B -> S = L (John 20:31)

[0:00] Today we have the privilege of having our senior pastor, Pastor Albert, to come and share a short message reflecting on the good news of Easter. So, yeah, I'd like to welcome you up and we can hear from God's words.

[0:14] Thank you. It was a great weekend. I believe that all over Auckland, all over New Zealand, all over the world, the different activities from Fridays, Sunday morning, early this morning you went to Stock Hill.

[0:28] Yeah, yeah, there's many, and the church next door, they had an outdoors worship this morning. It's great to see different, you know, different creativities in honouring God.

[0:41] Yeah, and we had a baptismal service this morning, praise God, all glory and honour to Him. Yeah. So I'd like to share a shorter message today.

[0:53] You know this kind of equation or formula, right? What is this? I don't know. I never studied well at all. But according to what I found out, it's what they call energy equals to mass, speed of light twice, right?

[1:09] What is it? I don't know. Yeah. But when he discovered that, he kind of regretted it because a lot of application on this kind of equation. When he found out that a lot of people using this equation to develop things, he was scared stiff that the German at the time was trying to invent the atomic bomb out of this.

[1:37] So he, a long time pacifist, he wrote to the president of the United States at the time, please go ahead to develop the atomic bomb before the Germans.

[1:50] And he did.

[2:20] Will not bring devastation but will bring salvation. I did not make that up. B in S equal L. So John said that.

[2:32] All right. John said you believe the sun and then you have life. This is an equation that will bring life and salvation.

[2:45] All right. So let's read this one verse together on Easter Sunday. Okay. Can we read it together? But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that by believing you may have life.

[3:06] What happened? Where's life? Okay. Here. Life here. Don't need to depend on the PowerPoint. We have the power and points.

[3:16] We have everything here. All right. Okay. Now, the passage in this, I mean, you see, belief, sun, and life are the three themes that run through the whole book of John, the gospel of John.

[3:36] Okay. And we all kind of knew this verse since we had a, you know, first day we become, we got to know the Bible. All right. For God so loved the world that he gives his one and only son.

[3:50] And whoever believes will not perish but will have everlasting life. See, again, son believes life.

[4:01] You see, if you have concordance or, you know, search the words, son, belief, life, and the book of gospel, many of them come up.

[4:12] All right. So, this one verse tells us different things. Okay. So, firstly, about life. Okay. What is life in the book of God, in the gospel of John?

[4:26] Okay. There are three characters. Okay. Three characters. One is Beos. His name is Beos. Okay. And the other one is Sukkah. Okay. And third one is Zoe.

[4:37] Okay. Who are these fellows? Okay. As you could tell by their names, Beos. Physical, my biology, you know, my physical self.

[4:48] I can move. I need to eat. I, you know, I sleep. This is Beos. And Sukkah. Sukkah. Sukkah is more like, you know, a thinking type.

[5:01] You know, as, you know, psychology. You know, psychic. This is your mind. Okay. And Zoe is sort of like deep, you know.

[5:13] It's got deep qualities. Okay. Okay. In fact, these are the three Greek words for the word life in English. Okay. And all three words appeared in the Bible.

[5:27] But that Beos is like God has created our physical selves. You know. It's good. There's nothing wrong with our body. You know. You need to look after it. We need to look after it.

[5:37] But the problem is, if we just look after my body, and I neglect my mind, and that's the problem. And even I take care of my mind. I think. You know. I develop my logics.

[5:49] And I. That's not enough. Zoe is the life that God has promised. That's actually the word in the verses that we have read before.

[6:02] And this is what Jesus has said. You know. He is life. In him. In chapter 1, verse 4 of John's Gospel, he said, in him was Zoe.

[6:14] Life. Okay. And that life was the light of man. And Jesus was the life. The giver of life. He is life. And because of him, we can have life.

