Zion Church Online Bulletin

Week No. 30 | 25 Jul 2021 Lord's Day

LORD’S DAY SERVICE ORDER

ANNOUNCER: Elder Ridwan Dinata
*Silent Prayer
*Confession of Faith
Hymn 56
Responsive Reading:
49. Philippians 2 (49. 腓立比书 2)
Prayer by Elder Ridwan Dinata
Scripture Reading:
Revelation 18:1-5
(启示录 18:1-5)
Choir Anthem by Sharon Choir
(pre-recorded):
The Unseen Hand
(看不见的手)
Sermon by Pastor Samuel Kim
Come out!
(出来!)
Hymn 318
Offering Prayer by Elder Ridwan Dinata
Offering Song
(pre-recorded):
Here I Am
(我再次在这)

( Elijah Young Adults Ministry)
Announcements
*Hymn 6
*Benediction by Pastor Samuel Kim

*Congregation Standing

ANNOUNCEMENTS

  • Let us continue to pray for the growth of our church and for the work of evangelism.
  • Let us continue to pray for the safety and protection of our nation Singapore from the Covid-19 pandemic situation.
  • Please refer to the following for our online service times and locations:

    • Wed service @ 7:40pm – *On YouTube
    • Saturday Dawn prayer service @ 6am – Special study series *On Zoom
    • Lord’s Day service @ 10:45am – *On YouTube
    • Lord’s Day bible study @ 4pm – *On Zoom

    *YouTube link: http://live.zionchurch.sg
    *Zoom link: http://zoom.zionchurch.sg

  • The 2021 Pyungkang Summer Retreat (Conference) will take place online on 1-4 Aug (Sun-Wed). The Summer Retreat Theme is: “Let us endure to the end and overcome in faith for the movement of the word of redemptive history” (Matt 24:13; Jas 5:10; Rev 17:14). Please find the conference schedule on our homepage http://zionchurch.sg

    We encourage all members to attend all lectures on YouTube, and Zion Church will view the opening service together on Zion Church YouTube channel at the following times:

    Opening service: 1 Aug (Sun) at 4:00 pm in place of our regular Bible study
    Closing service: 4 Aug (Wed) at 7:40 pm in place of our Wed service

  • Tung Ling Bible School Modular lectures will take place this month from 29, 30 Jul (Thu & Fri), 2 Aug (Mon). Lecture times (may change): Thu (10am-1pm), Fri & Mon (9:30am-1pm). Pastor Sam will be lecturing for all three days on the theme: “Discovering Jesus in the Old Testament”.

    The lectures will be broadcasted live on their YouTube channel. The link will be given at a closer date. Please pray for the students that they may receive much grace and that our Father will receive all the glory.

  • There will be a brief Women’s Group meeting today at 3:30pm before the bible study.
  • With Phase 2-Heightened Alert effective from 22 Jul 2021, all services for both Lord’s Days and Wednesdays will be fully online until further notice. Please continue to pray that all services will be able to resume soon.
  • Finance Department would like to remind members to clearly indicate your reason/purpose of your offering you sent via Paynow/Giro along with Name and Date info as what you see on the banner. Please refer to all the detailed instruction available on our website’s: Offering section or below.
  • As part of our missions work to proclaim God’s Word and to support the publication of the 6th book in the series, “The Eternal High Priest of the Covenantal Oath,” Zion Church will be doing a BOOK DRIVE .

    Your missions offering given for BOOK DRIVE will be used to purchase History of Redemption Series books and Bibles (where needed) to be sent to schools, institutions, and individuals who otherwise cannot buy them to read.

    You may participate by indicating “book drive” on the offering envelopes or sending direct bank transfers to:
    HORA Ministries – DBS Bank Account 072-037508-4.
    Account Type: Corporate Multi Currency Account.

