主日证道

一年一度的“受难节”就要到了。这个节期是为要记念约在两千年前，一位被称为拿撒勒人的耶稣；祂被犹太人出卖，又被罗马人钉死在十字架上的事件。从人的角度来看，这位被挂在木头上死去的耶稣，无权无势，身无分文，年仅三十三岁、彻头彻尾的无产阶级，凭什么祂的死却被普世上越来越多的人记念呢？可以说，这世上没有任何一个人的“死亡”是如此之被人记念的。为什么？

答案很简单：祂的死不仅仅是伟大的，而且是与每一个人有关的。

首先，耶稣基督的死，是因为爱而主动地选择。正如主自己说：“没有人夺我的命去，是我自己舍的。”（约10:8a）使徒保罗说：“为义人死，是少有的；为仁人死，或者有敢作的。惟有基督在我们还作罪人的时候为我们死，　神的爱就在此向我们显明了。”（罗 5:7-8）其次，耶稣基督的死是为救赎我们众人而作的牺牲，大先知以赛亚说：“我们都如羊走迷，各人偏行己路，耶和华使我们众人的罪孽都归在祂（基督）身上。……耶和华却定意（或作‘喜悦’）将祂压伤，使祂受痛苦。耶和华以祂为赎罪祭（或作‘祂献本身为赎罪祭’）。”（赛 53:6、10a）所以，希伯来书上说：“因为祂一次献祭，便叫那得以成圣的人永远完全。”（来 10:14）同时，耶稣基督的死彻底败坏了撒但魔鬼，“儿女既同有血肉之体，祂也照样亲自成了血肉之体，特要借着死败坏那掌死权的，就是魔鬼，并要释放那些一生因怕死而为奴仆的人。”（来 2:14-15）最最重要的是，借这耶稣基督的牺牲，除去了阻隔神人关系的罪，开通了我们与神恢复关系的“又新又活的路”（参来10:19-20）。如此我们便可以“坦然无惧的来到施恩的宝座前，为要得怜恤，蒙恩惠，作随时的帮助。”（来 4:16）

听啊，主耶稣说：“我就是道路、真理、生命；若不借着我，没有人能到父那里去。”（约 14:6）因为在这世上，有史以来，没有别人是为我们的赎罪而死的；也没有人这资格；唯有道成肉身的耶稣！所以使徒保罗宣告说：“弟兄们，你们当晓得：赦罪的道是由这人（耶稣基督）传给你们的。你们靠摩西的律法，在一切不得称义的事上信靠这人，就都得称义了。”（徒 13:38-39）亲爱的弟兄姊妹，这就是耶稣受难与我们的关系。

Title:                Conformed to His Image / Servant as His Lord: Lessons on Living Like Jesus

Author:           Oswald Chambers

Imprint:         U.S., Discovery House , 1996

Collation:     224 pages; 136*203 mm

ISBN:             1-57293-020-9

Class Code: 培灵 C T H I -OC

• Summary

Growing spiritually is a well-known Christian responsibility, but where can you go to find time-tested, biblical wisdom to guide you?

This collection by Oswald Chambers, considered one of the most influential teachers of the 20th century, brings you answers and practical applications to help develop your spiritual life.

This well-known author of My Utmost for His Highest walks you through topics like spiritual failure and frustration to help you find the authentic Christian life you desire.

Oswald Chambers also shows you how God uses adversity to reveal Himself and give your life a quality of Christ-likeness.

• From the Back Cover

Let go of the “old you” and become a new creature in Christ. In Conformed to His Image Oswald Chambers invites you to do this. Then he offers you a practical guide that will move you out of your doldrums of spiritual failure, frustration, and listlessness into the Christian life as you have imagined it could be.

With startling clarity, Chambers proves once again that the Christian life of power and satisfaction is not just for “saints” but for everyday believers. “The transformed life is not merely possible. It is the birthright of every Christian.”

In The Servant as His Lord, Chambers explores with compassion and insight why Jesus Christ predicted that His followers would experience many tribulations. But he goes on to show how God gives us a fighting chance to triumph, and he explains that Jesus Himself is eager to nourish and guide His saints in their hours of conflict.

The one great message of this book makes clear the truth that through it all, the Lord’s servant may be, and should be, “as his Lord.”

• About the Author

Oswald Chambers (1874-1917) is best known for the classic devotional My Utmost for His Highest. Born in Scotland, Chambers had a teaching and preaching ministry that took him as far as the United States and Japan. He died at age forty-three while serving as chaplain to Allied troops in Egypt during World War I.

