Sunday message - Easter Sunday Message

23/03/08
<John 20:19-31, 21:15-19>
BELONGING, THE BEGINNING OF BLISSFULNESS
• Each time when we talk about “resurrection”, we will tend to think about having something new.
However, it is not new for many believers. Their appearance, heart and spirits are not new
• All Saints are willing to pray. They always ask the Lord to tell them, what they must do. However,
most of them still do not know what to do or what to choose. They are still lost. All these is
because they do not have a belonging
• They have yet to restore the principle, purpose, glory and blissfulness of being created
• Men should have a belonging. Without a belonging, there won’t be anything “new”
• So what if we are married, studying or have graduated? People will still be feeling restless or that
life is meaningless. All because they don’t have a belonging
• The Bible has revealed all of God’s plan and desire
• It is not us only. Even the Lord’s disciples had the same problems also
• The Saints went back to fishing after they couldn’t find an answer and were lost. However, the
Lord came back for them personally since He loved them. The Lord wanted to strengthen them
and give them a belonging

Read <John 20:19>

• The disciples had already heard the report from the women that said “The Lord had resurrected”
• v19 The disciples still had the same feeling, the same fear. A lot of believers are also having
that feeling. Though the Lord had resurrected, Saints still have the same feelings they had before
they believed the Lord, whenever they see their problems. Even though they’d accepted Jesus
Christ, they are still fearful always. Men cannot go to where the Lord is, thus the Lord has to come
and find them
• v21 We need to have peace always. People who don’t have a belonging will not have peace
• v22 Some people misunderstand this word. In fact, they are already alive even if the Lord has
not breathed on them. The Lord breathed on them to give them authority. It is only with authority,
that they are able to forgive the people they want to
• v26 The first word of the Lord will forever be “Peace be with you!” The Lord’s voice is always
about love and not rebuke
• v29 Why does the Lord always use the method of faith (i.e. the method that is unseen)? Why
is it always that we can only see God with faith?
• In fact, the Lord’s work is infinite. However, our physical eyes are full of limitations. Our eyes can
only focus on one thing at a time. When we look at our hands with a naked eye, we are not able
to see the germs on them. And when we see the germs through the microscope, we cannot see
the hands. We always see the incomplete picture
• Our physical eyes and our feelings always deceive us
• The other miraculous signs are not as important. Thus, it is not necessary to record all
• There’s a focus in the Lord’s work. Although He appeared to every one, He is also a personalized
God. Thus, the Lord will come personally to find and strengthen the people He loves (e.g. Peter)

Read <John 21:15-19>

• v17 The Lord asked Peter thrice. Sometimes, the Lord may use 3 years to let a person have
confirmation
• v18 Before Peter met Jesus Christ, he was his own lord. However, after Peter knew who his
Lord was and that he was the main character in his era, he was willing to sacrifice for the Lord
daily
• The Lord wants us to “have God” in each of our steps
• God had a very important plan on Peter
• Why did Peter go back to fishing? Is it because he didn’t love the Lord? No. In fact, Peter really
loved the Lord. He loved the Lord more compared to all the rest of the Apostles. However, he
didn’t know how the Lord was leading him. He also didn’t know how the Lord would look at him
after he’d denied the Lord
• People tend to go back to their old ways unknowingly
• All of us have some personal desires before we believed in the Lord. Even after we are born
again, we will still return to our past desires quite often because we don’t know how God is
leading us
• It is easy for us to go back to our old ways if we don’t know the reason for our suffering or why we
had encountered some situations

1. The main purpose for the Lord Jesus Christ’s resurrection: to allow God’s people to
have a spiritual belonging
• To have true resurrection, one must be resurrected in his spirit
• A person can only have a blissful life if he has a belonging
• Everyone has their own home. The home is the belonging of each individual. Therefore, no
matter how successful a person may be, he won’t be joyful unless he has a blissful family
• All men have spirit. What a person truly need is also not a family but a spiritual belonging
• Why were the disciples afraid? Was it because they were fearful of the Roman soldiers? No.
They were afraid because they didn’t have a spiritual belonging
• After Peter had a belonging later in his life, he was able to have peace even when he was
locked up in prison. During then, he wasn’t afraid regardless of how bad the situation was
• A person will only know how to move forward after he has a belonging

