We will be holding Good Friday and Easter Sunday services! Find out more here

Till All the Ransomed Church of God be Saved to Sin No More

Good Friday 2018

The call to worship was taken from Isaiah 53:7-12. In this passage, God’s prophet Isaiah describes for the exiled Israelites what the coming Saviour would look like:

 And they made his grave with the wicked
    and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
    and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
    he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
    he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
    make many to be accounted righteous,
    and he shall bear their iniquities.

The choir, organised by Esther Wong, had been faithfully giving their time to practise their voices for the Lord for weeks prior to this. They led the congregation in worship and prepared the hearts of the people to receive God’s word.

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The choir for Good Friday singing the offertory, ‘Crucified’ by Craig Courtney, words by Susan Bentall Boersma. 

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G 069.JPG Ministry staff, Samuel Beh reading Scripture to the church.

G 073.JPGPs Eugene preaching.

Eugene preached from John 19:16-37 about A Sacrifice Lifted Up. Why do Christians gather to remember the shameful death of a man who hung naked on the cross and suffered to his last breath? Many of us generally think life is good without God. The bible tells us that turning away from God is sin – it is a failure to worship God as God. Contrast this with a perfect, holy and righteous God who cannot let sin go unpunished. All of us on our own are destined for judgement in hell. We need saving – and Jesus identifies with us in our weakness in order to save us.

Jesus died the excruciating death we should have died to set us free from the things that hold us captive – sin and death. His death fulfils Zachariah’s words in Zach 12:10 – “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.

That God sent his beloved son as a sacrificial substitute for sinners like us is a grand display of his love and care for each of us! The good news of Good Friday is that Jesus willingly laid down his life to draw us to Himself. Jesus is King of all and John has written these words down “that we may believe” (Jn 19:35). We should respond by mourning and grieving over our sins that killed the son of God and ask for mercy; we should trust that He saves us and in his rule over us as King, and this should lead to worship! We endure in following a crucified Christ because what awaits us is the joy and light of resurrection life.

After partaking in the Lord’s supper together, we adjourned to the third floor for a time of fellowship.

20180330_182635Feeding the “vultures” that gather at the food table.

G 125.JPGMingling in the fellowship hall after service.

 

Resurrection Sunday 2018 with baptisms

“See, what a morning, gloriously bright, 
With the dawning of hope in Jerusalem; 
Folded the grave-clothes, tomb filled with light, 
As the angels announce, “Christ is risen!” 
See God’s salvation plan, 
Wrought in love, borne in pain, paid in sacrifice, 
Fulfilled in Christ, the Man, 
For He lives: Christ is risen from the dead!”

- See, What a Morning by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend

The church came together again three days later to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus! “Crown him with many crowns!” sang the choir enthusiastically.

G 132.JPGOur Easter choir.

We also witnessed the baptisms of Sengalrayan Janet Maria, Benedict Seah and the transfer of membership by Suriabiantara Tjahaja. Here are snippets from their testimonies:

G 182.JPGPs Ian shaking Benedict’s hands, with Janet on the right.

 

Benedict Seah

“Despite growing up in church and having a loving Christian family, I never took God’s Word seriously… later I realised it was because I viewed the Bible through my own eyes, and not God’s. As I grew into my teenage years, my personal worries and anxieties only caused the blame I put on God to grow bigger.

God helped me greatly to open my eyes to His Word during one of the youth camps, where we taught the book of Genesis. It was humbling and shameful to learn that we were all present in the garden that very day man first sinned against God, yet even when we were condemned at the very start, God had already planned a saviour for us to be reunited with Him.

Baptism is but a step of obedience I wish to take in honouring God’s Word and proclaiming my faith in God’s everlasting love and glory, and that my identity is rooted in Christ for “apart from Him I can do nothing” (John 15:5), but with Him, I have everything.”

G 164.JPGSamuel Beh was instrumental to Benedict’s walk towards baptism; here, Samuel baptises Benedict.

 

As a church we rejoice with them in their step of faith and obedience and commit to looking out for them and walking alongside them as they pursue Jesus!

G 187.JPGMeeting the newly baptised members.

G 192From L-R: Benedict, Tjahaja, Janet, Ps Ian, Sally Chew (Janet's mother)

G 172.JPGPs Ian preaching.

Ps Ian preached from John 20:1-18 with his sermon titled This Changes Everything! Small things can make a huge impact and change the trajectory of your eternity. This passage from John mentions several details that appear minor but reveal massive implications. John describes the responses of confusion by Mary and Jesus’ disciples to discovering the empty tomb (vv 1-3, 9) – they were not acting like they had belief in the resurrection prior to seeing Jesus alive again. They genuinely did not expect it which made it less likely that the resurrection of Jesus was a story they made up.

In verse 7 John describes how in the spot where Jesus’ corpse should have been lying, “the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, (was) not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself.” At that time, the Jewish priests and people who had opposed Jesus had propagated the lie that Jesus’ body had been stolen away by the disciples. Ps Ian explained how this little fact was one that destroyed that lie, as it seemed inconceivable that grave-robbers would first unwrap the decomposing body and fold the linens neatly in a corner, which led to belief in something even more outrageous – that Jesus had indeed come back from the dead.

Even more compelling was recognising that people do not willingly die for what they knew to be a lie. After seeing Jesus return from being dead, all the remaining disciples subsequently gave their lives (with some leading to gruesome deaths) to sharing this good news and its implications. These were ordinary men testifying of the empty tomb who never looked back again.  

Now, Jesus always lives to intercede before God on our behalf; not because we are worth it but because the sacrifice – himself – is worthy! (Heb 7:23-25)

G 193.JPGEnjoying food and each other after the church service.

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