro, his father-in-law (Moses’ wife’s father), “Please let me return to Egypt.”
Before Moses left Midian to go to Egypt, he disclosed this to his father-in-law and asked for his understanding and permission.
Moses and Jhetro first met as follows. When Moses first fled Egypt and arrived in the region of Midian, he was sitting by a well. Seven daughters of a priest of Midian had gone there to get water for the flock. (Exodus Ch.2)
The male shepherds there tried to chase the women away, but Moses rescued them.
The daughters’ father was Jethro, a priest in the region of Midian. (For some reason his name is originally written as Reuel in Exodus 2:18. He may also have been called Reuel.)
Moses decided to stay with Jethro, so Jethro gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage.
When Moses was told by God, “Go back to Egypt and rescue the people of Israel,” Moses was worried that his fellow Israelites would not believe him.
Likewise, he was hesitant because he thought the Egyptians would also not believe him.
However, up until today’s passage, there is nothing written about Moses worrying about what his father-in-law Jethro would say about his return to Egypt.
Despite that, today’s passage shows a hesitant Moses who must explain his decision to “return to Egypt” to his father-in-law, Jethro first, and ask for his permission and understanding.
For Moses, his father-in-law, Jethro, may have become a very important person, perhaps as much as his own father.
Moses must have felt indebted to Jethro for taking care of him and taking him in as he fled from Egypt.
God commanded Moses. God showed him miraculous signs, and he was convinced that it was God’s will for him to be sent to Egypt.
Even so, Moses probably hoped to convey this to his father-in-law Jethro first, gain his understanding, and have Jethro send him off.
Moses didn't think, “Since God told me and I decided so, it doesn’t matter what my father-in-law has to say.”
I think it’s fair to say that even though they weren’t blood-related, there was a strong bond between Moses and Jethro.
In the church, church members and Christians call each other as “brothers and sisters.” It expresses the belief that all believers in the same God, Jesus Christ, are children of God and that we are God’s family united by the same faith.
The fact that we are now a family of faith in the same church is a wondrous thing led by God, just like the encounter between Moses and his father-in-law Jethro.
I hope that those of us who have met in this way and who have become members of God’s family will be able to deepen our relationship as much as possible, where we can share our faith and encourage each other.
Jethro responded to Moses, as Moses had told him “let me go to Egypt”, with just one thing, “Go, and I wish you well.” Although it is just one sentence, it seems to be a statement that clearly expresses Jethro’s heartfelt desire for peace and safety for his son-in-law.
Behind the words, “Go, and I wish you well,” we can imagine Jethro thinking of the path Moses is about to take and praying.
We too, through our connection as believers in Christ, can think of each other and pray for one another to spend our days in peace and reassurance.
Moses was sent out by Jethro, and as recorded in verse 19, the Lord told him, “Go back to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you are dead.”
Then Moses puts his wife and sons on a donkey and headed to Egypt.
Following that, verses 24 - 26 depict a very strange occurrence. God tries to kill Moses who is on his way to Egypt with his wife and children.
Why did God suddenly try to kill Moses, who was following God’s orders by going to Egypt? We do not know the reason.
One interpretation is that the reason was that Moses had not circumcised his son, a sign of an Israelite— one of God’s people.
In the Book of Genesis, the Lord God calls to Abraham, and Abraham leaves his birthplace and journeys to the promised land shown to him by God.
In Genesis 17, God told Abraham, “You will be the father of many nations,” and commanded Abraham and his descendants to keep the Lord’s covenant (commandments).
One of these commandments was circumcision, which was performed on the male children of Israel. This was a sign that distinguished God’s people of Israel from others.
Moses lived in the region of Midian for a long time (and because he was raised in the royal palace of Egypt from infancy to adulthood), and perhaps he didn’t fully understand the importance of the covenant with the Lord God, which was important to the people of Israel.
God (although the severity of killing Moses is beyond our understanding) may have wanted to remind Moses that he himself is a member of the people of Israel and a son of God, and therefore his son is also in the covenant with God and living in His grace.
It was no other than his wife Zipporah who saved Moses’ life then. When Zipporah cut off her son’s foreskin and circumcised him, the Lord released Moses.
