First world problems (Ecclesiastes 3)

“I wanted to go out, but my phone isn’t charged.”

“I have to blow dry my hair now I can’t hear my music.”

“Someone on the Internet disagrees with me.”

They are called ‘First world problems’. A photo depicts a woman breaking down in tears, overlayed with a caption that says something like, “I accidentally clicked on Internet Explorer.” These are problems that are funny, that make fun of people who don’t have problems. These are problems that are familiar because many of us (reading this) live in the first world.

In today’s passage from the bible, we read these words, “That each may eat and drink and find satisfaction in their toil - this is the gift of God.” (Ecclesiastes 3:13) It’s a complaint that there is nothing more to life than to eat and to drink - he sounds Chinese - and to write a really good essay. Sounds like a Cambridge student.

Are you surprised to hear the bible saying this? Eat, drink and be satisfied with your toil. You don’t need to be a Christian to know that; it’s common sense. But why is this is a gift from God? Because it’s possible to have the best opportunities and to waste it, the best of life and to throw it down the drain.

I want us to see three things from today’s passage - (1) What life is like; (2) What life is for; and (3) How life will end.

1. What life is like

I’ll begin with verse 1:

There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-3

He goes on - “A time for this, and a time for that…” - fourteen times, to tell us that life has its ups and downs. Some days you win; some days you lose.

You don’t need to be at Cambridge to know that. I remember an uncle who used to say, “I didn’t go to university, but I went to the school of ‘hard-knocks’.” He was not a Christian and every day for two weeks my uncle tried to convince me not to be a Christian. I learned a lot for those conversations because my uncle was speaking from experience; he had “eaten more salt than I had eaten rice.”

“Been there, done that.” Or for those of you who remember Tan Ah Teck, played by Moses Lim on the Singapore TV Series “Under One Roof,” - “Long before your time, in the southern province of China...”

We roll our eyes when we hear words like that - that speak to us as if we little kids. But what they are saying to us is, “I been through this before.” Been there, done that. You learn about life by living life - not by studying - but by going through it. And that’s why they tell us stories about their childhood, their experiences.

The bible is saying the same thing. Life is not static. God has put into motion times and seasons when you will experience both pain and laughter, joy and sadness. The big question is this: Are you prepared for those times?

This week, Facebook launched a gimmick to celebrate its 10 year anniversary. Each user got a personalised movie of their life. “A look back,” is what they call it. In a way, that’s what this poem does - it looks back at your life - the happiest of days and the saddest of days - saying: This is your life. The question is: How should you handle the good and the bad moments in your life?

And he offers a suggestion: this Uncle (I’ll call him that), he says - Enjoy it while you can. That’s the surprising answer we see in our second point - What life is for. It is for enjoyment.

2. What life is for

Verse 12:

I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.

Ecclesiastes 3:12-13

That’s surprising because Uncle is saying something very unChristian. He sounds atheist: Live each day for today. No higher purpose; no grand scheme. Get what you can get today: get pleasure, get happiness, get success. Don’t wait for tomorrow. He sounds atheist. Or he sounds Buddhist. “A time for to be born; a time to die” Very Lion King; very circle of life.

And yet, you can’t get away from the fact that Uncle keeps referring to God. Verse 10:

I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He (meaning, God) has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

Ecclesiastes 3:10-11

Why does this Uncle tell us: Make the most of today! Seize the Day! Because God has put eternity in our hearts. Inside all of us is an internal itch put there by an external God. You can’t reach inside to scratch it yourself. You are not supposed to. God has put that restlessness in our hearts to make us think of something bigger than ourselves.

You might say, “I don’t care about that. The second advice about enjoying life - that makes sense; that I’ll follow.” But you see, the two parts are connected because all of us worry about tomorrow. What job am I going to get? Who am I going to marry? All of us worry about tomorrow and that keeps us from enjoying today.

The secret is knowing God. You see, if God is God, then today is just today. Jesus taught us to pray by saying, “Give us this day our daily bread.” If you trust God for today - for today’s bread, you can enjoy today’s bread. But some of us, even as we were enjoying something better than bread - hot pot dinner - we were worrying about tomorrow’s lunch. Why? Because we want the moment to last. We a want guarantee it’s going to be just as tasty, just as enjoyable, but in doing so, we stop ourselves from enjoying the meal right in front of us.

Know anyone like that? Who has the wealth, the looks, the smarts yet the more he has, the more it crushes him. The problem isn’t that he has too much money. The problem is he is trying to fill that void, that vortex inside of him with money and it just doesn’t work. Someone named Augustine once said, “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless, until they can find rest in you.”

You see, if God is God, then food is just food. Work is just work. You can enjoy your food; you can enjoy your work, you might even begin enjoying God. But some of us turn food and our work into God - we worship it, sacrifice to it - and it’s never enough. God has made us for himself, and our hearts are going to be restless until they find their rest in him.

3. The end of life

Finally, the end of life. Something prompts Uncle to think about the end of life and it’s not death. I want you to see that. Rather, it’s wickedness. Look at verse 16.

And I saw something else under the sun:

In the place of judgment—wickedness was there,

in the place of justice—wickedness was there.

Ecclesiastes 3:16

Earlier on, we said that life is a mix of good and bad but that’s not the full story, is it? Wickedness tips the balance towards the bad. People get away with evil things all the time.

And you guys - because of all the doors that will open to you when you flash that degree from Cambridge University - you guys will have a front row seat to wickedness. Because it’s in the very places of power, privilege and influence where you will find wicked people doing wicked things.

When that happens, you need to remember what Harvey Dent said in the Batman movie (the second one with Heath Ledger as the Joker). Harvey Dent said, “You either die the hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” That’s just a movie, of course, but consider what he is saying: You either try to be the hero - and die trying. Or, God forbid, you end up becoming wicked yourself.

If ever there was a first world problem, it is this: Wickedness. “In the place of justice, wickedness was there.” People who have the resources to do help others but exploit others to help themselves.

It is at this point, the bible says: Don’t lose sight of God. Verse 17: “I said to myself, ‘God will bring into judgement both the righteous and the wicked.’” Adding these lines, “For there will be a time for every activity, a time to judge every deed.” Remember that song we began with: “A time for everything… A time to be born, a time to die…”? Well, here’s the last line of that song - A time to judge every deed. Life ends with God’s appointed time of judgement.

If only for this life

A quick recap: (1) What is life like? Ups and downs, good and bad. (2) What is life for? Enjoyment: Enjoy each day is a gift from God. (3) How will life end? With judgement. God will call us to account for all we’ve done in life. The conclusion to all this is to eat, to drink and enjoy every second of your time here in Cambridge.

Except there is a place where the bible also says this: “If the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.’” The same passage reads, “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” (1 Corinthians 15:32 & 15:19)

What’s it saying? If being a Christian is only for this life, then don’t be a Christian. Why? Because Christians get cancer, because Christians still die. In fact, if being a Christian is just for this life, then like my uncle in Malaysia, I should be discouraging you from being a Christian, not encouraging you.

So why should you become a Christian? For one simple reason: Jesus Christ rose from the dead. And if Jesus really rose from the dead, it means, firstly, that God can raise the dead. Secondly, it means God can use our death, the way he used Jesus’ death and Jesus’ suffering to bring life, to show his love. God is not just God of good things, he is God over everything. Most importantly, if Jesus rose from the dead, it means God has taken your death. Jesus Christ died so that you would not die, he took your sin so you could receive his righteousness. If you are a Christian, judgement is not something far ahead, into the future, judgement happened on the cross. And the resurrection of Jesus Christ is there to show you there is no more judgement for sin. You are free.

Valentine’s Day is happening this week. Imagine on Valentine’s Day getting a card that said, “Today is going to be a fantastic day. We are going to enjoy ourselves, have a nice meal, have a good time… because tomorrow, we might break up. Tomorrow, I might find someone better-looking than you.” Friends, you can’t build any meaningful relationship if you’re only in it for the good times. “For better for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health” - that’s a promise that Christians make in marriage, that’s a promise that Christians receive from God. He is God over everything.

