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READ:

John 1:12

¹² But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.

EXHORTATION:

Though the common response of the Jews and Romans to Christ – the incarnated eternal Word – was derision and rejection, there were some who “received him”. John points out to us at the end of the verse what it means to receive Him. It is to “believe on his name”.

The “name” is more than a word or set of words by which a person is known. Here it denotes Christ’s purposes, will, works and all that He is. Believing on His name is to trust and yield to Him completely, acknowledging His claims and confessing Him with gratitude. That is what it means to “receive” him. Those who receive Christ are those who believe on His name.

So, genuine believing is not merely having a mental recognition of Christ, but a hearty acceptance of Christ, His redeeming work and His sanctifying truths. Genuine believers desire and rejoice to have the Lord’s presence always with them. They would never want the Lord to be far from them. As Paul said in Colossians 2:6, “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him”. Their life is no more separated from Christ. Their life is hid with Christ in God (cf. Colossians 3:3). They have Christ as their Saviour and Lord to guide them by His presence and truth.

To all who receive Him or believe on His name, “gave he power to become the sons of God”. The word “power” indicates “authority” or “right”. To those who received Christ by faith, He gave the right to be children of God. Is there anything nobler and higher than being sons of God? Oh, what an exalted privilege Christ gives unto us all who believe!

This exalted honour of being God’s children is granted to any who would believe on Christ’s name, regardless of his ethnicity, social status, financial condition or family background. None of his earthly conditions could prevent him from receiving the honour and privilege of being the child of God, if he would receive Christ as his Saviour and Lord and accept His truth by faith. It must then be emphasised that becoming God’s children is not based on human terms, but on Christ’s terms. Christ must be received by faith. If one would not heartily approbate Christ, one cannot be God’s child. But to all who sincerely receive Christ by faith, there is the exclusive, free and unchanging promise of being the children of God.

READ:

John 1:10

¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

EXHORTATION:

According to John, Jesus Christ, who has been with God from all eternity (v. 1), “was in the world”. This certainly refers to Christ’s incarnation, His coming to this world in the form of a man and His dwelling among men. The One who was invisible to men, has revealed Himself to them. What great wonder it was that the eternal Son of God has come into this world! He was in the world which was “made by him”.

Though His great power and wisdom have been seen through all His magnificent creatures since the days of Creation, John here emphasises the fact of His remarkable presence in the world. The Creator of the world was in it like one of its dwellers. He appeared like every other man, yet He was unlike them. He was God in human form, dwelling in the world.

It was most wonderful that the eternal God would condescend to this world to dwell among a people who cared not for Him. The Son of God, who was with the Majesty on High, has descended into this poor and miserable sin-cursed world. He who has been the light eternal has come into this dark world.

This was the greatest divine favour this world had ever received. Oh, how great was His condescension! How marvellous was His love that caused Him to stoop down to this world! From the glory of heaven, He came to live in this world of dust. From the celestial world of ceaseless praise and worship by innumerable angelic creatures, He descended to a world of rebellion and wickedness. How amazing was His love that accepted the most appalling of conditions – being born in a stable, being poorer than birds and foxes, having no place to call as His own home. Homeless and poor was He, wandering from place to place!

Though the world had the greatest honour of the visitation and the hallowed presence of the eternal Son of God, “the world knew him not.” The worst tragedy of this world is that it did not acknowledge its Creator who was in its midst! It was the greatest neglect, the meanest conduct of the world. The world did not accept His loving words and actions. They wickedly rejected Him and put Him to death! As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:8, “had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” Rejection of Christ proves the world’s tragic condition of sin and pride.

READ:

Colossians 1:17

¹⁷ And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

EXHORTATION:

While declaring the greatness of Christ, the apostle Paul talks about His existence before the world and His role in maintaining it. Paul has already introduced Christ as the Creator of all things in the preceding verses (cf. vv. 15-16). Because Christ is the Creator of all things, it is a forgone conclusion that He precedes all things.