[6:27] Zoe. Not just this physical body. You know. I was like Isaac and Gary. I was fit and strong. And you know. This age developed on me. And then I just could flap.

[6:39] You know. And I couldn't move as quick. This. This. Beos. Will fade away. One day you will too. Okay. But. But.

[6:50] Zoe. Is everlasting. Okay. And that's what Jesus said. I have come. That. They may have life.

[7:02] And have it to the full. And this Zoe. This life. It's usually connected to eternal. Eternal life. And eternal life.

[7:14] Is not just quantity. How long it lasts. But also. It refers to quality. Abundance. Vibrancy.

[7:26] We have this life. In me. Right now. When I become. A Christian. When I receive. This life. This life. From the giver.

[7:37] Of life. And this is why. Jesus said. I'm the way. I'm the truth. And I'm life. Alright. So. The fact that.

[7:48] You heard. Pastor William. Just read the story. Jesus. Jesus was able to raise up. Nazareth. Because. He. Is the source. Of life.

[7:59] It's only a one. Demo. Of. What he could do. But he could do. Much. Much. More than that. Because. He. Is the source.

[8:09] Of life. And. And. You know. And Jesus. When he died. He said. I did not. Someone did not take my life from me. I gave it up. And I gave it up.

[8:20] And I can take it back. Because. Life was in him. Alright. So when we become. When we come to know Jesus. Life. Is. In me. I have the physical.

[8:32] Life. God has given to me. I have the mind. That. That. We need to exercise. We are going to love God. With our mind. With our soul. But also.

[8:43] We have this. Eternal. There's a way. That quality. Abundance. Of life. So what do we do with this. Life that God has given to me. You need to.

[8:56] We need to take care of. Every aspect. Easy for us. Just. You know. I'm hungry. Then I eat. I. And then. Not just eating. But I want to eat good food.

[9:07] You know. And. And easy. When we. When we. You know. We need to. To. To sleep. And we need to have quality sleep. Fine. Look after our bodies. Because this is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

[9:18] But. It's more than just. Bios. All right. It's more than. Sukkah. Zoe. This is.

[9:29] In me. All right. I used to read this. Yeah. So. It's all given by God. And let's. Let's. Let's. Love.

[9:40] Like. What God has given to us. And develop what God has given to us. To glorify him. Okay. I used to read a little novel called Jonathan Livingstone.

[9:50] Livingstone Seagulls. How many have read their books? It shows the age gap. Right? Yeah. All right. And. It's a lot of good quotes from this. Pastor William. You would have read that.

[10:01] Haven't you? Oh. Goodness me. All right. I am old. All right. It was this. This. This. A lot of good quotes from that. But one of the quote I really liked. And the quote was.

[10:13] For most gulls. It was not flying that matters. But eating. Just. You know. You know. The seagulls. You throw anything to them. They just. You know. They just eat.

[10:25] But for this particular gull. It was not eating that matters. But flight. Just think.

[10:38] Sometimes we get. Forget. We kind of. Outflow. All right. We think. Eating. And. And enjoying. The physical life. The bios. Is.

[10:49] You know. Is. Is. What we enjoy. Surely we can. But. Often we neglect. The greater things. That God has given to us. There's a way.

[11:02] That life. God has given to us. To. To enjoy. And to develop. And to love God. And to. And to share his goodness. To others. You know.

[11:12] Sometimes. We may. Just need to. Be reminded. That. It's greater things. In. In. In. Here. Than just. Eating and drinking. And. And. And. And. Sleeping.

[11:23] And. And. Going to. Trips. You know. And this is. Life. That. God has. Promised. To us. And. How do we.

[11:33] Attain that life. It's not by. How we do. What we do. Surely we can. We can cooperate. With God. But it's not. Essentially. It's not. How.

[11:44] How. How. Much. Devotional time. I spend. And how. Quick. I read the Bible. Certainly. Before we come to. We come to know.

