10 Nov A Christ-centred generation

2 Kings 22-23

2 Kings 22:11-20 – ¹¹ When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes. ¹² And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Micaiah, and Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the king’s servant, saying, ¹³ “Go, inquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.”

¹⁴ So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe (now she lived in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter), and they talked with her. ¹⁵ And she said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Tell the man who sent you to me, ¹⁶ Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will bring disaster upon this place and upon its inhabitants, all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read. ¹⁷ Because they have forsaken me and have made offerings to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my wrath will be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched. ¹⁸ But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Regarding the words that you have heard, ¹⁹ because your heart was penitent, and you humbled yourself before the Lord, when you heard how I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, declares the Lord. ²⁰ Therefore, behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place.’” And they brought back word to the king.

Is it possible to live for the glory of Christ in this day and age? And if it is, how? I’m sure you are aware already at the fact that we are living in a culture that is hostile to Christianity. A few years ago I read a news that was titled “Playboy will no longer publish nude photos” and I thought to myself “that’s great news!” If you do not know what playboy is, it is the name of a magazine and company that introduced porn-marketing. My first encounter with playboy magazine happened in a gas station when I was 10 years old. We were on a family vacation to Sydney for the first time. My dad was on the line to pay for gas and I was walking around the gas station and decided to scan through the magazine section. Please bear in mind that I was still very innocent back then. When I scanned through the pile, I saw a magazine titled playboy. All I could see was the title at the top of the magazine. And I only knew a little English back then. I saw the word “play” and I saw the word “boy” and I thought “That is exactly what I need. I am a boy and I love to play.” So I picked up the magazine from the pile and saw a picture of a nude woman on the cover page. I lost my breath and immediately dropped the magazine and ran straight to my dad. It was a traumatic experience and until this day I still subconsciously avoid the magazines’ section at the gas station.

Fast forward many years later, I read that Playboy will no longer publish nude photos. Now I could finally check out the magazines’ section at the gas station without fear. But to my curiosity, I wonder what led them to that decision. Please forgive my naivety, but I really thought that something amazing happened behind the scene. Maybe the CEO of Playboy was exposed to the gospel and surrendered his life to Christ. Or maybe our culture began to lose interest in porn so that Playboy could no longer make a profit. But it was none of it. What I thought to be good news was, in fact, bad news. In the interview behind their decision to stop publishing nude pictures, the CEO of Playboy explained that they can no longer compete with internet porn. Let me read you a quote from Scott Flanders, CEO of Playboy, “You’re just one click away from every sex act imaginable for free.” Did you hear that? For free. You no longer have to pay for porn. All you need is the internet. And now every teenager is holding a smartphone in their hand and they are one click away from accessing every sex act imaginable for free. Is it possible to live for the glory of Christ in this day and age? And if it is, how?

The culture that we lived in is not getting better. Marriage is no longer reserved between man and woman. Man can marry man and woman can marry woman. And they legalized it based on the argument of human rights and equality. Therefore, they said that for us to reject homosexuals marriage is to reject human rights. The use of Marijuana is also legal now in our country. Christians who hold to their Biblical values are called bigots. How about this one. Now you can choose your own gender. Maybe you were born with a male body and male sexual organ and your parents named you Bob. But deep inside, you don’t feel like Bob but Barbie. If that’s you then you are free to have a transgender operation and free the real you. You can be Barbie instead of Bob. How are we to respond to this situation? Is it possible to live for the glory of Christ in this day and age? And if it is, how?

Let’s bring it a step closer to home. Is it possible to stay sexually pure in this day and age where the average age of losing virginity is 17 and everyone is treating sex as a hobby? Is it possible to honour parents when the majority of people in our culture does not want to have anything to do with their parents? Is it possible to be diligent and do our best as students when a lot of our friends use google translate to plagiarise other people’s paper? Is it possible to stay sober when all our workmates spend their Friday night getting wasted at a bar? Is it possible to stay faithful to our spouse when the culture tells us, “you only live once, have an affair!”? Is it possible to live for the glory of Christ in this day and age? Here is my answer based on the reading of God’s word today: YES! It is possible to live for the glory of Christ in this day and age. I believe that God is raising a Christ-centred generation that will live for the glory of Christ. I believe that God will use every single one of us to impact this generation for the glory of Christ. And that is our passage for tonight.