God has made us for himself and our hearts are restless and they will continue to be restless until they find their rest in him. And Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

The lowest place (Luke 14:7-24)

Pressure

“Boyfriends for hire to beat China’s wedding pressure,” reads the title of an article published on the BBC website this week, highlighting the pressure on single Chinese women to get married before they hit that dreaded age of thirty.

"I'm pretty old - I'm almost 30 - but I'm still single," explains Ding Na, a woman hailing from China's northeast. "My sisters and my relatives all ask me why I'm not married. When they call me, I'm scared to pick up the phone."^[1]

The pressure to bring home a potential husband this Chinese New Year has prompted single women to turn to popular Internet site, Taobao (China’s version of eBay), where fake boyfriends are available “for rent.” It costs just $5 per hour to accompany the girl to dinner with her parents though you will have to pay an additional $8 if you want a kiss on the cheek.

Zhou Xiaopeng, a dating consultant in China explains, “In Chinese families ...it's hard for children to say that they haven't found someone and are still looking.” Zhou tells the heartbreaking story of a father who once told her client “just to marry anyone.” “Even if you have to divorce later,” the father said, “at least it gives him somebody.”

VIP

It is tragic when an occasion that ought to be full of joy, full of love and full of good food gets turned into a pressure-cooker of expectation, misunderstanding and heartbreak. That’s the story behind this banquet that Jesus gets invited to.

When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honour at the table, he told them this parable: “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honour, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited.”

Luke 14:7-8

The closer you are to the top table, the more important you are as a guest. You get to see the bride and groom up close. You are served before everyone else. That’s true of wedding dinners. That’s true of Cambridge formal halls. A better seat means better food.

Jesus says, “Don’t sit at the VIP table.” Why? Because in verse 7, “he noticed how the guests picked the places of honour.” Even at a dinner party, there is a pecking order. It’s not just about the food. It’s who gets served their food first. Whether it’s at a wedding banquet, a company dinner, or your friend’s birthday party: where you sit and how much wine you are served says something about who you are.

But Jesus says, “Don’t take the place of honour for,” verse 8 reads, “a person more distinguished than you may have been invited.”

If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this man your seat.’ Then humiliated, you will have to take the least important place.

Luke 14:9

The only opinion that matters is the host’s. Not yours. Not the other guests’. The host may have invited someone more important than you. The next thing you know, he is tapping on your shoulder and pointing you to the table next to the toilet. “Give this man your seat,” he says to you. You might not think he is that important but the host does. It’s his opinion that matters. This is his banquet.

So where should you sit? According to Jesus, you should take the lowest place.

But when you are invited, take the lowest place (literally, the last place - eschaton), so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honoured in the presence of all your fellow guests. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

Luke 14:10-11

So later on at dinner, at the queue for the roast duck, where should you be? The lowest place!

Now you guys are smart enough to know that Jesus when tells you to take the lowest place, he isn’t just talking about the buffet line. He is talking about our our status in society. He is talking about the workplace. He is saying that given the opportunity to choose a position for ourselves in the eyes of the world, don’t go for number one.

Now why on earth would anyone do that? So that the host can come up to you and say,”Friend, move up to a better place.”

I know that some of us hear that and think it’s a con. “Yeah right, so that’s why you Christians act all humble and polite. It’s just an act so that you can manipulate God into giving you a better spot in heaven.”

But I suspect that most of us here today, especially if we’re Chinese, will think this: “How naive! That’s not the way the world works. If you want to be successful, you have to take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way. Don’t kid yourselves. There is no ‘host’ who will exalt the humble. There are just a lot of guests fighting for the same seat at the table.”

If that’s you, then I hope you realise that that was exactly how the guests were behaving around Jesus that day. They arranged themselves according to their relative status to one another (“I’m older so I should sit here.” “I brought the most food so I should sit here.”)

That is how we arrange ourselves at the dinner table. That’ is how we arrange ourselves in society. We grade ourselves against the curve: “I might not be the biggest success, but I’m certainly doing better than those losers over there, so I’m OK.”

Friends, isn’t that tiring? Having to compare yourself with your neighbour every day to make sure you’re doing OK? Don’t you wonder sometimes: Are we fooling ourselves? Isn’t there a more objective way to determine who we are and what we’re worth, without having to constantly check the number of likes on our Facebook page?

Hear me out on this. When Jesus says, “Take the lowest place,” he’s liberating us. He is saying that if you know God’s objective approval of you really are it would free you - from false expectations, from self-delusion.

A couple of weeks ago, we read in Galatians 6, “If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Each one should test his own actions, then he will be able to take pride in himself without comparing himself to somebody else.”

It is our identity. Jesus is talking about your identity as something you receive from God, not something you conceive through effort. So many of us work hard to establish our identity, to find our identity, to define our identity - in the workplace, in school, in our families. But for those of us who are in Christ, we receive our identity from him - holy, loved, accepted - not because of anything we did but because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross for us.

The Christian whose identity is in Jesus is someone who is confident of God’s approval, whatever the world thinks. He has nothing to prove. In fact, that’s the reason why it makes sense for the Christian to take the lowest place is because Jesus humbled himself to the lowest place. He humbled himself to death on the cross trusting in God the Father to exalt him.

Jesus says to the guests at the table, “Don’t forget there’s a host.” God is the kind of host who loves to walk up to the little guy and say, “Friend, move up to a better place.” Isn’t that amazing?

Did you know that about God? He isn’t looking for the proud, the successful and the impressive. He is always looking out for the humble and lowly. In the Old Testament, God is never ever called the God of the rich and famous. Again and again the bible calls him the God of the fatherless, the widow, the poor and the outcast. He is their God.

“Take the lowest place,” Jesus says to the guests, but then he turns and says something even more challenging to his host, “Invite the poorest guests.”

Invite the poor

Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbours; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Luke 14:12-14

Jesus turns to the host and says, “Don’t just take your boss out to lunch or your clients out to a Michelin-star restaurant.” If you do, they might invite you back for drinks at the country club.

Instead organise a banquet for the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. Not a potluck. Not McDonald’s. Put together a large-scale, big budget feast. Book a five-star hotel and fill the banquet room with the kinds of people who never, ever get invited to banquets; who are usually stopped at the door from entering banquets. Invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind.

Be honest now. How many of you read this and think: Jesus, you must be crazy!

I want you to imagine the mood in the room at this point. A few moments ago, Jesus embarrassed all the guests by calling them thick-skinned opportunists. Now he insults the host for being cheap. The host must be saying to himself, “That’s the last time I invite Jesus to my reunion dinner!” Everyone in the room would have either been offended or embarrassed.

And that is where verse 15 comes in.

When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”

Luke 14:15

Verse 15 is the guy in the back who lifts up his glass and shouts, “YAM SENG!” What is he doing? He is easing the tension. He’s doing everyone a favour by lightening the mood! This guy’s the joker in the class. He’s the life of the party.

And what he does is give the kind of toast that says “Amen!” to everything Jesus has just said, but gives a chance to everyone else to laugh the whole thing off. He says, “Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”

“Aye, we hear you Jesus! One day we’ll all have a good laugh about it in heaven, eh?”

But Jesus doesn’t let them off the hook. Instead, Jesus tells them a second parable about the feast in the kingdom of God.

Everything is now ready

Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’

“But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’

“Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’

“Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’

“The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’

Luke 14:16-21

Notice, who does the master want to be brought into his banquet? The poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. Who was it again that Jesus tells the host to invite to his banquet back in verse 13? The poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. Notice the connection.

But the master doesn’t stop there - with just the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind.

“‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’

“Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full. I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’”

Luke 14:22-24

Why does Jesus tell this parable? Sometimes you hear this parable told as a way of saying, “Look how wonderful heaven is going to be. It’s going to be like that scene in Harry Potter, in the Great Hall with all sorts of yummy food and desserts. Heaven is going to be one great big banquet.”

Yet notice that there is not a single description of the food or decorations. Why does Jesus tell this parable? Not to teach us about food but to teach us about the host and his guests.