[11:55] The Lord. Jesus. We couldn't do anything. To attain. This life. It was. Purely. What God. Has planned. For us. The spirit. Gives us.

[12:06] Life. In me. All right. And so. This. This is. Life. Is through. The son. Of God. And. In. In the.

[12:17] In the. The whole book of John. It talked about. His. Baptism. That shown. God has. God has. God has. Promised. And God has. Said.

[12:28] That this is. My. Beloved son. The spirit. Came upon him. And to. To. Confirm. This. Sonship. All right. And his miracles.

[12:39] In the. In the. In the. Gospel of John. It pointed. To. His sonship. As well. Okay. Now. The. The other three gospels.

[12:50] Matthew. Luke. And Mark. When they describe. Miracles. They were. Using the word. Dunamis. Okay. That dunamis. That's. The word. That's. Today's English.

[13:02] Is the dynamite. Okay. So. It was. Described. The miracles. As the acts. Of the mighty powers. When Jesus. Was performing. These miracles. Was. Whether it was.

[13:12] Was healing. The sick. Was raising. The dead. Or whatever. Okay. Calming. The storm. So. It was. It was. The acts. Of mighty power. The strong man.

[13:24] Has came. All right. But in John. The miracles. That. That. The word. That described. The miracles. That. Jesus performed.

[13:35] Was using. Another word. It was using. The word. Simeon. And that. Simeon. Can translate. Can be translated. As. Signs. And sometimes.

[13:45] You know. Some. Some Christian. Some churches. Use the word. Signs. And wonders. That's. That's. That word. Simeon. Okay. So. The miracles.

[13:56] One of the miracles. That was written. I was raising. The letters. Pastor William. Just read before. All right. These. Those were signs. For what? When you see the signs.

[14:08] You know. He is the son of God. Only the son of God. Could perform those. Miracles. So. You see the signs. You don't just look at the signs.

[14:18] And think. Oh. What a wonderful signs. No. You don't do that. All right. So. You go to the. To the door. You know. Behind. The. This auditorium. And you have the.

[14:29] You know. The sign of a man. And you don't just look at the. Oh. What a wonderful sign. I'm a lady. Can I walk into that? You don't do that. And you know. You see the signs. You know what's behind that. So.

[14:40] The sign. The miracles. When people. Look. And see. The miracles. The signs. That. That. Pointing. Oh. Jesus. Was. The son. Of God.

[14:51] And also. That. The. The son. Of God. It. It was kind of. Expressed. In a. Very. Oriental way. Not. And. Not.

[15:02] A. Kiwi way. Not. A. European. Western way. You know. You know. The Chinese. Or. Oriental. We think. You know. You see the son. You see the father. Right. Like son.

[15:13] Like father. You know. Some Chinese. Was. Express. Like. You know. I don't know. Have you ever heard that before. Some older.

[15:24] When. Older generation. When we described. Oh. This is my. Actually. Literally. It means. This is. This is. This is.

[15:34] Don't say. This is my. In Chinese. This is my. My. My. My. My. My. Son. Of. A. Dog. Okay. Yeah. This is what he said.

[15:45] And. And he was really. Wasn't really. He wasn't really. He wasn't really. He was. His. His. His. His. His. His. His. His. His. His. His. His. His. His. His. His. My. Son. Okay. So.

[15:55] When you see. When you see the description of the son of God. And that. In those times. It wasn't really mean. That. The father.

[16:06] God. Was greater than the son. It was really mean. When you see the son. You see the father. Okay. And. John. Himself.

[16:17] Actually. He had a nickname. Son of Thunder. All right. And. Because. It. It. It was. Just describing. His. His. Kind of.

[16:28] A raging. Kind of. A personality. Of course. He was not. This. You know. His father was not. The. The God of Thunder. And he was. The son. No. Of course not.

[16:38] It really pointed. Something. About the character. About the nature. Of him. So when he's. When. When John was describing. The son of God. He was really saying that.

