Tag Archives: bible

A Life of Freedom

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The Kingdom of God and Eternal Life (#10)

Sermon by Pastor Sylvia Chan

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Recapitulation

Brothers, sisters and friends, last time we saw that the apostle John defines eternal life is to know Yahweh God and the Lord Jesus Christ; If we truly know Yahweh God and the Lord Jesus Christ in the biblical way, our lives in the present age is the foretaste of the eternal life in the age to come. Today we continue to study the eternal life in the present age.

ESV  John 8:36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

This statement is from the Lord Jesus Christ, “the Son” refers to the Lord himself, he likes to refer himself as “Son of man”, that is his prefered title. The Lord says if he sets the people free, then they will be free; that means they won’t be free if he doesn’t set them free. That means right now the people in the world have no freedom!

This contradicts with most people’s thinking; most people think that when they become a Christian they would loose the freedom, they can’t do this, they can’t do that, a lot of things they can’t do. But the Lord says exactly the opposite, you don’t have freedom unitl the Son of Man sets you free.

Now let’s look at the Bible to understand the Lord’s teaching on this.

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Eternal Life is to know the Only True God and Jesus Christ

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The Kingdom of God and Eternal Life (#9)

Sermon by Pastor Sylvia Chan

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Recapitulation

Brothers, sisters and friends, last time we studied eternal life in the kingdom of God; if you want to have eternal life, you have to be in the kingdom of God, which means that you submit to the kingship of God, you obey God’s commandments. Apostle John defines eternal life as the life in Jesus Christ. If you live in Jesus Christ in the present age, you will have eternal life in heaven in the age to come; but if you don’t live in Jesus Christ in the present age, you won’t have eternal life in heaven in the age to come. Life in Jesus Christ in the present age leads to the eternal life in heaven. That’s what we studied last time, today we are going to study deeper about the life in Jesus Christ.

Eternal Life is to know the only true God and Jesus Christ

NAU John 17:3 This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

This verse is in the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ before he was arrested and then crucified on the cross. Here the Lord says that eternal life is to know the Father the only true God and Jesus Christ whom the Father has sent.

Are you surprised at this statement of the Lord Jesus? If you know the only true God and Jesus Christ, you will have eternal life, it sounds so easy! Today we are going to study this verse to see what it means to know the only true God and Jesus Christ!

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Eternal Life in the Kingdom of God

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The Kingdom of God and Eternal Life (#8)

Sermon by Pastor Sylvia Chan

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Recapitulation

Brothers, sisters and friends, in the last several messages we have studied different aspects of the kingdom of God; I hope that the glory of the kingdom of God will attract you to pursue after it. Today we are going to look at one important topic: eternal life in the kingdom of God.

Introduction

Many years ago I met a Christian sister, she said that having eternal life is different from entering the kingdom of God, because the term “eternal life” and the term “kingdom of God” never appear together in the Bible! According to her reasoning, if you want to have eternal life, you only need to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, then you can have it right now! But if you want to enter into the kingdom of God, you have to obey the commandments of the Lord Jesus, which are very difficult! She said that if you believe Jesus is the Son of God, you will receive eternal life right away; after that even if you don’t obey the Lord’s commandments, you won’t die, because you already have eternal life! Someone who has eternal life would not die, right? If you don’t obey the Lord’s commandments, you cannot enter into the kingdom of God, but it won’t affect your eternal life!

This teaching is dangerous; it can lead to very serious consequences in people’s lives because people would simply disregard the commandments of the Lord Jesus as well as the commandments in the Old Testament Law, they have nothing to fear anymore! Indeed there are whole groups of people who believe this teaching. Through all these years, the more I know about the Bible, the more I see the danger of this teaching. That’s why I decided to address this wrong teaching.

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Who Can Enter into The Kingdom of God?

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The Kingdom of God and Eternal Life (#7)

Sermon by Pastor Sylvia Chan

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Recapitulation

Last time we saw that the greatest in the kingdom of God is the one who humbles himself to become a slave to save people. Of course ultimately that is our Lord Jesus Christ. If you follow the Lord’s example, if you humble yourself to be like a slave to save people, and if you obey God’s teaching to the point of death, then you will also be great in the kingdom of God. After hearing this, do you still want to enter into the kingdom of God?

NAU John 3:1 – 5 Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; 2 this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

This Pharisee named Nicodemus came to talk to the Lord Jesus at night, and the Lord said to him, “unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. ” Nicodemus did not understand what it means to be born again, so the Lord explained further that, “unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”

Please take notice of this statement, this is the very word declared by the Lord Jesus, if you want to enter into the kingdom of God, you have to be born of water and the Spirit.

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Who Is The Greatest in The Kingdom of God ?

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The Kingdom of God and Eternal Life (#6)

Sermon by Pastor Sylvia Chan

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Brothers, sisters and friends, in the past few weeks we have seen that being in the kingdom of God is not about eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. If you don’t experience righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, then you are not in the kingdom of God; If you are not in the kingdom of God in this age, then you won’t be in the kingdom of God in the future when the Lord Jesus comes back. Today we are going to look at another aspect of the kingdom of God.

NAU Matthew 18:1 – 4 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, 3 and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 “Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

Some people may say, “That’s nothing new, I have known this for a long time!” But have you ever put this teaching into practice? How are you going to practice it?

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Joy in the Holy Spirit

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The Kingdom of God and Eternal Life (#5)

Sermon by Pastor Sylvia Chan

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Recapitulation

Brothers, sisters and friends, in the past few weeks we have been studying Romans 14:17 “for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” We have studied the qualities of righteousness and peace, today we are going to look at the quality of joy.

Introduction

According to this passage if you live under the kingship of God, you will experience joy. But some people would say, “ I don’t believe in God, but I still have joy”; And some other people would say, “As long as I have money, my money can buy me joy; I don’t need to submit to the kingship of God!” Then another group of people would argue in a different way saying, “Does it mean that when Christians run into disasters in life, they will still laugh and rejoice? That’s crazy! Only crazy people would rejoice when disaster strikes!”

Brothers and sisters and friends, the joy in the kingdom of God is entirely different from the joy that people in the world have. Let’s look into the word of God to see what is the joy in the kingdom of God.

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Peace in the Holy Spirit

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Christmas Message (#1)

The Kingdom of God and Eternal Life (#4)

Sermon by Pastor Sylvia Chan

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Recapitulation

Last time we saw that if you live under the kingship of God, you will have righteousness, peace and joy; righteousness includes sinlessness, justice and lovingkindness, Yahweh God is the embodiment of righteousness. It is impossible for us to attain righteousness, but God will grant us righteousness if we have faith in His Son Jesus Christ. Today we continue to study the second quality: peace.  

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.”

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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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