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Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
John 19:28-30
The sermon delivered by Pastor Walker Tzeng, was from Romans 12:1-21 entitled “Worship in Spirit as a Living Sacrifice.”
In the sermon, Pastor Tzeng explicated Romans 12, exhorting members in practical aspects of the life of faith. While the core of faith is receiving grace, it’s also important God’s love to overflow in us, transform us, and put the love into practice in our walk of faith.
In Romans 12, Paul explains the Biblical foundation for practical aspects of faith as us being living sacrifices. The meaning of sacrifice in the Old Testament was never meant to be isolated rituals, but was always meant to point towards the heart of receiving forgiveness, repenting, and restoring our relationship with God.
Finally, Jesus Christ gave the ultimate sacrifice, restoring our relationship with God once and for all. Therefore, those of us who receive the Lord with faith, don’t need to give any more sacrifice, but instead our whole life is a living sacrifice, worshiping in spirit and truth.
Paul also explains that it’s only when we actually walk the life of faith, can we begin to discern God’s Will for me. It’s that God has all given us different spiritual gifts that should be used for the body of Christ. The body, the church needs all its parts, so everyone is so important and precious in building God’s Kingdom.
Perhaps in Rome, like America today, there were many believers thinking of themselves to highly or despairing that they are lower. We must remember that in the body of Christ, there is no higher or lower, but we are all serving by the irrevocable gifts and calling that God has blessed us with.
Romans 12 explains 7 spiritual gifts, 12 standards for living among brothers and sisters, and 12 standards for living with society. In the sermon, Pastor Tzeng explained each one by one, exhorting members to love one another, not take vengeance, and carry each other burdens.
In the New Year 2021, let us rely on God to help us walk with faith and reveal God’s glory and Kingdom in our church.
The sermon was from Matthew 9:1-17 entitled, “New Wine into New Wineskins”.
In the sermon, Pastor Tzeng encouraged members to receive that unconditional grace and blessing of God to start off the New Year. Even more than starting off the year “right” with New Year’s resolutions, it is about starting the New Year with righteousness by faith in Jesus Christ.
In the main passage, we see two other groups referenced. Among the Jews, the Pharisees were the most lawful, knowing and doing everything right. Also among the Jews, John the Baptist and his disciples were the group most pointed in the direction of the Gospel, since they had a repentful heart. Yet, the Pharisees and John the Baptist’s disciples were still limited.
They followed the Law or had a repentful heart out of obligation. Their life of faith was always focused on not making a mistake and being perfect and right. They always lived under the specter of fear instead of the freedom of love.
How were the disciples of Jesus? The Lord came and brought unconditional love. Unconditional love means that there is no expectation of payback. Being together with the Lord is not out of obligation, but like a wedding banquet – full of celebration, peace, and joy that only comes from Jesus Christ. Maturity in love is realizing that I follow moral Law, not out of obligation to pay back the Lord, but simply because I love the Lord so by that love, I love Good and follow His Will.
Jesus further explained that like a new cloth on an old garment, nor can new wine be put in old wineskin. It means that this new way of unconditional love can’t fit under the old way of obligation and old way of Law can’t hold in this vitality of the Gospel. The two can’t be mixed. New wine needs to go into new wineskin. Our church must be a new wineskin full of overflowing vitality and love of the Gospel within us.
If we walked the 2020 out of obligation and Law, let us start off 2021 by receiving the amazing grace that comes only from the unconditional love of Jesus Christ. Through this, may our church be the place of the Kingdom.
Today’s sermon delivered by Pastor Tzeng was from Romans 2:1-29 entitled “Circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit.” The sermon encouraged church members spoke about categories of righteousness and goodness we create, but how we ultimately need to receive Jesus Christ through the circumcision of the heart.
Continuing from last week, we are looking at Romans 2, a chapter that pierced the hearts of the Jews in Rome. It also pierces our hearts in America today.
