Message by Rev Dr Hwa Yung

Touched to Touch

Easter Greetings…. … in the Eastern Orthodox Churches

• Many students trapped and, sadly, almost certainly they would be dead by now.

• But if imagine you are one of the students trapped? What would you do? What would prevent you from giving up?

Ferry Tragedy in S. Korea

• 18 Years Crippled Lady • Legion • Leper who said thank you • Centurion • Paralytic through the roof • Blind Bartimaeus • Mute Demon-Possessed Man • Jarius’s Dead Little Girl • Canaanite Lady • Lady who bled for 12 Years • Sinful woman with perfume • Criminal on the Cross

Good Friday—Museum -like Experience

What sustained them and encouraged them to find a solution for whatever problem they faced?

Viktor Frankl – a Jewish doctor sent to Auschwitz, the largest Concentration Camp run by the Nazis in World War 2.

We cannot live without HOPE!

• Those who are without meaning and hope died; but those who had something to look forward to survived!

•A prisoner who had lost faith in the future also lost his spiritual hold: he let himself decline and became subject to mental and physical decay.

•Two prisoners who overcame the temptation to suicide because one had a child waiting for him and another was a scientist whose work had yet to be completed.

What has “HOPE” to do with Easter?

Powerful symbols of evil and suffering: • Concentration Camps in Nazi Germany • WW1 (tens of millions) & WW2 (20 millions) • Communism (old Soviet Union, China, Vietnam) • Killing fields of Cambodia • Tribal wars in Congo, Rwanda and other parts of

Africa…

What has “HOPE” to do with Easter?

Other forms of evil from which men and women are seeking escape & HOPE…

• The 12 characters symbolize those who are seeking

• MH 370

• South Korean Ferry Tragedy

Many die without hope: e.g. many Chinese who do not know the Saviour!

The resurrection of Christ is the one sure basis of HOPE in the world!

vv.3-8: Witnesses of the resurrection, esp. vv.5-8 v. 8: cf. Sundar Singh’s vision

vv.9-11: The grace of God in Paul’s life

vv.12-19: The resurrection of Christ points to the Christian hope for all humanity!

Paul’s Exposition of the Resurrection 1 Cor 15:3-19

For Paul, the whole Christian message rests or falls on whether the resurrection was true or false! Because Christ did rise from the dead, then Easter is the ultimate symbol of hope in our broken world!

How then shall we live?

Paul’s answer is found partly in 2 Cor 5:14 & 15 “The love of Christ constrains us … therefore …”;

Touched to touch indeed!

How then shall we live?

How can we touch others?

1. Share the message of Jesus’s salvation and hope: • Forgiveness and freedom from sin and guilt Many are weighed down—even Christians! • Deliverance from demonic bondage • Healing (e.g. Fred, B-B) • Tell others that Jesus alone can give meaning and

hope!

2. Living the Christian hope: Walk the Talk! • Hope at River Kwai (during World War 2) • World Vision worker in East Africa

Living the Christian hope will always be costly!

Conclusion: “Touched to Touch”

• 2 Cor 5:14-15!

• Go and do whatever God puts in your hands to do!

• We are called to be bearers of hope for Malaysia and the world!