Title: Experiencing life together (1 John 1:3-10)
Contents 40 days driven by purpose - Day 18: Experiencing life together (1 John 1:3-10) - Rev. Il-guk Eom
[1 John 1:3-10]
[3] ♠ What we have seen and heard, we also tell you so that you may have fellowship with us. Our fellowship is with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. [4] ♠ We write these things so that our joy is full. [5] ♠ This is the news we have heard from him and proclaim to you: God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all [6] ♠ If we say that we have fellowship with God and act in darkness, we are lying. [7] ♠ If we walk in the light as he is in the light, then we have fellowship, and the blood of his Son Jesus cleanses us from all sin [8] ♠ If we say we are without sin We deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us [9] ♠ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness [10] ♠ If we do not sin, If we say so, we make God a liar, and his word is not in us.
Hymn 486
The 18th day of a purpose-driven life has arrived.
Today, I will testify of the Word under the title of “Experiencing life together.”
When a person accepts Jesus Christ, he discovers a whole new world, a world full of the glory of God. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” The world itself has not changed, but the way I see myself has changed. The key to the secret, that is, the eyes that could see the glory of God were opened. It will open your eyes to worship. Although not taught theologically, he longs for God, wants to taste the fullness of the world, and wants to fall in wonder while looking at the glory of God. This craving is so great that, once experienced, everything other than this craving looks dirty and frivolous. This is a fundamental change in your life.
God created people to share in His full glory. God did not create this fulness of joy to be kept alone. He made it possible for us, not just me, to enjoy it as a community, not just one person. In Genesis chapters 1 and 2, God created Adam and said it was not good to be alone. He made male and female, and created them in God's image. Therefore, the glory that I alone can occupy is not true light. The light of the Lord is the glory we all enjoy, and it is the DNA of true unity that flows in the souls of all of us. Some people call it community DNA. There is a communal nature in the image of God itself. Therefore, to believe in Jesus is not to believe alone. Living a life of faith while looking at the Internet, reading books, and having superficial conversations that come and go at the shopping mall is lacking something fundamentally. Community DNA cannot be satisfied. That is what is missing in today's text.
Yesterday, while talking with a certain member of the church, I overheard her husband talking. He has good faith, is supplied with spiritual knowledge through TV, and lives a life of grace in his own way, but he does not go to church. Even if you personally have good faith, it can be a fatal problem if you don't have true fellowship in Christ. Without a life experienced together, the image of God is also a half-image. When you meet people who have been attending a church for a long time, you find strange things in common. You think you know everything, but you are not very interested in events or programs at the church. They lack something. It is necessary to restore the image of God. The wounded souls, those who have given up their longing for God and become weary and passive, have lost true fellowship with God.
God is spirit. He is a spirit of truth and truth who know each other without saying anything. But it is a perfect community in which the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit constantly communicate with one another, serve and sacrifice themselves, loving one another. Because God Himself is like that, we, who are made in the image of God, need a community vitamin that serves, loves, and communicates with each other, and where truth and truth can communicate.
So, what is a community? Truth. To confess my weakness. There is truth in the heart that confesses that I am a sinner and that I have lied today. Can you guys say that to my family? Can I share my heartfelt stories in the attic to which I belong? Do you go to the attic and church in the form of wrapping your fear, padding it over it, and packing it tightly with a protective material? This is a picture of a lonely religious person living a lonely and difficult life. The darkness brought about by the fall through sin is shame. It's about hiding yourself. You are ashamed of yourself even though no one has told you. They judge themselves, but they judge that what God considers good is shameful. By its nature, darkness does not perceive light. The conscience is filled with darkness, and whatever they see, people do not see with sincerity, and they project their dark conscience to see as they see fit.
What kind of community is a true community, a community that resembles our Lord? What kind of community is the fellowship of the Triune God? It is a community where truth flows. It is a place where our wounds, our mistakes, our fears, our failures, and our mistakes are exposed. It is the medicine of immortality that exposes my faults and restores by eating the water of life that the Lord gives me. This is the fellowship God wanted. God's way of worshiping those who wear thick self-defense clothing while worshiping is true fellowship.
How can we have this kind of fellowship in the attic to which we belong? We must rely only on the cross of Christ. The only way to the true light is the cross. In him is the secret that I die, Christ lives, the law dies, righteousness rises, pride dies and we put on the clothes of humility. This was not originally possible. The door to this mystery has been opened because Jesus Christ accomplished it in the cross. Therefore, it is only through Jesus Christ that the truth works through the community. It is possible only when there are sacrifices, devotion, and acts of love that depend on the cross of Jesus Christ, give ourselves, and break. Ephesians says that Christ is the head of the church, and that every body is subject to Christ.
In this way, when the door of truth is opened and the true fellowship of Christ is opened in our community, sin is dead and freedom is opened in us. True freedom is a joy that comes and goes. It is to experience the love of Christ in sharing material things, helping each other, respecting each other, encouraging each other, not judging, and even sacrificing. It is a sure taste of the joy of heaven, so longed for in every heart.
By experiencing this community of truth, people empathize with each other as they are. Complete freedom reigns in Christ because the law of my heart, which ate of the forbidden fruit and judged according to what was right, was abolished. We do not condemn or judge people, but we are communicating with one another in the truth. Here, the shameful is no longer shameful. Only Christ is exalted by true love, and a life of full worship exists.
There is the engine of community that God has granted because it is necessary for such a true community. It is the mercy of God. It is the heart of a father to have pity on his children. The love of Heavenly Father who saved us and gave life among us is the driving force for healing. God's mercy can heal a person, heal a wounded soul, forgive someone who has harmed me, or ask God for forgiveness for what I have done wrong. This Monday, I had a minor accident. My son Haram jumped out of bed and hit my eye with glasses. The sad thing is that my dad is in pain, but this guy did something wrong.
Realizing that, he ran away. I followed it all the way to the end. And as I looked into the corners of my son's eyes, I felt a little bit of Father's compassion. Seeing the young son's trembling eyes because he did not know what to do about what he had done wrong, he seemed to understand a little the heart of God the Father when the first man, Adam, sinned and hid. I held Haram in my heart and said, “It’s okay, don’t be afraid.” God is still looking for lost souls with that heart. God still has lost souls with a heart of compassion.
If there was mercy in the attic, what would happen? It becomes an attic full of vitality. What if there was compassion in the small group we gather? It is the history of healing and restoration. God bought our small group at the price of Jesus Christ. Therefore, the owner of that very valuable small group must be Jesus Christ. When only Jesus Christ becomes the owner of Darakbang, the fruit of the tree of life saves many souls.
I will conclude
God has given us a taste of heavenly glory, but so dimly seen that we long for continuity. It is through the grace of the cross that we can taste the rich world and the fullness of heaven. When we regard the community that Jesus Christ obtained through the sacrifice of the cross as the most precious thing in our hearts, vitamins are supplied to the community DNA and we get true satisfaction. He was whipped, and we are healed. This is an expression of God's mercy. If there is God's mercy in all the small groups we are with, life will be conceived, and the work of healing and restoration will take place.
When we pray together at this time, we want to pray for the Darakbang we belong to, our family, and the community we belong to. God, grant us life