2014.8.3 礼拝

Kids Message
Have you ever thought of dying? Probably we don’t want to think about it. It is kind of scary. Actually, we all need to think about this because it is a reality for all of us, even for children. Jesus talked about what happens after death.
In John 10:27 Jesus talks of calling us out. 5 people heard and answered that call and were baptized last week. Many of us have heard and answered that call.
Jesus talks about giving eternal life to his sheep in the next verse.
Jesus talks about never letting us go and giving us eternal life. That’s what the cross is all about. No matter what happens Jesus will never let us go.
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Hanukkah Festival.
Comes from some books written around the same time as the OT books but not accepted as the Bible. Found in the Maccabean. In the Jewish faith, this is the only festival that is held and not found in the Old Testament. It is basically like an Independence Day celebration.
This is the setting for today’s Bible passage.
In the midst of this festival, the Jewish leaders surrounded Jesus and began asking him questions.
John 10:24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
Just like in these days with Hamas, during the days of Jesus, there were many people that wanted Jesus to be a military leader that would free them from the Roman people. In the NT there are examples of people, even the disciples, wanting Jesus to rule as a military leader.
Matthew 20:20-21 A Mother’s Request Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something. And he said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.”
Acts 1:6-7 The Ascension So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.
So the Jewish leaders at that time wanted to know if Jesus was going to be the radical military leader that they have been waiting for. BUT Jesus had not come to be a military leader. He had totally different plans.
The important question “Who is Jesus to You?” comes to each of us.
What is our expectation of Jesus?
1. Jesus gives us what is really important. Eternal Life.
John 10:28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
Matthew 16:25-26 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?
We try so hard to fill all our own needs. But even if we get everything we want that will not really make us truly satisfied. True satisfaction comes only from eternal life.
The problem is that we only focus on the needs that are right in front of us. If we realized that the focus should be on the eternal, and not the immediate, we can understand what Jesus is saying.
2. In order to understand ETERNAL things we have to be willing to think about death.
Matthew 25:46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
How are you with eternity? If you died in the next hour what would eternity be for you. If we knew that death was soon, our needs and desires would change. Our priorities would change. Most people are afraid of death because of its uncertainty.
There are lots of religions and beliefs about death but can you really put your faith in it?
As Christians, our faith is in Jesus Christ.
3. In order to welcome death in a peaceful way during this life, we need the Shepard that gives us eternal life.
4. God loves You.
John 3:16 For God So Loved the World “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.