That All May Know | Elder Ang Peng Hoe

You're listening to a message to go from axt church. We hope this message

will light up your team. How many of you all know the team for

this year? Shout it out if you know that all may know, Okay

that all may know. I even't had the opportunity to share a message.

Well, we're going to be sharing a lot of messages on this. If

you ask me what this team is all about, I will just tell you

very simply. It's evangelism. It's witnessing, and I want to be able

to bring us through some scripture, well not some you know me, a

lot of scripture today, and so I'm going to be making some references to

Matthew chapter nine, met You chapter ten, and also Second Corinthians. I'll

try to tie together so that we have a clearer picture, a clearer understanding

on Evan Evangelism is probably one of the harder things to do as believers in

the church. I have to tell you this. I mean, it's the

two things that the church really needs to do. Witness evangelism and also discipleship.

That's something that another thing that we try to avoid. These are the

two topics and els that we raise it up. We like can we talk

about something else, can we do something else? Because these two things actually

involve people and involves everyone. Everything else you can you can do almost personally

at your own time, in your own pace. But when it comes to

evangelism, you can't evangelize yourself unless unique constant ministry and reminder. Like you

know, witness to myself, You can't witness to yourself, you witness to

others. And of course discipleship, yes, you can discipline yourself, but

we all need to help one another in this area. And so these are

the two big things sometimes that it's hard to talk about in church because we

like to come and we like to have our own, our own lives,

our own setting, our own setup. So today I want to focus a

bit on evangelism because that's what the team that all may know will definitely have

to entail a discussion and a teaching on evangelism. And so I will be

starting with the gospels itself, the Gospel of Matthew, and this is Jesus

telling us why evangelism and then showing us the way to evangelize. I think

these are two very very important things that we need to know, we need

to learn, we need to go back to scripture. And I'm not guilt

tripping y'all into witnessing more, but we need to because I think over the

years we have identified even as a church, we've got the five WS.

You remember, Ax Church, We've got the five WS part of our DNA.

You know, it starts with worship and then it goes to word and

then warm and then works and then witness. I think over the years the

first Fall, we have done well, and at least we continue to do

well and improve ourselves. But when it comes to witnessing, and when you

think of witnessing, just think of being in a legal caught kind of situation

where you are put in the dogs on stand standing in trial, and essentially

you are saying something about what you have experienced or what you have seen.

And I don't know whether there are any believers here or believers in Jesus Christ

who are sitting down here, but you have not witnessed His goodness in your

life, because I believe all of us have. If not, we won't

be here. That's why we can't be here, because our parents are here.

We can't be here because this is the routine in which we were set

up for since the day we were born. No, we were here.

We are all here by choice, and the choice that we make is the

choice to choose Christ. And I pray that when you know why you are

seated here, why are you allbeying His commandment to come and worship together and

fellowship together in a church setting, then we are ready to witness. And

so all of us have the capacity and the capability to witness. But it's

the hardest thing to do. I will be the first to admit it's not

easy, and most of the time it's not easy, not because of other

people, but because of Earth. And as I share, you will see

the reality of who we are and what our human nature looks like. But

being believers is this we are not to continue with our human point of view.

We are to learn to take on a biblical worldview, which means that

we are to learn how to see things through the eyes of God, through

the eyes of Jesus that will actually essentially help us in the long run,

if not too much of us will cloud and obscure all things that the Bible

is trying to communicate and God's what is trying to teach us on. Okay,

so bear with me as we go through scriptures. It's going to be

a lot of scriptures, but we will survive. Amen. Amen. Okay,

let's start with Matthew chapter nine. Okay, Matthew Chapter nine, in

fact, verses one to two starts off with the story of a paralyzed man

who was brought to Jesus. Okay, there's a lot of scriptures, like

I say, and I won't be able to read every single one of them.

It's going to be a lot. So I just want you all to

take down the references Matthew chapter nine, Matthew Chapter ten, and of course

Second Corinthians. There's a whole bunch or verses eleven all the way to chapter

five, verse eleven, all the way to chapter six, verse two.

I want you all to when you go back, keep reading the scripture and

understand it and get a clearer picture. But Verses one to two starts off

with a paralyzed man brought to Jesus. And this is a person who is

so determined to find Jesus, and he was so confident that Jesus is the

one to help him. So Verse one and two reads Jesus climbed into a

boat and went back across the lake to his own town. Some people brought

to him a paralyzed man on a mat. Seeing their faith, Jesus say

to the paralyzed man, be encouraged, my child. Your sins are forgiven.

Interesting way of addressing a problem. Right now, you must probably ask

why did Jesus deal with the sins of the paralytic rather than his sickness?

Ever thought about it? I believe in this case that this man's suffering and

of course his sin is directly related. I believe in this particular case.

