Sermon: Dealing with Remaining Sin from Ephesians 5:1-13

June 29, 2014 -- Ephesians 5:1-13 "Dealing with Remaining Sin" Bi-lingual English-Mandarin

Spring-Summer 2014 pictures and prayer requests

Dear prayer partners,

Below are some pictures from this past spring and early summer of 2014. I hope they will give you a sampling of some of our labors.  Thank you for your prayers and support.  

In Christ,

Joel

Joshua Tân and his family. I have been mentoring Joshua for a year. He just graduated from the reformed seminary in Taipei. Please pray as he considers long term plans for church planting. 

David Li preaching at the Formosa Reformed Fellowship meeting. David and his coworker, James Chan (left) started a reformed church in Taichung, central Taiwan last summer. James also interprets for visiting American professors at China Reformed Theological Seminary. In June, he interpreted for Dr. Iain Duguid who was just hired as a professor of Old Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. He came out to teach a mini-course in Taipei. Not only have they begun worship services for their church plant in Taichung, but they also are starting a second church plant in Nantou County about an hour away in the mountains.  

New Hope Church in Taipei. Please pray that God will raise up Taiwanese men to be elders and that we can find a Taiwanese pastor to become the shepherd of the church. Currently my coworker, Daniel Cohee, is serving as the interim pastor of New Hope.

Here we hosted the children of another missionary family to join us in a home school biology lab that I was teaching our oldest daughter Faith.

Passing out gospel tracts to the Sunflower Student Movement rally participants.  These gospel tracts were translated into Mandarin by New Hope's pastoral intern, Tomas Wang, and then printed by one of New Hope's members. Please pray for a heart for evangelism among all of Taiwan's Christians, and particularly those in the reformed presbyterian church. Please pray for Tomas Wang who just graduated seminary as he considers his future plans.

Hosting the Formosa Reformed Presbyterian Fellowship meeting at my home. Please pray for this new fellowship as we seek to recruit more church planters and systematically plant churches all over Taiwan.

On the left is Wesley Chuang, a young church planter whom I have been mentoring. His Taipei church plant started Sunday afternoon worship services in March, and morning worship services in June. On the right is a graduate student in law. Please pray for Wesley's church plant, Ren Ai Reformed Fellowship, that God will establish it and bring it to a health, strength and maturity, and that it will be a church-planting church.

Our Tuesday men's business lunch discipleship group meeting at a coffee shop. We did not realize it was a vegan cafe, and so we all went away hungry. Please pray that God will raise up more Taiwanese men to lead the churches.

The Gospel Driven Fellowship church plant in Taipei. I have been helping this church to become organized. It has been meeting for two years. They do not have a pastor, but they do have a retired ruling elder who attended Westminster Seminary who leads them. Please pray for the Taipei church plant as they consider what to do in the near future.

With Joshua Tân outside the Gospel Driven Fellowship afternoon worship service meeting site in Taoyuan, about an hour west of Taipei. Please pray for the Taoyuan church plant as they are considering moving to a different area of Taoyuan. 

Teaching a singleness, dating and marriage seminar  in our home with people from New Hope Church in Taipei. Please pray for Taiwan's young Christians as the learn to be faithful in every area of their lives.

Preaching at a small reformed presbyterian church in Yonghe, a suburb of Taipei. Please pray for revitalization for many reformed churches that have buildings but do not have a healthy church membership or ruling elders. 

Formosa Reformed Presbyterian Fellowship church planting meeting in June. Please pray for Pastor Pak (presenting his vision) as he desires to begin a church plant in November. He is woefully short on funds and would like to find some Taiwanese coworkers.

Waiting for Judy's 100 year old grandfather to wake up to share the gospel with him. Please pray for A-kong as he is very weak. He seems receptive to hearing the Bible and he like me to pray for him each time I see him but he is not yet a Christian. He can understand me but he has trouble having enough strength to say words in reply.

On a short trip to Okinawa, my first time ever, I hiked up hill and visited a coffee shop. In God's providence, just at the right time, Mike Dewit (a P.C.A. ruling elder) and his wife Kristin happened to be there. We were able to arrange time to hang out with their family before we and they departed Okinawa.

