Collected or prepared by Pastor Wilfred Chung

 October 25 - October 31, 2009

October 25, 2009 - How To See The Risen Lord

Meditation on Luke 24

The two disciples on the road to Emmaus did not recognize the risen Lord though He was walking and talking with them. Later on when Jesus appeared to the eleven apostles, some of them were terrified, frightened and supposed they had seen a ghost. They did not believe that was Jesus at first. Now that Jesus had ascended to heaven, how will we know Jesus? How will we see His power working with us and in us?

The answer lies in two things: First we must pray to have our spiritual eyes opened to see Him working in us. (Ephesians 1:18)

Second, Luke told us the answer. "Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it , and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him;..." ( v.30-31 NKJV) After the two disciples returned right away to Jerusalem, they retold to the apostles what happened on the road to Emmaus, "and how he was known to them on the breaking of bread." (v. 34) What does the breaking of bread represent? Two things: The worship of the Lord in the teaching of God's Word as well as the observing of the Lord's Supper.

Therefore I believe it is in the worship of Jesus as well as the opening of God's Word that we as believers can have our spiritual eyes opened today to sense the presence of Jesus through the Holy Spirit who is with us today. Especially as we observe the Lord's Supper, remembering Jesus' sacrifice of His body and the shedding of blood on the cross, we will understand in our spirit that He is with us.

When we are aware of His spiritual presence, our lives will be changed to be more conformed to the image of Jesus Christ as God has predestined. (Romans 8:29) Therefore it is very important to worship Him and observe His Supper in order to know Christ more.

God's word tells us that one day we shall see Him as He is when He is revealed, for we shall be like Him. (1 John 3:2)

October 26, 2009 - The Word Was God

Meditation on John 1

John 1:1 is a profound and superb message on the origin and status of Jesus. Let us study it phase by phase in the following:

"In (the) beginning was the Word," the Apostle John said. In the original Greek, there was no "the", such designating word. Thus, it pointed to the time of eternity past rather than the beginning of sometimes in the past. The Word was eternal.

"And the Word was with God." This Word that was from eternity past was with God together. And "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.......came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side has made him known." (v. 14, 18) Jesus Christ then was the Word who became the human being who had made known the Father God.

"And the Word was God." Jesus Christ who was at the side of the Father God was also God Himself. This was a most unusual statement by the Apostle John who was a Jew. The Jews were monotheistic. They only believed in one God. So John was telling us that the Father and the Word together was one God. Later on John said, "I and the Father are one." (John 10:30)

Again John emphasized in verse two about the equality of Jesus with God, "He was with God in (the) beginning." Therefore the Word had been existed with God in eternity past. But remember, there was only one God.

The revelation of God was amazing. God wanted to communicate Himself to us. That was why He called His Son, the Word. He sent the Word to make Him known. In eternity past, God the Son had already been designated as the Word who would become flesh!

Not only He was called the Word, He was also called the Lamb of God, who took away the sins of the world. (v. 29) He was also called Christ, meaning the Messiah. (v. 41) Furthermore, the disciples recognized that Jesus was the son of God and the King of Israel. (v. 49)

October 27, 2009 - Jesus' Model Of Personal Evangelism

Meditation on John 4

After recording Jesus' personal encounter with Nicodemus at night, John showed us His dialogue with the Samaritan woman during a stop in His journey.

For the Jews, this woman was not an easy candidate to be witnessed to. In the first place, she was a Samaritan whom the Jews in those days considered as half breed and was looked down upon. Besides, it was not customary for a man to talk to a woman then. Moreover, this woman was living with a man whom she was not married to. And she has been divorced five times previously. Please note that she came to draw water during the noon time rather than the evening time before the sunset when all the women would come out. She was apparently trying to avoid talking to other women. But Jesus broke all the barriers and asked her for a drink.

But it should not be surprising that this woman was interested in religion. She was also looking for the coming of the Messiah. She was willing to take the living water Jesus offered to her. She asked question about the proper place to worship. Jesus answered her that the place was not important but "...the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him." (v. 23 NKJV) Jesus also nicely pointed out her problem of relationship. She must acknowledge her sins before she accepted the Messiah as her Savior. Later she introduced many others from her town to Christ.

In our journey of life, we do want to follow Jesus' example to look for opportunity for witnessing. We must break all barriers to initiate conversation. We want to introduce Jesus as the living water who will bring eternal satisfaction to our lives. We must lead the prospect to admit sins. We must lead the person to accept Christ to be his or her Savior and Lord.