There are two sorts of guests, Jesus explains. First, there are the VIP’s. The VIP's get exclusive invitations. In fact, on the day of the banquet, the VIP's are sent reminders yet not a single VIP turns up at the banquet. The food is ready, the hall is laid out yet every seat is empty.

So the man sends out his servants with this message, “Come, everything is ready.” One by one, they all give their excuses. One’s bought a field. Another’s bought five oxen. Yet another’s gotten married. Please excuse me.

That’s the first group of guests, the VIP’s. You don’t need to be professor in biblical languages to work out that Jesus is referring to VIP's at his dinner party - the religious leaders. But here is the big surprise, Jesus is saying to the VIP’s, “What makes you think you’re in the kingdom? Because you got the invitation? Have you RSVP’ed?”

The VIP's just assumed they would be in the kingdom. That’s what the guy meant when he lifted up his glass to toast, “Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.” He was assuming that everyone of his friends would get in. More than that, he was assuming that heaven was something far into the future.

In response, Jesus tells them a parable about heaven, whereby the invitation card to heaven says, “Come. Everything is now ready.” Did you notice that little word now? What is the invitation card telling us? Heaven is open now. The banquet is ready now. You need to RSVP now.

You see, that’s what makes those excuses so damning. It is one thing to be buying property, looking after your business and going on honeymoon with your wife - those are all good and godly things. But when you say to God, “Sorry, I’ll worry about heaven tomorrow. Today I want to concentrate on living my life for me,” what are you doing? You are presuming upon your salvation. You are taking God's offer of salvation for granted.

In fact, don’t these excuses sound familiar? Haven’t you used them recently? “Sorry Ma, got a lot going on in the office, I can’t come back for dinner tonight.” “Sorry Pa, can’t make it back for New Year this year, have to spend time with my own family.” We give good excuses, valid reasons, all the while covering up the fact that in our hearts, what we’re really saying is, “I don’t want to come home. I can’t stand being home.” We do that to our parents. We do same thing to our heavenly Father.

In the end the master says, “Not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.” It’s a wake-up call to those of us who think of ourselves as VIP’s. Who have received this invitation again and again only to reply, “Sorry. Come back another day.”

The humble host

But there’s a second group of guests - the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. Who is he talking about? Duh! The poor, crippled, blind and lame, of course. But remember what Jesus said back in verse 14 - the reason why these are the guests that ought to be ones invited to the banquet - These are the guests who can’t possibly pay back the host.

Go further back to what Jesus said about taking the lowest place, he is telling us to recognise who we are before a holy God. We don’t deserve to be in his presence but because of his grace and for the sake of his own glory, he calls us in and sets a place for us at his table.

An important way we do this each week is by confessing our sins before God; coming before him in prayer acknowledging all the ways we have rebelled against him and ignored him as God. We do this not to make ourselves feel lousy about ourselves. Not a kind of therapy. But rather, we Christians do this because we have heard that invitation in God’s word to come as we are, in our sins, and be cleansed and transformed through Jesus Christ. That’s the gospel.

The gospel is not for good people, it’s for sinful people. The gospel is not for the powerful but the powerless. The gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ though he was rich became poor for our sake so that we through his poverty might become rich. On the cross, he paid the penalty of our sin, taking our death, and in exchange, gave us forgiveness, righteousness and peace.

The way we do this is not by looking to ourselves, or even by comparing ourselves to our neighbour, but only by looking to the host of the banquet. You see, when Jesus did finally host a banquet for his disciples on the night he was betrayed, he took the lowest place by washing their feet as their servant. Furthermore, he took bread, broke it and gave it to his disciples saying, “This is my body.” He gave them the cup, saying, “This is my blood,” in effect explaining how his sacrifice would become the basis of their feast in heaven.

That’s why the reunion dinner that Jesus organises is so different from the ones we are used to at Chinese New Year where we are afraid of disappointing our parents or concerned about putting on an act before the other guests at the table. At Jesus' reunion dinner, everyone at this table is messed up. Everyone is a sinner. And though some of us approach this table trembling and fearful of what God might say or do to us, we soon hear his tender voice saying to us, “You silly thing, I know all you have done and I have already forgiven you at the cross. Come home, my son. Come home, my daughter.”

The lowest place is where we see who we really are as sinful human beings, but it is also there that we see who Jesus is as our gracious loving Saviour. Humble yourselves, look to God our Father and in due time, trust that he will lift you up.

We do not presume to come to this your table, merciful Lord,
trusting in our own righteousness, but in your manifold and great mercies. 

We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table. 

But you are the same Lord whose nature is always to have mercy. 

Grant us therefore, gracious Lord,

so to eat the flesh of your dear Son Jesus Christ
and to drink his blood,
that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body
and our souls washed through his most precious blood,
and that we may evermore dwell in him,
and he in us.
Amen.

(1662 Book of Common Prayer)

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^[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-21192131

Only by grace (Ephesians 2:1-10)

Understanding grace

The hardest thing for a Chinese person to read in this passage is not the bit about sin. It’s not even the part where it talks about the devil leading us into sin. And while I do think that many of the aunties and uncles in church today might be shocked at the mention of death in verse 1 – where it says, “You were dead in your transgressions” – and they will go, “Choi! Choi! How can you talk about death during Chinese New Year?!” Still, that may not be the hardest thing for us to hear today.

No, I think the hardest thing for an Asian person to hear and understand is Chapter 2, verse 8.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.
Ephesians 2:8

It’s saying this: Salvation is free. The word Paul uses is “grace”. He calls it “the gift of God.”

A Chinaman hears that something is free and he goes, “Free? Is there something wrong with this ‘free’ gift?” In a culture which puts a premium on hard work, receiving something for nothing – or for free – just sounds lazy. There must be a catch. There must be something wrong with it (Like the expired food section in the supermarket).

Or the other extreme might be that we hear that something is given away for free and we tell our kids, “Take! Take! Ask for some more!” Like the big banquet of Chinese food we are going to have right after this. We see the roast duck and go, “Wah! Take as much as you can!”

As Asians, we have a hard time understanding the value and the purpose of something that is free. Because nothing in life is free. That’s what our tradition, our elders and everything in our own experience teaches us. Either we work hard to earn that good life and we work hard to earn that money. Or we take advantage of every opportunity – get as many red packets while you still can, fill up the plate with as much roast duck and char siu before it all goes – so as not to waste that opportunity. Why? Because our culture teaches us: Nothing is free. If it is free, either there’s a catch or it’s not going to last forever.

But when the bible talks about God’s free gift of salvation, it is describing the most valuable thing we could ever receive from God. This is the most expensive, the most costly and the most precious gift that God offers us in Jesus Christ. And it comes to us for free.

Or to be more exact, the bible says, it comes to us by grace.

Grace means undeserved love. It is giving the best that you have to the worst person you know. That’s what God did for us in Jesus Christ. He gave the best gift to the most undeserving people. And that is how verse 1 begins.

You were dead

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
Ephesians 2:1-2

Who is Paul talking about? You. “You were dead,” he says. Not that guy over there. Not the embarrassing uncle who turns up once a year at reunion dinner. You. You were dead in your transgressions and your sins.

But you might say, “I’m not dead. I came to church. I had cornflakes for breakfast. I updated my Facebook status.” That is, we think that death means lying in a coffin buried in the ground six feet under (and therefore being unable to update your Facebook status). But verse 2 says you used to live (or, literally “walk”) in death. That is you can be physically alive and yet be spiritually dead to God. One of the biggest insults in our Chinese culture is to say, “That person is dead to me.” (In Cantonese we say, “Lei hoi seii ah” – Go and die!) What does that mean? It means that I’m not going to acknowledge you. I’m not going to greet you. When you come to reunion dinner tonight I am not even going to look at you. You are dead to me.

That’s what the bible means by death. We are unresponsive to God. We live this life given to us by God, but we live it as it there is no God. The way we eat our food, the way we go to school, the way we talk to our friends reflects a life that says: God is dead to me.