Wesley Chuang sharing an update on his church planting work at the Taiwan Reformed Presbyterian Church presbytery meeting.

Men's Tuesday business lunch Bible study -- writing out the Ordo Salutis 

Gospel Driven Fellowship church plant in Taipei.

Some of Judy's infant care book readers coming over to ask questions. 

Formosa Reformed Presbyterian Fellowship lunch... On the left is David Li, a church planter in Taichung. On the right is Stephen Kurkinen, a English teacher considering the full-time ministry. Please pray for us as we seek to recruit more church planters and organize a funding structure for church planting works.

My daughters volunteered at the Hero Games, a special-needs sports event. I got a chance to share the Gospel with the father of these two boys while they were competing. Please pray for the non-Christian families we are befriending, that they would come to faith in Christ.

Recent Sermons that I preached in Taiwan

Acts 20:24-28 "What Kind of Leaders Does a Church Need?" - [bilingual English-Mandarin] given at the Gospel Driven Fellowship church plant in Taipei (a.m.) and in Taoyuan (p.m.) on February 23, 2014.

Exodus 12 "The Meaning of the Lunar New Year Celebrated 3000 Years Ago" - [bilingual English-Mandarin] given at the Gospel Driven Fellowship church plant in Taipei on January 26, 2014.

Acts 8:4-29 "Power and the Gospel" - [Taiwanese language] given at Gikong Presbyterian Church in Taipei on December 8, 2013.

Acts 10 "The Foundation of Your Church" - [bilingual English-Mandarin] given at New Hope Church in Taipei on November 17, 2013.

Fall update pictures

New Hope Reformed Presbyterian Church

I shared the Gospel with this bed-and-breakfast owner in Puli, central Taiwan.  He had questions about the nature of God and I was able to answer using the wording from a Taiwanese-language catechism published in 1960 by the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan.

Welcoming Caleb and Miyoung to Taiwan.  They will study Mandarin for two years.  But Caleb is already networking and wants to start some Bible studies for businessmen and also doctors.  He still has to knuckle down to master the language.  

Church planting committee meeting.  Wesley (on the right) is starting a reformed/presbyterian church in downtown Taipei.  Right now he hosts an outreach Bible study Friday nights.  He hopes to develop enough of a core group to start a Sunday worship service sometime in the middle of next year.  Since there are very few healthy reformed churches in Taiwan, we are trying to work out a good funding support system for church planters like Wesley.  Right now he is simply stepping out by faith.  http://rftaipei.blogspot.com

The Friday night group of the Ren Ai Reformed Fellowship church plant in downtown Taipei.  

New Hope's goodbye fellowship meeting for Jason Chen, my summer missionary intern. Everyone enjoyed an impromptu concert with Jason playing violin and Judy playing piano.  They both studied music at Indiana University.  He has one more year of seminary left.  Please pray that God will direct his steps.  We hope he will come out to Taiwan as a church planting missionary.

My men's business lunch Bible study.  We are working through the Westminster Confession of Faith and following a modified version of Dr. Joseph Pipa's study guide.  (Of course mostly discussed in Mandarin and Taiwanese)

This fall I began mentoring Joshua Tân, meeting him weekly.  Joshua will graduate seminary by next spring and desires to start a church plant in southeast Taiwan in Taidong. 

Meeting with the director of a Christian drug rehab ministry, his wife and one of the men who came through the program and now volunteers there.  They came to the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Taiwan presbytery meeting.  They are all Hakka.  Please pray that I can also recruit some missionaries to focus on learning the Hakka language and church planting in Hakka areas of Taiwan including Miaoli where this drug rehab ministry is located. http://enfu.twcom.net

Having a Monday evening discussion on the Biblical roles for men and women.  

One of our church members, Carol Vhong, with a young couple with their first baby.  Very often after church on Sunday, Taiwanese couples will come during the lunch time to ask questions from Judy or Carol about infant care.  We hope to be able to share the gospel with many Taiwanese parents through this infant care outreach.