October 28, 2009 - Jesus Confronting Sin

Meditation on John 8

The Jews brought to Jesus a woman who was caught in adultery and asked Jesus how he would deal with it? Jesus did not answer but stoop down to write on the ground with His finger. When they pressed Him for an answer, He stood up and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first." (v. 7) Then He continued His writing. The crowd being convicted of their conscience went away one by one until only the woman left. Jesus raised up and said to her, "Woman, where are those accusers of your? Has no one condemn you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more."(v.10-11 NKJV)

Following this, the Bible says, "Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, 'I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.'" (v. 12)

Since He is the light of the world, he exposes sins. I imagine that what Jesus wrote on the ground was the words for many sins. He wanted men to confront their own sins before condemning others. Praise the Lord, when we confess our sins, He is willing to forgive our sins so we do not walk in darkness any more.

In the same chapter, Jesus also tells us that if we abide in His word, we will continue to be His disciples and we then shall know the truth and the truth shall make us free from being the slave of sins. (v. 31-32)

Everyone must face one's own sins and let Jesus' word free us.

October 29, 2009 - Delayed Answered To Prayer

Meditation on John 11

When Lazarus was seriously sick, his sisters sent messenger to Jesus to ask for His coming. But Jesus purposely stayed two more days at where he was before He came to the sisters and brother's town. By the time he arrived, Lazarus had been dead for four days. There should be a stench from his body already.

Since Jesus was the Son of God, why didn't He answer the prayers of his loved ones immediately? The Bible says that "Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus." (v. 5 NKJV) From other biblical accounts, we find also that Martha and Mary loved Jesus, honored and served Him sacrificially. (Luke 10:38-42) So there seemed to be no reason why Jesus did not answer their request. But Jesus did explain this delay right from the beginning. He said, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it." (v. 4) As usual, the disciples did not know what He meant then until Lazarus was raised from the dead. Jesus made sure that the people considered Lazarus as really dead according to human knowledge so to convince that He could give resurrection and life.

When God delays His answer to our prayers, there must be some reasons for the sake of His glory. Yes, there is nothing impossible with God. He could even raise the dead!

He emphasized to His disciples that "Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full." (John 16:24) Some prayers may be answered a little later. But He did that to show us human frailty as well as His power beyond our expectation. For example, our church has experienced that in our church building program. And I know of other churches have had similar experience too.

So, don't stop praying.

Mediation on John 13

Jesus purposely gave an example of servanthood to his twelve disciples during supper. He got up and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. The Bible continues, "After that He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciple's feet, and wipe them with the towel with which He was girded." (v. 5 NKJV)

Normally it was the task of a slave to wash people's feet. Here it was, Jesus was washing all the feet of His disciples including Judas the one who was going to betray him! Humanly speaking it was unthinkable. But Jesus did this to show them that He, being their Teacher and Lord would wash their feet, they also ought to wash one another's feet. What humility and what love Jesus had demonstrated to all of us.

I remember so vividly how a layman impressed me because he always said "At your service." to his pastor. This was at the first church I served as a youth minister. He welcomed me and said "At your service" to me too. He was a handy man and he helped fixed thing and did lots of jobs in the church voluntarily. He was never bossy or telling people what to do. In contrast today, many Christians do like to take leadership in the church. But they are interested in making decision, instructing people what to do or training others. They do not like to listen or being told what to do. Servanthood is totally out of their thinking. They have great vision and are not interested in small services. I wonder what Jesus would say to them.

I am reminded of the ending of a song, "Make me a servant. Make me a servant. Make me a servant today." (Make Me A Servant by Kelly Willard)

Meditation on John 21

On the third appearance of Jesus to the disciples who were fishing, His first question to them from the shore was, "Children, have you any food?" (v. 5 NKJV) Their answer was "No." That was in the early morning.

Then Jesus instructed them to cast their net on the right side of the boat. Then they caught a great multitude of fish even though they caught nothing the whole night long. Not only they caught so much fish, but also when they got to the shore, they found that Jesus had prepared breakfast for them already with bread and fish on a fire of coals. Jesus said to them, "Come and eat breakfast." (v. 12)

Imagine, the resurrected Jesus cooked breakfast for them personally. That must be the most delicious and fantastic breakfast the disciples had ever tasted. Jesus cared for the physical health of His children. He wants His children to eat breakfast! And He also would make sure that our daily needs are provided. (The great catch)

After the breakfast, Jesus asked Peter three times "Do you love Me?" As Peter answered yes three times, Jesus told him to feed His lambs, tend His sheep and feed His sheep.

That indicates to you and I this is the way to show our love to Jesus.

If you do have a habit to eat your breakfast in the morning, would you tell Jesus that you love Him and would feed and tend His lambs and sheep?