Now I do apologise for the language. It’s not nice to wish that someone were dead. But isn’t the bible describing something true? Don’t we see this every year at Chinese New Year? Everyone should get along. Everyone should be loving. And yet, everyone gets stressed during Chinese New Year. When the family is gathered, when everyone is together – that’s when the most hurtful words come out; that’s when selfish actions do the most damage. We can’t help ourselves. This condition of spiritual deadness hits home not simply when we are alone at the end of the day and we feel dead tired – that’s not what it’s talking about. It’s when we are most alive and joyful when our hate-filled thoughts and unloving actions are the most obvious. We can’t run away from it. We might put on an act to hide the truth. But all the bible is doing is being honest about who we are and what we do – to one another and to God.

Paul says there are three reasons for this. Three reasons for our spiritual deadness: (1) the world, (2) the devil and (3) the flesh.

“When you followed the ways of this world,” verse 2 reads. You look around you and you say, “That guy’s doing it, why can’t I?” Other people are acting this way, so it’s OK for me to act this way as well.

“When you followed… the ruler of the kingdom of the air.” The devil deceives us into rebellion. That’s why verse 2 goes on to describe him as “the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.” The devil has one single purpose: to get men and women to say, “No!” to God. “I will not obey.” He makes us question God’s goodness. He makes us doubt God’s motives. That’s what he did with the first man and woman in the garden of Eden. “Did God really say that?” Hmm, God can’t be serious, right? “God knows that if you eat this fruit you will be like him, knowing good and evil,” meaning God is just being selfish; he doesn’t want to share this knowledge with you. The devil says the exact same thing to us today – he is now at work, it says at the end of verse 2 – in those who are disobedient.

And finally, verse 3: “All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts.” We follow the world. We follow the devil. But here it says, we follow the “cravings of our sinful nature.” It’s saying, even if you locked yourself away from every bad influence in the world – which is what a lot of Chinese parents try to do out of sincerity and out of fear as they try to protect their kids from Justin Bieber and rude Channel 4 TV shows like the “Inbetweeners” – It’s saying that even if you did all that, there is still an enemy inside of you. We follow the cravings of our sinful nature. Our natural instincts will always, always lead us in a direction away from God. Sin and death is encoded into our spiritual DNA. It’s who we are.

That’s why verse 3 ends: “Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.” It’s just a fancy way of saying: God is angry with us. He has every right to be angry. Now, I guess I could put that in a nicer way and say something like: We have natural destructive tendencies that lead us down the wrong track – but that would be a lie. God is angry when he sees me sin, when he sees you sin. And God has set a day when he will personally punish all who have sinned. “All of us” lived this way. “All of us” were objects of God’s wrath.

This is news for some of you. Maybe no one has ever told you that God is angry with the way you live you life. You think that as long as you try your best God will do the rest. You think that if no one can see God will leave you be. You think that everything is OK now so it will all be OK in the end. The bible says you are dead. Dead in your sins. Dead towards God. Following the world, following the devil, following your sinful nature – following everything and anything except God. God is angry with you and that’s news for some of you.

But the good news of the bible is this: God is also loving.

But God

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved.
Ephesians 2:4-5

Everything changes. Before, we were dead but now God made us alive. Before, we were objects of his wrath but now we are objects of his love. And the turning point of this change is grace. “It is by grace you have been saved.”

And if you remember, I said at the beginning that grace means undeserved love. Grace means giving the very best to the very worst. When God saves, he is showing his love to the worst people on the planet. “Even when we were dead in transgressions.” God is like a dad who adopts the worst kid in the orphanage – the one who always gets into trouble, the one who doesn’t want to be adopted, the one who looks at his new dad and says, “Huh, I don’t need you. I wish you were dead!” – and God says to him you will be my son and I will be your Father and I will love you.

God does this out of his great love. Not because of who we are but in spite of who we are and because of who he is. God is love, the bible tells us in 1 John 4:8. It even tells us, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” God sacrificed his own Son so that we might be adopted as his sons and daughters in his family. That is what it means when the bible says the God loves us.

Another thing I said in the beginning was that this is hard to accept. Change? What change? We Chinese are very practical people. If there’s a change that works, we’ll change. No problem. Whether it’s upgrading to a new phone or changing our favourite brand of soy sauce. If you can show me a better product; if you can show me that it works; I’ll change!

But the hard thing is this, and I wonder if you’ve ever felt this way, you look at the Christians around you and say, “There is no change. I am Chinese, they are Chinese. I rush for the food. They also rush for the food. In fact, I think in some ways I am better than these so-called Christians. I work harder. I am nicer to my mum and dad. Yah, sure they have a nice party once a year and it’s fun to join them for Chinese New Year. But change? Come on. What change is there to see?”

Should Christians change? Yes, they should. Should they be different, more loving, more compassionate, more patient? Absolutely. But you see, that’s not grace. That’s effort. Grace means these Christians here were just as sinful as you – if not more sinful than all of you – when God called them. Grace means that no one deserves to be saved.

And most of all, grace does not mean a changed life. Grace results in new life. It is a life that is lived with Christ. Look at verse 6:

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.
Ephesus 2:6

Verse 6 is saying “Look! Look at the change!” But look where? Not here on earth. Not at the Christians. Verse 6 is saying: Look to Jesus. God raised Jesus up from the dead. God appointed Jesus Lord over all things. The bible is saying: If you see Jesus, that’s where you see the real change in happening the Christian – we are made alive with him, we are raised with him, we are seated with him in the heavenly realms.

Look to the Christian and all you should see is a big sign that says “Work in progress”. Some people need whole lot of work! But God is working in the life of the Christian to change him to be more like Jesus. But look to Jesus – that’s perfection. He is the destination. He is the end point.

And the amazing thing is, because Jesus is already died on the cross, because Jesus already rose from death and because Jesus is already seated in heaven at God’s right hand right now, the bible says that’s where the Christian is. We are already in heaven, we are already raised, we are already perfect. If you are in Christ, that’s what God sees when he looks at you – perfection! Why? Because if you are in Christ, God looks at you and he sees Jesus.

Oh, you might still sin. In fact the truth is you will definitely sin. But Jesus paid for that sin. You will make mistakes – big, huge, embarrassing mistakes. But Jesus paid for every single one of those mistakes – past, present and future – when he died on the cross, so that as far as your salvation is concerned, everything is paid for. It’s like turning up at the restaurant and before you order a single thing off the menu the waiter comes to you and says, “It’s all been paid in full.”

And get this: this displays God’s grace even more clearly than if you were perfect right now. If you are a non-Christian here today, you are not meant to look at the Chinese Church and go, “Wow, everyone here is perfect. Perfect people, perfect food, perfect sermon (yeah right!)” But I hope you will look at the Christians here and be amazed, “How on earth did that guy become a Christian? Who let that person into the church? What is that idiot doing preaching up in front?” And then I hope that you hear God’s word speaking clearly to you, saying, “It is by my grace that these men and women have been saved,” and your heart goes, “Whoa!” Not at us, but “Whoa!” at God. You go, “Whoa! Jesus died on the cross to save these guys? Why would he do that?”

To display the glory of God’s grace. You see sinful people, you see Jesus’ perfection and God’s spirit opens your eyes so that you see clearly the grace of God.

Grace as the means, and especially, the end of salvation

In order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2:7

Verse 7 says that the purpose of salvation is to display “the incomparable riches of God’s grace” in Jesus Christ. Grace is not simply the means of salvation, it is the endpoint of salvation. I’m guessing that might be something new to many of us today.

We will often hear that Christians are saved by grace. But what the bible is teaching us here is an even greater truth: We were saved for grace. God saved us so that he could clearly display a very awesome thing; a very amazing thing that captures all who God is – his power, his glory, his transcendence, his righteousness – that one thing which God wants to display and God wants us to behold at the end of time is… his grace!

Meaning: this is not an evangelistic sermon – at least not primarily. This is a worship sermon. How do you praise God fully for who he is? How do you worship God such that he will accept your praise? You focus on the grace of God displayed on the cross. “To the praise of his glorious grace” – Chapter 1, verse 6 reads, then adding these words – “which he has freely given us (or literally, ‘graced us’) in the One he loves”. We praise God for his grace in sending Jesus to the cross. Grace is not simply the means of salvation; it is the endpoint of salvation.