Christ has no beginning as He is not a created being. His birth as Mary’s child was not His beginning. His birth was His incarnation, coming in human form. He co-existed with God the Father through all eternity past. So the apostle John said of Christ, the Word, in John 1:1-3 – “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” How could He have created all things if He were not before all things?

During His public ministry, Jesus Himself declared that He was before all things. In John 8:58, He said to the Jews, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.” In Revelation 1:8, Jesus said, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” Jesus further said, “I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen” (Revelation 1:17-18). In Revelation 2:8, He declared that He is “the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive”. As “the first”, Christ is the First Cause, the beginning source of all things. Again in Revelation 22:13, He said, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.” Then in verse 16, He declared, “I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.” In other words, Christ, “the son of David”, is also the Creator of David!

Since the creation of all things, He holds them all by His power. So Paul said, “by him all things consist.” Hebrews 1:3 says that He is “upholding all things by the word of his power”. Christ is the Sustainer of everything in the universe. The coherence and continuity of the world around us, as well as the things above us and in the depths of the oceans, are all under Christ’s purview. The continued existence of the universe and all that are in it, though full of unexplained complexities, is Christ’s work of providence. Oh, how lofty should our praise and adoration of Christ be!

READ:

Colossians 1:15

¹⁵ Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.

EXHORTATION:

The verse begins with a relative pronoun “who” that connects the content of the verse back to the Person mentioned at the end of verse 13, “his dear Son”. According to verse 14, He is the One in whom we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins through His blood. Undoubtedly, Paul is describing Jesus Christ when he said, “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature”. Paul here presents to us Jesus Christ in His relation to God, as well as in His relation to the universe.

In His relation to God, Christ is “the image of the invisible God”. God is invisible as He is an eternal Spirit (cf. John 4:24). 1 Timothy 6:16 says concerning God that He “only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see.” But the invisible God has been made visible in Christ, for He is the “image” of the invisible God. The Greek word for “image” (eikon) denotes an exact replica, a precise copy, an actual representation, etc. Christ, the eikon of God, has revealed to us the invisible God! Jesus Himself said, “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9). So in John’s Gospel, we are told that “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1:18). Jesus Christ was the visible expression of God. He manifested God. He is not a lesser God, as some cultic groups say about Him. “For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell” (Colossians 1:19). Christ is the fullness of God; hence He is fully God. He is not, as some say, less than God, or one of many gods, or a high angel or a created being.

In His relation to the universe, Christ is “the firstborn of every creature”. Some have falsely interpreted this to mean that Jesus was the first created being. They have mistaken the word “firstborn” to mean born or created first. The Greek word for “firstborn” (prototokos) means the rightful heir or the one in authority. In the following verse, Paul clearly shows that Christ is the Creator and not the first among the creation – “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible” (v. 16). So, Christ is the Creator and Heir of everything. He wields “all power” in heaven and earth (Matthew 28:18). He is sovereign over all of creation. Oh, what a great divine Saviour is Jesus Christ our Lord!

READ:

John 1:3

³ All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

EXHORTATION:

Jesus Christ was introduced to his readers by John as the Word, who was the eternal God (cf. vv. 1, 2). Now in verse 3, John gives further clarity and emphasis to the fact that Jesus was eternal and divine by declaring that He is the Creator of all things.

John said, “All things were made by him”. It is, first of all, stated positively here that Christ created everything. All things, one after another, came into existence through the creative acts of the Word. John is not alone among the New Testament writers to declare that Christ created everything. It is a common theme in the New Testament that Jesus Christ is the Creator.

Colossians 1:16 testifies, “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him.” Hebrews 1:2 states that “by whom (i.e. Christ) also he (i.e. God) made the worlds”. In Revelation 4:11, we read about Christ being worshipped in heaven as the Creator of all things – “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” Revelation 3:14 refers to Christ as “the beginning of the creation of God”, exalting Him as the beginner or the originator of God’s creation. In Revelation 22:13, Jesus says, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.”

