16 December 2012

Topic: Forgiven Once and For All

Today marks the last live service in the Rock auditorium. Video showcasing how the church has grown from year 1999 to 2012. It was a touching moment.

Pastor highlighted the defining moment in 2003 where SARS broke out. One of the Sundays in year 2002, the Lord arrested Pastor to have him preach on Psalm 91 for God's complete protection.
In year 2000, during one of the midweek services, the chimes started playing by itself. That happened after Pastor preached the verse from Acts 13:35.
Jessica was born in 1998 and we moved in to Rock. This year Justin was born and we are moving in to the Star.

Jesus revealed to Pastor yesterday that He is bringing us from the earthly realm - The Rock to the heavenly places - The Star.

Matthew 1:1-16
Why are there 4 gospels? It takes 4 gospels to reveal Jesus to us in many ways.

Matthew gospel portrays Jesus as King of Israel. It's primarily for the Jews.
Luke gospel portrays Jesus as fully man.
Mark gospel portrays Jesus as the tireless labourer. It's all about Jesus working. Even the last verse tells us that.
John gospel has no genealogy. The gospel portrays Jesus as God. It talks about Jesus becoming flesh for us.

The very first name in the first and last verse in the bible is Jesus.
In Matthew,
Verse 1-15: Talks about all the genealogy.
Verse 16: It did not say "Joseph begot Jesus". It says "of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ". Here is the kingly title. Christ here is the anointed one.
Verse 17: "So all the generations...". Notice we have 3 sets of 14 generations written in this verse. It has significance and is the link to heaven. Notice the first set has "all", but from the rest, you don't find the word "all". During the Abraham generation, all names are mentioned. For David generation, some names are purposely left out. Those left out are those people who were cursed. They were the evil kings.What does this show? The scripture is so accurate.
This genealogy is an archive of names of the kingly line.
Israel was called upon because they were few in numbers, not because they were great in numbers. We magnify God's grace through Israel.

In A.D 70, all archive records were all destroyed in a fire. But today, the records are found in the world's best selling book - the bible.
Matthews line goes all the way to Joseph. Luke goes all the way to Mary. Both converge to King David. King David's other son brought forth Mary. King Solomon's son brought forth Joseph. So now, God has 2 lines in the genealogy. Pastor shares that tax collectors in the bible were worst than prostitutes; they were the greatest sinners. Despite that, God chose Matthew who was a tax collector to start the New Testament. Look at Matthew 9:9-12 for the story of Matthew.

Matthew 9:9-12
Grace is what God is to you. Law is what you are to God. When you are eye conscious, you are reasoning earthly works.
Law is what you are to God. Grace is what God is towards you.
He has revealed Himself as a saviour.

When God brought Israel out, it was what God is to Israel. As long as they depended on Him, even though they murmured, time and time again, God still showed grace to them. They were not under law at that time yet. It is a question of what you want to be before God. Back then, Israel wanted to score points based on their own efforts. That was when the law was introduced.
Jesus stepped into Matthew's life, knowing so well who he is. Matthew just followed Him. This reasoning is how to be under grace. If he reasoned and questioned his own self, he will not be under grace.

Peter's response to God was to ask Him to depart away from him because he felt he was a sinful man. That was Peter's reasoning.

Verse 10: Jesus sat down with many tax collectors. This Jesus called the greatest sinner. If we preach the gospel of grace, sinners will come to Him. If we preach religion, people will be focused on their own efforts.
Verse 11: The Pharisees spoke indirectly and questioned Jesus when they saw Him sitting with the sinners.
Verse 12: What Jesus is saying, your diseases qualify you for healing.

Back to 3 sets of 14, they all add up to 42. Each number has a significance. It represents "rest after trial".
The people who wandered in the wilderness, do you know how many stations they stopped by to rest? 42.
In the book of Revelation, 42 months (3.5 months) were the duration of the great tribulation.

Matthew 1:16
Verse 16: Sinful life is in the blood according to Leviticus. Jesus cannot receive sinful blood. So that's why Joseph was the husband of Mary and not involved in this verse. Woman's ovum cannot produce a baby. Only when the sperm meets, a foetus is formed. The woman's placenta does not bring the blood to the baby. It only brings all the good nutrients to the baby. All the baby's waste are transferred back. In other words, Mary was a virgin. All the blood of Jesus came from God who later on will be the sacrifice for all mankind.