It may not always be the case, so Jesus may deal with different people

very differently. But in this man's case, it looks quite obvious that the

sin and the sickness are related. And you know, Jesus, he is

an amazing physician to diagnose perfectly, and he was probably the best doctor of

people. And he saw straight through to the cause of in this man's problem,

in this man's case, and he dealt with the cause. He didn't

waste time on symptoms. That is something that I really straight away, you

know, straight up, he just dealt with the cause and he says,

son, your sins are forgiven. And then to prove that this was the

real trouble, and to show them that he had dealt with the problem,

Jesus released him from the consequences of the cause by saying, I tell you,

get up, take up your bait, and go home. And that

is exactly what the paralytic did. He was set free from the consequence of

the cause of his issue and his problem. You see, the key factor

here is that whatever Jesus did stirred. It stirred people up. It stirred

a lot of opposition. And it was not in the fact that he healed

a paralyzed man, but in the fact that he dealt with sins. See

in other words, if only Jesus has stayed on with physical diseases, it

would have been perfectly all right, no issues, no problem. If he

had just gone around the world healing people and making sick people well, well,

the cross would never have happened for beginners. But I don't know whether

he would have fulfilled what he was supposed to do. So why then did

he not just remain on earth as a physician as he could heal people.

We know he could heal people. He was a miracle worker in that sense,

and it would have been such a wonderful mission right life to go around

healing people. It's probably one of the noblest things you can do. And

sorry, I take my heads off to doctors and nurses. But we know

Jesus came not just to save people from sickness, but to save them from

sin. He was basically claiming his divine prerogative two forgive sins. And then

his white people hated him because they find him so offensive, so proud.

Who is this joke that comes around saying that my sins are forgiven or his

sins are forgiven. So on the first account you see a paralytic okay,

a paralyzed man. And when you read on you will start to read about

text collectors. Okay, and I'm reading verse nine of Matthew. Nine.

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his

text collector's booth. Follow me and be my disciple, Jesus said to him.

So Matthew got up and for him, imagine what is like to be

such a person. Basically, a text collector is a social outcast, and

for the sake of money, this person has to cut himself away from society.

That is what text collectors were, but Jesus straightened out this person's life,

and he became so unpopular as soon as he did that. But Jesus

called this man who, from collecting texts became someone who collected stories about Jesus.

And ultimately that's why we are reading his gospel today. Matthew is written

by a text collector. His other name is Levi. This entire gospel of

Matthew is written by someone who collected texts and is a social outcast. But

Jesus turned his life around and allowed him to collect stories about Jesus in state

amazing. And then, apart from text collectors and his fellow friends, there

was also another group of people that you will see in the starting portion of

this chapter nine, and basically they were another set of outcasts, and they

were known as the sinners. Okay, sinners. I know it's quite a

strange word to see in a gospel, but Matthew chapter nine, verse eleven

reads as such. But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples,

why does your teacher eat with such scum strong words? No, why

do they eat with such coms? Are we all not sinners? Yes?

I think we are all sinners. But the word that is used here is

actually it means something a little bit different. It means people who are in

a state of being excommunicated from their local synagogue. So they're all Jews,

Okay, these are Jewish people. They are the people who are not allowed

to participate in the congregation in the synagogue for the jew which ceremonies, because

they are deemed to have broken the laws of God. And so the preachers

of the day, the rabbis of the day, this allowed them from going

to the synagogue and then in so doing rendered them untouchables. Cannot touch them.

These people are dirty, full of sin. Put them one side.

So here are the two groups of people who had difficulty mixing in ordinary society

and were always marginalized. They were always fringe people because they were outcasts,

and they themselves tended to mix with one another. And we read the account

of Matthew throwing them a party. He invited them all to come, and

Jesus was right in the middle of the party. Jesus amazing. And that's

the thing that upset others, that Jesus would actually mix with social outcasts.

And so the first problem, as we see with the paralytic was that Jesus

was bordered about sins. None of that. Jesus is bothered about sins.

If only he has stuck to healing, he would have been all right,

no issues, but there would never have been across. So he was borthered

about sin. And the other problem was that he was bordered with sinners.

Jesus came to deal with sinners, and he came to deal with sin.

And this is why we have the responsibility of telling everyone the good news of

Jesus, because all must know about sin and acknowledge that we are sinners before

the Lord. That is essentially what we need to do. That is our

mandate, that is the responsibility for us to carry out to witness. And

then you'll see the biggest problem, which is highlighted at the end of chapter

nine. Okay, this is the big problem that we all have. And

Chapter nine in my version of the NLT starts off versus thirty five to thirty

eight with a title that says the need for workers. Verse thirty five,

Jesus traveled through all the towns and villagers of that area, teaching in the

synagogue and announcing the good news about the kingdom. And he healed every kind

of disease and illness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on

them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. He

said to his disciples, the harvest is great, but the workers are few.