[16:50] He was God. God. All right. Jesus. Was God. And he's God. And. And his. Death. His crucifixion.

[17:01] And. Jesus. Was. When he was. Praying to God. Father. Glorify your son. And. John was pointing.

[17:13] All. Through all this. His. Jesus. Jesus's life. Ministry. From his baptism. To his miracles. To his death. That Jesus. Was indeed. The son.

[17:25] Of God. He is. God. So we. How do we have. This life. This life. Was through. The son.

[17:36] Of God. Through Jesus. Himself. And. On. Easter day. It reminds us. He has risen again.

[17:47] He's risen. He's not in the grave. He's risen. And we believe. In the. Living God. And. That's right. Jesus.

[17:58] Has performed. Many other signs. In front of his disciples. Which was not. Recorded in this book. That was the verse. Prior to what. The verse. We have read before.

[18:09] But these. Are written. That you might believe. That Jesus. Is the Christ. The son. Of God. And only.

[18:20] In Jesus. We can have. This. Life. Salvation. Is found. In. No one. Else. For there is. No other name.

[18:31] Under heaven. Given. To mankind. By which. We. May be. Must be saved. I think. This is very. Very important. A shorter.

[18:42] A simple. Message. Today. But this. Is. The very. Crux. Very. Foundational. For our beliefs. You know.

[18:53] Especially. On. On. Easter. Sunday. It really. Reminds us. That. What kind of. Life. That we can attain. And who. Do we get.

[19:04] This. Life. From. And when we think about this. Quality. Of eternal life. In Jesus. You know. The thing. We are. We are.

[19:15] Focusing on. Maybe. Maybe. Just. So. Futile. So. So. Yeah. Not as important. But how do we.

[19:27] Actually. Have. This. This. Full. Measure. Of Christ. Quality. Vibrancy. Abundance.

[19:38] Of life. In me. Believe. Believe. But these. Are written. That you may. Believe. That Jesus.

[19:51] Is the Christ. The son of God. Now. I think we all. Kind of know. What believes. Mean. Okay. Often. When you say. Oh. I say something.

[20:02] And say. Oh. I believe in you. So. What does it mean? I believe. What you said. Hugo. Okay. But. That kind of belief.

[20:13] Yes. Is. Is. Is. Is. One. Aspect. Of. Believe. But. But. That's only. A kind of. A shallow. You know. It's. It's a mind. You think. Oh. The possibility. Of what you said. Is correct.

[20:23] That. Is greater than. Possibilities. That. It's not correct. So. I. I accept. That fact. All right. So. That is. Believe. But. If. Oh. If. We're walking around.

[20:34] With this kind of belief. Oh. Our relationship. Will be very shallow. Oh. I believe you. What you. You won't let me down. The great. The possibility. You won't let me down. Is greater than the possibility.

[20:45] You're going to let me down. Okay. I trust in you. In that sense. But. I believe that. Believe in the Bible. Is greater than that.

[20:57] Apart from. Our. Mind. To think. To accept. The facts. There's greater thing. Is.

[21:08] Laying down. My life. So that I. I kind of trust. All right. When I said. Do you believe. This chair.

[21:20] Can. Actually. Bear. Your full weight. Do you believe. And then. You might say. Oh yeah. It looks dirty. It's. It's not made in China.

[21:31] No. I shouldn't say that. Yeah. I think. I trust in you. Pastor. And. And. You won't let me down. So. I will. Kind of sit on it. But as long as.

[21:43] You. Until. You kind of. Sit on it. You won't. Demo. Your. Trust. In this chair. Or in me. All right.

[21:54] It's more than just. Conceptual thing. You need to have an action. Oh. I trust. I believe. And then I acted. Believing.

[22:06] Jesus. As the son of God. Is also like that. It's not just. My. Mind. Knowing. Accepting.

