Category Archives: The Kingdom of God and Eternal Life

Peace in the Holy Spirit

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Christmas Sermon (#1)

The Kingdom of God and Eternal Life (#4)

Luke 2:14

Sermon by Pastor Sylvia Chan

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Introduction

Today is December 24th , Christmas Eve; December 25th is the date the western churches celebrate the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ; but the eastern Orthodox churches celebrate on a different date. Actually no one knows when the Lord Jesus was born, and I am not going to debate about the exact birth date of the Lord, but I will look into the meaning of his birth. 

NAS Luke 2:14 “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”

This is the praise from the heavenly angels to Yahweh God on the night the Lord Jesus was born. It says “peace among men”, but through two thousand years history we see that wars and more wars have been happening all the time, pandemics and natural disasters happened everywhere and all the time. Where is the peace? Why is it like that? Let’s look at the Bible to find the answer.

Different aspects of peace

We look at the peace in the Bible. The Bible talks about different kinds of peace:

  1. Peace from physical harm;
  2. Peace in our hearts;
  3. Peace in our relationship with God and with other people.

But the Lord Jesus said specifically that his disciples will have trouble in this world, he did not promise there will be no physical harm to his disciples.

NIV John 16:33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Here the Lord Jesus specifically says that in this world his disciples will have trouble; This statement of the Lord has been fulfilled. In the two thousand year history of the church, many many faithful Christians have been persecuted and killed for the sake of the Lord Jesus and the gospel; even today there is still severe persecution against Christians in different places in the world. Christians being persecuted is inevitable, we cannot avoid it. The Lord never promised that we will not be persecuted, but he said that as long as we stay in him we would have peace of heart, not physical peace.

We can ask Yahweh God to protect us from harm, but there is no promise of physical peace for us in the Bible. Therefore we don’t study peace in terms of physical harm, we will only study peace in our hearts and peace in our relationship with other people.

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Righteousness in the Holy Spirit

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The Kingdom of God and Eternal Life (#3)

Sermon by Pastor Sylvia Chan

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Recapitulation

Brothers, sisters and friends, welcome to the zoom church service. Last time we saw that the Lord Jesus proclaimed the gospel to the spiritually poor, the spiritual prisoners, the spiritually blind and the spiritually oppressed, and all those who submit to the kingship of God would be set free from sin. Today we continue to study the kingdom of God and eternal life in the Bible.

Introduction

Two thousand years ago the Lord Jesus proclaimed that the kingdom of God has come near, and he preached the gospel of the kingdom. Since then more and more people have submitted to the kingship of God. But some people might say, “Before I submit myself to the kingship of God, I want to know how my life would be like in the kingdom of God; I need to know more about the life under the kingship of God.” This is a fair request. When people want to move to a new place, they would like to find out about that place; the same is true for people who want to submit to the kingship of God, they want to know more about the life in the spiritual kingdom of God.

NAU  Romans 14:17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Here apostle Paul says that living under the kingship of God has nothing to do with eating and drinking, what you eat and drink doesn’t make any difference, what you eat and drink doesn’t affect your status in the kingdom of God; the most important things are righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. That means if you truly live under the kingship of God, you would have righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit; but on the other hand if you don’t live in righteousness, peace and joy, then you are not living under the kingship of God. Please remember if you are not living under the kingship of God now, in the future when the Lord Jesus comes back to establish the kingdom of God on earth, you will not be in the kingdom of God either, you will be thrown out of the kingdom of God. Being thrown out of the kingdom of God is destruction in the lake of fire.

Therefore we have to make sure that we are living under the kingship of God now, that means we have to live in righteousness, peace and joy.

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The Gospel of The Kingdom of God

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The Kingdom of God and Eternal Life (#2)

Sermon by Pastor Sylvia Chan

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Ricapitulation

Last time we studied the proclamation of the Lord Jesus, “Repent, for the kingdom of God has come near,” today we continue our study of the kingdom of God and eternal life in the Bible.

The gospel of the Kingdom of God

Many people think that the gospel is simply believing in Jesus to have eternal life, they think the gospel is all about this.

But what does the Bible say? How does the Bible define the gospel?  The Bible says the gospel is about the kingdom of God, the gospel is not simply believing in Jesus to have eternal life! Let’s look at 3 passages in the Bible:

NAU  Matthew 4:23 Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.

NAU  Matthew 9:35 Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.

NAU  Matthew 24:14 “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.

These 3 passages clearly proclaim “gospel of the kingdom”, the gospel is about the kingdom of God, gospel is not simply believing in Jesus to have eternal life.

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Repent, The Kingdom of God Has Come Near

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The Kingdom of God and Eternal Life (#1)

Sermon by Pastor Sylvia Chan

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Brothers and sisters and friends, welcome to the zoom church ministry, my name is Sylvia Chan. Today we begin to study the kingdom of God  and eternal life in the Bible.

NIV  Matthew 4:17 From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (Mat 4:17 NIV)

This is the first message that the Lord Jesus preached. Heaven is the realm of God, the kingdom of heaven is the kingdom of God.  

Two thousand years ago the Lord Jesus proclaimed, “The kingdom of God has come near,” but why is it that today two thousand years later we still don’t see the kingdom of God on earth? What is the reason? And even if the kingdom of God comes near, why do we have to repent? Today we will look into these two questions.

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