So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harborst asked him

to send more workers into his fields. So that is the problem that they're

all facing. The lack of workers. Sounds familiar, right, because,

like I said, I start off by saying that the team that all may

know, which means that we are all to be actively evangelizing and witnessing Christ

Jesus to as many people as possible. But are we doing that? Are

we doing that? Is the question? So the next chapter, in chapter

ten, Jesus shows us how all may know. And I'll tell you this

right from the very start, it's as simple as sending people out. Because

Matthew chapter ten, and I'm going to read now Versus five to eight,

it reads as such, a Jesus sent out twelve apostles with these instructions simple,

don't go to the Gentiles or the Samaritans, but only to the people

of Israel. God's lost sheep, go and announce to them that the Kingdom

of Heaven is near. Heal the sake, raise the date, kill those

with leprosy, and cast out imans. Give as freely as you have receive.

So you realize that this is actually the real turning point in Jesus' ministry,

where disciples become apostles. There is a difference. What is an apostle?

Can someone give me a definition of an apostle? Send out, send

one that is one. An apostle is so from disciples, they became sent

once, and those who had been called to be with him, those who

were called to study him, were now called to deputies for him. It's

a big difference. No, Initially they came in, they hang out with

Jesus, they watch him, they watch his life. And then now he's

saying that now time for you to do the job. Be my deputy.

And they were sent out to do what Jesus had already been doing. So

they were first commissioned, and then he commanded them to do certain things.

In commissioning, he gave them power and authority. You read the scriptures,

you will see it, and you need both of this. You need power

and you need authority when you go out in the name of Jesus. He

told them that they were to preach and to heal as they had seen him

do, but without him being physically present. Now he sent them out because

you don't read about him following them, and that is a crucial change over.

Actually he gave them certain commands which they had to follow, and they

followed. Okay. Basically, they were to take nothing for themselves, no

money, no spare clothes, no breid. Why would they send out with

nothing? Ever, wonder why why did Jesus send them out with the first

task so so difficulty, And I believe the answer must be that they were

to depend on the people they went to for food, for a change of

clothing, for any money. They were to go with nothing at all.

And I can actually imagine them that for them it was such a such a

difficult test. But ultimately it's for them to depend on God, because Jesus

was the one that they have the commandments. So do they trust him ultimately

to provide not just those people that they are serving to provide, but also

trust God And so with those commandments, with the power and the authority bestowed

upon them, the disciples and out, and they were to preach saying this,

the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. The whole of February past,

the Canada was bringing us through a series of messages about God's Kingdom, the

Kingdom of God, and the Kingdom of God I believe is here, and

now it's already inaugurated. It has not been fully consummated yet, but we

are already seeing Kingdom of God here on earth when Jesus came, and so

we can live it out through our lives, which means we can share about

God's Kingdom. That means it's not something that when you share God's Kingdom you're

sharing about a far, far away land that we don't know whether we will

get there or not. Because ultimately, if you read the whole book of

Matthew, it starts off and it's a very kingdom book because it was a

book written to Jews to read, and they understood what the Kingdom of God

really meant. And so all the teachings are kingdom principles that are being taught

from your be attitudes in chapter five to the entire actually the entire content of

your sermon on the Mound is Kingdom principles. It's not principles that you can

sort of understand here on this earth, per se, because these are principles

that really are God's standards. You know, Murder is when you are angry

with someone, not just when you stab someone with a knife. Last is

when you look at someone and have naughty thoughts, and not just when you

actually commit a wrongful act. Really, those are kingdom standards, Jesus' standards.

And so he says, go out and preach. The Kingdom of Evan

is at handman, that means is here. And now okay, they were

to heal the say, cleanse the leopards, raise the day, cast out

demons, and of course we know persecution would follow. Yere, they should

not fear people, but fear God. That's why verse twenty eight reads this,

don't be afraid of those who want to kill your body. They cannot

touch your soul. Feel only God who can destroy both soul and body.

And here is an illustration. I want to help illustrate this so that y'all

can see it. You know, if somebody says to you, are you

a Christian? Okay? I guess sometimes in Malaysia, when you get asked

that question, no problem, I can answer, hey, I am.