First, in Romans 2:1-11, Paul speaks deeply about the problem of our faith system. As a dogmatic Jewish Pharisee, he knew the problems. As Jesus told us, Pharisees prayed about the great faith acts they did before God in comparison with the tax collector who beat his breast. Pharisees, Romans, Americans all have the same problem – we have a self-righteous image drawing a circle around ourselves and categorize ourselves as “good” people. In our defined categories of “good”, we exclude others, and are gracious with ourselves, saying that God has mercy and forgives us “good” people. But our stubborn boundaries blind us to the truth that we are stuck circling around in my self-righteousness in my own shell of myself. God’s truth is not based on my categories of “good”, they are based on truth. God does not show favoritism and He does not judge based on my standards.
Next in Romans 2:12-27, we see that the Jews thought the Law would protect them, so they lose fear, and keep sinning. We think being a personally defined “good” person will protect me, but we must know that we will be judged even more. In America, we are so smug in that we are good people living a self-sufficient life – but will this protect me. The author of Hebrews says that we will all die once and face judgment. All my sins will be judged accordingly, big or little sin, all sin prevents us from going to heaven. Just because I think I’m generally a “good” person, that won’t protect me. Let’s not sugar-coat the reality of judgment, we must know there is an end and we must know our insufficiency that we cannot escape judgment on our own. Finally, in Romans 2:28-29, we see there is a way out of judgment and this way is not using outward things like circumcision. Just because we acknowledge a boundary of a “good” person, will God acknowledge it like we want? The Gospel is not for self-seeking ones filling up myself, but it’s for the ones with an empty heart. When I am humble, with an empty heart, I can accept from God above. What is faith? Faith is circumcision of the heart, about my heart opening to receive from God. Apostle Paul has deep self-reflection, breaking down and confessing that he is a sinner with problems. That honesty, the open heart, the circumcision of the heart is the starting point to faith. That the only way out of judgment from our sins is not my ways, but it is when I can receive Jesus Christ, his unconditional love and grace of salvation.
Let us pray to have our hearts circumcised and received from above. Rather than being the self-righteous ones by our own efforts, may we rely on Jesus Christ and the cross.
Today’s sermon delivered by Pastor Tzeng was from Romans 1:17-32 entitled “The Knowledge of God.” The sermon explained our limits of coming to God and how God comes to us by grace, revealing our own self-righteousness, allows us to turn back to him.
We will be looking at Romans 1:17-32 today, it is from one of the most important chapters in the Bible and for our lives of faith. Paul gave this message to the people of Rome and it is the message we need in America, as modern Rome.
First, in Romans 1:18-23, we read how Paul proclaims the Creator God’s existence as obvious and without excuse based on the creation. It also speaks to how, as God’s creation, we are limited in the created cosmos and cannot break through by ourselves to God of heaven, eternity. Instead, God must come us instead, just as He revealed Himself to us in Jesus Christ and scripture. So we see that our relationship with Jesus and understanding Bible is not by intellect, but a transformative faith. Our intellect is limited and in our fallen nature, we will simply turn towards evil knowledge, created things, and idol worshipping of money, sex, and fame. We cannot find God in created idols, but how can we find God? It is in our invisible, intangible spirit and image of God that God comes to us most presently. That breaks our understanding of how we can know God – that is not by progressive intellectual understanding. We know God by a transcendent receiving of Him into our hearts, as we are transformed.
Next, in Romans 1:24-27, we see how depraved sin made an extreme turning away from God, so God let us go. Does that mean we are free? There is biblical, righteous, true freedom that God has given and this country of America was built on this type of holy freedom, so God blessed this nation greatly. However, there is such thing as twisted freedom that has blinded us in self-righteous justification of sin. Because I am free, does that give me the freedom to sin and leave God? Twisted freedom blinds us with an arrogance to reject the fact that I’m a sinner. We think, “Why am I a sinner? I have my right to freedom.” However, we must know that freedom to sin is not freedom, it makes us a slave to sin. We misunderstand God’s rules and commandments as restricting our freedom, but in actually those rules are what gives us true freedom. Athletes train hard with discipline in order to “free” their potential to be elite sports stars. In the same way, God’s rules, commandments, faith discipline are there to give us freedom to live by the Holy Spirit and not in sin.