Matthew 10:2-4
Verse 3: Notice how Matthew introduced himself. He called himself "Matthew the tax collector". He is not ashamed to show his past to everyone. He loves to glorify Jesus. If we have a testimony of our past, we should magnify God and never be afraid to do so.

1 John 1:9 says if we confess our sins, Jesus forgives us. If you say this verse is for the sinners, then there is a problem. Pastor comes against this verse and reiterates that this is a salvation verse for non-believers. If we believers have to do so by confessing our sins, we will never be in rest. Matthew can be open with his sins because he knows he is already forgiven.
People tend to fight back whenever others point out their weaknesses. They don't understand grace. Actually when they point out to you, they just want you to know. They still love you. People just don't have this assurance. Our defensiveness shows our lack of understanding of grace. Honestly, your friends still love you despite your weakness.

Supposedly you are a businessman and you are in serious big debt. You let your accountant see and handle your bookkeeping but you dare not see the debt yourself. One day, your old school friend found you and now he is a billionaire. He tells your accountant to hand him the bookkeeping book and pays off your debt, in return deposits 5 million to your bank account. Now your ledger is cleared and if you were to look at the ledger for the first time, you will see how much your debt has been cleared. You finally realise the truth and it makes you even more grateful to your saviour isn't it.

Pastor shares that he is not perfect. He shares that he was with Jessica on the road and suddenly someone cuts in his lane. You can say "Pastor, how come all your examples are related to cars?" He reveals that this is because this is something he gets rather easily agitated. At that moment, he actually wanted to give chase til he was reminded he was already forgiven.
Many of times we like to point to other's fault. We hardly apologise and acknowledge our own fault because we are afraid to look at the "ledger". If you are not sure you are forgiven, you always feel you have a right to be angry. It's wonderful to know you are forgiven.

Pastor feels that Matthew must have had tears in his eyes when he wrote the genealogy. Why? It is because he did not mention Sarah and Rebbecca. He mentioned only the other 4 women.
First, it was Ruth, who was a righteousness woman. The other 3 were involved in sexual scenes, Tamar, Rahab, Bathsheba. In essence, Matthew was magnifying God's grace.

Pastor shares the story of Tamar to show what previous background she had. Refer to Genesis 38 for the story of Judah and Tamar.

Genesis 37:36 was the story of Joseph. The last we saw him was him being sold as a slave. Then the story ends here and went with the story of Judah. Why? Jesus came from the tribe of Judah. Many Israeli still wonder why this story is here right after the story of Joseph.

Genesis 38: 1
Judah mixed with non-Gentiles, Shuwa Back then, they mixed with the people who are known for wealth. Because of time, you can study this on your own.

Back to Matthew 1:1-6
Verse 5: Rahab was the prostitute. She wore the red robe which is a picture of trusting in the blood of Jesus. And Rahab was mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus.
Verse 4: Nahshon was a hero and his son Salmon married Rahab.
Verse 5: Salmon married Rahab and brought forth Boaz. What Jesus says here is that He does not care about your past. Boaz is like a half breed isn't it. Half Gentile. Out of the 4 ladies, 2 are Gentiles and 2 are non-Gentiles.
Ruth placed her trust in God and went to Moab.
Verse 6: "... wife of Uriah." Why is it wife of Uriah here? It is to magnify God. God is saying to us He does not care about your past. It doesn't mean you have forfeited your blessings. God always places you in a better place as long as you put your trust in Him.

In closing,

Know that your sins are forgiven, you don't have to be defensive. You don't have to act like you didn't do it and be defensive all the time. If you do that, you are not a recipient of God's grace. We don't have to step into His presence because He first stepped into our presence. God didn't wait for man to invite Him. God cared and sent His son, knowing well His son will suffer for us. Jesus paid the price to give us heaven's best. There is a price; it's not free. He came knowing He will suffer.
Love has a degree of suffering involved. Jesus suffering began when He was born. He chose where to be born but yet He chose the manger. Mary didn't have domestic helper and He was born poor. The offering Mary brought was a pair of pigeons was an indication they were poor.
What a wonderful saviour we have. Even though He is high and lifted up, He knows to come to us to lift us up. He just says to us "Let me heal you. Let me be there for you. Allow me to love you".

Once you know you have been forgiven, you can look at your ledger and laugh about it. Trust Him and live life to the fullest. In Him, there is no condemnation.