Tonight we are studying the life of a man with the coolest name in the Bible, King Josiah. But Josiah not only has a very cool name, but his life is also extremely remarkable. Quick recap. At the time of Josiah, Israel is separated into two different kingdoms, the Northern Kingdom, which is called Israel, and the Southern Kingdom, which is called Judah. Both the Northern and Southern Kingdom have one disease that they could not get rid of: idolatry. The people of Israel and Judah continue to forget the Lord and pursue other gods. The Lord is angry at both Israel and Judah and tells them that he will punish them because of their sins. By the time we get to Josiah, the Northern Kingdom was already destroyed 100 years prior by the Assyrians. However, the Southern Kingdom, Judah, still stand. Josiah is one the kings of Judah and many commentators argue that Josiah is the finest of all the kings of Judah. In fact, 300 years before Josiah was born, the Lord already told Judah about Josiah.

1 Kings 13:1-2 – And behold, a man of God came out of Judah by the word of the Lord to Bethel. Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make offerings. And the man cried against the altar by the word of the Lord and said, “O altar, altar, thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who make offerings on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.’” Think about it. 300 years. That’s a long time. Let’s not talk about 300 years. Let’s talk about tomorrow. We can plan the best we can today for tomorrow, but we know that it only takes one small thing to go wrong for all our plan to come to nothing. But the Lord’s plan always comes to pass because he is the active agent of history. He does not wait and hope for things to work out the way he wants, he makes things happen the way he wants. History is not something that happened to the Lord, history is the overflow of what he does. And the Lord says that Josiah will accomplish what no other king of Judah before him could. He will destroy all the high places of idolatry in Judah and lead the Southern kingdom back to the Lord.

Tonight, I want us to look at the 4 characteristics of Josiah that can help us to be a Christ-centred generation. And they are not extraordinary characteristic at all. In fact, they are extremely ordinary and yet remarkable. These 4 characteristics of Josiah lead Judah back to the Lord for one last time before their exile.

Pursue the Lord passionately

2 Kings 22:1-2 – Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and walked in all the way of David his father, and he did not turn aside to the right or to the left.

I do not know what you were doing when you were eight, but I was playing Dragon Ball when I was eight. Josiah becomes king of Judah at the age of 8. And not only he becomes king at such a young age but he does what is right in the eyes of the Lord and he does not turn aside to the right or to the left. With another word, Josiah is a man who pursues the Lord passionately all of his life. This is remarkable. Let me tell you a bit of Josiah’s family background. If Josiah is the finest king of Judah, his grandad is the worst king of Judah. His granddad’s name is Manasseh. Manasseh is not only the worst king of Judah but he is also one of the worst kings to ever rule any kingdom in all of history. Manasseh rebuilt altars for Baals and Asherah that was previously destroyed. Then Manasseh worshipped countless gods. He also built altars for the false gods in the temple of the Lord. And as if that was not evil enough, he sacrificed his sons in the fire to please the false gods. How much more wicked can you be? And Manasseh reigned over Judah for 55 years to the point that Judah committed more evil than all other evil nations around them that did not know the Lord. So for 55 years, Judah committed an abominable act of worship. And after Manasseh, came Amon, Josiah’s dad. He was just like Manasseh and did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord. But Amon only reigned for 2 years before he was killed by his own people. So we have a total of 57 years of idolatry and all kinds of wickedness in Judah. Then comes Josiah. He becomes king when he is eight years old and on the 8^th year of his reign, when he is sixteen, Josiah begins to seek the Lord.