 

Title:               The Jesus I never Knew

Author:          Philip Yancey

Imprint:        U.S., Zondervan, 1995

Collation:     298 pages; 140*210

ISBN:             978-0-21923-1

Class Code:  福音 T J I K -PY

• Summary

“There is no writer in the evangelical world that I admire and appreciate more.” —Billy Graham

Philip Yancey helps reveal what two thousand years of history covered up….

What happens when a respected Christian journalist decides to put his preconceptions aside and take a long look at the Jesus described in the Gospels? How does the Jesus of the New Testament compare to the “new, rediscovered” Jesus—or even the Jesus we think we know so well? Philip Yancey offers a new and different perspective on the life of Christ and his work—his teachings, his miracles, his death and resurrection—and ultimately, who he was and why he came.

From the manger in Bethlehem to the cross in Jerusalem, Yancey presents a complex character who generates questions as well as answers; a disturbing and exhilarating Jesus who wants to radically transform your life and stretch your faith. The Jesus I Never Knew uncovers a Jesus who is brilliant, creative, challenging, fearless, compassionate, unpredictable, and ultimately satisfying. “No one who meets Jesus ever stays the same,” says Yancey. “Jesus has rocked my own preconceptions and has made me ask hard questions about why those of us who bear his name don’t do a better job of following him.”

• About the Author

A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Philip Yancey earned graduate degrees in Communications and English from Wheaton College Graduate School and the University of Chicago. He joined the staff of Campus Life Magazine in 1971, and worked there as Editor and then Publisher. He looks on those years with gratitude, because teenagers are demanding readers, and writing for them taught him a lasting principle: The reader is in control!

In 1978 Philip Yancey became a full-time writer, initially working as a journalist for such varied publications as Reader’s Digest, Publisher’s Weekly, National Wildlife, Christian Century and The Reformed Journal. For many years he wrote a monthly column for Christianity Today magazine, where he served for several years as Editor at Large.

The Yanceys lived in downtown Chicago for many years before moving to a very different environment in Colorado. They enjoy skiing, hiking, wildlife, and many other delights of the Rocky Mountains.

Title:            A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life

Author:       William Law

Imprint:      U.S., Bridge-Logos, 2008

Collation:    367 pages

ISBN:            978-0-88270-453-1

Class Code: 培灵 A S C T –WL

• Summary

Originally published at the beginning of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, a time when rationalist criticism of religious belief was perhaps at its peak, William Law’s A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life succeeded in inspiring the most cynical men of the age with its arguments in favor of a spiritual life. More than simply articulating a set of rules to live by, Law’s book examines what it means to lead a Christian life and criticizes the perversion of Christian tenets by the Establishment—whether secular or spiritual—whose real aim is temporal power. With a preface by the Reverend William Sloane Coffin, Jr., whose own direct engagement in social causes still finds inspiration in Law’s argument, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life is a book that can still speak to our time.

• About the Author

William Law, the 18th-century Anglican priest who heavily influenced the theology of John and Charles Wesley, lambastes pious hypocrisy and the corruption of the church in A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, the latest reissue in Vintage’s Spiritual Classics series. Law’s prose is fresh and vivid as he illustrates the holy Christian life as one lived wholly for God. His thoughts on prayer, personal holiness and service to the poor will resonate with many contemporary readers.

Title:             The Normal Christian’s life

Author:        Watchman Nee

Imprint:      U.K., CLC Publication, 2009

Collation:    254 pages

ISBN:            978-0-87508-990-4

Class Code: 初信 T N C L -WN

• Synopsis

Watchman Nee’s great Christian classic tracing the steps along the pathway of faith and presenting the eternal purpose of God in simple terms. Its central theme: “Christ our Life.”

Watchman Nee based his speaking on the first eight chapters of the New Testament book of Romans. Nee takes the first eight chapters of Romans as a “self-contained unit” and divides these chapters into two parts: Romans 1:1 to 5:11 as part one and Romans 5:12 to 8:39 as part two. In the first part of Romans “sins” is given prominent attention and deals with the question of the sins man has committed before God. However, the second section deals with “sin,” that is the inward nature, or inward working principle, within man that causes a man to commit sin. Thus there is a difference between the acts of a sinner, sins, and the inward nature of a sinner, sin. Nee reveals that God’s dual remedy is the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Cross of Christ. The Blood “deals with what we have done, whereas the Cross deals with what we are. The Blood disposes of our sins, while the Cross strikes at the root of our capacity for sin”.[4] As Nee progressively moves along in his book, he first touches upon the Blood and then focuses upon the Cross for the remainder of the book.