[22:17] Facts. But I. I will. Trust. I. Entrust. My. Life. To him. Okay. This is belief.

[22:28] I tell you. All right. This is belief. For guys. Be married for. Two. Two years now. Okay. This is all. Good and well. But. But.

[22:39] There will be. Ups and downs. In lives. You know. After 30. 40. 50 years later. If you both. Still holding hands.

[22:51] This is belief. This is trust. And trusting in Jesus. Is like a relationship. A relational thing. Given the.

[23:04] All the good times. And the bad times. With longevity. Of your relationship. Sometimes. As human. We let others down. All right.

[23:17] But. Jesus. Will never. You know. You kind of. You have. Play this. You play this game before. Right. Oh no. No. Let's see. Coming.

[23:27] Yep. Ah. Nah. It's not coming. All right. Can you hold. Can you. Can you. Play it for me.

[23:39] Oh no. That's okay. It was. It was a picture of. You know. When you. People. This trust me challenge. You know. Okay. All right. And someone's going to hold me at the back. And it.

[23:50] And it. And he let him down. He just. Let him fail. Right. But Jesus. Will never. If. We are faithless. He will remain.

[24:01] Faithful. Jesus. Will. Never. Let. Me down. He will never. Let you down. I think. Trust. Is something.

[24:14] When you. Especially. It's. It's kind of a life and death thing. You really appreciate. What trusting. Means. When we say. We believe in Jesus.

[24:26] Also. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Here. When we are in. In. In church. We are praising. And. And we are. You know. Everything is okay.

[24:37] For us. But if. If at times. Really. Really. Testing. And trials. Come into our ways. And we. Kind of. Can.

[24:48] Those. Are the opportunities. For us. To. Really. Learn. To. Exercise. Trust. And believe. In Jesus. It was about.

[25:02] Four years ago. When. Simo. You know. Simo. All these times. She's more. She's kind of. She's been pretty sick. Right through her. Our marriage actually. And we kind of.

[25:12] Describe that. She's in hospitals. Or clinics. More than we go. Yum cha. You know. Yeah. So. It was about. Four years ago. That. One. One day.

[25:23] And she. She called me. And I was actually. Had a meeting at church. She just told me that. Oh. I'm vomiting blood. Oh. You. You. You had that before. Four months ago. That's all right.

[25:33] We just. Admit to the hospital. But this time. Was. It was quite bad actually. She vomited. A whole liter. All right. That's. Yeah. And I was kind of scared.

[25:44] So. I had to go home. And. Take her. To hospital. To minimal. And while I was driving. She was. And we had to have. Had a. Kind of a.

[25:55] A plastic bag. And put it inside a little box. So she just keep vomiting. I was keep driving. You know. And when we kind of. Outside the A&E. And when the people saw. She was.

[26:05] And then she just. And the. The security. Just. Go. Leave. Leave. Leave. Leave. Leave. Leave. Come. Come. Come. Come. Come. And I was. I felt like a VIP. You know. And. And. And I. I just parked the car outside.

[26:16] And I said. Is it okay to park here? The security. No. No. Just leave it here. And then. She was. Admitted into the. Yeah. The resuscitation. Or whatever. Venus.

[26:27] You all know about. You know all about it. Right. And then. Before I knew anything. It was about. Seven or eight consultants. And the big guys. You know. Big. Not size.

[26:38] But. Influential doctors. And consultants. They were there. And I. I was scared. You know. Yeah. And. And then. They had a lot of diagnosis. And all this stuff.

[26:48] And trying to stop the. The vomiting. Blood. You know. And. And then. After. Half an hour or so later. This consultant. This Chinese doctor.

[26:59] She came to me. She said. Mr. Tang. We had a bit. We had a bit of a difficulty. And. And she said. She said. You know. Your wife is on warfarin.

[27:10] Okay. Warfarin is to. That's to keep her blood. To. In a thinning kind of a condition. So that she doesn't have stroke. She said. I can't. It's. We have this. Problem.