But if you are saying a different kind of situation where you know you ought

to declare yourself and say that you're a Christian, but then in your heart

you're also going through I'm quite afraid to confess I'm a Christian because maybe I

myself have not been living up to it the Christian standards, or I'm a

bit embarrassed or scared to acknowledge it is real. It's real, and that

is the thinking of men. But if you think of God, this is

what he would actually say to that situation. If you don't admit you belong

to me, I cannot that you belong to me. If you are ashamed

to admit, I'm a shamed to admit it. On the other hand,

the moment you acknowledge publicly to others, yes, I belong to Jesus Christ,

I know him, I love him. That is the very moment that

Christ can actually turn to his angels and say, this person is mine,

this person I acknowledge openly as well, because he or she or they belong

to me. You see, Jesus teaches that when you are in a tight

corner and you may find yourself as believers of Christ sometimes put in the dark

spot, in the tight spot because you belong to Jesus. It's because of

the fact that you are a believer of Jesus Christ that puts you in that

spot. But if you are there in the name of Jesus, I want

to tell you this, don't worry. Do not be afraid of man,

because the Holy Spirit is there with you, and it is the Holy Spirit

that continues to put words in our mouth. You read chapter ten, it

talks I'm just going through some of the points that are highlighted in chapter ten,

and you can read amazing accounts of the Holy Spirit feeling the lives of

different ones, from Stephen to Paul, Peter to James to John. You

know, when they were put in court, when they were standing trial,

when they were being accused of different things, they always had the right words

from God. And the right words from God is always attributed to the Holy

Spirit that is in them. Countless times, the more and more you reach

scripture, you will know it. And that's why I firmly believe you know

even the gifts of the Spirit. No, many of the different gifts of

the Spirit. Our mouth related. That means you need to prophesy with your

mouth. You need to pray with your mouth, You need to encourage people

with your mouth, you need to interpret tongues with your mouth. A lot

of it comes from the mounth. It overflows. I always believe when the

Spirit of God is in earth, we will always overflow through the mouth first,

the most obvious. And so if the Spirit of God is in your

life, you will be happily witnessing with your mouth. That is the reality

of the situation. And that's why the scripture also records that, no,

just wait a while until the Holy Spirit comes, because when the Spirit of

God comes, and we read the account on the Pentecost in X chapter two,

but in X chapter one was that promise. No, when the Spirit

of God comes, then you would be witnesses. It's only when the Spirit

of God comes then you will be a witness thereafter, not just within your

own circle in Jerusalem, but you will go as far as Samaria and to

the outer most furthest parts of the world. You will continue to care with

you that overflowing Spirit of God in your life. And the Spirit of God

always, always, always points us to Jesus that's the reality of it.

The Holy Spirit is always pointing us to Jesus. Jesus is always pointing us

to God the Father. That is how the Trinity works, and it works

in such an amazing, amazing way. And so you know it has been

shown not true out the ages that you find whenever people have stood trial and

they are requested to be a witness, the Holy Spirit is the one that

has delivered them from the fear of man and put words in their mouth.

So let the fear of the Lord take away the fear of people, because

in every situation you will find the Holy Spirit is there to help you.

In the shortest time, we're going to study Second Corinthians the epistles. But

take note of this. No, a lot of times we fear people,

and that is normal. And I can tell you this, No, if

we do a survey and we ask Christians, are okay, how many of

your witness of course, if you will, uh, you know, try

to try to lift the hand that's non existent. Uh. And I can

tell you even for myself, it's not always the easiest thing to do.

But then we ask, okay, what's the one thing holding you back from

witnessing? From evangelizing. The word evangelizing in Bahasa, it's quite a beautiful

word. It's called moun in jail. Okay, munk in jail to evangelize,

okay, bury kasasion is gift testimony, Okay. So of course it

comes from the word in jail, which is also the Bible up in jail.

So angela means to evangelize. Basically, you're sharing the good news,

the good news, and so uh, you know, you ask them what

is one of the biggest challenge or what is holding them back? And more

often than not, they will always say, this is the fear of rejection.

And I think that's real. It is real for all of us because

it does bruise our pride and our ego eaters. Yeah, okay, but

let's let's let's read Second Corinthians chapter five. I'm going to read verse eleven

all the way to chapter six, verse two so that we get a clearer

picture. And it's tired. I'm trying to tie it all together. And

this one in my NLT version is simply entitled we are God's Ambassadors. And

there are a lot of principles here. So I'm going to read it slowly

and I'm going to help you all digest it a little bit, okay.

Verse eleven says this, because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord,

we work hard to persuade others. God knows we are sincere, and I

hope you know this too. Are we commending ourselves to you again? No,

we are giving you a reason to be proud of us, so you

can answer those who bragg about having a spectacular ministry rather than having a sincere

heart. If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to

God, and if we are in our right minds, it is for your

benefit. Either way, Christ's love controls us. Since we believe that Christ

died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old

life. He died for everyone, so that those who received his new life

will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ,

who died and was raised for them verse sixteen. So we have stopped evaluating

others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ

merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now.

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The

old life is gone, the new life has begun Verse eighteen. And all

of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself,

True Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him.

For God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting

people's sins against them, and He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.

