Active VS Passive
Being active means you will go and do it. Being passive means you’d do it if someone asks you to do it, but won’t if someone doesn’t.

A story:
There were 2 horses, each with a cart behind it. The horse at the front walked steadily but the horse behind kept stopping. So the master shifted the goods in the cart behind to the cart in front. After this shift, the horse behind told the horse in front, “辛苦你了. See. When you work hard, you end up with even harder work.”

What was the ending? When the horses reached the store, the master wondered: since I only need one cart, why do I need 2 horses? Why not just take care of one and kill the other? Then I’ll have horse skin.

We know which was slaughtered and which was kept alive.

Sometimes being active can save us; being passive could cost us our life. Likewise for our faith.

Judges 2:7
The people Joshua led had conquered the land of Canaan. The people served the lord while Joshua and the elders who outlined Joshua were alive. The elders witnessed with their own eyes how God allowed them to conquer the land. Their children probably heard the heroic acts of the conquer too. They were able to still maintain their faith. However, after the generation of Joshua and the elders, the next generation did not know the Lord nor what He had done for the Israelites.

We see that when a group of people doesn’t actively pursue their faith, they falter. We know that a healthy, growing child is an independent active being. When we train our children, we instruct them in the things they ought to do. When they disobey, we would warn and punish them. Our objective is for them to obey us. When the child grows up to the age of 18/19, are we still going to stand behind the child, instructing him on what to do? When he disobeys him, will we still punish him? When a child ought to be mature but still relies on basic instructions, he hasn’t grown up. One who has matured should understand the basic principles of the instructions; he doesn’t need you to give instructions anymore because he understands why he needs to do these things. But an adult that still hasn’t matured will still require instructions. If you don’t remind him, he’d forget and/or not do it.

If our church consists of such individuals, how will our church grow?

During the period of the Judges, there was no longer anyone to give detailed instructions on what to do and not to do. Consequently their faith deteriorated.

Our church needs to face this challenge today. After say 14 years of religious education, we hope the child will be independent and mature. They are trained by going through theolo and Bible camps. When they graduate from all this, we expect them to be independent, not requiring people to give them instructions anymore. Thank God some children grow up well, becoming a healthy independent adult. Yet some children who have grown up still need instructions. Some of us adults also face this challenge. Some bigger churches like Singapore has a lot of structure and organisations. We’re well trained that when someone tells us to serve God, we think: oh I must join that committee or that group. This is good because the purpose of these groups is to facilitate people into serving God. But this can be taken to another extreme: I can’t join any of these groups. I don’t have this talent. I’m not put into the committee. So I can’t serve God.

Because of all these groups, we become blinded and restricted in our service to God. We always tell ourselves to serve God. Our church has so many different fellowships and services. But have we attended any of these that have been specially set up for us? Because when you’re attending any of this, it’s a service to the Lord. Therefore we need to be active in participating in some of these services.

Let’s look at a few examples of active characters in the Bible:
Mordecai
Esther 2:10
Esther had been selected to be queen. She was a submissive woman by nature. After her parents passed away, she was brought up by her uncle/cousin Mordecai. Mordecai told Esther to conceal her people or family. She obeyed Mordecai’s instruction.

In the 7th year of king Ahasuerus, Esther was selected to be king. At the same time, another character called Haman. When Mordecai refused to bow to him, Haman wanted to annihilate the Jews. He plotted for the king to issue a decree to allow them to openly kill the Jews. When the Jews heard of this news, they wept and fasted. Mordecai put on sackcloth. What happened at this point in time? Mordecai sent for a person to look for Queen Esther.

Esther 3:13
Mordecai’s plan was for Esther to plead with the king for the lives of all the Jews. This put Esther in a very difficult position because according to the palace rules, a person who meets the king without being summoned would be put to death, unless the king decides to be merciful and extend his golden sceptre to the person.

Esther told Mordecai it had been 30 days since she had met the king.
Esther 4:13-14
“Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews.
For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
Mordecai was very direct in his speech. He spoke plainly, without hedging his words. He ended off with a question. “Who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

If we were Esther today, we’d probably not have the courage to go in immediately to the king. The rules were clear: death if not called upon. Nonetheless, Esther didn’t directly turn down Mordecai’s request. When Mordecai responded in such a way that included that question, Esther said v16 (read). She made a decision. She asked for all the Jews in the kingdom to pray for her. She was prepared for the worst case scenario, if she were to perish, she’d perish.

One important takeaway for us: our days have been numbered by God. God knows the course of action we’ll take. But God wants us to think for ourselves what His will for us is. When Esther was selected to be queen, she didn’t consider it’ll lead to such a situation. She was selected to be queen because of the will of God. Mordecai reminded Esther she was put in such a position for the will of God. Today we need to learn for ourselves what God’s will is for us.

Why did God put us here? It is not without reason. Each of us have our own place - in work or school. Perhaps we may think: “I made the decision myself. I chose what school to go!” But it was God who allowed us to stay in this place. Since He has put us in this place, what is His will for us? If we’re the sole True Jesus Church believer in our class, is His will for us to shine and testify for Him?

