What shall we do | Pastor Joy

You're listening to a message to go from Acts Church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

Read Acts 1, verse 8. Now, have you brought your

Acts 1:8

Bibles with you? Yes? Okay, so you can wave your Bibles.

You can turn to your Bibles. For today, I'm going

to refer all the Scripture in New King James, okay? Now,

Acts 1, verse 8. And some of us can even

Acts 1:8

memorize it. If cannot, let's memorize the verses, okay? But

you shall receive Power when who? The Holy Spirit has

come upon you and you shall be witnesses to who?

To me as in Jesus, right? So Jesus is telling them,

you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon

you and you will be witnesses to me in all Jerusalem,

in Judea, in Samaria and to the end of the earth. So,

it looks and sounds, this is the words of Jesus.

Jesus is saying that you will receive Holy Spirit and

when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, what's the purpose? Yeah.

When the Holy Spirit, the power, He gives us the

power to do what? to be His witnesses. So church,

the answer to evangelism is Holy Spirit. Alright? Okay, so

before we end this year and before we end revival, again,

we come back to the Holy Spirit because without Holy Spirit,

no revival. Amen? Amen. So this is where I came from,

what Pastor Kenneth shared with us and coming from there,

I was, okay, I'm going to prepare the Word and

I want again to talk about the Holy Spirit. Okay? Okay. Then,

I want to bring us to Acts 2. Verse 37

and verse 38. Now, church, before we go there, Acts

Acts 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2 is about what? Oh, y'all in church can talk, no?

Y'all know that, no? Can smile, no? Can laugh out loud. Okay, okay.

All right. Downstairs, I had a lot of fun, okay?

They asked me not to be so auntie, but I

cannot help it, okay? Never mind, auntie, auntie, never mind, okay? So,

Acts chapter 2 is a chapter about what? Holy Spirit

Acts 2 · chapter mention

and Pentecost Sunday, isn't it? Now, do you know that

we just finished our 12 plus 1 values? Where did

the 12 plus 1 value come from, X Church? X

Chapter 2. I think we repeated X Chapter 2 for

how many weeks now? Do you remember? And in your booklet,

the blue colour one, right? The 12 plus 1 value.

Every part of the value, the top there, will give

you the key verse where that value came from. So

if you don't know what I'm talking about, you are

visiting here today, our 12 plus 1 core value is

our core values of X Church. Okay, so long time ago,

this is the core values of, meaning, who we really are. Alright?

Macam our DNA. So 12 plus a 1, okay? The

generosity one, okay? Okay, so that is where it came from.

It came from where? Acts chapter 2. So Acts chapter

Acts 2 · chapter mention Acts 2 · chapter mention

2 is about what? I will call it the Holy

Spirit chapter, all right? So Acts chapter 1, we have

Acts 1 · chapter mention

Jesus saying, before he ascended to heaven. So he already

died on the cross, he rose again from the dead,

and then he appeared to his disciples. So that's the

time that he's still telling his disciples. I call this

the time when the disciples are the blur time. Because

they haven't received Holy Spirit. And Jesus haven't, just Jesus

died and then rose again, and then appeared to them,

and then they haven't received Holy Spirit. So they are

in between. So I call this the blur time. The

disciples are like, hmm, hmm. Then Jesus will appear here

and there one. This is the time, okay? So I

call this the time when the disciples are just taking

it all in. Jesus is saying this to me. And

I can imagine them blur. Okay, it's okay. Because the

Holy Spirit has not been given yet. Alright? Then comes

chapter 2. So chapter 2 starts off, and I think

by now we should, we are called ex-church, right? We

must know what we are called to and where we

came from. So it started with the believers gathering together

in the upper room, right? So 120 of them in

the upper room. How many of us here? Oh, 120

or not? About there, kan? Imagine now, church. 120 believers

in one accord, one heart, united. They were together, they

were praying because Jesus told them before he ascended to heaven,

wait in Jerusalem for the power of the Holy Spirit.

They are like, what is this he's talking about? They

are in a blur moment, okay? But they just follow

exactly what Jesus said. So this is the time. So

they were there together, 120 in the upper room. And

then you know what happened in the day of Pentecost, right?

Acts 2. The Holy Spirit came. It sounded like wind.

And then what they saw was tongues of fire, okay? Okay,

so I won't go into that. We all know what happened.

And then the 120 people were all filled. Okay, never mind.

I'll go to that later, to the Word. But they

were all filled with the Holy Spirit. They all spoke

in different tongues. Now, it was such an uproar. Imagine,

whole church now, if I say, okay, let's, at the

end later, we see everybody speak in tongues. It's loud, right?

So imagine those days, it's loud. And then, the people

outside in Jerusalem all can hear. So imagine now, I

was telling the church downstairs, imagine now, the summit, the

whole summit can hear. Wow, what's happening up there in

the upper room? And then not only summit, outside of summit,

the road there, ke wajipan, I don't know, whole Subang Jaya,

Subang Jaya, USJ lah, Subang Jaya, the whole Subang Jaya

can hear. And they're wondering what is going on. No,

I want us to imagine because that was what happened

that time. The whole Jerusalem is wondering what in the world, okay?