So we are Christis ambassadors. God is making his appeal to us. We

speak for Christ when we plead come back to God. For God made Christ,

who never sin, to be the offering for our sin, so that

we could be made right with God. True Christ. Six. As God's

partners, we beg you not to accept this marvelous gift of God's kindness and

then ignore it. For God says, at just the right time I hurt

you, on the day of salvation, I helped you. Indeed, the

right time is now, because today is the day of salvation. Powerful.

I don't know if we have ever read it in light of evangelism, but

these are the scriptures that allude to evangelism. And you see, one of

the things that some people find objectionable about Christians. Is that these Christians don't

know how to keep their religion to themselves, right have you ever gotten that

before? Wife must day insist everybody else coming the same way, which is

why people sometimes dread. Know, if suddenly I've got a new Christian collect

cringe, he's sitting next to me. Cringe. No, if there's this

Christian neighbor, oh man, cringe. You know, I remember back in

my not back well, back in the days. He's still alive. Actually,

there used to be this pastor that walks around my taman and he's pretty

old now, but he's still doing it. He will sit down with people.

He will catch you at the market and just evangelize. I know one

of my is amazing woman. She loves doing that as well. She just

goes around anyone, anyone she meets and encounters, she will share. She

will eventuallyiz she will you know Jesus not you know Jesus not very brave.

I asso sometimes don't have that. But some people do find it offensive.

Actually a lot of people find it offensive. Why do Christians do this?

Why can't we not rest content with our own faith? Why can't you just

keep your faith to yourself? Why do we insist on trying to persuade men

and women to accept Christ. Why are we always going outside our churches instead

of staying inside of them. I'm saying this to also tell you that if

we are just staying inside and playing cards with one another and having a nice

holy fellowship, that's not what we are actually called to do. Paul actually

gives two reasons here, two motives, and it's simple. The fear of

the Lord and the love of Christ. That is why we do it.

And these two must go together. Okay, just to go out and seek

to persuade people true the love of Christ is not enough, and just to

do it true fear of the Lord is not enough. Okay. By fear

of the Lord, I don't mean you cringe and you are absolutely terrified of

God and that he will pack you up and toss you into hell kind of

thing. No, if we don't go out and preach to others, don't

have that kind of fear in you. Ultimately, the one thing that we

aim to do in life is to please Christ, and that we are afraid

of therefore displeasing Him. So the fear of God is the fear of displeasing

Him, and people will sometimes say, well, aren't you afraid of displeasing

people? Yes, we are. Nobody wants to offend others, you know.

I don't make it my life's mission to come here every Sunday and piss

you off. I don't, but sometimes we do that. Really, you

know, when we share about our faith, some people keep your faith to

yourself, keep your religion to yourself. I'm not out to offend others,

upset them. I'm not out to disturb your state of mental wellness that you

already set in your mind. I'm not out to do that. But the

truth of the matter is, I'm more afraid of Jesus, of displeasing Jesus

by not telling all of you all about him. And this is the motive

that overrides all others. And we would hate to break the heart of the

one who loves us so much. The only reason he has left us here

after we believe and started putting our hope and our trust is him is because

he tells us that we have a job to do. Wish is to go

and tell the world about Jesus. If not, like I've said time and

time again, the meaning we are safe. If there's nothing else to do

rapturity. All of us should go straight to heaven. There's no point actually,

if you come to think of it, eternity we've got, there is

actually no point staying even seventy years on this world, even though someone was

like seventy years in this world. A lot of things I can do,

okay, what kind of things you can do? A lot of things you

can do that you can't do in heaven technically, So think about it.

Think about it. If God wanted to take you home straight away means the

job is done. But we're all here and we cannot plead ignorance, and

we cannot say that what job, no job. It's just I'm safe and

that's it, and I keep it to myself. So if we really have

a healthy fear, it's really that very motive that would persuade everybody to become

believers. You know, sometimes it will be wrong, it will be distorted,

but not just putting fear into people's lives. It must always be matched

with the motive of God's love compelling us. And we know the fear of

the Lord, and therefore we persuade, and we also know that the love

of Christ controls us. It is both We don't want to break his heart

because he loves us, and it is his love that compels us to go

out and love others, and that is why we do it. You know

a lot of times when people say, I think God will be okay with

me if I keep it to myself, I'm not sure. I'm not sure.

I mean, of course, then you'll be like, God don't care

about my feelings. I don't get rejected a very nice know the feeling of

rejection. Oh man, it's tough. But you see, our job is

not to convert. That's the work of God. Our God is to witness.

Remember that. You know, if you are you are, If you

are a witness in court, you are not there to pass judgment. You

are just there to say it as it is, because they will ask you

questions. Of course, hopefully is leading questions, but they were The lawyer

will ask you questions, and you just tell them what you saw, not

even what someone else saw. That's heresay, okay, what you saw,

Say it as it is and that's it. Leave it to the judge eventually.