Two lessons that we can learn. First, do not let your history defines you. Can we agree that Josiah does not have a good family background? His grandad and his dad left behind a legacy of idolatry, immorality and wickedness. Josiah could have look at that and say, “What hope do I have? I am bound to be like them. There is no way I can break free from this chain.” In fact, that’s what secular psychologist tells us today. They said that if you grew up a certain way, you will automatically end up like how you grew up. So if you grew up with an evil family, you are bound to be evil in the future. And I know that many of us did not grow up in a Christ-loving family. Maybe your family is as messy as it gets. Your grandad is a rapist and your dad is a serial killer. Your grandma is a drug dealer and your mom is a prostitute. Your brother is a gangster. But I have good news for you. The Bible shows us that your life does not have to be that way. By the power of the Holy Spirit and God’s word, your family chain can be broken. You are not your history and you are not chained to your past. Your ancestor might have messed up. Your family might have messed up. You might have messed up. But in Christ, you are a new creation. #IamWhoYouSayIam.

The second lesson is, start seeking the Lord now. Don’t wait until later. Start seeking the Lord as early as possible. There is no such thing as too young to know the Lord. Josiah begins to seek the Lord at the age of 16. The fact that he seeks the Lord at such a young age is even more remarkable considering that no one around him is seeking the Lord. I am sure Josiah heard of the Lord before. He heard of how the Lord delivered the people of Israel out of Egypt with his mighty hand. How the Lord led them and gave them the land of Canaan. He learned that in history class. But Josiah decided that it is not enough. The Lord is not just a God to learn about but he is someone for Josiah to know for himself. And against all odd, Josiah begins to seek the Lord. He is not content with what other people say about the Lord. He wants to seek and know the Lord personally. And for the rest of his life, Josiah continues to pursue the Lord. Let me give you some spoiler. Josiah ends up doing so many great things for the Lord. He ends up being the greatest king of Judah. But listen. It begins with Josiah’s decision to seek the Lord at the age of 16. I am extremely passionate about this. Many of you are very young right now. And a lot of time, people underestimate you because of your age. But I beg to differ. What sort of impact can a young person make in the kingdom of God? They can turn the whole kingdom upside down for the Lord. Do not underestimate what the Lord can do through you. You don’t have to know a lot or be someone popular for you to make a difference. All you need is the Lord. Start seeking the Lord now. And here is my promise for you. When you seek the Lord, you will find that the Lord has been seeking you all along. Christianity does not begin with you seeking the Lord but the Lord seeking you. Josiah might think he is the one seeking the Lord at first, only to find out later that the Lord has been working to bring Josiah into the throne from 300 years before Josiah was even born.

Take the Bible seriously

As Josiah pursues the Lord, he repairs the temple of the Lord. By this time, the temple of the Lord has been neglected for years and Josiah is not happy about it. The temple is the symbol of the glory of the Lord on the earth. Josiah wants to restore it to the way it used to be. So he commands Hilkiah to take the money designated for the temple and begin the repair. As Hilkiah repairs the temple, he finds the book of the Law. Apparently, the book of the Law was lost for many years and no one realised it till then. By the book of the Law, most scholars believe that it refers to the book of Deuteronomy. Hilkiah gives the book of the Law to Josiah’s secretary and he read the book for Josiah. Listen to what happens next.

2 Kings 22:11 – When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes. Josiah hears the words of the Law and tears his clothes. Don’t miss it. In the Old Testament, tearing your clothes is a sign of grief and repentance. Why? Josiah hears the Scripture and realizes that the way they live their lives does not match up with the standard of the Scripture. He realizes that Judah has been living in disobedience to the Lord and that the Lord is extremely angry at them. I love it. Josiah is not trying to make excuses. He is not saying, “Well, it is my grandad and my dad’s fault that we are like this. It’s not my fault so I have nothing to worry about.” No. But Josiah gets on his knee, humbles himself before the Lord and repents for the sins of his people. What a king!

Then Josiah sends messengers to inquire of the Lord of what will happen to Judah because of her sins. They come to a prophetess by the name of Huldah and Huldah tells them what the Lord says. The Lords says two things. Bad news and good news. First, the bad news: there is no hope for Judah. The curse cannot be undone. The people of Judah have to pay for their sins because they have forsaken the Lord. The Lord has warned them again and again that judgement will come if they continue to pursue after other gods but they ignored his warning. Therefore, the anger of the Lord cannot be quenched anymore. Judah will be destroyed and the people of Judah will be taken into exile. That’s the bad news. Second, the good news: Josiah receives mercy. Because Josiah humbled himself and repented before the Lord, the judgement of Judah will be delayed. Not cancel, just delay. Josiah will not see the destruction of Judah with his own eyes. There will be peace in the time of Josiah and he will die as a king of Judah.