Paul is writing these verses to believers. He is not speaking to non-Christians asking: Do you know how to be saved? Rather he is addressing Christians: Do you know what you are saved for? You were saved for the praise of God’s grace. That’s your purpose in life - that others might look at you and give all the credit and all the glory to God. The focus is not on you – on your salvation –the focus is on God – his glory and his grace!

And it’s when we don’t know this that we end up focussing on ourselves. We lose sight of grace, and we boast about our works.

Not by works, only by grace

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no-one can boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9

This then, is the opposite of grace. It is the opposite of God’s free gift of salvation, which is works. It is the opposite of worship, which is boasting. And if we’re honest, it sounds completely opposite to our Chinese culture. Why? Because as Chinese we take pride in our hard work. As Chinese, we boast that we are not afraid to put in the hours to get the job done. Salvation is by God’s grace, not by works.

And yet, look to the very next verse, and there we see that work is good! What’s going on?

For we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared for us in advance to do.
Ephesians 2:10

So, the bible isn’t saying that Christians should run away from work. If anything, it gives us a new motivation to work – and to work hard – because God’s the heavenly boss man. It even says there that God has prepared works for us “in advance” – meaning, there’s always something for us to do! But the bigger picture is that God invests a new meaning into work. For us as Christians, it’s worship. It’s a response to God’s grace shown to us on the cross. It is a fruit of our salvation.

What work isn’t – as verse 9 clarifies – is the means to our salvation. We could never earn our salvation. The one and only basis of our salvation is God’s grace. God did all the work through Jesus’ death on the cross. He conquered death and sin and the devil.

This is important because God hates boasting. Boasting steals the glory away from God. Boasting implies that we earned our way into heaven, that we were worthy to be saved; and that’s completely false. That is completely offensive to God.

It all comes back to our understanding of God’s salvation through God’s grace alone. And as I said right from the beginning, this is hard. For us as Chinese, that’s hard. For us as the Chinese Church, that can be especially hard; because it can be all too easy to start out wanting to serve God in ministry, to start out wanting to help by cooking for today’s Chinese New Year feast, in practising for the performances, in teaching at Sunday School – but to end up boasting of our own works by saying, “Come to my church. The people here are so nice. The food is fantastic. The children in Sunday School are so well-behaved.” These are not bad things, of course, and I am personally looking forward to the siu yok (roast pork) afterwards! I do want our Sunday School kids to grow in obedience and in love. Yet in all this, we may unintentionally be drawing the focus back to ourselves. We end up boasting about our achievements. We end up singing our praises.

Paul brings the focus back to God. He reminds us: We were objects of wrath, we were sinful, we were helpless – but God was merciful, God was loving and God saved us by sending Jesus to die for us on the cross. When the focus is back to God’s grace, only then will we see our sin. When focus is back to God’s grace, only then will we find our assurance in Christ. When the focus is back to God’s grace, only then will God receive all the glory, all the power, and all the praise.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.
Ephesians 2:8

Only by grace can we enter
Only by grace can we stand
Not by our human endeavour
But by the blood of the Lamb
Into your presence you call us
You call us to come
Into your presence you draw us
And now by your grace we come.

According to plan (Ephesians 1:11-14)

Tiger Mums and a Heavenly Dad

In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works everything in conformity to purpose of his will
Ephesians 1:11

No grades lower than an A; nothing less than top of the class for any subject (except gym and drama); no computer games; no play dates; no parts in school plays; no musical instrument except piano and violin. These are a list of rules enforced by Chinese-American mother, Amy Chua in raising her two daughters in the West, as revealed in her best-selling book, “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother”, a reflection on strict Asian parenting styles.

Just this week, the BBC aired a local documentary entitled “Meet Britain’s Chinese Tiger Mums” featuring British-based Chinese mothers doing their best to make sure their children do not pick up the slack habits of their Western counterparts. In it, we met Sally Chen, mother of six-year-old Matthew Chen, who said, “He only does about three hours of homework a night – plenty of time to play.”

Many British parents may react negatively towards such strict parenting – labelling it as harsh, overbearing and perhaps even, cruel. But many of us here at the Chinese Church might shrug our shoulders and simply say, “Actually, my mum was worse!”

Yet what no one can deny are the results. Recent figures show in a study comparing achievement levels amongst 15-year-olds from 65 countries, China comes in first in reading, maths and science. Second is South Korea. Britain is 16^th.

In a way, today’s passage from the bible is about two different parenting styles. It talks about two different generations from two completely different cultures. Yet both are chosen by God and both are treasured in Christ.

In verse 11, Paul says, “We were chosen.” In verse 12, “We were the first”. But then in verse 13, Paul says, “You were included.” And “You were marked.” That is, Paul is addressing two different groups of people here in his letter to the church in Ephesus. Both are Christians. Both are saved. Yet he does not deny their differences. In fact, as we shall see, Paul will highlight their differences to show all the more clearly God’s grace in choosing them and God’s glory in saving them through Jesus Christ.

According to plan

In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works everything in conformity to purpose of his will
Ephesians 1:11

Predestined, plan and purpose. The first group that Paul refers to are the first Christians. In verse 12, he says, “we were the first to hope in Christ”. By that, he is talking about himself, the apostles, the first eyewitnesses – the first generation of Christians. But what verse 11 clarifies is that this was all according to God’s plan – a plan that God had predestined; a plan that God had prepared for a specific people, namely, the nation of Israel. God’s plan throughout history was to save a people for himself. And when we look at the Old Testament what we see is God creating the world and choosing out of this world a people for himself. He chose Noah. He chose Abraham. He chose Israel. Out of all the other nations, God chose this nation and this people to be his people and he, their God.

What we learn here is that salvation is God’s choice. Verse 4, “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.” Salvation came before creation. Salvation was in God’s mind even before sin entered the world. God was not caught by surprise when the first man and the first woman rebelled against his word and ate from the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, which he warned them not to do. God did not go, “Yikes, now what do I do? I guess I’ll have to send Jesus to clean up their mess by dying on the cross.” No, Revelation 13 talks about Jesus as “the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world” (It is the exact same phrase and wording in the original text). Before creation, God had already planned your salvation. God had already planned the cross. Jesus was the Lamb slain from the creation of the world.

What it is saying is: God is not surprised by your sin. Our first instinct when we sin is to hide our sin and to hide from God. In the garden of Eden, God called out to Adam, “Where are you?” Not in a sense that God didn’t know where Adam was, but in the sense that God wanted Adam to come out of hiding, to face God and to take responsibility for his sin. The bible says, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Not after we’ve cleaned up our act. Not after we’ve worked hard enough. But when we were caught red-handed and while we were found guilty, God loved us and Christ died for us. It is silly to think that God is surprised by your sin. It may be natural, I know. We all try to hide. But it is silly, and what is more, it is a shame. Because God’s plan has always been to save sinners.

Paul says that we were chosen according to God’s plan in conformity to God’s purpose. When you look at the history of Israel; when you look in the bible at the Old Testament, what you see is not faithfulness and holiness and obedience on the part of Israel. What you see is the idolatry, sinfulness and unrepentance of a people who reject God’s love and rebel against his authority.

God saved Noah from the flood and the moment Noah got out of the boat he got naked, drunk and cursed his son. God called Abraham giving him the promise of blessing, descendants and land. Next thing he does is he leaves the land, goes to Egypt and lends his wife Sarah out as Pharaoh’s girlfriend. God saves Israel from slavery in Egypt and they bow down in worship before the golden calf. God brings Israel into the Promised Land and they bow down in worship of Baal and Asherah. God chooses David to be King and he sleeps with Bathsheba and murders her husband. God builds the temple through King Solomon, who takes many wives and worships the gods of the nations.

Finally, God sends his Son, Jesus who is arrested, convicted and killed on the cross.