But if you go out today and you talk about religion, people will

straight away say this guy is cool, cool, you're a maniac. There's

mania in you. And Paul is actually telling the Corinthians, now, I

don't mind if you think I'm met. Read it is actually in the scripture

because he's saying that I'm met for God. At one point, Jesus was

thought to be mad himself. This is a carpenter saying that I'm going to

convert the world. I'm gonna go out and forgive scenes beat that carpenter.

No, Paul had the same difficulty, you know, when he was on

trial for his life. He stood in the dog and then he started talking

to the king on the throne. His name was Agrippa. You read it,

an ax, I want to talk to you about Jesus. He tells

Agrippa, you know these things are true, don't you? You have heard

about Jesus. And there's the whole court room scene actually, but it was,

Yeah, this is a man in dog telling the judge all about Jesus.

And then Agriepau look at Paul and say, Paul, I think you

study too much today. I think you could coody. He said that I

think you're mad, and Paul stated, whether I'm mad or not, I

wish that everybody was just like I am. The fear of the Lord and

the love of Christ will lead you to do things that some people may say

are mad, But we do them because the love of Christ and the fear

of the Lord compels us to do them. The love of Christ controls us

because we discovered that the love that love at the Cross. Each and every

one of us discovered the love of God at the Cross. We just celebrated

Easter, and that's the reality of it. Everybody discover God's love at the

Cross. You will experience how much Jesus love you at the cross. If

you really want to know if Jesus loves you, then go to the Cross

and say he did that for me. The love of Christ compels us because

when we look at the Cross, we see that not only was I involved,

but that He died for all. So when you seek to persuade someone

to be a Christian, when you go and witness, when you go and

evangelize, you remember that they are they are already involved with Christ because he

died for all. Don't look at them as outcasts and strangers and you know

I'm doing you a favor, Nor look at them as there are parties to

the entire transaction already, they belong already. So why did Jesus die on

the cross. Well, Jesus, I believe, died on the cross to

promote a personal revolution in each and every one of our lives, so that

the center of our thinking, the center of our feeling, the center of

our behavior is no longer the capital I, but it's Jesus. See,

pride is one of the biggest things. It's one of the biggest, if

not the biggest, down for me, I myself, and since Jesus died,

the purpose of every human life on earth is basically to live for him,

not for self. You see, by nature I am self centered,

and so are you. Everything that I do sometimes there is a vested interest

to self. And you may do good things for your children or other people,

for your neighbors. But deep down inside, like I said, there

is always the big me. There is that vested interest, and I am

guilty of death all the time. It is significant that God actually says I

am the I Am. That means there can be no eyes and I am

anymore. He says, I am the I Am, and you are not.

Life is now intended, but intended to believed for Jesus, not for

self. And how can you live with someone at the center of your life

who is dead and gone? I ever wondered that, which is why he

says one died for all. Therefore all died. He died for all,

that those who live might no longer live for themselves. But for him who

for their sick died and was raised, he is alive. That is the

gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. Amen. Now let us go

further. You can take it deeper. Someone so heavy, Okay, a

bit, a bit, I go slowly. Having explained what the motive is

and why Christians just will not keep their faith to themselves and why they keep

talking to others about Jesus, let us now look at the message. So

of course, how you'll be like But I haven't really been talking much about

Jesus. Well, if you have, I haven't really been talking much about

Jesus. I want to encourage you learn to fear God and love to be

compelled by God's love. You will talk about Jesus when you when you fear

the Lord and when you are push forced by his love because you don't want

to keep it to himself. But what is the content of the message,

and I think it's important that we know the content of what is it that

we are sharing. You see, human beings are always judging others. We

look at each other and we judge. Know, Okay, this one good,

this one bad. This one can say sometimes we say, you know,

a b effy a b if he you know, this isn't normal,

this is not a bit strange. Sometimes come in and say funny things.

You know, we are constantly judging people, and we say all these things.

But when you have been to the cross, you don't judge people from

a human point of view any longer. You look at that man and you

don't look at his clothes, you don't look at his bang account, you

don't look at how many degrees he has on the wall. You don't look

at any of these things because you see someone for whom Jesus died for,

and then you no longer regard them from a human point of view. That

is what the Scripture is saying. We look at it. You can look

at it from a human point of view or from God's point of view.

You see them from crisis point of view. That's where Scripture tells us to

look at it. Is a revolution basically in our outlook. When you can

look at people this way, you just see sinners for whom Jesus died,

which is the thing that makes all human beings equal. We are not equal

in dignity. A lot of times we like to say we're all equal,

indignant in dignity. Essentially, we are actually equal in depravity. We are

all equal in our wrongs. A lot of times we like to think that

we're all equal in our rights. No, we are equal in depravity.

But there is potential for dignity, and that is what we rejoice for.