Finally, in Romans 1:28-32, we see that us self-righteous blinded ones didn’t retain the knowledge of God, and this led to all kinds of depraved list of sin that Paul shows. Our loving relationship with God is absolute, it either exists or doesn’t exists. What breaks our relationship? That is sin. Therefore, all sin, whether big or little will break our relationship. It is our sin, breaking our relationship with God that puts me in a place of fiery hell, separated from God. The wrath of God is automatic when I leave God in sin. We are so foolish in our self-righteousness and we don’t even see our own self-righteousness. However, the good news is that God of loves saves us, sending his some Jesus Christ who bore the punishment of our sin. How about us? Us sinful self-righteous ones from before, need only to receive the righteousness of Jesus Christ by faith as Romans 1:17 says, there is nothing we need to do, just accept. Why is Romans so special? It speaks of the full, transcendent, eternal grace of God in every aspect of our life. It seems impossible to see our self-righteous image, but actually when we receive the full grace of God, we see our self-righteousness and it convicts us. This becomes the starting point where we can return to God.
Let’s pray we can open up our hearts to receive God’s amazing grace. Through that, let us return our hearts back in a loving relationship with Him.
ermon delivered by Pastor Tzeng was from 2 Kings 5:1-27 entitled “Naaman Healed of Leprosy.” The sermon encouraged to not be stuck in their own methods, but receive continual grace and healing from God.
We will look at the story of Naaman. The totality of the Bible gives us a message of truth. Therefore, even a story in the Old Testament, can speak about our salvation in Jesus Christ. Today, we will be looking at sin, salvation, and washing our sins.
First, in 2 Kings 5:1-12, we are introduced to Naaman, a commander of the Syrian Army who suffered from gruesome disease of leprosy. Imagine being at your peak of success in the world, only to be told you have a terminal disease. In life, we can outwardly look great, powerful, and do well in front of others, but on the inside we are weak and alone. What is our problem? The fundamental problem of mankind is estrangement from God – we can even define sin like this. How can we get closer to God? We can’t do it under our own power. Naaman attempts to use the King’s worldly treasures, powers, and influence to receive healing from leprosy, but it doesn’t work. What works? It’s listening to God. Since we can’t go to God, God must come to us and we must open our hearts to Him.
Next, in 2 Kings 5:13-14, we see that after Naaman’s initial doubts about washing in the Jordan River, he listens and obeys. In life of faith, sometimes our ways seem more reasonable and we doubt the method of faith. But for the one who doubts, try actually taking your doubts to their logical conclusion and what do you get? Perhaps Naaman took his doubts to their logical conclusion and realized that all he had left was to still being stuck as a leper. Therefore, he took the leap of faith and followed God. In actuality, what God asks us to do is not that much. All we must do is wash in the Jordan River and we must wash 7 times. In faith, all we must do is receive Jesus Christ and his unconditional love. The key is that Jesus is the only way to come back to God and be healed of my sickness.
Finally, in 2 Kings 5:15-27, we see Naaman’s image after he is healed, continues to have a right heart of gratitude and an open heart. We also must realize that we continually need Jesus in our life and to continually be washed. On the other hand, Gehazi clearly wasn’t washing his sins, still keeping greed in his heart, trying to take money from Naaman, and hiding his sin. We must know that the more we try to hide sin, the more that sin will cling to us. Our hidden sin makes us a leper, estranged to God. As you grow in faith, you realize how much intellect and ability on the outside aren’t really what matters. People with great ability and reasoning are sometimes more critical with bad attitudes and you don’t want to work with them. It’s because the attitude on the inside is not right. Our attitude on the inside must have a heart of repentance, wanting to continually receive washing from Jesus.
Therefore, let us continually was our sins with the grace God has already given to us. In this way, let us be united with God and live for His glory and Kingdom.
The sermon encouraged church members to not live under the pride of our own perspectives, but live according to God’s bigger picture of the Vineyard.
The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard is a very interesting parable, while at the same time, hard to understand. It’s one thing to look at the text of the parable, but we have to look deeper into the subtext of the message Jesus is giving us.