Now, what would you do if you are Josiah? The future is set. Nothing Josiah does is able to change it. Judah will be punished for her sin. But Josiah received mercy and will not see the destruction of Judah in his time. If I am Josiah, I would probably remain idle. Nothing I do would change the future anyway. So might as well enjoy my time as a king and make the best out of it. “Build me a new mansion with a swimming pool and a futsal court in it. Get me the latest Ferrari and a private jet. YOLO. Time for a party. Let’s get it started in here.” Right? But not so with Josiah. Josiah dedicates all of his life to pursue the Lord and restore Judah back to the Lord. He does not remain idle because there is nothing he can do change the future of Judah. He reads the Law and he knows what the Lord requires of him and he does it with no condition attached. Why? Because Josiah understands that the Lord is worthy of worship not because of what he can give but because of who he is. The lesson for us is that we do not obey the Lord for the result but for who he is. We do not obey the Lord because we are afraid of consequences or because we are seeking rewards. We obey the Lord because he is worthy of our obedience. That’s it. That is what it means to trust the Lord and take his word seriously. We trust him without condition. Will you obey the Lord if you get nothing out of it?

There was a girl in the 1930s who gave her life to Christ. And during her high school days, God put it in her heart to be a missionary to Asia. She then began to prepare her life for that cause. While all her friends spent their time partying, she dedicated her time to pray and study the Bible. When she graduated from high school, she went to Bible College and pursued her desire to be a missionary. She went and consulted with missionary agency and discovered that for her to be able to be a missionary to Asia, she needed two things. First, she needed to complete a missionary school after she graduated from Bible College, and second, she needed to get married. They would not send a single girl into a mission field. So she prayed. “God I will make all the preparation. I’ll do my best to study at Bible College and once I’m done, I’ll go to a missionary school and do my best to finish it. But I just need one thing from you – a husband.” So she went on with her life and did her best to prepare herself to be a missionary to Asia. But for some reason, the guy never came. She graduated from Bible College with no husband or boyfriend. Then she attended missionary school for 3 years and still nothing. Not even a future prospect. So the night before she graduated, she was extremely upset and angry at God. After all those years she dedicated her life to do her best in preparation to be a missionary to Asia, how can God not give her the only one thing she needed from him? She was really upset. But at the same night, it finally daunted on her that all this time, she never really trusted and obeyed God for who he is. She trusted God with a condition. She has yet to learn what it means to obey God unconditionally. She was still in control of her life and she was only using God to get what she wanted.

Does her story sound like you and me? A lot of time, we still obey God with a condition. “God I’ll follow you if… God I’ll do this if…” But not so with Josiah. Josiah obeys the Lord even though he cannot change the future. He takes the Bible seriously. He sees what is written in the book of the Law and he obeys it. He does not try to reason whether the Law is relevant to his situation or not. He simply let the Bible dictates his agenda rather than using the Bible to serve his agenda. The Bible has the final words in everything he does. Let me make a confession. There are many things that I wish are not written in the Bible. There are many things that my human mind goes, “Why does God acts this way? I don’t think this is right.” There are many times that I disagree with the Bible. Somehow, I think that my 33 years of life experience has made me smarter than God. But the first sentence of the Bible says, “In the beginning, God…” Before anything is, God is. Yet somehow I think that my 33 years of wisdom is wiser than the God who is at the beginning. And if I am not careful, what happens is I start to elevate my own thought and dictate God and the Bible. This is the culture that we lived in today. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and truths. But imagine if we are all like Josiah when we read the Bible. When the Bible confronts us of our sin, we do not try to find excuse or reason. We simply confess our sins and repent before the Lord. So when you read the Bible and you see that your life does not match the standard of the Bible, you say, “I see a contradiction between what is written in the Bible and what I see in my life. That means I need to change. The Bible does not need to change. I have to align myself with the Bible. The Bible has the final word in my life.” Imagine what would happen if all of us take the Bible seriously.