Moses’ wife played a role in saving his life. If it wasn’t for Zipporah, Moses might have died there, and we are once again reminded of the importance of the role played by Zipporah, a woman.
Zipporah was Moses’ wife and a woman. As a woman in the culture and customs of the time, she was in a position that was considered weak.
However, the Bible tells us of this important event in which Zipporah’s quick judgment and action saved the life of Moses, who later did the great work of leading the people of Israel out of Egypt.
Compared to Moses, his wife Zipporah’s role was never small, unimportant, nor supporting character.
One of the famous parables that Jesus told is the story of the lost sheep.
The story goes that if a person had 100 sheep and one of them went missing, he should leave the 99 sheep on the mountain and search for the missing one until it is found.
That person in the parable is God. God would never think that “1 out of 100 animals is unimportant.”
Such is our God. Through faith, we can believe that each of us and the roles we play are equally precious and important before God.
Each of us is irreplaceable before God. I hope we can remember that within our current church congregation, everyone has been entrusted by God with an equally important role (even if it doesn’t seem that way to others).
After his life was saved by Zipporah, Moses was led by God to meet his brother Aaron in the wilderness (at the mountain of God).
God had already told Moses, “I will send your brother Aaron to you to speak in your stead because you are not good with words. Speak to him (Aaron) and put into his mouth the words that you need to say.” (Exodus 4:15)
And as it happened, Moses was able to meet Aaron. Moses gradually learned through his own experiences and with the help of others, including his family, that God’s words are powerful and that they are true and reliable.
Moses goes with Aaron and gathers all the elders of the Israelites. And, as God had told him, Aaron spoke all the words that the Lord had said to Moses, who in turn showed them the signs (miracles).
From that we see in verse 31 “and they believed.” The word of God was delivered to the people of Israel, and they believed it.
We have read the story of Exodus so far and know how many events took place before the word of God spoken to Moses was finally delivered to the people of Israel by the mouth of Aaron.
At first, Moses was afraid and hesitant, not believing that he could take on the role of preaching God’s word to the people.
But in the end, a patient and merciful God gave Moses the courage to believe in His word, believe in the help of others that God was giving him, and take the first step to complete his difficult mission.
God’s word is so powerful, and God’s word is indeed true. God’s word gives us strength, courage, and hope to carry us through each day.
We have been given such an abundance of God’s word. We have also been given helpers of faith and the family of God.
Therefore, let us walk in faith every day, trusting in the strength and richness of God’s word, without getting caught up in our own weaknesses and doubts.
Sunday, March 3, 2024
Sunday Worship Service March 3, 2024
Prelude
Call to Worship Ezekiel 11:19
Hymn JBC # 232 On the cross of Calvary
Prayer Time
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn JBC # 134 Sing them over again to me
Offering
Scripture Luke 5:33~39
Prayer
Sermon “New wine into new wineskins”
Prayer
Hymn JBC #656 Give of your best to the Master
Doxology JBC # 674
Benediction
Postlude
In today's Bible passage, people ask Jesus a question:
“John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.”
John here refers to "John the Baptist." The man known as John the Baptist was the one who baptized Jesus. John's disciples and the Pharisees frequently fasted and prayed.
However, those who asked this question had the impression that Jesus' disciples, although they believe in the same God, did not seem to fast much, but rather were always eating and drinking.
The passage before today's passage tells the story of a tax collector named Levi, who was sitting at his tax booth when Jesus called out to him, “Follow me”, and he became Jesus’ disciple.
Levi immediately followed Jesus, and he threw a great banquet for Jesus at his house. Levi was very happy that Jesus called him and that he became his disciple.
Many other tax collectors and other people were also invited to the banquet.
During that time, tax collectors were regarded as people who cooperated with the Roman Empire, who ruled the Jewish people, and therefore they were shunned and hated by their fellow Jews because they were regarded as traitors. Tax collectors were seen even as “sinners”.
The Pharisees and teachers of the law, who strictly interpreted the commandments of the scripture (in their own way) and tried to live their lives in accordance to the law, saw Jesus eating with people who were regarded as “sinners” and asked the following question:
“Why do you (Jesus and his disciples) eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” (Luke 5:30)
Those who were called Pharisees and teachers of the law had decided not to eat with tax collectors or sinners, or to associate with them at all. So, for them the act of eating with sinners is unthinkable.
