What are we lacking?- The Church's Role & Responsibility

ON 13 June, I wrote on the Earliest Church in Singapore. Here, I reflect on the church's reponse & responsibilities. This is just some of my thoughts. Some of them are on what I see is lacking in the churches of Singapore. They are of course not exhaustive..., but there are nonetheless what I feel is the essentials!

Our Response & Responsibility

1) Giving Glory to God for what he has done

What does this entails? Is it only achieving success, health, wealth, and status? What about the ability to endure suffering, having the courage to face problems, …

2) The importance of a Living Theology (Bibllical & Systematic; NT & OT)

Theology (church doctrine) is not dull and irrelevant if it is living. Dorothy Sayers, a 20th-century, Oxford-educated dramatist, novelist, and lay theologian, reminds us that "The dogma is the drama!" Theology is the drama of God's remdptive act in history (since the beginning of time).

Theology is not simply the concern or the domain of a small group of academic experts. Rather, theology, by its very nature and function, is for everyone. Theology still matters today, as it did in the past. After all, an undogmatic Christianity is no Christianity at all. Christianity is about Christ, a living person. As a historical person with historical facts (i.e. his incarnation & atonement, also called doctrines) surrounding it, Christianity cannot as facts separating from doctrines. As B B Warfield puts it, “Christianity consists in facts that are doctrines and in doctrines that are facts” (I have benefited much from Dr Gary L W Johnson’s writing “Does Theology still Matter?” in the book The Coming Evangelical Crisis: Current Challenges to the Authority of the Scripture and the Gospel, edited by Dr John H Armstrong (Moody, 1996), p.57-73.).

Of course, ‘theology’ can be wrong at times too. For example, theological liberialism has questioned the authority of the bible. The theology we need be grounded in scripture. It should be biblical, exegetical, systematic, practical, and covers both OT & NT. Theology should not be speculative, or based entirely on human reasoning & logic.

The importance of theology could also be seen in the launching of the annual Earnest Lau Professorship Lectures by TTC. Its aim is to bring theology to the level that pastors and informed lay leaders could appreciate. The first annual lecture is entitled “Rediscovering the Catechumenate: How to Help New Converts Discover their Real Christian Identity”, and held on Jan 19, 2005. The speaker was Rev Dr Simon Chan, Earnest Lau Professor of Systematic Theology at TTC. The focus of the lecture is on the relationship between theology and some aspects of the church life and pastoral practice so that Christians can be encouraged to think through pastoral issues theologically and formulate theologically informed responses rather than merely resort to pragmatic solutions.

3) God’s Word

(a)- Authority & Sufficiency

God’s Word, as revealed in the Old & New Testament, is the authority for the church. The authority of any teacher (pastor, cell group leader, bishop, elder, deacon, even bible scholar! Of course, we should also examine our very own scriptural understanding with the bible. We could be wrong too!) must be judged by its faithfulness to the Scriptures.

The bible is true, sufficient and clear, there is no need for further revelation. There should be distinction between the canonical texts and what Christian writers say (in Christian literature), what pastors say (in sermons), what we ‘hear’ God say (‘so-called prophesy’; hearing from God). Christian writers, and preachers/pastors are channels of the Holy Spirit’s teaching (Spiritus Sancti fistulae), but we should always remember that sometimes, they may too have wrong interpretations (which arose from a lack of prayerful study of the bible, and thus erroneous understanding) Thus, when pastors begin their sermons, we sometimes hear this prayer, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” (Psalms 19:14, ESV)

(b)- Trusting & Studying

Sunday-morning sermons, though important, are never replacements for devoting time to consistent bible study.

Psalms 78:1 (ESV): Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth!

Job 23:12 (ESV): I have not departed from the commandment of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food.

(c)- Faithful Expository (Exegetical) Preaching in the pulpit

“Pastors are called to a ministry of exposition, not entertainment. We are to be warm containers of divine treasures. We must be touched and transformed by the message. It is a high calling to be a preacher of the Word.” (from Bishop Robert Solomon’s sermon at the Ordination and Closing Service of the 29th Session of the CAC in 2004, Methodist Message, Issue Vol. 107 No 1, Jan 2005) The reason why John Sung was so successful in his evangelistic effort was due to his Bible-centered preaching. He took the bible seriously and expound the bible chapter by chapter. When he preached in Singapore in 1935, he could preach for 80 minutes for each meeting, three times a day, and each meeting being two and a half hours. About 2000 listened to him each night. According to Bobby Sng in his In His Good Time: “Many brought their own food packages, for fear of losing their seats if they left the church hall. Some even brought mats and slept through the nights. About half of te students in ACS and MGS absented themselves during the day in order to attend the meetings. All English and Chinese Bibles were sold out and fresh supplies have to be ordered from kuala Lumur. Singapore town was in an uproar during those weeks. Everywhere people spoke of the meetings. In all, 1300 people accepted Jesus Christ as Saviour.” (p.173) Between 1933 and 1936, over 100,000 Chinese was converted to Jesus Christ through his ministry. In 1935 alone, over 5000 Chinese in this region were converted to Christ.

