Precious Lord, we worship you from the depth of our hearts. We thank you for the privilege of belonging to you. You have called us. You have made us your own. Not because we are better than anyone else. Indeed, because, and very often it is because, we are worse than most other people. And you have called us because we are weak and we are nothing, so that your power and your glory may be manifested precisely because we are weak and we are nothing. So that all the praise and the honor and the glory will go to you alone and not to us. We commit this time to your hands and I do pray for every person here today whom you have drawn to this service, that you will speak to every heart to glorify your name, to kindle a vision, and to make each one a part of your people. Glorify your great name. Hear our plea and our prayer as we commit this entire service to your hands. We ask in Jesus' glorious name. Amen.
Let me tell you about Senka. Senka does not refer to decaffeinated coffee in this case. Some of you who are coffee experts will know that Sanka is a form of decaffeinated coffee. Some of us might need non-Sanka at the moment to keep us awake through this service, especially those of you who had babies and couldn't sleep too well last night. I'm talking about Senka from Ceylon.
Senka came that day to his pool of water, a pool of water that he had gotten used to, drank from, swam in. But when he came back to his old familiar pool, he found that it wasn't familiar anymore. Because while he was away in some other part of the island, a sugar plantation company had moved in, cut down the nice trees, and turned his pool into some other use for the sugar plantation. When Senka arrived on the scene, there was a big crowd of people around what he thought was his pool. And when they saw Senka arrive, they tried to drive him away, throwing stones, waving sticks. He didn't seem to be a very friendly bunch, this lot. And they tried very hard to drive him away. After some time, Senka's patience ran out, and he charged into this crowd and killed 14 people. And the others fled in terror, called the police and the army, whoever they could get in touch with. And in due time, fairly soon in fact, the army arrived, and they captured Senka, dragged him away to a government compound, put his ankle in chains, tied him to a post, and then tried to figure out what next to do with him.
Who is Senka? By now, have you got the clue who Senka is? Well, Senka is a huge bull elephant. And back in the 18th century in Ceylon, now known as Sri Lanka, there were about 70,000 to 80,000 elephants on the island. Today, only about 3,500 to 4,000 survive, and they are fast being wiped out. Wild elephants. We are talking about wild elephants.
Now, what did they decide to do with Senka? He had killed 14 people. Serious crime of manslaughter, even if he might be pleading self-defense as a mitigating circumstance. No, what they did is they shipped him off to a kind of elephant — what would you say — an elephant orphanage. Well, he wasn't actually an orphan, but generally they called it an orphanage. So he was shipped off there. They recognized that he wasn't quite such a bad character after all, but that he had been provoked so badly by these rather nasty people, and given his size and his weight — I mean, it didn't take much of an effort on his part to wipe out 14 people. I'm sure that Rambo would have liked to enlist him in his services, with what ease he can dispatch the enemy.
Well, Senka was then put in this elephant compound, this haven for elephants. Given the declining number of elephants, the government is not too anxious to shoot a few more, especially bull elephants of that quality and that size. Senka weighs a mere five tons or so, and if your average car weighs about half a ton, then you would need something like ten cars to match his weight, I mean, if you're talking about smaller cars.
So, in this elephant safe haven, if you like to call it, there are elephants of all sorts. There are small ones, there are big ones. There are some orphans, genuine orphans. There's a very small one, a tiny little fellow who became an orphan because some hunters or poachers killed his parents. That's the reason why the elephant population declines so rapidly. There was another elephant that they found at the bottom of a deep pit — in fact, a seven-meter deep pit, that is more than 22 feet deep — and he was dying in there. But the elephant safe haven workers managed to lift him out, of course with the help of some cranes, and nurse this elephant back to life and to health.