Amen. So there was a time when perhaps we even judge Jesus from a

human point of view. Paul said that he used to do it. He

looked at Jesus and he said what kind of man was he? And then

he came to certain conclusions. There were people who look at Jesus when he

was here on earth and they judge him from a human point of view.

No, they say he's just a carpenter. Is he just a carpenter?

Because they were wrong. No, a carpenter can't raise the day. A

carpenter can't heal the sick. He can only make coffins. For the day

and baits for the sake. But you can look at Jesus and judge him

as a human being, and I'm sure you will come to the conclusion that

he was a great human being, but that wouldn't change your life. We

no longer look at Jesus or anyone else from a human point of view.

That's the reality of it as believers, because majority of the world who don't

believe in Jesus will say that he is a great human being. Very few

people will actually deny the existence of Jesus Christ. They deny the divinity of

Jesus Christ, because he has died for all and he is the universal savior.

We see no one as too far gone off that Jesus cannot save them.

Basically, sometimes do you realize you look at someone like basically, this

look can save one. It's look gone, really gone. You know.

I used to get a lot. Of course, that was a bit of

a rascal in school. So until today when friends find out that I mean

ministry in the church, they cannot believe you and they're like, oh,

this one used to swear like a sailor, used to do all sorts of

funny things. But that's the reality. I mean we we do sometimes find

it hard. No, when we look at different people, we straightway disqualify

them they and we say, all this person cannot all the repentance in the

world, so all the believing, all the faith in the world cannot.

But today, if we take on God's point of view, you can go

to anyone at all and you can say, Jesus love you enough to die

for you. And that person is capable of becoming a new man, a

new creature, a new creation in Christ. Jesus, everyone is capable.

And that's why Paul is challenging us. How do you look at people now?

If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation. That's

in Corinthians. That's what we read just now. And this is all of

God, because only God can create, Only God can make something new.

Only God can create something out of nothing. And that is the definition of

a Christian, a person who is in Christ. You see, you may

go to church, you may sing hims. May you may sing your prayers.

No, you may say your prayers, you may memorize your entire liturgical

prayers. You may even read your Bible. You may try to be kind

to everyone, but that does not make you a great You are still the

old person trying to do better. You are still the old man. But

when you step in to Christ, and when you live in Christ, when

he is that, when He is actually dwelling in you, you are a

new creation. All things have passed away. And how does it all start?

How does that all start? How does God create a new life in

me? It begins by being reconciled to God. It's quite a funny word,

or reconcile, because when you when you, when you say that word,

reconcile means you are initially implying that He is an enemy, that we

are we are an enemy of God, that God is your enemy and you

are his enemy. And that's why a reconciliation is needed. In fact,

there is a double reconciliation needed. You see, the word reconcile simply just

means to turn enemies into friends, and that is what God in Christ was

doing. By nature, we don't like God. We might go to church

out of the sense of duty, but not because we love him. We

dislike him telling us what to do. How many of you can be honest.

We don't like the tank commandments. We don't like God's words sometimes because

there are a lot of things now, there are days when we find it

so boring. Uh real Levetica, so boring, I read all the different

scriptures are so boring. There's days to be funny, difficult to understand.

It's very difficult to persuade men and women to accept the love of God man

because we are always in that constant battle with him. And what about God,

a god who loved the world. That's amazing, amazing thought. Is

he therefore an enemy of men? No, he's not, but he is

an enemy of sin. He hates it, and he's very angry with it.

It is as eve, you spend a lot of loving care creating something,

and we know God put in so much effort creating something extremely beautiful,

and then when you have created it, you get a bunch of vandals coming

and vandalizing it. How would you feel? And that is what we have

done to God's world, and he hates it, and his rough shows actually

in scripture, and I believe also in reality it does because it shows how

permissive our society has become. It shows how sometimes we allow blatant evil to

take precedents and to take place. And He's sipping into not just our normal

Asian culture, per se is sipping into the Church. The Church has been

infiltrated with a lot of weird, funny practices today that I believe is not

biblical, but very few people there speak up about it, because whoa can

on? We must permit all things, and that's not true. We've got

to be really careful what we're doing to the world, and more importantly,

as believers, what we are doing to God's house. Now, somehow all

this had to be dealt with, And the good news I have got for

you is this, God found a way to take away the heat in his

heart against our sin. He found a way, and that way was the

Cross. Amazing. The Cross is amazing. And that's why as Christians,

people in whom Christ live in, we are there for ambassadors. That's what

the word ambassador means. Send from the royal throne to basically boom, I

kick you out, go tell others, and please bring along this offer of

peace from God. And you may have forgotten the wrong things you had done,

but God never forgets, I know, because he doesn't forget until he

forgives. And here I'm told that God has found a way of dealing with

us in peace. He says, we can't forget all that. Now I'm

offering you peace. I want to be your friend. The word ambassador is

actually quite a beautiful word because in the Roman Empire and ambassador man someone who

is appointed by the emperor and then he goes to the conquered nation and then

he offers them terms of peace. If they accepted them, he was to

come back and say, the nation has now joined the Roman family. If

they don't accept that, of course we know not very peaceful after that.