Exactly like that. What in the world? Okay, and then

they all came. You know why? They heard the disciples

because when they spoke in tongues, they spoke in different languages, right?

And then, huh? These people are Galileans. How can they

speak in my tongue? Why the tongue? So weird one.

They find it so strange. And then some people say, ah, yeah,

these people drunk. But that's mourning. Okay. You know the story, right?

After that, what happened, church? Peter. What happened to Peter?

He stood up. And for the very first time, do

you know his first time? He has never done that

in his life. When he read the Bible, never. First message,

he preached. Did he preach a short or long message?

Very long. You don't know? You see that? So you

say if he preached long, no. He preached very long.

He talked from Old Testament all the way down to

New Testament. Okay, so talk about Jesus. So he preached

by the power of the Holy Spirit. So Peter, being

filled with the Holy Spirit himself, the apostles, he stood up.

For the very first time, he preached, okay? And in

that message, he preached Jesus, all right? And who was

he preaching to? Now, later we will look at the word.

He was preaching to a group of who? They were Jews.

And they were devoted Jews living in Jerusalem, all waiting

for the Messiah to come. Do you know that? They

are not some lala people. pagans and some Gentiles. They

were Jews. They were God's chosen people who had the

Old Testament and the Torah. They probably know it all

better than you, okay? Memorize everything, is that not? But

they were waiting and they were still lost, right? Until

the Holy Spirit came. So this is where, oh, I

talk so long, but never mind. I give you the

whole summary of chapter 2, okay? This is where we

are at now. Verse 37 and 38. At the end

of Peter's message, What happened? Verse 38, it says, now

when they heard this, Church, who is the they again?

My doubt is that's AAMC, the Subang Jaya people. Can

you understand or not? Can you understand or not? The

Subang Jaya people, in our context today, the Subang Jaya

Summit people. Okay? So in those days, the 120 are here,

but the people not in the 120 out there in Jerusalem,

the Subang Jaya people. Okay. When they heard this, the

this means the message of Peter, They were, underlined there,

cut to the heart. And they said to Peter and

the rest of the apostles, men and brethren. Remember, they

call each other brethren because they are fellow Jews. Understand?

Fellow Jews. Men and brethren, what shall we do? I

don't know what to title my message today. So I titled,

what shall we do? Okay, I have a reason for that.

All right. They came to a point where they were

so convicted when they heard the message of Peter. they

were cut to the heart and they asked, what should

we do? Verse 38. Let me read on first. Joy,

don't be so nervous. Chill. Okay. Then Peter said to them,

this is what Peter said, and that will be the

main theme of my message today, is he said, repent

and let every one of you be baptised in the

name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and

you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit in

one breath. Repent, be baptised for the remission of sins

and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Give them the answer. Sounds so simple, one sentence, but

it sums it all up. Peter preaching on the day

of Pentecost. Alright? So this is the basis. I give

you the structure and the outline first so that you

stay with me until the end. Can we do that? Okay,

the chikgu part is kicking in. Okay, can we do that? Okay, ah? Okay,

so as I said, next year we're going to talk

about you will hear, we will hear as a church

about evangelism. Now, So, remember in Acts 1.8, Jesus told them,

you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon

you to do what? Now, Jesus didn't sound like, if

you want, if you don't want, or if you want.

Jesus just said it, you will and you will be.

Can you get it? Okay, it's the command of Jesus

and Jesus said it. So, we all must want. to

be effective witnesses of Jesus. But we cannot do it

without the Holy Spirit. We need the Holy Spirit. And

so 10 a.m. Church, as we draw closer to the

end of the year, again, let's be reminded again, we

want and we need the Holy Spirit. But as I'm preparing,

I told you my aim was to prepare... to talk

about Holy Spirit because I'd rather talk about Holy Spirit

than to talk about what I'm going to talk about today.

I'm confronted with this verse in verse 38. What did

Peter say again? Repent. Be baptised in the name of

Jesus for the remission of sins and then you'll receive

the Holy Spirit. Can you see that there is a

bit of a step like that? I try to ignore it,

also cannot. Can we ignore it today? So church, not

my favourite topic, but I'm going to talk about repentance today.

I can't finish everything from baptism to receiving Holy Spirit,

but this is the Word of God, and I'm reminded again,

I'm blessed by it. So let's look at the Word

of God. So let's ask a question. Let me ask

a question. If let's say someone asks you, or... you

have your pre-believing friends that you're trying to reach them

and they ask, how do I enter into God's kingdom?

They may not use the word God's kingdom, but you

get what I mean, right? How they enter into this

kingdom of God, this relationship with God. What is our answer? How?

How does someone come into the kingdom of God or

enter into the kingdom of God? John, you got the answer. Okay,

but yes. But usually, I included, we don't really talk

about that. Do you? I don't. We say, God loves you.