There was another huge elephant called Raja, who was blinded in both eyes by poachers — very mean, cruel people. The poor blind elephant, though of enormous size, was then left stumbling around the forest, unable to see where he was going, falling over and breaking his huge tusks, and generally, of course, wandering around aimlessly and in danger of flattening a whole village because he couldn't see where he was going, just walked through everything. And then again, the government came along and they took him away, with great effort, of course, and then they tied his ankles in chains as they seem to always do with elephants. But they tied the chain so tight that it cut deep into his ankles and it began to become infected and he was again in danger of dying.
Until this man from the elephant orphanage or safe haven came along and poured out his love and his care upon this elephant. He pitched his tent beside the elephant, which was taken to one corner of the compound, and lovingly nursed this injured, blind animal back to health. It took two weeks, day after day, washing the wounds and washing his eyes, and the elephant developed a deep attachment. Elephants are said to have very good memories and apparently they are said to virtually never forget anything. And they have also very sensitive hearing and touch, and gradually a deep bond was built between Raja and this worker of the elephant orphanage.
Why am I telling you all this anyway? You thought I came to church not to listen to animal stories. Maybe you looked around and wondered if you came to the right place after all.
Well, my question is: what is the church? And if I gave you a very theoretical and theological exposition of the church, then maybe you really need the coffee, not the Sanka, because you will be fast falling asleep with long words and terminologies that you don't understand. I might use words like "ecclesiology" for a start. Whatever is ecclesiology? Well, it is the so-called science of the nature of the church. Ecclesia, being the Greek word for church, and every -ology at the end, of course, is supposed to be some knowledge or science. So, I'm sure you would rather listen to elephant stories than a theological exposition of the church.
In fact, I am telling you a parable. And a parable carries deep truths if you stop to think about it. You see, what this elephant safe haven is, is a place where all the suffering, the lost, the miserable, the injured, the sick, the dying, the homeless — these are gathered into this elephant home. And there they live happily together. Now there are nearly 60 elephants, 59 to be precise, who live happily together, who are cared for, who are nurtured, watched over, protected from the dangers and evils of man. In this world, nothing is so dangerous as man, even man to man. Many of us in our youth learned the martial arts in order precisely to protect ourselves from the dangers of man. Man is the most dangerous animal, and often cruel. Why blind the elephant in both eyes? What exactly is accomplished by this? Sadistic, meaningless, accomplishes nothing. They didn't manage to get the tusks of the elephant; all they did was injure it, and left it in danger of injuring others because it couldn't see anything.
But the church is like this elephant safe haven. If the church of the New Testament is anything, it is precisely like that — not just roughly like it, it is precisely like that. It is the place where the blind, the sick, the rejected, the homeless, the orphaned, the miserable — all these find a home, and a welcome, and people who care. People who, like this man, are willing to spend weeks, 24 hours a day, leaving his family, and pitching his tent beside the elephant, to care for it, lovingly nursing it back to health. If anyone is willing to dedicate his life to elephants, how much more, you would think, people would be prepared to dedicate their lives to the care of fellow human beings.
Now that is what the leaders of the church are there for. They are like these workers in the elephant safe haven who commit their lives to looking after the human beings who suffer from every imaginable problem. So much of our time in the pastorate is taken up with caring, often hours every day, with the needs of other people. If you think that our main job is to preach once on a Sunday, and then to lead a Bible study once or twice a week, then you don't understand what a pastor is about, what leaders of the church are about. We spend most of our time ministering to the suffering, to the needy, trying to mend marriages that are falling apart, trying to rescue the relationship between sons and daughters and their parents, trying to mend the relationship between friends who are not friends anymore, trying to prevent people from committing suicide, trying to prevent people from dying of illness because they don't have any meaning in life left, nothing to live for.
You would be amazed how few people out in the world know what they are living for. They don't know what life is about. They can't make head or tail of life. Many students studying in college under the pressure of exams, under the pressure of their parents who always want more out of them: "Didn't I pay for your education? And come back at least with a B plus? Who wants to see a D and an F? Come back with meaningful results. Reward us for the support we give you." You don't know how many students in Hong Kong alone commit suicide every year. They can't take the pressure. They jump off a 15-story building and end it all. They don't know what they are living for.