People often think this book is a book of morals – a how-to book on how to behave and how to be holy. Some of us think the bible is a religious book on what we need to do to get to heaven. But the bible is not about what can do but about what God has done. He is a God who works all things according to his gracious plan to choose and save a people for himself. And verse 12 tells us why:

In order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.
Ephesians 1:12

“In order that,” Paul writes, meaning: Here is reason why he chose us. This is why he sent Jesus through as a Jew, in the line of Abraham, as a son of David. This is why God revealed the coming of Jesus thousands of years ago through the prophets like Isaiah and Micah. In order that we, meaning Israel, meaning the first Jews trusted in Jesus as the Messiah, “might be for the praise of his glory”.

“God saved them? The very people who killed Jesus on the cross?” Yes! And when we see that God took someone like Paul – a religious Pharisee who used to hunt down and kill Christians – and turned him into a pastor and missionary, we are meant to say, “Wow! That’s the guy God saved. Wow! Those are the rebellious people he chose to save.” We see them and praise God for his glory.

Now, we have a very different idea about what it means to be chosen. At a job interview, the guy with the most impressive CV gets chosen. In Cambridge University, the smart and the elite get chosen. In a football team, the most talented player gets chosen. To be chosen is to be accepted. To be chosen is to be approved.

God chose the very people who rejected his son. But verse 12 also tells us, he chose those who put their hope in Christ, not in themselves. Not in their privilege as Jews. Not in their religion. They put their hope in Jesus. What does that mean – to hope in Christ? It means expectation. It means everything that you expect out of life is not in something you can accomplish, it’s not in something your kids will accomplish, it’s not something your company will accomplish, but it is in all that Jesus accomplished on the cross.

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame
But wholly lean on Jesus name.

On Christ the Solid Rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
All other ground is sinking sand.

That’s the first generation. Jesus says to the Samaritan woman, “Salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22). God has chosen Israel as a nation to work out his plan of salvation through history and in the Old Testament. But then Jesus immediately says, “A time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth” (John 4:23). Something happens at the cross such that God’s salvation is no longer restricted to this one nation of Israel but now flows out to all the nations in the world. At that’s exactly what happens in verse 13:

Included in Christ

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.
Ephesians 1:12

The beginning of Chapter 3 clarifies who Paul means by this change of address, from speaking about “we” and then turning to “you”. He says, “For this reason, I Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles” (Ephesians 3:1). Then in verse 6, he says, “This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus”.

Paul turns from speaking to the Jews, to now addressing the Gentiles. The term Gentile simply means nations. Well then, why doesn’t he just say “nations”. It’s a lot like when we Chinese use the term “gweilo” to describe Westerners. It’s not a very nice way to referring to our British friends (“gweilo” means “ghost man” in Cantonese – similar to how the first settlers in America were called the “white man”). When the Jews heard “nations”, it was a reminder that they were the one nation of God. Nations or Gentiles was a way of referring to outsiders or non-Jews.

But now in Ephesians 1:12 Paul says that the outsiders have become insiders. Paul says that “you” have been included in this plan and purpose of God to save a people of his own, “when you heard the word of truth”. When you heard “the gospel of your salvation”.

How are outsiders included into God’s salvation? Through the gospel. By hearing the word of truth and by trusting in the gospel.

I think we need to realise how scandalous it was for Paul to say this. “All you need to do is hear a message and you’re in?” Here was generation that had no knowledge of God. This was a culture that no regard for God. Paul describes the Gentiles’ way of life in Chapter 4, “You must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated in from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts” (Ephesians 4:17-18).

Paul is talking about letting in a godless, ignorant, idolatrous, sinful bunch of individuals into the church. And all the Gentiles needed to do to get in was to hear the gospel and to trust the gospel? Some people would have read this and they would have gotten very annoyed with this. “Don’t you know where they come from, Paul? Don’t you know what kind of things they used to do?” They would have said, “These outsiders need to change. They need to become more like us and adopt our culture and practices.” Either that or, “They need to be kept in a separate group from us, otherwise our culture will be tainted. Our kids will be led astray!”

There is none of that. You are included in Christ through the gospel, by faith alone, by grace alone. As long as you trust in Jesus, you’re in. That’s what he’s saying. In fact, God himself guarantees their full membership by giving them his Holy Spirit.

Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit
Ephesians 1:12

The seal is a mark of ownership, authenticity and preservation. God gives his Holy Spirit as a seal to mark each and every believer in Christ to say that this person belongs to God. He is the real deal. She is a true Christian. What is the one single criteria God uses to bestow the Holy Spirit? Verse 12: “Having believed, you were marked,” Paul says. It is trusting in Jesus through the gospel of salvation. It is believing the word of truth.

Sometimes you have Christians saying that we need to pray for more of the Holy Spirit. That is nonsense! Either you have the Spirit or you don’t. Either you are a Christian or you are not. God gives his Holy Spirit to those believe the word of truth as his guarantee.

What Paul is doing is giving us confidence and assurance in our salvation, do you see that? You were included. You were marked. It is an assurance that God has already done everything that is needed for salvation in Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. It is a confidence that God will bring his work to completion through Christ victory on the cross.

If you remember a few months ago, we looked at Revelation Chapter 7 where God places a seal on the 144,000. The 144,000 was number that was sealed and it was symbolic of the full number of God’s people who were saved. They were preserved by God in the face of final judgement. The message was this: All whom God has chosen he guarantees their full and final salvation.

It means that when you are unsure of your faith as a Christian, where do you look for assurance? It is tempting to look to something we have done in the past: Our baptism, our daily quiet time, that mission trip we took to Thailand, our grades in school. Some of us may even look back to some powerful spiritual experience or event in our lives. Yet in all these things, even the things given us by God, we are looking to our own accomplishment and effort.

Paul tells us to look – or rather, to listen – to the gospel. You were included in Christ when you heard the gospel and when you trusted in Jesus. The gospel says God planned your salvation before the creation of the world. The gospel says Jesus took your sin on himself on the cross. The gospel says that God preserves us by his Holy Spirit.

That’s what we are doing right now: We are being reminded of God’s salvation through the gospel. We continue to listen. And we continue to trust in Jesus alone. As we do this God is speaking to our hearts by his Spirit reminding us, “You are my son. You are my daughter.”

That is Paul’s reminder to us in our final verse: We are God’s possession.

Our inheritance, God’s possession

The promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of his glory.
Ephesians 1:14

We began with two different generations and two separate cultures: the Jews and the Gentiles. But here we end with one inheritance from God and one redemption in Christ. Back in verse 13, the Holy Spirit is given to outsiders – the Gentiles – who trust in Jesus. Here in verse 14, the same Holy Spirit becomes “our” deposit guaranteeing “our” inheritance. Back in verse 12, the Jews who were the first to hope in Christ were chosen “for the praise of his glory”. Now in verse 14, both Jew and Gentile gather as one body – as God’s one possession – “to the praise of his glory”.

Meaning this: when we look at what God is doing in bringing these two separate and distinctive peoples together as the church, what we see is God’s glory. When we see how God chooses the Jews as the nation of God, and then includes the Gentiles as full members in the body of Christ – we get a picture of Jesus glory on the cross. The question for us is: Do we see that here in the Chinese Church?

Those who are first to hope in Christ – verse 12 – are not the last, are they? Paul does not deny that God worked in their lives, in their struggles, through their rich history in bringing them as a people to know God. Paul does not deny their heritage or culture. But Paul also does not impose their culture on the new generation of believers. The Gentiles are full members of the church because they are full members of the body of Christ. They do not need to first become Jews, to learn Hebrew, or stop eating pork. What they must do is hear and trust the gospel of their salvation. That’s all there is to it.

That is: we must be very careful here in the Chinese Church of going out of our way to make people more like us in order for them to be in Christ. We must be very careful of only reaching people who are exactly like us in order for them to join our church. God’s glory is seen and praised when both Jew and Gentile are united in Christ. When even Chinese and Gweilo are united in Jesus.

Most of us know what it is like to be different. We go to school and we are conscious of how we look and sound different to all the other kids. During recess, the other kids take out their sandwiches and juice boxes. Our mums pack us rice dumplings and Chrysanthemum tea (yummy!)

