Easter Sunday 2014 Sermon by Rev Hwa Yung

1. Message by Rev Dr Hwa Yung
Touched to Touch

2. Easter Greetings….
… in the Eastern Orthodox Churches

3. • 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

4. • 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?

5. 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.

6. 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…

7. 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!

8. 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!

9. 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!

10. 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!

11. 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!