Therefore, they expressed their doubts by asking, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? (Even though it is not right to do so)?”
Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
By saying this, Jesus was trying to teach the Pharisees and the teachers of law who thought they are righteous, that “all people, including you, are sinners and in need of God's healing and forgiveness”.
In today's passage, Jesus and his disciples were eating together with tax collectors and sinners, and they don't seem to be fasting much so people may have thought in their hearts that Jesus and his disciples were inferior in terms of religious belief.
In reality, Jesus and his disciples were also fasting. Since the times of the Old Testament, people who believe in God have fasted to express their feelings of sadness, suffering, and also repentance.
There are passages in the Gospels where it is recorded that Jesus himself fasted. It happened when Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness before beginning his public ministry of evangelism.
In Luke 4:1-2 (also written in Matthew 4) it says:
1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
Jesus fasted for 40 days, resolutely putting himself in a very severe situation, and trying to resist the temptations of the devil with the words of God (the power of God).
Jesus also did not forbid his disciples to fast.
However, Jesus gave the following warnings to his disciples regarding fasting.
16 “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
The original purpose of fasting should have been to express suffering, sadness, and repentance by abstaining from food and becoming hungry, and through hunger receiving more spiritual power from God and increasing one's trust in God.
However, as Jesus points out here, fasting was deviating from such spiritual purposes to a "performance to impress others that you are virtuous and religious."
When Jesus said "hypocrites," he did not refer to only a few certain people at the time Jesus lived, but actually any of us today can become such hypocrites. That’s why we must be careful and keep this in mind.
I hope we can learn from today's passage that we can become like these hypocrites: using even our own faith to fulfill our desires to be proud of ourselves and to be recognized by others.
Fasting and prayer (Jesus also tells us in another passage not to pray in public like hypocrites with too many words) are actions that deepen our relationship with God; they are not ways to show people how religious we are.
Jesus taught his disciples the right attitude towards fasting and prayer. Therefore, Jesus never forbade fasting itself.
But Jesus' disciples didn't seem to be fasting as often as John's disciples and the Pharisees, so people asked, “Why don't your disciples fast instead of eating and drinking?”
Jesus answered as follows. It’s from verse 34-35.
34 Jesus answered, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? 35 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.”
Jesus answers with a parable. The bridegroom is Jesus himself.
There, Jesus asked the people whether they truly have the joy of knowing that the Savior Jesus Christ, God, was with them.
That means when putting first the joy of knowing that there is God who forgives our sins and lives with us (eats with us), we would never be able to fast and would rather have a grand banquet.
In other words, Jesus was asking those who question the faith of others by saying, “Why don't you fast?” this question: Jesus asked them “Do you really have the joy of faith?”
That question is indeed directed to each of us today. Sometimes it is meaningful to fast and receive spiritual nourishment from God.
However, we must ask ourselves the following question: Do I really have the joy of knowing that “God is with me”, “I am so loved by God that Jesus Christ died for me” as the foundation of our faith? Each of us must take this seriously once again.
Let us once again remember the ultimate joy we have in Christ, in God’s calling, and offer our heartfelt gratitude and joy to God.
However, "the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken away" - that is, the time will come when the Lord Jesus will bear our sins and die on the cross in our place.
At that time, Jesus said that His disciples would also do fasting as a form of sincere repentance.
We are currently in the season of Lent. As we remember the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ on the way to the cross (regardless of whether we actually fast or not), let’s observe the season of Lent with gratitude and repentance (turning our hearts toward God).
Starting in verse 36, Jesus tells a parable about wine and wineskins: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one.”
New cloth will shrink when washed. So, if we patch old cloth with a part cut from new cloth, the new cloth will also be wasted, and when we wash them, the new cloth will tear the old cloth, ruining the old cloth as well.
Jesus also gives the example of how the force of fermentation of new wine tears the old wineskins apart. (For those of us who don't have the habit of putting wine in a wineskin, this parable may be difficult to understand)
The meaning of this illustration is that Jesus is the one who brings a completely new life and way of life to people, and those who believe in Jesus Christ cannot remain the same as they were before they met Jesus.
