Gospel of Life to the Chinese
“Behold, these shall come from far: and, lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim” (Isa 49:12).
What is “the land of Sinim”? Concerning “the land of Sinim”, Dr Allan A MacRae of Faith Theological Seminary in his commentary on Isaiah wrote, “Many commentators, particularly before the rise of the modern critical theories, were quite convinced that the word referred to the land of China. Even today, experts in the study of Chinese are called ‘Sinologists.’ …
“… It is most interesting that God led the prophet thus to use the name that would eventually come to represent all China as an indication of the wide outreach of the work of the LORD’s Servant.
“Today strong atheistic forces hold the Chinese mainland in subjection and prohibit the preaching of the Gospel. We may well take heart from Isaiah’s prophecy in verse 12 and hope that there may yet be another great period of Gospel preaching in that land, if our Lord tarries.”God loves the Chinese people and wants them to hear the good news of salvation in Christ Jesus. In this age of the Chinese Diaspora when many Chinese from the Mainland are in Singapore for economic and educational reasons, the Church is presented with a golden opportunity to reach out to them with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, not forgetting our loved ones and relatives, to show them the only way to everlasting life.
Hence, we are moved to start a Chinese service to reach out to our Mandarin-speaking brethren and friends. Our brother, Lin Yang (FEBC student), who hails from Mainland China will be the regular preacher. He will preach serially from the Gospel of John. He is also in the process of translating our late pastor’s commentary on the Gospel of John titled The Gospel of Life into Chinese which will be published in the Chinese weekly part by part. Rev Dr Jeffrey Khoo will preach every first week of the month and administer the Lord’s Supper. Brother Mern Yee has also come in most readily to support this new work. We meet in the newly built Tanglin Room 1 adjacent to the Auditorium at the ground floor, most convenient to our elderly worshippers.
Our brother Lin Yang writes in the inaugural weekly, “Thanks and praise be to our all-knowing, all-powerful Heavenly Father who enables us to start a Chinese service in True Life Bible-Presbyterian Church. Our Chinese service will start its “Journey of Life” with a series of messages preached from the Gospel of John which our late founding pastor Rev Timothy Tow called “The Gospel of Life”. Starting from this issue of the Chinese weekly, the related portions from Rev Tow’s applied commentary on the Gospel of John will be published.”
Let us invite our Mandarin-speaking family, relatives, and friends to our Chinese service so that they might hear the Gospel of Life and be saved.
*****
Not My Will but Thine
(Message by Rev Dr Jeffrey Khoo at the Good Friday Service of True Life BPC, 2 April 2010)
“Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42).
Why did Jesus pray such a prayer? Why did Jesus ask His Father to spare Him from drinking this cup?
What was this cup? This cup was the cup of shame and humiliation, the pain and suffering He would be facing, His death on the cruel cross.
Was Jesus not willing to drink of this cup? If so, then why did He speak about His death so confidently? He predicted His death no less than 5 times.
For an example, see Matthew 16:21-23: “From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.”
In this instance, the Lord even rebuked Peter for telling Him not to go to the cross, saying that Peter was speaking like Satan.
As a matter of fact, the Lord Jesus in Luke 9:51 was determined to go to Jerusalem to face His crucifixion and death. “And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem.”
Why then did Jesus at this point in time pray to His Father to remove the cup from Him? Was He having second thoughts?
The only answer to this is “God forbid!” Jesus was certainly not having a change of heart or a change of mind. He knew what He had to do to save His people from sin, and He was certainly determined to accomplish His redemptive mission.
To understand what is going on here in Gethsemane, we must understand (1) the two natures of Christ—His deity and His humanity, (2) His two wills—the divine will and the human will, and (3) the two aspects of His obedience—His active and passive obedience.
His Two Natures
Jesus Christ was a unique person. There was never a person on earth like Him for He was not only fully God but also fully Man in one person. He was not only very God, but also very human. As God, He was all-powerful, all-knowing, all-seeing, all- present. He possessed all the attributes of deity when He was on earth. At the same time, He was human, He possessed the limitations of flesh and blood. He could feel hunger and thirst, tiredness and pain.
Now, words cannot explain the intense agony that Jesus went through. We can only imagine how hard it must have been for Him—the sinless Son of God who must bear the sins of the world all alone on the cross, and experience all that physical and spiritual pain, all the mental and emotional anguish. So, in His humanity, He cried out to His Father to spare Him from the bitter cup.
His Two Wills
The Lord Jesus due to His dual natures had two wills—the human will and the divine will. When He prayed, “remove this cup from me,” it was His human will speaking. But Jesus would always submit Himself to the divine will—His Father’s will, which was also His will since He was also God Himself. The human will is always subject to the divine will. That was why Jesus prayed a most God-honouring prayer, “not my will, but thine, be done.”
Jesus in His prayer practised what He preached. Did He not teach His disciples to pray, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done …”? Here, He sets the example and walked His talk.
Whenever we pray for God’s will to be done, God will give what we asked for. Jesus’ prayer was answered. Hebrews 5:7 tells us, “Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared”.
Do we want our prayers to be heard as well? Then learn to pray like Jesus. Always pray for God’s will to be done in our lives. Our heavenly Father knows best. He knows what is best for us, and will always answer our prayers when we pray according to His will.
His Twofold Obedience
It is said, “[He] was heard in that he feared.” What did Jesus fear? He feared God. He was afraid to offend His Father. Jesus the Son of God, despite His humanity, was always a perfectly obedient Son. Hebrews 5:8 explains this fear, “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.”
We see here the twofold obedience of Christ—His active obedience and His passive obedience.
His passive obedience is seen in His agony and suffering, which was so intense and great that “his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44). Hebrews 9:22 says, “without shedding of blood is no remission.” The shedding of blood did not begin at Calvary. It started right here in Gethsemane. His agony in Gethsemane was part of His sufferings for us.
His active obedience is seen in His determination to do His Father’s will. He obeyed His Father’s command to be our Substitute, our Sacrifice, our Saviour. The Son was “made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Gal 4:4-5).
As such, Jesus Christ is our Perfect Saviour. He is our Great High Priest who knows all our physical and spiritual needs: “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. (Heb 4:15).
Are you weighed down by your sins? Are you going through much hardship and suffering in life? Tell it to Jesus. He loves you and cares for you. He can save you from your sins, and grant you the grace to overcome all your trials and tribulation. “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb 4:16).
Hallelujah, what a Saviour!