And in every level, today for example in China with the collapse of communism, it's a disaster, especially for the young people because they have no more ideal before them. Even if there was a wrong ideal, it was still an ideal. Now there isn't even an ideal. I've seen students in China walking along the campus up and down, completely lost. I've talked to some of them. They don't know what they are studying for. They say to me, "What's the point of studying? There is no future — no future for us on a personal basis, there's no future for this country. This party is taking us nowhere, we're going down the drain. And anyway, the goals that they now live for, which is chasing after money, to many young people, there's no meaning at all. They're not interested in that. Did we come into this world just to chase this kind of stuff? There must be something more meaningful to live for."
I talked to a student who was doing her master's degree in computer science in China, in the prestigious Beijing University. She said to me, "I just feel like quitting. I don't know what I'm studying this stuff for. I don't know what to do with this thing. I don't see any future in life." You would think she was very successful. She's a graduate of Beijing University, which is the Oxford or Cambridge of China. That's a very prestigious place to graduate from. "Surely, if anyone has a future, you have." And not only did she have her first degree, she was now completing her second degree. No meaning in life. But she then came to the Lord. She found meaning in the Lord. And now she has in mind to serve him full time. How that can be accomplished in China is a major problem. But that I won't go into now.
So what is the work of the church and what is the work of its leaders? The work of the church then — the meaning of the church — is that it is a home. A home, or it should be a home, of the suffering, the miserable, the lost. Is that what the church is today? I fear not. I think not.
Many of you have been to church. And to many people the church is simply a Sunday gathering, usually between 11 and 12 o'clock. And the sooner you can finish with that boring message, and get the whole thing over with, the better, isn't it? And the moment the meeting is over, you see everyone making a beeline for the door — can't get out fast enough. And unfortunately, occasionally, the pastor is obstructing the exit because he is determined to shake hands with some miserable people who would be happy if they didn't shake his hand so that they can get on with their dim sum in the restaurant. That's in Hong Kong, you know. They want to get to — after service, the thing to do is to go and yum cha. And it's good to go to the church where the pastor doesn't bother to shake anybody's hand. Then you can get out of there real fast. The whole thing clears out in five minutes. Everybody is gone. And if you were hoping to talk to anybody, then you came to the wrong place.
Church — what is this? The church is a lecture hall? Or somewhere where they perform some ceremony, wave some incense around, and somebody walks around in a fancy garment — not like us. I mean, all we do is wear a necktie. I was brought up in the Catholic church. I understand the Catholic system pretty well. I was brought up in Catholic school. I couldn't figure out: what are these fancy garments doing there in front? What is the guy ringing the bell for? To remind the priest that he's getting overtime or something? And then what is the incense for? I didn't particularly like the smell of it. Maybe they should try another type of incense. Maybe I was a bit allergic to that particular type of fragrance.
So, what is the church? I thought it was some sort of theater. Every Sunday you watch the same performance. Why don't they try something new for a change? And what is more, they were speaking in Latin the whole time. I didn't understand a word of Latin. I was bored stiff at the end of 40 minutes of this kind of thing. And by the time you've done this every Sunday, frankly, it becomes an endurance test. It's real commitment to go through the same thing every day.
What is the church? It's surely an appropriate question. Because the church is the place that we are to find eternal life. And you wonder: where exactly do you find it? Is it in the incense? Is it in the ritual? Is it in that boring message? Is it in the singing, which might be the best part of the entire service? What is it in? Or is it in the life? The life that should be there and is most of the time not there — nowhere to be found. And how does this life come? If it is not through the word of God — but if it is through the word of God, how does that word come to us? Is it in words? Is it in talk? Or is it in action, in life? And if so, who conducts this whole thing? Who guides the life of the church? Surely it's the leaders, and therefore the enormous responsibility of the leaders. Their life quality must be evident.