UPCOMING PRAYER DUTY

Wednesday (VOD) 28 July: Pastor Samuel Kim

Lord’s Day 1 Aug: Elder William Ng

OFFERING & TITHE

Via Internet Banking

You can give an offering electronically by transferring to the following account:

1. For regular, tithes, thanksgiving, special, and missions offerings ONLY
OCBC Bank Account: ZION CHURCH
Account#: 621835867001
PayNow UEN#: T00SS0141D

NOTE: Please specify Name, Purpose and Date (ddmmmyy) of the offering in the MEMO or Bill Reference Number section. See Example 1.

2. For Building Offerings ONLY
DBS Bank Account: ZION CHURCH
Account#: 047-903777-2

NOTE: Please specify Name, Purpose and Date (ddmmmyy) of the offering in the MEMO or Bill Reference Number section. See Example 2.

Use the following acronyms to indicate Purpose (offering type):

  • RO = Regular Offering
  • TH = Tithes
  • TG = Thanksgiving
  • SP = Special Offering
  • MO = Missions Offering
  • BO = Building Offering

Example 1:
JohnDoe TH 05APR20
SamMiller TG 05Mar20
JaneSmith RO 03May20

Example 2:
JohnDoe BO 05APR20

By Mail

You may mail your offering cheques to Zion Church to below address:
“Finance Department”.
2 Gambas Crescent, Nordcom 2 Tower 2 #10-13. Siangapore 757044.

By ATM

You may transfer via ATM:
BUT PLEASE NOTE THAT YOU WILL BE UNABLE TO SPECIFY TYPE OF OFFERING if you use this option.
Please inform any Finance Team member if want your offering to be recorded.

  • Eldress May Ling
  • Deaconess Leh Tieng
  • Elder Steve
  • Living Manna

    Sermon Summary
    The Garden Temple

    Scripture: Revelation 21:1-3

    The verses in Revelation. 21 tell us about the New Jerusalem. It is the new world which we seek to enter into, a beautiful garden. Where would you want to spend the rest of eternity? Wouldn’t such a garden be nice? It does not mean that we’re going back into the stone age, but it does sound nice. The book of Revelation is full of symbols and signs that communicate the spiritual significance of what is going to happen in the end. One such symbol is the idea of the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven as a bride adorned for her husband (Revelation 21:2). And in the following verse, we learn that it is a tabernacle (Revelation 21:3). It is a square city of 12,000 stadia, meaning that it’s around the size of Australia or India (Revelation 21:16).

    The garden temple motif was already there since the beginning of the creation story. The garden of Eden was the result of God’s six days of creation work, but the Fall happened, and the inhabitants of the garden were kicked out. And now God wants to restore us back to the garden. The rest of redemptive history follows this pattern, especially the Tabernacle and various temples which image that very first garden. This is called “microcosm” or “microcosmos” where the thing itself represents the wider reality of the world. The whole universe is encapsulated in this small garden in Eden.

    Tripartite Structure

    A tripartite (three-part) structure recurs in the garden, the tabernacle, and temples in redemptive history. The garden has three parts: the outside of the garden, the place where all the trees are, and the tree of life. For the tabernacle and temple, there is the outer court, the holy place, and the holy of holies. When Jesus comes, He reconceptualizes the entire idea of a temple as a building: He is the true temple. As the Apostle Paul says, “your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:19). Our bodies also consist of three parts (1 Thessalonians 5:23). Jesus’ ministry also followed a tripartite structure in many ways. The prayer at the garden of Gethsemane images this: Jesus, His three disciples a stone’s throw away, and the rest of His disciples further away.

    The outer court of the temple is described with dirt, dust, and mounds. The altar of burnt offering is placed atop a mound of dirt. Further inside the temple, there is a basin of water, called a “sea” (1 Kings 7:23-26; Ezekiel 43:14). The outer court is likened to the earth or mountain, and the sea. In the holy place, there are the golden lampstands, the table of showbread, and the altar of incense. These represent the visible sky. The golden lampstands had seven lights which represented the sun, moon, and stars. The holy place thus represents the visible heavenly realm. The holy of holies remains unseen beyond the holy place, and thus represents the spiritual heavenly realm. As the temple of God, all these things also bear significance for us.