• Review

If only every Christian and pastor would read this, take it to heart, and let the Holy Spirit lead. My thought is similar to Watchman Nee’s concern though, that many of us would take this to heart, but continue in our ways trying to make it happen, or turning it into our own ministry with our own rules and beliefs. Oh, that we would let the Holy Spirit lead. There is no division of the church or the Body of Christ except on the basis of Location. I think Watchmen Nee makes a very good case for this in this book.

• About the Author

Watchman Nee, or Ni Tuosheng (Chinese: 倪柝声4-11-1903— 30-05-972), was a Chinese church leader and Christian teacher who worked in China during the 20th century. In 1922, he initiated church meetings in Fuzhou that may be considered the beginning of the local churches. During his thirty years of ministry, Nee published many books expounding the Bible. He established churches throughout China and held many conferences to train Bible students and church workers. Following the Communist Revolution, Nee was persecuted and imprisoned for his faith and spent the last twenty years of his life in prison. He was honored by Christopher H. Smith (R–NJ) in the US Congress on July 30, 2009.

Title:             The Christian’s secret to a happy life

Author:        Hannah Whitall Smith

Imprint:      U.K., B&H Publishing Group, 2017.

Collation:    308 pages

ISBN:            978-1-4336-4999-8

Class Code: 初信 T C S T -HWS

• Summary

Sometimes it just feels like life is beating us up. We worry about our family, our health, our money, our time, and in the process, we run ourselves ragged. These stressors are not a recent phenomenon but have been with humanity since the fall. Even though The Christian’s Secret to a Happy Life is over 130 years old, author Hannah Whitehall Smith was aware of the age-old problems that plague humanity. In her studies, she discovered that there is a way to handle the stressors in our lives in a healthy way that builds us up instead of tearing us down. That way of dealing with life’s trials is through living faithfully in the rest and comfort that Jesus offers us. True happiness does not come from an absence of difficulty, but through the loving embrace of our Savior

• From the Back Cover

Hannah Whitall Smith (1832-1911) did not have an easy life. Of her seven children, only three lived to adulthood. Her husband was unfaithful. And as a woman in ministry, she fought an uphill battle. In spite of, and perhaps because of, her difficult circumstances, she was able to advise Christians how to live a happy life through a close relationship with the perfect Parent, Savior, Protector, and Friend. Her words still ring true today for all Christians struggling to find joy.

The inspiring message of A Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life reveals the profound secret of true happiness. The wise counsel of this beloved author will nurture and strengthen your faith, your consecration, and your obedience to the will of God. You can be free of doubt, fear, insecurity, depression, temptation, failure, and much more.

• About the Author

Hannah Whitall Smith (1832-1911) did not have an easy life. Of her seven children, only three lived to adulthood. Her husband was unfaithful. And as a woman in ministry, she fought an uphill battle. In spite of, and perhaps because of, her difficult circumstances, she was able to advise Christians how to live a happy life through a close relationship with the perfect Parent, Savior, Protector, and Friend. Her words still ring true today for all Christians struggling to find joy.

The inspiring message of A Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life reveals the profound secret of true happiness. The wise counsel of this beloved author will nurture and strengthen your faith, your consecration, and your obedience to the will of God. You can be free of doubt, fear, insecurity, depression, temptation, failure, and much more.

 

 

Title:              God of All Comfort

Author:          Hannah Whitall Smith

Imprint:         U.S., Bridge-Logos, 2006

Collation:      259 pages;

ISBN:              0-88270-103-5

Class Code:  初信 G O A C –HWS

• Summary

Comfort is a word seldom associated with religious faith by those who are not Christians. Doesn’t religion make people uncomfortable with its demands? Isn’t life more comfortable when we just live the way we want? Who needs to worry about a judgmental God watching our every move? Even the word Jesus is enough to cause people to squirm in their seats.

However, for many Christians the words Jesus and comfort are inextricably linked. In her classic work, God of All Comfort, Hannah Whitall Smith describes why faith in the Christian God leads to comfort and joy that cannot be found elsewhere. Without Christ, life is little more than living through doubt, fear, and anxiety. In her inspirational work, Smith reminds the reader of the reality of God’s promises to his people. With Christ, doubt, fear, and anxiety are obsolete feelings.

• About the Author

HANNAH WHITALL SMITH (1832-1911) was born in Philadelphia to a Quaker family. Her life expressed the joy that is found in complete surrender to the Lord. The secret to a happy life, according to Whitall Smith, is to trust implicitly in the promises of the Bible. Her goal was not to impress the scholar but to elevate the simple man or woman who longed for a more consecrated way of living. Deeply practical, her writings deal directly with the day-to-day struggles of ordinary people.