This means that you cannot receive the life of Christ while maintaining your old lifestyle.
When you accept Jesus Christ into your life, you are no longer the center of yourself.
If we are the center of ourselves, we will always try to find our worth by boasting to others about our own righteousness and abilities.
Therefore, even acts of faith such as prayer and fasting will become a means of boasting and showing off to others.
However, once we accept Jesus Christ into our hearts and truly make Him the center of our lives, we no longer have any reason to be proud of ourselves. Because there’s no need to do that anymore.
Since Christ is the one to be worshiped, believers in Christ will not find self-value (value of their existence) by boasting their own deeds or abilities.
When this happens, prayer, fasting, and the worship we offer will become acts of heartfelt joy and gratitude. That joy will become the light of faith, and will surely illuminate those around us.
If we are rejoicing in our new life in Christ, then the worship we offer should also be one filled with gratitude and joy. And people will naturally be drawn to such worship.
By encountering Jesus Christ, believing in Him, and allowing Him to live in our hearts, we can no longer remain in our old selves.
Rather, the "old wineskin" of our old "self" was broken through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us live a life centered on Christ and walk the path of a new life led by Christ.
Prelude
Call to Worship Ezekiel 11:19
Hymn JBC # 232 On the cross of Calvary
Prayer Time
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn JBC # 134 Sing them over again to me
Offering
Scripture Luke 5:33~39
Prayer
Sermon “New wine into new wineskins”
Prayer
Hymn JBC #656 Give of your best to the Master
Doxology JBC # 674
Benediction
Postlude
In today's Bible passage, people ask Jesus a question:
“John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.”
John here refers to "John the Baptist." The man known as John the Baptist was the one who baptized Jesus. John's disciples and the Pharisees frequently fasted and prayed.
However, those who asked this question had the impression that Jesus' disciples, although they believe in the same God, did not seem to fast much, but rather were always eating and drinking.
The passage before today's passage tells the story of a tax collector named Levi, who was sitting at his tax booth when Jesus called out to him, “Follow me”, and he became Jesus’ disciple.
Levi immediately followed Jesus, and he threw a great banquet for Jesus at his house. Levi was very happy that Jesus called him and that he became his disciple.
Many other tax collectors and other people were also invited to the banquet.
During that time, tax collectors were regarded as people who cooperated with the Roman Empire, who ruled the Jewish people, and therefore they were shunned and hated by their fellow Jews because they were regarded as traitors. Tax collectors were seen even as “sinners”.
The Pharisees and teachers of the law, who strictly interpreted the commandments of the scripture (in their own way) and tried to live their lives in accordance to the law, saw Jesus eating with people who were regarded as “sinners” and asked the following question:
“Why do you (Jesus and his disciples) eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” (Luke 5:30)
Those who were called Pharisees and teachers of the law had decided not to eat with tax collectors or sinners, or to associate with them at all. So, for them the act of eating with sinners is unthinkable.
Therefore, they expressed their doubts by asking, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? (Even though it is not right to do so)?”
Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
By saying this, Jesus was trying to teach the Pharisees and the teachers of law who thought they are righteous, that “all people, including you, are sinners and in need of God's healing and forgiveness”.
In today's passage, Jesus and his disciples were eating together with tax collectors and sinners, and they don't seem to be fasting much so people may have thought in their hearts that Jesus and his disciples were inferior in terms of religious belief.
In reality, Jesus and his disciples were also fasting. Since the times of the Old Testament, people who believe in God have fasted to express their feelings of sadness, suffering, and also repentance.
There are passages in the Gospels where it is recorded that Jesus himself fasted. It happened when Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness before beginning his public ministry of evangelism.
In Luke 4:1-2 (also written in Matthew 4) it says:
1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
Jesus fasted for 40 days, resolutely putting himself in a very severe situation, and trying to resist the temptations of the devil with the words of God (the power of God).
Jesus also did not forbid his disciples to fast.
However, Jesus gave the following warnings to his disciples regarding fasting.