1) The Heavenly Kingdom is the true belonging for all saints

When men were created, they were created with a spiritual background
It is only the word and spirit of God that completely create, reign and lead that spiritual
background
• The men created by God come from the heavenly kingdom and must go back there
• All men have a spiritual background. The principle when God created men: men must be
led by God’s word and spirit
• God created all things with His word and spirit. Men will only have assurance in all the
things they do when they do them by God’s word and spirit
• After a person has God’s word and spirit, the hardships he faces will no longer be
hardships. The hardships he faced could glorify the Lord
• If a person doesn’t have God’s word and spirit, he will not find satisfaction in his worldly
enjoyment after some time
• All men have an “endless hole”. When a person needs water, he will never be happy no
matter how much clothing he was given
• It is only after a person has returned to where he belongs, there will be meaning in all the
things he does
• We always feel that we have a lot of problems, are very tired and lose hope because we
have yet to accept the voice from heaven
• We always feel that “there are not enough answers”. This means that we have
understood but lost them again
• It is most frustrating when we don’t have enough answers. Even though we are Christians
now and we know our destination, we still don’t know how to move forward. It is most
agonizing and frustrating to have such feelings
 • Even though we’d know a lot of God’s word, we must know how God is loving us in the
current situation
• The word and spirit of God is alive. God will surely give us answers if we are people with
spirits
• We will return to our old ways when we don’t receive answers. Our thoughts are all based
on “logics”
• What is God’s guidance? If we didn’t receive an answer for this, we will rely on our
physical perspective. Thus, we will go back “fishing”. Perhaps Peter had thought that
even though the Lord had resurrected, he still had to feed himself
• When people do not know what to do, they will make decisions basing on logics. We
cannot ask the heavenly kingdom to come by relying on our logical mind or cleverness
• When a person needs to make a decision or faces a difficult situation; if his focus is to
make the decision by relying on God’s conviction and purpose, all his decisions are
correct
• We will not receive answers if we make decisions to suit our convenience

2) The belonging of all Saints is to restore “the ‘me’ whom God has created”
Only the lives of human beings are created by God’s word and spirit
• God’s spirit has entered us. “May peace by with you” represents God’s Truth
• Men are the most noble among all created beings. Only men have God’s spirit
• Men must restore their true self. Men must restore God’s created “me”
• Even if a person has all the knowledge in this world, but does not know the “him” whom
God has created, he is useless
• Since young, we always view ourselves by the perspective of others
• E.g. if we think that we are clowns in front of others, we will see ourselves as clowns
• This means that we have yet to return home. We are still in the world. Therefore, our
paths are mould by the world
• Although a lot of people got married in the church, their spousal relationships are no
different from that of non-believers
• Although our children were baptized in the church, they will grow up to be the same as all
other children.
• Because we always judge and know ourselves by the worldly perspective. Thus, our
judgment, thoughts and method in teaching our children cannot escape from the world
• What is the world? The world is under the control of the ruler of the air. Satan may not
necessary cause us to sin (kill or arson) every time he appears. However, he will
continue to put some values or desires in us
• Those perspective, values or desires will not match our belonging. All these things will
only cause us to see ourselves as nothing special. Therefore, we will be greedy just like
others; we want whatever that others have
• Satan uses the worldly cultures, trends and thoughts to mould us. He causes us to walk
the worldly path and make decisions by the worldly method
• We must return to the path that God has determined for us
• We are created in God’s image. We are the main character of this era. Thus, this era, our
family and company exist for us. We will only stop struggling after knowing this truth
• What are our usual struggles? We are afraid of making the wrong decision
• We will become fearful whenever we need to make decision
• In fact, when God created the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, He didn’t give us a
choice. Are we just a normal created being? Are our blessings a result of our decisions?
• God has given us this: even if we’d made a wrong choice, we are still correct
 • God’s leading is this, “even if we’d make a wrong move, we are still blessed” because we
are God’s children and God is always with us
• If that’s the case, does it mean we can make decisions impulsively or marry a person
hastily?
• If we are really such noble people, will we make hasty decisions?
• We will know how to decide if we are really noble and important people. We need not ask
the worldly people to tell us what we should be doing (e.g. learn about psychology)
• Why will men waste their time? Not that they have nothing to do but they have yet to
restore God’s purpose of creating them
• We need not talk about great visions or becoming someone great if we have yet to
restore God’s purpose in creating us
• We always say that we know that we must go to God or know ourselves. However, we
always forget, always cannot remember God’s word and always do not have assurance
• Therefore, the third belonging that God has prepared for us is the church