First, in Matthew 20:1-13, we want to see the context and clarify misunderstandings. A landowner calls workers throughout the day, all offering 1 denarius. Imagine waking up at 6 AM to work hard all day at a construction site, only to get the same amount as a person starting work at 5 PM. Now we understand the complaint. On one hand, the owner gives what is promised, but on the other hand working 12 hours vs. 1 hour is quite a big difference. Now you begin to see the difference, each side has their own perspective. Today, we must deeply realize the pride and arrogance we have living by my own standards of justice and fairness. In this world, we are too individualized with everyone having their own standard of how to live. Have you ever heard that we must find our own purpose and meaning in life? Of course there is something good about that, but the bad side is that the more we individualize, the more we rely on ourselves. We find ourselves weak, without structure – we need God in our life.
Next, in Matthew 20:14-15, let’s look at God’s bigger picture, where the owner identifies the envy of the early workers. In this way, Jesus challenges whether or not our standards of justice and fairness are really pure. If we were the 5 PM guy, we wouldn’t complain, but because we are the 6 AM guy, we complain. So my true issue isn’t the standard, but it is which position I am in. When grace is given to me, I’m happy, but given to someone else, then I’m envious. How hypocritical are we? The truth is, all of us living individually for ourselves are just concerned with how much denarius I’m receiving, while the owner is concerned with the overall vineyard. God’s standard is different. It is not based on wealth, social status, power – these are inconsequential. God cares about eternal things that will last, like the vineyard which bears abundant fruits. We too must stop living basing our lives on temporary things and live for eternal things that will bear fruit.
Finally, in Matthew 20:16, Jesus says that the first will be last and the last will be first. Here we realize the profound wisdom of the Lord, telling us that we are simultaneously in the position of the last and the first. We are the last ones because we are standing on the foundation of so many that suffered before me, most of all Jesus Christ who died on the cross. And we are the first ones because there are people who are coming later than us, since history and time always move forward. Science and technology are this way, always moving forward on the foundation of the past, on their denarius, we make a bigger vineyard. Despite that, we don’t forget the past, the 1st ones, though they received the same denarius, their work is qualitatively different. God knows our hearts and the meaning of suffering is deeply embedded in the vineyard. The Bible says that Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. It means we are completely reliant on Jesus, his cross and resurrection, for the vitality of life to bear fruits. That love overflows to the ones coming after us.
This is how we can build a beautiful church, a beautiful Kingdom of God. It is not a place where we are self-serving and fighting on our own standards, but it is a place where the love of Jesus Christ overflows and the vineyard bears abundant fruits.
The sermon exhorted the freedom we have in Jesus Christ and living boldly in the Holy Spirit for God’s Kingdom.
Here is a summary of the sermon:
Since Pentecost, we’ve been looking at Acts and we now reach the end of this great adventure in the early church. Through trials and tribulations, we see God’s unceasing will to push forward and His people who live boldly and without hindrance preaching the Kingdom of God and Lord Jesus Christ.
First in Acts 28:11-16, Paul finally reaches Rome, a place he burned with passion to preach the Gospel. This former persecutor of Christians saw through Deacon Stephen, how stuck he was in Jewish temple. But in receiving Jesus, his perspective changed to the bigger world. We are stuck in our own temples of money, career, status – stuck like this in a cycle of sin and depression. But Jesus frees us from this confinement and allowed us a new tension in love for God. What more is that we realize that we are not alone, just as Paul had visitors welcoming him to Rome from afar, the new life I live is with others at church.
Next, in Acts 28:17-29, we see Paul preaching to the Jews, the prepared ones. Some opened their hearts, while others did not, with Paul saying the Word will unceasingly be preached even to Gentiles. At church, we see the same thing happen with capable, brilliant people – stuck in their own temple not receiving the Word. But God’s work does not stop, God’s blessing finds the ones with open hearts and that is who we are. The ones with open heart, do not think of ourselves highly as “good” people, but we confess our sins and rely only on our savior Jesus Christ. The only thing we had was an open heart, that is the definition of humble. That is the Gospel and walking the truth path. Walking in truth is not dominating with power and success like the world, but the true path of the Kingdom is self-emptying and serving.
Finally, in Acts 28:30-31, we see Paul who continues forth preaching boldly and without hindrance about the Kingdom of God and Lord Jesus Christ. For the disciples, the cross of Jesus was not a failure, for the resurrection was a fundamental change and victory for this world and all of us. The Holy Spirit’s power wasn’t a fading one, but it was overflowing love producing an eternal tension in us. The cross becomes the tension, the motivation in us to live beyond what we would normally expect of ourselves. Just as Dr. Ralph D. Winter said, “Do not pray for easy lives,” we should not live for stability in this world, but live for the dynamic tension of love of cross in our life.
