Lord
A story has been told. A group of tourists are visiting a river in Darwin. They are cautioned not to jump into the river. It is very dangerous because of crocodiles. A rich man, with much money in his hand, says, "Who jumps into the river and come up at other side can have $10,000.00." No-one responded! He says again, "Who jumps into the river and come up can have $20,000.00."
Suddenly, a man jumps into the river. He swims quickly to other river bank and jumps up. All the people clap their hands to applaud him. The rich man comes to him and says, "I respect and revere your bravery. Here is your $20000.00!"
- No. The man answers angrily.
- What do you want, Sir? Says the rich man.
- The angry man says, "I want to know who threw me into the river?"
Hopefully you will be more charitable to me than someone who threw the young man!
I am happy to study the Word of God with you and I thank you very much for your time. We are often discussing about multi-culture in Australia. I don’t know much about other culture, but I do know that there are about 90% of population of Vietnamese are non-Christians. They do not know why the Lord Jesus came into the world. To let people know the purpose of His coming, the Lord has called many men and women becoming His children and His servants.
We thank God that He called Paul to be His child and also to be His servant. Paul served the Lord so hard that he became a great evangelist and he wrote many books in the Bible. He wrote: "Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus." (Romans 1:1). He left us a very good thing, he wrote: "I follow the example of Christ." (I Corinthians 11:1).
I also thank God that He has called you and me to be His children and also to be his servants. So if we want to be good servants of Christ Jesus, we should do as Paul did, "I follow the example of Christ." Paul teaches people that, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." (I Timothy 1:15GNB). What Paul teaches here, is it new? No. He just repeats what his Master has taught. Jesus Himself teaches: "The Son of Man came to seek to save the lost." (Luke 19:10GNB).
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we should follow our Master like Paul did. We should preach about the Lord Jesus and tell people that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Many times we try to preach about new teachings that we study from the Biblical scholars, but in doing so, sometime we forget the most important thing which is "Jesus came into the world to save sinners."
When our Master was on the earth, He did many good things. But His main work was to save sinners. Even though He fed the hungry, He healed the sick, He befriended the poor. But He did not stopped there. He continued. Where did He continue? He continue to go to the Cross and He died there. What for? For saving sinners. "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." The word ‘to’ is used here means the main aim or the main purpose. Thus, to save the sinners was the main reason why our Master came down from the heaven to the earth.
I thank God that our Church has many charitable organizations. On many occasions Vietnamese people have come to me to ask for help, for food or for clothes. I did not know much about Melbourne, so I called an Australian to ask him where could I take them to? He showed me some organizations which have been very helpful. However, in addition to helping these people, we should be telling them about the Lord Jesus and they may need to have Him in their lives. If we do not tell them anything about the Lord, they could think that, instead of having to pay for food at shops, now they can go to these organizations to get free food. Then they say, "Thanks" and go. That is all. They don’t have any idea about the salvation of the Lord Jesus to think of. This is why the Bible says, "How can they believe, if they have not heard the message? How can they hear if the message is not proclaimed?" (Romans 10:14GNB).
We are ministers, we are very busy at all times. We have many things to do. But I pray to God to teach us to know which thing is good to do, which thing is better to do and which thing is the best to do. Many things we should do. For example, bringing people to the hospital, visiting people, writing letters to comfort people, helping people in their difficulties. Being servants of the Lord, we should do many good things. But we must not forget to do the best thing. The best thing is "to bring sinners to our Master" so that they can be saved by Him. Because He is the Savior of the world. Paul teaches us that, "The one thing required of such a servant is that he be faithful to his Master." (I Corinthians 4:2GNB). We are servants of our Master. He tells us, "be witnesses for me in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (Acts 1:8). And "I will be with you always, to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:20GNB).
The Master is faithful to us, he is beeing with us. Are we faithful to our Master? What will happen to a servant, if he is not faithful to his Master? I hope the Lord can say to all of us when we meet Him, "Well done, you good and faithful servant.... Come on in and share my happiness." (Matthew 25:21GNB).
May God bless you.