3) The belonging that God has determined for all Saints is the church
Church is the place where Saints are able to receive the most important word of God
and Holy Spirit’s conviction
Church is the place where God interacts with Saints (royal people meet with royal
people to receive the message and Holy Spirit’s conviction together)
• The church that God has prepared for us isn’t just another one
• The Church must be able to proclaim God’s covenant, let people know God’s perfect will,
plan; let people know how God is leading them and how they can submit to God etc
• We cannot go to church just to get involved in ministries or to do some social activities
• We will not have belonging unless we’ve a good church
• If we’d indeed gotten a church that talks about God’s covenant, word and perfect will; we
will be strengthened and be sustained when we return to church, after falling in the world
for six days
• What is so great about our church? Is our preacher someone great? Our church is only
great because of our pulpit
• How does this pulpit come about? This pulpit shares God’s message that comes from a
weak preacher as well as the experiences of the congregation
• This pulpit shares a collective message. It doesn’t come from individual. Without the
tribulations, weaknesses, lives that we’d gone through, our preacher will not be able to
share such a message
• We aren’t saying our church is great. This is God’s church
• What does it mean by the church of God? A church should put together all the
experiences of the members to receive God’s conviction, word and fulfillment
• What was Jesus Christ doing with His 12 disciples?
• Pastors always have a misconception in them. They are always thinking of giving
something, message, or blessings to the congregation
• In fact, the pastor really needs all of us. The pastor will receive convictions and his
message as he listened to the sharing or hymn presentations of his brothers and sisters
• God’s spirit is also in the lives of the brothers and sisters. All of us are noble
• Those who come to our church didn’t come for the sake of people. We come to this
church because of God’s word
• In a place where God’s word is, there will also surely be God’s love and people. We must
gain relationship by having the same belonging
• The Lord went to find Peter to bring him back to where he belonged
2. Only people who have a belonging are able to enjoy their life’s direction
• After we have a belonging, then we will know where we should be going. This is direction
• Direction is very important. More important than knowing where to go is that we must
know where we are right now
• E.g. Although we know that we are going to K.L., more importantly is we must know
whether are we setting off from Thailand or Singapore
• Only those with a belonging will know where they should be going, whether they should
go or not and whether they should do or not
• Must know that we come from the heavenly kingdom, we need the heavenly kingdom, we
will return to the heavenly kingdom and we belong to the heavenly kingdom. The
heavenly kingdom is our eternal direction

1) The eternal kingdom of God, crowns (becoming holy, blameless; glorify God, benefit
others and build God’s kingdom throughout our lives, in accordance to God’s word
and spirit)
• If we want to make the right decision, we need to view today with eternity. We must view
our career, studies, relationships etc with the eternal perspective
• Some brothers and sisters say that “God never helps me”
• In fact, God is helping us every moment. However, the things that we are going after now
have no relation with the eternal life
• In other words, it is like, a person has body guards at home. However, the child decided
to leave that home. After he’d left the family, he bumped into bad people and robbers.
Only then, he grumbled against his dad, saying that his dad had not protect him
• Men have lots of misconception of God. Since we are God’s children, will God not be
concerned over our lives, families, relationships, careers, etc?
• <Gen 1-3> God created men. He gave them rest. He prepared food and a spouse that
are good for us. Will God stop taking care of men after they’d fallen? It isn’t true. <Gen 3>
is the climax. After men had fallen, God had prepared salvation and even laid down His
own life for them
• God is concerned over us. Because He is concerned for us, He has placed eternal
meaning in all the things we do (e.g. our studies, our careers, our marriages, etc)

2) Transformation of lives (putting in the entire life)

Jesus Christ confirmed with Peter thrice: “Do you love me? Feed my lamb!”
(Furthermore, he had to die to glorify the Lord)
• After giving men eternity, the next thing that God gave men is a mission
• What God has given us is mission, not responsibility
• Mission must be done with our entire life. Things that are done half-heartedly are
responsibilities. When a person completes something out of responsibility, he won’t want
to bother with that task anymore
• God uses His entire life to save us. Thus, He also want our entire lives
• Jesus Christ asked Peter thrice to brace him up and affirm him
• What Jesus Christ was asking Peter is this, “Peter, after you have become the Chief
Apostle and have a lot of followers, will you still be humble?” “For the sake of the Lord’s
lambs, are you willing to let go of everything?”
• We may have asked God, “God, since you have everything, why do you still need my
entire life?”
• God wanted our entire life to protect us
• The things that we hold back for ourselves will only bring pain, suffering and worries
 • Paul said, “forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead”. It is difficult for
us to forget the past
• Before we invest with our whole life, we will be suffering
• Before Abraham offered Isaac, he won’t see that God had already prepared everything
• Every time God asks something from us, He did it out of love
• We must call Him “Lord”
• God has never needed our serving or offering. However, the things that we kept for
ourselves will become our idols and cause us to suffer
• How would we stop coming to church? We, who already had this mission, will not stop
coming to church
• A person with mission will not tell others who went to him, “I’m very tired, you are so
troublesome, etc”

3) Personal development (proceeding faster and faster towards the goal)