Another great missionary William Carey told us to expect and attempt great things from God. We should set a big frame of our life, boldly and without hindrance for Him. God won’t just bless us on a 1 to 1 basis, but will pour down His love and grace overflowing – that is the qualitative difference in living for God living for God.
The sermon explicated the work of the Holy Spirit which does not discriminate, despite this fallen world.
Here is a summary of the sermon:
Due to recent racial tensions in the news, there is a need for us to look at the Bible and the Holy Spirit’s work in a similar situation. Today we’ll look at Peter’s encounter with Cornelius and how this event opened up a new history, bringing the Gospel to the world.
In Acts 11:1-10, we read see Peter describing his vision of unclean foods and God telling him not to call unclean what He has made clean. Why did Peter have a visceral reaction? He had been conditioned by generations of Jewish tradition which affected how his reacted on the inside. We too are conditioned externally through our intellect and senses which we put as primary in determining our reactions. This conditioning is prejudice, or pre-judging, causing us to discriminate. Indeed, the power of the mind is dividing and discriminating. However, is an individual simply the sum of their physical body and mind? We are not robots in Science Fiction where we can transfer our brain and body to a computer. We have an unseen, incalculable, yet still ontological spirit inside of us. Where can we find God? It is the spirit which we can find immediacy and union with God through love. The Spirit unites while the mind divides. We must not be people that live by intellect primarily, but instead by the spirit. We are all created in God’s image, given a spirit and the Holy Spirit is given to us all without discrimination and unites us. God has made our spirits clean by Jesus Christ, so we need to look to the spirit we all have and put that as primary, not our intellect.
In Acts 11:11-17, we see how Peter was able to live by the Holy Spirit, teaching us how to do the same. For Peter, a confluence of events happened both physically and spiritually that led him to baptizing the gentile Cornelius. Like Peter, our default stance should be open to the Holy Spirit’s work, not cutting it off by our intellect. In fact, the Holy Spirit works in many ways including our prayers, prophecy, Word of God, our intellect, peers, senior leaders, and family members. We tend to focus on one way and stop listening. But God works in many mysterious ways that we should not cut off, but listen and have an open heart to it all. Most importantly, we must understand that God has always been working in our lives, my past experiences, the joy and hurt, He is there and has brought us to the place I am now. We believe in the good God, so let’s entrust ourselves to Him and not the world.
In Acts 11:18 and in Peter sermon in Acts 10:34, we see that God does not show favoritism to all his children. Peter didn’t stand in the way and baptized Cornelius – we too, should not stand in the way of God’s work. The fact is God’s work is unique to everyone – He puts people in a unique starting point with a unique background, guiding us all uniquely for the purposes of His Kingdom. Who are we to pre-judge or judge what God is doing in someone else’s life, we cannot stand in the way. Some people misunderstand this, asking why does God allow some people born in a rich or poor family, good or bad environments? Honestly, the answer to this is endless trying to compare people’s circumstances, there is no solution to this type of equality. Karl Marx described man in a lowly way, ascribing man as a product of their economic and sociological conditions. Therefore, he tried to create a utopia based on an equality of economic and sociological conditions, which was an utter disaster. Money and social standing is a temporary thing, it can be a blessing if used correctly, but more often than not is a curse that brings us farther from God. Man is not his money and social standing, we have been given a beautiful image of God, our spirit. That is what we have been given equally and we have been given God’s unconditional love. Therefore, we may come from different backgrounds, skin color, ethnicities, and social status. But we don’t rely on the whims of man’s freewill, but on the Providence of God that He is good and He is guiding us all uniquely and individually. How can we build the Kingdom of God? It is not on the temporary things of the world, but on the absolutes of truth of God – Gospel, serving, self-sacrifice, humbles, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, the fruits of the spirit.
In fact, we all have an equal and open opportunity to work for God’s Kingdom and no matter who we are, we can serve God. We are all missionaries because we have been given the gift of Jesus Christ and that great gift must be given to all in the world.