Do the word continually

Josiah knows that there is nothing he can do to change God’s mind on the destruction of Judah. Judgement is coming. But what Josiah does is amazing. Josiah purifies the whole kingdom of Judah from idolatry and leads them back to the Lord. 2 Kings 23:3 – And the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people joined in the covenant.

Do you see what happen? Josiah leads the whole Kingdom into repentance and renew their covenant with the Lord. Josiah’s obedience is not pragmatism. He does not obey the Lord because it works. He obeys the Lord because the Lord is worthy. And Josiah’s obedience is not passive. Josiah works hard to remove every trace of idolatry from the land of Judah. Let me summarize it for you.

Josiah’s reform:

• Remove pagan vessels from the temple (v.4)
• Depose pagan priests (v.5)
• Burn the Asherah image (v.6)
• Destroy the houses of male prostitutes in the temple (v.7)
• Defile Judah’s high places (v.8-9)
• Destroy the place of child sacrifice (v.10)
• Remove the worship of the sun (v.11)
• Smash the altars for idols in the palace (v.12)
• Eliminate Solomon’s altars for false gods (v.13)
• Destroy props for fertility worship (v.14)
• Pull down the altars made by Jeroboam (v.15-16)
• Purge throughout Northern cities (v.19-20)

With another word, Josiah is a badass. This is a man who sets on transforming the culture rather than adapting to the culture. This is not an easy thing to do. After 57 years of wickedness, Josiah goes right into the heart of the problem and he turns the nation upside down. And it took Josiah 6 years to do all of this. In six years, Josiah turns Judah upside down for the glory of Christ. And in doing so, Josiah fulfils the prophecy concerning him from 300 years prior. Here is a man who decides that he will do what is right not because of what he can get out of it but because he cares for God’s glory. He sees a kingdom that does not care for the glory of God and he dares to be different. He chooses to obey the Lord rather than conform to the culture.

If we want to be a Christ-centred generation, it is important for us to not only know the word but also to do the word. James 2:22-24 – ²² But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. ²³ For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. ²⁴ For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. Let me give you an example. How many of you spend time looking at yourself in front of a mirror this morning? Don’t be shy and raise your hand. It’s okay. We know that you like you. How many of you did not spend time in front of a mirror this morning? You don’t have to raise your hand. We can see it in your face. What happens when you look at yourself in the mirror when you wake up in the morning? You would see many things that you don’t like about your face. None of us wakes up in the morning with an Instagram face. #IWokeUpLikeThis. None. That Instagram face is the result of spending time in front of a mirror. How long? I know exactly how long you spend in front of a mirror this morning. Ready? As long as it takes to make it better. None of us wants to Instagram the true “I just woke up” face. So you wake up and the mirror reveals to you many things that you don’t like about your face and what you should do about it. That’s what the word of God does. It reveals all the saliva in your face and ‘the flying hair.’ But to look at a mirror and don’t do anything about your face is useless. The same with the word of God. To know the word and not obey the word is useless. We must do the word.

So when you hear the word of God preached in the church, you don’t just say “Oh wow that is a good sermon. I wish Sally is here and listen to the sermon. She really needs it. But I’m going to go home and forget everything I hear.” No. You go home and you do the word. It does not matter what our culture says, it does not matter what our best friend says, we do not live our life based on their standard. We live our life by the word. Do not underestimate your obedience to the word of God. Josiah hears the word of God and goes all in for the word of God. And do you know what happens? He is unstoppable. Josiah’ obedience to the word of God leads to spiritual revival in Judah. On his own, Josiah can do nothing. But with the word of God, Josiah is unstoppable. You can trust the word. There is power in the word of God. Listen. On your own, you can do nothing. But when you obey the word of God, you are unstoppable. And this is how we impact this generation for the glory of Christ. Not by spending hours watching Netflix and playing Nintendo Switch. Nothing wrong with it but we kid ourselves if we think we are going to be a Christ-centred generation by playing games and watching Netflix. Our generation needs people who love the word and do the word continually. One of Satan’s main strategies is to get us so distracted with the pleasures of this world that we have no time and hunger to live out the word. But when you do the word, you are impacting your surrounding. Sometimes we do not see an immediate result. That’s okay. I think a lot of time we overestimate what we can do in 5 months and underestimate what God can do through us in 5 years. What we need to do is to do the word continually.