God’s measurement on me: yesterday’s me vs today’s me (can receive assurance and
clear direction from here)
• A person who has obtained the eternal purpose and who has given his whole life to the
Lord will only proceed faster and faster. Development is God’s direction
• God doesn’t need us to be perfect. What God wants from us is development
• Paul didn’t say that he was perfect. He had continued to press on towards the goal
• Our greatest joy doesn’t come when we are better off than others. Thus, do not compare
with others
• God compares “our yesterday” with “our today”
• We are not talking about the difference in our appearances. We must see that our desire
to rely on God, to enjoy God and to be submissive to God has been changed
• The question is not about us not loving God. If we don’t love God, we will not come to
church consistently. We are being accused for our current weaknesses
• None of us are perfect. We do not seek changes so as to show off to others. We want to
change because we want to follow God. Therefore, it’s alright to be slow
• Those who live in the presence of God will be changed because of God

3. From the Lord’s given belonging and direction, we can obtain His practical guidance
• Men will only have blissfulness when he is able to see God’s guidance
• God will not hide His guidance from the people He loves
• When the disciples were in the most confusing and ironic state, the Lord said to them, “may
peace be with you”
1) The Lord’s guidance always start with “have peace first”
But, peace that comes from where? Answer: Peace that comes from confirming where
we belong and our direction
• It is already God’s guidance that we are able to have peace now. We should not find the
doctor first whenever we are sick. What we need first is to obtain the peace of God
• It is the start of Holy Spirit’s work that men are able to have peace
• More important is, “where does our peace come from?” True peace comes when we
know where we belong, and confirm the direction we need to go
• Our peace shouldn’t come only after hearing the doctor telling us that we are okay
• Christians have peace after knowing where they belong and knowing their direction
through prayers
 • Do not panic whenever we face difficulty in the process of pasturing or when we receive
some bad news. We must remember that we are already dead in the first place. Thus, the
only method that the Lord has for us is to “let go of ourselves”
• Everything that the Lord has given us is good. It is good not only for us but for everyone
• If this is how we receive peace; what follows along is wisdom and the way for victory
• Although we have faced a lot of problems, we are in the centre of God’s plan. Thus, we
know that it is for our benefit that God has allowed us to go through the tribulations we
faced. As such, we need not struggle
• To receive peace in a situation means that God has already given that situation to us

2) God’s guidance is “prayers”

However, what sort of prayers? Answer: In your current situation, with the information
you know now, with the word of God that you’d understood so far; discover God’s
good, pleasing and perfect will
• God’s guidance isn’t about us having to make specified decision, or to get specified
results after making some decisions
• When people need to make decision, they are all looking for a way out. Therefore, those
who don’t know God will seek fortune tellers. Even though believers won’t be looking for
fortune tellers, their minds will always be wandering
• The absolute answers that God has given us is that, all the answers and information we
need are already surrounding us
• Those who don’t understand will always be looking for a “sign” (miracles, special power)
• Though God may allow us to see a sign once, it is necessary for Him to disappear. In
fact, God is always with us. He is Immanuel
• Things we ought to see, we don’t see but we always want to see what we imagine. This is
believing wildly and blindly
• The second guidance God has for us is prayers
• “If you love me, I will surely show myself to you”
• When a person really wants to seek God, God will surely reveal Himself to that person
• Some people, say, “I made the choice after praying, but my decision is still wrong”
• Perhaps a sister has chosen a brother and they’d marital problem. Or a company has
closed down not long after a believer has joined that company
• The first reaction people will have after meeting such things is, “I’d prayed wrongly”
• In fact, it is not about right or wrong. All these are the blessings of “all things work
together for good…” God’s word already told us, “in all things God works for the good of
those who love Him”
• Therefore if we are willing to see God; everything we receive though our prayers in that
timetable will not be wrong. All work together for good
• How would we have our current status if not for the past occurrences?
• How would we have our current life if not for our past experiences?

3) The Lord’s ultimate guidance: Evangelism, rise up disciples

Evangelism is God’s absolute will, and it is the only channel where we can receive all
blessings
If Saints don’t understand evangelism, they will not be able to know God’s obvious
guidance in all things
• It is not a responsibility when the Lord asks us to evangelize. He did so to bless us
• It is not after we’d evangelized then God will bless us. A lot of people feel that evangelism
has nothing to do with them
• Some people will question God, “Isn’t it your desire to bless me or heal me?”
• Of course, that is God’s desire but God’s will transcend His desire
• E.g. A child wants to leave his family. Though the father cannot bear to let the child go
because of his love for the kid, his will allows him to know that his child will learn a lot of
lesson if he leaves the family. Thus, with tears, he lets his child leaves
• If God were to lead us simply by His desires, we will all be suffering
• God will not punish me simply because I’d said something bad about another person;
God will also not punish the other person when he said something not nice about me.
Other wise, both of us will be living in suffering and agony
• E.g. two children fought with each other. If the dad were to beat the first child because the
latter had hit the 2nd child, then both the children will live in great suffering
• God works in His perfect love. The tribulations that we face today are related to the
people around us. Our blissfulness is also related to the people around us
• God has asked us to go through tribulations and receive our crowns together with the
body of Christ