Foreword

Pastor Eric H. H. Chang expounded all of the parables of the Lord Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke, and the larger part of the Gospel of Matthew, in his weekly Sunday preaching in Montreal, Canada, from 1976–1982. He contin­ued in later years to preach some more sermons on the parables, and also finished preaching on the entire Gospel of Matthew. While preaching these exegetical messages, he carried an incredibly heavy load, conducting weekly Bible studies, and discipling teams of people who want to serve God as full-time missionaries, with the Word of God, plus attending to administrative respon­sibilities in overseeing a number of churches.

The exegesis in the collections of 29 sermons on The Parables of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, and 29 sermons on The Parables of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke bears witness to Pastor Eric Chang’s razor-sharp thinking, spiritual insight, exegetical skill, and sheer diligence. His gifts from God, and labor of love powerfully open up the wisdom and the spirit­ual principles in the Lord Jesus’ teaching, with convict­ion, clar­ity and practicality. The following excerpt from one of his sermons can help us to understand him better:

After each solid, Scripturally-based exposition of the Word of God by Pastor Eric, my brain — as surely as everyone’s — would be tiredly stretched from following his careful dissect­ion of the Scriptures. And I recall he said that after preaching and teaching, his brain would throb with exhaustion — “like drums beating in my head,” in his words — from trying to commun­icate clearly what God had laid on his heart.

Another recollection is that at the start of every preaching and teaching session, Pastor Eric would look rather pale and would speak softly. But as the sermon or training session pro­gressed, his voice would grow stronger with power, and his face would shine brightly. I used to ponder about this shining, then I realized that it is God’s glory resting on him, showing that God is pleased to be with him.

The anointing from God empowered him to communicate so effectively that people who are open can understand what God requires of a Christian, and see that the Biblical Christian life can be lived. Moreover, each listener is faced with the decision of whether to respond to God or not, and understands the consequences that follow. As always, Pastor Eric urges and warns every person never to be complacent or indifferent, but to apply these spiritual principles, by God’s grace, in order to experience His power to transform into a new person (2 Cor. 5:17).

I thank our Father and God for bringing Pastor Eric into my life as my pastor, teacher and mentor, so that God could deliver me from the gutter of bondage to self-centeredness, the world (1 John 2:16), and sin, to exper­ience the freedom and the abundance in the new kind of life — spiritual life — that He gives through our Lord Jesus Christ. Pastor Eric’s extra­ordinary life example, preaching, and teaching, have truly made the deepest mark on me, all our coworkers, and many other people. We are privileged to have his life and works of love and faith to always inspire us to strive to imitate our Lord Jesus Christ — to love God, who first loved us, with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength, and therefore, to love our neighbor as ourselves (Mk. 12:30–31; Mt. 22:37–40; Lk. 10:27) — and to endure to the end (Mt. 10:22, 24:13; Mk. 13:13).

May God, Yahweh, mightily use Pastor Eric’s toil of love and faith to glorify Him and our Lord Jesus Christ, and to build His church; and quoting Pastor Eric, “May the Word of God’s mighty and wondrous salvation reach the ends of the earth.”

Winnie Yee (Co-editor)

October 2020