To reiterate that Christ is the Creator, John also stated negatively: “and without him was not any thing made that was made.” There was not a single thing, however minute or invisible, which was not made by Christ. Every created thing came into existence through Jesus Christ. Thus John confirms that Christ was not a created being, but the Creator of all things. Since all the created things were created by Christ, He could not have been a created being.

Let us also note that John presents Christ not merely as God, but also as One who did the works of God, even the creation of all things. By doing so, John attributes supreme, full divinity to Christ. There is no exception to that truth. Christ is the eternal God who created all things.

READ:

John 1:1

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

EXHORTATION:

The apostle John began his Gospel by affirming the divinity of Christ. He introduced Jesus Christ as “the Word”. In this Gospel and also in his other writings, John referred to Christ as “the Word” (John 1:1, 14; 1 John 1:1; 5:7; Revelation 19:13). According to John 1:14, “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us”; this clearly indicates that the Word is Christ, the Incarnate or the One who is embodied in human form.

Much as our words reveal to others our personality and purposes, so Jesus Christ, as God’s “Word”, reveals God and His purposes to us. Jesus Himself said, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9). Jesus Christ is the ultimate divine revelation (cf. Hebrews 1:2). Being “the Word”, the faithful Witness of the mind of God (cf. Revelation 1:5; 3:14; 19:11), He is also the Truth and the Amen (John 14:6; Revelation 3:14). God’s ultimate self-disclosure to man is the Person of His own Son, Jesus Christ.

Because Christ, the Word, is the divine self-expression, He must have existed through all eternity past with God, which means He must be nothing less than God Himself. John insists the Word is divine. Jesus Christ is eternal, as indicated by his opening words: “In the beginning was the Word” (v. 1a). The words “in the beginning” point to a time prior to the Creation. When all things were created, Christ was there. His presence “in the beginning” proves His eternality. He existed even before the Creation.

Jesus Christ, the Word, is God. John said, “and the Word was with God” (v. 1b). The term “God” here is a reference to the First Person of the Trinity, God the Father. Jesus Christ is presented here as a Person distinct from the Father in the Godhead. He was always “with” God the Father. In verse 2, John reaffirmed the Son’s co-existence with the Father when he wrote, “The same was in the beginning with God.” The Father and the Son are not one Person, but two distinct Persons who co-existed from eternity past. The Word is God’s eternal Fellow!

The identification of the distinct Persons, namely “the Word” and “God”, suggests neither inequality nor polytheism. Such notions are refuted by the statement, “the Word was God.” In respect of essence and substance, the Word was God, and yet a distinct Person. To all who deny the deity of Christ, it must be plainly asserted that Christ is fully divine!

READ:

Genesis 1:1

¹ In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

EXHORTATION:

The Bible begins with the record of the beginning of the universe. What was before the beginning? God was there dwelling in the grandeur of eternity. “For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else” (Isaiah 45:18). God is the uncreated, underived, self-existing eternal Spirit who transcends time. The Bible teaches us repeatedly that God is eternal. Psalm 90:2 declares, “even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.” Isaiah 57:15 glorifies God as “the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity”. Various names of God in the Bible also attest to His eternal existence. He is the “God eternal” (Deuteronomy 33:27), the “everlasting king” (Jeremiah 10:10), “the King eternal” (1 Timothy 1:17).

The eternal God is the First Cause of all things. As Romans 11:36 says, “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.” While asserting His glory as the Creator, God put forward to Job a rhetorical question: “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding” (Job 38:4). Since God is the Creator, there was a time when the creation did not exist but God did. While exalting God as the Creator of all things, Psalm 102:25 proclaims, “Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands.”