How many of you have walked down the street only to be made fun of by strangers, mocking your accent, making fun of the way you look and telling you to “Go back to China!” You know from personal experience that discrimination is hurtful. You know from personal experience that racial discrimination is wrong. And yet, when we make the church about our culture above others, about our language above others, about our heritage above others – we are just as guilty of discriminating against others based on race, gender, class and background.

It is important to see that Paul does not deny his own identity as a Jew. You don’t stop being Chinese when you become a Christian. But Paul does say in 1 Corinthians 9, “To the Jews I became like a Jew to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law… To those not having the law I became like one not having the law. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some” (1 Corinthians 9:20, 21, 23). If for Paul, his Jewish background meant that he could reach the Jews, then for us, being Chinese means we have the privilege and responsibility of reaching the Chinese: To the Chinese I became Chinese. To those who only speak Mandarin, I preached the gospel in Mandarin. If anyone ever asks you, “Why do you go to the Chinese Church? Why don’t you go to a local English church instead?” Point them to this verse.

But then again, Paul might also say, “To the non-Chinese, I became non-Chinese.” If someone in the Chinese Church says to you, “Why do you go to a local English church? You are Chinese so you should come to the Chinese Church instead!” Point them to the exact same verse. Say, “To the BBC, I became a BBC.”

Only Chinese; only Christ

Friends, are you only Chinese? If you are Chinese then be Chinese! But if you are only Chinese… you don’t understand the gospel. You are stuck. You are restricted by your Chinese-ness. The gospel is meant to free us in Jesus Christ – not restrict us. Paul says, “I am all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.” I dare say that when we are only some things to some men, we end up saving no-one. Are you only Chinese?

The BBC documentary, “Meet Britain’s Chinese Tiger Mums” didn’t simply give us an insight into how Asians parents raise their kids, but it also gave us a glimpse into how their parents raised them. All three Tiger Mums said their own upbringing was even harsher than that of their kids. All three compared their parents’ expectations of them with the expectations they now placed on their kids. In effect they said, “This is how my mum raised me, so this is how I am going to raise my kids.”

Do you know the amazing thing the gospel does in such situations? It frees you. If you want to be Tiger Mum or a Dragon Dad and raise your kids in a strict and loving household, you can. If not, you really don’t have to either (even if you are Chinese). Why? Because the gospel says you are not saved through parenting styles but through Jesus Christ alone. To the Jews, God raises them through the Law and through Moses and through the temple, but saves them through Jesus Christ alone. To the Gentiles, God raises them without the law, without the temple, without any kind of religious background, and still saves them through the gospel alone.

Because God’s purpose and plan is for the world to look at you – his church – and not go, “Wow, what a lovely bunch of people who raise such lovely obedient children!” but instead say, “Wow, what a gracious and loving God who chooses sinful men and women to be his children by sending his Son Jesus to die for them on the cross.” We exist as God’s people to the praise of his glory.

And if you are in Christ, God gives you his Holy Spirit to live in you and to remind you that you are his; and that in Christ he is yours.

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
Romans 8:15-16

Abba Father, let me be
Yours and Yours alone.
May my will for ever be
Evermore Your own.

Never let my heart grow cold,
Never let me go.
Abba Father, let me be
Yours and Yours alone.

The Wedding Banquet (Matthew 22:1-14)

(Preached on 14 February 2010 - Valentine's & Chinese New Year Day)

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How do you know that you will be in heaven?

Some of us will say, “Of course, I’ll get in”. But how do you know?

Others might be more humble. “No one really knows for sure.” But to say this is to imply that the bible is unclear - Unclear on how we are saved and unclear on who will be saved.

How do you know that you will be in heaven?

To help us answer this question, Jesus tells us not one but three parables, beginning from the previous chapter, at verse 28.

The first parable tells us of two sons with two different reactions. Their father tells both to go work in his vineyard. One son says, “I will not!” but changes his mind. And the other answers, “Yes, sir!” but doesn’t turn up for work. The lesson there is repentance. Repentance – A change of mind that leads to a changed life. The son who says no to his Father, yet later repents, is the son who does the will of his father.

The second is the parable of the tenants and the vineyard. Here the lesson is rejection. The farmers reject the owner by killing his servants and even killing the owner’s son. They want the land; they want the farm and fruits of the farm all for themselves. In the same way, it is very possible for us to earnestly want to be in Heaven, to sincerely desire the blessings of Heaven and yet at the same time wholeheartedly reject the King of Heaven. The tenants want the land; the tenants reject the landowner.

Which brings us to our third parable – the parable of the wedding banquet. Verse 1 reads “Jesus spoke to them” and already we come to the important question of “Who is Jesus speaking to?”

The answer is found a couple of verses earlier in verse 45. We read, “When the chief priests and Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables they knew he was talking about them.”

Jesus is speaking to those who are religious; to those who are confident of their religion. How do you know that you will be in Heaven? What makes you so sure?

Yet what we will find in this third parable is that Jesus is speaking to all of us here today – whether you consider yourselves religious, irreligious or even ignorant of religion. Because the big question at the when considering Heaven is the King of Heaven – not who we are, but who God is. Not how we will get in, but why God graciously calls us into his presence.

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Verse 2ff:
“The kingdom of heaven is like a King who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.
He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.”

This is not an invitation. It isn’t. The king sends servants to those who have been invited. Meaning, they already know there is going to be a celebration. Yet they refuse to come. What does the king do?

(Verse 4) He sends more servants to tell them about the wedding banquet. He says to tell them it is all ready and it is all good! My oxen and cattle have been slaughtered – meaning there is plenty for everyone. This is the good stuff. Not Tesco Value but Tesco Finest. Come! Everything is ready!

Verse 5: “But they paid no attention and went off.” What follows is a range of different responses.

One went off to his field, the other to his business. “Can’t you see I’m busy? I’ve got work to do.” The emphasis here is not just that they cannot spare the time; there is too much work to get done; there are bills to be paid. Rather Jesus makes it a point to say that one goes to his (literally his own) field and the other to his business or enterprise – the emphasis being that these men are owners.

The mention of the field or farm, ought to remind us of the second parable, where the farmers do everything they can because they want to own the land. But here, this man owns his farm, his land; his business.

These men are not responding in ignorance, they respond with idolatry. They see, they compare, but they refuse.

They see what the king offers, but when compared with what they already have and own, it does not measure up. “You have slaughtered cows? I will have you know I can afford my own steak dinner, bought with my own hard-earned money, thank you but no thank you.”

CS Lewis, a Christian author and thinker writes:

“Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward … in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us… We are far too easily pleased.”

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If the first reaction is weak desire, then the second is strong contempt.

Verse 6: “The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them.”

This just sounds crazy to me. They killed them?

If you get an invitation and you don’t want to go – you don’t go. You might make excuses or ignore the invitation but who goes to this extreme?

Arresting the servants? Mistreating them? The word “mistreat” used here means to publicly humiliate and even torture a person.

The question is “why”? What drove the people to such extreme violence?

The answer is the message they carried. The message from the king saying: Come! Everything is ready and there is nothing but the best for the celebration.

Nothing but the best for the wedding of my son!

That was the message from the king. But now the villagers want to send their own message to the king. A message that said: We don’t want to be a part of the celebration, because we do not want you to be our King, and we do not want your son to as your heir.

Here is radical rebellion and wickedness and it is in response to radical grace. The message that this was to be a day of celebration and rejoicing was also the signal that it was the perfect opportunity to rebel.

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So today of all days is the perfect day – a perfect day for rejoicing or rejection.

Valentine’s Day is the perfect day to declare your affections to the one you love most. It can also be the perfect day to be hurt by the one you love most.

Chinese New Year can be time of celebration and thanksgiving –Family members gathering from afar to gather over food for that wonderful traditional of the annual reunion dinner. Yet how many disagreements happen right at the dinner table – how many arguments, misunderstandings will take place tonight in our homes.

The perfect opportunity for one can just as easily lead to the other – it is the best occasion for celebration and joy; it could be a great opportunity to inflict maximum damage and hurt.

How? Through rejection.