I would just like to talk for a few minutes from Matthew 25 and verse 31. I'm not going to read this passage because here again is something that looks like a parable. Instead of talking about elephants, the Lord Jesus is talking about sheep and goats, but saying much the same thing as I just said. We are maybe not so familiar with goats and sheep, but if you are from Palestine, where the Lord Jesus was, then goats and sheep were something that people were very familiar with.
Now, what is the point of this message that the Lord Jesus is giving here in Matthew 25? I will look at only a few verses to see the significance of what the Lord says here. Matthew 25, the whole parable extends from verse 31 to the end of the chapter. But I will read to you only verses 34 to 37. "Then the King" — that is the Lord Jesus himself — "will say to those on his right" — by the way, verse 33 will tell you that here the picture is sheep and goats, the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. And then verse 34: "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed' — that is to the sheep — 'come, you who are blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.' Then the righteous will answer him and say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?'" And perhaps we read on a little: "And when did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and come to you?" And the King will answer and say to them, "Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of the least of these brothers of mine, even the least of them, you did it to me."
Then he says the same thing to the goats on the left, and their problem is that they didn't do any of these things. Now, just one or two brief observations on this. Notice that the nature of the church here is precisely the care of those who are hungry, thirsty — whether it is physically hungry or physically thirsty, or spiritually hungry or spiritually thirsty. Either way, the needs are there, and the church is composed of people who go and meet those needs.
Of course, not just the leaders, but everyone. If you are a member of the church of Christ, of the New Testament, then you know what is your task, what is your calling. You are not just coming to church on Sunday. Church is a community of people who live seven days a week for the Lord, who care for the weary, the hungry, the thirsty, the sick. Isn't that something that everyone can do? You don't need profound theological training to know how to wash somebody's wounds, to give somebody a drink when he is thirsty, to give somebody a bit of food when he is hungry. You would need a bit more training if the hunger and thirst is spiritual, and they ask you, "What is the meaning of life?" Well, you can still share from your own heart and experience what that is. At least for the initial stage, when they need to go deeper, you might then have to refer them to the leaders. But at the initial stage, you are surely able to minister to anyone, and that's the joy of the church. Everybody has something to do. Everyone has a task, everyone has a mission. There is meaning in life when you are in the church. You've got a ministry to save, to help those who suffer.
These animals, these elephants, once they are nursed back to health, they don't spend the rest of their time in the elephant safe haven just doing nothing. I noticed what they did is that they rent these elephants out, they hire these elephants out to be employed by the government, and the government pays for their service. These elephants go out to work and they are very much happier, because just chewing on palm leaves all day long in the elephant orphanage gets also a bit boring for the elephants. They like to work, and they are sent out to work, usually from 6 a.m. to 12 noon. They work for 6 hours, and they are quite well paid. They are paid about 22 Hong Kong dollars, according to the report, for those 6 hours of work. That's not bad for an elephant. In this way, their income helps to finance the work of the elephant orphanage, which then goes out and rescues and helps other elephants who are then brought back to health, and they can make themselves very useful as well. And of course, the elephants, by working for the government, in the forest, and so on, are benefiting people, not just fellow elephants.
I think this is a wonderful vision — the vision of the New Testament church. In a world where everybody tends to live for themselves, including Christians, and I wonder if you are among them — "Don't bother, who cares about people who suffer, and I've got problems enough of my own." Have you ever discovered that when you begin to take care of other people's needs, your own problems somehow seem to be very much less? Somebody once asked me, "Do you have any problems to deal with?" I said, "Maybe I do, but I never have time to think of them. I've got no more energy left by the end of the day to think or to discover whether I have any problems. My whole day is taken up with caring for other people's needs." That's interesting, isn't it? Somehow your own problems tend to vanish or to fall into their proper perspective, into the right proportions when you are engaged in helping others. Oh, it may be the reason is deeper than that. It may be that when you are so busy caring for others, the Lord takes care of you, and no one can do a better job of caring for you than the Lord. That's wonderful.