    The theme of flowing water

    The theme of water flowing out of the temple also recurs throughout redemptive history. The garden of Eden had a river flowing from it (Genesis 2:10). Likewise, there is a stream of water flowing from Ezekiel’s temple (Ezekiel 47:2), and from the New Jerusalem (Revelation 22:1).
    In order for us to be a true temple, we need to be where God dwells. Ezekiel’s temple is a place where God’s unique presence is. We need to also be like this. God walked in the garden of Eden (Genesis 3:8). The word for “walking back and forth” is mithallek”, which means that God’s presence is naturally there. This word recurs when describing God’s presence in the tabernacle (Leviticus 26:12; Deuteronomy 23:14-15). In order for God to dwell in our lives like this, we need to keep ourselves holy. Without God nothing can become holy, so we need to invite Him into our lives (2 Samuel 7:6-7). May we be like the New Jerusalem, where God dwells.

    Concept of God’s rest (Sabbath)

    The sabbath rest comes only after God creates and orders creation (Genesis 2:1-3). We learn about the idea of regency in the fourth book of the History of Redemption series. The heir to the throne, the next-in-line, becomes coregent with the current king in order to learn how to rule. This was the same with Adam and God in the garden of Eden. In the New Jerusalem, we will be the kings ruling over the world, and our God will enter His sabbath. In the garden of Eden, God gave Adam two commands in Genesis 2:15: Abad (to cultivate, to serve, to worship) and Shamar (to keep, to guard, to protect). And these verbs recur in the rest of the bible to describe the duties of the priests (Numbers 3:7-8; 8:25-26; 18:5-6; 1 Chronicles 23:32). The Targum (Aramaic) version of Genesis, translates Genesis 2:15 differently. It says, “to toil in the law and observe its commandments.”

    Adam’s function was to keep the Word and guard it, but was he successful? If he was, the serpent should not have been able to enter into the garden of Eden. And because he did not teach Eve the Word correctly, Eve was deceived by the serpent. And so God places the cherubim to take over Adam’s duties (Genesis 3:24).

    The commission and temple building

    God created Adam in God’s image and commissioned him to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and subdue it (Genesis 1:27-28). The purpose is to fill the earth with people full of God’s image, within which God’s sovereign rule is obeyed. Adam could not fulfil this, and so God gives this task to Noah (Genesis 9:1), to Abraham (Genesis 12:3; 17:2, 6, 8; 22:17-18), to Isaac (Genesis 26:3-4, 24), to Jacob (Genesis 28:3-4), and so on. And this commission has now been given to us. We are called to expand God’s territory and kingdom throughout the earth.

    Conclusion

    The bride in Song of Songs is described first as a locked-up garden (Song of Solomon 4:12). But later the bride is called a “garden spring” who is ripe for her husband (Song of Solomon 4:15-16). We need to become like this bride, ready for her husband. Our fruits need to be ripe. We need to be like the New Jerusalem (Isaiah 65:17; 66:22; Revelation 21:1). In order for us to transform into the New Jerusalem, we need to remove two things. There is no more sea (Revelation 21:1) and night (Revelation 21:23-27; 22:5). The sea symbolically points to the origin of cosmic evil, the unbelieving nations that rebelled against God and God’s people, the place of the dead, and the primary location of the world’s idolatrous trade activity (Revelation 18:10-19). It is this body of water that is no longer there in the New Jerusalem.
    Secondly, there will be no night in the New Jerusalem (Is. 60:18-22). When we have God in our lives, we will no longer have spiritual night in our lives (John 11:10). When Judas went to betray Jesus, it was “night”. Psalm 139:11-12 says that even darkness is not dark to God. When God is in the picture, darkness and light are bright as day. May God illumine our lives as in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 22:5). May God take away the sea and the night from us.

    Amen

    Pastor Samuel Kim

    2021-07-24T16:54:02+00:00
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