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Verse 7: “The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed the city and murderers in the fire.”

This sounds harsh. Destroying an entire city? Sending in the army?

Here we need to consider two things:

First, know who you are dealing with. Know who you are dealing with.

The king represents God in awesome power and justice. If defying the head of an earthly kingdom is fearful, imagine what it means to defy the King of all Kings and the Lord of the universe.

Know who you are dealing with. Our God is an awesome God – both in creation and in judgement; both in goodness and in holiness.

But secondly, know who this God is dealing with. Who is this parable about?

On one level, we have seen it’s about the religious leaders. They are overconfident in their heritage, in their positions of leadership, in their history. Jesus says to them – they have rejected God.

Yet the amazing thing is that as you go back and look at these three parable, the charge that Jesus makes towards the Pharisees and religious leaders is not that they have rejected God as much as they have rejected him as the Son of God.

You see, rejection is at the heart of what the bible describes as sin.

We think sin is breaking rules, doing bad things or being naughty. Yet how exactly have the people in this parable sinned against the king? By rebelling against his rule and by rejecting his authority and goodness. Sin is saying I don’t want a king over my life. Sin is saying I want to be my own king.

And to understand sin rightly as rebellion is then to understand what judgement over sin entails. It is punishment for rebellion. That is why the king sends in the troops. It is what a monarch does when his authority is challenged. The king is quelling the rebellion.

This means the warning that Jesus gives is not just to the religious authorities but also to us. When we reject God’s word; when we reject God’s servants who present us with the claims and promises of God’s word; and indeed when we reject God’s son who is at the centre of God’s word – we stand under judgement of the king.

The parable reveals how we reject Jesus again and again in our lives. Through idolatry: choosing to live our own lives instead of in submission to him. Through outright rebellion: in defiance against his rightful position as Lord over this earth and over our lives. Through religion: By foolishly trusting in our own observance of rules rather than his fulfillment of the will of his Father.

Yet deeper still, the parable is about Jesus in a much more revealing way. It points to us who he is and what he came to do.

Jesus is the true son and heir of God’s kingdom, yet is sent as God’s true servant. He comes to bear the message of God’s promises and blessings, but moreover he enters creation to bear the punishment of our sins and rebellion.

He is the one who will be arrested, humiliated publicly, tortured, and killed on the cross. That happens in just a few chapters on in Matthew’s gospel.

And the parable will go on to show that beyond redefining sin: as the rejection not just of God but Jesus as the Son of God; he will also go on to redefine righteousness.

Not as something we do in order to earn our way to God, but righteousness as something we can only receive from God, and only through Christ.

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The robe of righteousness

Verse 8

“Then (the king) said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come.

Go to the street corners and invite anyone you find.”

Nothing can diminish God’s passion for his glory – not even our sin. In fact, the gospel shows how God uses our sin for his glory and our joy.

The rejection of the accepted has now resulted in the acceptance of the rejected. The hall is now filled with people both good and bad. It’s not based on what they have done or who they are! They are nobodies. They weren’t even on the original guest list.

You could say that this parable gives us a glimpse into what heaven will be like. But I think it’s truer to say that Jesus is showing us what the church on earth should be like. Look with me to verse 10”

The servants going into the streets corners –literally the road exits – meaning the servants went right to the end, as far as the roads would take them – searching everywhere for everyone they could find.

More importantly, they did this in order to gather them together. That’s talking about the church. The word “church” simply means – gathering. Anytime you read in the bible the words “assembly”, “synagogue” or “church” – it means the one and same thing. It means gathering.

The word of God – the gospel – goes out to furthest ends of the world, gathering everyone and anyone into God’s presence to rejoice in God’s Son.

“Anyone” verse 9. “All the people”, “Both good and bad” - verse 10. “Guests” of the king – verse 11.

These are the words of Jesus of the church – and they are words designed to shock! He says to the religious leaders “… tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.” (21:31)

But at the same time: These are words meant to encourage.

I wonder if you can remember the first time in a church, or a bible study or a gathering of Christians. For some of us that day is today. Everyone is singing but you don’t know the songs. Everyone is reading the bible which you are holding for the very first time.

Can I ask you to remember that experience? How new, and how strange and how awkward you felt because that’s the experience of these guests.

There’s so much food. This is the palace of the king. What am I doing here? I’m nobody.

But then they look around and they’re nobodies too! What’s he doing here! Or, that guys doesn’t deserve to be in here either!

And that’s the same way you should think of the church. None of us deserve to be here.

The only requirement for you to be in a church is this: you must be undeserving. You cannot say, because I’m the speaker, because I played music, my parents have been coming for decades, I gave so much money, I cooked so much food today – therefore I deserve… no, none of us deserve to be here… except for the gracious invitation of the king. We have done nothing.

He calls us. He prepares the feast. The church is the product of God’s word and God’s generosity… and not the other way around. The church comes out of the gospel, the gospel does not come out of the church. The word of God produces the people of God.

That’s why it is so important to have it in the center of all that we do. The best way I can welcome you today is to pass you the invitation from the King himself. To call you into his presence. To show you his generosity.

God’s generosity which defines who we are - not what we’ve done, but all that he has done – but also a generosity that determines where we will be in his kingdom… let’s read on.

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Verse 11ff

“But when the king came in to see the guests,
(God looks around his gathering… he walks among us)
he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. Friend, he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’
The man was speechless. (Meaning he had no excuse)

Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”

What are these wedding clothes? And why is this man punished so severely?

In Ezekiel chapter 16, God speaks to his people in Jerusalem as a husband who woos his bride, dressing her in fine clothes.

Verse 10: “I clothed you also with embroidered cloth and … fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk.”

He says, “… I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made a vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declared the LORD God…”

Granted that in Ezekiel, God speaks to his wedding bride, and here the king addresses the wedding guest. But in both cases, what makes the bride and the guest suitable; acceptable is not their inner worth, but their outer righteousness.

In Romans 13, Christians are called to clothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ and not to think how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

The message there is that our righteousness is external – it clothes us. On the inside we are unworthy sinners, but on the outside we are covered by the beauty and worthiness of our Lord Jesus Christ.

At the cross Jesus is stained with our sin, stricken with our pain, punished for our condemnation. But from the cross, we receive his purity, his righteousness and his life.

Without Christ, the bible says our righteous acts are like filthy rags before God. We are without excuse and face the anger of God.

But in Christ, we are loved by God as guests at the banquet, as citizens of the kingdom and as sons and daughters in God’s family.

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Many are called, but...

The parable ends with the sobering words, “For many are invited, but few are chosen.” In quite a few English translations, verse 14 reads “For many are called…”

That’s because every time you see the word “invite” or “tell” in this parable, the word there is actually “call”. God calls us. Again and again, sending his servants, sending his word, and in the end - sending his own Son – to call us into his kingdom.

He calls the good and the bad, both the wicked and the righteous. Any and every, and many are called, but the truth of verse 14 is … few are chosen.

To dwell on being called is to dwell on our privilege and our position – that was what happened to the Pharisees. They thought they were called because they deserved to be called.

But to reflect on God’s choice .. well, that reminds us of just what kind of God we are dealing with. He is an awesome God in justice and holiness. He is a generous God, providing grace to sinners, clothing them with righteousness even at the cost of the death of his son.

We began with the question: How do you know that you will be in Heaven?

But the real answer Jesus gives is not a future promise (will you be in Heaven?), but a present reality (are you in Heaven?). To be in Christ, is to be seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (according to Ephesians 2:6).

For the king says banquet is ready, and all the preparations are finished! The Son of God even now clothes us in his righteousness that we might enter into the very presence of the Almighty who we call our King, our God and our Father.

Every meal we have, not least the great feast we will enjoy today, points forward to the certainty of the fulfillment and joy that waits for us at the end of the age, but also backwards – to a simple meal of bread and wine symbolizing Jesus’ body and blood sacrificed on the cross.

The King says “Come!” For everything that needs to be done has been done in Christ. All we have to do – all we can do – is simply respond and rejoice in the marriage supper of the Lamb, the Son of God in his glory!