But that's correct. That's right. God loves you. God forgives

your sins. God died for your sins. No, yes. But

remember that there is this part that we cannot forget. Alright?

That at the end, when they want to make a decision,

they need to repent. Amen? Okay, so just a reminder

to all of us on that. All right? Okay, so

I'm still on Acts chapter 2. Are we there? Okay,

Acts 2 · chapter mention

stay with me. Now, I'm not reading the whole chapter.

I gave you the summary already. So I'm just going

to pick out different parts of Acts chapter 2. But

Acts 2 · chapter mention

if you have your physical or Bibles with you, you

can just follow. So again, as I mentioned, the they

or the people or the Subang Jaya people, so-called, Those,

they are Jews, they're devout men, alright? But they're from

every nation under heaven and they will come back to Jerusalem.

They are those that keep looking to the Messiah, believing

that one day Messiah is going to come. And they

fulfill all the law and all the requirements of the law, alright?

So again, when you notice when Peter addressed them, He

calls them brethren and he calls them men of Israel. Okay?

God's chosen people. And he knows who is the people

that he's talking to. Now, because... They were the audience.

He went on the road and in his message, he

talked about the Old Testament. He talked about King David

because they will understand, right? He talked about the patriarchs

and all. He will bring that back because they are Jews.

They know. But of course, later on in Acts, when

we see Paul being called by God to the Gentiles,

his message is very different, right? Okay, so these were

the people that Peter was speaking to. Now, why am

I saying all these things to us? These are the

Dan Lai Lai, the Suwan Jaya people, so-called. Because the

conditions of their heart actually reflects us. Church, so I

just want us to, as we read, let's again allow

God to reflect our hearts, okay? Because they were on

the front, they have everything right. But deep down inside,

they have no relationship with God. They are not walking

right with God. And sometimes if we are not careful,

even in church, we can be at that place. But

let's not be at that place. Amen? So reading from

verse 37 and 38 again, when they heard this, they

were cut to the heart. And they said to Peter,

men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said

to them, repent and let every one of you be

baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remissions

of sin and you shall receive the gift of the

Holy Spirit, okay? So again, when the truth of God,

now again, they probably know the word of God better

than all of us, right? But when the truth of

God was brought to them by Peter, under the anointing

of the Holy Spirit, that was the day of Pentecost,

the Holy Spirit came. So under the anointing of the

Holy Spirit, these Jews suddenly realised that they were not

in the right relationship with God. And church, do you

know that God does that with us as well? We

may think that we are walking, right? But under the anointing,

the Holy Spirit convicts, the Holy Spirit reveals to us.

And we must allow the Holy Spirit to do that. Amen? Amen.

So they were not walking with that and they were

not in the will of God. Alright? They were far

away from God. Not in God's grace. They were not

rightly related to God. Not assured of the forgiveness of

their sins. Not having that deep peace and settled peace

in their hearts that belong to you and I who

know Jesus. Amen? Amen. But they have not realised it

because no one has told them and they have not

been awakened, like touched and convicted by the Holy Spirit. So, again,

the Holy Spirit comes with the Word of God like

a two-edged sword, right? It will pierce through our hearts,

reach deep down, pierce through the facade. You understand or not?

So we got to let the Holy Spirit do that.

Because on the outside, we are human beings. All of

us got one. We will put up something one. Alright?

But again, I take it positively because sometimes, even let's say, okay,

I had a bad day. I come to church. I

will try not to put on a bad face. Why?

Because I want to encourage brother band. I don't want

brother band to be discouraged. So I say, praise God.

God is good by my will. I exercise my will

to decide to do it. Praise God. And I encourage

brother band. Do you understand? Now, I'm not talking about that. Like,

you know, we are not, you know, trying to encourage

one another. But I'm saying here is that if we

do not allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us,

to talk and to dig it out of us, then

we'll be like the Subang Jaya people or the Dan

Lai Lai Jews. All right? Okay, so, and we will

never come to the point where we ask this question,

what shall we do? So my question to myself and

to all of us is that, when was the last

time we come to that point? Or when was the

last time we were cut to the heart? Now, the

cut to the heart, another meaning or other translation will say,

Peter's words pierced their hearts. So what's the meaning of pierced?

I like it. The BM word brings out the meaning.

So your heart is by the Holy Spirit. The Holy

Spirit will prompt you, will to choke you. Alright? Okay.

So when was the last time? If our answer is, oh,

just this morning, the Lord chuchuk me. Praise God. You

should be dancing and praising God because you are walking

right with the Lord. Because we are sure going to

chuchuk one. So let's welcome God, chuchuk me, speak to me,

pierce my heart, cut my heart. I don't want my

heart to be hard. I do not want my heart

to be cold. But I want our hearts to be soft, God,

allowing you to pierce and to cut through our hearts. Amen.

Don't be like, Well, I'm sure you may know of

some people, or even yourself, once upon a time, that

he had to take God a long time to bring

us back to that place of being tujuk. Right or not?