There should be consistent Bible study, so that Christians can come to a deeper and more personal understanding of God’s Word. Through God’s revealed Word, we can get to know God better and learn more about His will for them. As 2 Tim 2:15 reminds us, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” (ESV)

In my bible study, for Chinese Bible, I use both the New Chinese Version (新译本, from The Worldwide Bible Society) and Chinese Union Version. For English, I use the ESV (Crossway) & NASB (1995) for daily reading. To compare translations & help in understanding, I check up NIV, NRSV, NKJV, and NLT. Having a parallel bible can be useful, but it's heavy & expensive. So, I buy personal size bible of different versions instead! Easier to carry around too!

4) Gospel- Not Diluted nor changed

As we obey Jesus’ command to us to proclaim the Gospel, the Gospel we proclaim should be what is revealed in the Holy Scripture, God’s Word to us (the canonical OT & NT). When the gospel is preached, it should be centered in the preaching “Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). The Penal-substitutionary nature of Christ’s atonement should be taught. Christians sometimes forget that we depend on Christ's death on the cross for our salvation. The ‘disappearance’ of Christ from Roman Catholics’ crucifix, during the Reformation of the 1500s, tells us that Christ has risen. He is risen for our sake. If Christ is not raised, what we are preaching would be in vain. If we do not believe Christ has risen, what we believe would be in vain. Christianity is not a religion, it is a historical fact.

Paul’s words “and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel” (Ephesians 6:19, ESV) is what we urgently need.

5) Evangelism: The Biblical “witness”/ Be a Witness

The task of evangelism and disciple-making should be the primary and urgent task of our church. However, as a witness to Christ, there is no need to denigrate other religions. We should live in harmony with those of other faiths (though not obliterating the biblical teaching to keep our worship of God separate from these faiths).

Evangelism is telling others about the gospel, or to put it more plainly it’s about telling others about Jesus. But, do we really know what the gospel message involves? Too often, the latter (“telling others about Jesus”) often translates into “telling others about ourselves”! We simply talk about their ‘changed’ lives. We start recounting how Christianity has impacted our own lives. This is an underestimation of the power of the gospel! We try to add our side of the story. It is as though if we do not give our personal testimony, our non-Christian friend would not be lead to Christ!

However, there is a difference between our own testimony (personal experience) about our journey to faith and the Biblical “witness” to Jesus Christ. We shouldn’t replace the biblical testimony with our personal testimony. The content of evangelism should be the Biblical witness to Christ and God, not our journey to faith. Will Metzger in his very helpful book, Tell the Truth (IVP), says that, “the content [of the Biblical witness] is Christ and God, not our journey to faith. Our personal testimony may be included, but witnessing is more than reciting our spiritual autobiography. Specific truths about a specific person are the subject of our proclamation. A message has been committed to us—a word of reconciliation to the world (2 Corinthians 5:19).”(p. 24)

Before we are to be able to explain to non-Christians the biblical witness to Christ, we need to know our Biblical facts well. Before we start telling people the truth in love, we need to know what does it means to “tell people the truth”? To understand “the truth”, we need to be very clear about who Jesus is and understand something of the nature of his saving work. This is where theology comes in. The doctrine of God tells us the character of God (His attributes), the Trinity, and the Creation of the Universe. The doctrine of Man focuses on the creation of Man, it tells us why God create us, how did God make us like himself, and what does the scripture mean by “soul” and “spirit”. It also explains what is sin, and where did it come from. The doctrine of Christ explains the atonement. Was it necessary for Christ to die? What really happened in the atonement? What was the significance of Christ’s resurrection and ascension? What happened to Christ when he ascended into heaven?

The gospel is the saving work of Christ as summarized in 1 Corinthians 15:1-8, together with the gospel imperative to repent and believe. 1 Corinthians 15:1-8 (ESV) reads:

v1) Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, v2)and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. v3) For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, v4) that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, v5) and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. V6) Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. v7) Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. v8) Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. v9) For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. v10) But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. v11) Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

v12) Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? v13) But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. v14) And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.

With these basic presuppositions about God, creation, man, sin and salvation, we are then ready to engage in evangelism! These constitute the “truth” we must tell non-Christians in love. Through this message, God’s creates faith and enables sinners to believe.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (in his The Presentation of the Gospel), reminds us that the supreme object of the work of evangelism is to glorify God. This brings us correctly back to the top on our list of “Response & Responsibility”, which is to give Glory to God.

6) The Church- A Witnessing Body

May we be reminded that the physical building we use for worship is not an end in itself. It should serve to remind us of our spiritual calling to be united in truth and holiness, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God. If the building does not help us to be spiritually-minded, then it is a curse rather than a blessing to us. It is the spiritually-minded people that form the church, and not the bricks and cement. May that message serve our church well till the Lord's return.

In Ephesians, Paul reminds us that the church is not an institution, but a living organism of which all believers are members, and Christ is the head. Because the church is more than an association or an institution, believers must learn to out a life which reflect us being the body of Christ. When describing the Presbyterian missionary work in the 1880s to early 1900s period, Bobby Sng wrote that the reason why many were ready to accept the gospel was that the immigrant population “discovered in the churches compassion and practical help they needed so badly” (p. 102). [In His Good Time: The Story of the Church in Singapore 1819-2002 (Third Edition). Singapore: Bible Society of Singapore/ Graduates’ Christian Fellowship, 1980, 1993, 2003.] As Singaporeans become affluent, are we still able to show compassion towards one another. Are we still able to accept the differences (be it character, or socio-economic, racial) of others?

“be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might” (Ephesians 6:10, ESV)