FEBC EVANGELISM

A Report by Elder Choong Sin Chun
(MDiv Student and Student Chaplain)

The 2015 FEBC Gospel meeting was held on 24th September. We thank God for His grace and mercy in seeing us through this event. The theme for this meeting was “The Blood of Jesus Christ”. The speaker was our principal Rev Dr Jeffrey Khoo. The message was delivered in English and translated into Mandarin. A student quartet presented the song item “The Blood of Jesus” and brother Yew Jinn shared his testimony of salvation.

The island had been plagued by haze for some weeks before the event, and the PSI was far into the unhealthy range (government authorities declared schools to be closed on 25th September). Nevertheless, we thank God that we saw a good turnout of 148 people. Among these attendees were contacts from our Wednesday evangelism efforts, friends of members of affiliated churches and a few others who walked in on their own. We thank God for at least three souls who were saved that night. We pray that the Lord will continue to use the Word that was preached to work in the hearts of the rest who came, that they may come to know and accept Christ one day.

We praise God also for enabling us in our evangelism efforts thus far. As in past semesters, FEBC students went out for evangelism every Wednesday. Besides giving out Gospel tracts to those whom we met, we also extended invitations to them to attend this Gospel meeting. We began distributing the invitations two months before the event. In past semesters, each group would visit a different housing estate or street every week to distribute tracts. The shortcoming of such an approach was that it was hard to follow up with those whom we met. To overcome this, in the present semester each group was designated to just one housing estate each, and we made an effort to note down the contacts of those who were willing to listen, or who expressed an interest in attending the Gospel meeting, so that we could follow up on them. Most of such follow-up contacts were old folks, domestic helpers (from Philippines, Indonesia and Myanmar) and little children. Most of them were not able to attend the Gospel meeting as they would need consent from their parents or employers. Nevertheless, we thank God that we were able to revisit some of them and conduct Bible studies with them.

God willing, going forward, besides continuing with Gospel meetings, we can also organise some children’s programs (like VBS).

THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST

What can wash away your sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Why do we need the blood of Jesus?

Let me begin with the bad news. The bad news is this—God is very angry with us. And that is because “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). You are a sinner, I am a sinner. God is going to judge us. God’s Word says, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb 9:27).

Know that when a man dies, it is not the end. There is an afterlife. Why do the Chinese heathen keep a “Hungry Ghost Festival” (Zhong Yuan Jie) which is held on the 15th day of the 7th month of the lunar calendar (usually in August)? It is because they believe that the dead are not dead. They now live as spirits. Where are they now? Not in heaven, but hell. That is why the heathen believe that on the 15th day of the 7th month, the gates of hell will open for the spirits of the departed dead to return to earth to enjoy the things of earth. That is why a lot of food is offered to them at this time, a whole lot of hell money is burned for them, and even entertainment through getais. Why do the living do all these things for the dead during this time? It is because they believe that at every Hungry Ghost Festival, Di Guan Da Di (Ruler of the Earth) will descend to earth to take down notes, to record the good and evil deeds of each human being. So the Chinese heathen do all these things to get into the good books of Di Guan Da Di. That is what they superstitiously believe.

What does the Bible say? The Bible tells us that there is only one living and true God, “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim 2:5). This God who is Spirit created this whole universe, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” (Gen 1:1). He also made us, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” (Gen 1:27). He made us in a special way. The animals are not made like us. They do not have spiritual life in them. They cannot have a relationship with God, but we can. We can speak to God and God can speak to us.

In the beginning, God put man in a beautiful garden called the Garden of Eden. “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Gen 2:16-17). Later the devil came and tempted man and his wife to eat the forbidden fruit. They listened to the devil, yielded to temptation, ate the forbidden fruit, sinned against God and died. They rebelled against God and broke His commandment. When we break God’s commandment and sin against God, there is judgement. And the judgement is death—God said, “Thou shalt surely die.” The Bible says, “the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). That is why there is death today. That is why the world is in such a mess. That is why there is so much evil and suffering on earth. We all know we are not good. Like it or not, we all know that after we die, we are going to hell.

Some people think they can escape from the judgement to come by doing good deeds. Can good deeds save us from hell? God says our good works are useless because we are all sinners since the time we were in our mother’s womb. All of us are born in sin. God says, “There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. … For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” (Rom 3:10-12, 23). To God, our good works are as “filthy rags”, “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” (Isa 64:6).

This is all bad news to us. We are sinful, we have broken God’s law, we cannot be saved by any good work that we do, we are all guilty before God, and we are on our way to hell. Question: Is there a way to escape? Can I be saved from the judgement to come?

Here is the good news, “… the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom 6:23). How? Only through God’s Eternal Son—the Lord Jesus Christ. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Salvation is not what we do for ourselves, but what God has done for us. God sent His only begotten Son into this world to save us from our sins. He was born of a virgin, lived for 33½ years, kept the law of God, and finally died on the cross. Jesus did all that not for Himself but for us. Jesus was sinless, the spotless “Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29). As the Lamb of God, He was sacrificed on the cross for our sins. On the cross, He shed His precious blood so that our sins can be forgiven. The Bible says, “without shedding of blood is no remission.” (Heb 9:22).

How can all our sins be washed away? It is only through the precious blood of Jesus Christ. “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:” (1 Pet 1:18-19). We are not redeemed by offering food to our ancestors, or to idols made of silver or gold, made with our own hands. We are not redeemed by the superstitious beliefs of our forefathers. We are not redeemed by our good works which to God are no good at all. If we are to be redeemed, we must be redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ—the blood of the God/Man. His blood can wash away all our sins. When we are thirsty, we ask for water. If we are guilty and need forgiveness, what do we ask for? We ask for the blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse us from all our sins.

But know that the good news does not end with the death and the blood of Christ. Please know that after Jesus died, He was buried in a tomb. But He did not remain in the tomb. He rose from the dead on the third day. Know that Jesus is not dead but alive. We do not have a dead Saviour, but a living Saviour. He is now in heaven, and He welcomes you to heaven if you will believe in Him. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” (John 14:25-26).

Make sure you have the Lamb of God over you, and you will be saved. The Chinese word for righteousness consists of two characters, “Lamb” and “Me”. The Lamb over me is righteousness. This is what the Bible teaches. If you will have the Lamb of God as your Lord and Saviour, you will be saved—your sins will all be forgiven, and you will be clothed with the righteousness of Christ. And if you have the righteousness of Christ, you have eternal life.

To have the gift of eternal life, you must believe. How to believe? The Bible says, “if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” (Rom 10:9). If you want to be saved, you just need to pray to God sincerely saying, “O God, I am a sinner. Please save me from my sins. I believe Jesus died for my sins and rose from the dead. Please wash away all my sins through the precious blood of Jesus Christ. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.” JK