We say we follow Jesus, okay? I believe. Yes, Lord.

And then we take so long to come to that

place to say, God, what shall we do? Just like

the prodigal son. You remember the prodigal son story? It

is the exact story and the meaning of repentance. He came,

the Bible says, he came to his senses. He came

to his senses. And then, he turned back to God.

But it took him a long while. Now, of course,

God being God and loving Father, He will still receive us, right?

He will always receive us. He will be running to us.

And God has already shown us in His Word. But church,

the faster we can come back, isn't it better? Let's

not make that whole big round. Okay. Hallelujah. Are we good?

Are we good? I hope we are good. Amen. Amen. So, again, now,

and do you know that that day when Peter preached to, okay,

so what happened after Peter preached? So they said, men

and brethren, apostles, what should we do? And then Peter

told them the answer. What happened after Peter told them

the answer, church? Come, tell me, tell me. The easy one,

you all should know, chapter 2 one. After Peter told them, repent,

be baptised, and receive the Holy Spirit, what happened? Okay,

how many people came to the Lord? 3,000. Turn to

your neighbour and say 3,000. Okay, can you imagine 3,000 now?

Now we are about 100 plus now, right? 3,000. On

that one day, the day of Pentecost, 3,000 people were saved.

For the first time in the history of the church,

the church of God was formed. There was no church

of God before this. It's just disciples of Jesus and

blur ones. Until the day of Pentecost came, the church

was formed. Amen? Amen. So the 3,000 people saved on

that day. Praise God. Alright. Now, I'm going to get

to where I'm getting at. So, before that, again based

on verse 38, there are three steps, right? Repent. The

slide is there. Then, be baptised. and received the Holy Spirit. Now,

I know we all know this. And some of us say, yeah,

I got all three. Praise God, right? I repented, I

baptized and I received the Holy Spirit. Very good. Just

a reminder to all of us again what it really means,

all right? Okay, so your repentance is your inward decision

as I will go in a little bit in depth later.

Your baptism is your outward act. Do we agree? Okay,

and I believe we have talked about water baptism here

in SJ 10am as well. And the receiving, so this

is the part. The receiving of the Holy Spirit is

for what? It's for the equipping of you and I

to live in the world today. Do you know that?

Your repentance and baptism guarantee you to heaven. Do you

know that? But to live your life on earth effectively

for Jesus, we need the third one. Receive the Holy Spirit. Amen? Amen. Okay. So, now, church,

when Peter told them the answer in verse 38, repent,

be baptised, and be filled with the Holy Spirit, he

said it in one breath. He did not mean it

to be, okay, now you repent, you wait later, then

only you get baptised. And then maybe a few years later,

then you receive the Holy Spirit. No. Nowhere in the

New Testament, in the Bible, you will see the believers

or the early church when they received, when they believed,

they repented, they straight away were baptised. Okay, you will

see that in the Bible. And they straight away received

the Holy Spirit. Now, why are we talking about this church? Now,

you probably already know, you already feel the Holy Spirit,

you're already baptised. But we need to know, as we

move into evangelism, what are we preaching about? When we

preach the gospel, this is the gospel. When we preach,

we got to preach repentance and baptism and then Holy

Spirit fill us. Amen? It all comes in one whole package.

It's not, neither one are optional. Meaning, I say, okay,

I want number one and two, three I don't want.

Or I take number three and two only, one I

don't want. Are we clear? So neither of the phases

are optional and they are not separated. They are all together.

All right. Not separated. So, complete three things together. Amen. Now,

so let me speak about repentance right now. Because we need,

because in order to be filled with the Holy Spirit,

the full package is to repent and then be baptized

and receive the Holy Spirit. Amen? Amen. Now, last Sunday,

Elder Peng Ho preached about two things. What did he

preach about? 10 a.m. church? Come, 100 points. I'll give

you 100 points. I gave downstairs church 100 points. They

like the 100 points thing. Then they will answer. Okay.

Sin and faith. Amen. So, what is sin? Missing the mark. Awesome.

100 marks. Okay. What did he illustrate with the missing

the mark? What did he mention? The round thing. The

bull's eye. And talk about darts. I hope he said

the same thing here. He said the same thing downstairs, right?

Bull's eye, right? So, when you play darts, right? So,

meaning anything that misses the bull's eye is sin. Missing

the mark or missing the original that God has intended

it to be. Alright? So, that is sin. Okay. So, now,

whenever we talk about repentance, of course, we're talking about

repentance from sin, right? Not repentance. What does it... How

do you feel? Can I ask about how you feel?

Do you have a bit of an emotion? Can you

be honest here?

Okay.

Do you have a bit of emotion when we talk

about repentance? Yes, huh? Okay. Normal. Good. All right. Okay.

As long as we understand that our emotions are there

to help us. But repentance is not just about emotions. So,

I use the illustration of, let's say, two sisters fighting. Okay.