That gives life its richness and its quality. It's true. It's a very taxing job being a pastor or a leader of the church. All day long listening to people's problems, you get very tired at the end of the day. And one co-worker just told me recently that after a few hours of this every day, they really were so tired that they had to run for shelter. They needed to refresh themselves. I understand that. But that is our calling, our ministry.
Now, at the end of the New Testament, in the book of Revelation, chapter 21, it tells us that God, at the end, purifies and beautifies his church. When you read the New Testament, and you read about the church, and you come from a Catholic or Protestant background, whichever — you're going to find it very hard to understand the New Testament, because the New Testament concept of church is entirely different from what you and I may be used to if we are brought up in the traditional churches. The New Testament church is a community, a society of people committed to shining as a light in the world. And the Lord Jesus explains: how do you shine? It is by your life, the quality of your life. It isn't that you can talk better than other people, but your life stands out as something different. When you are in school, your fellow students are surprised that you care about them. How is their preparation for the exams going? Can you help? If you can, how much they are benefited by your friendship. "Why," they ask, "should you care whether they do well in their exams or not?" "Is it because I care about you? You are my friend." "What is this guy? He is something different." Or in the place of work, you see the other fellow is a bit sick. Can you do something for him? Why does this fellow care? Your quality shines as a light in the darkness.
# The Nature of the Church in the New Testament: An Elephant Analogy (Part 2)
And then they become what? They become Christians. For whom the Lord Jesus says, "My brethren." It was through the ministry of a living, shining church that I became a Christian. I was brought up in religion. I told you I was in a Catholic school. And the only thing it ever did for me was put me off Christianity. In fact, I didn't want to see Christianity anymore after that. But it was after the Communists came and closed down the churches and threw the missionaries out that I became a Christian. Why? Because for the first time, when they had cleared away all the stuff on top, there came forth the true Christians. The Chinese Christians who lived a life that showed the beauty and power of Christ.
Then I thought — ah, I said — this is Christianity. All along I thought Christianity was about burning incense. I thought Christianity was about rituals, about wearing fancy garments, about using holy water and stuff like this. I thought that's Christianity. And then I saw these Christians that behaved in a way that really made me sick. They put me off. But then when I saw the true Christians, I said, "This is something very different."
The person who helped me so much — somebody who showed the beauty and love and care of Christ — his life had a unique quality that I had never seen before in anyone. He loved me. He cared for me. He watched over me. He guided me. He counseled me. All that in six months, before the Communists took him away, put him in a labor camp, and nobody ever saw him again. He obviously died in the Chinese gulag. But in six months, he taught me what being a true Christian really is. He told me what a true church is really about. I learned more about Christ from his life than all the theology that I learned later on. They never added anything more to my knowledge of Christ in terms of what his life quality really is. All the many years later was just knowledge in the head. But those six months taught me something in the heart that I could never learn again in any academic institution.
That is your ministry. That is mine. To show them by what we are, what Christ is, what the church is, and what is the way to eternal life. That is the beauty and the wonder.
Let us be quiet before God in prayer. We earnestly pray, O Lord, in this day and age of commercialism, structures and infrastructures and organizations. In the day in which the church has become conformed to all of these things, where it becomes a vast and powerful organization and where its leaders are people of influence and enjoy their glory in the world. In the day, O Lord, when even the church is engaged in commercialism, too often motivated by money and buildings — O Lord, we pray, reestablish the church which you meant to establish and as revealed to us in the New Testament. Grant that each one of us here may know what is our place and our calling in this high calling that you have given to us to be members of your church.
And now we also pray for those who are about to be ordained as leaders of your church, that, Lord, you will make them truly to be humble servants of yours, living forth the beauty and quality of life, hardly seen in this world anymore, but which most urgently needs to be seen again to draw people into the way of life. Hear our plea and our prayer. We ask in Jesus' wonderful name. Amen.