16 “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
The original purpose of fasting should have been to express suffering, sadness, and repentance by abstaining from food and becoming hungry, and through hunger receiving more spiritual power from God and increasing one's trust in God.
However, as Jesus points out here, fasting was deviating from such spiritual purposes to a "performance to impress others that you are virtuous and religious."
When Jesus said "hypocrites," he did not refer to only a few certain people at the time Jesus lived, but actually any of us today can become such hypocrites. That’s why we must be careful and keep this in mind.
I hope we can learn from today's passage that we can become like these hypocrites: using even our own faith to fulfill our desires to be proud of ourselves and to be recognized by others.
Fasting and prayer (Jesus also tells us in another passage not to pray in public like hypocrites with too many words) are actions that deepen our relationship with God; they are not ways to show people how religious we are.
Jesus taught his disciples the right attitude towards fasting and prayer. Therefore, Jesus never forbade fasting itself.
But Jesus' disciples didn't seem to be fasting as often as John's disciples and the Pharisees, so people asked, “Why don't your disciples fast instead of eating and drinking?”
Jesus answered as follows. It’s from verse 34-35.
34 Jesus answered, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? 35 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.”
Jesus answers with a parable. The bridegroom is Jesus himself.
There, Jesus asked the people whether they truly have the joy of knowing that the Savior Jesus Christ, God, was with them.
That means when putting first the joy of knowing that there is God who forgives our sins and lives with us (eats with us), we would never be able to fast and would rather have a grand banquet.
In other words, Jesus was asking those who question the faith of others by saying, “Why don't you fast?” this question: Jesus asked them “Do you really have the joy of faith?”
That question is indeed directed to each of us today. Sometimes it is meaningful to fast and receive spiritual nourishment from God.
However, we must ask ourselves the following question: Do I really have the joy of knowing that “God is with me”, “I am so loved by God that Jesus Christ died for me” as the foundation of our faith? Each of us must take this seriously once again.
Let us once again remember the ultimate joy we have in Christ, in God’s calling, and offer our heartfelt gratitude and joy to God.
However, "the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken away" - that is, the time will come when the Lord Jesus will bear our sins and die on the cross in our place.
At that time, Jesus said that His disciples would also do fasting as a form of sincere repentance.
We are currently in the season of Lent. As we remember the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ on the way to the cross (regardless of whether we actually fast or not), let’s observe the season of Lent with gratitude and repentance (turning our hearts toward God).
Starting in verse 36, Jesus tells a parable about wine and wineskins: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one.”
New cloth will shrink when washed. So, if we patch old cloth with a part cut from new cloth, the new cloth will also be wasted, and when we wash them, the new cloth will tear the old cloth, ruining the old cloth as well.
Jesus also gives the example of how the force of fermentation of new wine tears the old wineskins apart. (For those of us who don't have the habit of putting wine in a wineskin, this parable may be difficult to understand)
The meaning of this illustration is that Jesus is the one who brings a completely new life and way of life to people, and those who believe in Jesus Christ cannot remain the same as they were before they met Jesus.
This means that you cannot receive the life of Christ while maintaining your old lifestyle.
When you accept Jesus Christ into your life, you are no longer the center of yourself.
If we are the center of ourselves, we will always try to find our worth by boasting to others about our own righteousness and abilities.
Therefore, even acts of faith such as prayer and fasting will become a means of boasting and showing off to others.
However, once we accept Jesus Christ into our hearts and truly make Him the center of our lives, we no longer have any reason to be proud of ourselves. Because there’s no need to do that anymore.
Since Christ is the one to be worshiped, believers in Christ will not find self-value (value of their existence) by boasting their own deeds or abilities.
When this happens, prayer, fasting, and the worship we offer will become acts of heartfelt joy and gratitude. That joy will become the light of faith, and will surely illuminate those around us.
If we are rejoicing in our new life in Christ, then the worship we offer should also be one filled with gratitude and joy. And people will naturally be drawn to such worship.
By encountering Jesus Christ, believing in Him, and allowing Him to live in our hearts, we can no longer remain in our old selves.
Rather, the "old wineskin" of our old "self" was broken through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us live a life centered on Christ and walk the path of a new life led by Christ.
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