But suffice to say, he's offering them terms of peace. And therefore we

are ambassadors for Christ. Essentially, we're saying, on behalf of the King

of Kings, we come and we offer you peace. Come and join the

family. And that is what an ambassador does. So my role, your

role as ambassadors is to say, please be reconciled to God. Accept the

offer of friendship. The barrier on his side is now gone because of the

cross. He can now overlook all the wrongs that you have done. He

can now forgive and forget it, and you can accept his love. How

can he do such a thing. Well, we now come to the heart

of the passage Versus twenty one of chapter five, because it says this,

firstly, Jesus was perfect. He knew no sin. I'm almost done.

That was the verdict of everyone. He knew no sin. Everyone who met

Jesus and studies his life, even though we do it with a view of

finding fault with Christ. I've read it timeless many times, especially lawyers,

when lawyers go and study the evidence for Christ a lot of that and end

up being believers because they realized that the evidence stacked up for Jesus is irrefutable.

And most people will share a similar verdict that this is someone with no

fault in him. And that's why Jesus' own trial, there were people there

who said, I find no fault in him. And he was not just

the verdict of man. It was the verdict of Satan. Even the devil

who tried to slender Christ couldn't find anything to pin on Jesus. And you

know, the devil will pin anything possible on any one of our lives,

and probably not probably we will definitely be guilty or something. But the devil

could find nothing to pin on Jesus. So he was not just men,

not just the verdict of Satan. It was also the verdict of his enemies

and his friends. It was, surprisingly enough, the verdict of Jesus himself,

because he said, which of you convict me of sin? Remember that

story. But above all it was the verdict of God the Father on Jesus.

This is my son in whom I am well pleased. And for the

first time in all history, God looked down from heaven and he saw one

perfect life lived on earth from beginning to end, and that life is Jesus.

The next thing is this, Jesus was put to death as the worst

criminal on earth. What is happening? What took place? Why did God

allow such a perfect life to end like that? Was it assassination? The

God put his son out to get him assassinated. No, I don't believe

it was. It was Jesus who chose to go to Jerusalem and avail himself

to be nailed onto the cross. Why because at the cross you see two

things happening, sinlessness and sin in the same person, him who knew no

sin was made sin by God. You say, God the Father treated Jesus,

his son like a sinner. Jesus was going to have to face God's

raph God's anger, God's condemnation. And I want you to understand that God

the Father was treating Jesus as God's holiness would have treated any sinner. He

who knew no sin, he made to be sin. Why? Why?

And the third point is this that we might become the righteousness of God.

It is totally unfair. It's unfair, probably the most unfair exchange to ever

take place. But it is as though, as Jesus now says to us,

I took your sin? Will you have my righteousness? I took all

your badness? Will you have my goodness? I took all God's anger?

Will you now have his love? It's an amazing thought, and it's not

just a thought. This is the life in which we can have. And

that is why everybody in your town or city, your workplaces, your schools,

everyone is involved in the cross because he died for all. You cannot

go and say that this group a bit hard to reach, forget it,

this person is totally lost. Forget it. No, if you really take

it on and understand the gospel and under stand across you will realize that all

all may and all needs to know. But it doesn't work automatically. A

person needs to remove the hostility in their heart and accept this reconciliation, this

peace with God. Get right with God. Now. There is an urgency

in the scriptures when you read it, since Jesus died, you can get

right with God. That's why it says, so now is the day we

are living in it. We don't need to wait. No, you know,

if you read the Old Testament, they had to wait. They to

wait until the Messiah came, for the promises to come and to be kept,

and then eventually to be fulfilled. But we today now is the day

of salvation. That's what chapter six is about. Nobody needs to have any

unforgiven sin on our conscience, and none of us. But if now it's

the day of salvation, then there will come a day when it will be

too late. We need to bear that in mind. There is a time

now, and there is an eventual time eventually when he comes to judge.

We live in the day when people can get right with God and love him

as He loves us. We live in the day of salvation. And that's

what it means by now is the day he is talking. He's speaking to

you now, and therefore, as an ambassador for Christ. Not just me,

but each and every one of you who are believers of Jesus Christ.

I'm pleading with you except the peace often now while it is being offered,

because all must know, and when all must know, then all may know.

Amen. Let's stand and let's look to God, and let's just respond

in this him. We can sing at the Cross, because it was at

the Cross that this is all took place. We hope you've been blessed by

this message. For more information on our church, please visit aschurch do org.

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is going to be a good week. I hit for you. God bless