 

Amanda sharing her testimony in the Taiwanese Bible study.  At first there were more women, but recently more men have joined.  The Bible study group is studying a Taiwanese-language catechism as well as the Gospel of John.  Tâi-bûn Sèng-keng-pan

Speaking at a youth retreat of a church from Taoyuan County

Judy's grandfather's 100-year-old birthday celebration

Hope you will get a chance to enjoy this documentary on Taiwan

However, one thing to realize is that these videos were filmed on good sunny days with clear skies.  Much of the time Taiwan is humid and cloudy -- either very hot and humid or cold and clammy in the winter.

Hope Beyond the Grave

Sometimes when I am trying to share the gospel in Taiwan, I start the conversation by asking about funerals in Taiwan. Then I move the discussion to the difference between Christian funerals and funerals of Buddhist or traditional Taoist religions of Taiwan.  I have seen both.  Whatever the philosophies and teachings of traditional Taiwanese religions, as a practical matter, there is a sadness without hope characterizing traditional funerals.  Christian funerals also have a sadness and feeling of loss, but there is also a hope and a joy and a sense of celebration.  

Christians have a hope in this life, but their hope extends beyond the grave. They hope for a fully restored relationship with the Creator of this universe, and the eternal life that flows from Him drives them to act differently in this life. Their treasures are not stored up on earth. They know this present world is passing away. They look forward to the Day when death and decay meet their doom. 

"On this mountain, the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine -- the best of meats and the finest of wines. On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The Lord has spoken. In that day they will say, 'Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us.' Isaiah 25:6-9. (NIV 1984)

There was a mountain in Israel where Abraham's son Isaac was saved from death by a sacrifice that died in his place. What happened to Isaac prefigured what happens to all of us who put our faith in Jesus, the Messiah. Jesus, the Lamb of God, died in our place to take our sins. He took the punishment for us, and we receive the inheritance of His righteousness, eternal life with our Creator, Lord and Redeemer.

A Christian singer, Steven Curtis Chapman, has put his hope as a Christian into words: 

Out of these ashes,

Beauty will rise

And we will dance among the ruins

We will see it with our own eyes

Out of this darkness

New life will shine

And we'll know joy is coming in the morning

I can hear it in the distance

And it's not too far away

It's the music

And the laughter of a wedding and a feast

I can almost feel the hand of God

Reaching for my face to wipe the tears away

You say "It's time to make everything new

Making it all new"

This is our hope

This is a promise

This is our hope

This is a promise

... 

Steven Curtis Chapman - in "Beauty Will Rise"

He wrote this song as part of an entire album "Beauty Will Rise" after facing the death of his youngest daughter in a car accident.  The album expresses agony at loss, but also being filled with hope and joy and anticipation of seeing her again.

Errors in Bible translations in Classical-Chinese derived languages.

I thought I would create a post where I listed clear translation errors in Mandarin language translations (and other Classic Chinese derived languages) of the Bible that have a negative impact in the churches in Taiwan.

1. One was brought to my attention on Tuesday at our Business Lunch Introduction to Christianity Bible Study in Taipei.  It came to light this way: beginning from Deuteronomy 1:13, we were discussing how the pattern among God's people was to vest authority and rule over the church by election by the members and also ordination from someone already ordained.  We then proceeded to the New Testament to look at the passages that speak of church officers and election and ordination in order to vest them with authority.

Coming to 1 Timothy 3:11, one of the men was confused because in the most commonly used Mandarin translation, the Chinese Union Version 和合本 translates γυναικας gunaikas in this verse to mean "female deacons" when the actual meaning of the word is "women or wives".  From the context, the most likely meaning is wives.  See my exegetical paper on this text under the section titled "Discussion of γυναικας".  At the very least, the Chinese Union Version should have simply left the translation as "the women" rather than adding words, "female deacons," not any where in the original Greek.

I'll check the other major Bible translations to see whether this is a common error.

It has a major impact on the church in Taiwan in one of two ways:  Either people treat deacons as an office lacking authority, and therefore the whole issue of election and ordination patterned in Scripture is confused, or more often, they end up accepting women wielding any authority in the church, even preaching.  There are very few churches in Taiwan that will obey God's command in 1 Timothy 2:11-14 and not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man in the church which is "the household of God."