Celebrate the gospel regularly

The last thing that Josiah does is he restores the Passover. Passover is the celebration where Israel reminds themselves of what the Lord has done for them to lead them out of Egypt into the Promised Land. On the 10^th and last plague, the Lord commanded Moses that all Israel must shed the blood of the lamb on their doorpost for the angel of death was about to come and kill all the firstborn in Egypt. The only way for them to save their firstborn was to kill a lamb and shed its blood on the door. Josiah restores the Passover celebration to remind the people of Judah of what the Lord has done for them. And look at the description that the author of Kings gives about Josiah.

2 Kings 23:25 – ²⁵ Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him. What a description. There was no king like Josiah who turned to the Lord with all his heart, soul and might and there is no other after him. Josiah is a great king. But listen to what the author says next. 2 Kings 23:26-27 – ²⁶ Still the Lord did not turn from the burning of his great wrath, by which his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him. ²⁷ And the Lord said, “I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and I will cast off this city that I have chosen, Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.” Even though Josiah is a great king, he cannot remove the Lord’s judgement on Judah. The Lord will destroy Judah. One author puts it this way. “Josiah is the best of all kings, but he is a king who comes too late.” He is powerless before the judgement of the Lord over sins.

Josiah ends up losing his life in a battle and the moment Josiah died, Judah reverts back to idolatry. Judah only serves the Lord as long as Josiah lives. Their change is only temporary. As great as Josiah is as a king, he cannot change the heart of the people. The life of Josiah points to a greater Josiah who will do the works of Josiah among the people of God and succeed where Josiah fails. King Josiah points us to another king and his name is King Jesus. And Jesus has come to do something better than Josiah. For the Israelites to walk out of Egypt, the blood of Passover lamb needed to be on every household doorpost. For us to walk out darkness into the light, Jesus’ blood needs to cover our life. Where Josiah is powerless to remove God’s judgement, Jesus takes the judgement of God upon himself. Jesus absorbs every ounce of God’s wrath so that what’s left for us is mercy. Where Josiah cannot change the heart of the people, Jesus comes and gives us a new heart that loves him. At the end of Josiah’s life, the judgement of God is guaranteed. At the end of Jesus’ life, the victory of God is guaranteed. The book of Revelation tells us that the kingdom of God will stand for eternity and King Jesus will reign as the true King forever and ever. This is the golden thread woven in the fabric of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. The King of all kings who created the universe will be with his people forever. And until that day come, we are called to celebrate the gospel regularly. We are called to continue to remind ourselves of Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins. Jesus is the ultimate Passover.

Let me close with this. I believe God wants to use every single one of us to make a difference for the glory of Christ. It does not matter who you are, God wants to use you for his glory. You don’t have to be the smartest, the wealthiest, the most talented and capable person to make a difference in this world today. You don’t have to know a lot but you must know Christ through the Bible. You need to know Christ so well that your life is driven by the passion for the glory of Christ. This is a Christ-centred generation. God wants to use you to make disciples of Christ wherever you are. And he won’t leave you on your own to do it. He will give you the power and grace that you need to impact your surrounding for the glory of Christ. Let us live for the glory of Christ. Let us be a Christ-centred generation.

Discussions:

1. Today, we are living in a culture that is hostile to Christianity. Can you give some daily life examples of this truth?
2. What does it mean to pursue the Lord passionately? Discuss with your groups.
3. What do you do when you disagree with what is written in the Bible? Can you give some examples from your life?
4. “To know the word and not obey the word is useless.” Explain.
5. How does the life of King Josiah points to Jesus?
6. In you own words, explain what it means for us to be a Christ-centred generation.
7. “History is not something that happened to the Lord; history is the overflow of what he does.” How does this truth empowers us to live for the glory of Christ?