And they laugh. My daughters fight. No, just two sisters fighting.

The older one hit the younger one. So then afterward,

the older one felt bad about it because she knew

it was wrong. And then she said sorry to her sister.

Did she repent it? She felt sorry and she said sorry.

But you will know whether she really repented, whether she

do it again. You know what I mean? Okay, but again,

does it mean I do it again because I'm not sincere? No, no, no. Okay,

now God's grace is here for us. He loves us

and He was here to help us. But the point

here is not just about how you feel. Oh, I

felt sorry. I felt young. Yeah, I felt bad. But

if just about feeling bad alone, that's not repentance. Okay?

So repentance is not just about the emotion. But most

of the time, when we repent, in the process, there

are tears, right? I don't know about you, for me,

lots of it. And sometimes not just tears. It's like,

Like you're wailing or you're like... Because sometimes there's a

bit of a struggle. Don't you have struggle? I have struggle.

You know, you are partially angry. Your emotions are up

and down. But okay, I will say sorry. But it's

not just about emotions. So what is repentance? And we

all know this. Just a reminder to all of us.

In the New Testament, the Greek word, the original meaning,

it means to change your mind. So it's a change

of mind. So repentance is not an emotion at all.

It is a decision, an inward decision of the will.

So when I say you change your mind to do something,

it's more than just whether I feel like it, I

don't feel like it. I decided to. I decide to forgive.

I decide to not do it again, okay? Now, when

Peter preached it in verse 38, when he... And then

they asked, so they were cut to their hearts and

they asked, what shall we do? When Peter said to them,

repent and be baptized and all, the tense that was

used then when repent is not a continuous tense. That means, okay,

it is a once and once and for all decision. Now,

the best way I can illustrate this is, You know,

when we sing the song, I've decided to follow Jesus,

no turning back, no turning back. Meaning, when we say

we repent of our own evil ways, our old ways,

ways that do not please God, and we say, God,

I say yes to Jesus, I invite Jesus into my heart,

into my life, and ask Him to be my Lord

and Saviour, I'm essentially doing that. I'm saying no to

my past life and saying that, no, I'm not done

it right. I do not want to live my life

my way anymore. God, I want it your way. So

you are turning to God. But that turning, that type

of the repent that Peter is talking about is that

once and for all decision, no turning back. So it's

not a continuous tense. Now, it's different if you are

saying that, oh, but then why if I make that

mistake again? Okay, of course. Please repent and continue to repent.

And every day, God will reveal things to us, right?

I'm not talking about that. But the decision to follow Jesus,

that repentance decision, is once and for all. Amen? So

this is what it means when Peter said that the

changing of our minds and the once for all, Jesus,

I decided to follow you, no turning back. So that's

the true meaning of repentance. Now, so when we talk

about changing of our mind, When do you change your mind?

We change our minds when we know something is not

right or something is not working. Okay, I changed my mind.

So the first step in changing of our minds will

always be we have to firstly acknowledge that we are

not living the right way. Do you know that that's

the first step? We can't even acknowledge that we are

living the wrong way. How do we bend? Right? Okay,

so the first step is that acknowledging God I'm not

living your way. I'm actually rebellious. I'm rebelling against you.

Because your way is like that, I'm doing my own thing. Right?

So again, we're not talking about the outward. The outward,

we can conform to all. And I'm talking, again, bringing

back to us here. Sometimes, even in church, we can... Oh,

because Elder Peng Ho said this, I will do it.

Pastor Kenneth said that, I will do it. Okay? But inside,

we have not submitted ourselves to God. And do you

know that it can happen to any of us here? Right?

Right.

So these were the people that Peter was speaking to. Remember?

They all got it right on the outside. They were

people of God, but yet not people of God. You

get what I mean? Until they come to a realization

that their ways are wrong. And then they have, then

they can say, God, what shall we do? Amen? That

is real repentance. So, repentance just means stopping in our tracks. Stop. So,

turn to your neighbour and say, stop. Do you know

that church, stop is a powerful word? We need to

know when we need to stop. And I think parents,

some parents, I find it a powerful word. Stop. Okay?

Then the child will stop. Okay. So, right. We tell

our sinful nature, stop. Okay. So we are, why? We

are stopping to what? Stop what? Stop pleasing ourselves. Stop

doing what we think is right. Stop making our own standards.

Stop choosing our own ways. Stop rejecting God, right? Because

when the Holy Spirit comes upon us, just like that,

day of Pentecost, Holy Spirit came upon them, Holy Spirit

convicted them. Amen. And then we say, God, what shall

I do? I'm going to stop where I am right now.

I'm going to turn 180 degrees towards you. Church, that

is repentance. And I know that we know that, but

I want us to be reminded again This is the

same line that we said, filled with the Holy Spirit.

It's the same line to say we repent. Church, did

we get it? I repeat again. The same line when

Peter said, be filled with the Holy Spirit, right? It's

the same line that says we need to repent. So

both comes hand in hand. Or all three comes hand

in hand. Amen. So repentance means turning to God and say, God,

from now on, I submit myself to you. Whatever you

want me to do, I will do. Okay? The cross

before me, the world behind me. Amen? No turning back.