Esther realised God’s will for her was to plead with the king for God’s people. When she made this decision, even at the risk of her life, God worked at this juncture. On the night when Esther invited Haman and the king for dinner, Haman had erected the gallows for Mordecai.

Esther 6:1-10
The king could not sleep at night. He commanded the records of the chronicles to be brought to him. When it was read to him, he found out Mordecai had saved his life but had not been rewarded. Isn’t this the work of God? Of all people, he asked Haman what to do to reward such a person. Naive Haman thought the king meant to reward him. He proposed grand rewards. But the king said whatever he had proposed was to be done to Mordecai.

When Esther had decided to fulfil the will God had for her, God worked. We also know at the end, Esther didn’t perish and the Jews were saved by her hand.
Nehemiah
Neh 1:3-4
Nehemiah had been taken into captivity to the Persian kingdom. According to historical records, Nehemiah was either from the lineage of the priests or the king. When was take into captivity,
This was a golden opportunity because a cupbearer is of a high rank. It’s a position that allows close contact with the king. At this point in time, Nehemiah heard news about Israel -
Upon hearing this news, he was sad and mourned for many days. He wasn’t just sad for a while and forgot about it afterwards. Just like sometimes we’ll be sad for a few days upon hearing bad news but forget about it soon.

Neh 2:1
But 4 months later, Nehemiah was still sad. 4 months later, Nehemiah revealed to the king what was in his heart, and he was prepared for it. How do we know?

Neh 1:11
Nehemiah actively pleaded with God. No one told Nehemiah to go back to rebuild the city gates even though no one told him to. He prayed that the Lord would be attentive to his prayer and to prosper. He prayed for God to guide him in his next course of action.

When he was sad before the king and asked him why he was sad whether he was sick, after praying in his heart, he told the king that his motherland Judah was laid waste and burned with fire. “If the king wills, allow me to rebuild my motherland.” The king acceded to the request.

Nehemiah had contemplated on this issue for a long period of time on how to help his motherland. He contemplated to the details of the king’s letters and the material needed.

Why was Nehemiah willing to be active in this matter? Because he cared for the Kingdom of God and for his homeland. For the 4 months after hearing the news, he prayed for repentance and thought about what to do to help.

Would we care so much for the church just like Nehemiah? If we feel as much for the church just like Nehemiah feels for Judah, we wouldn’t say “this person isn’t doing this/that”, we’d just concentrate on what we can do. We would pray for God to prosper our hand.

[Due to time constraint, only these two characters will be discussed.]
Theory is not enough
We have seen how some ancient saints have been spurred on to do something. Some characters were nudged. Some didn’t start willingly but were willing to serve God in the end. But Nehemiah? No one told him to go back to build the city walls. But he felt for his people and nation and did so. We know that such an attitude can not be taught in class or theoretical debates.

We say the church is good because it has a structure and organisation to facilitate people serving God. This is good and efficient, facilitating the transfer of the word of God. But how can we transfer this head knowledge into action. It’s easier said than done. It’s easy to criticise the work others do, that’s likely because we ourselves
It’s when we apply and serve for ourselves will we understand how to apply these things in our service to God.

Often when Jesus taught His disciples, Jesus practised what He taught and others observed this. Many disciples weren’t educated but through the actions of Jesus, they learnt what to do.

Mark 1:30-31, Acts 3:7
Two different miracles. Jesus performed the first one. Peter’s mother was sick. How did Jesus perform the miracle? Jesus lifted her up and she was well. The second miracle was of Peter curing the lame person at the beauty Guo gate. Similarly he lifted the man and his knees and ankle bones gained strength.

In the 3.5 years, the disciples observed what Jesus did closely and replicated it afterwards.

When Jesus went to the village of Nain and met a widow whose son died, He had mercy and resurrected the young man to resurrect. How? He ORDERED for the young man to be resurrected. Later, when Peter went to Dorcas’/Tabitha’s house. He resurrected her in the same manner.

The apostles followed exactly what Jesus did when He was alive. This teaches us an important lesson: whether in RE class or teaching other adults, other than imparting theoretical knowledge in class, we need to give them practical examples to follow. This is something our church has been trying to improve in the last few years.

The tertiary youths have a university camp. In this camp, these students shadowed the preachers. They followed the preachers when they visited the sick or other members, so they can see how the preachers preach to other members. The scope of teaching how to preach to others shouldn’t just be limited to class but also shown in action. Tacit knowledge has its limitations. If only instructions are given to class, they’ll grow up in class and only know how to follow instructions. They won’t understand how to take initiative.
Conclusion
Through the sharing of these few examples, let us study, learn and emulate the ancient saints. May this be a reminder for us that we need practical examples and experience when learning the word of God. This takes more time. We know our RE class is only 1.5-2h. You can’t travel to visit the sick. Furthermore Sabbath worship is ongoing. To have time for practical experience, we need to invest more time. We pray and hope the Lord Jesus Christ will move our hearts, that we’ll improve from a Christian that can only receive instruction to a Christian who can take initiative for his/her own faith.