[27:20] If I stop the warfarin. Okay. It will stop the vomiting of blood. But then. Your wife will have a stroke. But. But if we keep on that warfarin.

[27:32] She will just keep vomiting. Blood. We don't know what to do. I'm going to say. You're a doctor. You don't know what to do. What am I supposed to do? You know. And that was.

[27:43] A thing. At that time. That really. Really was a test. Of faith for us. Okay. If this.

[27:54] This consultant. Was telling me. She doesn't know what to do. So. I had to. Really had.

[28:06] We had to lay our trust. In a greater physician. And. Me and Seymour. Was talking. In the ward. And was really taught. Chetting our hearts out.

[28:18] And. What happened. If. If. If she really. You know. The Lord really. Take her. At that time. You know. And then. That evening. When I went home. By myself. And.

[28:29] We kind of. Kind of. Talked. And we prayed. And we decided. To trust. In Jesus. Okay. And that evening. When Anna went home. It was. It was quite unbearable.

[28:41] You know. And knowing that. When I. Go back to hospital. The next day. There was. You know. She might not come back home again. And. But we had to. Accept the fact.

[28:52] I was. I was even actually. Trying to. To write down. The. The. The. The schedule. Of her funeral. Who was going to carry. The casket. And who. All this stuff.

[29:02] You know. But we. Decided. To trust. Okay. But. I think that was something. That God has.

[29:14] Allowed us. To. To exercise. That faith. To trust. In him. Instead of. To trust. What we can see. All right. But praise God.

[29:24] The next day. When we went back to the hospital. The same. Lady. Who talked to me. He couldn't. She couldn't do anything. She gave us a solution.

[29:36] She said. Oh. We talked to our colleagues. In Oakland hospital. And she said. Oh. We actually found her. Something. We could. Could. May possibly. Heal your wife. Are we thinking about.

[29:46] Extracting one third of her lungs. So that to stop that kind of. That bruised. And a battered lung. And. And it will probably. Would heal her. And we.

[29:57] Okay. And we. We didn't know it much. You see. So we had to trust that God. Has prepared these. Medical. Staff for us. So we accept. And we.

[30:07] We learn. And. And. And. And then. To cut the story short. She. Had the surgery. The next. Three. Four days later. And. That was the.

[30:18] The time. She came out from the. Um. From the. Surgery. And from. And I. What do you call. I. Mere. Giu-jong me-wa. Go bang phong.

[30:28] I. ICU. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that was the. And. Even now. God has preserved. Simo's life. And even these. Two. Two years.

[30:38] COVID. She never. She was never. Infected. So. So. That was something. That like. We had to learn. So. It's a life. And death thing. So.

[30:49] I encourage you all. What does it mean. To trust in Jesus. It's not just. Accepting some facts. That Jesus. Oh yeah. The Bible says. He's the Christ.

[30:59] He's the son of the living God. It's not just that. What does it mean. For me. To trust. In Jesus. So that. We have this. Life of God. That's.

[31:10] To trust Jesus. The son of God. And we can. Have this. Life. Life. Eternal. Yeah. It's something we. It's for us to. Exercise this.

[31:21] And he's. He will never let us down. Okay. It's not. The trust is not his. Issues. It's our issue. We need to. Continue to learn. To trust. And he will never.

[31:32] And we know. And we be. Fully assured that. He will never. Let me down. Even though. If God has taken. Seymour.

[31:44] That. That time. I will still trust in him. This is. Belief. So. A very simple message.

[31:54] But. In this. Easter Sunday. I really. Really. Would like to encourage you. Put our faith in Jesus. That's the best thing. We can do in our life.

[32:05] So. B. In S. Equal L. This is the formula. These are written. So that. You might believe. That Jesus. Is the Christ. The son of God.

[32:17] And that. By believing. You might have. Life. In his name. Family.