This universe, with such superior style, arrangement and functionality, is the intelligent design of God, the Creator. Nothing had been formed by chance. The world around us bears witness to a great Designer or Creator. As Psalm 19:1 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.” God created all things out of nothing by His great power and wisdom. As the Scriptures say, “He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion” (Jeremiah 10:12).

Scripture, which is God’s revelation, provides us with the true record of the origin of the universe. It is utter foolishness to seek to be wise above what is written in God’s Word. Every pious heart must acknowledge and worship God as the Creator. God must always have pre-eminence in our thoughts and pursuits.

Sermon Text: Luke 17:1–10
Speaker: Pr Kelvin Lim
Date: 12th October 2025

READ:

Proverbs 15:29

²⁹ The LORD is far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous.

EXHORTATION:

The main message of this verse is that when it comes to the efficacy of prayer, the spiritual and moral state of the praying man matters. Outward religious zeal will not suffice, for God cannot be pleased with a mere observance of religious ceremonies and activities. One’s spiritual and moral nature and conduct are essential for the LORD’s acceptance and blessing of one’s prayers.

The statement, “The LORD is far from the wicked” is certainly not a repudiation of His omnipresence or omniscience. Neither does it in any way suggest that the LORD is afraid of the wicked, and hence He stays far from them. Scripture abundantly proves that God’s presence is everywhere and He will certainly deal with the wicked. Proverbs 21:12 forewarns, “God overthroweth the wicked for their wickedness.”

The main thrust of the statement is that the LORD is most displeased with the wicked, and hence He will not commune with them nor show His favour when they pray. The “prayers” of the wicked, without sincere repentance and faith in God, will be in vain. The LORD has already said in this chapter that “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD” (v. 8a), and that “The way of the wicked is an abomination unto the LORD” (v. 9a). Proverbs 21:27 cautions, “The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination: how much more, when he bringeth it with a wicked mind?” Proverbs 28:9 reiterates, “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination” (cf. Psalm 66:18).

“But he heareth the prayer of the righteous.” The LORD delights to commune with those who have abandoned their wicked ways and drew nigh unto Him in faith. He will attend to their prayers and show His favour unto them. Earlier in this chapter, it was said that “the prayer of the upright is his delight” (v. 8b), and that “he loveth him that followeth after righteousness” (v. 9b).

The LORD comforts all who seek Him in righteousness, that He will not forsake them. He will hear their prayers and aid them in their need. As Psalm 34:15, 17 assures us, “The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry…. The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.”

READ:

Proverbs 15:26

²⁶ The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the LORD: but the words of the pure are pleasant words.

EXHORTATION:

Nothing is hidden to the LORD, not even our thoughts. Every thought of man is known to Him. The LORD searches our hearts and discerns our thoughts. The LORD said in Isaiah 66:18, “For I know their works and their thoughts”.

The gospel-writers corroborate this crystal-clear fact. Matthew wrote: “And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4); Mark recorded Jesus as saying: “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from within, and defile the man” (Mark 7:21-23).

Every man, being totally depraved, has a corrupt mind that cherishes evil thoughts. The LORD said in Genesis 8:21, “for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (cf. Genesis 6:5). Ecclesiastes 7:20 declares, “For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.” Be that as it may, when people repent and turn to God for salvation, He says, “I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them” (Hebrews 10:16). When God saves people, He empowers them by His Word and His Spirit to be transformed by the renewing of their mind, that they may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God (cf. Romans 12:2; Ephesians 4:22-24).

But the wicked in their unregenerate state, having neither the Spirit nor the Word, continually take pleasure in their thoughts that are abominable to God. Even though the wicked may appear before men as charitable and generous, the LORD knows that their thoughts are continually evil. A person may feign to be a righteous and kind person, but God searches his thoughts and finds them to be abominable or detestable.

However, the LORD takes pleasure in the words of those who have trusted Him for their cleansing. Their words reflect their thoughts, which are humble, contrite, grateful and obedient before Him. So let this be our prayer: “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer” (Psalm 19:14).