No turning back. So church, this is the real meaning

and the true meaning of repentance. Now today, this message

I say, they're not the most famous, not my favourite message.

But if that's something that the Lord is speaking to

us today, let's respond. Amen? Alright? Because if we are

not repenting this way, we are not repenting at all.

This is the true meaning of repentance. Okay. Now, the

next one is repentance comes before believing. Now, I'm going

to go here a little bit faster. Okay. So, Church,

do you agree? Repentance comes before believing? Because sometimes it's

so easy to give the point. You write, write, write notes.

You never think, you know. Repentance before believing. Agree? Think

for a moment first. I was just joking because 8am,

we sang the song Just Believe, our extra song. Just believe,

nothing is impossible. Just believe. I said, then I was

telling them, you know what? Actually, when we sing it,

it's a great song. But as we sing it, we

need to know it's almost singing. Just repent and believe.

Just repent and believe. And then they all laugh because

it sounds so weird, right? But yes, that's essentially according

to the God's word. Just repent and believe. Believe. Church,

do we get it? Just repent and believe. Just repent

and believe. Just repent and believe. Amen? Amen. So repentance

comes before believing. Now, I say this because it's from Scripture.

So I will just bring us through some of the

verses in the New Testament of how we see that

even Jesus himself said this. Okay, so first one, I

have a summary slide. Yes. So repentance comes before believing

all the way from John the Baptist. Okay, so let's

do the first one. The message of John the Baptist. Now,

you all know who is John the Baptist? What was his,

if I ask you today, what was his job description,

his JD? Prepare the way. I heard something. Anything else? Good.

Say some more. Chris, you look like you want to

say something. Say. Sorry? Baptise Jesus, okay, one of his roles, yes,

that's right. Anything else? Okay, so when you say prepare

the way for Jesus, right, for what? Why prepare the way?

What was he preparing about? Revival, huh? Okay, getting there? Now, church,

if we look at the Word of God, what did

John preach? John preached a message of repentance. It's almost

he repeated every day. Repent, for the kingdom of God

is at hand. And every day, he just said the

same thing. Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.

Because the word of God, actually in the Old Testament,

already prophesied about John the Baptist. Prepare ye the way.

Meaning before the Messiah comes, there will be one in

the desert shouting. prepare the way. What is he preparing?

He's preparing the hearts of the people by repentance first.

Because without that, they cannot believe. Do you understand? Okay,

so that is his role and his JD. His only

call is to do that. Alright? Okay, so that was that.

So Mark chapter 1 verse 4 and we can see here, John,

Mark 1:4

so you read, the first chapter of Mark and the

first few verses you will read. So John came baptizing

in the wilderness, And preaching what? What did he preach?

A baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Israel's

heart must be prepared by the message of repentance before

the Messiah comes. That is his role. And God knew

when the Messiah would come. So only God knows the time.

But he will not come until this part is done.

So church, don't you think that the second coming of

Jesus will be the same? He's going to come. But

he can't come until this part is done. And what

are we preaching today? When we say reaching the lost, right? Essentially,

we are preaching repentance to them. And until this part

is done, he's not going to come. Are we clear? Okay,

so moving on. That's the first one. Second one. Now,

even Jesus himself said about preaching repentance when he spoke

to the disciples. The first ever commandment came out from

the mouth of Jesus at the start. of the ministry

of Jesus. So remember I said, so John the Baptist,

he prepared the way of the Lord. So in the

same chapter of Mark, now we look at verse 14

and 15. So if you continue to read, what happened

is that John was preaching the message of repentance. People

were coming to him to be baptized. Jesus came to

John for baptism, right? Someone said that? Correct. So John

baptized Jesus and then of course we read about heaven

being opened and Holy Spirit came down as a dove

and God's, assuring that this is my beloved son, right?

After that, Jesus was taken to the wilderness to be tempted.

And then, here is where we reach verse 14, where

Jesus starts his ministry. And then, you can see that

John the Baptist ended his ministry. So, verse 14. Now,

after John was put in prison, so after he completed

his ministry, he was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee. Now,

it's his turn. Prepared the way already. The message has been,

the prophecy has been fulfilled. Now Jesus came and preaching

the gospel of the kingdom of God. Verse 15. And saying,

so this is Jesus saying, the time is fulfilled. Now

the time has come because he has prepared the way, right?

The kingdom of God is at hand. So now what

did Jesus say now? The first thing that came? Repent

and believe in the gospel church. Alright? So he's telling

the people, In the name of God is here. He

repeated the same thing. As John the Baptist said, repent

and believe in the gospel. Jesus has never asked anyone

to believe first without first repenting. Alright? He has called

all of us to repent first before we believe. Amen?

So we will say, just repent and believe. Whenever we

sing the song, we know what we are trying to say.

