Message delivered by許道良牧師at New York Summer Conference Reflection – 7/1/2011
Disclaimer: This is my personal note and is not meant to be exhaustive and totally accurate. I will use my personal “aged” memory and notes to recall what I remembered.
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Pastor Hsu started his message from asking us two questions:
- 神是誰Who is God?
- 人是什麼 What is mankind?
He used these two questions as a backbone to elaborate the relationship between God and mankind. There were 4 parts in between the relationship:
- 與神同在
- 與神同心
- 與神同行
- 與神同工
- 神是誰Who is God?
o Moses’ encounter of God
In the Old Testament, Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”(Exodus 3:13) 摩西對 神說，我到以色列人那裡，對他們說，你們祖宗的 神打發我到你們這裡來‧他們若問我說，他叫什麼名字，我要對他們說什麼呢‧
God’s response to Moses was “I AM WHO I AM” – this is God’s name.
God is everlasting and He is not a never-moving God
- 人是什麼 What is mankind?
o Psalmist exclaimed that “What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?便說，人算什麼，你竟顧念他‧世人算什麼，你竟眷顧他‧(Psalm 8:4)
o From creation standpoint, what is mankind?
o When Adam was created, he has a good fellowship with God. God always talked to Adam face to face in the Garden of Eden. How beautiful is the scene of神的同在
o Pride led to disobedience, Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden. The good fellowship was broken. Don’t you think God was also sorrowing for this?
o Men would be arrogant and proud if they don’t lift up their heads looking at God.
- God is with mankind (神的同在)
o The Emmanuel God is one of its themes in the Bible. Several examples of the manifestation:
o The pillar of clouds and the pillar of fire – Exodus
o The tabernacle
o The holy of holies
o Jesus Christ – word into flesh
o The holy Spirit
o However, God is with mankind (神的同在) also has a solemn perspective – God’s holiness can’t co-exist with sins.
o Moses’ 40 years of experience in wilderness reveals God is with His people but it also reveals human sins.
o How to solve the contradictive relationship?
§ It has to come from Jesus Christ (John 1:14a)
- 道成了肉身住在我們中間，充充滿滿的有恩典有真理
o The beginning of the “Enlightenment (啟蒙運動)” and the “Age of Reason (理性時代)” denounces the need of the Cross and it substitutes the Cross with Reasoning. This removal of “vertical” relationship with God leads mankind to focus only human relationship.
o The consequences — 任憑 (leave it to): God gives us freedom to choose whatever we want to do.
o God was with Moses; He was also with Joshua – man can be different but God is always the same God!
o Jesus is the one who reconciled the conflict between fear and intimate relationship.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.(John 1:14) 道成了肉身住在我們中間，充充滿滿的有恩典有真理‧我們也見過他的榮光，正是父獨生子的榮光‧
- God wants to be with us, He also gave us freedom to decide
o As the saying goes, “One has the freedom to choose his own path but has no freedom to determine its consequence” 人有自由可以選擇自己的道路, 但沒有自由來決定後果的大小
o God is always with us – The elder son in the “Parable of the prodigal son”
“‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 父親對他說，兒阿，你常和我同在，我一切所有的，都是你的‧(Luke 15:31)
à All the abundant graces are all ours!
o Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 你們要常在我裡面，我也常在你們裡面‧枝子若不常在葡萄樹上，自己就不能結果子‧你們若不常在我裡面，也是這樣‧(John 15:4)
à Remain in Christ is a choice – it is also a decision by faith
- May we all ask God be with us as always. Our goal is to be a person with submission instead of a person with achievements. If we don’t do that, we will see the consequence of God’s departure from us.
o And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
我聽見有大聲音從寶座出來說、看哪、神的帳幕在人間．他要與人同住、他們要作他的子民、 神要親自與他們同在、作他們的 神．(Revelation 21:3)