We are saying, God, we believe. I believe in God

our Father. I repent and believe in God our Father.

Every time when we sing, God, I believe. Amen? Amen. Now,

the next one also. Now, we see after, so this

was the start of Jesus' ministry. Now at the end

of Jesus' ministry, so we're going to look at the

final chapter of Luke. So this is Luke 24. Luke

24 is our, we call it our resurrection or Easter

Sunday chapter, right? Where we look at Jesus died on

the cross. After three days, he rose again. So this

is where Luke accounted for the women, went to the

tomb with all the spices, wanting to embalm the body

of Jesus. But then they saw the tomb, then they're like,

oh dear. How are you going to remove the stone

and the story you know? They saw the angel and

then they saw that the tomb was empty and then

they ran and tell the disciples. Okay ah? You know

the story, okay? Okay. So, this is where Jesus rose

from the dead but He hasn't ascended to heaven yet. Okay? So,

He's still on earth. He's appearing to the disciples. And

so this is what I call the in-between time, where

the disciples are blurred timeline, okay? In-between before Acts chapter 2,

Acts 2 · chapter mention

the day of Pentecost, all right? So what happened after

he appeared to the ladies, right? At the Mary Magdalene,

all right? And then say, please go and tell my disciples.

And then later on, you read in chapter 24 in Luke,

he appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus, right?

These two are not the twelve, they are one of

the disciples, another two disciples. So they were walking to

Emmaus from Jerusalem, and Jesus walked along with them, and

then Jesus was talking to them. And Jesus asked them,

why are you so sad? Because they look so sad,

because Jesus died. And then they were like in between,

but we heard that he's alive. So they are like,

I don't know whether to believe or not. Okay, so

Jesus shared with them, Again, he's preaching himself to them

about the gospel, how it was prophesied in the Old Testament,

and all this is fulfilling the scriptures. And then, he

broke bread with them, remember? And suddenly, their eyes were opened,

the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and they

realised it was Jesus. But the moment they realised, jeng

jeng jeng, Jesus will disappear, right? Okay, so Jesus was disappeared.

So they were like, it's Jesus, okay? No wonder our

hearts burned in us when he was speaking to us.

So they reached Emmaus already, eating bread already. Then they're like,

let's go back to Jerusalem. So they went all the

way back to Jerusalem and they went and they told

the disciples. As they were sharing to the apostles, suddenly

Jesus appeared there, okay? so this is where we are at.

Jesus appeared to the disciples with the tool that he

appeared to Emmaus and he said, Shalom, why are you

so troubled? Because they all look troubled. I don't blame them.

Won't you be troubled? I will be super troubled. Jesus

died on the cross. Jesus rose from the dead. Some

women said that he's alive. And he appealed to some people,

what's going on? They all, they don't understand. They were

still in the blur. So Jesus said, Shalom. And I

think Jesus had to say, Shalom, please don't worry. I'm here.

See my hands, touch my hands. That's what Jesus said. Okay,

and the funny thing is, Jesus said, you got food

to eat or not? I want to eat. And then

he sat down and eat fish. Okay, you read your

Luke chapter 24. So he, after eating fish, This is

Luke 24 · chapter mention

what he said to the disciples. So he was sharing

with the disciples, trying to help them. Remember, the Holy

Spirit has not been given, so they don't understand what

is going on. He's trying to tell them, this is

all part of God's plan. I have to die and da-da-da-da. Okay,

so verse 45. And he opened their understanding that they

might comprehend the Scriptures, okay? Then he said to them,

now church, I'm getting to where I want to get to,

all right? Then he said to them, Thus it is written,

and thus it was necessary for Christ to suffer and

to rise from the dead the third day. Verse 47,

pay attention. Jesus is telling the disciples why I had

to die and rose from the dead and all these things,

and that why repentance and remission of sins should be

preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. Amen?

And you are witnesses to this. Amen? So He is

telling the disciples, you are witnesses to this now. After

I go back to heaven, you all are going to

be my witnesses. Of course, they understand probably partially at

that time. Okay? But that is what Jesus is trying

to tell them. What are you... So here we are

saying that, the first thing when we preach the gospel church,

as we prepare ourselves for next year, the theme of evangelism,

coming back to the Word of God again, aligning ourselves

to the Word of God again, what are we really

preaching when we preach the gospel? We're preaching a message

of repentance and remission of sins. And of course, that's

why the Great Commission, go ye into the world and

then preach the gospel and baptise them in the name

of Jesus, right? Yeah, and I'm going to be with you. Amen. Hallelujah. So,

the first thing to be preached for when we preach

the gospel, amen, is not just the forgiveness of sins,

but repentance. So repentance and forgiveness of sins, both together,

to be preached in His name among all nations. And

that's the command of Jesus. Amen? Can someone say amen?

Are we good? We're drawing to a close already. Don't worry. Okay,

almost done. Okay. Now, church, we all know that repentance

is also the first foundational truth of Christian faith. All right?

In X Church, let me promote a bit. We have apps, right?

Who can tell me the full name of apps? To

be honest, downstairs also, I forgot. Then somebody helped me

with one word. X, ah, got Elder Rose here. Of course,

Elder Rose can also say it. Come, the rest of

you all. X, Pioneer and Preparation school. Okay. So, how

many of you have... And you all have graduation service, right?

You got graduated and all. So, you all have... Now,

those of you who have gone through, you all will

know what I'm talking about. Those of you who have not,

you can sign up so that you can learn more

about the Word of God. Amen? Amen. Okay. So, I believe...

Correct me if I'm wrong, Rose. One of the units

is this one, right? Foundational truth. We're still offering that? Yes. Okay. So,

Hebrews chapter 6, verse 1 to 2... will list down

Hebrews 6:1–2

the six doctrinal foundations of the Christian faith. All right? Now,

the writer of Hebrews speaks about laying this foundation. Of course,

he's talking about moving on from just the foundation. But

before we move on, we've got to know the foundation.

If you don't know the foundation, also cannot. We've got

to lay it properly and then we move on and

build on the foundation, correct? Of course, the foundation is Jesus,

but these are the six that is listed here in

Hebrews 6, verse 1-2. Therefore, leaving the discussion of elementary

Hebrews 6:1–2

principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection. So

he's telling them, let's go on, perfection. Okay? Okay? But

the foundation is what? Repentance from dead works, faith towards God,

doctrines of baptisms, laying on our hands, resurrection of the dead,

and eternal judgment. I'm not talking about that today. That

will be for another time. But I'm trying to say

here is that the first one of up there is what?

Repentance from dead works. Church, what is dead works? Pass, okay. Okay.

Do you think, can I ask you all, not trick question,

this morning we come to church, is date works or not? No,

of course not, Joey. I also agree, no. Okay, if we, if,

I would say a if. Okay, if we come and

we just come, I was joking, okay, come, you look

like you're listening to me, but you're not listening to me.

Is it date works or not? You ask yourself the question,

don't answer me. I was still laughing. You know that

it can be date work, It can be dead works.

I can be here. Why not Daniel Yee? Daniel Yee.

Never mind because you are in my direction now. Daniel Yee. High, right?

You can be here but dead works. You can be singing.

What's the song again? With all my heart. Can be

dead works still. If it's not sung in faith in

towards God, right? Yeah, means we can be here on

the outward form and everything right, but our hearts are

far away from God. And that's dead works. I'm just

trying to tell us that. Alright, it can be. It

can be that. Praying, we can look like we are

praying very well, but our hearts are far away from God. So,

repentance from these dead works, right? Anything that is not

done in faith towards God, not in obedience to His

revealed word. Amen? So, church, again, Repentance means stopping in

our tracks, admitting and acknowledging God. This is not according

to your word. God, I want to come back to you. Amen? Okay,

now the final one. The final one is, I'm not

going to go into details, so I put back the

summary slide. The last one is the first requirement when

we get out of God's will. Now, in the book

of Revelation, when we read it, I ask that you

can go home and read it. There are seven churches, right,

that Jesus was speaking to. Now, I think some ex-kids

can answer better because I think they can memorise the

churches' names. Why not Pastor Sarah? They can tell you

the one. Okay, correct me if I'm wrong. How many

churches were walking right with God? Pastor Sarah? Correct. Two. Okay? Alright.

I can't remember. Never mind. Okay. Some of the... So

the other five. You minus, left five. All the others...

had some form of error that it was pointed out, correct?

If you read your, don't worry, when you read your Bibles.

So it's either lukewarmness, they left their first love, da-da-da, alright?

What was Jesus' command to them when he pointed it out?

What were they supposed to do? Repent. Every one of it.

So for any error, anything that God convicts us, what

is our step? First step. Don't say about I believe.

Just I believe, yes. And that's why sometimes we struggle

in our belief. Like we want to believe, but we

can't believe like that. Like, oh God, I still doubt.

I still, you know, can't fully. It's because this part

of us have not been dealt with. The repentance part. Amen. Amen.

So this is the part. Meaning, at every time when

this is pointed out, the first requirement of Jesus was

always repentance. And every time, and that will apply to

you and I as well, when we get out of

God's will and we get into disobedience, we turn away

from God, the first requirement is always to repent. Amen.

And no matter what we can do and sing, we

try to, we cannot bypass this. This is the first

step that you and I will need to make. Amen. Amen.

And of course, to complete verse 38 in Acts chapter 2,

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Peter said, repent and be baptized. And I pray and

I hope all of us have been water baptized. It's below.

We will help you. We wish we can just do

it on the spot today, right? Yeah, but we can

do it as soon, I'm sure. Yeah, we will arrange

and we will do it. Because it's so important and

be filled with the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen and amen.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

information on our church, please visit xchurch.org. We are also

active on Facebook and Instagram. We're believing that this week

is going to be a good week ahead for you.

God bless.